On this date in history…

(2015) American painter, sculptor, and printmaker Ellsworth Kelly—who was a leading exponent of the hard-edge style, in which abstract contours are sharply and precisely defined—died in Spencertown, New York. (1932) The internal passport system, previously denounced by Vladimir Lenin as one of the worst stigmas of tsarist backwardness and despotism, was reinstated in the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin. (1901) German American film actress Marlene Dietrich—whose beauty, voice, aura of sophistication, and languid sensuality made her one of the world’s most glamorous movie stars—was born. (1831) Charles Darwin set sail on the HMS Beagle, beginning the voyage on which he would formulate his theory of evolution. (1571) German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered three major laws of planetary motion, was born.