Historical Events
1798 – Russia and Britain sign Second anti-French Coalition
1922 – BBC broadcasts first British radio play “The Truth about Father Christmas”
1930 – F Garcia Lorca’s “La Zapatera Prodigiosa” premieres in Madrid
1953 – René Coty elected president of France
1966 – Soviet spacecraft Luna 13 lands on Moon
1973 – Ferryboat capsized off coast of Equador, drowning 200
Famous Birthdays
1810 – Wilhelm Marstrand, Danish painter and illustrator, born in Copenhagen, Denmark (d. 1873)
1910 – William “Bill” Pickering, NASA scientist (JPL), born in Wellington, New Zealand (d. 2004)
1916 – (Eduardo) “Lalo” Guerrero, American guitarist, Chicano singer-songwriter (Los Carlistas), and women’s rights activist, born in Tucson, Arizona (d. 2005)
1949 – Ray Colcord III, American film and television composer, born in NYC, New York (d. 2016)
1968 – Marleen Renders, Belgian athlete, born in Diest, Belgium
1992 – Melissa Suffield, English actress, born in London, England
Famous Deaths
1869 – Edwin Stanton, US Secretary of War during most of the American Civil War (1861-65) and US Attorney General (1860-61), dies at 55
1914 – John Muir, Scottish naturalist and discoverer (glacier in High Seirras), dies of pneumonia at 76
1963 – Raphaël Verwilghen, Belgian architect, and urban planner, dies at 78
1996 – Edward Leadbitter, politician, dies at 77
1997 – Pierre Péladeau, Canadian businessman and founder of Quebecor, dies at 72
2014 – Boniface “Buddy” DeFranco, Italian-American jazz clarinetist and bandleader (Glenn Miller Orchestra), dies at 91