Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1190 – York (England) Pogrom: Jews seek refuge in Clifford’s Tower, which is then besieged by a mob; about 150 people are massacred or commit suicide rather than submit to Christian baptism
1911 – Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Port Arthur Bearcats (ON), 13-4
1919 – Frank Wedekind’s play “Elius Erweckung” premieres in Hamburg
1966 – Man From Uncle star David McCallum receives huge welcome in London
1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces his resignation
2003 – 50th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #12 Duke beats NC State, 84-77

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Famous Birthdays

1849 – James E. Smith, American minister and “oldest new father known to medicine” at 102 with a woman 64 years younger, born in Williamsburg, Virginia
1920 – Traudl Junge, German secretary to Adolf Hitler, born in Munich (d. 2002)
1924 – Beryl Davis, British-American cabaret and big band singer (Quintette du Hot Club de France, Glenn Miller’s US Army Air Force Orchestra), born Plymouth, England (d. 2011)
1937 – Amos Tversky, Israeli cognitive and mathematical psychologist, born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine (d. 1996)
1937 – David Del Tredici, American pianist, Neo-Romantic composer, and 1980 Pulitzer winner (In Memory of a Summer Day), born in Cloverdale, California
1954 – Nancy Wilson, rock guitarist (Heart – “Baracuda”; “What About Love”), born in San Francisco, California

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Famous Deaths

1037 – Robert I, Archbishop of Rouen
1835 – Charles Farquharson, Scottish-born slave plantation owner in the Bahamas (wrote Farquharson’s Journal – only plantation journal to survive), dies at 74
1914 – Gaston Calmette, editor (Le Figaro), killed by Mme Caillaux at 55
1956 – Joseph John Richards, American composer, dies at 77
1974 – Daniel Frank Gerber, American manufacturer of baby food, dies at 75
1993 – Mohammed Hussein Nagdi, Iran diplomat/resistance fighter, murdered

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Historical Events

1560 – Failed assault on royal palace in Amboise, France
1875 – 1st US cardinal (John McCloskey) invested
1912 – Legendary pitcher Cy Young retires from baseball with 511-315 win-loss record
1945 – Catholic University of Nijmegen reopens
1987 – “Starlight Express” opens at Gershwin Theater in NYC for 761 performances
2004 – Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed

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Famous Birthdays

1455 – Pietro Accolti, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1532)
1767 – Andrew Jackson, American general and 7th US President (Democratic: 1829-37), born in Waxhaws in the border area between North and South Carolina (d. 1845)
1884 – Rudolf Piskáček, Czech composer, born in Prague (d. 1940)
1910 – An Rutgers van der Loeff, Dutch children’s book writer (Skating Race), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1990)
1922 – (Albert) Eddie Calvert, British trumpeter (“Oh, Mein Papa”; “Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)”), born in Preston, Lancashire, England (d. 1978)
1969 – Yutaka Take, Japanese jockey

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Famous Deaths

752 – Zachary, Greek/Italian Pope (741-52), dies [or Mar 22]
1311 – Walter V of Brienne, Duke of Athens at the Battle of Halmyros
1673 – Salvatore Rosa, Italian baroque painter, poet, musician and actor, dies at 57
1918 – Jose White Lafitte, Cuban-French violinist and composer, dies at 82
1936 – John Scott Haldane, Scottish physiologist, dies at 75
1983 – Rebecca West [Cicely Isabel Fairfield], English author (Meaning of Treason), dies at 90

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Historical Events

1903 – Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, Ontario: Ottawa HC beats Rat Portage Thisles, 4-2 for a 2-0 challenge series sweep
1922 – WGR-AM in Buffalo NY begins radio transmissions
1941 – Nazi occupiers of Holland forbid Jewish owned companies
1960 – 14 die in a train crash in Bakersfield, California
1986 – European Space Agency’s Giotto flies by Halley’s Comet (605 km)
2016 – President Putin orders Russian troops out of Syria

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Famous Birthdays

1815 – Josephine Lang, German composer, born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria (now Germany) (d. 1880)
1853 – Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter, born in Bern, Switzerland (d. 1918)
1869 – Algernon Blackwood, English novelist (The Willows), born in Shooter’s Hill, Kent, England (d. 1951)
1961 – Greg Anderson, American NHRA stock car driver, born in Duluth, Minnesota
1963 – Pedro Duque, Spanish engineer and astronaut (STS 78 alt, sk:95, first Spanish person in space), born in Madrid, Spain
1984 – Antoni Porowski, Canadian chef and TV personality (Queer Eye), born in Montreal, Quebec

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Famous Deaths

840 – Eginhard, French nobleman/biographer (Vita Karoli Magni), dies at 69
1902 – Daniel H. Reynolds, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 69
1976 – Martha Saalfeldt German writer and poet, dies at 78
1994 – Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska, Polish pianist, composer, and pedagogue, dies at 82
1995 – William Fowler, American nuclear scientist and astrophysicist (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1983), dies at 83
2015 – Valentin Rasputin, Russian writer (To Live and Remember), dies at 77

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Historical Events

1942 – Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps, becomes 1st woman colonel in US army
1949 – US Men’s Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
1963 – Indonesia and Netherlands reinstate diplomatic relations
1968 – Beatles release single “Lady Madonna” in the UK
1974 – Glenn Turner scores twin tons for NZ’s 1st win against Aust
1985 – Funeral services held for Konstantin Chernenko in Moscow

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Famous Birthdays

1700 – James Kent, English composer, born in Winchester (d. 1776)
1768 – Charles Louis Willem Josef van Keverberg, Dutch civil servant, born in Haelen, Netherlands (d. 1841)
1901 – Paul Fix, American actor (Rifleman), born in Dobbs Ferry, New York (d. 1983)
1941 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian prominent poet and writer, born in al-Birwa, Galilee (d. 2008)
1946 – Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier who died leading rescue operation Entebbe in Uganda, born in NYC, New York (d. 1976)
1985 – Austin Scott, American football player, born in Allentown, Pennsylvania

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Famous Deaths

1569 – Louis, Prince of Condé (1530-69), dies in Battle of Jarnac at 39
1941 – E Hellendoorn, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
1967 – Sir Frank Worrell, West Indian cricket batsman and captain (51 Tests @ 49.48; 9 x 100s), dies from leukemia at 42
1992 – Clarence Wright, English actor and singer, dies at 84
1999 – Lee Falk, American comic strip writer (The Phantom), dies at 87
2010 – He Pingping, Chinese world’s shortest man who was able to walk at 74 cm (2 ft 5 in), dies at 21

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Historical Events

1881 – Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world’s first black international football player and captain
1894 – Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time in a candy store in Vicksburg, Mississippi
1977 – Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet bans the Christian-Democratic Party
1992 – Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations
2003 – Elizabeth Smart found after having been missing for 9 months.
2011 – A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan’s earthquake.

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Famous Birthdays

1637 – Anne Hyde, wife of James II of England (d. 1671)
1826 – Robert Lowry, American hymn composer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1899)
1832 – Charles Boycott, Irish estate manager (whose workers refused to work for him amid Irish rent and land issues, origin of the term “boycott”), born in Burgh St. Peter, England (d. 1897)
1863 – Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian mineralogist (d. 1945)
1936 – Eddie Sutton, Basketball Hall of Fame coach (Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State; first coach to take 4 schools to NCAA tournament), born in Bucklin, Kansas (d. 2020)
1963 – Ricky Yacobi, Indonesian soccer striker (31 caps; Arseto Solo, Matsushita), born in Medan, Indonesia (d. 2020)

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Famous Deaths

1832 – Friedrich Kuhlau, German-Danish opera composer, dies at 45
1949 – Maria “Beppie” Bakker, Dutch actress abd wife of Piet Vink Sr, dies at 95
1996 – Charles Bruce Perry, Professor of Medicine (Bristol University), dies at 92
2008 – Lazare Ponticelli, the last “poilu”, French foot soldier of World War One, dies at 110 (b. 1897)
2017 – Luigi Barbarito, Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, dies at 94
2018 – Craig Mack, American rapper (Flava In Ya Ear), dies of heart failure at 47

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Historical Events

928 – Trpimir II succeeds to the Croatian throne.
1964 – 21st Golden Globes: The Cardinal, Sidney Poitier, and Leslie Caron win
1974 – Rhino Store gives people 5 cents to take home Danny Bonaduce’s Album
1980 – Rod Marsh bowls 10 overs for 51 runs in dull Aust v Pak cricket draw
2013 – European Union bans the sale of cosmetics that have been tested on animals
2020 – Smallest dinosaur ever discovered – skull preserved in piece of amber smaller than a fingertip from a mine in Myanmar, reported in “Nature”

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Famous Birthdays

1811 – Urbain Jean Joseph le Verrier, French astronomer (made calculations that proved existence of Neptune), born in Saint-Lô, France (d. 1877)
1812 – James Speed, Atty Gen (Union), (d. 1887)
1884 – Jan Lemaire, Dutch writer and actor (Village by the River, Beautiful Juliet), born in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands (d. 1982)
1923 – Terence Alexander, English actor (Bergerac), born in London, England (d. 2009)
1937 – Milan Vukcevich, Yugoslavian chemist and a grandmaster of chess problem composition, born in Belgrade, Serbia (d. 2003)
1961 – Bruce Watson, Canadian-Scottish rock guitarist, sitar and mandolin player (Big Country – “Wonderland”; “In A Big Country”), born in Timmons, Ontario

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Famous Deaths

1854 – Willard Richards, American physician and religious leader, dies at 49
1907 – Nikola Petkow, premier (Bulgaria), murdered
1977 – Alberto Rodriguez Larreta, Argentine racing driver (b. 1934)
1983 – Lurlean Hunter, American jazz singer, dies at 63
1994 – Jacques Doucet, French painter (Mostar Sarajevo), dies at 69
2010 – Hans van Mierlo, Dutch politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister (b. 1931)

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Historical Events

1830 – The KNIL also known as the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army is created
1849 – Abraham Lincoln applies for a patent (only US President to do so) for a device to lift a boat over shoals and obstructions
1948 – 5th Golden Globes: “Gentleman’s Agreement”, Ronald Colman, and Rosalind Russell win
1962 – Due to its no black policy, Phillies leave Jack Tar Harrison Hotel and move to Rocky Point Motel, 20 miles outside Clearwater, Florida
1963 – MLB infielder Pete Rose debuts with Cincinnati at spring training in Tampa, Florida; hits in his first 2 at bats
2015 – “See You Again” released by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth commissioned by film “Furious 7” as tribute to Paul Walker (Billboard Song of the Year 2015)

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Famous Birthdays

1771 – Georg Friedrich Creuzer, German classical scholar (Idea und Probe), born in Marburg an der Lahn, Hesse (d. 1858)
1943 – Sandra Palmer, American golfer (Titleholders Championship 1972, US Open 1975), born in Fort Worth, Texas
1945 – Katharine Houghton, American actress (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner), born in Hartford, Connecticut
1961 – Mitch Gaylord, American gymnast (Olympics 1984), actor (American Anthem), born in Van Nuys, California
1968 – Thio Li-ann, Singaporean law academic and Nominated Member of Parliament
1998 – Justin Herbert, American NFL player (LA Chargers), born in Eugene, Oregon

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Famous Deaths

1872 – Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian revolutionary (Giovane Italy), dies at 66
1897 – Teodulo Mabellini, Italian composer, dies at 79
1940 – Louis de Vries, Dutch actor (Blokkade, Ghetto, Merchant of Venice), dies at 68
1982 – Minoru Shirota, Japanese microbiologist and founder of the Yakult Honsha beverage company, dies at 82
2003 – Barry Sheene, British motorcycle racer, dies at 52
2021 – Stephen Scott, American composer (Bowed Piano Ensemble; Vikings of Sunrise), and educator (Colorado College), dies from complications of dementia at 76

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Historical Events

1230 – Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Asen II defeats Theodore of Epirus near the village of Klokotnitsa
1496 – Jews are expelled from Carintha, Austria
1947 – US Ladies’ Figure Skating championship won by Gretchen Merrill
1959 – The Coasters’ single “Charlie Brown” peaks at #2 on the Billboard Top 100
1977 – Adm Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret), becomes 12th director of CIA replacing acting director Knoche
2006 – Liquid water is discovered on Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn

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Famous Birthdays

1911 – Ramon Campbell Batista, Chilean physician, composer, and ethno-musicologist (traditional music of the Rapanui people), born in Quilpué, Chile (d. 2000)
1934 – Jim Landis, American MLB outfielder, 1957-67, 5X Gold Glove, 2X All-Star (Chicago White Sox, and 5 other teams), born in Fresno, California (d. 2017)
1952 – Ekkehard Fasser, Swiss bobsledder (Olympic gold, four-man 1988; World C’ship gold 1983; World Cup champion 1985-86), born in Glarus, Switzerland (d. 2021)
1960 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress (Jade, Last Seduction, Moderns), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1977 – Radek Dvořák, Czech ice hockey left wing (World C’ship gold 1999, 2001, 05; Florida Panthers, NY Rangers), born in Tábor, Czech Republic
1983 – Clint Dempsey, American footballer, born in Nacogdoches, Texas

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Famous Deaths

1688 – Claude Mellan, French engraver, cartoonist and painter, dies at 89
1709 – Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, English diplomat, dies at 70
1851 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist (discovered electromagnetism), dies at 73
1975 – Joseph Dunninger, NYC, mentalist (Amazing Dunninger), dies at 82
1992 – Menachem Begin, 6th Prime Minister of Israel (1977-80, 81-83) and 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner, dies of a heart attack at 85
2020 – Lorenzo Brino, American actor (7th Heaven – “Sam”), dies in single vehicle car crash at 21

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Historical Events

1862 – Naval Engagement at Hampton Roads, VA CSS Virginia, Jamestown and Yorktown vs USS Cumberland, Congress and Monitor
1924 – Coal mine explosion kills 171 at Castle Gate, Utah
1954 – Herb McKinley sets quarter mile record of 0:46.8 in Melbourne, Australia
1979 – 1st extraterrestrial volcano discovered on Jupiter’s satellite Io
1979 – China withdraws invasion troops from Vietnam
1986 – 27th SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Kentucky beats Alabama, 83-72

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Famous Birthdays

1879 – Otto Hahn, German physicist and chemist (Nobel 1944, radiothorium/actinium), born in Frankfurt, Germany (d. 1968)
1889 – Oscar Ewing, US government official (Everybody’s Business), born in Greensburg, Indiana (d. 1980)
1892 – Mátyás Rákosi, Hungarian party leader and Prime Minister (1952-53), born in Ada, Serbia (d. 1971)
1916 – Robert Wolfgang Schnell, German writer, born in Barmen, Germany (d. 1986)
1920 – Eileen Herlie [Herlihy], Scottish-American actress (All My Children, The Angel with the Trumpet), born in Glasgow, Scotland (d. 2008)
1925 – Darwin Vargas [-Wallis], Chilean composer

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Famous Deaths

1920 – Rafael Obligado, Argentine writer (Santos Vega), dies at 69
1971 – Harold Lloyd sr, American silent film actor, comedian, and director (Why Worry, Safety Last!), dies of cancer at 77
1976 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian military commander (b. 1908)
1999 – Hans Eklund, Swedish composer, dies at 71
2006 – Brian Barratt-Boyes, New Zealand heart surgeon (b. 1924)
2021 – Julien-François Zbinden, Swiss jazz pianist, and jazz and classical composer (Monophrases), dies at 103

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Historical Events

1801 – Massachusetts enacts first state voter registration law
1866 – 28th Grand National: 1852 winner Alec Goodman wins his second GN aboard Irish 40/1 outsider Salamander
1925 – American Negro Congress organizes
1969 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1970 – WXOW TV channel 19 in La Crosse, WI (ABC) begins broadcasting
2017 – 19 girls killed in a fire at a government-run care center in San José Pinula, Guatemala

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Famous Birthdays

1866 – Paul Ernst, German writer, born in Elbingerode, Kingdom of Hanover (d. 1933)
1915 – Jacques Chaban-Delmas, French politician, French Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly, born in Paris, France (d. 2000)
1936 – Georges Perec, French writer (Seire Noire, Retour a la bien-aimee)
1940 – Viktor Savinykh, Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz T-4, T-13, TM-5), born in Berezkiny, Kirov
1944 – Elton Gallegly, American politician (Rep-R-California 1987-2013), born in Huntington Park, California
1954 – Matt Frenette, Canadian rock drummer (Loverboy)

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Famous Deaths

851 – Nominoe, first Duke of Brittany “father of the country” (Tad ar Vro)
1928 – Robert Abbe, American surgeon and radiologist, dies at 76
1955 – Tom Dugan, Irish actor (Circus Clown, Drag, Skyway), dies at 66
1966 – Mike Millward, English musician (The Fourmost), dies of leukemia at 23
2006 – Ansen [Nancy Ann] Dibble, Dutch sci-fi author (Summerfair), dies at 63
2013 – Peter Banks [Brockbanks], British rock guitarist and singer-songwriter described as “the architect of progressive music” (Yes, the Syn, Flash), dies of heart failure at 65

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