1597 – Pieter J Kies, Dutch mayor of Haarlem (1572-73), dies at about 66
1660 – Klaas Geritsz Compaen, Dutch buccaneer and merchant, dies at 72
1772 – Christian Gottlieb Ziegler, German organist, kapellmeister, and composer, dies at 69
1844 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, British Prime Minister (Tory: 1801-04), dies at 86
1921 – Hans Haym, German conductor, dies at 60
1973 – Tim Holt [Charles John Holt III], American actor (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), dies of bone cancer at 54
1990 – Jack Fletcher, American actor (Calucci’s Department, Once Upon a Mattress), dies of a heart attack at 68
1992 – William Schuman, American composer (Pulitzer Prize, 1943), and administrator (Juilliard, 1945-61; Lincoln Center, 1961-68), dies at 81
2005 – Pierre Bachelet, French singer and songwriter, dies of lung cancer at 60
2010 – Art Van Damme, American jazz accordionist (Chicago Jazz), dies at 89
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 15th February 2024
1676 – Isaac Newton writes to Robert Hooke “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants” (O.S. 5 Feb)
1848 – Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston
1954 – WRDW TV channel 12 in Augusta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1958 – Ice Dance Championship at Paris won by June Markham/Courtney Jones GRB
1972 – Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.
1972 – Newly-formed NHL franchise New York Islanders hire Bill Torrey as their first General Manager
1996 – NFL coaching maestro Bill Belichick is fired by Cleveland, finishing his Browns coaching career with a record of 36-44
1999 – 7th ESPY Awards: Mark McGwire, Chamique Holdsclaw win
2018 – First known case of transgender woman breastfeeding reported in “Transgender Health Journal” in US
2019 – US President Donald Trump declares a national emergency to divert funds to build a border wall, after signing bipartisan spending agreement to avoid another government shutdown
Today in History for 15th February 2024
Historical Events
1686 – Jean Baptiste Lully’s opera “Armide” premieres in Paris
1950 – WM Inge’s “Come Back, Little Sheba” premieres in NYC
1954 – WRDW TV channel 12 in Augusta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1978 – England all out 64 for 1st loss to NZ in cricket (Geoffrey Boycott captain)
1979 – 21st Grammy Awards: Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are”; A Taste of Honey win
1989 – Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan ends as the last Soviet troops cross the Soviet-Afghan border
Famous Birthdays
1739 – Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, French architect (d. 1813)
1931 – [Patricia] Claire Bloom, British actress (Charly, Look Back in Anger), born in London, England
1931 – W K Reid, British ombudsman
1937 – Terry Everett, American politician (Rep-R-Alabama 1993-2009), born in Dothan, Alabama
1939 – Robert Hansen, American serial killer
1979 – Adam Granduciel [Granofsky], American guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer (The War on Drugs – “Thinking Of A Place”; “Holding On”: The Violators, 2003-11), born in Dover, Massachusetts
Famous Deaths
1923 – Josephine Beall Bruce, African-American activist (NACW), dies at 69
1932 – Minnie Maddern Fiske, American actress (Henrik Ibsen’s plays), dies at 66
1961 – Dudley Richards, American figure skater (U.S. Pairs champion, 1961), dies in a plane crash at 29
2005 – Pierre Bachelet, French singer and songwriter, dies of lung cancer at 60
2021 – Vincent Jackson, American NFL wide receiver (Pro Bowl 2009, 11, 12; SD Chargers, TB Buccaneers), dies at 38
2023 – Raquel Welch (née Tejada), American stage and screen (Myra Breckenridge; One Million Years B.C.; 100 Rifles), and nightclub singer, dies at 82
Famous Deaths for 14th February 2024
1820 – Cosme Argerich, Argentine physician and founder of the Medicine School of Buenos Aires, dies at 61
1846 – Cornelis Felix van Maanen, Dutch Minister of Justice (1807-42), dies at 76
1884 – Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1st wife of Theodore Roosevelt, dies of Bright’s disease at 22
1891 – Giulio Roberti, Italian composer, dies at 61
1894 – Eugène Charles Catalan, French-Belgian mathematician (worked on continued fractions, descriptive geometry, number theory and combinatorics), dies at 79
1969 – Wolfe Barzell, Polish-born actor (Blue Angel), dies of a heart attack at 72
1980 – Luitkonwar Rudra Baruah, Assamese composer and actor
1990 – Graeme Hole, Australian cricket batsman (18 Tests, 6 x 50; NSW CA), dies from cancer at 59
1995 – U Nu, 1st Prime Minister of Burma (1948-56, 1960-62), dies at 87
2011 – George Shearing, British-American blind jazz pianist (Lullaby of Birdland), dies at 91
Historical Events for 14th February 2024
842 – Charles II and Louis the German sign The Oaths of Strasbourg, a pact uniting their armies in fights against their older brother Lothar
1670 – Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna
1804 – Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general who plotted to overthrow Napoleon in the Pichegru Conspiracy, arrested, and exiled to the United States
1918 – Harold R. Atteridge and Sigmund Romberg’s musical “Sinbad”, starring Al Jolson, opens at the Winter Garden Theatre, NYC; runs for 164 performances
1945 – Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joins UN
1949 – 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel)
1956 – Verhoeven, Nauta and De King/Wijnhout win Dutch 11 city skate
1959 – $3.6 million heroin seizure in NYC
1984 – Canadian speed skater Gaétan Boucher takes out the 1,000m gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins 1,500m; narrowly beats Soviet skater Sergey Khlebnikov in both events
1989 – World’s 1st satellite Skyphone opens
Today in History for 14th February 2024
Historical Events
1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time)
1872 – 1st US state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt, California)
1929 – St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed, allegedly on Al Capone’s orders
1968 – WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory, NC (IND) begins broadcasting
1980 – US launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares
2002 – Fishing vessel Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board
Famous Birthdays
1895 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (Dialectic of Enlightenment, Eclipse of Reason), born in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart, Germany (d. 1973)
1926 – (Alexander) “Bobby” Kok, Boer-British classical and session cellist (BBC Symphony; George Harrison – “When We Was Fab”), born in Brakpan, Union of South Africa, (d. 2015)
1943 – Griselda Blanco ‘Cocaine Godmother’, Colombian drug lord, born in Cartagena, Colombia (d. 2012)
1958 – Perry Stephens, German actor (Loving, All My Children), born in Frankfurt, Germany
1972 – Erika Rachael Schwarz, Miss America (Louisiana-2nd-1997), born in Folsom, Louisiana
1983 – Rhydian Roberts, Welsh Singer (X Factor runner up), born in Sennybridge, United Kingdom
Famous Deaths
1760 – François Colin de Blamont, French composer, dies at 69
1870 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General, dies at 54
1884 – Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1st wife of Theodore Roosevelt, dies of Bright’s disease at 22
1955 – Charles Cuvillier, French composer of operetta (The Naughty Princess), dies at 77
1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Soviet-Russian serial killer who murdered at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990, executed by a single gunshot at 57
2010 – Dick Francis, British jockey and detective writer (Whip Hand, High Stakes), dies at 89
Famous Deaths for 13th February 2024
1896 – Carl Martin Reinthaler, German composer, dies at 73
1951 – Lloyd C. Douglas, American novelist (The Big Fisherman), dies at 73
1964 – Werner Heyde, German psychiatrist, one of the main organizers of Nazi Germany’s T-4 Euthanasia Program, dies at 61
1989 – Wayne Hays, American politician (b. 1911)
1990 – Ken Lynch, American actor (Paratroop Command, Legend of Tom Dooley), dies at 79
1995 – Wilton “Bogey” Gaynair, Jamaican jazz saxophonist, dies at 68
2002 – Pauline Trigère, French-American fashion designer (Bell Bottoms), dies at 93
2007 – Richard Gordon Wakeford, Air Marshal, Royal Air Force (b. 1922)
2014 – Piero d’Inzeo, Italian equestrian rider (Olympic silver individual and team jumping 1956, 60; bronze 1956, 60, 64, 72), dies at 90
2022 – Johnny Whiteley, English rugby league back rower (15 Tests GB, 1 England; Hull RLFC 417 games) and coach (GB, England, Hull RLFC, Hull KR), dies at 91
Historical Events for 13th February 2024
1349 – Jews are expelled from Burgdorf, Switzerland, accused of spreading the Bubonic Plague
1899 – -1°F (-18°C) New Orleans, La
1929 – Cruiser Act, USA, approves the construction of 19 new cruisers and an aircraft carrier
1940 – Bradman scores 209* in 161 minutes for South Aust at the WACA
1965 – US male Figure Skating championship won by Gary Visconti
1979 – Formation of Guardian Angels crime fighters in New York City
1994 – Inna Lassovskaya jumps world record 14.9m
1995 – West Indies beat NZ by innings and 332, Courtney Walsh 13-55
2014 – Polish cross country skier Justyna Kowalczyk follows her Vancouver (2010) Olympic women’s 30k classical title with a gold medal in the 10k classical in Sochi
2020 – Premier of Tania León’s “Stride” for the New York Philharmonic at the David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City (2021 Pulitzer Prize for Music)
Today in History for 13th February 2024
Historical Events
1502 – Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, new Governor of the Indies sets sail for the Indies with fleet of 30 ships, largest-ever fleet to the New World
1968 – US sends 10,500 additional soldiers to Vietnam
1980 – NZ beats West Indies by one wicket in cricket at Dunedin
1995 – 3rd ESPY Awards: Steve Young, Bonnie Blair win
2000 – 49th NBA All-Star Game, Oakland Arena, Oakland, CA: West beats East, 137-127; MVPs: Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs, F; Shaquille O’Neal, LA Lakers, C
2009 – The Dutch Statistics agency confirms the Netherlands are in recession
Famous Birthdays
1610 – Jean de la Badie, French theologian, founder of Labadists, born in Bourg, Bordeaux, France (d. 1674)
1728 – John Hunter, Scottish surgeon and founder of pathological anatomy in England, born in Long Calderwood, Scotland (d. 1793)
1769 – Ivan Krylov, Russian fabulist, born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1844)
1870 – Leopold Godowsky, Polish-American pianist, composer (Java Suite; Triakontameron; 53 Studies on Chopin’s Études), and pedagogue, born in Žasliai, Russian Empire (now Lithuania), (d. 1938)
1888 – Georgios Papandreou, Greek politician and Prime Minister of Greece (1944–45, 1963, 1964–65), born in Kalentzi, Achaea, Greece (d. 1968)
1908 – Lennie Hayton, American pianist, composer, conductor and arranger (Paul Whiteman; Bing Crosby; MGM), born in New York City (d. 1971)
Famous Deaths
1914 – Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer and anthropologist (devised crime ID system), dies at 60
1927 – Brooks Adams, American philosopher (New Empire), dies at 78
1966 – Marguerite Long, French concert pianist (Ravel) and teacher (Paris Conservatoire, 1906-40), dies at 91
1966 – Elio Vittorini, Italian writer (Conversations in Sicily), dies at 57
2002 – Pauline Trigère, French-American fashion designer (Bell Bottoms), dies at 93
2023 – Conrad Dobler, American football guard (Pro Bowl 1975, 76, 77; St. Louis Cardinals; famous for unsportsmanlike play), dies at 72
Famous Deaths for 12th February 2024
1684 – Pietro Andrea Ziani, Italian composer and organist, dies at 67
1834 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologist and philosopher, dies at 65
1907 – Muriel Robb, British tennis player (Wimbledon 1902), dies of lymphadenoma at 28
1954 – Dziga Vertov [Denis Kaufman], Russian influential film director (Man with a Movie Camera, 3 Songs of Lenin), dies at 58
1971 – George Shelton, American actor (It Pays to be Ignorant), dies at 86
1976 – Sal Mineo, American actor (Exodus, Rebel Without a Cause), stabbed at 37
1984 – Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (Blow-Up, Underground Game), dies at 69
2011 – Elizabeth “Betty” Garrett, American actress, comedian, singer and dancer (All in the Family), dies of an aortic aneurysm at 91
2015 – David Carr, American journalist (New York Times), dies of cancer at 58
2016 – Johnny Lattner, American College Football Hall of Fame halfback (Heisman Trophy 1953, Notre Dame; Pro Bowl 1954, Pittsburgh Steelers), dies from mesothelioma at 83