Today In History
Historical Events
1547 – Great fire in Moscow, a third of the largely wooden city destroyed and 2-3,000 killed
1788 – US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it
1948 – Lord Mountbatten resigns as Governor General of India (formerly the last Viceroy)
2000 – US Senator Daniel K. Inouye and 19 other Japanese-American WWII veterans of the 442nd Regiment belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton
2001 – Mexican artist Frida Kahlo becomes the first Hispanic woman honored on a US postage stamp
Famous Birthdays
1823 – Jean Chacornac, French astronomer, born in Lyon, France (d. 1873)
1880 – Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker, born in Hampstead, London (d. 1941)
1916 – Joe Bamford, British manufacturer and multi-millionaire, born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England (d. 2001)
1947 – Lex van Delden, Dutch actor (Soldier of Orange), born in Amsterdam (d. 2010)
1995 – Andrew Dismukes, American comedian, actor, and writer (Saturday Night Live, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy), born in Houston, Texas
Famous Deaths
1631 – John Smith, English explorer (Chesapeake Bay, New England) and leader of the Virginia Colony (Jamestown), dies at 51
1865 – Frances Adeline Seward, American First Lady of New York (1839-42) and wife of US Secretary of State William H. Seward, dies of a heart attack at 59
1964 – Andrew Goodman, US civil rights activist, murdered at 20
1995 – Laurence McKinley Gould, American Geologist and Polar Explorer who was chief scientist and second-in-command on the first expedition to the interior of Antarctica in 1929, dies at 98
2023 – Ronnie Nolan, Irish soccer wing-half (33 caps League of Ireland XI, 10 Republic of Ireland; Shamrock Rovers 297 games), dies at 89
Historical Events
1834 – American inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick patents the reaping machine
1858 – Louisiana chess prodigy Paul Morphy arrives in Europe
1923 – Marcus Garvey sentenced to 5 years for using mail to defraud
1932 – German champion Max Schmeling loses NYSAC, NBA and lineal heavyweight boxing titles in controversial split points decision to American Jack Sharkey in NYC, New York
1937 – French People’s Popular Front government of Socialist Léon Blum falls
1983 – Tennis ace Arthur Ashe undergoes double bypass heart surgery
2019 – UK police called to house of leader contender Boris Johnson over alleged altercation with his girlfriend
2021 – New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is the first openly transgender athlete to be selected for the Olympics
Famous Birthdays
1715 – Bendix Friedrich Zinck, Danish organist and composer, born in Schwabstedt, Duchy of Schleswig (d. 1799)
1730 – Motoori Norinaga, Japanese physician, scholar, and writer (Kojiki-den (Commentaries on the Kojiki)), born in Matsuzaka, Japan (d. 1801)
1774 – Daniel D. Tompkins, American politician, 6th US Vice President (1817-25), born in Scarsdale, New York (d. 1825)
1862 – Johannes Schlaf, German writer and translator, born in Querfurt, Germany (d. 1941)
1909 – Kurt Schwaen, German classical composer, and pedagouge, born in Katowice, German Empire (d. 2007)
1922 – Jim McConnon, English cricketer (England off-spinner against Pakistan 1954), born in Burnopfield, England (d. 2003)
1930 – Harold Blanchard, American jazz pianist and jazz and classical composer (New Earth Sonata), born in Harlem, New York City (d. 2010)
1937 – Anna Davies, Italian philologist and Professor of Comparative Philology (Oxford U), born in Milan (d. 2014)
1954 – Robert Menasse, Austrian writer (Die Vertreibung aus der Hölle), born in Vienna
1985 – Michelle Wolf, American comedian (Nice Lady, The Daily Show), born in Hershey, Pennsylvania
Famous Deaths
1964 – James E. Chaney, American civil rights activist who helped organize the Freedom Summer campaign, murdered by the Ku Klux Klan at 21
1964 – Michael Schwerner, American civil rights activist, murdered at 21
1965 – Kay Fisker, Danish architect (Hornbeck House, Copenhagen), dies at 72
1970 – Sukarno, 1st President of Indonesia (1945-67), dies from kidney failure while under house arrest at 69
1973 – Frank Leahy, American football coach (Notre Dame), dies at 64
1979 – Angus Maclise, American percussionist, mystic, shaman, and composer (Velvet Underground), dies of hypoglycemia and pulmonary tuberculosis at 41
1995 – Laurence McKinley Gould, American Geologist and Polar Explorer who was chief scientist and second-in-command on the first expedition to the interior of Antarctica in 1929, dies at 98
2001 – Souad Hosni, Egyptian actress the “Cinderella” of Arab cinema, dies falling from a balcony at 58
2011 – Robert Kroetsch, Canadian author (b. 1927)
2023 – Peter Allan, Australian cricket fast bowler (1 Test, 2 wickets; Queensland), dies at 87