Today In The Past
Events
467 – Anthemius is elevated to Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
1065 – Pilgrims under bishop Gunther of Bamberg reach Jerusalem
1204 – 4th Crusade occupies & plunders Constantinople
1229 – Queen Blanche of Castile & earl Raymond VII van Toulouse sign peace
1545 – French king Francois I orders protestants of Vaudois to be killed
1557 – Cuenca is founded in Ecuador.
1606 – England adopts Union Jack as its flag
1654 – Ordinance of Union between England and Scotland passed by the Council of State
1770 – Townsend Acts repealed
1776 – Halifax resolution for independence adopted by North Carolina
1782 – Battle at Les Saintes West-Indies: British fleet beats French
1787 – Philadelphia’s Free African Society forms
1811 – 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, WA
1820 – Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece.
1844 – Texan envoys sign Treaty of Annexation with the United States
1858 – 1st US billiards championship (Michael J Phelan wins in Detroit)
1861 – Fort Sumter, SC is shelled by Confederacy, starting Civil War
1862 – James Andrews steals Confederate train (General) at Kennesaw, GA
1862 – Union troops occupy Fort Pulaski Georgia
1863 – -14] Gunboat battle at Bayou Teche Louisiana
1864 – Battle of Blair’s Landing LA
1864 – Confederate Gen Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow, Tn
1869 – North Carolina legislature passes anti-Klan Law
1872 – Jesse James gang robs bank in Columbia, Kentucky (1 dead/$1,500)
1877 – British annex Transvaal, in South Africa
1877 – Catcher’s mask 1st used in a baseball game
1883 – French troops under lt-colonel Borgnis-Desbordes occupy Bamako Senegal
1893 – Battle at Hoornkrans Southwest-Africa: German Schutztruppen chases away Hottentotten under Hendrik Witbooi
1894 – British & Belgian secret accord on dividing Central-Africa
1898 – Army transfers Yerba Buena Island in SF Bay to Navy
1905 – French Dufaux brothers test helicopter
1905 – Hippodrome arena opens (NYC)
1908 – Fire makes 17,000 homeless in Chelsea Massachusetts
1911 – 1st non-stop London-Paris flight (Pierre Prier in 3h56m)
1919 – British Parliament passes a 48-hour work week with minimum wages
1927 – Gen Chiang Kai-shek begins counter revolution in Shanghai
1928 – Assassination attempt on king Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
1934 – Highest velocity wind ever recorded on Mt Washington, NH, 231 mph
1934 – The US Auto-Lite Strike begins, culminating in a five-day melee between Ohio National Guard troops and 6,000 strikers and picketers.
1935 – First flight of the Bristol Blenheim.
1938 – US began requiring medical tests for marriage licenses
1940 – Italy annexes Albania
1941 – Vichy-France’s head of government Admiral Dalarn consults with Hitler
1942 – Japan kills about 400 Filipino officers in Bataan
1945 – Canadian troops liberate Nazi concentration camp Westerbork, Neth
1945 – Harry Truman sworn in as 33rd pres
1953 – Keizo Yamada runs fastest marathon to date, at Boston
1954 – Bill Haley & Comets records “Rock Around Clock”
1954 – Joe Turner releases “Shake, Rattle & Roll”
1955 – Salk polio vaccine safe & effective; 4 billion dimes marched
1959 – France Observator reports torture practice by French army in Algeria
1961 – Douglas MacArthur declines offer to become baseball commissioner
1963 – Birmingham police use dogs & cattle prods on peaceful demonstrators
1966 – 1st B-52 bombing on North Vietnam
1966 – Rocker Jan Berry crashes his corvette into a parked truck
1968 – Nerve gas accident at Skull Valley, Utah.
1969 – Simon & Garfunkel releases “Boxer”
1970 – Yankees dedicate plaques to Mickey Mantle & Joe DiMaggio
1980 – BCMA, Black Consciousness Movement of Azania, forms
1980 – Samuel Doe takes control of Liberia in a coup d’etat, ending over 130 years of national democratic presidential succession.
1981 – Maiden voyage Space Transit System-space shuttle Columbia launched
1982 – 3 CBS employees shot to death in NYC parking lot
1983 – Harold Washington elected Chicago’s 1st black mayor
1985 – US Olympic Committee endorses a boycott of Moscow games
1987 – Texaco files for bankruptcy
1988 – Harvard U patents genetically engineered mouse (1st for animal life)
1988 – Sonny Bono elected mayor of Palm Springs Calif
1990 – Greyhound Bus hires new drivers to replace strikers
1990 – James Brown moves to a work-release center after serving 15 months
1990 – 1st meeting of East German democratically elected parliament, acknowledges responsibility for Nazi holocaust & asks for forgivenesss
1991 – 2,500th episode of Entertainment Tonight airs
1991 – US announces closing of 31 major US military bases
1992 – Euro Disney opens in Marne-la-Vallee France
1992 – Lynn Gunther of California threatens to blow herself up in front of UN
1992 – Trump Shuttle becomes US Air Shuttle
1994 – Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam.
1999 – US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving “intentionally false statements” in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
2002 – Pedro Carmona becomes interim President of Venezuela during the military coup against Hugo Chávez.
2002 – Palestinian suicide bomber (female) kills 7 and injures 104 (among them 9 Arabs) at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.
2009 – U.S. Navy rescues captain Richard Phillips, killing three pirates and capturing a fourth.
2012 – A ceasefire in the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising comes into effect
2012 – Bodleian, Oxford University and Vatican libraries announce over 1.5 million pages of ancient texts will be made available across the internet
Births
599 BC – Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism (d. 527 BC)
812 – Muhammad at-Taqi, Muslim Shia Imam (d. 835)
1484 – Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Italian architect (d. 1546)
1500 – Joachim Camerarius, [Liebhard Kammerer], German humanist
1526 – Muretus, French humanist (d. 1585)
1550 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English politician (d. 1604)
1579 – Francois de Bassompierre, marshal of France
1695 – Caspar Burman, historian/mayor (Utrecht Neth)
1705 – William Cookworthy, English chemist (d. 1780)
1724 – Lyman Hall, US physician (signed Declaration of Independence)
1748 – Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, French botanist (d. 1836)
1777 – Henry Clay, [the Great Compromiser], US politician
1794 – Germinal P Dandelin, Belgian mathematician (geometry)
1801 – Henry de Cock, Dutch reformed vicar/secession leader
1831 – George Burgwyn Anderson, Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
1831 – Grenville Mellen Dodge, Major General (Union volunteers)
1838 – John Shaw Billings, US, librarian/army physician
1852 – [Carl L] Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician
1856 – William M Conway, English historian/explorer (Spitzbergen)
1868 – Akiyama Saneyuki, Japanese naval commander (d. 1918)
1878 – Richard B Goldschmidt, German/US zoologist
1883 – Imogen Cunningham, photographer (1965 ASMP award)
1884 – Otto Meyerhof, Germany, psychologist/biochemist (Nobel-1922)
1898 – Lily Pons, American soprano (d. 1976)
1904 – Harald James Penrose, pilot
1908 – Robert Lee Scott, Jr., American Air Force pilot (d. 2006)
1911 – Darrell A Amyx, US archaeologist (Greek Ceramics)
1912 – Harold Maguire, British air marshal
1912 – Herbert Mills, singer, (Mills Brothers)
1913 – Keiko Fukuda, Tokyo, Japan, martial artist, (d. 2013)
1914 – Armen Alchian, American economist
1915 – Emil [Theodore] Petaja, US, sci-fi author (Star Mill, Tramontane)
1916 – Benjamin Libet, American scientist (d. 2007)
1917 – Helen Forrest, American singer (d. 1999)
1919 – Wilson Charles Geoffery Baldwin, hero
1923 – Ann Miller, [Lucille Ann Collier], Cherino, Tex, dancer (On the Town)
1924 – Julius Moormann, student/resistance fighter (WW II)
1928 – Brooklyn Supreme, Belgium, stallion, heaviest known horse (1450 kg)
1928 – Hardy Krüger, German actor
1932 – Tiny Tim [ Herbert Khaury], New York, musician, (d. 1996)
1936 – Charles Napier, actor (Night Stalker, Rambo)
1937 – Raymond Ceulemans, Belgian world champ billiards player
1939 – Alan Ayckbourn, London, playwright
1940 – Herbie Hancock, Chicago, pianist (I Thought it Was You)
1942 – Frank Bank, Hollywood California, actor (Lumpy-Leave it to Beaver)
1942 – Carlos Reutemann, Argentine racing driver and politician
1944 – John Kay, [Joachim F Krauledat], Germany, rock vocalist (Steppenwolf)
1946 – Ed O’Neill, actor (Al Bundy-Married with Children)
1947 – Dan Lauria, actor (Jack Arnold-Wonder Years) (1947 approx)
1947 – David Letterman, Indianapolis Ind, comedian (Late Night)
1947 – Tom Clancy, American author
1947 – Antonin Kratochvil photographer
1949 – Scott Turow, American writer
1950 – David Cassidy, NYC, singer/actor (Keith-Partridge Family)
1950 – Kari Palaste, Finnish architect
1950 – Flavio Briatore, Italian businessman and F1 team principal (Renault F1)
1951 – Jackson Spires, rock drummer (Blackfoot)
1954 – Marvin Johnson, US, middleweight boxer (Olympic-bronze-1972)
1954 – Pat Travers, rock guitarist (Puttin’ it Straight)
1956 – Alexander Briley, vocalist (YMCA-Village People)
1956 – Andy Garcia, Cuba, actor (Stand & Deliver, 8 Million Ways to Die)
1958 – Tony James, rock bassist (Sigue Sigue Sputnik-Love Missile F-111)
1958 – Will Sergeant, rock guitarist (Echo & Bunnymen-Killing Moon)
1961 – D D Verni, heavy metal rocker (Overkill-Hello From the Gutter)
1961 – Julius Kariuki, Kenya, 3K steeplechaser (Olympic-gold-1988)
1962 – Takada Nobuhiko, Japanese wrestler
1965 – Elaine Zayak, NJ, figure skater (Olympics-6th-1984)
1971 – Shannen Doherty, Memphis Tn, actress (Little House, Bev Hills 90210)
1979 – Claire Danes, NYC, actress (Angela-My So Called Life, Romeo & Juliet)
1985 – Hitomi Yoshizawa, Japanese singer
1985 – Jeisa Chiminazzo, Brazilian supermodel
Deaths
45 BC – Gnaeus Pompeius, the Younger, Roman general
65 – Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, statesman and dramatist
238 – Gordian II, Roman co-Emperor with his father Gordian I, killed in battle at Carthage
238 – Gordian I, Roman Emperor, suicide, after losing battle at Carthage and death of son Gordian I
352 – Julius I, pope (337-52), dies
434 – Archbishop Maximianus of Constantinople
1125 – Vladislaus I of Bohemia
1443 – Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury
1550 – Claude of Lorraine, duke of Guise, dies at 53
1555 – Joanna of Castile (Joanna the mad), wife of Philip I of Castile dies at 75
1605 – Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia (1598-1605), dies
1687 – Ambrose Dixon, Virginia Colony pioneer
1817 – Charles Messier, “comet ferret” & catalogs famous “M objects,”, dies
1864 – Thomas Green, US Confederate brig-general, dies in battle at 50
1878 – William M “Boss” Tweed, NY politician, dies
1902 – Marie Alfred Cornu, French physicist (b. 1842)
1912 – Clara Barton, organizer (American Red Cross), dies at 90
1945 – Franklin Roosevelt, 32nd US President (D) (1933-1945), dies at 63
1946 – August Borms, Flemish nazi collaborator, executed at 67
1962 – Ron Flockhart, Scottish racing driver (b. 1923)
1965 – Linda Darnell, US actress (Dakota Incident), dies at 43
1968 – Heinrich Nordhoff, German automobile engineer and Volkswagen director (b. 1899)
1975 – Josephine Baker, US/French revue artist (Folies-Bergere), dies at 68
1976 – Paul Ford, actor (Phil Silvers Show), dies at 74
1977 – Philip K Wrigley, baseball owner (Chicago Cubs), dies at 82
1980 – Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards and snooker player (b. 1895)
1981 – Joe Louis, [Brown bomber], US heavyweight boxing champion (1937-49), dies at 66
1988 – Alan Stewart Paton, writer, dies
1989 – Abbie Hoffman, yippie peace activist of the 60’s, dies at 52
1989 – Sugar Ray Robinson, heavyweight boxing champ, dies at 67 of Alzheimer
1994 – Harry la Fontaine, Danish/US resistance fighter/producer, dies at 81
1995 – Chris Pyne, trombonist, dies at 56
1996 – William Wilkinson, businessman/conservationist, dies at 63
1997 – George Wald, scientist, dies at 90
1999 – Boxcar Willie, American singer (b. 1931)
2001 – Harvey Ball, American inventor (b. 1921)
2003 – Cecil H. Green, American manufacturer (b. 1900)
2008 – Jerry Zucker, Israeli-born American businessman (b. 1949)
2009 – Marilyn Chambers, American pornographic actress (b. 1952)
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