Today In The Past
Events
310 – St Eusebius begins his reign as Catholic Pope
387 – Bishop Ambrosius of Milan baptizes Augustinus
1025 – Bolesław Chrobry is crowned in Gniezno, becoming the first King of Poland.
1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid.
1518 – Bona Sforza is crowned as queen consort of Poland.
1521 – Parliament of Worms: Cardinal Alexander questions Maarten Luther
1663 – Osman declares war on Austria
1676 – Sudbury, Mass attacked by Indians
1775 – Paul Revere & William Dawes ride from Charleston to Lexington warning the “British are coming!“
1783 – Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.
1809 – 1st run of 2,000 guineas horse race at Newmarket England
1838 – Wilkes’ expedition to South Pole sails
1848 – American victory at the battle of Cerro Gordo opens the way for invasion of Mexico.
1861 – Battle of Harpers Ferry, VA
1861 – Col Robert E Lee turns down offer to command Union armies
1862 – Battle of Ft Jackson, Ft St Philip & New Orlean’s, LA
1864 – Battle of Poison Springs, AR (Camden Expedition)
1865 – Confederate Gen Johnson surrendered to Gen Sherman in North Carolina
1876 – Daniel O’Leary completes a 500 mile walk in 139 hrs 32 min
1879 – Trial of Standing Bear-Crook on indians citizen rights begins
1880 – An F4 tornado strikes Marshfield, Missouri, killing 99 people and injuring 100.
1881 – Natural History Museum of South Kensington England opens
1881 – Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
1902 – Denmark is 1st country to adopt fingerprinting to identify criminals
1906 – 8.25 earthquake shakes SF Calif
1906 – SF earthquake & fire kills nearly 4,000 & destroys 75% of city
1912 – The Cunard liner RMS Carpathia brings 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic to New York City.
1915 – French pilot Roland Garros is shot down and glides to a landing on the German side of the lines during World War I.
1923 – 74,000 (62,281 paid) on hand for opening of Yankee Stadium
1924 – 1st crossword puzzle book published (Simon & Schuster)
1925 – World’s fair opens in Chicago
1927 – Chiang Kai-Shek forms anti-government in China
1935 – Gen Sarazen’s double eagle on 15th, wins him his 2nd Masters
1936 – Pan-Am Clipper begins regular passenger flights from SF to Honolulu
1938 – Headless Mad Butcher victim found in Cleveland
1942 – “Stars & Stripes” paper for US armed forces starts
1942 – James H Doolittle bombs Tokyo & other Japanese cities
1945 – 1 armed outfielder, St L Brown Pete Gray, 1st game he goes 1 for 4
1945 – Epe freed (by corporal G van Aken)
1945 – Clandestine Radio 1212, after broadcasting pro-nazi propoganda for months used their influence to trap 350,000 German army group B troops
1946 – Jackie Robinson debuts as 2nd baseman for the Montreal Royals
1946 – League of Nations dissolves (3 months after UN starts)
1948 – International Court of Justice opens at Hague Netherlands
1950 – 1st transatlantic jet passenger trip
1951 – NY Yankee Mickey Mantle goes 1-for-4 in his 1st game
1954 – Colonel Nasser seizes power & becomes PM of Egypt
1955 – 1st “Walk”/”Don’t Walk” lighted street signals installed
1958 – A United States federal court rules that poet Ezra Pound is to be released from an insane asylum.
1963 – Dr James Campbell performed the 1st human nerve transplant
1964 – Sandy Koufax is 1st to strike out the side on 9 pitches
1966 – Bill Russell became 1st black coach in NBA history (Boston Celtics)
1968 – London Bridge is sold to US oil company (to be erected in Arizona)
1974 – Red Brigade kidnaps Italian attorney general Mario Sossi
1977 – Alex Haley, author of “Roots,” awarded Pulitzer Prize
1978 – Senate votes to turn Panama Canal over to Panama on Dec 31, 1999
1980 – Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) declares independence from UK
1982 – Zimbabwe capital Salisbury renamed Harare
1983 – A lone suicide bomber kills 63, at US Embassy in Lebanon
1984 – Joan Benoit runs world record female marathon (2:22:43)
1986 – Robert M Gates, becomes deputy director of CIA
1986 – Titan rocket explodes seconds after liftoff from Vandenberg AFB
1987 – An unconscious skydiver is rescued by another diver in mid-air
1987 – Mike Schmidt hits 500th home run (vs Robinson-Pirates)
1989 – Zimbabwe gains independence
1990 – Bankruptcy court forces Frank Lorenzo to give up Eastern Airlines
1990 – Supreme Court rules states could make it a crime to possess or look at child pornography, even in one’s home
1991 – Census Bureau said it failed to count up to 63 million in 1990 census
1991 – John Stockton breaks his own NBA season assist record at 1,136
1994 – 23rd Boston Women’s Marathon won by Uta Pippig of Germany in 2:21:45
1994 – 98th Boston Marathon won by Cosmas Ndeti of Kenya in 2:07:15
1994 – Arsenio Hall announces he will end his show in May 1994
1994 – Former President Nixon suffered a stroke & dies 4 days later
1994 – Lebanon drops relations with Iran
1995 – Quarterback Joe Montana announces his retirement from football
1996 – In Lebanon, at least 106 civilians are killed when the Israel Defense Forces accidentally shell the UN compound at Quana.
2007 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in a 5-4 decision.
Births
1480 – Lucretia Borgia, murderess (poison)/daughter (Pope Alexander VI)
1521 – Francois de Coligny, ruler of van Andelot, French general (Jarnac)
1580 – Thomas Middleton, English playwright (Game of Chess)
1590 – Ahmed I, 14th Sultan of the Ottoman Emperor (1603-17); constructed the Blue Mosque
1605 – Giacomo Carissimi, composer
1740 – Francis Baring, banker/merchant
1838 – Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, French scientist (d. 1912)
1857 – Clarence S Darrow, defense attorney at Scopes monkey trial
1864 – Richard Harding Davis, US, journalist/author (In The Fig)
1881 – Max Weber, Polish/Russian/US painter
1882 – Leopold Stokowski, London England, conductor (Cincinnati Symphony)
1896 – C Eugene Wegmann, Swiss geologist (Le Jura plisse)
1904 – Pigmeat Markham, American comedian (d. 1981)
1905 – George H. Hitchings, American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)
1911 – Francis Frederick Johnson, architect
1911 – George Huntington Hartford II, NYC, heir (A&P)
1912 – John Lapworth Holt, boat Designer
1921 – Barbara Hale, Dekalb Ill, actress (Della Street-Perry Mason)
1924 – Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Vinton La, blues singer (Mary is Fine)
1925 – Bob Hastings, Bkln NY, actor (McHale’s Navy, All in the Family)
1925 – Lionel Edmund “Sonny” Taylor, musician
1927 – Samuel P. Huntington, American political scientist
1930 – Clive Revill, Wellington NZ, actor (Legend of Hell House)
1938 – Andreas J “Cat” Liebenberg, supreme commander (S Afr army)
1939 – Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran
1940 – Joseph L Goldstein, Sumter SC, physician (Nobel-1985)
1941 – Mike Vickers, rock guitarist (Manfred Mann-Mighty Quinn)
1942 – Jochen Rindt, German race car driver
1946 – Alexander “Skip” Spence, Canada, guitarist/vocalist (Moby Grape-Omaha)
1946 – Hayley Mills, London England, actress (Parent Trap, Pollyanna)
1946 – Lenny Baker, rocker (Sha Na Na)
1947 – Dorothy Lyman, Minneapolis Mn, (All my Children, Naomi-Mama’s Family)
1947 – James Woods, Warwick RI, actor (Salvador, Against All Odds)
1947 – Herbert Mullin, American serial killer
1948 – “Tiny” Nate Archibald, NBA guard (Cincinnati)
1949 – Geoff Bodine, American race car driver
1950 – Kenny Ortega, American film and TV producer and choreographer
1953 – Rick Moranis, Toronto, (SCTV, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Spaceballs)
1954 – Kim Stone, bassist (Spyro Gyra-Morning Dance)
1955 – Amschel Rothschild, banker
1956 – Eric Roberts, Miss, actor (Pope of Greenwich Village, King of Gypsies)
1956 – Melody Thomas Scott, actress (Nikki-Young & Restless)
1958 – Lee Pattinson, rock bassist (Echo & Bunnymen-Heaven Up Here)
1961 – Jane Leeves, London, actress (Murphy Brown, Daphne Moon-Fraiser)
1961 – Kelly Hansen, heavy metal rocker (Hurricane-I’m on to You)
1961 – Pamella Bordes, New Dehli India, Brit parliament prostitute
1962 – Mick Sweda, heavy metal (Bulletboys, King Kobra-Ready to Strike)
1963 – Conan Chris O’Brien, Brookline Mass, TV host (Late Night)
1964 – Niall Ferguson, Scotland , historian , professor
1965 – Diana Villegas, rocker (Triplets)
1965 – Sylvia Villegas, rocker (Triplets)
1965 – Vicky Villegas, rocker (Triplets)
1967 – Maria Bello, American actress
1970 – Heike Friedrich, East Germany swimmer (world record 200m)
1973 – Haile Gebresleassie, Ethiopia, 10k runner (Olympics-gold-96)
1976 – Melissa Joan Hart, Sayville NY, actress (Clarissa, Sabrina)
1979 – Anthony Davidson, British Formula One driver
1979 – Kourtney Kardashian, American reality television star
1983 – Miguel Cabrera, Venezuelan baseball player
1984 – America Ferrera, American actress
1985 – Karl Reindler, Australian racing driver
Deaths
680 – Mu’awijja, kalief of Al-Schaam, dies
1161 – Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury
1558 – Roxelana, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent
1567 – Wilhelm von Grumbach, German military man, dies at 63
1689 – George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem/infamous judge, dies
1690 – Charles V Leopold, Duke of Lotharingen/Austrian fieldmarshal, dies
1732 – Louis Feuillée, French explorer (b. 1660)
1796 – Johan Wilcke, Swedish physicist (b. 1732)
1807 – Erasmus Darwin, physician writer and botanist (Influence), dies (b. 1731)
1845 – Nicholas T the Saussure, Swiss chemist/botany, dies at 77
1853 – William King, US VP, dies a month after his inauguration
1873 – Justus Freiherr von Liebig, German chemist, dies at 69
1874 – David Livingstone, African explorer, buried in Westminster Abbey
1879 – Anthony Pannizim, principal librarian (British Museum), dies
1925 – Charles Ebbets, Pres (Dodgers), dies
1935 – Ignazio Guidi, Italian orientalist/archaeologist, dies at 90
1942 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American socialite (b. 1875)
1943 – I Yamamoto, admiral of Japanese fleet, dies
1945 – Ernest T Pyle, British/US newscaster, killed in WW II at 44
1945 – John Ambrose Fleming, electrical engineer, dies
1955 – Albert Einstein, Nobel laureate (b. 1879)
1958 – Richard B Goldschmidt, German zoologist (butterflies), dies
1964 – Ben Hecht, playwright (Child of the Century), dies at 71
1986 – Marcel Dassault, [Bloch], French airplane builder, dies at 94
1993 – Arthur P Smith, US founder of Miami Planetarium, dies at 76
1993 – Masahiko Kimura, Japanese judoka (b. 1917)
1994 – Ken Oosterbroek, South African press photographer, shot dead at 32
1996 – Piet Hein, architect/poet/mathematician/inventor, dies at 80
1996 – Robert William Paine, architect, dies at 88
2002 – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer (b. 1914)
2012 – Dick Clark, American radio and television personality, dies from a heart attack at 82
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