MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2009: American playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote—who evoked American life in beautifully observed minimal stories and was perhaps best known for his adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird—died in Connecticut. [Take our To Kill a Mockingbird quiz.]

1982: Canadian jurist Bertha Wilson became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. [Sort fact from fiction in our Canada quiz.]

1933: Government official Frances Perkins was sworn in as U.S. secretary of labour in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; she was the first woman appointed to a cabinet post. [Read about seven female firsts in U.S. politics.]

1888: Gridiron football coach Knute Rockne—who, while at the University of Notre Dame , became the intercollegiate sport's first true celebrity coach—was born in Voss, Norway. [Test your knowledge of American football.]

1681: William Penn secured from King Charles II of England the colonial province of Pennsylvania in North America, hoping to provide a refuge in the New World for Quakers and other persecuted people and to build an ideal Christian commonwealth.

1678: Italian composer and violinist Antonio Vivaldi, who left a decisive mark on the form of the concerto and the style of late Baroque instrumental music, was born. [Test your knowledge of classical composers.]