Historical Events
1264 – Battle of Lewes, 2nd Barons’ War: Simon de Montfort the younger, Earl of Leicester, defeats English King Henry III
1747 – A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at first battle of Cape Finisterre.
1897 – Great Britain signs treaty with Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia
1935 – LA’s Griffith Planetarium opens, 3rd in US
1954 – Belgium shortens military conscription from 20 to 18 months
1955 – Warsaw Pact is signed by the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania
Famous Birthdays
1652 – Johann Philipp Fortsch, German composer, statesman and physician, born in Wertheim am Main (d. 1732)
1916 – Marco Zanuso, Italian architect
1937 – Dick Howser, shortstop (Kansas City A’s), manager (KC Royals)
1954 – Jens Sparschuh, German writer
1961 – Tim Roth, actor (Reservoir Dogs, Vincent and Theo), born in London, England
1966 – Leroy Blugh, CFL defensive end (Edmonton Eskimos)
Famous Deaths
1878 – Ookubo Toshimichi, Japanese statesman, samurai, and one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration (b. 1830)
1934 – Lou Criger, American baseball player (b. 1872)
1959 – Sidney Bechet, Americanjazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader, dies at 62
1991 – Herman Niels, Flemish radio director, dies
1993 – William Randolph Hearst, Jr., American newspaper magnate (Hearst Newspapers) and 1955 Pulitzer Prize winner, dies at 85
2004 – Anna Lee [Joan Boniface Winnifrith], British actress (General Hospital, How Green Was My Valley), dies of pneumonia at 91