1461
Henry VI is deposed as King of England by his cousin, the Duke of York who becomes King Edward IV during the Wars of the Roses.

1519
Conquistador Hernán Cortés arrives in Mexico and begins his search for the Aztec civilization.

1678

Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi (The Four Seasons) born in Venice.
He was a violin playing red haired Catholic priest known as il Prete Rosso - The Red Priest.

1791

Vermont is admitted to the United States as the fourteenth state.

1889
Actress Pearl White (Perils of Pauline) born in Green Ridge, Missouri.

1918
Writer Allan Sillitoe (The Loneliness of Long-Distance Runner) born in Nottingham, England.

1932
Illustrator Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (Rat Fink) born in Beverly Hills, California.

1948
Crime novelist James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia) born in Los Angeles.

1963
Death of poet and physician William Carlos Williams in Rutherford, New Jersey.

1966

That cheeky Liverpool lad, John Lennon tells a reporter that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus Christ right now".

Today from Chamber's Book of Days