Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1679 – Jean-Baptiste Lully’s opera “Bellerophon” premieres at the Palais-Royal in Paris
1982 – NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: AFC beats NFC, 16-13; MVPs: Co-MVPs: Kellen Winslow, San Diego Chargers, TE; Lee Roy Selmon, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, DE
1988 – Super Bowl XXII, Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego, CA: Washington Redskins beat Denver Broncos, 42-10; MVP: Doug Williams, Washington, QB
1990 – Jushin “Thunder” Liger beats Naoki Sano to become New Japan IWGP champ
2012 – Leonard Cohen releases his album “Old Ideas”, becomes No.1 in 10 countries
2013 – 36 people are killed and 126 are injured in an explosion at Torre Ejecutiva Pemex, Mexico

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Famous Birthdays

1902 – Julian Steward, American anthropologist (cultural ecology), born in Washington D. C. (d. 1972)
1916 – Frank Parker, American tennis player (4-time Grand Slam winner), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (d. 1997)
1946 – Subroto Guha, Indian cricketer (right arm swing bowler for India 1967-69), born in India
1960 – Grant Morrison, British comic book author, born in Glasgow, United Kingdom
1971 – Patrick Kielty, Northern Irish comedian, born in Dundrum, United Kingdom
1972 – Reinier Robbemond, Dutch soccer player (Dordrecht ’90), born in Dordrecht, Netherlands

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Famous Deaths

1615 – Claudio Aquaviva, Italian Jesuit priest (5th Superior General of the Society of Jesus), dies at 71
1974 – Harry Baum, actor (Crime and Punishment), dies at 58
1976 – Buster Brown, American blues singer and harmonica player (Fannie Mae), dies at 64
1999 – Shohei Baba, Japanese professional wrestler
2004 – Eleanor Holm, American 100m backstroke swimmer (Olympic gold 1932), dies at 90
2018 – Anne Gillis [Alma Conner], American actress (Faline-Bambi, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Little Men), dies at 90

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Historical Events

1818 – John Keats composes his sonnet “When I Have Fears”
1933 – Australian Championships Women’s Tennis, Melbourne: Joan Hartigan Bathurst beats Coral McInnes Buttsworth 6-4, 6-3
1956 – Australian Championships Women’s Tennis: Mary Carter Reitano beats fellow Australian Thelma Coyne Long 3-6, 6-2, 9-7 for her 1st Australian singles title
1977 – 8th (final) part of “Roots” is most-watched US entertainment show ever (100 million)
1982 – WBC super welterweight champion Wilfred Benitez of Puerto Rico defeats boxing legend Roberto Durán of Panama in a 15-round unanimous decision at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas
1982 – US female Figure Skating championship won by Rosalynn Sumners

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Famous Birthdays

1911 – Roy Eldridge, American jazz trumpet player (Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1989)
1912 – Barbara Tuchman, American historian and author (Pulitzer, Guns of August), born in New York (d. 1989)
1938 – Marlies van Alcmaer [Smal], Dutch actress and director (Bridge too Far)
1944 – Lynn Harrell, American cellist, born in New York City, New York (d. 2020)
1951 – Trevor Laughlin, Australian cricketer (Australian all-rounder 1978-79), born in Nyah West, Australia
1994 – Amelia Dimoldenberg, English comedian and journalist (Chicken Shop Date), born in London, England

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Famous Deaths

1649 – Charles I, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1625-49), beheaded for treason by Parliament at 48
1703 – Kiva Yoshinaka, Japanese retainer for the Shogun, murdered in the revenge of the 47 rōnin
1867 – Emperor Kōmei of Japan (b. 1831)
1945 – William Busch, British composer, dies at 43
1956 – Jane Seymour [Marjorie S Fitz-patrick], Canadian-American actress (Tom, Dick and Harry, Young Mr Bobbin), dies at 62
1963 – Francis Poulenc, French pianist and composer (Concert champêtre; Les Biches), dies of a heart attack at 64

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Historical Events

1840 – First Governor of New Zealand and co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi Captain William Hobson arrives in the Bay of Islands, NZ
1966 – Neil Simons, Coleman and Fields’ musical “Sweet Charity” premieres at Palace Theater in NYC for 608 performances
1968 – Australian Championships Women’s Tennis: American Billie Jean King beats home favourite Margaret Court 6-1, 6-2 for her 13th Grand Slam singles title
1972 – 5th ABA All-Star Game: East 142 beats West 115 at Louisville, Kentucky
1974 – 1974 NFL Draft: Ed Jones from Tennessee State first pick by Dallas Cowboys
2019 – US Postal Service suspends deliveries to ten states due to severity of the polar vortex

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Famous Birthdays

1632 – Johann Georg Graevius, German classical scholar and critic (d. 1703)
1937 – Bobby Scott, American composer, arranger and jazz singer (“He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”), born in Mt Pleasant, New York (d. 1990)
1950 – Jody Scheckter, South African auto racer (World F1 Champion 1979), born in East London, South Africa
1955 – John Tate, American heavyweight boxer (Olympic bronze 1968)
1975 – Sara Gilbert, American actress (Darlene Conner-Roseanne), born in Santa Monica, California
1985 – Rag’n’Bone Man [Rory Charles Graham], English singer-songwriter (Human), born in Uckfield, England

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Famous Deaths

1993 – Michel Renault, French ballet dancer (Giselle), dies at 65
2004 – Otto Wilhelm Fischer, Austrian actor (Helden, Ich suche dich), dies of kidney disease at 88
2011 – Milton Babbitt, American mathematician, composer of serial and electronic music (Correspondences), and teacher (Princeton; Juilliard), dies at 94
2015 – Colleen McCullough, Australian author (Tim, Indecent Obsession, The Thorn Birds), dies at 77
2021 – Grady Gaines, American jazz, blues, and RandB tenor saxophonist (Little Richard; Sam Cooke, James Brown, Jackie Wilson), dies at 86
2022 – Rashid Byramji, Indian thoroughbred trainer (3,170 winners/230 classics; Elusive Pimpernel 22/23 starts; Squanderer 18/19 starts; Indian Derby x 10), dies at 88

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Historical Events

1760 – Pownal, Vermont created by Benning Wentworth as one of the New Hampshire Grants
1881 – Battle at Laing’s Neck Natal: Boers beat superior powered British
1904 – 1st college sports letters given to Seniors who played on University of Chicago’s football team are awarded blankets with letter “C” on them
1929 – Australian Championships Men’s Tennis: Englishman Colin Gregory wins his only Grad Slam title, beating Richard Schlesinger of Australia 6-2, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5
1978 – Ted Nugent autographs a fan’s arm with his knife
1991 – David Boon completes ninth Test century, 121 v England at Adelaide

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Famous Birthdays

1540 – Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (d. 1610)
1884 – Jean Felix Piccard, Swiss scientist, explorer and balloonist (1st flight into stratosphere, by balloon), born in Basel, Switzerland (d. 1963)
1932 – Thomas J. Bliley Jr., American politician (Rep-R-VA, 1981-2001), born in Chesterfield County, Virginia
1940 – Carlos Slim, Mexican business magnate (América Móvil) once ranked as the richest person in the world, born in Mexico City, Mexico
1943 – Dick Taylor, English rock guitarist (The Pretty Things – “S.F. Sorrow”), born in Dartford, England
1966 – Rob Clayton, American rock drummer (Jody Grind), born in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 1992)

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Famous Deaths

1393 – Earl of Joigny, burned at royal ball in Paris
1868 – Adalbert Stifter, Austrian author (Witiko), commits suicide at 62
1896 – Joseph Barnby, composer, dies at 57
1965 – Jef van Durme, Belgian composer, dies at 57
1997 – Pietro Cavallero, bandit, dies at 68
2005 – Karen Lancaume, French actress (suicide) (b. 1973)

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Historical Events

1915 – US Marines occupy Haiti
1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning
1944 – Siege of Leningrad lifted by the Soviets after 880 days and more than 2 million Russians killed
1963 – Sam Rice, Eppa Rixey, Elmer Flick, and John Clarkson elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1992 – “Crazy He Calls Me” opens at Walter Kerr Theater NYC for 7 performances
1997 – 24th American Music Awards: Toni Braxton and Alanis Morissette win

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Famous Birthdays

1889 – Balthasar van der Pol, Dutch physicist (Comparison of Van der Pol), born in Utrecht , Netherlands (d. 1959)
1912 – E. R. Braithwaite, diplomat and writer (To Sir with Love), born in Georgetown, British Guiana (d. 2016)
1929 – Gastón Suárez, Bolivian novelist (d. 1984)
1948 – Kim Gardner, English rock bassist (Ashton, Gardner and Dyke), born in London (d. 2001)
1954 – Joko Ninomiya, Japanese martial artist, born in Yawatahama, Ehime, Japan
1970 – Carlos Javier Bernardo, Dutch prince

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Famous Deaths

1540 – Angela Merici, Italian religious educator, founder of the Ursuline Order of nuns, and Roman Catholic saint, dies at 65
1927 – Georgios Grivas, Cyprus-born general in the Greek Army
1972 – Richard Courant, German-American mathematician, dies at 84
2000 – Mae Faggs Starr, American athlete, 4x100m runner (Olympic gold 1952), dies at 67
2006 – Roger Durham Hannay, American composer and teacher, dies at 75
2017 – Benny Barth, American session and touring jazz drummer, dies at 86

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Historical Events

1929 – Rube Goldberg’s “The Inventions of Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, A.K.,” cartoon series first published in “Colliers Weekly”
1959 – KOKH TV channel 25 in Oklahoma City, OK (IND/PBS) begins broadcasting
1991 – Houston guard Vernon Maxwell is 4th NBAer to score 30 pts in a quarter
1997 – Super Bowl XXXI, Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA: Green Bay Packers beat New England Patriots, 35-21; MVP: Desmond Howard, Green Bay KR
2003 – Australian Open Men’s Tennis: Andre Agassi of the US wins his 8th and last Grand Slam title; beats Rainer Schuttler of Germany 6-2, 6-2, 6-1
2018 – Residents left without heat in -27C in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan after boiler breaks in main power station

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Famous Birthdays

1813 – Juan Pablo Duarte, Dominican founding father (d. 1876
1857 – Trinley Gyatso, 12th Dalai Lama, born in Tibet (d. 1875)
1924 – Warren Frank Benson, American composer (The Leaves Are Falling), and educator (Eastman School, 1967-1993), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2005)
1925 – Paul Newman, American actor (Hud, Hombre, Hustler), auto racer and team owner (Newman/Haas Racing) and charity food company founder (Newman’s Own), born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 2008)
1932 – Ronald Allison, British author/broadcaster
1964 – Cathy Podewell, American actress (Cally Harper Ewing-Dallas), born in Evanston, Illinois

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Famous Deaths

1870 – Cesare Pugni, Italian composer, dies at 67
1920 – Matthias Enzberger, German minister of finance, murdered
1974 – Wiktor Labunski, Polish-American composer, dies at 78
1975 – Lubov Orlova, Russian actress (Moscow Laughs; Man of Music; Tanya), dies at 74
2007 – Gump Worsley, Canadian ice hockey player, dies at 77
2021 – Jozef Vengloš, Slovak soccer manager (Australia, Czechoslovakia, Malaysia, Fenerbahçe, Aston Villa, Celtic, Slovakia), dies at 84

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Historical Events

1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte elected president of Italian (Cisalpine) Republic
1906 – Del Valle Inclans “El Marqués de Bradomin” premieres in Madrid
1941 – Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.
1955 – US and Panama sign canal treaty
1970 – Dark comedy film “M*A*S*H”, directed by Robert Altman, starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould, and based on novel by Richard Hooker, premieres (Palme d’Or 1970)
2013 – Initial GDP figures for the fourth quarter of 2012 show the UK economy shrank by 0.3% raising fears of a triple dip recession

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Famous Birthdays

1640 – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English polymath and aristocrat, born in Handsworth, England (d. 1707)
1736 – Joseph-Louis Lagrange, Italian mathematician and astronomer (number theory, celestial mechanics), born in Turin, Italy (d. 1813)
1814 – Francis Harrison Pierpont, American lawyer and politician (Union), born in Morgantown, West Virginia (d. 1899)
1900 – Yojiro Ishizaka, Japanese writer, born in Hirosaki, Japan (d. 1986)
1931 – Harold Lloyd Jr., American actor, singer and son of famous silent film actor Harold Lloyd, Sr. (Frankenstein’s Daughter), born in Beverly Hills, California (d. 1971)
1987 – Maria Kirilenko, Russian tennis player, born in Moscow, Russia

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Famous Deaths

1910 – Leon Walras, French economist (School of Lausanne), dies at 75
1933 – William Faulkes, British organist, transcriber and composer, dies at 59
1949 – Emil Axman, Czech composer, dies at 61
1972 – Erhard Milch, German field marshal (b. 1892)
1998 – Mohammad Yusuf Khan, prime minister of Afganistan in (1963-65), dies
2016 – Concepcion Picciotto, American peace activist (longest political protest in US history, outside The White House), dies at 80

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Historical Events

1568 – In Netherlands, Duke of Alva declares William of Orange an outlaw
1847 – 1,500 New Mexican Indians and Mexicans defeated by US Colonel Price
1900 – Battle of Spion Kop: South African Boers defeat the British army after it attempts to cross the Tugela River and relieve the besieged city Ladysmith
2001 – Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson resigns
2006 – After losing the federal election to Stephen Harper, Paul Martin resigns as leader of the Liberal party
2013 – A Japanese Coast guard ship engages a Taiwanese activist ship in the Senkaku Islands dispute

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Famous Birthdays

1778 – Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, son of French King Charles X, born in Versailles, France (d. 1820)
1820 – John Milton Thayer, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Bellingham, Massachusetts (d. 1906)
1872 – Ethel Turner, Australian author (d. 1958)
1872 – Konstantin Bogaevsky, Russian painter (d. 1943)
1948 – Elliott Abrams, American ass. secretary of state/supplied arms to the Contras, born in New York
1987 – Luis Suárez, Uruguayan football player (Barcelona, Uruguay national team), born in Salto, Uruguay

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Famous Deaths

1619 – Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, English conspirator against the rule of James I of England, dies at 54
1678 – Joan Maetsuyker, gov-gen of Neth East-Indies, dies at 72
1924 – Marie-Adélaïde, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, dies at 29
1979 – Mabel Taliaferro, actress (My Love Come Back), dies at 91
1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American sci-fi writer (Death Quest) and founder of the Scientology cult, dies at 74
1992 – Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer (b. 1950)

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Historical Events

1945 – World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal to evacuate German soldiers and civilians from Prussia by sea
1961 – Supreme Court rules cities and states have right to censor films
1976 – Ian Redpath hits his only 2 sixes in Cricket Tests, v WI Adelaide
1994 – NFC Championship, Texas Stadium, Irving: Dallas Cowboys beat San Francisco 49ers, 38-21
2011 – NFC Championship, Soldier Field, Chicago: Green Bay Packers beat Chicago Bears, 21-14
2016 – 8 museum workers from Egyptian Museum, Cairo referred for prosecution for reattaching Tutankhamun’s beard with inappropriate glue

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Famous Birthdays

1719 – John Landen, English mathematician, born in England, United Kingdom (d. 1790)
1872 – Joze Plečnik, Slovenian architect, born in Ljubljana, Slovenia (d. 1957)
1928 – Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan baseball player, born in Caracas, Venezuela (d. 2005)
1929 – Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko) of Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate
1932 – James Rado [Radomski], American stage actor, playwright, director, and composer (Hair!; Rainbow), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2022)
1959 – Sandra Pisani, Australian field hockey captain (Olympic gold 1988), born in Adelaide, Australia (d. 2022)

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Famous Deaths

1888 – Eugène Marin Labiche, French playwright (The Italian Straw Hat), dies at 72
1944 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (The Scream), dies at 80, bequeathing all of his work to the city of Oslo
1964 – Louis Horst, American dance choreographer and composer, dies at 80
1982 – Hope Hampton, actress (Star Dust, Lawful Larcency), dies at 83
1992 – Simon Brand, South African banker and adviser to President F. W. de Klerk, dies
1993 – Dudley Stevens, English entertainer, dies of AIDS at 57

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Historical Events

1775 – Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski expels Jews from Warsaw, Poland
1837 – Earthquake in southern Syria kills thousands
1914 – Paul Claudel’s play “L’échange” premieres in Paris
1957 – Mad Bomber (George P Metesky) accused of 30 explosions, arrested
1985 – -30°F (-34°C), Mountain Lake Bio Station, Virginia (state record)
1985 – Kelly Hu, 16, of Hawaii, crowned 3rd Miss Teen USA

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Famous Birthdays

1912 – Harry Parry, Welsh jazz clarinetist and bandleader (BBC’s Radio Rhythm Club), born in Bangor, Wales (d. 1956)
1938 – Corra Dirksen, South African rugby union winger (10 caps; Northern Transvaal), born in Vereeniging, South Africa (d. 2020)
1953 – Karen Moe, American swimmer (Olympic gold 200m butterfly 1972), born in Del Monte, Philippines
1953 – Jim Jarmusch, American director (Only Lovers Left Alive), born in Akron, Ohio
1982 – Jason Peters, American football player, born in Queen City, Texas
1984 – Ben Eager, Canadian NHL ice hockey player, 2004-15 (Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Black HAwks, and 3 other teams), born in Ottawa, Ontario

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Famous Deaths

1799 – Horace B de Saussure, Swiss physicist/geologist/alpinist, dies at 58
1852 – George Rodwell, English composer, dies at 51
1978 – Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer (54 Tests for England 4555 runs), dies at 83
1979 – Ali Hassan Salameh [Abu Hassan], killed by car bomb; believed to have helped mastermind massacre of 1972 Munich Olympics athletes
1997 – Irwin Levine, composer (Tie a Yellow Ribbon), dies at 58
2002 – John Shea, American 500m/1500m speed skater (Olympic gold 1932), dies at 91

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