Historical Events
1886 – 1st US alternating current power plant starts, Great Barrington, Massachusetts
1945 – Erich Honnecker and Erich Hanke flee Nazis
1951 – Trial of Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel Rosenberg begins for providing top-secret information to the Soviet Union
1967 – Former union leader Jimmy Hoffa enters Lewisburg Federal Prison
1974 – An unnamed Italian industrialist loses a record $1,920,000 at roulette over 5 hours in Monte Carlo Casino
1994 – Referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with Romania.
Famous Birthdays
1918 – Howard McGhee, American be-bop jazz trumpeter, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma (d. 1987)
1941 – Ann Winterton, British MP
1951 – Gerrie Knetemann, Dutch road cyclist (World Road Race Champion 1978; Amstel Gold Race 1974, 85), born in Amsterdam, New Holland (d. 2004)
1962 – Alison Nicholas, English golfer (US Open 1997), born in Gibraltar
1971 – Roger Salkeld, pitcher (Cincinnati Reds), born in Burbank, California
1977 – Marcus Thames, American baseball player
Famous Deaths
1836 – Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, adventurer and politician, killed at the Battle of the Alamo at 49
1878 – Julius Caesar, English cricket batsman (first English tours to North America 1859-60, Australia and NZ 1864-5; Surrey CCC), dies from dropsy at 47
1962 – Rezső Kókai, Hungarian pianist, composer, musicologist, and pedagogue, dies at 56
1984 – Ian Cromb, New Zealand cricketer (5 Tests for NZ, 123 runs, 8 wkts), dies at 78
1994 – Tengiz Abuladze, Soviet Georgian filmmaker (Repentence), dies at 70
1996 – Stanley Booth-Clibborn, British Anglican Bishop of Manchester, dies at 71