Today In The Past
Events
69 – Battle at Bedriacum, North-Italy
1205 – Battle at Adrianople: Bulgaria beats Emp Boudouin of Constantinople
1250 – Pope Innoncent III refuses Jews of Cordova Spain to build a synagogue
1450 – French defeat English at Battle of Formigny in 100 Years’ War
1493 – -20/4 Barcelona] Columbus meets with King Ferdinand & Isabella
1581 – Cortes van Thomar accepts Philip II as king of Portugal
1594 – Fleming Pieter Stevens appointed royal painter of Rudolf II (Prague)
1632 – Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat Count Tilly of the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years’ War.
1715 – Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.
1738 – Bottle opener invented
1793 – Bank of England hands out 1st £5 note
1817 – 1st American school for the deaf opens (Hartford Conn)
1850 – City of San Francisco incorporated
1858 – Battle of Azimghur, Mexicans defeat Spanish loyalists
1861 – Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by US President Lincoln
1864 – General Steeles’ Union troops occupies Camden, Arkansas
1865 – Otto von Bismarck elevated to rank of Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen
1870 – Last day US silver coins allow to circulate in Canada
1874 – NY legislature passes compulsory education law
1877 – 1st telephone installed: Boston-Somerville, Mass
1878 – Harley Procter introduces Ivory Soap
1892 – General Electric Company, forms & is incorporated in NY
1895 – Josephine Blatt (US) makes hip-and-harness lift of 3564 lb (record)
1896 – 1st Olympic games close at Athens, Greece
1900 – An early 50 mile race is won by an electric car in over 2 hrs
1900 – International Exposition opens in Paris
1901 – 1st British motorized burial
1912 – Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as band plays on
1922 – Banting, MacLeod & Best discover insulin
1923 – Insulin becomes generally available for diabetics
1924 – Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.
1927 – Babe Ruth hits 1st of 60 HRs of season (off A’s Howard Ehmke)
1931 – 1st walk across American backwards begins
1940 – British troops land at Narvik, Norway
1941 – 1st helicopter flight of 1 hr duration, Stratford, Ct
1943 – Metropolitan Life Insurances issues a $225 million check to Chase
1945 – British Army liberates Nazi concentration camp, Bergen-Belsen
1945 – US troops occupy concentration camp Colditz
1947 – Jackie Robinson goes hitless in his major league debut
1948 – 1st Jewish-Arab military battle, arabs defeated
1952 – 1st B-52 prototype test flight
1952 – Franklin National Bank issues 1st bank credit card
1952 – The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress
1955 – Ray Kroc starts McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants (Illinois)
1957 – Saturday mail delivery restored after Congress givs PO $41 million
1959 – Fidel Castro begins US goodwill tour
1959 – US Sect of States John Foster Dulles resigns
1962 – US national debt above $300,000,000,000
1964 – Chesapeake Bay Bridge opens (world’s longest)
1964 – Ian Smith becomes premier of Rhodesia
1969 – North Korea shoots at US airplane above Japanese sea
1970 – Libyan leader Gadaffi launches “Green Revolution”
1971 – 43rd Academy Awards – “Patton,” George C Scott & Glenda Jackson win
1972 – Barbra Striesand, James Taylor, Carole King & Quincy Jones perform at a benefit for George McGovern for President
1973 – Walt Disney Story opens
1974 – Military coup in Niger, president Diori Hamani deposed
1975 – 1st appearance of San Diego Chicken
1978 – 43 die as 2 express trains collide head-on south of Bologna, Italy
1981 – Janet Cooke says her Pulitzer award 8-year-old heroin addict story is a lie, Wash Post relinquishes Pulitzer Prize on fabricated story
1982 – Apollo Computer announces DN400, DN420, & landscape display
1983 – Tokyo Disneyland opens
1984 – Extremist Sikhs plunder 40 stations in Punjab India
1986 – US air raids Libya, responding to La Belle disco, Berlin bombing
1986 – The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya.
1988 – Meteorite explode above Indonesia
1989 – 95 crushed to death at Sheffield Soccer Stadium in England
1989 – Then largest lottery in North America ($69M) drawn in Illinois
1990 – “In Living Color” premieres on FOX-TV
1991 – Former child actor Adam Rich charged with burglary
1991 – Magic Johnson sets NBA record for career assistswith 9,898
1991 – Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $280 per week
1992 – Billionaire Leona Helmsly is sent to jail for tax evasion
1992 – Jay Leno’s final appearance as permanent guest host of Tonight
1992 – Lincoln Hospital in Bronx loses its accreditation
1992 – William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy & DeForest Kelley inducted into National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
1997 – America On Line, begins service in Japan
1997 – Baseball honors Jackie Robinson by retiring #42 for all teams
1997 – Fire sweeps through a campsite of Muslims making the Hajj pilgrimage; the official death toll is 343.
2010 – Volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland leads to the closure of airspace over most of Europe.
2012 – 400 Islamist Militants escape from a Pakistan prison after an insurgent attack
2012 – US Secret Service inappropriate conduct scandal begins with at least 11 people implicated
Births
1452 – Leonardo da Vinci, Italy, painter/sculptor/scientist/visionary
1469 – Nanak, 1st guru of Sikhs
1489 – Sinan, Ottoman architect (d. 1588)
1552 – Pietro Cataldi, Italian mathematician (d. 1626)
1588 – Claudius Salmasius, [Claude Saumaise], French linguist
1641 – Robert Sibbald, Scottish physician (d. 1722)
1646 – King Christian V of Denmark (d. 1699)
1646 – Pierre Poiret, French mystic (d. 1719)
1684 – Catherine I, empress of Russia (1725-27)
1707 – Leonhard Euler, Bassle Sweden, mathematician (Euler’s Constant)
1710 – William Cullen, Scottish physician (d. 1790)
1741 – Charles Willson Peale, US, port painter/inventor (George Washington)
1772 – Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French naturalist (d. 1844)
1793 – Friedrich Struve, Germany, founded dynasty of astronomers
1794 – Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist (d. 1867)
1800 – James Clark Ross, explorer (British Antarctic)
1809 – Hermann Gunther Grassmann, mathematician
1820 – Evander McNair, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1902
1821 – Emerson Brown Joseph, (Confederacy), died in 1894
1822 – Napolean Jackson Tecumseh Dana, Major General (Union volunteers)
1829 – Mary Harris Thompson, 1st American woman surgeon
1837 – Horace Porter, Bvt Brigadier General (Union Army), died in 1921
1841 – Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian distillery founder (d. 1919)
1843 – Henry James, American/British author (Turn of the Screw, Bostonians), (d. 1916)
1874 – Johannes Stark, Germany, physicist (Stark effect) (Nobel 1919)
1874 – George Harrison Shull, American plant geneticist (d. 1954)
1875 – James J. Jeffries, American heavyweight boxer (d. 1953)
1885 – Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Polish general (d. 1947)
1889 – Thomas Hart Benton, Missouri, painter/muralist (Lonesome Road)
1891 – Alvin Carter, Virginia, vocalist (Carter Family)
1892 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (d. 1983)
1892 – Theo Osterkamp, World War I and World War II German fighter pilot (d. 1975)
1894 – Elizabeth Mae “Bessie” Smith, Empress of Blues (over 200 songs)
1894 – Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Kalinovka, Dmitriyevsky Uyezd, Kursk Governorate, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1953-64)
1895 – Harry F V Edward, British Guiana, 100m/200m runner (Oly-bronze-1920)
1895 – Clark McConachy, New Zealand billiards player (d. 1980)
1896 – Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1986)
1901 – Joe Davis, English snooker/billiards-world champ (1927-46)
1907 – Nicholas Tinbergen, Neth/British biologist/zoologist (Nobel 1973)
1912 – Kim II Sung, pres of North Korea (1945-94)
1912 – Peter Menzies, CEO (British Electricity Council)
1916 – Alfred S. Bloomingdale, American businessman (d. 1982)
1917 – Hans Conried, Balt Md, actor (Bullwinkle Show, Make Room for Daddy)
1920 – Thomas Szasz, Budapest, Hungary, psychiatrist (The Myth of Mental Illness, The Manufacture of Madness), (d. 2012)
1922 – Michael Ansara, Lowell Mass, actor (Cochise-Broken Arrow, Centennial)
1927 – Robert Mills, American physicist (d. 1999)
1928 – Norma Merrick Sklarek, 1st black woman architect in NY & Calif
1929 – Adrian Cadbury, candy manufacturer (Cadbury, Schweppes)
1933 – Boris Strugatski, USSR, sci-fi author (Tale of Troika)
1933 – Elizabeth Montgomery, LA California, actress (Samantha/Serena-Bewitched)
1933 – Roy Clark, Meherrin Va, country singer (Hee Haw)
1938 – Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born actress (The Pink Panther)
1939 – Marti Wilder, father of rocker Kim Wilde
1940 – Edy Hubacher, Switzerland, 4-man bobsled (Olympic-gold-1972)
1940 – Jeffrey Archer, England, (Tory-Commons)/author (Matter of Honor)
1940 – Robert Walker Jr, NYC, actor (Ceremony, Ms Don Juan, Ensign Pulver)
1940 – Robert Lacroix, French Canadian professor of economics
1942 – Walter Raphael Hazzard, Wilmington Del, basketball (Olympic-gold-1964)
1942 – Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d. 2006)
1944 – Dave Edmunds, Wales, singer/guitarist (Rockpile-Baby I Love You)
1947 – Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, TV producer (Designing Women, Murphy Brown)
1947 – Michael DeBello, singer (Maniac)
1951 – Heloise II, columnist (Heloise’s Helpful Hints)
1951 – John L Phillips, Ft Belvoir Va, PhD/astronaut
1951 – Marsha S Ivins, Baltimore Maryland, astronaut (STS 32, 46, 62, 81)
1954 – Seka, American actress
1955 – Barbara Barrow, LPGA golfer
1955 – Enith Salle Brigitha, Neth, 100m/200m swimmer (Olympic-bronze-1976)
1955 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
1956 – Gregory J Harbaugh, Cleveland Ohio, astronaut (STS 39, 54, 71, 82)
1957 – Evelyn Ashford, Shreveport LA, 100m runner (Oly-4 gold-1976, 84)
1958 – Matt Reid, rock keyboardist (Berlin-Takes Your Breathe Away)
1959 – Emma Thompson, England, actress (Henry V, Howards End, Oscar-1992)
1960 – Marvin Clyde Goodwin, New Orleans La, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List)
1961 – Tiina Lillak, Finland, javelin thrower (Olympic-silver-1984)
1963 – Teresa Wentzel DeWitt, Ft Bragg NC, double trap (Olympics-1996)
1963 – Bobby Pepper, American journalist
1966 – Samantha Karen Fox, East End London England, singer (Touch Me)
1967 – Dara Torres, Beverly Hills CA, US Olympic swimmer (Olympic-gold-84)
1968 – Stacey Williams, Phila Penn, model (SI Swimsuit 1996)
1971 – Jason Sehorn, NFL cornerback/safety (NY Giants)
1971 – Sarah Jane Hamilton, British actress
1972 – Peter Billingsley, NYC, actor (Real People)
1972 – Lou Romano, American voice actor
1974 – Josh Todd, American musician (Buckcherry)
1975 – Paul Dana, American race car driver (d. 2006)
1976 – Susan Ward, American actress
1977 – Lisa Bell, Rockford Ill, figure skater (1997 Midwestern Sr champ)
1980 – Fränk Schleck, Luxembourgish cyclist
1982 – Seth Rogen, Canadian actor and writer
1984 – Ben Kasica, Guitarist of rock band Skillet
1990 – Emma Watson, Paris, France, English actress (Hermione Granger-Harry Potter Series)
Deaths
1053 – Godwin, Earl of Wessex
1220 – Adolf I, archbishop of Cologne, dies
1415 – Manuel Chrysoloras, Greek humanist and grammarian
1472 – Leon B Alberti, Italian humanist/architect (Philodoxis), dies at 68
1502 – Jan IV Chalon, prince of Orange, dies
1605 – Boris Godunov, tsar of Russia (1598-1605), dies
1621 – John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony
1632 – George Calvert, Proprietor of the Avalon (Maryland) Colony (b. 1580)
1761 – Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, Scottish politician (b. 1682)
1761 – William Oldys, English antiquarian and bibliographer (b. 1696)
1764 – Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (b. 1721) of tuberculosis aged 42
1793 – Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian Jesuit missionary and geographer (b. 1718)
1804 – Charles Pichegru, French general (strangled in prison) (b. 1761)
1824 – Theodorus F van Capellen, vice-admiral (Algiers), dies at 61
1854 – Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist, and writer (b. 1773)
1865 – Abraham Lincoln, 16th American president, dies from gunshot wound at 56
1898 – Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, Maori military leader
1911 – Georg Knorr, German engineer, dies
1912 – Edward Smith, captain of the RMS Titanic (b. 1850)
1912 – John Jacob Astor IV, billionaire (b. 1864)
1920 – Jacob van Stolk Azn, art collector, dies at 74
1925 – John Singer Sargent, US portrait painter, dies at 69
1948 – Radola Gajda, Czech military commander and politician (d. 1892)
1949 – Wallace Beery, US actor (The Champ), dies at 64
1967 – Antonio de Curtis Toto, comedian, dies of heart attack at 69
1971 – Dan Reeves, American football team owner (b. 1912)
1975 – John B McKay, US test pilot (X-15), dies
1980 – Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialist philosopher and writer (Nobel 1964), dies in Paris at 74
1980 – Raymond Bailey, actor (Mr Drysdale-Beverly Hillbillies), dies at 75
1982 – 5 murderers, of Egyptian pres Sadat, executed
1983 – Corrie ten Boom, Dutch author and Holocaust survivor (b. 1892)
1984 – Tommy Cooper, comedian, dies at 61
1986 – Jean Genet, French criminal/novelist/dramatist, dies at 75
1986 – Sergei Nikolayevich Anokhin, cosmonaut, dies at 76
1989 – Nesuhi Ertegün, American record executive (b. 1917)
1990 – Greta Garbo, actress (Anna Karenina, Camille), dies at 84
1993 – Leslie Charteris, British mystery writer (Saint), dies at 85
1993 – John Tuzo Wilson, Canadian geologist (b. 1908)
1994 – John Curry, English figure skater (Oly-gold-76), dies of AIDS at 44
1995 – Denis Harding, soldier, dies at 79
1998 – Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator (b. 1925)
1999 – Harvey Postlethwaite, British engineer and racing car designer (b. 1944)
2000 – Edward Gorey, American illustrator (b. 1925)
2001 – Joey Ramone, American musician and singer (The Ramones) (b. 1951)
2002 – Byron “Whizzer” White, American football player and U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1917)
2007 – Brant Parker, American cartoonist (b. 1920)
2010 – Jack Herer, American author and cannabis activist (b. 1939)
—
