Today In The Past
Events
238 – Gordian I and his son Gordian II are proclaimed Roman emperor.
752 – Stephen II elected Catholic Pope (or 23rd)
1349 – Townspeople of Fulda Germany massacre Jews (blamed for black death)
1457 – Gutenberg Bible became the 1st printed book
1556 – Cardinal Reginald Pole becomes archbishop of Canterbury
1594 – French King Henri IV festival in Paris
1621 – Hugo de Grote escapes in bookcase from Loevenstein castle, Neth
1622 – 1st American Indian (Powhattan) massacre of whites Jamestown Virginia, 347 slain
1630 – 1st colonial legislation prohibiting gambling enacted (Boston)
1638 – Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson expelled from Mass Bay Colony
1733 – Joseph Priestly invents carbonated water (seltzer)
1765 – Stamp Act passed; 1st direct British tax on colonists
1775 – Edmund Burke presents his 13 articles to the English parliament
1790 – Thomas Jefferson becomes the 1st US Secretary of State
1794 – Congress bans US vessels from supplying slaves to other countries
1822 – NY Horticultural Society founded
1829 – The three protecting powers (Britain, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece.
1865 – Raid at Wilson’s: Chickaswas AL to Macon GA
1929 – 66 horses run in Irish Grand National Sweepstakes
1929 – KIT-AM in Yakima WA begins radio transmissions
1929 – USCG vessel sank Canadian schooner suspected of carrying liquor
1934 – 1st Masters golf championship began in Augusta, Ga
1934 – Fire destroys Hakodate Japan (kills 1,500, injures 1,000)
1935 – Blood tests authorized as evidence in court cases (NY)
1941 – Grand Coulee Dam in Washington goes into operation
1944 – 600+ 8th Air Force bombers attack Berlin
1945 – US 3rd Army crosses Rhine at Nierstein
1946 – 1st US rocket to leave the Earth’s atmosphere (50 miles up)
1947 – President Harry Truman signs executive order calling for loyalty
1958 – Faisal succeeds Saudi as king of Saudi-Arabia
1958 – Liz Taylor’s 3rd divorce (Mike Todd)
1960 – 1st patent for lasers, granted to Arthur Schawlow & Charles Townes
1963 – Brit Min of War John Profumo denies having sex with Christine Keeler
1965 – US confirms its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong
1967 – Muhammad Ali KOs Zora Folley in 7 for heavyweight boxing title
1969 – 31st NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship: UCLA beats Purdue 92-72 UCLA wins its 5th national championship in 6 years
1972 – Congress approves Equal Rights Amendment (never ratified)
1972 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar named NBA MVP
1972 – Nick Mileti purchases Cleve Indians for $9 million
1972 – Yankees trade Danny Cater to the Red Sox for Sparky Lyle
1975 – A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels.
1978 – Karl Wallenda of the The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1981 – 1st class postage raised to 18 cents from 15 cents
1984 – Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California are charged with Satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as completely unfounded.
1985 – NASA launches Intelsat VA
1986 – Ice Pairs Championship at Geneva won by Gordeeva & Grinkov (URS)
1986 – Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Geneva won by Debi Thomas (USA)
1986 – Trevor Berbick beats Pinklon Thomas in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1990 – Anchorage jury finds Capt Hazelwood innocent of Valdez oil spill
1991 – Pamela Smart (HS teacher) found guilty in NH of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband
1993 – Intel introduces Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS
1997 – Comet Hale-Bopp Closest Approach to Earth (1.315 AU)
1997 – Ladies Fig Skating Championship in Lausanne won by Tara Lipinski (USA)
2004 – Ahmed Yassin, co-founder and leader of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant group Hamas, and bodyguards are killed in the Gaza Strip when hit by Israeli Air Force AH-64 Apache fired Hellfire missiles.
2006 – ETA, armed Basque separatist group, declares permanent ceasefire.
2006 – Three Christian Peacemaker Teams Hostages are freed by British forces in Baghdad after 118 days captivity and the death of their colleague, American Tom Fox.
2009 – Mount Redoubt, a volcano in Alaska began erupting after a prolonged period of unrest.
2012 – Largest protest in Quebec’s history occurs in Montreal with over 200,000 people marching against government tuition hikes and for free access to post-secondary education
2012 – Australia’s most wanted man, Malcolm Naden, is captured after seven years on the run in Gloucester, New South Wales
Births
841 – Bernard Plantapilosa, Count of Auvergne (d. 885)
1212 – Emperor Go-Horikawa of Japan (d. 1235)
1366 – Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, English politician (d. 1399)
1459 – Maximilian I of Habsburg, German Emperor/archduke of Austria
1503 – Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer (d. 1583)
1599 – Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish painter (Charles I of England)
1609 – John II Casimir Vasa, cardinal/king of Poland (1648-68)
1663 – August Hermann Francke, German Protestant minister (d. 1727)
1720 – Nicolas-Henri Jardin, French architect (d. 1799)
1723 – Charles Carroll, American statesman (d. 1783)
1797 – Kaiser Wilhelm I, German emperor (1871-88)
1813 – Gabriel Rene Paul, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1886
1814 – Thomas Crawford, US sculptor (Babes in the Wood)
1817 – Braxton Bragg, Gen (Confederate Army), died in 1876
1818 – John Ainsworth Horrocks, English-born explorer of South Australia (d. 1846)
1819 – William Wirt Adams, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1888
1822 – Seth Williams, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1866
1824 – William Henry Chase Whiting, Major General (Confederate Army)
1834 – Francis Asbury Shoup, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1896
1846 – Randolph Caldecott, England, illustrator (Caldecott Medal namesake)
1860 – Alfred Ploetz, German physician (d. 1940)
1868 – Robert A Millikan, US physicist (photoelectric effect; Nobel 1923)
1869 – Emilio Aguinaldo, first President of the Philippines (d. 1964)
1887 – Chico Marx, [Leonard Martin], NYC, comedian (Marx Brothers)
1903 – James S Russell, US pilot/admiral (WW II Pacific Ocean)
1907 – James Gavin, US, 82nd Airborne Div General (Sicily/Normandy)
1908 – Louis D L’Amour, Jamestown ND, author (Hondo, Jubal Sackett)
1912 – Henri Rousselot, admiral
1912 – Karl Malden, Chicago, actor (Mike-Streets of SF, American Express)
1913 – Lew Wasserman, American film studio executive (d. 2002)
1915 – Forest Sagendorf, cartoonist
1916 – George Wyle, NYC, orchestra leader (Jerry Lewis Show, Flip Wilson Show)
1920 – Ross Martin, Grodek Poland, actor (Mr Lucky, Wild Wild West)
1923 – Marcel Marceau, Strasbourg France, mime (Barbarella, Silent Movie)
1924 – Al Neuharth, newspaper founder (USA Today)
1926 – Julius Marmur, biochemist/geneticist
1930 – Derek Bok, college president (Harvard)
1930 – Pat Robertson, televangelist (700 club, Pres candidate-R-1989)
1930 – Stephen Sondheim, NYC, lyricist (West Side Story, Company)
1931 – William Shatner, Montreal Canada, actor (Star Trek, T J Hooker)
1932 – Richard Thomas, admiral
1935 – M[ichael] Emmet Walsh, Ogdensburg NY, actor (Wildcats, War Party)
1936 – May Britt, Sweden, actress (Young Lions)/wife of Sammy Davis Jr
1936 – Roger Whittaker, Nairobi Kenya, country singer (Durham Town)
1940 – Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian/American actor (d. 1996)
1941 – Bruno Ganz, Zurich Switzerland, actor (Strapless, Wings of Desire)
1941 – Gary Lewis, horse trainer
1943 – George Benson, Pittsburgh Pa, American jazz singer/guitarist
1943 – Keith Reif, England, rocker (Yardbirds-For Your Love, Renaissance)
1944 – R P Mardling, headmaster (Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield)
1946 – Rudy/Rudolf [von Bittner] Rucker, US, sci-fi author (Wetware)
1946 – Serge, [Ruud Schaap], Dutch singer/guitarist (Saskia & Serge)
1948 – Andrew Lloyd Webber, London, composer (Phantom of the Opera, Cats)
1948 – Randy Hobbs, rocker (Johnny Winter Band, McCoys)
1948 – Wolf Blitzer, American television journalist
1949 – Fanny Ardant, Monte Carlo, actress (Australia, Confidentially Yours)
1949 – Fran Sheehan, Boston Mass, rock bassist (Boston-More than a Feeling)
1950 – Jocky Wilson, Scottish darts player (world champion 1982, 1989), (d. 2012)
1951 – Howard Reitzes, Southgate Ca, rocker (Iron Butterfly)
1951 – Musa Khiramanovich Manarov, USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-4, TM-11)
1952 – Bob Costas, Queens NY, sportscaster/talk show host (Later)
1956 – Lena Olin, Stockholm Sweden, actress (Enemies A Love Story)
1956 – Generosa Ammon, widow of Ted Ammon (d. 2003)
1957 – Stephanie Mills, singer/actress (Wiz)
1963 – Rich Monteleone, Tampa FL, pitcher (California Angels)
1963 – Suzanne Sulley, Sheffield S Yorks, rocker (Human Leauge-Human)
1970 – Travis Richards, Crystal Minn, US hockey defenseman (Olympics-1994)
1974 – Kidada Jones, American actress
1975 – Jiri Novak, Czechostovakia, tennis star
1976 – Reese Witherspoon, American actress
Deaths
337 – Constantine, Emperor of Rome, dies at 47
1322 – Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, English politician (b. 1278)
1418 – Dietrich of Nieheim, German historian
1421 – Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, second son of Henry IV of England (killed in battle) (b. 1388)
1544 – Johannes Magnus, last Catholic Archbishop of Sweden (b. 1488)
1589 – Lodovico Guicciardini, Ital historian, dies at 67
1602 – Agostino Carracci, Italian artist (b. 1557)
1685 – Emperor Go-Sai of Japan (b. 1638)
1758 – Jonathan Edwards, theologian/philosopher (Original Sin), dies at 54
1772 – John Canton, English physicist (b. 1718)
1777 – John Bartram, father of American botany, dies at 77
1820 – Stephen Decatur, killed in a duel with Com James Barron at 41
1832 – J W Goethe, writer, dies at 82
1840 – Étienne Bobillier, French mathematician (b. 1798)
1931 – Ban Johnson, founder of baseball’s American League, dies at 67
1958 – Michael Todd, producer (Around the World in 80 Days), dies at 56
1974 – Peter Revson, US race car driver (Indianapolis 500), dies at 35
1975 – Cass Daley, actress (Red Garters), dies at 59
1975 – Paul Verhoeven, German director dies at 73
1978 – Karl Wallenda, falls to death walking high-wire in PR at 73
1987 – Joan Shawlee, actress (Abbott & Costello Show), dies at 58
1990 – Gerald Bull, Canadian engineer (b. 1928)
1993 – Steve Olin, pitcher (Cleve Indians), drowns at 27
1993 – Tim Crews, pitcher (Cleve Indians), drowns at 31
1994 – Luther Diamond, radio Personality, dies at 89
1994 – Walter Lantz, US cartoonist (Woody Woodpecker), dies at 93
2001 – William Hanna, American animator and studio founder, dies at 90
2006 – Pierre Clostermann, French World War II pilot (b. 1921)
2006 – Kurt von Trojan, Australian science fiction author (b. 1937)
2009 – Jade Goody, Reality TV Star and Entrepreneur
2010 – James W. Black, Scottish Nobel Prize-winning doctor and medical research scientist (b. 1924)
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