Author: gil7

Today in History for 5th August 2023

Historical Events

1962 – 1st quasar located by radio
1973 – Arab terrorists open fire at Athens airport, kill 3 injure 55
1975 – Stevie Wonder signs a 7-year, 7 album, with $13 million advance contract with Motown Records
1978 – New Orleans Saints beat Philadelphia Eagles 14-7 in an NFL exhibition at Mexico City’s Olympic Stadium
2005 – NBA announces Las Vegas will host the 2007 All Star game; first time event will be held in a city without an NBA team
2022 – Actress Anne Heche crashes her car into a house in Mar Vista, Los Angeles, igniting a fire that puts her in a coma and destroys much of the house

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Famous Birthdays

1872 – Oswaldo Cruz, Brazilian physician and epidemiologist, born in São Luis do Paraitinga, Brazil (d. 1917)
1890 – Naum Gabo [Pevsner], Russian-American sculptor (Stillife Flower), born in Bryans, Russian Empire (d. 1977)
1902 – Irene Rice Pereira, American abstract artist, born in Chelsea, Massachusetts (d. 1971)
1910 – Nan Gindele, US javelin thrower (World Record 1932-38), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1992)
1988 – Federica Pellegrini, Italian swimmer (world record 200 meters, Olympic Gold 2008), born in Mirano, Italy
1989 – Shanshan Feng, Chinese golfer (Women’s PGA C’ship 2012), born in Guangzhou, China

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Famous Deaths

1644 – J. Henry Alting, German theologist (Statenvertaling), dies at 61
1944 – Maurice Turnbull, Welsh cricketer (England) rugby player (Wales), dies fighting in WWII at 38
1950 – Emil Abderhalden, Swiss physiologist and biochemist, dies at 73
1993 – Randy Hobbs, American rock musician (Johnny Winter Band; McCoys), dies of heart failure at 45
2014 – Chapman Pincher, British journalist and author (about secret service), dies at 100
2015 – George Cole, English actor (Minder), dies at 90

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Famous Deaths for 4th August 2023

1265 – Simon de Montfort the younger, English Earl of Leicester, dies in battle
1718 – René Lepage de Ste-Claire, lord-founder of the town of Rimouski, in New France, dies at 62
1727 – Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
1930 – Siegfried Wagner, German opera composer and conductor, dies at 61
1938 – L. H. Perquin, Dutch religious radio broadcaster, dies at 73
1981 – Melvyn Douglas [Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg], American actor (Hud, Being There, Ghost Story), dies at 80
1984 – Mary Miles Minter, actress (Drums of Fate), die at 82 of heart failure
1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (I Wake Up Screaming, Samson and Delilah), dies from leukemia at 86
2011 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese Soccer player (b. 1977)
2022 – Sam Gooden, American soul vocalist (The Impressions – “People Get Ready”; “It’s All Right”), dies at 87

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Historical Events for 4th August 2023

1666 – St James’ Day naval battle is an English victory against the Dutch during Second Anglo-Dutch War off the Kent coast
1855 – John Bartlett publishes “Familiar Quotations”
1948 – Hungary’s Olga Gyarmati wins the first ever Olympic women’s long jump competition at the London Games
1954 – Boscombe Down 1st flight of supersonic P-1 Lightning
1974 – Crawford-Butler Act allows Puerto Ricans to elect own governor
1976 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1983 – Danielle Steel’s romance novel “Thurston House” is published
1993 – Rwandian Hutus and Tutsis sign peace treaty in Arusha, Tanzania
2019 – British Open Women’s Golf, Woburn GC: Hinako Shibuno of Japan wins her maiden major title in her first LPGA event; beats American Lizette Salas by 1 stroke
2021 – Largest wildfire in California so far in 2021, the Dixie Fire at 320,000 acres, destroys the gold rush town of Greenville

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Today in History for 4th August 2023

Historical Events

1916 – Denmark and the United States sign a treaty whereby the Danish West Indies, including the Virgin Islands, are to be ceded to the US in 1917 for $25 million
1916 – The Turks attack the British line at Romani in the northern Sinai (WWI)
1962 – Nelson Mandela captured by South African police
1984 – Prince’s “Purple Rain” album goes #1 and stays #1 for 24 weeks
1996 – Jim Bunning, Earl Weaver, Bill Foster and Ned Hanlon inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY
2001 – Australian cricket spinner Shane Warne skittles England (162) with 6/33 to guide tourists to a 7 wicket 3rd Test victory at Trent Bridge; Aussies regain Ashes with record 7th straight Test win v England

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Famous Birthdays

1825 – Arthur Haygarth, English cricket batsman (Middlesex and Surrey, cricket historian), born in Hastings, Sussex, England (d. 1903)
1927 – Jess Thomas, American tenor known for his singing in Richard Wagner operas, born in Hot Springs, South Dakota (d. 1993)
1930 – Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iranian shia cleric, born in Mashhad, Iran
1958 – Kym Karath, American actress (The Sound of Music – “Gretl”), born in Los Angeles, California
1962 – Joey Huffman, American rock keyboard and organ player (Soul Asylum), born in Pikeville, Kentucky
1983 – Greta Gerwig, American actress and film director (Lady Bird, Little Women, Barbie), born in Sacramento, California

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Famous Deaths

1873 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian architect and painter, dies at 39
1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author of 150 fairy tales (The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen), dies at 70
1905 – Kinjikitile “Bokero” Ngwale, Tanzanian prophet and rebel leader, hanged for treason by German East African military
2004 – Sir Kenneth Couzens, British Deputy Chairman of British Coal Board and significant figure during Miners Strike, dies at 79
2019 – Nuon Chea, Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader ‘Brother Number Two’, dies at 93
2022 – Johnny Famechon, Australian boxer (WBC featherweight champion 1969-70), dies at 77

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Famous Deaths for 3rd August 2023

1387 – Olaf V Haakonsson, King of Denmark (1376-87)/Norway (1380-87), dies
1917 – Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician (Frobenius–Stickelberger formulae), dies at 67
1943 – Edward “Corky” Cornelius, American jazz trumpeter (Benny Goodman; Gene Krupa), dies of kidney failure at 28
1951 – Neville Tufnell, English cricket wicket-keeper (Test for England 1910), dies at 64
1964 – Flannery O’Connor, American writer (Good Man is Hard to Find), dies pf lupus at 39
2007 – John Gardner, English spy and thriller novelist (Boysie Oakes novels; James Bond continuation novels), dies of suspected heart failure at 80
2008 – Skip Caray, American TV and radio broadcaster (b. 1939)
2008 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer (Cancer Ward, Nobel Prize for Literature 1970), dies at 89
2011 – Bubba Smith, American College Football Hall of Fame defensive end (Michigan State; Pro Bowl 1970, 71; First Team All Pro 1971; Super Bowl 1971; Baltimore Colts) and actor (Police Academy), dies of acute drug intoxication and heart disease at 66
2015 – Les Munro, New Zealand WWII pilot (Dambusters), dies at 96

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Historical Events for 3rd August 2023

1880 – American Canoe Association founded at Lake George, NY, first Commodore William L. Alden
1914 – British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey famously remarks “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time.”
1940 – Lithuanian SSR is accepted into USSR
1944 – Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp gases 4,000 gypsies
1949 – Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball League (NBL) merge to form National Basketball Association (NBA), Maurice Podoloff elected head of new league
1975 – Poland and West Germany reach accord about returning ethnic Germans
1979 – Fastest jai-alai shot (188 mph), Jose Arieto at Newport Jai Alai, Rhode Island
1998 – The Oval stages first competitive cricket match played under floodlights in London when home team Surrey loses to Sussex by 8 wickets in the day/night 40-over fixture
1998 – Irish band Boyzone release their best-selling single “No Matter What” composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman
2000 – South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Amnesty Committee grants amnesty to Curnick Ndlovu, the KwaZulu-Natal leader of the African National Congress and United Democratic Front, for committing sabotage during December 1961 and June 1963 near Durban

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Today in History for 3rd August 2023

Historical Events

1492 – Christopher Columbus with Juan de la Cosa second-in-command sets sail on his first voyage with three ships, Santa María, Pinta and Niña from Palos de la Frontera, Spain for the “Indies”
1897 – John McNally’s musical “Good Mr Best” premieres in NYC
1973 – National People’s party wins Dutch Antilles National elections
1977 – Radio Shack introduces the TRS-80 personal computer, within weeks thousands were ordered
1996 – American Andre Agassi wins the men’s singles Tennis gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics beating Spaniard Sergi Bruguera 6-2, 6-3, 6-1
2004 – The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopens after being closed since the September 11, 2001 attacks

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Famous Birthdays

1748 – Carl Ludwig Junker, German composer, born in Kirchberg an der Jagst, Germany (d. 1797)
1915 – Sal Santen, Dutch writer (You Are Jewish People), born in Amsterdam (d. 1998)
1936 – Vinko “Vice” Vukov, Croatian singer (Eurovision Song Contest 1963 and 1965), born in Šibenik, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (d. 2008)
1951 – Hans Schlegel, German astronaut (STS 55), born in Überlingen, Germany
1963 – Isaiah Washington, American actor (The 100), born in Houston, Texas
1999 – Brahim Díaz, Spanish footballer (Real Madrid), born in Málaga, Spain

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Famous Deaths

1958 – Peter Collins, English auto racer (British GP 1958), dies in race accident at German GP at 26
1983 – Carolyn Jones, American actress (Morticia-Addams Family), dies of colon cancer at 53
2000 – Michael Meyer, English novelist and translator, dies at 79
2003 – (John) Roger Voudouris, American singer and songwriter (Get Used To It), dies of liver disease at 48
2007 – John Gardner, English spy and thriller novelist (Boysie Oakes novels; James Bond continuation novels), dies of suspected heart failure at 80
2017 – Robert Hardy, British actor (Harry Potter, All Creatures Great and Small), dies at 91

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Famous Deaths for 2nd August 2023

640 – Severinus, Italian Pope (640), dies
1859 – Horace Mann, American educator, author, abolitionist and politician who pioneered public schools, dies at 63
1938 – Bjarni Thorsteinsson, Icelandic organist, composer, musical folklorist, and priest, dies at 76
1954 – Rene Amengual, Chilean pianist, composer and educator, dies at 42
1972 – Brian Cole, American rock vocalist and bassist (Association – “Windy”; “Cherish”), dies of overdose at 29
1983 – James Jamerson, American session bass guitarist (Motown Records’ “Funk Brothers”), dies of alcohol-related complications at 47
1995 – Irwin Bazelon, American composer (Duo for Viola), dies at 73
2001 – Edward Gardner, British barrister and Conservative Party politician (British Nationality Act 1981), dies at 89
2004 – François Craenhals, Belgian comic artist (Chevalier Ardent), dies at 77
2008 – Fujio Akatsuka, Japanese cartoonist, dies of pneumonia at 72

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Historical Events for 2nd August 2023

1782 – George Washington creates Honorary Badge of Distinction
1798 – Battle of the Nile: British Royal Navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson further decimates the French fleet
1858 – 1st mailboxes installed in Boston and NYC streets
1892 – George A. Wheeler is granted a US patent for a prototype of the escalator
1942 – 250 Dutch Catholic Jews arrested, transported to Amersfoort camp
1979 – MLB New York Mets purchase contract of outfielder José Cardenal from Philadelphia Phillies between games of a double-header between the two teams
1980 – Fascist bomb attack on Bologna Italy train station, 86 killed
2008 – “Breaking Dawn”, 4th book in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight Saga” is published by Little Brown at midnight with a print run of 3.7 million copies
2013 – Carl Icahn sues computer giant Dell in an attempt to derail a buyout bid by the CEO, Michael Dell
2020 – Islamic State stages a jail break at a prison in Afghan city of Jalalabad, placing bombs at its entrance, results in 20 hr gunfight, 29 deaths and over 300 prisoners at large

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Today in History for 2nd August 2023

Historical Events

1578 – Battle of Rijmenam: Spanish Habsburg forces defeated by Dutch troops (Eighty Years’ War)
1953 – KCPQ TV channel 13 in Tacoma-Seattle, WA (IND) begins broadcasting
1964 – Race riot in Jersey City, New Jersey
1967 – “In the Heat of the Night” directed by Norman Jewison, based on John Ball’s novel of the same name, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger premieres in New York (Academy Awards Best Picture 1968)
1969 – US President Richard Nixon visits Romania
1994 – Explosion in lead/zinc mine in Guangxi China, 120+ killed

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Famous Birthdays

1775 – Jose Angel Lamas, Venezuelan composer, born in Caracas, Venezuela (d. 1814)
1832 – Henry Steel Olcott, American military officer and co-founder of the Theosophical Society, born in Orange, New Jersey (d. 1907)
1878 – Aino Kallas, Finnish writer (White Ship, Estonian Tales), born in Kiiskilä, Viipuri Province, Grand Duchy of Finland (d. 1956)
1945 – Eric Simms, Australian rugby league fullback (8 Tests; NSWRL points record [1,841] stood until 1983; South Sydney), born in Karuah, Australia
1952 – Paul David Crews, American murderer (FBI Most Wanted List), born in South Carolina (d. 2022)
1972 – Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabian footballer, born in Hail, Saudi Arabia

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Famous Deaths

1100 – William II [Rufus], king of England, shot hunting in the New Forest at 44
1600 – Arent van Dorp, Dutch governor of East-Zealand, dies at about 70
1979 – Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian politician and author (founder of Peruvian Aprista Party), dies at 84
1996 – Michel Debre, French politician, Prime Minister of France (1959-62), dies at 84
1997 – Fela Kuti, Nigerian Afrobeat musician and composer, dies of an illness, disputedly AIDS related, at 58
2020 – Zhaksylyk Ushkempirov, Kazakh Greco-Roman wrestler (Olympic gold, light-flyweight 1980; World C’ship gold 1981), dies at 69

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