Today In The Past
Events
455 – A D Gaiseric & the Vandals sacked Rome
575 – Benedict I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
657 – St Eugene I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1615 – First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
1625 – Prince Frederik Henry sworn in as viceroy of Holland/Zealand
1763 – Pontiac’s Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison’s attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
1774 – Intolerable Acts: Amendment to original Quartering Act enacted, allowed governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters not provided.
1780 – The Derby horse race is held for the first time.
1835 – P T Barnum & his circus begin 1st tour of US
1851 – 1st US alcohol prohibition law enacted (Maine)
1855 – The Portland Rum Riot occurs in Portland, Maine.
1857 – James Gibbs, Va, patents chain-stitch single-thread sewing machine
1858 – Donati Comet 1st seen named after it’s discoverer
1862 – Gen Robert E Lee takes command of Confederate armies of E VA & NC
1863 – Harriet Tubman leads Union guerrillas into Maryland, freeing slaves
1864 – Battle of Cold Harbor, Day 2
1865 – At Galveston, Kirby-Smith surrenders Trans-Mississippi Dept
1866 – Renegade Irish Fenians surrender to US forces
1886 – Grover Cleveland is 1st to wed during presidency (Frances Folsom)
1896 – 30th Belmont: Henry Griffin aboard Hastings wins in 2:24.5
1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies to patent the radio, accepted 2 July 1897
1899 – Black Americans observed day of fasting to protest lynchings
1901 – Benjamin Adams arrested for playing golf on Sunday (NY)
1904 – Professor Schron finds microbe that causes photosynthesis
1908 – 33rd Preakness: Eddie Dugan aboard Royal Tourist wins in 1:46.4
1909 – 43rd Belmont: Eddie Dugan aboard Joe Madden wins in 2:21.6
1910 – 1st roundtrip flight over English Channel (C S Rolls, England)
1910 – Pygmies discovered in Dutch New Guinea
1914 – Glenn Curtiss flies his Langley Aerodrome
1916 – German troops under Lt Rackow take Fort Vaux
1922 – Suffy McInnis (1st base) ends an errorless string of 1,700 chances
1924 – Snyder Act: US citizenship granted to all American Indians
1925 – NY Yankee Lou Gehrig begins his 2,130 consecutive game streak
1928 – Velveeta Cheese created by Kraft
1933 – FDR authorizes 1st swimming pool built inside the White House
1942 – Red Sox star Ted Williams enlists as a Navy aviator
1943 – 99th Pursuit Squadron flies 1st combat mission (over Italy)
1943 – German assault on Sebastopol Krim, begins
1953 – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey
1958 – Alan Freed joins WABC (NYC) radio
1964 – Rolling Stones 1st US concert tour debuts in Lynn, Mass
1965 – 2nd of 2 cyclones in less than a month kills 35,000 (Ganges R India)
1966 – US Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum; 1st lunar soft-landing
1967 – Race riots in Roxbury section of Boston
1968 – Canadians must get government permission to export silver
1975 – 1st time snow fell in London in June
1975 – James A Healy, 1st black Roman Catholic bishop, consecrated (Maine)
1975 – VP Rockefeller finds no pattern of illegal activities at CIA
1977 – NJ allows casino gambling in Atlantic City
1983 – 1980 movie “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” released in Germany
1983 – Toilet catches fire on Air Canada’s DC-9, 23 die at Cincinnati
1986 – NYC transit system issues a new brass with steel bullseye token
1986 – Regular TV coverage of US Senate sessions begins
1987 – Mariners draft Ken Griffey Jr #1
1988 – Consumer Reports calls for a ban on the Suzuki Samurai automobile
1989 – Cincinnati Red Eric Davis hits for cycle
1989 – 10,000 Chinese soldiers are blocked by 100,000 citizens protecting students demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square, Beijing
1990 – “Turtle Power” by Partners In Kryme hits #13
1990 – Seattle’s Randy Johnson, no-hits Tigers, 2-0
1991 – Seppo Raty of Finland improves his world javelin record to 318′ 1″
1991 – Three Andrettis finished 1-2-3 in the Miller 200 at Wisconsin
1992 – Former NFL NY Giant Coach Bill Parcells undergoes open heart surgery
1994 – Chinook helicopter crashes in North Scotland (29 killed)
1994 – Indonesian censors ban Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”
1997 – Timothy McVeigh found guilty of 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, killing 168
1998 – The CIH computer virus is discovered in Taiwan.
2004 – Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy
Births
926 – Murakami, Emperor of Japan (d. 967)
1504 – George/Joris van Egmont, bishop of Utrecht
1535 – Leo XI, [Alessandro O de’ Medici], Italy, Pope (1605)
1624 – Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland (1674-96)
1732 – Martha Washington, 1st, 1st lady (1789-97)
1740 – Marquis de Sade, 1st known sadist/writer (Justine)
1774 – William Lawson, explorer of New South Wales, Australia (d. 1850)
1815 – Philip Kearny, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1862
1831 – Benjamin Hardin Helm, Brigadier General (Conf)/Lincoln’s brother-in-law
1840 – Thomas Hardy, England, poet/novelist (Far from the Madding Crowd)
1901 – Michael Todd, producer (Around the World in 80 Days)
1904 – Johnny Weissmuller, actor (Tarzan)/100m swimmer (Oly-5 gold-1924, 28)
1913 – Barbara Pym, romantic author (Very Private Eye), (d. 1980)
1915 – Lester del Rey, US, sci-fi author (Moon Trilogy, Marooned on Mars)
1915 – Walter Tetley, NYC, animation voice (Sherman-Bullwinkle Show)
1918 – Ruth Atkinson, American cartoonist (d. 1997)
1920 – Tex Schramm, American football team president and general manager (d. 2003)
1921 – Alexander Salkind, producer (Superman)
1923 – Del Simmons, rocker (Capt Beefheart)
1926 – Milo O’Shea, Dublin Ireland, actor (Barbarella, Romeo & Juliet)
1930 – Charles Pete Conrad Jr, Phila, USN/astro (Gem 5 11, Ap 12, Skylab 2)
1936 – Sally Kellerman, Long Beach Cal, actress (M*A*S*H, Back to School)
1936 – Vladimir Golubnichy, USSR, 20K walker (Olympic-gold-1960, 68)
1941 – Charlie Watts, drummer (Rolling Stones-Brown Sugar)
1941 – Stacy Keach, Savannah Ga, actor (Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer)
1943 – Charles Haid, SF Ca, actor (Andy Renko-Hill St Blues, Altered States)
1944 – Marvin Hamlisch, NYC, composer/pianist (Sting, Chorus Line), (d. 2012)
1944 – Poul Jensen, Denmark, yachting (Olympic-gold-1976, 80)
1948 – Jerry Mathers, Sioux City Iowa, actor (Beaver-Leave It To Beaver)
1950 – [Antone] Chubby Tavares, rocker (Tavares)
1954 – Michael Steele, rocker (Bangles-Eternal Flame, Walk Like an Egyptian)
1955 – Gary Grimes, SF, actor (Summer of ’42, Class of ’44)
1955 – Dana Carvey, Missoula MT, comedian (SNL, Garth-Wayne’s World)
1959 – Lydia Lunch, US singer/poetess (Teenage Jesus, Jerks)
1960 – Kyle Petty, American race car driver
1968 – Beetlejuice, member of Howard Stern’s Wack
1970 – B-Real, American rapper (Cypress Hill)
1972 – Wayne Brady, Columbus, Georgia, American actor and comedian (The Wayne Brady Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?)
1974 – Matt Serra, American mixed martial artist
1976 – Adrian Carlos Olivares, Mexico City, singer (Menudo-Cannonball)
1976 – Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Brazilian mixed martial artist
1980 – Fabrizio Moretti, Brazilian-born rock drummer (The Stro
1981 – Tucker Rountree, American guitarist and composer.
1985 – Ana Cristina, Cuban American singer,composer, and actress
Deaths
657 – Eugene I, Italian Pope (654-7), dies
910 – Richilde of Provence, Queen of Western Francia
1418 – Katherine of Lancaster, wife of Henry III of Castile
1567 – Shane O’Neill, Irish chieftain
1572 – Thomas Howard 4th duke of Norfolk, English Earl, executed at 36
1575 – Pieter Aertsen, [Long Worm], painter, dies at about 65
1693 – John Wildman, English soldier and politician
1754 – Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish religious dissenter (b. 1680)
1761 – Jonas Alströmer, Swedish industrialist (b. 1685)
1785 – Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, French mathematician (b. 1713)
1833 – Simon Byrne, Irish bare-knuckle prize fighter (b. 1806)
1864 – George Pierce Doles, US businessman/Confed brig-general, dies at 34
1882 – Guiseppi Garibaldi, Italian rebel leader, dies at 74
1896 – Gerhard Rohlfs, German explorer (Abbsynia/Ethiopia), dies
1927 – Lizzie Borden, American accused murderer, dies at 68
1940 – Willem E Roelofs, painter/cartoonist, dies
1941 – Lou Gehrig, 1st baseman (NY Yankee), dies of ALS in Riverdale NY at 37
1948 – Viktor Brack, Nazi physician (b. 1904)
1948 – Karl Brandt, personal physician of Adolf Hitler (b. 1904)
1948 – Karl Gebhardt, Nazi doctor (b. 1897)
1948 – Waldemar Hoven, German physician (b. 1903)
1948 – Wolfram Sievers, Nazi physician (b. 1905)
1956 – Jean Hersholt, actress (Emma, Grand Hotel, Greed), dies at 69
1961 – George S Kaufman, playwright/dir/pulitzer prize winner, dies at 72
1962 – Vita Sackville-West, writer, dies at 70
1970 – Bruce McLaren, New Zealand car racer, designer, and founder of eponymous race team (b. 1937)
1974 – Hiroshi Kazato, Japanese racing driver (b. 1949)
1976 – Juan José Torres, former President of Bolivia, assassinated in the frame of Operation Condor
1977 – Stephen Boyd, actor (Fantastic Voyage, Ben-Hur, Lisa), dies at 48
1979 – Jim Hutton, actor (Ellery Queen), dies of liver cancer at 45
1983 – Stan Rogers, musician, dies in aircraft fire
1987 – Andres Segovia, Spanish composer/guitarist, dies at 94
1987 – Sammy Kaye, orchestra leader (Sammy Kaye Show), dies at 77
1990 – Frederick Mellinger, founder of Fredericks of Hollywood, dies at 76
1990 – Jack Gilford, actor (Cracker Jacks), dies at 82
1990 – Rex Harrison, actor (My Fair Lady), dies of cancer at 82
1990 – Robert Noyce, co-inventor (semi-conductor)/founder (Intel), dies
1996 – Peter Bird, ocean rower, dies at 49
1997 – Doc Cheatham, jazz musician, dies of stroke at 91
1999 – Junior Braithwaite, Jamaican musician (The Wailers) (b. 1949)
2001 – Imogene Coca, American actress (b. 1908)
2005 – Gunder Gundersen, Norwegian Nordic combined skier and sports official (b. 1930)
2005 – Melita Norwood, British spy (b. 1912)
2008 – Bo Diddley, American , bluesman , musician (b. 1928)
2008 – Mel Ferrer, American actor, film director and film producer (b. 1917)
2009 – David Eddings, American fantasy writer. (b. 1931)
2012 – Richard Dawson, English-American actor, dies from esophageal cancer at 79
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