[This day then]

* 1709 – British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being marooned on a desert island (Fernandez Island) for 5 years, his story is the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”

* 1793 – France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

* 1814 – Volcano Mayon on Luzon Philippines erupts killing 1,200

* 1835 – Slavery is abolished in Mauritius.

* 1884 – The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.

* 1893 – Thomas Edison completes world’s first movie studio – West Orange New Jersey

* 1951 – First telecast of atomic explosion – US nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

* 1959 – Swiss males vote against voting rights for women

* 1972 – First scientific hand-held calculator – HP-35 – is introduced