Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1775 – Francis Salvador becomes 1st Jew elected to office in America (SC)
1779 – Ching-Thang Khomba is crowned King of Manipur.
1865 – Battle of Beverly, West Virginia, Confederate forces attack Union post
1962 – Landslide at dormant volcano Huascaran in Peru kills an estimated 4,000
1978 – Soyuz 27 links with Salyut 6 and Soyuz 26 (1st time 3 spacecraft link)
1981 – NFC Championship, Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia: Philadelphia Eagles beat Dallas Cowboys, 20-7

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Famous Birthdays

1630 – John Rogers, American President of Harvard in the US (d. 1684)
1901 – Andries D Copier, Dutch glass manufacturer (Gildeglass)
1920 – John Powell, campaigner
1965 – Roland Scholten, Dutch darts player (UK Open 2004), born in The Hague, Netherlands
1968 – Benjamin List, German chemist (2021 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for asymmetric organocatalysis), born in Frankfurt, Germany
1993 – Flora Cross, French-American actress, born in Paris, France

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Famous Deaths

1771 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d’Argens, French author, dies at 66
1847 – Caroline von Wolzogen [von Lengefeld], German author, dies at 83
1870 – Adolf Ganz, German composer and violinist, dies at 73
1931 – James Milton Carroll, American Baptist pastor, leader, historian, and author (b. 1852)
1952 – Aureliano Pertile, Italian tenor, dies at 66
1994 – John Bradley, United States Navy corpsman, one of six who raised flag on top of Mt. Suribachi (see Iwo Jima), dies of a stroke at 70

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Historical Events

1889 – Ivory Coast declared a protectorate of France
1914 – Yuan Shih-k’ai, president of the new Chinese republic, dissolves parliament and prepares a constitution of his own design: he will set himself up as dictator, preparatory to an attempt to make himself emperor
1948 – “Call Me Mister” closes at National Theater NYC after 734 performances
1965 – WKBD TV channel 50 in Detroit, MI (IND) begins broadcasting
1966 – The Georgia House of Representatives votes 184-12 to deny Julian Bond his seat as a result of his opposition to the Vietnam War
1991 – Japan ends routine fingerprinting of all adult ethnic Koreans

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Famous Birthdays

1502 – Hendrik Niclaes, German mystic and founder of Christian sect “Familia Caritatis”, born in Münster, Germany (d. 1570)
1538 – Louis of Nassau, Dutch general, born in Dillenburg, Germany (d. 1574)
1573 – Simon Marius, German astronomer, born in Gunzenhausen, Germany (d. 1624)
1654 – Joshua Barnes, English scholar, born in London, United Kingdom (d. 1712)
1963 – Deborah Bone, English mental health nurse who was the inspiration for the song Disco 2000 by Jarvis Cocker, born in Sheffield, England (d. 2014)
1971 – Sergi Bruguera, Italian tennis star, born in Barcelona, Spain

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Famous Deaths

1951 – [Harry] Sinclair Lewis, American writer (Nobel Prize in Literature 1930), dies from advanced alcoholism at 65
1966 – George Cresswell, cricketer (Took 13 wkts in 3 Tests for NZ), suicide
1997 – Hilary Grover Barratt Brown, conservationist, dies at 71
2015 – Francesco Rosi, Italian film director (“The Mattei Affair” – Palme d’Or 1972), dies at 92
2020 – Guido Messina, Italian road and track cyclist (World C’ship gold individual 4000m pursuit 1948, 53, 54, 55, 56; Olympic gold team 1952), dies at 89
2021 – Donald Smith, English cricket batsman (3 Tests; Sussex), dies at 97

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Historical Events

1930 – Boston Bruins wins then NHL record 14th straight game
1972 – Retired passenger liner Queen Elizabeth destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbour
1990 – US Supreme Court strikes down Dallas’ ordinance imposing strict zoning on sexually oriented businesses
1998 – Boston Red Sox Mo Vaughn pleads not guilty to drunken driving
2001 – Apple announced iTunes at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, for organizing and playing digital music and videos
2007 – Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs announces the iPhone

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Famous Birthdays

1870 – Joseph B Strauss, civil engineer/builder (Golden Gate Bridge)
1901 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (Blondie), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1973)
1916 – Peter Twinn, English World War II code-breaker, born in Streatham, London (d. 2004)
1940 – Al Downing, American rockabilly piano player and singer (Big Al and The Chartbusters), born in Centralia, Oklahoma (d. 2005)
1959 – Cristi Minculescu, Romanian musician, born in Pitești, Romania
1972 – Jay Powell, American baseball pitcher (Florida Marlins), born in Meridian, Mississippi

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Famous Deaths

1799 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian scientist (b. 1718)
1876 – Samuel Gridley Howe, United States physician, abolitionist, and an advocate of education for the blind, dies at 74
1904 – Alfred Richard, cricketer (6 and 0 in only Test for S Af 1895-96), dies
1929 – Heiner Muller, writer, dies
1941 – Ko Boezeman, Dutch resistance fighter, dies
2017 – Warren Allen Smith, American gay rights activist and writer, dies at 95

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Historical Events

1902 – New York state assemblyman Francis G. ​Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize men turning around on a street and “looking at a woman in that way”
1966 – The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” single goes #1 and stays #1 for 3 weeks
1978 – Israeli government votes to ‘strengthen’ settlements in occupied Sinai
1978 – TV series “All Creatures Great and Small” debuts on BBC TV, based on the books by James Herriot, starring Robert hardy and Christopher Timothy
1993 – NBC offers “The Tonight Show” to David Letterman
2001 – The identities of 2 boys who murdered a toddler in 1993 will be kept secret, the High Court rules

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Famous Birthdays

1635 – Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero, Spanish cardinal archbishop, born in Palma del Río, Spain (d. 1709)
1852 – James Milton Carroll, American pastor and author (d. 1931)
1901 – Edmond Vandercammen, French-Belgian painter and poet (Grand Combat), born in Ohain, Belgium (d. 1980)
1915 – Walker Cooper, American baseball catcher (MLB All-Star 1942–44, 46–50; World Series 1942, 44; St. Louis Cardinals), born in Atherton, Missouri (d. 1991)
1957 – Ron Cephas Jones, American actor (This is Us), born in Patterson, New Jersey
1981 – Jeff Francis, Canadian baseball player, born in Vancouver, British Columbia

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Famous Deaths

1324 – Marco Polo, Venetian explorer (The Travels of Marco Polo), dies at 69
1938 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist, creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy (b. 1880)
1963 – Kay [Katherine Linn] Sage, American artist and poet commits suicide aged 64
1964 – Julius Raab, Austrian Chancellor (1953-61), dies at 72
1975 – Richard Tucker [Reuben Ticker], American tenor (La Gioconda), dies at 61
1994 – Harvey Haddix, American baseball pitcher (12 perfect inning game), dies at 68

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Historical Events

1698 – Russian Tsar Peter the Great departs Netherlands for England
1935 – French Foreign minister Pierre Laval and Benito Mussolini sign the Franco-Italian Agreement
1973 – Johnny Watkins bowls six overs 0-21 v Pakistan Never again
2008 – College Football, 10th BCS National Championship Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans: #2 LSU beats #1 Ohio State, 38-24
2019 – Amazon overtakes Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable listed company for the first time, worth $797 billion
2021 – WHO warns Europe needs to do more to “flatten the steep vertical line” of COVID-19 cases and control the spread of the new variant, with 230 million already living under lockdown

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Famous Birthdays

1890 – Henny Porten, German silent screen star (Deception), born in Magdeburg, Germany (d. 1960)
1912 – Günter Wand, German conductor, composer (d. 2002)
1935 – Valeri Nikolayevich Kubasov, Soviet/Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz 6, 19, 36/35), born in Vyazniki, Russia (d. 2014)
1945 – Raila Odinga, Kenyan politician, Prime Minister of Kenya (2008-2013), born in Maseno, Kenya
1964 – Francisco Maciel, Mexican tennis star, born in Querétaro, Mexico
1981 – Alex Auld, Canadian ice hockey player, born in Cold Lake, Canada

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Famous Deaths

1907 – Anton Urspruch, German composer, dies at 56
1922 – Antonio Scontrino, Italian composer, dies at 71
1967 – Sid Emery, cricket leg-spinner (NSW and Aus, 5 wkt in 1912 series), dies
1984 – Alfred Kastler, French physicist (Nobel 1966 – Hertzian resonances within atoms), dies at 81
2018 – Isabelle “France” Gall, French pop singer (Donner Pour Donner, Sacré Charlemagne), dies from cancer at 70
2019 – Clydie Mae King, American session and touring vocalist (Ray Charles; Bob Dylan; Humble Pie; Lynyrd Skynrd), dies of a blood infection at 75

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Historical Events

1857 – Patent for reducing zinc ore granted to Samuel Wetherill, Penn
1900 – Maurice Ravel’s “Albaradode Gracioso” premieres in Paris
1931 – Thomas Edison submits his last patent application
1972 – US male Figure Skating championship won by Kenneth Shelley
1985 – NFC Championship, Candlestick Park, SF: San Francisco 49ers beat Chicago Bears, 23-0
2019 – Record $3.1 million (333.6 million yen) price for giant bluefin tuna at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market bought by sushi restaurant owner Kiyoshi Kimura

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Famous Birthdays

1585 – Claude Favre de Vaugelas, Savoyard grammarian, born in Meximieux, Duchy of Savoy (d. 1650)
1913 – Loretta Young, American actress (Farmer’s Daughter, Stranger), born in Salt Lake City, Utah (d. 2000)
1931 – Graeme Hole, Australian cricketer (Australian batsman of the fifties), born in Concord West, Australia (d. 1990)
1931 – E. L. Doctorow, American author (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate), born in The Bronx, New York (d. 2015)
1954 – Norbert Hahn, 2 man luge (Olympic gold 1976, 80), born in Elbingerode, Germany
1966 – Donnell Woolford, NFL cornerback (Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears), born in Baltimore, Maryland

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Famous Deaths

1852 – Louis Braille, French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for the blind, dies of tuberculosis at 43
1936 – Charles Stoneham, American owner of the NY Giants), dies at 59
1939 – Albert Ward, cricketer (England batsman in 7 Tests 1893-95), dies
1977 – Niall MacGinnis, Irish character actor (Curse of the Demon, Helen of Troy), dies from cancer at 63
1987 – Domingo Santa Cruz Wilson, Chilean composer, dies at 87
1995 – James Clay, American jazz tenor saxophonist, dies at 59

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Historical Events

1937 – Australian cricket batsmen Jack Fingleton (136) and Don Bradman (out 270 the following day) make then record stand of 346 for 6th wicket in 3rd Test vs England in Melbourne
1952 – Flying Enterprise sinks
1953 – Samuel Beckett’s “En Attendant Godot” premieres in Paris
1972 – NYC transit fare rises from 30 cents to 35 cents
1997 – “Juan Darien-Carnival Mass” closes at Vivian Beaumont NYC
2010 – Mike Shanahan is formally introduced as head coach of the Washington Redskins

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Famous Birthdays

1779 – Stephen Decatur, American naval hero (War of 1812), born in Sinepuxent, Maryland (d. 1820)
1835 – Hendrik van Rijgersma, Dutch naturalist and physician, born in Lemmer, Netherlands (d. 1877)
1861 – Heinrich Gottlieb Noren, Austrian violinist and composer (Kaleidoscope), born in Graz (d. 1928)
1889 – Albert van Dalsum, Dutch actor and director (Wilton’s Zoo; Little Rascal), born in Nieuwer-Amstel, Noord-Holland, Netherlands (d. 1971)
1902 – Pierre Palla, Dutch pianist and organist, born in Venlo, Netherlands (d. 1968)
1975 – Kylie Bax, New Zealand model, born in Thames, New Zealand

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Famous Deaths

1603 – Pieter Adriaansz van der Werff, mayor of Lead, dies at 73
1948 – Mary Dimmick Harrison, 1st lady (1889-1893) as second wife of the 23rd United States president Benjamin Harrison, dies at 89
1951 – Andrei P Platonov, Russian author (Prok, Kotlovan), dies at 51
1965 – Paul Arntzenius, Dutch painter, graphic artist and etcher, dies at 81
1970 – Joseph A Yablonski, candidate for United Mine Workers pres, murdered
1991 – John Eckhardt, actor born without legs (Freaks), dies at 82

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Historical Events

1920 – Amsterdam actors decide to strike for retirement benefits
1965 – LBJ’s “Great Society” State of the Union Address
1975 – New Orleans Jazz set a then NBA record (with 24-second shot clock) by scoring only 20 points in the first half of a 111-89 loss in Seattle; unwanted record stands for nearly 25 years
1998 – “Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” closes at St James NYC after 715 perform
1999 – Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.
2014 – Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: France wins first title; Alizé Cornet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Poland’s Agnieszka Radwańska and Grzegorz Panfil 6-0, 6-2 to clinch 2-1 victory

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Famous Birthdays

1925 – Veikko Hakulinen, Finnish cross country skier (Olympic gold 1952, 56, 60), born in Kurkijoki, Finland (d. 2003)
1929 – Bobby Tulloch, ornithologist
1943 – Doris Kearns Goodwin, American historian and writer (Team of Rivals, No Ordinary Time), born in Brooklyn, New York
1947 – John King, American rock drummer (Steve Miller Band, 1972-74), born in Kingsport, Tennessee (d. 2010)
1960 – Michael Stipe, American rock vocalist and songwriter (R.E.M. – “Losing My Religion”; “Stand”; “Everybody Hurts”), born in Decatur, Georgia
1967 – Michael “Mike” Peterson, American rower (Olympics 1996), born in Washington, D.C.

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Famous Deaths

1612 – Henry L Spieghel, Dutch merchant/writer, dies at 62
1825 – Ferdinand I, King of Sicily/Naples (Ferdinand IV), dies at 73
1886 – Ernest Panckoucke, French publisher (Horace), dies at 77
1942 – Leon Jessel, German composer (The Parade of the Tin Soldiers), dies at 70
1968 – Joseph Pholien, Belgian PM (1950-52) communist fighter, dies at 83
2020 – Walter Ormeño, Peruvian soccer goalkeeper (Peru 1949-57; Boca Juniors, Rosario Central), dies at 93

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Historical Events

1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine
1967 – Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys is indicted for draft evasion
1977 – Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs incorporate Apple Computer, Inc
1992 – 32 Cubans defect to the US via helicopter
1993 – In Moscow, the Start II arms reduction treaty is signed by George H. W. Bush (USA) and Boris Yeltsin (Russia)
2012 – 78th Sugar Bowl: #13 Michigan beats #11 Virginia Tech, 23-20

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Famous Birthdays

1861 – Ernest Renshaw, British tennis player (Wimbledon 1888), born in Leamington, England (d. 1899)
1887 – Helen Parkhurst, US educator (Education on the Dalton plan)
1901 – Ngô Đình Diệm, President and authoritarian leader of South Vietnam (1954-63), born in Quảng Bình, French Indochina (d. 1963)
1973 – Dan Harmon, American voice actor, producer and writer (Rick and Morty, Community), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1977 – Mayumi Iizuka, Japanese voice actress (seiyū)
1986 – Lloyd Polite, American RandB singer

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Famous Deaths

1761 – Willem de Fesch, Dutch violinist and composer (Joseph), dies at 73
1900 – Edwin George Monk, English church organist and composer, dies at 80
1980 – Lucien Buysse, Belgian cyclist (Tour de France 1926), dies at 87
1980 – Joy Adamson [Friederike Viktoria Gessner], Austrian naturalist and author (Born Free), murdered at 69 by her servant
1981 – Princess Alice of Albany (b. 1883)
2007 – William Verity Jr., United States Secretary of Commerce 1987-1989 (b. 1917)

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Historical Events

1921 – DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opens
1923 – Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on black residential area Rosewood Florida, 8 killed (compensation awarded in 1995)
1972 – “Rothschilds” closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 505 performances
1986 – Islanders right wing Mike Bossy scores his 499th and 500th career goals in the final 2:22 to lift the New York to a 7-5 victory over the Boston Bruins; 11th player in NHL history to score 500 goals
1994 – Battles between army and rebellious indians in South Mexico, kill 57
1995 – Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (est 15 billion light years away)

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Famous Birthdays

1822 – Rudolph J E Clausius, German physicist (thermodynamics)
1920 – Peter Harrison Swan, bomber pilot/stockbroker
1920 – Isaac Asimov, Russian scientist and sci-fi writer (I Robot, Foundation Trilogy), born in Petrovichi, Russia (d. 1992)
1928 – Harry Hyams, English immovable goods owner (Center Point)
1967 – Tia Carrere [Althea Janairo], American actress (Wayne’s World, True Lies), born in Honolulu, Hawaii
1976 – Paz Vega, Spanish actress

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Famous Deaths

1790 – Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer, German rococo sculptor, dies at 73
1937 – Ross Alexander, American stage and film actor (Captain Blood, Boulder Dam), commits suicide by gunshot at 29
1988 – E.B. Ford, British ecological geneticist, dies at 86
2008 – Gerry Staley, American baseball pitcher (MLB All Star 1952-53, 60; St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago White Sox), dies of natural causes at 87
2009 – Maria de Jesus, Portuguese supercentenarian, dies at 115
2013 – Margaret A. Brewer, American soldier and first female general officer in US Marine Corps, dies at 82

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