Historical Events
1878 – Anglo-Zulu War: British high commissioner Henry Bartle Frere presents an ultimatum to the Zulu Kingdom to submit to British rule or face war
1967 – “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, directed by Stanley Kramer, starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in NYC (Hepburn – Academy Award for Best Actress 1968)
1989 – Mark Davis signs record $3.25 million per year KC Royals contract
2016 – Bombing at a chapel in Cairo, Egypt, kills 25 and wounds 45
2018 – US President Donald Trump says he would be “proud” to shut down the government in contentious meeting at The White House with Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer
2019 – Climate activist Greta Thunberg is named Time magazine’s Person of the Year
Famous Birthdays
1856 – Georgy Valentinovich Plekhanov, Russian revolutionary theorist, born in Gudalovka, Russia (d. 1918)
1904 – Marge, American cartoonist (created Little Lulu), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1993)
1910 – Robert Grieve, Scottish civil servant and planner, born in Glasgow (d. 1995)
1927 – John Buscema, American comics artist (Conan the Barbarian), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2002)
1942 – Derek Parfit, British philosopher who specialized in problems of personal identity, rationality and ethics, born in Chengdu, China (d. 2017)
1962 – Kim Linehan, American swimmer (1979 1500m World record), born in Bronxville, New York
Famous Deaths
1532 – Pietro Accolti, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1455)
1718 – Charles XII, King of Sweden (1697-1718), shot dead invading Norway at Fortress of Fredriksten at 36
1737 – John Strype, English historian and biographer, dies at 94
1941 – John Gillespie Magee, Jr., American poet and aviator (b. 1922)
2008 – Ron Carey, American labor leader (International Brotherhood of Teamsters), dies of lung cancer at 72
2012 – Ravi Shankar [Chowdhury], Bengali Brahmin sitar master and Indian classical music composer (West Meets East; Concert for Bangladesh), dies at 92