Author: gil7

Today in History for 23rd February 2021

Historical Events

1792 – Humane Society of Massachusetts incorporated (erected life-saving stations for distressed mariners)
1904 – United States acquires control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million
1987 – Russian Writers Union accepts Boris Pasternak posthumous as member
2007 – A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 22. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.
2008 – B-2 Spirit of the USAF crashes at Guam. Crew survives but aircraft written off, the most expensive air crash in human history (aircraft alone cost $1.2Bn). B-2 had a perfect safety record before the crash; not one B-2 ever crashed.
2019 – Clashes on Venezuelan border kills two as its country’s officials try to stop aid getting in

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Famous Birthdays

1723 – Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (d. 1791)
1824 – Herman N van der Tuuk, Dutch philologist (Tobasch’ Grammar)
1920 – John St Aubyn, 4th Baron St Levan, English peer (St Michael’s Mount), born in London (d. 2013)
1937 – David Ward, president (Law Society)
1940 – Jermyn P Brooks, CEO (Price Waterhouse Europe)
1980 – Rafael Payare, Venezuelan conductor (San Diego Symphony, 2019-present), born in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela

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Famous Deaths

1821 – John Keats, English Romantic poet (Ode to a Grecian Urn), dies of tuberculosis at 25
1934 – Edward Elgar, English composer (Coronation Ode, Pomp and Circumstance), dies of colorectal cancer at 76
1969 – Madhubala [Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi], Indian actress regarded as “The Venus of Indian Cinema”, dies of a heart condition at 36
1994 – Stuart Berger, doctor (Immune Power Diet), dies from obesity at 40
1995 – James Herriot [Alfred Wight], Scottish author (All Creatures Great and Small), dies at 78
1996 – George Alan Dawson, jazz drummer/teacher, dies at 66

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Famous Deaths for 22nd February 2021

1816 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish sociologist and historian, dies at 92
1892 – Herman Koeckemann, German Catholic prelate (b. 1828)
1939 – Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (Campos de Castilla), dies at 63
1943 – Christoph Probst, German resistance fighter (That Weisse Rose), dies
1949 – Russell W. Porter, American artist and explorer (Alaska), dies at 77
1961 – George de Cuevas, Chilean-born ballet impresario and choreographer (Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas), dies at 75 or 76
1967 – Fritz Erler, German politician (SDP), dies at 53
1980 – Dick Kallman, American actor (Born to Be Loved, Verboten!), murdered in his New York apartment at 46
1999 – Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (b. 1964)
2007 – George Jellicoe, Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords and Special Boat Service veteran, dies at 88

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Historical Events for 22nd February 2021

1281 – Simon de Brion elected Pope Martinus IV
1288 – Girolamo Masci elected Pope Nicolas IV
1898 – Black postmaster lynched, his wife and 3 daughters shot in Lake City, South Carolina
1934 – André Malraux and Édouard Corniglion-Molinier set out to find the lost capital of the Queen of Sheba, as mentioned in the Old Testament
1935 – Airplanes are no longer permitted to fly over the White House
1941 – German assault on El Agheila Libya
1945 – Canadian 3rd Division occupies Moyland
2014 – After winning the men’s parallel giant slalom at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Russian snowboarder Vic Wild wins his 2nd gold in the parallel slalom
2019 – Robert Kraft, owner of NFL team the New England Patriots, charged with soliciting prostitution, as part of human-trafficking sting operation in Jupiter, Florida
2019 – Actor Jussie Smollett suspended from US TV show “Empire” after revealed that actor made false claims about racist and homophobic attack

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Today in History for 22nd February 2021

Historical Events

1784 – 1st US ship to trade with China, “Empress of China”, sails from NY
1918 – Germany claims Baltic states, Finland and Ukraine from Russia
1920 – 1st artificial rabbit used at a dog race track (Emeryville, California)
1952 – Germany takes the Olympic bobsleigh double with gold in the 4-man event at the Oslo Winter Games; Adreas Ostler and Lorenz Niebert score their 2nd gold medals after winning the 2-man a week earlier
1958 – Australian swimmer Jon Konrads sets 6 world records in 2 days
2015 – 57th Daytona 500: Joey Logano wins event for 2nd time after taking lead with 10 laps to go; is ahead of Kevin Harvick before caution flag on last lap ends race in his favour

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Famous Birthdays

1839 – Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (d. 1906)
1896 – Edvin Wide, Swedish 10K runner (Olympic silver 1924)
1904 – Peter Hurd, Roswell NM, painter (Portrait of Jose Herrera)
1938 – Pierre Vallières, French-Canadian politician, born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 1995)
1959 – Kyle MacLachlan, American actor (Blue Velvet, Dune, Twin Peaks), born in Yakima, Washington
1974 – Aaron Gavey, Canadian NHL center (Tampa Bay Lightning), born in Greater Sudbury, Canada

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Famous Deaths

1750 – Pietro Filippo Scarlotti, composer, dies at 71
1875 – Charles Lyell, British geologist (Elements of Geology), dies at 77
1914 – Valliamma Mudaliar, took part in Indian passive resistance, dies of a fever contracted in prison
1945 – Osip Brik, Russian writer (b. 1888)
1973 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, 21st Premier of Quebec (1968-70), dies at 56
1998 – Jose Maria de Areilza, Sp minister of foreign affairs (1975-76), dies

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Famous Deaths for 21st February 2021

1711 – Joan van Hoorn, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (1707-09), dies at 57
1788 – Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer, 1st saw Halley’s comet on return, dies at 64
1951 – Anton Roemer, Dutch actor (Potasch and Perlemoer, Boefje), dies at 63
1966 – Paul Comtois, French Canadian politician, dies at 70
1979 – Ray Whitley, composer, dies
1982 – Murray the K [Kaufman], American disk jockey (5th Beatle), dies at 60
1985 – Eric Herfst, Dutch cabaret performer (Floris), dies at 47
1992 – Eva A Jessye, American singer/actress (Eva Jessye Choir), dies at 97
2002 – Harold Furth, Austrian-American physicist, dies at 72
2004 – Les Gray, English vocalist (Mud-Cat Crept In), dies at 57

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Historical Events for 21st February 2021

1858 – Edwin T Holmes installs 1st electric burglar alarm (Boston, Massachusetts)
1864 – -22] Battle at Okolona, Mississippi
1887 – Oregon becomes 1st US state to make Labor Day a holiday
1934 – Nicaraguan patriot Augusto Cesar Sandino assassinated by National Guard
1944 – “War As It Happens” news show premieres on NBC TV (NYC only)
1950 – WOI TV channel 5 in Ames-Des Moines, IA (ABC/PBS) begins broadcasting
1974 – Yugoslavia adopts constitution
1985 – Evert van Benthem wins his 13th Elfstedentocht, a long distance 11 city skating race
1989 – Pete Rose meets with Commissioner Ueberroth to discuss his gambling
2011 – Thailand’s GDP rose 3.8% in the fourth quarter of 2010 after a minor recession caused by GDP contractions of 0.4% in the second quarter and 0.3% in the third quarter of 2010, it is reported today

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Today in History for 21st February 2021

Historical Events

1564 – Philip II routes Cardinal Granvelle to Franche-Comte
1963 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1971 – Series of tornadoes cuts through Miss and La killing 117
1974 – Israeli forces leave western Suez
1980 – Liechtenstein becomes the smallest country to produce an Olympic champion as Hanni Wenzel wins the women’s giant slalom at the Lake Placid Winter Games
1989 – Pete Rose meets with Commissioner Ueberroth to discuss his gambling

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Famous Birthdays

1902 – Arthur D Nock, English/American historian (St Paul)
1910 – Douglas R S Bader, British pilot (WWII)
1915 – Ann Sheridan, American actress (They Drive by Night, Dodge City, Another World), born in Denton, Texas (d. 1967)
1939 – Richard Beymer, Avoca IA, actor (West Side Story, Diary of Anne Frank)
1961 – Abhijit Banerjee, American economist, 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics, born in Mumbai, India
1969 – James Dean Bradfield, Welsh singer-songwriter (Manic Street Preachers), born in Pontypool, Wales

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Famous Deaths

1471 – John of Rokycan, Czech Catholic archbishop
1595 – Robert Southwell, English Jesuit/poet, hanged
1899 – Sir George Bowen, British provincial governor and 5th Governor of New Zealand (1868-73), dies at 77
1996 – H. L. Gold, American sci-fi writer and editor, dies at 81
1999 – Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and drug researcher who developed groundbreaking leukemia and herpes drug treatments (Nobel 1988), dies at 81
2005 – Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b. 1929)

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Famous Deaths for 20th February 2021

1941 – La Bolduc, French Canadian singer and songwriter (b. 1894)
1962 – Halliwell Hobbes, British actor (Gaslight, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), dies at 84
1971 – Alexander Tsfasman, Soviet Russian jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, dies at 64
1973 – Joseph Szigeti, Hungarian violinist (Violinist Notebook 1933), dies at 80
1980 – Alice Longworth Roosevelt, youngest daughter of Theodore, dies at 96
1984 – Fikret Amirov, Azerbaijani-Soviet composer (Azerbaijan Capriccio, Shur), dies at 61
1994 – Derek Jarman, English director (Last of England), dies at 52
2005 – Pam Bricker, American jazz singer and Thievery Corporation vocalist (b. 1954)
2007 – F. Albert Cotton, American chemist, dies at 76
2011 – Betty Hicks, American golfer, author (US Open runner-up 1948, 54), dies of Alzheimer’s disease at 90

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Historical Events for 20th February 2021

1710 – Johan Willem Friso becomes Viceroy of Groningen, Netherlands
1935 – Dane Caroline Mikkelson is 1st woman to land on Antarctica
1963 – Future Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays becomes the highest-paid player in MLB, signing a record $100,000 contract with the San Francisco Giants
1966 – Author Valery Tarsis banished in USSR
1980 – Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins his 2nd gold medal of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics as part of the 4 x 10k relay; also wins 30k and 50k gold
1982 – NY Islanders win then NHL record 15th straight game by beating Colorado Rockies, 3-2 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
1992 – Ross Perot says he’ll run for President on “Larry King Live”
1994 – Johann Olav Koss skates world record 10 km (13:30.55)
2010 – On the Portuguese Atlantic island of Madeira heavy rain causes floods and mudslides, leaving at least 32 deaths in the worst disaster on the history of the archipelago.
2016 – 4-inch lock of John Lennon’s hair sells for $35,000 to a memorabilia collector at an auction in Dallas, Texas

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Today in History for 20th February 2021

Historical Events

1811 – Austria declares bankruptcy
1922 – Marc Connelly and George Kaufman’s “To the Ladies” premieres in NYC
1931 – Congress allows California to build Oakland-Bay Bridge
1950 – WOL-AM in Washington, D.C. swaps calls with WWDC
1959 – The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
2016 – US primary elections: South Carolina Republican Primary – Donald Trump wins with 32.5%

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Famous Birthdays

1901 – Jimmy Yancey, American boogie-woogie jazz and blues pianist, born in Chicago, Illinos (d. 1951) [birth year disputed – documentation ranges from 1894-1903]
1908 – Rosalind Laura Burke, aviatrix
1940 – Christoph Eschenbach, German-born pianist and conductor, born in Breslau, Germany
1943 – Mike Leigh, dramatist/director (High Hopes, Secrets and Lies)
1963 – Darek Oleszkiewicz [formerly known as Oles], Polish jazz bassist, composer (Los Angeles Jazz Quartet), and educator, born in Wrocław, Poland
1976 – Fulvia di Domenico, Italian jazz and world music singer-songwriter, born in Rome, Italy

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Famous Deaths

702 – K’inich Kan B’alam II, king of the Maya state of Palenque (b. 635)
1408 – Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, English statesman, dies at 66
1907 – Henri Moissan, French chemist who isolated the element “fluorine” from its compounds (Nobel 1906), dies of appendicitis at 54
1995 – Shlomo Averbach, Rabbi, buried in Jerusalem, 250,000 attend
1999 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (b. 1971)
2016 – Peter Mondavi, American winemaker (Charles Krug – Napa Valley), dies at 101

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