Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1547 – Great fire in Moscow, a third of the largely wooden city destroyed and 2-3,000 killed
1788 – US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it
1948 – Lord Mountbatten resigns as Governor General of India (formerly the last Viceroy)
2000 – US Senator Daniel K. Inouye and 19 other Japanese-American WWII veterans of the 442nd Regiment belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton
2001 – Mexican artist Frida Kahlo becomes the first Hispanic woman honored on a US postage stamp

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Famous Birthdays

1823 – Jean Chacornac, French astronomer, born in Lyon, France (d. 1873)
1880 – Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker, born in Hampstead, London (d. 1941)
1916 – Joe Bamford, British manufacturer and multi-millionaire, born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England (d. 2001)
1947 – Lex van Delden, Dutch actor (Soldier of Orange), born in Amsterdam (d. 2010)
1995 – Andrew Dismukes, American comedian, actor, and writer (Saturday Night Live, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy), born in Houston, Texas

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Famous Deaths

1631 – John Smith, English explorer (Chesapeake Bay, New England) and leader of the Virginia Colony (Jamestown), dies at 51
1865 – Frances Adeline Seward, American First Lady of New York (1839-42) and wife of US Secretary of State William H. Seward, dies of a heart attack at 59
1964 – Andrew Goodman, US civil rights activist, murdered at 20
1995 – Laurence McKinley Gould, American Geologist and Polar Explorer who was chief scientist and second-in-command on the first expedition to the interior of Antarctica in 1929, dies at 98
2023 – Ronnie Nolan, Irish soccer wing-half (33 caps League of Ireland XI, 10 Republic of Ireland; Shamrock Rovers 297 games), dies at 89

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Historical Events

1632 – Britain grants Lord Baltimore rights to Chesapeake Bay area
1895 – First woman to earn a PhD in Physics from an American university, Caroline Willard Baldwin (25), receives her degree from Cornell University
1943 – Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) founded in Chicago
1968 – Austin Currie, then Nationalist Member of Parliament (MP) at Stormont, and other Irish civil rights activists, protest discrimination in the allocation of housing by ‘squatting’ (illegally occupying) in a house in Caledon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
2012 – A Syrian fighter pilot lands in Jordan and defects from the Syrian uprising

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Famous Birthdays

1756 – Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer, known as “the Swedish Mozart”, conductor, and pedagogue, born in Miltenberg am Main, Electorate of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1792)
1868 – Helen Miller Shepard, American philanthropist who established Hall of Fame, born in Manhattan, New York (d. 1938)
1894 – George Delacorte, American philanthropist and publisher (Dell Books), born in New York City (d. 1991)
1894 – Lloyd Hall, African-American chemist and pioneer in food chemistry (science of food preservation), born in Elgin, Illinois (d. 1971)
1947 – Candace “Candy” Clark, American actress (Man Who Fell to Earth, Q, American Graffiti), born in Norman, Oklahoma

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Famous Deaths

1846 – Pieter Adams, architect of Rotterdam, dies at about 67
1958 – Kurt Alder, German chemist (Nobel 1950), dies at 55
1960 – Mahlon Hamilton, American actor (Peg O’My Heart, High School Girl), dies at 80 (b. 1880)
2016 – James Victor, Dominican-American actor (Boulevard Night, Streets of LA), dies at 76
2021 – Luis del Sol, Spanish soccer midfielder (16 caps; Betis, Real Madrid, Juventus, Roma) and manager (Betis), dies at 86

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Historical Events

1868 – Major General E. R. S. Canby removes mayor of Columbia, South Carolina
1914 – British Open Men’s Golf, Prestwick GC: Harry Vardon of Jersey wins a record 6th Open Championship, 3 strokes ahead of defending champion J.H. Taylor
1976 – US Viking 1 goes into Martian orbit after 10-month flight from Earth
1977 – Pope Paul VI makes 19th-cen bishop John Neumann 1st US male saint
2017 – Record 65.6 million people displaced around the world in 2016 reported by UN refugee agency

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Famous Birthdays

1919 – Pauline Kael, American film critic (NY Times, For Keeps), born in Petaluma, California (d. 2001)
1925 – Alfred Nzo, South African General Secretary of the ANC (1969-91), born in Benoni, Transvaal, South Africa (d. 2000)
1964 – Bill Barretta, American puppeteer, producer, writer, and actor (Sesame Street; Pepe the King Prawn, The Swedish Chef, and Rowlf the Dog in “The Muppet Show”), born in Yardley, Pennsylvania
1967 – Bjørn Dæhlie, Norwegian cross-country skier and 8x Olympic gold medalist, born in Elverum, Norway
1978 – Garfield, American fictional cat created by Jim Davis (Garfield comic strip), born in Mamma Leoni’s Italian Restaurant

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Famous Deaths

1650 – Matthäus Merian, Swiss engraver (b. 1593)
1820 – Joseph Banks, British botanist and naturalist who accompanied James Cook on board the Endeavour, dies at 77
1984 – Lee Krasner [Lena Krassner], American abstract expressionist painter, dies at 75
1994 – Jocelyn Hambro, British financier (Hambros Bank), dies at 75
1996 – Vivian Ellis, English composer, dies at 91

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Historical Events

1960 – San Francisco Giants hire Tom Sheehan to replace Bill Rigney; baseball’s oldest debuting manager (66) goes 46-50-2 for remainder of season
1963 – 3,000 blacks boycott Boston public school to protest de facto segregation
2006 – US Open Men’s Golf, Winged Foot GC: Geoff Ogilvy of Australia makes clutch pars on the final 2 holes to win by 1, as runners-up Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomerie and Phil Mickelson all fail to par the 72nd hole
2014 – King Juan Carlos I of Spain abdicates the Spanish throne to make way for his son Felipe VI
2019 – England cricket captain Eoin Morgan smashes a ODI world record 17 sixes against Afghanistan in his side’s 150-run World Cup victory at Old Trafford; Morgan, 148 from 71 balls

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Famous Birthdays

1919 – Ted Leadbitter, British politician (Labour), born in Easington, England (d. 1996)
1929 – James Bishop, English editor (deputy editor of The Times), born in London, England (d. 2017)
1946 – Russell Ash, British author (‘the human Google’), born in Surrey, England
1947 – Bernard Giraudeau, French actor (L’Annee des Meduses), screenwriter, and director, born in La Rochelle, France (d. 2010)
1971 – Nigel Owens, Welsh rugby union referee (record holder for most Test matches refereed 100), born in Mynyddcerrig, Wales

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Famous Deaths

1580 – Juliana van Stolberg, German countess, mother of William of Orange and Jan Nassau, dies at 74
1911 – Franjo Ksaver Kuhač, Croatian composer who collected and published 1,600 folk songs, dies at 76
1959 – Ethel Barrymore [Blythe], American classic film and stage actress (Constant Wife, Corn is Green), dies at 79
1961 – Eddie Gaedel, American baseball pinch-hitter (shortest player in MLB history 3′ 7″; St. Louis Browns), dies after mugging at 36
1981 – Richard Goolden, British actor (Two Days to Live, School for Husbands), dies at 86

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Historical Events

1700 – Massachusetts orders priest to leave the colony
1769 – Design of Madonnina statue chosen, symbol of the city of Milan that stands atop spire of the Cathedral, designed by sculptor Giuseppe Perego
1837 – Charles Goodyear obtains his first rubber patent
1950 – 1st kidney transplant (Chicago)
1966 – Peter Green, British blues-rock guitartist joins John Mayall’s Bluebreakers

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Famous Birthdays

1907 – Charles Eames, American designer and architect, born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 1978)
1920 – Jacob H. Gilbert, American politician (US Representative 1960-1971), born in The Bronx, NYC, New York (d. 1981)
1950 – Susan Damante, American actress (The Adventure of Wilderness Family), born in Palo Alto, California
1969 – Paul Tergat, Kenyan long distance runner, born in Riwo, Baringo District, Kenya
1970 – Ron “Popeye” Jones, American NBA forward, 1992-2004 (Dallas Mavericks, Toronto Raptors, and 4 other teams), and assistant coach, 2013-present (4 teams), born in Dresden, Tennessee

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Famous Deaths

1501 – John I Albert [Jan I Olbracht], Polish sovereign (King of Poland, 1492-1501; Duke of Głogów, 1491-98), dies at 41
1565 – Ashikaga Yoshiteru, 13th Japanese shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate (1545-65), dies at 29
1797 – Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, King of Iran (1794-7) and founder of the Qajar dynasty, assassinated at 55
2002 – J. Carter Brown, American art director (Washington National Gallery), dies at 67
2005 – Ronald Winans, American gospel singer (Winans), dies at 48

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Historical Events

1908 – The Republican Party convenes in Chicago where President Theodore Roosevelt picks William Howard Taft as his successor
1922 – Irish republicans are beaten in a national election; the vote is in favor of the Treaty of London, which leaves the Irish Free State as a dominion within the British Commonwealth
1989 – “Ghostbusters II”, American supernatural comedy film sequel, directed by Ivan Reitman, starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd premieres
1997 – The Dairat Labguer massacre in Algeria; 50 people are killed
2013 – 20 people are killed by a series of car bombings across Iraq

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Famous Birthdays

1754 – Salawat Yulayev, Bashkir poet and national hero who led the Pugachev’s Rebellion, born in Tekeyevo, Russian Empire (d. 1800)
1953 – Valerie Mahaffey, American Emmy Award-winning character actress (Eve on “Northern Exposure”; The Doctors; Desperate Housewives), born in Sumatra, Indonesia (d. 2025)
1965 – Mike Lynch, English tech entrepreneur (Autonomy Corporation), Director of the BBC, born in London (d. 2024)
1966 – Jan Železný, Czech athlete (Olympic gold men’s javelin 1992, 96, 2000; World C’ship gold 1993, 95, 2001), born in Mladá Boleslav, Czechoslovakia
1982 – May Andersen, Danish model (Victoria’s Secret), born in Copenhagen, Denmark

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Famous Deaths

1885 – Wilhelm Camphausen, German painter (b. 1818)
1981 – John S Knight, American journalist and publisher (Knight Newspapers), dies at 86
2017 – John G. Avildsen, American film director (Rocky, The Karate Kid), dies of cancer at 81
2021 – Janet Malcolm [Jana Klara Wienerová], American journalist (The New Yorker, 1963-2021) and writer (The Journalist and the Murderer), dies of cancer at 86
2023 – Daniel Ellsberg, American military analyst, whistleblower (The Pentagon Papers), and anti-war advocate, dies of pancreatic cancer at 92

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Historical Events

1846 – Oregon Treaty signed, setting US-British boundary at 49°N
1918 – 1″ of snow falls in Northern Pennsylvania
1966 – Mexican record temperature of 52.5 °C (126.5 °F) in the shade is recorded in San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora
1974 – Novelty song “The Streak” by Ray Stevens hits #1 on UK pop chart
1991 – Birth of the first federal political party in Canada that supports Quebec nationalism, le Bloc Québécois

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Famous Birthdays

1763 – Franz Danzi, German composer and cellist, born in Schwetzingen, Electorate of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1826)
1870 – Maud Barger-Wallach, American tennis player (US Nat C’ship 1908), born at New York, NY (d. 1954)
1890 – Georg Wüst, German Oceanographer (provided first complete understanding of the temperature, salinity and deep-current structure of the Atlantic Ocean), born in Posen, Germany (d. 1977)
1935 – Belinda Lee, English actress (Who Done It, Runaway Bus), born in Devon, England (d. 1961)
1981 – Billy Martin, American guitarist and songwriter (Good Charlotte – The Young and the Hopeless), born in Annapolis, Maryland,

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Famous Deaths

1246 – Frederick II “the Warlike”, duke of Austria and Styria (1230-46), dies at the Battle of Leitha at 35
1962 – Alfred Cortot, French-Swiss pianist and teacher, dies at 84
1990 – George Nakashima, American furniture maker and architect (American Craft Movement), dies at 85
2016 – Lois Duncan, American young adult novelist (I Know What You Did Last Summer), dies at 82
2018 – Joe DeNardo, American meteorologist and television weatherman (KDKA and WTAE in Pittsburgh, 1957-2009), dies at 87

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Historical Events

1965 – Beatles release album “Beatles VI”
1988 – “Guy” debut album by Guy is released
2001 – China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan form the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
2015 – “Jurassic World” is the first film to make $500 million worldwide in its opening weekend
2016 – First mammal made extinct by human-induced climate change announced – the Bramble Cay melomys from Torres Strait

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Famous Birthdays

1736 – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (formulated Coulomb’s Law), born in Angoulême, France (d. 1806)
1796 – Nikolai Brashman, Russian mathematician, born in Neu-Raußnitz, Austrian Empire (d. 1866)
1949 – Alan White, British rock drummer (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band; Yes, 1972-2022; solo – Ramshackled), born in Pelton, County Durham, England (d. 2022)
1974 – Jang Jin-young, South Korean actress (Sorum; Singles), born in Imsil, South Korea (d. 2009)
1976 – Massimo Oddo, Italian soccer defender (34 caps; Lazio 135 games, AC Milan) and manager (Pescara, Udinese), born in Città Sant’Angelo, Italy

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Famous Deaths

1544 – Antoine, Duke of Lorraine and military leader (freed the Duchy of Lorraine from the Holy Roman Empire), dies at 55
1948 – Ernst Henrik Ellberg, Swedish composer, dies at 79
1982 – Marie Rambert, Polish-British ballerina, teacher and director (Ballet Rambert), dies at 94
2000 – Attilio Bertolucci, Italian poet and writer, dies at 88
2006 – Jean Roba, Belgian comics author (Boule et Bill), dies at 75

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Historical Events

1922 – Longest recorded attack of hiccups begins when Charles Osborne gets the hiccups and continues for 68 years; he dies 11 months after they stop
1947 – First night game at Fenway Park (Red Sox 5, White Sox 3)
1979 – Sioux nation receives $100 million in compensation for Black Hills, South Dakota
2001 – TNN/CMT Country Weekly Music Awards: George Strait, Faith Hill, and Alan Jackson win
2018 – FIFA Congress votes to award 2026 World Cup to joint bid by US, Canada and Mexico

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Famous Birthdays

1827 – Alberto Henschel, German-Brazilian photographer and businessman, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1882)
1966 – Thyme Lewis, American actor (Jonah Carver in “Days of Our Lives”), born in San Francisco, California
1973 – Kasia Kowalska, Polish pop rock singer (“A to co mam”; “Nobody”), born in Sulejówek, Poland
1987 – Charlotte Wells, Scottish director (Aftersun), born in Edinburgh, Scotland
1992 – Violet Chachki [Paul Jason Dardo], American drag queen, dancer, model and TV personality (RuPaul’s Drag Race season 7 winner), born in Atlanta, Georgia

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Famous Deaths

1036 – Ali az-Zahir, 7th Caliph of the Fātimids (1021-36), dies at 30
1881 – Joseph Škoda, Bohemian physician, dies at 75
1920 – Essad Pasja, Albanian military man/minister, murdered at the Versailles Peace Conference
1952 – Max Pulver, writer, dies
1973 – Alvin Derold Etler, American oboist, and composer, dies at 60

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Historical Events

1875 – 9th Belmont: Bobby Swim aboard Calvin wins in 2:42.25
1916 – US National Championship Women’s Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Defending champion Molla Bjurstedt outclasses Louise Hammond Raymond 6-0, 6-1
1950 – The first of two Air France DC-4 aircraft flying the same route from Saigon to Paris crashes near Bahrain, killing 46 passengers and crew, while 6 survive; a second DC-4 on the same route crashes two days later a few miles away under similar circumstances
1990 – Orioles Cal Ripken plays in his 1,308th consecutive game to move past Everett Scott into 2nd place on the all-time list
2007 – Russian novelist and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn receives the State Prize of the Russian Federation from President Putin for his humanitarian work

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Famous Birthdays

1861 – William Attewell, English cricket bowler (England in 10 Tests 1884-1891), born in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, England (d. 1927)
1911 – Milovan Djilas, Yugoslavian politician and writer (The New Class), born in Podbišće, Montenegro (d. 1995)
1941 – Roy Harper, British folk-rock singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Folkjokeopus; Work of Heart), born in Rusholme, Manchester, England
1947 – Ron Freeman, American athlete (Olympic gold 4x400m, bronze 400m 1968), born in Elizabeth, New Jersey
1979 – Robyn [Robin Carlsson], Swedish pop and dance music singer-songwriter, and record producer (“Show Me Love”; “Dancing On My Own”), born in Stockholm, Sweden

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Famous Deaths

1020 – Lyfing, Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Wells and Archbishop of Canterbury during the Viking raids on England (1013-20), dies and is buried in Canterbury Cathedral
1878 – William Cullen Bryant, American poet (Thanatopsis), dies at 83
1883 – John Randolph Tucker, American naval officer (Confederate Navy), dies at 71
2015 – Ernest Tomlinson, English light classical music composer, dies at 90
2024 – Tony Lo Bianco, American stage and screen actor (The French Connection; A View From the Bridge; Hizzoner!), dies of prostate cancer at 87

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