Today In History
Historical Events
1922 – Longest recorded attack of hiccups begins when Charles Osborne gets the hiccups and continues for 68 years; he dies 11 months after they stop
1947 – First night game at Fenway Park (Red Sox 5, White Sox 3)
1979 – Sioux nation receives $100 million in compensation for Black Hills, South Dakota
2001 – TNN/CMT Country Weekly Music Awards: George Strait, Faith Hill, and Alan Jackson win
2018 – FIFA Congress votes to award 2026 World Cup to joint bid by US, Canada and Mexico
Famous Birthdays
1827 – Alberto Henschel, German-Brazilian photographer and businessman, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1882)
1966 – Thyme Lewis, American actor (Jonah Carver in “Days of Our Lives”), born in San Francisco, California
1973 – Kasia Kowalska, Polish pop rock singer (“A to co mam”; “Nobody”), born in Sulejówek, Poland
1987 – Charlotte Wells, Scottish director (Aftersun), born in Edinburgh, Scotland
1992 – Violet Chachki [Paul Jason Dardo], American drag queen, dancer, model and TV personality (RuPaul’s Drag Race season 7 winner), born in Atlanta, Georgia
Famous Deaths
1036 – Ali az-Zahir, 7th Caliph of the Fātimids (1021-36), dies at 30
1881 – Joseph Škoda, Bohemian physician, dies at 75
1920 – Essad Pasja, Albanian military man/minister, murdered at the Versailles Peace Conference
1952 – Max Pulver, writer, dies
1973 – Alvin Derold Etler, American oboist, and composer, dies at 60
Historical Events
1727 – Spain underwrites Preliminairy of Paris
1895 – British Open Men’s Golf, St Andrews: Englishman J.H. Taylor retains title; beats Sandy Herd of Scotland by 4 shots
1925 – 57th Belmont: Albert Johnson aboard American Flag wins in 2:16.8
1925 – American William DeHart Hubbard sets men’s long jump world record at 7.89m (25 ft 10 3⁄4 in) in Chicago, Illinois
1937 – Joe DiMaggio hits 3 consecutive HRs against St Louis Browns
1953 – English Cricketer Alec Bedser takes 14-99 (7-55 and 7-44) vs Australia
1962 – Norway named ombudsman
1988 – Fed jury finds Liggett liable in death of NJ woman of lung cancer
Famous Birthdays
1786 – Winfield Scott, American army general (Union) and presidential candidate, born in Petersburg, Virginia (d. 1866)
1822 – Carl Schmidt, Baltic German chemist, born in Mitau, Russian Empire (d. 1884)
1864 – Dwight B. Waldo, American educator (first President of Western Michigan University), born in Arcade, New York (d. 1939)
1876 – William Sealy Gosset, English statistician (Student’s t-distribution), born in Canterbury, Kent, England (d. 1937)
1884 – Anton Drexler, German politician (founder of German Worker’s Party (DAP), precursor to the Nazi Party), and mentor to Adolf Hitler, born in Munich (d. 1942)
1911 – Albert Cleage, African-American theologian and religious leader, born in Indianapolis (d. 2000)
1913 – Etienne Leroux, Afrikaans author (Een vir Azazel), born in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape (d. 1989)
1927 – Angela Alvarez (née Portilla), Cuban-American Latin jazz singer-songwriter who won a Latin Grammy Award at 95, born in Camagüey, Cuba (d. 2024)
1962 – Ally Sheedy [Alexandria], American actress (Wargames, Breakfast Club), born in New York City
1963 – Bettina Bunge, German tennis player (Virginia Slims of California 1983), born in Adliswil, Switzerland
Famous Deaths
1810 – Johann Gottfried Seume, German writer (Spaziergang nach Syrakus), dies at 47
1881 – Joseph Škoda, Bohemian physician, dies at 75
1899 – [Robert] Lawson Tait, Scottish-born pioneering surgeon performed first salpingectomy for ectopic pregnancy, dies at 54
1958 – Edwin Keppel Bennett, English writer (Built in Jerusalem’s Wall: A Book in praise of Jerusalem), dies at 70
1965 – David Drummond, Australian politician, dies at 75
1972 – Georg von Bekesy, Hungarian-American physician and physiologist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1961 – work on the inner ear), dies at 73
1993 – (Donald) “Deke” Slayton, American US Air Force pilot and NASA astronaut (Mercury Seven; Apollo–Soyuz Test Project), dies of brain cancer at 69
2005 – Lane Smith, American actor (b. 1936)
2007 – Oskar Morawetz, Czech-Canadian composer (From the Diary of Anne Frank), dies at 90
2008 – Tim Russert, American television journalist and host of NBC’s Meet the Press, dies at 58