Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine, which declared that the U.S. would not interfere in European affairs but that its sphere of interest included the entire Western Hemisphere, was enunciated by President James Monroe this day in 1823. 1823. 

Colombian criminal Pablo Escobar—who, as head of the Medellín cartel, was arguably the world’s most powerful drug trafficker in the 1980s and early ’90s—was killed during a shoot-out with authorities. 1993. 

The groundbreaking music video for Michael Jackson‘s song Thriller aired on MTV. 1983. 

William C. DeVries implanted the first permanent artificial heart in Barney Clark; the aluminum and plastic device was called the Jarvik-7. 1982. 

American singer Britney Spears—who helped spark the teen-pop phenomenon in the late 1990s and later endured intense public scrutiny for her personal life—was born. 1981.

The United Arab Emirates was formed by the union of six small emirates on the Arabian Peninsula; a seventh emirate joined in February 1972. 1971. 

Scientists led by Enrico Fermi conducted the world’s first controlled self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, at the University of Chicago. 1942. 

Napoleon crowned himself emperor of France in the presence of Pope Pius VII. 1804.