1153 – Bernard of Clairvaux, French saint (preached famous sermon advocating for the Second Crusade), dies
1648 – Edward Herbert of Cherbury, English military and philosopher, dies at 65
1823 – Pius VII [Luigi Barnaba Gregorio Chiaramonti], Italian bishop of Imola and Pope (1800-23), dies at 83
1856 – Philipp Jakob Riotte, German composer, dies at 80
1885 – Edouard J. A. Agneessens, Flemish painter (Slave Market), dies at 42
1932 – Emille-Louis-Victor Mathieu, composer, dies at 87
1970 – Hildo Krop, Dutch modernistic sculptor, dies at 86
1995 – Paul Foster, American gospel singer (The Soul Stirrers), dies at 75
2000 – Henry Austin, British tennis player (3-time Grand Slam runner-up), dies of complications from a fall at 94
2008 – Margaret Douglas, chief political adviser (BBC), dies at 73
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 20th August 2023
1391 – Konrad von Wallenrode becomes the 24th Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order.
1856 – Wilberforce University forms in Ohio
1900 – Great Britain beats France by 158 runs in Paris; cricket’s only appearance at an Olympic Games
1920 – 1st US commercial radio station, 8MK (WWJ), Detroit begins daily broadcasting
1949 – 78,382 watch White Sox play Indians at Cleveland
1953 – Russia publicly acknowledges hydrogen bomb test detonation
1957 – USAF balloon, manned by David Simons, breaks an altitude record at 102,000 ft (3,1089.6 m), over Minnesota and South Dakota
1988 – Yordanka Donkova of Bulgaria sets 100m hurdle woman’s record (12.21)
1990 – George Steinbrenner steps down as NY Yankee owner
1995 – Indians’ Jose Mesa sets record with his 37th consecutive save
Today in History for 20th August 2023
Historical Events
1935 – Military coup by General Pons and President Ibarra in Ecuador
1942 – Dim-out regulations implemented in San Francisco
1989 – Said Aouita runs world record 3,000 m (7:29.45)
2016 – Chinese diver Chen Aisen does the Olympic 10m platform double in Rio de Janeiro; having already won the synchronised event, he wins the individual gold by a comfortable margin
2016 – Rio de Janeiro Olympics: team sports – China beats Serbia, 3-1 for the women’s indoor volleyball gold; in the men’s water polo final, Serbia downs Croatia, 11-7 for first Olympic title
2020 – Kamala Harris accepts her nomination for vice-president, becoming the 1st US woman of color on a major-party ticket saying “there is no vaccine for racism”
Famous Birthdays
1710 – Thomas Simpson, English mathematician (rule of Simpson), born in Sutton Cheney, Leicestershire (d. 1761)
1719 – Charles-François de Broglie, French soldier and diplomat, marquis de Ruffec, born in Paris (d. 1791)
1860 – Raymond Poincaré, French President (1913-20) and three time Prime Minister (1912-13, 1922-24, 1926-29), born in Bar-le-Duc, France (d. 1934)
1937 – El Fary, Spanish singer and actor, born in Madrid, Spain (d. 2007)
1947 – David Lasley, American session vocalist and songwriter, born in Branch, Michigan
1954 – Tawn Mastrey, American disc jockey and music video producer, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 2007)
Famous Deaths
1643 – Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher, killed in Native American uprising (b. 1591)
1961 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist (Nobel 1946 – physics of high pressure), dies at 79
1996 – Rio Reiser, German rock singer (“Ton Steine Scherben”), dies at 46
2008 – Margaret Douglas, chief political adviser (BBC), dies at 73
2018 – Charles Blackman, Australian figurative artist (Heide circle), dies at 90
2021 – Peter Ind, British jazz double bassist, dies at 93
Famous Deaths for 19th August 2023
1245 – Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence (b. 1195)
1493 – Frederick III of Innsbruck, German Emperor (1440-1493), dies at 77
1922 – Felipe Pedrell, Spanish guitarist, composer (Excelsior; La Celestina), and musical scholar, dies at 81
1939 – Johannes Marinus Meulenhoff, Dutch publisher, dies at 70
1957 – David Bomberg, English painter, dies at 66
1959 – Jacob Epstein, American-English sculptor (Adam, Jacob and the Angel), dies at 78
1968 – George Gamow, Ukrainian-born American nuclear physicist and cosmologist (Big Bang Theory, DNA), dies at 64
1976 – Jenö Kenessey, Hungarian conductor and composer, dies at 70
1996 – Jurriaan Andriessen, Dutch pianist and composer (Berkshire Symphonies; Les Cloches des Clochards), dies at 70
2013 – Cedar Walton, American hard bop jazz pianist (Jazztet; Art Blakey), and composer (“Mosaic”), dies at 79
Historical Events for 19th August 2023
1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio
1941 – Romania annexes the Transnistria territory from the Soviet Union after Operation Barbarossa
1943 – Belgian church excommunicates Nazi collaborator Léon Degrelle
1953 – Democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh is overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the United Kingdom (under the name ‘Operation Boot’) and the United States (under the name TPAJAX Project)
1954 – American Ralph Bunche named undersecretary of the UN
1977 – USSR performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan USSR
1985 – Following the Rubicon speech four days earlier, Archbishop Desmond Tutu snubs P. W. Botha’s invitation to attend a meeting to discuss the role and actions of the police and security forces in South Africa
1985 – Japan launches its 2nd probe of Halley’s Comet, Suisei
1987 – Hungerford Massacre: in England, Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with an assault rifle and then commits suicide
2010 – Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, with the last of the United States brigade combat teams crossing the border to Kuwait
Today in History for 19th August 2023
Historical Events
1939 – 37.6 cm rainfall at Tuckerton, NJ (state record)
1957 – NY Giants board of directors vote 8-1 to move their baseball franchise to San Francisco in 1958
1958 – NAACP Youth Council begin sit-in at “whites-only” lunch counter at Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1962 – Homer Blancos plays finest round in golf, shooting a 55
1998 – South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission chairperson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, releases documents revealing an alleged plot by Western countries to assassinate UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden
2015 – US Food and Drug administration approves Female Viagra libido pill Addyi
Famous Birthdays
1557 – Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg, born in Montbéliard, France (d. 1608)
1558 – Paulus Merula, Dutch lawyer and historian (Historia Belgica), born in Dordrecht, Netherlands (d. 1607)
1686 – Eustace Budgell, English writer (The Spectator, writing 37 numbers signed X), born in Saint Thomas, Exeter, England (d. 1737)
1904 – June Collyer, American actress (Before Midnight, Charley’s Aunt), born in NYC, New York (d. 1968)
1967 – Tabitha Soren, American MTV reporter (This Week in Rock), born in San Antonio, Texas
1975 – Chynna Clugston Flores, American comic book creator (Blue Monday), born in Fresno, California
Famous Deaths
1186 – Geoffrey II, Duke of Brittany (b. 1158)
1931 – Aristides Agramonte y Simoni, Cuban-American Physician, Pathologist and Bacteriologist (yellow fever), dies at 63
1950 – Giovanni Giorgi, Italian physicist and electrical engineer (Giorgi system of measurement), dies at 78
1975 – Jim Londos, Greek-American wrestler, dies at 81
2003 – Carlos Roberto Reina, President of Honduras (b. 1926)
2017 – Bea Wain, American pop singer (“Deep Purple” (the song, not the group); “Heart and Soul”), and radio host, dies at 100
Famous Deaths for 18th August 2023
1712 – Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers, English soldier
1896 – Richard Avenarius, German philosopher (founded the epistemological theory of knowledge known as empirical criticism), dies at 52
1969 – Otto Stern, German-American physicist (Stern-Gerlach-experiment, Nobel 1943), dies at 81
1989 – Bert Oosterbosch, Dutch cyclist, dies at 32
1990 – Raf Reymen, Flemish actor (Huisvuil, Het glas water), dies at 64
1994 – Gottlob Frick, German opera singer, dies at 88
2000 – Maurice Evans, English soccer wing half (Reading, 407 games) and manager (Shrewsbury Town, Reading, Oxford United), dies from a heart attack at 63
2005 – Christopher Bauman, American wrestler (b. 1982)
2018 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997-2006), dies at 80
2020 – Hal Singer, American jazz and RandB saxophonist (“Corn Bread”), dies at 100
Historical Events for 18th August 2023
1886 – Carr Baker Neel and Samuel Neel win US Lawn Tennis Association doubles
1926 – England regain Ashes with 5th Test Cricket win, to take series 1-0
1941 – German concentration camp Amersfoort opens
1955 – 46.1 cm rainfall at Westfield, Massachusetts (state record)
1960 – Milwaukee Braves pitcher Lew Burdette no-hits Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at County Stadium, Milwaukee
1977 – Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton throws his NL record tying 5th one-hitter
1982 – NYSE tops 100m shares traded for the 1st time, sets a new record of 132.69m shares traded
1987 – Straatsburg: Manuela Stellmach, Astrid Strauss, Anke Mohring and Heike Friedrich swims female world record 4x200m freestyle (7:55.47)
1987 – Ohio health care worker Donald Harvey sentenced to triple life for poisoning 24 patients
2020 – Joe Biden is formally nominated as the Democratic party’s presidential candidate during the second night of their 1st ever virtual convention
Today in History for 18th August 2023
Historical Events
440 – St Sixtus III ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1840 – American Society of Dental Surgeons founded (NY)
1891 – Hurricane hits Martinique, about 700 die
1965 – Dutch soccer team FC Den Bosch (successor to BVV 1906 and Wilhelmina 1890) is established at ‘s-Hertogenbosch
1983 – Hurricane Alicia battered Houston and Galveston, Texas
1989 – Bucky Dent replaces Dallas Green as NY Yankee manager
Famous Birthdays
1900 – Glenn Albert Black, American archaeologist, born in Indianapolis, Indiana (d. 1964)
1902 – Adamson-Eric, Estonian painter, born in Tartu, Estonia (d. 1968)
1958 – Madeleine Stowe, American actress (Tropical Snow, Bad Girls), born in Los Angeles, California
1964 – Craig Bierko, American actor, born in Rye Brook, New York
1966 – Kang Soo-yeon, South Korean actress (The Surrogate Woman, Come Come Come Upward), born in Seoul, South Korea (d. 2022)
1969 – Masta Killa [Elgin Turner], American rapper (Wu-Tang Clan), born in Brooklyn, New York
Famous Deaths
1815 – Chauncey Goodrich, American politician (b. 1759)
1940 – Walter Chrysler, American automotive pioneer (Chrysler Corporation) and thoroughbred breeder, dies at 65
1945 – Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian revolutionary and nationalist, dies of injuries from a plane crash at 48
1989 – Luis Carlos Galan, Colombian presidential candidate, murdered
2010 – Benjamin Kaplan, American copyright scholar, dies at 99
2014 – Jim Jeffords, American politician (Senator-R+I-Vermont 1989-2007, Rep-R-VT, 1975-89), dies at 80
Famous Deaths for 17th August 2023
1958 – Florent Schmitt, French composer (La tragédie de Salome; Psalm 47), and music critic (Le Temps), dies at 87
1966 – Michael Garrison, American TV producer (Crowded Sky), dies after a fall at 43
1969 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect (November Group), dies at 83
1973 – Conrad Aiken, American poet (Pulitzer Prize, US Poet Laureate 1950-52), dies at 74
1976 – William Redfield, American actor (Jimmy Hughes Rookie Cop, Marriage), dies of leukemia at 49
1982 – Barney Phillips [Bernard Philip Ofner], American actor (Dragnet, Felony Squad), dies from cancer at 68
1982 – Ruth Voorst, South African (A World Apart), killed by letter bomb
1984 – Hammie Nixon [Nickerson], American blues harmonica player (Sleepy John Estes), dies at 76
1984 – Hollie Roffey, British youngest ever heart transplant, dies at 28 days
2022 – Josephine Tewson, British actress (Keeping Up Appearances; Last Of The Summer Wine, 2003-10), dies at 91