1. Malcolm X, who articulated concepts of racial pride and black nationalism in the United States, was assassinated this day in 1965 and became an ideological hero after the posthumous release of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
2. American evangelist Billy Graham—whose large-scale preaching missions, known as crusades, and friendship with numerous U.S. presidents brought him to international prominence—died at age 99.
3. American businessman and adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. It was the first of his many aviation records.
4. U.S. President Richard M. Nixon paid a state visit to the People's Republic of China, ending a 21-year estrangement between the communist country and the United States.
5. American lawyer and politician Barbara Jordan, the first African American congresswoman to come from the Deep South, was born in Houston, Texas.
6. The American weekly magazine The New Yorker began publication under Harold W. Ross.
7. Reza Khan (later Reza Shah Pahlavi) overthrew the Qājār dynasty in Iran.
8. The Battle of Verdun, one of the most devastating engagements of World War I, began.
9. W.H. Auden, one of the foremost English-language poets of his era, was born.
10. Author Anaïs Nin, whose literary reputation rests on the eight published volumes of her personal diaries, was born in France.
11. Spanish musician Andrés Segovia, who was considered the foremost guitarist of his time, was born.
12. The Washington Monument was dedicated on the grounds of the Mall in Washington, D.C.
13. Abstract sculptor Constantin Brancusi was born in Romania.
14. American Lucy Hobbs Taylor became the first woman to earn a doctorate in dentistry.
15. The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, was first published; the pamphlet became hugely influential.
16. French opera and ballet composer Léo Delibes, who was the first to write music of high quality for the ballet, was born in Saint-Germain-du-Val.
