Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1804 – Friedrich Schiller’s play “Wilhelm Tell” premieres
1891 – British Steamer “Utopia” sinks off Gibraltar killing 574
1901 – At a show in Paris 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings cause a sensation, 11 years after his death
1966 – US submarine locates missing H-bomb in Mediterranean
1996 – “Bus Stop” closes at Circle in Sq Theater NYC after 29 performances
1997 – CNN begin Spanish broadcasts

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1920 – John La Montaine, composer (Pulitzer 1959), born in Oak Park, Illinois (d. 2013)
1927 – Nancy Sheehan, writer
1936 – Ladislaw Kupkovic, composer
1939 – Robin Knox-Johnston, British yachtsman
1942 – Sidney K Barthelmy, US politician(?)
1979 – Nicole “Coco” Austin, American glamor model

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1764 – George Parker, English astronomer, dies
1806 – David Dale, industrialist and philanthropist, dies
1902 – George William Warren, composer, dies at 73
1994 – Arthur C. Jacobs, Scottish poet, dies at 57
1995 – Ronnie Kray, English gangster (The Firm), dies at 61
1996 – Kenneth Jameson, art educationalist, dies at 83

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1249 – The Servite Order is officially approved by Cardinal Raniero Capocci, papal legate in Tuscany
1896 – Premiere of Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen”
1937 – All but one senior fouls out of a scrimmage game between seniors and sophomores, but he holds on to win the game 35-32
1946 – “Would-Be Gentleman” closes at Booth Theater NYC after 77 performances
1968 – General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado
1988 – Federal grand jury indicts North and Poindexter in Iran-Contra affair

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1654 – Andreas Acoluthus, German orientalist (d. 1704)
1911 – Dr. Josef Mengele, German, accused Nazi war criminal (d. 1979)
1931 – Betty Johnson, American pop and cabaret singer (Jack Paar Show, I Dreamed), born in Guilford County, North Carolina
1937 – Constança Capdeville, Porteguese pianist and composer, born in Barcelona, Spain (d. 1992)
1954 – Dav Whatmore, cricketer (Colombo Aust bat 1979, Sri Lanka coach 1995-)
1986 – T. J. Jordan, American basketball player

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1987 – Scott McKay [Carl Chester Gose], American actor (Stage Door, Guest in House, 30 Seconds over Tokyo), dies of kidney failuyre at 71
1988 – Dorothy Adams Foulger, actress (Laura, Devil Commands), dies at 88
1992 – Yves Rocard, French physicist (b. 1903)
1996 – Olive Netta Parsons, co-founder (Collet’s bookshop), dies at 104
2008 – Ivan Dixon, American actor, director and civil rights activist (Car Wash, Hogan’s Heroes,The Final War of Olly Winter), dies of renal failure at 76
2008 – John Hewer, English actor famous for portraying Captain Birdseye in British commercials, dies at 86

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

221 – Liu Bei, a Chinese warlord and member of the Han royal house, declares himself Emperor of Shu-Han, claiming legitimate succession to the Han Dynasty
1941 – Blizzard in North Dakota kills 151 people
1948 – Bradman scores 115 for the Australian cricket team v Western Australia
1968 – LIFE mag calls Jimi Hendrix “most spectacular guitarist in the world”
1981 – “Broadway Follies” opens/closes at Nederlander Theater NYC
2013 – Li Keqiang assumes office as the 7th Premier of the People’s Republic of China

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1867 – Will Rossiter, composer
1874 – Eugène Fiset, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (d. 1951)
1904 – J Pat O’Malley, Irish-British actor (101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book), born in Burnley, England (d. 1985)
1907 – Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer, born in Karlstad, Värmland County, Sweden (d. 1981)
1947 – David Colley, cricketer (NSW quickie, 3 Tests for Australia 1972)
1953 – Colin Croft, cricketer (West Indian fast bowler 1977-82)

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1145 – Pope Lucius II [Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso] (1144-1145)
1966 – Heinrich Lemacher, German composer, dies at 74
1985 – Radha Krishna Choudhary, Indian historian and writer (b. 1921)
1987 – Sterling W Cole, (Rep-R-NY), dies at 82
1992 – Vanessa Lee, actress (Split), dies at 71
2004 – William “Bill” Pickering, New Zealand-born space scientist at NASA, dies at 93

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1903 – 1st national bird reservation established in Sebastian, Florida
1908 – Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers beat Toronto Professionals, 6-4
1960 – Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia) sets NBA playoff record of 53 points
1971 – Barbra Streisand appears on “The Burt Bacharach Special” on CBS TV
1993 – Meg Mallon wins LPGA Ping/Welch’s Golf Championship
2013 – 25 people are killed and 50 are wounded by a series of car bombings in Baghdad, Iraq

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1790 – Ludwig Emil Grimm, German painter and engraver, born in Hanau, Germany (d. 1863)
1906 – Ulvi Cemal Erkin, composer
1916 – Horton Foote, American author, playwright and screenwriter
1930 – Ray Flockton, cricketer (prolific NSW batsman of 50’s)
1933 – Quincy Jones Jr, American composer and singer (We Are The World), born in Chicago, Illinois
1947 – Jimmy O’Rourke, rocker

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

968 – Matilda of Ringelheim, German Queen (c. 895)
1801 – Christian Friedrich Penzel, German musician and composer, dies at 63
1903 – Johannes H Weissenbruch, Dutch landscape painter, dies at 88
1933 – Balto, husky dog who brought back the antitoxin in 1925
1976 – Busby Berkeley, US choreographer/dir (Strike Up the Band), dies at 80
1991 – Howard Ashman, song writer (Under the Sea), dies of AIDs at 40

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1759 – 27th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
1772 – Gotthold Lessing’s “Emilia Calotti” premieres in Brunswick
1852 – Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly
1973 – Minskoff Theater opens at 200 W 45th St NYC
1994 – 33.3% of Austria votes for ultra-right Freedom Party
2013 – Aleqa Hammond’s Siumut party wins the Greenland parliamentary elections

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1585 – Federico Cesi, Italian naturalist and founder of the first modern scientific society, the Accademia dei Lincei, 1603, born in Rome, Italy (d. 1630)
1930 – Doug Harvey, American National League umpire (Baseball Hall of Fame 2010), born in South Gate, California (d. 2018)
1946 – Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier who died leading rescue operation Entebbe in Uganda, born in NYC, New York (d. 1976)
1951 – Fred Berry, African-American actor (Rerun-What’s Happening), born in St Louis, Missouri (d. 2003)
1963 – Vance Johnson, American NFL wide receiver (Denver Broncos), born in Trenton, New Jersey
1987 – Marco Andretti, American racecar driver (grandson of Mario Andretti), born in Nazareth, Pennsylvania

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1271 – Henry of Almain, English crusader (b. 1235)
1915 – Sergei Witte, 1st Prime Minister of Russia (1905-06), dies at 65
1982 – Albert Weisser, composer, dies at 64
1982 – Wilfred Hawker, Suriname sgt-major, executed
2007 – Arnold Skaaland, American professional wrestler (b. 1925)
2010 – He Pingping, the world’s shortest man who was able to walk. (b. 1988)

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

538 – Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome, retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius
1594 – Company of Distant established for business on East-Indies
1939 – Pope Pius XII crowned in Vatican ceremonies
1971 – Hafez al-Assad elected President of Syria
1987 – Federal judge dismisses lawsuits sought by Oliver North
1993 – 317 killed by bomb attacks in Bombay

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1758 – Leopold earl of Limburg Stirum, Dutch general and politician [or March 22]
1827 – John Robert Jones, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1901)
1860 – Salvatore Di Giacomo, composer
1931 – William “Billie” Thomas, American child actor (Buckwheat- Our Gang), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1980)
1942 – Ratko Mladić, Bosnian Serb general during the Bosnian War (found guilty of war crimes 2017), born in Božanovići, Croatia
1966 – Alecia Stephenson, North softball ss (Olympics 1996), born in Vancouver, British Columbia

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

417 – Innocent I, Italian Pope (401-417), dies
1946 – Philip Merivale, British actor (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Nothing But Trouble), dies from a heart ailment at 59
1973 – Frankie “Fordham Flash” Frisch, baseball player, dies at 74
1993 – Andreas J A I Bruggeman, Dutch mayor (Leiderdorp), dies at 62
1999 – Yehudi Menuhin, American-born British violinist, conductor and teacher, dies at 82
2005 – Stavros Koujioumtzis, Greek songwriter (b. 1932)

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1744 – English auction house Sotheby’s holds its first ever auction (of books) in London
1895 – Spanish cruiser Reina Regente sinks in Straits of Gibraltar, over 400 die
1954 – US Army charges Senator Joseph McCarthy used undue pressure tactics
1967 – Pink Floyd releases 1st single “Arnold Layne”
1982 – Failed military coup under Rambocus and Hawker in Suriname
2007 – 54th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #8 North Carolina beats NC State, 89-80

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1549 – Henric/Hendrik Spieghel, Dutch Renaissance writer and poet (Hertspiegel)
1907 – Jessie Matthews, British actress (Gangway, First a Girl), born in London, England (d. 1981)
1927 – Ron Todd, British trade unionist
1945 – Timothy Mason, consultant (British Arts Council)
1957 – Cheryl Lynn, American singer
1975 – Cedric Henderson, NBA forward (Cleveland Cavaliers)

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

222 – Julia Soaemias, mother of Elagabalus (b. 180). Ruler during her son’s minority, murdered by the Praetorian Guard
1870 – Moshoeshoe I, King of Lesotho (1822-70), dies at about 47
1972 – Fredric Brown, American sci-fi author (Martians Go Home), dies at 65
1979 – Victor Kilian, American actor (Gentleman’s Agreement), dies at 88
1992 – Richard Brooks, director (Blackboard Jungle, Key Largo), dies at 79
2015 – Ralph Taeger, American actor (Klondike, Acapulco, Hondo), dies at 78

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1661 – French King Louis XIV ends office of premier
1905 – Japanese Army captures Mukden (Shenyang)
1910 – Pittsburgh Courier begins publishing
1920 – Home Rule Act passed by the British Parliament, dividing Ireland into two parts; it is rejected by the southern counties, where the Ango-Irish war continues for a year
1922 – State of siege proclaimed during mine strike Johannesburg, South Africa
1990 – Ice Dance Championship at Halifax won by Klimova and Ponomarenko (Soviet Union)

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1788 – Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, German poet (Das Marmorbild)
1824 – Thomas James Churchill, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1905)
1877 – David M Chumaceiro, Curacao, poet
1884 – Stuart Holmes, American actor (Life’s Shop Window, Prisoner of Zenda), born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1971)
1955 – Youssra, Egyptian actress and singer
1963 – John Cangelosi, outfielder (Houston Astros), born in Brooklyn, New York

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1701 – Johann Schelle, German composer, dies at 52
1888 – Ciro Pinsuti, Italian pianist/composer, dies at 57
1922 – Arthur Hervey, composer, dies at 67
1973 – Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor, American segregationist (b. 1897)
2007 – Buddy [Brian Thomas] Allin, American PGA golfer (1980 NZ Open), dies at 62
2017 – Robert James Waller, American author (Bridges of Madison County), dies at 77

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1858 – Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street mailbox
1907 – Lady Gregory’s “Rising of the Moon” premieres in Dublin
1914 – US Sen Albert Fall (Teapot Dome) demands “Cubanisation of Mexico”
1933 – Bulgarian communists Dimitrov, Popov and Vassili arrested in Berlin
1956 – Weather forecasting phone line set up in London England
1979 – France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1825 – Alexander F. Mozhaiski, Russian aviation pioneer, born in Rochensalm, Russian Empire (d. 1890)
1848 – Martin Pierre Joseph Marsick, Belgian composer, born in Jupille-sur-Meuse, Liège, Belgium (d. 1924)
1921 – Dimitris Horn, Greek actor (A Girl in Black), born in Athens, Greece (d. 1998)
1935 – Andrew Viterbi, American telecommunications scientist and businessman (Qualcomm Inc.), born in Bergamo, Italy
1948 – Christopher “Chris” Thompson, British singer and guitarist (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band- “Blinded By the Light”), born in Ashford, Kent
1960 – Linda Fiorentino, American actress (Jade, Last Seduction, Moderns), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1947 – Carrie Chapman Catt, American women’s suffrage leader, dies at 88
1969 – Riad, chief of staff (Egyptian army), dies
1992 – James Brooks, US mural painter (Flight, La Guardia NY), dies at 85
2005 – Kurt Lotz, German business executive and second postwar CEO of Volkswagen, dies at 92
2009 – Randy Cain, American soul singer (4 Gents/Delfonics), dies at 63
2016 – John Gutfreund, American investment banker, CEO of Salomon Brothers (King of Wall Street), dies at 86

More Famous Deaths »

Historical Events

1722 – Afghan monarch Mir Mahmud occupies Persia
1942 – Japanese forces capture Rangoon, Burma
1949 – WAGA TV channel 5 in Atlanta, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1973 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1979 – Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) transported 38 miles overland from Palmdale
1998 – The Screen Actors Guild award Gloria Stuart (Old Rose in “Titanic”) with their Founders Award

More Historical Events »

Famous Birthdays

1804 – Alvan Clark, American astronomer and maker of the Dearborn Observatory telescope, the largest telescope in the world at the time, born in Ashfield, Massachusetts (d. 1887)
1912 – Preston Smith, 40th Governor of Texas, born in Williamson County, Texas (d. 2003)
1953 – Bob Brozman, American musician
1972 – Georgios Georgiadis, Greek footballer
1975 – Fardeen Khan, Indian actor
1982 – Craig Stansberry, American baseball player

More Famous Birthdays »

Famous Deaths

1716 – Harald Vallerius, composer, dies at 69
1932 – Jan de Louter, Dutch lawyer and tutor of Dutch Queen Wilhelmina, dies at 84
1958 – Josephina OFF “Frieda” Herberich, actress (Salontiroler), dies at 85
1988 – Werner Hartmann, German physicist (b. 1912)
1993 – Wells Root, US screenwriter (Prisoner of Zenda), dies at 92
2015 – Lew Soloff, American jazz trumpeter (Blood, Sweat and Tears), dies at 71

More Famous Deaths »