Today in the Past
Events
306 - St Marcellus I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
722 - Pope Gregory II names Boniface as missionary bishop
1215 - Pope Innocent III closes 4th council of Lateranen
1406 - Angelo Correr elected Pope Gregory XII
1523 - Amsterdam bans assembly of heretics
1630 - 16,000 inhabitants of Venice died this month of plague
1648 - English army captures King Charles I
1700 - King Charles XII of Sweden defeats Russia at Narva [NS]
1700 - Turkey declares war on Russia
1731 - Beijing hit by Earthquake; about 100,000 die
1776 - Capt Cook begins 3rd & last trip to Pacific (South Sea)
1782 - Britain signs agreement recognizing US independence
1803 - Spain cedes her claims to Louisiana Territory to France
1804 - Impeachment trial of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase begins
1824 - First ground is broken at Allenburg for the building of the original Welland Canal.
1829 - First Welland Canal opens for a trial run, 5 years to the day from the ground breaking.
1838 - Mexico declares war on France
1861 - Harper’s Weekly publishes EE Beers’ “All quiet along the Potomac”
1863 - Confederate troops vacate Fort Esperanza, Texas
1864 - Battle of Franklin Tennessee: Confederate attack fails, 7,700 casualties
1864 - Battle of Honey Hill SC (Broad River) 96 dead/665 wounded
1866 - Work begins on 1st US underwater highway tunnel, Chicago
1872 - 1st intl soccer game, Scotland-England 0-0 (Glasgow)
1886 - 1st commercially successful AC electric power plant opens, Buffalo
1886 - The Folies Bergère stages its first revue.
1900 - A German engineer patents front-wheel drive for automobiles
1902 - American Old West: Second-in-command of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor.
1922 - 1st speed test of 1st genuine Japanese aircraft carrier Hosho
1924 - 1st photo facsimile transmitted across Atlantic by radio (London-NYC)
1931 - His Master’s Voice & Columbia Records merge into EMI
1933 - CCC Camps are established in Cleveland Park District
1936 - London’s Crystal Palace (built 1851), destroyed by fire
1937 - 3rd Heisman Trophy Award: Clint Frank, Yale (HB)
1938 - Germany bans Jews being lawyers
1939 - 21 U boats sunk this month (52,000 ton)
1940 - 32 U boats sunk this month (147,000 ton)
1940 - Lucille Ball weds Desi Arnaz
1941 - 101 year old Nyack-Tarrytown (NY) ferry makes it’s last run
1941 - 13 U boats sunk this month (62,000 ton)
1942 - -Dec 1st: Sea battle at Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal
1942 - 109 U boats sunk this month (729,000 ton)
1942 - German scout ship Altmark explode & sinks off Yokohama
1947 - Arab terrorist campaign opens in Palestine
1947 - Day after UN decree for Israel, Jewish settlements attacked
1953 - French parachutist under Col De Castries attacks Dien Bien Phu
1954 - 1st meteorite known to strike a woman (Liz Hodges-Sylacauga Ala)
1954 - 20th Heisman Trophy Award: Alan Ameche, Wisconsin (FB)
1956 - 1st use of videotape on TV (Douglas Edwards & the News)
1956 - Floyd Patterson KOs Archie Moore in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
1957 - Assassination attempt on Indonesian president Sukarno, kills 8
1958 - 1st guided missile destroyer launched, Dewey, Bath, Me
1961 - USSR vetoes Kuwaits application for UN membership
1967 - People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen declares independence from UK
1967 - People’s Rep of South Yemen (Aden) gains independence from Britain
1967 - Sen Eugene McCarthy begins run for US presidency
1971 - TV movie “Brian’s Song,” airs for 1st time on ABC-TV
1972 - BBC bans Wings “Hi, Hi, Hi”
1972 - Illegal fireworks factory explodes killing 15 (Rome Italy)
1973 - Firestone World Tournament of Champions won by Jim Godman
1974 - Lucy (Australopithecus) is discovered by Donald Johanson, Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens and Tim White in the Middle Awash of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression.
1976 - 42nd Heisman Trophy Award: Tony Dorsett, Pittsburgh (RB)
1979 - Ted Koppel becomes anchor of nightly news on Iranian Hostages (ABC)
1982 - STS-6 vehicle moves to launch pad
1982 - US sub Thomas Edison collides with US Navy destroyer in So China Sea
1983 - Police free kidnapped beer magnate Alfred Heineken in Amsterdam
1983 - Radio Shack announces Tandy Model 2000 computer (80186 chip)
1986 - Ivan Lendl is 1st tennis player to earn over $10 million, lifetime
1987 - Afghanistan Constitution adopted
1988 - NYC furrier sues Mike Tyson for $92,000 for non payment of purchase
1988 - Soviets stop jamming Radio Liberty; 1st time in 38 yrs
1988 - UN General Assembly (151-2) censures US for refusing PLO’s Arafat visa
1988 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. buys RJR Nabisco for $25.07 billion USD.
1989 - Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb.
1990 - Actor Burt Lancaster suffers a stroke
1991 - 1st world championship of women’s soccer, US defeats Norway 2-1
1991 - 93 cars & 11 truck accident near SF during a dust storm, 17 die
1991 - San Diego State’s Marshall Faulk is 1st freshman to capture national rushing & scoring titles
1993 - President Clinton signs Brady Gun Control Bill
1994 - Cruiser Achille Lauro destroyed by fire at Somalia, 4 die
1995 - Official end of Operation Desert Storm.
1998 - Deutsche Bank announces a $10 billion USD deal to buy Bankers Trust, thus creating the largest financial institution in the world.
1999 - In Seattle, Washington, United States, protests against the WTO meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies.
1999 - British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems merge to form BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defense contractor and the fourth largest aerospace firm in the world.
2004 - Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge resigns.
2004 - Longtime Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, Utah finally loses, leaving him with $2,520,700 USD, television’s all-time biggest game show haul.
2005 - John Sentamu becomes the first African American archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York.
2007 - Hillary Clinton presidential campaign office hostage crisis: Leeland Eisenberg entered the campaign office of Hillary Clinton in Rochester, New Hampshire with a device suspected of being a bomb and held three people hostage for 5 hours.
Births
538 - St Gregory of Tours, Auvergne, Gaul, chronicler/bishop (Historia Francorum), (d. 594)(see UE 11/17 Deaths)
1340 - John duke of Berry, captain of Paris/art collector
1364 - John FitzAlan, 2nd Baron Arundel, English soldier (d. 1390)
1373 - Ferdinand I, the Righteous, king of Aragon/Sicily
1427 - Kazimierz IV, king of Poland (1447-92)
1466 - Andrea Doria, Genoese statesman/admiral
1485 - Veronica Gambara, Italian poetess
1498 - Andrés de Urdaneta, Spanish Augustinian friar, sail-captain and explorer (d. 1568)
1508 - Andrea Palladio, [Andrea di Pietro della Gondola], architect
1554 - Philip Sidney, England, poet/statesman/soldier (Arcadia)
1637 - Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont, French historian (d. 1698)
1667 - Jonathan Swift, Dublin, satirist (Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal), (d. 1745)
1723 - William Livingston, revolutionary Governor of New Jersey (d. 1790)
1756 - Ernst Chladni, German physicist (d. 1827)
1768 - Jędrzej Śniadecki, Polish writer, physician, chemist and biologist (d. 1838)
1781 - Alexander Berry, British adventurer (d. 1873)
1810 - Oliver Fisher Winchester, rifle maker (Winchester)
1817 - Theodor Mommsen, Germ, historian/author (Imperial Lives, Nobel 1902)
1826 - George Washington Deitzler, Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1827 - Ernest H Baillon, French botanist (History of Plants)
1828 - Jedediah Hotchkiss, Engineer (Confederate Army), died in 1899
1835 - Mark Twain, [Samuel L Clemens], author (Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn)
1840 - Henry Birks, Canadian businessman (d. 1928)
1858 - Jagdish Chandra Bose, Indian physicist (d. 1937)
1863 - Andres Bonifacio, leader of 1896 Philippine revolt against Spain
1869 - Gustaf Dalén, Swedish physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1937)
1872 - Dr. John McCrae, Canadian physician and soldier (d. 1918)
1874 - Winston Churchill, Brit PM (1940-45, 1951-55, Nobel 1953)
1874 - Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (d. 1942)
1885 - Albrecht (von) Kesselring, German fieldmarshal (Poland/Netherland)
1889 - Edgar D Adrian, English physiologist (Nobel 1932)
1890 - John Tasker Howard, composer
1890 - Oege Bakker, Dutch economist
1903 - Germaine Emilie Madame Gres Krebs, haute Couturist
1904 - Philip H Burton, Welsh director/acting teacher (Richard Burton)
1907 - Jacques Barzun, France, author (The House of Interlect), (d. 2012)
1909 - Robert Nighthawk, American Bluesman , Guitarist (d. 1967)
1910 - Paul Cerutti, Monaco, trap shooter, disqualified for drugs in 76 oly
1912 - Gordon Parks, Ft Scott KS, film director/author (Learning Tree)
1915 - Henry Taube, chemist (Nobel 1983)
1915 - Walter Brown “Brownie” McGhee, Knoxville Tennessee, American blues singer/guitarist
Born and Livin’ With The Blues Walk On
Good Morning Blues Key to the Highway
Don’t Pity Me Hootin’ the Blues
1918 - Efren Zimbalist Jr, NYC, actor (77 Sunset Strip, FBI, Scruples)
1920 - Virginia Mayo, St Louis Mo, actress (Out of the Blue, White Heat)
1922 - Robert Evett, composer
1924 - Allan Sherman, parody singer/songwriter (Hello Muddah, Hello Fardah )
1926 - Richard Crenna, LA Cal, actor (Rambo, Summer Rental, Sand Pebbles)
1927 - Robert Guillaume, [Williams], St Louis Mo, actor (Benson, Soap)
1930 - G[eorge] Gordon Liddy, FBI/Author/Watergate felon/radio host
1930 - James Felton Boyd, Rocky Mount NC, light HW boxer (Olympic-gold-1956)
1930 - William H Dana, Pasadena California, test pilot (X-15)
1931 - Bill Walsh, NFL coach (SF 49ers)/sportscaster
1931 - Jack Ging, Alva Ok, actor (11th Hour, Ripcord, Tales of Wells Fargo)
1933 - Norman Deeley, English footballer (d. 2007)
1936 - Abbie Hoffman, aka Free, Yippie/activist/author (Steal this Book)
1937 - Paul Stookey, Balt, singer (Peter, Paul & Mary-Wedding Song)
1937 - Richard Threlkeld, newscaster (ABC-TV)
1937 - Ridley Scott, director (Alien, Blade Runner)
1943 - J[ames] J[ay] Barnes, US gospel/singer (Please Let Me In)
1943 - Leo Lyons, Standbridge Beds, rock bassist (Ten Years After)
1944 - Luther T Ingram, US singer/songwriter (I’ll Be Your Shelter)
1944 - Rob Grill, LA California, rock bassist/vocalist (Grass Roots)
1945 - Roger Glover, British hard rock bassist (Episode Six-Deep Purple)
1947 - David Mamet, Chicago, playwright/dir (Speed the Plow, House of Games)
1949 - Arthur Lee Washington Jr, Neptune NJ, murderer (FBI Most Wanted)
1950 - Kathryn Witt, Miami Fla, actress (Lenny, Pam-Flying High)
1950 - Margaret Whitton, Balt Md, actress (Good & Evil, Major League)
1951 - Christian Bernard, mystic
1952 - Mandy Patinkin, Chicago Il, actor/singer (Yentl, Alien Nation)
1952 - Keith Giffen, American comic book writer and artist
1953 - Shuggie Otis, rocker , Blues Guitarist
Johnny Otis with Shuggie Otis & Roy Buchanan
Rare Acoustic Jam with Frank Zappa
1954 - George McArdle, rock bassist (Little River Band Melbourne
1954 - June Pointer, singer (Pointer Sisters-I’m So excited)
1955 - Billy Idol, [William Broad], rocker (White Wedding)
1957 - John Ashton, English guitarist (Psychedelic Furs)
1957 - Colin Mochrie, Scottish-born Canadian comedian
1958 - Juliette Bergmann, Dutch bodybuilder
1958 - Stacey Q, American singer
1959 - Sylvia Hanika, Munich West Germany, tennis player (Avon-1982)
1959 - Lorraine Kelly, British presenter and journalist
1961 - Innocent Egbunike, Nigeria, 4x400m runner (Olympic-bronze-1984)
1962 - Bo Jackson, baseball/football player , Heisman Trophy , Auburn (KC Royals, LA Raiders)
1965 - Ben Stiller, NYC, actor (Ben Stiller Show, Next of Kin, Cable Guy)
1966 - Ed Kemper, American serial killer
1968 - Des’ree, English singer
1968 - Laurent Jalabert, French cyclist
1970 - Corrina Kennedy, Saskatoon Saskatchawan, kayaker (Olympics-96)
1970 - Natalie Williams, Long Beach California, volleyball outside hitter (Oly-96)
1975 - Mindy McCready, country/western singer
1976 - Cypher Zero, American circus innovator (New York Circus Arts)
1978 - Clay Aiken, American singer
1978 - Gael García Bernal, Mexican actor
1979 - Chris Atkinson, Australian rally driver
1982 - Elisha Cuthbert, Canadian actress
1987 - Vasilisa Bardina, Russian tennis player
1987 - Ian Hecox, Part of the America Online comedy duo Smosh
1989 - Chanel Iman, American supermodel
1990 - Magnus Carlsen, Norwegian chess Grandmaster
1994 - Nyjah Huston, American skateboarder
Deaths
1016 - Edmund II, Ironsides, King of the Saxons (1016), dies at 27
1519 - Michael Wolgemut, German painter (Weltchronik), dies at about 85
1528 - Great Wierd, Dutch Gelderland army commander, beheaded
1631 - Rabbi Samuel Eliezer ben Judah ha-levi Edels, dies
1646 - John C Lichthart, admiral (Cape Augustine), dies at about 45
1654 - John Selden, English jurist and oriental scholar (b. 1584)
1675 - Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, colonial Governor of Maryland (b. 1605)
1679 - Pieter van Schooten, Dutch mathematician/fort architect, dies at 45
1694 - Marcello Malpighi, father of microscopic anatomy, dies
1718 - Charles XII, king of Sweden (1697-1718), dies during a siege of the fortress Fredriksten in Norway at 36
1761 - John Dollond, British optician (b. 1706)
1765 - George Glas, British merchant and adventurer (b. 1725)
1864 - Hiram Bronson Granbury, Confederate brigadier general, dies in the Battle of Franklin at 33
1864 - John Adams, US Confederate brigadier general, dies in the Battle of Franklin at about 39
1864 - Otho French Strahl, US Confederate brigadier general, dies in the Battle of Franklin at 33
1864 - Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, US Confederate brigadier general, dies in the Battle of Franklin at 33
1893 - Jacobus J Backer, German sea historian, dies at 68
1900 - Oscar Wilde, Irish author, dies in Paris at 46
1901 - Edward J Eyre, British explorer/governor (Jamaica), dies at 86
1933 - Sir Arthur Currie, Canadian general (b. 1875)
1934 - Hélène Boucher, French aviatrix (b. 1908)
1947 - Ernst Lubitsch, actor/director (Anna Boleyn, Ninotchka), dies
DESIGN FOR LIVING
To Be or Not to Be
The Shop Around The Corner
Ninotchka
1958 - Hubert Wilkins, Australian polar explorer (b. 1888)
1972 - Neil H McElroy, soap manufacturer/minister of Defense (1957-59), dies
1977 - Terrence Rattigan, British writer and playwright (b. 1911)
1979 - Zeppo Marx, [Herbert], US comic (Marx Brothers), dies at 78
1987 - James Baldwin, writer (Go Tell it on the Mountain), dies at 63
1989 - Alfred Herrhausen, German CEO (Deutsche Bank), murdered at 59
1990 - Norman Cousins, editor (Saturday Review), dies at 75
1994 - Connie Conrad Henry Kirnon Kay, jazz Drummer, dies at 67
1994 - Irwin Kostal, US arranger/conductor (Sound of Music), dies at 83
1996 - Koji Kobayashi, industrialist, dies at 89
1996 - Tiny Tim, [Herbert Khaury], entertainer (Tip Toe), dies at 71
1999 - Charlie Byrd, American jazz guitarist (b. 1925)(see UE 9/16 Births)
2003 - Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (b. 1906)
2007 - Evel Knievel, American motorcycle daredevil, at 69
2007 - Engin Arık, Turkish nuclear physicist (b. 1948)
2010 - Rajiv Dixit, Indian scientist and Swadeshi movement figure (b. 1967)
2010 - Faye Wright, American spiritual figure (b. 1914)
2010 - Garry Gross, American photographer (b. 1937)
