Category: On This Day

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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Historical Events

1868 – Australian Aboriginal Cricket tour of England begins v Surrey Gentlemen
1878 – W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s comic opera “H.M.S. Pinafore” premieres in London, their first international success
1959 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visits Angola
1967 – John Lennon takes delivery of his psychedelically painted Rolls Royce
1992 – Oscar Luigi Scalfaro elected President of Italy

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Famous Birthdays

1886 – Rash Behari Bose, Indian revolutionary leader against the British Raj in India, born in Bengal, India (d. 1945)
1936 – Tom T. Hall, American country singer, songwriter (“Harper Valley PTA”), and author, born in Olive Hill, Kentucky (d. 2021)
1946 – David A. Hargrave, American game designer and writer known as The Dream Weaver (Arduin), born in United States (d. 1988)
1969 – Matt Borlenghi, Italian-American actor (Brian Bodine-All My Children), born in Los Angeles, California
1973 – Daz Dillinger [Delmar Drew Arnaud], American hip-hop performer, born in Long Beach, California

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Famous Deaths

1789 – Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)
1916 – Jack Marsh, Australian cricketer (Aboriginal bowler played for NSW 1900-03), dies in a pub brawl at 41 or 42
1948 – Witold Pilecki, Polish WWII resistance fighter (volunteered to go to Auschwitz, Witold’s Report), executed by communist secret police after a show trial at age 47
1965 – Sonny Boy Williamson II [Aleck Miller], American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, dies at 65
1996 – Bernard Sendall, British deputy director general of British Independent Television Authority and author (Independent Television in Britain), dies at 83

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Historical Events

1902 – Cleve’s Bill Bradley is 1st ALer to hit a HR run in 4 consecutive games, not duplicated until Babe Ruth does it June 25, 1918
1908 – Belgium Catholic socialist/liberal parliamentary election
1909 – Bristol University granted Royal Charter
1929 – Chicago WS pitcher Ted Lyons and Detroit’s George Uhle go 21 innings before Tigers get a run to win, 6-5; longest game (3 hours, 31 mins) ever at Comiskey Park, Chicago
1957 – Heavy earthquake strikes Colombia

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Famous Birthdays

1863 – George Grey Barnard, American sculptor, born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania (d. 1938)
1905 – Mikhail Sholokhov, Soviet writer (And Quiet Flows the Don, Nobel 1965), born in Veshenskaya, Don Host Oblast, Russian Empire (d. 1984)
1910 – Jimmy Demaret, American golfer (US Masters 1940, 47, 50), born in Houston, Texas (d. 1983)
1922 – Sadao Bekku, Japanese classical and film composer (Matango), born in Tokyo (d. 2012)
1976 – Bob Maesen, Belgian flatwater canoer, born in Neerpelt, Pelt, Belgium

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Famous Deaths

1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer who theorized that planets revolve around the sun (Heliocentric theory), dies at 70
1908 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (British Open 1861-62, 64, 67), dies as result of a fall at 86
1972 – Asta Nielsen, actress (Joyless Street), dies at 88
1986 – Gunnar Bjornstrand, Swedish actor (7th Seal, Devil’s Eye), dies at 76
2023 – Bill Lee, American session double-bassist, and film score composer (Do The Right Thing; She’s Gotta Have It), dies at 94

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Historical Events

1932 – Australian cyclist Hubert Opperman sets paced world records 1,384km in 24 hours, and 1,609km (1,000 miles) in 28 hours, 55 minutes, 39 seconds at Melbourne Motordrome
1969 – 22nd Cannes Film Festival: “If…” directed by Lindsay Anderson wins the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film
1983 – Radio Moscow announcer Vladimir Danchev praises Afghanistan Muslims standing up to Russia; he is removed from the air
1990 – Cost of rescuing savings and loan failures is put at up to $130 billion
2001 – 9th UEFA Champions League Final: Bayern Munich beats Valencia (1-1, 5-4 on penalties) at Milan

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Famous Birthdays

1820 – James Buchanan Eads, American engineer and inventor (Eads Bridge-St Louis), born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana (d. 1887)
1923 – Alicia de Larrocha, Spanish pianist (Orquesta Sinfonica), born in Barcelona, Spain (d. 2009)
1942 – Zalman King, American actor and director (Wild Orchid), born in Trenton, New Jersey (d. 2012)
1965 – Manuel Sanchís Hontiyuelo, Real Madrid footballer
1970 – Bryan Herta, American race car driver

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Famous Deaths

1691 – Adrien Auzout, French astronomer who improved measuring instruments (moon crater “Auzout”), dies at 69
1838 – Jan Willem Janssens, Dutch nobleman, military officer, and Governor-General of Cape colony and Dutch-Indies, dies at 75
1841 – Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologist, dies at 76
1934 – Clyde Barrow, American bank robber and outlaw (Bonnie and Clyde), killed in police ambush in Louisiana at 25
2021 – Max Mosley, British auto racer and lawyer (President Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile [FIA] 1993-2009), dies from cancer at 81

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