1708 – Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect, dies at 62
1891 – Edmond Becquerel, French physicist who studied the solar spectrum, magnetism, electricity and optics (photovoltaic effect), dies at 71
1927 – Juan Gris, Spanish cubist painter (Still Life Before an Open Window), dies at 40
1934 – Orest Khvolson, Russian physicist and honorary member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1920), dies at 81
1935 – Edward Herbert Thompson, American archaeologist (Mayan civilization), dies at 78
1976 – Camille Schmit, Belgian composer, dies at 68
1995 – David Avidan, Israeli poet, dies at 62
2006 – Frankie Thomas, American actor and author (Tom Corbett Space Cadet), dies of a stroke at 85
2017 – Jur Mellema, Dutch politician (CHU), dies at 93
2018 – Scott Hutchinson, Scottish musician (Frightened Rabbit), found dead after a suffering from mental illness at 36
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 11th May 2025
1752 – 1st US fire insurance policy issued, in Philadelphia
1864 – Battle of Yellow Tavern, Virginia (Sheridan’s Raid, South Anna Bridge)
1881 – Bedřich Smetana’s opera “Libuše” premieres at the National Theate, in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia
1918 – 44th Kentucky Derby: William Knapp on Exterminator wins in 2:10.8
1919 – Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hod Eller no-hits St Louis Cardinals, 6-0 at Redland Field, Cincinnati
1928 – 63rd British Open Men’s Golf Championship, Royal St George’s GC: Walter Hagen wins 3rd of his 4 Open Championship titles, 2 strokes ahead of fellow American Gene Sarazen
1959 – Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer’s musical “Once Upon A Mattress”, starring Carol Burnett and directed by George Abbott, opens at Phoenix Theatre, NYC, later transferring to the Alvin Theater; runs for 244 performances
1968 – Toronto Transit Commission opens the largest expansion of its Bloor-Danforth Line, going to Scarborough in the east, Etobicoke in the west
1985 – Dave Concepcion becomes 4th Cincinnati Red teammate to get 2,000 hits, others include Pete Rose, Tony Perez and César Cedeño
2009 – An American soldier in Iraq opened fire on a counseling center at Camp Liberty in Bagdhad, leaving 5 other US soldiers dead and 3 soldiers wounded
Today in History for 11th May 2025
Historical Events
1862 – Confederates scuttle CSS Virginia off Norfolk, Virginia
1958 – US performs its second atmospheric nuclear test of the day, this one at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands
1972 – Stanley Cup Final, Madison Square Garden, NYC: Wayne Cashman scores twice as Boston Bruins beat NY Rangers, 3-0 to take title, 4-2
1977 – Ted Turner manages an Atlanta Braves game
2014 – Thousands protest against the construction of a waste incineration plant in Hangzhou, China
Famous Birthdays
1827 – Septimus Winner, American songwriter (Listen To The Mockingbird), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1902)
1917 – Montague Woodhouse, British military officer and politician (organized the resistance forces in Crete WWII, MI6 agent), born in England (d. 2001)
1925 – Edward J. King, American politician, 66th Governor of Massachusetts (1979-83), born in Chelsea, Massachusetts (d. 2006)
1971 – Corey Fuller, NFL cornerback (Minnesota Vikings)
1977 – Victor Matfield, South African rugby union footballer
Famous Deaths
1923 – Henry Martyn Robert, American soldier and parliamentarian (Robert’s Rules of Order), dies at 86
1935 – Edward Herbert Thompson, American archaeologist (Mayan civilization), dies at 78
1976 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (Finlandia House) and designer, dies at 78
1981 – Bob Marley, Jamaican reggae musician (“Exodus”; “One Love”; “No Woman No Cry”; “Three Little Birds”), dies of brain and lung cancer at 36
2022 – Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian-American journalist (Al Jazeera), shot and killed by Israeli forces at 51
Famous Deaths for 10th May 2025
1641 – Johan Banér, Swedish Field Marshal, led Swedish armies during Thirty Years’ War, dies at 44
1826 – Giuseppe Sigismondo, Italian historian and composer, dies at 86
1849 – Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese painter and printmaker (The Great Wave off Kanagawa), dies at 89
1868 – Henry Bennett, American politician (b. 1808)
1967 – Lorenzo Bandini, Italian auto racer (24 Hours of Le Mans 1963; 24 Hours of Daytona 1967), dies after a race accident in Monaco F1 GP at 31
1971 – Shukichi Mitsukuri, Japanese composer (10 Haikai de Basho), dies at 75
2006 – Val Guest, British film director (b. 1911)
2015 – Rein van den Broek, Dutch trumpet player (Ekseption), dies at 69
2020 – John Teerlinck, American NFL defensive end (SD Chargers) and coach (annual award for NFL best defensive line coach named after him), dies at 69
2022 – Mike Davis, English rugby union lock (16 caps; Sherborne RFC) and coach (England 20 Tests 1979-83), dies at 80
Historical Events for 10th May 2025
1796 – Riot after disagreement of patriotic demand in Amsterdam
1870 – Jem Mace defends his heavyweight crown against Irish champ Joe Coburn; the match lasts 1 hour and 17 minutes, and neither is struck by a punch
1894 – Hong Kong government declares port is infected with the plague. The outbreak will go on to kill 20,489 over 29 years.
1929 – 54th Preakness: Louis Schaefer aboard Dr Freeland wins in 2:01.6
1932 – Government declares “Wilhelmus” as the Netherlands’ national anthem
1948 – 1st attack by Egyptian irregular forces at Kfar Darom Israel
1973 – Establishment of Frente Polisario in Mauritania
1992 – “Hamlet” closes at Criterion Theater NYC after 45 performances
1994 – Musical sequel “The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public” opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, NYC; runs for 16 performances
1994 – Nelson Mandela is sworn in as South Africa’s first Black president
Today in History for 10th May 2025
Historical Events
1876 – Centennial Fair opens in Philadelphia
1945 – Allies capture Rangoon from the Japanese
1983 – Lee Chin Yong performs 170 continuous chin-ups in Seoul
1998 – Viktor Orbán elected Prime Minister of Hungary after his Fidesz party forms a centre-right coalition the Independent Smallholders Party and Hungarian Democratic Forum
2017 – Apple becomes the first company to be worth more than $800 billion
Famous Birthdays
1697 – Jean-Marie Leclair l’aîné (the elder), French violinist and Baroque composer, born in Lyon, France (d. 1764)
1838 – John Wilkes Booth, American stage actor and assassin of US President Abraham Lincoln, born in Bel Air, Maryland (d. 1865)
1918 – Dr. T Berry Brazelton, American child development paediatrician, author, TV host (What Every Baby Knows), who developed the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), born in Waco, Texas (d. 2018)
1959 – Cindy Hyde-Smith, American politician (Senator-R-Mississippi 2018-), born in Brookhaven, Mississippi
1970 – Perry Blake, Irish singer-songwriter (The Hunchback of San Francisco), born in Sligo, Ireland
Famous Deaths
1034 – Mieszko II, King of Poland (1025-34), dies
1641 – Johan Banér, Swedish Field Marshal, led Swedish armies during Thirty Years’ War, dies at 44
1696 – Jean de La Bruyère, French writer (The Characters, or the Manners of the Age, with The Characters of Theophrastus), dies at 50
1770 – Charles Avison, English composer, dies at 61
1820 – Matthäus Stegmayer, Austrian composer, dies at 49
Famous Deaths for 9th May 2025
1864 – John Sedgwick, American Major General (Union Army), is shot in battle after claiming “they couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance” at 50
1950 – Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist and engineer, dies at 66
1967 – Elmar Berkovich, Hungarian-Dutch industrial designer (Eindhoven theater), dies at 69
1993 – Freya Stark, English explorer and travel writer (The Southern Gates of Arabia), dies at 100
1995 – Percy Mansell, Rhodesian cricket all-rounder (13 Tests South Africa, 11 wickets, 2 x 50; Rhodesia), dies at 75
1997 – Willy Hess, Swiss musicologist, composer and famous Beethoven scholar, dies at 90
2012 – Vidal Sassoon, British-American hair stylist and CEO of Vidal Sasson, dies from leukemia at 84
2013 – Alfredo Landa, Spanish actor (The Crach, Sinatra), dies at 80
2014 – Mel Patton, American athlete (Olympic gold 200m, 4x100m relay 1948; WR 100 yards 9.2s 1948), dies at 89
2023 – Jon Povey, English drummer (The Pretty Things; Electric Banana), dies of leukemia at 80
Historical Events for 9th May 2025
1899 – John Burr patents an improved rotary blade lawn mower in the US
1922 – International Astronomical Union formally adopts Annie Jump Cannon’s stellar classification system, which, with only minor changes, is still used today
1960 – Nigeria becomes a member of British Commonwealth
1965 – The Beatles attend a Bob Dylan concert, at the Royal Albert Hall in London
1969 – Following his release from prison Ian Paisley, North Ireland Loyalist holds a ‘victory’ meeting
1971 – Friends of Earth return 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes
1979 – Iranian-Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is the 1st Jew executed by the Islamic government firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran
1987 – 183 die aboard a Polish jetliner that crashes in Warsaw
1993 – Landslide in Nambija Ecuador, kills 300
2012 – Mark Rothko’s “Orange, Red, Yellow” becomes the most expensive contemporary art piece sold at auction for $86.9 million
Today in History for 9th May 2025
Historical Events
1914 – US President Woodrow Wilson proclaims Mother’s Day
1956 – War Reparations and Peace Settlement between Philippines and Japan was finally signed at Malacañang Palace under Magsaysay administration
2006 – George Preca is canonized as the first Maltese saint in history
2018 – Nicaraguan anti-government protests involving tens of thousands take place in Managua and Matagalpa y Chinandega
2019 – New Australian $50 bank note misspells responsibility as “responsibilty” on 46 million notes
Famous Birthdays
1938 – Charles Simic, Serbian-American poet (The World Doesn’t End) and the 15th US poet laureate (2007-08), born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (d. 2023)
1939 – Jim Dent, American golfer on PGA and Seniors tours, born in Augusta, Georgia (d. 2025)
1940 – Dick Morrissey, British jazz saxophonist, born in Horley, Surrey, England (d. 2000)
1948 – Calvin Murphy, American basketball player
1962 – John Corbett, American actor (Northern Exposure – “Chris Stevens”; Sex and the City – “Aidan”; My Big Fat Greek Wedding), and country music singer, born in Wheeling, West Virginia
Famous Deaths
1919 – James Reese Europe, American ragtime and early jazz arranger, composer, and bandleader in New York, and with the military in France during WWI, dies of a stab wound (received during an argument with one of his drummers), at 38
1937 – Walter Mittelholzer, Swiss aviation pioneer (Swiss Air) and aerial photographer, dies in a climbing accident on an expedition in Styria at 43
2001 – James E. Myers, American songwriter (Rock Around the Clock) and producer, dies at 81
2018 – Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Australian heroin smuggler (Bali Nine), dies of stomach cancer at 34
2023 – Jackie Zeman, American actress (General Hospital – “Bobbie Spencer”), dies of cancer at 70
Famous Deaths for 8th May 2025
1319 – Haakon V, King of Norway (1299-1319), dies
1864 – James Samuel Wadsworth, American politician and major general (Union), dies in battle at 56
1876 – Truganini, last originating Tasmanian, dies
1880 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (Madame Bovary), dies at 58
1960 – Hugo Alfvén, Swedish violinist, conductor, and composer (Midsommarvaka – Midsummer Vigil), dies at 88
1994 – Steven Keats, American actor (Death Wish), dies of apparent suicide at 48
2007 – Carson Whitsett, American session keyboard player and songwriter (“Don’t Give Up On Me”), dies of brain cancer at 62
2007 – Mark Burns, British actor (Death in Venice, Juggernaut), dies from cancer at 71
2015 – (Antoni) “Ton” Hartsuiker, Dutch pianist, composer, broadcaster, and educator, dies at 81
2022 – Dennis Waterman, English stage and screen actor (Fair Exchange; Minder; The Sweeney), and singer, dies of lung cancer at 74