sick1913 - Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
1988 - A bomb explodes on board Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, killing 270.
Births
1118 - Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1170)
1401 - Tommaso Masaccio, Italian painter (d. 1428)
1879 - Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Russian Communist Party from from 1928 to 1953 (d. 1953)
1921 - Vampira (Maila Nurmi), Finnish-born actress
Deaths
1940 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1896)
Now back to the important business of blowing pieces of brain out through my nose and being almost completely deaf.
