Historical Events
1856 – 18th Grand National: George Stevens wins aboard 25/1 Freetrader; first of Stevens’ record 5 GN victories
1879 – Russian Chemist Constantin Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener)
1900 – In London, the Trades Union Congress and the Independent Labour Party (formed in 1893) meet, results in a Labour Representative Committee and eventually the modern Labour Party in 1906
1984 – Worker’s union leader Billy Nair freed in South Africa
1990 – Final day of the rum ration in the Royal New Zealand Navy
2010 – Central Chile is hit with an 8.8 magnitude earthquake.
Famous Birthdays
1831 – Hiram Bond Everest, American co-founder of The Vacuum Oil Company (d. 1913)
1893 – Joseph Messner, Austrian organist and composer, born in Schwaz, Tyrol (d. 1969)
1920 – Reg Simpson, English cricket batsman (27 Tests; best 156no v Australia 1951), born in Sherwood, Nottinghamshire (d. 2013)
1930 – Paul von Ragué Schleyer, American chemist
1939 – Kenzō Takada, Japanese fashion designer (Kenzo), born in Himejo, Japan (d. 2020)
1970 – Matthias Lechner, German art director, born in Mannheim, Germany
Famous Deaths
1805 – Stefan Paluselli, Austrian choirmaster, composer, and monk, dies at 57
1958 – Harry Cohn, CEO (Columbia Pictures), dies of a heart attack
1970 – Marie Dionne, one of the French Canadian Dionne quintuplets (b. 1934)
1980 – George Tobias, American actor (Bewitched), dies at 78
2002 – Spike Milligan, Irish-British actor and comedian (The Goon Show, 3 Musketeers), dies of kidney failure at 83
2012 – Tina Strobos, Dutch physician and resistor to Nazi occupation, dies from cancer at 91