Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1893 – English author Beatrix Potter writes the story of Peter Rabbit for a 5-year-old boy
1918 – Jhr. Ch. Ruys de Beerenbrouck becomes the first Dutch Catholic prime minister
1962 – The Beatles record “How Do You Do It” at EMI Studios in London
1963 – Swissair Flight 306 crashes near Dürrenäsch, Switzerland, killing all 80 people on board
1967 – Jerry Lewis’s 2nd Muscular Dystrophy telethon raises $1,126,846

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Famous Birthdays

1746 – Bernardus Bosch, Dutch vicar and poet, born in Deventer, Netherlands (d. 1803)
1915 – Rudolf Schock, German opera tenor, born in Duisburg, Germany (d. 1986)
1918 – Bill Talbert, American tennis player (9 x Grand Slam doubles titles; US Open singles 1944, 45 runner-up; International Tennis HOF), born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1999)
1937 – Dawn Fraser, Australian swimmer (Olympic gold 100m freestyle 1956, 60, 64; 4×100m freestyle relay 1956), born in Sydney, Australia
1981 – Beyoncé Knowles, American pop and RandB singer, songwriter, producer and actress (Destiny’s Child), born in Houston, Texas

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Famous Deaths

1571 – Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, regent of Scotland for his grandson King James VI, shot and killed during a skirmish in Stirling at 54
2000 – John Beith, British diplomat who served as the ambassador to Israel and Belgium, dies at 86
2014 – Ron Mulock, Australian politician (Deputy Premier of New South Wales, 1984-88; Mayor of Perth, Penrith, 1968-71), dies at 84
2014 – Wolfhart Pannenberg, German theologist (Gingham Girl), dies at 85
2018 – Bill Daily, American actor and comedian (I Dream of Jeannie – “Roger”; The Bob Newhart Show – “Howard”), dies at 91

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Historical Events

1914 – Lemberg, the capital of Galicia, is taken after a three-day battle in which the Russians rout the Austrians
1947 – New York Yankees total 18 hits, all singles, to rout the Boston Red Sox 11-2 at Fenway Park
1950 – Giuseppe “Nino” Farina wins the inaugural Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship by winning the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in an Alfa Romeo, finishing three points ahead of Juan Manuel Fangio
1972 – Finnish runner Lasse Virén scores a famous victory in the 10,000 m at the Munich Olympics in world record 27:38.35
2017 – Stacy Lewis wins the Cambia Portland Classic and donates her winnings of $195,000 to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts

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Famous Birthdays

1921 – Thurston Dart, English harpsichordist and conductor, born in Surbiton, London (d. 1971)
1933 – Tompall Glaser, American country music singer (Tompall and the Glaser Brothers – “Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)”, “Put Another Log on the Fire”), born in Spalding, Nebraska (d. 2013)
1944 – Alan Strachan, Scottish theatre director known for his work on the West End (Just Between Ourselves, The Immortal Haydon), born in Dundee, Scotland (d. 2025)
1950 – Aaron “A-Train” Smith, American drummer (The Temptations; Romeo Void), born in Nashville, Tennessee
1966 – Bennie Blades, American NFL safety (Pro Bowl 1991; Detroit Lions), born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

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Famous Deaths

1662 – William Lenthall, English politician (b. 1591)
1720 – Henri de Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, 1st Viscount Galway, French soldier and diplomat, dies at 72
1871 – Václav Emanuel Horák, Czech composer, chiefly of liturgical music, organist, and kapellmeister, dies at 71
1935 – Johannes Aengenent, Bishop of Haarlem (1928-35), dies at 62
1956 – O. Louis Guglielmi, American ‘social surrealist’ painter (One Third of a Nation), dies of a heart attack at 50

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Historical Events

1958 – KAYS TV (now KBSH-DT) channel 7 in Hays, Kansas (CBS) begins broadcasting
1971 – There are further Irish Republican Army bombs set off across the region, including one in Belfast which wrecked the headquarters of the Ulster Unionist Party
1972 – French track cyclist Daniel Morelon successfully defends his Olympic sprint title beating Australian John Nicholson for the gold medal in Munich
1978 – American radio disc jockey and stunt pilot Hal McClain (38) performs world record 180 outside loops in an airplane over Houston, Texas
2020 – Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi tests positive for COVID-19 and is later hospitalized

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Famous Birthdays

1862 – Alphons Diepenbrock, Dutch composer, conductor, and essayist, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1921)
1901 – Adolph Rupp, American Basketball HOF coach (NCAA Div I Tournament 1948, 49, 51, 58; Uni of Kentucky; 5 × National Coach of the Year), born in Halstead, Kansas (d. 1977)
1912 – Johan Daisne [Herman Thiery], Belgian writer (magic realism), born in Ghent, Belgian (d. 1978)
1918 – Martha Mitchell [nee Beall], wife of US Attorney General John Mitchell, born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas (d. 1976)
1973 – Matthew Dunn, Australian swimmer (World C’ship SC gold x 8), born in Leeton, Australia

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Famous Deaths

1540 – Dawit II [Lebna Dengel], Emperor of Ethiopia (1508-40), assassinated at 43 or 44
1934 – (Alcide) “Yellow” Nunez, American New Orleans jazz clarinetist, dies of a heart attack at 50
1993 – John [Eoin] Higgins, Northern Ireland supreme court justice (1984-93), dies at 66
2003 – Bruce Waibel, American touring and session rock bassist (Gregg Allman; Firehouse), takes his own life at 45
2006 – Willi Ninja [William Leake], American dancer and choreographer (Paris Is Burning), dies of AIDS-related heart failure at 45

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Historical Events

1632 – Battle at Castelnaudary: Henri de Montmorency’s rebel army loses to French royalist forces loyal to Louis XIII
1647 – French cardinal Mazarin and the Duke of Modena sign a treaty against Milan
1898 – First forestry school in America opens at Biltmore Estate, North Carolina
1946 – Greece votes in referendum to maintain the monarchy with 68.4% of the vote in support
2012 – US drone strike kills five people in North Waziristan, Pakistan

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Famous Birthdays

1856 – Sergei Winogradsky, Russian microbiologist and ecologist, made important discoveries of the nitrogen cycle in nature, born in Kiev, Russian Empire (d. 1953)
1931 – Boxcar Willie [Travis Martin], American soldier (USAF) and singer (“King of the Road”), born in Ellis County, Texas (d. 1999)
1934 – Anatoly Yevtushenko, Ukrainian handball coach (Olympic gold USSR 1976, 88; silver 1980), born in Horlivka, Ukraine (d. 2026)
1952 – Phil Hendrie, American radio personality (The Phil Hendrie Show) and voice actor (The Unit, Rick and Morty, Futurama), born in Arcadia, California
1996 – Zendaya [Coleman], American actress (Spider-Man, Euphoria, Dune), singer and dancer, born in Oakland, California

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Famous Deaths

1780 – Reynier de Klerk, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (1778-80), dies at 69
1981 – Albert Speer, German architect and Nazi leader (Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production), dies of a stroke at 76
1993 – Aleksey Vakhonin, Russian weightlifter (Olympic gold USSR bantamweight 1964; World C’ship gold 1963, 64, 66), dies at 58
2006 – Sir Kyffin Williams, Welsh landscape painter (b. 1918)
2007 – Viliam Schrojf, Slovak soccer goalkeeper (39 caps Czechoslovakia; Slovan Bratislava 240 games), dies at 76

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Historical Events

1778 – British forces kill 17 to 40 Stockbridge Indian fighters in Bronx during Revolution
1842 – US President John Tyler authorizes the establishment of the US Naval Observatory
1904 – US National Championship Men’s Tennis, Newport, RI: Holcombe Ward beats William Clothier 10-8, 6-4, 9-7 for his lone major singles title
1935 – Russian miner Aleksey Stachanov digs 102 tons of coal in under 6 hours, using a jackhammer
1988 – Bomb attack destroys the Khotso House, the office of the South African Council of Churches

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Famous Birthdays

1879 – Viktor Alexandrovich Uspensky, Russian composer and ethnomusicologist, born in Kaluga, Russia (d. 1949)
1918 – Lucrecia Roces Kasilag, Filipina composer (Filiasiana), concert pianist, and educator (Bayanihan Dance Company), born in San Fernando, Philippines (d. 2008)
1949 – Jim Fassel, American football coach (University of Utah 1985–89; New York Giants 1997-2003), born in Anaheim, California (d. 2021)
1959 – Tony DeFranco, Canadian pop singer (The DeFranco Family – “Heartbeat – It’s a Lovebeat”), born in Port Colborne, Ontario
1984 – Charl Schwartzel, South African golfer (US Masters 2011), born in Johannesburg, Gauteng

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Famous Deaths

1616 – Gemignano Capilupi, Italian choral music composer, dies at 43
1654 – Ole Worm, Danish physician, dies at 66
1997 – Dodi Fayed, Egyptian businessman, died in a car crash in Paris with Diana, Princess of Wales,at 42
2007 – Karloff Lagarde, Mexican professional wrestler, dies at 79
2015 – Colin Hope, British Industrialist (Turner and Newall), dies at 83

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Historical Events

1918 – Czechoslovakia forms an independent republic
1944 – 11th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Chicago Bears 24, All-Stars 21 (48,769 attendees)
1972 – American women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay team of Shirley Babashoff, Jane Barkman, Jenny Kemp, and Sandy Neilson beats East Germany by just 0.36 seconds to win gold at the Munich Olympics with a world record time of 3:55.19
2013 – Fifteen people are killed by a liquid ammonia leak at a cold storage plant in Shanghai, China
2019 – Co-founder and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has his Twitter account hacked; racist comments are posted in his name

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Famous Birthdays

1914 – Julie Bishop [Jacqueline Wells], American actress (My Hero, Northern Pursuit, Threat), born in Denver, Colorado (d. 2001)
1923 – Gerhard Wimberger, Austria composer (Glove), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 2016)
1939 – John Peel [Ravenscroft], British popular music radio presenter (BBC Radio 1, 1967-2004), born in Heswall, England (d. 2004)
1960 – Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, American Medal of Honor recipient, born in Lincoln, Maine (d. 1993)
1996 – Trevor Jackson, American actor (Grown-ish), and RandB singer-songwriter (“Drop It”), born in Indianapolis, Indiana

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Famous Deaths

1974 – Abraham Schierbeek, Dutch biologist (Leeuwenhoek), dies at 87
1991 – Alan Wheatley, British actor (The Adventures of Robin Hood), dies from a heart attack at 84
2007 – Michael Jackson, British beer and whiskey author and expert, dies at 65
2013 – Lotfollah “Lotfi” Mansouri, Persian opera director (Canadian Opera Company, 1976-88; introduced opera surtitles, 1983; San Francisco Opera, 1988-2001), dies at 84
2022 – Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985-91), dies after an unspecified long and grave illness at 91

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Historical Events

1540 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles V deprives the city Ghent of its definitive rights and privileges
1822 – Domitila de Castro meets her long-term lover Dom Pedro I, then Prince of Portugal and later Emperor of Brazil, for the first time in São Paulo
1906 – US National Championship Men’s Tennis, Newport, RI: William Clothier beats defending champion Beals Wright 6-3, 6-0, 6-4
1992 – Largest wrestling crowd outside the US: 75,000 at Wembley Stadium, London
2007 – 64th Venice Film Festival: “Lust, Caution” directed by Ang Lee wins Golden Lion

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Famous Birthdays

1899 – George Macready, American actor (Martin Peyton-Peyton Place), born in Providence, Rhode Island (d. 1973)
1917 – Isabel Sanford, American actress (Louise-Jeffersons/All in the Family), born in New York City (d. 2004)
1920 – Joseph Lesniewski, American Easy Company, soldier in 101st Airborne, born in Erie, Pennsylvania (d. 2012)
1968 – Darren Joseph, Canadian football fullback (Saskatchewan Roughriders), born in Ottawa, Canada
1989 – Charlotte Richie, English actress (Call the Midwives; Ghosts; You) and singer, born in Clapham, London

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Famous Deaths

1940 – Arthur De Greef, Belgian composer, dies at 77
1973 – Stringer Davis, English actress (Mouse on the Moon; Miranda), dies at about 77
1980 – Louis Darquier de Pellepoix, French politician and Nazi collaborator (anti-Semite minister in WWII Vichy government), dies at 92
1983 – William Goyen, American writer, dies at 68
2021 – Ed Asner, American Emmy Award-winning actor (The Mary Tyler Moore Show – “Mr. Grant”; Lou Grant, Roots; Up), and activist, dies at 91

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Historical Events

1913 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands opens the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, an international law administrative building housing the Permanent Court of Arbitration
1967 – Asif Iqbal and Intikhab Alam make a 190-run stand for the 9th wicket against England
1977 – NY Yankee Ron Guidry faces just 28 batters in 1-0 win over Texas Rangers
2009 – Noel Gallagher, the guitarist of the British pop-rock band Oasis, quits the band, citing an inability to be with his brother Liam
2017 – North Korea launches a missile that flies over Japan, and the country’s J-Alert warning system warns people to take cover

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Famous Birthdays

1828 – William Alexander Hammond, American military physician and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Annapolis, Maryland (d. 1900)
1892 – Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher, American architect (Parkway House), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1975)
1915 – Max Robertson, British sports commentator (BBC Radio), born in Dacca, Bengal (d. 2009)
1966 – Jerry Fehily, Irish drummer (Hothouse Flowers – “Don’t Go”; “Thing Of Beauty”), born in Cork, Ireland
1970 – Rick Recht, Jewish-American rock singer-songwriter (“Tear Down The Walls”), born in St. Louis, Missouri

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Famous Deaths

1798 – James Wilson, One of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a signatory of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, dies at 55
1927 – Li Dazhao [Ta-chao], Chinese intellectual, revolutionary and co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party with Chen Duxiu, executed as a political prisoner at 37
1937 – Frederick Burr Opper, American pioneering cartoonist (Happy Hooligan), dies at 80
2013 – Rob du Bois, Dutch composer, dies at 79
2025 – Randy Boone, American actor (Cimarron Strip, The Virginian), dies at 83

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Historical Events

1628 – Java: Sultan Agung of Mataram attacks Batavia
1914 – US war reporter Richard H. Davis visits Leuven in Belgium
1955 – Sandy Koufax fans 14 Reds as both teams combine for a record 23 strikeouts
1961 – Francis the Talking Mule is a mystery guest on “What’s My Line”
1965 – The Beatles spend an evening with Elvis Presley at his Los Angeles, California, home

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Famous Birthdays

1896 – Leon Theremin, Russian-Soviet electronic musical instruments inventor, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 1993)
1908 – Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th US President (Democrat: 1963-69), born in Stonewall, Texas (d. 1973)
1930 – John Daly, British trade union leader (National and Local Government Officers’ Association (NALGO)), born in Clerkenwell, England (d. 1999)
1947 – Barbara Bach [Goldbach], American actress (The Spy Who Loved Me, Force 10 from Navarone), born in Queens, New York
1973 – Dietmar Hamann, German soccer midfielder (59 caps; Bayern Munich, Newcastle United, Liverpool, Manchester City), born in Waldsassen, Germany

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Famous Deaths

1981 – Joan Edwards, American pop singer on radio (Your Hit Parade) and television (Joan Edwards Show), dies of a heart attack at 62
2008 – Del Martin [Dorothy Taliaferro], American lesbian activist who was part of the first legal same-sex marriage in California, dies at 87
2010 – Corinne Day, British fashion photographer known for shooting Face magazine’s “3rd Summer of Love” cover, dies of cancer at 48
2015 – George Cleve, Austrian-American conductor (Winnipeg Symphony, 1968-70; San Jose Symphony, 1972-92; San Francisco Midsummer Mozart Festival, 1974-2015), dies of liver failure at 79
2025 – (Randall) “Duke” Cunningham, American Navy fighter pilot (Vietnam) and Republican politician (US Representative from California, 1991-2005) who was convicted of accepting bribes, dies at 83

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Historical Events

1903 – Phillies walk 17 Dodgers in a game
1990 – Two murdered college students are found in Gainesville, Florida
2013 – All 25,000 applicants to the University of Liberia fail their university entrance examination
2020 – At least 100 people are killed in flash floods in the city of Charikar, Afghanistan, with 500 houses destroyed
2025 – American pop superstar Taylor Swift (35) and American NFL football player Travis Kelce (35) reveal their marriage engagement in social media post, garnering 1.2 million ‘likes’ in under 10 minutes

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Famous Birthdays

1808 – Benjamin Grubb Humphreys, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Claiborne County, Mississippi (d. 1882)
1908 – Walter Bruno Henning, German scholar and linguist specializing in Iranian languages, born in Ragnit, East Prussia, German Empire (d. 1967)
1941 – Barbet Schroeder, Iranian-Swiss director (Barfly, Single White Female, More), born in Tehran, Iran
1962 – Bob Mionske, American cyclist and attorney, born in Evanston and Illinois
1977 – Saeko Chiba, Japanese singer and voice actor (Chrono Crusade, Code Geass), born in Tokyo, Japan

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Famous Deaths

1849 – Jacques- Féréol Mazas, French composer, conductor and violinist, dies at 66
1863 – John Bz. Floyd, American Governor (Virginia), Secretary of War (1857-60) and Confederate general, dies of failing health at 57
1937 – Andrew Mellon, American banker (Mellon Bank), industrialist and Secretary of the Treasury (1921-32), dies at 82
2007 – Roy McLean, South African cricket batsman (40 Tests, 5 x 100, HS 142; Natal), dies at 77
2023 – John Kezdy, American punk-rock guitarist and singer (The Effigies), and later prosecuting attorney, dies from injuries sustained in a bicycle crash at 64

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