Historical Events
1869 – Canada’s Hamilton Football Club plays its 1st game
1962 – Ballon d’Or: Dukler Prague midfielder Josef Masopust wins award for best European football player; beats Benfica striker Eusébio and FC Köln defender Karl-Heinz Schnellinger
1969 – House of Lords votes to abolish the death penalty in England, Wales and Scotland (Northern Ireland 25 July 1973)
1989 – “I Love Lucy” Christmas episode, shown for 1st time in over 30 years
1996 – The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring “Ebonics” a language or dialect.
2020 – US Vice President Mike Pence receives the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine live on TV
Famous Birthdays
1837 – Adolf Daens, Flemish priest, politician and founder of the Daensist movement, born in Aalst, Belgium (d. 1907)
1907 – Bill Holland, American auto racer (d. 1984)
1946 – Steven Spielberg, American director (ET, Close Encounters, Jaws), born in Cincinnati, Ohio
1966 – Mille Petrozza, German singer (Kreator)
1983 – Ady Barkan, American lawyer and activist (Medicare for all)
1995 – Barbora Krejčíková, Czech tennis player (French Open singles 2021; French Open doubles 2018, 21; Wimbledon 2018, 22; US Open and Australian Open 2022; 3 x Australian Open mixed doubles), born in Brno, Czech Republic
Famous Deaths
1577 – Anna, Duchess of Saxony, German born 2nd wife of Prince William of Orange (divorced and imprisoned for adultery), dies at 32
1894 – Erastus Flaval Beadle, American publisher (Beadle’s Dime Novels), dies at 73
1911 – Alberto Randegger, Italian composer, dies at 79
1980 – Alexei N Kosygin, Soviet PM (1964-80), suffers heart attack at 76
1994 – Peter Hebblethwaite, English editor-in-chief (The Month), dies at 64
2020 – Tim Severin, British author and explorer who replicated historic voyages, dies at 80