Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1957 – Henry Aaron wins NL MVP
1966 – Muhammad Ali TKOs Cleveland Williams in 3 for heavyweight title
1973 – Jim Palmer is named AL Cy Young winner
1980 – Guinee-Bissau Premier Vieira fires President Luis Cabral
2001 – War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters takeover the capital Kabul
2018 – Large impact crater, 31 km wide, from iron meteorite identified under Hiawatha Glacier in Greenland

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Famous Birthdays

1567 – Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange (d. 1625)
1893 – Evert S J Kruythoff, Ned Antillean author (conservation flora)
1923 – Margaret Courtenay, Welsh actress, singer and entertainer (Royal Flash, Duet for One), born in Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales (d. 1996)
1966 – Carl Coulter, CFL corner (Saskatchewan Roughriders)
1966 – Eric Hill, NFL middle linebacker (Arizona Cardinals)
1970 – Darrien Gordon, NFL cornerback (San Diego Chargers, Broncos-Super Bowl 32)

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Famous Deaths

1556 – Giovanni Della Casa, Italian poet (Galateo), dies at 53
1780 – Jacobus Houbraken, engraver/illustrator, dies at 81
1831 – Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, Austrian-French composer and piano builder, dies at 74
1842 – Henry de Cock, Dutch reformed vicar and secession leader, dies at 41
1935 – J Wouter[us] van Dieren, biologist (Terschelling), dies
2001 – Charlotte Coleman, British actress (Four Weddings and a Funeral), dies of an asthma attack at 33

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Historical Events

1642 – Battle at Turnham Green outside London: King Charles I vs English parliament
1864 – The new Constitution of Greece adopted
1937 – NBC forms first full-sized symphony orchestra exclusively for radio
1956 – US Supreme court rules race separation on buses in Alabama unconstitutional
1989 – Paul McCartney releases “Figure of 8” and “Ou Est Le Soleil”
1996 – “Three Sisters” closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC

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Famous Birthdays

1833 – Edwin Booth, American Shakespearean actor (Hamlet), born in Bel Air, Maryland (d. 1893)
1907 – Lewis Boddington, British aerospace engineer (RAE)
1947 – Joe Mantegna, American actor (House of Games, Weeds), born in Chicago, Illinois
1965 – Sheryl Boyle, Renfrew Ontario, kayaker (Olympics 1996)
1967 – Steve Christie, NFL kicker (Buffalo Bills)
1990 – Jibbs [Jovan Campbell], American rapper (Chain Hang Low), born in St. Louis, Missouri

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Famous Deaths

1620 – Louise de Coligny, French 4th wife of Willem of Orange, dies at 65
1977 – Ingrid Schubert, German terrorist (b. 1944)
1982 – Chesney Allen, English actor (Flanagan and Allen), dies at 88
2001 – Margaret “Peggy” Mount, British actress (Oliver!, Panic in the Parlor), dies following a stroke at 86
2013 – Barbara Lawrence, American model, actress, and real estate agent (Oklahoma!, A Letter to Three Wives), dies of kidney failure at 83
2016 – Leon Russell, American musician and singer-songwriter (Carny), dies at 74

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Historical Events

1921 – Washington Conference for Limitation of Armaments
1936 – Oakland Bay Bridge opens
1936 – St Louis Browns sold to Donald L Barnes and William O DeWitt
1970 – Cyclone Bhola makes landfall in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) killing up to 500,000, making it the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded
1977 – France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
1988 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

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Famous Birthdays

1916 – Paul Emery, British racing driver (d. 1993)
1943 – Wallace Shawn, American actor (My Dinner with Andre, Princess Bride), born in NYC, New York
1945 – Michael Bishop, American sci-fi author (Nebula, Stolen Faces)
1964 – Gerald Perry, NFL tackle (Oakland Raiders)
1968 – Aaron Stainthorpe, British singer (My Dying Bride), born in England, United Kingdom
1984 – Conrad Rautenbach, Zimbabwean rally driver, born in Harare, Zimbabwe

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Famous Deaths

1567 – Anne Pierre Adrien duke of Montmorency, Marshal of France, dies at 74
1960 – John Trim, cricketer (occasional WI quick 1948-52, 18 wkts), dies
1981 – William Holden [Beedle], American actor (The Blue Knight, Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina, The Bridge on the River Kwai), slips on a rug and bleeds to death at 63
1995 – Curley Fox, fiddler, dies at 85
1997 – Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (b. 1915)
2003 – Jonathan Brandis, American actor (Lucas Wolenczak-seaQuest DSV), commits suicide at 27

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Historical Events

1673 – Second Battle of Khotyn in the Ukraine, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Jan Sobieski. defeat the Ottoman army. In this battle, rockets of Kazimierz Siemienowicz were successfully used.
1862 – Opera “La Forza Del Destino” is produced (St Petersburg Russia)
1918 – Dutch SDAP leader Troelstra announces revolution
1930 – Patent number US1781541 is awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention of the Einstein refrigerator
1979 – Boston Court issues occupancy permit for Cambridge Buddhist Center
2001 – Journalists Pierre Billaud, Johanne Sutton and Volker Handloik are killed in Afghanistan during an attack on the convoy they were traveling on top off.

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Famous Birthdays

1891 – Rabbit Maranville, American baseball player (Boston Braves), born in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1954)
1903 – Charles Bruce Perry, Professor of Medicine (Bristol University) (d. 1996)
1912 – Thomas C. Mann, American diplomat (U.S. Ambassador to Mexico), born in Laredo, Texas (d. 1999)
1918 – Stubby Kaye [Bernard Solomon Kotzin], American actor (Guys and Dolls, Lil’ Abner, Cat Ballou), born in NYC, New York (d. 1997)
1970 – Lee Battersby, Australian author
1974 – Phillip Ward, linebacker (Indianapolis Colts)

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Famous Deaths

1831 – Nat Turner, slave rebel who led a violent insurrection in Virginia, hanged at 31
1942 – Anton Hendrik Blaauw, Dutch botanist (Perception of the Lichtes), dies at 60
1962 – Joseph Allen Jr, American actor (The Night Before the Divorce, Motor Madness), dies at 44
1993 – Erskine Hawkins, American trumpeter and composer (After Hours), dies at 79
1995 – Kenneth Goldstein, folklorist/enthomusicologist, dies at 68
2010 – Baby Marie Osborne, American actress (b. 1911)

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Historical Events

1891 – 1st Women’s Christian Temperance Union meeting held (in Boston)
1924 – Dion O’Banion, leader of the North Side Gang is assassinated in his flower shop by members of Johnny Torrio’s gang, sparking the bloody gang war of the 1920s in Chicago.
1938 – Nobel for literature awarded to Pearl Buck (Good Earth)
1945 – General Enver Hoxha becomes leader of Albania
1978 – NY Yankees trade Lyle, Rajsich, McCall, Heath and Ramos to Texas for Righetti, Mirabella, Beniquez, Jemison and Griffin
1981 – “Oh, Brother!” opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 3 performances

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Famous Birthdays

1845 – John Thompson, 4th Prime Minister of Canada (C: 1892-94), born in Halifax, Nova Scotia (d. 1894)
1888 – Andrej Tupolev, Russian aircraft builder, born in Pustomazovo, Russia (d. 1972)
1935 – Bernard Babior, American physician and biochemist, born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2004)
1948 – Aaron Brown, American broadcast journalist (World News Now), born in Hopkins, Minnesota
1952 – Pat Severs, American country singer (Pirates of Mississippi-Fred Jake), born in Camden, South Carolina
1981 – Tony Blanco, American baseball player (Washington Nationals), born in San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic

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Famous Deaths

901 – Adelaide of Paris, Queen of Western Francia
1981 – Abel Gance, French movie director (J’accuse), dies at 92
1984 – Xavier Herbert, Australian author (b. 1901)
1991 – Alessandro Lessona, Minister of Italian Colonies (1931-38), dies
1992 – Chuck Connors, American author, actor (The Rifleman, Branded, Cowboy in Africa), professional basketball and baseball player, dies at 71
1993 – Wensley Pithey, South-African actor (Oliver!, The Saint, Little Women), dies at 79

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Historical Events

1930 – 1st nonstop airplane flight from NY to Panama
1939 – “Ninotchka” with Greta Garbo premieres
1953 – KTVQ TV channel 2 in Billings, MT (CBS/NBC) begins broadcasting
1970 – The Goodies make their television debut on the BBC
2013 – María Gabriela Isler, a 25yo Venezuelan, is crowned Miss Universe 2013
2018 – Amid Californian forest fires US President Donald Trump accuses state forest management of “gross mismanagement”, threatens to withhold funding

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Famous Birthdays

1467 – Charles of Egmond, Duke of Guelder and Earl of Zutphen, born in Grave, Netherlands (d. 1538)
1907 – Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, born in Potsdam, Germany (d. 1994)
1928 – Anne Sexton, American poet (Live or Die; Pulitzer 1967), born in Newton, Massachusetts (d. 1974)
1967 – Ricky Otto, English footballer, born in London
1973 – Nick Lachey, American singer, born in Harlan, Kentucky
1980 – James Harper, English footballer, born in Bell, California

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Famous Deaths

1492 – Jami [Mowlanā Nūr Od-dīn ʿabd Or-raḥmān Ebn Aḥmad], Persian poet (Lava’ih), dies at 78
1927 – Ole Olsen, Norwegian composer, dies at 77
1948 – Edgar Kennedy, American actor (Little Orphan Annie), dies at 58
1998 – Ursula Reit [Reith], German actress (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), dies from natural causes at 84
2001 – Niels Jannasch, Canadian historian and museum curator, dies at 77
2012 – Bill Tarmey, English actor (Coronation Street), dies at 71

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Historical Events

1701 – William Penn presents Charter of Privileges
1910 – William H. Frost receives the first U.S. patent for an electrical insect destroyer
1950 – A US aircraft shoots down a North Korean jet in the Korean War, the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history
1953 – Salazar’s party wins all parliamentary seats in Portugal
1964 – IMF grants Great Britain credit of $1 billion
1979 – The Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action) is formed.

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Famous Birthdays

1572 – John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, Duke of Prussia (1618-19), born in Halle, Germany (d. 1619)
1592 – Domenico Mazzocchi, Italian Baroque composer, born in Civita Castellana, Italy (d. 1665)
1884 – Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (inkblot test – Rorschach test), born in Zürich, Switzerland (d. 1922)
1912 – June Havoc [Ellen Evangeline Hovick], Canadian-born American stage and screen actress, born in Vancouver, British Columbia (d. 2010)
1966 – Michael Soles, CFL fullback (Montreal Alouettes), born in Pointe-Claire, Canada
1968 – Parker Posey, American actress (Tess Shelby-As the World Turns), born in Baltimore, Maryland

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Famous Deaths

1833 – Maximilian Stadler, Austrian pianist and composer and Benedictine monk, dies at 85
1905 – Victor Borisov-Musatov, Russian painter, dies at 35
1941 – Gaetano Mosca, Italian sociologist (Elite Circle), dies at 83
1968 – Wendell Corey, American actor (Rear Window, 11th Hour, Peck’s Bad Girl), dies from a liver ailment at 54
1994 – Michael O’Donoghue, American comedy writer (SNL), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 54
2004 – Chandler Harper, American golfer (PGA C’ship 1950), dies of pneumonia at 90

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Historical Events

680 – 3rd Council of Constantinople (6th ecumenical council) opens
1929 – Museum of Modern Art opens in Hecksher Building in New York
1942 – First US President to broadcast in a foreign language-FDR in French
1954 – US spy plane shot down North of Japan
2019 – Song lyrics have gotten sadder says researchers who studied 50 years of lyrics at University of Exeter, published in journal “Evolutionary Human Sciences”
2019 – Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda, the “Terminator” is the to be convicted of sexual slavery by the International Criminal Court and is sentenced to 30 years in prison on 18 charges

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Famous Birthdays

1933 – George Tibbits, Australian composer, born in Boulder, Western Australia (d. 2008)
1955 – Detlef Ultsch, German judoka (Olympic bronze 1980), born in Sonneberg, Bezirk Suhl, East Germany
1955 – René Marie, American jazz singer (Sound of Red), born in Warrenton, Virginia
1963 – John Barnes, British football player, born in Kingston, Jamaica
1972 – Emily Lesueur, American synchronized swimmer (Olympic gold teams 1996), born in Glendale, California
1976 – One Be Lo [Ralond Scruggs], American hip-hop artist (Binary Star), born in Pontiac, Michigan

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Famous Deaths

1633 – Cornelis Drebbel, physicist/chemist/inventor (builder of the first submarine), dies
1944 – Richard Sorge, German spy for the Soviet Union in Tokyo during World War II, hanged in Tokyo at 49
1962 – Eleanor Roosevelt, 1st Lady (1933-1945), dies at 78 in NYC
1974 – Sandra Rivett, English nanny to John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, allegedly bludgeoned to death by Mr Lucan at 29 before he mysteriously disappeared
1983 – Germaine Tailleferre, French composer (Le Marin du Bolivar), dies at 91
1986 – Tracy Pew, Australian musician (The Birthday Party) (b. 1957)

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Historical Events

1967 – US launches Surveyor 6; makes soft landing on Moon Nov 9
1991 – The last oil fire in Kuwait set by retreating Iraqi troops is extinguished
2013 – 15 people are killed after a suicide bombing in Baghdad, Iraq
2013 – 8 people are killed and 50 are injured by a suicide bombing in Damascus, Syria
2018 – Great Britain’s Prince Charles calls slavery “an indelible stain” but stops short of an apology in a speech in Accra, Ghana
2018 – More than 200 mass graves containing thousands of victims of ISIS discovered in former ISIS held areas according to UN report

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Famous Birthdays

1659 – Theodor Schwartzkopff, German composer, born in Ulm, Germany (d. 1732)
1901 – Juanita Hall, American actress (South Pacific, Flower Drum Song), born in Keyport, New Jersey (d. 1968)
1940 – Dieter F. Uchtdorf, German aviator and religious leader (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), born in Moravská Ostrava
1965 – Brian Givens, American baseball pitcher (Milwaukee Brewers), born in Lompoc, California
1968 – Alfred Williams, American NFL defensive end (SF 49ers, Broncos-Super Bowl 32), born in Houston, Texas
1976 – Laurie Baker, American ice hockey forward (USA, Olympic-gold-98), born in Concord, Massachusetts

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Famous Deaths

1771 – John Bevis, English physician and astronomer (discovered Crab Nebula), dies at 75
1964 – Hugo Koblet, Swiss cyclist (1951 Tour de France, dies at 39
1989 – Yusaku Matsuda, Japanese actor (Detective Story), dies of cancer at 40
1991 – Andre Vandernoot, Flemish fluitist, conductor, dies at 64
2005 – Minako Honda, Japanese singer and musical actress, dies of leukemia at 38
2011 – Mel Hancock, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri), dies at 82

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Historical Events

1887 – Ottawa College (ORFU) defeats Montreal Football Club (QRFU) 10-5 to win the Dominion championship
1957 – Mrs Nellie McGrail wins $574,658 on a 2½ cent soccer pool ticket
1974 – Ella Grasso (Ct) elected first woman US governor not related to previous governor
1988 – 1st NBA game at Miami Arena, Miami Heat loss to LA Clippers, 111-91
1988 – Cornell confirms grad student source of worst computer sabotage
1989 – 19th NYC Women’s Marathon won by Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway in 2:25:30

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Famous Birthdays

1890 – Jan Zrzavý, Czech painter, born in Okrouhlice near Německý Brod, Bohemia (d. 1977)
1891 – Earl Neale, American College and Pro Football Hall of Fame coach (Virginia; NFL: Philadelphia Eagles) and MLB outfielder (Cincinnati Reds), born in Parkersburg, West Virginia (d. 1973)
1935 – Jerry Amper Dadap, Filippino guitarist and composer, born in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte
1936 – Michael Dertouzos, Greek internet pioneer, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science (d. 2001)
1947 – Peter Noone, English rock singer, sometimes known as “Herman” (Herman’s Hermits – “I’m Into Something Good”; “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter”), born in Davyhulme, Lancashire, England
1972 – Tracy Greene, American NFL tight end (Pittsburgh Steelers), born in Monroe, Louisiana

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Famous Deaths

1804 – Elizabeth “Betje” Wolff-Bekker, poetess (Sara Burgerhart), dies at 66
1951 – Bedrich Antonin Wiedermann, Czech organist and composer, dies at 67
1987 – Jan Nicolaas Bakhuizen van den Brink, Dutch theologist and church historian, dies at 91
1996 – Eddie Harris, saxophonist/composer, dies at 62
1997 – James Robert Baker, American novelist, screenwriter (b. 1946)
2000 – Victor Grinich, American businessman (b. 1924)

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