Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1824 – First free press (without government approval) founded in Australia – the Hobart Town Gazette by ex-convict Andrew Bent
1850 – Empire Engine Company No. 1 organized, in San Francisco, California
1928 – French Championships Men’s Tennis: Henri Cochet wins his 2nd of 4 home titles; beats countryman René Lacoste 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3
1963 – First broadcast of “Pop Go the Beatles” on BBC radio
2024 – US President Joe Biden introduces immediate restrictions on the southern border, limiting illegal migrant crossings to 2,500 a day

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Famous Birthdays

1922 – Irwin Bazelon, American composer (Duo for Viola), born in Evanston, Illinois (d. 1995)
1928 – Lloyd Lambert, American bassist (Guitar Slim), born in Thilbodaux, Louisiana (d. 1995)
1929 – Karolos Papoulias, President of Greece (2005-15), born in Ioannina, Greece (d. 2021)
1970 – Gary Lynagh, Australian rower (World C’ship gold Lwt quad scull 1991, Lwt double scull 1992, 93), born in Brisbane, Australia
1972 – Derian Hatcher, American ice hockey defenseman (NHL All Star 1997 Dallas Stars), born in Sterling Heights, Michigan

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Famous Deaths

1809 – Nicolai Arbraham Abildgaard, Danish painter/architect, dies at 65
1997 – Johnny “Hammond” Smith, American jazz and bop organist (Wild Horses Rock Steady), dies of cancer at 63
2007 – Freddie Scott, American singer and songwriter (“Cry To Me”), dies at 74
2013 – Cornelius “Nini” Harp, American doo-wop singer (The Marcels – “Blue Moon”), dies at 73
2018 – Georgann Johnson, American actress (Marge-Mr Peepers, Star Trek, Midnight Cowboy), dies at 91

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Historical Events

1906 – Belgian King Leopold II claims Congo as his private possession
1932 – John McGraw, who came to NY in 1902, resigns as manager of Giants
1968 – Poor Peoples March on Washington, D.C.
2010 – Canadian sportscaster Ron MacLean saves a man from drowning in the Delaware River in Philadelphia
2019 – US President Donald Trump begins a three-day visit to the UK by calling London Mayor Sadiq Khan “a stone cold loser” after Khan called Trump’s language that of a 20th century fascist

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Famous Birthdays

1540 – Charles II Archduke of Austria, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1590)
1910 – Paulette Goddard [Marion Levy], American actress (Great Dictator), born in Whitestone Landing, Long Island (d. 1990)
1931 – Raúl Castro, Cuban revolutionary, politician (First Secretary 2011-21) and brother of Fidel Castro, born in Biran, Holguin, Cuba
1958 – Ibrahim Hussein, Kenyan marathon runner (Boston Marathon-1988, 91, 92), born in Kapsabet, Kenya
1968 – Saffron [Samantha Sprackling], Nigerian-British singer (Republica), born in Lagos, Nigeria

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Famous Deaths

1898 – Samuel Plimsoll, English politician and social reformer (invented Plimsoll line for ships), dies at 74
1992 – William Gaines, American publisher (Mad Magazine), dies at 70
2004 – Quorthon [Thomas Forsberg], Swedish heavy and Viking metal musician, and record producer (Bathory), dies of a congenital heart issue at 38
2011 – Jack Kevorkian, American pathologist and right-to-die activist, dies of a thrombosis at 83
2018 – Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo, Nicaraguan clergyman (Archbishop of Managua, 1970-2005; 1st Central American cardinal, 1985), dies at 92

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Historical Events

1625 – Prince Frederick Henry sworn in as viceroy of Holland/Zealand
1881 – Haarlem-Zandvoort Railway opens
1901 – Benjamin Adams arrested for playing golf on Sunday (NY)
1953 – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, London, England
2018 – Ringo Starr’s thirteenth All-Starr Band debuts in concert; members include: Steve Lukather, Gregg Rolie, Colin Hay, Graham Gouldman, Gregg Bissonette, and Warren Ham

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Famous Birthdays

1940 – John O’Shea, Welsh rugby union prop (5 Tests Wales, 1 British and Irish Lions; Cardiff RFC 213 games), born in Weston-Super-Mare, England (d. 2024)
1940 – Christopher Bernau, actor (Guiding Light), born in Santa Barbara, California
1948 – Jerry Mathers, American actor (Leave It To Beaver – “Theodore ‘Beaver’ Cleaver”; The Trouble with Harry), born in Sioux City, Iowa
1967 – Kenny Atkinson, American basketball head coach (Brooklyn Nets 2016-19; Director Player Development, Houston Rockets 2007–08), born in Huntington, New York
1970 – Karen Mok, Hong Kong actress and singer (Around the World in 80 Days), born in Hong Kong

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Famous Deaths

1968 – R. Norris Williams, American tennis player (US National C’ship 1914, 16; survived sinking of RMS Titanic), dies of emphysema at 77
1996 – Amos Tversky, Israeli psychologist (b. 1937)
2003 – Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler (b. 1918)
2004 – Loyd Sigmon, American radio broadcaster, sound engineer, and inventor (“Sig Alert” for traffic and emergency notices), dies from complications of Parkinson’s disease at 95
2023 – Kaija Saariaho, Finnish electro-acoustic and contemporary classical composer (L’Amour de loin (Love from Afar); Circle Map), dies of brain cancer at 70

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Historical Events

1864 – Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia (Gaines’ Mill, Gaines’ Farm)
1967 – Mayor-council form of government instituted for Washington, D.C.
1980 – First transmission of the Cable News Network or CNN
1982 – Oakland A’s left fielder Rickey Henderson steals 2 bases in 3-2 win over Boston Red Sox to become fastest to reach 50 stolen bases in a MLB season
1985 – West Indian cricket batsman Viv Richards scores 300 in a day on the way to 322 in a tour match against Warwickshire at Taunton; 42 fours and 8 sixes of 258 balls

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Famous Birthdays

1858 – William Wilfred Campbell, Canadian poet (Beyond the Hills of Dream, Ian of the Orcades), born in Newmarket, Ontario (d. 1918)
1903 – Percy Whitlock, English composer and organist, born in Chatham, England (d. 1946)
1917 – William Standish Knowles, American chemist and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, born in Taunton, Massachusetts (d. 2012)
1942 – Tom Mankiewicz, screenwriter (Diamonds are Forever), born in Los Angeles, California
1969 – Ari Sulander, Finnish ice hockey goaltender (World C’ship gold 1995; Olympic bronze 1998), born in Helsinki, Finland

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Famous Deaths

1340 – Jan van Diest, Bishop of Utrecht (1322-40), dies
1713 – Johan Runius, Swedish poet (Dudaim), dies at 34
1951 – Rafael Altamira Crevea, Spanish lawyer and historian, dies at 85
1991 – David Ruffin, American soul musician and early lead singer for The Temptations (My Girl; Ain’t Too Proud to Beg), dies of a drug overdose at 50
2018 – Eddy Clearwater [Edward Harrington], American blues musician (West Side Strut), dies of heart failure at 83

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Historical Events

1923 – The South African Indian Congress (SAIC) forms in Durban, South Africa, with Omar Hajee Amod Jhaveri as President
1928 – First aerial crossing of the Pacific takes off from Oakland
1937 – 1st quadruplets to finish college (Baylor University)
1958 – Dick Dale invents “surf music” with “Let’s Go Trippin”
1970 – KDUB TV channel 40 in Dubuque, IA (ABC) begins broadcasting

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Famous Birthdays

1838 – Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher (Wife at University), born in Skipton, Yorkshire, England (d. 1900)
1892 – Willem Ravelli, Dutch baritone singer (St Matthew Passion), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1980)
1893 – Janet Sobel [Jennie Olechovsky], Ukrainian-American abstract expressionist and drip-paint pioneering artist (Milky Way), born in Katerynoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipro, Ukraine) (d. 1968)
1904 – Stan Brenders, Belgian jazz pianist and bandleader, born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1969)
1929 – Neil Shaw, Canadian-British businessman and CEO of sugar company Tate and Lyle, born in Montreal, Quebec (d. 2023)

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Famous Deaths

1198 – Moses ben Solomon Ha-Cohen, rabbi of Mainz, dies
1957 – Leopold Staff, Polish Modernist poet , dies at 78
1960 – Walther Funk, German economist and Nazi politician, dies at 69
2000 – Johnnie Taylor, American RandB and multi-genre singer (“Disco Lady”; “I Believe In You”), dies at 66
2021 – Phil Johnstone, British songwriter, keyboardist, and record producer (Robert Plant), dies at 63

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Historical Events

1908 – US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah authorized
1908 – 1st federal workmen’s compensation law approved
1933 – Indianapolis 500: Louis Meyer wins accompanied by riding mechanic Lawson Harris; Mark Billman killed in a crash on lap 79; Lester Spangler and riding mechanic “Monk” Jordan die in a crash on lap 132
1962 – 69 killed in bus crash in Ahmedabad, India
2022 – Frontier becomes the world’s fastest supercomputer and first exascale computer, able to perform a quintillion calculations per second, at US’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Famous Birthdays

1757 – Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, British Prime Minister (Tory: 1801-04), born in London (d. 1844)
1830 – Edward Winslow Hinks, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Bucksport, Maine (d. 1894)
1844 – Louis Varney, French composer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 1908)
1871 – Amos Rusie, American Baseball HOF pitcher (Triple Crown and NL wins leader 1894; 5 × NL strikeout leader; pitched no-hitter 1891; NY Giants), born in Mooresville, Indiana (d. 1942)
1926 – Edouard Van Remoortel, Belgian conductor (St Louis Symphony, 1958-62), born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1977)

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Famous Deaths

1469 – Lope de Barrientos, Spanish bishop
1994 – Ezra Taft Benson, 13th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and US Secretary of Agriculture, dies at 94
2008 – Lorenzo Odone, American medical figure (b. 1978)
2019 – Frank Lucas, American drug kingpin (fictionalised in 2007 film “American Gangster”), dies at 88
2021 – Frank Navarro, American college football coach (Williams College, Columbia University, Princeton University), dies at 91

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Historical Events

1954 – French Championships Women’s Tennis: Maureen Connolly retains her title; beats Ginette Bucaille of France 6-4, 6-1
1972 – LPGA Titleholders Championship Women’s Golf, Southern Pines CC: Sandra Palmer wins first of 2 majors by a massive 10 strokes from Judy Rankin and Mickey Wright
2006 – Singer David Bowie joins guitarist David Gilmour as special guest during encore at Royal Albert Hall, London concert; they perform “Arnold Layne” and “Comfortably Numb” in what becomes Bowie’s final UK appearance
2018 – ABC TV network cancels TV comedy “Roseanne” after its star Roseanne Barr posts a racist tweet
2023 – Canadian hiker Delaney Irving (19) wins perilous Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling in Brockworth, Glocestershire, England, despite being knocked unconscious

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Famous Birthdays

1906 – T. H. White, English novelist (England Have My Bones) and author of the King Arthur novels, born in Bombay, British India (d. 1964)
1927 – Dick Hillenius, Dutch biologist and writer, born in Amsterdam (d. 1987)
1933 – William Yorzyk Jr., American swimmer (Olympic gold 200m butterfly, WR 2:19.3, 1956), born in Northampton, Massachusetts (d. 2020)
1937 – Charles W. Pickering, American judge (Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi), born in Laurel, Mississippi
1960 – Adrian Paul, English actor (Dance to Win, Highlander), born in London, England

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Famous Deaths

1924 – Pierre-Paul Cambon, French diplomat (negotiated Entente Cordiale), dies at 81
1924 – Johann Baptist Singenberger, Swiss composer, music teacher, editor and publisher of liturgical music, dies at 76
1939 – Ursula Ledóchowska, Polish-Austrian Catholic saint and foundress of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus, dies of a carcinoma at 74
1992 – Ruby Middleton Forsythe, African-American teacher who taught for 50 years in one-room schoolhouse in South Carolina, dies at 86
2012 – Mark Minkov, Russian Soviet theater and film score composer, dies at 67

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Historical Events

1937 – Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1963 – Estimated 22,000 die in a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal (India)
1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru cremated in New Delhi
1983 – Rock guitarist Slash first hears Axl Rose singing with the band Rapidfire at Gazzarri’s On The Sunset Strip, in Los Angeles, California
2008 – The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty.

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Famous Birthdays

1858 – Carl Richard Nyberg, Swedish inventor (blowtorch), born in Arboga, Sweden (d. 1939)
1863 – Georg Adler, Polish state economist, born in Poznań, Poland (d. 1908)
1892 – Minna Gombell, American actress (Bad Girl, Thin Man, Hello Sister), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1973)
1944 – Gary Stewart, American country singer (“She’s Actin’ Single”), born in Jenkins, Kentucky (d. 2003)
1971 – Isabelle Carré, French actress (Angélique Delange in “Romantics Anonymous”, Anna M. in “Anna M.”), born in Paris, France

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Famous Deaths

1805 – Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist and composer (Minuet), dies at 62
1878 – John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, British Prime Minister (Whig: 1846-52 and 1865-66), dies at 85
1990 – Giorgio Manganelli, Italian writer and journalist (Gruppo 63 movement), dies at 67
2010 – Jacob Kistemaker, Dutch nuclear physicist (ultra centrifuge), dies at 93
2024 – Butch Johnson, American archer (Olympic gold team 1996, bronze 2000), dies at 68

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Historical Events

1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as prince two weeks before his untimely death
1529 – 30 Jews of Posing, Hungary, charged with blood ritual, burned at stake
1878 – 6th Preakness: C. Holloway aboard Duke of Magenta wins in 2:41.75
1895 – British inventor Birt Acres patents film camera/projector
1958 – Ernest Green becomes the 1st African-American to graduate from Little Rock’s Central High School

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Famous Birthdays

1332 – Ibn Khaldūn, North African Islamic scholar, philosopher and historian (Muqaddimah), born in Tunis (d. 1406)
1823 – John Gray Foster, American Major General (Union Army), born in Whitefield, New Hampshire (d. 1874)
1887 – Kazimierz Fajans, Polish-American physical chemist (Fajans’ rules), born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1975)
1975 – André 3000 [Benjamin], American rapper (Outkast), and actor, born in Atlanta, Georgia
1981 – Miloy [Marcos Henriques], Angolan footballer, born in Luanda, Angola

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Famous Deaths

1596 – Tibaldi II, Italian painter/sculptor/architect, dies
1708 – Jacques Danican Philidor, French composer, dies at 51
1797 – Gracchus Babeuf, French utopian socialist and revolutionary, guillotined for planning an insurrection at 36
1994 – Norman Cook, British museum curator at the Guildhall, dies at 87
2010 – John William Finn, American US Navy sailor, awarded the 1st Medal of Honor of WWII for his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor, dies at 100

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Historical Events

1796 – French garrison of Fort Charlotte on island of St Lucia surrenders to British forces, 2780 mostly black prisoners of war board ships to England
1930 – Supreme Court rules buying liquor does not violate the Constitution
1948 – South Africa elects a nationalist government under D. F. Malan with an apartheid policy
2012 – Pope Benedict XVI’s butler is arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents
2014 – Protests across Thailand in response to military coup; General Prayuth warns of a crackdown in demonstrations continue

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Famous Birthdays

1914 – Archie Duncan, Scottish actor (The Adventures of Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes), born in Glasgow, Scotland (d. 1979)
1925 – Alec McCowen, English actor (Never Say Never Again), born in Tunbridge Wells (d. 2017)
1926 – Miles Davis, American jazz musician, trumpeter and composer (Kinda Blue; Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet; Sketches of Spain), born in Alton, Illinois (d. 1991)
1938 – Jaki Liebesit, German drummer (Can), born in Dresden, Germany (d. 2017)
1943 – John “Poli” Palmer, British Progressive rock keyboardist, and vibraphone player (Family -“In My Own Time”), born in Worcester, England

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Famous Deaths

1946 – Friedrich German prince, last ruler of Waldeck and Pyrmont, dies at 81
1969 – Kathryn Minner (née White), American character actress (Little Old Lady from Pasadena), dies of a heart attack at 77
1978 – Cybele, Greek actress (b. 1887)
1993 – Carleton Morse, American radio dramatist (One Man’s Family), dies at 91
2010 – Jean Constantin, Romanian actor (b. 1928)

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