1822 - Florida becomes a U.S. Territory.

1844 - French poet Paul Verlaine is born in Metz, France. He was associated with the Symbolists poets and with Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé and Charles Baudelaire.

1853 - Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter associated with post-impressionism is born in Zundert, The Netherlands. The oldest child of a Protestant pastor, he served briefly as a minister himself, then went through a spiritual crisis and gave away all his possessions. He withdrew to practice drawing, and the last 10 years of his life were packed with furious effort and progress as a painter. The Provencal landscape was the focus of many of his best works, Sunflowers, The Bridge and The Chair and the Pipe. After a quarrel with his friend Paul Gauguin over a prostitute, he cut off part of his own ear, and sent it to the woman. He was placed in an asylum at St-Rémy, and, shortly after his release, shot himself. He died two days later, at 37 years old.

1855 - Henry Wadsworh Longfellow writes My Lost Youth.

1914 - Sonny Boy Williamson, a master of the blues harp whose songs were covered by the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers Band, Canned Heat, and Rod Stewart, is born in Jackson, TN.

1937 - Actor/filmmaker Warren Beatty is born in Richmond, Virginia. Beatty won an Academy Award in 1981 for directing Reds, which he also produced, starred in and co-wrote.

1942 - Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge is born in Rochester, England.

1945 - Blues guitarist Eric Clapton is born Eric Clapp in Ripley, England. After stints with the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream and Blind Faith, a recording session for George Harrison's All Things Must Pass brought together the basic line-up which became Derek & the Dominos, yielding Clapton's masterpiece LP, Layla. After a short tour with the Dominoes, he focused on a solo career.

1950 - Dave Ball, drummer with Procol Harum, is born.

1955 - Fats Domino records Blue Monday for Imperial in New Orleans.

1960 - Representative Thomas O'Neill (of Massachusetts) wants the Federal Communications Commission to investigate all radio station employees involved in payola and report them to Congress.

1966 - At the Rolling Stones' concert at the Olympia in Paris, 85 audience members are arrested after the crowd's heated reaction to the Stones gets out of hand.

1967 - The cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is photographed at a studio on London's Flood Street, using cardboard cutouts and wax figures to represent the Beatles' heroes. The effigies featured include Edgar Allan Poe, Lenny Bruce, Vidal Sassoon, Laurel and Hardy, Bob Dylan, and Huntz Hall.

1968 - The Yardbirds perform and record what will become Live Yardbirds at the Anderson Theater.

1970 - Miles Davis releases Bitches Brew.

1970 - Led Zeppelin walk off stage during a Pittsburgh gig and say they won't play until the police stop intimidating the audience. Ten minutes later they resume the show.

1973 - The U.S. military role in Vietnam comes to a formal end when the last U.S. prisoner is released and the last soldier withdrew.

1986 - James Cagney, U.S. screen actor, dies. Cagney won an Oscar for his work in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

1987 - Sunflowers, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh, is sold at auction in London for 24.75 million pounds ($39.7 million).
 
1994 - Pink Floyd release their album The Division Bell.

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