Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1241 – Goffredo Castiglioni elected as Pope Coelestinus IV (-Nov 10 1241)
1942 – 3rd day of battle at El Alamein: British offensive
1952 – Nazar Mohammad scores Pakistan’s 1st Test century 124* v India
1962 – 110th member of UN admitted (Uganda)
1984 – Rangers beat Devils 11-2
1997 – 9th College Football Holy War: Notre Dame beats Boston College 52-20 in South Bend

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Famous Birthdays

1909 – Whitner “Whit” Bissell, American actor (Time Machine, Soylent Green, The Magnificent Seven), born in NYC, New York (d. 1996)
1912 – Minnie Pearl [Sarah Ophelia Colley], American country comedienne (Grand Old Opry, Hee-Haw), born in Centerville, Tennessee (d. 1996)
1912 – Jack Kent Cooke, Canadian entrepreneur, NFL team owner (Washington Redskins), born in Hamilton, Canada (d. 1997)
1960 – Hong Sang-soo, South Korean filmmaker (Right Now, Wrong Then), born in Seoul
1963 – Tracy Nelson, American actress (Glitter, Square Pegs, Father Dowling), born in Santa Monica, California
1970 – Adam Goldberg, American actor (The Hebrew Hammer), born in Santa Monica, California

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Famous Deaths

1415 – Eduard, duke of York, dies at 45
1415 – Robert of Bar, French knight, dies at the Battle of Agincourt
1926 – Frederick Jr Zech, composer, dies at 68
1957 – Maria “Mary” Beekman, actress (Modern Landhaaien), dies at 73
1973 – Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian Olympic marathon champion (Olympic gold, marathon 1960, 64) and Africa’s first world record breaking athlete in any sport, who won the 1960 Olympics marathon barefoot, dies of a brain haemorrhage at 41
1991 – Margo J. Sylvia, rocker (Tune Weavers), dies of heart attack and stroke at 55

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Historical Events

1903 – George Sutton becomes billards champion
1943 – Anti-nazi Clandestine Radio Soldatsender Calais begins transmitting
1963 – “110 in the Shade” opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 330 performances
1968 – Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithful busted for pot, released on £50 bail
1984 – Intelsat 5 re-enters Earth’s atmosphere 5 months after it failed
2018 – Scientists confirm East Island in Hawaii, half a mile long, has been wiped out after contact with Hurricane Walaka

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Famous Birthdays

1863 – Manuel Manrique de Lara, Spanish composer (The Oresteia), born in Cartagena, Murcia (d. 1929)
1895 – Jack Warner [Waters], British actor (Dixon of Dock Green, Christmas Carol), born in London, England (d. 1981)
1926 – Y. A. Tittle, American NFL quarterback (Baltimore, San Francisco, NY Giants, MVP 1963), born in Marshall, Texas (d. 2017)
1968 – Robert Wilonsky, American journalist, born in Dallas, Texas
1972 – Pat Williams, American football defensive tackle (Buffalo Bills), born in Monroe, Louisiana
1972 – Tom Fletcher, NFL defensive safety (Seattle Seahawks)

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Famous Deaths

1821 – Elias Boudinot, American lawyer and patriot, President of the Continental Congress, dies at 81
1953 – Ernest Irving, English composer, dies at 74
1971 – Carl Ruggles, American composer (Evocations), dies at 95
1996 – Eugene Polyakov, Russian balletmaster (Paris Opera Ballet), dies at 53
2016 – Bobby Vee, American pop singer (Night has a Thousand Eyes), dies at 73
2017 – Robert Guillaume [Williams], American actor (Rafiki- The Lion King, Sports Night, Benson, Soap), dies at 89

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Historical Events

1888 – Pelham Bay Park in Bronx vested
1943 – First Jewish transport out of Rome reaches camp Birkenau
1952 – “Limelight” premieres directed, written, produced and starring Charlie Chaplin and Claire Bloom with appearance by Buster Keaton
1964 – Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia finish 8-1 in inaugural Olympic men’s volleyball competition in Tokyo; Soviets win 10 team round robin on count back of sets won-lost
1984 – Cubs Rick Sutcliffe, selected as a unanimous choice as NL Cy Young
1989 – George Harrison releases “Best of Dark Horse 1976-89” album

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Famous Birthdays

1773 – Pietro Generali, composer
1902 – Otmar Nussio, Swiss conductor and composer (Boccaccio Suite), born in Grossetto, Italy; (d. 1990)
1905 – Felix Bloch, Swiss/US nuclear physicist (Nobel 1952)
1958 – Jonathan Wolff, American musician and TV theme composer (Seinfeld, Will and Grace), born in Louisville, Kentucky
1971 – Alai Kalaniuvalu, NFL guard (Philadelphia Eagles)
1976 – Ryan Reynolds, Canadian actor and comedian (Deadpool), born in Vancouver, British Columbia

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Famous Deaths

1806 – Franz Seydelmann, German composer, dies at 58
1983 – Tamara Shayne, Russian-American actress (Moma Yoelson-The Jolson Story), dies of a heart attack at 80
1990 – Louis Althusser, French philosopher, dies
2003 – Tony Capstick, English actor, comedian, and musician (b. 1944)
2007 – Lim Goh Tong, Founder of Genting Group (b. 1918)
2014 – Alvin Stardust [Bernard Jewry], English rock singer(“Jealous Mind”) dies of prostate cancer at 72

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Historical Events

1797 – Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes 1st parachute descent from a balloon in Paris
1941 – Maxwell Anderson’s “Candle in the Wind” premieres in NYC
1955 – WWNY TV channel 7 in Carthage-Watertown, NY (CBS) begins broadcasting
1963 – BAC One-Eleven prototype airliner crashes on October 22 in UK with the loss of all on board.
1971 – USSR performs nuclear test
1978 – “King of Hearts” opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 48 performances

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Famous Birthdays

1836 – Mungo Park, Scottish golfer (British Open 1874), born in Inveresk, East Lothian (d. 1904)
1942 – Bobby Fuller, Baytown, Texas, American rock vocalist/guitarist (Bobby Fuller Four)
1943 – Allen James Coage, American HW judo (Olympic bronze 1976), born in NYC, New York
1943 – Catherine Deneuve [Dorleac], actress (Repulsion, Hunger), born in Paris, France
1975 – Míchel Salgado, Spanish footballer
1978 – Dion Glover, American basketball player, born in Marietta, Georgia

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Famous Deaths

1755 – Elisha Williams, American rector of Yale College (b. 1694)
1764 – Jean Marie I’aine Leclair, composer, dies at 67
1954 – Jibanananda Das, Bengali poet (b. 1899)
1970 – René Schneider, Chilean general/supreme commander, murdered
1987 – Angiolino “Lino” Ventura, Italian actor (Happy New Year, Pain in the A–), dies of a heart attack at 68
1990 – Frank Sinkwich, American College Football Hall of Fame halfback (Heisman Trophy 1942, U of Georgia; NFL Draft #1 pick Detroit Lions 1943; NFL MVP 1944), dies at 70

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Historical Events

1914 – Battle of Warsaw ends with German defeat
1915 – William Jennings Bryan’s successor as US Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, sends a note to Britain protesting interference with US shipping
1925 – Sidney Howards “Lucky Sam McGarver” premieres in NYC
1947 – Dutch Dakota explodes near Coopenhagen, 16 die
1975 – Coast Guard Academy 1st allows women to enroll
2019 – Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn strips his royal consort Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi of her titles for “misbehaviour and disloyalty against the monarch” two months after she was appointed to them

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Famous Birthdays

1847 – Guiseppe Giacosa, Italian songwriter (libretti opera Puccini)
1952 – Brent Mydland, American rock keyboardist and vocalist (Grateful Dead), born in Munich, Germany
1955 – Eric Faulkner, rock guitarist (Bay City Rollers), born in Edinburgh, Scotland
1959 – George Bell, Dom Rep, outfielder (Blue Jays, 1987 AL MVP)
1972 – Masakazu Morita, seiyu and actor
1982 – Matt Dallas, American Actor

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Famous Deaths

1204 – Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester, English nobleman
1891 – Alpheus Baker, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 63
1919 – Sven August Körling, Swedish composer, dies at 77
1943 – Dudley Pound, British admiral of the fleet and 1st Sea Lord (Jutland, WW II), dies at 66
1969 – Jack Kerouac, American writer (Doctor Sax, On the Road), dies at 47
2003 – Fred Berry, African-American actor (Rerun-What’s Happening), dies at 52

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Historical Events

1910 – The hull of the RMS Olympic, sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic, is launched from the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland.
1947 – Robinson Jeffer’s “Medea” premieres in NYC
1955 – Yanks begin 16-game exhibition in Japan
1973 – Mariette Hartley appears on Bob Newhart in “Have You Met Miss Dietz”
1976 – 70 die as Norwegian tanker Frosta collides with George Prince
1996 – Braves Andruw Jones is youngest player to homer in World Series

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Famous Birthdays

1792 – Anton Bernhard Furstenau, composer
1854 – Arthur Rimbaud, French poet and adventurer (Illuminations), born in Charleville, France (d. 1891)
1918 – Anton Diffring [Alfred Pollack], German character actor (Assignment Vienna), born in Koblenz, Germany (d. 1989)
1961 – Les Stroud, Canadian survival expert (Survivorman), born in Etobicoke, Ontario
1967 – Marco Ngai, Hong Kong actor
1972 – Will Greenwood, English rugby union player (Leicester Tigers, 2003 World Cup squad), born in Blackburn, Lancashire

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Famous Deaths

1819 – Lambert-Francois Godecharle, composer, dies at 66
1899 – Robert H “Bobby” Gunning, British colonel (60th Rifles), dies in battle
1994 – Sergei Bondarchuk, Soviet director (Destiny of a Man, War and Peace), dies of a heart attack at 74
1996 – Bill Bedford, British test pilot (pioneered the development of V/STOL aircraft), dies at 75
2002 – Barbara Berjer, American actress (b. 1920)
2014 – Lili Carati, Miss Italy 1975 and actress (Alcove), dies at 58

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Historical Events

1722 – Frenchman C Hopffer patents the fire extinguisher
1818 – US Government and Chickasaw Indians sign a treaty
1950 – UN forces enter Pyongyang, capital of North Korea
1967 – Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27′ 4 3/4″
1999 – “Believe” single released by Cher (Billboard Song of the Year 1999, Grammy Award Best Dance Recording 2000)
1999 – MLB National League Championship: Atlanta Braves beat New York Mets, 4 games to 2

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Famous Birthdays

1824 – Frantisek Pivoda, composer
1889 – Uncle Art Satherley, British-American record producer (1968 Academy of Country Music Award), born in Bristol, England (d. 1986)
1956 – Bruce Weber, American Basketball Coach, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1958 – John Bloom [Joe Bob Briggs], drive-in movie critic
1967 – Yoko Shimomura, Japanese composer
1984 – Thundercat [Stephen Bruner], American bass guitarist (Flying Lotus), born in Los Angeles, California

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Famous Deaths

1745 – Jonathan Swift, Irish author and satirist (Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal), dies at 77
1793 – Francesc Morera i Cots, Valencian composer, dies at 62
1921 – Antonio Granjo, premier (Portugal), murdered
1961 – Benjamin Merkelbach, Dutch architect and city builder of Amsterdam, dies at 60
2003 – Alija Izetbegović, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (b. 1925)
2007 – LaLa Brown, American singer (b. 1986)

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Historical Events

1873 – Columbia Princeton Rutgers and Yale set rules for collegiate football
1924 – Harold “Red” Grange, finest collegiate football game (4 long TD runs)
1944 – Allied generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and Bernard Montgomery confer in Brussels, Belgium
1962 – James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK) and Maurice Wilkins (UK) win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA
1973 – Nobel prize for Economic Sciences awarded to American Wassily Leontief
2000 – Zack de la Rocha announces he is leaving rock band Rage Against the Machine

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Famous Birthdays

1894 – H. L. Davis, American author (d. 1960)
1931 – Catharina I “Ien” Dales, Dutch Internal minister (1989-94)
1965 – Curtis Stigers, American jazz vocalist and saxophonist (I Wonder Why), born in Bloise, Idaho
1973 – Demetrious Maxie, CFL defensive end (Toronto Argonauts)
1974 – Peter Svensson, Swedish musician (The Cardigans)
1977 – Ryan Nelsen, New Zealand footballer

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Famous Deaths

1744 – Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, close friend of Queen Anne of Great Britain, dies at 84
1770 – John Manners, Marquess of Granby, British soldier (b. 1721)
1830 – Peter I Petrovic Njegos, bishop (Montenegro), dies
1871 – Charles Babbage, English mathematician/inventor (calculator), dies of renal failure at 79
1977 – Rolph Grant, West Indian cricketer (West Indian captain on 1939 England tour), dies at 67
1984 – Jon-Erik Hexum, American actor (Voyagers!, Cover-up), dies by a gun loaded with blanks at 26

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Historical Events

1945 – Loyalty Day in Argentina, mass demonstrations held to release Juan Perón
1957 – Jailhouse Rock starring Elvis Presley premieres in Memphis, Tennessee
1979 – US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating Department of Education
1980 – 1st-class debut of Mike Whitney, NSW v Qld (2-52 and 1-39)
1991 – Pitts Penguin Paul Coffey sets NHL defenseman scoring record with 1,053 career points (309 goals and 744 assists)
2018 – Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch puppeteer Caroll Spinney leaves “Sesame Street” after 50 years

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Famous Birthdays

1582 – Johann Gerhard, German Lutheran leader (d. 1637)
1711 – Jupiter Hammon, Lloyd Harbor NY, slave and poet, 1st African American to publish poetry
1884 – Lewis Bennison, American actor (The Road Called Straight), born in Oakland, California (d. 1929)
1914 – Albert Markos, Romanian composer (Torso I), born in Székelykeresztúr, Hungary (now Cristuru Secuiesc, Romania) (d. 1981)
1946 – James Ray Tucker, American rock guitarist (Turtles-Eleanor), born in Los Angeles, California
1971 – Byron Chamberlain, American football tight end (Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings), born in Honolulu, Hawaii

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Famous Deaths

1174 – Queen Petronila of Aragon (b. 1135)
1312 – Jan II, duke of Brabant/Limburg (charter of Kortenberg), dies
1836 – Orest Kiprensky, Russian painter (b. 1782)
1967 – Henry Pu Yi, last emperor of China, dies at 61
1997 – Paul Edwin Zimmer, sci-fi writer, dies of heart attack at 54
2002 – Aileen Riggin, American diver (Olympic gold 3m springboard 1920, 24), dies at 96

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Historical Events

1829 – Tremont Hotel, 1st US modern hotel opens (Boston)
1834 – Much of the ancient structures of the Palace of Westminster (parliament) in London is burnt down
1901 – Baron Hayashi of Japan begins negotiations in London to make an alliance with the British and strengthen Japan’s position against Russians
1903 – Homel, 1st Jewish self defense organization founded in Russia
1909 – In his 4th title defence Jack Johnson KOs Stanley Ketchel in the 12th round at Mission St Arena, Colma, California to retain his heavyweight boxing crown
1980 – China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor, PRC

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Famous Birthdays

1936 – Gerardo Gandini, composer
1941 – Erkki Jokinen, composer
1944 – Johnny Washbrook, actor (Ken-My Friend Flicka), born in Toronto, Ontario
1967 – Davina McCall, British television presenter
1969 – Takao Ōmori, Japanese professional wrestler
1980 – Jeremy Jackson, actor (Shout, Baywatch), born in Newport Beach, California

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Famous Deaths

1555 – Nicholas Ridley, English theologist/bishop of Rochester, burned at the stake as an Oxford martyr
1628 – François de Malherbe, French poet and critic (b. 1555)
1796 – Victor Amadeus III of Savoy (b. 1726)
1880 – Edward Wolff, Polish pianist and composer, dies at 64
1983 – George Liberace, American violinist (Liberace Show), dies at 72
2003 – László Papp, Hungarian boxer (b. 1926)

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