Today In The Past
Events
1228 – Wu MeKuan, a collection of 48 Zen koans, compiled in China
1414 – Council of Constance (16th ecumenical council) opens
1492 – Christopher Columbus learns of maize (corn) from Indians of Cuba
1556 – Battle at Panipat: Mogollegers beat hindu leader Hemu
1605 – Gunpowder Plot; Catholics try to blow up English Parliament. Plot uncovered & leader Guy Fawkes hanged
1639 – 1st post office in the colonies is set up in Massachusetts
1743 – Coordinated scientific observations of the transit of Mercury were organized by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle.
1757 – Battle at Rossbach (7 year war/French & Indian War)
1780 – French-American force under Colonel LaBalme is defeated by Miami Chief Little Turtle.
1811 – El Salvador’s 1st battle against Spain for independence
1854 – Crimean War: British & French defeat Russian force of 50,000
1862 – Ambrose Burnside replaces McClellen as head of Army of Potomac
1862 – Battle at Barbee’s Crossroads, Virginia: 51 casualties
1872 – American women’s right to vote advocate Susan B Anthony votes for Ulysses S. Grant
1872 – Ulysses S. Grant re-elected US president
1876 – Henry Morton Stanley’s expedition leaves Nyangwe
1883 – Battle at El Obeid Sudan: Mahdi’s army destroys Egyptian army
1895 – 1st US patent granted for auto (George B Selden) for gasoline driven car
1895 – US state Utah accepts female suffrage
1911 – Calbraith Rodgers arrives in Pasadena completing 1st transcontinental airplane flight (49 days) ( Sheepshead Bay, NY, Sept 17)
1912 – Arizona, Kansas & Wisconsin vote for female suffrage
1912 – Woodrow Wilson (D) defeats Theodore Roosevelt (Prog) & Pres Taft (R)
1916 – The Everett Massacre takes place in Everett, Washington as political differences lead to a shoot-out between IWW organizers and local police.
1917 – Gen Pershing & US troops see action on Western Front for 1st time
1917 – Supreme Court decision (Buchanan v Warley) strikes down Lousiville Ky ordiance requiring blacks & whites to live in separate areas
1930 – Nobel for literature awarded to Sinclair Lewis for “Babbitt”
1933 – Spanish Basques vote for autonomy
1935 – Parker Brothers launches game of Monopoly
1938 – Rugers beats Princeton 1st time in 60 yrs as Rutgers Stad dedicated
1940 – Pres FDR (D) wins unprecedented 3rd term beating Wendell Willkie (R)
1941 – Japanese marine staff officiers Suzuki/Maejima leave Pearl Harbor
1942 – Nazi raid on Greek Jews in Paris
1942 – Pro-British Clandestine Radio Diego Suarez’s final transmission
1943 – -6] Vatican bombed
1946 – John F Kennedy (D-Mass) elected to House of Representatives
1953 – Nobel prize for physics awarded/appended on Frederik Zernicke
1953 – Paul Searls saws a 32″ log in 86.4 seconds
1956 – Britain & France land forces in Egypt
1956 – Israel liberates Sharm-el-Sheikh, reopening Gulf of Aqaba
1957 – Mrs Nellie McGrail wins $574,658 on a 2½ cent soccer pool ticket
1959 – AFL announced with 8 teams
1964 – US launches Mariner 3 toward Mars; no data returned
1967 – ATS-3 launched by US to take 1st pictures of full Earth disk
1967 – US troops conquer Loc Ninh South Vietnam
1967 – The Hither Green rail crash in the United Kingdom kills 49 people. The survivors include Bee Gee Robin Gibb.
1968 – 1st AL pitcher to win MVP, Denny McLain (wins unanimously)
1968 – Nixon (R) beats VP Humphrey (D) & George C Wallace for presidency
1971 – Bolivia passes death penalty for political kidnapping
1974 – Walter E Washington, becomes 1st elected mayor of Wash DC
1975 – British government sends troops to Belize
1976 – Balt Jim Palmer wins AL Cy Young Award
1977 – NCAA passing record set at 571 yards (Marc Wilson, Brigham Young)
1978 – Iranian PM Jaafar Sharif-Emami resigns to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
1978 – Oakland Raider’s John Madden becomes 13th coach to win 100 NFL games
1979 – Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini declares US “The Great Satan”
1981 – Former Dolphin, Mercury Morris, is sentenced to 20 years for drug trafficing, conspiracy, & possession of cocaine
1983 – Orbiter Discovery (OV-103) moves overland to Dryden
1987 – Iceberg twice size of Rhode Island sighted in Antarctic
1988 – Gulch wins Breeder’s Cup
1988 – Horse Racing Breeders’ Cup Champs: Alysheba, Gt Communicator, Gulch, Is It True, Miesque, Open Mind, Personal Ensign at Churchill Downs
1989 – Browns’ Bernie Kosar sets club record of 16 cons pass completions
1992 – Bobby Fisher beats Boris Spassky to with Chess title in Belgrade
1994 – Space probe Ulyssus completes 1st passage behind the Sun
1994 – Tony Rominger bicycles world record time (55,291 km)
1994 – Horse Racing Breeders’ Cup Champs: Barathea, Cherokee Run, Concern, Flanders, One Dreamer, Tikkanen, Timber Country
1995 – André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Jean Chrétien; he is thwarted when the Prime Minister’s wife locks the door.
2006 – Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for the role in the massacre of the 148 Shi’as in 1982.
2007 – China’s first lunar satellite, Chang’e 1 goes into orbit around the Moon.
2009 – US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan allegedly killed 13 and wounded 43 at Fort Hood, Texas in the largest mass shooting ever at a US military installation.
Births
1271 – Mahmud Ghazan, Mongol ruler (d. 1304)
1494 – Hans Sachs, German composer, playwright and shoemaker
1534 – Joachim Camerarius, German botanist/physician (horticulture catalog)
1592 – Charles Chauncy, English-born president of Harvard College (d. 1672)
1615 – Ibrahim I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1648)
1722 – William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, English duelist (d. 1798)
1764 – Pieter Nieuwland, Dutch scientist (Newton)
1779 – Washington Allston, US painter/author
1818 – Benjamin Franklin Butler, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1893
1825 – Julius H [Szamvald] Stahel, Major General (Union volunteers)
1832 – William Woods Averell, Major General (Union Army), died in 1900
1846 – Duncan Gordon Boyes, English recipient of the Victoria Cross (d. 1869)
1854 – Paul Sabatier, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
1855 – Leon P Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (stratosphere)
1885 – Will Durant, US, author/historian (Story of Civilization)
1887 – Oscar Bossaert, Belgium, chocolate manufacturer/min of Middenstand
1890 – Jan Zrzavý, Czech painter (d. 1977)
1892 – J. B. S. Haldane, Scottish geneticist (d. 1964)
1893 – Raymond Loewy, US industrial designer
1902 – Strom Thurmond, (Sen-R-SC, 1955- )
1905 – Joel McCrea, South Pasadena California, actor (Marshal-Wichita Town)
1906 – George Lowthian Trevelyan, designer/visionary
1906 – Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (d. 2004)
1911 – Roy Rogers, Cincinnati Ohio, cowboy (Happy Trails, Roy Rogers Show)
1912 – Natalie Schaeffer, Rumson NJ, actress (Lovey Howell-Gilligan’s Island)
1913 – John McGiver, NYC, actor (Patty Duke Show, Jimmy Stewart Show)
1913 – Vivien Leigh, (Gone With Wind) Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn
1917 – Jacob Everaers, office clerk/resistance fighter
1917 – Jacqueline Auriol, French aviatrix (d. 2000)
1920 – Douglass North, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
1926 – Leo Derksen, Dutch journalist (Telegraph/Sunday Newspaper)
1930 – Herb Edelman, Bkln NY, actor (Good Guys, Strike Force, 9 to 5)
1931 – Ike Turner, Miss, guitarist , singer (A Fool in Love)
Ike Turner & his Kings of Rhythm
Rocket 88 with Jackie Brenston
1935 – Lester Piggott, British jockey (11 time champ)
1936 – Michael Dertouzos, Greek internet pioneer, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Director of the M.I.T. Laboratory for Computer Science (d. 2001)
1940 – Elke Sommer, [Elke Schletz], Berlin Germany, actress (A Shot in the Dark, The Oscar)
1941 – Art Garfunkel, New York, American singer/actor (Sounds of Silence, Carnal Knowledge)
1943 – Sam Shepard, Ill, actor/playwright (Frances, Crimes of the Heart)
1945 – Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
1946 – Gram Paarson, [Cecil Connor], Winter Haven Fl, rocker (Byrds)
1946 – Patricia K Kuhl, speech & hearing scientist
1947 – Peter Noone, rocker (Herman-Herman’s Hermits-Silhouttes)
1948 – Bernard-Henri Lévy, French public intellectual
1949 – Jimmie Spheeris, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984)
1951 – Stuart Havelock Hollingdale, anthropologist
1952 – Bill Walton, NBA center (Portland Trailblazers, Boston Celtics)
1952 – Vandana Shiva, Indian physicist
1953 – Joyce Maynard, American writer
1955 – Karan Thapar, Foremost Indian Journalist, Political Analyst & Commentator
1955 – Nestor Serrano, American actor
1960 – Tilda Swinton, London England, actress (Orlando)
1961 – Charles O Hobaugh, Bar Harbor ME, Capt USMC/astronaut
1961 – Gina Mastrogiacomo, American actress (d. 2001)
1962 – Brian Wheat, rock bassist (Tesla-Psychotic Supper)
1962 – Marcus J. Ranum, American computer/network security innovator
1963 – Andrea McArdle, Phila, actress (Annie)
1963 – Tatum O’Neal, LA Cal, Mrs John McEnroe (Paper Moon, Little Darlings)
1965 – Famke Janssen, Dutch model and actress
1968 – Cary Blanchard, NFL kicker (Indianapolis Colts)
1970 – Tamzin Outhwaite, English actress
1971 – Todd Collins, NFL quarterback (Buffalo Bills)
1971 – Dana Jacobson, ESPN’s First Take hostess
1971 – Jonny Greenwood, guitarist (Radiohead)
1974 – Angela Gossow, German vocalist (Arch Enemy)
1974 – Ryan Adams, American musician
1980 – Jaime Camara, Brazilian racing driver
1980 – Eva González, Spanish model and beauty queen
1987 – Kevin Jonas, American guitarist, member of the Jonas Brothers
Deaths
1370 – Kazimierz III, the Great, King of Poland (1333-70), dies at 61
1515 – Mariotto di Bigio di Bindo Albertinelli, Italian painter, dies at 41
1559 – Kano Motonobu, Zen co-founder (Kano school of painting), dies at 83
1603 – Irini Fedorovna, Russian daughter of Boris Godunov, dies
1660 – Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, English socialite (b. 1599)
1669 – John Coccejus, German/Neth reformed theologist, dies at about 66
1675 – Kurt S Adeler, Danish admiral/ship designer, dies at 52
1714 – Bernardino Ramazzini, Italian physician (b. 1633)
1854 – Soimonov, Russian general, dies in battle of Inkermann
1879 – James Clerk Maxwell, Scotish physicist (speed of light), dies at 48
1883 – William Hicks, British col/commander (Egyptian army), dies in battle
1930 – Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physician and pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1858)
1933 – Texas Guinan, American saloon keeper, actress, and musician (b. 1884)
1944 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1873)
1960 – Johnny Horton, country singer, dies at 33
1960 – Mack Sennett, director/producer (Keystone Cops), dies
1960 – Ward Bond, actor (Wagon Train), dies of heart attack at 57
1972 – Reginald Owen, actor (Above Suspicion, Love on the Run), dies at 85
1974 – Stafford Repp, actor (Chief O’Hara-Batman), dies at 56
1975 – Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1909)
1975 – Lionel Trilling, American critic and writer (b. 1905)
1977 – Guy Lombardo, orchestra leader (Auld Lang Syne), dies in Houston at 75
1979 – Al Capp, US cartoonist (Li’l Abner), dies at 70
1989 – Barry Sadler, singer (Green Berets), murdered at 49 in Murfreesboro Tn
1989 – Vladimir Horovitz, Ukrainian/US pianist, dies at 85
Home Movie
1991 – Fred MacMurray, actor (My Three Sons), dies of pneumonia at 83
1991 – Robert Maxwell, Billionaire publisher (NY Daily News), dies at 68
1992 – Arpad E Elo, Hungarian physicist (chess classification system), dies
1992 – Jan Hendrik Oort, Dutch astronomer (Oort Cloud), dies at 92
1996 – Paula Hinton, dancer, dies at 72
1996 – Ronald Ogden, engineer, dies at 81
2000 – Victor Grinich, American businessman (b. 1924)
2002 – Billy Guy, American singer (The Coasters) (b. 1936)
2003 – Bobby Hatfield, American singer (Righteous Brothers) (b. 1940)
2005 – John Fowles, English writer (b. 1926)
2009 – Félix Luna, Argentine historian (b. 1925)
2011 – Bhupen Hazarika, Indian singer, composer, lyricist, music director, and filmmaker from Assam (b. 1926)
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