1322 – Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, English soldier (b. 1276), dies during Battle of Boroughbridge
1410 – John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset (b. 1373)
1890 – Zorka of Montenegro, Princess of Serbia (b. 1864)
1983 – Arthur Godfrey, American radio and TV host (Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scout), dies at 79
1987 – Scott McKay [Carl Chester Gose], American actor (Stage Door, Guest in House, 30 Seconds over Tokyo), dies of kidney failuyre at 71
1991 – 7 members of Reba McIntire’s band, killed in a plane crash
1992 – Yves Rocard, French physicist (helped develop the atomic bomb for France), dies at 88
2001 – Norma MacMillan, Canadian voice actress (Casper the Ghost), dies at 79
2011 – Richard Wirthlin, American political strategist for Ronald Reagan, dies at 80
2013 – Frank Thornton, British actor (Are You Being Served?, Last of the Summer Wine), dies from natural causes at 92
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 16th March 2024
1850 – Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” published by Ticknor, Reed and Fields in Boston
1896 – Gustav Mahler’ conducts premiere of his “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” (Songs of a Wayfarer), leading the Berlin Philharmonic and Dutch baritone Anton Sistermans as soloist
1946 – “Would-Be Gentleman” closes at Booth Theater NYC after 77 performances
1949 – KFMB TV channel 8 in San Diego, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1971 – Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark meets with British PM Edward Heath to discuss the security situation in Northern Ireland
1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces his resignation
1978 – Red Brigade kidnaps former premier Aldo Moro in Italy, 5 killed
1988 – Chemical attack on Kurdish town of Halabja by Iraqi forces kills 5000 civilians – largest ever chemical weapons attack
2012 – Turkish NATO helicopter crashes into a house killing ten people in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan
2013 – 24 Pakistani Army soldiers are killed in Rawalpindi after their bus falls down a ravine
Today in History for 16th March 2024
Historical Events
1731 – Treaty of Vienna signed by Prince Eugene of Savoy, Count Sinzendorf and Count Gundacker, Thomas Stahremberg and the British envoy to Vienna, Sir Thomas Robinson.
1948 – Jazz musician Billie Holiday is released early from Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia due to good behavior
1949 – KFMB TV channel 8 in San Diego, CA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1991 – Worlds Ladies’ Figure Skating Champ in Munich won by Kristi Yamaguchi
2014 – 55th SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Florida beats Kentucky, 61-60
2020 – COVID-19 study by London Imperial College showing migration approach could lead to 250,00 deaths in UK, over 1 million in US, prompts strategy changes from both countries
Famous Birthdays
1902 – Lucie Rie, Austrian-born British potter, born in Vienna (d. 1995)
1922 – Harding Lemay, American writer (head writer for soap “Another World”), born in North Bangor, New York (d. 2018)
1940 – Keith Rowe, English improvisational tabletop guitarist (AMM; M.I.M.E.O.) and painter, born in Plymouth, England
1942 – Jerry Jeff Walker [Ronald Clyde Crosby], American country music singer and songwriter (“Mr. Bojangles”), born in Oneonta, New York (d. 2020)
1951 – Ritchie Teeter, American drummer (The Dictators, 1976-79; Twisted Sister, 1980-81), born in the USA (d. 2012)
1968 – Ananya Khare, Indian actress and teacher
Famous Deaths
1629 – Emilia van Nassau, daughter of William I of Orange and Anna of Saxony, dies at 59
1841 – Félix Savart, French surgeon and physicist (Law of Biot and Savart), dies at 49
1975 – Richard W. DeKorte, American politician (b. 1936)
1984 – John Hoagland, American photographer (b. 1947)
2001 – Bob Wollek, French race car driver (b. 1943)
2004 – Vilém Tauský, Czech conductor (BBC Concert Orchestra, 1956-66), opera director and educator (Guildhall School of Music and Drama, 1966-92), and composer, dies at 93
Famous Deaths for 15th March 2024
1849 – Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, Italian cardinal, linguist and hyperpolyglot (understood 70 languages), dies at 74
1905 – Amalie Skram, Norwegian author (Paa St Jorgen), dies at 58
1962 – Sam Wren, American actor (Marked Woman, The Old Grey Mayor), dies at 65
1970 – Mary Ann Ganser, American pop singer (The Shangri-Las – “Leader of the Pack”), dies of a drug overdose at 22
1971 – Jean-Pierre Monseré, Belgian cyclist (b. 1948)
1990 – Tom Harmon, American College Football Hall of Fame halfback (Heisman Trophy 1940, Michigan; LA Rams) and broadcaster (CBS 1950-62), dies of a heart attack at 70
1996 – Roswell Leavitt Gilpatric, American lawyer and diplomat, dies at 89
2000 – Robert Welch, English designer, silversmith (Robert Welch flatware), dies at 70
2011 – Nate Dogg [Nathaniel Dwayne Hale], American rapper (“Regulate”), dies from heart failure related to multiple strokes at 41
2013 – Terry Lightfoot, British clarinetist and bandleader (New Orleans Jazzmen), dies at 77
Historical Events for 15th March 2024
1887 – 1st salaried fish and game warden (William Alden Smith in Michigan)
1917 – Nicholas II, the last Russian Tsar abdicates and nominates his brother Grand Duke Michael to succeed him [OS Mar 2]
1922 – 1st southern radio station begins (WSB, Atlanta Georgia)
1926 – Belgium’s “black monday”, franc falls
1949 – WLWD (now WDTN) TV channel 2 in Dayton, OH (NBC) begins broadcasting
1958 – “Body Beautiful” musical closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 60 performances
1959 – WILX TV channel 10 in Lansing, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting
1978 – China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
1986 – Scotland (10-9 v Ireland) and France (29-10 v England) win their final round matches to share the Five Nations Rugby Championship with 3-1 records
1994 – Experts from AL certify the Cleveland Indians Jacobs Field is properly lit
Today in History for 15th March 2024
Historical Events
1855 – Louisiana establishes 1st health board to regulate quarantine
1993 – In a landmark case, Mohamed Tabet, police commissioner of Casablanca, is convicted of sexually abusing over 1,500 women and sentenced to death
1997 – France beats Scotland, 47-20 at Parc des Princes, Paris to claim an 11th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship and 5th Triple Crown; fly-half Christophe Lamaison lands 6 penalties and 3 conversions
2013 – Justin Timberlake releases his 3rd studio album “The 20/20 Experience” (2013 Billboard Album of the Year)
2013 – 16 people are killed by a fireworks accident in Tlaxcala, Mexico
2017 – Dutch elections; Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s centre-right VVD party win 33 seats vs against 20 for right wing Geert Wilder’s Party of Freedom
Famous Birthdays
1821 – Johann Josef Loschmidt, Austrian scientist (d. 1895)
1913 – Lex Goudsmit, Dutch actor (Fiddler on the Roof, Thomas en Senior op het spoor van Brute Berend), born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1999)
1916 – Geert Lubberhuizen, Dutch publisher (Busy Bee), born in Schoten, Netherlands (d. 1984)
1961 – Craig Ludwig, American NHL defenseman (Dallas Stars), born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin
1964 – Rockwell [Kennedy Gordy], American rock vocalist (Somebody’s Watching Me), born in Detroit, Michigan
1972 – Mark Hoppus, American rock singer and bass player (+44; blink-182), born in Ridgecrest, California
Famous Deaths
1891 – Théodore de Banville, French writer, dies at 67
1983 – Rebecca West [Cicely Isabel Fairfield], English author (Meaning of Treason), dies at 90
1983 – José Luis Sert, Spanish-American architect and urban developer, dies at 80
2011 – Smiley Culture [David Victor Emmanuel], British reggae singer (“Police Officer”; “Cockney Translation”), dies from a self-inflicted stab wound at 48
2022 – Lu Liang-Huan, Taiwanese golfer (British Open 1971 runner-up), dies at 85
2023 – Dorothy Bohm, German-born British pioneering street photographer, dies at 98
Famous Deaths for 14th March 2024
1490 – Charles I, Duke of Savoy (1482-90), dies at 21
1612 – Philip Galle, Flemish engraver, dies at about 74
1805 – Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, Russian general (b. 1753)
1874 – Johann Heinrich von Mädler, German astronomer (published the most complete map of the Moon of the time, Mappa Selenographica, 4 vol. with Wilhelm Beer), dies at 79
1918 – Lucretia Garfield, First Lady of the United States as the wife of James A. Garfield (1881), dies at 85
1932 – Frederick Jackson Turner, American historian (known for his “frontier thesis”), dies at 70
1969 – Ben Shahn, Lithuanian-American painter (1964 Arts and Letters), dies at 70
1986 – Jozef Kresanek, Slovak composer, dies at 73
2009 – Altovise Davis [née Gore], American entertainer, best known as Sammy Davis Jr.’s third wife, dies from stroke complications at 65
2018 – Stephen Hawking, English physicist (Black Holes and Baby Universes), dies at 76
Historical Events for 14th March 2024
1369 – Battle of Montiel: Peter of Castile (Peter the Cruel) with support from England is defeated by an alliance between the French and his half-brother Henry II of Castile
1845 – -5.3°F (-20.7°C) in Groningen, Netherlands
1900 – Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries rediscovers Gregor Mendel’s laws of heredity and genetics
1935 – 36-Folsom becomes 1st line to use 1-man streetcars in San Francisco
1960 – 14 die in a train crash in Bakersfield, California
1967 – JFK’s body moved from temporary grave to a permanent memorial
1980 – Ice Pairs Championship at Dortmund won by Cherkasova and Shakhrai (USSR)
1986 – European Space Agency’s Giotto flies by Halley’s Comet (605 km)
1994 – Mexican banker and billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu kidnapped
2018 – NASA twin study finds that Scott Kelly is no longer identical to his twin brother after one year in space, 7% of his genes altered
Today in History for 14th March 2024
Historical Events
1874 – English FA Cup Final, Kennington Oval, London: Oxford University beats Royal Engineers, 2-0
1962 – Disarmament conference opens in Geneva without France
1967 – JFK’s body moved from temporary grave to a permanent memorial
1991 – English Court of Appeal frees “Birmingham 6” who had been unjustly sentenced in August 1975 to life imprisonment
1996 – Australia beat West Indies by 5 runs in amazing cricket World Cup semi
1997 – The Chinese city of Chongqing (formerly Chunking) is upgraded to a centrally administered municipality
Famous Birthdays
1895 – François Louis Ganshof, Belgian medieval historian, born in Bruges, Belgium (d. 1980)
1939 – Stavros Xarhakos, Greek composer and conductor, born in Athens, Greece
1967 – Vijay Yadav, Indian cricket wicket-keeper (1 Test, 3 dismissals, HS 30; Haryana), born in Gonda, India
1972 – Antowain Smith, American NFL running back (Buffalo Bills), born in Millbrook, Alabama
1978 – Pieter van den Hoogenband, Dutch swimmer
1994 – Ansel Elgort, American actor (Fault in our Stars), born in New York City
Famous Deaths
1986 – Edith Atwater, American actress (Phyllis-Love on a Rooftop), dies at 74
1992 – Ralph James, American actor (Orson-Mork and Mindy), dies at 67
1997 – Lucy Kroll, American talent agent, dies at 87
1997 – John Curtis Jr, American executive (Luby’s Cafe), commits suicide at 49
2002 – Cherry Wilder [Cherry Barbara Grimm], New Zealand sci-fi author (Nearest Fire), dies at 71
2012 – Pierre Schoendoerffer, French Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter (The Anderson Platoon), dies from surgical complications at 83
Famous Deaths for 13th March 2024
1202 – Mieszko III, the Elder, grand duke of Poland (1173-77, 1200-02), dies
1941 – A Coenradi, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
1951 – James I Wedgwood, British theosophist and bishop (Liberal Catholic Church), dies at 67
1971 – Piero Coppola, Italian conductor, artistic director (La Voix de son Maître (The Gramophone Company – France), 1923-34). pianist, and composer, dies at 82
1982 – Albert Weisser, American musicologist and composer, dies at 64
1994 – Danny Barker, American jazz musician (wrote Bourbon Street Black), dies at 85
2012 – Jock Hobbs, New Zealand rugby union flanker and captain (21 Tests; Canterbury RU; Chairman NZRFU 2002-10), dies from leukemia at 52
2013 – Ducky Detweiler, American MLB player, dies at 94
2018 – Dr. T Berry Brazelton, American child development paediatrician, author, TV host (What Every Baby Knows), who developed the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), dies at 99
2021 – Kenneth Cooper, American harpsichordist, pianist, musicologist, and professor (Barnard College, Brooklyn, NYC), dies shortly after a stroke at 79