1876 – Samuel Gridley Howe, United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind, dies at 74
1907 – Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen of Hanover, dies at 88
1941 – Ko Boezeman, Dutch resistance fighter, dies
1962 – Leroy Shield [Shields], American pianist, composer (Laurel and Hardy; Our Gang; Union Pacific Suite), and orchestra leader, dies of cancer at 68
1986 – Lucia Chase, American ballerina and co-founder of American Ballet Theater, dies at 88
2009 – T. Llew Jones, Welsh author (b. 1915)
2010 – Vimcy, Sports writer (b. 1925)
2011 – Peter Yates, English film director (Breaking Away, Bullitt), dies at 81
2012 – Ruth Fernandez, Puerto Rican singer and politician, dies from septic shock and pneumonia at 92
2017 – Zygmunt Bauman, Polish-born sociologist (Modernity and the Holocaust), dies at 91
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 9th January 2023
1894 – Georges Feydeau’s “Un à la Patte” premieres in Paris
1917 – World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
1952 – Marines give notice that they will recall Ted Williams to active duty
1957 – Karachayevo-Cherkess Autonomous Region reestablished in RSFSR
1986 – NY Islanders repeat their greatest shutout margin (9-0) vs Pittsburgh Penguins
1988 – August Wilson’s “Piano Lesson” premieres in Boston
1998 – Boston Red Sox Mo Vaughn pleads not guilty to drunken driving
2001 – Shenzhou 2, an unmanned Chinese spacecraft, is launched.
2006 – 11th Critics’ Choice Movie Awards: Brokeback Mountain wins Best Film
2021 – China places two cities, Shijiazhuang and Xingtai, under lockdown after over 130 cases of COVID-19 reported
Today in History for 9th January 2023
Historical Events
1858 – Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide
1868 – Last convict ship the Hougoumont arrives in Fremantle, ending 80 years of penal transportation to Australia
1894 – William K.L. Dickson’s motion picture “Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze” aka “Fred Ott’s Sneeze” receives first US copyright for the format; it was filmed a few days earlier at Edison Studio, West Orange, New Jersey
1954 – Bert Olmstead of the Montreal Canadiens, ties NHL record of 8 points in game
1967 – Georgia legislature seats Representative Julian Bond
1970 – Constitution of Singapore enacted
Famous Birthdays
1851 – Giuseppe Gallignani, Italian composer and conductor, born in Faenza, Emilia-Romagna, Papal State (now Italy) (d. 1923)
1914 – Derek Allhusen, English equestrian (Olympic gold 1968), born in Chelsea, London (d. 2000)
1925 – Abdelhamid ben Hadouga, Algerian writer, born in Mansoura, Algeria (d. 1996)
1931 – Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American sci-fi author (Man of Earth), born in Kaliningrad, Russia (d. 2008)
1945 – Frank Biondi, American businessman (HBO), born in NYC, New York
1952 – Eva Leonie “Eveline” Herfkens, Dutch civil servant, diplomat, and politician (PvdA), born in The Hague, Netherlands
Famous Deaths
1893 – Mohara, Arab ivory/slave trader, dies in battle and is eaten
1933 – Daphne Akhurst Cozens, Australian tennis player (Australasian C’ship singles 1925, 26, 28, 29, 30), dies of ectopic pregnancy at 29
1936 – John Gilbert [Pringle], American silent film screenwriter, director (Love’s Penalty), and actor, known as “The Great Lover” (The Merry Widow The Big Parade; Flesh and the Devil), dies of a heart attack at 38
1958 – Paul Fechter, German writer (Der Zauberer Gottes), dies at 77
1971 – Elmer Flick, American Baseball HOF outfielder (AL batting champion 1905; NL RBI leader 1900; 2 × AL stolen base leader; Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Bronchos/Naps), dies at 94
1990 – Spud Chandler, American baseball player (AL MVP 1943), dies at 82
Famous Deaths for 8th January 2023
1696 – Michael de Ronghe, composer, dies at 75
1711 – Philips van Almonde, Dutch admiral (battle at La Hougue), dies at 66
1964 – Arnoldus JC Krafft, theologist (Atlas of Netherlands Antilles), dies at 71
1975 – Richard Tucker [Reuben Ticker], American tenor (La Gioconda), dies at 61
1981 – Matthew Beard, American actor (Our Gang shorts – “Stymie”). dies of pneumonia after a stroke and fall, at 56
1982 – Reta Shaw, American actress (Ghost and Mrs Muir, Mary Poppins, Picnic), dies of emphysema at 69
1994 – Sri Chandrashekhara Saraswathi, guru of Kanchi, dies at 99
2017 – Buddy Bregman, American orchestra leader and arranger (Eddie Fisher Show; Ella Fitzgerald’s Cole Porter Songbook), dies of Alzheimer’s disease complications at 86
2020 – Peter T. Kirstein, British computer scientist ‘European father of the internet’ (Internet Protocol), dies at 86
2022 – Viktor Mazin, Russian weightlifter (Olympic gold USSR 60kg [5 x WR] 1980), dies at 67
Historical Events for 8th January 2023
1842 – Dutch King Willem II charters Technical College Delft
1945 – University of Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team sets an NCAA record by holding Arkansas State to 6 points in a 75-6 win
1947 – General George Marshall becomes US Secretary of State
1948 – Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
1966 – The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” single goes #1 and stays #1 for 3 weeks
1974 – Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York
1995 – 15th United Negro College Fund raises $12,200,000
1998 – Unabomber suspect Ted Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
2005 – Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Dominik Hrbatý beats Guillermo Coria of Argentina 6-4, 6-1 for an unassailable 2-0 lead, and 2nd Slovakian title
2018 – Self-declared Republic of Somaliland passes its first ever law against rape
Today in History for 8th January 2023
Historical Events
1746 – “Bonnie Prince Charlie”, Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s troops occupy Stirling, Scotland [NS=Jan 19]
1798 – 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
1902 – New York state assemblyman Francis G. Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize men turning around on a street and “looking at a woman in that way”
1949 – “Make Mine Manhattan” closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 429 performances
1971 – 29 pilot whales beach themselves and die at San Clemente Island, California
1993 – NBC offers “The Tonight Show” to David Letterman
Famous Birthdays
1788 – Archduke Rudolph of Austria, Austrian clergyman and noble, born in Florence, Tuscany (d. 1831)
1830 – Hans von Bülow, German pianist and composer, born in Dresden, Germany (d. 1894)
1836 – Lawrence Alma Tadema, Dutch-British painter, husband of Laura Epps, born in Dronryp, the Netherlands (d. 1912)
1912 – Rudolf George Escher, Dutch composer (True Face of Peace), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1980)
1928 – May Wynn [Donna Lee Hickey], American actress (Caine Mutiny, Noah’s Ark), born in NYC, New York
1940 – Cristy Lane, American country music and gospel singer, born in Peoria, Illinois
Famous Deaths
1456 – St. Laurence Justinian [Lorenzo Giustiniani], Italian catholic bishop and 1st Patriarch of Venice, dies at 74
1651 – Giovanni Battista Gagliano, Italian composer, dies at 56
1986 – Mansel Treharne Thomas, Welsh composer, dies at 76
1993 – Hakija Turajlic, Bosnian vice-premier, murdered
2008 – Clyde Otis, American songwriter and music producer (b. c. 1924)
2010 – Monica Maughan, Australian actor (b. 1933)
Famous Deaths for 7th January 2023
1598 – Feodor I (Fyodor/Theodore Ivanovich), Tsar of Russia (1584-98), dies at 40
1767 – Thomas Clap, American academic, 1st president of Yale University, dies at 63
1887 – Abraham van Lier, Dutch theater director (Grand Théâtre des Variétés), dies at 73
1891 – (Carl Gottfried) Wilhelm Taubert, German pianist, conductor, and composer, dies at 79
1953 – Osa Johnson, American adventurer and filmmaker, dies at 58
1982 – Bert Oosterhuis, Dutch motor racer (Paris-Dakar), dies in a race crash at 41
1994 – Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Italian actor (Cafe Express, Octopus), dies of heart failure at 52
1996 – Robley D. Evans, American nuclear physicist (one of the founders nuclear Medicine), dies at 88
1998 – Richard Hamming, American Mathematician and Computer Scientist (Hamming code), dies of a heat attack at 82
2001 – Frederick Baldwin Adams Jr., American librarian and director of the Pierpont Morgan Library, dies at 90
Historical Events for 7th January 2023
1904 – Marconi Co establishes “CQD” as 1st international radio distress signal
1910 – Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Galt (ON), 3-1 for a 2-0 sweep of challenge series
1913 – William M. Burton patents a process to “crack” petroleum
1939 – US worker’s union leader Tom Mooney freed (jailed since 1916)
1941 – Chinese Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek open fire on the surrounded Communist New Fourth Army at Maolin, Anhui Province, killing or capturing 7,000 troops
1953 – US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb
1985 – Revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “The King and I”, still starring Yul Brynner opens at Broadway Theater, NYC; runs for 191 performances
1986 – US President Reagan announces economic sanctions against Libya
2019 – Rain ruins last 2 days of 4th cricket Test in Sydney as India wins series 2-1; become first Asian side to win a Test series in Australia, 71 years after the first Indian touring team in 1947-48
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 2023
Historical Events
1610 – Galileo Galilei discovers the first three moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa and Ganymede
1890 – African American inventor William Purvis receives a patent for the fountain pen
1933 – 1st edition of People and Fatherland published in Netherlands
1964 – Bahamas becomes self-governing
1985 – Revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “The King and I”, still starring Yul Brynner opens at Broadway Theater, NYC; runs for 191 performances
1994 – South Africa beat Australia in the Sydney Test by 5 runs
Famous Birthdays
1903 – Vladimir Alexandrovich Vlasov, Russian composer and conductor, born in Moscow (d. 1986)
1911 – (Thelma) “Butterfly” McQueen, American actress (Gone With The Wind; Flame of Barbary Coast), born in Tampa, Florida (d. 1995)
1925 – Gerald Durrell, British naturalist, zoologist and writer (My Family and other Animals), born in Jamshedpur, British India (d. 1995)
1929 – Mario Bergamaschi, Italian soccer midfielder (5 caps; Calcio Como, A.C. Milan, U.C. Sampdoria), born in Crema, Italy (d. 2020)
1949 – Marshall Chapman, American country singer, born in Spartanburg, South Carolina
1962 – Aleksandr Dugin, Russian politician, born in Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
Famous Deaths
1721 – Rochus Aerts, Flemish sculptor, dies [or 1739]
1743 – Anne Sophie Reventlow, Queen of Denmark and Norway (1721-30), dies at 49
1767 – Thomas Clap, American academic, 1st president of Yale University, dies at 63
1922 – Antonio Scontrino, Italian composer, dies at 71
1935 – Alfred Ewing, Scottish Physicist (magnetic properties of metals, hysteresis), dies at 79
1943 – Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American physicist, electrical engineer and inventor who developed alternating current and the Tesla Coil, dies at 86
Famous Deaths for 6th January 2023
1790 – Johann Trier, German composer, dies at 73
1855 – Giacomo Beltrami, Italian explorer (b. 1779)
1950 – Isaiah Bowman, American geographer (co-founder of the Geographical Review), dies at 71
1961 – Regina Ullmann, Swiss poet and writer, dies at 76
1977 – Niall MacGinnis, Irish character actor (Curse of the Demon, Helen of Troy), dies from cancer at 63
1994 – Gerardus J Sizoo, physicist/director of Dutch Free University, dies
2000 – Don Martin, American cartoonist (b. 1931)
2005 – Tarquinio Provini, Italian motorcycle road racer (2-time world champion 1957-58), dies at 71
2012 – John Celardo, American comic strip artist (Tarzan), dies at 93
2012 – Louise Annand-MacFarquhar, Scottish painter and filmmaker, dies at 96