Today In The Past
Events
1276 – While taking exile in Fuzhou in southern China, away from the advancing Mongol invaders, the remnants of the Song Dynasty court hold the coronation ceremony for the young prince Zhao Shi, making him Emperor Duanzong of Song.
1381 – Richard II in England meets leaders of Peasants’ Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance.
1535 – Karel V’s fleet sails under Andrea Doria to Tunis
1565 – Catharina de Medici & Duke of Alva discuss Calvinism
1597 – At 4:30 AM Willem Barents leaves Novaya Zemlya for Netherlands
1642 – 1st compulsory education law in America passed by Massachusetts
1645 – Battle at Naseby Leicester: New Model army under Oliver Cromwell & Thomas Fairfax beats royalists
1658 – Battle at Dunes: English & French fleet beat Spanish
1673 – Battle at Schooneveld: Michiel de Ruyter beats French/English fleet
1755 – 1st edition of Dr Johnsons “Dictionary”
1775 – US Army founded
1777 – Continental Congress adopts Stars & Stripes replacing Grand Union flag
1789 – Capt William Blighs reaches Timor
1800 – Battle of Marengo (Alessandria): Bonaparte vs Austria
1807 – Emperor Napoleon I’s French Grande Armee defeats the Russian Army at the Battle of Friedland in Prussia (modern Russian Kaliningrad Oblast) ending the War of the Fourth Coalition.
1822 – Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled “Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables”.
1834 – Hardhat diving suit patented by Leonard Norcross, Dixfield, Maine
1834 – Sandpaper patented by Isaac Fischer Jr, Springfield, Vermont
1839 – 1st Henley Regatta held
1846 – California (Bear Flag) Republic proclaimed in Sonoma, declaring independence from Mexico
1847 – Robert von Bunsen invents the Bunsen burner
1850 – Fire destroys part of SF
1861 – Harpers Ferry evacuated by rebels in face of McClellan’s advance
1863 – Battle of 2nd Winchester, Virginia
1864 – US Union warship USS Kearsarge appears at Cherbourg
1876 – 1st player to hit for cycle (George Hall, Phila Athletics)
1880 – 14th Belmont: L Hughes aboard Grenada wins in 2:47
1881 – Player piano patented by John McTammany Jr (Cambridge, Mass)
1901 – 1st golf championship is played
1907 – Norway adopts female suffrage.
1917 – 1e German air attack on England, 100+ killed in East-London
1917 – Gen Pershing & his HQ staff arrived in Paris during WW I
1919 – 1st nonstop air crossing of Atlantic (Alcock & Brown) leaves Nfld
1922 – Pres Harding is 1st US president to use radio, dedicating the Francis Scott Key memorial in Baltimore
1923 – Recording of 1st country music hit (Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane)
1933 – Lou Gehrig & Joe McCarthy thrown out of game, McCarthy suspended 3 games but Gehrig isn’t, so he continues his streak at 1,249 games
1934 – Max Baer KO’s Primo Carnera in 11 for HW box champ in Long Island City
1935 – Chaco War between Bolivia & Paraguay ends
1938 – Chlorophyll patented by Benjamin Grushkin
1940 – Auschwitz concentration camp opens (3 million killed there)
1940 – German forces occupied Paris during WW II
1941 – Ground broken for Boeing Plant II (ex-AFLC Plant 13) Wichita KS
1942 – 1st bazooka rocket gun produced Bridgeport Ct
1942 – Walt Disney’s “Bambi” animated movie is released Thumper’s 1st job
1944 – 1st B-29 raid against mainland Japan
1948 – Klemens Gottwald becomes president of Czechoslovakia
1949 – State of Vietnam forms, Bao Dai installed as Emperor
1951 – 1st commercial computer, UNIVAC 1, enters service at Census Bureau
1952 – Keel laid for 1st nuclear powered sub USS Nautilus (4th to be named Nautilus)
1953 – Elvis Presley graduates from LC Humes High School in Memphis Tenn
1954 – Pres Eisenhower signs order adding words “under God” to the Pledge
1956 – “New Faces of 1956” opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 221 perfs
1957 – 42.0 cm rain falls on East St Louis, Illinois (state record)
1958 – British parachutists lands on Cyprus
1961 – 106°F, hottest temperature in SF
1962 – Albert DeSalvo, better known as the Boston Strangler, murders Anna Slesers, his first victim.
1963 – NY Met Duke Snider hits his 400th HR
1967 – Mariner 5 Launch (Venus Flyby)
1974 – Angels’ Nolan Ryan strikes out 19 Red Sox in 12 innings
1976 – “Gong Show” premieres on TV (syndication)
1979 – Rock group “Little Feat” disbands
1982 – Argentina surrenders to Britain on Falkland Is, ends 74-day conflict
1987 – 4th full-duration test firing of redesigned SRB motor
1988 – Woman sues Chuck Berry for $5,000,000 alleges he hit her
1989 – Ground breaking begins in Minn on world’s largest mall
1989 – Nolan Ryan becomes 2nd pitcher to defeat all 26 teams
1989 – Ronald Reagan is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
1989 – Rocker Carol King gets a star in Hollywood’s walk of fame
1989 – Zsa Zsa Gabor arrested for slaping Beverly Hills motorcycle patrolman
1990 – Supreme Court rules police check for drunk drivers constitutional
1991 – Leroy Burrell of USA sets 100m record (9.90) in NYC
1993 – Tansu Ciller appointed 1st female premier of Turkey
1998 – “Comic Relief” benefit comedy show
Births
1479 – Giglio Gregorio Giraldi, Italian poet (d. 1552)
1529 – Ferdinand, archduke (Austria)/mayor (Bohemia)
1657 – Cornelis Cruys, [Niels Olsen Creutz], Norwegian/Dutch admiral
1736 – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, physicist (formulated Coulomb’s Law)
1796 – Nikolai Brashman, Russian mathematician (d. 1866)
1805 – Robert Anderson, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1871
1811 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, author (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)
1820 – John Bartlett, US, editor (compiled Familiar Quotations)
1836 – Thomas Wilberforce Egan, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1844 – Edouard Naville, Swiss egyptologist
1855 – Robert Marion La Follette, Wisconsin, pres candidate (Progressive)
1856 – Andrey Markov, Russia, mathematician (Markov Chain)
1864 – Alois Alzheimer, Germany, psychiatrist/pathologist (Alzheimer Disease)
1871 – Jacob Ellehammer, Danish inventor (d. 1946)
1889 – Victor van Straelen, Flemish biologist/palaeontologist
1893 – Siggie Nordstrom, Swedish singer (The Nordstrom Sisters) (d. 1980)
1903 – Arthur William Raynes McDonald, radar Pioneer/pilot
1906 – Margaret Bourke-White, photographer/innovator/correspondent
1907 – Chico Landi, Brazilian racing driver (d. 1989)
1909 – Burl Ives, Hunt Ill, folk singer/actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
1912 – E Cuyler Hammond, scientist (1st to link smoking with lung cancer)
1917 – Al “Lash” LaRue, Gretna La, actor (Lash of the West, Wyatt Earp)
1919 – Sam Wanamaker, Chic Ill, actor (Holocaust, Competition, Raw Deal)
1919 – Gene Barry [Eugene Klass], New York City, New York, American actor (The Atomic City, Bat Masterson)
1922 – Kevin Roche, Irish architect
1925 – Pierre Salinger, newsman (ABC)/press secretary (John Kennedy)
1929 – Cy Coleman, [Seymour Kaufman], songwriter (Witchcraft, Sweet Charity)
1931 – Marla Gibbs, Chicago Ill, actress (Florence-Jeffersons, Mary-227)
1932 – Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona
1933 – Jerzy Kosinski, novelist (Painted Bird, Being There)
1936 – Renaldo “Obie” Benson, singer (The Four Tops) (d. 2005)
1943 – Muff [Mervyn] Winwood, singer (Spencer Davis Group-Gimme Some Lovin)
1943 – John Miles, British racing driver
1945 – Rod Argent, rocker (She’s Not There-Zombies, Hold Your Head Up-Argent)
1946 – Donald Trump, billionaire/master builder (Trump Towers/Plaza/Castle)
1947 – Barry Melton, American guitarist (Country Joe and the Fish)
1949 – Alan White, English rock drummer (Yes, Ramshackled)
1949 – Harry Turtledove, American author
1952 – Eddie Mekka, Worcester Mass, actor (Carmine-Laverne & Shirley)
1952 – Jimmy Lea, England, rock bassist (Slade)
1956 – King Diamond [Kim Petersen], Copenhagen, Denmark, heavy metal musician (Merciful Fate, King Diamond)
1958 – Brian David Willis, rock drummer (Quarterflash)
1958 – Eric Heiden, Madison, Wisconsin, US speed skater (5 Olympic gold medals 1980)
1960 – Tonie Campbell, LA California, 100m hurdler (Olympic-bronze-1988)
1961 – “Boy George” O’Dowd, androgynous vocalist & druggie (Culture Club)
1961 – Grace Jackson, St Ann Jamaica, 200m runner (Olympic-silver-1988)
1963 – Chris DeGarmo, guitarist (Queensryche-Breaking the Silence)
1967 – Wendy Lian Williams, St Louis Mo, US diver (Olympic-bronze-88, 92)
1968 – Yasmine Bleeth, NYC, actress (Ryan’s Hope, 1 Life to Live, Baywatch)
1969 – Steffi Graf, Bruhl West Germany, tennis player (Grand Slam 1988)
1969 – Michael Gerber, American parody author
1970 – Willie Beamon, NFL cornerback (NY Giants)
1972 – Matthias Ettrich, German computer scientist (KDE)
1975 – Ryuji Miki, Japanese racing driver
1975 – Chris Onstad, American cartoonist
1976 – Alan Carr, British Stand-up comedian, Television presenter
1978 – Diablo Cody, American screenwriter
1978 – Annia Hatch, Cuban-American gymnast
1981 – Lonneke Engel, Dutch model
1982 – Jamie Green, British racing driver
Deaths
1144 – Aboe ‘l-Kasim Mahmoed ibn Omar al-Zapowersjari, theologist, dies at 69
1161 – Emperor Qinzong of China (b. 1100)
1349 – Gunther Van Schwarzburg, German anti-king 1349, dies at about 44
1381 – Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury
1497 – Giovanni Borgia, Duke of Borgia (b. 1474)
1544 – Antoine, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1489)
1662 – Henry Vane the Younger, British Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1613)
1703 – Jean Herauld Gourville, French adventurer (b. 1625)
1727 – Cornelis Cruys, Norwegian/Dutch admiral, dies at 70
1752 – Charles-Antoine Coypel, French carpet designer, dies at 57
1752 – Daniel Marot, French/Neth, architect/engraver, dies at about 88
1800 – Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French military leader (b. 1768)
1800 – Jean-Baptiste Kleber, French general (b. 1753)
1801 – Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary War general, dies in London
1825 – Pierre Charles L’Enfant, French architect, dies at 70
1864 – Leonidas Polk, general, killed in action in Battle of Pine Mt
1920 – Max Weber, German sociologist/economist/historian, dies
1932 – Dorimène Roy Desjardins, Canadian business pioneer
1936 – G. K. Chesterton [Gilbert Keith], English writer/poet (Father Brown), dies at 62
1938 – William W Campbell, US astronomer (Stellar Motions), dies at 76
1944 – Lubor Niederle, Czech archaeologist/slavist, dies at 78
1944 – Robert H Iseley, US pilot/lt-comdr (Saipan), dies in battle
1946 – John Logie Baird, Scottish television pioneer (b. 1888)
1967 – Eddie Eagan, American sportsman (b. 1897)
1975 – Pablo Antonio, Filipino modernist architect (b. 1902)
1977 – Alan Reed, actor (Fred Allen)/voice (Fred Flintstone), dies at 69
1986 – Alan Jay Lerner, Broadway librettist, dies in NY at 67
1986 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine author (Book of Sand), dies in Geneva at 86
1986 – Marlin Perkins, TV host (Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom), dies at 81
1991 – Peggy Ashcroft, British actress (A passage to India), dies at 83
1993 – Vincent T Hamlin, cartoonist (Alley Oop), dies at 93
1994 – Harry “Little” Caesar, blues singer/actor (City Heat), dies at 66
1994 – Henry Mancini, composer (Pink Panther, Moon River), dies at 70
1994 – Lionel Grigson, professor of Jazz, dies at 52
1995 – Roger Joseph Zelazny, sci-fi writer, dies of cancer at 60
1995 – Rory Gallagher, Irish rock/blues guitarist (See Here), dies at 47
1997 – Henry C Gordon, USAF/astronaut (Dynasoar), dies at 71
1997 – Richard Jaeckel, actor (Starman, The Dark), dies of cancer at 70
2003 – Dale Whittington, American racing driver (b. 1959)
2005 – Mimi Parent, Canadian painter (b. 1924)
2007 – Robin Olds, American fighter pilot (b. 1922)
2007 – Kurt Waldheim, Austrian politician and statesman (b. 1918)
2008 – Esbjörn Svensson, Swedish jazz pianist (b. 1964)
2009 – Bob Bogle, founding member of The Ventures
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