Today in the Past
Events
2 - Venus-Jupiter in conjunction-Star of Bethlehem
573 - Gregory of Tours selected bishop of Tours
1000 - The foundation of the Hungarian state, Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1534 - Turkish admiral Chaireddin”Barbarossa” occupies Tunis
1619 - 1st Black slaves brought by Dutch to colony of Jamestown Virginia
1781 - George Washington begins to move his troops south to fight Cornwallis
1794 - Gen Mad Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers Ohio
1882 - Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” opens in Moscow
1896 - Dial telephone patented
1929 - 1st airship flight around Earth flying eastward completed
1930 - Dumont’s 1st TV broadcast for home reception (NYC)
1940 - British PM Churchill says of Royal Air Force, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”
1955 - 1st airplane to exceed 1800 mph (2897 kph)-HA Hanes, Palmdale Ca
1957 - USAAF balloon breaks an altitude record at 102,000′ (310,896 m)
1961 - East Germany begins erecting 5′ high wall along the border with the west to replace the barbed wire put up Aug 13
1964 - LBJ signs anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion
1966 - Beatles pelted with rotten fruit during Memphis concert
1968 - 650,000 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia
1974 - Pres Gerald Ford, assumes office after Richard Nixon’s resignation
1977 - NASA launches Voyager 2 towards Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune
1982 - US marines land in Beirut Lebanon
1986 - Mail carrier Patrick Sherrill, Edmond Ok, shot 14 fellow workers dead
1998 - U.S. embassy bombings: the United States military launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum is destroyed in the attack.
Births
1526 - Peter Opmeer, church historian/humanist (Historia Martyrum)
1702 - Stepan F graaf Apraksin, Russian general-fieldmarshal
1710 - Thomas Simpson, English mathematician (rules of Simpson)
1802 - Cadwalader Ringgold, Commander (Union Navy), died in 1867
1833 - Benjamin Harrison, North Bend Ohio, (R) 23rd Pres (1889-1893)
1886 - Paul Tillich, German/US theologist (Die sozial Entscheidung)
1890 - H P Lovecraft, US, Gothic novelist (At the Mountains of Madness)
1905 - Jack [Weldon J] Teagarden, US trombonist/actor (Meet Band Leaders)
1910 - Eero Saarinen, Finnish/US architect (IBM Building, MIT Chapel)
1931 - Don King, boxing promoter best known for his association with Mike Tyson and for his unusual hairstyles
1935 - Ron Paul, US Congressman, 1988 and 2008 presidential candidate
1942 - Isaac Hayes, Covington TN, composer (Shaft)
1948 - Robert Plant, West Bromwich England, rock vocalist (Led Zeppelin-Whole Lotta Love)
1951 - Greg[ory Dale] Bear, US, sci-fi author (2 Hugos, Eon, Eternity)
1951 - Phil Lynott, Dublin Ireland, rock bassist (Thin Lizzy)
1966 - Dimebag Darrell, heavy metal guitarist (Pantera)
1992 - Demi Lovato, American Actress
Deaths
984 - John XIV, [Petrus Canepanova], Italian Pope (983-84), dies
1538 - Aefgen Listinck, Dutch anabaptist, burned at stake
1572 - Miguel López de Legazpi, Spanish conquistador (b. 1502)
1643 - Anne Hutchinson, English Puritan preacher (b. 1591)
1915 - Paul Ehrlich, Germ geneologist (Chemotherapy, Nobel 1908), dies in 61
2001 - Sir Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and science fiction writer (b. 1915)
