1863 – Preston Smith, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies in battle at 39
1905 – Thomas John Barnardo, Irish-born British social worker, and philanthropist (established Barnardo homes for children), dies at 60
1944 – Guy Gibson, British aviator who led the Dambusters Raid (Victoria Cross), killed in action at 26
1969 – Bert Bakker, Dutch writer and publisher, dies at 57
1989 – Guido de Moor, Dutch actor (Flanagan, Because of the Cats), dies at 52
1997 – Kathy Keeton, South African-American magazine publisher (Viva, Longevity), dies of surgical complications at 58
2003 – Anatoly Bogatyrev, Belarusian composer, dies at 90
2003 – Slim Dusty [David Kirkpatrick], Australian country music singer-songwriter, dies of cancer at 76
2006 – Elizabeth Allen [Gillease], American stage and screen actress (Donovan’s Reef; Bracken’s World; The Paul Lynde Show), dies of kidney disease at 77
2015 – Jackie Collins, British-American romance novelist (The Stud; The Bitch; Lucky), dies of breast cancer at 77
Author: gil7
Historical Events for 19th September 2025
1559 – Five Spanish ships sink in storm off Tampa, about 600 die
1914 – Brooklyn Tip-Tops’ Ed Lafitte no-hits Kansas City Packers (Federal League), 6-2
1947 – Jackie Robinson is named 1947 “Rookie of the Year”
1949 – “Late Spring”, Japanese film directed by Yasujirō Ozu, starring Chishū Ryū, Setsuko Hara and Haruko Sugimura, is released in Japan
1970 – 1st Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England opens: Tyrannosaurus Rex headlines; other performs include: Wayne Fontana, Steamhammer, Duster Bennett, Al Stewart, Amazing Blondel, Keith Christmas, Quintessence, and Stackridge
1980 – “Ordinary People” film directed by Robert Redford and starring Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore and Judd Hirsch premieres (Academy Award – Best Picture, 1981)
1988 – Israel launches first satellite for secret military reconnaissance
2017 – President Hassan Rouhani of Iran in his UN speech criticizes US President Donald Trump for his comments about Iran in his own UN speech
Today in History for 19th September 2025
Historical Events
1941 – German army conquers Kiev
1953 – “Hazel Flagg” closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 190 performances
1957 – First underground nuclear explosion in Las Vegas, Nevada
1973 – Frank Robinson, Angels OF, homers in record 32nd major league ballpark – Arlington Stadium (Arlington, Texas), against the Rangers
1994 – Swedish government of Bildt resigns
Famous Birthdays
1377 – Albert IV, Duke of Austria, born in Vienna (d. 1404)
1769 – Joseph Kam, Dutch Christian missionary in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, born in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (d. 1833)
1824 – Carl Ignaz Franz Umlauf, Austrian zither player and composer, born in Baden, Austria (d. 1902)
1910 – Margaret Lindsay, American actress (Take a Guess), born in Dubuque, Iowa (d. 1981)
1931 – Brook Benton [Benjamin Franklin Peay], American soul vocalist (“It’s Just a Matter of Time”; “Rainy Night in Georgia”), born in Lugoff, South Carolina (d. 1988)
Famous Deaths
1836 – Carl Friedrich Ebers, German composer and conductor, dies at 66
1954 – Tibor Harsányi, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor who settled in Paris, France, dies at 56
1997 – Malcolm Hughes, English constructive artist, dies at 77
2017 – Brian Barder, British diplomat, British Ambassador to Ethiopia who assisted during 1984-85 famine, dies at 83
2021 – Max Wiltshire, Welsh rugby union lock (4 Tests; Aberavon RFC), dies at 83
Famous Deaths for 18th September 2025
1261 – Conrad van Hochstaden, archbishop of Cologne, dies
1426 – Hubert [Huybrecht] van Eyck, Flemish painter, brother of Jan van Eyck (The Ghent Altarpiece), dies
1524 – Charlotte of Valois, Princess of France as second daughter of King Francis I and his wife Claude, dies at 7
1860 – Joseph Locke, English railway and civil engineer, dies at 55
1929 – Hermann Gradener, German composer, dies at 85
1968 – Franchot Tone, American actor (Mutiny on the Bounty, Advise and Consent), dies from lung cancer at 63
1995 – Oleg Tverdokhleb, Ukrainian athlete (b. 1969)
2005 – Marv Grissom, American baseball pitcher, coach (MLB All Star 1954, NY, SF Giants), dies at 87
2013 – Ken Norton, American boxer (WBC heavyweight champion 1978; famous Muhammad Ali trilogy; International Boxing HOF), dies at 70
2021 – Neil McCarthy, American college basketball coach (Weber State Uni 1974-85, New Mexico State Uni 1985-97), dies at 82
Historical Events for 18th September 2025
1881 – Chicago Tribune reports on a televideo experiment
1922 – Second government of Ruys de Beerenbrouck installed in Netherlands
1931 – Mukden Incident: To create a pretext for the invasion of Manchuria, China, the Japanese detonate a small quantity of dynamite close to a railway line owned by Japan’s South Manchuria Railway
1962 – Bob Aspromonte sets a National League third baseman record of 57 consecutive errorless games
1976 – Rev Sun Myung Moon holds “God Bless America” convention at Yankee Stadium in New York City
1980 – Soyuz 38 carries two cosmonauts, including one Cuban, to the Salyut 6 space station
1990 – Atlanta is chosen to host the 1996 (centennial) Summer Olympics
1994 – Ken Burns’ documentary miniseries “Baseball” premieres on PBS (wins an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series)
Today in History for 18th September 2025
Historical Events
1882 – Pacific Stock Exchange opens as Local Security Board
1905 – Electric tramline opens in Rotterdam
1971 – Ryder Cup Golf, Old Warson CC: US beats Europe, 18½-13½; after leading by 1 match, GB loses all Friday morning 4-ball matches to lose momentum
2004 – Farm Aid 17 held in Auburn, Washington; performers include Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Marc Broussard
2006 – Right-wing protesters riot at the building of Hungarian Television in Budapest, Hungary, one day after an audio tape is made public in which Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány admits he and his party lied during the 2006 general election
Famous Birthdays
1916 – Rossano Brazzi, Italian actor (Final Justice, South Pacific, The Barefoot Contessa), born in Bolognia, Italy (d. 1994)
1931 – Anthony Bowles, British music director (Jesus Christ Superstar; Evita), born in England (d. 1993)
1933 – Scotty Bowman, Canadian NHL player and coach (Montreal Canadians/Detroit Red Wings), born in Montreal, Quebec
1956 – Tim McInnerny, British stage, screen, and radio actor (Blackadder; Notting Hill), born in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, England
1977 – Li Tie, Chinese footballer and coach (Everton), born in Shenyang, China
Famous Deaths
1137 – Erik II Eimune [Onvergetelijke], King of Denmark (1134-37), murdered
1611 – Membertou [Mabretou], Micmac chief (1st chief of a First Nations community to be converted by Catholic missionaries), dies
1945 – “Blind” Willie Johnson, American gospel blues singer and guitarist (“Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”), dies of malarial fever, syphilis at 48
2002 – Ernest Sidey, British air marshal (General of RAF Medical Services, Honorary Surgeon to the Queen), dies at 89
2013 – Ken Norton, American boxer (WBC heavyweight champion 1978; famous Muhammad Ali trilogy; International Boxing HOF), dies at 70
Famous Deaths for 17th September 2025
1762 – Francesco Geminiani, Italian violinist and composer, dies at 74
1803 – Franz Xaver Sussmayr, Austrian composer and conductor, dies (b. 1766)
1939 – Ethel M. Dell, English author (Storm Drift), dies at 58
1948 – Folke Bernadotte, Swedish diplomat (Red Cross; UN mediator for Palestine), assassinated by a Zionist group at 53
1959 – Bert Leysen, Belgian TV director (Belgian National TV), dies at 39
1979 – Miloslav Kabeláč, Czech composer, dies at 71
1992 – Feodor Chaliapin Jr, Russian actor (The Name of the Rose; The King’s Whore), dies after a brief illness at 87
1994 – Iris Adrian, American actress (Blue Hawaii, Bluebeard), dies at 82
2006 – Patricia Kennedy Lawford, American socialite and sister of President John F. Kennedy, dies at 82
2009 – Leon Kirchner, American contemporary classical composer (Pulitzer Prize for Music 1967), dies of congestive heart failure at 90
Historical Events for 17th September 2025
1849 – Harriet Tubman is the first to escape slavery in Maryland with two of her brothers
1926 – Hurricane hits Miami and Palm Beach, Florida, killing approximately 450
1934 – RCA Victor releases the first 33 1/3 rpm recording: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Leopold Stokowski at the Philadelphia Academy of Music
1966 – “Mission Impossible” premieres on CBS-TV
1984 – USSR performs an underground nuclear test
1986 – US Senate confirms William Rehnquist as 16th Chief Justice
2010 – Documentary film “Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)?” is released theatrically
2023 – British comedian Russell Brand is accused of rape, sexual assaults, and emotional abuse by four women in investigation by “The Sunday Times” and Channel 4
Today in History for 17th September 2025
Historical Events
1176 – At the Battle of Myriokephalon, the Byzantines fail to recover Anatolia from Turkish rule
1737 – Georg-August University opens in Göttingen
1943 – Load of “ammunition in transit” explodes at Norfolk Naval Air Station
1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet
2018 – Flooding in Nigeria kills over 100 people as Benue and Niger Rivers overflow
Famous Birthdays
1859 – Richard Henry Warren, American organist and composer, born in Albany, New York (d. 1933)
1883 – William Carlos Williams, American physician and poet, born in Rutherford, New Jersey (d. 1963)
1944 – Reinhold Messner, Italian mountain climber (Mount Everest), born in Brixen (Bressanone), Italy
1959 – Will Gregory, British keyboardist, sax player, producer (Goldfrapp), and composer (Piccard in Space), born in Bristol, England
1963 – Rami Saari, Israeli poet and translator, born in Petah Tikva, Israel
Famous Deaths
1422 – Constantine II, last Tsar of Bulgaria (1397-1422), dies in exile at 52 or 53
1961 – Adnan Menderes, Turkish politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (1950-60), executed by the junta at 62
1991 – John Thomas, American co-inventor of fiberglass, dies at 83
2017 – Laudir de Oliveira, Brazilian percussionist (Sérgio Mendes; Chicago, 1973-81), dies on stage in Rio de Janeiro, of a heart attack at 77
2022 – Joseph P. Hoar, American US Marine Corps general (Commander in Chief of US Central Command, 1991-94), dies at 87
Famous Deaths for 16th September 2025
1696 – Lambert Pietkin, Flemish composer, dies at 83
1834 – Antoine-Vincent Arnault, French writer (Guillaume the Nassau), dies
1911 – Edward Whymper, English mountaineer 1st to climb Matterhorn (1865), dies at 71
1945 – John McCormack, Irish-American tenor (Irish folksongs), dies at 61
1961 – Percy Chapman, English cricket batsman (26 Tests, captain 1926-31, 1 x 100; Kent CCC), dies after a fall at 61
1965 – Ahn Eak-tai, Korean cellist, composer (Aegukga – national anthem of South Korea), and conductor, dies at 58
1984 – Richard Brautigan, American novelist and poet (Trout Fishing in America), takes his own life at 49 [exact date estimated based on forensic investigation]
1994 – Albert de Courtray, French archbishop of Lyon/cardinal, dies at 71
2016 – Edward Albee, American playwright (Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf?), dies at 88
2016 – Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, Italian President (1999-2006) and Prime Minister (1993-94), dies at 95