Historical Events
1848 – The railroad between Barcelona and Mataró, the first in Spain, opens
1974 – Luna 23 is launched and lands on the Moon
2019 – EU agrees to another Brexit extension to January 31, 2020
2021 – Researchers announce the name of a new human ancestor, Homo bodoensis, from Africa, dating to the Middle Pleistocene about half a million years ago, as a direct ancestor of modern humans
2024 – UK records its lowest-ever fertility rate of 1.44 children per woman in 2023, with 591,072 births in England and Wales, the lowest in 172 years
Famous Birthdays
1897 – Hans Speidel, German army officer (WWI, WWII), involved in the 20 July Plot to kill Adolf Hitler (19440, and NATO-supreme commander (1957-64), born in Metzingen, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire (d. 1984)
1930 – John Mayer, Indian violinist and composer (Indo-Jazz Fusions), born in Calcutta, Bengal, British India (d. 2004)
1946 – Wim Jansen, Dutch soccer utility (65 caps; Feyenoord 415 games) and manager (SC Lokeren, Feyenoord, Celtic), born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 2022)
1959 – Neville Henry, British rock saxophonist (Blow Monkeys – “Wicked Ways”), born in England
1965 – Luigi Miraglia, Italian Latinist, born in Naples, Italy
Famous Deaths
1568 – Ashikaga Yoshihide, 14th Japanese shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate (1564-8), dies at 30 (b. 1538)
1852 – Gerhard Moritz Roentgen, Dutch industrialist (founder of Fijenoord dockyard), dies at 57
1986 – John Braine, English novelist (Life at the Top), dies at 64
1991 – Sylvia Fine (Kaye), American lyricist (“Knock on Wood”, “The Five Pennies”), composer, Peabody Award and Emmy Award television producer (Musical Comedy Tonight), and wife of Danny Kaye, dies of emphysema at 78
2012 – Jack Dellal, British property investor and multi-millionaire (Allied Commercial Holdings), dies from natural causes at 83