1599: The Globe Theater in London has its first recorded performance.
1621: King James of England gives Canada to Sir Alexander Sterling.1676: Benedetto Odescalchi is elected as Pope Innocent XI.1677: John and Nicolaas van der Heyden patent the fire extinguisher.1692: Two men and seven women are executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.1792: Collot D'Herbois proposes to abolish the monarchy in France. The French National Convention votes in the affirmative, forming the French Republic.1814: "Star Spangled Banner" is published as a poem. 1903: The first cowboy film, "Kit Carson," premieres in the US.1913: The first aerobatic maneuver, a sustained inverted flight, is performed in France.1915: Stonehenge is sold by auction for 6,600 pounds ($11,500) to a Mr. Chubb, who buys it as a present for his wife. 1931: Britain goes off the gold standard. The pound devalues 20 percent.1937: "The Hobbit," by J.R.R. Tolkien, is first published.1964: Malta gains independence from Britain. 1973: Jackson Pollock's painting "Blue Poles" sells for $2,000,000. 1978: Two Soviet cosmonauts set a space endurance record after 96 days in space.2003: NASA's $1.5 billion Galileo mission ends a 14-year exploration of the solar system's largest planet and its moons with the spacecraft crashing by design into Jupiter. 2004: Yusuf Islam, formerly known as singer Cat Stevens, is taken off a London-to-Washington United Airlines flight because his name had shown up on a government "no-fly" list.
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