In 1718, Blackbeard, a famed English pirate, is killed in combat at the age of 38.
In his own time, Edward "Blackbeard" Teach (1680-1718) was a legend. He was born in England and robbed ships moving to and from the American colonies, as well as ships in the Caribbean Sea. Despite the fact that his reign of terror lasted only two years, he became one of history's most well-known marine pirates. On November 22, 1718, a British naval expedition personally supported by Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood attacked Blackbeard and most of his men in a brutal fight near Ocracoke Island. As a warning to other lawbreakers, Blackbeard's skull was nailed to a piling off the coast of Hampton, Virginia.
Related On This Day
In 1926, Sri Aurobindo retires to a life of solitude, leaving Mirra Alfassa in charge of his disciples (founding of Sri Aurobindo ashram)
Miley Cyrus, an American actress and singer, was born in Franklin, Tennessee in 1992.
1991 Freddie Mercury, originally Farrokh Bulsara, is a British singer-songwriter and member of the band Queen who died of AIDS at the age of 45.
Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, circumnavigated the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 on his route to India on the first journey from Europe.
Kate Winslet married assistant film director Jim Threapleton in 1998 at All Saints Church in Reading, England.
Robert Johnson's first recording session with producer Don Law took place in 1936 at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas.
Lee Harvey Oswald killed US President John F. Kennedy in 1963 while riding in an open-topped motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
Brandon Routh, the star from "Superman Returns," married actress Courtney Ford in 2007 at the gorgeous El Capitan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California.
Arundhati Roy, an Indian activist and writer, was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, in 1961.
In 2018, Justin Bieber, a Canadian artist, announced his marriage to American model Hailey Baldwin.
In 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, the American murderer of JFK two days previously, was shot dead two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby live on television at 24.
Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, publishes "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, fundamentally transforming the understanding of evolution and establishing the groundwork for evolutionary biology.
Roald Dahl, a British novelist and Spy, died in 1990 at the age of 74.
Billie Jean King, an American tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles championships and 39 Grand Slams, was born in Long Beach, California in 1943.
In the year 1937, Jagadish Chandra Bose, an Indian scientist, mathematician, and writer, died at the age of 78.
Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona establishes a new La Liga goal scoring record of 253 in 2014.
Ted Bundy, an American serial killer during the 1970s, was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1946.
Bikram Singh, the Indian Lt-General in Kashmir, died in 1963.
Sathya Sai Baba, an Indian yogi and philosopher, was born in 1926.
Mulayam Singh Yadav, an Indian politician (Samajwadi Party), was born in Etawah district, Uttar Pradesh, in 1939.
1967 Mark Ruffalo is an American actor who was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
In 1984 Scarlett Johansson, an American actress, was born in New York City.