Historical Events
1939 – Croatia gets autonomous status
1970 – Minister of Home Affairs Robert Porter resigns from the Stormont government (North Ireland parliament)
1972 – Leo Durocher replaces Harry Walker as manager of Astros
1984 – Tatyana Kazankina of USSR sets 3k woman record (8:22.62) in Leningrad
2008 – Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia
2012 – A Legionella outbreak in Quebec City, Canada, kills 8 and infects 104
Famous Birthdays
1884 – Earl Biggers, author (“Charlie Chan” detective series)
1914 – Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (Blow-Up, Underground Game), born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1984)
1919 – Ronald “Ronny” Graham, American actor, director, composer, lyricist, and writer (Bob Crane Show, Chico and the Man), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1925 – Alain Peyrefitte, French politician and writer (d. 1999)
1944 – Richard A W G, English prince/duke of Gloucester
1946 – Alison Steadman, actress (Life is Sweet), born in Liverpool, England
Famous Deaths
1712 – Sebastian Anton Scherer, German composer, dies at 80
1723 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch microscopist who was the first to observe bacteria and protozoa and naturalist (Philosophical Transactions), dies at 90
1946 – Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter (b. 1887)
1971 – Francesco Santoliquido, Italian composer, dies at 88
1980 – Rosa Albach-Retty, German actress (b. 1874)
2011 – George Band, British mountaineer (b. 1929)