1841 – Wilhelmus Kist, writer/director of Dutch (Official) Gazette, dies at 82
1882 – William H Ainsworth, English writer (Guy Fawkes), dies at 76
1943 – Bid McPhee, American Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman (Cincinnati Reds; last 2nd baseman to play without a glove), dies at 83
1944 – Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1873)
1997 – Burton Lane, composer, dies at 84
1997 – Roger Goeb, American composer, dies at 82
2000 – Bernhard Wicki, Austrian director and actor (Morituri, Crime and Passion), dies at 80
2006 – Steve Rogers, Australian rugby league centre (24 Tests; NSW; Cronulla-Sutherland), dies after swallowing combination of prescription drugs and alcohol at 51
2007 – Michael Yeats, Irish Fianna Fáil senator 1961-1981 and son of W.B. Yeats (b. 1921)
2015 – Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass), American politician and first popularly elected African American to the US Senate (1967-79), dies at 95
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 3rd January 2021
1338 – Jacob of Arteveld elected mayor of Ghent
1840 – 1st deep sea sounding by James Clark Ross in south Atlantic at 2425 fathoms (14,450 feet)
1919 – Herbert Hoover is placed in charge of war relief in Europe
1951 – 9 Jewish Kremlin physicians “exposed” as British/US agents
1959 – Alaska admitted as 49th US state
1972 – The Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb in Callender Street, Belfast, injuring over 60 people
1988 – Margaret Thatcher becomes longest-serving British PM this century
1998 – Grandpa Jones suffers a stroke
2011 – Adrian Lewis of England wins his first PDC World Darts Championship with a 7-5 win over Scotsman Gary Anderson at the Alexandra Palace, London
2019 – Archaeologists in Mexico announce discovery of pre-Aztec temple to god Xipe Tótec in Puebla state (dated 900-1150 AD)
Today in History for 3rd January 2021
Historical Events
1899 – 1st known use of the word “automobile”, appears in an editorial in The New York Times
1920 – Arthur Honegger’s “Chant de Nigamon,” premieres
1945 – US aircraft carriers attack Okinawa
1959 – Alaska admitted as 49th US state
1994 – 100s killed in Venezuela in prison revolt
2018 – Security expert reveal two security flaws, Meltdown and Spectre which affect most microprocessors
Famous Birthdays
1698 – Pietro Metastasio, Italian poet (d. 1782)
1886 – John G Fletcher, American poet (Epic of Arkansas)
1895 – Boris Mykolayovich Lyatoshyns’ky, Ukrainian composer and the father of modern Ukrainian music, born in Zhytomyr, Russian Empire (d. 1968)
1900 – Maurice Jaubert, French composer, born in Nice (d. 1940)
1936 – Jos Kunst, Dutch composer, born in Roermond (d. 1996)
1949 – Sylvia Likens, American torture victim (d. 1965)
Famous Deaths
1841 – Wilhelmus Kist, writer/director of Dutch (Official) Gazette, dies at 82
1927 – Carle David Tolmé Runge, German mathematician and physicist, dies at 70
1963 – Oscar Backing, Austria/Neth viola player, dies at 83
1966 – Rex Lease, American actor (Fast Bullets, Sunny Skies, Custer’s Last Stand), dies at 62
2014 – Tom Rosenthal, British publisher and broadcaster, dies at 78
2020 – Qasem Soleimani, Iranian major general of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, killed at 62 in a US drone strike outside Baghdad airport, Iraq
Famous Deaths for 2nd January 2021
1740 – Johann Georg Weichenberger, Austrian composer, dies at 63
1819 – Maria Luisa of Parma, Queen of Charles IV of Spain, dies at 67
1971 – Lloyd Hall, African-American chemist and pioneer in food chemistry (science of food preservation), dies at 76
1971 – Richard Maxwell (Dick) Haldane, South African trade unionist, dies at 62
1983 – Harriet Parsons, American film producer (Susan Slept Here), dies at 76 of cancer
1986 – Bill Veeck, American MLB owner and promoter (Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns), dies of lung cancer at 71
2005 – Frank Kelly Freas, American artist, dies at 82
2007 – Teddy Kollek, Israeli politician (Mayor of Jerusalem), dies at 95
2011 – Richard D. Winters, American Army officer, dies at 92
2013 – Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Uruguayan soccer goalkeeper (36 caps; Atlético Mineiro), dies from a respiratory illness at 67
Historical Events for 2nd January 2021
1788 – Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution
1943 – University of Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball team begins 129 home game winning streak that only ends in 1955; incorporates NCAA titles in 1948, 1949 and 1951
1960 – 1st redshank old world shore bird reported in North America (Halifax)
1961 – 27th Sugar Bowl: #2 Mississippi beats Rice, 14-6
1965 – Martin Luther King Jr. begins a drive to register black voters
1966 – National Football League Championship, Lambeau Field, Green Bay: Green Bay Packers beat Cleveland Browns, 23-12; first NFL title game televised in colour; last one played before Super Bowl era
1972 – “Rothschilds” closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 505 performances
1985 – Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reappoints Coptic pope Shenuda III
2016 – Saudi Arabia executes 47 alleged terrorists, including Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr
2019 – Apple CEO Tim Cook blames below expectation Chinese iPhone sales for downturn in company’s outlook, rocking international stock markets
Today in History for 2nd January 2021
Historical Events
1602 – Spanish force in Ireland surrender to the English army at Kinsdale
1913 – National Woman’s Party forms
1928 – 14th Rose Bowl: Stanford beats Pittsburgh, 7-6
1942 – German troops in Bardia surrender
1989 – UCLA beats Arkansas Razorbacks, 17-3 to win the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas; record 7th consecutive football bowl game victory for the Bruins
1992 – Australian cricket spin bowling great Shane Warne (145 Tests, 708 wickets; 194 ODIs) makes Test debut v India in 3rd Test at Sydney Cricket Ground
Famous Birthdays
1857 – Frederick Opper, cartoonist (Maud, Alphonse and Gaston)
1910 – Srirangam Srinivasarao [Sri Sri], Telugu Poet, born in Visakhapatnam, India (d. 1983)
1927 – David Herbert, publisher
1928 – Vaughn Beals, CEO (Harley Davidson motorcycle), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts
1958 – Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Russian concert pianist (Tchaikovsky Prize, 1982; Leeds, 1987), born in Belebey, Bashkir ASSR (now Bashkortostan)
1974 – Ludmila Formanová, Czech athlete (World C’ship gold 800m 1999), born in Čáslav, Czech Republic
Famous Deaths
1801 – Johann Kaspar Lavater, Swiss writer, philosopher, founder of physiognomics, dies at 59
1923 – Sam Carter, African American resident of Rosewood Florida, lynched in the Rosewood Massacre
1936 – Sir Francis Newdegate, English politician (Governor of Tasmania, Western Australia), dies at 73
2005 – Ronald “Bo” Ginn, American politician, dies at 70
2016 – Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi Shiite religious leader and non-violent critic of the Saudi Arabian government, executed by the Saudi authorities aged 56 or 57
2018 – Thomas Monson, 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dies at 90
Famous Deaths for 1st January 2021
1896 – Alfred Ely Beach, American inventor, dies at 69
1901 – Ignatius Donnelly, American politician and writer, dies at 69
1906 – Sir Hugh Nelson, Australian politician (Premier of Queensland (b. 1835)
1965 – Juan Bautista Plaza, Venezuelan composer, dies at 66
1966 – Vincent Auriol, President of France (1947-53), dies at 82
1993 – June Clayworth, American actress (Bodyguard, Criminal Court), dies of lymphoma at 87
1996 – Orapin Chaiyakan, first Thai woman elected to the Parliament of Thailand, dies at 91
2005 – Shirley Chisholm, 1st African American Congresswoman (Rep-D-NY) and presidential candidate, dies of a stroke at 80
2005 – Bob Matsui, American politician, dies at 63
2009 – Claiborne Pell, American senator, dies at 90
Historical Events for 1st January 2021
1527 – Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as king of Croatia in the Parliament on Cetin
1785 – “Daily Universal Register” (Times of London) publishes 1st issue
1967 – FCC requires AM-FM sister stations to be at least 50% different
1968 – Netherlands gets color TV
1974 – With effect from this date the New Zealand government terminates all tariff preferences previously granted to South Africa
1977 – Belgium reapportions 2,359 communities into 596
1978 – Los Angeles Police chief Edward Davis retires from police force
1994 – Howard Stern’s New Year’s Eve Beauty Pageant
1995 – Last “Far Side” by cartoonist Gary Larson (started 1980)
1995 – “Shadow Box” closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC after 49 performances
Today in History for 1st January 2021
Historical Events
404 – Last gladiator competition in Rome
1941 – 27th Rose Bowl: #2 Stanford beats #7 Nebraska, 21-13
1959 – 25th Orange Bowl: #5 Oklahoma beats #9 Syracuse, 21-6
1960 – Bank of France issues new franc, worth 100 times the value of existing francs
1964 – 30th Sugar Bowl: #8 Alabama beats #7 Mississippi, 12-7
1967 – Tonga revises constitution
Famous Birthdays
1729 – Edmund Burke, British statesman, philosopher and author (A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Reflections on the Revolution in France), born in Dublin, Ireland [NS=Jan 12]
1909 – Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian nationalist leader (d. 1959)
1938 – Robert Jankel, British coachbuilder (d. 2005)
1943 – Jimmy Hart, American pro wrestling manager (WWF, WCW; Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Ted DiBiase and Jim Neidhart), born in Jackson, Mississippi
1959 – Abdul Ahad Mohmand, Afghanistan, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-6)
1983 – Park Sung-hyun, South Korean archer (Olympics gold individual/team 2004, team 2008; women’s WR in a FITA Round 1,405 points), born in Gunsan, South Korea
Famous Deaths
1753 – Louis-Maurice de La Pierre, French composer, dies at 55
1850 – Raphael G. Kiesewetter, Austria musicologist (Arab Music), dies at 76
1853 – Gregory Blaxland, Australian explorer, dies of suicide at 74
1982 – Victor Buono, American actor and comic (Mr Schubert-Man from Atlantis), dies at 43
2015 – Donna Douglas, American actress (Elly May Clampett-The Beverly Hillbillies), dies of pancreatic cancer at 82
2020 – Don Larsen, American MLB pitcher (only perfect game in World Series history, Game 5 1956; World Series MVP 1956; NY Yankees), dies from esophageal cancer at 90
Famous Deaths for 31st December 2020
1652 – Frances Cecil, 2nd wife of English earl of Shaftesbury, dies
1799 – Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer, dies at 76
1910 – Archibald Hoxsey, American pioneer aviator (worked for the Wright brothers), dies at 26
1936 – Miguel de Unamuno Jugo, Span philosopher/poet (Cancionero), dies at 72
1938 – Richard Nicolaas Roland Holst, Dutch artist and painter, dies at 70
1971 – Peter Deuel, actor (Gidget, Love on a Rooftop), commits suicide at 31
1971 – Pete Duel American actor (b. 1940)
1991 – Felicja Blumental, Polish-Brazilian concert pianist ( Villa-Lobos’ Piano Concerto No. 5; Penderecki’s Partita for Harpsichord), dies at 83
1994 – Woody Strode, African American football player and actor (Posse, Cotton Club, Vigilante, Scream), dies of lung cancer at 80
2001 – Eileen Heckart, American actress (Butterflies Are Free, Doll’s House, Trauma Center), dies of lung cancer at 82