1970: An oxygen tank on the Apollo 13 command module exploded with three astronauts on board. They were 200,000 miles from Earth. Returning them safely to Earth has been called NASA's finest hour. The story is told in the 1995 movie - Apollo 13 - starring Tom Hanks as Commander Jim Lovell.

1743: Library of Congress: Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the United States and primary author of the Declaration of Independence, was born in Virginia. He was educated at the College of William and Mary and read law under the eminent Virginia jurist George Wythe. A member of the group of Virginia radicals who opposed Parliamentary policy from the early stages of the American Revolution, Jefferson came to special prominence in 1774 as the author of the influential pamphlet A Summary View of the Rights of British America. The following year he was elected to the Second Continental Congress, where he was chosen to draft the Declaration of Independence at the age of thirty-three.