Historical Events
1121 – Battle of Didgori: the Georgian army under King David the Builder wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi
1549 – French troops conquer Ambleteuse, in the Pas-de-Calais, and kill all the English prisoners.
1865 – Joseph Lister performs 1st antiseptic surgery
1920 – Battle of Warsaw between Poland and Russia begins
1970 – Curt Flood loses his $41 million antitrust suit against baseball
2005 – Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE (Tamil Tigers) sniper at his home.
Famous Birthdays
1720 – Konrad Ekhof [Hans Konrad Dieterich Eckhof], German actor and director, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1778)
1925 – Norris McWhirter, English author (founded Guinness Book of World Records), born in Winchmore Hill, England (d. 2004)
1935 – Karl Mickel, German writer, born in Dresden, Germany (d. 2000)
1954 – Pat Metheny, American jazz and fusion guitarist (As Wichita Falls, So Falls Whichita), born in Lee’s Summit, Missouri
1959 – Lynette Woodard, (Olympic gold 1984, Harlem Globetrotter), born in Wichita, Kansas
1978 – Hayley Wickenheiser, ice hockey forward (Canada, Olympics 1998)
Famous Deaths
1484 – Sixtus IV, [Francesco della Rovere], Pope (1471-84), dies
1654 – Cornelis Haga, ambassador to Constantinople (1611-39), dies at 76
1812 – Jean-Joseph Rodolphe, Alsatian composer, dies at 81
1883 – Last Quagga, (zebra with less slashes), dies in Amsterdam zoo
1985 – Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer and actor, dies in JAL 123 crash at 43
1989 – William Shockley, American physicist who helped invent the transistor (1956 Nobel), who was also known for his racist eugenics views, dies of prostate cancer at 79