Today In The Past

 

 

Events 

585 BC – A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.

640 – Severinus begins his reign as Catholic Pope (elected in 638)

1037 – German emperor Koenraad II removes “Constitutio the Feudis”

1156 – Battle at Brindisi: King Willem of Sicily beats Byzantine fleet

1349 – 60 Jews murdered in Breslau Silesia

1358 – Daint-Leu at Oise begins French boer uprising

1539 – Hernando de Soto lands in Florida

 

 

 

1588 – Spanish Armada under Medina-Sidonia departs Lisbon to invade England

 

 

 

 

 

 

1644 – Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of the Earl of Derby.

1664 – 1st Baptist Church organizes (Boston)

1731 – All Hebrew books in Papal State are confiscated

1742 – 1st indoor swimming pool opens (Goodman’s Fields, London)

 

 

 

1754 – George Washington defeats French & indians at Ft Duquesne (Jumonville Glen)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1774 – 1st Continental Congress convenes (Virginia)

1818 – 1st steam-vessel to sail Great Lakes launched

1830 – Congress authorizes native Indian removal from all states to western prairie

1845 – Fire in Quebec Canada, 1,500 houses destroyed

1863 – 1st black regiment (54 Mass) leaves Boston to fight in Civil War

1875 – 3rd Preakness: L Hughes aboard Tom Ochiltree wins in 2:43.5

1880 – 8th Preakness: L Hughes aboard Grenada wins in 2:40.5

1892 – Sierra Club forms by John Muir in SF, for conservation of nature

1900 – Solar eclipse occurs

1901 – 26th Preakness: Fred Landry aboard The Parader wins in 1:47.2

1901 – Laws against phosphor matches enacted (inhibition white phosphorous)

1904 – 29th Preakness: Eugene Hildebrand aboard Bryn Mawr wins in 1:44.2

1915 – John B Gruelle patents Raggedy Ann doll

1918 – Azerbaijan gains independence and declares itself a Democratic Republic

1919 – Armenia declares it’s Independence

1923 – Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere

1926 – US Customs Court created by congress

1928 – Dodge Brothers Inc & Chrysler Corp merged

1929 – 1st all color talking picture “On With the Show” exhibited (NYC)

1930 – The Chrysler Building in New York City officially opens.

1937 – Golden Gate Bridge in SF opens to vehicular traffic 

1938 – Foundation for Tel Aviv harbor laid

1940 – British-French troops capture Narvik Norway

1941 – British army begins evacuation of Kreta

1942 – 1,800 Czechs murdered by Nazis during attack on Heydrich

1951 – After going 0-for-12, Willie Mays connects for his 1st major league home run

1951 – Jerry Colonna Show, debuts on ABC-TV

1952 – The women of Greece are given the right to vote.

1953 – Premier of 1st animated 3-D cartoon in Technicolor-“Melody”

1955 – 81st Preakness: Eddie Arcaro aboard Nashua wins in 1:54.6

1955 – Bob Sweikert wins Indianapolis 500

1956 – Dale Long becomes 1st to hit HRs in 8 straight games

1956 – Eisenhower signs farm bill allows government to store agricultural surplus

1957 – NL approves Bkln Dodgers’ & NY Giants’ move to west coast

1959 – Congressional Committee of Astronautics meets Project 7 astronauts

1959 – Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile, became 1st animals retrieved from a space mission

1961 – Amnesty Intl founded (Nobel Peace Prize 1977)

1961 – Last trip (Paris to Bucharest) on Orient Express (after 78 years)

1961 – Record 27 HRs hit in 7 AL games

1962 – US stock market drops $20.8 B in 1 day

1962 – Wide World of Sports with Chris Schenkel premieres on CBS radio

1963 – Cyclone hits Chittagong, Bangladesh; about 1 million houses destroyed

1963 – Estimated 22,000 die in another cyclone in Bay of Bengal (India)

1963 – Jomo Kenyatta becomes 1st PM of Kenya

1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru cremated in New Dehli

1964 – Palestine National Congress forms the PLO in Jerusalem

1965 – Fire & explosion at Dhori mine in Dhanbad India kills 400

1967 – Francis Chichester arrives home at Plymouth from Round-the-world trip

1968 – Senator Eugene McCarthy wins Democrate primary in Oregon

1970 – The formerly united Free University of Brussels officially splits into two separate entities, the French-speaking Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

1972 – White House “plumbers” break into Democratic Natl HQ at Watergate

1974 – Italians fascist bomb demonstrators in Brescia, 6 killed

1977 – 165 killed in a fire at Beverly Hills Supper Club in Kentucky

1978 – Al Unser became 5th to win Indianapolis 500, 3 times

1980 – Joe Darby does a standing long jump of 12’5″

1980 – Nottingham Forrest wins 25th Europe Cup 1 in Madrid

1982 – Leonard Maltin’s 1st appearance on Entertainment Tonight

1987 – 60th Natl Spelling Bee: Stephanie Petit wins spelling staphylococci

1987 – Mathias Rust, 19, W German pilot, makes unauthorized landing in USSR

 

 

 

1987 – USS Monitor, Civil War ironclad, is discovered by a deep sea robot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1987 – Paul Pearman jumps 21 barrels on a skateboard in Augusta

1989 – Emerson Fittipaldi wins Indianapolis 500

1990 – Dave Thomas Comedy Show, debuts on CBS-TV

1990 – Longest wheelie (David Robilliard with 5h12m33s (Channel Islands)

1991 – Ethiopian rebels seize Addis Ababa

1992 – 65th National Spelling Bee: Amanda Goad wins spelling lyceum

1994 – Twin’s Dave Winfield passes Rod Carew into 15th hit list (3,054)

1996 – U.S. President Bill Clinton’s former business partners in the Whitewater land deal, James McDougal and Susan McDougal, and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, are convicted of fraud.

1997 – Linda Finch completes Amelia Earhart attempted around-the-world flight

1997 – Tornado in Jarrell Texas kills at least 28

1997 – Wallace Berg, 42, is 4th American to scale Mt Everest for 3rd time

1998 – Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of Indian nuclear tests with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions.

1999 – In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece “The Last Supper” is put back on display.

1999 – Two Swedish police officers are murdered with their own fire arms by the bank robbers Jackie Arklöv and Tony Olsson after a dramatic car chase.

2002 – NATO declares Russia a limited partner in the Western alliance.

2004 – The Iraqi Governing Council chooses Ayad Allawi, a longtime anti-Saddam Hussein exile, to become prime minister of Iraq’s interim government.

 

 

 

Births

1140 – Xin Qiji, Chinese poet (d. 1207)

1371 – John, the Fearless, Burgundy France, Duke of Burgundy/warrior

1524 – Selim II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1574)

1588 – Pierre Seguier, Chancellor of France (d. 1672)

1660 – George I, King of England (1714-27)

1676 – Jacopo Riccati, Italian mathematician (d. 1754)

1692 – Joseph Butler, English philosopher (d. 1752)

1738 – Joseph Ignace Guillotin, France, physician/inventor (guillotine)

1759 – William Pitt, the Younger (C), English PM (1783-1801, 1804-06)

1779 – Thomas Moore, Irish poet (d. 1852)

 

 

 

1818 – Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, US Confederate gen , Hero of Sumter,(d.1893)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1819 – William Birney, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1907

1828 – Alpheus Baker, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1891

1828 – Bartel Wilton, machinefabrikant/ship builder

1830 – George Lucas Hartsuff, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1874

1831 – Eliza Ann Gardner, underground railway conductor

1838 – Basil Wilson Duke, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1916

1858 – Carl Rickard Nyberg, Swedish inventor (d. 1939)

1862 – Henry W Slocum Jr, tennis champ (US Open-1888)

1872 – Marian Smoluchowski, Polish physicist (d. 1917)

 

 

 

1874 – G K Chesterton , UK , writer , critic (d.1936)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1879 – Milutin Milankovic, Yugoslavian astronomer/meteorologist

1886 – Santo Trafficante, Sr., Sicilian-born American mobster (d. 1954)

1888 – James Francis Thorpe, Shawnee OK, decathelete (Olympic-gold-1912)(d. 1953)

1898 – Andy Kirk, jazz musician

1906 – Phil Regan, singer (My Wild Irish Rose)

1907 – Henry Ritz, comedian/dancer (Ritz Brothers)

1908 – Ian Lancaster Fleming, London England, author (James Bond)

1910 – Stuart Piggott, archaeologist

 

 

 

1910 – T-Bone Walker, Linden Tx, blues guitarist (Funky Town, Well Done)

 

VIDEOS

 

 

 

 

1914 – W G G Duncan-Smith, fighter pilot

1915 – Joseph Greenberg, American linguist (d. 2001)

1916 – Walker Percy, Birmingham Ala, writer (Adventures of a Bad Catholic)

1917 – “Papa” John Creach, violinist rocker (Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane)

1919 – Duke of Rutland, British land owner/multimillionaire

1922 – Lou Duva, American boxing trainer

1922 – Barney Rosset, Chicago, Illinois, publisher and free speech advocate (publisher of Tropic for Cancer), (d. 2012)

1925 – Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Zehlendorf Germany, baritone (Doktor Faust), (d. 2012)

1931 – Carroll Baker, Penn, actress (Andy Warhol’s Bad, Babydoll, Harlow)

1938 – Jerry West, W Virginia, NBA superstar (LA Lakers, Olympic-gold-1960)

1938 – Prince Buster, Jamaican reggae musician/producer (Madness)

1940 – Betty Shabazz, educator/talk show hostess/widow (Malcolm X)

1940 – Maeve Binchy [Snell], Dalkey,Ireland, novelist (Light a Penny Candle), (d. 2012)

1941 – Beth Howland, Boston Mass, actress (Vera-Alice, Company)

1942 – Stanley B. Prusiner, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

1943 – Liz Edgar, horse show jumper

1944 – Billy Vera, musician (& Beaters-At This Moment, Into the Night)

 

 

 

1944 – Gladys Knight, Atlanta Ga, singer, leader of Pips (Midnight Train To Georgia)

 

VIDEOS

 

 

 

 

1944 – Rudy Giuliani, (Mayor-R/L-NYC, 1994- )

1945 – John Fogerty, Berkeley Cal, rock vocals (Creedence Clearwater Revival

1945 – Hunter “Patch” Adams, American doctor

1946 – Satchidanandan, Indian poet

1947 – Sondra Locke, Shelbyville Tenn, actress (Heart Is a Lonely Hunter)

1947 – Zahi Hawass, Egyptian Egyptologist

1947 – Lynn Johnston, Canadian cartoonist

1949 – Wendy O. Williams, American musician (The Plasmatics) (d. 1998)

1954 – George E Mahlberg, Astrophysicist, Mt Palomar/Mt Wilson CA (1974-78)

1956 – Germaine Montenesdro, 2nd victim of NYC’s Zodiac killer (survives)

1956 – Markus Höttinger, Austrian racing driver (d. 1980)

1957 – Kirk Gibson, Mich, outfield (Tigers, Dodgers, 1988 NL MVP)

1959 – Leon “The Bop” Klaasse, rock drummer/singer (The Pilgrims-Red)

1959 – John Morgan, British etiquette expert (d. 2000)

1961 – Roland Gift, UK, rocker (Fine Young Cannibals-She Drives Me Crazy)

1962 – Brandon Cruz, actor (Eddie-Courtship of Eddie’s Father)

 

 

 

1964 – Phil Vassar, American country music singer

 

VIDEOS

 

 

 

 

1965 – Christa Miller, NYC, actress (Kate-Drew Carey Show)

1967 – Kari Wuhrer, Brookfield Ct, MTV/actress (Beverly Hills 90210)

1968 – Kylie Minogue, Melbourne Australia, rock vocalist (Locomotion)

1968 – Sandra Bacher, Long Island NY, half-heavyweight judoka (Oly-92, 96)

1970 – Ian Cashmore, English actor and paranormal investigator

1971 – Nick Bravin, NYC, fencer-foil (Olympics-96)

1972 – Michael Boogerd, Dutch cyclist

1975 – Mike Fisher, Naperville Ill, soccer midfielder (Olympics-gold-96)

1977 – Elisabeth Hasselbeck, American television panelist (The View)

1986 – Michael Oher, American football player at Ole Miss

 

 

Deaths

1089 – Lanfrance, Archbishop of Canterbury, dies

1259 – Christoffel I, King of Denmark, dies

1317 – Guy van Avesnes/Henegouwen, bishop of Utrecht, dies at about 63

1357 – Afonso IV, King of Portugal (1325-57), dies at 66

1556 – Saitō Dōsan, Japanese daimyo (b. 1494?)

1685 – Pieter de la Court, economist/historian, dies at about 67

1750 – Emperor Sakuramachi of Japan (b. 1720)

1787 – Johann Georg Leopold Mozart, Austrian composer, dies at 67

1816 – Ras Wolde Selassie, Ethiopian warlord

1828 – Daikokuya Kōdayū, Japanese castaway (b. 1751)

1843 – Noah Webster, lexicographer (Webster’s Dictionary), dies at 84

1863 – Edmund Kirby Jr, Union-brig-gen, dies of injuries at 23

1864 – Henry H Giesy, US Union-brig-general, dies in battle

1898 – Edward Bellamy, US author (Looking Backward), dies

1921 – Geo Mestdagh, Belgian aviation pioneer, dies

1937 – Alfred Adler, Austria psychiatrist (Individual Psychology), dies at 67

1940 – Walter Connolly, actor (It Happened One Night, Good Earth), dies at 53

 

 

 

1968 – Fyodor Matveyevich Okhlopkov, Yakut-born Soviet sniper (b. 1908)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1971 – Audie Murphy, famous soldier , war hero , Medal of Honor recipient , actor dies at 46

 

 

 

 

Air Force Medal of Honor

 

 

 

 

1972 – Edward VIII, King of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dies at 77

1980 – Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (b. 1895)

 

 

 

1982 – Lt Col ‘H’. Jones VC, British soldier (Falklands War) (b. 1940)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1994 – Julius Boros, pro golfer (US Open 1952), dies of heart attack at 74

1995 – Jean Elizabeth Leuckert Muir, designer dressmaker, dies at 66

1998 – Phil Hartman, Canadian actor, comedian (b. 1948)

2003 – Ilya Prigogine, Russian-born physicist and chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917)

2004 – Umberto Agnelli, Swiss-born automobile executive (b. 1934)

2010 – Gary Coleman, American actor (b. 1968)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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