Historical Events
1509 – Venice recaptures Padua
1816 – “L’Argus” accidentally discovers raft holding survivors from wrecked French frigate “Méduse.” After 13 days at sea only 15 of 151 remain, the rest having been cannibalised, murdered, or committed suicide. This event was made famous by Théodore Gericault’s painting “The Raft of the Medusa”
1850 – Harvard Observatory takes 1st photograph of a star (Vega)
1919 – Finland adopts constitution
1959 – Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovers partial skull of a new species of early human ancestor, Zinjanthropus boisei or ‘Zinj’ (now called Paranthropus boisei) lived in Africa almost 2 million years ago
1981 – USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Famous Birthdays
1885 – Benjamin James Dale, composer
1933 – Bruce Wells, English boxer (European amateur light middleweight champion 1953) and actor (Dr. Who 1965-73), born in Harlesden, Middlesex (d.2009)
1949 – Geezer Butler, English rock bassist (Black Sabbath), born in Birmingham, England
1950 – P.J. Soles, German-born American actress, born in Frankfurt, Germany
1960 – Scott Norwood, American NFL kicker (Buffalo Bills-Super Bowl XXV goat), born in Alexandria, Virginia
1976 – Dagmara Dominczyk, Polish actress, born in Kielce, Poland
Famous Deaths
1571 – Georg Fabricius, German poet, historian and archaeologist, dies at 55
1704 – Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, French fur trader and explorer
1791 – Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (b. 1717)
1794 – John Roebuck, English inventor and industrialist (b. 1718)
1881 – Jim Bridger, American mountain man, Indian fighter, and explorer (b. 1804)
1943 – Sir Patrick Duncan, Governor-general of the Union of South Africa (1937 to 1943), dies at 72