Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1937 – Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opens to pedestrians
1948 – Arabs blow up Jewish synagogue Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid
1957 – Toronto’s CHUM-AM, (1050 kHz) becomes Canada’s first radio station to broadcast only top 40 Rock n’ Roll music format
1985 – Inaugural bands parade for President Reagan
1987 – 31st European Cup: Porto beats Bayern Munich 2-1 at Vienna
2007 – 60th Cannes Film Festival: “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” directed by Cristian Mungiu wins the Palme d’Or

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1863 – Arthur Mold, English cricket fast bowler (England 3 Tests; 1,673 1st class wickets), born in Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire (d. 1921)
1925 – John Moberly, British diplomat, dies at 79
1942 – Lee Baca, American law enforcement official
1947 – Branko Oblak, Slovenian footballer and coach, born in Ljubljan, FPR Yugoslavia
1960 – Ray Armsetad, 4X400 runner (Olympic gold 1984), born in Kirksville, Missouri
1965 – Pat Cash, Australian tennis player (Wimbledon 1987), born in Melbourne, Victoria

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1508 – Ludovico Sforza [il Moro], Italian duke of Milan, dies at 55
1970 – Emmy van Lokhorst, author, dies at 78
1988 – Renato Salvatori, actor (Burn, Luna, 2 Women), dies
1988 – Melvin J “Cy” Oliver, US jazz composer/orchestra leader, dies at 77
1994 – Robert Chudnick [Red Rodney], American jazz trumpeter, dies from lung cancer at 66
2017 – Gregg Allman, American musician and songwriter (The Allman Brothers Band), dies of cancer at 69

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1896 – Last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, crowned
1919 – The Supreme Council of Allies, meeting at Versailles, decides to recognize two White Russian leaders, Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin, and support them against the Bolsheviks
1923 – Inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race for cars starts through public roads around Le Mans, France; inaugural winners: André Lagache and René Léonard (France) for Chenard and Walcker
1942 – Tank battle at Bir Hakeim: Afrika Korps vs British army
1946 – Patent filed in US for H-Bomb
2013 – The Mumbai Indians defeat the Chennai Super Kings to win the Indian 20/20 Premier League

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1886 – Al Jolson [Asa Yoelson], American-Lithuanian jazz singer and silent actor (Mamie, Swanee), born in Seredžius, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1950)
1898 – Gérard Bertouille, Belgian composer, born in Tournai, Belgium (d. 1981)
1915 – Antonia Forest [Patricia Giulia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein], British children’s author (The Marlows), born in Hampstead, London (d. 2003)
1926 – Miles Davis, American jazz musician, trumpeter and composer, born in Alton, Illinois (d. 1991)
1937 – Yehuda Yannay, Romanian composer, born in Timișoara, Romania
1970 – Nobuhiro Watsuki, Japanese manga artist (Rurouni Kenshin), born in Tokyo, Japan

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1055 – Margrave Adalbert of Austria
1907 – Ida McKinley, US First Lady (1897-1901) and wife of the 25th US President William McKinley, dies at 59
1944 – Cyril Francois, South African cricket all-rounder (5 Tests, 252 runs, 6 wickets), dies in a motor accident at 46
1951 – Lincoln Ellsworth, Arctic explorer, dies at 71
2003 – Kathleen Winsor, American writer (b. 1919)
2018 – Ted [Samuel Frederick] Dabney, American electrical engineer and founder of Atari (Pong), dies at 81

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1632 – Albrecht von Wallenstein recaptures Prague on Saksen
1943 – Trident conference in Washington, D.C. (operation plan ’43 against Japan)
1967 – John Lennon takes delivery of his psychedelically painted Rolls Royce
1991 – Stanley Cup Final, Metropolitan Sports Center, Bloomington, MN: Pittsburgh Penguins beat Minnesota North Stars, 8-0 for a 4-2 series win; Penguins’ first Final series appearance
1992 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro elected President of Italy
2003 – 56th Cannes Film Festival: “Elephant” directed by Gus Van Sant wins the Palme d’Or

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1847 – John Alexander Dowie, Scottish-American evangelist (founded the city of Zion, Illinois), born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 1907)
1946 – David A. Hargrave, role-playing games (RPGs) designer (d. 1988)
1956 – Lincoln Barrington “Sugar” Minott , Jamaican singer (The African Brothers), born in Kingston, Jamaica (d. 2010)
1960 – Amy Klobuchar, American politician (D), senator for Minnesota (2007-), born in Plymouth, Minnesota
1967 – Poppy Z. Brite [Billy Martin], American author (Lost Souls, Drawing Blood), born in Bowling Green, Kentucky
1984 – Marion Raven, Norwegian singer and songwriter (M2M), born in Lørenskog, Norway

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1937 – Henry Ossawa Tanner, American artist, dies at 77
1985 – Robert Nathan, American writer/poet (Portrait of Jennie), dies at 91
1996 – John Morrison, 1st Baron Margadale, British politician and landowner, last non-royal to be raised to the peerage in UK and landowner, dies at 89
2004 – Roger W. Straus, Jr., American publisher (b. 1917)
2007 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor, comedian and gameshow panelist (Match Game, Ghost and Mrs Muir), dies at 76
2010 – Alexander Belostenny, Ukrainian basketball player (b. 1959)

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1899 – 1st auto repair shop opens (Boston)
1901 – Seventy-eight miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales
1953 – Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Doctor Mellifluus
1957 – Anti-American riots breakout in Taipei, Taiwan
1966 – “Mame” opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 1508 performances
2008 – 53rd Eurovision Song Contest: Dima Bilan for Russia wins singing “Believe” in Belgrade

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1891 – William F. Albright, American old testament scholar and archaeologist, born in Coquimbo, Chile (d. 1971)
1899 – Henri Michaux, Belgian-born French poet and writer (Miserable Miracle), born in Namur, Belgium (d. 1984)
1917 – Derek Hodgson, British high court judge, born in Whitefield, Manchester (d. 2002)
1963 – Rich Rodriguez, American football coach, born in Grant Town, West Virginia
1974 – Maria Alejandra Vento, Venezuelan tennis star (1995 Futures-Braz), born in Caracas
1984 – Sarah Hagan, American actress (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), born in Austin, Texas

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1749 – Graf Valentin Potocki, Polish nobleman
1861 – Elmer E. Ellsworth, American soldier who was the 1st Union officer killed in the American Civil War, dies at 24
1872 – Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German painter and designer who figured importantly in the German Nazarene movement, dies at 78
1953 – Cor Hermus, Dutch actor, director and writer (Bleeke Bet, William of Orange, Jantes), dies at 63
1972 – Asta Nielsen, actress (Joyless Street), dies at 88
1986 – Stephen D Thorne, Lt Cmdr USN/astronaut, dies in a plane crash at 33

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1774 – Chestertown tea party occurs (tea dumped into Chester River)
1883 – Baseball game between one-armed and one-legged players at Recreation Park, Philadelphia, Snorkeys defeat the Hoppers 33-17
1967 – Government bans submarines near South Africa
1970 – San Diego Padres beat SF Giants 17-16 in 15 innings
2019 – Prototype of new high-speed train that will float above the track, capable of travelling 600km an hour (370 mph), unveiled by Chinese Railway Rolling Stock Corporation in Qingdao
2019 – More than 170 tornadoes reported in a week in US states of Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa, killing seven and causing widespread damage

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1929 – Joe Modise, South African commandant of Umkhonto we Sizwe (1965- )
1929 – Ulla Jacobsson, Swedish actress (Zulu, One Summer of Happiness), born in Gothenburg, Sweden (d. 1982)
1944 – Ramon “Tiki” Fulwood, US drummer (Funkadelic, Knee Deep)
1965 – Manuel Sanchís Hontiyuelo, Real Madrid footballer
1971 – Issac Booth, NFL cornerback/safety (Cleveland Browns)
1971 – Joseph Rogers, CFL receiver (Winnipeg Blue Bombers)

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1691 – Adrien Auzout, French astronomer (b. 1622)
1891 – Ignace Leybach, French pianist and composer, dies at 73
1941 – Slavko Osterc, Slovenian composer, dies at 45
1988 – Andreas Liebenberg, South African military commander, dies at 60
2010 – Leonida Georgievna, Grand Duchess Of Russia (b. 1914)
2015 – John Nash, American mathematician (subject of movie “A Beautiful Mind”) and Nobel laureate, dies in a car crash at 86

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1883 – Cubs’ Billy Sunday’s 1st at bat, begins 14 consecutive strikes out
1902 – 36th Belmont: John Bullman aboard Mastermam wins in 2:22.6
1936 – Aer Lingus (Aer Loingeas) is founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland
1945 – NSB-Fuhrer Rost van Tonningen makes failed suicide attempt
1945 – 6th US Marine division reaches suburbs of Naha Okinawa
1946 – First US rocket (WAC Corporal) to reach edge of space fired from White Sands Missile Range New Mexico

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1865 – Enric Morera i Viura, Spanish musician and composer, born in Barcelona (d. 1942)
1927 – Michael Constantine, American actor (Room 222, Don’t Drink the Water), born in Reading, Pennsylvania
1936 – George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (helped invent LCD displays), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 2014)
1941 – Sebastian Forbes, British conductor, composer and music professor (The Aeolian Singers), born in Buckinghamshire, England
1942 – Malika Sabirova, Soviet Tajik ballet dancer, born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (d. 1982)
1974 – Sean Gunn, American actor

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1802 – Martha Washington, 1st US First Lady (1789-97), dies at 70
1868 – Julius Plucker, German mathematician/physicist (formula of P), dies
1965 – Heinrich Barth, Swiss philosopher (Das Sein in der Zeit), dies
1972 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet (British Poet Laureate 1968-72) and detective writer (Nicholas Blake), dies of cancer at 68
2012 – Wesley Brown, 1st African American US Naval Academy graduate, dies at 85
2013 – Henri Dutilleux, French composer (Tout un monde lointain, L’arbre des songes), dies at 97

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1925 – Roald Amundsun leaves Spitsbergen with 2 seaplanes to North Pole
1926 – White Sox Earl Sheely hits a record 6th consecutive double
1950 – Vietnamese troops of Ho Chi-Minh attack Cambodia
1964 – Fire in Belgian resort kills 19
1997 – Emmy 24th Daytime Award presentation – Susan Lucci loses for 17th time
2014 – Russian President Putin signs agreements with China in Beijing in relation to trade and infrastructure

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1899 – Ralph Sanford, American actor (Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp), born in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1963)
1917 – Ronald John Bilsland Colville, businessman
1924 – Jack Twyman, basketball player (Rochester/Cincinnati Royals), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 2012)
1949 – Andrew Neil, Scottish newspaper editor, (Sunday Times), born in Paisley, Scotland
1959 – Brisn Lenihan, Jnr, Irish politician and minister, born in Dublin (d. 2011)
1963 – Richard Appel, American writer

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1639 – Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian, philosopher and poet, dies at 70
1719 – Pierre Poiret, French mystic, dies at 73
1897 – Karol Mikuli, composer, dies at 77
1994 – Cliff Wilson, snooker player, dies at 60
1996 – Bobby Tulloch, ornithologist, dies at 67
2000 – Barbara Cartland, English romance author (Camfield #69), dies at 98

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1347 – Rienzo calls Rome for people’s tribunal
1882 – Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts” (Gengangere) premieres in Chicago
1939 – 1st regular transatlantic airmail (Pan Am: NY to Marsseille France)
1956 – Atomic fusion (thermonuclear) bomb dropped from plane at Bikini Atoll
1958 – US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
1967 – 92nd Preakness: Bill Shoemaker aboard Damascus wins in 1:55.2

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1889 – Felix Arndt, American composer, born in NYC, New York (d. 1918)
1899 – Alexander Deyneka, Ukrainian painter (d. 1969)
1917 – Bergur Sigurbjörnsson, Icelandic politician (d. 2005)
1926 – Vic Ames, singer (Ames Brothers), born in Malden, Massachusetts (d. 1978)
1927 – David Frederick Barlow, composer
1960 – Tony Goldwyn, actor (Ghost, Kuffs, Traces of Red), born in Los Angeles, California

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1550 – Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Japanese shogun (b. 1510)
1947 – Philipp Lenard, Austrian physicist (Nobel 1905), dies at 84
1969 – Royal Beal, American actor (Death of a Salesman), dies of cancer at 69
1975 – Jacques Stehman, composer, dies at 62
1988 – René Defossez, Belgian composer, dies at 82
1989 – Gilda Radner, American comedian and actress (SNL, Haunted Honeymoon), dies at 42

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1957 – Adone Zoli forms Italian government
1962 – “Bravo, Giovanni” opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 76 performances
1994 – Tennis star Jennifer Capriati (18), checks into a drug rehab center
1996 – STS 77 (Endeavour 11), launches into orbit
2015 – UK inflation is recorded as a negative for the first time since 1960
2019 – 64th Eurovision Song Contest won by Duncan Laurence of the Netherlands

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1815 – John Gross Barnard, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Sheffield, Massachusetts (d. 1882)
1880 – Allard R Hulshoff, architect of Amsterdam (1924)
1925 – Malcolm X [Little], African American human rights activist and Muslim minister, born in Omaha, Nebraska (d. 1965)
1926 – David Jacobs, British broadcaster (Juke Box Jury), born in London (d. 2013)
1955 – Ed Whitson, pitcher (NY Yankees, San Diego Padres)
1992 – Sam Smith, English singer-songwriter (Stay with Me), born in London, England

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1825 – Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, French political philosopher (b. 1760)
1961 – Joe Howard, singer (Gay Nineties Revue), dies at 94
1969 – Coleman Hawkins, American jazz musician who virtually created tenor saxophone for jazz, dies at 64
2000 – Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut (b. 1933)
2014 – Michael Aldrich, British inventor (Online shopping), dies at 72
2014 – Jack Brabham AO, OBE, Australian auto racer and team owner (World F1 champion 1959-60, 66), dies of liver disease at 88

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1830 – Edwin Budding of England signs an agreement for the manufacture of his invention, lawn mower. Saturdays are destroyed forever
1861 – Battle of Sewall’s Point Virginia – 1st Federal offense against the South
1948 – Arab Legion captures fort on Mt Scopus during Arab-Israeli war
1950 – “Liar” opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 12 performances
1967 – Silver hits record $1.60 an ounce in London
1990 – Judy Carne arrested at JFK airport on an 11 year old drug warrant

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1048 – Omar Khayyám, Persian mathematician, poet and philosopher (d. 1131)
1744 – Joseph Beer, Bohemia clarinetist/composer (5th clarinet flap)
1920 – Lucia Mannucci, Italian singer (Quartetto Cetra)
1922 – Gerda Boyesen, Norwegian-born body psychotherapist (d. 2005)
1928 – Pernell Roberts, American actor (Adam-Bonanza, Trapper John MD), born in Waycross, Georgia (d. 2010)
1992 – Spencer Breslin, American actor

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1829 – Maria Josepha of Saxony, Queen consort of Spain, dies at 35
1967 – Andy Clyde, Scottish actor (The Real McCoys, Lassie), dies from natural causes at 75
1981 – William Saroyan, American novelist and stagewriter (Time of your life), dies at 72
1995 – Elisha Cook Jr, American actor (Maltese Falcon, Shane, Magnum PI), dies at 91
1997 – Bridgette Andersen, American actress (b. 1975)
2014 – Dobrica Cosic, Serbian writer and President (1992-93), dies at 92

More Famous Deaths »