1955 – So-called Brooklyn bums win their first World Series

On October 4, 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series at last, beating the New York Yankees 2-0. They’d lost the championship seven times already, and they’d lost five times just to the Yanks–in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953. But in 1955, thanks to nine brilliant innings in the seventh game from 23-year-old lefty pitcher Johnny Podres, they finally managed to beat the Bombers for the first (and last) time.

The Dodgers had lost the first two games of the series at Yankee Stadium–it was the first time in history, in fact, that a team came back to win a seven-game World Series after losing the first two–and then won three in a row at home. The Yanks came back in the sixth, forcing a tiebreaking Game 7 in front of 62,465 fans in the Bronx.

In the fourth inning of the last game, Brooklyn got its first run when catcher Roy Campanella hit a double and Gil Hodges sent him home with a well-placed single. In the sixth, a Yankee error helped the Dodgers load the bases. Even though veteran pitcher Tommy Byrne had only given up three hits, manager Casey Stengel pulled him and sent in right-handed reliever Bob Grim–but that didn’t stop Hodges from knocking a long sacrifice fly to center field. Pee Wee Reese made it safely home, and the Dodgers were winning by 2.

And then, the game’s defining moment. At the bottom of the sixth, Podres walked Billy Martin and Gil McDougald outran a bunt to first, putting two on with nobody out. Then Yogi Berra sliced an outside pitch hard down the left-field foul line–a game-tying double, for sure, until backup outfielder Sandy Amoros came running out of nowhere, stuck out his glove and snagged the ball as he careened toward the stands. He wheeled and threw to shortstop Reese, who tossed it to Hodges at first, who caught McDougald off the bag by inches. The Yanks’ sure thing had soured into a game-killing double play.

The final triumphant out came on an Elston Howard grounder to Reese, the 38-year-old team captain who’d been around for all five of the Dodgers’ losses to their cross-town rivals. Reese scooped up the ball and fired low and wide to first, but somehow–as John Drebinger wrote in the Times the next day, “Gil would have stretched halfway across the Bronx for that one”–Hodges grabbed it in time to send Howard back to the dugout and end the game.

The 1955 series turned out to be the only one the Brooklyn Dodgers would ever win. They lost to the Yanks again the next year. The year after that, the team’s owner decided he’d rather play in a swank stadium in a nicer neighborhood, so he moved the team to California. The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the championship five times.

1951 – The shot heard round the world

On October 3, 1951, third baseman Bobby Thomson hits a one-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to win the National League pennant for the New York Giants. Thomson’s homer wrapped up an amazing come-from-behind run for the Giants and knocked the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Giants’ hated inter-borough rivals, out of their spot in the World Series. The Giants went on to lose the Series to the Yankees, but Thomson’s miraculous homer remains one of the most memorable moments in sports history.

The Giants weren’t even supposed to be in the pennant race–they were 13 1/2 games behind the legendary Dodgers by the middle of August, and everyone thought they were finished. But then they won 16 games in a row. By October, they’d won 37 of their last 44 games and had tied Brooklyn for the lead. It was time for a playoff, the first ever in the National League.

New York won the first game; in the second, the Dodgers crushed them 10-0. The third game, before 34,320 people at the Polo Grounds in Washington Heights, was crucial, and by the ninth inning, it seemed like a lost cause. The Dodgers were winning 4-1. People in the stands were gathering their belongings and heading for the subway. But then the Giants came to life. Al Dark and Don Mueller hit respectable singles to right field. Then, after a Monte Irvin pop-up, Whitey Lockman doubled to left and sent Dark safely home. Now the score was 4-2, with runners on second and third.

While Bobby Thomson waited to bat, the Dodgers sent in relief pitcher Ralph Branca. Thomson was a reliable hitter, and since first base was open and the new rookie Willie Mays waited on deck, many thought that Branca would throw a deliberate walk. He didn’t. The first pitch was a called strike. Thomson drilled the second into the left-field stands.

“The Giants win the pennant!” radio announcer Russ Hodges howled. “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” He kept screaming until he lost his voice. Meanwhile, inside the Polo Grounds, pandemonium reigned. Fans flooded the field. Thomson took curtain call after curtain call. People in Manhattan and Brooklyn made so many phone calls in the half-hour after Thomson’s homer that New York Telephone nearly lost service in the two boroughs.

The next day, the momentum continued: The Giants beat the Yankees 5-1 in the first game of the World Series. Then the Yanks came back, winning the next three games and the series. In 1954 the underdog Giants swept the World Series in four straight games, thanks in part to Willie Mays’ stupendous first-game over-the-shoulder catch in center field. But by the end of the 1950s, both the Giants and the Dodgers had moved to California, and an incredible era in New York baseball history was over.

October 3rd

EVENTS

2333 BC – The state of Gojoseon (Modern-day Korea) founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the Chinese Emperor Yao.
52 BC – Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans underJulius Caesar, ending the siege and battle of Alesia.
42 BC – First Battle of Philippi: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight an indecisive battle with Caesar’s assassins Brutus and Cassius.
1143 – Cardinal Guido elected Pope Coelestinus II
1247 – Willem II of Holland elected Roman Catholic German emperor
1264 – Comet said to predict death of Pope Urban IV is last seen
1283 – Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, becomes the first person executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.
1430 – Jews are expelled from Eger Bohemia
1569 – Battle of Montcontour: Duke of Anjou beats Huguenots
1574 – The Siege of Leiden is lifted by the Watergeuzen and the forces of Admiral Boisot
1605 – Chinese uprising on Philippines, Tondo/Quiapo massacre
1657 – French troops occupy Mardyke
1683 – The Qing Dynasty naval commander Shi Lang reaches Taiwan (under the Kingdom of Tungning) to receive the formal surrender of Zheng Keshuang and Liu Guoxuan after the Battle of Penghu.
Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar

1691 – English & Dutch army occupies Limerick Ireland
1712 – The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob RoyMacGregor.
1735 – France & Emperor Karel VI sign peace accord
1739 – The Treaty of Nissa is signed by the Ottoman Empire and Russia at the end of the Russian-Turkish War, 1736-1739.
1778 – Captain Cook anchors at Alaska
1789 – Washington proclaims 1st national Thanksgiving Day on Nov 26
1835 – Staedtler Company was founded by J.S. Staedtler in Nuremburg, Germany.
1849 – American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances; it is the last time he is seen in public before his death.
1862 – -10] Battle of Corinth, Mississippi
1862 – Skirmish at Bardstown, Kentucky
Author Edgar Allan Poe

1863 – Lincoln designates last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day
1872 – Bloomingdale’s department store in NY opens
1873 – Captain Jack and companions are hanged for their part in the Modoc War.
1884 – 24th British Golf Open: Jack Simpson shoots a 160 at Prestwick Golf Club
1885 – 25th British Golf Open: Bob Martin shoots a 171 at St Andrews
1888 – New Zealand Natives, a privately organised and mainly Māori rugby team, plays first game in UK; the first national rugby team to wear the silver fern
1890 – Capt Guillaume of Kerckhoven marches into Boma Congo
1899 – J S Thurman patents motor-driven vacuum cleaner
1900 – Edward Elgar/Cardinal Newmans oratorium premieres in Birmingham
1904 – France & Spain sign treaty for Morocco Independence
1904 – Giants Christy Mathewson strikes out then record 16 Cards
1904 – Mary McLeod Bethune opens Daytona Normal & Industrial School
1906 – SOS adopted as warning signal by 1st conference on wireless telegraphy
1906 – US regime names Charles Magoon, governor of Cuba
1906 – William Vaughan Moody’s “Great Divide” premieres in NYC
Russian Revolutionary Leon Trotsky

1908 – The Pravda newspaper founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna.
1913 – Federal income tax signed into law (at 1%)
1915 – 7.8 earthquake shakes Pleasant Valley, Nevada
1918 – Boris becomes king of Bulgaria
1918 – Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicates the throne in favour of his eldest son Tsar Boris III
1918 – Selwyn Theater opens at 229 W 42nd St NYC
1919 – Reds Adolfo Luque is 1st Latin player to appear in a World Series
1919 – Serbian, Croatian & Slavic parliment accord for 8 hr work day
1920 – Browns 1st baseman George Sisler gets his record 257th hit of season
1920 – NFL (then American Pro Football Association) plays 1st games
1922 – 1st facsimile photo send over city telephone lines, Washington, D.C.
1922 – Rebecca Felton of Georgia becomes 1st woman in Senate
1923 – Germany’s Stresemann resigns
1924 – King Hussein of Hedzjaz abdicts throne
1926 – 1st congress of Pan European Movement (Pan-Europese Beweging) opens in Vienna
1926 – Violet Percy runs female record marathon (3:40:22)
1928 – French submarine “Ondine” sinks returning to Toulon, drowning 42
1929 – British Labour government recovers diplomatic relations with USSR
1929 – Julius Curtius succeeds Stresemann as German foreign minister
1929 – Kingdom of Serbs, Croats & Slovenes changes name to Yugoslavia
1932 – Iraq gains full independence from Britain, joins League of Nations
1933 – Gustave “Staf” de Clerq forms Flemish National Covenant
1935 – Italy invades Ethiopia
1936 – Yanks set new attendance record of 64,842 in 3rd game of World Series
1939 – Lemmer-Urk Dike closes
1940 – France Vichy government proclaims end to Jewish status
1940 – Reds beat Tigers ending NL’s 10-game World Series losing streak
1940 – US forms parachute troops
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler

1941 – Adolf Hitler says Russia is “broken” & would “never rise again”
1941 – All elderly Jewish men of Kerenchug Ukraine, are killed by SS
1941 – Nazis blow up 6 synagoges in Paris
1942 – FDR forms Office of Economic Stabilization
1942 – Launch of 1st A-4/V-2 rocket to altitude of 53 miles (85 km)
1942 – NY Yanks Frank Crosetti shoves ump Bill Summers in World Series, he is fined $200 & suspended for 1st 30 days of 1943 season
1943 – British 8th army lands at Termoli, East Italy
1943 – Operations begin at PETA Java, defending (Japanese) fatherland
1944 – 1st broadcast of Radio Herrijzend Netherland
1944 – RAF bombs West Kapelse
1945 – Elvis Presley’s 1st public appearance at the age of 10
1945 – Tigers & Cubs meet in World Series for 4th time
1945 – World Federation of Trade Unions forms; CIO a member
Singer & Cultural Icon Elvis Presley

1946 – Cards beat Dodgers 8-4 at Ebbets Field to win NL playoffs 2-0
1947 – “Under the Counter” opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 27 performances
1947 – 1st telescope lens 200″ (508 cm) in diameter completed
1947 – WMAL (now WJLA) TV channel 7 in Washington, D.C. (ABC) begins
1947 – With only 1 out to go, Yank Floyd Beven gives up a double breaking his World Series no-hit bid, it scored 2 runs & he lost game
1948 – Columbia University reports discovery of uranium in Belgian Congo
1948 – NFL becomes 1st sport televised as sport of week
1949 – WERD, 1st black-owned radio station, opens in Atlanta
1950 – 1st black lead (Ethel Waters) on TV (Beulah)
1950 – Indonesian army opens assault on Ambon, South Moluccas
1950 – Baseball rules Phils lefty Curt Simmons cannot play in World Series despite his being on furlough from Army
1951 – Bobby Thomson HR-Giants win pennant defeating Dodgers
1952 – 1st British nuclear test at Monte Bello Island in Australia
1952 – 1st video recording on magnetic tape, LA, Ca
1953 – 10th Ryder Cup: US wins 6½-5½ at Wentworth, England
1953 – 7th NHL All-Star Game: All-Stars beat Montreal 3-1 at Montreal
1953 – KGGM TV channel 13 in Albuquerque, NM (CBS) begins broadcasting
1954 – “Father Knows Best” premieres
1954 – KFVS TV channel 12 in Cape Girardeau, MO (CBS) begins broadcasting
1955 – “Captain Kangaroo” premieres on CBS-TV, Good Morning, Captain!
1955 – “Mickey Mouse Club” premieres
1955 – Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira becomes President of Brazil
1955 – Soviet battleship “Novorossiisk” strikes WW II mine in Baltic Sea
1955 – WDBJ TV channel 7 in Roanoke, VA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1955 – WTVS TV channel 56 in Detroit, MI (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 – Sal Maglie & Dodgers defeat Yanks 6-3 in opening game of World Series
1957 – Willy Brandt elected mayor of West Berlin
Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg

1957 – Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems is ruled not obscene.
1959 – 13th NHL All-Star Game: Montreal beat All-Stars 6-1 at Montreal
1960 – “Flair” (CBS’ answer to Monitor) premieres on radio with Dick Van Dyke
1960 – Janio Quadros elected president of Brazil
1960 – SF’s White House dept store 1st to accept BankAmericard
1960 – Yanks win 8-7, ending season on a 15 game win streak, & record 193 HRs
1960 – US sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show” premieres in CBS (runs till 1968)
1961 – “Dick Van Dyke Show” premieres on CBS-TV
1961 – “Mr Ed” premieres
1961 – “Sail Away” opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 167 performances
1961 – KMED (now KTVL) TV channel 10 in Medford, OR (CBS) begins broadcasting
1962 – “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off” opens at Shubert NYC for 886 perfs
1962 – Dodgers set major league-record season attendance of 2,755,184
1962 – Wally Schirra in Sigma 7 launched into Earth orbit
1963 – “Here’s Love” opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 338 performances
1963 – Hurricane hits Haiti; about 5,000 die & 100,000 injured
1964 – Yankees clinch their 5th straight pennant, & 29th in club’s history
1965 – Cubs tie major league record of 3 triple plays in a season
LPGA Golfer Kathy Whitworth

1965 – Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Mickey Wright Golf Invitational
1965 – Whitey Ford notches #232 to become Yankees winningest pitcher
1966 – Marshal Arturo da Costa e Silva elected president
1967 – KGSC (now KICU) TV channel 36 in San Jose, CA (IND) begins
1967 – King Boudouin inaugurates world’s biggest floodgate (Antwerp)
1967 – William Knight sets X-15 speed rec of 7,297 KPH/4,534 MPH/Mach 6.72
1968 – Howard Sacklers “Great White Hope” premieres in NYC
1968 – Military coup overthrows President Fernando Belaúnde Terry in Peru
1968 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 – The proposed civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland, is banned from the area of the city centre and the Waterside area; the banning order is issued under the Public Order Act by William Craig, then Home Affairs Minister
1970 – “Coco” closes at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC after 333 performances
MLB Pitcher Whitey Ford

1970 – Baseball umpires call their 1st strike
1970 – WAPT TV channel 16 in Jackson, MS (ABC) begins broadcasting
1971 – Billie Jean King became 1st female athlete to win $100,000
1971 – 22nd Formula One WDC: Jackie Stewart wins by 29 points
1972 – Indians set a team record for lowest team batting avg .234
1972 – Spaceflight 71-2 launched; 1st flexible substrate photovoltaic flown
1972 – Steve Carlton wins 27th game for Phillies (almost ½ of their 59 wins)
1972 – USSR performs nuclear test
1972 – Balt Roric Harrison is last AL pitcher to homer until interleague play 25 years later
1973 – Willi Stoph succeeds Walter Ulbricht as East German party leader
1974 – Ted Bundy victim Nancy Wilcox disappears in Salt Lake City, Utah
1974 – Pele retires as soccer player
Brazilian Football Legend Pele

1974 – Watergate trial begins
1975 – George Harrison releases “Extra Texture” album in UK
1975 – Ireland AKZO director Tiede Herrema kidnap
1976 – Hank Aaron singles in his last at bat & drives in his 2,297th run
1976 – Helmuth Kohl’s CDU wins German parliament election
1977 – “Comedy with Music (Victor Borge)” opens at Imperial NYC for 66 perfs
1977 – Indira Gandhi arrested
1978 – Gold hits record $223.50 an ounce in London
1980 – 4 dies in attack on synagogue in Paris
1981 – Brewers (since 1970) & Expos (1969) clinch their 1st-ever postseason
1981 – Irish Nationalist at Maze Prison near Belfast end 7-mo hunger strike
1981 – Mike Weaver beats Quick Tillis in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1982 – Cox 4 rowing record set at 12:52 for 99 miles (Geneva, Switzerland)
1982 – Milwaukee whips Baltimore 10-2 to win AL East championship
LPGA Golfer Patty Sheehan

1982 – Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Inamori Golf Classic
1982 – Record 11,763 start a 186 mile cross-country race near Stockholm
1982 – Scott Weiland runs Detroit marathon backwards in less than 5 hours
1983 – Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson release “Say, Say, Say” in UK
1985 – 21st Shuttle Mission (51J)-Atlantis 1-all-military flight launched
1985 – Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) adopts constitution
1985 – Pope John Paul II beatifies Titus Brandsma
1985 – South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands adopts constitution
1985 – Walter Polovchak becomes a “free man” upon turning 18
1986 – Baltimore loses assuring Orioles of their 1st last-place finish
1986 – Soviet Yankee-class sub sinks off NC, 3 die
1986 – TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories, was officially opened.
264th Pope John Paul II

1987 – Benito Santiago ends longest catcher/rookie hitting streak at 34
1987 – Michael Pruffer of France skis 135.26 MPH at Portillo, Chile
1987 – USSR performs underground nuclear test
1988 – 26th Space Shuttle Mission, Discovery 7 returns to Earth after 4-days
1988 – Criterion Center Theater opens at Broadway bet 44th & 45th Sts NYC
1988 – Lebanese kidnappers release Mithileshwar Singh (held for 30 months)
1988 – WBMW-FM, Wash DC changes calls to WJFK & begins airing Howard Stern
1989 – Panamanian Defense Force attempted coup of Manuel Noriega fails
1990 – Reunification of East & West Germany. West German flag raised above Brandenburg Gate on the stroke of midnight
1990 – George Brett becomes 1st to lead league in batting in 3 decades
1990 – Tiger Cecil Fielder becomes 11th, to hit 50 HRs (& 51st)
1990 – Florida record store owner Charles Freeman is found guilty of obsenity, for selling 2 Live Crew rap records
Country Music Singer and Songwriter Garth Brooks

1991 – 25th Country Music Association Award: Garth Brooks, Tanya Tucker & Vince Gill wins
1992 – Atlanta Braves win franchise record 98th game (old record 95 in 1957)
1992 – Madonna premieres her “Erotica” video on MTV
1992 – Sinead O’Connor rips up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live”
1992 – Toronto Blue Jays win AL East title
1993 – “White Liars/Black Comedy” closes at Criterion NYC after 38 perfs
1993 – Battle at TV station Ostankino/Moscow townhall, about 25 killed
1993 – Boris Yeltsin declares state of emergency in Moscow
1993 – Harry Belafonte performs in Tivoli Copenhagen
1993 – Indians play their last game at Cleve Stadium, Chicago wins 4-0
1993 – Somali General Aidids arm forces kill 18 US Rangers
1993 – Giants need to beat Dodgers to force a playoff game with Braves for NL West title, but Dodgers destroy Giants 12-1, Giants end year 103-59
Russian President Boris Yeltsin

1993 – Battle of Mogadishu: In an attempt to capture officials of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s organisation in Mogadishu, Somalia, 18 US Soldiers and about 1,000 Somalis are killed in heavy fighting.
1994 – Fernando Henrique Cardoso elected president of Brazil
1994 – Gary Larson, announces he is retiring from doing “Far Side” cartoon
1995 – 1st 1st-class match at Hurstville Oval, Sydney (NSW v W Prov)
1995 – OJ Simpson found not guilty in murder of Nicole Simpson & Ron Goldman in Los Angeles, California
1996 – Thunderdome in Tampa Bay renamed Tropicana Field
1997 – Carolina Hurricanes 1st home game vs Pitts Penguins
1997 – Gordie Howie, 69, plays in 7th decade, with IHL’S Detroit Vipers
1997 – Japan’s maglev train breaks world speed record at 280.3 mph
1997 – Vancouver Canucks beats Mighty Ducks, 3-2 in Japan
2003 – Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy is attacked by one of the shows tigers, canceling the show for good.
2008 – The $700 billion bailout bill for the US financial system is signed by President George W. Bush
2008 – OJ Simpson found guilty of charges of kidnapping and armed robbery
2010 – 19th Commonwealth Games open in Delhi, India
2012 – 34 people are killed by a series of bombings in Aleppo, Syria
2013 – 325 people are killed after a migrant ship catches fire and shipwrecks of the coast of Lampedusa, Italy
2013 – 13 people are killed after a passenger plane crashes in Lagos, Nigeria
NFL Running Back and Convicted Criminal OJ Simpson

2014 – 83 million accounts are compromised after a cyber attack on JP Morgan Chase & 9 other financial institutions

BIRTHDAYS

1573 – Entonius Walaeus, Dutch calvinist theologist
1605 – Li Tzu-ch’eng, Chinese revolutionary, dethroned last Ming emperor
1631 – Sebastian Anton Scherer, composer
1647 – Johannes Voet, Dutch lawyer
1647 – John Foot, lawyer
1713 – Antoine Dauvergne, composer
1716 – Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist (d. 1781)
1720 – Johann P Uz, German poet (Lyrische Poem)
1728 – Charles G Chevalier d’Eon de Beaumont, French spy/transvestite
1733 – Francois Krafft, composer
1761 – Dirk earl van Hogendorp, general/Dutch minister of War [OS]
1789 – Francis Hoyt Gregory, Rear Admiral (Union Navy), (d. 1866)
1790 – John Ross, Chief of the Cherokee Nation (d. 1866)
1792 – Cipriani Potter, composer
1792 – Francisco Morazán, Central American statesman
1797 – Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1870)
1800 – George Bancroft, Worcester Massachusetts, American historian (History of the United States)
1803 – John Gorrie, inventor (cold-air process of refrigeration)
Father of U.S. History George Bancroft (1800)

1804 – Townsend Harris, 1st Western consul to reside in Japan
1804 – Allan Kardec, French founder of Spiritism (d. 1869)
1806 – Oliver Cowdery, American religious leader (d. 1850)
1807 – Heinrich Panofka, composer
1814 – Mikhail Yurevich Lermontov, Russian poet/writer (Demon & other poems)
1828 – Woldemar Bargiel, composer
1834 – Vilem Blodek, composer
1844 – Patrick Manson, “Father of tropical medicine”
1848 – Henry Lerolle, French painter (d. 1929)
1854 – William Crawford Gorgas, US, Surgeon-Gen, help cure yellow fever
1859 – Elenora Duse, Italy, actress (Hedda Gabler)
1860 – Annie EF Horniman, England, theater owner (Abbey Theatre, Dublin)
1862 – John Briggs, cricketer (mighty England all-rounder late 19th century)
1863 – Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov, Russian explorer (d. 1935)
1865 – Johannes IJWJ Eilerts de Haan, Dutch sea officer (Lucie R, Suriname)
1866 – Learmont Drysdale, composer
1867 – Pierre Bonnard, French painter/illustrator
1869 – Alfred Flatow, German Olympic champion gymnast (d. 1942)
1871 – Stijn Streuvels, [Frank Lateur], Flemish writer (De Valschaard)
1872 – Edward Faber Schneider, composer
1880 – Warner Oland, Umea Sweden, actor (Jazz Singer, Charlie Chan)
1881 – Ludomir Michal Rogowski, composer
1882 – Gunther von Kluge, German fieldmarshal
1882 – A. Y. Jackson, Canadian painter (d. 1974)
1885 – Langley Collyer, hoarder (d. 1947)
1885 – Sophie Treadwell, American playwright and journalist (d. 1970)
1886 – Henri Alain-Fournier, French novelist (Great Adventure)
1888 – Claud Allister, actor (Bulldog Drummond), born in London, England
1888 – Roy Webb, composer
1889 – Carl von Ossietzky, Germany, journalist/pacifist (Nobel 1935)
1890 – Henry Hull, Louisville KY, actor (Tobacco Rd, Boys Town, High Sierra)
1893 – Frantisek Picha, composer
1894 – Elmer Robinson, American politician (d. 1982)
1894 – Walter Warlimont, German General WWII (d. 1976)
1895 – Kurt Schumacher, co-founder/president West German SDP [OS]
1896 – Gerardo Diego, Spanish poet (d. 1987)
1897 – Josephine “Mama Jo” Riley Matthews, midwife (SC)
1897 – Louis Aragon, French writer (d. 1982)
1898 – Leo McCarey, American film director (d. 1969)
1899 – Gertrude Berg, Harlem actress (Molly Goldberg-Goldbergs), born in NYC, New York
1900 – Jay Irving, cartoonist (Draw Me a Laugh), born in NYC, New York
Novelist Thomas Wolfe(1900)

1900 – Thomas Wolfe, Asheville, North Carolina, American novelist (Look Homeward Angel)
1901 – Masao Oki, composer
1901 – Jean Grémillon, French film director (d. 1959)
1902 – Arturo da Costa e Silva, marshal/pres of Brazil (1967-69)
1904 – Charles Pedersen, UK, biochemist (Nobel 1987)
1911 – Michael Hordern, Hertfordshire England, actor (Friar Domingo-Shogun)
1912 – Gabriel Julian, original pianist of Bobby Byrne Orchestra, arranger for Glenn Miller and founder Alabama Cavaliers Jazz Ens
1914 – Nel Rose, Dutch dance teacher
1915 – Ray Stark, American film producer (d. 2004)
1916 – Angeles Alvarino Deleira, biologist/oceanographer/writer
1916 – James Herriot [Alfred Wight], Sunderland, County Durham, veterinarian/novelist (All Creatures Great and Small), (d. 1995)
Novelist James Herriot(1916)

1916 – Shelby Storck, American television producer (d. 1969)
1919 – Boyd Bradfield Upchurch, [John Boyd], US, sci-fi author (IQ Merchant)
1919 – Walter Gieseler, composer
1919 – James M. Buchanan, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, economist (Nobel Memorial 1986), (d. 2013)
1921 – Ray Lindwall, cricketer (Australian fast bowler & St George full-back)
1922 – Marcel van Thienen, composer
1922 – Jean Lefebvre, French actor (d. 2004)
1923 – Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Lvov Poland, Classical conductor and composer
1923 – Edward Oliver LeBlanc, Dominican politician (d. 2004)
1924 – Arkady Vorobyov, Russian weightlifter, (d. 2012)
1924 – Harvey Kurtzman, U.S. cartoonist and founding editor of Mad magazine (d. 1993)
1925 – Gore Vidal, West Point NY, author (Myra Breckinridge, Lincoln), (d. 2012)
1925 – W Howard Baker, English publisher
1926 – Marques Haynes, NBA player and hall of famer (World’s Greatest Dribbler, Harlem Globetrotters)
1927 – Kenojuak Asheva, Ikirasaq, Canada, Inuit artist, (d. 2013)
1928 – Christian d’Oriola, France, foils (Olympic-gold-1952, 56)
1928 – Erik Bruhn, Copenhagen Denmark, dancer (Natl Ballet of Canada)
1928 – Shridath Surendranath “Sonny” Ramphal, Guyanese sec-gen (1975- )
1929 – Bert Stern, American photographer
1930 – David Mayer Epstein, composer
NHL Goalie Glenn Hall(1931)

1931 – Glenn Hall, Humboldt Saskatchewan, National Hockey League goaltender
1933 – Neale A Fraser, tennis champ (US Open-1959)
1934 – Benjamin Boretz, composer
1934 – Harold Ralph Henning, Johannesburg South Africa, PGA golfer (1966 Texas Open)
1934 – Madlyn Rhue, Wash DC, actress (Bracken’s World, Executive Suite)
1935 – Abdon Pamich, Italy, 50K walker (Olympic-gold-1964)
1935 – Charles M Duke Jr, Charlotte NC, Brig Gen USAF/astronaut (Apol 16)
1936 – Steve Reich, composer (My Name is), born in NYC, New York
1937 – Boldizsar Csiky, composer
1937 – Eli Jacobs, baseball owner (Baltimore Orioles)
1937 – Ton de Kruyf, composer
1938 – David R Obey, (Rep-D-Wisconsin, 1969- )
1938 – Eddie Cochran, rock vocalist/guitarist (C’Mon Everybody), born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1938 – Tereza Kesovija, Croatian singer
1940 – Alan O’Day, Hollywood Ca, rocker, (d. 2013)
1940 – Jean Ratelle, NHL center (NY Rangers, Boston Bruins)
1940 – Mike Troy, US swimmer (Olympics-2 gold-1960)
1941 – Chubby Checker [Ernest Evans], American singer-songwriter (The Twist, Limbo Rock), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1942 – Alan Rachins, American actor
1943 – Jeff Bingaman, (Sen-D-New Mexico, 1983- )
1944 – Roy Horn, German-American Las Vegas entertainer (Siegfried & Roy)
1944 – Pierre Deligne, Belgian mathematician
1944 – Bob Riley, American politician, governor of Alabama
1945 – Kay Baxter, Woodsfield Ohio, Best Bodybuilder in World (1983-85)
1945 – Rik Kenton, rocker
1945 – Viktor Saneyev, USSR, triple jumper (Olympic-3 gold/1 silv-1968-80)
1946 – Bob Dotson, St Louis Mo, newscaster (Primetime Sunday)
1946 – Tristan Keuris, composer
1946 – Biff Henderson, American television personality
1947 – 7th earl of Bradford, English large landowner/multi-millionaire
1947 – Fred DeLuca, American co-founder of the Subway chain, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2015)
1948 – Michael Medved, American film critic
1949 – Yekaterina Aleksandrowna Ivanova, Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz T-15A)
1949 – Lindsey Buckingham, Palo Alto, California, American guitarist/lead singer (Fleetwood Mac)
1950 – Laureen Ford, Gympie Queensland, golfer (1992 Alpine Aust Ladies)
1950 – Pamela Hensley, Glendale California, actress (Buck Rogers in 25th Century)
1950 – Ronnie Laws, US saxophonist/guitarist (Earth, Wind & Fire)
1951 – Dave Winfield, baseball outfielder (NY Yankees, Blue Jays, Twins)
1951 – Jack Grondin, rock drummer (.38 Special)
1951 – Kathryn Sullivan, Paterson NJ, geologist and astronaut (1st American woman to walk in space), born in Paterson, New Jersey
1951 – Bernard Cooper, American writer
1951 – Keb’ Mo’, American singer
1952 – Gary Troup, cricketer (NZ lefty pace bowler in 15 Tests 1976-86)
1954 – Dennis Eckersley, pitcher (St Louis Cardinals), born in Oakland, California
Musician, Singer and Songwriter Stevie Ray Vaughan (1954)

1954 – Stevie Ray Vaughan, guitarist (Sky is Crying, Texas Flood), born in Dallas, Texas
1954 – Al Sharpton [Alfred Charles], minister and civil rights activist (Keepin’ It Real), born in Brooklyn, New York
1955 – Angela Molina, actress (Streets of Gold, Half of Heaven), born in Madrid, Spain
1956 – Hart Bochner, actor (Aron-East of Eden, Supergirl, Die Hard), born in Toronto, Ontario
1956 – Peter Frechette, Warwick RI, actor (Paint it Black, George-Profiler)
1957 – Tim Westwood, Pimp My Ride UK presenter and DJ
1958 – Karen Morton Palmdale CA, playmate (Jul, 1978)
1959 – Carmen Russo, Genoa Italy, Miss Teenage Italy (1972)
1959 – Frederick Stephen Couples, PGA golfer (1983 Kemper Open), born in Seattle, Washington
1959 – Jack Wagner, rocker/actor (General Hospital, Melrose Place)
Minister and Civil Rights Activist Al Sharpton (1954)

1959 – Greg Proops, American actor and comedian
1959 – Fred Couples, American golfer and Masters Champion (1992), born in Seattle, Washington
1960 – Cinzia De Ponti, [Fiordeponti], Pescara Italy (Miss Italy 1979)
1962 – Rick Todd, Canadian Tour golfer (1992 Ben Hogan Dakota), born in Toronto, Ontario
1962 – Tommy Lee, American musician (Mötley Crüe)
1963 – Dan Goldie, Sioux City IO, tennis star
1963 – Patrick Flatley, Ontario, right winger (NY Islanders, Oly-4 gold-1988)
1963 – Marion Peck, American artist and painter
1964 – Clive Owen, British actor
1966 – Darrin Fletcher, Elmhurst IL, catcher (Montreal Expos)
1966 – Frank Hannon, rock guitarist (Tesla-Psychotic Supper)
1967 – Rob Liefeld, American comic book writer and artist
Golfer and Masters Champion Fred Couples (1959)

1967 – Walter Polovchak, Ukrainian-American asylum seeker, born in Ukraine
1968 – Greg Foster, NBA center (Utah Jazz)
1968 – Marco Roelofsen, soccer player (SC Heerenveen)
1968 – Paul Crichton, English footballer
1969 – Carl Thomas, NBA guard (Cleveland Cavaliers)
1969 – Eddie Sutter, NFL linebacker (Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons)
1969 – Mike Saunders, CFL running back (Saskatchewan Roughriders)
1969 – Shane Butterworth, actor (Timmy-Bad News Bears)
1969 – Stephen Scahill, New Zealand golfer, born in Featherston
1969 – Travis Hill, NFL linebacker (Carolina Panthers)
1969 – Gwen Stefani, Fullerton, California, singer (No Doubt)
1969 – Tetsu, Japanese bassist (L’Arc~en~Ciel)
1970 – Justine Sowry, Australian field hockey goalie (Olympics-96)
1970 – Manny Martinez, San Pedro DE, outfielder (Seattle Mariners)
Singer Gwen Stefani (1969)

1970 – Roger Bailey, Chattahoochee FL, pitcher (Colorado Rockies)
1970 – Tyji Armstrong, NFL tight end (Tampa Bay Bucs)
1971 – Reggie Givens, CFL linebacker (Toronto Argonauts)
1971 – Wil Cordero, baseball player
1971 – Kevin Richardson, American singer (Backstreet Boys)
1972 – Christian Peter, defensive tackle (NY Giants)
1972 – Denny Vaughn, orchestra leader (Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour)
1972 – Michael Nylander, Stockholm Swe, NHL center (Calgary Flames)
1972 – Sandy Martinez, Villa Mella Dom Rep, catcher (Toronto Blue Jays)
1972 – Garrett Dutton, American musician (G. Love and Special Sauce)
1972 – Lajon Witherspoon, American singer (Sevendust)
1973 – Angelica Gavaldon, El Centro California, tennis star (1995 quarter Aust)
1973 – Neve Campbell, Guelph Ontario, Canadian actress (Party of 5, Scream)
Actress Neve Campbell(1973)

1973 – Keiko Agena, Japanese-American actress
1973 – Lena Headey, British actress
1974 – Mike Johnson, Canadian ice hockey player
1975 – India.Arie, American singer
1975 – Talib Kweli, American rapper
1976 – Kirsi Haenninen, ice hockey defenseman (Finland, Oly-98)
1976 – Nate Johnson, American canoeist (alt-Olympics-96), born in Seattle, Washington
1976 – Seann William Scott, American actor
1978 – Gerald Asamoah, German footballer
1978 – Claudio Pizarro, Peruvian footballer
1978 – Jake Shears, singer (Scissor Sisters)
1978 – Shannyn Sossamon, American actress
1979 – John Hennigan, American professional wrestler
1979 – Daniel Hollie, American professional wrestler
1980 – Sheldon Brookbank, Canadian hockey player
1981 – Zlatan Ibrahimović, Swedish footballer
1981 – Andreas Isaksson, Swedish footballer
1981 – Danny Coid, English Footballer
1981 – Matt Murton, American baseball player
1981 – Amanda Walsh, Canadian actress
1982 – Erik von Detten, American actor
1983 – Frederico Chaves Guedes, Brazilian footballer
1983 – Hiroki Suzuki, Japanese actor
1984 – Yoon Eun Hye, South Korean actress
1984 – Ashlee Simpson, American singer
1987 – Zuleyka Rivera, Puerto Rican Miss Universe
1988 – Tadhg Kelly, American actor
1990 – Rhian Denise Ramos, Filipino actress
1993 – Lindsay Fabes, actor (Charlie Winthrop-Another World)
1996 – Adair Tishler, American child actress

WEDDINGS

1833 – Composer Hector Berlioz marries actress Harriet Smithson
1944 – Comedian Jerry Lewis marries singer Patti Palmer
1953 – MLB player and manager Sparky Anderson (19) weds childhood sweetheart Carol Valle
1965 – Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould (23) weds artist Deborah Lee
1988 – “Princess of Rock and Roll” Lisa Marie Presley (20) weds musician Danny Keough (23) at the Church of Scientology
1992 – LeVar Burton weds Stephanie Cozart
1992 – Future US President Barack Obama (31) weds fellow lawyer Michelle Robinson (28)
1993 – Evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker (52) weds Roe Messner (58)
44th US President Barack Obama (1992)

1998 – Dutch-born model Annette Roque (33) weds The Today show cohost Matt Lauer (41) at Presbyterian Church in Bridgehampton, New York
2008 – Radio personality Howard Stern (54) weds actress Beth Ostrosky (36) in Manhattan, New York

DIVORCES

None

DEATHS

42 BC – Gaius Cassius Longinus, Roman senator and conspirator against Julius Caesar, dies during the Battle of Philippi
695 – “Black Ewald”, helper of Willibrord, murdered
695 – “White Ewald”, helper of Willibrord, murdered
1283 – Dafydd ap Gruffyd, last monarch of Gwynnedd (North-Wales), dies
1369 – Margarete Maultasch, Countess of Tyrol (b. 1318)
1564 – Christophorus Fabritius, [Christoffel Smit], calvinist vicar, burned
1568 – Elisabeth van Valois, French queen of Spain, dies at 23
1596 – Florent Chrestien, French writer (b. 1541)
1611 – Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne, French military leader (b. 1554)
1629 – Giorgi Saakadze, Georgian military leader (b. 1570)
1646 – Virgilio Mazzocchi, composer, dies at 49
1649 – Giovanni Diodati, Swiss Protestant clergyman (b. 1576)
1653 – Mark Zuesius Boxhorn, historian, dies at 41
1656 – Myles Standish, Plymouth Colony leader, dies of strangury at 72
1685 – Fidel Molitor, composer, dies at 58
1690 – Robert Barclay, Scottish writer (b. 1648)
Military Leader of Plymouth Colony Myles Standish(1656)

1701 – Joseph Williamson, English politician (b. 1633)
1703 – Pieter van Wooden, Amersfoorts rebel leader, beheaded
1703 – Richard Saab, Amersfoorts rebel leader, beheaded
1750 – Georg Matthias Monn, composer, dies at 33
1795 – Tula, leader Curacaose slave uprising, executed
1801 – Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur, Marshal of France (b. 1724)
1820 – Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith, composer, dies at 74
1826 – Jens I Baggesen, Danish writer/linguist (Labyrinth), dies
1828 – Josephus Andreas Fodor, composer, dies at 77
1838 – Black Hawk (chief), Leader of the Sauk Native American tribe (b. 1767)
1853 – Andre Georges Louis Onslow, composer, dies at 69
1862 – Pleasant Adam Hackleman, Union brig-general, dies in battle at 47
1867 – Elias Howe, American sewing machine pioneer (b. 1819)
1873 – Kintpuash, [Captain Jack], fought Modoc indians, Oregon, dies
1877 – James Roosevelt Bayley, first Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, and the eighth Archbishop of Baltimore (b. 1814)
1881 – Orson Pratt, American religious leader (b. 1811)
1884 – Hans Makart, Austrian painter (Geur), dies at 44
1889 – Karel Miry, composer, dies at 66
1890 – Andries Andre, actor (Trumpeter-Major), dies at 36
1890 – Joseph Hergenröther, German historian (b. 1824)
1891 – Edouard Lucas, French mathematician (b. 1842)
1896 – William Morris, artist and writer associated with Arts and Crafts movement, dies at 62 London
1903 – Benedetto Junck, composer, dies at 51
1907 – Alfred Reisenauer, composer, dies at 43
1912 – Guido Papini, composer, dies at 65
1919 – Daniel Brink Towner, composer, dies at 69
1929 – Gustav Stresemann, German chancellor (Nobel 1926), dies at 51
1929 – Jeanne Eagels, actress (The Letter), dies at 35
1930 – Charles LP “Philip” Zilcken, painter/etcher/author (Bauer), dies at 73
1931 – Carl August Nielsen, composer, dies at 66

Football, Baseball & Basketball Player & Coach John Heisman (1936)

1936 – John Heisman, American football coach, dies of pneumonia at 66
1941 – Wilhelm Kienzl, Austria composer (Kuhreigen), dies at 84
1952 – Alfred Neumann, German writer, dies at 56
1953 – Arnold Bax, British composer, dies at 69
1953 – Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, Brit composer (Coronation March), dies at 69
1953 – Arnold Bax, English composer (b. 1883)
1953 – Florence Sabin, American Physician, dies at 82
1954 – Herbert Prior, actor (Pollyanna), dies at 87
1959 – William Bishop, actor (Steve-It’s a Great Life), dies at 42
1965 – Zachary Scott, US actor, (Southerner, Flame of Islands), dies at 51
1967 – Woody Guthrie, rocker, dies of Huntington’s Chorea at 55
1967 – Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (Last Night of Proms), dies at 72
1967 – Pinto Colvig, animation voice (Goofy, Pluto), dies at 75
1967 – Walter Muller von Kulm, composer, dies at 68
1967 – Woodrow Wilson “Woodie” Guthrie, US folk singer/guitarist, dies at 55
1969 – Skip James, American blues musician (b. 1902)
1971 – Leah Baird, writer (Jungle Bride), dies of anemia at 88
1971 – Sean O Riada, composer, dies at 40
1975 – Bauke Tuinstra, Fries notary/writer (Ealse & I), dies at 75
1975 – Guy Mollet, French premier (1956-57), dies at 69
1979 – Charles White, artist, dies at 61 in Los Angeles
1979 – Claudia Jennings, playmate (Nov, 1969), dies in car crash at 29
1981 – Walter Mehring, writer, dies at 85
1982 – Roger J J Claessen, Belgian soccer star, dies at 41
1982 – Vivien Merchant, actress (Accident, Offense), dies at 53
1983 – John K M McCaffery, TV host (One Minute Please), dies at 69
1983 – Kurt Kusenberg, writer, dies at 79
1985 – Charles Collingwood, newscaster (Chronicles), dies at 68
1985 – Maurice Copeland, actor (Ralph-Those Young Charmings), dies at 74
1986 – Vince DiMaggio, American Baseball Player (b. 1912)
1987 – Jean Anouilh, French playwright (Ball of the Voleurs), dies at 77
1988 – Franz Josef Strauss, German FR min of defense (1956-62), dies at 73
1988 – Generoso Pope Jr, National Enquirer owner, dies at 61
1989 – Joseph Wybran, Belgian physician/Jews foreman, murdered
1990 – Stefano Casiraghi, Princess Caroline of Monaco husband, dies at 30
1990 – Eleanor Steber, eminent American soprano dies in Langhorne, PA
1991 – Max Cantor, journalist, dies
1993 – JH Scheps, Dutch MP (Social Democratic), dies at 93
1993 – Sgt. First Class Randy Shughart, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1958)
1993 – Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1960)
1994 – Dennis Wolfberg, comedian (Quantum Leap), dies from cancer at 48
1994 – Dub Taylor, actor (Poor Pretty Eddie), dies of a heart attack at 87
1994 – Harriet Nelson, American actress (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet), dies at 80
1994 – V, comedian/actor, dies at 48
1994 – Virginia Dale, US actress/dancer (Holiday Inn), dies at about 77
1994 – Walter C “Dub” Taylor II, US actor (You Can’t Take it All), dies at 86
1995 – Molly Harris, actress/writer (Immortal), dies at 82
1996 – Denis Frank Owen, Natural historian, dies at 65
1996 – Eustace Wenworth Roskill, law lord, dies at 85
1996 – Tom ap Rees, botanist, dies at 65
1996 – Tony Parker, oral historian, dies at 73
1997 – Alfred Leslie Rowse, historian, dies at 93
1998 – Roddy McDowall, English actor (b. 1928)
1999 – Akio Morita, Japanese businessman (b. 1921)
2000 – Benjamin Orr, American bassist and singer (The Cars) (b. 1947)
2000 – John Grant, British politician (b. 1932)
2002 – Bruce Paltrow, American television and film producer (b. 1943)
2002 – Robert Krausz, Stock market advisor and investor (b. 1936)
2003 – Florence Stanley, American actress (b. 1924)
2003 – William Steig, American cartoonist and children’s author (b. 1907)
2004 – John Cerutti, baseball player and announcer (b. 1960)
Actress Janet Leigh (2004)

2004 – Janet Leigh, American actress, dies at 77
2005 – Ronnie Barker, English comic actor (b. 1929)
2006 – Alberto Ramento, Filipina bishop (b. 1937)
2006 – John Crank, British mathematician (b. 1913)
2006 – Peter Norman, Australian track star (b. 1942)
2007 – M.N. Vijayan, Indian writer, orator, and academic
2008 – Karam ud Din, Pakistani Navy officer (b. 1941)
2009 – Queen Fatima, former Libyan queen (b. 1918)
2010 – Ben Mondor, Canadian-born American baseball executive (b. 1925)

ALSO ON THIS DAY

• Lead Story

• 1995 O.J. Simpson acquitted

• American Revolution

• 1781 French and Americans cut off British supplies at Gloucester

• Automotive

• 1961 UAW walks out on Ford

• Civil War

• 1862 Battle of Corinth

• Cold War

• 1990 East and West Germany reunite after 45 years

• Crime

• 2011 Amanda Knox murder conviction overturned in Italy

• Disaster

• 2005 Hurricane Stan bears down on Mexico

• General Interest

• 1932 Iraq wins independence
• 1952 Britain successfully tests A-bomb
• 1981 Maze hunger strike called off

• Hollywood

• 1964 Clive Owen born

• Literary

• 1895 The Red Badge of Courage is published

• Music

• 1967 Writer, singer and folk icon Woody Guthrie dies

• Old West

• 1873 U.S. Army hangs four Modoc Indians for the murder of a Civil War hero

• Presidential

• 1863 Lincoln proclaims official Thanksgiving holiday

• Sports

• 1951 The shot heard round the world

• Vietnam War

• 1967 Operation Wallowa commences
• 1968 Twenty-four die in Army helicopter accident

• World War I

• 1917 War Revenue Act passed in U.S.

• World War II

• 1942 Germany conducts first successful V-2 rocket test

2006 – Gunman kills five students at Amish school

Charles Roberts enters the West Nickel Mines Amish School in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, where he fatally shoots five female students and wounds five more before turning his gun on himself and committing suicide.

Charles Carl Roberts IV, a 32-year-old milk truck driver from a nearby town, entered the one-room schoolhouse at around 10:30 a.m. armed with an arsenal of weapons, ammunition, tools and other items including toilet paper that indicated he planned for the possibility of a long standoff. He forced the 15 boys and several women with infants inside the school to leave and made the 11 girls present line up against the blackboard. Police were contacted about the hostage situation at approximately 10:30 a.m. When they arrived at the schoolhouse a short time later, Roberts had barricaded the school doors with boards he had brought with him and tied up his hostages. Roberts spoke briefly with his wife by cell phone and said he was upset with God over the death of his baby daughter in 1997. He also told her he had molested two girls 20 years earlier and was having fantasies about molesting children again. At approximately 11 a.m., Roberts spoke with a 911 dispatcher and said if the police didn’t leave he’d start shooting. Seconds after, he shot five of the students. When authorities stormed the schoolhouse, Roberts shot himself in the head.

Roberts, a father of three, had no criminal history or record of mental illness. Additionally, his family knew nothing about his claims that he had molested two young female relatives. The Amish community, known for their religious devotion, as well as wearing traditional clothing and shunning certain modern conveniences, consoled Roberts’ wife in the wake of the tragedy; some members even attended his funeral. Ten days after the shootings, the Amish tore down the schoolhouse and eventually built a new one nearby.

October 2nd

EVENTS

939 – Battle at Andernach: King Otto & Hermann of Zwaben beat Eberhard of France & Giselbert of Lutherans
976 – Hisham II appointed kalief of Cordoba
1134 – Storm flood ravages Zeeland county
1187 – Sultan Saladin captures Jerusalem from Crusaders
1263 – The battle of Largs fought between Norwegians and Scots.
1492 – King Henry VII of England invades France
1518 – English cardinal Thomas Wolsey makes European plan
1535 – Jacques Cartier discovers Mount Royal (Montreal)
1540 – Venice/Turkey signs peace
1552 – Conquest of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible.
1572 – Spanish army occupies/plunders/destroys Mechelen
1608 – Hans Lippershey applies for patent for first known early telescope in the Netherlands
1614 – French King Louis XIII declared an adult at 13
1656 – English North American colony of Connecticut passes law against Quakers
1700 – Spanish king Carlos II appoints Philip van Anjou, heir to throne
1760 – Russian/Austrian army evacuates Berlin [NS=10/13]
Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible

1787 – Maagden House opens in Amsterdam
1789 – George Washington transmits the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification.
1792 – Baptist Missionary Society forms in London
1795 – Tula (leader slave uprising) sentence to death in Curacao
1799 – Duke of York & Russians capture Alkmaar in Netherlands
1804 – Britain mobilizes to protect against French invasion
1833 – Charles Darwin rides through Corunda to Santa Fe Argentina
1833 – NY Anti-Slavery Society organized
1835 – Battle of Gonzales fought between Texan settlers and Mexican forces. First engagement of the Texas revolution
1836 – Darwin returns to England aboard HMS Beagle (after 5 years)
1851 – The pasilalinic-sympathetic compass is demonstrated but proves to be a fake.
Naturalist Charles Darwin

1853 – Austrian law forbids Jews from owning land
1861 – Former US VP John C Breckinridge flees Kentucky
1864 – Battle of Saltville, VA
1866 – J Osterhoudt patents tin can with key opener
1870 – Italy annexes Rome & Papal States; Rome made Italian capital
1871 – Brigham Young, mormon leader, arrested for bigamy
1872 – Morgan State University founded
1876 – 16th British Golf Open: Bob Martin shoots a 176 at St Andrews
1879 – Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure “Musgrave Ritual” (BG)
1889 – 1st Pan American conference (Washington, D.C.)
1889 – In Colorado, Nicholas Creede strikes it rich in silver during the last great silver boom of the American Old West.
1895 – 1st cartoon comic strip is printed in a newspaper

Founder of Salt Lake City and President of the LDS Church Brigham Young

1899 – Orange Free state mobilizes
1901 – First Royal Naval submarine launched at Barrow
1902 – Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” is published by Frederick Warne & Co. in London.
1906 – Tommy Burns KOs Jim Burns in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1907 – Phillies Eddie Grant goes 7 for 7 in a doubleheader vs Giants
1908 – Addie Joss perfect game stops Ed Walsh 1-0 who won 40 in a row
1909 – 1st rugby match (Twickenham)
1910 – 1st 2 aircraft collision (Milan Italy)
1910 – Henry Wijnmalen flies to 2,800m altitude (world record)
1912 – Gopal Krishna Gokhale, at invitation of Gandhi, arrives in South Africa on a 26-day tour; he also visits Tolstoy Farm
1913 – Phillies beat NY Giants 2 games out of 3 in a tripleheader
1916 – Grover Cleveland Alexander records his 16th shutout of year
1916 – San Diego Zoo founded
Pacifist and Spiritual Leader Mahatma Gandhi

1919 – 1st edition “Volkskrant” (People’s newspaper) published in Neth
1919 – US President Woodrow Wilson has a stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed
1920 – Only tripleheader of century (Reds win 13-4, 7-3 then Pirates win 6-0)
1920 – The Chinese sign an agreement with the Russo-Asiatic Bank, largely French and Russian controlled, which will oversee the Chinese Eastern Railway, but give local supervision to China
1921 – NY Yankee Babe Ruth hits then record 59th HR
1923 – British occuping army leaves Constantinople
1923 – Harry Heilmann goes 2-for-2, sit out rest of season, except for a pinch single on final day, hitting .403
1924 – League of Nations approves protocols of Geneva
1926 – Bert Gibb of Hamilton Tigers kicks 9 singles in a game
1928 – The “Prelature of the Holy Cross and the Work of God”, commonly known as Opus Dei, was founded by Saint Josemaría Escrivá.
Baseball Legend Babe Ruth

1931 – Pope Pius XI encyclical On economic crisis
1932 – NY Yankees sweep Chicago Cubs in 29th World Series
1932 – Washington Redskins (as Boston Braves) play 1st NFL game, lose 14-0
1933 – Eugene O’Neill’s comedy “Ah, Wilderness” premieres in NYC
1935 – Mussolini’s Italian army attacks Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1935 – NY Hayden Planetarium, 4th in US, opens
1936 – 1st alcohol power plant forms, Atchison, Kansas
1936 – Amsterdam’s Calvinist Churches reject nazism
1936 – French franc devalued
1936 – NY Yankees score World Series record 18 runs, beating Giants 18-4
1936 – Tony Lazzeri becomes 1st Yank to hit a World Series grand slam
1937 – FDR visits Grand Coulee Dam construction site in Washington State
1938 – Indian Bob Feller strikes out record 18 Tigers (Chester Laabs 5 times)
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt

1939 – Birdbaths installed in Union Square, SF
1940 – 17 German aircrafts shot down above England
1940 – British Council receives Royal Charter
1940 – British liner Empress loaded with refugees for Canada, sunk
1941 – 6 Paris synagogues are bombed by Gestapo
1941 – Germans launch attack on Moscow
1942 – “Queen Mary” slices cruiser “Curacao” in half, killing 338
1943 – Japanse troops leave Kolombangara, Solomon Island
1943 – Yankees sweep 14th doubleheader of year, beating Browns, 5-1 & 7-6
1944 – Nazis crush Warsaw Uprising killing 250,000 people
1944 – US B-17’s drops pamphlets on Walcheren
1946 – 1st network soap opera-Faraway Hill-Dumont
1947 – “Music in My Heart” opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 124 performances
1947 – Revised International Telecommunication Convention adopted
MLB Catcher and Manager Yogi Berra

1947 – Yankee Yogi Berra becomes 1st to pinch hit a World Series homer
1948 – “Finian’s Rainbow” closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 725 perfs
1949 – St Louis Browns use 9 pitchers, lose to Whites Sox 4-3
1949 – USSR recognizes People’s Republic of China
1949 – Yanks & Red Sox, tied for 1st place, play final game of season. Yanks win 5-3 & clinch pennant #16
1950 – 1st strip of Charlie Brown, “Li’l Folks”, later “Peanuts”, by Charles M. Schulz published in 9 papers
1950 – Red Sox Dom DiMaggio leads AL with only 15 stolen bases
1950 – Bob Shaw of Chicago Cardinals sets NFL record with 5 TD receptions
1950 – Chic Cards Jim Hardy passes for 6 touchdowns vs Balt Colts (55-13)
1951 – 1st Netherland TV broadcast (Toverspiegel)
1951 – Dodgers beat Giants 10-0, in 2nd game of play-offs
1953 – “Comedy in Music (Victor Borge)” opens at John Golden NYC for 849 perf
Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz

1953 – Dodger Carl Erskine strikes out 14 Yankees in World Series
1954 – 8th NHL All-Star Game: All-Stars beat Detroit 2-2 at Detroit
1954 – Former French possession of Chandernagore made part of West Bengal
1954 – NY Giants sweep Cleve Indians, in 51st World Series
1955 – “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” premieres on CBS television in the US
1955 – 9th NHL All-Star Game: Detroit beat All-Stars 3-1 at Detroit
1955 – Chiva Stoica becomes premier of Romania
1955 – WHTN (now WOWK) TV ch 13 in Huntington-Charleston, WV (CBS) begins
1956 – 1st atomic power clock exhibited-NYC
1957 – NY Yankees appear in their 25th World Series
1957 – New volcanic island appears off Fayal Island Azores
1957 – “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, directed by David Lean and starring William Holden and Alec Guinness, is released (Best Picture 1958)
1958 – Guinea (French Guinea) gains independence from France (National Day)
Actor Alec Guinness

1958 – Musical show “Valmouth” 1st produced in London
1958 – USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1959 – Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” premieres on CBS-TV
1960 – Louise Suggs wins LPGA San Antonio Civitan Golf Tournament
1961 – “Ben Casey” premieres on NBC-TV
1961 – USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1961 – WETA TV channel 26 in Washington, D.C. (PBS) begins broadcasting
1961 – WHRO TV channel 15 in Hampton-Norfolk, VA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1962 – SF beats LA, 8-7 in 4h18m 9 inning playoff game
1962 – US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Johnston Island
1963 – Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax strikes out World Series record 15 Yankees
1963 – W German Chancellor Adenauer condemns western grain shipments to USSR
1964 – Phillies tie major league record with season’s 3rd triple play (Reds)
1965 – Dodgers beat Braves to clinch NL pennant
1965 – Mel Stottlemyre wins game #20
1965 – Phillies’ Chris Short strikes-out 18 NY Mets
1965 – Pope Paul VI named MR Perey bishop’s helper of New Orleans
LPGA Golfer Mickey Wright

1966 – Mickey Wright wins LPGA Mickey Wright Golf Invitational
1966 – LA Dodgers Sandy Koufax clinches 3rd LA pennant in 4 years
1967 – Grateful Dead members arrested by narcotic agents
1967 – Groundbreaking begins on Veteran Stadium in Philadelphia
1967 – Mickey Wright wins LPGA Seven Lakes Golf Invitational
1967 – Thurgood Marshall sworn in as 1st black Supreme Court Justice
1968 – 1st London performance of “Promises, Promises” presented
1968 – Bob Gibson sets a World Series record of 17 strikeouts
1968 – Mexico City police fire on protesting students, 300-500 killed
1968 – Republic Guinea forms (day of republic)
1968 – 1st time, 2 soon-to-be-named MVPs oppose each other Cards Bob Gibson beat Tigers Denny McLain 4-0
1969 – Seattle Pilots last game in Seattle, lose 3-1 to As in front of 5,473
First Black Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

1969 – US performs underground nuclear test at Amchitka Island Aleutians
1970 – Billy Martin named manager of Det Tigers
1970 – Plane carrying Wichita State U football team crashes killing 30
1971 – Homing pigeon averages 133 KPH (record) in 1100-km Australian race
1972 – “From Israel with Love” opens at Palace Theater NYC for 8 performances
1972 – Aeroflot Il-18 crashes near Black Sea resort of Sochi, kills 105
1972 – Bill Stoneman of Montreal pitches his 2nd no-hitter, beating Mets, 7-0
1972 – Danish population votes for membership of the European Common Market
1972 – Mont Expos Bill Stoneman 2nd no-hitter beats NY Mets, 7-0
1972 – Ron Johnson becomes 1st NY Giant to score 4 TDs (vs Phila)
1974 – Hank Aaron’s 733rd career HR on his last NL at bat
1975 – The Ulster Volunteer Force kill 7 civilians in a series of attacks across Northern Ireland; 6 were Catholic civilians and 1 was a Protestant civilian
1975 – Four Ulster Volunteer Force members killed after a bomb they are carrying prematurely explodes in Farrenlester, near Coleraine
Baseball Player Hank Aaron

1976 – “Let My People Come” closes at Morosco Theater NYC after 106 perfs
1977 – Pakistan general Zia ul-Haq bans all opposition
1977 – Vivian Brownlee wins LPGA Dallas Civitan Golf Open
1977 – Dusty Baker 30th HR joins teammates Steve Garvey (33), Reggie Smith (32), & Ron Cey (30) in make Dodgers 1st team to boast 4 30-HR hitters
1978 – Syrian & Palestinians shoot in East Beirut, 1,300 killed
1978 – Yanks win 3rd straight AL East beating Red Sox 5-4 in a playoff game. Guidry wins #25 aided by Dent’s homer & Pinella’s fielding
1979 – Pope John Paul II visits New York City, and at the U.N. denounces all concentration camps and torture
1980 – Larry Holmes TKOs Muhammad Ali in 11 for heavyweight boxing title
1980 – Michael Myers (D-Pa), is 1st rep expelled in over 100 years (ABSCAM)
1981 – Ali Chamenei elected president of Iran
WBC Heavyweight Champion Larry Holmes

1982 – Bomb attack in Teheran, kills 60, injures 700
1982 – The Portland Building, designed by Michael Graves, considered the 1st postmodern building is opened in Portland Oregon
1983 – Art Monk begins NFL streak of 136 plus consecutive game receptions
1983 – Carl Yastrezemski’s last at bat
1983 – Kathy Postlewait wins LPGA San Jose Golf Classic
1984 – 3 cosmonauts return after a record 237 days in orbit
1984 – In 1st LCS game played with replacement umps, Cubs beat Padres 13-0
1984 – Richard Miller, becomes 1st (former) FBI agent, charged with espionage
1985 – Russian party leader Gorbachev visits Paris (his first trip abroad)
1985 – Tigers Darrell Evans is 1st to hit 40 HR seasons in both leagues
1986 – Mike Scott is 3rd NL pitcher to strike out 300 in a season (306)
1986 – NY Met Dwight Gooden is 1st to strike out 200 or more in 1st 3 seasons
1986 – Sikhs attempt to assassinate Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi
Architect Michael Graves

1988 – 24th Olympic games close at Seoul, Korea
1988 – Gelindo Bordin wins 21st Olympics marathon (2:10:32)
1988 – Minnesota Twins are 1st AL club ever to break 3 million season attendance
1988 – Pakistan’s Supreme Court orders free elections
1988 – Mike Tyson wrecks furniture in his Bernardsville NJ manson during a domestic dispute
1989 – TV true life drama “A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story” premieres on NBC in the US
1990 – “Michael Feinstein in Concert” opens at Golden NYC for 30 perfs
1990 – Allies cede any remaining rights as occupiers of Germany
1990 – Chinese plane explodes, about 100 die
1990 – US Senate votes 90-9 to confirm David Souter’s appointment to Supreme Court
1990 – Radio Berlin International’s final transmission (links to Deutsche Welles of West Germany); final song is “The End” by Doors
NHL Center Eric Lindros

1991 – Eric Lindros refuses to sign with Quebec Nordiques
1991 – Steffi Graf becomes the youngest woman to win 500 professional tennis matches
1991 – Toronto Blue Jays clinches AL East title & becomes 1st team to draw 4 million fans
1992 – VP Itamar Franco becomes pres of Brazil
1992 – The Carandiru Massacre takes place after a riot in the Carandiru Penitentiary in São Paulo, Brazil.
1994 – “Show Boat” opens at Gershwin Theater NYC
1994 – Pakistan defeat Australia by one wicket in Karachi Test
1995 – “Moon Over Buffalo” opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 308 perfs
1995 – Seattle Mariners beat Cal Angels, 9-1 in a playoff game to win AL West
1996 – 30th Country Music Association Award: Brooks & Dunn win
1996 – 30th CMT Music Awards: Brooks & Dunn, George Strait, and Patty Loveless win
2001 – NATO backs US military strikes, following 9/11.
2001 – “Scrubs”, starring Zach Braff as Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian, premieres on NBC
2002 – The Beltway sniper attacks begin, extending over three weeks.
2004 – American Samoa joins the North American Numbering Plan.
2005 – The Ethan Allen tour boat capsizes on Lake George in Upstate New York, killing twenty people.
2005 – NFL plays first regular season game outside United States when the Arizona Cardinals defeat the San Francisco 49ers 31-14 in Mexico City, Mexico
2006 – Five school girls are murdered by Charles Carl Roberts in a shooting at an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before Roberts commits suicide.
2007 – President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea walks across the Military Demarcation Line into North Korea on his way to the second Inter-Korean Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

BIRTHDAYS

1452 – King Richard III, of England (1483-85)
1470 – Isabella of Naples, Duchess of Milan (d. 1524)
1538 – Saint Charles Borromeo, Italian cardinal (d. 1584)
1595 – Jacob Louys, Flemish engraver
1616 – A Gryphius, writer
1644 – François-Timoléon de Choisy, French writer (d. 1724)
1646 – Guillaume Poitevin, composer
1704 – Frantisek Ignac Antonin Tuma, composer
1722 – Leopold Widhalm, Austrian luthier (d. 1776)
1737 – Franz Schneider, composer
1752 – Samuel Story, Dutch admiral (Battle at Kamperduin)
1756 – Jacob van Strij, Dutch cartoonist/graphic artist
1756 – Josef Jawurek, composer
1768 – William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford, British general and politician (d. 1854)
1792 – Philip Cipriani Hambley Potter, pianist/composer
1800 – Nat Turner, Southhampton County Virginia, leader of major slave rebellion (1831)
1809 – Anton Emil Titl, composer
1817 – Gunnar Wennerberg, composer
Rebel Slave Nat Turner(1800)

1819 – George Washington Getty, Bvt Major General (Union Army), (d. 1901)
1821 – Alexander Peter “Old Straight” Stewart, Lt Gen (Confederate Army)
1822 – Joannes Kappeyne van de Coppello, Dutch Internal minister (1877-79)
1827 – Edmund Jackson Davis, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), (d. 1883)
1828 – Charles Floquet, French statesman (d. 1896)
1832 – Edward Burnett Tylor, English anthropologist
1832 – Julius von Sachs, botanist/naturalist
1833 – Rev. William Corby, American Catholic priest (d. 1897)
1835 – Louis A Ranvier, French anatomist/historian
1839 – Hans Thoma, painter
1847 – Paul Ludwig Hans von Beneckendorf und Hindenburg, German president
1851 – Ferdinand Foch, France, Allied military commander and hero during WW I
1852 – William Ramsay, chemist
1857 – Marthinus T Steyn, pres of Orange-Free state (1896-1902)
1866 – Charles de Souzy Ricketts, artist
Pacifist and Spiritual Leader Mahatma Gandhi (1869)

1869 – Mahatma Gandhi [Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi], Porbandar Kathiawad India, pacifist and spiritual leader, (d. 1948)
1871 – Cordell Hull, US Secretary of State (1933-44), lowered tariffs (Nobel 1945)
1871 – Martha Brookes Hutcheson, American landscape architect (d. 1959)
1873 – Pelham Warner, cricketer (England 1898-1912, later notable official)
1873 – Stephen Warfield Gambrill, U.S. Congressman for Maryland’s 5th District (d. 1924)
1875 – Henry Fevrier, composer
1878 – Francois C Schlumberger, French physicist
1879 – Wallace Stevens, Reading Pa, poet (Ideas of Order)
1880 – George Alexander Russell, composer
1881 – Fred Barlow, composer
1882 – Boris Shaposhnikov, Russian military commander (d. 1945)
1885 – Ruth Bryan Rohde, US, (Rep), minister to Denmark
1886 – Pieter “Pierre” Balledux, stage manager/Dutch resistance fighter
Comedian Groucho Marx(1890)

1890 – Groucho Marx, [Julius], comedian (Marx Bros, You Bet Your Life), born in NYC, New York
1891 – H V Porter, basketball pioneer, created fan shape backboard
1893 – Leroy B Shield, US pianist/producer/composer (Laurel & Hardy)
1895 – Bud Abbott, Asbury Pk NJ, comedian (Abbott & Costello)
1895 – Louis Lebeer, Dutch art historian
1896 – Fjodor I Panfjorov, Russian author (Volga) [OS=Sep 20]
1896 – Fritz Eberhard, [Hellmut Rauschenplat], W-German lawyer/resistor (Law)
1896 – Liaqat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s first Prime Minister (d. 1951)
1900 – Coco the Clown [Nicolai Poliakoff], Dvinsk, Famous Russian clown
1901 – Christopher Clarkson, test Pilot
1901 – [Ignatius] Roy [D] Campbell, South African poet (Flowering Rifle)
1901 – Charles Stark Draper, Windsor Missouri, American Scientist and Engineer who headed the team that invented the Apollo Guidance Computer and inertial navigation technology for aircraft, space vehicles, and submarines
Famous Clown Coco the Clown (1900)

1902 – Dick Ket, Dutch painter/cartoonist
1902 – Leopold Figl, premier of Austria
1904 – Dermot Boyle, marshal (RAF)
1904 – Godfrey Baseley, radio executive
1904 – Shi Lal Bahadur Shastri, India premier (1964-66)
1904 – [Henry] Graham Greene, England, prolific novelist (Brighton Rock)
1906 – John Humphreys Whitfield, scholar of Italian language & literature
1907 – Alexander Robertus, organic chemist
1907 – Lord Todd, chemist
1907 – William Marshall, producer/director/actor/singer (Blackmail)
1911 – Stuart Rose, designer (British Post Office)
1911 – Jack Finney, American author (d. 1995)
1912 – Eric Wilson, VC/British Lt Col
1913 – Vivian Ridler, printer (Oxford University)
Writer Graham Greene(1904)

1913 – Karl Miller, German footballer (d. 1967)
1914 – Albe Vidakovic, composer
1914 – Bengt Viktor Johansson, composer
1914 – Charles Drake, Bayside actor (Air Force, Glenn Miller Story), born in NYC, New York
1914 – Jack Parsons, American rocket scientist, author, and occultist (d. 1952)
1914 – Bernarr Rainbow, historian of music education, organist, and choir master (d. 1998)
1915 – Robert Russell “Chubby” Wise, musician
1917 – Francis Jackson, organist & master of Music/York minister
1917 – William Marshall, band leader (Pennsylvanians), born in Chicago, Illinois
1917 – Charles Drake, American actor (d. 1994)
1917 – Christian de Duve, Thames Ditton, Surrey, cytologist and biochemist (Nobel, 1974), (d. 2013)
1919 – Geoffrey Luttrell, Lord-Lt of Somerset
1919 – Shirley Clarke, film director
1920 – William Cramond, psychiatrist/vice-chancellor (Stirling University)
1921 – A Scott Crossfield, US Test pilot (XS-1)
1921 – Robert Runcie, [Kennedy], Archbishop of Canterbury, born in Liverpool, England
1922 – Otmar Macha, composer
1922 – Thomas T Nkobi, S Afr ANC-leader (Alexandra-bus boycott 1957)
1922 – Wolfhart U Pannenberg, German theologist (Gingham Girl)
1923 – Jack Dellal, English immovables-goedbezitter/multi-millionaire, (d. 2012)
1924 – Sam Wainwright, deputy chairman (British Post Office)
1925 – Alois Pinos, composer
1925 – Brian Dilton, British lord justice of appeal
1926 – Jan Morris, travel writer (Among the Cities, Hong Kong, Journeys)
1928 – Anthony Tippett, British chief of Fleet Support
1928 – Clay Felker, St Louis, journalist (NY Herald Tribune, Esquire)
1928 – George Emmett McFarland, Dallas, act (Spanky-Our Gang/Little Rascals)
1928 – James Porter, CEO (Commonwealth Institute)
1928 – Robin Duthie, CEO (Britoil)
1928 – Wolfhart Pannenberg, German theologian
1929 – John Zochonis, British multi-millionaire soap magnate
1929 – Kenneth Leighton, composer
1929 – Moses Gunn, St Louis Mo, actor (Amityville II, Good Times, Shaft)
1930 – Gunter Kochan, composer
1930 – J M Ghorpade, cricketer (8 Tests for India 1952-59 with little impact)
1930 – Dave Barrett, Premier of British Columbia
1932 – Maury Wills, baseball shortstop (LA Dodgers, NL MVP 1962)
1932 – Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, Longford, Ireland, paramilitary and political leader (Sinne Fein), (d. 2013)
1933 – Dimiter Khristov, composer
1933 – Phill Niblock, composer
Developmental biologist John B. Gurdon (1933)

1933 – John B. Gurdon, Dippenhall, Hampshire, English developmental biologist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine)
1934 – Duncan Thompson, keeper (Scottish National Portrait Gallery)
1934 – Geoff Millman, cricketer (England wicket-keeper in 6 Tests 1961-62)
1934 – Richard Scott, British high court judge
1935 – Peter Frankl, pianist
1935 – Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr., USAF/astronaut, born in Chicago, Illinois
1936 – Ian McLachlan, cricketer (Cambridge & S Aust bat, later Liberal MP)
1936 – Johnnie Cochran, attorney (OJ Simpson defense attorney)
1936 – Roger Sainsbury, bishop of Barking
1938 – Lloyd Turner, journalist
1938 – Rex Reed, Fort Worth Tx, movie critic/actor (Myra Breckinridge)
1938 – Waheed Murad, Pakistani film actor and director (d. 1983)
1939 – B K Kunderan, cricketer (Indian keeper-batsman of 60’s)
Astronaut Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. (1935)

1939 – Yuri Nikolayevich Glazkov, USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 24)
1940 – Lord Davies, chairman (Welsh National Opera)
1940 – Gheorghe Gruia, Romanian handball player
1941 – Ron Meagher, rocker
1941 – Zareh Baronian, Armenian theologian
1942 – Steve Sabol, Moorestown New Jersey, filmmaker (35 Emmy awards, founder of NFL Films)
1943 – Anna Ford, British broadcaster/actress (Secret Policeman’s Ball)
1943 – Henri SZEPS, Lausanne Switzerland, actor (Mother & Son)
1943 – Franklin Rosemont, American artist
1944 – Peter Hobson, headmaster (Giggleswick School)
1944 – Vernor [Steffen] Vinge, US, sci-fi author (Witling, True Names)
1945 – Don McLean, New Rochelle NY, singer/songwriter (American Pie, Vincent)
1945 – Frank Tejeda, (Rep-D-Texas)
American Filmmaker and Founder of NFL Films Steve Sabol (1942)

1945 – Vladimir Ivanovich Kozlov, cosmonaut
1946 – Jo-el Sonnier, Rayne La, country singer (Louisiana)
1946 – Roger Jett, Cumberland Maryland, actor (Smithereens)
1946 – Eric Peterson, Canadian actor
1948 – Avery Brooks, Evansville Ind, actor (Spenser for Hire, Deep Space 9)
1948 – Chris LeDoux, Biloxi Miss, country singer (Ridin’ for a Fall)
1948 – Donna Karan, Forest Hills NY, fashion designer (Coty Award-1977)
1948 – Robert Anderson, cricketer (NZ batsman 1976-78)
1948 – Trevor Brooking, English soccer player
1948 – Persis Khambatta, Bombay, India, actress (Star Trek, Megaforce)
1948 – Leslie Frankenheimer, set designer (4 Emmy Awards), born in Los Angeles, California (d. 2013)
1949 – Annie Leibovitz, Waterbury, Connecticut, photographer (Rolling Stones)
1949 – Richard Hell, [Richard Myers], Lexington Ky, rock bassist (Television)
1950 – Michael Rutherford, English pop bassist and rocker (Genesis-Against All Odds, Mike & Mechanics)
Photographer Annie Leibovitz (1949)

1950 – Ian McNeice, English actor
1951 – Romina Power, LA CA, daughter of Tyrone Power/actress (Justine)
1951 – Sting, [Gordon Sumner], rock vocalist (Police-Roxanne)/actor (Dune)
1952 – George Meegen, England, walked 19,019 miles from Argentina to Alaska
1952 – John Otway, rocker
1952 – Steve Penrod, race horse trainer
1952 – Wahed Wafa, Afghan singer
1954 – Greg Jennings, country singer (Restless Heart-Wheels), born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1954 – Lani O’Grady, Walnut Creek California, actress (Mary-8 is Enough)
1954 – Lorraine Bracco, actress (Sopranos, Goodfellas), born in Brooklyn, New York
1955 – Gary Streeter, MP
1955 – Kathryn Morrison playmate (May, 1978), born in Long Beach, California
1955 – Philip Oakey, Sheffield, rock vocalist (Human Leauge-Only Human)
1956 – Freddie Jackson, US R&B singer/songwriter (Rock Me Tonight)
1956 – Murphy Morobe, South Afr UDF leader (spent 3 yrs in Robbeneiland Jail)
1957 – John Neuman Cook, Toledo OH, PGA golfer (1981 Bing Crosby)
1957 – Kimberly Herrin, playmate (March, 1981), born in Santa Barbara, California
1959 – Joe Deegan, jockey
1960 – Django Bates, jazz musician
1960 – Glenn Anderson, NHL right wing (Edmonton Oilers), born in Vancouver, Canada
1960 – Al Connelly, Canadian Musician/Songwriter
1961 – Alan Wells, cricketer (England Test batsman v WI in one Test 1995)
1961 – Pablo Arraya, Argentina, tennis star
1961 – Robbie Nevil, rocker (A Place Like This)
1962 – Esai Morales, American actor (Bad Boys, La Bamba), born in New York City, New York
1962 – Mark Rypien, quarterback (St Louis Rams)
1962 – Sigtryggur Baldursson, Icelandic drummer (The Sugarcubes)
1962 – Aziz M. Osman, Malaysian actor and director
1963 – Libby Wilson, Brisbane Qld, golfer (1988 – Singapore Open)
1964 – Michael Brooks, NFL linebacker (NY Giants)
1964 – Sheila Echols, 4x100m runner (Olympic-gold-1988), born in Memphis, Tennessee
1964 – Sherry Arnett, St Louis Mo, playmate (Jan, 1986)
1965 – Darren Cahill, Australia, tennis star
1965 – Francesca Dellera, [Cervellera], Rome Italy, actress (Capriccio)
1965 – Jill Powell, Jacksonville Fla, actress (Marcy-As The World Turns)
1965 – Robert Goff, NFL defensive tackle (NO Saints)
1965 – Roger Dube, hockey forward (Team France 1998)
1965 – Tom Moody, cricket batsman (Australian 1989-92 Ton in 26 mins)
1966 – Yokozuna, [Rodney Anoia], wrestler (WWF/NJPW/AWA, Wild Samoan Kokina)
Tennis Player and French Open Champion Thomas Muster (1967)

1967 – Thomas Muster, Leibnitz Austria, tennis star (1995 French Open)
1967 – Gillian Welch, New York, singer-songwriter (Time, Revival)
1967 – Frankie Fredericks, Namibian athlete
1967 – Bud Gaugh, American musician (Sublime)
1968 – Craig Kanada, Portland OR, Nike golfer (1994 NIKE SC Classic-3rd)
1968 – Glen Wesley, Red Deer, NHL defenseman (Hartford Whalers)
1968 – Jana Novotna, Brno Czechoslovakia, tennis star (1995 Aust/Wimbledon doubles)
1968 – Mark James Crear, SF, 110m hurdler (Olympics-silver-96)
1968 – Victoria Derbyshire, British radio presenter
1968 – Jeff Martin, Canadian singer/songwriter
1969 – Marcus Robertson, NFL safety/cornerback (Houston/Tenn Oilers)
1969 – Matthew Walbeck, catcher (Minnesota Twins), born in Sacramento, California
1969 – Mitch English, American actor
1969 – Damon Gough, English singer
1969 – Jun Akiyama, Japanese professional wrestler
1970 – Eddie Guardado, Stockton CA, pitcher (Minnesota Twins)
1970 – Kelly Ripa, actress (Hayley Vaughan-All My Children)
1970 – Colin Rivas, Galician artist
1970 – Maribel Verdú, Spanish actress
1971 – Jair Lynch, Amherst Mass, gymnast (Olympics-silver-96)
1971 – Steve McLaughlin, NFL kicker (Atlanta Falcons)
1971 – Tiffany [Renee Darwich], Norwalk California, rocker (I Think We’re Alone Now)
1971 – James Root, American guitarist (Slipknot)
1972 – Aaron McKie, NBA guard (Portland Trail Blazers, Phila 76ers)
1972 – Adrian Van Troost, fast cricket bowler (Somerset & Holland)
1972 – Patricia Gauani, Miss USA-Delaware (1997)
1972 – Rafael Carmona, Rio Piedras Puerto Rico, pitcher (Seattle Mariners)
1972 – Tara Dawn Holland, Overland Park Kansas, Miss America (1997)
1972 – Torey Hunter, CFL defensive back (Montreal Alouettes)
1973 – Bret Hudson, NSW Australia, gymnast (Olympics-96)
1973 – Dalida Chammai, Miss Lebanon Universe (1997)
1973 – Verka Serduchka, Ukrainian entertainer
1973 – Lene, Norwegian singer (Aqua)
1973 – Efren Ramirez, American actor
1973 – Maria Wetterstrand, Swedish politician
1974 – Anthony Johnson, NBA guard (Sacramento Kings)
1974 – Ricky Bell, cornerback (Chicago Bears)
1974 – Simon Gregson, British actor
1974 – Michelle Krusiec, American actress
1974 – Mark Porter, New Zealand racing driver (d. 2006)
1974 – Paul Teutul Jr., co-star of American Chopper
1976 – Jason Dodson, American political consultant and teacher of esotericism
1976 – Mandisa, American singer
1976 – John Thornton, American Football player
1976 – Anita Kulcsár, Hungarian handball player (d. 2005)
1978 – Ayumi Hamasaki, Japanese singer
1979 – Francisco Fonseca, Mexican footballer
1979 – Primož Brezec, Slovenian basketball player
1979 – Maja Ivarsson, lead singer, The Sounds
1980 – Shane Andrus, National Football League kicker
1981 – Luke Wilkshire, Australian footballer
1981 – Toro, Taiwanese singer
1982 – George Pettit, Canadian singer (Alexisonfire)
1985 – Craig Davis, Wide Receiver for the San Diego Chargers
1986 – Camilla Belle, American actress
1987 – Phil Kessel, American ice hockey player
1990 – Dean Bouzanis, Australian soccer player
1991 – Beau Grayson, son of country singer Tanya Tucker
1993 – Tara Lynne Barr, American actress

WEDDINGS

1900 – Belgium crown prince Albert von Saksen-Coburg weds Elisabeth of Bayern
1909 – American Playwright Eugene O’Neill (20) marries 1st wife Kathleen Jenkins
1955 – Actress Joyce Randolph marries publisher Richard Charles
1970 – Scottish singer Donovan (24) weds Linda Lawrence at Windsor Registry Office
1970 – Actor Christopher Plummer (40) weds actress Elaine Taylor (26) in Montreal, Quebec
1993 – Spike Lee weds Tonya Lewis
1999 – “Matchbox Twenty” lead singer Rob Thomas (27) weds model Marisol Maldonado in Santa Ynez, California
Pianist, songwriter, and composer Billy Joel (2004)

2004 – “Piano Man” singer-songwriter Billy Joel (55) weds television food critic and chef Katie Lee (23) at 15-acre waterfront estate in Centre Island, New York
2004 – “Married … With Children” actress Katey Sagal (50) weds “The Shield” writer Kurt Sutter (42) in Los Feliz, California
2005 – Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s daughter Evhenya Tymoshenko weds “Death Valley Screamers” musician Sean Carr at 11th century Vydubychi Monastery in Kiev, Ukraine
2011 – Canadian stand-up comedian and actor Seth Rogen(30) weds screenwriter Lauren Miller at Kunde Family Estate in Sonoma, California

DIVORCES

1942 – Jazz musician Louis Armstrong (41) divorces Alpha Smith after 4 years of marriage

DEATHS

472 – Olybrius, emperor of Westromeinse republic (472), dies
939 – Gilbert (Giselbert), Duke of Lorraine drowns trying to cross the Rhine at about 49
1113 – Mawdoed, Selchuk emir/governor of Mosul, dies
1264 – Urbanus IV, [Jacques Pantaleon], French Pope (1261-64), dies
1517 – John Murmelius, humanist/theory/school book writer, dies at about 37
1559 – Jacquet of Mantua, French composer (b. 1483)
1564 – Andreas Vesalius, [Andries of Wesel], Flemish anatomist, dies at 49
1588 – Bernardino Telesio, Italian philosopher (Rerum in Child), dies
1617 – Isaac Oliver, miniature painter, dies
1626 – Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, Spanish diplomat (b. 1567)
1629 – Pierre the Barulle, French cardinal/founder (French Oratorio), dies
1629 – Antonio Cifra, Italian composer (b. 1584)
1656 – Stephan Otto, German composer, dies at 53
1678 – Wu San-kuei, gen, invited Manchus to China, dies trying to expel them
1707 – Anne Jules duke the Noailles, marshal of France (huguenot), dies at 57
1721 – Benott Audran, artist/engraver, dies
1724 – François-Timoléon de Choisy, French writer (b. 1644)
1729 – Arnold Boonen, portrait painter, dies at 60
1746 – Josiah Burchett, English Secretary of the Admiralty
1764 – William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1775 – Chiyo-ni, Japanese poet (b. 1703)
1780 – John Andre, British major, hanged by Americans (spied with B Arnold)
1782 – Charles Lee, British and U.S. general (b. 1732)
1786 – August Keppel, 1st viscount/naval commander/politican, dies
US Revolutionary Samuel Adams (1803)

1803 – Samuel Adams, US revolutionary (Boston Massacre-Tea Party) and politican, dies at 81
1804 – Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French steam vehicle pioneer (b. 1725)
1809 – Wybo Fijnje, politician/patriot/journalist, dies at 59
1817 – Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov, Russian naval commander and admiral (b. 1744)
1823 – Daniel Steibelt, composer, dies at 57 [OS=Sept 20]
1842 – Jose Mariano Elizaga, composer, dies at 56
1842 – William Ellery Channing, cleric/writer, dies
1850 – Sarah Biffin/Beffin, limbless miniature painter, dies
1853 – D Francois J Arago, French astronomer/physicist (chromosome), dies
1860 – Louis Hersent, painter, dies
1863 – Justinus van de Brugghen, lawyer/minister of Justice, dies
1872 – Eberhard F Walcker, organ builder (Paulskirche Frankfurt A/M), dies
1873 – Cornelius Varley, water-color painter, dies
1905 – Jose Maria de Heredia, Cuban/French sonnet poet, dies at 62
1915 – Russell Alexander, composer, dies at 38
1916 – Benjamin Kidel, English sociologist (Social Evolution), dies at 58
1919 – Ernest Halliwell, cricketer (South African wicketkeeper 1892-1904), dies
1920 – Max Bruch, composer, dies at 82
1927 – Svante August Arrhenius, chemist, dies
1931 – Thomas Johnstone Lipton, sportsman/merchant, dies
1936 – G H Simpson-Hayward, cricketer (Eng 1910, great lob bowlers), dies
1938 – Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (b. 1859)
1943 – Robert Nathaniel Dett, composer, dies at 60
1944 – Rudolf Schmundt, German gen/Hitlers army adjunct, dies from injuries
1947 – Peter D. Ouspensky, Russian mathematician and philosopher (b. 1878)
1955 – O B Clarence, actor (Penn of Pensnsylvania), dies
1956 – George Bancroft, actor (Texas, Stagecoach, Little Men), dies at 74
1956 – Paul de Backer, Belgian radiologist, dies at 73
1958 – Marie Stopes, birth control pioneer, dies
1960 – Jaroslav Doubrava, composer, dies at 51
1961 – Reggie Spooner, cricketer (England centurion v South Africa 1912), dies
1962 – Frank Lovejoy, actor (Man Against Crime, Meet McGraw), dies at 48
1962 – Boris Y. Bukreev, Russian mathematician (b. 1859)
1965 – [John] Selwyn (Brooke) Lloyd, British statesman, dies
1967 – Albertina Rasch, ballerina/choreographer, dies at 76
Painter and Sculptor Marcel Duchamp (1968)

1968 – Marcel Duchamp, French painter and sculptor (Nude Descending a Staircase), dies at 81
1969 – Katharine Susannah Prichard, novelist (Black Opal), dies at 85
1970 – Alfred Julius Swan, composer, dies at 79
1970 – Anders Bo Leif Linde, composer, dies at 37
1971 – Bola de Nieve, Cuban singer, pianist, and songwriter (b. 1911)
1973 – Paavo “Flying Finn” Nurmi, who won 6 Olympic gold medals, dies at 76
1973 – Paul Hartman, actor (Bert-Petticoat Junction), dies at 84
1974 – Ina Seidel, writer, dies at 89
1975 – Wade Crosby, actor (Sign of Wolf, Tales of Robin Hood), dies at 70
1975 – Kumaraswami Kamaraj, Indian political leader, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu (b. 1903)
1980 – Valentin Stepanovich Varlamov, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 46
1981 – Hazel Scott, Trinidadian singer/pianist, dies at 63
Runner nicknamed the “Flying Finn” Paavo Nurmi(1973)

1981 – Harry Golden, American journalist (b. 1902)
1982 – William Bernbach, advertising magnate, dies at 71
1983 – Gerald Strang, Canadian composer, dies at 75
1985 – George Savalas, actor (Kojak), dies at 58
1985 – Rock Hudson, actor (MacMillian & Wife), dies of AIDS at 59
1985 – Sidney Clute, actor (Lou Grant, Cagney & Lacey), dies at 69
1987 – Madeleine Carroll, actress (39 Steps, Secret Agent), dies at 81
1987 – Peter Brian Medawar, medical scientist, dies
1988 – Alec Issigonis, Greek-British car designer, developer of the Mini (b. 1906)
1989 – Liesbeth Ribbius Peletier, Neth’s 1st female advisor of State, dies
1991 – Dimitrios I, patriarch/primus interparis orthodox Christians, dies
1991 – Jan H Christianse, political chairman (CDA), dies
1993 – Henry Ringling North, circus owner (Ringling Bros Circus), dies at 83
1994 – Faith Davis, oldest triplets (Charity & Hope survive), dies at 95
1994 – Harriet Nelson, American actress, dies of congestive heart failure at 80
1994 – Ronald James Herron, architect, dies at 64
1995 – Elizabeth Jane Lloyd, artist/teacher, dies at 67
1995 – Norman Ewart Thurston, musician, dies at 74
1996 – Andrey Lukanov, PM of Bulgaria (1990), assassinated at 58
1996 – Frideswide Frances Emma Knight, musician/socialist, dies at 85
1996 – Ivan Mark Waller, mountaineer, dies at 89
1996 – Robert Bourassa, PM of province of Quebec (1970-76, 85-93), dies at 63
1996 – Ronald John Bilsland Colville, businessman, dies at 79
1996 – Sybil Marion Rosenfeld, theatre historian, dies at 93
1998 – Gene Autry, American singer, actor, and entrepreneur (b. 1907)
1998 – Olivier Gendebien, Belgian racing driver (b. 1924)
1999 – Heinz G. Konsalik, German novelist (b. 1921)
2001 – Franz Biebl, German composer (b. 1906)
2002 – Heinz von Foerster, Austrian-born physicist and philosopher (b. 1911)
2003 – John T. Dunlop, U.S. Secretary of Labor (b. 1914)
2005 – Bert Eriksson, Belgian neo-Nazi (b. 1931)
2005 – Nipsey Russell, American comedian (b. 1918)
2005 – August Wilson, American playwright (b. 1945)
2006 – Helen Chenoweth-Hage, American politician (b. 1938)
2006 – Tamara Dobson, American actress (b. 1947)
2006 – Paul Halmos, Hungarian-born American mathematician (b. 1916)
2007 – Dan Keating, Irish politician (b. 1902)
2007 – Tex Coulter, American football player (b. 1924)
2007 – Christopher Derrick, British writer (b. 1921)
2008 – Rob Guest, New Zealand entertainer (b. 1950)
2008 – Choi Jin-sil, South Korean actress (b. 1968)
2010 – Kwa Geok Choo, wife of Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew (b. 1920)

ALSO ON THIS DAY

• Lead Story

• 1985 Hollywood icon Rock Hudson dies of AIDS

• American Revolution

• 1780 Benedict accomplice hanged

• Automotive

• 1948 Checkered flag waves at first postwar U.S. road race in Watkins Glen, New York

• Civil War

• 1864 Battle of Saltville

• Cold War

• 1958 The Cold War comes to Africa, as Guinea gains its independence

• Crime

• 2006 Gunman kills five students at Amish school

• Disaster

• 1963 Hurricane devastates Haiti

• General Interest

• 1780 British spy executed in Arnold affair
• 1836 Darwin returns to England
• 1944 Warsaw Uprising ends
• 1967 Thurgood Marshall sworn in

• Hollywood

• 1985 Rock Hudson dies of AIDS

• Literary

• 1879 Wallace Stevens is born

• Music

• 1971 Rod Stewart earns his first #1 hit with “Maggie May”

• Old West

• 1835 First shots of the Texas Revolution fired in the Battle of Gonzales

• Presidential

• 1919 Woodrow Wilson suffers a stroke

• Sports

• 1968 Gibson strikes out 17 in World Series

• Vietnam War

• 1966 Soviets report that Russian military personnel have come under fire
• 1967 Aerial offensive against North Vietnam continues

• World War I

• 1919 U.S President Woodrow Wilson suffers massive stroke

• World War II

• 1941 Operation Typhoon is launched

1920 – Scientific American reports that radio will soon be used to transmit music to the home

In an 1888 novel called Looking Backward: 2000-1887, author Edward Bellamy imagined a scene in which a time-traveler from 1887 reacts to a technological advance from the early 21st century that he describes as, “An arrangement for providing everybody with music in their homes, perfect in quality, unlimited in quantity, suited to every mood, and beginning and ceasing at will.” In Bellamy’s imagination, this astonishing feat was accomplished by a vast network of wires connecting individual homes with centrally located concert halls staffed round-the-clock with live performers. As it turned out, this vision of the year 2000 would come to pass far sooner than Bellamy imagined, and without all the pesky wires. On this day in 1920, Scientific American magazine reported that the rapidly developing medium of radio would soon be used to broadcast music. A revolution in the role of music in everyday life was about to be born.

“It has been well known for some years that by placing a form of telephone transmitter in a concert hall or at any point where music is being played the sound may be carried over telephone wires to an ordinary telephone receiver at a distant point,” began the bulletin in the October 1, 1920 issue of the popular science monthly, “but it is only recently that a method of transmitting music by radio has been found possible.”

Arguments about radio’s origins persist to this day, but its basic workings had been understood for upwards of 20 years at the time of this announcement. It was only in the years immediately following World War I, however, that radio made the transition from scientific curiosity to practical technology. By late 1919, experiments had begun in Britain, the United States and elsewhere that would lead to the breakthrough use of radio not just as a replacement for the telegraph, but as a communications and entertainment medium.

Some of those experiments were taking place in the laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., where station WWV was established to test various means of radio transmission. Relying significantly on amateur radio operators in the local area for feedback on its experiments, the Bureau began successfully testing the transmission of music in late 1919 and early 1920. It was those experiments that led to the public announcement in Scientific American.

“Music can be performed at any place, radiated into the air through an ordinary radio transmitting set and received at any other place, even though hundreds of miles away,” the report continued, noting that “the music received can be made as loud as desired by suitable operation of the receiving apparatus.” “Experimental concerts are at present being conducted every Friday evening from 8:30 to 11:00 by the Radio Laboratory of the Bureau of Standards….The possibilities of such centralized radio concerts are great and extremely interesting.”

October 1st

EVENTS

331 BC – Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.
366 – St Damasus I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
704 – Aengibald gives away bishop Willibrord estate in Waalre
911 – During a siege in Constantinople, the Theotokos (Mary, the mother of Jesus) appeared at the church in Blachernae holding her veil over the praying faithful, among them St. Andrew of Constantinople.
959 – Edgar I, the Peaceful, becomes king of all England.
965 – John XIII Crescentii elected to succeed Pope Leo VIII
1189 – Gerard de Ridefort, grandmaster of the Knights Templar since 1184, is killed in the Siege of Acre.
1273 – Earl Rudolf van Habsburg becomes Roman Catholic-German king
1529 – -3] Meeting between Maarten Luther & Huldrych Zwingli
1569 – Duke of Norfolk arrested
1574 – -2] Storm breaks Leiden dike; drowns 20,000 Spanish soldiers
1606 – Spanish troops under Spinola occupies fort Rhine birch
1632 – Battle at Castelnaudary: Duke Henri de Montmorency’s rebel army loses
Macedonian King and Conqueror of Persia Alexander the Great

1653 – Russian parliament accepts annexation of Ukraine
1657 – Treaty of Raalte: Willem II no longer viceroy of Overijssel
1661 – Yachting begins in England; King Charles II beats his brother James, Duke of York
1670 – -4] Battle at Simbirsk a/d Wolga: Russian army beats Boers
1688 – Prince Willem III of Orange accepts invitation of take up the British crown
1705 – Parliament declares Hungary independently/French Rákóczi becomes king
1746 – Bonnie Prince Charlie flees to France
1768 – British troops under General Gauge land in Boston
1787 – Russians under Suvorov defeat the Turks at Kinburn.
1791 – 1st session of new French legislative assembly
1795 – France annexes Southern Netherlands
1795 – Belgium is conquered by France.
1800 – Spain cedes Louisiana to France in a secret treaty
King Charles II

1801 – Britain & France signs Preliminary of London
1814 – Opening of the Congress of Vienna, intended to redraw the Europe’s political map after the defeat of Napoléon Bonaparte the previous spring.
1827 – The Russian army under Ivan Paskevich storms Yerevan, ending a millennium of Muslim domination in Armenia.
1829 – South African College is founded in Cape Town, South Africa; later to separate into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools.
1830 – General Trade Journal newspaper begins publishing in Amsterdam
1833 – Charles Darwin reaches Rio Tercero Argentina
1837 – “Racer’s” Hurricane (Gulf of Mexico)
1837 – Treaty with Winnebago Indians
1838 – Civil Code enforced (- Jan 1, 1992)
1843 – News of the World began publication in London.
Explorer and Naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt

1844 – German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt departs Jimbour, the farthest outpost of settlement on the Queensland Darling Downs, to begin his exploration of Australia’s Northern Territory from Moreton Bay to Port Essington
1847 – Maria Mitchell discovers a non-naked-eye comet
1847 – German inventor and industrialist Werner von Siemens founds Siemens AG & Halske.
1851 – 1st Hawaiian stamps issued
1852 – Alfred Russel Wallace returns to the U.K. after four years of travel, collecting, and research in South America
1854 – The watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury by Aaron Lufkin Dennison relocates to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American System of Watch Manufacturing.
1863 – 5 Russian warships welcomed in NYC
1863 – Dutch Breda-Tilburg railway opens
Naturalist, biologist, and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace

1864 – Cyclone strikes Calcutta: 70,000 killed
1864 – John S Staples is paid $500 as a substitute for President Lincoln
1866 – Dutch Eindhoven-Venlo railway opens
1867 – Karl Marx’ “Das Kapital” published
1868 – 1st edition of Maasbode published
1869 – 1st postcards are issued (Vienna, Austria)
1871 – General Dutch Werkliedenverbond (ANWV), forms in Utrecht
1874 – Rotterdam opens drinking water pipes
1879 – Cincinnati Enquirer publishes 1st report on baseball reserve clause
1880 – John Philip Sousa becomes new director of US Marine Corps Band
1885 – Special delivery mail service begins in US
1886 – US mint at Carson City, Nevada, closes
1887 – Balochistan conquered by the British Empire.
1888 – National Geographic magazine publishes for 1st time
1889 – Soccer team HFC Haarlem forms
Composer John Philip Sousa

1889 – Washington voters adopt state constitution in referendum
1890 – Congress creates Weather Bureau
1890 – Congress establishes Yosemite National Park (California)
1891 – In the U.S. state of California, Stanford University opens its doors.
1892 – University of Chicago opens
1893 – 3rd worst hurricane in US history kills 1,800 (Mississippi)
1894 – Civic organization, Knights of Ak-Sar-Ben founded in Omaha, Nebraska
1894 – First meeting of The Owl Club of Cape Town.
1895 – Romanians in Costantinople massacred
1896 – Sherlock Holmes adventure “Veiled Lodger” takes place (BG)
1898 – Dutch railway Alkmaar-Receiver opens
1898 – Henry Huntington buys LA Railway
1898 – Jews are expelled from Kiev Russia
1898 – Tsar Nikolay II expels Jews from major Russian cities.
1898 – The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration is founded under the name k.u.k. Exportakademie.
1903 – 1st baseball World Series, Pittsburgh Pirates vs Boston Pilgrims (Red Sox)
1904 – JB van Heutsz becomes governor general of Dutch East Indies
1904 – Netherlands & Portugal lay down bounderies splitting Timor
1905 – František Pavlík is killed in a demonstration in Prague, inspiring Leoš Janáček to the piano composition 1. X. 1905.
1906 – Hugh Jennings resigns as Balt manager to take over at Detroit in 1907
1907 – Plaza Hotel (5th Av & 59th Str, NY) opens
1907 – A downturn in the stock market leads to a run on the dollar; US President Roosevelt will be forced to call on financier JP Morgan to help manage the financial crisis
1908 – 1st Dutch electric railway in use (Rotterdam-The Hague)

The 1910 Model T Ford

Ford Motor Company Founder Henry Ford

1908 – Henry Ford introduces the Model T car (costs $825)
1908 – Jack Chesbro’s final Higlander victory, beats Walter Johnson 2-1
1910 – Berkshire Cattle Fair held in Pittsfield Mass (1st state fair)
1910 – Explosion at LA Times kills 21
1910 – Regina Rugby Club’s 1st game, losing to Moose Jaw Tigers, 16-6
1911 – United Dutch Diamond workers get 8-hr day
1912 – Yanks lose game #100 en route to a 50-102 season
1914 – The Prince of Asir, the southern region of Arabia, rises in revolt against the Turks; his actions will inspire other Arab leaders to revolt
1914 – The first division of Canadian troops, 33,000 sail for Britain; most Canadians are volunteers, anxious to prove their loyalty to the Commonwealth
1918 – World War I: Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) capture Damascus
1919 – World Series begins as a best of 9 affair, White Sox intentionally throw this series to satisfy gamblers (Black Sox Scandal)
Soldier and Writer T. E. Lawrence

1920 – Dutch law provides for an 8 hour working day
1920 – Sir Percy Cox landed in Basra to assume his responsibilities as high commissioner in Iraq.
1921 – WJZ, Newark NJ begins broadcasting
1922 – Former Chicago Staleys play 1st NFL game as Chicago Bears, win 6-0
1922 – Rogers Hornsby’s 3-for-5 ups avg to .401
1924 – Fokker F-7 1st flight (Amsterdam to Batavia)
1924 – Paavo Nurmi runs world record 4 mile (19:15.4) & 5 mile (24:06.2)
1924 – Landis bans Giants Jimmy O’Connell & Cozy Dolan from World Series after they admit an attempt to bribe Phils shortstop Heinie Sand
1926 – An oil field accident cost aviator Wiley Post his left eye, but he used the settlement money to buy his first aircraft.
1927 – Pirates clinch NL pennant with a 9-6 win over Reds
1928 – Leon Vanderstuyft of Belgium bicycled 76 miles 504 yards in 1 hour
Runner nicknamed the “Flying Finn” Paavo Nurmi

1928 – Paavo Nurmi runs world record 15m (46:49.6)
1928 – USSR launches its first 5-year plan
1930 – Soccer team WHC forms
1930 – World Series opens at Phila’s Shibe Park, Phila A’s beat St Louis 5-2
1931 – Spanish Cortes accept general female suffrage
1931 – World Series is a rematch as A’s seek 3rd straight title vs Cards
1931 – The second (and current) Waldorf-Astoria Hotel is opened in New York.
1932 – NHL readmits Ottawa & drops Pittsburgh
1932 – Oswald Mosley forms British Union of Fascists
1932 – World Series moves to Chicago, In 5th inning, Babe Ruth waits until he has 2 strikes, points & hits next pitch into center field bleachers
1933 – Antwerp Sports arena opens
1933 – Packers make 5 1st downs, Giants make 0, but still win 10-7
1933 – Wash Senator coach Nick Altrock plays in a game at age 57
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler

1934 – Adolf Hitler expands German army & navy & creates an air force, violating Treaty of Versailles
1936 – Generalissimo Francisco Franco establishes state of Spain
1937 – Pullman Co formally recognizes Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
1938 – Cubs clinch NL pennant
1938 – Germany annexes Sudetenland (1/3 of Czechoslovakia) following the Munich Agreement.
1939 – Churchill calls Soviets “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”
1939 – After a one-month Siege of Warsaw, hostile forces entered the city.
1940 – Pennsylvania Turnpike, pioneer toll thruway, opens
1941 – D Sjostakovitch plane evacuated in Moscow
1941 – H Martin/R Blane’s musical “Best Foot Forward” premieres in NYC
1941 – Yankees beat Dodgers 3-2 at Yankee Stadium in opener of World Series
1942 – Bell P-59 Airacomet fighter, 1st US jet, makes maiden flight
Spanish Dictator and General Francisco Franco

1942 – Little Golden Books (children’s books) begins publishing
1943 – Allied forces captured Naples during WW II
1943 – Averell Harriman named US ambassador to Moscow
1943 – Germans attack Jews in Denmark
1943 – 1st King’s Dragoon Guards (Royal Amoured Corps) liberates suburbs of Naples
1944 – Newspaper editor Alejandro Córdova assassinated in Guatemala
1944 – St Louis Browns win their only AL pennant
1945 – Heavyweight champ Joe Louis is discharged from army
1945 – US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), precursor to the CIA, disbands
1946 – 12 Nazi war criminals sentenced to death in Nuremberg
1946 – 1st NL playoffs, Dodgers vs Cards (St Louis wins 2 games to 0)
1946 – Bob Feller 348th strikeout of season
1947 – 1st helicopter air mail & express service, LA, Ca
Boxer and World Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis

1947 – NHL Pension Society founded
1947 – US control of Haitian customs & governmental revenue ends
1947 – William Wister Haines’ “Command Decision” premieres in NYC
1947 – The F-86 Sabre flies for the first time.
1948 – California Supreme Court voids state statute banning interracial marriages
1948 – Radio Denmark begins transmitting
1949 – People’s Republic of China proclaimed by Mao Zedong (National Day)
1949 – Republic of China (Taiwan) forms on island of Formosa
1950 – Phillies win NL pennant on last day of season (10th inning HR)
1950 – Browns lose to Giants, setting club record for fewest points scored by both teams (tied in 1979), NY 6, Cleveland 0
1950 – South Korean troops cross the 38th parallel into North Korea
1951 – 1st Giant-Dodgers playoff game, Giants win 3-1
Chinese Communist Revolutionary Mao Zedong

1951 – 1st treaty signed by woman ambassador-Eugenie Anderson (US ambassador to Denmark)
1951 – 24th Infantry Regiment, last all-black US military unit, deactivated
1952 – 1st ultra high frequency (UHF) television station, Portland Or
1952 – Liberal Party wins Japanese elections
1952 – Monte Bello-Island (Great Britain 1st atom bomb explosion)
1953 – Indian state of Andhra Pradesh partitioned from Madras
1953 – KJEO TV channel 47 in Fresno, CA (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
1953 – KYTV TV channel 3 in Springfield, MO (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 – WATE TV channel 6 in Knoxville, TN (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 – WREX TV channel 13 in Rockford, IL (ABC) begins broadcasting
1954 – British colony of Nigeria becomes a federation
1955 – “Honeymooners” premieres
1955 – Piet Lieftinck becomes director v/h IMF (World bank)
1955 – WORA TV channel 5 in Mayaguez, PR (TCI) begins broadcasting
1956 – Johnny Heckmann rides 7 winners at Chicago Hawthorne Horse track
1956 – Zestienhoven airport at Rotterdam official opens
1957 – B-52 bombers begin full-time flying alert in case of USSR attack
1957 – First appearance of “In God We Trust” on U.S. paper currency.
1958 – Britain transfers Christmas Island (south of Java) to Australia
1958 – US space agency NASA begins operations incorporating earlier National Advisory Council on Aeronautics and other bodies
1959 – 1st World Series since 1948 not to feature a NY team (LA vs Chic)
1960 – 14th NHL All-Star Game: All-Stars beat Montreal 2-1 at Montreal
1960 – KCBY TV channel 11 in Coos Bay, OR (CBS) begins broadcasting
1960 – Nigeria gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1961 – A volcanco believed to be extinct erupts in Tristan da Cunha
1961 – East & West Cameroon merge as Federal Republic of Cameroon
1961 – KGIN TV channel 11 in Grand Island, NB (CBS) begins broadcasting
LPGA Golfer Mickey Wright

1961 – Mickey Wright wins LPGA Mickey Wright Golf Open
1961 – Premiere of Dmitri Shostakovitsch’s 12nd Symphony
1961 – Roger Maris sets record of 61 HRs (off of Tracy Stallard)
1961 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1961 – WOLO TV channel 25 in Columbia, SC (ABC) begins broadcasting
1961 – WYAH TV channel 27 in Portsmouth, VA (IND) begins broadcasting
1962 – Barbra Streisand signs her 1st recording contract (with Columbia)
1962 – Brian Epstein signs a contract to manage Beatles through 1977
1962 – James Meredith became 1st black at U of Mississippi
1962 – Johnny Carson hosts his 1st Tonight Show, Joan Crawford guests
1962 – The Lucy Show premieres
1962 – SF beats Dodgers, 8-0 in 1st of best-of-3 NL playoff
1962 – UN gives Netherlands control of New Guinea
Singer-songwriter & Actress Barbra Streisand

1962 – US National Radio Astronomy Obs gets a 300′ (91m) radio telescope
1962 – WEDH TV channel 24 in Hartford, CT (PBS) begins broadcasting
1963 – 1st time since 1910 no AL player, played in every game
1963 – Nigeria becomes a republic within Commonwealth
1964 – 1st official broadcast of Trans World Radio on Bonaire
1964 – 2nd Dutch televisienet begins broadcastings
1964 – Free Speech Movement launched at University of California, Berkley
1964 – San Francisco cable cars declared a national landmark
1964 – WSJU TV channel 18 in Carolina, PR begins broadcasting
1964 – WTSJ TV channel 18 in San Juan, PR (NBC) begins broadcasting
1964 – WWAY TV channel 3 in Wilmington, NC (ABC) begins broadcasting
1965 – Failed coup under lt col Untung in Indonesia
1965 – France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria
1966 – Newspaper magnate Thomson purchases “The Times”
1966 – WAEO (now WJFW) TV channel 12 in Rhinelander, WI (NBC) begins
1966 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with eighteen fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 miles south of Wemme, Oregon. This accident marks the first loss of a DC-9.
1967 – KBFI (now KDAF) TV channel 33 in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (IND) begins
1967 – Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Ladies’ LA Golf Open
1967 – Pink FLoyd’s 1st US tour (arrives in NYC)
1968 – “Night of the Living Dead” premieres in Pittsburgh
1968 – The Guyanese government takes over the British Guiana Broadcasting Service (BGBS).
1969 – Concorde 001 test flight breaks sound barrier
LPGA Golfer Kathy Whitworth

1969 – Guernsey & Jersey begin issuing their own postage stamps
1969 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1970 – 63 arrested in riot to buy Rolling Stone tickets in Milano, Italy
1970 – Last game at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium, Phils-2 Expos-1
1971 – Joseph Luns becomes secretary-general of NATO
1971 – Walt Disney World opens in Bay Lake, Florida
1972 – “Don’t Play Us Cheap” closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 164 perfs
1972 – 1st games of World Hockey Association
1972 – 2nd NYC Women’s Marathon won by Nina Kuscsik in 3:08:41
1972 – 3rd NYC Marathon won by Sheldon Karlin in 2:27:52
1972 – Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Portland Ladies Golf Classic
1973 – Leo Durocher resigns as Houston Astro manager
1973 – USSR-West Germany gas tunnel opens
Baseball Player and Manager Leo Durocher

1974 – Watergate cover-up trial opens in Wash DC
1974 – “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” horror film premieres in director Tobe Hooper’s hometown, Austin, Texas in the US
1974 – “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” horror film directed by Tobe Hooper is 1st released in the US
1975 – Britain grants internal self-government to Seychelles
1975 – Ellice Islands split from Gilbert Islands, take name “Tuvalu”
1975 – Muhammad Ali TKOs Joe Frazier in 15 for heavyweight boxing title in “The Thrilla in Manila”
1975 – Reunion Island stops printing stamps, France takes over production
1976 – 1st Dutch casino opens
1977 – Brazilian soccer great Pele retires with 1,281 goals in 1,363 games
1977 – US Department of Energy established
1977 – Elton John honored by MSG Hall of Fame
Singer Elton John

1977 – Yanks win 2nd consecutive AL East title
1978 – Comoros adopts constitution
1978 – Jane Blalock wins LPGA Golden Lights Golf Championship
1978 – Tuvalu (formerly Ellice Islands) declares independence from UK
1978 – Yanks lose 9-2 to Indians forcing a playoff game with Red Sox
1978 – The Voltaic Revolutionary Communist Party is founded.
1979 – Nigeria adopts constitution, Alhaji Shagari becomes president
1979 – Pope John Paul II begins first papal visit to USA in Boston
1979 – RKO radio network begins operation
1979 – US returns Canal Zone (but not the canal) to Panama after 75 years
1980 – Cosmonauts Ryumin & Popov break space endurance record of 176 days
1981 – Iranian plane crash
1981 – J Chodorov/N Panama’s “Talent for Murder” premieres in London
1981 – USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1982 – EPCOT Center opens in Orlando Florida
1982 – USSR performs underground nuclear test
1982 – West Germany’s Parliament ousts Helmut Schmidt for Helmut Kohl
1982 – The Sony CDP-101, the world’s first commercially released Compact Disc player, is released in Japan for 168,000 yen ($730)
1983 – Denise Wallace, 18, of Virginia, crowned Miss Teen of America
1984 – Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip resumes after 2-year hiatus
1984 – Peter Ueberroth replaces Bowie Kuhn as 6th commissioner of baseball
1985 – Israeli air raid on PLO-headquarter at Tunis, 68 killed
1986 – President Carter’s presidential library/museum dedicated in Atlanta
1986 – New Zealand’s Labour Government introduces a Goods and Services Tax (GST), adding 10% to the cost of most goods and services
1987 – “Roza” opens at Royale Theater NYC for 12 performances
1987 – 6 killed by an earthquake measuring 6.1 in LA
1987 – Fiji’s constitution is suspended
1987 – The Whittier Narrows earthquake shook the San Gabriel Valley, registering as a magnitude 5.9.
1988 – Bradley Center in Milwaukee opens
1988 – Lowest batting avg for NL champion (Tony Gwynn .313)

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev

1988 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and thus head of state of the Soviet Union
1989 – Beth Daniel wins LPGA Konica San Jose Golf Classic
1989 – Dallas Cowboy, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, records his 1,000th NFL tackle
1989 – Thousands of East Germans flee to West Germany
1989 – US Post Officeissues a stamp labeling an apatosaurus as a brontosaurus
1989 – Batting titles decided on final day Puckett goes 2-for-5 edges Carney Lansford .339 to .336, Gwynn’s 3-for-4 edges Will Clark .336 to .333
1990 – 10,000 Uganda RPF rebels move into Rwanda
1990 – Meteorite explode above Pacific Ocean
1990 – US President Bush at UN, condemns Iraq’s takeover of Kuwait
1990 – Serbs in Croatia proclaim autonomy
1990 – Saddam Hussein says he may be willing to negotiate the occupation of Kuwait and would consider foreign participation in negotiations
1991 – Howard Stern adds Baltimore to his radio network (WJFK-AM)
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein

1991 – New Zealand’s Resource Management Act 1991 commences.
1991 – Soviet Union suspends petroleum product exports as its fuel shortages grow
1991 – 25th CMT Music Awards: Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, and Tanya Tucker win
1992 – “Oba Oba ’93” opens at Marquis Theater NYC for 22 performances
1992 – Cartoon Cable Network premieres
1992 – Greater Pittsburgh International Airport opens
1992 – Ross Perot re-enters US presidental race
1993 – Lennox Lewis TKOs Frank Bruno in 7 for heavyweight boxing title
1994 – Boon completes his 19th Test century (114 v Pak, Karachi)
1994 – Liselotte Neumann wins LPGA GHP Heartland Golf Classic
1994 – South African President Nelson Mandela visits US
1994 – Stanley Betrian sworn in as leader of Curacao
1995 – Bermuda begins using new area code 441
Anti-apartheid activist and South African President Nelson Mandela

1995 – Gail Graham wins FieldCrest Cannon/Carolina LPGA Golf Classic
1995 – Indians set record of 30 game lead over 2nd place team
1995 – Mike Mussina tosses Balt’s 5th consecutive shutout 4-0 win over Tigers
1995 – NY Yankees win 1st baseball wildcard ever
1995 – Rockies are 1st team to make postseason before 7th year in existence
1997 – Carolina Hurricanes 1st game vs Tampa Bay Lightning
1997 – Spice Hot premieres on cable
1998 – Vladimir Putin became a permanent member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.
2000 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, the chairman of the IOC declares the XXVII Olympics in Sydney the “best Olympic Games ever”
2000 – United States retain Basketball’s Olympic gold medal defeating France 85-75
2000 – United States wins the most medals (97), and the most gold medals (40) in Summer Olympics held in Sydney, Australia
Russian President Vladimir Putin

2000 – 27th Olympic Games closes at Sydney, Australia
2004 – Baseball: Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki gets his 258th hit of the season, breaking George Sisler’s 84-year-old single-season record.
2005 – Bombing kills 23 people in Bali.
2007 – Most of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 came into force in the United Kingdom.
2011 – Martin Demsey is appointed US Joint Chiefs of Staff by President Obama
2012 – California becomes the first US state to ban conversion therapy for minors
2012 – 36 people are killed in a ferry collision in Hong Kong
2012 – 3 NATO soldiers and 16 Afghan police are killed by a suicide bombing in Khost, Afghanistan
2013 – A partial United States federal government shutdown occurs as a result of political disagreements over operational spending
Two Time Olympic Gold Medalist Alexandre Bilodeau

2014 – Canadian freestyle skier and two-time Olympic gold medalist Alexandre Bilodeau retires at 27
2014 – 41 children are killed by a suicide bombing on the Akrameh al-Makhzumi school in Homs, Syria

BIRTHDAYS

1207 – Henry III, king of England (1216-72)
1507 – Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Italian architect (d. 1573)
1540 – Johann Jakob Grynaeus, Swiss Protestant clergyman (d. 1617)
1549 – Anna of H Bartolomaeus, Flemish prioress/founded a nunnery
1577 – Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Swiss friar, martyr, and saint (d. 1622)
1620 – Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem, Dutch landscape painter/etcher
1644 – Alessandro Stradella, Italian violinist/composer
1644 – Jean Rousseau, composer
1671 – Guido Grandi, Italian mathematician (d. 1742)
1685 – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1711-40) (d. 1740)
1691 – Arthur Onslow, English politician (d. 1768)
1724 – Giovanni Battista Cirri, composer
1730 – Richard Stockton, US attorney/signer (Decl of Independence)
1735 – Johann Baptist Christoph Toeschi, composer
1760 – William Beckford, British writer (Epsiodes of Vathek)
1770 – Vincenzo Cuoco, Italian historian (Naples Revolution 1799)
1771 – Pierre MF de Sales Baillot, French violinist/composer
1781 – James Lawrence, naval hero (War of 1812-“Don’t give up the ship!”)
1791 – Sergey Aksakov, Russia, novelist (Chronicles of a Russian Family)
1799 – Rufus Choate, US, lawyer (Hall of Fame)
1800 – Lars Levi Laestadius, Swedish-born botanist and founder of Laestadianism (d. 1861)
1808 – Fryderyk Edward Sobolewski, composer
1820 – Gustav Adolf Heinze, composer
1830 – Jeremiah Cutler Sullivan, Brig Gen (Union volunteers), (d. 1890)
1831 – Claudius Charles Wilson, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1863)
1832 – Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison, 1st wife of Benjamin Harrison
1832 – Henry Clay Work, composer
1834 – Francis Marion Cockrell, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1915)
1835 – Robert Houston Anderson, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1888)
1835 – William Hicks “Red” Jackson, Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
1835 – Ádám Politzer, Austrian physician (d. 1920)
1841 – Anatol’ Vakhnyanyn, composer
1842 – Charles Cros, French mathematician/chemist/poet (Le Hareng Saur)
1847 – Annie Besant, [Wood], England, philosopher (Esoteric christianity)
1865 – Paul Dukas, French composer (d. 1935)
1870 – Pieter van Essen, Dutch artillery officer/inventor (grape-shot shells)
1872 – Israel Querido, Dutch writer (Menschenwee)
1878 – Othmar Spann, Austria economist/sociologist (Geschichtsfilosofie)
1881 – Leonid Leonidovich Sabaneyev, composer
1881 – William Edward Boeing, founded aircraft co (Boeing)
1885 – Louis Untermeyer, poet/critic (Immortal Poems, Story Poems), born in NYC, New York
1886 – Ahmad Amin, Egyptian historian/author
1890 – Alice Joyce, Kansas City MO, actress (Song O’ My Heart)
1890 – Constantin Nottara, composer
1890 – Stanley Holloway, actor (Higgins-Our Man Higgins), born in London, England
1893 – Faith Baldwin, New Rochelle NY, author/novelist (They Who Love)
1893 – Yip Man, Martial Arts Master d.(1972)
1893 – Cliff Friend, American songwriter (d. 1974)
1894 – Ricardo Castillo, composer
1895 – Liaquat Al Khan, attorney/premier of Pakistan (1947-51)
1896 – Ted Healy, American actor and comedian (d. 1937)
1898 – Karl Ranki, composer
1899 – Lajos Bardos, composer
1899 – Ernest Haycox, American writer (d. 1950)
1900 – Tom Goddard, English cricketer (d. 1966)
1903 – “Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom, light-heavyweight box champ (1932-34), born in NYC, New York
1903 – George Coulouris, Manchester England, actor (Runaway Bus)
1904 – Vladimir Horowitz, Kiev Ukraine, pianist (Carmen)
1904 – Otto Robert Frisch, Austrian-born physicist (d. 1979)
1904 – A.K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (d. 1977)
1906 – John Lorne Campbell, folklorist
1907 – Barbara Morrison, Weston-Super-Mare England, actress (Project Moonbase)
1907 – Oedoen Partos, composer
1908 – Herman David Koppel, composer
1909 – Everett Sloane, actor (Patsy, Citizen Kane, Enforcer), born in NYC, New York
1909 – Samuel Yorty, (Mayor-LA), born in Lincoln, Nebraska
1910 – Fritz Köberle, Austrian-born physician (d. 1983)
1910 – José Enrique Moyal, Australian mathematical physicist (d. 1998)
American Outlaw Bonnie Parker (1910)

1910 – Bonnie Parker, Rowena, Texas, outlaw (Bonnie and Clyde), (d. 1934)
1911 – Edward P Boland, (Rep-D-MA, 1953- )
1911 – Irwin Kostal, orchestra leader (Garry Moore Show), born in Chicago, Illinois
1911 – Richard Torriani, Switzerland, took Olympic oath (1948)
1914 – Daniel J. Boorstin, American historian and author (The Americans: The Democratic Experience – 1974 Pulitzer Prize)
1914 – Michael Goodliffe, Cheshire England, actor (5th Day of Peace)
1916 – Tibor Reich, textile designer
1917 – René A de Rooy, Suriname/Antillian poet (Juancho Picaflor)
1918 – Antonio Iglesias Alvares, composer
1920 – Lonny Chapman, actor (Investigator, For the People), born in Tulsa, Oklahoma
1920 – Walter Matthau, actor (Odd Couple, Bad News Bears), born in NYC, New York
1921 – James Whitmore, White Plains NY, actor (Give ’em Hell Harry)
1922 – Hector Campos-Parsi, composer
39th US President Jimmy Carter (1924)

1924 – Jimmy Carter, Plains, Georgia, 39th US President (D) (1977-81)
1924 – William Rehnquist, Ws, Supreme Court (1972-86)/chief justice (1987- )
1925 – Bob Boyd, American baseball player (d. 2004)
1926 – Roger Williams, American pianist
1927 – Tom Bosley, actor (Howard-Happy Days, Murder She Wrote), born in Chicago, Illinois
1927 – Sandy Gall, Malaysian-born British journalist and newscaster
1928 – George Peppard, actor (Banacek, A-Team, Blue Max), born in Detroit, Michigan
1928 – Laurence Harvey, [Larushka Skine], actor (Alamo, Romeo & Juliet)
1928 – Willy Mairesse, Belgian racing driver (d. 1969)
1928 – Zhu Rongji, Chinese politician
1929 – Ken Arthurson, Australian rugby league identity
1930 – Philippe Noiret, Lille France, actor (Soleil, Les Milles, Il Postino)
Actor and Singer Richard Harris (1930)

1930 – Richard Harris, Ireland, actor (Man Called Horse)/singer (MacArthur Park)
1930 – Frank Gardner, Australian racing driver
1930 – Naimatullah Khan, Pakistani politician
1931 – Reginald Hall, endocrinologist
1931 – Sylvano Bussotti, Italian composer
1932 – Albert Collins, Leona TX, blues guitarist (Frosty, Showdown)
1933 – Olga Pozzi Escot, composer
1935 – Julie Andrews, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, actress/singer (Sound of Music, Mary Poppins)
1936 – Charles G Fullerton, astronaut (STS-3, 51F), born in Rochester, New York
1936 – Edward Villella, Bayside Queens, ballet dancer (NYC Ballet)
1936 – Stella Stevens, Yazoo City Miss, actress (Girls! Girls!, Manitou)
Actress/Singer Julie Andrews (1935)

1936 – Duncan Edwards, English footballer (d. 1958)
1937 – Hedy d’Ancona, Dutch minister of WVC (PvdA)
1937 – Saeed Ahmed, cricketer (Pakistani batsman in 41 Tests 1958-73)
1938 – J Bert Sonnier, race horse trainer
1938 – Les Scheinflug, Australian soccer asst coach (Olyroos, Olympics-96)
1939 – George Archer, SF CA, PGA golfer (1969 Masters Bing Crosby)
1939 – Geoffrey Whitehead, English actor
1940 – Richard F Pieternella, Dutch Antilles’ minister plenipotentiary
1943 – Jerry Maitini, US saxophonist (Sly & Family Stone-Sex Machine)
1943 – Jim Martini, rocker (Sly & Family Stone-Everyday People)
1943 – Naushad Ali, cricketer (Pakistani wicket-keeper in six Tests 1964-65)
1943 – Jean-Jacques Annaud, Draveil France, director (Bear, Black & White, Name of the Rose)
1944 – Barbara Parritt, US soul singer (Toys-Lover’s Concerto)
1944 – Herbert “Tubo” Rhoad, US singer (Persuasions-Spread the Word)
1945 – Donny Hathaway, singer/songwriter (Where is the Love), born in Chicago, Illinois
1945 – Rod Carew, baseball slugger (AL Rookie of Year 1967)
1945 – Spider Sabich, American skier (d. 1976)
1946 – Alfred Jones, Grace Miss, middleweight boxer (Olympic-bronze-1968)
1946 – Eva Klobukowska, Poland, relay sprinter (Olympic-gold-1964)
1947 – Mariska Veres, Dutch singer (Shocking Blue)
1947 – Martin Turner, rocker (Wishbone)
1947 – Rob Davis, rocker
1947 – Stephen Collins, actor (Star Trek I, Tattingers), born in Des Moines, Iowa
1947 – Aaron Ciechanover, Israeli biologist
1947 – Adriano Tilgher, Italian politician
1948 – Cub Koda, rocker (Brownsville Station)
1948 – Ellen McIlwaine, Nashville, blues singer (Honky Tonky Angel)
1949 – Isaac Bonewits, American author
1950 – Boris Morukov, Russian cosmonaut, born in Moscow, USSR (d. 2015)
1950 – Randy Quaid, actor (Midnight Express, Vacation, Saturday Night Live), born in Houston, Texas
1950 – Jeane Manson, American singer and actress
1951 – Brian Greenway, Montreal, rock guitarist/vocalist (April Wine)
1952 – Jacques Martin, Canadian ice hockey coach and executive
1953 – Greta Andersen Waitz, Oslo Norway, marathoner (NYC – 1984)
1953 – John Hegley, British poet
1953 – Pete Falcone, American baseball player
1953 – Grete Waitz, Norwegian athlete
1954 – Richard Schlesinger, news correspondent (CBS, 48 Hours), born in NYC, New York
1954 – Martin Strel, Slovenian swimmer
1955 – Howard Hewett, Akron Oh, rock vocalist (Shalamar)
1955 – Duško Tadić, Bosnian Serb
1956 – Leslie Burr-Howard, equestrian show jumper (Olympics-silver-96)
1956 – Theresa May, British politician
1957 – Brad MacDonald, race horse trainer
1957 – Stelios Mainas, Greek actor
1958 – Alton Lister, NBA forward/center (Portland Trailblazers, Celtics)
1958 – Michelle Bauer, [Medvitz], California, actress (One Million Heels BC)
1958 – Masato Nakamura, Japanese musician
1959 – Youssou N’dour, Senegalese singer (Shaking the tree)
1960 – Elizabeth Dennehy, actress (Guiding Light) [or Nov 1]
1961 – Cornelius Johannes Petrus Gerhardus “Corrie” Van Zyl, cricketer (SAf)
1961 – Gary Ablett, Australian rules footballer
1961 – Robert Rey, Brazilian-American plastic surgeon and television personality
1962 – Trevor Baxter, record holder for high jumping with a skateboard
1962 – Paul Walsh, English footballer
1963 – Beth Chamberlin, Danville Vt, actress (Beth Spaulding-Guiding Light)
MLB First Baseman Mark McGwire (1963)

1963 – Mark McGwire, Pomona California, MLB 1st baseman (AL rookie of year 1988, Oakland A’s, St. Louis Cardinals)
1964 – Kristi Atkinson, Van Nuys Ca, WP volleyballer (Best of Beach-6th-1994)
1964 – Marcia Pankratz, Wakefield Mass, field hockey forward (Oly-88, 96)
1964 – Roberto Kelly, Panama, outfielder (NY Yanks, Cin Reds, Minnesota Twins)
1964 – Harry Hill, British comedian
1964 – Max Matsuura, Japanese record producer
1964 – Jonathan Sarfati, Australian-born chess player, scientist, and author
1965 – Cliff Ronning, NHL center (Vancouver Canucks), born in Vancouver, Canada
1965 – Cindy Margolis Model
1965 – Ted King, American Actor
1965 – Chris Reason, Australian journalist
1966 – Christopher Titus, American actor/comedian
1966 – George Weah, Liberian politician and footballer
1966 – Cuco Ziganda, Spanish footballer
1967 – Chuck McElroy, Galeston TX, pitcher (California Angels)
1967 – Geraldine Heaney, ice hockey defenseman (Canada, Oly-98)
1967 – Michael Pringle, CFL running back (Montreal Alouettes)
1967 – Scott Young, Clinton MA, NHL right wing (Colorado Avalanche)
1967 – Mike Pringle, American football player
1968 – Greg Briggs, NFL safety (Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings)
1968 – Jay Underwood, American actor (The Boy Who Could Fly), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota
1968 – Malcolm Showell, WLAF defensive end (London Monarchs)
1968 – Matt Elliott, NFL center/guard (Carolina Panthers)
1968 – Jon Guenther, American author
1969 – Agustin Vasquez-Mendoza, Mexico, murderer (FBI Most Wanted)
1969 – Igor Ulanov, Krasnokamsk Russia, NHL defenseman (Tampa Bay Lightning)
1969 – Ori Kaplan, Israeli jazz musician
1969 – Zach Galifianakis, American actor (The Hangover, Birdman) born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina
1970 – Alexei Zhamnov, Moscow Russia, NHL center (Winnipeg Jets, Oly-S-98)
1970 – Alexei Zhitnik, NHL defenseman (Team Russia Oly-Silver-1998, Buffalo)
1970 – Gaston Taument, soccer player (Feyenoord)
1970 – James Wilson, WLAF defensive end (Rhein Fire)
1970 – Moses Kiptanui, Kenya, steeplechase (Olympics-silver-96)
1970 – Ronnie Bradford, NFL cornerback (Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos)
1970 – Gam Wu-seong, South Korean actor
1970 – Simon Davey, Barnsley football manager
1971 – Amp Lee, NFL running back (Minnesota Vikings, St Louis Rams)
1971 – Melinda Gainsford, Australian 100m/200m (Olympics-92, 96)
1971 – Song Il Gook, Korean actor
1971 – Gigi Lai, Hong Kong actress
1972 – Danielle Scott, Baton Rouge LA, volleyball middle blocker (Oly-96)
1973 – Rodney Kite-Powell, historian
1973 – Jana Henke, German swimmer
1973 – Rachid Chékhémani, French runner
1973 – John Thomson, American baseball player
1974 – Keith Duffy, Irish singer (Boyzone), born in Dublin, Ireland
1974 – Mats Lindgren, NHL forward (Team Sweden Oly-1998, Edmonton)
1974 – Christian Borle, American actor
1975 – Eric Morel, PR, US flyweight boxer (Olympics-96)
1975 – Zoltán Sebescen, German footballer
1975 – Chulpan Khamatova, Russian actress
1975 – Kim Suna, Korean actress
1976 – Kona Cormack, Honolulu HI, playmate (Feb, 1996)
1976 – Antonio Roybal, American painter and sculptor
1977 – Alejandro Hernandez, Tijuana Mexico, tennis pro
1977 – Jeffrey van Hooydonk, Belgian race car driver
1978 – Andrew JC Jackson, Australian surf lifesaver
1978 – Leticia Cline, American model and TV Personality
1979 – Gilberto Martínez, Costa Rican footballer
1979 – Cameron Bruce, Australian rules footballer
1979 – Rudi Johnson, American football player
1979 – Marko Stanojevic, English-born Italian rugby union footballer
1981 – Júlio Baptista, Brazilian footballer
1981 – Arnau Riera, Spanish footballer
1981 – Johnny Oduya, Swedish ice hockey player
1982 – Haruna Babangida, Nigerian footballer
1982 – Harry Lawrence, Bath born Entrepreneur
1982 – Sandra Oxenryd, Swedish singer
1983 – Mirko Vučinić, Montenegrin footballer
1984 – Matt Cain, American baseball player
1984 – Daniel Guillén, Spanish footballer
1985 – Ryo Miyamori, Japanese singer
1985 – Nazimuddin Ahmed, Bangladeshi cricketer
1985 – Revazi Zintiridis, Greek judoka
1985 – Tim Deasy, English footballer
1986 – Ricardo Vaz Té, Portuguese footballer
1986 – Jurnee Smollett, American actress
1986 – Sayaka, Japanese singer
1987 – Hiroki Aiba, Japanese actor, singer
1988 – Cariba Heine, Australian actress
1990 – Charlie McDonnell, British YouTube Personality

WEDDINGS

1791 – Prince Willem Frederick (later King of Netherlands) marries his cousin princess Frederica Louise Wilhelmine of Prussia
1884 – Politician William Jennings Bryan (24) weds Mary sweetheart Elizabeth Baird
1913 – Writer and poet Vita Sackville-West (21) marries diplomat Harold Nicolson (26)
1949 – Television host and comedian Johnny Carson (23) weds Joan Morrill Wolcott (23) at the North Platte Episcopalian Church
1984 – Actress Sigourney Weaver (34) weds filmmaker Jim Simpson (28)
1988 – Robert Englund, actor who plays Freddie Kruger weds Nancy Booth
Actress Whoopi Goldberg(1994)

1994 – Actress Whoopi Goldberg (38) weds labor union organizer Lyle Trachtenberg in California
2006 – Baseball player Darryl Strawberry (44) weds Tracy Boulware
2008 – “7th Heaven” actress Beverley Mitchell (27) weds Michael Cameron (27) at the Church of Santa Maria a Gradillo in Ravello, Italy
2011 – Rock bassist Gene Simmons (62) weds actress and model Shannon Tweed (55) at the historic Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California
2014 – Actress Scarlett Johansson (30) weds advertising agency owner Romain Dauriac in Philipsburg, Montana

DIVORCES

None

DEATHS

290 – [Christian] Bacchus, roman soldier/martyred saint, killed
540 – Vedastus St Vaast, 1st bishop of Atrecht/saint, dies
552 – Teja, king of Ostrogoten, dies in battle
959 – King Edwy of England
976 – Al-Hakam II, Moors kalief of Cordoba, dies
1040 – Alan III, Duke of Brittany (poisoned) (b. 997)
1189 – Gerard de Ridefort, grandmaster of the Knights Templar
1310 – Beatrice of Burgundy, Lady of Bourbon (b. 1257)
1404 – Boniface IX, [Pietro Tomacelli], Pope (1389-1404), dies
1499 – Marsilio Ficino, Italian philosopher (b. 1433)
1500 – John Alcock, English Catholic bishop
1567 – Pietro Carnesecchi, Italian humanist (b. 1508)
1570 – Frans Floris, Flemish painter (b. 1520)
1574 – Maarten van Heemskerck, Dutch painter (Christ), dies at 76
1578 – Don John of Austria, Spanish military leader, dies at 31
1588 – Blessed Edward James, Catholic martyr
1602 – Hernando de Cabezon, composer, dies at 61
1609 – Gianmatteo Asola, Italian composer
1633 – Filaret, [Fjodor N Romanov], patriarch of Moscow, dies
1684 – Pierre Corneille, Fr lawyer/dramatist (El Cid, Polyeucte), dies at 42
1693 – Pedro Abarca, Spanish theologian (b. 1619)
1704 – Cornelis Dusart, painter/engraver, dies at 44
1708 – John Blow, composer (Venus & Adonis), dies at 59
1768 – Robert Simson, Scotland mathematician, dies at 80
1770 – Louis-Gabriel Guillemain, composer, dies at 64
1795 – Robert Bakewell, English cattle breeder, dies at about 70
1814 – Jakob I van Przysucha, Polish hassidic leader, dies
1837 – Robert Clark, American politician (b. 1777)
1838 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and industrialist (b. 1768)
1864 – John Dunovant, US Confederate brig-general, dies in battle
1864 – Rose Greenhow, American Confederate spy (b. 1817)
1868 – Rama IV, [Phra Chomklao Chaoyuhua], king of Thai (1851-68), dies at 63
1876 – Henri-Jerome Bertini, composer, dies at 77
1876 – James Lick, California land baron (b. 1796)
1881 – Frantisek Matej Hilmar, composer, dies at 78
1901 – Abdur Rahman Khan, Emir of Afghanistan
1904 – William GGVV Harcourt, historian/English Sect of State, dies at 76
1911 – Wilhelm Dilthey, Germ philosopher (Das Leben Schleiermans), dies at 77
1913 – Eugene O’Keefe, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1827)
1927 – Wilhelm Harteveld, composer, dies at 68
1929 – Antoine Bourdelle, French sculptor (b. 1861)
1930 – Ricardo Drigo, composer, dies at 84
1936 – Oscar DaCosta, cricketer (WI all-rounder in 5 Tests 30-35), dies at 28
1942 – Ants Piip, Estonian Prime Minister (b. 1884)
1943 – Antoine T Broekman, resistance fighter, executed at 32
1943 – Anton JT Koreman, resistance fighter, executed at 27
1943 – Antoon Pleyte, resistance fighter, executed at 26
1943 – Dionysius Remiens, resistance fighter, executed at 24
1943 – Earnest Klijzing, resistance fighter, executed
1943 – Gideon Boissevain, resistance fighter, executed at 22
1943 – Hans Katan, resistance fighter, executed at 24
1943 – Henri H Geul, resistance fighter, executed at 27
1943 – Johan Kalshoven, resistance fighter, executed at 20
1943 – Johan Roemer, resistance fighter, executed at 22
1943 – Johan van Mierlo, resistance fighter, executed at 35
1943 – John Charles Boissevain, resistance fighter, executed at 23
1943 – Leo Frijda, resistance fighter, executed at 20
1943 – Louis Boissevain, resistance fighter, executed at 21
1943 – Maarten van/of Gilse, resistance fighter, executed at 27
1943 – Olaf T Thomsen, resistance fighter, executed at 23
1943 – Peter “Pam” Pooters, resistance fighter, executed at 32
1943 – Sape Kuiper, resistance fighter, executed at 19
1943 – Victor van Swieten, resistance fighter, executed at 36
1943 – Walter Brandligt, literature/resistance fighter, executed at 42
1945 – Walter B Cannon, US physiologist (Traumatic Shock), dies at 73
1955 – Charles Christie, American film studio owner (b. 1880)
1956 – Stan Ockers, Belgian world champ cyclist (1955), dies at 36
1958 – Robert Falk, Russian painter (b. 1886)
1961 – Donald Cook, actor (Too Young To Go Steady), dies at 60
1964 – Ernst Toch, composer (Melodie Lehre), dies at 76
1965 – Edward E “Doc” Smith, US, sci-fi writer (Subspace encounter), dies
1965 – Gareth Hughes, actor (Midnight Girl), dies at 71
1966 – Albert P A A Besnard, poet/journalist (Doom & Thirst), dies
1970 – Hans Poser, composer, dies at 52
1970 – Petar Konjovic, composer, dies at 87
1970 – Raoul Riganti, Argentine racing driver (b. 1893)
1972 – Kurt Hiller, writer, dies at 87
Archaeologist Louis Leakey(1972)

1972 – Louis Leakey, English anthropologist, dies at 68
1973 – Joe Devlin, actor (Sam-Dick Tracy), dies at 74
1974 – Spyridon Marinatos, Greek archaeologist (b. 1901)
1975 – Al Jackson, rock drummer (Booker T & The MG’s), dies at 39
1979 – Roy Harris, US composer, dies at 81
1980 – George Meany, union pres (AFL-CIO), dies at 86
1984 – Walter Alston, Baseball manager (LA Dodgers), dies at 72
1985 – E. B. White, US author (New Yorker, Charlotte’s Web), dies at 86
1988 – Sacheverell Sitwell, English writer (b. 1897)
1990 – Christine Forrest, actress (Martin), dies
1990 – Curtis E LeMay, USAF General/VP candidate, dies at 83
1991 – Jan van Tongeren, painter, dies
1992 – Bruce Vorhauer, inventor (Today contraceptive sponge), suicide at 50
1992 – Harry Milton Ray, singer/actor (Avanti!), dies of stroke at 45
Writer E. B. White (1985)

1993 – Reizl Bozyk, Polish/US actress (Crossing Delancey), dies at 79
1993 – Janine Darcey, French actress (Priez pour nous), dies at 75
1993 – Joseph Warren, actor (Gift of Love, Urban Warriors), dies at 77
1994 – Brad O’Hare, dies of complications due to AIDS at 43
1994 – Carlos Lleras Restrepo, president of Colombia (1966-70), dies at 86
1994 – Karoli Ruth Needles, painter, dies at 54
1994 – Scott Dunbar, bluse vocalist/guitarist, dies at 90
1994 – Paul Lorenzen, German philosopher (b. 1915)
1995 – Aditya Biria, industrialist, dies at 50
1995 – Margaret Gorman Cahill, 1st Miss America (1921), dies at 90
1995 – Rene Mable Neighbour Cloke, illustrator, dies at 90
1995 – Russ Karel, director, dies at 45
1996 – Joonas Kokkonen, composer, dies at 74
1996 – Patrick McGeown, politician, dies at 40
1997 – Gul Mohammed, world’s shortest man (22.1″/56.16 cm), dies at 36
1997 – Jerome H. Lemelson, American inventor (b. 1923)
1998 – Pauline Julien, French Canadian singer (b. 1928)
1999 – Lena Zavaroni, Scottish singer and Child star (b. 1963)
2000 – Robert Allen, American pianist and songwriter (b. 1928)
2000 – Reginald Kray, British gangster (b. 1933)
2001 – Guy Beaulne, French-Canadian actor and theatre director (b. 1921)
2001 – Kathleen Ankers, American scenic designer (b. 1919)
2002 – Walter Annenberg, American publisher and philanthropist (b. 1908)
2004 – Richard Avedon, American photographer (b. 1923)
2004 – Bruce Palmer, Canadian musician (Buffalo Springfield) (b. 1946)
2006 – Jerald Tanner, American religious activist (b. 1938)
2006 – André Viger, French Canadian wheelchair marathoner (b. 1952)
2007 – Chris Mainwaring, Australian rules footballer (b. 1965)
2007 – Harry Lee, Sheriff of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana (b. 1932)
2007 – Al Oerter, American discus thrower (b. 1936) (Olympics-gold-56, 60, 64, 68) dies aged 71
2007 – Ned Sherrin, English broadcaster, author and stage director (b. 1931)
2007 – Ronnie Hazlehurst, English conductor and theme song composer (b. 1928)
2010 – Ian Buxton, English footballer and cricketer (b. 1938)
2010 – Audouin Dollfus, French Astronomer (discovered Janus, a moon of Saturn), dies at 85
2011 – Sven Tumba, Swedish ice hockey and golf player (b. 1931)
2012 – Eric J. Hobsbawm, British Marxist historian, dies from pneumonia at 95
2013 – US Author Tom Clancy ‘The Hunt for Red October’ dies aged 66

ALSO ON THIS DAY

• Lead Story

• 1890 Yosemite National Park established

• American Revolution

• 1776 Patriots learn of increased French support

• Automotive

• 1908 Ford Motor Company unveils the Model T

• Civil War

• 1864 Rose Greenhow dies

• Cold War

• 1949 Mao Zedong proclaims People’s Republic of China
• 1988 Mikhail Gorbachev becomes head of Supreme Soviet

• Crime

• 1993 A 12-year-old girl is kidnapped

• Disaster

• 1987 Earthquake rocks Southern California

• General Interest

• 1918 Lawrence of Arabia captures Damascus
• 1936 Franco heads Spain
• 1946 Nazi war criminals sentenced at Nuremberg
• 1965 Suharto crushes Indonesian coup
• 2005 Terrorists strike again in Bali

• Hollywood

• 1962 Johnny Carson makes debut as Tonight Show host

• Literary

• 1856 First installment of Madame Bovary is published
• 2013 Tom Clancy, author of mega-selling techno thrillers, dies

• Music

• 1920 Scientific American reports that radio will soon be used to transmit music to the home

• Old West

• 1890 Congress creates Yosemite National Park

• Presidential

• 1924 Jimmy Carter is born

• Sports

• 1961 Roger Maris breaks home-run record

• Vietnam War

• 1961 South Vietnam requests a bilateral defense treaty

• World War I

• 1918 Crisis in Germany

• World War II

• 1944 Experiments begin on homosexuals at Buchenwald

1955 – James Dean dies in car accident

At 5:45 PM on this day in 1955, 24-year-old actor James Dean is killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche he is driving hits a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection. The driver of the other car, 23-year-old California Polytechnic State University student Donald Turnupseed, was dazed but mostly uninjured; Dean’s passenger, German Porsche mechanic Rolf Wütherich was badly injured but survived. Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant” opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom–and the crash made him a legend.

James Dean loved racing cars, and in fact he and his brand-new, $7000 Porsche Spyder convertible were on their way to a race in Salinas, 90 miles south of San Francisco. Witnesses maintained that Dean hadn’t been speeding at the time of the accident–in fact, Turnupseed had made a left turn right into the Spyder’s path–but some people point out that he must have been driving awfully fast: He’d gotten a speeding ticket in Bakersfield, 150 miles from the crash site, at 3:30 p.m. and then had stopped at a diner for a Coke, which meant that he’d covered quite a distance in a relatively short period of time. Still, the gathering twilight and the glare from the setting sun would have made it impossible for Turnupseed to see the Porsche coming no matter how fast it was going.

Rumor has it that Dean’s car, which he’d nicknamed the Little Bastard, was cursed. After the accident, the car rolled off the back of a truck and crushed the legs of a mechanic standing nearby. Later, after a used-car dealer sold its parts to buyers all over the country, the strange incidents multiplied: The car’s engine, transmission and tires were all transplanted into cars that were subsequently involved in deadly crashes, and a truck carrying the Spyder’s chassis to a highway-safety exhibition skidded off the road, killing its driver. The remains of the car vanished from the scene of that accident and haven’t been seen since.

Wütherich, whose feelings of guilt after the car accident never abated, tried to commit suicide twice during the 1960s–and in 1967, he stabbed his wife 14 times with a kitchen knife in a failed murder/suicide–and he died in a drunk-driving accident in 1981. Turnupseed died of lung cancer in 1981.

September 30th

EVENTS

1199 – Rambam (Maimonides) authorizes Samuel Ibn Tibbon to translate Guide of Perplexed from Arabic into Hebrew
1399 – King Richard II of England abdicates
1520 – Suleiman I (the Magnificent) succeeds his father Selam I as Sultan of Turkey (rules till 1566)
1544 – King Henry VIII draws his armies out of France
1555 – Bishop of Oxford Nicholas Ridley sentenced to death as a heretic
1619 – Remonstrant Society forms in Antwerp
1626 – Battle between King Bethlen Gabor & Earl Mansfeld-Wallenstein ends
1649 – Last Swedish troops vacate Prague
1659 – Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked (according to Daniel Defoe)
1659 – Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherlands forbids tennis playing during religious services (1st mention of tennis in US)
1681 – Netherlands & Sweden sign treaty
1730 – Duke Victor Amadeus XI of Savoye resigns
1744 – France and Spain defeat the Kingdom of Sardinia at the Battle of Madonna dell’Olmo.
1777 – Continental Congress, flees to York, Pa, as British forces advance
1787 – 1st US voyage around the world – Columbia leaves Boston
Classical Musician and Composer Wolfang Amadeus Mozart

1791 – Mozart’s opera “Magic Flute” premieres in Vienna
1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre and Jérôme Pétion as incorruptible patriots.
1805 – Napoleon Bonaparte’s army draws into the Rhine
1808 – Covent Garden Theatre Royal destroyed by fire
1813 – Battle of Bárbula: Simón Bolívar defeats Santiago Bobadilla
1818 – Congress of Aken: Russia, Austria, Prussia, France & England
1841 – Samuel Slocum patented the stapler
1846 – Anesthetic ether used for 1st time by American dentist Dr William Morton who extracts a tooth
1857 – US occupies Sand, Baker, Howland & Jarvis Is south of Hawaii
1862 – First Battle of Newtonia (American Civil War), Newton County, Missouri
1864 – Battle of Preble’s Farm VA (Poplar Springs Church)
1864 – Black soldiers given US Medal of Honor
Military and Political Leader Simon Bolívar

1867 – Midway Islands formally declared a US possession
1868 – Spain’s Queen Isabella is deposed, flees to France
1877 – 1st US amateur swim meet (NY Athletic Club)
1878 – 1st Portuguese immigrants arrive in Hawaii
1878 – Great Flood hits New Zealand’s South Island
1880 – Henry Draper takes that 1st photograph of Orion Nebula
1882 – 22nd British Golf Open: Bob Ferguson shoots a 171 at St Andrews
1885 – Bechuanaland becomes a British protectorate
1887 – Start of Sherlock Holmes Adventure “Five Orange Pips” (BG)
1887 – Volunteer (US) beats Thistle (Scotland) in 8th America’s Cup
1888 – “Jack the Ripper” murders 2 more women, Liz Stride & Kate Eddowes, in Whitechapel, London
1895 – France proclaims a protectorate over Madagascar
1898 – City of NY established
1903 – New Gresham’s School officially opened by Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood.
1904 – White Sox lefty Doc White, pitches his 5th shutout in 18 days
1906 – Real Academia Galega, Galician language biggest linguistic authority starts working in Havana.
1907 – Cards Ed Konetchy steals home twice & Joe Delahanty also steals home for record 3 steals of home (vs Boston)
Author and Nobel Laureate Maurice Maeterlinck

1908 – Maurice Maeterlinck’s “L’oiseau Blue” premieres in Moscow
1915 – Red Sox clinch AL pennant by beating Detroit
1916 – Giants lose to Braves 8-3, ends 26 consecutive win streak
1916 – Eleftherios Venizelos announces he is forming a Provisional Government in Crete as an alternative to the one in Athens; he is determined to bring Greece into the war on the side of the Allies
1919 – Avery Hopwood’s “Gold Diggers” premieres in NYC
1919 – Race riot at Elaine Arkansas
1920 – Time Square Theater opens at 217 W 42nd St NYC
1922 – Government of Alexandros Zaimis forms in Greece
1922 – Yanks clinch pennant #2, beating Boston 3-1
1923 – Canton Bulldogs win 1st on way to 17-0 season
1924 – Allies stop checking on German navy
1925 – General Pangulos disbands Greek parliament
1926 – German/French/Belgian/Luxembourg steel cartel closes
Baseball Legend Babe Ruth

1927 – Babe Ruth hits record setting 60th HR (off Tom Zachary)
1928 – Le Sifflet publishes 1st precursor of Kuifje (Tintin)
1928 – Leon Vanderstuyft of Belgium cycles record 76 mi 604 yds in 1 hr
1929 – 1st manned rocket plane flight (by auto maker Fritz von Opel)
1931 – Start of “Die Voortrekkers” youth movement for Afrikaners in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
1933 – Berlin/Hart/Heyman/Myers ballet “As Thousands Cheer,” premieres in NYC
1934 – Babe Ruth’s final game as a Yankee, goes 0 for 3
1934 – St Louis Card clinch pennant as Dizzy Dean wins his 30th of year
1935 – Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess” premieres in Boston
1935 – The Hoover Dam, astride the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated by FDR
1936 – International Commission of Straits (Dardanelles & Bosphorus) ends
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt

1936 – Pinewood Studios opens in Buckinghamshire England
1937 – 6th Ryder Cup: US, 8-4 at Southport & Ainsdale, England
1938 – Treaty of Munich signed by Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Daladier and Chamberlain, forces Czechoslovakia to give territory to Germany
1939 – 1st televised college football game (Fordham vs Waynesburg at NYC)
1939 – 41 U-boats sunk this month (153,000 ton)
1939 – Germany & Russia agree to partition Poland
1939 – White Sox reliever Clint Brown sets record of 61st relief appearance
1939 – Britain first evacuates citizens in anticipation of war.
1940 – 47 German aircraft shot down above England
1940 – 59 U-boats sunk this month (295,000 tons)
1941 – 3,721 Jews are buried alive at Babi Yarravine (near Kiev) Ukraine
1941 – 53 U-boats sunk this month (202,000 tons)
1941 – German assault on Moscow, Operation Typhoon, begins
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

1942 – 98 U-boats sunk this month (485,000 tons)
1942 – Admiral Nimitz’s B-17 finds Guadalcanal using National Geographic map
1942 – SS exterminates 3,500 Jews in Zelov Lodz Poland in 6 week period
1943 – Pope Pius XII encyclical on Divine spirit
1944 – -Oct 1] Failed attack on German officers near Putten Neth
1944 – Calais reoccupied by Allies
1944 – Dutch General Mine Workers Union (ABWM) forms
1945 – Hank Greenberg’s final day HR wins pennant for Tigers
1945 – Bourne End rail crash, Hertfordshire, England killed 43
1946 – 22 Nazi leaders found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg
1946 – Joachim von Ribbentrop & Hermann Goering sentenced to death by Nuremberg trial
1947 – Yanks beat Dodgers 5-3-largest WS crowd 73,365-1st WS televised
1949 – Berlin Airlift ends after 277,000 flights
Nazi Politician Hermann Goering

1949 – Pirates Ralph Kiner hits his 54th HR & NL record 16th in September
1950 – 1st congress of International Astronautical Federation opens in Paris
1950 – Radio’s “Grand Ole Opry” is broadcasted on TV for 1st time
1950 – WSM TV channel 4 in Nashville, TN (NBC) begins broadcasting
1950 – 12th College Football Crab Bowl Classic: Maryland beats Navy 35-21 in College Park
1953 – Auguste/Jacques Piccard dives with bathosphere to 3150 m (record)
1953 – Earl Warren appointed Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court
1953 – Robert Anderson’s “Tea & Sympathy” premieres in NYC
1953 – WICS TV channel 20 in Springfield, IL (NBC) begins broadcasting
1953 – WMT (now KGAN) TV channel 2 in Cedar Rapids-Waterloo, IA (CBS) begins
1954 – “Boy Friend” opens at Royale Theater NYC for 483 performances
1954 – USS Nautilus, 1st atomic-powered vessel (sub), commissioned by the US Navy
Jurist and Governor of California Earl Warren

1956 – Phillies Robin Roberts gives up a major league record 46th HR
1956 – White Sox Jim Derrington, 16, is youngest to start a game (he loses)
1957 – French government of Mauroy resigns due to Algeria
1957 – WKYT TV channel 27 in Lexington, KY (CBS) begins broadcasting
1958 – French Guinee becomes independent republic Guinea
1958 – USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1960 – Flintstones premieres (1st prime time animation show)
1960 – On Howdy Doody’s last show Clarabelle finally talks “Goodbye Kids”
1960 – West Germany signs trade agreement with East Germany
1961 – Bill for Boston Tea Party is paid by Mayor Snyder of Oregon who wrote a check for $196, the total cost of all tea lost
1962 – A’s Bill Fischer ends 84 1/3 consec innings pitched without a walk
1962 – JFK routes 3,000 federal troops to Mississippi
1962 – James Meredith registers for classes at University of Mississippi
35th US President John F. Kennedy

1962 – KCRL TV channel 4 in Reno, NV (NBC) begins broadcasting
1962 – KMEX TV channel 34 in Los Angeles, CA (IND) begins broadcasting
1962 – Mickey Wright wins LPGA San Diego Golf Open
1962 – NY Mets lose record 120th game as Cubs turn triple play & beat NY 5-1
1962 – Mexican-American labor leader César Chávez founds the United Farm Workers.
1963 – “Student Gypsy” opens at 84th St Theater NYC for 16 performances
1963 – 56th Postmaster General: John A Gronouski of Wis takes office
1964 – “Oh What a Lovely War” opens at Broadhurst Theater NYC for 125 perfs
1965 – Donovan’s 1st US TV appearance (Shindig)
1965 – LA Dodger Don Drysdale (23-12) wins 13th straight game, 7 by shutouts
1966 – Botswana (formerly Bechuanaland) gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1966 – USSR performs underground nuclear test
Farm Labor Leader Cesar Chavez

1967 – BBC starts its own popular music radio station (Radio 1)
1967 – Palace of Fine Arts reopens (1st time during 1915 exposition)
1967 – USSR’s Kosmos 186 & 188 complete 1st automatic docking
1968 – 1st Boeing 747 rolls out
1968 – AL & NL umpires form a new Association of Major League Umpires
1968 – Sharon Miller wins LPGA Seven Lakes Golf Invitational
1968 – Supremes release “Love Child”
1969 – Atlanta’s 10th straight win, clinches NL West pennant
1970 – New American Bible published
1970 – A Protestant man is shot and killed by Loyalists in Belfast, North Ireland
1971 – -11/6] Rome: 3rd bishop synod
1971 – Last Wash Senator home game, Yanks win career 5th forfeit game Yanks trailing 4-2 in 9th with 2 outs, fans rush field
1971 – Ian Paisley and Desmond Boal launch the [Ulster] Democratic Unionist Party
1972 – Passenger train derails killing 48 (Rust Stasie South Africa)
Baseball Player Roberto Clemente

1972 – Roberto Clemente is 11th to get 3,000 hits
1973 – 3rd NYC Women’s Marathon won by Nina Kuscsik in 2:57:07
1973 – 4th NYC Marathon won by Tom Fleming in 2:21:54
1973 – Mel Gray begins NFL streak of 121 consecutive game receptions
1973 – Sandra Palmer wins LPGA Cameron Park Golf Open
1973 – USSR performs underground nuclear test
1973 – Yanks close 50th year at Yankee Stadium losing 8-5, Ralph Houk resigns as manager
1974 – Gen Francesco da Costa Gomez succeeds Gen Spinola as pres of Portugal
1975 – 5 drown in flash flood of sewer & water tunnel (Niagara Falls NY)
1975 – The Hughes (later McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight.
1977 – Dutch Antillean government-Evertsz resigns
1977 – Ringo Starr releases “Ringo the 4th” album
Beatles Drummer Ringo Starr

1977 – USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1977 – Due to US budget cuts, the Apollo program’s ALSEP experiment packages left on the Moon are shut down.
1977 – Philippine political prisoners, Eugenio Lopez, Jr. and Sergio Osmeña III successfully escaped from Fort Bonifacio Maximum Security Prison in the Philippines
1978 – Major Indoor Soccer League grants 1st 6 franchises to Cincinnati
1978 – Phillies clinch NL East title
1978 – Cleveland, Houston, NY, Philadelphia & Pittsburgh Phillies win 3rd consecutive NL East Division title
1979 – Milwaukee Brewers lose 5-0 ending 213 straight games without a shutout
1979 – Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Mary Kay Golf Classic
1980 – 1,754 turn out to see Phillies play NY Mets at Shea Stadium
MLB Outfielder Rickey Henderson

1980 – A’s Rickey Henderson sets AL stolen base record at 98 en route to 100
1980 – Iran rejects a truce call from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
1980 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1980 – Ethernet specifications published by Xerox working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation.
1981 – Last game at Minn’s Metropolitan Stadium, lose to KC 5-2
1981 – Seoul, South Korea, is selected to host 1988 Summer Olympics
1982 – National railroad strike in Belgium
1982 – 12th Commonwealth Games open in Brisbane, Australia
1984 – California Angels Michael Witt is 11th to pitch a perfect baseball game
1984 – Bowie Kuhn ends career as Baseball Commissioner
1984 – Browns set a team record for allowing most sacks (11), KC wins 10-6
1984 – California Angel Mike Witt, pitches a perfect game over Texas Rangers, 1-0
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein

1984 – NY Yankee Don Mattingly wins AL batting crown with .343 avg
1984 – CBS’ premiere of “Murder She Wrote”, starring Angela Landsbury
1985 – Howard Stern gets fired from WNBC AM (NY)
1986 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1986 – US releases soviet spy Gennadiy Zakharov
1986 – Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed details of Israel covert nuclear program to British media, was kidnapped in Rome, Italy.
1987 – Suriname constitution ratified
1988 – Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko retires as Soviet Foreign Minister
1988 – Dave Stieb loses 2nd consecutive no hitter bid with 2 outs in 9th
1988 – IBM announces shipment of 3 millionth PS/2 personal computer
1988 – Louise Ritter, US, jumps 6’8″ to win Olympic gold medal
1988 – Robin Givens & Mike Tyson appear on Barbara Walter’s Show
1988 – LA Dodger Orel Herschiser breaks former Dodger Don Drysdale mark by pitching 59 consecutive scoreless innings
Radio shock jock Howard Stern

1989 – NASA closes down tracking stations in Hawaii & Ascension
1989 – Nolan Ryan’s perfect game broken in 8th, but gets his 300th strikeout
1989 – Senegambia separates back into Gambia & Senegal
1989 – Toronto Blue Jays wins AL East title
1989 – Foreign Minister of West Germany Hans-Dietrich Genscher’s speech from the balcony of the German embassy in Prague.
1990 – Chicago White Sox beat Seattle 2-1 in last game at Comiskey Park
1990 – Pittsburgh Pirates wins NL East title
1990 – The Dalai Lama unveils the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa.
1991 – Rev Jean Betrand Aristide ousted as president of Haiti

1991 – Jerry Springer’s tabloid talk show “The Jerry Springer Show” debuts
1992 – 26th Country Music Association Award: Garth Brooks wins
1992 – KC Royal George Brett gets 4 hits to become 18th to get 3,000 hits
1992 – Mariel Hemmingway appears nude on TV show Civil Wars
1992 – 26th CMT Music Awards: Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, and Mary Chapin Carpenter win
1993 – 6.4 earthquake at Latur, India, 28,000 killed
1993 – US General Colin Powell retires at 56
1993 – MS Dos 6.2 released
1994 – NHL goes on strike
1994 – Space shuttle STS-68 (Endeavour 7), launches into orbit
1994 – Sylvestre Ntibantunganya elected president of Burundi
1994 – Vladimir Meciars HZDDS wins Slovakia parliamentary election
1995 – Cleve Indian Albert Belle hits his 50th home run of season
1997 – 1st time 3 cons HRs in post season-Raines, Jeter, O’Neill (NY Yankees)
1997 – Hooters agrees to pay $2 million in discrimination suits
1997 – Microsoft Corp releases Internet Explorer 4.0
MLB Outfielder Tim Raines

1997 – Yanks Tim Raines, Derek Jeter & Paul O’Neill are 1st to hit 3 consecutively homers in post season (Yanks beat Indians 8-6)
1999 – Japan’s worst nuclear accident at a uranium reprocessing facility in Tōkai-mura, northeast of Tokyo.
2004 – The first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat are taken 600 miles south of Tokyo.
2004 – The AIM-54 Phoenix, the primary missile for the F-14 Tomcat, retired from service. Almost two years later, the Tomcat retires.
2005 – The Parliament of Catalonia passes with 120 plus votes and 15 against, the Project of New Catalan Statute of Autonomy, proclaiming in its article 1, “Catalonia is a nation”.
2005 – The controversial drawings of Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
2006 – the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Constitutional Act that proclaimed the new Constitution of Serbia.
2012 – Two opposition Venezuelan politicians are shot dead a week before the presidential election
2012 – Car bomb blasts kill at least 32 people across Iraq
2012 – Melbourne Storm defeat the Canterbury Bulldogs in the 2012 NRL Grand Final
2012 – 39th Ryder Cup: Europe wins 14.5-13.5 at the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois, U.S
2013 – 54 people are killed by a series of car bombs in Baghdad, Iraq
2014 – A case of Ebola Virus reaches Dallas, Texas

BIRTHDAYS

1207 – Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Persian mystic and poet (d. 1273)
1227 – Pope Nicholas IV (d. 1292)
1530 – Geronimo Mercuriali, Italian philologist and physician (d. 1606)
1550 – Michael Maestlin, German mathematician (d. 1631)
1622 – Johann Sebastiani, composer
1627 – Robinson Crusoe, fictional character, according to Daniel Defoe
1631 – William Stoughton, American judge at the Salem witch trials (d. 1701)
1685 – Gunther Jacob Wenceslaus, composer
1700 – Stanisław Konarski, Polish writer (d. 1773)
1710 – John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, British statesman (d. 1771)
1715 – Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, French philosopher (d. 1780)
1732 – Jacques Necker, French finance minister of Louis XVI (d. 1804)
1743 – Jeronymo Francisco de Lima, composer
1752 – Justin Heinrich Knecht, composer
1765 – José María Morelos, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1815)
1800 – Decimus Burton, British architect (d. 1881)
1805 – Samuel Peter Heintzelman, Major General (Union volunteers)
1808 – Lambertus GC Ledeboer, Dutch vicar (Folies-old Calvinist communities)
1811 – Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, Queen of Prussia and German Empress (d. 1890)
1824 – Peter Milne, composer
1827 – Carlo A Alfieri, Italian MP (Liberal)
1827 – Kenner Garrard, Bvt Major General (Union Army), (d. 1879)
1827 – Ellis H. Roberts, American politician (d. 1918)
1832 – Frederick Sleigh “Bobs” Roberts, Brit gov of Natal (Ireland-Boer war)
1833 – Ferdinand von Saar, writer
1840 – Johan Severin Svendsen, composer
1847 – Wilhelmina E Drucker, [Lensing], Dutch feminist
1852 – Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish organist/composer
1856 – Andrejs Jurjans, composer
1857 – Hermann Sudermann, German writer (Honor, That Ehre, Frau Sorge)
1861 – William Wrigley Jr., American industrialist (Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company) (d. 1932)
1862 – Georgy Eduardovich Konyus, composer
1863 – Reinhard Scheer, German admiral (WW I)
1869 – Ernest Jones, cricket pace bowler (marvellous Aust at turn of century)
1870 – Jean Perrin, France, physicist, studied Brownian motion (Nobel 1926)
1870 – Thomas W. Lamont, American banker; father of Corliss Lamont; great-grandfather of Ned Lamont (d. 1948)
1871 – John Fabricius, Neth/English stageauthor (Ring of Prophet)
1871 – Ruben Mattias Liljefors, composer
1876 – Katherine Griffith, SF CA, actress (Pollyanna, Fast Company)
1879 – Ernst Isler, composer
1879 – Henri Casadesus, French violist and composer (Viola d’amour)
1882 – George Bancroft, Phila, actor (Underworld)/wife of Octavia Brooke
1883 – Robert H Lightfoot, English theologist/exegetist (St John’s Gospel)
1883 – Bernhard Rust, Nazi education minister (d. 1945)
1887 – Lil Dagover [Marta-Maria Lillits], Madiun, Java, Dutch-born German actress (Spiders)
1893 – Lansdale Sasscer, American politician (d. 1964)
1894 – Dirk J Bush, Dutch/US mathematician (Concise History of Mathematics)
1895 – Lewis Milestone, Russian-born film director (d. 1980)
1898 – Felix Kersten, Baltic-German/Finnish masseuse (Heinrich Himmler)
1898 – Johannes Rontgen, composer
1898 – Renée Adorée, French actress (d. 1933)
1898 – Princess Charlotte of Monaco (d. 1977)
1899 – Hendrik Marsman, Dutch poet/writer/critic
1900 – Otto Roesch, paleontologist
1902 – Piet[er J] “Piet” Lieftinck, Dutch minister of Finance (1945-52)
1904 – Frank Lawton, actor (Devil Doll, Invisible Ray), born in London, England
1905 – Michael Powell, English director/screen writer/producer (Red Shoes)
1905 – Nevill Francis Mott, physicist
1905 – Ralph Forbes, actor (Romeo & Juliet, Daniel Boone), born in London, England
1906 – Eamonn O Gallagher, composer
1906 – John I M Stewart, British detective writer (Comedy of Terrors)
1906 – Michael John Innes Mackintosh Stewart Innes, writer
1907 – Arnold Elston, composer
1908 – David Oistrakh, Odessa Russia, violinist/prof (Moscow Conservatory)
1908 – Edzard H Schaper, German/Swiss sailor/UP-correspondent/antifascist
1912 – Oliver Charles Anderson, novelist
1915 – Lester Garfield Maddox, (Gov-D-Ga)/restaurant owner
1915 – Robert Morris, lawyer
Jazz Drummer/Band Leader Buddy Rich (1917)

1917 – Buddy Rich, New York, American jazz drummer and band leader (Buddy Rich Band-Away We Go), (d. 1987)
1917 – Chung Hee Park, general/pres of South Korea (1961-79), assassinated
1917 – Yuri “Petrovich” Lyubimov, USSR, director (Taganka)
1918 – Lewis Nixon, WWII Veteran (d. 1996)
1919 – Patricia Neway, American soprano (Consul, Maria Golovia), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2012)
1919 – Richard Selwyn Francis Schiling, professor of occupational health
1919 – Roberto Bonomi, Argentine racing driver (d. 1992)
1920 – Donald Keech, entrepreneur
1920 – Ghazar Saryan, composer
1920 – Aldo Parisot, Brazilian-American musician and cellist
1921 – Deborah Kerr, actress (The King & I, Night of Iguana), born in Helensburg Scotland (d. 2007)
1921 – Eileen Zhang Ailing Chang, writer
1922 – Allan Rae, cricketer (prolific WI opening batsman 1948-53)
1922 – Alan Stretton, Australian general
1924 – Charles Quinlivan, Jersey City NJ, actor (7 Guns to Mesa)
Author Truman Capote(1924)

1924 – Truman Capote, American author (In Cold Blood), born in New Orleans, Louisiana
1925 – Gwyn A Williams, historian/socialist
1926 – Peder Holm, composer
1926 – Robin Roberts, pitcher (Phillies, Won 28 in 1952)
1927 – W. S. Merwin, American poet
1928 – Elie Wiesel, Romania, author (Souls on Fire)/Nazi hunter (Nobel 1986)
1930 – Ben Cooper, Hartford CT, actor (Rose Tattoo, Outcast, Arizona Raiders)
1931 – Angie Dickinson, [Angeline Brown], Kulm ND, actress (Police Woman)
1931 – Ray Willsey, Regina Sask, WLAF def coordinator (Frankfurt, Scotland)
1932 – Shintaro Ishihara, Japanese author and politician (Governor of Tokyo)
1932 – Johnny Podres, American baseball player (d. 2008)
1933 – Mars Zakirovich Rafikov, Russian cosmonaut
Author Elie Wiesel (1928)

1934 – Udo Jürgens, Austrian singer
1934 – Anna Kashfi [Joan O’Callaghan], Welsh actress and 1st wife of Marlon Barando, born in Darjeeling, India (d. 2015)
1935 – Jill Corey, Avonmore Pa, singer (Your Hit Parade)
1935 – Johnny Mathis, SF, voclaist (Chances Are, 12th of Never)
1936 – Butler Derrick, (Rep-D-SC, 1974- )
1936 – James R Sasser, (Sen-D-Tenn, 1977- )
1937 – Jurek Becker, writer
1937 – Valentin Vasil’yevich Sil’vestrov, composer
1938 – Salvatore Michael Caruana, Mass, criminal (FBI Most Wanted List)
1939 – Len Cariou, Winnipeg Manitoba, actor (Four Seasons-Sherry)
1939 – Piet M Blauw, Dutch MP (VVD)
1940 – Harry Winston Jerome, Sask Canada, 100m runner (Olympic-bronze-1964)
1942 – Dewey Martin, Canada, rock vocalist/drummer (Buffalo Springfield)
1942 – Frankie Lymon, rocker (The Teenagers-Why do Fools Fall in Love), born in NYC, New York
1942 – Gus Dudgeon, British pop producer (Joan Armatrading, David Bowie)
1942 – Sture Pettersson, Sweden, cyclist (Olympic-silver-1968)
1943 – Jody Powell, press mouthpiece (Jimmy Carter)
1943 – Marilyn McCoo, Jersey City NJ, host/singer (Solid Gold, 5th Dimension)
1943 – Johann Deisenhofer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1943 – Ian Ogilvy, British Actor
1944 – Diane Dufresne, French Canadian singer
1945 – Ehud Olmert, twelfth Prime Minister of Israel
1945 – Bob Lassiter, American radio personality
1946 – Paul Sheahan, cricketer (dashing Australian Test batsman 1967-74)
1946 – Sylvia Peterson, US vocalist (Chiffons-He’s So Fine)
1946 – Héctor Lavoe, Puerto Rican singer (d. 1993)
1946 – Claude Vorilhon, founder of Raelism, a ufo religion
1946 – William Thurston, Washington, mathematician (Fields Medal, 1982), (d. 2012)
1947 – Marc Bolan, rock vocalist (T-Rex-Bang a Gong), born in London, England
1947 – Rula Lenska, St Neots England, actress (Friends from Europe are here)
1947 – Dave Arneson, American game designer
1948 – Craig Kusick, former Major League Baseball Player
1949 – Michel Tognini, Vincennes France, astronaut (Soyuz TM-15, sk: STS 93)
1950 – Victoria Tennant, London England (All of Me, Chiefs, Winds of War)
1950 – Renato Zero, Italian musician
1951 – Catie Ball, US, 100 m breast stroke swimmer (Olympic-4X4 gold-1968)
1951 – Nicholas Yermakov, US, sci-fi author (Epiphany, Jehad, Clique)
1951 – Barry Marshall, Australian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1952 – Darrell Hair, cricketer (Australian Test umpire since 1993-94)
1952 – Frank Zincavage, rocker (Romeo Void)
1952 – Jack Wild, British actor (d. 2006)
1953 – Deborah Allen, country singer (Jim Stafford Show), born in Memphis, Tennessee
1953 – S.M. Stirling, Canadian-born author
1954 – Barry Williams, actor (Greg-Brady Bunch), born in Santa Monica, California
1954 – Calvin Levels, actor (Knightwatch), born in Cleveland, Ohio
1954 – Patrice Rushen, rock vocalist, born in Los Angeles, California
1955 – Frankie Kennedy, flute player
1956 – Maria Esmeralda, Belgian princess/daughter of Leopold III/Lilian Baels
1957 – Fran Drescher, actress (Cadillac Man, Nanny), born in Queens, New York
1957 – Gladys Portugues, Mrs Jean-Claude Van Damme/actress (It’s Alive 3), born in NYC, New York
1957 – William Christian, Wash DC, actor (Derek Frye-All My Children)
1958 – Christopher Cass, Cold Spring Harbor NY, actor (Jack Forbes-Loving)
1958 – Marty Stuart, Phila Miss, country singer (Hillbilly Rock)
1958 – Nona Garson, equestrian show jumper (Olympics-96)
1958 – Rodwell Biggie Tembo Marasha, musician
1959 – Basia Trzetrzelevska, Poland, jazz singer (Time & Life)
1959 – Hans Werdekker, Dutch soccer player (Ajax, RKC/Amsterdam Admirals)
1959 – Kim Bauer, LPGA golfer (1993 Minn LPGA Classic-30th), born in New Orleans, Louisiana
1959 – Ettore Messina, Italian basketball coach
1960 – Mike Herbert, Rogers Ark, kayak (alt-Olympics-96)
1960 – Susan Keith, actress (Shana Vochek-Loving)
1960 – Blanche Lincoln, American politician
1961 – Chandrakant Pandit, Indian cricket wicket-keeper (late 80’s)
1961 – Crystal Bernard, Garland TX, actress (Amy-It’s a Living, Helen-Wings)
1961 – Eric Stoltz, actor (Anaconda, Pulp Fiction, Mask)
1961 – Eric van de Poele, Belgian racing driver
1961 – Sally Yeh, Hong Kong singer and actress
1962 – Dave Magadan, 1st baseman (NY Mets, Chicago Cubs), born in Tampa, Florida
1962 – Frank Rijkaard, Surinam/Dutch soccer star (Ajax, AC Milan)
1962 – George Jamison, NFL linebacker (KC Chiefs)
1962 – Leon Hutten, soccer player (RKC)
1962 – Shaan, Indian singer
1963 – Cristina Marsillach, actress (Barocco), born in Madrid, Spain
1963 – Ed Drakich, Windsor Ontario, volleyball player (Olympics-96)
1963 – Reb Beach, rocker (Winger)
1964 – Michael McKay, Australian rower (Olympics-96)
1964 – Stephen N Frick, Pitts PA, Lt Cmdr USN/astronaut
1964 – Trey Anastasio, American musician (Phish)
1964 – Monica Bellucci, Citta di Castello Italy, actress (Dracula)
1965 – Kathleen Madigan, American comedian
1966 – Kerry G. Johnson, African American graphic designer and caricaturist
1967 – Nadine Handford, Adelaide Aust, golfer (1993 T77 Alpine Aust Ladies)
1967 – Yorkis Perez, Bajos de Haina Dom Rep, pitcher (Florida Marlins)
1969 – Chris Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1991)
1970 – Eric Piatkowski, NBA guard/forward (LA Clippers)
1971 – Brentson Buckner, NFL defensive end (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1971 – Jenna Elfman, actress (Townies, Dharma & Greg), born in Los Angeles, California
1971 – Ron Collins, WLAF tackle (Frankfurt Galaxy)
1972 – Cedric Saunders, NFL tight end (Tampa Bay Bucs, Scotland Claymores)
1972 – Jamal Anderson, NFL running back (Atlanta Falcons)
1972 – Troy Dumas, NFL linebacker (KC Chiefs)
1972 – Ari Behn, Norwegian author
1974 – Jeremy Giambi, American baseball player
1975 – Marion Cotillard, French actress
1975 – Carlos Guillén, Venezuelan baseball player
1976 – Adita Linares, spanish actress (Clueless, Cookie), born in Miami, Florida
1977 – Maia Brewton, actress (Margaret-Lime Street), born in Los Angeles, California
1977 – Stacey Storey, Eagle River Alaska, Miss America-Alaska (1996)
1977 – Sun Jihai, Chinese footballer
1977 – Roy Carroll, Northern Irish footballer
1978 – Candice Michelle, American female wrestler
1979 – Andy van der Meyde, Dutch footballer
1979 – Clio-Danae Othoneou, Greek actress, musician and pianist
1979 – Vince Chong, Malaysian singer-songwriter
Tennis Player Martina Hingis(1980)

1980 – Martina Hingis, Kosice Slovakia, tennis star (1997 Aust/US/Wimb)
1980 – Camilla D’Errico, Canadian comic book artist and painter
1981 – Dominique Moceanu, California, gymnast (World-silver-95, Olympics-gold-96)
1981 – Brandon Watson, American baseball
1982 – Lacey Chabert, actress (Party of Five)
1982 – Michelle Marsh, British model
1982 – Kieran Culkin, American actor
1982 – Teal Redmann, American actress
1982 – Ryan Stout, American comedian
1983 – Andreea Răducan, Romanian gymnast
1984 – T-Pain, American rapper/singer
1987 – Denise Laurel, Filipine actress and singer
1992 – Marina CAK Windsor, granddaughter of English prince Edward

WEDDINGS

1939 – Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding (28) weds analytic chemist Ann Brookfield
1950 – First Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew (27) weds lawyer Kwa Geok Choo (29) in Singapore
1968 – Jazz musician Miles Davis (42) weds singer Betty Mabry (23)
1977 – “Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom” author John Updike (45) weds Martha Bernhard
1978 – Actress Meryl Streep (29) weds sculptor Don Gummer (31) in Mason’s Island, Connecticut
1989 – NBA legend Larry Bird (32) weds long-time girlfriend Dinah Mattingly in Terre Haute, Indiana
NBA Legend Larry Bird(1989)

1995 – “Judging Amy” actress Amy Brenneman (31) weds TV and film director Brad Silberling (32)
2000 – Tennis star player Pete Sampras (29) weds actress and former Miss Teen USA Bridgette Wilson (27) in Los Angeles, California
2006 – Hanson pop rock Isaac Hanson (25) weds Nicole Dufresne (22) at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa
2006 – Actress Amanda Peet (34) weds screenwriter David Benioff (36) at Friends Seminary Quaker School in New York City
2011 – Paramore bassist Jeremy Davis (26) weds TV host and actress Kathryn Camsey in Las Vegas

DIVORCES

1938 – Jazz musician Louis Armstrong (37) divorces pianist Lil Armstrong (40) after more than 14 years of marriage
2010 – “CSI: Miami” actor Eddie Cibrian (36) divorces actress Brandi Glanville (37) due to irreconcilable differences after eight years of marriage

DEATHS

420 – Saint Jerome, translator of the Vulgate Bible
653 – Saint Honorius, Archbishop of Canterbury
739 – P’u-chi Ho-shang Tao-chao, Northern Ch’an Line Zen teacher, dies
1101 – Anselm IV, Archbishop of Milan
1246 – Yaroslav II of Russia (b. 1191)
1351 – Muso Soseki, Zen teacher/Rinzai line/head of Nanzenji, dies in Japan
1440 – Reginald Grey, 3rd Baron Grey de Ruthyn, English soldier and politician
1487 – John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1400)
1551 – Ōuchi Yoshitaka, Japanese warlord (b. 1507)
1560 – Melchior Cano, Spanish theologian (b. 1525)
1572 – Francis Borgia, 4th Duke of Gandía and Jesuit priest, dies at 61
1581 – Hubert Languet, French diplomat and reformer (b. 1518)
1612 – Ercole Bottrigari, composer, dies at 81
1626 – Nurhaci, Manchurian chief (b. 1559)
1628 – Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke, English poet (b. 1554)
1630 – John Billington, murderer, 1st American execution, hanged
1712 – Johann Michael Zacher, composer, dies at 61
1716 – Heinrich Georg Neuss, composer, dies at 62
1755 – Francesco Durante, composer, dies at 71
1770 – Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham, English politician and diplomat
Anglican Preacher George Whitefield (1770)

1770 – George Whitefield, English-born Methodist leader and preacher, dies in Newburyport, Massachusetts, at age 55
1772 – James Brindley, English engineer (b. 1716)
1803 – Charles Broche, composer, dies at 51
1811 – Thomas Percy, English bishop of Dromore, dies at 82
1819 – Nicolas Roze, composer, dies at 74
1862 – Isaac Peace Rodman, banker/Union brig-gen, dies of injury at about 40
1865 – Samuel David Luzzatto, Italian-Jewish scholar (b. 1800)
1877 – Toohoolhoolzote, prophet of Nez Perce indians, dies in battle
1884 – Louis Lacombe, composer, dies at 65
1885 – Maria J Small-Gartmann, actress, dies at 60
1888 – Catherine Eddowes, English, murdered by Jack the Ripper at 45
1888 – Elizabeth Stride, Long Liz, English, murdered by Jack the Ripper at 45
1891 – Georges Boulanger, French general and politician (b. 1837)
1897 – St Therese of Lisieux, Roman Catholic saint and mystic (b. 1873)
1904 – Sigurd Lie, composer, dies at 33
1910 – Maurice Lévy, French engineer (b. 1838)
1912 – Mary Frances Allitsen, composer, dies at 63
1921 – Oskar Panizza, writer, dies at 77
1922 – Paul Barth, German philosopher/sociologist, dies at 64
1925 – Philip Hutchinson, cricketer (2 Tests for S Afr 1889), dies
1929 – Charles E Bonin, French explorer/diplomat (China), dies
1940 – Walter Kollo, composer, dies at 62
1943 – Franz Oppenheimer, German sociologist (b. 1864)
First Lady of the United States Edith Roosevelt(1948)

1948 – Edith Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, dies at 87
1952 – Waldorf Astor, House of Lords & Commons/owner of Observer, dies
1954 – Percie Charlton, cricketer (2 Tests for Australia 1890), dies
1955 – James Dean, actor (Rebel Without a Cause), dies in a car crash at age 24
1955 – Michael Chekhov, actor (Rhapsody, Abie’s Irish Rose), dies at 64
1958 – Niels Bjerrum, Danish chemist (ph-stipulation), dies at 79
1959 – John H Kliegl, developer of Klieg light, dies at 89
1959 – Taylor Holmes, actor (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), dies at 81
1959 – Ross Granville Harrison, American Biologist and Zoologist (organ transplant pioneer), dies at 89
1960 – Harry St John Philby, [sheik Abdullah], British explorer, dies
1961 – Onésime Gagnon, French Canadian politician, lieutenant-governor of Québec (b. 1888)
1963 – Arnold Foster, composer, dies at 66
Actor James Dean (1955)

1965 – E[dward] E[lmer] “Doc” Smith, sci-fi author (Triplanetary), dies at 75
1970 – Patrick Aherne, actor (Bwana Devil, Botany Bay), dies at 69
1973 – Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer and author (b. 1902)
1974 – Carlos Prats, Chilean Constitutionalist General, assassinated in the frame of Operation Condor
1976 – Louis Fourestier, composer, dies at 84
1978 – Edgar Bergen, ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy), dies at 75
1983 – Freddy Martin, orchestra leader (started Merv Griffin), dies at 76
1983 – William D Elliot, actor (Bernie Loves Bridget”, “Adam 12”), dies at 49
1984 – Ellsworth Bunker, US ambassador (South-Vietnam, dies at 90)
1985 – Charles F Richter, US seismologist (scale of R), dies at 85
1985 – Heleb MacInnes, US spy writer (Affiliate in place), dies at 77
1985 – Simone Signoret, German/French actress (Room at Top, Gina), dies at 64
1987 – Alfred Bester, sci-fi author (Dark Side of Earth), dies at 73
1988 – Joachim Prinz, author/Rabbi of Berlin (1926-37), dies at 86
1989 – Virgil Thomson, US composer/critic (4 saints in 3 acts), dies at 92
1990 – Liesbeth de Uyl-of Vessem, feminist/wife of Joop du, dies
1990 – Michel Levis, French cultural anthropologist/writer, dies
1990 – Patrick White, Australian writer (Nobel 1973), dies
1990 – Alice Parizeau, Quebec writer and journalist (b. 1930)
1991 – Nancy Welford, entertainer, dies at 87
1993 – Alex Lyon, English Labor Lower house leader (1966-83), dies at 61
1993 – Gordon Douglas, actor/director (Tony Rome), dies of cancer at 85
1993 – Paul Nowee, writer (Arendsoog.. premiejager), dies at 57
1993 – Tony Brafa, actor (Enrico Pallazzo-Naked Gun), dies at 72
1994 – Alex Scott, trainer, Horses, dies at 34
1994 – Andre Michel Lwoff, physiologist, dies at 92
1994 – Lina Basquette, actress (Night for Crime, Hard Hombre), dies at 87
1994 – Roberto Viola, Argentine general/president (1981), dies at 69
1995 – Frederick Archibauld Warner, diplomat, dies at 77
1995 – George Kirby, comedian/impressionist (Pearl Bailey), dies at 71
1996 – Aubrey Brabazon, jockey/trainer, dies at 76
1996 – Elizabeth Gille, writer translator/editor, dies at 59
1996 – Frances Lear, writer, dies at 73
1996 – Kenneth Muir, english scholar, dies at 89
1996 – Udom Patpongsiri, property developer, dies at 79
1997 – Male alligator, largest in Florida (14 feet), killed at about 65
1998 – Dan Quisenberry, American baseball player, dies at 45
2002 – Hans-Peter Tschudi, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1913)
2002 – Lord Hazlerigg, British peer
2003 – Robert Kardashian, Armenian-American lawyer (b. 1944)
2003 – Yusuf Bey, Black Muslim leader (b. 1935)
2004 – Gamini Fonseka, Sri Lankan actor (b. 1936)
2004 – Michael Relph, British film producer and director (b. 1915)
2008 – Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, Singapore Opposition Leader & former Secretary-General of Singapore’s Worker’s Party (b. 1926)
2011 – Anwar al-Awlaki, American-born terrorist and islamist militant (b. 1971)
2012 – Barbara Ann Scott, Canadian figure skater, dies at 84
2012 – Turhan Bey, Austrian born actor, dies from Parkinson’s disease at 90
2014 – Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist & Nobel Laureate, dies from a heart attack at 87

ALSO ON THIS DAY

• Lead Story

• 1954 USS Nautilus commissioned

• American Revolution

• 1776 Washington blames militia for problems

• Automotive

• 1955 James Dean dies in car accident

• Civil War

• 1864 Battle of Poplar Springs Church (Peeble’s Farm)

• Cold War

• 1949 Berlin Airlift ends

• Crime

• 1994 A Texas college student kills his ex-girlfriend

• Disaster

• 1999 Radiation released at Japanese plant

• General Interest

• 1399 Henry IV proclaimed
• 1938 Munich Pact signed
• 1955 James Dean dies
• 1962 Riots over desegregation of Ole Miss

• Hollywood

• 2005 Eisner resigns as Disney CEO

• Literary

• 1868 First volume of Little Women is published
• 1928 Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and best-selling author, is born

• Music

• 1935 Johnny Mathis is born

• Old West

• 1889 Wyoming legislators write the first state constitution to grant women the vote

• Presidential

• 1918 President Woodrow Wilson speaks in favor of female suffrage

• Sports

• 1927 Babe Ruth hits 60th homer of 1927 season

• Vietnam War

• 1964 First large scale antiwar demonstration staged at Berkeley
• 1968 Humphrey announces that he would halt the bombing of North Vietnam

• World War I

• 1918 Turks abandon Damascus as Allies approach

• World War II

• 1938 Hitler appeased at Munich

1913 – Inventor Rudolf Diesel vanishes

On this day in 1913, Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the engine that bears his name, disappears from the steamship Dresden while traveling from Antwerp, Belgium to Harwick, England. On October 10, a Belgian sailor aboard a North Sea steamer spotted a body floating in the water; upon further investigation, it turned out that the body was Diesel’s. There was, and remains, a great deal of mystery surrounding his death: It was officially judged a suicide, but many people believed (and still believe) that Diesel was murdered.

Diesel patented a design for his engine on February 28, 1892,; the following year, he explained his design in a paper called “Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Engine to Replace the Steam Engine and Contemporary Combustion Engine.” He called his invention a “compression ignition engine” that could burn any fuel–later on, the prototypes he built would run on peanut or vegetable oil–and needed no ignition system: It ignited by introducing fuel into a cylinder full of air that had been compressed to an extremely high pressure and was, therefore, extremely hot.

Such an engine would be unprecedentedly efficient, Diesel argued: In contrast to the other steam engines of the era, which wasted more than 90 percent of their fuel energy, Diesel calculated that his could be as much as 75 percent efficient. (That is, just one-quarter of their energy would be wasted.) The most efficient engine that Diesel ever actually built had an efficiency of 26 percent–not quite 75 percent, but still much better than its peers.

By 1912, there were more than 70,000 diesel engines working around the world, mostly in factories and generators. Eventually, Diesel’s engine would revolutionize the railroad industry; after World War II, trucks and buses also started using diesel-type engines that enabled them to carry heavy loads much more economically.

At the time of Diesel’s death, he was on his way to England to attend the groundbreaking of a new diesel-engine plant–and to meet with the British navy about installing his engine on their submarines. Conspiracy theories began to fly almost immediately: “Inventor Thrown Into the Sea to Stop Sale of Patents to British Government,” read one headline; another worried that Diesel was “Murdered by Agents from Big Oil Trusts.” It is likely that Diesel did throw himself overboard–as it turns out, he was nearly broke–but the mystery will probably never be solved.