Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1881 – The USS Jeannette, under the command of George Washington De Long, sinks in the Arctic circle following 21 months of drifting after becoming trapped in the ice
1890 – US National Championship Women’s Tennis, Philadelphia Cricket Club: Ellen Roosevelt beats defending champion Bertha Townsend 6-2, 6-2
1953 – Jim Peters runs world record marathon (2:18:40.2)
1987 – Daniel Buettner, Bret Anderson, Martin Engel and Anne Knabe complete cycling journey of 15,266 mi from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Argentina
1990 – Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry announces he will not seek a 4th term
2001 – 35th TNN and CMT Country Weekly Music Awards: George Strait, Faith Hill and Alan Jackson wins

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Famous Birthdays

1854 – Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (steam turbine), born in London (d. 1931)
1875 – Max d’Ollone, French composer and writer (Le Ménestrel), born in Besançon, France (d. 1959)
1954 – Jorge Santana, Mexican rock guitarist (Malo), born in Autlán de Navarro
1964 – Kathy Burke, English actress and playwright (Absolutely Fabulous, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), born in London, England
1970 – Shaun Young, Australian cricketer (Tasmanian all-rounder, Young Aust 1995), born in Burnie, Tasmania, Australia
1972 – Natalie MacMaster, Canadian musician, born in Troy, Nova Scotia, Canada

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Famous Deaths

1550 – Veronica Gambara, Italian poet, dies at 64
1898 – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, French-Canadian lawyer and politician, dies at 57
1958 – Edwin Keppel Bennett, English writer (Built in Jerusalem’s Wall: A Book in praise of Jerusalem), dies at 70
1972 – Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Austrian-German princess by her marriage to the diplomat Prince Friedrich Franz von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst and spy, dies at 80
1973 – Alvin Derold Etler, composer, dies at 60
2004 – Ralph Wiley, American sports journalist and writer (Sports Illustrated and ESPN’s Page 2), dies from a heart attack at 52

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Historical Events

1939 – US Open Men’s Golf, Philadelphia Cricket Club: Byron Nelson wins by 3 strokes from Craig Wood and 7 ahead of Denny Shute in a 36-hole playoff to claim the second of his 5 major titles
1948 – 80th Belmont: Eddie Arcaro wins aboard Citation to claim his second Triple Crown
1965 – Big Bang theory of creation of universe is supported by announcement of discovery of new celestial bodies know as blue galaxies
1976 – “Yes, Yes, Yes” by Bill Cosby hits #46
1990 – Oakland A’s Rickey Henderson becomes 2nd to steal 900 bases
2017 – NBA Finals: Golden State Warriors beat defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers, 129-120 for a 4-1 series victory; MVP Kevin Durant scores 39 points

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Famous Birthdays

1833 – George Stevens, English jockey (record 5 Grand National wins), born in Cheltenham, England (d. 1871)
1963 – Johnny Weiss, American professional wrestler (Johnny Hotbody), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1971 – David Defiagbon, Nigerian-Canadian boxer (Olympic silver 1996), born in Sapele, Delta State, Nigeria (d. 2018)
1971 – Ryan Klesko, American MLB outfielder (Atlanta Braves), born in Westminster, California
1979 – Wil Horneff, American actor (Ghost in the Machine, Sandlot), born in Englewood, New Jersey
1982 – Loïc Duval, French racing driver (Audi Sport), born in Chartres, France

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Famous Deaths

1675 – Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy (1638-75), dies at 40
1850 – Jean Victor de Constant Rebecque, Swiss-Dutch army leader, dies at 77
1937 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1893)
1972 – Saul David Alinsky, radical writer (John L Lewis), dies at 63
2000 – P. L. Deshpande, Indian Marathi writer, dies at 80
2008 – Pam Henning [Cornelia Catharina Pamela Ingenegeren], Indonesian-Dutch cabaret dancer and actress, dies at 90

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Historical Events

1231 – Harderwijk (Netherlands) becomes a city
1909 – British Open Men’s Golf, Royal Cinque Ports GC: Englishman J.H. Taylor wins Championship for a 4th time, 6 strokes ahead of runners-up Tom Ball and James Braid
1963 – US President JFK says segregation is morally wrong and that it is “time to act”
1966 – French and German media mistakenly report death of Roger Daltry
1975 – One-day international cricket debut of Javed Miandad aged 17 yrs 364 days
1981 – Cannibal Issei Sagawa kills Dutch student

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Famous Birthdays

1823 – James Lawson Kemper, Major General (Confederate Army), born in Madison County, Virginia (d. 1895)
1943 – Buster Mathis, American heavyweight boxer, born in Sledge, Mississippi (d. 1995)
1948 – Stephen Schnetzer, American actor (Cass Winthrop-Another World), born in Boston, Massachusetts
1967 – Clare Carey, American actress (Coach), born in Rhodesia
1970 – Brock Marion, American NFL safety (Dallas Cowboys), born in Wheeling, West Virginia
1980 – Jeong Jang, South Korean golfer (Women’s British Open 2005), born in Daejeon, South Korea

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Famous Deaths

1712 – Louis Joseph, duc de Vendôme, Marshal of France (b. 1654)
1956 – Ralph Morgan [Wupperman], American actor (Creeper, Imposter, Jack London), dies at 73
1956 – Corrado Alvaro, Italian writer (Poesie grigio-verdi), dies at 61
1981 – Eppo Doeve, Dutch cartoonist and painter, dies at 73
1995 – Lovelace Watkins, American singer known as “The Black Sinatra” (The Big, Big Voice of Lovelace Watkins), dies at 58
1996 – Ulysses Dove, dancer/choreographer, dies at 49

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Historical Events

1639 – 1st American log cabin at Fort Christina (Wilmington Delaware)
1957 – John Diefenbacker (C) elected Prime Minister of Canada
1959 – Rocky Colovito hits 4 consecutive HRs in 1 game
1967 – 15,000 attend Fantasy Faire and Magic Mountain Music Festival, California
1985 – Coca Cola announces they’re bringing back their 99-year-old formula
1986 – A. Bartlett Giamatti succeeds Chub Feeney as President of baseball’s National League

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Famous Birthdays

1832 – Nikolaus Otto, German engineer (gas motor, otto motor), born in Holzhausen an der Haide, Nassau (d. 1891)
1861 – Joseph Cuypers, Dutch architect (St Bavo, Haarlem), born in Roermond, the Netherlands (d. 1949)
1925 – Nat Hentoff, columnist/novelist (Village Voice, The Cold Society)
1959 – Timothy Van Patten, American actor (White Shadow, Master), born in Brooklyn, New York
1961 – Maxi Priest, [Max Elliott], Jamaican/English singer (Wild World)
1976 – Hadi Saei Bonehkohal, Persian taekwondoka

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Famous Deaths

1560 – Mary of Guise [Mary of Lorraine], pro-French Queen of Scots (1538-42) and Regent of Scotland (1554-60), dies of dropsy at 44
1836 – André-Marie Ampère, French physicist (b. 1775)
1944 – Johan Limpers, Dutch sculptor and resistance fighter, executed at 28
1949 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1882)
1994 – Edward Kienholz, US sculptor (Back seat of a ’38 Dodge), dies at 66
1998 – Hammond Innes, English author (b. 1914)

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Historical Events

68 – Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, imploring his secretary Epaphroditos to slit his throat to evade a Senate-imposed death by flogging
1860 – 1st US “dime novel” published: “Malaseka, The Indian Wife of the White Hunter,” by Mrs Ann Stevens
1943 – “Pay-as-you-go” (withholding) US income tax deductions authorized
1967 – Israeli troops reach Suez Canal
1984 – 116th Belmont: Laffit Pincay Jr aboard Swale wins in 2:27.2
2001 – 133rd Belmont: Gary Stevens aboard Point Given wins in 2:26.80

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Famous Birthdays

1918 – Rob de Vries, actor and director (Ciske de Rat, Silent Raid), born in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands (d. 1969)
1925 – Keith Laumer [Anthony LeBaron], American sci-fi author (Retief’s War), born in Syracuse, New York (d. 1993)
1929 – Robert Badham, American politician (Rep-R-CA, 1977-89), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2005)
1934 – Paul Karolyi, Hungarian composer, born in Budapest (d. 2015)
1971 – Roderick Lewis, NFL tight end (Houston/Tennessee Oilers)
1986 – Kary Ng, Hong Kong singer and actress

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Famous Deaths

1954 – Alain LeRoy Locke, African-American writer and philosopher “Father of the Harlem Renaissance”, dies at 68
1961 – Camille Guérin, French scientist (b. 1872)
1967 – Stefan Boleslaw Poradowski, composer, dies at 64
1976 – Paul Rodenko, Dutch poet and writer (Never Marry a Witch), dies at 55
1992 – Clarence Miller, blues/jazz vocalist, dies at 69 of a heart attack
1998 – Lois Mailou Jones, American painter (Peasants on Parade), dies at 92

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Historical Events

1663 – Battle at Amegical: English and Portuguese fleet beats Spanish
1916 – Battle of Verdun: Germans capture Fort Vaux after several days of intense fighting
1969 – Brian Jones is asked to leave the Rolling Stones
1969 – Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor replaces Brian Jones
1974 – Keyboardist Rick Wakeman quits rock group “Yes”
1982 – 36th NBA Championship: LA Lakers beat Philadelphia 76ers, 4 games to 2

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Famous Birthdays

1757 – Ercole Consalvi, Italian Roman Catholic Cardinal, born in Rome, Italy (d. 1824)
1918 – John D. Roberts, American chemist, received American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal (2013), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2016)
1930 – Dana Wynter, German-English actress (Airport, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), born in Berlin, Germany (d. 2011)
1950 – Elmar Oliveira, American violinist (Naumburg 1978), born in Waterbury, Connecticut
1962 – Kristine W [Weitz], American musician ranked by Billboard as the 8th Greatest Dance Artist of all-time (The Advocate), born in Pasco, Washington
1971 – Tom Nutten, CFL/NFL centers (Hamilton Tiger Cats, Buffalo Bills)

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Famous Deaths

1383 – Thomas de Ros, 5th Baron de Ros, English Crusader (b. 1338)
1661 – John Elsevier, book publisher/publisher, dies at 39
1768 – Johann Winckelmann, German archaeologist (History of Ancient Art), dies at 50
1876 – George Sand [Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant], French author (Indiana, Consuelo), dies at 71
1980 – Ernst Busch, German singer and actor (b. 1900)
1992 – William McGowan, entrepreneur (MCI), dies at 64

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Historical Events

555 – Vigilius ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1420 – Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patriarchate of Aquileia
1906 – Chicago Cubs score 11 in 1st inning, beating NY Giants 19-0
1941 – Chemists Archer John Porter Martin and Richard L. M. Synge give the first demonstration of partition chromatography (separation of mixtures) at a meeting of the Biochemical Society held at the National Institute for Medical Research, Hampstead
1969 – Washington Senators draft Jeff Burroughs #1
1982 – 16th Music City News Country Awards: Barbara Mandrell

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Famous Birthdays

1896 – Vivien Kellems, American industrialist, who battled the Federal tax system as discriminatory against single people, born in Des Moines, Iowa (d. 1975)
1958 – Christopher Marcantel, actor (Chip-Nurse, Loving), born in Smithtown, New York
1962 – Takuya Kurosawa, Japanese racing driver, born in Ibaraki, Japan
1964 – Gia Carides, Greek-Australian actress
1973 – Robert Barr, NFL tackle (Seattle Seahawks)
1988 – Milan Lucic, Canadian Hockey player (Boston Bruins)

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Famous Deaths

1394 – Anne of Bohemia, Queen of England and wife of Richard II, dies at 28
1945 – Rubén M. Campos, Mexican novelist (Claudio Oranos) and musicologist (El folklore y la musica mexicana), dies at 69
1973 – Christine Lavant, Austrian poet and writer (Das Kind), dies at 57
1995 – Hsuan Hua, influential Buddhist master in the United States (b. 1918)
1998 – Thomas Narcejac, French writer (Vertigo), dies at 89
2018 – David Douglas Duncan, American photo-journalist best known for his war photography, dies at 102

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Historical Events

1716 – French transport the 1st African slaves to Louisiana
1882 – Cyclone in Arabian Sea (Bombay, India) drowns 100,000 (disputed event)
1975 – Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam established
1983 – Li Xiannian becomes President of the People’s Republic of China and Deng Xiaoping the supreme commander
1992 – 124th Belmont: Eddie Delahoussaye aboard AP Indy wins in 2:26
2017 – Korean singer T.O.P is rushed to hospital after a suspected overdose while serving mandatory military service

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Famous Birthdays

1819 – William Howard Glover, English composer, born in London, England (d. 1875)
1896 – Henry Allingham, British supercentenarian and World War I veteran, born in Clapton, London (d. 2009)
1909 – Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-British philosopher, born in Riga, Latvia, Russian Empire (d. 1997)
1919 – Charles Pringle, British air marshal, born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 2012)
1963 – Vladimir Ruzicka, hockey forward (Team Czech Olympic gold 1998)
1967 – Paul Giamatti, American actor

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Famous Deaths

1891 – John A. Macdonald, 1st Prime Minister of Canada (1867-73 and 1878-91), dies of a stroke at 76
1994 – Willie Humphrey, American jazz clarinetist, dies at 93
1996 – Richard Michael Hills, comedy script writer, dies at 70
2002 – Robbin Crosby, American heavy metal rock guitarist and vocalist (Ratt-Round and Round), dies at 42
2003 – Ken Grimwood, American writer (b. 1944)
2013 – Tom Sharpe, British satirist and author, dies from complications from diabetes at 85

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Historical Events

1851 – Anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe first published in serial form in “The National Era”
1925 – US Open Men’s Golf, Worcester CC: Scotsman Willie Macfarlane beats Bobby Jones by 1 stroke in a second 18-hole playoff for his only major title
1965 – Lopez Arellano becomes president of Honduras
1993 – “Livin’ On The Edge” by Aerosmith hits #18
1994 – “Gray’s Anatomy” opens at Beaumont Theater NYC for 8 performances
2018 – Miss America pageant announces an end to its swimsuit competition

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Famous Birthdays

1916 – Eddie Joost, baseball player
1919 – Richard Scarry, children’s author and illustrator (What Do People Do All Day?), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1994)
1925 – William L Dickinson, (Rep-R-AL, 1965- )
1931 – John Dellow, commisioner (London Metropolitan Police)
1932 – A R Dawson, rugby player
1946 – Gillian Hills, English actress (Blow-up, Clockwork Orange), born in Cairo, Egypt

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Famous Deaths

754 – Boniface, [Winfrid], English saint/archbishop (Dokkum), dies at 79
1316 – Louis X, King of France (1314-16), dies at 26
1826 – Carl Maria von Weber, German romantic composer (Der Freischutz), dies at 39
1910 – O. Henry [William Sydney Porter], American short story writer (Cabbages and Kings), dies at 47
1998 – Alfred Kazin, American writer and literature critic (The Inmost Leaf), dies at 83
2012 – Barry Unsworth, British novelist, dies from lung cancer at 81

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Historical Events

1927 – 1st Ryder Cup Golf, Worcester CC: US beats Great Britain, 9½-2½; Walter Hagen first American captain; Ted Ray first GB skipper
1942 – Battle of Midway begins; Japan’s 1st major defeat in WW II
1944 – 5th Army enters and liberates Rome from Mussolini’s Fascist armies
1947 – “Louisiana Lady” closes at Century Theater NYC after 4 performances
1990 – Dr Jack Kevorkian assists an Oregon woman to commit suicide, beginning a national debate over the right to die
1990 – Greyhound Bus files bankruptcy

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Famous Birthdays

1867 – Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Finnish general and 6th President of Finland (1944-46), born in Askainen, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire (d. 1951)
1899 – Leo Spies, Russian-born German composer, born in Moscow (d. 1965)
1923 – John Lea, British vice-admiral, born in Shimla, India (d. 2015)
1953 – Jimmy McCulloch, Scottish songwriter and guitarist (Wings), born in Dumbarton (d. 1979)
1968 – Scott Wolf, actor (Broken Arrow, Party of 5), born in Boston, Massachusetts
1970 – Ekrem İmamoğlu, Turkish politician, Mayor of Istanbul (2019-) , born in Akçaabat, Turkey

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Famous Deaths

1206 – Adèle of Champagne, wife of Louis VII of France
1872 – Stanisław Moniuszko, Polish composer, dies at 53
1970 – Sonny Tufts [Bowen Charleton Tufts III], American actor (The Seven Year Itch, Variety Girl), dies from pneumonia at 58
1993 – June Smaney, actress (Sainted Sister), dies of apparent suicide at 71
2007 – Freddie Scott, American singer and songwriter (Cry to Me), dies at 74
2012 – Herb [Herbert] Reed, American musician (The Platters), dies at 83

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