Today In The Past
Events
43 BC – Battle of Forum Gallorum: Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar’s assassin Decimus Junius Brutus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is killed.
193 – Lucius Septimus Severus crowned emperor of Rome
754 – Pact of Quierzy: between Pope Stephen II, [III] & Pippin the Korte
966 – Christianisation of Poland
972 – Notger becomes bishop of Liege
979 – Challenge to throne of King Aethelred II of England
1028 – German emperor Conrad II the Sailor crowns his son Henry III, king
1191 – 85-year old Giacinto Bobo becomes Pope Coelestinus III
1341 – Sack of Saluzzo (Italy) by Italian-Angevine troops under Manfred V of Saluzzo.
1434 – The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid.
1471 – Battle of Barnet – King Edward IV vs Earl of Warwick
1544 – Battle at Carignano: French troops under Earl d’Enghien beat Swiss
1574 – Battle of Mookerhei – D’Avila beats Louis of Nassau
1611 – Word “telescope” is 1st used (Prince Federico Cesi)
1671 – Cosaks capture Russian boer leader Stenka Razin
1699 – Khalsa: Birth of Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, in Northern India in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar.
1775 – 1st abolitionist society in US organizes in Phila
1777 – NY adopts new constitution as an independent state
1792 – France declares war on Austria, starting French Revolutionary Wars
1809 – Napoleon defeated Austria in the Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria
1814 – Napoleon abdicated & was banished to Elba
1818 – US Medical Corp forms
1828 – 18-gun sloop “Acorn” sinks off Halifax with 115 men aboard
1828 – 1st edition of Noah Webster’s dictionary published
1831 – Soldiers marching on a bridge in Manchester, England cause it to collapse.
1836 – Congress forms Territory of Wisconsin
1841 – Edgar Allen Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” published
1853 – Harriet Tubman began her Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape
1860 – 1st Pony Express rider arrives in SF from St Joseph, Mo
1861 – Formal Union surrender of Ft Sumter
1861 – Robert E Lee resigns from Union army
1862 – Battle of Ft Pillow TN
1863 – William Bullock patents continuous-roll printing press
1865 – Mobile, Alabama is captured
1865 – US Secret Service created to fight counterfeiting
1865 – U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home by Lewis Powell.
1865 – President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater
1868 – SC voters approved constitution, 70,758 to 27,228
1871 – Canada sets denominations of currency as dollars, cents, & mills
1872 – Dominion Lands Act passed-Canada’s Homestead Act
1872 – San Francisco organizes Bar Association
1881 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.
1902 – JC Penney opens his 1st store, in Kemmerer, Wyo
1903 – Dr Harry Plotz discovers vaccine against typhoid (NYC)
1906 – Pres Theodore Roosevelt denounces “muckrakers” in US press
1909 – Anglo-Persian Oil Company forms in London
1914 – Stacy G Carkhuff patents non-skid tire pattern
1915 – Dutch merchant navy ship Katwijk sunk by Germany torpedo
1915 – The Turks invade Armenia.
1918 – Douglas Campbell is 1st US ace pilot (shooting down 5th German plane)
1920 – Tornadoes killed 219 people in Alabama & Mississippi
1927 – The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1928 – Maddus Airlines starts 1st regular passenger flights between SF & LA
1935 – Sandstorm ravages US midwest (Dust Bowl)
1939 – John Steinbeck novel “The Grapes of Wrath” published
1940 – Allied troops land in Norway
1940 – RCA demonstrated its new electron microscope in Philadelphia
1941 – 1st massive German raid in Paris, 3,600 Jews rounded up
1942 – Destroyer Roper sinks German U-85 of US east coast
1944 – 1st Jews transported from Athens arrive at Auschwitz
1944 – Freighter “Fort Stikene” explodes in Bombay India, killing 1,376
1944 – Gen Eisenhower becomes head commander of allied air fleet
1945 – American planes bombed Tokyo & damaged the Imperial Palace
1945 – Arnhem/Zwolle freed from nazis
1945 – US 7th Army & allies forces captured Nuremberg & Stuttgart in Germany
1945 – US forces conquered Motobu peninsula on Okinawa
1945 – US marines attack Yae Take on Okinawa
1948 – A flash of light is observed in crater Plato on Moon
1948 – NYC subway fares jump from 5 cents to 10 cents
1953 – Viet-Minh offensive in Laos
1955 – Elston Howard becomes the 1st black to wear the Yankee uniform
1956 – Ampex Corp demonstrates 1st commercial videotape recorder
1958 – Sputnik 2 (with dog Laika) burns up in atmosphere
1960 – 1st underwater launching of Polaris missile
1961 – Cuban-American invasion army departs Nicaragua
1961 – US element 103 (Lawrencium) discovered
1964 – Sandy Koufax throws his 9th complete game without allowing a walk
1967 – In the Vietnam War, US planes bombed Haiphong for 1st time
1968 – Roberto de Vicenzo loses Masters for signing an incorrect score card
1969 – Student Afro-American Society seized at Columbia College
1971 – President Nixon ends blockade against People’s Republic of China
1973 – Acting FBI director L Patrick Gray resigns after admitting he destroyed evidence in the Watergate scandal
1978 – Korean Air Lines Boeing 707, fired on by Soviets, crashes in Russia
1980 – 1st Cubans of the Mariel boatlift sail to Florida
1983 – Pres Reagan signs $165 billion Social Security rescue
1985 – Jack C Burcham is 5th to receive “Jarvik 7” permanent artificial heart
1986 – Double-decker ferry sinks in stormy weather in Bangladesh killing 200
1986 – US aircraft attacks 5 terrorist locations in Libya
1987 – Turkey asks to join European market
1989 – 1,100,000,000th Chinese born
1992 – Court throws out Apple’s lawsuit against Microsoft
1992 – UAW ends 5 month strike against Caterpillar Inc
1992 – UN imposes embargo against Libya takes effect
1994 – US F-15 accidentally shoots 2 US helicopters down over Iraq, 26 die
1994 – Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh promises to surrender after completion of his Seven Seals manuscript
1999 – NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees – Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed.
2000 – Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich files a lawsuit against P2P sharing phenomenon Napster. This law-suit eventually leads the movement against file-sharing programs.
2002 – Tiger Woods becomes the third golfer to win The Masters in two consecutive years
2002 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returns to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country’s military.
2003 – The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.
2003 – U.S. troops in Baghdad capture Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the Achille Lauro in 1985.
2007 – At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
2010 – Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajökull begins erupting from the top crater in the centre of the glacier
Births
1336 – Emperor Go-Kōgon of Japan (d. 1374)
1572 – Adam Tanner, Austrian mathematician (d. 1632)
1578 – Philip III, King of Spain & Portugal (1598-1621)
1592 – Abraham Elsevier, book publisher/publisher
1629 – Christian Huygens, Holland, astronomer (discovered Saturn’s rings)
1668 – Magnus Julius De la Gardie, Swedish General (d. 1741)
1676 – Ernst Chreistian Hesse, composer
1710 – Marie A C de Camargo, Spanish/Italian/Belgian dancer
1721 – William August duke of Cumberland, English army leader
1741 – Emperor Momozono of Japan (d. 1762)
1762 – Giuseppe Valadier, Italian architect/archaeologist
1788 – David G. Burnet, interim president of the Republic of Texas (d. 1870)
1813 – Junius S Morgan, US, merchant/philanthropist (Metro Museum of Art)
1820 – Harry Thompson Hays, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1876
1827 – Augustus Pitt Rivers, English archaeologist (d. 1900)
1832 – James Hewett Ledlie, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1882
1861 – Bion Joseph Arnold, electrical engineer/inventor
1866 – Anne Mansfield Sullivan, US, educated Helen Keller
1868 – Peter Behrens, German architect (d. 1940)
1882 – Moritz Schlick, Austrian philosopher, (d. 1936)
1889 – Arnold Toynbee, England, historian (Study of History)
1892 – Giorgio Cesana, Italy, coxswain, (Olympic-gold-1906)
1892 – Vere G Childe, British archaeologist/prehistorian
1901 – Alfred West, champion cyclist/record hair splitter (17 splits)
1901 – Martin Kessel, writer
1904 – John Gielgud, London England, actor (Arthur, Ages of Man)
1906 – Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz, King Saudi-Arabia (1964-75)
1907 – Francois “Doc” Duvalier, dictator of Haiti
1912 – Robert Doisneau, photographer
1913 – John Howard, Cleve Ohio, actor (Dave-My Three Sons)
1920 – John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court Justice
1921 – Thomas Schelling, American economist, Nobel laureate
1925 – Bill Harris, US guitarist (Clovers-Good Lovin’)
1925 – Rod Steiger, West Hampton NY, actor (Illustrated Man, Pawnbroker)
1933 – Buddy Knox, Happy Tx, rock vocalist (Party Doll, Lovey Dovey)
1935 – Loretta Lynn, Butcher’s Hollow Ky, singer (Coal Miner’s Daughter)
1936 – Kenneth Mars, American actor
1936 – Frank Serpico, American policeman
1941 – Julie Christie, Assam India, actress (Dr Zhivago)
1941 – Pete Rose, Cincinnati Reds, Charlie hustle (most hits in majors)
1941 – Ryan O’Neal, actor (Love Story, Paper Moon)
1945 – Ritchie Blackmore, Engld, guitarist (Rainbow-Stone Cold, Deep Purple)
1945 – Steve Martin, Waco TX, writer/actor (Jerk, Housesitter)
1948 – Ty Grimes, rocker (Capt Beefheart Band Drums
1949 – John Shea, North Conway NH, actor (Honeymoon, New Life, Lois & Clark)
1952 – Kenny Aaronson, rocker
1953 – Irina Rudolfovna Pronina, Russian cosmonaut
1954 – Bruce Sterling, US, sci-fi author (Involution Ocean, Schismatrix)
1957 – Richard Jeni, American comedian (d. 2007)
1961 – Robert Carlyle, Glasgow, Scotland, British actor (Trainspotting, The Full Monty)
1962 – James Carpenter, Canton Conn, fencer-epee (Olympics-96)
1966 – David Justice, baseball player (Atlanta Braves)/husband of Halle Barry
1966 – Greg Maddux, San Angelo TX, pitcher (Atlanta Braves)
1967 – Barret Martin, rocker (Screaming Trees)
1968 – Anthony Michael Hall, Boston Mass, comedian (SNL, Breakfast Club)
1973 – Adrien Brody, American actor
1975 – Amy Dumas, American professional wrestler
1975 – Veronika Zemanová, Czech model
1977 – Sarah Michelle Gellar, actress (Kendall-All My Children, Buffy)
1979 – Randal McCloy, Survivor of the Sago Mine Disaster
1986 – Anne Watanabe, Japanese model
1996 – Abigail Breslin, American child actress
Deaths
711 – Childebert III, king of French, dies at about 27
911 – Sergius III, Italian Pope (904-11), dies
1099 – Conrad, bishop of Utrecht, stabbed to death
1132 – Mstislav of Kiev (b. 1076)
1240 – Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Wales, dies
1279 – Boleslaus of Greater Poland
1322 – Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Lord Badlesmere, English soldier (b. 1275)
1433 – Liduina van Schiedam, Dutch mystic (Christ’s Bride)/saint, dies at 53
1574 – Christoffel Palts, German general strategist, dies in battle
1574 – Hendrik, count of Nassau-Dillenburg, dies in battle
1574 – Louis, earl of Nassau-Dillenburg, dies in battle at 35
1578 – James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, consort of Mary I of Scotland
1599 – Henry Wallop, English statesman
1662 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English statesman (b. 1582)
1716 – Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington, British admiral
1759 – Georg Friedrich Handel, organist/composer (Watermusic), dies at 74
1764 – Peder [Nielsen] Horrebow, Danish astronomer, dies at 84
1785 – William Whitehead, English writer (b. 1715)
1792 – Maximilian Hell, Slovakian astronomer (b. 1720)
1874 – Hermanus J Abbring, Dutch author/engineer on Curacao, dies at 86
1911 – Addie Joss, American baseball player (b. 1880)
1924 – Louis H Sullivan, architect (Wainwright building St Louis), dies at 67
1935 – Amalie Emmy Noether, German mathematician (b. 1882)
1941 – Jack Edmonson, Australian corporal in Tobruk (Victoria Cross), dies
1948 – Walter P Reuther, Pres (United Auto Workers), shot at his home
1949 – Joseph A Cushman, US paleontologist, dies at 68
1964 – Rachel L Carson, US biologist/author (Silent spring), dies at 56
1964 – Tatyana Alexeyevna Afanasyeva, Russian/Dutch mathematician (b. 1876)
1965 – Perry E Smith, US murderer (In Cold Blood), hanged
1965 – Robert E Hickok, US murderer (In Cold Blood), hanged
1971 – Armand Spitz, developer of small educational planetarium, dies
1975 – Fredric March, actor (Inherit the Wind), dies at 77
1983 – Nina Dumbadze, Russian discus thrower (Oly-bronze-1952), dies at 64
1983 – Pete Farndon, rock bassist (Pretenders), dies
1985 – Reginald Beane, pianist (Starlit Time, Once Upon a Tune), dies at 63
1992 – Sammy Price, US boogie-woogie pianist, dies
1995 – Burl Ives, folk singer/actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), dies at 85
1995 – Donald Keech, entrepreneur, dies at 74
1995 – James Daniel “Danny” Turner, saxophonist, dies at 75
1996 – Gaylord Birch, drummer (Pointer Sisters, Herbie Hancock), dies at 50
1999 – Anthony Newley, British actor and singer (b. 1931)
2000 – Phil Katz, American computer programmer (b. 1962)
2001 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director (b. 1927)
2007 – Don Ho, American musician (b. 1930)
2008 – Ollie Johnston, the last living member of Disney’s Nine Old Men. (b. 1912)
2010 – Peter Steele, American musician. (b. 1968)
2011 – Walter Breuning, American supercentenarian (b. 1896)
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