Historical Events
1951 – USSR performs nuclear test
1965 – Belgium Victor Leemans elected chairman of European Parliament
1971 – Eyskens-Cools disbands Belgium parliament
1974 – Al Kaline, Detroit Tiger, is 12th to get 3,000 hits
1990 – East Germany leaves Warsaw Pact
1990 – Supreme Soviet gives approval to switch to free market
Famous Birthdays
1564 – William Adams, English navigator and 1st ever Western Samurai, born in Gillingham, Kent, England (d. 1620)
1892 – Adélard Godbout, Canadian politician (15th Premier of Québec), born in Saint-Éloi, Quebec, Canada (d. 1956)
1898 – Howard Florey, Australian pathologist and pharmacologist who purified penicillin (Nobel 1945), born in Adelaide, South Australia (d. 1968)
1923 – Theodore “Fats” Navarro, American jazz trumpet player, born in Key West, Florida (d. 1950)
1979 – Ross Mathews, American television personality and comedian (The Tonight Show), born in Mount Vernon, Washington
1984 – Szilvia Molnar, Swedish writer
Famous Deaths
1180 – Manuel I Komnenos, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (1143-80), dies at 61
1896 – Percy McDonnell, Australian cricket batsman (19 Tests, 3 x 100s), dies of cardiac failure at 35
1945 – Hans Geiger, German physicist (co-inventor of the Geiger counter), dies at 62
1968 – Harry Robert Wilson, American composer, dies at 67
1990 – Jay Currin, stuntman/actor (Back to the Beach, Serial), dies at 34
2008 – Irene Dailey, American actress (Another World, Grissom Gang), dies of colon cancer at 88