Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1860 – Shoe-making workers of Lynn, Massachusetts, strike successfully for higher wages
1928 – First solo flight from England to Australia lands in Darwin 15½ days after takeoff, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler
1936 – Sonja Henie of Norway follows up her Winter Olympics victory with an incredible 10th consecutive women’s World Championship figure skating gold medal in Paris, France
1960 – German skier Georg Thoma becomes the first non-Nordic athlete to win the Nordic combined event at the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics
1982 – NYC Mayor Koch announces he will run for NY governor (unsuccessful)

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Famous Birthdays

1542 – Santino Garsi da Parma, Italian lutenist and composer, born in Parma, Papal States (d. 1604)
1920 – Del Wood [Adelaide Hazelwood], American country musician, born in Nashville, Tennessee (d. 1989)
1950 – Miou-Miou [Sylvette Herry], French actress (Dog Day, My Other Husband), born in Paris, France
1969 – Joaquín Cortés, Spanish dancer, born in Córdoba, Spain
1971 – Mohammed Sylla, Guinean football player (Willem II, FC Martigues), born in Conakry, Guinea (d. 2010)

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Famous Deaths

1968 – Omer CFL Tulippe, Belgian geographer, dies at 71
2001 – John Farley, American folk singer and guitarist (Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death), dies at 61
2002 – Charles “Chuck” Jones, American animator and cartoonist best known for his work with Warner Bros. (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Porky Pig), dies of congestive heart failure at 89
2024 – Jean-Guy Talbot, Canadian ice hockey defenceman (7 x Stanley Cup Montreal Canadiens; 6 x NHL All Star) and coach (St. Louis Blues, NY Rangers), dies at 91
2025 – Joe Fusco, American College Football HOF coach (Westminster College 1972-90), dies at 87

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Historical Events

1173 – Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury
1782 – US Congress resolves establishment of a US mint
1916 – Battle of Verdun begins with a German offensive, leads to an estimated 1 million casualties, and becomes the longest battle of the entire war (9 months)
1988 – Televangelist Jimmy Swaggert confesses his sins to his congregation
1997 – “Empire Strikes Back, special edition” premieres

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Famous Birthdays

1929 – Henry Kloss, American audio engineer (acoustic loudspeaker), born in Altoona, Pennsylvania (d. 2002)
1939 – Richard Beymer, American stage actor and singer (West Side Story; Diary of Anne Frank), born in Avoca, Iowa
1950 – Sahle-Work Zewde, Ethiopian diplomat, President of Ethiopia (2018-), born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
1961 – Christopher Atkins, American actor (Peter-Dallas, Blue Lagoon), born in Rye, New York
1969 – Tony Meola, American footballer, born in Belleville, New Jersey

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Famous Deaths

1790 – Johann Friedrich Klöffler, German composer, dies at 64
1901 – George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (b. 1851)
2011 – Bernard Nathanson, American abortionist turned pro-life activist (b. 1926)
2015 – Aleksei Gubarev, Soviet-Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz 17, 28), dies at 83
2023 – Amancio Amaro, Spanish soccer outside right (42 caps; Deportivo de La Coruña, Real Madrid), dies at 83

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Historical Events

1869 – Tennessee Governor W C Brownlow declares martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis
1873 – British Naval Officer John Moresby is the first European to discover Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, claims it for the United Kingdom
1877 – 1st cantilever bridge in US completed, Harrodsburg, Kentucky
1944 – World War II: The “Big Week” began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers
1994 – Pope John Paul II demands juristic discrimination of homosexuals

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Famous Birthdays

1809 – Henry Walton Wessells, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Lietchfield, Connecticut (d. 1889)
1883 – Shiga Naoya, Japanese novelist (Road Through Dark Night), born in Ishinomaki, Japan (d. 1971)
1934 – Bobby Unser, American auto racer (Indianapolis 500 1968, 1975, 1981; USAC C’ship 1968, 1974), born in Colorado Springs (d. 2021)
1985 – Julia Volkova, Russian pop singer (t.A.T.u. -single, “All the Things She Said”), born in Moscow
2003 – Olivia Rodrigo, American actress and singer-songwriter (“Driver’s License”), born in Temecula, California

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Famous Deaths

1903 – Charles Doolittle, American general (Union volunteer), dies at 70
1995 – John Humphreys Whitfield, British scholar of Italian language and literature, dies at 88
2001 – Rosemary DeCamp, American radio, film, and television character actress (Love That Bob – “Margaret”, That Girl – “Mrs. Marie”; The Partridge Family – “Amanda Renfrew”), dies of pneumonia at 90
2005 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), commits suicide via a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 67
2025 – David L. Boren, American politician (Governor of Oklahoma 1975-79; Sen-D-Oklahoma 1979-94), dies at 83

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Historical Events

1869 – US Assay Office in Boise, Idaho authorized
1953 – William Inge’s “Picnic” premieres in NYC
2018 – Syrian government forces bombard Gouta in deadliest day in 3 years, killing over 100 civilians
2018 – Nigeria says 110 girls missing, presumed kidnapped by Boko Haram after attack on school in Dapchi, Yobe state
2019 – Vatican confirms secret church guidelines for children of priests

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Famous Birthdays

1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer who theorized that planets revolve around the sun (Heliocentric theory), born in Toruń, Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland (d. 1543)
1906 – Grace Williams, Welsh composer (Penillion), and first British woman to score a feature film (Blue Scar), born in Barry, Wales (d. 1977)
1925 – Leslie Laing, Jamaican athlete (Olympic gold men’s 4x400m relay 1952 WR 3:03.9), born in Linstead, Saint Catherine, Jamaica (d. 2021)
1964 – Jennifer Doudna, American biochemist (2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for CRISPR Gene Editing), born in Washington D.C.
1971 – Glyn Milburn, American football running back/kick returner (First-team All-Pro 1999; Pro Bowl 1995, 99; Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears), born in Los Angeles, California

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Famous Deaths

1941 – Hamilton Harty, Irish composer and conductor called “the prince of accompanists”, dies at 61
1943 – Lynne Overman, American actor (Reap the Wild Wind), dies from a heart attack at 55
1980 – (Ronald) “Bon” Scott, Australian rock musician, singer, and lyricist (AC/DC -“It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll)”), dies of acute alcohol poisoning at 33
2000 – Marin Goleminov, Bulgarian violinist, composer, and pedagogue, dies at 91
2008 – Yegor Letov, Russian rock poet, songwriter, and singer (Grazhdanskaya Oborona), dies of heart failure at 43

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Historical Events

1735 – First opera performed in America, “Flora,” in Charleston, South Carolina
1856 – The American Party (Know-Nothings) convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate its first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
1900 – Battle at Paardeberg, 1,270 British killed/injured
1970 – US President Richard Nixon launches the “Nixon doctrine”
2019 – Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei says “There’s no way the US can crush us” in interview with BBC, saying his daughter’s arrest politically motivated

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Famous Birthdays

1836 – Ramakrishna [Gadadhar Chatterji], Indian mystic and yogi (preached unity of religions), born in Kamarpukur, British India (d. 1886)
1884 – Burton “Burt” Mustin, American actor (All in the Family, The Andy Griffith Show), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1977)
1929 – Len Deighton, British spy novelist (The IPCRESS File; An Expensive Place to Die), cookbook writer, and illustrator, born in Marylebone, London
1939 – Maxine Clair, American poet and novelist (Rattlebone, October Suite), born in Kansas City, Kansas (d. 2025)
1957 – Vanna Marie White, American television host (Wheel of Fortune), born in Conway, South Carolina

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Famous Deaths

1861 – Louis C Luzac, Dutch minister of Internal Affairs, dies at 74
1915 – Frank James, American outlaw (member of the James-Younger gang), dies at 72
1933 – James J. Corbett, American boxer (world heavyweight champion 1892-97), dies of liver cancer at 66
1993 – Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler, commits suicide at 33
1996 – Nicholas Beriozoff, Lithuanian-British dancer, choreographer and ballet master, dies at 89

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Historical Events

1865 – Union forces led by William T. Sherman capture the state capital of Columbia, South Carolina. The city is ablaze by nightfall, fanned by high winds devastating much of the city. It is not known which side started the fires.
1955 – KTVF TV channel 11 in Fairbanks, AK (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
1967 – Kosmos 140 (Soyuz Test) launches into Earth orbit
1987 – New York Yankees Don Mattingly wins highest salary arbitration ($1,975,000 per year)
2017 – Discovery of a new mostly underwater continent, Zealandia, in the South Pacific is announced in the research journal “GSA Today”

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Famous Birthdays

1774 – Raphaelle Peale, American painter (After the Rain, 1823), born in Annapolis, Maryland (d. 1825)
1945 – Roy Black, American defense attorney known for representing William Kennedy Smith and Jeffrey Epstein, born in Forest Hills, New York (d. 2025)
1950 – Rickey Medlocke, American rock guitarist, vocalist, and drummer (Blackfoot, 1969-97 – “Highway Song”‘ “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme”; Lynyrd Skynyrd, 1971-72 and 1996-present), born in Jackson, Florida
1968 – Aaron Blaise, American animator, painter, and film director (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Brother Bear, The Lion King), born in Burlington, Vermont
1969 – David Klingler, American NFL quarterback (Oakland Raiders, Cin Bengals), born in Houston, Texas

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Famous Deaths

1612 – Ernest of Bavaria, Prince-elector-archbishop of the Archbishopric of Cologne, dies at 57
1951 – Nikoghayos Fadeyi Tigranyan, Armenian composer, dies at 94
1997 – Zein Isa, Palestinian militant imprisoned in the United States for the honor killing of his daughter
2003 – Frank Thistlethwaite, English academic and Vice Chancellor (University of East Anglia), dies at 87
2025 – Gerd Stern, American poet of the Beat era, multi-media artist (USCO), and cheese monger, dies at 96

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Historical Events

1840 – American Charles Wilkes discovers the Shackleton Ice Shelf in Antarctica
1959 – Leonard Spigelgass’ “Majority of One” premieres in NYC
1965 – Pegasus 1 launched to detect micro-meteors
1973 – West Indies v Australia at Kingston, 1st time since 1955 without Garfield Sobers
2021 – Athens and parts of Greece covered in unusual heavy snowfall

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Famous Birthdays

1953 – André St. Laurent, Canadian NHL hockey forward, 1973-90 (New York Islanders, Detroit Red Wings, and 2 other teams), born in Rouyn, Quebec
1953 – George Martin, NFL defensive end, 1975-88 (NY Giants), born in Greenville, South Carolina
1958 – Ice-T [Tracy Marrow], American rapper (“O.G. Original Gangster”), and actor (New Jack City; Tank Girl; Law and Order: Special Victims Unit), born in Newark, New Jersey
1961 – Andy Taylor, British rock guitarist (Duran Duran – “Hungry Like the Wolf”; The Power Station), born in Tynemouth, England
1965 – Lucinda Riley, Northern Irish historical fiction and romance author (The Seven Sisters series, The Hidden Girl, The Italian Girl, The Angel tree), born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland (d. 2021)

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Famous Deaths

1531 – Johannes Stöffler, German mathematician and astronomer, dies at 78
1857 – Auguste-Gaspard-Louis Desnoyers, French engraver, dies at 77
1933 – Archie Jackson, Australian cricket batsman (8 Tests, 1 x 100, HS 164; NSWCA), dies from tuberculosis at 23
1968 – (James) Healey Willan, British-Canadian organist, composer, and educator, dies at 87
2023 – Chuck Jackson, American pop and RandB singer (“Any Day Now”; “I Don’t Want to Cry”; “I Keep Forgettin'”), dies at 85

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Historical Events

1764 – St. Louis, Missouri founded as a French trading post by Pierre Laclède
1804 – New Jersey becomes last northern state to abolish slavery
1991 – Freighter with dynamite explodes in Phang Nga Thailand, 120 die
1991 – Daily market volatility as Hussein mentions withdrawal, but Bush calls his offer a “cruel hoax”
2018 – German figure skaters Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot set new ISU best free skating score of 159.31 on their way to pairs gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

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Famous Birthdays

1835 – Alexander Stuart Webb, American Union general (medal for gallantry at Battle of Gettysburg), born in New York City (d. 1911)
1883 – Sax Rohmer [Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward], English author (Dr Fu Manchu novels), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1959)
1909 – Harold Beeley, British diplomat to the Arab world, born in Manchester, England (d. 2001)
1923 – Yelena Bonner, Soviet dissident and wife of Andre Sakharov, born in Merv, Turkmenistan, Soviet Union (d. 2011)
1968 – Axelle Red [Fabienne Demal], Belgian pop and soul singer-songwriter (“Sensualité”, “Parce que c’est toi”),human rights activist, and UNICEF ambassador, born in Hasselt, Belgium

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Famous Deaths

1713 – Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, English politician and philosopher, dies at 41
1839 – Chevalier de Lorimier, Quebec notary (b. 1803)
1943 – Victor Harris, American organist, composer, conductor (St. Cecilia Society, 1902-36), vocal coach, and educator, dies at 73
1961 – Maribel Vinson, American figure skater (9 time US National Champion) and coach, dies in a plane crash at 49
2025 – Gran Hamada [Hiroaki Hamada], Japanese professional wrestler (New Japan Pro-Wrestling), dies at 74

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Historical Events

1804 – Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire
1992 – Kieren John Perkins swims world record 800m freestyle (7:46.60)
1998 – Authorities in the United States announce that Eric Robert Rudolph is a suspect in an Alabama abortion clinic bombing
2013 – A suicide bombing kills 4 police officer and injures 5 in Dagestan
2023 – Rapper and musician Pharrell Williams appointed menswear designer for Louis Vuitton

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Famous Birthdays

1870 – Bob Quinn, American baseball executive (owner Boston Red Sox 1923–33; part owner Boston Braves 1936–45; President National Baseball Hall of Fame 1948–51), born in Columbus, Ohio (d. 1954)
1932 – Peter Ball, British Church of England clergyman (Bishop of Gloucester. 1992-93; Bishop of Lewes, 1977-92), and convicted sex offender, born in West Sussex, England (d. 2019)
1941 – Donna Shalala, American educator and politician, US Secretary of Health under Bill Clinton (Rep-Florida 2019-21), born in Cleveland, Ohio
1953 – Wayne Siegel, American electro-acoustic contemporary classical composer, based in Denmark, born in Los Angeles, California
1994 – Becky Hill, English singer (The Voice UK, 2012; “Remember”), born in Bewdley, England

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Famous Deaths

1820 – Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, son of French King Charles X, assassinated by a Bonapartist at 42
1831 – Henry Maudslay, English inventor of the metal lathe, dies at 59
1857 – Johannes Bernardus van Bree, Dutch violinist, composer and conductor, dies at 56
1990 – Tony Holiday, German singer, dies of complications from AIDS at 38
2021 – Peter Martinček van Grob, Slovakian contemporary classical composer and conductor, dies at 58

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Historical Events

1867 – Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels’s primary river and creating the modern central boulevards
1881 – The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by activist Hubertine Auclert
1934 – Soviet steamship SS Chelyuskin sinks in the Arctic Ocean after being crushed by ice packs near Kolyuchin Island in the Chukchi Sea
1979 – Formation of Guardian Angels crime fighters in New York City
1990 – 50 killed at Inkatha-UDF battle in Natal, South Africa

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Famous Birthdays

1879 – Sarojini Naidu, Indian freedom fighter and poet, born in Hyperbad, India (d. 1949)
1909 – M. Vasalis [Margaretha Droogleever Fortuyn-Leenmans], Dutch poet (Phoenix), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1998)
1910 – William Shockley, American physicist who helped invent the transistor (1956 Nobel), who was also known for his racist eugenics views, born in London, England (d. 1989)
1912 – Margaretta Scott, British actress (Crescendo, Where’s Charley, Counterblast), born in Westminster, London (d. 2005)
1970 – Ruben Brown, American football guard (9 × Pro Bowl; Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears), born in Englewood, New Jersey

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Famous Deaths

1130 – Honorius II [Lamberto], Pope (1124-30), dies
1897 – Joseph O. Shelby, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 66
1958 – Dame Christabel Pankhurst, a leading suffragette (English) “Queen of the mob” (b.1880)
1991 – Ron Pickering, British athletics coach (GB 1964 Summer Olympics) and broadcaster (BBC), dies after a heart bypass operation at 60
2025 – Jim Guy Tucker, American attorney, businessman, and politician (Governor of Arkansas, 1992-96; US Representative form Arkansas, 1977-79), convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud in Whitewater Scandal (1996), dies of complications of colitis at 81

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