Today In The Past
Events
999 – Gerbert of Aurillac elected as 1st French Pope
1416 – Alfonso V succeeds his father as king of Aragon
1453 – Mehmed II begins his siege of Constantinople (İstanbul), which would fall on May 29.
1513 – Florida discovered, claimed for Spain by Ponce de Leon
1550 – Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy
1595 – Cornelis de Houtman’s ships depart to Asia through Cape of Good Hope
1645 – Robert Devereux resigns as parliament supreme commander
1755 – Commodore William James captures the pirate fortress of Suvarnadurg on west coast of India.
1792 – US authorizes $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, ½ dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime
1792 – The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
1801 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Copenhagen – The British destroy the Danish fleet.
1804 – Forty merchantmen are wrecked when a convoy led by HMS Apollo runs aground off Portugal.
1819 – 1st successful agricultural journal (“American Farmer”) begins
1827 – Joseph Dixon begins manufacturing lead pencils
1863 – Bread revolt in Richmond Virginia
1864 – Skirmish at Crump’s Hill (Piney Woods), Louisiana
1864 – Skirmish at Spoonville/Antoine, Arkansas
1865 – Battle of Petersburg, VA (Ft Gregg, Sutherland’s Station)
1865 – CSA President Jefferson Davis flees Confederate capital of Richmond, VA
1865 – Battle of Ft Blakely AL & Selma AL
1866 – US President Johnson ends civil war in Ala, Ark, Fla, Ga, Miss, La, NC, SC, Tn & Va
1872 – George B Brayton patents gasoline powered engine
1877 – 1st Easter egg roll held on White House lawn
1883 – Battle at Bamako: French assault on Fabous arm forces attack
1884 – London prison for debtors closed
1900 – The Foraker Act passes through Congress, giving Puerto Ricans limited self-rule.
1902 – 1st motion picture theater opens (LA)
1912 – Sun Yet Sen forms Guomindang-Party in China
1912 – Titanic undergoes sea trials under its own power
1917 – Jeannette Rankin becomes 1st women member of US House of Reps
1917 – Pres Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Germany
1921 – Prof Albert Einstein lectures in New York City on his new theory of relativity
1930 – 1st NY-Bermuda airplane flight lands in Bermuda
1931 – Teenage girl strikes out Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tennessee
1932 – Charles Lindbergh turns over $50,000 as ransom for kidnapped son
1935 – Mary Hirsch, becomes 1st woman licensed as a horse trainer
1935 – Sir Watson-Watt patents RADAR
1942 – USS Hornet with Jimmy Doolittles B-25 departs from SF
1944 – Soviet Army marches into pro-German Romania
1945 – 1st US units reach east coast of Okinawa
1945 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Brazil are established.
1954 – Plans to build Disneyland 1st announced [see Jan 26]
1955 – US female Figure Skating championship won by Tenley Albright
1955 – US male Figure Skating championship won by Hayes A Jenkins
1955 – Pancho Gonzales retains tennis title by winning a tournament playing under table tennis rules
1956 – Soap operas “As the World Turns” & “Edge of Night” premieres on TV
1958 – Antillean Brewery (Amstel beer) opens
1958 – National Advisory Council on Aeronautics renamed NASA
1958 – Wind speed reaches 450 kph in tornado, Wichita Falls, TX (record)
1962 – The first official Panda crossing is opened outside Waterloo station, London.
1964 – USSR launches Zond 1 to Venus; no data returned
1969 – Milwaukee Bucks sign (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor)
1970 – 2 men begin ascent of south face of Annapurna I, highest final stage in a wall climb in world
1971 – Sci-fi soap opera “Dark Shadows” concludes an almost 5 year run
1973 – ITT pleads guilty to asking CIA to affect Chilean pres election
1973 – Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service.
1974 – Arganat Comm publishes report concerning Yom Kippur War
1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
1977 – Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors,” album goes to #1 & stays #1 for 31 weeks
1978 – TV show “Dallas” premieres on CBS (as a 5 week mini-series)
1978 – Velcro was 1st put on the market
1979 – Israeli PM Menachem Begin visits Cairo Egypt/meets pres Sadat
1980 – Wayne Gretzky becomes 1st teenager to score 50 goals in a season
1981 – Heavy battle between Christian militia & Syrian army in East Lebanon
1982 – Several thousand Argentine troops seize the Falkland (Malvina) Islands from Great Britain
1986 – 4 US passengers killed by bomb at TWA counter Athens Airport Greece
1986 – NCAA adopts 3-point basketball rule (19 feet 9 inch distance)
1987 – IBM introduces PS/2 & OS/2
1988 – Simply Majestic sets horse racing’s 1-1/8 mile record at 1:45
1992 – John Gotti found guilty in death of Paul Castallanos
1995 – Wrestlemania XI in Conn-Lawrence Taylor defeats Bam Bam Bigelow
2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into which armed Palestinians had retreated. A siege ensues.
2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack is thwarted.
2005 – James Stewart Jr. becomes first African American to win a major motor sports event.
2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out, hardest hit is Tennessee with 29 people killed.
2012 – Oikos University, Oakland shooting kills seven people and injures 3
Births
742 – Charlemagne, 1st Holy Roman emperor (800-14)
1348 – Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1385)
1565 – Cornelis de Houtman, Dutch explorer (d. 1599)
1602 – Maria de Jesus de Agreda, [Maria Coronel], Spanish franciscan
1618 – Francesco M Grimaldi, mathematician/physicist (light defraction)
1725 – Casanova, writer
1740 – Armand-Gaston Camus, French CEO (Council of 500)
1805 – Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark, author of 150 fairy tales
1814 – Henry Lewis “Old Rock” Benning, Brigadier General (Confederate Army
1814 – Erastus Brigham Bigelow, American inventor (d. 1879)
1826 – Philip Dale Roddey, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1897
1833 – Thomas Howard Ruger, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1840 – Émile Zola, French novelist and critic (d. 1902)
1867 – Eugen Sandow, German bodybuilder and circus performer (d. 1925)
1875 – Walter Chrysler, Wamego, Kansas, founder of car company Chrysler
1894 – Walter Mittelholzer, Swiss aviation pioneer (Swiss Air)
1905 – Kurt Adler, therapist/writer
1908 – Buddy Ebsen, Belleville Il, actor (Beverly Hillbillies, Barnaby Jones)
1910 – Irene Mayer Selznick, producer (Street Car Named Desire)
1910 – Paul Triquet, Canadian military officer (d. 1980)
1911 – Charles “Honi” Coles, tap dancer (Tap)
1914 – Alec Guinness, London England, British actor (Bridge on River Kwai)
1920 – Jack Webb, Santa Monica California, actor (Joe Friday-Dragnet)
1922 – Nikolaj G Bassov, Russia, atomic physicist (laser, Nobel 1964)
1926 – Elena Verdugo, Hollywood California, actress (Consuelo-Marcus Welby MD)
1928 – Joseph “Cardinal” Bernardin, of Chicago
1928 – Rita Gam, Pittsburgh, actress (Distortions, Hannibal, Sierra Baron)
1928 – Serge Gainsbourg, [Ginsburg], Russian/French singer (Ford Mustang)
1934 – Peter Middleton, British permanent secretary (Treasury)
1934 – Paul Joseph Cohen, American mathematician (d. 2007)
1936 – Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver (world champ 1966)
1938 – Whirlaway, American thoroughbred racehorse, 1941 Triple Crown Winner (d. 1953)
1939 – Marvin P Gaye Jr, Wash DC, singer (Sexual Healing)
1940 – Penelope Keith, British actress (Norman Conquests, Priest of Love)
1940 – Peter Haining, writer/editor (Anatomy of Witchcraft)
1941 – Leon Russell, Lawton KS, pianist/singer (Carny)
1943 – Larry Coryell, Galveston Tx, jazz guitarist (11th House)
1945 – Don Sutton, baseball pitcher (LA Dodgers)
1945 – Linda Hunt, Morristown NJ, actress (Bostonians, Eleni, Silverado)
1946 – Kurt Winter, rocker (Guess Who)
1947 – Camille Paglia, Endicott NY, actress (Female Misbehavior, It’s Pat)
1947 – Emmylou Harris, Birmingham Alabama, country singer (Together Again)
1948 – Eleanor Margaret Burbridge, astronomer/educator
1948 – Joan [Carol] D[ennison] Vinge, US, sci-fi author (2 Hugos, Dune)
1949 – Pamela Reed, Tacoma WA, actress (Grand, Kindergarten Cop, Home Court)
1951 – Moriteru Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist
1952 – Joseph Kent Massey, Oklahoma City OK, soling yachter (Oly-bronze-1996)
1952 – Leon Wilkerson, rocker (Lynard Skynard)
1952 – Thierry Le Luron, French humorist (d. 1986)
1954 – Ron Palillo, Ct, actor (Arnold Horshack-Welcome Back Kotter), (d. 2012)
1955 – Michael Stone, British terrorist
1959 – Brian Goodell, US, 400m/1500m freestyle swimmer (Olympic-2 gold-1976)
1959 – Victoria Jackson, Miami Florida, comedian (SNL, Casual Sex)
1959 – Juha Kankkunen, Finnish race car driver
1960 – Linford Christie, St Andrews Jamaica, 4x100m runner (Oly-gold 1992
1961 – Keren Jane Woodward, Bristol England, rock vocalist (Bananarama-Venus)
1961 – Christopher Meloni, American actor
1962 – Alex Tripolski, Israel, Men’s Shooting 50M air pistol (Oly-16th-1996)
1962 – Billy Dean, Quincy Fla, country singer (Billy the Kid)
1963 – Mike Gascoyne, British engineer
1965 – Rodney King, Sacramento California, black motorist beaten by LA cops, (d. 2012)
1966 – Garnet Silk, Jamaican singer (d. 1994)
1970 – Marcus Christensen, Toronto Ontario, figure skater (1995 Canadian-2nd)
1971 – James Ransom, Toronto Ontario, Epee fencer (Olympics-96)
1974 – Håkan Hellström, Swedish musician
1977 – Jelena Abbou, Serbian fitness model
1980 – Ricky Hendrick, NASCAR driver and owner (d. 2004)
1982 – Jeremy Bloom, American skier and football player
Deaths
1118 – Boudouin I, of Bologne/Edessa, 1st crusader/king of Jerusalem, dies
1272 – Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1209)
1335 – Duke Henry of Carinthia (b. circa 1265)
1412 – Ruy Gonzáles de Clavijo, Spanish traveler and writer (b. ????)
1507 – Francis of Paola, Italian founder of the Order of the Minims (b. 1416)
1640 – Matthias C Sarbiewski, [Sarbievius], Polish jesuit/poet, dies at 45
1657 – Ferdinand III, King of Hungarian/Bohemia/German Emperor, dies at 48
1720 – Joseph Dudley, colonial Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1647)
1742 – James Douglas, Scottish physician and anatomist (b. 1675)
1754 – Thomas Carte, English historian (b. 1686)
1758 – Johann Balthasar Konig, composer, dies at 67
1787 – Thomas Gage, British general (b. 1719)
1791 – Mirabeau, French statesman (b. 1749)
1801 – Thomas Dadford Junior, British canal engineer (b. circa 1761)
1827 – Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus, German physician and naturalist (b. 1776)
1845 – Philip Charles Durham, Royal Navy Admiral (b. 1763)
1865 – Ambrose Powell Hill, Confederate general, killed in action at 39
1872 – Samuel Morse developer of electric telegraph, dies at 80
1892 – Willem J d’Ablaing van Giessenburg, Dut baron/genealogist, dies at 79
1902 – Esther Morris, suffragist and first female American judge (b. 1814)
1910 – Boyd Alexander, English explorer (Niger to the Nile), murdered at 37
1914 – Paul von Heyse, German writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1830)
1922 – Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychologist (b. 1884)
1928 – Theodore Richards, US chemist (atomic weight, Nobel 1914), dies
1956 – Chester Clute, actor (Niagara Falls), dies at 65
1972 – Gil Hodges, manager (NY Mets), dies of heart attack at 57
1972 – Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Japanese Martial Arts Grandmaster (b. 1887)
1974 – Georges Pompidou, French president, dies in Paris at 62
1987 – Buddy Rich, drummer/orchestra leader (Away We Go), dies at 69
1995 – Hannes Alfven, physicist (Nobel prize), dies at 86
1995 – Harvey Penick, premier golf instructor/author, dies at 90
1995 – Julius Arthur Hemphill, saxophonist, dies at 57
1998 – Rob Pilatus, American model and entertainer (Milli Vanilli) (b. 1965)
2000 – Tommaso Buscetta, Sicilian mafioso and pentito (b. 1928)
2003 – Edwin Starr, American singer (b. 1942)
2004 – John Argyris, Greek aeronautical engineer (b. 1913)
2005 – Pope John Paul II, Polish Roman Catholic Pope (b. 1920)
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