Today In The Past
Events
69 - Roman Lower Rhine army proclaims its commander, Vitellius, emperor
366 - The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire.
533 - John II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1235 - Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names
1492 - Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day)
1570 - Tsar Ivan the Terrible’s march to Novgorod begins
1602 - Spanish force in Ireland surrender to the English army at Kinsdale
1757 - British troops occupy Calcutta India
1776 - 1st revolutionary flag displayed
1788 - Georgia is 4th state to ratify US constitution
1791 - Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.
1811 - US Sen Thomas Pickering is 1st senator censured (revealed confidential documents communicated by the president of the US)
1818 - The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded.
1831 - Liberator, abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston
1832 - 1st Curling club in US (Orchard Lake Curling Club) opens
1833 - Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands.
1839 - 1st photo of the Moon (French photographer Louis Daguerre)
1842 - 1st US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Penn
1861 - SC seizes inactive Ft Johnson in Charleston Harbor
1861 - Colonel Charles Stone is put in charge of organizing DC militia
1863 - Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone’s River) ends
1879 - British battleship Thunder explodes in Gulf of Ismid, 9 die
1882 - Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust
1885 - Gen Wolseley receives last distress signal of Gen Gordon in Khartoum
1890 - Alice Sanger becomes 1st female White House staffer
1890 - Record 19’2″ alligator shot in Louisiana by E A McIlhenny
1893 - 1st US commemoratives & 1st US stamp to picture a woman issued (Queen Isabella, patron of Columbus)
1896 - Battle at Doornkop, South Africa (Boers beat Dr Jamesons troops)
1903 - Pres T Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola Miss, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black
1905 - Japanese troops capture Port Arthur
1905 - The American anarcho-syndicalist union known as the Industrial Workers of the World forms.
1919 - Anti-British uprising in Ireland
1920 - 10,000 US union & socialist organizers arrested (Palmer Raids)
1929 - US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls
1932 - Young gang shoot dead 6 police in Springfield Missouri
1933 - US troops leave Nicaragua
1935 - Bruno R Hauptmann trial begins for kidnap-murder of Lindbergh baby
1936 - 1st electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis, Mo
1938 - Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded
1941 - World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales.
1941 - World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program to build freighters in support of the war effort.
1942 - 28 nations, at war with Axis, pledge no separate peace
1942 - German troops in Bardia surrender
1942 - Japanese troops occupy Manila Philippines
1942 - The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
1944 - 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol)
1945 - Allied air raid on Neurenberg
1947 - Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East-Bengali
1959 - Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees
1960 - John Reynolds sets age of solar system at 4,950,000,000 years
1965 - NY Jets sign quarterback Joe Namath
1966 - 1st Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion
1968 - Christian Barnard performs 2nd heart transplant
1969 - Operation Barrier Reef begins in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1970 - US population is 293,200,000; Black population: 22,600,000 (11.1%)
1971 - A barrier collapses at Ibrox Park football ground at end of a soccer match in Glasgow Scotland, killing 66
1972 - Mariner 9 begins mapping Mars
1974 - 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon
1974 - Worst fire in Argentine history destroys 1.2 million acres
1975 - US Dept of Interior designates grizzly bear a threatened species
1979 - Sid Vicious’ trial for murder of girlfriend Nancy Spungen begins
1981 - Mary Terstegge Meagher swims female record 200 m butterfly (2:05.65)
1984 - Riot in Tunis kills over 100
1984 - Wilson Goode, sworn-in as Phila’s 1st black mayor
1986 - 191.66 million shares traded in NY Stock Exchange
1988 - Mulroney & Reagan sign Canada-US free trade agreement
1989 - UCLA wins a record 7th consecutive bowl game
1990 - Dow Jones hits record 2,800 (2,810.15)
1994 - Battles between army & rebellious indians in South Mexico, kill 57
1995 - Most distant galaxy yet discovered found by scientists using Keck telescope in Hawaii (est 15 billion light years away)
1999 - A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, where temperatures plunge to -13°F (-25°C); 68 deaths are reported.
2004 - Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later.
Births
1642 - Mehmed IV, sultan (Turkey)
1647 - Nathaniel Bacon, leader of Bacon’s Rebellion, Va (1676)
1699 - Osman III, sultan (Turkey)
1713 - Marie Dumesnil, French actress (d. 1803)
1719 - Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat, French shipbuilder (d. 1797)
1727 - James Wolfe, Westerham, Kent, England, British Army officer, defeated the French in Canada and captured Quebec
1752 - Philip Freneau, poet of American Revolution (The American Village)
1803 - Gugliemo Libri, [della Somaia], Ital/Fren mathematician/book collector
1822 - Rudolph J E Clausius, Germany, physicist (thermodynamics)
1827 - Peter Semenov of Tian Shan, Russian explorer (d. 1914)
1835 - Charles Russell Lowell Jr, Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1857 - Frederick Opper, cartoonist (Maud, Alphonse & Gaston)
1857 - Martha Carey Thomas, educator/president (Bryn Mawr College)
1860 - William C Mills, museum curator (excavated Ohio Indian mounds)
1861 - Helen Herron Taft, 1st lady (1909-12)
1863 - Lucia Zarate, became lightest known adult human (2.1 kg at 17)
1879 - Pieter Tesch, Dutch geologist (Pedestal of Nederlands)
1880 - Louis Breguet, French aviation pioneer
1885 - Johannes Ringers, Dutch water engineer (dikes)
1886 - Apsley Cherry-Garrard, English Antarctic explorer (d. 1959)
1893 - Lillian Leitzel, German acrobat and strongwoman (d. 1931)
1896 - Sir Lawrence Wackett, Australian aircraft engineer (d. 1982)
1899 - Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgium, premier/sec-gen of NATO (1957-61)
1901 - Robert Marshall, founder (Wilderness Society)
1902 - Barry Goldwater, American politician (d. 1998)
1903 - Anton van Duinkerken, [Willem JMA Asselbergs], literary
1904 - Sally Rand, Hickory County MO, stripper (fan dance)
1905 - Lev Schnirelmann, Russian mathematician (d. 1938)
1907 - Edward Albert Radice, economist
1913 - Ernest Sidey, British air marshal
1920 - Isaac Asimov, Russia, scientist/writer (I Robot, Foundation Trilogy)
1925 - Adm William J Crowe Jr, Kentucky, chairman joint chief of staff
1928 - Dan Rostenkowski, (Rep-D-Il, -94)
1928 - Vaughn Beals, Cambridge Mass, CEO (Harley Davidson motorcycle)
1928 - Avie Bennett, Canadian philanthropist
1929 - Art Prysock, jazz musician
1930 - Julius LaRosa, Bkln NY, singer (fired by Arthur Godfrey on the air)
1932 - Dabney Coleman, Austin Texas, (That Girl, Mary Hartman, Buffalo Bill)
1936 - Roger Miller, Fort Worth Tx, country singer (King of the Road, Dang Me)
1937 - Marianne McDonald, classicist/philanthropist
1938 - Ian Brady, British serial killer
1939 - Jim Bakker, televangelist (PTL Club)/rapist (Jessica Hahn)
1940 - S. R. S. Varadhan, Indian-American mathematician
1942 - Hugh Shelton, 14th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1947 - Aleksandr Tikhonova, USSR, biathalon relay (Oly-gold-1968, 72, 76, 80)
1947 - Lanny Bassham, US, rifle-3 position (Olympic-gold-1976)
1947 - Jack Hanna, American zoologist
1949 - Chick Churchill, Wales, keyboardist (Ten Years After-I’m Going Home)
1949 - Christopher Durang, Montclair NJ, playwright/actor (Sister Mary)
1950 - David Shifrin, American classical clarinetist
1951 - Nadia Cassini, [Gianna Lou Muller], Woodstock NY, model (Oui)
1952 - Ricky Van Shelton, Grit Va, country singer (Wild-Eyed Dream)
1952 - Graeme Strachan, Australian rock singer (Skyhooks) (d. 2001)
1954 - Ludmila Borozna, USSR, volleyball player (Olympic-gold-1972)
1955 - Tex Brashear, American voice actor
1956 - Lynda Barry, American cartoonist
1957 - Joanna Pacula, Tomszowaubelski Poland, actress (Gorky Park, Kiss)
1960 - Naoki Urasawa, Japanese manga author
1961 - Todd Haynes, American film director
1963 - David Cone, KC Mo, baseball pitcher (NY Mets/Tor Blue Jays/NY Yankees)
1963 - Edgar Martinez, NYC, baseball 1st baseman (Seattle Mariners)
1964 - Pernell Whitaker, boxer (Olympic-gold)
1966 - Tia Carrere, [Althea Janairo], Honolulu, actress (Wayne’s World)
1968 - Cuba Gooding Jr, actor (Boyz N the Hood, Glaadiator, Few Good Men)
1969 - Christy Turlington, SF California, model (Calvin Klein Eternity)
1969 - Tommy Morrison, American boxer
1971 - Taye Diggs, American actor
1975 - Chris Cheney, Australian musician (The Living End)
1976 - Paz Vega, Spanish actress
1980 - Stephanie Stiegler, Santa Monica California, pairs skater (& Zimmerman)
1980 - Mac Danzig, American Mixed martial arts combatant
1983 - Kate Bosworth, American actress
Deaths
17 - Roman poet Ovid (in Latin: Publius Ovidius Naso), dies
1512 - Svante, Regent of Sweden (b. 1460)
1514 - William Smyth, English bishop and statesman (bc. 1460)
1557 - Pontormo, Italian painter (b. 1494)
1685 - Harbottle Grimston, English politician (b. 1603)
1694 - Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington, English politician (b. 1651)
1789 - Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schavensee, composer, dies at 68
1790 - Joseph A Feuchtmayer (Feichtmayer), German rococo sculptor, dies
1863 - Roger Weightman Hanson, Confederate brig-gen, dies in Battle of Murfreesboro at 35
1892 - George B Airy, English astronomer/writer, dies at 90
1893 - John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist (b. 1805)
1904 - James Longstreet, Confederate general, dies at 82
1955 - Jose Antonio Remon, president of Panama (1952-55), assassinated
1963 - Dick Powell, actor/director (Dick Powell Theater), dies at 58
1963 - Jack Carson, actor (Star is Born, Mildred Pierce), dies at 52
1974 - Tex Ritter, country singer (5 Star Jubilee), dies at 67
1977 - Erroll Garner, jazz pianist (Misty), dies at 53
1980 - Larry Williams, rocker, dies at 44
1986 - Una Merkel, US actress (Abraham Lincoln), dies at 82
1986 - Bill Veeck, American baseball executive (b. 1914)
1990 - Alan Hale Jr, Skipper on Gilligan’s Island, dies of cancer at 71
1994 - Caesar Romero, actor (Joker-Batman), dies at 86
1994 - Dixy Lee Ray, chairwoman (US Atomic Energy Comm), dies at 79
1995 - Mohammed Siyad Barre, president of Somalia (1969-91), dies
1996 - Sydney Thompson, rock Climber, dies at 81
1996 - Thornton Page, astrophysicist, dies at 82
1997 - Randy California, [Wolfe], rock guitarist, dies at 45
2000 - Patrick O’Brian, British novelist (b. 1914)
2000 - Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., US. admiral (b. 1920)
2000 - Nat Adderley, American musician and composer (b. 1931)
2001 - Teri Diver, American actress (b. 1971)
2005 - Maclyn McCarty, American geneticist (b. 1911)
2007 - David Perkins, Stanford University geneticist (b. 1919)
2007 - Sergio Jiménez, Mexican actor (b. 1937)
2007 - Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, American historian (b. 1941)
2007 - Robert C. Solomon, American scholar of continental philosophy (b. 1942)
2007 - Dan Shaver, NASCAR driver and ARCA race car driver/owner (b. 1950)
2007 - Richard Newton, Australian-born technology pioneer and professor (b. 1951)
2007 - Garry Betty, American CEO of Earthlink (b. 1957)
2009 - Maria de Jesus, Portuguese supercentenarian (b. 1893)
2011 - Richard D. Winters, American Major ,US Army , (b.1918)
2012 - Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt, rock guitarist (Iron Butterfly) dies at 63
2012 - David Barron, British physicist and computer scientist, at 76 (b.1935)
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[...] 1821 - James Longstreet, Confederate general (1st Corps, ANV)(died 1904) (see UE Deaths 1/2/13) [...]
[...] 1918 - Richard D. Winters, American war hero(see UE Deaths 1.2.13) [...]