Today In History
Historical Events
1924 – VIII Summer Olympic Games close at the Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir in Paris, France
1929 – Construction of the Dike of Wieringermeerpolder, Netherlands, is finished
1997 – Revival of Leonard Bernstein’s operetta “Candide” closes at the Gershwin Theatre in NYC after 103 performances
1997 – British Senior Open Men’s Golf, Royal Portrush GC: Gary Player of South Africa wins with birdie on second playoff hole against countryman John Bland
2003 – 90th Tour de France: no winner (Lance Armstrong disqualified)
Famous Birthdays
1849 – John Hopkinson, British physicist and electrical engineer (Hopkinson’s Law), born in Manchester (d. 1898)
1886 – Ernst May, German architect and city planner (New Frankfurt), born in Frankfurt am Main (d. 1970)
1936 – J. Robert Hooper, American politician, born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 2008)
1971 – Lehlo Ledwaba, South African boxer (IBF super bantamweight title 1999-2001), born in Soweto, South Africa (d. 2021)
1977 – Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Irish actor (Mission: Impossible III; The Tudors: Elvis), born in Cork, Ireland
Famous Deaths
1863 – William Lowndes Yancey, American politician who defended slavery, diplomat for the Confederacy, dies at 48
1883 – Albert Franz Doppler, Austrian flautist and composer, dies at 61
1963 – George “Hooks” Dauss, American MLB baseball pitcher, 1912-26 (Detroit Tigers), dies at 73
1965 – Henri Daniel-Rops, French writer and historian (b. 1901)
2025 – Don Elbaum, American boxing promoter (matchmaker for over 10,000 fights, promoted over 1,000 cards), dies at 94
Historical Events
1377 – First example of quarantine in Ragusa (now Dubrovnik); city council passes a law stating newcomers from plague areas must isolate for 30 days (later 40 days, quaranta in Italian)
1816 – US troops destroy Fort Apalachicola, a Seminole fort, to punish Indians for harboring runaway slaves
1897 – Dutch government of Pierson and Goeman Borgesius resigns
1927 – Mel Ott, 18, hits his first league home run (inside the park)
1988 – Baseball star Tommy John commits a record three errors on one play as the Yankees rout the Brewers 16-3
1992 – Astros begins 26-game road trip to make room for Republican National Convention
2003 – British Senior Open Men’s Golf, Turnberry: American Tom Watson wins in a playoff against Carl Mason of England
2021 – Triathlete Flora Duffy wins first Olympic gold medal for Bermuda in the women’s event at the Tokyo Games
Famous Birthdays
1625 – Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich, English soldier, admiral and patron to Samuel Pepys, born in Barnwell (d. 1672)
1768 – Charlotte Corday, French revolutionary who murdered Jean-Paul Marat in a bath, born in Saint-Saturnin, France (d. 1793)
1848 – Friedrich Ernst Dorn, German physicist who discovered that radon is emitted from radium, born in Guttstadt, Province of Prussia (now Warmia in Poland) (d. 1916)
1905 – Robert L. May, American advertising copy writer and creator of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, born in Arverne, New York (d. 1976)
1910 – Julien Gracq [Louis Poirier], French writer (Andre Breton), born in Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, Maine-et-Loire, France (d. 2007)
1924 – Vincent Canby, American movie critic (NY Times), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2000)
1943 – Stu Gilliam, American actor and comedian (Roll Out, Harris and Company), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2013)
1944 – Barbara Thompson, British jazz saxophonist and composer, born in Oxford, England (d. 2022)
1969 – Bryan Fuller, American television writer and producer (Hannibal; Pushing Daisies), born in Lewiston, Idaho
1970 – Tom Europe, Canadian football defensive back (Montreal Alouettes), born in Toronto, Ontario
Famous Deaths
1365 – Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria (1358-65), dies at 25
1777 – William Hayes, English composer and organist, dies at 69
1931 – Auguste-Henri Forel, Swiss neuroanatomist and entomologist, investigated structure of the brain, dies at 58
1963 – Garrett Morgan, American inventor (gas mask and traffic signal), dies at 86
1972 – Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Austrian-Japanese politician, dies at 77
1995 – Rick Ferrell, American Baseball Hall of Fame catcher (8 x MLB All Star; Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators), dies of arrhythmia at 89
1996 – Jane Beverly Drew, English modernist architect, dies at 85
1999 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and mountaineer, dies at 86
2021 – Mike Hendrick, English cricket fast bowler (30 Tests, 87 wickets; 22 ODIs; Derbyshire CCC), dies from bowel cancer at 72
2022 – Tony Dow, American actor (Leave it to Beaver – “Wally”), director, and sculptor, dies of cancer at 77