Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1135 – Norman nobles recognize Stefanus van Blois as English king
1688 – Earl of Danby occupies York for King William III, Prince of Orange
1935 – Yaeko Iwasaki, student of D S Harada Roshi, 1st awakening in Kamakura
1967 – “The Graduate”, American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, premieres (Best Director, 1968)
1971 – UN General Assembly ratifies former Austrian President Kurt Waldheim as Secretary-General
1977 – 36 die as grain elevator at Continental Grain Company plant explodes

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Famous Birthdays

1546 – Kuroda Yoshitaka, Japanese daimyō, born in Himeji, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan (d. 1604)
1929 – Leonard “Red” Balaban, American jazz tuba and sousaphone player, born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2013)
1945 – Joris J. C. Voorhoeve, Dutch Defense minister (1994-, VVD), born in the Hague, Netherlands
1948 – Steve Garvey, American baseball player (LA Dodgers, San Diego Padres), born in Tampa, Florida
1963 – Giuseppe Bergomi, Italian footballer, born in Milan, Italy
1972 – Mike Thompson, NFL defensive tackle (Jacksonville Jaguars), born in Portage, Wisconsin

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Famous Deaths

1660 – André Tacquet, Flemish mathematician (b. 1612)
1809 – William Cooper, American judge and developer (founded Cooperstown, New York), dies at 55
1986 – Celius Dougherty, American pianist and composer, dies at 84
1987 – Leonidas Zoras, Greek conductor and composer, dies at 82
2002 – Kenneth Tobey, American actor (The Thing from Another World, Innerspace, Whirlybirds), dies of natural causes at 85
2006 – Galina Ustvolskaya, Russian composer, dies at 87

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Historical Events

1933 – Newfoundland reverts to being a crown colony of Great Britain
1976 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1980 – Harold Carmichael ends NFL streak of 127 consecutive game receptions
1983 – NCAA rules rescinded last 2-minute men’s basketball free throw rule
1988 – Lockerbie disaster: A terrorist bomb destroys Pan Am Flight 103 mid-air, over Scotland; kills all 259 passengers and crew on board, and 11 people on the ground
1997 – Detroit Lions linebacker Reggie Brown, knocked unconscious in game

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Famous Birthdays

1928 – Thomas Rajna, British-Hungarian pianist, and composer (Amarantha; Stop All The Clocks), born in Budapest, Hungary (d. 2021)
1935 – Edward Schreyer, Canadian politician (Premier of Manitoba), born in Beausejour, Canada
1937 – Jane Fonda, American stage and screen Academy and Emmy Award-winning actress (Barbarella; Klute, 9 to 5), exercist (Jane Fonda’s Workout), and political activist, born in NYC, New York
1940 – Paul [Ray Hildebrand], American singer (Paul and Paula), born in Joshua, Texas
1944 – Hwang Jang Lee, Korean martial artist and film actor, born in Aomori, Japan
1969 – Mihails Zemļinskis, Latvian footballer, born in Riga, Latvia

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Famous Deaths

1824 – James Parkinson, English physician (First description of Parkinson’s disease) and political activist, dies at 69
1979 – Mac Anderson, New Zealand cricketer (Test for NZ 1946, scored five and one), dies at 60
1997 – Juzo Itami, film director/actor (Lord Jim, Yuuguremade), dies at 64
2006 – Sydney Wooderson, English athlete dubbed “The Mighty Atom” (world record 1937), dies at 92
2017 – Roswell Rudd ,American free-jazz trombonist (Archie Shepp), and avant-garde composer (New York Art Quartet), dies of prostate cancer at 82
2020 – K. T. Oslin, American country singer (80’s Ladies), dies at 78

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Historical Events

1900 – Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft)
1939 – Radio Australia begins overseas shortwave service
1985 – Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC
1992 – Northwest and KLM introduce a new joint logo “Worldwide Reliability”
1995 – Revival of Phillip Hayes Dean’s drama “Paul Robeson” opens at Longacre Theater, NYC; runs for 14 performances
2019 – United States Space Force founded, an armed forces branch dedicated to space warfare

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Famous Birthdays

1906 – Irving Krick, American meteorologist and inventor, born in San Francisco, California (d. 1996)
1922 – Charita Bauer, American actress (The Guiding Light, Aldrich Family), born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 1985)
1944 – Jean Fergusson, English actress, born in Wakefield, United Kingdom
1961 – Mohammad Fouad, Arab singer and actor, born in Ismailia Governorate, Egypt
1972 – Jonathan Wyatt, New Zealand 5000m runner (Olympics 1996), born in Wellington, New Zealand
1998 – Dylan Wang [Wang Hedi], Chinese actor and singer (Meteor Garden), born in Chengdu, Sichuan

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Famous Deaths

1494 – Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet
1749 – Pakubuwono II, susuhunan of Mataram Java, dies
1876 – Hannah Omish, at 12 is youngest ever hanged in US
1986 – Joe DeSa, American baseball player (b. 1959)
2012 – Eagle Keys, American Canadian Football Hall of Fame linebacker and coach (Grey Cup champion 1949, 54-56, 66; Edmonton Eskimos, Saskatchewan R’riders), dies at 89
2015 – Patricia Elliott, American actress (Renee-Empire, One Life to Live), dies at 77

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Historical Events

1835 – HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard arrives in New Zealand
1917 – 1st NHL game played on artificial ice in Toronto
1926 – National Football League Championship: Frankford Yellow Jackets (14-1-2) win first past the post title
1976 – Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev receives his 5th Order of Lenin
1980 – Anguilla becomes a British dependency separate from St Kitts
2016 – At least 48 people die after drinking bath lotion in Irkutsk, Siberia, thinking it contained alcohol

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Famous Birthdays

1819 – James Clifford Veatch, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Elizabeth, Indiana (d. 1895)
1837 – John Carpenter Carter, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1864)
1861 – Italo Svevo, Italian writer (La Coscienza di Zeno), born in Trieste Austria (d. 1928)
1916 – Hal Hastings, American orchestra leader (Chevrolet on Broadway), born in NYC, New York (d. 1973)
1925 – Robert Sherman, songwriter (Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book), born in NYC, New York (d. 2012)
1957 – Doug Johnson, Canadian rock keyboardist (Loverboy – “Working For The Weekend”), born in Surrey, British Columbia

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Famous Deaths

1815 – Robert Hudson, British tenor, organist, and composer, dies at 83
1933 – George Jackson Churchward, British mechanical engineer (Chief of Great Western Railway Chief, 1902-22), truck and killed by a Paddington to Fishguard express train at 76
1951 – Barton Yarbrough, actor (Dragnet), dies at 51
1998 – Antonio Ordóñez, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1932)
2002 – Will Hoy, English auto racer (British Touring Car C’ship 1991), dies from a brain tumour at 50
2017 – Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, American professional baseball player at 1st female pitcher to play in the Negro Leagues, dies from heart complications at 82

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Historical Events

1869 – Canada’s Hamilton Football Club plays its 1st game
1962 – Ballon d’Or: Dukler Prague midfielder Josef Masopust wins award for best European football player; beats Benfica striker Eusébio and FC Köln defender Karl-Heinz Schnellinger
1969 – House of Lords votes to abolish the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland (Northern Ireland 25 July 1973)
1989 – “I Love Lucy” Christmas episode, shown for 1st time in over 30 years
1996 – The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring “Ebonics” a language or dialect.
2020 – US Vice President Mike Pence receives the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine live on TV

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Famous Birthdays

1837 – Adolf Daens, Flemish priest, politician and founder of the Daensist movement, born in Aalst, Belgium (d. 1907)
1907 – Bill Holland, American auto racer (d. 1984)
1946 – Steven Spielberg, American director (ET, Close Encounters, Jaws), born in Cincinnati, Ohio
1966 – Mille Petrozza, German singer (Kreator)
1983 – Ady Barkan, American lawyer and activist (Medicare for all)
1995 – Barbora Krejčíková, Czech tennis player (French Open singles 2021; French Open doubles 2018, 21; Wimbledon 2018, 22; US Open and Australian Open 2022; 3 x Australian Open mixed doubles), born in Brno, Czech Republic

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Famous Deaths

1577 – Anna, Duchess of Saxony, German born 2nd wife of Prince William of Orange (divorced and imprisoned for adultery), dies at 32
1894 – Erastus Flaval Beadle, American publisher (Beadle’s Dime Novels), dies at 73
1911 – Alberto Randegger, Italian composer, dies at 79
1980 – Alexei N Kosygin, Soviet PM (1964-80), suffers heart attack at 76
1994 – Peter Hebblethwaite, English editor-in-chief (The Month), dies at 64
2020 – Tim Severin, British author and explorer who replicated historic voyages, dies at 80

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Historical Events

1819 – Congress of Angostura establishes Colombia’s independence from Spain
1961 – India seizes Goa and 2 other Portuguese colonies
1963 – West and East Berlin sign accord about travel rules
1971 – Cease fire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir
2012 – 10 girls collecting firewood are killed by a mine blast in east Afghanistan
2013 – Angela Merkel is elected Chancellor of Germany for a third term

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Famous Birthdays

1900 – Mary Cartwright, English mathematician, born in Aynho, United Kingdom (d. 1998)
1933 – Stefan Florenski, Polish soccer defender (11 caps; Górnik Zabrze), born in Gleiwitz, Poland (d. 2020)
1944 – Jack L[aurence] Chalker, American sci-fi author (Saga of Well World)
1969 – Chuck Liddell, American mixed martial artist
1971 – Antoine Rigaudeau, French basketball player
1974 – Jeffrey “Duff” Goldman, American cake designer, TV personality (Ace of Cakes) and chef, born in Detroit, Michigan

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Famous Deaths

1891 – Msiri, ruler of the Garanganze Kingdom, Congo (Katanga), dies in battle against Belgian funded expedition
1990 – Don Draper, American actor (Pepper Agent 00X), dies of AIDS at 61
1996 – Irving Caesar, American lyricist and theater composer (Tea for Two; Just A Gigilo; Sometimes I’m Happy; Animal Crackers In My Soup), dies at 101
2010 – Captain Beefheart [Don Van Vliet], American rock musician, complications from multiple sclerosis at 69
2013 – Leland Smith, American composer, bassoonist and computer coder who led music publishing into the digital age (SCORE), dies at 88
2020 – Stanley Cowell American jazz pianist (Heath Brothers), record label co-founder (Strata-East), and educator, dies from hypovolemic shock at 79

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Historical Events

1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
1938 – State of California executes Ed Davis (38), leader of Folsom Prison escape attempt resulting in murder of warden and guard (San Quentin State Prison, Marin County)
1944 – US 2nd Infantry division occupies “Heartbreak Crossroads” Wahlerscheid
1950 – “Let’s Make an Opera” closes at John Golden Theater NYC after 5 performances
1991 – UN reverses ruling that Zionism is racism by 111-25 (13 abstain) vote
2016 – US State Department increases reward for information on Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to $25 million

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Famous Birthdays

1742 – Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt, German Field Marshal (d. 1819)
1907 – Barbara Kent, Canadian actress (Lonesome, Flesh and the Devil), born in Gadsby, Alberta, Canada (d. 2011)
1916 – Udom Patpongsiri, Thai property developer (Father of the Thai sex industry), (d. 1996)
1945 – Bobby George, English darts player (BDO World C’ship 1980, 84 runner-up), born in Manor Park, Essex, England
1965 – Chris Jones, outfielder (NY Mets), born in Utica, New York
1988 – Anna Popplewell, English actress

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Famous Deaths

714 – Pepin/Pippin II, of Herstal/Héristal, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia and Duke and Prince of the Franks, dies
1670 – Dorothy, 1st English marquis of Halifax, dies
1993 – Charizma [Charles Hicks], American rapper, killed in a mugging at 20
1996 – Joe Coral [Joseph Kagarlitski], British bookmaker (Gala Coral Group), dies at 92
1997 – Richard Warwick, English actor (Johnny Dangerously, Sebastine, If), dies of AIDS complications at 52
2018 – John Ford Noonan, American playwright (A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking), dies at 77

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Historical Events

1918 – American Jewish Congress holds its 1st meeting
1953 – WJHG TV channel 7 in Panama City, FL (NBC/ABC) begins broadcasting
1961 – Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death for war crimes in Israel
1973 – American kidnap victim John Paul Getty III freed after ransom paid by oil tycoon grandfather John Paul Getty
1983 – 3 Kansas City Royals (Willie Wilson, Willie Aikens, and Jerry Martin) suspended due to cocaine usage
2017 – Pakistani teenager Ahed Tamimi filmed slapping Israeli officers during protest, arrested 4 days later

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Famous Birthdays

1860 – Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish-Farosese physician and phototherapist (Nobel Prize for Medicine 1903 for treatment for Lupus), born in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands (d. 1904)
1888 – Artturi Leinonen, Finnish journalist and writer (Kati), born in Ylihärmä, Finland (d. 1963)
1892 – J. Paul Getty, American oil magnate and billionaire (Getty Oil), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 1976)
1899 – Harold Abrahams, British athlete (Olympic gold 100m, silver 4x100m 1924; depicted in film “Chariots of Fire”), born in Bedford, England (d. 1978)
1930 – Edna O’Brien, Irish novelist and short story writer (Girl with Green Eyes, Casualties of Peace), born in Tuamgraney, County Clare, Ireland
1960 – Doug Phelps, American singer (Ky Headhunters – Davy Crockett), born in Leachville, Arkansas

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Famous Deaths

1816 – Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz, Bohemian aristocrat and composer, dies at 44
1855 – Jacques Charles François Sturm, French mathematician (b. 1803)
1896 – John GR Acquoy, Dutch theologian and church historian, dies at 67
1952 – Potti Sreeramulu, Indian revolutionary known as the Father of Andhra for conducting a 56 day hunger strike in support of a separate Telugu-speaking state, fasts to death at 51, sparking rioting and 3 days later Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to declare an intention to form Andhra Pradesh state
1953 – Ed Barrow, American Baseball HOF manager (World Series 1918 Boston Red Sox) and executive (10 x World Series NY Yankees), dies at 85
2009 – Carolyn DeZurik, American country and polka singer and yodeler (The Cackle Sisters; Prairie Ramblers; The Polka Chips), dies at 90

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Historical Events

1793 – 1st state road authorized, Frankfort, Kentucky, to Cincinnati
1849 – 1st chamber music group in US gives their 1st concert in Boston
1920 – Jack Dempsey KOs Bill Brennan in 12 for heavyweight boxing title in NYC
1977 – Dutch war criminal Pieter Menten sentenced in Amsterdam to 15 years
1978 – China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
1978 – “Ballroom” opens at Majestic Theater NYC for 116 performances

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Famous Birthdays

1881 – Katherine MacDonald, American actress and film producer (Stranger Than Fiction, The Infidel), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1956)
1917 – June Taylor, American choreographer, born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2004)
1941 – Ellen Willis, American journalist and feminist, born in NYC, New York (d. 2006)
1968 – Jamie Crysdale, CFL corner (Calgary Stampeders), born in Calgary, Alberta
1984 – Chris Brunt, Northern Irish footballer, born in Belfast
1985 – Nonami Takizawa, Japanese gravure idol and actress, born in Saitama prefecture, Japan

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Famous Deaths

1077 – Agnes of Poitou, German Empress and wife of Emperor Henry III, dies at 52
1715 – Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury, dies at 79
1760 – Kacic Miosic, Croatian poet (Razgovar Ugodni Naroda Slovinskoga), dies at 56
1788 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer, dies at 74
1914 – Giovanni Sgambati, Italian pianist and composer, dies at 73
1989 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian nuclear physicist and an activist for disarmament, peace and human rights (Nobel 1975), dies of a heart attack at 68

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Historical Events

1966 – Test debut of Clive Lloyd, v India Bombay, 82 and 78
1991 – Ricky Pierce (Seattle) ends NBA free throw streak of 75 games
2012 – Japan scrambles fighter jets in response to a Chinese plane in the Senkaku Islands dispute
2012 – A car bombing in Qatana, outside Damascus, kills 16 people and injures 12
2015 – 81st Heisman Trophy Award: Derrick Henry, Alabama (RB)
2018 – US Senate passes non-binding “war powers resolution” against long-term ally Saudi Arabia

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Famous Birthdays

1770 – John Clarke-Whitfeld, English organist and composer, born in Gloucester, England (d. 1836)
1797 – Heinrich Heine, German poet and lyricist (Schubert, Liszt), born in Düsseldorf, Germany (d. 1856)
1835 – Phillips Brooks, American Episcopal bishop and composer (Little Town of Bethlehem), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1893)
1897 – Drew Pearson, American newscaster (Drew Pearson), born in Evanston, Illinois (d. 1969)
1977 – Sascha Kindred, British Paralympic swimmer, born in Münster, Germany
1983 – Matt Deis, American bassist (All That Remains), born in Peterborough, New Hampshire

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Famous Deaths

1126 – Henry IX, the Black, Duke of Bavaria (1120-26), dies
1837 – Herman of Alaska, Russian Orthodox hermit (b. 1756)
1919 – Amintore Galli, Italian composer, dies at 74
1958 – Ahmed Mukhtar Baban, premier of Iraq, executed
1983 – Alexander Schmemann, Orthodox Christian priest and theologian (b. 1921)
1993 – Charles JB Jonckheere, Flemish poet/writer: Ogentroost, dies at 87

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