Historical Events
1850 – British ex-Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel falls off his horse; dies three days later
1857 – Battle at Chinhat (Indies rebel under Barkat Ahmed beat British)
1944 – Soviet Armies join in Bobroesjk
1969 – On ‘Billy Williams Day’ at Wrigley Field, Chicago, the Cubs outfielder passes Stan Musial’s NL record for consecutive MLB games played (896) as Chicago sweeps St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 and 12-1
1981 – Hu Yaobang succeeds Hua Guofeng as Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
2016 – US Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter lifts Pentagon’s ban on transgender people serving in the US armed forces
Famous Birthdays
1881 – Curt Sachs, German musicologist, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1959)
1905 – Herb Vigran, American character actor (The Ed Wynn Show – “Ernie”; Gunsmoke – “Judge Brooker”; The Jack Benny Program), born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1986)
1908 – Rene Gerber, Swiss composer, born in Travers (d. 2006)
1912 – Émile Peynaud, French oenologist, born in Madiran, Gers, France (d. 2004)
1943 – Little Eva [Boyd], American pop singer (“The Loco-motion”; “Keep Your Hands Off My Baby”), born in Belhaven, North Carolina (d. 2003)
1993 – Angela and Amy Lakeberg, American Siamese twins (separated on Aug 20th), born in Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois
Famous Deaths
1784 – Caesar Rodney, American judge and Founding Father (signed US Declaration of Independence), dies at 55
1900 – Ivan Pervushin, Russian mathematician (number theory), dies at 73
1997 – William Hickey, American actor (Prizzi’s Honor, The Nightmare Before Christmas), dies of emphysema at 69
2007 – Edward Yang, Taiwanese film director (Yi Yi), dies of cancer at 59
2014 – John Freeland, Legal advisor UK foreign office and judge at the European Court of Human Rights, dies at 86
2021 – Stuart Damon [Zonis], American stage and screen actor (General Hospital, 1977-2007 – “Dr. Alan Quartermaine”), dies of kidney failure at 84