Author: gil7

Historical Events

1890 – African American inventor William Purvis receives a patent for the fountain pen
1956 – Indian batsman Vinoo Mankad scores 231 v NZ, 413 opening stand with Roy
1974 – Gasoline rationing begins in the Netherlands
1990 – Lynn Jennings runs world record indoor 5km indoor at 15:22.64
2001 – 27th People’s Choice Awards: Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Drew Carey and Jennifer Aniston win (TV)

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Famous Birthdays

1827 – Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian engineer; introduced Universal Standard Time, born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland (d. 1915)
1948 – Steve Sheetz, American businessman, philanthropist and chief executive of Sheetz convenience stores (1984-95), born in Altoona, Pennsylvania (d. 2026)
1965 – Five for Fighting [Vladimir John Ondrasik], American soft rock-pop pianist, singer-songwriter, and record producer (“Superman (It’s Not Easy)”; “100 Years”), born in Los Angeles, California
1977 – John Gidding, American architect and TV host (Designed to Sell), born in Istanbul, Turkey
1991 – Eden Hazard, Belgian soccer midfielder (126 caps; Lille, Chelsea 245 games, Real Madrid), born in La Louvière, Belgium

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Famous Deaths

1783 – William Tans’ur, English hymnist, dies at 76
1892 – Muḥammad Tawfīq Pasha, Khedive of Egypt (1879-92), dies at 39
1974 – Charles Alfred Coulson, British chemist (theoretical), dies at 63
1980 – Sarah Selby, American actress (Tower of London), dies at 74
2015 – Tadeusz Konwicki, Polish writer (Bohin Manor) and film director, dies at 88

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Historical Events

1938 – Bronze memorial statue of explorer Henry Hudson erected in the Bronx, New York
1980 – The beginning of the first GPS epoch
2009 – Israel begins an assault on the Gaza Strip
2013 – The NHL reaches an agreement to end a 113 day lockout
2021 – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says country’s five-year economic plan has failed at opening of a rare meeting of the Workers’ Party

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Famous Birthdays

1595 – Claude Favre de Vaugelas, Savoyard grammarian and man of letters, born in Meximieux, Duchy of Savoy (d. 1650)
1853 – Clement Reid, English geologist and paleobotanist, first to suggest a drowned land bridge between Britain and Europe (now called Doggerland), born in London (d. 1916)
1899 – Sophie-Carmen “Sonia” Eckhardt-Gramatté, Russian-Canadian pianist and composer, born in Moscow, Russia (d. 1974)
1970 – John Gerak, NFL tight end/guide (Minnesota Vikings, St Louis Rams), born in Youngstown, Ohio
1982 – Gilbert Arenas, American basketball player, born in Tampa, Florida

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Famous Deaths

1541 – Bernard van Orley, Flemish royal painter of Hungary, dies at about 52
1852 – Louis Braille, French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for the blind, dies of tuberculosis at 43
1958 – Josephine CMA, princess of Belgium/nun, dies at 85
1995 – Joe Slovo, Latvian-South African attorney and politician (Secretary General of SACR), dies at 68
2008 – Yunus Mahomed, South African lawyer and activist (UDF), dies at 57

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Historical Events

1781 – British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, Virginia
1970 – 23,000 Belgian mine workers strike
1972 – Largest crowd at Cleveland Arena (Cavs vs Lakers-11,178)
2020 – Iran pulls out of the 2015 nuclear deal, will not limit its uranium enrichment
2023 – Pocahontas revealed as the 12th great-grandmother of actor Edward Norton on PBS’s “Finding Your Roots”

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Famous Birthdays

1661 – Jacob Balthasar Schutz, German composer, born in the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1700)
1828 – August Valentine Kautz, German-American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Baden, Germany (d. 1895)
1888 – George “Rube” Foster, American baseball pitcher (World Series 1915, 16; no-hitter 1916; Boston Red Sox), born in Lehigh, Oklahoma (d. 1976)
1939 – Bridget Parker, British equestrian 3 day event (Olympic gold 1972), born in Northumberland, England
1980 – Bennie Joppru, National Football League tight end, born in Dickinson, North Dakota

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Famous Deaths

1968 – Jean Murat, French actor (Eternal Rain, Carnival Flanders), dies at 79
1996 – Jay Arena, American pediatrician (Duke Poison Center Director, inventor of the child-proof safety cap), dies at 86
2005 – Danny Sugerman, American music manager (The Doors), dies of lung cancer at 50
2007 – Momofuku Ando, Taiwanese-Japanese inventor of instant noodles and cup noodles, dies of heart failure at 96
2024 – (Derek) “Del” Palmer, English session and touring bassist, and sound engineer (Kate Bush), dies at 71

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Historical Events

1725 – Benjamin Franklin arrives in London [OS=Dec 24 1724]
1945 – US jeep-aircraft carrier Ommaney Bay sinks after Japanese kamikaze attack
1947 – Arthur Schwartz, Ira Gershwin, and George S. Kaufman’s musical “Park Avenue” closes at the Shubert Theater, NYC, after 72 performances
1951 – Korean War: Chinese forces recapture Seoul
1987 – Sixteen die in a train crash in Chase, Maryland

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Famous Birthdays

1839 – Carl Humann, German engineer and self-made archaeologist who discovered the Pergamon altar, born in Steele, Prussia (d. 1896)
1882 – Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist, born in Nizhny Lomov, Russia (d. 1943)
1965 – Yvan Attal, Israeli-French actor (Love Without Pity) and director (The Accusation), born in Tel Aviv, Israel
1970 – Sean Lumpkin, American NFL safety (New Orleans Saints), born in Golden Valley, Minnesota
1998 – Liza Soberano, Filipino-American actress (Forevermore; Everyday I Love You), born in Santa Clara, California

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Famous Deaths

1729 – Joseph de Montesquiou earl d’Artagnan, French lt-general, dies at 77
1898 – Frantisek Pivoda, Czech composer, dies at 73
1955 – G. G. van der Hoeven, Dutch editor-in-chief (NRC newspaper), dies at 82
2004 – Joan Aiken, British writer of children’s books (The Whispering Mountain, The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase), dies at 79
2010 – Johan Ferrier, Surinamian politician (b. 1910)

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