1750 – -18] Tax revolt in Gorinchem
1881 – Frederick Douglass appointed recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia
1894 – 19th Preakness: Fred Taral aboard Assignee wins in 1:49.25
1957 – Prayer Pilgrimage, biggest civil rights demonstration to date (DC)
1973 – Five British Army soldiers are killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army booby-trap bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone
1976 – Earthquake in Uzbekistan: thousands killed
1981 – Islanders score 5 power play goals against Flyers in a playoff
1987 – Musical revue “Stardust – The Mitchell Parish Musical”, featuring songs of the Lithuanian-American lyricist, closes at Biltmore Theater, NYC, after 101 performances
1989 – Nelson Mandela receives a BA from University of South Africa
2023 – Nepali Sherpa Kami Rita Sherpa (53) climbs of Mt. Everest for a record 27th time
Author: gil7
Today in History for 17th May 2024
Historical Events
1863 – Battle of Big Black River Bridge, Mississippi
1865 – The International Telegraph Union (later the International Telecommunication Union) is established
1899 – Victoria and Albert Museum foundation laid, London, England
1900 – “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is first published by L. Frank Baum with illustrations by William Wallace Denslow in Chicago
1980 – Major race riot in Miami, Florida – 16 killed, 300 injured
1990 – European court rules on pension rights for men and women
Famous Birthdays
1846 – Edmund Bishop, English Roman Catholic historian and Secretary of Thomas Carlyle, born in Totnes, England (d. 1917)
1912 – Archibald Cox, American lawyer and special prosecutor (Watergate), born in Plainfield, New Jersey (d. 2004)
1945 – George Miller, American politician (Rep-D-CA, 1975-2015), born in Richmond, California
1953 – Nicholas Bacon, premier baronet of England
1960 – Fiona Hutchison, actress (One Life to Live, Guiding Light), born in Miami, Florida
1973 – Jenny Scheinman, American jazz and session violinist (Bill Frisell; Allison Miller), and singer, born in San Francisco, California
Famous Deaths
1606 – Forges Dimitri #1, Tsar of Russia (1605-06), murdered
1797 – Michel-Jean Sedaine, French dramatist (Le Philosophe sans le savoir), dies at 77
1889 – William Roxby Beverly, artist, dies
1944 – Félix Éboué, French colonial administrator, dies at 60
1999 – Henry Jones, American actor (Vertigo, Phyllis, Falcon Crest, Gun Shy), dies from complications from a fall at 86
2022 – Vangelis [Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou], Greek composer, keyboardist, and Academy Award winner (Chariots of Fire), dies at 79
Famous Deaths for 16th May 2024
1762 – Ernst Christian Hesse, German composer, dies at 86
1830 – Joseph Fourier, French mathematician (mathematical theory of heat conduction) and Egyptologist, dies at 62
1984 – Irwin Shaw, American writer (Rich Man, Poor Man), dies at 71
1984 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian and actor (Taxi -“Latka”), dies of cancer at 35
1985 – Margaret Hamilton, American character actress (The Wizard of Oz), dies of a heart attack at 82
1988 – Louise Wood, American director of Girl Scouts of USA (1961-72), dies at 78
1988 – Kay Baxter, American bodybuilder (NPC Gold’s Classic 1981), dies in car crash at 42
1989 – Hassan Khaled, sheik of Lebanon, murdered
1990 – Dag Drollet, Cheyenne Brando’s boyfriend killed by her brother Christian
2023 – Uwe Kitzinger, German-British political scientist, educator and administrator (President of Templeton College Oxford), dies of a heart attack at 95
Historical Events for 16th May 2024
1763 – Samuel Johnson 1st meets his future biographer James Boswell in London
1914 – American Horseshoe Pitchers Association organizes in Kansas City
1941 – Nazis forbid Dutch Organization of Actors (NOT)
1946 – Irving Berlin, Dorothy and Herbert Fields’ musical “Annie Get Your Gun” starring Ethel Merman and featuring “There’s No Business Like Show Business” opens at Imperial Theater, NYC
1963 – “Beast in Me” opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 4 performances
1969 – US nuclear sub Guitarro sinks off San Francisco
1977 – 5 die as NY Airway helicopter topples on Pan Am building in NYC
1986 – Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) comes back from the dead on TV show “Dallas”
1988 – US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant
2019 – South African Saray Khumalo is the first black African woman to climb Mt Evervest
Today in History for 16th May 2024
Historical Events
1861 – Kentucky proclaims its neutrality
1902 – 2 deaf-mutes face each other for 1st time as Dummy Hoy leads off for the Reds against Dummy Taylor of the Giants, Reds win 5-3
1941 – Italian army under Aosta surrenders to Britain at Amba Alagi, Ethiopia
1957 – US launches its 3rd atomic submarine, USS Skate, at Groton, Connecticut
1997 – Atlanta Braves beat St Louis Cardinals, 1-0 in 13 innings
2014 – Paris Saint-Germain F.C. and Manchester City F.C. are each fined €60 million for breaching Fair Play Regulations
Famous Birthdays
1929 – Betty Carter [Lillie Mae Jones], American jazz singer and scat vocalist, born in Flint, Michigan (d. 1998)
1931 – Donald James Martino, American classical composer (Notturno – Pulitzer Prize, 1974), born in Plainfield, New Jersey (d. 2005)
1961 – Kevin McDonald, Canadian comedian and actor
1968 – Patrick Waite, British reggae-rock bassist (Musical Youth – “Pass the Dutchie”), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1993)
1984 – Pania Rose, Australian fashion model, born in Perth, Western Australia
1984 – Rick Rypien, Canadian ice hockey player, born in Alberta, Canada (d. 2011)
Famous Deaths
1703 – Charles Perrault, French author and fairy tale writer (Tales of Mother Goose), dies at 75
1782 – Daniuel Charles Solander, botanist, dies
1977 – Edouard Van Remoortel, Belgian conductor (St Louis Symphony, 1958-62), dies at 50
2013 – Bernard Waber, American children’s book author (“The House on East 88th Street”; “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile”), dies from kidney failure at 88
2013 – Paul Shane, English comedian and actor, dies at 72
2016 – Julia Meade [Kunz], American actress and TV hostess (Spotlight Playhouse), dies at 90
Famous Deaths for 15th May 2024
1685 – Henri Otto, Spanish marquis of Caretto/Savona/Grana, dies
1773 – Alban Butler, English Catholic priest and writer, dies at 62
1940 – Joseph Limburg, Dutch lawyer and politician, dies at 73
1958 – Michael G the Boer, historian (Harbor of Amsterdam), dies at 91
1976 – Samuel Eliot Morison, American historian (Admiral of the Ocean Sea), dies at 88
1986 – Elio de Angelis, Italian race car driver (b. 1958)
1994 – Jan Bakker, Dutch WWII resistance fighter and journalist (Parool), dies at 79
2004 – Clint Warwick [Albert Eccles], English bassist (Moody Blues), dies at 63
2007 – Yolanda King, American actress and activist, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1955)
2008 – Willis Lamb, American physicist (Nobel 1955), dies at 94
Historical Events for 15th May 2024
1248 – Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden lays cornerstone for Cologne Cathedral
1525 – The battle of Frankenhausen: German peasant army surrounded, 5,000 slaughtered ; ends the peasants’ uprising
1928 – Mickey Mouse makes his 1st ever appearance in silent film “Plane Crazy”
1944 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, Bernard Montgomery, Winston Churchill and King George VI discuss the plan for D-Day
1967 – Paul McCartney meets his future wife, American photographer Linda Eastman
1976 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army kill 3 Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers in County Fermanagh and 1 in County Down
1983 – Madison Hotel (Boston) destroyed by implosion
2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state’s own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.
2018 – Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim is released from prison after being pardoned by King Muhammad V
2022 – Hassan Sheikh Mohamud elected President of Somalia in a vote restricted to the country’s 328 members pf parliament amid security concerns
Today in History for 15th May 2024
Historical Events
1864 – Battle of New Market, Virginia
1911 – The Georgios Averof cruiser is bought by Greece
1943 – Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International) to avoid upsetting his Western allies with claims he was trying to foment revolution globally
1988 – 2nd American Comedy Award: Robin Williams and Tracey Ullman
2018 – Controversial Kerch bridge linking Russia and annexed Crimea opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin. At 19km the longest bridge in Europe.
2018 – Flyover collapses in Varanasi, India, killing at least 18
Famous Birthdays
1795 – Adolf Bernhard Marx [Samuel Moses Marx], German music theorist and pedagogue, born in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany) (d. 1866)
1891 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian playwright and novelist (The Master and Margarita, Black Snow), born in Kiev, Russian Empire (d. 1940)
1911 – Leo Fuchs, Polish-born Jewish American actor (The Six Million Dollar Man, Avalon), born in Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (d. 1994)
1914 – Pierre Froidebise, Belgian organist, composer, and musicologist, born in Chey, Belgium (d. 1962)
1939 – Dudley Wysong, American golfer (PGA C’ship 1966 runner-up), born in McKinney, Texas (d. 1998)
1940 – Álvaro Mejía, Colombian athlete (Boston Marathon 1971 2:18:45), born in Medellín, Colombia (d. 2021)
Famous Deaths
1685 – Henri Otto, Spanish marquis of Caretto/Savona/Grana, dies
1773 – Alban Butler, English Catholic priest and writer, dies at 62
1824 – Alexander Campbell, Scottish composer and writer (associate of Walter Scott), dies at 60
1886 – Emily Dickinson, American poet (Collected Poems), dies of nephritis at 55
1972 – Nigel Green, South African-born British character actor (Zulu, Skull, Tobruk, Ipcress File), dies of an accidental barbiturate overdose at 47
1998 – Earl Manigault, American basketball player (b. 1944)
Famous Deaths for 14th May 2024
1608 – Charles III, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1543)
1832 – John van Speijk, Dutch heroic sailor, buried
1912 – August Strindberg ‘Father of modern Swedish Literature’, Swedish dramatist and writer (Miss Julie), dies at 63
1943 – Henri La Fontaine, Belgian international lawyer (1st Socialist to win Nobel Peace Prize 1913), dies at 89
1947 – John Ray Sinnock, US chief engraver (1925-47), dies at 59
1978 – Bill Lear, American engineer, manufacturer and CEO (Lear Jet Corp), dies at 75
1982 – Hugh Beaumont, American actor (The Mole People, Leave it to Beaver), dies from a heart attack at 73
1987 – Rita Hayworth [Margarita Cansino], American actress (Gilda; Cover Girl; The Lady from Shanghai), dies of Alzheimer’s disease at 68
1997 – Princess Caradja-Kretzulesco, descendant of Dracula, dies at 76
2018 – Tom Wolfe, American journalist and author (The Right Stuff), dies at 88
Historical Events for 14th May 2024
1889 – The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is launched in London, England, led by Benjamin Waugh
1918 – Sunday baseball is made legal in Washington, D.C.
1920 – Washington Senator Walter Johnson wins his 300th game vs Detroit
1944 – 91 German bombers harass Bristol
1960 – Michael Flanders and Donald Swann’s musical review “At the Drop of a Hat” closes at John Golden Theater, NYC, after 216 performances
1975 – US forces raid Cambodian island of Koh Tang to free Mayaguez ship
1981 – NASA launches space vehicle S-192
1994 – FA Cup Final: Manchester United defeat Chelsea 4-0 at Wembley Stadium, London
1995 – Dalai Lama proclaims 6-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima 11th reincarnation of Panchen Lama, Tibet’s 2nd most senior spiritual leader
2002 – Ten members of the Darwin-based Network Against Prohibition invade the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory of Australia.