YouViewed/Editorial

Today In The Past

 

 

Events

 

141 - 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet

1345 - Saturn/Jupiter/Mars-conjunction: thought “cause of plague epidemic”

1525 - Paris’ parliament begins pursuit of Protestants

1600 - The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden.

1616 - Walter Raleigh released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana

1739 - Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city, stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne.

1760 - Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings

1800 - French army defeats Turks at Helipolis Turkey, & advance to Cairo

1815 - Napoleon enters Paris after escape from Elba, begins 100-day rule

1816 - US Supreme Court affirms its right to review state court decisions

1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” published (Boston)

1863 - Battle of Pensacola FL -evacuated by Federals

1865 - 2nd day of Battle of Bentonville NC

1868 - Jesse James Gang robs bank in Russelville Kentucky of $14,000

1886 - 1st AC power plant in US begins commercial operation, Mass

1896 - Marines land in Nicaragua to protect US citizens

1896 - Uprising in Matabeleland

1897 - 1st known intercollegiate basketball game, Yale beats Penn 32-10

1911 - Winter Garden Theater opens at 1634 Broadway NYC

1920 - 1st flight from London to South Africa lands (took 1½ months)

 

 

 

1922 - USS Langley is commissioned, Navy’s 1st Aircraft Carrier

 

 

 

 

 

 

1930 - Clessie Cummins sets diesel engine speed record of 129.39 kph

1933 - Dachau, 1st concentration camp, completed

1934 - Rudolf Kuhnold demonstrates radar in Kiel Germany

1934 - Test of practical radar apparatus made by Rudolf Kuhnold in Germany

1934 - Female Babe Didrickson pitches hitless inning for Phila A’s in exhibition game against Brooklyn Dodgers

1937 - Franco-offensive at Guadalajara Spain

1942 - Convoy PQ13 departs Reykjavik Iceland to Russia

1942 - Gen MacArthur vows, “I shall return”

1943 - British offensive against Mareth-line

1943 - German U-384 bombed & sinks

1944 - Mount Vesuvius, Italy explodes

1945 - US 70th Infantry division/7th Armour division attack Saar

1947 - 180-metric ton blue whale (record) caught in South Atlantic

1951 - Indonesian army offensive against Darul Islam on Java

1952 - Final ratification of peace treaty restoring sovereignty to Japan

1952 - US senate ratifies peace treaty with Japan

1956 - 156-day strike against Westinghouse ends

1956 - Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) explodes

1956 - Tunisia gains independence from France

1958 - 50″ snow across the Mason-Dixon line

 

 

 

1968 - LBJ signs a bill removing gold backing from US paper money

 

 

 

 

 

1972 - 19 mountain climbers killed on Japan’s Mount Fuji during an avalanche

1973 - Roberto Clemente elected to Hall of Fame, 11 weeks after his death

1976 - Patricia Hearst convicted of armed robbery

1979 - Columbia flies on Shuttle carrier aircraft to Kennedy Space Center

1980 - The Mi Amigo ship containing England’s pirate Radio Caroline sinks

1980 - US appeals to International Court on hostages in Iran

1981 - Argentine ex-president Isabel Peron sentenced to 8 years

1981 - Jean Harris sentenced 15-to-life for slaying of Scarsdale Diet Dr

1982 - Joan Jett & Blackhearts’ “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” goes #1 for 7 wks

1984 - Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools

1985 - Libby Riddles is 1st woman to win Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race

1986 - 228 KPH gust of wind strikes Cairngorm (UK record)

1986 - Jacques Chirac forms French government

1987 - FDA approves sale of AZT (AIDS treatment)

1987 - NASA launches Palapa B2P

1990 - LA Lakers retires Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s #33

1990 - Singer Gloria Estefan breaks her collarbone in a bus accident

1991 - Court awards Peggy Lee $3 million in suit against Disney

1991 - Michael Jackson signs $65M 6 album deal with Sony records

1991 - Supreme Court rules unanimously employers can’t exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage fetus

1991 - US forgives $2 billion in loans to Poland

1992 - Janice Pennington is awarded $1.3M for accident on Price is Right set

1993 - Dan Jansen skates world record 500m (36.02 sec)

1993 - IRA-bomb kills 3 year old in Warrington England

1994 - El Salvador’s 1st pres election following 12-year-old civil war

1995 - Dow-Jones hits 4083.68 (record)

1995 - Poison Gas released in Tokyo subway 12 killed, 4,700 injured

1996 - Erik & Lyle Menendez found guilty of killing their parents

1999 - Legoland California, the first and only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California.

2000 - Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, a former Black Panther once known as H. Rap Brown, is captured after a gun battle that leaves a Georgia sheriff’s deputy dead.

2004 - Stephen Harper wins the leadership of the newly created Conservative Party of Canada, becoming the party’s first leader.

2006 - Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.

2012 - 50 people are killed and 240 injured in a wave of terror attacks across 10 cities in Iraq

2012 - Disney movie John Carter records one of the largest losses in cinema history with a $200 million dollar write down

 

 

 

Births

 

43 BC - Ovid, Roman poet (d. 17)

1469 - Princess Cecily of York (d. 1507)

1477 - Jerome Emser, German theologian (d. 1527)

1502 - Pierino Belli, Italian soldier and jurist (d. 1575)

1735 - Torbern Bergman, Swedish chemist (d. 1784)

1750 - Martinus van Marum, Dutch chemist/physicist (Homo Diluvii Testus)

1804 - Neal Dow, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1897

1812 - George Bibb Crittenden, Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1880

1823 - John Echols, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1896

 

 

 

1823 - Ned Buntline, American publisher (d. 1886)

 

 

 

 

 

1825 - William Nelson Rector Beall, Brigadier General (Confederate Army)

1828 - Henrik Ibsen, Norway, playwright (Peer Gynt, Hedda Gabler)

1830 - Eugene Asa Carr, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1910

1834 - Charles William Elliot, Boston, Pres of Harvard (1869-1909)

1853 - George Godfrey, Chelsea Mass, heavyweight boxer (Old Chocolate)

1856 - Frederick Winslow Taylor, father of scientific management

1870 - Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, Prussian general/politician (East Africa)

1879 - Maud Menten, Canadian biochemist (d. 1960)

1885 - Hendrik A de Fish, [Henri Pauwels], Flemish philological/sociologist

1902 - Edgar Buchanan, Humansville Mo, actor (Uncle Joe-Petticoat Junction)

1903 - Vincent Richards, hall of fame tennis pro (elected 1961)

1904 - B[urrhus] F[rederic] Skinner, Pa, Behaviorism pioneer (Skinner box)

1906 - Abraham Beame, (Mayor-D-NYC), NYC’s 1st Jewish mayor

1906 - Ozzie Nelson, Jersey City NJ, actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet)

1906 - Pavel P Parenago, Russian astronomer

1908 - Michael Redgrave, Bristol England, actor (Browning Version, Lady Vanishes)

1911 - Alfonso García Robles, Mexican diplomat and Nobel laureate (d. 1991)

1915 - Sviatosiav Richter, Zhitomir Ukraine, pianist (Stalin Prize-1945)

1918 - Marian McPartland, jazz pianist (Bill Mayer, Jimmy McPartland)

1920 - Douglas G Chapman, biomathematical statistician

1920 - Werner Klemperer, Cologne Germany, actor (Col Klink-Hogan’s Heroes)

1922 - Carl Reiner, Bronx, comedian (2000 Year Old Man, Dick Van Dyke Show)

1922 - Ray Goulding, Lowell Mass, comedian (Bob & Ray)

1925 - John D Erlichman, Politician (Nixon aide, Watergate)

1926 - Ted Bessell, Flushing NY, actor (Don-That Girl, Frankie-Gomer Pyle)

1928 - Christopher Benstead, race horse trainer

1928 - Fred Rogers, Latrobe PA, children TV host (Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood)

1928 - Jerome Cousins Biffle, Denver Co, long jumper (Olympic-gold-1952)

1936 - Lee “Scratch” Perry, Jamaican Reggae artist

1937 - Helmut Recknagel, Germany, 90m ski jump (Olympic-gold-1960)

1937 - Jerry Reed, Atlanta GA, singer/actor (Bat 21, Smokey & the Bandit)

1938 - Sergei Petrovich Novikov, Russian Mathematician, Fields Medalist

1943 - Paul Junger Witt, American TV producer

1945 - Pat Riley, Schenectady NY, NBA coach (Lakers, Knicks, Heat)

1945 - Henry Bartholomay, American fighter pilot

1947 - Carl Palmer, drummer (Asia-Heat of the Moment, Emerson Lake & Palmer)

1947 - John Eastburn Boswell, medievalist

1948 - Bobby Orr, Parry Sound, Ontario, HOF NHL defenseman (Boston Bruins)

1948 - Pamela Sargent, US, sci-fi author (Venus of Dreams, Cloned Lives)

 

 

 

1949 - Marcia Ball, American blues singer and pianist

 

VIDEOS

 

 

 

 

1950 - William Hurt, Wash DC, actor (Big Chill, Children of a Lesser God)

1951 - Guy Perry, rock guitarist/vocalist (Motels-Only the Lonely)

 

 

 

1951 - Jimmie Vaughan, guitarist (Fabulous Thunderbirds)

 

VIDEOS

 

 

 

 

1951 - John Wetton, rocker (Asia)

 

 

 

1952 - Geoff Brabham, Australian racing driver

 

 

 

 

 

 

1954 - Jim Seales, Hamilton Ala, singer (Shenandoah-Sunday in the South)

1957 - Spike Lee [Shelton Jackson Lee], Atlanta, Florida, American film director (Mo Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X)

1957 - Theresa Russell, [Paup], SD California, actress (Black Widow, Razor’s Edge)

1957 - David Foster, Australian woodchopper

1958 - Holly Hunter, Conyers Georgia, American actress (Broadcast News, The Piano)

1959 - Sting, American professional wrestler

1961 - Slim Jim Phantom, [Jim Mcdonnell], rock drummer (Stray Cats)

1963 - Paul Annacone, Southampton NY, tennis star

1963 - Manabu Suzuki, Japanese racing driver and broadcaster

1963 - David Thewlis, Blackpool, Lancashire, English actor (Remus Lupin-Harry Potter series)

1969 - Caroline Brunet, Quebec City Quebec, kayaker (Olympics-silver-96)

1969 - Konstantine Starikovitch, Podolsk Russia, 238lbs US weightlift (Oly-96)

1969 - Sharon Manning, WNBA center/forward (Charlotte Sting)

1969 - Thang Thanh Nguyen, Soc Trang Vietnam, murderer (FBI Most Wanted)

1970 - Kristin Klein, Santa Monica California, volleyball outside hitter (Oly-96)

1971 - Touré, American writer

1972 - Alexander Kapranos, Greek-British musician (Franz Ferdinand)

1973 - Jane March, Edgeware England, actress (Lover)

1974 - P J Bogart, NYC, diver (Olympics-96)

1976 - Chester Bennington, American musician (Linkin Park)

1982 - Nick Wheeler, American guitarist (The All-American Rejects)

1984 - Markus Niemelä, Finnish racing driver

1984 - Christy Carlson Romano, American actress

 

 

 

Deaths

 

687 - St. Cuthbert, patron saint of Northumbria (b. c. 634).

842 - Alfonso II the Chaste, king of Asturia (791-842), dies

1191 - Clement III, [Paolo Scolari], Pope (1187-91, 3rd crusades), dies

1239 - Hermann von Salza, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (c. 1179)

1351 - Mohammed ibn-Tughluq, sultan of Delhi India, dies

1393 - Johannes Nepomucenus, [Jan Nepomucky], Czech saint, killed

1413 - King Henry IV of England (b. 1367)

1415 - Henry IV Bolingbroke, King of England (1399-1413), dies at 45

1531 - Sicke Freerks/Frericx, [Cutter], Dutch anabaptist, beheaded

1549 - Thomas Seymour of Sudely, English Lord Admiral, beheaded

1617 - Franciscus Aguilon, physicist/theologist/mathematician, dies at 50

1673 - Augustyn Kordecki, Polish prior (b. 1603)

1703 - Johann Kunckel/Kunkel, German alchemist/ambassador to Sweden, dies

1780 - Sir Benjamin Truman – English brewer (b. 1699/1700)

1855 - Joseph Aspdin, English mason and inventor (b. 1788)

 

 

 

1865 - Keisuke Yamanami, Japanese samurai (b. 1833)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1878 - Julius Robert von Mayer, German physician and physicist (b. 1814)

1890 - Alexander F. Mozhaiski, aviation pioneer (b. 1825)

1894 - Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian freedom fighter/president (1849), dies at 91

1899 - Martha M Place, of Bkln, becomes 1st woman to be executed in an electric chair.

1918 - Lewis A. Grant, American Civil War General (b. 1828)

1920 - Venustiano Carranza, president Mexico (1915-20), murdered at 60

1929 - Ferdinand Foch, Marshal of France (WW I), dies at 77

1933 - Giuseppe [Joe] Zangara, electrocuted for assassination attempt on FDR

1940 - Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (b. 1860)

1941 - D A van den Bosch, anti-nazi clergyman (Amersfoort Camp), dies

1962 - Andrew E Douglass, Dendrochronologer (Study of Tree Rings), dies

1964 - Brendan Behan, Irish writer/poet, dies at 41

1967 - A J F Moody, 1st US Army General to die in Vietnam

1974 - Chet Huntley, newscaster (NBC Huntley-Brinkley Report), dies at 62

1987 - Norman Harris, guitarist (O’Jays), dies at 39 of heart failure

1988 - Gil Evans, Canadian/US jazz composer (Out of the Cool), dies at 75

1991 - Conor Clapton, Eric Clapton’s son, falls out of 53rd floor window at 5

 

 

 

1994 - Lewis Grizzard, American humorist (b. 1946)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1995 - Rachida Hammadi, Algerian TV journalist, murdered at 32

1995 - Sidney Kingsley, US playwright (Pulitzer prize 1934), dies at 88

1997 - Carlo Fassi, figure skating coach (Fleming, Hamill), dies at 67

1997 - Tony Zale, American boxer (b. 1913)

1998 - George Howard, American jazz saxophone musician

2003 - Sailor Art Thomas, American professional wrestler (b. 1924)

2008 - Eric Ashton, English rugby league footballer (b. 1935)

2008 - Shoban Babu, Indian actor (b. 1937)

2009 - Mel Brown, American/Canadian Blues Guitarist (b. 1939)