Historical Events
1870 – First ascent of Mount Rainier, Washington, by Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump
1945 – Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declare Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies) independent from the Netherlands
1977 – USSR performs a nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1988 – First case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in NYC (9-year-old Bronx boy)
1991 – Royals’ Warren Cromartie’s first major league home run since 1983
Famous Birthdays
1863 – Gene Stratton-Porter, American author “A Girl of the Limberlost,” and naturalist, born in Lagro, Indiana (d. 1924)
1890 – Stefan Bastyr, Polish pioneering aviator, first flight in independent Poland, born in Ulanów, Poland (d. 1920)
1942 – Tommy West [Picardo], American record producer (Jim Croce; Anne Murray), and singer-songwriter, born in Jersey City, New Jersey (d. 2021)
1953 – Robert Thirsk, Canadian astronaut (STS 78), born in New Westminster, British Columbia
1970 – Øyvind Leonhardsen, Norwegian footballer, born in Kristiansund, Norway
Famous Deaths
1916 – Umberto Boccioni, Italian painter and sculptor (Unique Forms of Continuity in Space), dies in a military training mishap at 33
1955 – Fernand Léger, French painter, sculptor and filmmaker, dies at 74
1969 – Philip Blaiberg, South African dentist, third person to receive an artificial heart, dies after 19 days at 59
1987 – Charles Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet (Claro Enigma), dies at 84
2021 – Sheila Bromberg, British orchestral and session harpist (The Beatles – “She’s Leaving Home”; Heatwave -“Boogie Nights”), dies at 92