Today In The Past
Events
1489 – The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.
1558 – Ferdinand I appointed Holy Roman emperor
1559 – Storm floods ravage Gorinchem, Dordrecht & Woudrichem, Neth
1590 – Battle at Ivry: French King Henri IV beats Catholic League
1629 – England granted a royal charter to Massachusetts Bay Colony
1644 – England grants patent for Providence Plantations (now Rhode Island)
1647 – Thirty Years’ War: Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
1689 – Scotland dismisses Willem III & Mary Stuart as king & queen
1743 – 1st American town meeting (Boston’s Faneuil Hall)
1757 – On-board the HMS Monarch, English Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty.
1794 – Eli Whitney patents cotton gin
1812 – Congress authorizes war bonds to finance War of 1812
1821 – African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church founded (NY)
1845 – -5.3°F (-20.7°C) in Groningen
1862 – Battle of New Bern NC: General Burnside conquers New Bern
1864 – Union troops occupy Fort de Russy, Louisiana
1869 – Defeat of Titokowaru , NZ
1888 – 2nd largest snowfall in NYC history (21″)
1889 – German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his “Navigable Balloon”
1900 – US currency goes on gold standard
1910 – Lakeview Gusher, the largest U.S. oil well gusher near Bakersfield, California, vented to atmosphere.
1912 – King Vittorio Emanuel III of Rome injured during assassination attempt
1913 – John D Rockefeller gives $100 million to Rockefeller Foundation
1915 – German cruiser Dresden blows itself up near coast of Chile
1916 – Battle of Verdun – German attack on Mort-Homme ridge, West of Verdun
1918 – 1st concrete ship to cross the Atlantic (Faith) is launched, SF
1931 – 1st theater built for rear movie projection (NYC)
1933 – Civilian Conservation Corp, begins tree conservation
1936 – Federal Register, 1st magazine of the US government, publishes 1st issue
1937 – Battle of the Century: Fred Allen & Jack Benny meet on radio
1939 – Nazi Germany dissolves Republic of Czechoslovakia
1943 – World War II – The Kraków Ghetto is ‘liquidated’.
1950 – FBI’s “10 Most Wanted Fugitives” program begins
1951 – During Korean War, US/UN forces recapture Seoul
1953 – Nikita Khrushchev succeeds Malenkov as secretary Comm Party
1958 – RIAA certifies 1st gold record (Perry Como’s Catch A Falling Star)
1960 – Wilt Chamberlain (Phila) sets NBA playoff record of 53 points
1971 – Rolling Stones left England for France to escape taxes
1971 – South Vietnamese troops flee Laos
1976 – Jockey Bill Shoemaker wins his 7,000th race
1980 – Polish airliner crash kills all 87 aboard (22 are US amateur boxers)
1983 – OPEC cut oil prices for 1st time in 23 years
1984 – Gerry Adams, head of Sinn Féin, is seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in central Belfast.
1985 – Michael Secrest (US) completes 24-hr ride of 516 miles, 427 yards
1986 – European Space Agency’s Giotto flies by Halley’s Comet (605 km)
1987 – Skier Piotr Fijas jumps record 194m
1990 – Mikhail S Gorbachev becomes president of the Soviet Congress
1991 – Men’s Figure Skating Championship in Munich won by Kurt Browning (CAN)
1992 – Farm Aid V
1992 – Soviet newspaper “Pravda” suspends publication
1993 – Johan Koss skates world record 5km (6:36.57)
1993 – Worlds Ladies Figure Skating Champ in Prague won by Oksana Baiul (UKR)
1994 – Mexican banker/billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu kidnapped
1994 – Timeline of Linux development: Linux kernel version 1.0.0 is released.
1995 – 1st time 13 people in space
2003 – Start of weekend of protests against war in Iraq that are attended by millions
2005 – Cedar Revolution, where over one and a half million Lebanese went into the streets of Beirut to demonstrate against the Syrian military presence in Lebanon, and against the government, following the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Births
1623 – Adam-Nicolas Gascon, composer
1638 – Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (d. 1710)
1692 – Peter Musschenbroek, Dutch physician/physicist (Leyden jar)
1782 – Thomas Hart Benton, (rep), “Old Bullion“
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1800 – James Bogardus, US inventor/builder (made cast-iron buildings)
1808 – Catharinus Putnam Buckingham, Brigadier General (Union volunteers)
1816 – Montgomery Dent Corse, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1895
1823 – Roswell Sabine Ripley, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1887
1833 – John Sappington Marmaduke, Major General (Confederate Army)
1833 – Lucy Hobbs Taylor, 1st US woman dentist (1866)
1835 – Giovanni V Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer (Mars) [or March 4]
1854 – Paul Ehrlich, Germany, bacteriologist (Nobel-1908)
1864 – [John] Casey Jones, RR engineer (Ballad of Casey Jones)
1874 – Anton F Philips, president-director of Philips
1879 – Albert Einstein, German-born theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate (theory of relativity)
1882 – Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (d. 1969)
1884 – Albert Egges van Giffen, Dutch archaeologist
1885 – Raoul Lufbery, American World War I pilot (d. 1918)
1894 – Osa Johnson, American explorer (d. 1953)
1903 – Molla Mustafa Barzani, Iran, Kurd leader (KDP)
1908 – Ed Heinemann, American aircraft designer (Douglas Aircraft; d. 1991)
1912 – Les Brown, Reinerton Pa, orchestra leader (& his band of renown)
1914 – Henry Ralph Carr, soldier
1914 – Lee Petty, American racecar driver (d. 2000)
1916 – Horton Foote, American author, playwright and screenwriter
1920 – Dorothy Tyler-Odam, Great Britain, high jumper (Oly-silver-36, 48)
1920 – Hank Ketcham, cartoonist (Dennis the Menace)
1921 – Lis Hartel, Denmark, equestrian dressage (Olympic-silver-1952, 56)
1921 – S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A
1923 – Diane Arbus, photographer/innovator
1927 – Bill Rexford, auto racer
1928 – Frank Borman, Gary Ind, astronaut (Gem 7, Ap 8)/CEO (Eastern Airline)
1929 – Thomas Bell Jr, race horse trainer
1933 – Michael Caine, [Maurice J Micklewhite], London, actor (Alfie)
1933 – Quincy Jones Jr, Chicago Ill, composer/singer (We Are The World)
1934 – Eugene A Cernan, Chicago, Capt USN/astronaut (Gemini 9, Apollo 10 17)
1934 – Shirley Scott, swing/blues organist (with Stanley Turrentine)
1940 – Rita Tushingham, Liverpool England, actress (Green Eyes, Dr Zhivago)
1941 – Wolfgang Petersen, Emden Germany, actor (Shattered, Enemy Mine)
1942 – Jerry Jeff Walker, Oneonta NY, country singer (Mr Bojangles)
1945 – Michael Martin Murphy, Dallas Tx, country singer (Wildfire)
1945 – Walt Parazaider, Chicago Ill, rock saxophonist (Chicago)
1946 – Wes Unseld, NBA all-star (Baltimore Bullets, MVP 1969)
1947 – Billy Crystal, Long Beach NY, comedian (Soap, Saturday Night Live, City Slickers)
1949 – Michael Stedman, British World War I Historian and Author
1951 – Rick Dees, radio disc jock (KIIS LA)
1951 – Jerry Greenfield, American co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
1952 – J Fred Muggs, chimp (Today show)
1953 – Tim McKee, US, 400m medley swimmer (Olympic-silver-1972)
1954 – Adrian Zmed, Chicago Ill, actor (TJ Hooker, Dance Fever)
1954 – David La Croix, race horse trainer
1955 – Boon Gould, rock guitarist (Level 42-Hot Water)
1956 – Natalya Dmitriyevna Kuleshova, Russia, cosmonaut
1956 – Tessa Sanderson, Kingston Jamaica, Brit javelin thrower (Oly-gold-84)
1958 – Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre, Prince of Monaco/bobsledder (Oly-1988)
1960 – George Horvath, Sweden, pentathlete (Olympic-1980)
1961 – Gary Dell’Abate, producer (Howard Stern Show)
1961 – Greg Anderson, American NHRA driver
1963 – Pedro Duque, Madrid Spain, engineer/astronaut (STS 78 alt, sk:95)
1965 – Kiana Tom, American fitness guru and model
1965 – Kevin Williamson, American screenwriter
1969 – Laura Leighton, actress (Sydney-Melrose Place, Other Woman)
1977 – Aki Hoshino, Japanese model
1983 – Jordan Taylor Hanson, Tulsa OK, singer (Hansons-MMMMbop)
Deaths
840 – Eginhard, French nobleman/biographer (Vita Karoli Magni), dies at 69
968 – Matilda of Ringelheim, German Queen (c. 895)
1272 – Re Enzo, Italian poet/son of Emp Frederik II von Hohenstaufen, dies
1298 – Petrus Johannis Olivi, South France theologist, dies
1457 – Jingtai Emperor of China (b. 1428)
1559 – Jacques d’Auchy, Walloon baptist merchant, executed
1573 – Claude II, of Lotharingen, duke of Aumale/murdered adm Coligny, dies
1590 – Philip van Egmont, general/prince of Gavere, dies in battle at Ivry at 30
1648 – Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English general (b. 1584)
1748 – George Wade, British military leader (b. 1673)
1757 – John Byng, English Admiral executed by firing squad at 52 for for neglecting his duty in defence of Minorca
1805 – Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, Russian general (b. 1753)
1823 – Charles François Dumouriez, French general (b. 1739)
1883 – Karl Marx, German philosopher (Communist Manifesto), dies at 64
1925 – Walter Camp, father of American football, dies at 65
1932 – George Eastman, US industrialist (Kodak-camera), suicide at 77
1933 – Balto, husky dog who brought back the antitoxin in 1925
1949 – John Callan O’Laughlin, American political and military figure and journalist (b. 1873)
1973 – Murat B “Chic” Young, US comic strip artist (Blondie), dies at 72
1975 – Susan Hayward, actress (Young & Willing), dies at 56
1986 – Marlin Perkins, TV host (Wild Kingdom) at 80
1991 – Jerome “Doc” Pomus, lyricist (Save Last Dance for Me), dies at 65
1991 – Margery Sharp, children’s author (b. 1905)
1992 – C V Wood Jr, theme park developer (Disneyland), dies of cancer at 71
1992 – Steven Brian Pennell, 1st execution in Delaware in 45 years at 34
1995 – Johan W “Jo” van Marle, CEO (KNVB, 1980-93), dies at 70
1995 – William A Fowler, US nuclear/astro physicist (Nobel 1983), dies at 83
1996 – Vic Marshall, chemist, dies at 74
1997 – Fred Zinnemann (director), dies of heart attack at 89
1997 – John Curtis Jr, pres/CEO (Luby’s Cafe), commits suicide at 58
2006 – Ann Calvello, Roller Derby Queen (b. 1929)
2008 – Anthony Minghella, English Oscar winning film director (b. 1954)
2009 – Altovise Davis, American entertainer, best known as Sammy Davis, Jr.’s third wife. (b. 1943)
2010 – Peter Graves [Aurness], American actor (b. 1926)
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