Today In History
Historical Events
1839 – Cherokee Nation unites and ratifies constitution at Tahlequah, Oklahoma
1920 – Jack Dempsey knocks out Billy Miske in the third round for the heavyweight boxing title in the first radio broadcast of a prizefight
1982 – Dutch Internal Minister Mr. M. Red assigns BVD to spy on communists
1985 – Mark Messier loses control of his Porsche and totals three cars; he is charged with hit-and-run and careless driving and is ordered to pay a fine
2018 – New York and New Jersey state attorneys launch investigations into sexual abuse by the Catholic clergy, bringing to six the number of states investigating
Famous Birthdays
1919 – Wilson Greatbatch, American engineer and pioneering inventor (cardiac pacemaker), born in Buffalo, New York (d. 2011)
1946 – Bryan D. O’Connor, U.S. Marine Corps colonel and astronaut (STS 61B, STS 40), born in Orange, California
1947 – Bruce Rioch, Scottish footballer and coach, born in Aldershot, England
1956 – Bill Ritter, American politician (41st Governor of Colorado), born in Denver, Colorado
1995 – Mark Andrews, American NFL player (Baltimore Ravens), born in Scottsdale, Arizona
Famous Deaths
1748 – Edmund Gibson, English jurist (b. 1669)
1984 – Ernest Tubb, American country musician (“Walking the Floor Over You”), dies of emphysema at 70
1992 – Pat Harder, American NFL fullback (Cardinals, Lions), dies at 70
1995 – Italo Valenti, Italian sculptor, dies at 83
2003 – Harry Goz, American musical theatre actor and voice actor, dies at 71
Historical Events
1669 – Siege of Candia on Crete ends with the Venetian fortress surrendering to the Ottomans, the second-longest siege in history (began 1648)
1819 – American inventor Thomas Blanchard patents lathe
1944 – Gen. von Zangen’s 15th Army escapes from Zeeland
1961 – USSR performs a nuclear test at Kapustin Yar, USSR
1963 – Historian Lee Allen says the Cleveland Indians-Washington Senators game is the 100,000th in Major League Baseball history
1982 – Dutch Internal Minister Mr. M. Red assigns BVD to spy on communists
1982 – Jerry Lewis’s 17th annual Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $28,415,339
1986 – Jozef Pribilinec sets a speed walking world record time (15,447 km)
Famous Birthdays
1627 – Pierre Verdier, French composer working in Sweden, born in Paris, France (d. 1706)
1857 – Zelia Nuttall, American Mexican archeologist and historian (Codex Nuttall), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1933)
1921 – Norman Joseph Woodland, American co-inventor of the barcode, born in Atlantic City, New Jersey (d. 2012)
1929 – Dow Finsterwald, American golfer (PGA Championship 1958; PGA Player of the Year 1958), born in Athens, Ohio (d. 2022)
1949 – Jimmy Litherland, English rocker (Mitarbeit), born in Salford, Lancashire, England
1952 – (Steven) “Buddy” Miller, American folk and country singer-songwriter, born in Fairborn, Ohio
1975 – Derrek Lee, American baseball first baseman (2 x MLB All Star, 3 x Gold Glove), born in Sacramento, California
1985 – Lauren Lapkus, American actress and comedienne (Orange is the New Black), born in Evanston, Illinois
1985 – Ali Ashfaq, Maldivian footballer, born in Malé, Maldives
1989 – Nikos Boutzikos, Greek footballer, born in Polygyros, Greece
Famous Deaths
1819 – Georg Druschetzky [Jiří Družecký], Czech composer, oboist, and timpanist, dies at 74
1941 – Hugo Loudon, Dutch businessman and co-founder of Royal Dutch Shell, dies at 81
1948 – Gerrit Hendrik Kersten, Dutch vicar and founder (Calvinist Party), dies at 66
1963 – Margarita Sierra, Spanish-American actress (Surfside 6 – “Cha Cha”), dies after heart surgery at 27
1981 – Joseph Yasser, Russian-American composer, dies at 88
1999 – René Lecavalier, French Canadian sportscaster (b. 1918)
2018 – Evelyn Anthony, British historical writer (Poellenberg Inheritance), dies at 92
2018 – Alan Oakman, English cricket all-rounder (2 Tests; Sussex CCC), dies at 88
2024 – Mark Moffatt, Australian guitarist, songwriter, and record producers (The Monitors; Tim Finn), dies of pancreatic cancer at 74
2024 – Horst Weigang, German soccer goalkeeper (12 caps East Germany; Lokomotive Leipzig, Rot-Weiß Erfurt), dies at 83