Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1942 – SS begins transporting Jews from Maastricht
1990 – Li Hui Rong of China sets the women’s triple jump record of 47 ft 8½ in (14.54 m)
1995 – Gloucestershire cricketer Andrew Symonds scores 254 against Glamorgan, including a then first-class record of 16 sixes
2004 – Gal Fridman becomes Israel’s first Olympic gold medalist when he wins the men’s Mistral One Design windsurfing event at the Athens Games
2004 – Olga Kuzenkova of Russia throws an Olympic record 75.02 m to win the women’s hammer throw gold medal at the Athens Games

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Famous Birthdays

1846 – Judith Gautier, French poetess, novelist (Le Dragon Impérial) and daughter of Theophile Gautier, born in Paris (d. 1917)
1897 – Jaroslav Řídký, Czech harpist, conductor, and composer, born in Reichenberg, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (d. 1956)
1903 – Arpad Elo, American chess writer and creator of the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess, born in Egyházaskesző, Hungary (d. 1992)
1965 – Kathy Horvath, American tennis player (World #10 1984, 6 WTA titles), born in Chicago, Illinois
1988 – Raymond Quinn, British pop singer, born in Knowsley Village, Merseyside, England

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Famous Deaths

1282 – Thomas Cantilupe, English saint (b. ca 1218)
1868 – Costache Negruzzi, Romanian author/poet, dies at about 60
1945 – Willis Augustus Lee, American World War II admiral (Guadalcanal), and sport shooter (5 Olympic gold medals, 1920), dies of a heart attack while being ferried out to visit his flagship USS Wyoming off the coast of Maine at 57
1996 – Sylvia Fisher, Australian operatic soprano (Albert Herring Opera), dies at 86
2008 – Pehr Henrik Nordgren, Finnish composer (The Whole World Will Lament; Kwaidan-balladit), dies at 64

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Historical Events

1635 – The Great Colonial Hurricane affects the Virginia Colony at Jamestown
1921 – British airship R-38 crashes into the River Humber, killing 44 people
2008 – XXIX Summer Olympic Games close at the Beijing National Stadium
2008 – Samuel Wanjiru becomes the first Kenyan to win the men’s Olympic marathon in Beijing, winning in an Olympic record time; silver medalist Jaouad Gharib of Morocco is also faster than the Olympic record, yet finishes 44 seconds behind
2022 – South Korea records the world’s lowest fertility rate at 0.81 (advanced economies average 1.6, population replacement needs 2.1)

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Famous Birthdays

1561 – Bartholomeus Pitiscus, German mathematician (Trigonometry), born in Zielona Góra, Poland (d. 1613)
1879 – Rentaro Taki, Japanese pianist and composer, born in Tokyo, Japan (d. 1903)
1903 – Claude Hopkins, American jazz stride pianist, arranger, bandleader, and musical director (Josephine Baker), born in Alexandria, Virginia (d. 1984)
1934 – Roger Donald Dickerson, American pianist, composer (New Orleans Concerto), and educator, born in New Orleans, Louisiana
1945 – Ronee Blakley, American actress (Nashville), and singer-songwriter, born in Nampa, Idaho

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Famous Deaths

1647 – Nicholas Stone “Elder”, English sculptor and architect, dies at about 61
1712 – Thomas Bullis, Jr. English organist and composer, dies at 54 (burial date)
1870 – Edwin Gray Lee, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 34
2002 – Ted Ashley [Theodore Assofsky], American talent agent and chairman of Warner Brothers (1969-80), dies at 80
2016 – Michel Butor, French novelist and essayist (La Modification), dies at 89

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Historical Events

1929 – Arab mobs attack Jews in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, triggering a series of violent riots
1939 – Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree to the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact and secretly divide Poland between themselves, setting the stage for World War II
1948 – Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte of the United Nations asks for aid for fugitives to Palestine
1972 – Republican convention in Miami Beach, Florida, renominates Vice President Spiro Agnew, but not unanimously as one vote goes to NBC newsman David Brinkley
2008 – Australian diver Matthew Mitcham wins the men’s 10 m platform gold medal with a final dive at the Beijing Olympics, preventing the Chinese from winning every diving event and achieving the highest score for an individual dive in Olympic history (112.10)

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Famous Birthdays

1623 – Stanisław Lubieniecki, Polish astronomer, born in Raków, Kielce County, Poland (d. 1675)
1922 – Eevi Huttunen, Finnish speed skater (8 World C’ship gold 1951-59), born in Karttula, Finland (d. 2015)
1968 – Chris DiMarco, American golfer (PGA C’ship 2004 runner-up), born in Huntington, New York
1978 – Julian Casablancas, American musician, born in New York City
1984 – Joe Talbot, Welsh punk-rock singer-songwriter (Ides), born in Newport, Wales

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Famous Deaths

1878 – Adolf Fredrik Lindblad, Swedish lieder and classical composer, dies at 77
1992 – Malcolm Atterbury, American actor (Jonas-Thicker than Water, Apples Way), dies at 85
1993 – Victorine Hefting, historian/wife of Bert Baker, dies at 88
1995 – Hedda J. Garza, American writer and political activist, dies at 66
2012 – Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer, dies from prostate cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at 78

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Historical Events

1642 – English Civil War begins between Royalists and Parliamentarians
1939 – Dutch border guards take positions for German invasion
1958 – Toronto’s Boyd Carter (15 yards) and Dave Mann (116 yards) combine for a CFL record for the longest punt return in a 15-14 win over the Montreal Alouettes in Toronto
1988 – US performs a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
2024 – Vice President Kamala Harris accepts the Democratic nomination for U.S. President on the last day of the party’s national conference in Chicago

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Famous Birthdays

1874 – Edward Bairstow, English composer, born in Trinity Street, Huddersfield, England (d. 1946)
1907 – Cyril Astley Clarke, British physician and geneticist, born in Leicester, England (d. 2000)
1926 – Marc Bohan, French fashion designer, born in Paris (d. 2023)
1974 – Agustín Pichot, Argentine rugby player, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
1974 – Brimstone [William Kucmierowski], American professional wrestler, actor and radio personality (The Grindhouse Radio), born in Mineola, New York

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Famous Deaths

1701 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English royalist statesman, dies at 72
1914 – Léon Amédée François Raffenel, French general (3rd Colonial Div, WWI), dies during Battle of Rossignol at 58
1977 – Sebastian Cabot, British actor (Kismet; Family Affair – “Mr. French”, Time Machine), dies at 59
2009 – Elmer Kelton, American Western novelist (b. 1926)
2011 – Nick Ashford, American songwriter, record producer (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”; “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand)”), and singer (Ashford and Simpson – “Solid”), dies of throat cancer at 70

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Historical Events

1573 – Spain begins the siege of Alkmaar in the Netherlands
1598 – Deed of Transfer proclaims the Netherlands’ independence
1942 – Transport #22 departs with French Jews to Nazi-Germany
1968 – After five years, the Soviet Union once again jams Voice of America radio
2017 – Chile’s Constitutional Court approves a bill to ease the country’s total abortion ban

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Famous Birthdays

1908 – M. M. Kaye, British writer (The Far Pavilions), born in Shimla, India (d. 2004)
1913 – Diana Churchill, English actress (Spider, Sally Bishop, Housemaster), born in Wembley, England (d. 1994)
1951 – Char Margolis, American psychic medium, television personality and podcast host (CharVision), born in Detroit, Michigan
1975 – Simon Katich, Australian cricketer, born in Middle Swan, Australia
1984 – Alizée Jacotey, French pop singer (“Moi… Lolita”), born in Ajaccio, France

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Famous Deaths

1919 – Laurence Doherty, British tennis player (Wimbledon 1902-06, US Nationals 1903), dies of toxemia at 43
1952 – Isaac Sadeh, Polish-born leader of Jewish commando force (Palmach), dies at 62
1963 – John Gunn, English cricket medium pace bowler (6 Tests, 18 wickets, BB 5/76; Nottinghamshire CCC), dies at 87
1971 – George Jackson, American criminal, author, and Black Guerrilla Family gang founder, shot to death during attempted San Quentin, California prison escape at 29
1991 – Oswald von Nell-Breuning, German theologist and philosopher, dies at 101

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Historical Events

1900 – Japan’s primary school law is amended to provide four years of mandatory schooling
1915 – Chicago White Sox acquire “Shoeless” Joe Jackson from Cleveland for Robert Roth, Larry Chappell, Ed Klepfer, and $31,500; Jackson becomes involved in the “Black Sox Scandal” in 1919
1958 – Chicago Cubs use first baseman Dale Long as their first major league lefty catcher since 1906
2011 – Senior Players Championship Men’s Golf, Westchester CC: Fred Couples wins the first of two Champions Tour major titles with a birdie on the third playoff hole against John Cook
2023 – Guatemala’s presidential election is won by anti-corruption candidate Bernardo Arévalo, who defeats former first lady Sandra Torres

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Famous Birthdays

1811 – Gilman Marston, American Brigadier General (Union Army) and politician (R-NH), born in Orford, New Hampshire (d. 1890)
1832 – Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, American aeronaut and inventor, born in Jefferson Mills, Coos County, New Hampshire (d. 1913)
1937 – George Thoma, German cross country ski jumper (Olympic gold 1960), born in Newstadt, Germany
1968 – Klas Ingesson, Swedish footballer and manager, born in Ödeshög, Sweden (d. 2014)
1987 – Zakir Khan, Indian comedian (On Air with AIB), born in Indore, India

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Famous Deaths

1672 – Cornelis de Witt, Dutch politician and naval commander (Raid on the Medway – Chatham Dockyard), lynched at 49
1707 – Nicolas Gigault, French Baroque organist and composer, dies at about 80
1986 – Donn Bennett, TV host (The Big Idea), dies at 76
1994 – Kalman Kahana, Polish co-founder of state Israel, dies at 81
2005 – Krzysztof Raczkowski, Polish heavy metal drummer, dies of heart failure at 34

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Historical Events

1745 – Jacobite Rising 1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie raises his standard at Glenfinnan, Scotland, igniting the second Jacobite rebellion
1897 – First electric taxis drive in London
1931 – Lefty Grove wins an AL record-tying 16th consecutive game
1962 – Homer Blancos plays his finest round in golf, shooting a 55
2018 – Two more earthquakes hit Lombok in Indonesia, killing 14 people two weeks after previous earthquakes

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Famous Birthdays

1824 – Georg Goltermann, German cellist and composer, born in Hanover, Kingdom of Hanover, German Confederation (d. 1898)
1963 – John Stamos, American actor (General Hospital; Full House; ER) and musician, born in Cypress, California
1972 – Elizabeth Wolfgramm, American singer (The Jets), born in Salt Lake City, Utah
1977 – Callum Blue, English actor (Dead Like Me, The Tudors), born in London, England
1982 – Melissa Fumero [Gallo], American actress (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), born in Lyndhurst, New Jersey

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Famous Deaths

1900 – Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian composer, dies at 67
1967 – Isaac Deutscher, Polish-English historian (Stalin/Trotsky biography), dies at 60
1987 – Hayden Rorke, American actor (I Dream of Jeannie, When Worlds Collide), dies from multiple myeloma at 76
1992 – Norvel Lee, American boxer (Olympic gold 1952), dies at 67
2016 – Jack Riley, American actor (The Bob Newhart Show – “Mr. Carlin”; Rugrats -“Stu Pickles”), dies of pneumonia at 80

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Historical Events

1926 – England regains Ashes with fifth Test cricket win to take series 1-0
1954 – James E. Wilkins is the first Black person to attend a US cabinet meeting
1958 – Fidel Castro delivers a speech on Radio Rebelde, the clandestine station founded by Che Guevara to broadcast news and revolutionary messages from the Sierra Maestra mountains
2013 – Six people are killed by a bomb blast on a bus in West Bengal, India
2025 – Leaders from across Europe join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a hastily arranged summit meeting with US President Trump at the White House

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Famous Birthdays

1938 – Orestes Quércia, Brazilian politician (Governor of São Paulo, 1987-91), born in Pedregulho, Brazil (d. 2010)
1939 – Molly Bee, American actress (Pinky Lee Show), born in Oklahoma City (d. 2009)
1966 – Gustavo Charif, Argentine artist, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
1968 – Mark Robinson, American politician, 2024 North Carolina nominee for Governor, born in Greensboro, North Carolina
1973 – Clarence Benford, American football tight end (Seattle Seahawks), born in Windsor Forest, Georgia

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Famous Deaths

1797 – Josiah Spode, English potter and founder of Spode pottery works, dies at 64
1901 – Richard Kleinmichel, composer, dies at 54
1943 – Ali-Agha Shikhlinski, Russian-Azerbaijani general, dies at 78
1952 – Ralph Byrd, American actor (Dick Tracy TV Show, SOS Coast Guard), dies from a heart attack at 43
2014 – Don Pardo, American television announcer (Jeopardy, Saturday Night Live), dies at 96

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Historical Events

1891 – People’s Bath, the first public bathhouse with showers, opens in New York City
1948 – Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent
1964 – Boycott scores his first Test cricket century: 113 against Australia at The Oval
1989 – Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken plays in his 1,208th consecutive game and moves to 3rd place all-time behind NY Yankees’ Lou Gehrig and Boston Red Sox/NY Yankees’ Everett Scott
2008 – China wins its 33rd gold medal of the Beijing Olympics by defeating Singapore in the table tennis women’s team event, achieving its most successful Olympiad ever by winning all 10 singles and all 5 doubles matches

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Famous Birthdays

1904 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (International Bruckner Society; Mozart’s Requiem), and educator (Vienna University, 1932-73), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1991)
1929 – Francis Gary Powers, American spy captured by the USSR after his U-2 spy was shot plane in 1959, born in Jenkins, Kentucky (d. 1977)
1955 – Kevin Welch, American country songwriter (“True Love Never Dies”), born in Long Beach, California
1960 – Johnny Bumphus, American boxer (WBA super lightweight title 1984), born in Tacoma, Washington (d. 2020)
1993 – Ederson [de Moraes], Brazilian football goalkeeper (Manchester City, Brazil), born in Osasco, Brazil

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Famous Deaths

1785 – Jonathan Trumbull, American politician and statesman during the American Revolutionary wars, Governor of Connecticut (1769-84), dies at 74
1887 – Franz Commer, German composer, dies at 74
1914 – James Grierson, British general, dies of an aneurism at 55
1987 – Rudolf Hess, German Nazi official (Deputy Fuhrer who dramatically escaped to Britain in 1941, sentenced to life in Spandau Prison), commits suicide at 93
2014 – Caterina De Nave, New Zealand television producer (Shortland Street), dies of leukaemia at 67

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Historical Events

1915 – Kansas City Packers’ Alex Main no-hits Buffalo Blues (Federal League), 5-0
1966 – The Beatles perform in concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for their second and final show in the city
1972 – USSR performs a nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeastern Kazakhstan
1997 – The South African soccer team, Bafana Bafana wins against the national team of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at First National Bank stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa
2021 – Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his cabinet resign after losing their majority amid political turmoil

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Famous Birthdays

1868 – Bernarr McFadden, American physical culture advocate, credited with beginning the culture of health and fitness in the United States, born in Mill Spring, Missouri (d. 1955)
1935 – Andreas Stamatiadis, Greek soccer forward (8 caps; AEK Athens 316 games), born in Athens, Greece (d. 2025)
1954 – George Galloway, British politician, broadcaster, and writer, born in Dundee, Scotland
1958 – Anne L’Huillier, French-Swedish physicist (2023 Nobel Prize for Physics for attosecond pulses of light), born in Paris, France
1985 – Taylor Goldsmith, American folk-rock singer-songwriter, and guitarist (Dawes), born in Los Angeles, California

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Famous Deaths

1419 – Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, King of Bohemia (1378-1419) and Germany (1376-1400), dies at 58
1929 – Frank Valentine der Stucken, American-Belgian composer, dies at 70
1956 – Bela Lugosi [Blaskó], Austrian actor (Dracula, Plan 9 From Outer Space), dies of a heart attack at 73
1986 – Jaime Saenz, Bolivian poet, novelist, and short story writer (b. 1921)
2024 – Countess of Airlie [Virginia Ogilvy], British-American Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth II, dies at 91

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