1324 – Marco Polo, Venetian explorer (The Travels of Marco Polo), dies at 69
1919 – Peter Altenberg, writer, dies at 59
1938 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist, creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy (b. 1880)
1948 – John Lomax, American folk song collector and ethnomusicologist (American Folklore Society), and educator, dies of a stroke at 83
1958 – Mary Colter, American architect and designer (Fred Harvey Company, Santa Fe Railroad), dies at 88
1967 – Zbigniew Cybulski, Polish actor (Ashes and Diamonds), dies at 39
1979 – Sara Carter, American country musician, songwriter and vocalist (Carter Family), dies at 81
1987 – Manuel Blancafort, Spanish-Catalan pianist and composer, dies at 89
2017 – Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 4th President of Iran (1989-97) and de facto commander-in-chief of the Iranian military during the Iran-Iraq War, dies of a heart attack at 82
2023 – Bernard Kalb, American journalist, moderator, lecturer and author, one of the most respected broadcast journalists of his time (CBS News, New York Times), dies at 100
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 8th January 2024
1853 – 1st US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Washington
1894 – Columbus World’s fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1897 – Michael Eagan wins 1st US national amateur handball championship
1901 – New South Wales score 918 all out vs South Australia in 560 minutes
1947 – Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game
1955 – Georgia Tech ends Kentucky’s 130-game home basketball win streak
1968 – Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O’Neill travels to Dublin to meet with Irish Prime Minister Jack Lynch to continue discussions on matters of joint interest to the two governments
1973 – Judge Sirica begins the trial of the Watergate burglars in Washington, D.C.
2000 – “Music City Miracle”, in AFC Wild Card Playoff, Tennessee Titans defeat Buffalo Bills 22-16 in last 16 seconds with Kevin Dyson, running length of the field for a game-winning touchdown
2004 – RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II
Today in History for 8th January 2024
Historical Events
1811 – Louisiana slave revolt by Charles Deslondes at German Coast
1877 – Crazy Horse and his Sioux warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory).
1947 – General George Marshall becomes US Secretary of State
1949 – “My Romance” closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 95 performances
1982 – Johnny Cash Parkway opens in Hendersonville, Tennessee
1995 – Philadelphia Phillies 12-time All Star third baseman Mike Schmidt is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
Famous Birthdays
1814 – Johannes Kneppelhout, Dutch writer, born in Leiden, Netherlands (d. 1885)
1917 – Peter Taylor, American novelist, born in Trenton, Tennessee (d. 1994)
1936 – Robert May, Baron May of Oxford, Australian-born British scientist, born in Sydney, Australia
1937 – Robert Moran, American composer (Trinity Requiem), born in Denver, Colorado
1964 – Marc Quinn, English artist (Alison Lapper Pregnant), born in London, England
1985 – Sam Levison, American actor and filmmaker (created TV show Euphoria)
Famous Deaths
1934 – Alexandre Stavisky, French swindler, dies
1944 – William Kissam Vanderbilt II, member of the Vanderbilt family (b. 1878)
1972 – Kenneth Patchen, American writer (See You in the Morning), dies at 60
1986 – Yaroslav Seifert, Czech poet (Nobel 1984), dies at 84
2010 – Tony Halme, Finnish boxer and politician (b. 1963)
2014 – Ben Garrido Blaz, American politician (Rep-R-Guam, 1985-93), dies at 85
Famous Deaths for 7th January 2024
1767 – Thomas Clap, American academic, 1st president of Yale University, dies at 63
1864 – Caleb Blood Smith, American journalist and politician, 6th U.S. Secretary of the Interior, dies at 55
1901 – James Dunwoody Bulloch, Confederacy’s chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War, dies at 77
1918 – Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (analysis of the structure and dating of the Pentateuch), dies at 73
1981 – Eric Robinson, Australian politician (b. 1926)
1982 – Bert Oosterhuis, Dutch motor racer (Paris-Dakar), dies in a race crash at 41
1993 – Robert Cowan, Scottish CEO (Highlands and Islands Enterprises), dies at 60
1996 – Tarō Okamoto, Japanese avant-garde artist (b. 1911)
1996 – Károly Grósz, Hungarian communist politician, dies at 65
2002 – Jon Lee, Welsh drummer (Feeder) takes his own life at 33
Historical Events for 7th January 2024
1598 – Boris Godunov seizes Russian throne on death of Feodor I
1894 – William K.L. Dickson captures “Fred Ott’s Sneeze” as a motion picture at Thomas Edison’s Black Mariah Studio, West Orange, New Jersey
1910 – Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Galt (ON), 3-1 for a 2-0 sweep of challenge series
1916 – In response to pressure from President Woodrow Wilson, Germany notifies the US State Department that it will abide by strict international rules of maritime warfare
1922 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty is ratified by Dail Eireann by a 64-57 vote
1929 – Croatian nationalist and fascist movement, Ustaša founded by Ante Pavelić in exile in Italy
1933 – 1st edition of People and Fatherland published in Netherlands
1980 – Real Records releases “Pretenders”, the debut album of The Pretenders, in UK
1992 – Tom Seaver and Rollie Fingers elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame
2019 – Amazon overtakes Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable listed company for the first time, worth $797 billion
Today in History for 7th January 2024
Historical Events
1566 – Antonio “Michele” Ghislieri is elected Pope Pius V
1894 – William K.L. Dickson captures “Fred Ott’s Sneeze” as a motion picture at Thomas Edison’s Black Mariah Studio, West Orange, New Jersey
1915 – World War I: Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm approves strategic bombing of Britain, but forbids bombing London, fearing his relatives in the royal family might be killed
1966 – Gene Kiniski beats Lou Thesz in St Louis, to become NWA wrestling champion
1991 – Saddam Hussein prepares his troops for what he says will be a long violent war against the US
1991 – “Nia Peeples Party Machine” premieres on TV
Famous Birthdays
1502 – Gregory XIII [Ugo Boncompagni], Italian pope (1572-85) who introduced the Gregorian (New Style) calendar in 1582, born in Bologna, Papal States (d. 1585)
1903 – Alan Napier, British actor (The Sword in the Stone, Batman), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1988)
1907 – Nicanor Zabaleta, Spanish harpist, born in San Sebastián, Spain (d. 1993)
1921 – John Lanigan, Australian operatic tenor (Covent Garden), born in Seddon, Victoria (d. 1996)
1958 – Linda Kozlowski, American actress (Crocodile Dundee), born in Fairfield, Connecticut
1958 – Donna Rice Hughes, American author and speaker, born in New Orleans, Louisiana
Famous Deaths
1537 – Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence, Italian ruler of Florence (1532-37), assassinated by his friend and cousin at 26
1901 – James Dunwoody Bulloch, Confederacy’s chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War, dies at 77
1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist, electrical engineer and inventor who developed alternating current and the Tesla Coil, dies at 86
1984 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist (Nobel 1966 – Hertzian resonances within atoms), dies at 81
2001 – James Carr, American soul singer (“To Love Somebody”; “Dark End of the Street”), dies of lung cancer at 58
2021 – Tommy Lasorda, American Baseball Hall of Fame manager (World Series 1981, 88; NL Manager of the Year 1983, 88; LA Dodgers 1976-96), dies of a heart attack at 93
Famous Deaths for 6th January 2024
1738 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer and theorist, dies at 74
1885 – Harishchandra, Indian poet, dramatist and commonly referred as “father of modern Hindi”, dies at 34
1922 – Jakob Rosanes, German mathematician (algebraic geometry and invariant theory), dies at 79
1928 – Alvin Kraenzlein, American track and field athlete (4 Olympic gold 1900), dies at 51
1933 – Vladimir de Pachmann, Russian-German pianist, dies at 84
1959 – Jose Enrique Pedreira, Puerto Rican composer (“Tus Caricias”; “Siempre”), and pedagogue, dies at 54
1977 – Hanns Lilje, German Lutheran bishop and antifascist (Church und Welt), dies at 77
1995 – Edward Sutcliffe, British judge (British Central Criminal Court), dies at 77
2022 – F. Sionil José, Filipino novelist (Rosales Saga) and Philippine National Artist for Literature, dies at 97
2023 – Dick Savitt, American tennis player (Wimbledon, Australian C’ships 1951), dies at 95
Historical Events for 6th January 2024
1501 – Construction begins on Portugal’s Jerónimos Monastery, designed by architect Diogo de Boitaca to commemorate the return of Vasco da Gama from India
1953 – The first Asian Socialist Conference opens in Burma
1967 – United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch “Operation Deckhouse Five” in the Mekong River delta.
1980 – Phil Flyers set NHL record of 35 straight games without a defeat
1980 – AFC Championship, Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Houston Oilers, 27-13
1987 – Astronomers at University of California see 1st sight of birth of a galaxy
1991 – Qian Hong swims female world record 50m butterfly (27.30 sec)
1994 – US figure skating champion Nancy Kerrigan is attacked by Tonya Harding’s bodyguard at the US Championships in Detroit
1997 – “It’s a Slippery Slope” closes at Vivian Beaumont Theater NYC
2019 – 76th Golden Globes: “The Americans”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Green Book”, Glenn Close and Rami Malek among the winners
Today in History for 6th January 2024
Historical Events
1930 – Australian cricket icon Don Bradman scores 452 not out for New South Wales v Queensland in Sydney; then world record individual score in a first-class match; runs scored in 415 minutes
1947 – Ray Lindwall smashes 100 v England in MCG Test
1974 – In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
1985 – NFC Championship, Candlestick Park, SF: San Francisco 49ers beat Chicago Bears, 23-0
1986 – British Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine resigns after the ‘Westland affair’
2002 – Daniel Bedingfield returns to No.1 on the UK singles chart for the second time with Gotta Get Thru This
Famous Birthdays
1525 – Caspar Peucer, German reformer, born in Bautzen, Germany (d. 1602)
1945 – Barry John, Welsh rugby player, born in Cefneithin, United Kingdom
1964 – Mark O’Toole, English musician (Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “Relax”), born in Liverpool, England
1974 – Juan Roque, American football tackle (Detroit Lions), born in San Diego, California
1975 – Jason King, English radio DJ (Radio 1), born in Tenbury Wells, United Kingdom
1982 – Eddie Redmayne, English actor (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Theory of Everything), born in London
Famous Deaths
1592 – John Casimir of Simmern, German prince and regent for his nephew, Elector Frederick IV (b. 1543)
1734 – John Dennis, English dramatist whose thunder was stolen (b. 1657)
1885 – Peter C Asbjornsen, Norwegian fairy tale writer, dies at 72
1975 – Noel Madison, actor (Jitterbugs, Black Raven), dies at 77
1985 – Robert W. Welch Jr., American businessman who founded the conservative John Birch Society, dies at 85
2006 – Lou Rawls, American soul singer-songwriter and producer (“You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”), dies of cancer at 72
Famous Deaths for 5th January 2024
1759 – Thomas Philip Wallrad de Hénin-Liétard d’Alsace, Cardinal- Archbishop of Mechelen, Belgium, dies at 79
1762 – Elizabeth of Russia [Elizaveta Petrovna], Empress of Russia (1741-62) and daughter of Peter the Great, dies at 52
1788 – Johann Schneider, German composer and pupil of Bach, dies at 85
1965 – Nell Craig, American actress (Dr. Kildare (films); The Queen of Sheba), dies at 73
1973 – Cor of Dis sr. [Cornelis Nicolas of Dis sr.], Dutch politician (SGP), dies at 79
1987 – Herman Smith-Johannsen, Norwegian-born Canadian cross-country skier (b. 1875)
1989 – Philip Herschkowitz, Romanian composer, dies at 82
1993 – Westley Allan Dodd, American serial murderer and sex offender, dies in 1st hanging in US since 1965 at 31
2018 – Jerry Van Dyke, American actor (My Mother the Car, Coach), dies at 86
2022 – Olga Szabó-Orbán, Romanian fencer (World C’ship gold women’s foil individual 1962, team 1969; Olympic silver individual 1956, bronze team 1968, 72), dies at 83