Historical Events
1765 – Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec
1812 – John Bellingham, a Liverpool merchant who assassinated British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval on May 11, is hung for the crime at the Old Bailey in London
1869 – Robert Tanner Freeman is 1st African American to graduate from Harvard Dental School
1956 – Queen Juliana opens Rembrandt fairs in Amsterdam, Netherlands
1967 – Tennessee Governor Ellington approves repeal of the Butler Act (or “Monkey Law”) – prohibiting the teaching of evolution, upheld in 1925 Scopes Trial
1990 – TV movie “Return To Green Acres” airs
Famous Birthdays
1885 – Eurico Gaspar Dutra, Brazilian leader, President of Brazil (1945-50), born in Cuiabá, Brazil (d. 1974)
1892 – Ezio Pinza, Italian American operatic bass (NY Metropolitan Opera, 1926-48), and Tony Award-winning singer (South Pacific), born in Rome, Italy (d. 1957)
1922 – George Kitson, British principal of the Central School of Speech and Drama, born in Magherafelt, Northern Ireland (d. 2010)
1943 – Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka, Fijian-born American professional wrestler, born in Suva, British Fiji (d. 2017)
1944 – Peter Ryan, British national director (Police Training)
1947 – John Bruton, Irish politician, Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland (1994-97), born in Dunboyle, Ireland
Famous Deaths
1848 – William Leidesdorff, Mixed-race early Californian businessman, dies at 37
1922 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1907), dies at 76
2000 – Gideon William Waldrop, American composer and educator (Julliard School, 1961-85), dies at 80
2007 – Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (1991), dies at 74
2009 – Wayne Allwine, American voice actor (3rd Mickey Mouse, 1977-2009), dies at 62
2021 – Franco Battiato, Italian pop, rock, and new wave singer, songwriter (“La Voce del Padrone” (“The Master’s Voice”), and filmmaker (“Lost Love”), dies at 76