1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada
1967 – “Henry, Sweet Henry” closes at Palace Theater NYC after 80 performances
1974 – Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood Mac
1977 – Amir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah becomes leader of Kuwait
1980 – Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band’s “The River Tour” concert at Nassau Coliseum (Uniondale, New York) clocks in at almost 4 hours
1984 – NYC subway gunman Bernhard Goetz surrenders to police in NH
1989 – “Me and My Girl” closes at Marquis Theater NYC after 1420 performances
1997 – 27th Fiesta Bowl: #10 Kansas State beats #14 Syracuse, 35-18
1997 – Microsoft buys Hotmail email service for $400 million and re-launches it as MSN Hotmail
2017 – Ban on ivory trade in China comes into effect
Author: gil7
Today in History for 31st December 2020
Historical Events
1929 – Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Divini illius magistri
1950 – Jockeys Bill Shoemaker and Joe Culmone set record of 388 wins in a year
1962 – “Match Game” debuts on NBC with host Gene Rayburn
1982 – TV soap “Doctors” ends 19 year run
1997 – Microsoft buys Hotmail email service for $400 million and re-launches it as MSN Hotmail
2004 – Official opening of Taipei 101, then the tallest skyscraper in the world, at a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet)
Famous Birthdays
1908 – Marko Rothmuller, Croatian composer, born in Slavonski Brod, Croatia (d. 1993)
1939 – Hugh Lewin, South African anti-apartheid activist and writer (Bandiet: Seven Years in a South African Prison), born in Lydenburg, South Africa (d. 2019)
1956 – Steve Rude, American comics artist, born in Madison, Wisconsin
1956 – Martin Joseph Fettman, American researcher and astronaut (STS 58), born in Brooklyn, New York
1971 – Heath Shuler, NFL quarterback (Washington Redskins, New Orleans Saints), born in Bryson City, North Carolina
1982 – Luke Schenscher, Australian basketball player, born in South Australia, Australia
Famous Deaths
1890 – Pancha Carrasco, Costa Rican war heroine (Costa Rica’s first woman in the military), dies at 74
1975 – Donal Michalsky, composer, dies at 47
1986 – Lester Trimble, American composer, music critic and educator, dies at 63
1994 – Leo Fuchs, Polish-born Jewish American actor (The Six Million Dollar Man, Avalon), dies at 83
1994 – BAM “Bob” Schreiner, airline owner (S Aviation Group), dies at 79
2000 – Alan Cranston, American politician (b. 1914)
Famous Deaths for 30th December 2020
1218 – Richard de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford, English politician (b. 1162)
1640 – John Francis Regis, French saint (b. 1597)
1971 – Jan Mul, Dutch composer, dies at 60
1995 – Heiner Muller, dramatist, dies at 66
1996 – Lew Ayres, American actor (All Quiet on Western Front, Holiday, Dr Kildare), dies at 88
2009 – Rowland S. Howard, Australian guitarist (The Birthday Party) (b. 1959)
2011 – Eva Zeisel, Hungarian-born ceramic designer, dies at 105
2014 – Patrick Gowers, British choral and film score composer (Viri Galilaei; Hamlet; Smiley’s People), dies at 78
2014 – Luise Rainer, German-American actress and 1st actor to win multiple Academy Awards (The Great Ziegfeld 1936, The Good Earth 1937), dies at 104
2015 – Howard Edward Davis Jr., boxer (Olympic silver 1976), dies at 59
Historical Events for 30th December 2020
1844 – Opera “Stradella” after being rewritten is produced (Hamburg)
1875 – Andrassy Note calls for Christian-Muslim religious freedoms
1879 – Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance” premieres
1913 – Barnes takes 17 wickets vs South Africa (8-56 and 9-103)
1922 – Creation of the USSR formally proclaimed in Moscow from the Bolshoi Theatre, Soviet Union organized as a federation of RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SSR
1952 – Tuskegee Inst reports 1952 as 1st yr in 71 with no lynchings in US
1963 – “Let’s Make A Deal,” debuts on NBC-TV
1990 – 11th United Negro College Fund raises $10,000,000
1992 – Last day of Test Cricket for Michael Whitney
1992 – Shane Warne takes 7-52 to lead Australian MCG win v West Indies
Today in History for 30th December 2020
Historical Events
1460 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield (Northern England), Duke of York killed and his forces soundly defeated by forces for King Henry VI
1835 – Georgia gold rush forces the Cherokees to move across the Mississippi River
1913 – Barnes takes 17 wickets vs South Africa (8-56 and 9-103)
1971 – Long Island NHL franchise purchased (NY Islanders)
1992 – Last day of Test Cricket for Michael Whitney
2016 – Ray Davies of The Kinks is awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II
Famous Birthdays
1913 – Elyne Mitchell, Australian author (d. 2002)
1930 – Jerome Theisen, American Abbot Primate of the Benedictine order of monks, born in Loyal, Wisconsin (d. 1995)
1942 – Vladimir Bukovsky, Russian author and dissident
1945 – Davy Jones, English singer (The Monkees), born in Manchester, England (d. 2012)
1972 – Loren Meyer, NBA center (Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks)
1982 – Dathan Ritzenhein, American runner
Famous Deaths
1944 – Romain Roland, French writer/pacifist (Nobel 1915), dies at 78
1956 – Ruth Draper, American actress and dramatist (The Italian Lesson), dies at 72
1961 – Jacobus “Ko” van den Bosch, Dutch actor (Amsterdamned)/dir, dies at 53
1988 – Yuli Daniel, Russian writer (b. 1925)
1988 – Isamu Noguchi, Japanese American sculptor (1963 Fine Arts Medal, Noguchi table), dies at 84
1993 – Giuseppe Occhialini, Italian physicist (Contribution to the discovery of the pion or pi-meson decay), dies at 86
Famous Deaths for 29th December 2020
1170 – Thomas Becket, English Archbishop of Canterbury, assassinated by 4 knights of King Henry II at 52
1894 – Christina Rossetti, English poet (Winter Rain, Passing Away) dies at 64
1933 – Joh Georghe Duca, premier of Romania, murdered
1943 – William Henry Singer, American painter and collector (Singer Museum, Laren), dies at 75
1965 – Kōsaku Yamada, Japanese composer (Nagauta Symphony), and conductor, dies of a heart attack at 79
1997 – Pat Clarke, British cyclist, dies at 82
1998 – Jeanne Stern, German screenwriter (The Condemned Village), dies at 90
2004 – Liddy Holloway, New Zealand actress (b. 1947)
2004 – Julius Axelrod, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1912)
2014 – Ivor Richardson, New Zealand judge (NZ Court of Appeals), dies at 84
Historical Events for 29th December 2020
1503 – Battle of Garigliano: Spanish army under General Cordoba defeats French forces
1812 – The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle
1851 – 1st American Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) chapter opened in Boston, Massachusetts
1862 – Bowling ball invented
1930 – Fred P. Newton completes longest swim ever (1826 miles), when he swam in the Mississippi River from Ford Dam, Minnesota, to New Orleans
1933 – New York Yankees refuses to release Babe Ruth to manage the Cincinnati Reds
1952 – 1st transistorized hearing aid offered for sale (Elmsford NY)
1965 – CBS purchases NFL TV rights for 1966-68 at $18.8 million per year
1972 – President of Sinn Féin Ruairi O Bradaigh is arrested and held under new legislation in Republic of Ireland
1979 – Red Army beats NY Islanders 3-2 at Nassau Coliseum
Today in History for 29th December 2020
Historical Events
1541 – Isabella of Poland and King Ferdinand of Austria sign Treaty of Gyalu
1900 – General Viljoen surprise attack British garrison to Helvetia
1948 – Canada recognizes Israel
1965 – CBS purchases NFL TV rights for 1966-68 at $18.8 million per year
1981 – Ballon d’Or: German 1-2-3 with Bayern Munich forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge taking title of Europe’s best football player for the 2nd straight year; beats teammate Paul Breitner and Barcelona midfielder Bernd Schuster
1996 – “Taking Sides” closes at Atkinson Theater NYC
Famous Birthdays
1856 – Thomas J Stieltjes, Dutch mathematician (Stieltjes integral), born in Zwolle, Netherlands (d. 1894)
1880 – Jean-Fernand Vaubourgoin, French composer (Ophellia), born in Bordeaux, France (d. 1952)
1928 – John Kennedy Sr., Australian Rules Football coach (Australian Football Hall of Fame legend; VFL Premiership 1961, 71, 76; Hawthorn FC; North Melbourne FC), born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 2020)
1951 – Georges Thurston, Canadian reggae and RandB singer, born in Bedford, Quebec (d. 2007)
1954 – Roger Voudouris, American singer-songwriter and guitarist, born in Sacramento, California
1970 – Aled Jones, Welsh pop-opera singer, born in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales
Famous Deaths
1170 – Thomas Becket, English Archbishop of Canterbury, assassinated by 4 knights of King Henry II at 52
1822 – Albert Christoph Dies, German painter, engraver and biographer, dies at 67
1919 – William Osler, Canadian physician and author (circulatory system), dies at 70
2003 – Dinsdale Landen, British actor (The Mask of Janus), dies at 71
2008 – Kees [Cornelis Pieter] van Dijk, Dutch minister of the Interior, dies at 77
2015 – Elzbieta Krzesinska, Polish long jumper (Olympic gold 1956), dies at 76
Famous Deaths for 28th December 2020
1872 – James Van Ness, Mayor of San Francisco (1855-1856) (b. 1808)
1884 – Gerben Colmjon, Frisian linguist and publisher, dies at 56
1903 – George Gissing, British novelist (New Grub Street, Charles Dickens: A Critical Study), dies from a chill at 46
1925 – Louisa Aldrich-Blake, British pioneering surgeon, dies of cancer at 65
1944 – Cornelia ten Boom is accidentally released from Ravensbruck
1976 – Katharine Byron, U.S. Congresswoman, dies at 73
1999 – Clayton Moore, American actor (The Lone Ranger), dies at 85
2001 – Samuel A. Goldblith, American food scientist (b. 1919)
2006 – Jamal Karimi-Rad, Iranian Minister of Justice (b. 1956)
2009 – James Owen Sullivan, American drummer and songwriter (Avenged Sevenfold) dies aged 28
Historical Events for 28th December 2020
1065 – Westminster Abbey in London consecrated
1832 – John C. Calhoun becomes 1st VP to resign (differences with President Jackson)
1944 – Montreal right wing Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard becomes first player in NHL history to score 8 points in one game with 5 goals and 3 assists in the Canadiens’ 9-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings
1947 – National Football League Championship, Comiskey Park, Chicago: Chicago Cardinals beat Philadelphia Eagles, 28-21; Cardinals’ only title victory
1948 – The DC-3 airliner NC16002 disappears 50 miles south of Miami, Florida.
1958 – Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore with David Seville) hits #1
1970 – “Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen” opens at Majestic NYC for 19 performances
1973 – US President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law
1993 – Dutch Antilles government of Yandi Paula forms
1993 – John Maclean passes Kirk Muller as all-time NJ Devils scorer (521 pts)