Today In The Past
Events
193 – Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the army in Illyricum (in the Balkans).
475 – Byzantine Emperor Basiliscus issues a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, supporting the Monophysite christological position.
715 – Constantine ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1241 – Battle of Liegnitz – Mongol armies defeat Poles & Germans
1388 – Battle of Näfels; Glarius Swiss defeat Habsburg (Austrian) army
1413 – Henry V is crowned King of England.
1440 – Christopher of Bavaria is appointed King of Denmark.
1483 – Edward V (12) succeeds his father Edward IV as king of England (never crowned). Disappears, presumed murdered same year.
1682 – Robert La Salle claims lower Mississippi (Louisiana) for France
1783 – Tippu Sahib drives out English from Bednore India
1816 – African Methodist Episcopal Church organizes (Phila)
1829 – Danzig (Gdansk) dike break flood kills 1,200
1831 – Robert Jenkins loses an ear, starts war between Britain & Spain
1833 – 1st tax-supported public library (Peterborough, NH)
1864 – Battle of Pleasant Hill LA, 2870 casualities
1865 – General Robert E Lee and 26,765 troops, surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia to US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant
1866 – Civil Rights Bill passes over Pres Andrew Johnson’s veto
1869 – Hudson Bay Company cedes it’s territory to Canada
1870 – American Anti-Slavery Society dissolves
1909 – The U.S. Congress passes the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act.
1912 – 1st exhibition baseball game at Fenway Park (Red Sox vs Harvard)
1912 – Titanic leaves Queenstown Ireland for NY
1913 – Brooklyn Dodger’s Ebbets Field opens, Phillies win 1-0
1914 – “World, the Flesh & the Devil,” 1st color film, shown in London
1914 – Tampico incident – US ship crew arrested in Mexico
1917 – Battle of Arras begins
1917 – Vimy Ridge France stormed by Canadian troops
1925 – Babe Ruth rushed to hospital
1927 – Italy & US anarchists Sacco & Vanzetti given death sentences
1928 – Turkey passes separation of church & state
1939 – Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial
1940 – German cruiser Blucher torpedoed/capsizes in Oslofjord, 1,000 die
1940 – Germany invades Norway & Denmark during WW II (Denmark surrenders)
1941 – PGA establishes Golf Hall of Fame
1942 – Battle of Bataan–US-Filipino forces overwhelmed by Japs at Bataan
1945 – Battleship Admiral Scheer sunk by RAF bombing in Kiel
1945 – Liberty ship at Bari Italy carrying aerial bombs explodes, kills 360
1945 – World War II: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends.
1947 – Atomic Energy Commission confirmed
1947 – Tornadoes striking West Texas & Oklahoma kill 169, injuring 1,300
1950 – Bob Hope’s 1st TV appearance
1953 – “TV Guide” publishes 1st issue
1953 – Jomo Kenyatta sentenced to 7 years in Kenya
1953 – Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D film, entitled House of Wax.
1957 – Suez Canal cleared for all shipping
1959 – NASA names 1st 7 astronauts for Project Mercury
1960 – South African premier Verwoerd wounded in battle
1962 – JFK throws out 1st ball at Washington’s new DC Stadium
1963 – Winston Churchill becomes 1st honorary US citizen
1967 – 1st Boeing 737 rolls out
1967 – The first Boeing 737 (a 100 series) makes its maiden flight.
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr, buried in Atlanta
1969 – 1st flight of Concorde 002 (Filton-Bristol)
1974 – Padres owner Ray Kroc, addresses fans “Ladies & gentlemen, I suffer with you I’ve never seen such stupid baseball playing in my life”
1976 – US & Russia agreed on size of nuclear tests for peaceful use
1978 – David Thompson scores ties 3rd highest total in the NBA – 73
1979 – Longest doubles ping-pong match of 101 hrs, begins
1981 – US sub George Washington rams Japanese freighter Nisso Maru
1986 – “Dallas” announces it will revive killed Bobby Ewing character
1987 – For 3rd time, Wayne Gretzky, scores 7 goals in a Stanley Cup game Wayne Gretzky passes Jean Beliveau as all time playoff scoring champ
1988 – US imposes economic sanctions on Panama
1989 – Mike Tyson strikes a parking attendant when asked to move his car
1989 – Rickey Henderson steals his 800th career base in NY’s 4-3 loss to Clev
1989 – Scott Hoch chokes on 18 inch putt & loses Masters golf tournament
1992 – John Majors, (C) elected PM of England
1992 – Noriega convicted on 8 of 10 drug & racketeering charges
1992 – Record 18 golfers shoot in 60s in Masters round 1 (old record 12)
1992 – US Fed court finds Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega guilty of drugs
1993 – Colorado Rockies 1st home game & 1st victory, 11-4 over Mont Expos
2003 – Baghdad falls to U.S. forces resulting in widespread looting
2011 – A gunman murdered five people, injured eleven, and committed suicide in a mall in the Netherlands.
2012 – The Lion King becomes highest grossing Broadway show after overtaking The Phantom of the Opera
Births
1336 – Tamerlane (Timur), Central Asian, Turkic conqueror (d. 1405)
1498 – John, Cardinal of Lorraine, French churchman (d. 1550)
1597 – John Davenport, Connecticut pioneer (d. 1670)
1648 – Henri de Massue, Marquis de Ruvigny, 1st Viscount Galway, French soldier and diplomat (d. 1720)
1770 – Thomas Johann Seebeck, German physicist (d. 1831)
1794 – Theobald Boehm, German inventor of the modern flute (d. 1881)
1806 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel, designer of 1st transatlantic steamer
1812 – Randolph Barnes Marcy, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1887
1865 – Erich Ludendorff, general (Germany)
1888 – Sol Hurok, theatrical impresario
1889 – Efrem Zimbalist, Rostov on Don Russia, composer/violinist
1895 – Mance Lipscomb, Texas, blues musician (Texas Sharecropper)
1898 – Earl “Curly” Lambeau, NFL coach (GB Packers)
1898 – Paul Robeson, Philadelphia, singer (Old Man River)/actor/footballer
1903 – Gregory Pincus, inventor (birth control pill) [or Nov 9]
1903 – Ward Bond, Denver Colo, actor (Seth–Wagon Trains)
1905 – J William Fulbright, (Sen-D-Ark)
1911 – Lord Deramore, architect
1918 – Jorn Utzon, Danish architect (Sydney Opera House)
1919 – John Presper Eckert, co-inventor (1st electronic computer-ENIAC)
1920 – Art Van Damme, Norway Mich, jazz accordionist (Chicago Jazz)
1921 – Jean-Marie Balestre, French motorsports official (FIA) (d. 2008)
1922 – Michael Palliser, head of British diplomatic service
1925 – Michael Richardson, vice CEO (N M Rotschild)
1926 – Hugh Hefner, [Marston], Chicagp, magazine publisher (Playboy)
1930 – F. Albert Cotton, American chemist (d. 2007)
1930 – Nathaniel Branden, Canadian psychotherapist
1932 – Carl Perkins, Jackson Tn, singer/songwriter (Blue Suede Shoes)
1932 – Jim Fowler, Albany Ga, naturalist (Wild Kingdom)
1932 – Paul Krassner, comic strip cartoonist (MAD Magazine)/founder (Yippies)
1932 – Cheeta, chimpanzee actor
1933 – Jean-Paul Belmondo, Paris France, actor (Casino Royale, Magnifique)
1935 – Avery Schreiber, Chicago Ill, comedian (My Mother the Car)
1937 – Barrington J[ohn] Bayley, UK, sci-fi author (Collision Course)
1939 – Michael Learned, Wash DC, actress (Olivia-Waltons, Nurse)
1942 – Galina A Kulakova, USSR, nordic skier (Olympic-3 golds-1972)
1949 – Chico Ryan, rock vocalist (Sha Na Na)
1949 – Steve Gadd, jazz drummer (Triplet Hop, Complex Jazz)
1953 – Hal Ketchum, Greenwich NY, country singer (Small Town Saturday Night)
1954 – Dennis Quaid, Houston TX, actor (Big Easy, Dreamscape, Right Stuff)
1954 – Iain Duncan Smith, British politician
1957 – Severiano Ballesteros, Spain, golfer (British Open 1979, 84, 88)
1963 – Joe Scarborough, American television personality
1965 – Paolo Cane, Itaty, tennis star
1965 – Paulina Porizkova, Prostejov Czech, model , actress
1965 – Jeff Zucker, American television executive
1965 – Jay Wesley Neill, American convicted murderer (d. 2002)
1966 – Cynthia Nixon, NYC, actress (Addams Family Values, Pelican Brief)
1969 – Amy Feng, Tianjin China, US table tennis player (Olympics-96)
1971 – Wang Yang, youngest Olympic record breaker at age 17 (Oly-1988)
1972 – Karen Clark, Calgary Alberta, synchro swimmer (Olympics-silver-96)
1974 – Sharon Pelletier, Madawaska Maine, Miss America-Maine (1996)
1974 – Alexander Pichushkin, Russian serial killer
1977 – Gerard Way, American musician (My Chemical Romance)
1979 – Keshia Knight Pulliam, Newark NJ, actress (Rudy-Crosby)
1979 – Albert Hammond, Jr., American guitarist (The Strokes)
1980 – Kristin Lee, Bethesda Md, rhythmic gymnast (US team-96)
1981 – Eric Harris, Columbine High School shooter (d. 1999)
1986 – Leighton Meester, American actress
1990 – Kristen Stewart, Los Angeles, California, American actress (Bella Swan-The Twilight Saga)
1998 – Elle Fanning, American Actress
Deaths
93 – Yuan An, Minister over the Masses of the Han dynasty
491 – Zeno, Byzantine Emperor
715 – Constantine I, Greek/Syrian Pope (708-15), dies
1024 – Benedict VIII, [Theophylactus van Tusculum], Pope (1012-24), dies
1137 – William X, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 1099)
1484 – Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales (b. 1473), son of Richard III King of England
1553 – Francois Rabelais, French author (Gargantua/Pantagruel), dies at 49
1626 – Francis Bacon, English statesman and philosopher, dies from pneumonia at 65
1747 – Simon Fraser, 12th baron Lovat Jacobite, last man beheaded in England
1754 – Christian von Wolff, German philosopher, dies at 75
1806 – William V of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic dies at 58
1807 – John Opie, Engl painter/illustrator: Shakespeare gallery, dies at 45
1850 – William Prout, physician/chemist, dies
1852 – John Howard Payne, actor/playwright (Fair Warning), dies
1862 – George W Johnson, US planter/Confederate (gov-Ky), dies at about 50
1865 – Thomas Alfred Smyth, Irish/US Union general-major, dies at 32
1872 – Erastus Corning, American businessman and politician (b. 1794)
1882 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English Pre-Raphaelite poet and painter, dies at 53
1889 – Michel Eugène Chevreul, French chemist (b. 1786)
1917 – Edward Thomas, poet, killed in WW I
1944 – Evgeniya Rudneva, Russian World War II heroine (b. 1920)
1945 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologist/antifascist, hanged
1945 – Hans Oster, German major-general/spy, “July 20th plot”, hanged
1945 – Hans von Dohnanyi, “July 20th plotter”, hanged
1945 – Wilhelm Canaris, Admiral/headed Germany Abwehr, hanged
1945 – Georg Elser, failed assassin of Hitler (b. 1903)
1951 – Vilhelm F K Bjerknes, Norwegian/US physicist/meteorology, dies at 89
1959 – Frank Lloyd Wright, US architect (Guggenheim Museum NY), dies at 89
1962 – Juan Belmonte, famed bullfighter, dies at 70
1970 – Gustaf Tenggren, Swedish illustrator (b. 1896)
1982 – Robert H G Havemann, German chemist/dissident, dies
1988 – Brook Benton, singer (Just a Matter of Time), dies at 56 of meningitis
1988 – Dave Prater, rocker (Sam & Dave), dies in a car crash at 50
1991 – Maurice Binder, title designer (James Bond Movies), dies at 73
1994 – Keith Watson, British comic strip artist (Dan Dare), dies at 59
1996 – James William Rouse, US builder (shopping malls), dies at 81
1996 – Richard Thomas Condon, author, dies at 81
2002 – Leopold Vietoris, Austrian mathematician (b. 1891)
2010 – Aladár Kovácsi, Hungarian modern pentathlon olimpic champion (1952, Helsinki) (b. 1932)
2011 – Sidney Lumet, American film director (b. 1924)
2012 – Mark Lenzi, American Olympic Diver, dies from hypertension at 43
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