Category: On This Day

Historical Events

843 – Icon veneration officially re-instated in Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople
1665 – NY approves new code guaranteeing Protestants religious rights
1835 – HMS Beagle anchors off Valparaiso, Chile
1892 – 1st public basketball game (Springfield, Massachusetts)
2003 – Nicholas Winton (93), former British stockbroker who helped 669 young Jews flee Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Nazi invasion in 1939, receives knighthood from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace
2007 – 48th SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Florida beats Arkansas, 77-56

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Famous Birthdays

1731 – Robert Treat Paine, American judge and Founding Father (signed US Declaration of Independence), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1814)
1902 – Josef Martin Bauer, German writer and director (As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me), born in Taufkirchen, Germany (d. 1970)
1930 – David Gentleman, designer/painter
1933 – Sandra Milo [Salvatrice Greco], Italian actress (8½; Juliet of the Spirits), and television personality, born in Tunis, French Tunisia (d. 2024)
1966 – Pavel Petrovich Mukhortov, Russian cosmonaut
1971 – Johnny Knoxville [Philip Clapp], American stunt performer and actor (Jackass franchise), born in Knoxville, Tennessee

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Famous Deaths

1925 – Andreas Hallen, composer, dies at 78
1955 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist (invented penicillin; Nobel Prize 1945), dies of a heart attack at 73
1982 – Edmund Cooper, British sci-fi writer (Tomorrow Came), dies at 55
1989 – Johan Fleerackers, Flemish linguist, dies at 57
1993 – Dino Bravo, wrestler (WWF), shot to death at 44
2012 – Sid Couchey, American comic book artist, dies at 92

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Historical Events

1906 – Baker Street and Waterloo Railway opens, constructed by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London. The contraction Bakerloo became the official name in July 1906.
1931 – Oswald Mosley leaves British Labour party and founds the “New Party”
1940 – 1st US opera telecast, W2XBS, NYC: Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci”
1996 – 37th SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Mississippi State beats Kentucky, 84-73
2010 – Carlos Slim becomes the first Mexican and person from an emerging economy to top Forbes Richest Person list, with net worth of US$53.5 billion
2020 – Three months into the COVID-19 epidemic Chinese President Xi Jinping finally travels to Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak as the rate of daily new infections declines in China falls to 19 new cases and 17 deaths

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Famous Birthdays

1863 – E J Ratcliffe [Edward], British stage and screen actor, born in London (d. 1948)
1928 – James Earl Ray, American assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., born in Alton, Illinois (d. 1998)
1943 – Angelique Pettyjohn, [Dorothy Lee Perrins], American actress (Clambake; Repo Man), and burlesque queen, born in Los Angeles, California (d. 1992)
1958 – Sharon Stone, American actress (Basic Instinct, Sliver, Casino), born in Meadville, Pennsylvania
1965 – Rod Woodson, American NFL cornerback/kick returner (11 Pro Bowl; Super Bowl 2000, Baltimore Ravens), born in Fort Wayne, Indiana
1977 – Robin Thicke, Canadian-American singer (“Blurred Lines”), born in Los Angeles, California

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Famous Deaths

37 – Tiberius Claudius Nero, Roman emperor (14 AD-37 AD), dies at 78
1391 – Tvrtko I first king of Bosnia (b. 1338)
1940 – Mikhaïl Boulgakov, Russian writer (b. 1891)
1948 – Zelda Fitzgerald [née Sayre], American writer (This Side of Paradise) and wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, dies at 47
2012 – Heinz Wunderlich, German organist and composer, dies at 92
2023 – Jesús Alou, Dominican MLB baseball outfielder, 1963-79 (World Series 1973, 74 Oakland A’s; Houston Astros, and 2 other teams), dies at 80

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Historical Events

1276 – Augsburg becomes an Imperial Free City
1864 – Ulysses S. Grant is named Commanding General of the U.S. (Union) Army
1889 – Battle at Gallabat (Metema): Mahdi’s beat Abyssinian emperor John IV
1922 – KJR-AM in Seattle Washington begins radio transmissions
1956 – Weather forecasting phone line set up in London England
1957 – 4th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: North Carolina beats South Carolina, 95-75

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Famous Birthdays

1454 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer (America), born in Florence (d. 1512)
1890 – Vyacheslav Molotov [Skryabin], Russian politician (Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1939-49, 1953-6), born in Kukarka, Russian Empire (d. 1986)
1954 – Carlos Ghosn, French Brazilian automobile executive (Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi Motors), born in Porto Velho, Brazil
1958 – Jack Kenny, American television writer and producer (Warehouse 13), born in Chicago, Illinois
1979 – Óscar Isaac [Hernández], French Guatemalan-American actor (Scenes From A Marriage; Balibo; Inside Llewyn Davis), born in Guatemala City, Guatemala
1987 – Lil’ Bow Wow [Shad Gregory Moss], American rapper and actor (Beware of Dogs), born in Columbus, Ohio

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Famous Deaths

1954 – Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs, German astronomer (b. 1912)
1964 – Johanna “Mina” Bakker, Dutch actress (Boefje), dies at 87
1992 – Felipe Turich, actor (Lawless), dies
2017 – Howard Hodgkin, British abstract painter, dies at 84
2019 – Harry Howell, Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman (NY Rangers 1952-69), dies of dementia at 86
2023 – Otis Taylor, American football wide receiver (Super Bowl IV Kansas City Chiefs; First-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl 1971, 72), dies from Parkinson’s disease dementia at 80

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Historical Events

1862 – Confederate ironclad “Merrimack” launched
1898 – Richard Straus’ “Don Quixote” premieres in Keulen
1916 – US invades Cuba for 3rd time, this to end corrupt Menocal regime
1927 – Pan American Airlines incorporates
1995 – Dutch Liberal Party wins Provincial-National elections
2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people loses contact and disappears, prompting the most expensive search effort in history and one of the most enduring aviation mysteries

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Famous Birthdays

1743 – [Benedikt] Bendix Friedrich Zinck, Danish violinist, keyboardist, and composer, baptized in Husum, Duchy of Schleswig (now Germany) (d. 1801)
1879 – Mechtilde Lichnowsky, German writer, born in Pocking, Bavaria (d. 1958)
1918 – Poon Lim, Chinese sailor who survived 133 days adrift at sea, born in Hainan, China (d. 1991)
1927 – Jaromir Podešva, Czech composer (Fragments of the Quinguennium), music theorist, and pedagogue, born in Brno, Czechoslovakia (d. 2000)
1971 – Marc Tobert, CFL slot back (Edmonton Eskimos)
1977 – James Van Der Beek, American actor (Dawson’s Creek), born in Cheshire, Connecticut

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Famous Deaths

1853 – Edward John Dent, British clockmaker to Queen Victoria and commissioned to make Big Ben, London (completed after his death by his son Frederick Dent), dies at 62
1955 – Clémentine, Princess of Belgium, wife of Prince Napoleon Bonaparte V, dies at 82
1971 – Harold Lloyd, American silent and sound film actor, comedian, and director (Why Worry?; The Freshman; Safety Last!; The Sin of Harold Diddlebock), dies of cancer at 77
1985 – Thomas Creighton, US heart patient (3 implants in 46 hrs), dies at 33
1994 – Joop C Swart, publisher/founder (World Press Photo), dies at 69
2014 – William Guarnere, American WWII veteran and author, portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, dies at 90

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Historical Events

1942 – 15 Mk-VB Spitfires reach Malta
1958 – Chicago Cardinals announce they will play their 1958 opener in Buffalo
1965 – Alabama state troopers and 600 black protesters clash in Selma during “Bloody Sunday”, protesters, including future congressman John Lewis beaten and hospitalized
1970 – Ice Pairs Championship at Ljubljana won by Rodnina and Ulanov (URS)
1975 – “Mirror”, Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, starring Margarita Terekhova and Ignat Daniltsev, is released
1990 – Wayne Huizenga buys ½ of Joe Robbie Stadium and 15% of Dolphins for $30m

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Famous Birthdays

1872 – Piet Mondrian, Dutch abstract painter (Broadway Boogie Woogie, Composition with Red Blue and Yellow) and art theoretician, born in Amersfoort, Netherlands (d. 1944)
1895 – Juan Jose Castro, Argentine composer, born in Avellaneda, Argentina (d. 1968)
1931 – Cornelis T “Cor” van de Molen, Dutch journalist (Beehive)
1940 – Daniel J Travanti, American actor (Hill Street Blues – “Capt. Frank Furillo”), born in Kenosha, Wisconsin
1964 – Denyce Graves, American mezzo-soprano (Carmen), born in Washington, D.C.
1967 – Zheng Haixia, Chinese WNBA center (LA Sparks), born in Shangqiu, China

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Famous Deaths

851 – Nominoe, first Duke of Brittany “father of the country” (Tad ar Vro)
1724 – Innocent XIII [Michelangiolo dei Conti], Italian 244th Pope (1721-24) tried to introduce frugal measures and end nepotism, dies at 68
1833 – Rahel Varnhagen von Ense-Levin, German literary hostess, dies at 61
1984 – Paul Rotha, English director (b. 1907)
1985 – Victor W. Farris, American inventor (paper milk carton), dies at 75
1995 – Paul-Emile Victor, French polar explorer, dies at 87

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Historical Events

1900 – After a meeting in Indianapolis, USA, a group forms the Social Democratic Party and nominates Eugene Debs as its candidate for President in the forthcoming election (becomes the Socialist Party in 1901)
1972 – Jack Nicklaus, passes Arnold Palmer as golf’s all-time money winner
1974 – Australian cricketing brothers Ian (145 and 121) and Greg Chappell (247no and 133) score unique twin centuries in drawn 1st Test vs New Zealand in Wellington
1983 – US Football League begins its 1st season
1986 – USSR’s Vega 1 flies by Halley’s Comet at 8,889 km
1992 – Founding of the Council of the Baltic Sea States.

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Famous Birthdays

1475 – Michelangelo, Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance (David, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel), born in Caprese, Tuscany (d. 1564)
1926 – Andrzej Wajda, Polish film director (Ashes and Diamonds, Man of Iron), born in Suwalki (d. 2016)
1933 – Ted Abernathy, American MLB baseball pitcher, 1955-72 (Washington Senators, Chicago Cubs, and 5 other teams), born in Stanley, North Carolina (d. 2004)
1946 – Tony Klatka, rocker (Blood, Sweat and Tears)
1972 – Shaquille O’Neal, American Basketball Hall of Fame center (4-time NBA champion, 3-time NBA Finals MVP, Olympic gold 1996), born in Newark, New Jersey
1973 – Greg Ostertag, NBA center (Utah Jazz)

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Famous Deaths

1936 – Rubin Goldmark, American composer, dies at 63
1962 – Rezső Kókai, Hungarian pianist, composer, musicologist, and pedagogue, dies at 56
1986 – Adolph Caesar, actor (Club Paradise, Soldier’s Story), dies
1994 – Tengiz Abuladze, Soviet Georgian filmmaker (Repentance), dies at 70
1998 – Frank Barrett, American baseball player (b. 1913)
2016 – Nancy Reagan [Anne Frances Robbins], US First Lady (1981-89), dies at 94

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Historical Events

1774 – John Hancock delivers the fourth annual Massacre Day oration, a commemoration of the Boston Massacre, and denounces the presence of British troops in Boston, enhancing Hancock’s stature as a leading Patriot
1784 – Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, is named President of the Board of Trade.
1928 – Karl Zuckmayer’s “Der Hauptmann von Köpenick” premieres in Berlin
1966 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1974 – Ralph Stewart failed in 2nd Islander penalty shot
1982 – Russian spacecraft Venera 14 lands on Venus sends back data

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Famous Birthdays

1871 – Rosa Luxemburg, Polish-German Marxist revolutionary and founder of the Spartacus League, born in Zamość, Poland (d. 1919)
1893 – Emmett J. Culligan, American entrepreneur (founder of water treatment organization Culligan Inc.), born in Yankton, South Dakota (d. 1970)
1934 – James B Sikking, American actor (Hill Street Blues – “Lt. Howard Hunter”; Star Trek 3; Doogie Howser), born in Los Angeles, California
1939 – Norman Seeff, South African-American photographer, filmmaker, and album cover artist (Joni Mitchell; Captain and Tenille; Fleetwood Mac), born in Johannesburg, South Africa
1948 – Jacques Kloes, Dutch rock singer (Dizzy Man’s Band – “The Show”; “Matter of Facts”), born in Heemskerk, Holland (d. 2015)
1961 – Dan Stuart, American singer-songwriter (Green on Red), poet, and author (The Unfortunate Demise of Marlowe Billings), born in Los Angeles, California

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Famous Deaths

1940 – Cai Yuanpei, Chinese educator (b. 1868)
1967 – Mischa Auer [Ounskowsky], Russian actor (My Man Godfrey), dies from a heart attack at 61
1967 – Georges Vanier, French Canadian soldier and 19th Governor General of Canada, dies at 78
1979 – Vicente Ascone, Italian composer, dies at 81
1984 – Harry Salter, orchestra leader (Stop the Music), dies at 85
2010 – Edgar Wayburn, American environmentalist awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom 1999, dies at 103

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Historical Events

1804 – The Battle of Vinegar Hill, colony of New South Wales (Australia), when Irish convicts (some of whom had been involved in Ireland’s Battle of Vinegar Hill in 1798) led the colony’s only significant convict uprising.
1868 – 30th Grand National: George Ede victorious aboard Irish 9/1 shot The Lamb; horse wins second GN in 1871
1881 – California becomes 1st state to pass plant quarantine legislation
1970 – Jacksonville is 1st college basketball team to avg 100+ pts per game
1977 – 1st CRAY 1 supercomputer shipped, to Los Alamos Laboratories, New Mexico
2020 – “Once in a century” winter in Moscow the hottest in 140 years, with 7.5° C (13.5° F) above average temperatures and virtually no snow

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Famous Birthdays

1754 – Benjamin Waterhouse, American physician co-founder of Harvard Medical School, and smallpox vaccine pioneer, born in Newport, Rhode Island (d. 1846)
1765 – Charles Dibdin, British composer, author (Sea Songs), and actor, baptized in Hampshire, England (d. 1814)
1877 – Garrett Morgan, American inventor (gas mask and traffic signal), born in Claysville, Kentucky (d. 1963)
1917 – Clyde McCullough, American baseball player (d. 1982)
1932 – Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, American custom hot rod car designer, born in Beverly Hills, California (d. 2001)
1947 – Jan Garbarek, Norwegian jazz saxophonist, born in Mysen, Norway

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Famous Deaths

1733 – Claude de Forbin, French naval commander, dies at 76
1858 – Matthew C. Perry, Commodore of the United States Navy who opened Japan to Western influence and trade, dies of rheumatism at 63
1866 – Alexander Campbell, Irish-American clergyman and Founder of Disciples of Christ, dies at 77
1989 – James A. Parsons, American metallurgist and inventor (stainless steel), dies at 88
2007 – Sunil Kumar Mahato, Indian parliamentarian, assassinated by Communist rebels at 41
2012 – Runako Morton, West Indian cricketer, dies in a traffic collision at 33

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Historical Events

1905 – US Forest Service forms
1917 – First major strike of the Russian “February Revolution” starts at the giant Putilov factory in Petrograd [OS=Feb 18]
1942 – 1st combat flight for Canadian British-built Avro Lancaster bomber
1981 – NY Islanders and Edmonton Oilers play to an 8-8 tie
1992 – Charges are filed in Florida against NY Mets Darryl Boston, Vince Coleman and Dwight Gooden of rape (dropped in April)
2021 – Great apes at San Diego Zoo reported given experimental COVID-19 vaccine designed for animals after earlier outbreak among the gorillas (San Diego, California)

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Famous Birthdays

1814 – Charles Kensington Salaman, British pianist and synagogue music composer, born in London, England (d. 1901)
1880 – Florence Auer, American actress (Eradicating Aunty), born in Albany, New York (d. 1962)
1893 – Beatrice Wood, American artist, ceramist and editor (The Blind Man, inspiration for Titanic film character Rose), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1998)
1913 – Roger Caillois, French writer and scholar (Les Jeux et les Hommes), born in Reims, France (d. 1978)
1920 – Julius Boros, American golfer (PGA C’ship 1968, US Open 1952, 63), born in Fairfield, Connecticut (d. 1994)
1945 – Farooq Hamid, cricketer (1-107 in Test, Pakistan v Australia 1964)

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Famous Deaths

1459 – Ausiàs March, Catalan poet of Valencian literature, dies at 59
1927 – J.G. Parry-Thomas, Welsh motor-racing driver (b. 1884)
1973 – Vera Panova, Russian author and journalist (Sputniki), dies at 67
1996 – Ludwig Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, German journalist, dies at 76
2000 – Toni Ortelli, Italian composer (“La Montanara” (The Song of the Mountains), conductor, and alpinist, dies at 95
2004 – Cecily Adams, American actress and casting director (b. 1958)

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Historical Events

1861 – Government Printing Office purchases 1st printing plant, Washington
1925 – Japan’s House of Representatives recognizes male suffrage
1965 – Montcalm Community College founded in Sidney, Mich
1989 – GreenLeft (GroenLinks) political party forms from merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals, and the Evangelical People’s Party in the Netherlands
2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: US conventional forces first deployed as part of Operation Anaconda
2014 – President Vladimir Putin receives unanimous approval from Russia’s parliament to send troops to Ukraine

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Famous Birthdays

1769 – DeWitt Clinton, American politician (Senator, Governor and Mayor of New York, had Erie Canal constructed), born in Little Britain, New York (d. 1828)
1779 – Joel Roberts Poinsett, American statesman and botanist (d. 1851)
1916 – Bernard George Stevens, British composer, born in London, England (d. 1983)
1947 – Harry Redknapp, English soccer winger (West Ham United; AFC Bournemouth) and manager (Bournemouth, West Ham, Tottenham, Portsmouth, QPR, Southampton), born in London, England
1952 – Mark Evanier, American writer
1954 – Pete Johnson, American football running back (Pro Bowl, 2nd Team All Pro 1981; Cincinnati Bengals; Ohio State University), born in Fort Valley, Georgia

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Famous Deaths

1127 – Charles, the Good, Count of Flanders, murdered
1943 – Alexandre Yersin, Swiss French bacteriologist (discovered bubonic plague bacillus), dies at 79
1985 – John Kelly Jr, American rower (Olympic bronze single sculls 1956; president US Olympic Committee 1985) and brother of Grace Kelly, dies at 57
1994 – Charles Brink, German-born British classical scholar (Horace), dies at 86
2015 – Mal Peet, British children’s author, dies at 67
2017 – Simon Hobday, South African golfer (US Senior Open 1994), dies of cancer at 76

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