More Events on this day:

1930: Playwright Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago.

1890: Ho Chi Minh—founder of the Indochina Communist Party (1930) and its successor, the Viet Minh (1941), and president (1945–69) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)—was born in Hoang Tru, Vietnam, French Indochina.

1802: Napoleon created the Legion of Honour, the premier order of the French republic.

1643: During the Thirty Years' War, the French army—led by Louis II de Bourbon—defeated the Spanish in the Battle of Rocroi, ending Spain's military ascendancy in Europe.

1571: Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi established the city of Manila in the Philippines.

1536: Having been found guilty on charges of adultery, Anne Boleyn—the second wife of King Henry VIII of England and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I—was beheaded.

"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery."

Malcolm X

Black militant Malcolm X, born this day in 1925, promoted black pride and, later, racial unity, ideas articulated in his celebrated The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which was published shortly after his assassination in 1965.