Today in the Past
Events
1181 - Supernova seen in Cassiopia
1558 - 1st printing of Zohar (Jewish Kabbalah)
1578 - Battle of Alcazarquivir, Moroccans defeat Portuguese, 10,000 killed
1666 - Hurricane hits Guadeloupe, Martinique & St Christopher; thousands die
1693 - Dom Perignon invents champagne
1735 - Jury acquits John Zenger (NY Weekly Journal) charged with seditious libel by royal governor of NY (victory for Freedom of press)
1760 - Battle at Leignitz: Prussia beats Austria & Russia
1777 – Retired British cavalry officer Philip Astley establishes 1st circus
1790 - US Coast Guard founded as Revenue Cutter Service
1821 - 1st edition of Saturday Evening Post (publishes until 1969)
1855 - John Bartlett publishes “Familiar Quotations”
1862 - US government collects its 1st income tax
1870 - British Red Cross Society forms
1917 - Pravda calls for killing all capitalists, priests & officers
1944 - Anne Frank arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified
1956 - 1st motorcycle rode over 200 mph (Wilhelm Herz-210 mph/338 kph)
1960 - Rocket propelled USAAF research aircraft sets record at 2,150 MPH
1964 - Civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman & James E Chaney, bodies discovered in an earthen Mississippi dam
1968 - 100,000 attend Newport Pop Festival, Costa Mesa, Calif
1977 - Pres Carter establishes Dept of Energy
1984 - Carl Lewis wins gold medal in 100-meter dash at LA Summer Olympics
1987 - FCC vote 4-0 to rescind fairness doctrine for broadcasters
2010 - California’s Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state’s voters in 2008, was overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.
Births
1222 - Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, English soldier (d. 1262)
1521 - Pope Urban VII (d. 1590)
1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, England, romantic poet (Adonais)
1901 - Louis Armstrong, New Orleans Louisiana, jazz trumpeter (Hello Dolly), (d. 1971)
1912 - Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat in WW II (saved 10,000s of Jews)
1934 - Jonas Savimbi, Angolian leader of Unita
1971 - Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
Deaths
1060 - Henry I, King of France (1027..60), dies at 52
1265 - Simon de Montfort, English earl of Leicester, dies in battle
1338 - Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, son of Edward I of England (b. 1300)
1821 - William Floyd, US soldier/signer (Declar of Independence), dies at 86
1875 - Hans Christian Andersen, Danish fairy tale writer, dies at 70
1931 - Daniel H Williams, doctor (pioneer in surgery), dies
1973 - Eddie Condon, jazz guitarist (Eddie Condon’s Floor Show), dies at 68
1995 - J Howard Smith Oil Tycoon, dies
1999 - Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
2007 - Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
