Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1808 – Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War.
1968 – After 5 years Soviet Union once again jams Voice of America radio
1970 – The Social and Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) is established with Gerry Fitt as the first leader of the party
2007 – Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph. Dean is the first storm since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.
2017 – Johnson and Johnson ordered to pay $417m to woman who developed ovarian cancer after using their talc-based products
2019 – 74,155 fires caused by land clearing are burning in the Amazon rain forest, the most ever recorded, according the Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research

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Famous Birthdays

1891 – [George] Bugs Moran, American gangster, born in St. Paul, Minnesota (d. 1957)
1950 – Arthur Bremer, American criminal who shot George Wallace in May 1972 leaving him paralyzed, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1952 – Keith Hart, Canadian professional wrestler, born in Great Falls, Montana
1958 – Ralph Marrero, American actor (Dawn of the Dead; The Babe; Johnny Suede), born in New York City (d. 1991)
1967 – Tuineau Alipate, NLF/WLAF linebacker (Frankfurt Galaxy, Minnesota Vikings), born in Tonga
1981 – Collie Buddz [Colin Patrick Harper], American Reggae and Dancehall artist (Come Around), born in New Orleans, Louisiana

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Famous Deaths

1614 – Elizabeth Báthory, the world’s most prolific female serial killer, dies at 54
1952 – Isaac Sadeh, leader of Jewish commando forces, dies
1981 – Hermann Schey, German-Dutch singer, dies at 85
2008 – Jerry Finn, American record producer (b. 1969)
2009 – Johnny Carter, American singer (The Flamingos, The Dells), dies at 75
2012 – Georg Leber, German politician, dies at 91

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Historical Events

1597 – 1st Dutch East India Company ships return from the Far East
1913 – 1st pilot to parachute from an aircraft (Adolphe Pégoud, France)
1944 – French General Charles de Gaulle returns to France
1955 – Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria
1994 – Archbishop Quarracino wants all homosexuals to leave Argentina
2018 – Pope Francis releases letter to all Catholics condemning sexual abuse atrocities and clerical cover-ups “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them”

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Famous Birthdays

1936 – Hideki Shirakawa, Japanese chemist (Nobel Prize 2000 – discovery and development of conductive polymers), born in Tokyo
1949 – Alan Hardwick, English TV presenter, born in Staveley, Derbyshire, England
1971 – Oronde Gadsden, American NFL wide receiver (Dallas Cowboys), born in Charleston, South Carolina
1974 – Andy Strachan, Australian musician (The Living End), born in Adelaide, Australia
1977 – Ívar Ingimarsson, Icelandic footballer, born in Reykjavík, Iceland
1978 – Sanna Lankosaari, Finnish ice hockey right wing (Finland, Olympics 1998), born in Kemi, Finland

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Famous Deaths

1648 – Edward Herbert of Cherbury, English military/philosopher, dies at 65
1887 – Jules Laforgue, French poet (Les Complaintas), dies at 27
1993 – Sydney Arnold, British comic actor (The Meaning of Life, Top Secret!, Miss Jones and Son), dies at 93
1995 – William Kennedy, baseball player, dies at 76
2007 – Leona Helmsley, American real estate billionaire and convicted of federal income tax evasion, dies at 87
2012 – Dom Mintoff, Maltese Prime Minister (1955-58, 1971-84), dies at 96

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Historical Events

1493 – Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I becomes Archduke of Austria
1945 – Phillies Jimmie Foxx, 37, pitches 1st 7 innings vs Reds and wins
1958 – NAACP Youth Council begin sit-ins at Oklahoma City Lunch counters
2008 – Chris Hoy encapsulates British dominance of track cycling at the Beijing Olympics beating teammate Jason Kenny to win the sprint, adding to his keirin and team sprint gold medals
2018 – Novak Đoković beats Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Cincinnati Masters to become the first player to win all 9 Masters 1,000 tennis tournaments since the series started in 1990
2020 – Golfing dinner termed #GolfGatet appearing to flout COVID-19 restrictions, attended by Irish political figures, prompts two politicians to later resign

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Famous Birthdays

1631 – John Dryden, English poet (1st Poet Laureate 1668-1700), born in Aldwincle, Northamptonshire (d. 1700) [OS=Aug 9]
1873 – Fred Stone, renowned American circus performer and broadway actor (Alice Adams), born in Longmont, Colorado (d. 1959)
1924 – William Marshall, American actor, director, and opera singer (Blacula, Scream Blacula Scream), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2003)
1956 – Cindy Nelson, American skier (Olympic bronze 1976)
1979 – Oumar Kondé, Swiss footballer, born in Binningen, Switzerland
1985 – Megan Rochell, American RandB singer, born in Brooklyn, New York

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Famous Deaths

1892 – František Zdeněk Skuherský, Czech composer, dies at 62
1947 – Ernst Laqueur, Dutch chemist and psychologist (sexual hormones), dies at 67
1967 – Carl Wilhelm de Vries, Dutch jurist, dies at 84
1968 – Sara Jane Roberts, child actress (Our Gang), dies after surgery at 44
1977 – Groucho Marx [Julius], American comedian (Marx Bros, You Bet Your Life), dies at 86
1993 – Jean King, actress (Night Hasa a Thousand Eyes), dies at 76

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Historical Events

1564 – Spanish King Philip II joins Council of Trente
1735 – Evening Post begins publishing (Boston, Mass)
1737 – First public admittance to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris
1868 – French Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse
1896 – Adolph Ochs (39) buys NY Times
1976 – USSR’s Luna 24 soft-lands on Moon

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Famous Birthdays

1579 – Charlotte Flandrina van Nassau, daughter of Willem I of Orange
1605 – Henry Hammond, English churchman, born in Chertsey, Surrey, England (d. 1660)
1904 – [Francis] Max Factor, American CEO of Max Factor Cosmetics, born in St. Louis, Missouri
1934 – Rafer Johnson, American decathlete (Olympic gold 1960), born in Hillsboro, Texas (d. 2020)
1952 – Ricky Villa, Argentine former footballer, born in Roque Pérez, Argentina
1976 – Tom Malchow, American 200m swimmer (Olympic silver 1996), born in Saint Paul, Minnesota

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Famous Deaths

1840 – Antony CW Staring, Dutch patriot/poet (Jaromir), dies at 73
1981 – Anita Loos, American screenwriter, novelist (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) and playwright, dies at 88
1998 – Persis Khambatta, Indian actress (Star Trek, Megaforce), dies of a heart attack at 49
2001 – David Peakall, British scientist (b. 1931)
2002 – Dean Riesner, American film and television screenwriter (Bill and Coo), dies at 83
2010 – Benjamin Kaplan, American copyright scholar, dies at 99

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Historical Events

1544 – Imperial/English armies occupy Saint-Dizier France
1939 – “The Wizard of Oz” opens at Loews Capitol Theatre in NY
1944 – 4th Canadian Armoured division occupiers Trun, Normandy
1982 – First Compact Discs (CDs) released to the public in Germany
2014 – LPGA Championship Women’s Golf, Monroe GC: Defending champion Inbee Park of South Korea beats runner-up Brittany Lincicome on 1st hole of a sudden-death playoff for her 5th major title
2015 – World’s first flower could be underwater plant Montsechia Vidalii claim US botanists (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

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Famous Birthdays

1885 – Kurt Hiller, German writer, born in Berlin (d. 1972)
1890 – Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator (d. 1920)
1936 – Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Native American musician and actor and activist, born on Lake Traverse Indian Reservation, South Dakota (d. 2007)
1953 – Judith Regan, American book publisher, born in Massachusetts
1964 – Colin James, Canadian singer-songwriter, born in Regina, Saskatchewan
1966 – Zefross Moss, American NFL tackle (Detroit Lions, NE Patriots), born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

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Famous Deaths

1553 – Charles III, Duke of Savoy (1504-53), dies at 66
1676 – Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, German writer (Simplicius Simplicissimus), dies
1834 – Husein Gradaščević, Bosniak general, dies at 31
1973 – Paul Williams, American baritone singer and choreographer (The Temptations – Cloud Nine), commits suicide at 32
1992 – Andre de Villiers, South African farmer and ANC informant, murdered at 42
1993 – Robert C Maynard, American journalist (Oakland Tribune), dies at 56

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Historical Events

1943 – Bulgarian Tsar Boris III visits Adolf Hitler
1975 – Singer Peter Gabriel announces his departure from the rock group Genesis
1981 – American swimmer Mary T. Meagher breaks her own world women’s 100 m butterfly record (57.93) in Brown Deer, Wisconsin; holds 100/200m double WR
1990 – China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC
2017 – Over 100 Maasai houses destroyed in Tanzania by game park authorities as part of a border dispute near Serengeti National Park
2020 – Japan’s economy, the world’s third largest, posts its worst-ever decline, falling 7.8% (April-June quarter)

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Famous Birthdays

1557 – Agostino Carracci, Italian artist (Communion of St. Jerome), born in Bologna, Italy (d. 1602)
1864 – Ferdinand C. S. Schiller, German-British philosopher (Riddles of the Sphinx), born in Altona, Holstein, German Confederation (d. 1937)
1892 – Otto Messmer, American cartoonist (Felix the Cat), born in Union City, New Jersey (d. 1983)
1939 – Sir Trevor Mcdonald, Trinidadian-born British television newsreader
1975 – Didier Agathe, French footballer, born in Saint-Pierre, Réunion
1980 – Robert “Bob” Hardy, English musician (Franz Ferdinand), born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

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Famous Deaths

1518 – Loyset Compère, French composer
1894 – Herman van der Tuuk, Dutch linguist (Toba Batak grammar), dies at 70
1938 – Andrej Hlinka, Slovak politician and Catholic priest, dies at 1938
1994 – Earnest Pawel, Polish/American author (Nightmare of Reason), dies at 74
2000 – Alan Caddy, English musician (The Tornados), dies at 60
2005 – Joe Ranft, American screenwriter and animator (Toy Story, Cars), dies at 45

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Historical Events

778 – Battle of Roncevaux Pass: Roland, commander of the rearguard of Charlemagne’s army is defeated by the Basques
1918 – 1st full length cartoon (Sinking of Lusitania)
1948 – US Open Women’s Golf, Atlantic City CC: Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins by 8 strokes from Betty Hicks
1952 – 9 inches of rain fall creates a 20 ft wave in Lynmouth, England, killing 34
1971 – Charles Lismont wins Helsinki marathon (2:13:09.0)
1993 – NYC radio (WFAN) personality Don Imus’ lung collapses for 2nd time

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Famous Birthdays

1769 – Napoleon Bonaparte, French military leader and Emperor of the French (1804-14, 1815), born in Ajaccio, Corsica, France (d. 1821)
1901 – Sulho Ranta, Finnish composer, born in Peräseinäjoki, Finland (d. 1960)
1914 – Peter Nicholson Gunn, Australian writer (The Churches of Rome), born in Sydney, Australia (d. 1995)
1946 – Tony Robinson, English actor, comedian and author, born in Homerton, London
1946 – Jean-Claude Arnault, French Swedish photographer involved in Nobel Prize scandal, born in Marseille, France
1977 – Igor Cassina, Italian gymnast (Olympic gold 2004), born in Seregno, Italy

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Famous Deaths

1552 – Hermann of Wied, German Catholic archbishop (b. 1477)
1971 – Thomas Wayne, American rockabilly singer (“Tragedy”), dies in a car accident at 31
1975 – Clay Shaw, alleged John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracist and businessman (b. 1913)
1981 – Pappy Waldorf, American College Football Hall of Fame tackle and coach (Northwestern, California), dies at 78
1990 – Lew DeWitt, American country singer and composer (Statler Brothers – “Flowers on the Wall”), dies of Crohn’s disease complications at 52
2008 – Vic Toweel, South African boxer (undisputed world bantamweight champion), dies at 79

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Historical Events

1966 – 1st US lunar orbiter begins orbiting Moon
1971 – France performs nuclear test
1974 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
2003 – Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
2012 – 46 people are killed and 80 injured after a series of suicide bombings in Afghanistan
2017 – Parliamentary citizenship scandal deepens in Australia after Barnaby Joyce, Deputy PM revealed to be a New Zealand citizen

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Famous Birthdays

1599 – Méric Casaubon, French-English classical scholar, born in Geneva (d. 1671)
1899 – Jaroslav Jeremiáš, Czech pianist and composer, born in Pisek, Bohemia Austria-Hungary (d. 1919)
1913 – Fred Davis, English snooker player (World C’ship 1948-49, 51), born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire (d. 1998)
1924 – Georges Prêtre, French classical and opera conductor known for interpretation of Poulenc, born in Waziers, France (d. 2017)
1974 – Christopher Gorham, American actor, born in Fresno, California
1986 – Terin Humphrey, American gymnast, born in Saint Joseph, Missouri

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Famous Deaths

1433 – John I, king of Portugal (1383-1433), dies at 76
1955 – Herbert Putnam, American Librarian of Congress, dies at 93
1977 – Alexander Luria, Russian neuropsychologist (Higher Cortical Functions in Man), dies at 75
1982 – Patrick Magee [McGee], Northern Irish actor and director (A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon), dies from a heart attack at 60
1999 – Harold “Pee Wee” Reese, American MLB baseball shortstop, 10x All-Star (Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, 1940-58), dies at of cancer 81
2013 – Lisa Robin Kelly, American actress, dies at 43

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Historical Events

1516 – The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis recognises Charles’s claim to Naples, and Charles recognises Francis’s claim to Milan.
1521 – Spanish conquistadors under Hernán Cortés capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan marking the end of the Aztec Empire
1792 – Revolutionaries imprison French royals, including Marie Antoinette
1906 – Black soldiers raid Brownsville, Texas
1914 – -14] German army occupies forts at Liege
2004 – 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi

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Famous Birthdays

1752 – Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of the Two Sicilies, born in Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna (d. 1814)
1911 – James Benton Parson, American judge, 1st African American federal judge, born in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 1993)
1940 – Tony Cloninger, American MLB pitcher and coach (2 Grand Slams in one game), born in Cherryville, North Carolina (d. 2018)
1941 – Jim Barnes, American basketball player (Olympic gold 1964), born in Tuckerman, Arkansas (d. 2002)
1970 – Matt Hyson, American professional wrestler, born in Providence, Rhode Island
1984 – Niko Kranjčar, Croatian soccer midfielder (81 caps; Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split, Portsmouth, Tottenham Hotspur, QPR), born in Zagreb, Croatia

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Famous Deaths

1886 – Adolf von Doss, German composer, dies at 62
1937 – Arthur Plunkett, English civil engineer (designed Sydney Harbour Bridge) (b. 1890)
1947 – Tobias Norlind, Swedish musicologist, dies at 68
2005 – David Lange, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (Labour: 1984-89), dies of complications associated with renal failure and diabetes at 63
2012 – Johnny Pesky, American baseball player and manager, dies at 92
2016 – Françoise Mallet-Joris, Belgian writer (Signs and Wonders), dies at 86

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Historical Events

1812 – Duke of Wellington’s troops enter Madrid
1876 – Madeline (US) beats Countess Dufferin (Canada) in 4th America’s Cup
1942 – Lt General Bernard Montgomery arrives in Cairo
1971 – Syrian President Hafez al-Assad drops diplomatic relations with Jordan
1991 – Creditors vote to support Greyhound Bus reorganization plan
2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.

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Famous Birthdays

1720 – Konrad Ekhof [Hans Konrad Dieterich Eckhof], German actor and director, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1778)
1911 – Cantinflas [Mario Moreno], Mexican actor (Around World in 80 Days, Pepe), born in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico (d. 1993)
1925 – Earl Coleman, American jazz singer, born in Port Huron, Michigan (d. 1995)
1944 – Peter Hofmann, German tenor
1970 – Anthony Swofford, American novelist
1970 – Alison Inverarity, Australian high jumper (Olympic 8th 1992, 96)

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Famous Deaths

1822 – Robert Stewart, 2nd marguess of Londonderry, commits suicide, dies
1948 – Harry Brearley, English inventor (b. 1871)
1968 – Esther Forbes, American novelist (Johnny Tremain), dies at 76
1973 – Perry Botkin, American jazz and session guitarist, banjo player, composer, and musical director (Bing Crosby), dies at 66
1999 – Jean Drapeau, Quebec politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1916)
2004 – Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, Nobel laureate (b. 1919)

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