Today In The Past
Events
69 - General Vespasian’s troops occupy Rome after defeating the Emperor Vitellius
1046 - Synod of Sutri: German King Henry III removes Popes Gregory VI
1046 - Benedictus IX & Silvester III & names Bishop Siutger, Pope Clemens II at the Council of Sutri
1192 - Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna
1448 - Pope Nicolaas V named Utrechts bishop Rudolf of Diepholt, cardinal
1522 - Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
1585 - English fleet & earl Robert Dudley van Leicester reach Vlissingen
1606 - Virginia Company settlers leave London to establish Jamestown, Virginia
1669 - 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery
1699 - Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year changed-Sept 1 to Jan 1
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army meets de Esk
1803 - Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from France to US for $27M
1820 - Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50
1860 - SC votes 169-0 for Ordinace of Secession, 1st state to secede
1861 - Battle of Dranesville, VA
1862 - -Dec 20th] Battle of Kelly’s Ford, VA
1862 - Battle of Holly Spring, MS
1862 - Brig-gen Nathan Bedford Forrest occupies Trenton, Kentucky
1864 - -Dec 27th] Battle of Ft Fisher, NC
1879 - Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park
1880 - Battle at Bronker’s Spruit, Transvaal: Farmers beat Britten
1883 - Intl cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls
1891 - Strongman Louis Cyr withstands pull of 4 horses
1892 - Phileas Fogg completes around world trip, according to Verne
1892 - Pneumatic automobile tire patented, Syracuse, NY
1893 - 1st state anti-lynching statue approved, in Georgia
1900 - Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft)
1907 - Explosion at Yolande Alabama, coal mine kills 91
1917 - Russian secret police in Czech forms under Felix Dzerzjinski
1919 - Canadian Natl Railways established (N America’s longest, 50,000 KM)
1920 - Bob Hope became an American citizen
1922 - 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)
1928 - 1st international dogsled mail leaves Minot, Maine for Montreal, Que
1928 - Ethel Barrymore Theater opens at 243 W 47th St NYC
1940 - Connie Mack acquires controlling interest in the Athletics for $42,000
1941 - Japanese troops lands on Mindanao
1941 - World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the “Flying Tigers” in Kunming, China.
1942 - 1st Japanese bombing of Calcutta
1944 - Battle of Bastogne, Nazis surround 101st Airborne (NUTS!)
1950 - ”Harvey,” starring James Stewart, premieres in NY
1955 - Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
1956 - Montgomery, Ala, removed race-based seat assignments on its buses
1957 - Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army for National Service
1959 - Jasu Patel takes 9-69, India v Australia at Kanpur
1960 - Auschwitz-commandant Richard Bar arrested in German FR
1962 - Osmond brothers debut on Andy Williams Show
1963 - Berlin Wall opens for 1st time to West Berliners
1963 - Trial against 21 camp guards of Auschwitz begins
1967 - ”Graduate,” starring Dustin Hoffman & Anne Bancroft, premieres
1967 - 474,300 US soldiers in Vietnam
1967 - Ian Anderson & Glenn Cornick form rock group Jethro Tull
1968 - The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
1969 - Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” reaches #1
1972 - Neil Simons “Sunshine Boys,” premieres in NYC
1975 - Joe Walsh recruited to join Eagles
1977 - 1st Space walk made by G Grechko from Salyut
1980 - USSR formally announces death of Alexei Kosygin
1981 - ”Dreamgirls” opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 1522 performances
1981 - Browns set team records for most fumbles (9) & most turnovers (10)
1983 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat & 4,000 loyalists evacuate Lebanon
1984 - 33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in Yale library
1985 - Denis Potvin passes Bobby Orr as NHL defenseman scorer (916 points)
1985 - Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC
1985 - Position of American Poet Laureate established (Robert Warren is 1st)
1986 - White teenagers beat blacks in Howard Beach, NY
1987 - Dona Paz ferry sinks after crash with oil tanker Vector, 4386 die
1988 - Animal rights terrorists fire-bomb Harrod’s dept store, London
1989 - US troops invade Panama & oust Manuel Noriega, but don’t catch him
1990 - Pentagon warns Saddam that US air power is ready to attack on 1/15
1991 - A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
1992 - Slobodan Milosevic re-elected president of Serbia
1995 - NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1999 - Portugal returns Macau to China
2002 - US Senator Trent Lott resigns as majority leader.
2006 - A judge rules against the death penalty in the case of Naveed Haq, a man convicted in the shooting death and injuries at the Jewish Federation in Seattle.
2007 - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
2007 - The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.
Births
1494 - Oronce Finé, French mathematician (d. 1555)
1537 - King John III of Sweden (d. 1592)
1539 - Paul Melissus [Paul Schede], German poet/composer
1626 - Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, German statesman (d. 1692)
1717 - Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman and diplomat (d. 1787)
1720 - Charles Edward Stuart, [Bonnie Prince Charlie/Young Pretender]
1807 - Richard Lucian Page, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1901
1808 - Thomas Tinsley Craven, Commander (Union Navy), died in 1887
1825 - Romeyn Beck Ayres, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1888
1833 - Samuel A Mudd, doctor, convicted of giving medical aid to JW Booth
1841 - Ferdinand Buisson, French pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1932)
1865 - Maude Gonne, Irish nationalist (Irish Joan of Arc)
1865 - Elsie De Wolfe, American socialite and interior decorator (d. 1950)
1868 - Harvey Firestone, Columbia, Ohio, Industrialist, where the rubber meets the road, (d. 1938)
1869 - Charley Grapewin, Xenia OH, actor (Wizard of Oz, Libeled Lady)
1873 - Kwan-Ichi Asakawa, Japanese historian(d. 1948)
1876 - Walter S Adams, US astronomer/director of Mount Wilson (1923-46)
1881 - Branch Rickey, baseball executive (Dodgers)
1884 - Marius HLW “Max” Blokzijl, Dutch nazi collaborator/traitor
1886 - Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman, California, tennis player (US Open 1909-11)
1901 - Louis I Kahn, US architect [or Feb 20]
1901 - Robert Van de Graaff, Alabama, physicist (Mobility of Gaseous Ions)
1902 - Max Lerner, US, columnist (NY Post)
1902 - Sidney Hook, anticommunist philosopher (Paradoxes of Freedom)
1906 - Dick White, head of British secret service (MI-5/MI-6)
1917 - David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist (d. 1992)
1922 - George Roy Hill, dir (Slap Shot, Little Drummer Girl, Little Romance)
1923 - Nadine Gordimer, Springs South Africa, novelist
1925 - Frederick Edward Nicklin, architect
1933 - Gordon Getty
1933 - Rik Van Looy, Belgian cyclist (world champion, 1961)
1939 - Dianne Arndt, artist/photographer
1940 - Larry Willis, rock keyboardist (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
1942 - Robert L Hayes, Jacksonville Fla, 100m/4x100m runner (Oly-2 gold-1964)
1944 - Robert Colomby, NYC, rock drummer (Blood Sweat & Tears-When I Die)
1945 - Peter Criss, American drummer and singer (Kiss)
1946 - Patti Smith, singer/songwriter
1946 - Uri Geller, Tel Aviv, Israel, psychic (bends forks)
1951 - Peter May, Scottish novelist and scriptwriter
1952 - Jenny Agutter, Taunton England, actress (Logan’s Run, Equus, Amy)
1956 - Blanche Baker, NYC, actress/Carroll Baker’s Daughter (French Postcard)
1957 - Anita Baker, [Ward], Detroit Mi, vocalist (Rapture)
1958 - Billy Bragg, British rocker (It Says Here, Ideology)
1961 - Mohammad Fouad, Arab singer and actor
1966 - Chris Robinson, singer (Black Crowes)
1966 - Matt Neal , British Race Driver
1966 - Myrra Malmberg, Swedish singer
1967 - Duncan Kennedy, Burlington California, luger (Olympics-1994)
1967 - Wendy Hamilton, Detroit Mich, playmate (Dec, 1991)
1968 - Joe Cornish, British comedian
1972 - Jan Caloun, hockey forward (Team Czech Oly-Gold-1998)
1972 - Jonathan Wyatt, Lower Hutt NZ, 5000m (Olympics-96)
1976 - Adam Powell, Neopets creator
1979 - Michael Rogers, Australian cyclist
1982 - David Cook, American singer, winner of American Idol.
1983 - Jonah Hill, American actor
1983 - Lucy Pinder, British model
1983 - Lara Stone, Dutch model
Deaths
217 - Pope Zephyrinus
860 - King Ethelbald of Wessex
910 - Alfonso III the Great, King of Leon, Galicia and Asturias, dies
1022 - Elvira Mendes, wife of Alfonso V of Castile (b. 996)
1073 - Domingo, Spanish monastery founder/abbot/saint, dies
1355 - Stefanus IX Uros IV Dusan, king (1331-46)/Serbia (1346-55), dies
1494 - Matteo Maria Boiardo, Italian poet
1524 - Thomas Linacre, English scholar and physician
1590 - Ambroise Paré, French physician (b. 1510)
1676 - John Galle, Flemish engraver/printer, dies at 76
1722 - Kangxi Emperor of China (b. 1654)
1723 - Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (b. 1652)
1740 - Richard Boyle, 2nd Viscount Shannon, English military officer and statesman (b. 1675)
1812 - Sacagawea, Shoshone interpreter for Lewis & Clark, dies
1862 - Robert Knox Scottish surgeon, anatomist and zoologist
1875 - Michail P Pogodin, Russian historian/writer (Povesti), dies at 75
1876 - Hannah Omish, at 12 is youngest ever hanged in US
1917 - Lucien Petit-Breton, Argentine-French cyclist (b. 1882)
1921 - Hans Hartwig von Beseler, German general (b. 1850)
1935 - Martin O’Meara, Australian soldier (b. 1882)
1936 - Baron De Borchgrave, Belgian ambassador, murdered in Madrid
1937 - Erich Ludendorff, German general (WW I), dies at 72
1939 - Hans Langsdorff, German capt (Graaf Spee), commits suicide
1954 - James Hilton, English author (Lost Horizon), dies at 54
1956 - Ramon Carrillo, Argentine neuroscientist and Public Health minister (b. 1906)
1961 - Moss Hart, US dramatist (You can’t take it with you), dies at 57
1968 - John Steinbeck, author (Grapes of Wrath, Nobel 1940, 62), dies at 66
1971 - Roy O Disney, Brother of Walt, dies of cerebral hemorrhage at 78
1973 - Bobby Darin, singer (Mack the Knife), dies of heart failure at 37
1976 - Richard J Daley, (Mayor-D-Chicago), dies at 74
1991 - Andries D Copier, Dutch glass designer (Guild glass), dies
1991 - Fop[pe] I Brouwer, biologist (Everything That Lives & Grows), dies
1991 - Simone Beck, French chef (b. 1904)
1993 - W Edwards Deming, US economist (helped Japan after WW II), dies at 93
1994 - Dean Rusk, US Sect of State (1961-69), dies at 85
1996 - Carl Sagan, scientist (Contact), dies at 62
1997 - Dawn Steel, film maker (When Harry Met Sally), dies at 51
1997 - Vincent Ciccone, inventor (Blow-Pops candy), dies at 81
1998 - Chester P. Lyons, Canadian naturalist and author (b. 1915)
1999 - Hank Snow, Canadian singer (b. 1914)
2001 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (b. 1912)
Drunk pilot on Dean Martin Show
2009 - Brittany Murphy, American actress (b. 1977)
2009 - Arnold Stang, American comic actor (b. 1918)
2010 - Steve Landesberg, American actor and comedian (b. 1945)
