1504 – Michelangelo’s statue of David is unveiled to the public. The statue is 17 feet tall and weighs 12,000 pounds, carved from a single block of white Italian Carrara marble.
1935 – Louisiana Sen. Huey Long is shot in the state capitol building and dies 30 hours later. The controversial populist leader boasted that he bought legislators “like sacks of potatoes, shuffled them like a deck of cards.”
1943 – Gen. Dwight Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allied forces.
1974 – Pres. Gerald Ford pardons his disgraced predecessor, Richard Nixon, for any crimes he may have committed while in office. Ford said he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.
