1187 – Urban III [Umberto Crivelli], Italian Pope (1185-87), dies
1640 – John Ball, English Puritan clergyman (b. 1585)
1794 – James Adam, System architect (essays on agriculture), dies at about 64
1870 – Michael William Balfe, composer (Bohemian Girl), dies at 62
1876 – Jeronimo de Bosch Kemper, Dutch sociologist/historian, dies at 68
1913 – Daniel David Palmer, Canadian founder of chiropractic (1897 Palmer School of Chiropractic), dies of typhoid fever at 68
1913 – Leander Schlegel, composer, dies at 69
1994 – Ivan Sviták, Czech philosopher and poet, dies at 69
2007 – Max McGee, American football player (Green Bay Packers), dies at 75
2008 – Gene Hickerson, American football Hall of Famer (b. 1935)
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 20th October 2020
1877 – Franz Schubert’s 2nd Symphony in B premieres
1905 – Great General Strike in Russia begins; lasts 11 days
1910 – Soccer team KFC forms in Alkmaar
1918 – In order to secure a WWI armistice, Germany agrees to further concessions
1930 – British White Paper restricts Jews from buying Arab land
1957 – Walter Cronkite begins hosting weekly documentary
1971 – Senator in the US Congress Edward Kennedy calls for a withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and all-party negotiations to establish a United Ireland
1979 – Bob Dylan appears on “Saturday Night Live”
1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster.
1987 – 10 die as US Air Force jet crashed into a Ramada Inn near Indianapolis
Today in History for 20th October 2020
Historical Events
1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.
1947 – Robinson Jeffer’s “Medea” premieres in NYC
1955 – Yanks begin 16-game exhibition in Japan
1973 – Mariette Hartley appears on Bob Newhart in “Have You Met Miss Dietz”
1976 – 70 die as Norwegian tanker Frosta collides with George Prince
1996 – Braves Andruw Jones is youngest player to homer in World Series
Famous Birthdays
1792 – Anton Bernhard Furstenau, composer
1854 – Arthur Rimbaud, French poet and adventurer (Illuminations), born in Charleville, France (d. 1891)
1918 – Anton Diffring [Alfred Pollack], German character actor (Assignment Vienna), born in Koblenz, Germany (d. 1989)
1961 – Les Stroud, Canadian survival expert (Survivorman), born in Etobicoke, Ontario
1967 – Marco Ngai, Hong Kong actor
1972 – Will Greenwood, English rugby union player (Leicester Tigers, 2003 World Cup squad), born in Blackburn, Lancashire
Famous Deaths
1819 – Lambert-Francois Godecharle, composer, dies at 66
1899 – Robert H “Bobby” Gunning, British colonel (60th Rifles), dies in battle
1994 – Sergei Bondarchuk, Soviet director (Destiny of a Man, War and Peace), dies of a heart attack at 74
1996 – Bill Bedford, British test pilot (pioneered the development of V/STOL aircraft), dies at 75
2002 – Barbara Berjer, American actress (b. 1920)
2014 – Lili Carati, Miss Italy 1975 and actress (Alcove), dies at 58
Famous Deaths for 19th October 2020
1813 – Józef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish general and marshal of France, dies in battle at 50
1856 – William Sprague III, American politician (U.S. Senator from Rhode Island 1842-44)), dies at 56
1897 – George Pullman, American inventor and industrialist (b. 1831)
1912 – E. B. Dwyer, Austalian-born cricketer (Sussex bowler 1906-09), dies at 36
1918 – Joseph Lesage, French painter/etcher (WWI), dies at 34
1926 – Victor Babeş, Romanian physician and bacteriologist, dies at 72
1937 – Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand physicist (Nobel Prize 1908), dies at 66
1955 – John Hodiak, American actor (Battleground, A Bell for Adamo, Lifeboat), dies from coronary thrombosis at 41
1996 – Neville Robinson, English physicist, dies at 71
2014 – Lynda Bellingham, Canadian-born English actress, dies from colon cancer at 66
Historical Events for 19th October 2020
1864 – US Brigadier General Emory Upton (25) promoted to Major General
1926 – John C Garand patents semi-automatic rifle
1948 – “My Romance” opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 95 performances
1953 – 1st jet transcontinental nonstop scheduled service
1960 – France grants Mauritania independence
1967 – Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27′ 4 3/4″
1974 – Detroit Pistons beat Trailblazers in Portland (next win 6-1-90)
1990 – HCA, Helsinki Citizens Assembly, forms in Prague
2001 – SIEV-X, an Indonesian fishing boat en-route to Christmas Island, carrying over 400 asylum seekers, sinks killing 353
2019 – US Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorses Bernie Sanders for president
Today in History for 19th October 2020
Historical Events
1722 – Frenchman C Hopffer patents the fire extinguisher
1818 – US Government and Chickasaw Indians sign a treaty
1950 – UN forces enter Pyongyang, capital of North Korea
1967 – Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27′ 4 3/4″
1999 – “Believe” single released by Cher (Billboard Song of the Year 1999, Grammy Award Best Dance Recording 2000)
1999 – MLB National League Championship: Atlanta Braves beat New York Mets, 4 games to 2
Famous Birthdays
1824 – Frantisek Pivoda, composer
1889 – Uncle Art Satherley, British-American record producer (1968 Academy of Country Music Award), born in Bristol, England (d. 1986)
1956 – Bruce Weber, American Basketball Coach, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1958 – John Bloom [Joe Bob Briggs], drive-in movie critic
1967 – Yoko Shimomura, Japanese composer
1984 – Thundercat [Stephen Bruner], American bass guitarist (Flying Lotus), born in Los Angeles, California
Famous Deaths
1745 – Jonathan Swift, Irish author and satirist (Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal), dies at 77
1793 – Francesc Morera i Cots, Valencian composer, dies at 62
1921 – Antonio Granjo, premier (Portugal), murdered
1961 – Benjamin Merkelbach, Dutch architect and city builder of Amsterdam, dies at 60
2003 – Alija Izetbegović, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (b. 1925)
2007 – LaLa Brown, American singer (b. 1986)
Famous Deaths for 18th October 2020
1141 – Margrave Leopold IV of Austria
1545 – John Taverner, English composer (Western Wynde), dies at about 55
1604 – Igram van Achelen, Dutch statesman (b. 1528)
1667 – Fasilides, Emperor of Ethiopia
1862 – James Creighton, amateur American baseball player, dies of ruptured bladder from hitting home run on Oct 14th
1959 – Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete and marathoner (Olympic gold 1928), shot to death in a cafe at 61
1982 – Maurice Gilliams, Flemish literary (Sources of Insomnia), dies at 82
1985 – Benjamin Moloisi, South African poet/Anc’er, hanged at 30
1993 – Lois Kibbee, American actress (Edge of Night), dies of a brain tumor at 71
2007 – William J. Crowe, American admiral and ambassador (b. 1925)
Historical Events for 18th October 2020
1889 – 1st all NYC World Series NY Giants (NL) play Bkln (AA)
1918 – NHL’s Quebec Bulldogs sold to a Toronto businessman P. J. Quinn
1962 – US launches Ranger 5 for lunar impact; misses Moon
1968 – Circus Circus hotel opens in Las Vegas, largest permanent big top in the world
1969 – Soyuz 8 returns to Earth
1977 – West German commandos liberate Boeing 737 with 86 hostages at Mogadishu
1992 – Start of Zimbabwe’s 1st Test match, v India at Harare
2009 – QB Tom Brady throws five second quarter touchdowns against the Tennessee Titans, an NFL record for touchdown passes in one quarter
2012 – Syrian military airstrikes kill 40 people in Maaret al-Numan
2019 – 1st all-female spacewalk by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir outside the International Space Station
Today in History for 18th October 2020
Historical Events
1873 – Columbia Princeton Rutgers and Yale set rules for collegiate football
1924 – Harold “Red” Grange, finest collegiate football game (4 long TD runs)
1944 – Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery confer in Brussels, Belgium
1962 – James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK) and Maurice Wilkins (UK) win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA
1973 – Nobel prize for Economic Sciences awarded to American Wassily Leontief
2000 – Zack de la Rocha announces he is leaving rock band Rage Against the Machine
Famous Birthdays
1894 – H. L. Davis, American author (d. 1960)
1931 – Catharina I “Ien” Dales, Dutch Internal minister (1989-94)
1965 – Curtis Stigers, American jazz vocalist and saxophonist (I Wonder Why), born in Bloise, Idaho
1973 – Demetrious Maxie, CFL defensive end (Toronto Argonauts)
1974 – Peter Svensson, Swedish musician (The Cardigans)
1977 – Ryan Nelsen, New Zealand footballer
Famous Deaths
1744 – Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, close friend of Queen Anne of Great Britain, dies at 84
1770 – John Manners, Marquess of Granby, British soldier (b. 1721)
1830 – Peter I Petrovic Njegos, bishop (Montenegro), dies
1871 – Charles Babbage, English mathematician/inventor (calculator), dies of renal failure at 79
1977 – Rolph Grant, West Indian cricketer (West Indian captain on 1939 England tour), dies at 67
1984 – Jon-Erik Hexum, American actor (Voyagers!, Cover-up), dies by a gun loaded with blanks at 26
Famous Deaths for 17th October 2020
1702 – Walraad the Old, count/sovereign of Nassau-Usingen, dies
1806 – Jean Jacques Dessalines, Emperor of Haiti, dies
1849 – Frederic Chopin, Polish-French pianist and composer (Concert in F Minor), dies of at 39
1979 – S J Perelman, American author, humorist and screenwriter (The New Yorker, Around the World in 80 Days), dies at 75
1979 – Karel Reiner, Czech composer, dies at 69
1992 – Herman Johannes, Indonesian professor, scientist and politician (b. 1912)
1993 – Wim van Dooren, theologist/humanist/philosopher, dies
1993 – Frank J Del Giudice, US industrial designer (Boeing 747), dies at 77
1999 – Ralph Grey, Baron Grey of Naunton, Governor of Northern Ireland (1968-73), dies at 89
2016 – Eddie Applegate, American actor (Patty Duke Show), dies at 81