TODAY’S HISTORY

1571

Queen Elizabeth I of England opens Royal Exchange in London

1647

Scottish Presbyterians sell captured Charles I to English parliament

1793

2nd Partition of Poland, between Prussia & Russia

1812

7.8 earthquake shakes New Madrid, Missouri

1849

Elizabeth Blackwell becomes 1st woman in the US to earn a medical degree

1855

The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge

1870

173 Blackfoot (140 women & children) killed in Montana by US Army

1897

Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Abbey Grange"

1899

Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic

1908

US & Great Britain demand end of abuses in Congo

1924

Ramsey MacDonald forms 1st Labour government in Britain

1930

George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Va established

1937

Karl Radek & 16 others go on trial in Stalin's great purge

1942

Japanese troops occupy Rabaul New Britain

1943

British 8th army marches into Tripoli

1945

World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.

1948

Bradman scores 201 in 272 mins v India, 21 fours 1 six

1955

Express train travelling from York to Bristol derails, killing 14 and injuring many other passengers

1957

Indian nationalist V. K. Krishna Menon begins the longest ever speech at the UN on Kashmir- 8 hours over 2 days

1958

Pakistani cricketer Hanif Mohammad completes 337 runs in 970 minutes v West Indies

1961

Supreme Court rules cities & states have right to censor films

1970

US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site

1971

Britain allowed to sell arms to S. Africa, after Commonwealth Conference in Singapore ends in compromise

1973

Shah of Iran announces that the 1954 operating agreement between a consortium of oil companies and Iran will not be renewed when it expires in 1979

1976

The Provisional Irish Republican Army truce of February 1975 is officially brought to an end

1983

Russian radioactive satellite falls into Indian Ocean

1984

Hulk Hogan defeats Iron Sheik to become WWF champ

1989

100s feared dead after a powerful earthquake strikes the Soviet Central Asian republic of Tajikistan

1993

Indian Airlines B737 crashes art Aurangabad, 61 die

1996

The first version of the Java programming language was released

2002

Reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan

2003

Final communication between Earth and NASA space probe Pioneer 10

2009

Dendermonde nursery attack occurred in Dendermonde, Belgium

2012

European Union agrees to embargo Iranian oil in protest against Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program

2013

18 people are killed in a market shooting in Damboa, Nigeria

2015

Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is crowned King of Saudi Arabia, on the death of this half-brother King Abdullah

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

1809

Veer Surendra Sai, Indian Freedom Fighter

1837

Amanda Berry Smith, American former slave, singer and evangelist

1855

John Moses Browning, American inventor (d. 1926)

1891

Antonio Gramsci, Italian philosopher

1897

Sir William Samuel Stephenson, Canadian soldier, W.W.II codename, Intrepid. Inspiration for James Bond. (d. 1989)

1900

Ralph Graves, actor

1914

Napoleon L Bonaparte, French pretender to the throne

1919

Nina Dumbadze, USSR, Discus thrower (Oly-bronze-1952)

1923

Horace Ashenfelter, US, 3000m steeplechase

1928

Jeanne Moreau, actress

1930

Ken Errair, American singer (Four Freshmen), (d. 1969)

1938

Shohei Baba, Japanese professional wrestler (d. 1999)

1940

Johnny Russell, country singer

1945

Mike Harris, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario

1946

Arnoldo Aleman, 81st President of Nicaragua

1951

Margaret Johnson Bailes, 4X100 runner (Olympic-gold-1968), born in The Bronx, New York

1954

Trevor Hohns, cricketer (Australian leg-spinner 1989)

1960

Patrick de Gayardon, French skydiver

1971

Lorne Spicer, British TV presenter

1972

Tanya Harding, Australian softball pitcher (Olympics-bronze-96)

1973

Lanei Chapman, American actress

1975

Kevin Alexander, NFL wide receiver

1975

Tito Ortiz, American UFC fighter

1985

Dong Fangzhuo, Chinese footballer

TODAY’S HISTORY

1575

English queen Elizabeth I grants Thomas Tallis & William Byrd music press monopoly

1831

Charles Darwin takes his Bachelors of Art exam

1837

Earthquake in southern Syria kills thousands

1873

British SS Northfleet sinks at Dungeness

1879

Zulu warriors attack British Army camp in Isandhlwana, South Africa

1883

England complete 1st innings victory in Tests v Australia MCG

1895

National Association of Manufacturers organized in Cincinnati

1905

In St Petersburg, Russia, a large demonstration of workers led by Father Gapon, march to the Winter Palace with a petition to the Tsar

1931

French government of Steeg falls

1931

Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.

1940

1st radio broadcast of "Road to Happiness" on CBS

1941

1st mass killing of Jews in Romania

1945

Heavy US air raid on Okinawa

1951

Fidel Castro is ejected from a Winter League baseball game after hitting a batter

1956

30 people die in a train crash in Los Angeles

1959

USAF concludes that less than 1% of UFOs are unknown objects

1964

World's largest cheese (15,723 kg) manufactured in Wisconsin for New York's World Fair

1968

Apollo 5 launched to Moon

1969

Roy Campanella & Stan Musial elected to baseball Hall of Fame

1972

An anti-internment march is held at Magilligan strand, County Derry; as the march nears the internment camp it is stopped by members of the Green Jackets and the Parachute Regiment of the British Army, who used barbed wire to close off the beach

1975

Landsat 2, an Earth Resources Technology Satellite, launched

1982

75% of North America is covered by snow

1985

Cold wave damages 90% of Florida's citrus crop

1987

Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself at a press conference on live national television

1989

USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh

1990

Wasim Akram scores Test century (123) at Adelaide

1990

President Mikhail Gorbachev sends Red Troops into the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan

1994

5.5 magnitude earthquake strikes Sumatra

1997

Space shuttle Atlantis successfully returns to Earth

1999

Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India

2001

The British government launches pro-vaccine campaign

2013

A series of Baghdad car bombings kill 17 people

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

1797

Maria Leopoldina of Austria, Empress of Brazil (d. 1826)

1845

Paul Vidal de la Blanche, France, geographer

1869

Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk and confidant of Russian Tsar Nicholas II

1882

Theodore Kosloff, Russian-born actor, ballet dancer and choreographer (d. 1956)

1897

Josef Stanislav, composer

1906

Joe Gladwin, English actor (d. 1987)

1907

Douglas Corrigan, American pilot (d. 1995)

1909

Porfirio Rubirosa, Dominican diplomat and international playboy (d. 1965)

1916

Harilal Upadhyay, Gujarati Author, Poet, Astrologist (Gujarat is a State of India)

1921

Andy Ganteaume, cricketer

1923

Friedrich Zehm, composer

1934

Bill Bixby, actor (Incredible Hulk, My Favorite Martian), born in San Francisco, California

1948

Northern Calloway, American actor (d. 1990)

1951

Ondrej Nepela, Slovak figure skater

1962

Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia

1965

Chintara Sukapatana, Thai actress

1967

Nicholas Gillingham, British swimmer (world record 200m freestyle)

1970

Alex Ross, American comic book painter (Marvels, Kingdom Come)

1972

Gonzalo Rodríguez, Uruguayan racing driver (d. 1999)

1973

Rogerio Ceni, Brazilian footballer

1979

Melanie Winiger, Miss Switzerland Universe (1997)

1982

Kevin Sheridan, actor (Soul Man)

1986

Lee Pa-ni, South Korean model

TODAY’S HISTORY

1864

The Tauranga Campaign of the New Zealand Wars begins

1880

1st US sewage disposal system separate from storm drains, Memphis, Tennessee

1894

Oscar Fredriksen skates world record 500m in 47.8 sec

1903

"Wizard of Oz" premieres in NYC

1908

NYC regulation makes it illegal for a woman to smoke in public

1919

Irish militant nationalist party Sinn Fein creates its own parliament in Dublin and declares Ireland independent of Great Britain, sparking the Irish War of Independence

1932

USSR & Finland stop non-attack treaty

1941

1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria

1941

Australian and British troops attack Tobruk, Libya

1944

447 German bombers attack London

1949

1st inaugural parade televised (Harry Truman)

1952

Nehru's Congress party wins general election in India

1960

Little Joe 4 suborbital Mercury test reaches 16 km

1965

Iranian premier Hassan Ali Mansur assassinated by 17-year-old Mohammad Bokharaei

1967

US male Figure Skating championship won by Gary Visconti

1968

US B-52 bomber with nuclear bomb on board crashes in Greenland

1972

Mizoram, formerly part of Assam, creates an Indian union territory

1972

Tripura becomes a full-fledged state in India

1977

US President Jimmy Carter pardons almost all Vietnam War draft evaders

1981

"Shakespeare's Cabaret" opens at Bijou Theater New York City for 54 performances

1985

Bomb attack on Borobudur temple in Java

1987

B.B. King donates his 7,000 record collection to the University of Mississippi

1988

US accepts immigration of 30,000 US-Vietnamese children

1993

Nigerian singer Fela Kuti arrested on suspicion of murder

1997

An inquiry in North Wales names more than 80 child abusers

1999

In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the US Coast Guard intercepts a ship carrying 4,300 kg of cocaine

2002

The Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar

2008

Black Monday in worldwide stock mark

2008

The Eyak language in Alaska becomes extinct as its last native speaker dies.

2013

1 person is killed and 15 are injured by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Indonesia

2017

More than 2 million people protest worldwide against US President Donald Trump                                         

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

1815

John Bingham, American politician and lawyer

1827

Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin, Russian mathematician (d. 1900)

1840

Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake, Hastings, English Physician and feminist who was one of the first female medical students at a British university

1883

Olav Aukrust, Norway, poet

1897

J Carrol Naish, American act

1906

Fred Fehl, Austrian/US Broadway photographer

1917

Rohan Butler, historian

1920

Donald Cuthbert Coleman, British economic historian (d. 1995)

1922

Paul Scofield, English actor (A Man for All Seasons, Train), born in Hurst, England (d. 2008)

1927

Clive Churchill, Australian rugby league footballer

1940

Jack Nicklaus, golfer, Columbus

1951

Eric Holder, 82nd Attorney General of the United States

1953

Paul Allen, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Microsoft, born in Seattle, Washington

1957

Shaukat Dukanwala, cricketer (Baroda off-spinner, UAE World Cup 1996)

1967

Ulf Stenlund, Sweden, tennis star

1972

Shelley Looney, ice hockey forward

1975

Nicky Butt, English footballer

1979

Kelly Gaudet, Miss Florida Teen USA (1996)

1981

Gillian Chung Yan-tung, Hong Kong singer

1981

Dany Heatley, Canadian ice hockey player

1983

Maryse Ouellet, French-Canadian model and professional wrestler

1990

Jacob Smith, American actor

TODAY’S HISTORY

1801

John Marshall appointed US chief justice

1807

Napoleon convenes great Sanhedrin, Paris

1840

Dutch King Willem II crowned

1869

Elizabeth Cady Stanton becomes 1st woman to testify before US Congress

1887

US Senate approves naval base lease of Pearl Harbor

1914

The first group of Transvaal Indian women satyagrahis are released from Pietermaritzburg Prison in South Africa after three months imprisonment

1920

The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.

1921

Republic of Turkey declared in remnants of Ottoman Empire

1925

The Soviet and Japan sign a convention resuming relations: Russia agrees to limit revolutionary activity of the Third Communist International, while Japan agrees to leave the Sakhalin

1936

Edward VIII succeeds British king George V

1937

1st US Presidential Inauguration day held on Jan 20^th

1942

Japanese invade Burma

1945

The Hungarian Provisional Government concludes an armistice with the USSR, US, and Britain, agree to pay reparations and to join the war against Germany

1949

US President Harry Truman announces his four point program

1952

British army occupies Ismailiya, Suez Canal Zone

1954

The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.

1954

The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.

1958

A group attempting the 1st surface crossing of Antarctic join up at the South Pole

1961

Yugoslav ex-vice-president Milovan Djilas flees

1965

The US Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposes modified Apollo flight to fly around Mars & return

1965

Generalissimo Francisco Franco meets with Jewish representatives to discuss legitimizing Jewish communities in Spain

1969

Richard M Nixon inaugurated as US president

1972

Six oil exporting countries conclude meetings with Western oil companies

1973

A car bomb explodes in Sackville

1979

1 million Iranians march in Tehran

1981

52 Americans held hostage in Iran for 444 days freed

1981

Ronald Reagan inaugurated as 40th US President

1983

American gangster Roy DeMeo is found murdered in his car trunk after disappearing a few days earlier

1988

Andre Hoffman skates world record 1,500m (1:52.06)

1989

George H. W. Bush inaugurated as 41st US President

1990

US 64th manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) returns from space

1991

US Patriot missiles begins shooting down Iraqi missiles

1996

Australia defeat Sri Lanka 2-0 to win cricket's World Series Cup

1998

Warner Brothers TV Network begins Tuesday night programming

2008

NFC Championship Game: New York Giants beat Green Bay Packers 23-20 (OT)

2009

Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becomes the United States' first African-American president

2014

Credit cards of at least 20 million South Koreans are hacked

2017

Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
 

1716

King Charles III of Spain (d. 1788)

1834

George D. Robinson, 34th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)

1880

Walter W. Bacon, American politician (d. 1962)

1893

Georg Åberg, Swedish athlete (d. 1946)

1896

Isabel Withers, American actress (d. 1968)

1903

Leon Ames, Portland Indiana, actor (Mr Ed, Father of the Bride)

1908

Ian Peebles, cricketer (Scottish leg-spinner, England 1927-31)

1910

Lauritz Lauritzen, German politician

1914

Wensley Pithey, Cape Town South Africa, actor (Winston Churchill-Ike)

1919

Stepan Lucky, composer

1920

Federico Fellini, Italian film director and scriptwriter

1926

David Eugene Tudor, composer, born in Philadelphi, Pennsylvania

1926

Jamiluddin Aali, Pakistani poet, essayist and columnist

1930

Edwin Aldrin, Astronaut

1932

Lou Fontinato, Canadian ice hockey player, born in Guelph, Ontario (d. 2016)

1939

Nalin Chandra Wickramasinghe, Indian astronomer

1940

Krishnam Raju, Indian actor and politician

1944

Isao Okano, Japan, middleweight judo (Olympic-gold-1964)

1950

Mahamane Ousmane, President of Niger

1956

Bill Maher, American comedian and political commentator

1964

Victoria Sellers, actress (Crime Zone, Warlords), born in London, England

1969

Melissa Rivers, American TV hostess (MTV, CBS Morning News), born in NYC, New York

1970

Anita St Rose, Miss Universe-Great Britain (1996)

1971

Brian Giles, American baseball player

1978

Joy Giovanni, American actress and glamour model

1981

Christine Bleakley, BBC Television Host

1983

Paula Taylor, English-Thai actress, model and presenter

TODAY’S HISTORY

1806

Britain occupies Cape of Good Hope

1808

Louis Napoleon signs 1st Dutch aviation law

1833

Charles Darwin reaches Straits Ponsonby, Fireland

1861

Misssissippi troops take Fort Massachusetts and Ship Island

1863

General Mieroslawski appointed dictator of Poland

1865

NV Suriname Bank established

1883

The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey

1885

Battle of Abu Klea, Sudan, between the British Desert Column and Mahdist forces: 76 British and 1,100 Mahdists killed

1903

1st regular transatlantic radio broadcast between US & England

1910

Germany & Bolivia end commerce/friendship treaty

1918

Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.

1920

Alexandre Millerand forms French government

1922

Geological survey says US oil supply would be depleted in 20 years

1923

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Stanley Baldwin and US Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon agree to reschedule repayment of Britain's $4.5 billion war debt over 62 years

1934

Kenesaw Mountain Landis denies Joe Jackson's appeal for reinstatement

1935

KLM begins flight path between Curacao & Aruba

1938

General Motors begins mass production of diesel engines

1942

Japanese forces invade Burma

1949

Cuba recognises Israel.

1955

Dwight D. Eisenhower 1st presidential news conference filmed for TV

1957

USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test

1963

51st Women's Australian Championships: Margaret Court beats Jan Lehane O'Neill (6-2, 6-2)

1966

Indira Gandhi elected India's 4th Prime Minister

1972

Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, & Early Wynn elected to Hall of Fame

1977

World's largest crowd gathering - the Hindu Kumbh Mela in India attracts a then record 15 million people

1978

Judge William H Webster appointed head of FBI

1981

Muhammad Ali talks a despondent 21 year old out of committing suicide

1981

US & Iran sign agreement to release 52 American hostages

1988

Disabled writer Christopher Nolan wins the Whitbread Book of the Year prize

1991

Eastern Airlines shuts down operations

1992

IBM announces a nearly $5B loss

1997

Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years

2003

AFC Championship Game: Oakland Raiders beat Tennessee Titans 41-24

2006

A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes in Hungary.

2006

Terrorist blows himself up in Tel Aviv, killing only himself but injuring 20 people, one of them seriously

2012

FBI shuts down Megaupload.com for alleged copyright infringement, hacker group Anonymous responds by attacking government and entertainment industry websites

2013

Calcium deposits are discovered on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity Rover

2016

China's economic growth revealed as lowest for 25 years - 6.9% in 2015

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

1757

Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf, German Princess (d. 1831)

1807

Robert E. Lee, American General who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War, born in Stratford Virginia (d. 1870)

1832

Ferdinand Laub, composer

1848

John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman (d. 1904)

1866

Harry Davenport, American actor/director (Her Unborn Child, My Sin), born in NYC, New York

1879

Boris Savinkov, Russian writer (d. 1925)

1889

Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Davos Switzerland, painter, sculptor and dancer

1905

Anne Schumacher Hummert, Baltimore US, leading creator of daytime radio serials during the 1930s and 1940s

1907

Lillian Harvey, actress (Invitation to the Waltz), born in London, England

1912

Leonid V Kantorovich, economist (Nobel), born in St Petersburg, Russia

1919

Dharam Singh, India, field hockey player (Olympic-gold-1964)

1922

Arthur Morris, Australian cricketer (great lefty opening batsman), born in Sydney, New South Wales (d. 2015)

1924

Nicholas Colasanto, Providence RI, actor (Coach Ernie-Cheers)

1928

Edward Gerard Schurmann, composer

1940

Mary Mills, American LPGA golfer, born in Laurel, Mississippi

1940

Mike Reid, English comedian (d. 2007)

1943

Janis Joplin, American rocker and blues singer-songwriter (Down on Me), born in Port Arthur, Texas (d. 1970)

1945

Vadim Abdrashitov, director (Fox Hunt, Parade of Planets)

1950

Grant Nordman, Canadian politician

1960

Alfrederick Joyner, American triple jumper (Olympic-gold-1984), Eastern St Louis

1963

Martin Bashir, Pakistani-born reporter

1972

Princess Kalina of Bulgaria, titular Bulgarian royal family

1974

Frank Caliendo, American comedian

1977

Anne Miller, Midland Mich, tennis star (1995 Darmstadt Germany)

1984

Karun Chandhok, Indian racing driver

1992

Shawn Johnson, American Gymnastics Champion

TODAY’S HISTORY

1535

Francisco Pizarro founds the city of Lima, Peru

1671

British pirate Henry Morgan captures Panama City from its Spanish defenders

1776

James Wright, Royal Governor of Georgia, is placed under house arrest by Major Joseph Habersham

1779

John Dickinson is appointed to be a delegate for Delaware to the Continental Congress

1817

José de San Martín leads a revolutionary army over the Andes to attack Spanish royalists in Chile

1854

Filibuster William Walker proclaims Republic of Sonora in NW Mexico

1871

Second German Empire proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck

1884

Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Iesu Grist (Welsh for Jesus Christ) Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom

1896

1st demonstration of an X-ray machine in US (NYC)

1905

French government of Combes falls

1915

Train crashes at Colima-Guadalajara Mexico, about 600 die

1919

Bentley Motors Limited is founded

1938

Bradman scores 104* for South Australia v NSW at the SCG

1941

World War II: A counter-offensive is launched by the British against the Italians in East Africa

1943

US rations bread & metal - banning presliced bread reduce bakery demand for metal parts

1945

Soviet troops capture Krakow, Poland

1949

1st US Congressional standing committee headed by Negro (W Dawson)

1950

Indians pitcher Bob Feller, after 15-14 season, takes $20,000 salary cut to $45,000, pay cut is Feller's own suggestion

1955

Battle of Yijiangshan Islands between Chinese National Revolutionary Army and the People's Liberation Army

1959

Ruth Jessen wins LPGA Tampa Golf Open

1960

US & Japan sign joint defense treaty

1963

Al Davis becomes the head coach and general manager of the Oakland Raiders

1968

USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

1972

Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Brian Faulkner bans all parades and marches in Northern Ireland until the end of the year

1974

Israel & Egypt sign weapons accord

1977

Imran Khan takes 12 wickets in match for Pakistan win at the SCG

1977

Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.

1981

Iran accepts US offer of $7.9 billion in frozen assets

1986

24th

Space Shuttle (61-C) Mission-Columbia 7-returns to Earth

1988

Airliner crashes in SW China, killing all 108 on board

1991

Iraq launches SCUD missiles against Israel

1993

Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observed in all 50 states of the USA for 1st time

1997

In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.

2003

A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.

2005

The world's largest commercial jet, the Airbus A380, is unveiled in France

2007

Hurricane Kyrill: kills at least 44 in Western Europe: strongest British storm in 17 years kills 14 people, worst German storm since 1999 with 13 deaths and causes container Ship MSC Napoli to be destroyed off coast of Devon

2008

The United Nations announce George Clooney as a UN messenger of peace

2015

AB de Villiers makes the fastest century in ODI cricket history from 31 balls against the West Indies

2017

NASA and NOAA announce that 2016 was the hottest year on record, surpassing the previous record set in 2015 which itself topped a record set in 2014

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

1689

Charles de Montesquieu, France, philosopher/writer (Letters Persanes)

1813

Joseph Glidden, American inventor of 1st commercial usable barbed wire, born in Charlestown, New Hampshire (d. 1906)

1835

Jan van Droogenbroeck, Flemish poet

1858

Daniel Williams, Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, surgeon (1st open heart operation), (d. 1931)

1877

Samuel Zemurray, U.S. businessman (d. 1961)

1881

Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (Librairie Gallimard) [or 1908]

1886

Peter Alma, Dutch painter/graphic artist

1892

Oliver Hardy, Harlem Ga, comedy team member (Laurel & Hardy)

1901

Ivan Petrovsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1973)

1908

Jacob Bronowski, Polish-born British mathematician and science writer best known as the presenter of the BBC television series, The Ascent of Man, born in Łódź, Poland (d. 1974)

1914

Arno Schmidt, German writer, born in Hamburg (d. 1979)

1917

Oscar Lewenstein, impressario

1918

Ton Brandsteder, CEO/founder (Sony Nederland)

1921

Yoichiro Nambu, Japanese-born American Physicist (Nobel Prize 2008), born in Tokyo (d. 2015)

1924

Donald Baverstock, TV producer

1940

Pedro Rodriguez, Mexican racing driver (d. 1971)

1944

Alexander Van der Bellen, Austrian politician, President of Austria (2017-), born in Vienna

1955

Kevin Costner, American actor (Fandango, Silverado, Bull Durham), born in Los Angeles, California

1958

Jeffrey N Williams, Superior Wisc, Major Army/astronaut

1962

David O'Connor, equestrian 3-day (Olympics-silver-96)

1964

Jenny Holliday, Australian softball pitcher (Olympics-bronze-96)

1970

DJ Quik, American rapper

1977

Alina Jidkova, Russian tennis player

1980

Jason Segel, American actor

1983

Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress

1985

Dale Begg-Smith, Australian freestyle skier

1985

Minnisha Lamba, Indian Actress and Model

TODAY’S HISTORY

1773

Captain James Cook becomes 1st to cross Antarctic Circle(66°33'S)

1882

1st Dutch female physician Aletta Jacobs opens office

1885

British beat Mahdists at Battle of Abu Klea in Sudan

1899

US takes possession of Wake Island in Pacific

1913

Raymond Poincaré elected president of France

1916

Rodman Wanamaker organises a lunch to discuss forming a golfers association (later the PGA) at the Taplow Club, Martinique Hotel, New York City

1920

First day Prohibition comes into effect in the US as a result of the 18th amendment

1934

Carl Hubbell, NL MVP winner, gets $18,000 contract by the NY Giants

1938

Joseph P. Kennedy becomes the 44th United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom

1945

Soviet army enters the devastated city of Warsaw and clears the German resistance

1946

United Nations Security Council holds its 1st meeting

1949

he Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, first airs.

1951

China refuses ceases-fire in Korea

1955

US Submarine Nautilus begins 1st nuclear-powered test voyage

1961

Eisenhower allegedly orders assassination of Congo's Lumumba

1962

NASA civilian pilot Neil Armstrong takes X-15 to 40,690m

1966

Martin Luther King Jr. opens campaign in Chicago

1966

Martin Luther King Jr. opens campaign in Chicago

1969

Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 5 lands

1971

At a party conference in Dublin, Sinn Féin end their 65 year abstentionist policy and agree that any elected representative could take their seat at the Dáil

1976

Hermes rocket launched by European Space Agency

1979

USSR performs underground nuclear test

1981

Philippino president Marcos ends state of siege

1983

Alabama Governor George Wallace, becomes governor for a record 4th time

1989

Gunman opens fire in California schoolyard; 5 students slain, 30 wounded

1991

Operation Desert Storm begins against Saddam Hussein

1994

6.6 Earthquake hits Los Angeles killing 60, $30B in damage

1995

Australia beat Australia A 2-0 to win cricket's World Series Cup

1996

Iraq agrees to talks concerning a UN plan to allow for the Iraqi sale of $1 billion of oil; proceeds from the sale would be used for humanitarian purposes

1998

US President Bill Clinton faces sexual harassment charges from Paula Jones

2002

Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people

2013

33 people are killed by a series of bombs across Iraq

2013

8 people are killed in a plane crash in Chiapas, Mexico

2013

Japan unveils plans to build the world’s largest wind farm near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant

2016

Fourth Democratic presidential candidates debate: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clash over healthcare and gun control in Charleston, South Carolina

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

1706

Benjamin Franklin, kite flyer/statesman/wit/inventor, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1790)

1732

Stanislaw II August Poniatowski, last king of Poland (1764-95)

1789

August Neander, German theologian (d. 1850)

1828

Eduard Remenyi, Hungarian violinist (d. 1898)

1851

A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)

1860

Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland (d. 1949)

1871

David Beatty, Nantwich, Cheshire, 1st Earl Beatty and British Admiral of the Fleet

1876

Frank Hague, American politician (d. 1956)

1881

Alfred Radcliffe-Browne, British anthropologist (Andaman Islanders), born in Birmingham, England (d. 1955)

1887

Ola Raknes, Norwegian psychoanalyst and philologist (d. 1975)

1891

Walter Eucken, German economist

1900

Olga Maria Nicolis di Robilant, patron of the arts

1918

Joseph Walker Barr, banker/politician

1923

Onno Molenkamp, Dutch actor (Lifespan, Broken Mirrors, The Lift)

1923

Carol Raye, Australian actress

1927

Donald Erb, American composer known for large orchestral works, born in Youngstown, Ohio (d. 2008)

1928

Vidal Sassoon, hair stylist/CEO (Vidal Sasson), born in London, England (d. 2012)

1934

Donald Cammell, film director

1942

Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay], American world heavyweight boxing champion (1964-7 74-8), born in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 2016)

1942

Ita Buttrose, Australian journalist and businesswoman

1945

Javed Akhtar, Indian lyricist, poet and scriptwriter

1950

Luis López Nieves, Latin American writer

1951

Rolando Thoeni, Italy, slalom (Olympic-bronze-1972)

1961

Brian Helgeland, American writer and film director

1964

Michelle Obama, 1st African-American US First Lady (2009-16), born in DeYoung, Illinois

1967

Filippo Raciti, Italian police officer (d. 2007)

1970

Candace Murray, softball shortstop (Olympics-96), born in Vancouver, British Columbia

1972

Ken Hirai, Japanese singer and songwriter

1977

Ali el Kattabi, soccer player (Sparta)

1977

Kevin Fertig, American professional wrestler

1982

Dwyane Wade, American basketball player

1983

Julie Budet, French Electronic-Pop Musician