Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1894 – Dutch troops occupy and plunders palace of Tjakra Negara, Lombok
1923 – Béla Bartòk’s “Tancsuite” premieres
1950 – US General Eisenhower becomes supreme commander of NATO-Europe
1955 – KXMB TV channel 12 in Bismarck, North Dakota (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
1958 – First 2 F-27 Fokker’s Friendships delivered on Aer Lingus
2020 – Inquiry find “credible evidence” elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan civilians

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Famous Birthdays

1906 – Jacques Leguerney, French composer, born in LeHarve, France, (d. 1997)
1907 – Jack Schaefer, American author (Shane), born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1991)
1927 – Joe Hunter, American pianist and bandleader of Motown’s house band – The Funk Brothers (1959-64), born in Jackson, Tennessee (d. 2007)
1944 – Dennis Hull, Canadian ice hockey player
1954 – Annette Guest, American pop singer (First Choice – “Smarty Pants”), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1971 – Alice Peacock, American folk singer, born in White Bear Lake, Minnesota

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Famous Deaths

1557 – Bona Sforza, Queen of Sigismund I of Poland (b. 1494)
1915 – Joe Hill [Joel Hägglund], Swedish-American labor activist and protest songwriter “The Preacher and the Slave”; “There Is Power in a Union”), executed at Sugar House Prison in Salt Lake City, Utah for murder at 36
1940 – Charles W. Woodworth, American entomologist, dies at 75
1967 – Charles J. Watters, US Army chaplain, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1927)
1990 – Sun Li-jen, Chinese general (best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War), dies at 89
1995 – Bruce Trent [William Butters], British singer and actor (The Passing Show, Band Waggon), dies at 83

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Historical Events

1905 – Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway
1943 – U-211 sinks in Atlantic Ocean
1989 – Pennsylvania is first to restrict abortions after US Supreme Court gave states the right to do so
2001 – Phillips Petroleum and Conoco merge into a new company as ‘ConocoPhillips’, the third-largest oil and natural gas company in the US
2003 – The congress of the Communist Party of Indian Union (Marxist-Leninist) decides to merge the party into Kanu Sanyal’s CPI(ML).
2021 – US judge exonerates two men for the killing of Malcolm X in 1965, saying they were “wrongly convicted”

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Famous Birthdays

1861 – Dorothy Dix [Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer], American journalist and columnist, born in Woodstock, Tennessee (d. 1951)
1900 – Constantin Alajalov, Armenian-American illustrator (The New Yorker; Saturday Evening Post; Dithers and Jitters), and painter, born in Rostov-on-Don, Russia (d. 1987)
1901 – Craig Wood, American golfer (US Masters, US Open 1941), born in Lake Placid, New York (d. 1968)
1912 – Jaap Meijer, Dutch historian and rabbi in Paramaribo, born in Winschoten, Netherlands (d. 1993)
1925 – Yvonne Bryceland, South African stage actress (Road to Mecca), born in Cape Town, South Africa (d. 1992)
1934 – Vassilis Vassilikos, Greek writer (Z) and diplomat, born in Kavala, Greece

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Famous Deaths

1919 – Ferdinand Domela Newenhouse, anarchist (free socialist), dies
1946 – Donald Meek, Scottish-American actor (You Can’t Take It with You, Stagecoach), dies at 86
1966 – Bela Tardos, Hungarian composer, dies at 56
1980 – Conn Smythe, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame team owner (Toronto Maple Leafs 1927-61; Stanley Cup x 8), dies of heart failure at 85
1996 – Douglas Guest, British organist (For the Fallen), dies at 80
2009 – Jeanne-Claude [Denat de Guillebon], French artist who worked with Christo (Running Fence, Wrapped Reichstag), dies at 74

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Historical Events

1853 – Street signs authorized at San Francisco intersections
1928 – Boston Garden officially opens
1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis is condemned to death for attempting to assassinate Greek dictator George Papadopoulos
1973 – Greek regime attacks students with tanks, 100s killed
1980 – WHHM Television in Washington, D.C., becomes the first African-American public-broadcasting television station
1982 – Dale Murphy wins NL MVP

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Famous Birthdays

1917 – Jack Lescoulie, American TV host (Jackie Gleason Show), born in Sacramento, California (d. 1987)
1963 – Pedro Luis Estrada, American murderer (FBI Most Wanted List), born in Brooklyn, New York
1965 – Grant Connell, Canadian tennis player who was the world’s #1 doubles player in the 1990s, born in Regina Saskatchewan
1966 – Daisy Fuentes, model/MTV veejay (America’s Funniest Videos)
1966 – Jeff Buckley, American musician and singer (“Hallelujah”), Anaheim, California (d. 1997)
1980 – [Clarke] Isaac Hanson, American pop singer and guitarist (Hanson – “MMMbop”), born in Tulsa, Oklahoma

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Famous Deaths

1512 – Kempo Roeper, Frisian rebel, quartered
1770 – Gian Francesco de Majo, Italian composer, dies at 38
1922 – Robert Comtesse, Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1899-1912), dies at 75
1986 – Georges Besse, French president-director of Renault, murdered
1990 – Robert Hofstadter, American atomic physicist and Nobel laureate (electron scattering in atomic nuclei), dies at 75
2017 – Earle Hyman, American stage and screen actor (The Cosby Show – “Russell Huxtable”; ThunderCats; Coriolanus), dies at 91

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Historical Events

1519 – City of Havana moved to its current location to avoid mosquito infestations
1916 – Russian La Satannaya ammunition factory explodes, killing 1,000
1918 – Hungarian People’s Republic declared
1990 – Manuel Noriega claims US denied him a fair trial
2019 – 500th anniversary of the founding of Havana, Cuba
2019 – Samoa declares state of emergency over measles epidemic closing all schools after six deaths

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Famous Birthdays

1904 – Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1st President of Nigeria (1963-66), born in Zungeru, Northern Nigeria Protectorate (d. 1996)
1922 – Gene Amdahl, American computer scientist who designed the IBM mainframe, born in Flandreau, South Dakota (d. 2015)
1938 – Robert Nozick, American philosopher (Anarchy, State, and Utopia), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2002)
1938 – Toni Brown, American guitarist, singer and keyboardist (Joy of Cooking)
1967 – Craig Arnold, American poet
1973 – Sedrick Shaw, running back (New England Patriots)

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Famous Deaths

1512 – Jemme Herjuwsma, Fries rebel, beheaded
1548 – Caspar Cruciger, German church reformer, dies at 44
1934 – Carl von Linde, German engineer and chemist who invented mechanical refrigeration, dies at 92
1943 – Marcel Verhamme, Belgian resistance fighter, executed
1994 – Dino Valenti [Chester “Chet” Powers], American rock guitarist/vocalist (Quicksilver Messenger Service), dies at 57
2016 – Jay Forrester, American engineer, invented random-access magnetic core memory, dies at 98

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Historical Events

1870 – Bathe becomes member of Noordduitse Union
1976 – Syrian army conquers Beirut
1978 – Pirates outfielder Dave Parker wins NL MVP
1982 – Funeral service held in Moscow’s Red Square for Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev
1994 – Nepal Communist party Dutch Communist Party-UML wins election
2015 – Federation Cup Women’s Tennis, Prague, Czech Republic: Czech pair Karolína Plíšková and Barbora Strýcová beats Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Elena Vesnina of Russia 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 for a 3-2 win and 9th title for the home country

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Famous Birthdays

1604 – Davis Mell, English composer, born in Wilton (d. 1662)
1661 – Christoph von Graffenried, British peer from Switzerland who founded New Bern, Carolina, born in Worb Castle, Bern, Switzerland (d. 1743)
1930 – Whitman Mayo, American actor (Grady Wilson-“Sanford and Son”), born in NYC, New York (d. 2001)
1930 – Robert Cohen, French boxer (NYSAC, NBA, The Ring bantamweight titles 1954-56), born in Bône, Algeria (d. 2022)
1941 – Adnan Al Sharqi, Lebanese soccer manager (Lebanon 1974–76, 1987–93, 2006–08; Ansar 11 x league titles), born in Beirut, Lebanon (d. 2021)
1993 – Saaya [Irie], Japanese actress and singer (Sweet Kiss), born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan

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Famous Deaths

655 – Penda, King of Mercia, Anglo Saxon King
1629 – Bethlen Gabor, King of Hungary (1620-29), dies at 49
1934 – Anton Dreesmann, German-Dutch manufacturer (Vroom and Dreesman), dies at 80
1993 – Theo Huizenaar, Dutch boxing trainer (Bep van Klaveren), dies at 93
1993 – Luciano Liggio, Italian mafia leader/painter, dies
2010 – Imre Polyák, Hungarian featherweight (Olympic gold 1964), dies at 78

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Historical Events

1832 – First streetcar (horse-drawn) (John Mason) debuts in NYC; fare 12 cents rode on 4th Avenue between Prince and 14th Streets
1920 – American Pro Football League’s Chic Tiger Joe Guyon punts 95 yards
1921 – The Communist Party of Spain is founded
1976 – Dutch war criminal Pieter Menten captured one day after fleeing
2007 – the last direct-current distribution by Con Edison was shut down.
2018 – Attempt to move 720,000 Rohingya back to Myanmar from Bangladesh refugee camps amid international criticism. They refuse to go.

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Famous Birthdays

1907 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish children book author (Pippi Longstocking), born in Vimmerby, Sweden (d. 2002)
1921 – Brian Keith, American actor (Family Affair, Loneliest Runner, The Parent Trap), born in Bayonne, New Jersey (d. 1997)
1948 – Charles III [Charles Philip Arthur George], King of the United Kingdom (2022-) Prince of Wales (1958-2022), born in London, England
1966 – Curt Schilling, pitcher (Philadelphia Phillies), born in Anchorage, Alaska
1966 – Eric Hill, NFL middle linebacker (Arizona Cardinals)
1979 – Olga Kurylenko, Ukrainian-French model and actress who played Bond girl Camille Montes in Quantum of Solace, born in Berdyansk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union

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Famous Deaths

1909 – Joshua Slocum, Canadian-American seaman and adventurer, departs from Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, sailing south for the winter, and is lost at sea, at 65
1914 – Frederick Sleigh “Bobs” Roberts, governor of Natal, dies at 82
1990 – Malcolm Muggeridge, WW II spy for Britain, dies at 87
1994 – John F Hampe, pathologist (Fabric and Stoflongen), dies at 83
2002 – Eddie Bracken, American actor (Summer Stock, Young and Willing), dies at 87
2005 – Jeno Takacs, Austrian composer, dies at 103

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Historical Events

1642 – Battle at Turnham Green outside London: King Charles I vs English parliament
1918 – Prince Friedrich, last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, abdicates
1968 – William Craig, Home Affairs Minister, bans all marches, with the exception of ‘customary’ parades, in Derry, Northern Ireland; the exception of ‘customary’ parades meant that Loyalist institutions could parade but civil rights marches could not
1973 – “Gigi” opens at Uris Theater NYC for 103 performances
2020 – British strategist and chief advisor to the PM Dominic Cummings is let go by Boris Johnson
2020 – Kylie Minogue becomes the first woman to top the UK album chart over five consecutive decades with “Disco”

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Famous Birthdays

1856 – Louis Brandeis, American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, born in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 1941)
1882 – John Lowry, American NYC builder (Radio City Music Hall), born in Mount Vernon, New York (d. 1962)
1940 – Jack Birkenshaw, English cricket all-rounder (5 Tests, 1 x 50, 13 wickets; Yorkshire CCC, Leicestershire CCC) and umpire (2 Tests, 6 ODIs), born in Rothwell, England
1967 – Jimmy Kimmel, American TV host and producer (Jimmy Kimmel Live!), born in Brooklyn, New York
1980 – Monique Coleman, American actress (High School Musical), born in Orangeburg, South Carolina
1990 – Jibbs [Jovan Campbell], American rapper (Chain Hang Low), born in St. Louis, Missouri

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Famous Deaths

1726 – Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle, repudiated wife of future King George I of Great Britain, and mother of George II, dies at 60
1996 – Kenneth Watkins, British woodland conservationist and founder (The Woodland Trust), dies at 86
1997 – André Boucourechliev, Bulgarian-French composer, dies at 72
2007 – Wahab Akbar, Filipino politician and Congressman, dies at 47
2016 – Leon Russell, American musician and singer-songwriter (Carny), dies at 74
2020 – Peter Sutcliffe, English murderer of 13 women “The Yorkshire Ripper”, dies in prison of COVID-29 complications at 74

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Historical Events

1933 – 1st NFL football game on a Sunday at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl – sporting events on Sunday had been illegal on Sundays; Eagles tie Chicago Bears, 3-3
1936 – St Louis Browns sold to Donald L Barnes and William O DeWitt
1966 – 18-year-old US High schooler Robert Smith kills 5 people at Arizona’s Rose-Mar Beauty College for fame
1970 – Cyclone Bhola makes landfall in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) killing up to 500,000, making it the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded
1981 – Pilin Leon of Venezuela, crowned 31st Miss World
1996 – Saudi Arabian Flight 763 and Kazakhstan Airlines Flight 1907 collide in midair over Charkhi Dadri in India, killing 349 people, the third-deadliest aviation disaster in history

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Famous Birthdays

1853 – Oskar Panizza, German writer (Das Liebeskonzil), born in Bad Kissingen, Bavaria (d. 1921)
1865 – Frans “Sas” van Aerschot, Flemish operetta actor (Paljas), (d. 1939)
1921 – Robert Fleming, Canadian composer, born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan (d. 1976)
1931 – Bob Crewe, songwriter and producer (“Big Girls Don’t Cry”; “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)”), born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 2014)
1968 – Aaron Stainthorpe, British singer (My Dying Bride), born in England, United Kingdom
1978 – Alexandra Maria Lara, Romanian-German actress, born in Bucharest, Romania

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Famous Deaths

1720 – Peter Tordenskjold, Norwegian naval hero, dies at 30
1739 – Ludwig Ernst, German composer, dies at 71
1916 – Percival Lowell, American astronomer (predicted discovery of Pluto) and founder of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, dies of a stroke at 61
1969 – Louis van Tulder, Dutch tenor (Kantoorkruk to high C), dies at 77
1976 – Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich, Russian aircraft designer (b. 1893)
1994 – Michael John Innes Mackintosh Stewart Innes, writer, dies at 88

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Historical Events

1811 – Cartagena Colombia declares independence from Spain
1957 – Demolition begins on cable car barn at California and Hyde, San Francisco
1971 – Man-made earthslide at Kawasaki Japan, kills 15
1996 – Atlanta Braves starting pitcher John Smoltz wins NL Cy Young Award; Pat Hentgen of the Toronto Blue Jays claims AL Award
2014 – An Italian appeals court overturns a manslaughter conviction against 6 scientists for failing to give adequate warning of a deadly earthquake
2020 – UK becomes the first European country to record over 50,000 Covid-19 related 50,000; 5fth country, after the US, Brazil, India, and Mexico

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Famous Birthdays

1696 – Andrea Zani, Italian composer and violinist, born in Casalmaggiore, Cremona Province (d. 1757)
1731 – Carl Joseph Toeschi, German composer, born in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany (d. 1788)
1743 – Carl Peter Thunberg, Swedish naturalist, born in Jönköping, Sweden (d. 1828)
1945 – Chris Dreja, British rock guitarist and bass player (Yardbirds – “For Your Love”), born in Surbiton, Surrey, England
1978 – Lou Vincent, New Zealand cricketer, born in Warkworth, New Zealand
1980 – Willie Parker, American football running back (Pro Bowl 2006, 07; Super Bowl 2005, 08; Pittsburgh Steelers), born in Clinton, North Carolina

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Famous Deaths

683 – Yazid I [Yazīd ibn Mu‘āwiya Lanatullah], second Umayyad caliph (680–683), dies at 36
1968 – Janet Sobel [Jennie Olechovsky], Ukrainian-American abstract expressionist and drip-paint pioneering artist (Milky Way), dies at 75
1994 – John Volpe, American politician (61st and 63rd Governor of Massachusetts) and U.S. Secretary of Treasury (1969-73), dies at 85
1999 – Jacobo Timmerman, Argentine writer and journalist (b. 1923)
2012 – Rex Hunt, British diplomat and Governor of the Falkland Islands (1982-1985), dies at 86
2013 – Eddie McGrady, Northern Irish politician (SDLP) unseated Enoch Powell, dies at 78

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Historical Events

1444 – Battle at Varna, Black Sea: Sultan Murad II beats crusaders
1950 – Jacobo Árbenz elected President of Guatemala
1980 – Iraq captures southern port of Khorramshahr
2013 – Spaniard Marc Márquez wins the 2013 MotoGP World Championship to become its youngest ever winner at 20
2019 – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announces the discovery of a new oil field with an estimated 53 million barrels of oil in Khuzestan province
2019 – Bolivian President Evo Morales resigns amid widespread protests after national election considered irregular and manipulated

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Famous Birthdays

1888 – Andrej Tupolev, Russian aircraft builder, born in Pustomazovo, Russia (d. 1972)
1919 – Moise Tshombe, President of Katanga, then premier of the Congo (Zaire), born in Musumba (d. 1969)
1935 – Bernard Babior, American physician and biochemist, born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2004)
1956 – Scott Columbus, American heavy metal drummer (Manowar, 1983–91 and 1994–2008), born in USA (d. 2011)
1980 – Calvin Chen, Taiwanese singer (Fahrenhiet), born in Taipei, Taiwan
1982 – Clayton Fortune, English footballer (Bristol City), born in Forest Gate, England

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Famous Deaths

1982 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Leader, General Secretary (1964-82), dies of a heart attack at 75
1990 – Mário Schenberg, Brazilian physicist and electrical engineer, dies at 76
1995 – Clairmonte Depeiaza, West Indian cricketer (world record partnership v Aust 1955), dies at 67
2010 – Dave Niehaus, American sportscaster (b. 1935)
2010 – Nicolo Rizzuto, Italian-Canadian organized crime figure, killed at his residence by a sniper at 86
2015 – Gene Amdahl, American computer scientist who designed the IBM mainframe, dies at 92

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