Historical Events
1688 – French troops occupy Palts
1975 – David Bowie’s single “Fame” goes #1 for two weeks
1984 – Suicide car bomb attacks US Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 23
2011 – United States ends its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the armed forces
2014 – New Zealand’s National Government wins a third term in the elections despite allegations of corruption and revelations about state surveillance
Famous Birthdays
1833 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian journalist, soldier and pacifist (Nobel Peace Prize 1907), born in Milan, Lombardy (d. 1918)
1922 – Frank Comstock, American big band and pop orchestral arranger (Les Brown; Doris Day; Warner Bros; Brian Setzer), film and television composer (Rocky and His Friends; Adam-12), and recording artist (Project: Comstock – Music from Outer Space), born in San Diego, California (d. 2013)
1967 – Gunnar Nelson, American rock vocalist and guitarist (Nelson – “(Can’t Live Without Your) Love and Affection”), born in Santa Monica, California
1968 – Norah Vincent, American journalist and author (Self-Made Man, Voluntary Madness), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2022)
1990 – John Tavares, Canadian ice hockey player (New York Islanders), born in Mississauga, Ontario
Famous Deaths
1648 – Ivan Lukačić, Croatian composer, dies at 61
1863 – Benjamin Hardin Helm, American attorney and Confederate brigadier general and Abraham Lincoln’s brother-in-law, dies at the Battle of Chickamauga at 33
1896 – Johan Gottfried Conradi, Norwegian composer, choral conductor, musicologist, and pedagogue (Christiania Borgerskolen, 1860-90), dies at 76
2005 – Tobias Schneebaum, American writer, anthropologist and explorer dies at 83
2025 – Jim Mitchum, American actor (Thunder Road, Blackout), dies at 84