Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1538 – Shrine of Saint Swithun in Winchester smashed up in the middle of the night as part of the English Reformation
1589 – Battle at Arques: French King Henry IV beats Catholic League
1911 – Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier loses the election to Robert Borden of the Conservative Party
2003 – 55th Emmy Awards: The West Wing, Everybody Loves Raymond, James Gandolfini and Edie Falco wins
2023 – Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch at 92 announces he is retiring from the boards of Fox and News Corporation, leaving his son Lachlan in charge

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Famous Birthdays

1907 – Lloyd Gough, American actor (Sunset Boulevard, The Front, The Green Hornet), born in New York City (d. 1984)
1967 – Faith Hill (McGraw) [neé Audrey Faith Perry], American country pop singer (“Breathe”; “Cry”), and actress (1883), born in Ridgeland, Mississippi
1973 – Virginia Ruano-Pascual, tennis star, born in Madrid, Spain
1974 – Taral Hicks, American actress (A Bronx Tale) and RandB singer (“Silly”), born in The Bronx, New York City
1989 – Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, American skateboarder (Summer X Games gold Vert 2004, 07, 09), born in San Diego, California

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Famous Deaths

1796 – François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French general (b. 1769)
1937 – Henri Capitant, French lawyer (Loi Falcidie), dies at 72
1964 – Otto Grotewohl, German politician (Prime Minister of East Germany, 1949-64), dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 70
1988 – Henry Koster, German-born Hollywood director, discovered Abbott and Costello, dies at 83
1994 – “Ossie” O. S. Nock, English railway writer, dies at 69

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Historical Events

1833 – Charles Darwin arrives in Buenos Aires after traveling through the Argentine interior with guachos
1964 – Günter Grass’s play “Die Plebejer proben den Aufstand (The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising)” premieres in Berlin
1978 – Yamada Mumon Roshi visits the Benedictine Abbey of Maria Laach, Germany
1979 – Lee Iacocca is elected president of the Chrysler Corporation
2019 – Rare Egyptian political protests take place against corruption in President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government in Tahrir Square, Cairo, and elsewhere

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Famous Birthdays

1897 – Kermit Maynard, American cowboy actor (Valley of Terror, Saturday Roundup), born in Vevay, Indiana (d. 1971)
1922 – Franco Ventriglia, American opera singer, born in Fairfield, Connecticut (d. 2012)
1938 – Jane Manning, British concert and operatic soprano, eductor, and promoter of contemporary classical music, born in Norwich, England (d. 2021)
1951 – Javier Marías, Spanish translator and novelist (Corazón Tan Blanco – A Heart So White), born in Madrid, Spain (d. 2022)
1976 – Reuben Singh, British entrepreneur, CEO of alldayPA, born in Poynton, England

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Famous Deaths

1625 – Heinrich Meibom, German historian and poet, dies at 69
1863 – Benjamin Hardin Helm, American attorney and Confederate brigadier general and Abraham Lincoln’s brother-in-law, dies at the Battle of Chickamauga at 33
2001 – Marcos Pérez Jiménez, President of Venezuela (1953-58), dies at 87
2006 – Armin Jordan, Swiss conductor, dies at 74
2007 – Johnny Gavin, Irish soccer winger (7 caps Rep. Ireland; Norwich City 312 games), dies at 79

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Historical Events

1941 – German army conquers Kiev
1953 – “Hazel Flagg” closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 190 performances
1957 – First underground nuclear explosion in Las Vegas, Nevada
1973 – Frank Robinson, Angels OF, homers in record 32nd major league ballpark – Arlington Stadium (Arlington, Texas), against the Rangers
1994 – Swedish government of Bildt resigns

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Famous Birthdays

1377 – Albert IV, Duke of Austria, born in Vienna (d. 1404)
1769 – Joseph Kam, Dutch Christian missionary in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, born in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands (d. 1833)
1824 – Carl Ignaz Franz Umlauf, Austrian zither player and composer, born in Baden, Austria (d. 1902)
1910 – Margaret Lindsay, American actress (Take a Guess), born in Dubuque, Iowa (d. 1981)
1931 – Brook Benton [Benjamin Franklin Peay], American soul vocalist (“It’s Just a Matter of Time”; “Rainy Night in Georgia”), born in Lugoff, South Carolina (d. 1988)

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Famous Deaths

1836 – Carl Friedrich Ebers, German composer and conductor, dies at 66
1954 – Tibor Harsányi, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor who settled in Paris, France, dies at 56
1997 – Malcolm Hughes, English constructive artist, dies at 77
2017 – Brian Barder, British diplomat, British Ambassador to Ethiopia who assisted during 1984-85 famine, dies at 83
2021 – Max Wiltshire, Welsh rugby union lock (4 Tests; Aberavon RFC), dies at 83

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Historical Events

1882 – Pacific Stock Exchange opens as Local Security Board
1905 – Electric tramline opens in Rotterdam
1971 – Ryder Cup Golf, Old Warson CC: US beats Europe, 18½-13½; after leading by 1 match, GB loses all Friday morning 4-ball matches to lose momentum
2004 – Farm Aid 17 held in Auburn, Washington; performers include Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Marc Broussard
2006 – Right-wing protesters riot at the building of Hungarian Television in Budapest, Hungary, one day after an audio tape is made public in which Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány admits he and his party lied during the 2006 general election

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Famous Birthdays

1916 – Rossano Brazzi, Italian actor (Final Justice, South Pacific, The Barefoot Contessa), born in Bolognia, Italy (d. 1994)
1931 – Anthony Bowles, British music director (Jesus Christ Superstar; Evita), born in England (d. 1993)
1933 – Scotty Bowman, Canadian NHL player and coach (Montreal Canadians/Detroit Red Wings), born in Montreal, Quebec
1956 – Tim McInnerny, British stage, screen, and radio actor (Blackadder; Notting Hill), born in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, England
1977 – Li Tie, Chinese footballer and coach (Everton), born in Shenyang, China

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Famous Deaths

1137 – Erik II Eimune [Onvergetelijke], King of Denmark (1134-37), murdered
1611 – Membertou [Mabretou], Micmac chief (1st chief of a First Nations community to be converted by Catholic missionaries), dies
1945 – “Blind” Willie Johnson, American gospel blues singer and guitarist (“Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground”), dies of malarial fever, syphilis at 48
2002 – Ernest Sidey, British air marshal (General of RAF Medical Services, Honorary Surgeon to the Queen), dies at 89
2013 – Ken Norton, American boxer (WBC heavyweight champion 1978; famous Muhammad Ali trilogy; International Boxing HOF), dies at 70

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Historical Events

1176 – At the Battle of Myriokephalon, the Byzantines fail to recover Anatolia from Turkish rule
1737 – Georg-August University opens in Göttingen
1943 – Load of “ammunition in transit” explodes at Norfolk Naval Air Station
1991 – The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet
2018 – Flooding in Nigeria kills over 100 people as Benue and Niger Rivers overflow

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Famous Birthdays

1859 – Richard Henry Warren, American organist and composer, born in Albany, New York (d. 1933)
1883 – William Carlos Williams, American physician and poet, born in Rutherford, New Jersey (d. 1963)
1944 – Reinhold Messner, Italian mountain climber (Mount Everest), born in Brixen (Bressanone), Italy
1959 – Will Gregory, British keyboardist, sax player, producer (Goldfrapp), and composer (Piccard in Space), born in Bristol, England
1963 – Rami Saari, Israeli poet and translator, born in Petah Tikva, Israel

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Famous Deaths

1422 – Constantine II, last Tsar of Bulgaria (1397-1422), dies in exile at 52 or 53
1961 – Adnan Menderes, Turkish politician, Prime Minister of Turkey (1950-60), executed by the junta at 62
1991 – John Thomas, American co-inventor of fiberglass, dies at 83
2017 – Laudir de Oliveira, Brazilian percussionist (Sérgio Mendes; Chicago, 1973-81), dies on stage in Rio de Janeiro, of a heart attack at 77
2022 – Joseph P. Hoar, American US Marine Corps general (Commander in Chief of US Central Command, 1991-94), dies at 87

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Historical Events

1858 – First overland mail to California
1915 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia adjourns 4th Duma
1947 – Typhoon Kathleen hits Saitama, Tokyo, and the Tone River area, killing at least 1,930
1951 – US National League umpire Frank Dascoli clears the Dodgers bench, ejecting 15 players
1993 – Minnesota Twins’ Dave Winfield becomes the 19th player to achieve 3,000 hits

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Famous Birthdays

1921 – Ursula Franklin, German-born Canadian physicist, educator and activist (developed archaeometry), born in Munich, Germany (d. 2016)
1946 – Mike Reynolds, Australian politician (Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland 2006-09), born in Manly, New South Wales
1966 – Kevin Curtis Young, American 400m hurdler, born in Los Angeles, California
1969 – Andrew Borodow, Canadian freestyle wrestler (Olympic 5-92, 96), born in Montreal, Quebec
1995 – Aaron Gordon, American NBA player (Denver Nuggets), born in San Jose, California

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Famous Deaths

1542 – Diego de Almagro II, Spanish conquistador known as “El Mozo,” the son of Diego de Almagro, is executed for his role in fatal a coup d’état attempt at about 21 (birthday uncertain, b. 1520)
1672 – Anne Bradstreet, New England’s first published poet, dies (birth date unknown)
1701 – James II of England and James VII of Scotland [Stuart], King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1685-88), dies at 68
2006 – Rob Levin, creator of Freenode (b. 1955)
2019 – Peter Stormonth Darling, Scottish investment banker (Mercury Asset Management Group, largest fund-management in the UK), dies at 86

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Historical Events

1962 – “Bravo, Giovanni” closes at Broadhurst Theater NYC after 76 performances
1973 – Carl XVI Gustaf ascends the throne, becoming King of Sweden (1973-present)
1975 – 1st College Football Holy War: Notre Dame beats Boston College 17-3 in Foxborough
1996 – Bangladesh beat UAE by 104 runs to win the ACC Trophy Final
2013 – 27 people are killed after a coal mine collapses in Afghanistan

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Famous Birthdays

1685 – Gottfried Kirchhoff, German organist and composer, chiefly of sacred music, born in Mühlbeck, Electorate of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1746)
1816 – Edward Wolff, Polish pianist and composer, born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1880)
1889 – Robert Benchley, American humorist (My 10 Years in a Quandary), born in Worcester, Massachusetts (d. 1945)
1907 – Jack Bailey, American TV host (Queen for a Day), born in Hampton, Iowa (d. 1980)
1914 – Creighton Abrams, American general (commander of American forces in the Vietnam War, 1968-72), born in Springfield, Massachusetts (d. 1974)

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Famous Deaths

1932 – Charles H. Gabriel, American gospel composer, dies at 76
1972 – Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Turkish pianist, composer – one of “The Turkish Five” (Köçekçe – Dance Rhapsody for Orchestra), and pedagogue, dies from a stroke at 66
2006 – Raymond Baxter, British television presenter (b. 1922)
2023 – Burhan Sargun, Turkish soccer forward (8 caps, 7 goals; Fenerbahçe SK), dies at 94
2024 – Gheorghe Mulțescu, Romanian soccer midfielder (16 caps; Jiul Petroșani 239 games) and manager (Dinamo București, Samsunspor), dies at 72

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Historical Events

1867 – Karl Marx publishes “Das Kapital” Volume 1, his theory of the Capitalist system and how it is doomed to destroy itself
1939 – British fleet attacks German U-39 boat
1940 – WWII: German Blitz in England continues, bomb drops in London, Clacton, Great Yarmouth, Ipswich, Southampton, Bournemouth, Hastings, Brighton, Warrington, Chelsea, Fulham, and Lewisham, among other places, result in 94 civilian deaths and 426 injured
1986 – Bo Jackson hits his first home run, a 475-foot blast, the longest at Royals Stadium
1989 – Jeff Reardon is 1st to record 30 saves in 5 consecutive seasons

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Famous Birthdays

1869 – Kid Nichols, American Baseball HOF pitcher (3 × NL wins leader; All-Time Saves Leader 1899–1906; Boston Beaneaters, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies) and manager (St. Louis Cardinals 1904–05), born in Madison, Wisconsin (d. 1953)
1898 – Ernest Nash, German-American photographer and archaeologist, born in Nowawes, Germany (d. 1974)
1939 – Guy Webster, American celebrity portrait photographer, album cover artist (The Byrds; The Mamas and the Papas; Taj Mahal; Rolling Stones), and educator, born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2019)
1971 – Andre Matos, Brazilian singer and musician (Symfonia), born in São Paulo, Brazil
1981 – Miyavi [Takamasa Ishihara], Japanese guitarist, singer (“Snakes”) and actor (Unbroken), born in Osaka, Japan

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Famous Deaths

1435 – John Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Bedford, English prince, general (Hundred Years’ War) and statesman, dies at 46
1782 – Nicholas Cooke, American mariner, slave trader, and politician (1st Governor of Rhode Island, 1776-78), dies at 65
1979 – Raymond Loucheur, French composer, dies at 80
1999 – André Kostolany, Hungarian stock market expert and speculator, dies at 93
2005 – Vladimir Volkoff, French writer (b. 1932)

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Historical Events

1800 – Curacao in British hands (until Jan 1803)
1918 – Train accident at Weesp Netherlands, kills 42
1969 – San Francisco Giant Bobby Bonds is baseballs 4th 30-HR, 30-steal player
1973 – ABC announces it obtained TV rights for 1976 Olympics
1999 – Bomb explodes in Moscow, Russia, killing at least 119 people

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Famous Birthdays

1893 – Larry Shields, American jazz clarinetist (Original Dixieland Jazz Band), born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1953)
1903 – Claudette Colbert, French-born American actress (It Happened One Night, Texas Lady), born in Paris (d. 1996)
1980 – Evangelos Nastos, Greek footballer, born in Thessaloniki, Greece
1982 – Nenê, Brazilian basketball player (Houston Rockets), born in São Carlos, Brazil
1996 – Playboi Carti [Jordan Carter], American rapper (Whole Lotta Red), born in Riverdale, Georgia

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Famous Deaths

1759 – James Wolfe, British Army officer who defeated the French in Canada and captured Quebec, dies in battle at 32
1902 – John Horace Forney, American engineer and Major General in Confederate Army, dies at 73
1906 – Georges Jacobi, German violinist, composer (The Black Crook), and conductor (Alhambra Theatre, London, 1872-98), dies at 66
1971 – Paul Blackburn, American poet, and editor (Black Mountain Review), dies of esophageal cancer at 44
2001 – Jaroslav Drobný, Czech ice hockey player (Olympic silver 1948) and tennis player (Wimbledon 1954, French Open 1951-52), dies of a stroke at 79

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Historical Events

2001 – Ansett Australia, Australia’s first commercial interstate airline, collapses due to increased strain on the international airline industry, leaving 10,000 people unemployed
2004 – US Open Men’s Tennis: Roger Federer of Switzerland wins his first US title, outclassing Australian Lleyton Hewitt 6-0, 7-6, 6-0
2017 – A monster fatberg, 250 meters long, the size of 11 buses, and weighing 130 tons, is found in sewers under East London
2021 – 40th MTV Video Music Awards: Lil Nas X, Justin Bieber, and Olivia Rodrigo win
2024 – Crew of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission takes the first commercial spacewalk during a five-day journey through Earth’s orbit, traveling the farthest in space of any human since NASA’s Apollo program

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Famous Birthdays

1894 – Billy Gilbert, American actor (Great Dictator, His Gal Friday), born in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 1971)
1934 – Edward Wistenberg, Dutch concert harpist and pedagogue, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands
1961 – Christiane Jolissaint, Swiss tennis star, born in Vevey, Switzerland
1968 – Paul F. Tompkins, American comedian and actor (BoJack Horseman, Mr. Show with Bob and David), born in Mount Airy, Pennsylvania
1969 – Shigeki Maruyama, Japanese golfer (3 PGA Tour titles; Presidents Cup 1998, 2000), born in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture

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Famous Deaths

1591 – Richard Grenville, English privateer, explorer, politician and vice-admiral (established Roanoke colony), dies fighting a rearguard action as a result of the naval Battle of Flores at 49
1732 – Jean Philippe Eugène de Mérode, Belgian nobleman (Marquis of Westerloo), dies at 58
1806 – Christian Gottfried Thomas, German composer, publisher, and musicologist, dies at 58
1869 – Peter Mark Roget, British lexicographer (Roget’s Thesaurus) and inventor (slide rule, pocket chessboard), dies at 90
1977 – Steven Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist, dies in police custody at 30

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