Historical Events
1945 – The Manhattan Project’s G-5 Group, headed by Physicist’s Donald Kerst and Seth Neddermeyer, take their first betatron pictures of a nuclear implosion at the Los Alamos Laboratory
1951 – “Cloud of Death” rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 3-5,000
1962 – 50th Australian Championships Men’s Tennis: Rod Laver takes the 1st leg of his 1st Grand Slam; beats fellow Queenslander Roy Emerson 8-6, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4
1962 – Derveni Papyrus rediscovered – Europe’s oldest surviving manuscript from c. 340 B.C., commentary on a Orphic poem, found in a tomb in Derveni, Northern Greece
1988 – 19-year-old Indian cricket leg-spinner Narenda Hirwani records best bowling figures on debut in Test history; captures 16-136 in 255 run 4th Test win v West Indies in Madras; Hirwani takes 8 wickets in each innings
2007 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq.
Famous Birthdays
1891 – Ray Chapman, American baseball player (Cleveland Indians) and only MLB player to die from an injury received during a MLB game, born in Beaver Dam, Kentucky (d. 1920)
1911 – Cy Feuer, Broadway producer (Feuer and Martin-Chorus Line), born in New York City (d. 2006)
1930 – Michel Chapuis, French classical organist and pedagogue, born in Dole, France (d. 2017)
1961 – Yves P. Pelletier, Canadian comedian and film director, born in Laval, Canada
1971 – LeShon Johnson, American football running back (Arizona Cardinals), born in Haskell, Oklahoma
1979 – Martin Petrov, Bulgarian soccer winger (90 caps; Servette, VfL Wolfsburg, Atlético Madrid, Manchester City, Bolton Wanderers), born in Vratsa, Bulgaria
Famous Deaths
1597 – Juan de Herrera, Spanish Renaissance architect and mathematician (El Escorial, Vallododid Cathedral), dies (b. c. 1530)
1781 – Marianne Victoria of Borbón, queen regent of Portugal (b. 1718)
1896 – Matthew B Brady, US photographer (Civil War), dies at about 72
1970 – Vytautas Bacevičius [Bacewicz], Lithuanian avant garde composer (Della Guerra Symphony), dies at 64
1973 – Coleman Francis, American film director (b. 1919)
2008 – Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, English Game Designer (Zombies Ate My Neighbors), dies of cancer (b. 1964)