Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1960 – Ornette Coleman records his influential album “Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation”, establishes the name for the Free Jazz sound
1976 – Patricia R Harris named secretary of HUD
1980 – Harold Carmichael ends NFL streak of 127 consecutive game receptions
1987 – 3 white NY teens convicted of manslaughter in death of a black man
1987 – Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov launched
1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.

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Famous Birthdays

1853 – Isolde Kurz, German poet and short-story writer (Meine Mutter), born in Stuttgart, Germany (d. 1944)
1895 – Paul Hoffer, German composer, born in Barmen, Germany (d. 1949)
1919 – Gert Fredriksson, Swedish canoeist (6 Olympic gold 1948, 52, 56, 60), born in Nyköping, Sweden (d. 2006)
1938 – Larry Bryggman, American actor (Dr John Dixon-As the World Turns), born in Concord, California
1961 – Ryuji Sasai, Japanese video game composer, born in Osaka Prefecture, Japan
1964 – Keith Taylor, NFL safety (Washington Redskins), born in Pennsauken Township, New Jersey

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Famous Deaths

1736 – Alessandro Galilei, Italian architect (Cappella Corsini), dies at 45
1824 – James Parkinson, English physician (First description of Parkinson’s disease) and political activist, dies at 69
1873 – Francis Garnier, French explorer, dies at 34
1967 – Stuart “Stu” Erwin, American actor (The Stu Erwin Show), dies of heart attack at 64
1998 – Karl Denver, Scottish singer (b 1931)
2013 – Lars Edlund, Swedish composer, dies at 91

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Historical Events

1957 – Elvis Presley receives his draft notice to join the US Army for National Service
1968 – The People’s Democracy (PD) announce that its members will undertake a protest march from Belfast to Derry beginning 1 January 1969
1973 – Dutch Antillean government of Evertsz forms
1974 – “The Godfather Part II”, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1975)
1983 – PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and 4,000 loyalists evacuate Lebanon
1990 – The world’s first website and server go live at CERN

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Famous Birthdays

1905 – “Tiger” Bill O’Reilly, Australian cricketer (mighty Australian leg-spinner), born in White Cliffs, Australia
1949 – Claudia Jennings [Mary Ellen Chestrerton], American actress and Playboy playmate (Nov 1969, Playmate of the year 1970), born in Saint Paul, Minnesota (d. 1979)
1960 – Nalo Hopkinson, Jamaican-born Canadian writer, born in Kingston, Jamaica
1963 – Pam Casale, American tennis player (Marco Island finals 1985), born in Camden, New Jersey
1975 – Bartosz Bosacki, Polish footballer, born in Poznań, Poland
1981 – James Shields, American baseball player, born in Santa Clarita, California

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Famous Deaths

1768 – Carlo Innocenzo Fragoni, Italian poet, dies at 76
1821 – Gian Francesco Fortunati, composer, dies at 75
1921 – Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German Colonel General, dies at 71
1988 – Max Robinson, 1st African American network TV anchor (ABC), dies of AIDS at 49
1991 – Stephen Birnbaum, US tourism writer, dies at 54
1998 – Irene Hervey, American actress (b. 1910)

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Historical Events

1788 – Chinese troops occupy capital Thang Long Vietnam
1945 – Jean Giraudoux’ “La Folle de Chaillot” premieres in Paris
1960 – Frank Sinatra’s 1st session with Reprise Records (Ring-A-Ding-Ding)
1993 – “Red Shoes” closes at Gershwin Theater NYC after 5 performances
2000 – Ballon d’Or: Real Madrid’s Portuguese midfielder Luís Figo is named best football player in Europe ahead of Juventus midfielder Zinedine Zidane and Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko
2010 – “Miracle at the New Meadowlands”, Philadelphia Eagles trail New York Giants by 21 points with eight minutes to play, before scoring 4 touchdowns in final 7 minutes, including dramatic walk-off punt returned for a touchdown by DeSean Jackson

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Famous Birthdays

1922 – Catherine Hall, British nurse who raised the professional profile of nursing and to establish its central role in health care, born in Sheffield, England (d. 1996)
1944 – Richard Leakey, Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician, born in Nairobi, Kenya
1948 – Ken Brown, Canadian ice hockey player
1969 – Scott Pearson, Cornwall, NHL left wing (Buffalo Sabres)
1969 – Kristen “Kristy” Swanson, American actress (Knots Landing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), born in Mission Viejo, California
1970 – Jon Cleveland, Canadian 100m/200m swimmer (Olympic bronze 1992, 96), born in Fresno, California

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Famous Deaths

1815 – Robert Hudson, composer, dies at 83
1848 – Emily Brontë, English novelist (Wuthering Heights), dies of tuberculosis at 30
1939 – Karl Wagenfeld, Low German writer (Lucifer, Death and Devil), dies at 70
1944 – Rudolph Karstadt, German entrepreneur (b. 1856)
1994 – Noel Pointer, jazz violinist, dies at 39
2012 – Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, Israeli military leader, dies from cancer at 68

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Historical Events

1799 – George Washington’s body interred at Mount Vernon
1932 – National Football League Championship; Playoff, Chicago Stadium: Chicago Bears beat Portsmouth Spartans, 9-0
1936 – Queensland cricket all out for 49 v Vic, Fleetwood-Smith 7-17
1953 – KATV TV channel 7 in Little Rock, AR (ABC) begins broadcasting
1953 – KMID TV channel 2 in Midland and Odessa, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
1980 – IRA’s Sean McKenna becomes critically ill, ends hunger strike

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Famous Birthdays

1913 – Lynn Bari [Margaret Schuyler Fisher], American actress (Shock, Nocturne, 6 Gun Law), born in Roanoke, Virginia (d. 1989)
1931 – André S. Labarthe, French actor, film producer and director (Vivre sa vie, Cinéastes de notre temps), born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France (d. 2018)
1960 – Kazuhide Uekusa, Japanese economist
1963 – Charles Oakley, NBA forward (NY Knicks)
1966 – Makiko Esumi, Japanese actress
1972 – Raymond Herrera, American drummer (Fear Factory) and businessman

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Famous Deaths

1737 – Antonio Stradivari, renowned violin-maker, dies in Cremona Italy at 93
1894 – Erastus Flaval Beadle, American publisher (Beadle’s Dime Novels), dies at 73
1973 – Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani scholar, orator and philosopher, dies at 65
1977 – Cyril Ritchard, Australian actor (Peter Pan, Hans Brinker), dies at 80
1994 – Heinz Bernhard [Löwenstein], German-born British actor and director (Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof), dies at 71
2006 – Mike Dickin, British radio broadcaster (b. 1943)

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Historical Events

1637 – Shimabara Rebellion: Japanese peasants led by Amakusa Shiro rise against daimyo Matsukura Shigeharu
1821 – Kentucky abolishes debtors’ prisons
1943 – Transport 63 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
1949 – Burma recognizes People’s Republic of China
1958 – Ted Lindsay becomes highest scoring left wing in NHL history, passing Aurel Joliat who retired with 270; scores twice and adds an assist In Chicago Black Hawks’ 5-2 win over the Boston Bruins at Chicago Stadium
1970 – Poland: shipyard workers in Gdańsk strike; soldiers in Gdynia fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.

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Famous Birthdays

1820 – Frederick Tracy Dent, American General (Union Army), born in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 1892)
1894 – Willem Schermerhorn, Neth premier (1945-46)
1970 – Benedictine, [St Bernard]; becomes heaviest known dog (137 kg)
1975 – Nick Farrell, boxer (Olympics 1996), born in East York, Ontario
1982 – Josh Barfield, American baseball player
1982 – Onur Ozsu, Turkish music artist, born in Izmir

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Famous Deaths

1663 – Nzinga Mbandi, Queen of Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms (1626 -1663) (modern Angola), dies at about 82
1933 – Hans Vaihinger, German philosopher (Side-Studies), dies at 81
1956 – Eddie Acuff, actor (Guns of Pecos), dies at 48
1957 – Dorothy L. Sayers, English novelist (The Nine Tailors), dies at 66
1990 – Don Draper, actor (Pepper Agent 00X), dies of AIDS at 61
1991 – Armand Frappier, French-Canadian physician and microbiologist, dies at 87

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Historical Events

1773 – Boston tea party incident – Sons of Liberty protesters throw tea shipments into Boston harbour in protest against British imposed Tea Act
1880 – Transvaal region declares itself as the Republic of South Africa
1912 – 1st US postage stamp picturing an airplane, 20 cent parcel post, issued
1945 – National Football League Championship, Cleveland Stadium: Cleveland Rams beat Washington Redskins, 15-14; last game before Rams move west to Los Angeles
1959 – Snow falling in Lowarai Pass West Pakistan kills 48
1991 – UN reverses ruling that Zionism is racism by 111-25 (13 abstain) vote

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Famous Birthdays

1776 – Johann Wilhelm Ritter, German physicist (d. 1810)
1892 – A “Shon Nene” Morales, Antillean/Neth very old lady
1919 – Manke Nelis, [Cornelis Pieters], Dutch folk vocalist (Small Yodel Boy)
1926 – Alfred Koerppen, composer
1958 – Bart Oates, NFL center (NY Giants, SF 49ers)
1962 – William “The Refrigerator” Perry, NFL defensive back (Chicago Bears)

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Famous Deaths

1669 – Nathaniel Fiennes, English politician (b. circa 1608)
1673 – Juan de Padilla, composer, dies at 68
1927 – Hugh Archibald Clarke, composer, dies at 88
1944 – Don Meyer Basketball coach Northern State, Lipscomb, and Hamline
1989 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (Good, Bad and Ugly), dies at 64
2005 – Ed Hansen, American film director and editor (b. 1937)

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Historical Events

1854 – 1st street-cleaning machine in US 1st used in Philadelphia
1907 – In Persia, the Shah leads a coup de’etat against the liberal Prime Minister Nasir ul-Mulk and imprisons him, but a popular uprising forces the Shah to restore Nasir ul-Mulk soon after
1952 – KHON TV channel 2 in Honolulu, HI (NBC) begins broadcasting
1955 – “Folsom Prison Blues” single released by Johnny Cash (Billboard Song of the Year 1968)
1967 – The Beatles release “Christmas Time is Here Again”
2006 – First flight of the F-35 Lightning II.

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Famous Birthdays

1848 – Edwin Blashfield, American painter who decorated the dome of Library of Congress, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1936)
1853 – Jean Baptiste August Kessler, Dutch entrepreneur and director of oil on Dutch Indies, born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (d. 1900)
1878 – Hans Carossa, German writer, born in Tölz, Bavaria (d. 1956)
1944 – Chico Mendes, Brazilian environmental activist and rubber tapper, born in Xapuri, Brazil (d. 1988)
1966 – Manos Papayiannis, Greek fashion model and actor
1981 – Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)

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Famous Deaths

1839 – Matthijs I van Bree, Flemish court-painter, dies at 66
1943 – Fats Waller [Thomas Wright], American jazz singer and composer (Ain’t Misbehavin’, Hot Chocolate), dies at 39
1950 – Robert Müller-Hartmann, German composer, dies at 66
1987 – Septima Poinsette Clark, American educator and civil rights activist, dies at 89
2001 – Rufus Thomas [Mr. Swing], American musician (Do the Funky Chicken), dies at 84
2003 – Keith Magnuson, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1947)

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Historical Events

1900 – France and Italy sign a secret agreement by which Italy recognizes France’s right to exploit Morocco in return for France’s conceding her the same right in Tripoli
1901 – 1st table tennis tournament is held (London Royal Aquarium)
1950 – Baseball owners choose Lou Perini (Braves), Phil Wrigley (Cubs), Del Webb (Yankees), and Ellis Ryan (Indians) to select new commissioner
1975 – WCPR (Brooklyn New York pirate radio station) begins broadcasting on 1620 AM
2016 – University of Toronto scientists present findings of the world’s oldest water – 2 billion years old from a mine in Canada
2017 – The Vatican announces it has rediscovered the lost last paintings of Raphael in Vatican Museum, painted 1520

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Famous Birthdays

1904 – Jack Westland, American politician (US House of Representatives 1953-65) and golfer (US Amateur C’ship 1952), born in Everett, Washington (d. 1982)
1911 – Spike Jones [Lindley Armstrong Jones], American bandleader (Der Fueher’s Face, Cocktails For Two), born in Long Beach, California (d. 1965)
1935 – Butch [David William] White, English cricketer (England opening attack Brown and White v Pak 1961), born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire
1942 – David Band, British banker (BZW) (d. 1996)
1948 – Boudewijn Büch, Dutch writer and TV host, born in The Hague, Netherlands
1963 – Cindy Gibb, American actress (Search for Tomorrow, Youngblood), born in Bennington, Vermont

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Famous Deaths

1417 – John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, English nobleman, hanged and burned
1542 – James V, King of Scotland (1513-42), dies at 30
1651 – Pierre Dupuy, French historian and scholar, dies at 69
1923 – Giuseppi Gallignani, composer, dies at 72
1965 – Hermann Sandby, composer, dies at 84
1998 – Norman Fell, American actor (Three’s Company, The End, Graduate), dies of bone marrow cancer at 74

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Historical Events

1918 – US army of occupation crosses Rhine, enters Germany
1947 – “Caribbean Carnival” closes at International NYC after 11 performances
1954 – Elsa Schiaparelli’s House of Schiaparelli at Place Vendôme in Paris closes
1993 – Space shuttle STS-61 (Endeavour 5), lands
1997 – 63rd Heisman Trophy Award: Charles Woodson, Michigan (CB)
2014 – A civil rights protest march in Washington, D.C. takes place, against the police killing of unarmed black men

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Famous Birthdays

1925 – Albert Paulsen, Ecuadorian-American actor (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Doctors’ Hospital), born in Guayaquil, Ecuador (d. 2004)
1937 – Rob Houwer, Dutch director and producer and actor (OK, Professor Columbus), born in The Hague, Netherlands
1943 – Margaret “Marti” Webb, British actress and singer (Evita, Tell Me on a Sunday), born in Hampstead, London
1958 – Clark Brandon, American actor (Fast Food), born in NYC, New York
1982 – Tuka Rocha, Brazilian racing driver, born in São Paulo, Brazil
1982 – Ricky Nolasco, American baseball player, born in Corona, California

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Famous Deaths

1650 – Phineas Fletcher, English poet, dies at 68
1909 – Innokenti Annenski, Russian poet and interpreter, dies of heart attack at 54
1940 – Dusty Tapscott, cricket (bro of Doodles, 4and1 in only S Af Test), dies
1945 – Robert van Genechten, Dutch Nazi (NSB), commits suicide
2011 – Russell Hoban, American author (creator of ‘Frances’ series), dies at 86
2016 – Thomas Schelling, American economist, (Nobel Prize 2005 – game-theory analysis), dies at 95

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Historical Events

1408 – Order of the Dragon: The Order of the Dragon was first created on December 12, 1408 by Emperor Sigismund, then King of Hungary, and his wife Queen Barbara of Celje following the battle for possession of Bosnia.
1904 – CMS McClellan’s “Leah Kleschna” premieres in NYC
1925 – Medina surrenders to Saudi forces led by Sultan Abdulaziz Ibn Saud
1966 – US Supreme Courts votes 4-3 allowing Braves to move to Atlanta
1968 – Northern Ireland Prime Minister Terence O’Neill receives overwhelming support from Unionist Members of Parliament (MPs) at Stormont
1987 – Rollermania at Madison Square Garden, Eastern Express beats Midwest Pioneers

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Famous Birthdays

1298 – Albert II, Duke of Austria, born in Habsburg Castle, Swabia (d. 1358)
1791 – Marie-Louise of Austria, Duchess of Parma and second wife of Napoleon, born in Hofburg, Vienna, Austria (d. 1847)
1906 – William Pahlmann, American interior designer (4 Season restaurant, NYC), born in Pleasant Mound, Illinois (d. 1987)
1913 – Ferenc Csik, Hungarian swimmer (Olympics gold medal 100m freestyle 1936), born in Kaposvár, Hungary (d. 1945)
1952 – Ajit De Silva, Sri Lankan cricket spin bowler (4 Tests), born in Ambalangoda, Sri Lanka
1991 – Daniel Magder, Canadian actor (The Famous Jett Jackson), born in Toronto, Ontario

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Famous Deaths

1889 – Viktor Bunyakovsky, Russian mathematician (b. 1804)
1965 – Johnny Lee, American actor (Song of the South, The Amos ‘n’ Andy Show), dies from a heart attack at 67
1971 – Jack Barnhill, Northern Ireland senator, assassinated
1985 – Anne Baxter, American actress, and singer (The Razor’s Edge, All About Eve), dies of a stroke at 62
2005 – Annette Vadim, Danish actress (b. 1936)
2018 – Meng Lang, Chinese poet and activist, dies at 57

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