Category: On This Day

Historical Events

1943 – Assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler fails
1946 – UN set up temporary HQ at Hunter (now Lehman) College (Bronx)
1955 – Brooklyn Bulletin ask Dodger fans not to call their team “Bums”
1959 – 113th Grand National: Michael Scudamore wins aboard 8/1 second favourite Oxo; only 4 of 32 starters finish the race
1961 – Art Modell purchases Cleveland Browns for then record sum ($3,925,000)
1996 – “Night of the Iguana” opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 68 performances

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Famous Birthdays

1909 – Uno “Miff” Görling, Swedish jazz trombonist, arranger, bandleader, and composer, bjorn in Stockholm, Sweden (d. 1988)
1924 – Karl Heinz Fussl, Austrian composer, musicologist, publisher, and music critic, born in Jablonec, Czechoslovakia (d. 1992)
1929 – Maurice Catarcio, wrestler
1936 – Marek Stachowski, Polish composer (Neusis II; Thakurian Chants), and pedagogue, born in Piekary Śląskie, Poland (d. 2004)
1946 – Ray Dorset, British rock guitarist, and singer-songwriter (Mungo Jerry – “In The Summertime”), born in Ashford, England
1985 – Adrian Peterson, American Football player

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Famous Deaths

1201 – Absalon, Danish statesman and archbishop (built Copenhagen’s first fortifications), dies (b. c. 1128)
1487 – Nicholas of Flue, Swiss hermit and saint (b. 1417)
1891 – Joseph E. Johnston, American military officer (senior officer in Confederate Army and United States Army), dies at 84
2017 – Martin McGuinness, Irish Sinn Féin politician and IRA member, dies of the rare heart condition amyloidosis at 66
2021 – Nawal el-Saadawi, Egyptian feminist writer and activist (Women at Point Zero), dies at 89
2022 – Fevzi Zemzem, Turkish soccer striker (18 caps; AS Göztepe 356 games) and manager (Orduspor), dies at 80

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Historical Events

1616 – Walter Raleigh released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana
1932 – Kara-Kalpak Autonomous Region in RSFSR becomes Kara-Kalpak ASSR
1954 – 16th NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: La Salle beats Bradley, 92-76; Explorers’ small forward Tom Gola is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
1982 – France beats Ireland, 22-9 at the Parc des Princes, Paris but the Irish take the Five Nations Rugby Championship with a 3-1 record and also their 5th Triple Crown
1987 – FDA approves sale of AZT (AIDS treatment)
2000 – Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after a gun battle that leaves a Georgia sheriff’s deputy dead

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Famous Birthdays

1469 – Princess Cecily of York (d. 1507)
1873 – Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian-American piano virtuoso, conductor, and composer (Aleko; Piano Concerto No. 3), born in Oneg or Semyonovo, Russian Empire (d. 1943) [NS=Apr 1]
1883 – Karl Hasse, German composer, born in Dohna (d. 1960)
1922 – Larry Elgart, American big band jazz alto saxophonist, and bandleader (“Bandstand Boogie”; “Hooked On Swing”), born in New London, Connecticut (d. 2017)
1948 – John de Lancie, American actor (Star Trek Next Generation – “Q”; Days of Our Lives), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1986 – Dean Geyer, South African-Australian singer-songwriter (Australian Idol), and actor (Neighbours; Glee), born in Johannesburg, South Africa

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Famous Deaths

1937 – Harry Vardon, Jersey golfer (6 time British Open champion, US Open 1900), dies of lung cancer at 66
1969 – Henri Longchambon, French politician, dies at 72
1982 – Hendrik L van Beek, Dutch vice-admiral, dies at 52
1983 – Ivan Vinogradov, Russian mathematician (analytic number theory), dies at 91
1994 – Lewis Grizzard, American humorist (b. 1946)
2010 – Stewart Udall, American politician, environmentalist (b. 1920)

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Historical Events

1918 – US Congress authorizes time zones and approves daylight saving time
1973 – Dean tells Nixon, “There is a cancer growing on the Presidency”
1989 – Wales beats England, 12-9 at Cardiff Arms Park to allow France to claim it’s 9th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship
1995 – Bonnie Blair skates female world record point total (156.450)
2001 – The Bank of Japan issued a monetary policy known as quantitative easing, which stimulated the Japanese economy after the burst of the dot-com bubble.
2018 – Mississippi signs into law the US’s strictest abortion laws, no termination after 15 weeks

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Famous Birthdays

1668 – Francesco Gasparini, Italian baroque composer (Ambleto; Missa Canonica), born in Camaiore, Lucca (now Italy) (d. 1727)
1813 – David Livingstone, Scottish explorer who was famously found by Henry Morton Stanley in Africa, born in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland (d. 1873)
1914 – Jiang Qing [Madame Mao], Chinese communist and wife of Mao Zedong, born in Zhucheng, Shandong, China (d. 1991)
1929 – Herman van San, composer
1972 – Nate Quarry, American mixed martial arts fighter (The Ultimate Fighter; co-host MMA Uncensored Live), born in Arcata, California
1979 – Hee-Seop Choi, Korean baseball player

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Famous Deaths

1556 – Lieven van der Maude [Ammonius], South Netherlands poet, dies at 70
1897 – Antoine T. d’Abbadie, French explorer (Ethiopia), dies at 87
1939 – Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
1994 – Giuseppe Diana, Italian anti-mafia priest, murdered
2007 – Luther Ingram, American soul singer and songwriter (b. 1937)
2008 – Raghuvaran, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam actor (b. 1948)

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Historical Events

1859 – Vera Cruz besieged by Miramon (Cons) in Mexican War of Reform
1913 – King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki
1939 – England beats Scotland, 9-6 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh to force a share of the Home Nations Rugby Championship with Wales and Ireland
1966 – General Suharto forms government in Indonesia
1994 – South Africa Goldstone committee reveals existence of secret police
2021 – US Senate confirms William Joseph Burns as new CIA Director

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Famous Birthdays

1909 – Ernest Gallo, American winemaker (d. 2007)
1910 – Chiang Ching-huo, Chinese politician (son of Chinese president Chiang Kai-shek, President of Taiwan 1978-88), born in Fenghua, Zhejiang, China (d. 1988)
1914 – César Guerra-Peixe, Brazilian violinist and composer (Brasilia Symphony), born in Petrópolis, Brazil (d. 1993)
1925 – James Pickles, English judge and columnist, born in Halifax, West Yorkshire (d. 2010)
1926 – Peter Graves [Aurness], American actor (Mission Impossible, Airplane!, Stalag 17), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (d. 2010)
1996 – Madeline Carroll, American actress

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Famous Deaths

1886 – Leopold Zunz, German Jewish scholar (Science of Judaism), dies at 91
1944 – Benjamin Delmonte, theater director and actor (Black Haired Whore), dies at 79
1947 – William C. Durant, American automobile pioneer (General Motors), dies at 85
1958 – Sigve Lie, Norwegian sailor (Olympic gold dragon class 1948, 52), dies at 51
1983 – Kenneth E. Boulding, English economist (b. 1910)
2022 – John Clayton, American sports journalist/reporter (The Pittsburgh Press, The News Tribune; ESPN), dies at 67

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Historical Events

1756 – St. Patrick’s Day is first celebrated in NYC at the Crown and Thistle Tavern
1884 – John Joseph Montgomery makes 1st glider flight at Otay, California
1950 – Belgian government of Gaston Eyskens resigns due to constitutional crisis
1990 – Scotland beats England, 13-7 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh for it’s 14th outright Five Nations Rugby Championship, 3rd Grand Slam title and 10th Triple Crown
1994 – Iran transport aircraft crashes in Azerbaijan (32 killed)
2013 – 10 people are killed by a car bombing in Basra, Iraq

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Famous Birthdays

1781 – Dominique Jacques de Eerens, Dutch general and politician (Governor-General of Dutch East Indies 1836-40), born in Alkmaar, Dutch Republic (d. 1840)
1934 – Q T Macon, blues vocal/guitar
1939 – Shahid Mahmoud, Pakistani cricketer (opener scored 16 and 9 in only Pak Test)
1956 – Patrick McDonnell, American cartoonist (Mutts), born in Elizabeth, New Jersey
1973 – Caroline Corr, Irish Celtic folk rock singer, drummer, and bodhrán player (The Corrs – “What Can I Do”), born in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland
1979 – Nicole “Coco” Austin, American glamor model

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Famous Deaths

1516 – Giuliano de’ Medici, ruler of Florence, dies at 37
1967 – Richard Reeves, American character actor (The Adventures of Superman; Date With an Angel), dies from cirrhosis of the liver at 54
1970 – Fernand Crommelynck, Belgian playwright (Chaud et Frois), dies at 83
1971 – Ernst Bachmeister, German writer, dies at 96
1982 – Koos Koster, Dutch newscaster (IKON), murdered in El Salvador
2015 – Bob Appleyard, English cricketer (superb England off-spinner, brief career), dies at 90

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Historical Events

1190 – York (England) Pogrom: Jews seek refuge in Clifford’s Tower, which is then besieged by a mob; about 150 people are massacred or commit suicide rather than submit to Christian baptism
1911 – Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Port Arthur Bearcats (ON), 13-4
1919 – Frank Wedekind’s play “Elius Erweckung” premieres in Hamburg
1966 – Man From Uncle star David McCallum receives huge welcome in London
1976 – British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces his resignation
2003 – 50th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: #12 Duke beats NC State, 84-77

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Famous Birthdays

1849 – James E. Smith, American minister and “oldest new father known to medicine” at 102 with a woman 64 years younger, born in Williamsburg, Virginia
1920 – Traudl Junge, German secretary to Adolf Hitler, born in Munich (d. 2002)
1924 – Beryl Davis, British-American cabaret and big band singer (Quintette du Hot Club de France, Glenn Miller’s US Army Air Force Orchestra), born Plymouth, England (d. 2011)
1937 – Amos Tversky, Israeli cognitive and mathematical psychologist, born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine (d. 1996)
1937 – David Del Tredici, American pianist, Neo-Romantic composer, and 1980 Pulitzer winner (In Memory of a Summer Day), born in Cloverdale, California
1954 – Nancy Wilson, rock guitarist (Heart – “Baracuda”; “What About Love”), born in San Francisco, California

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Famous Deaths

1037 – Robert I, Archbishop of Rouen
1835 – Charles Farquharson, Scottish-born slave plantation owner in the Bahamas (wrote Farquharson’s Journal – only plantation journal to survive), dies at 74
1914 – Gaston Calmette, editor (Le Figaro), killed by Mme Caillaux at 55
1956 – Joseph John Richards, American composer, dies at 77
1974 – Daniel Frank Gerber, American manufacturer of baby food, dies at 75
1993 – Mohammed Hussein Nagdi, Iran diplomat/resistance fighter, murdered

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Historical Events

1560 – Failed assault on royal palace in Amboise, France
1875 – 1st US cardinal (John McCloskey) invested
1912 – Legendary pitcher Cy Young retires from baseball with 511-315 win-loss record
1945 – Catholic University of Nijmegen reopens
1987 – “Starlight Express” opens at Gershwin Theater in NYC for 761 performances
2004 – Announcement of the discovery of 90377 Sedna, the farthest natural object in the Solar system so far observed

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Famous Birthdays

1455 – Pietro Accolti, Italian Catholic cardinal (d. 1532)
1767 – Andrew Jackson, American general and 7th US President (Democratic: 1829-37), born in Waxhaws in the border area between North and South Carolina (d. 1845)
1884 – Rudolf Piskáček, Czech composer, born in Prague (d. 1940)
1910 – An Rutgers van der Loeff, Dutch children’s book writer (Skating Race), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1990)
1922 – (Albert) Eddie Calvert, British trumpeter (“Oh, Mein Papa”; “Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)”), born in Preston, Lancashire, England (d. 1978)
1969 – Yutaka Take, Japanese jockey

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Famous Deaths

752 – Zachary, Greek/Italian Pope (741-52), dies [or Mar 22]
1311 – Walter V of Brienne, Duke of Athens at the Battle of Halmyros
1673 – Salvatore Rosa, Italian baroque painter, poet, musician and actor, dies at 57
1918 – Jose White Lafitte, Cuban-French violinist and composer, dies at 82
1936 – John Scott Haldane, Scottish physiologist, dies at 75
1983 – Rebecca West [Cicely Isabel Fairfield], English author (Meaning of Treason), dies at 90

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Historical Events

1903 – Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, Ontario: Ottawa HC beats Rat Portage Thisles, 4-2 for a 2-0 challenge series sweep
1922 – WGR-AM in Buffalo NY begins radio transmissions
1941 – Nazi occupiers of Holland forbid Jewish owned companies
1960 – 14 die in a train crash in Bakersfield, California
1986 – European Space Agency’s Giotto flies by Halley’s Comet (605 km)
2016 – President Putin orders Russian troops out of Syria

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Famous Birthdays

1815 – Josephine Lang, German composer, born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria (now Germany) (d. 1880)
1853 – Ferdinand Hodler, Swiss painter, born in Bern, Switzerland (d. 1918)
1869 – Algernon Blackwood, English novelist (The Willows), born in Shooter’s Hill, Kent, England (d. 1951)
1961 – Greg Anderson, American NHRA stock car driver, born in Duluth, Minnesota
1963 – Pedro Duque, Spanish engineer and astronaut (STS 78 alt, sk:95, first Spanish person in space), born in Madrid, Spain
1984 – Antoni Porowski, Canadian chef and TV personality (Queer Eye), born in Montreal, Quebec

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Famous Deaths

840 – Eginhard, French nobleman/biographer (Vita Karoli Magni), dies at 69
1902 – Daniel H. Reynolds, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 69
1976 – Martha Saalfeldt German writer and poet, dies at 78
1994 – Jadwiga Szajna-Lewandowska, Polish pianist, composer, and pedagogue, dies at 82
1995 – William Fowler, American nuclear scientist and astrophysicist (Nobel Prize in Physics, 1983), dies at 83
2015 – Valentin Rasputin, Russian writer (To Live and Remember), dies at 77

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Historical Events

1942 – Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps, becomes 1st woman colonel in US army
1949 – US Men’s Figure Skating championship won by Richard Button
1963 – Indonesia and Netherlands reinstate diplomatic relations
1968 – Beatles release single “Lady Madonna” in the UK
1974 – Glenn Turner scores twin tons for NZ’s 1st win against Aust
1985 – Funeral services held for Konstantin Chernenko in Moscow

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Famous Birthdays

1700 – James Kent, English composer, born in Winchester (d. 1776)
1768 – Charles Louis Willem Josef van Keverberg, Dutch civil servant, born in Haelen, Netherlands (d. 1841)
1901 – Paul Fix, American actor (Rifleman), born in Dobbs Ferry, New York (d. 1983)
1941 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian prominent poet and writer, born in al-Birwa, Galilee (d. 2008)
1946 – Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli soldier who died leading rescue operation Entebbe in Uganda, born in NYC, New York (d. 1976)
1985 – Austin Scott, American football player, born in Allentown, Pennsylvania

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Famous Deaths

1569 – Louis, Prince of Condé (1530-69), dies in Battle of Jarnac at 39
1941 – E Hellendoorn, Dutch resistance fighter, executed
1967 – Sir Frank Worrell, West Indian cricket batsman and captain (51 Tests @ 49.48; 9 x 100s), dies from leukemia at 42
1992 – Clarence Wright, English actor and singer, dies at 84
1999 – Lee Falk, American comic strip writer (The Phantom), dies at 87
2010 – He Pingping, Chinese world’s shortest man who was able to walk at 74 cm (2 ft 5 in), dies at 21

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Historical Events

1881 – Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world’s first black international football player and captain
1894 – Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time in a candy store in Vicksburg, Mississippi
1977 – Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet bans the Christian-Democratic Party
1992 – Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations
2003 – Elizabeth Smart found after having been missing for 9 months.
2011 – A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant melts and explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after Japan’s earthquake.

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Famous Birthdays

1637 – Anne Hyde, wife of James II of England (d. 1671)
1826 – Robert Lowry, American hymn composer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1899)
1832 – Charles Boycott, Irish estate manager (whose workers refused to work for him amid Irish rent and land issues, origin of the term “boycott”), born in Burgh St. Peter, England (d. 1897)
1863 – Vladimir Vernadsky, Russian mineralogist (d. 1945)
1936 – Eddie Sutton, Basketball Hall of Fame coach (Creighton, Arkansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma State; first coach to take 4 schools to NCAA tournament), born in Bucklin, Kansas (d. 2020)
1963 – Ricky Yacobi, Indonesian soccer striker (31 caps; Arseto Solo, Matsushita), born in Medan, Indonesia (d. 2020)

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Famous Deaths

1832 – Friedrich Kuhlau, German-Danish opera composer, dies at 45
1949 – Maria “Beppie” Bakker, Dutch actress abd wife of Piet Vink Sr, dies at 95
1996 – Charles Bruce Perry, Professor of Medicine (Bristol University), dies at 92
2008 – Lazare Ponticelli, the last “poilu”, French foot soldier of World War One, dies at 110 (b. 1897)
2017 – Luigi Barbarito, Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, dies at 94
2018 – Craig Mack, American rapper (Flava In Ya Ear), dies of heart failure at 47

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