Today In The Past
Events
240 BC – 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.
804 – Liudger becomes 1st bishop of Munster
988 – Boudouin IV with the Beard becomes earl of Flanders
1282 – The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.
1296 – Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.
1422 – Ketsugan, Zen teacher, performs exorcisms to free aizoji temple
1492 – King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella sign decree expelling Jews from Spain
1603 – Battle at Mellifont: English army under Lord Mountjoy beats Irish
1778 – Playwright Voltaire crowned with laurel wreath
1814 – Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris after defeating Napoleon.
1842 – Ether used as an anaesthetic for 1st time by Dr Crawford Long (Ga)
1856 – Russia signs Peace of Paris, ending the Crimean War
1858 – Pencil with attached eraser patented (Hyman L Lipman of Phila)
1864 – Skirmish at Mount Elba, Arkansas
1865 – -4] Battle at 5 Forks Virginia
1867 – US buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 (2 cents an acre – Seward’s Folly)
1870 – 15th Amendment passes, guarantees right to vote regardless of race
1870 – Texas becomes last confederate state readmitted to Union
1870 – Florida territorial government established.
1885 – The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.
1895 – British inventor Birt Acres films Oxford and Cambridge boat race
1909 – Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan & Queens
1910 – Mississippi Legislature founded The University of Southern Mississippi.
1911 – Lötschberg tunnel in Switzerland (13,735 m) completed
1919 – Gandhi announces resistance against Rowlatt Act
1923 – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, formed at Howard U in 1920, incorporates
1939 – The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets the world airspeed record of 463 mph.
1939 – First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway.
1941 – German counter offensive in North-Africa
1942 – 1st RSHA-transport from France arrives in camp Birkenau
1942 – SS murders 200 inmates of Trawniki labor camp
1944 – 781 British bombers attack Neurenberg
1945 – 289 anti-fascists murdered by nazis in Rombergpark Dortmund
1945 – USSR invades Austria during WW II
1945 – World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans.
1949 – Riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joined NATO.
1950 – Phototransistor invention announced, Murray Hill, NJ
1953 – Einstein announces revised unified field theory
1961 – NASA civilian pilot Joseph A Walker takes X-15 169,600′ (51,690 m)
1961 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.
1964 – Astronaut John Glenn withdraws from Ohio senate race
1965 – Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
1970 – USSR wins its 8th straight world hockey championship
1972 – North Vietnamese troops enter South Vietnam
1979 – Airey Neave, a British politician, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.
1981 – Pres Reagan shot & wounded by John W Hinckley III
1984 – US ends participation in multinational Lebanon peace force
1987 – Vincent van Goghs “Sunflowers” sells for record 22.5M pounds ($39.7 million)
1990 – Jack Nicklaus made his debut in the “Seniors” golf tournament
1991 – William Kennedy Smith allegedly rapes a woman (found not guilty)
2006 – Marcos Pontes is the first Brazilian astronaut in space.
2006 – UK Terrorism Act 2006 becomes law.
2012 – Spanish Government cuts 27 Billion Euros from its budget in one of its toughest austerity driver in history
2012 – Mastercard and Visa announce a massive breach in security with over ten million compromised credit card numbers
2012 – American Mega Millions lottery hits a world record lottery amount of 640 million dollars
Births
1135 – Maimonedes, philosopher (d. 1204)
1326 – Ivan II of Russia, Grand Duke of Muscovy (d. 1359)
1432 – Mehmed II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1481)
1674 – Jethro Tull, agricultural writer (Basildon), baptised
1697 – John-Baptist Xavery, Flemish sculptor
1719 – John Hawkins, England, wrote 1st history of music
1746 – Francisco Jose de Goya, Fuendetodos Spain, painter/etcher (Naked Maja)
1790 – Joseph Smith, Rear Admiral (Union Navy), died in 1877
1820 – Anna Sewell, British author (d. 1878)
1823 – Joseph Farmer Knipe, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1901
1824 – Innis Newton Palmer, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1825 – Samuel Bell Maxey, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1895
1853 – Vincent van Gogh, Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, artist, painter and pioneer of Expressionism (The Potato Eaters, Irises)
1857 – Leon Charles Thevenin, French telegraph engineer (d. 1926)
1865 – Heinrich Rubens, German physicist
1883 – Jo Davidson, US, sculptor (Woodrow Wilson, Walt Whitman)
1892 – Erhard Milch, German field marshal (d. 1972)
1894 – Sergei Ilyushin, Russian airplane builder (Ilyushin)
1899 – Irving Thalberg, US producer (MGM)
1902 – Brooke Astor, American philanthropist (d. 2007)
1905 – Mikio Oda, Japan, triple jumper (Olympic-gold-1928)
1905 – Albert Pierrepoint, English executioner (d. 1992)
1910 – Józef Marcinkiewicz, mathematician (d. 1940)
1913 – Frankie Laine, Chicago Ill, actor (Frankie Laine Show, Rawhide)
1913 – Gottfried Reinhardt, theatre producer
1913 – Richard Helms, CIA head (1966-73)
1914 – Sonny Boy Williamson, [John Lee], blues musician (Down & Out Blues)
1919 – McGeorge Bundy, Boston, national security adviser (JFK)
1920 – Turhan Bey, Vienna Austria, actor (Dragon Seed, Ali Baba & 40 Thieves)
1921 – Countess of Sutherland, English great land owner/multi-millionaire
1922 – J F Coates, naval architect
1928 – Richard Trant, Brit general
1929 – Richard Dysart, Brighton Mass, actor (Leland MacKenzie-LA Law)
1929 – Shirley Stoler, Brooklyn NY, actress (Frankenhooker, 7 Beauties)
1930 – John Astin, Balt Md, actor (I’m Dickens He’s Fenster, Addams Family)
1931 – Aleksey Vasilyevich Sorokin, Russian cosmonaut
1931 – Harold Burrage, US singer/pianist (Hi Yo Silver)
1937 – Warren Beatty, Richmond Va, actor (Bonnie & Clyde,Shampoo, Dick Tracy)
1941 – Sven Hamrin, Sweden, road race cycler (Olympic-bronze-1964)
1942 – Graeme Edge, England, rock drummer (Moody Blues-Your Wildest Dreams)
1945 – Eric Clapton, Ripley England, singer/guitarist (Tears in Heaven)
1948 – Dave Ball, rocker (Procul Harum)
1948 – Jim Dandy Mangrum, vocalist (Black Oak Arkansas-Jim Dandy)
1949 – Sue Cook, British broadcaster
1949 – Naomi Sims, American fashion model and businesswoman
1950 – Rupert Greenall, rock keyboardist (Fixx)
1950 – Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor and comedian
1951 – John Gosden, racehorse trainer
1957 – Paul Reiser, NYC, actor (My 2 Dads, Diner, Aliens, Mad About You)
1960 – William D Johnson, US alpine skier
1961 – Doug Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1999)
1962 – M C Hammer, [Stanley Kirk Burrell], Oakland Ca, rapper (Hammer Time)
1966 – Efstratios Grivas, Greek chess grandmaster and author
1967 – Ian Ziering, West Orange NJ, actor (Steve Sanders-Beverly Hills 90210)
1968 – Celine Dion, Quebec Canada, singer (I’m Your Woman)
1968 – Donna D’Errico, Dothan AL, playmate (Sep, 1995)
1970 – Secretariat, American racehorse (d. 1989)
1979 – Norah Jones, American singer and pianist
Deaths
988 – Arnulf II, count of Flanders (965-988), dies
1202 – Joachim Van Fiore, Italian religious founder (Joachimism), dies
1486 – Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury
1540 – Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, German statesman and Archbishop of Salzburg (b. 1469)
1559 – Adam Ries, German mathematician (b. 1492)
1662 – François le Métel de Boisrobert, French poet (b. 1592)
1707 – Vauban, French architect (b. 1633)
1783 – William Hunter, Scottish anatomist (b. 1718)
1840 – George (Beau) Brummell, Dandy, dies
1925 – Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (anthroposophy), dies at 64
1926 – Feliks E Dzerzjinski, Lithuanian organizer (KGB), dies at 48
1949 – Friedrich C R Bergius, chemist (brown coal, Nobel 1931), dies at 64
1961 – P J Melotte, discovered Jupiter’s 8th satellite Pasiphae, dies
1965 – Philip Showalter Hench, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
1966 – Maxfield Parrish, US painter, dies at 95
1969 – Lucien Bianchi, Belgian auto racer, dies at 34
1979 – Airey Neave, British MP (Conservatives), killed by terrorist bomb
1981 – Dewitt Wallace, US founder (Reader’s Digest), dies at 91
1984 – Peter Yarrall, strongest Englishman/weighed 826 lb (374.7 kg), dies
1986 – James Cagney, actor (Yankee Doodle Dandy), dies in NY at 86
1994 – Albert Goldman, rock biographer (Elvis, John Lennon), dies at 66
2004 – Alistair Cooke, English-born journalist (b. 1908)
2008 – Dith Pran, The Killing Fields Photographer (b. 1942)
2008 – David Leslie, Touring Car Driver (b. 1953)
2008 – Richard Lloyd, Racing Car Driver (b. 1945)
2010 – Martin Sandberger, German military officer (b. 1911)
2012 – Viktor Kosichkin, Russian speed skater and Olympic gold medalist, dies at 74
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