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Wednesday, 4 January 2017

Today In History [4th January, 2017]

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

1757

		Robert Francois Damiens makes an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.
1863		Union General Henry Halleck, by direction of President Abraham Lincoln, orders General Ulysses Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area.
1896		Utah becomes the 45th state of the Union.
1902		France offers to sell their Nicaraguan Canal rights to the United States.
1904		The U.S. Supreme Court decides in the Gonzales v. Williams case that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and can enter the United States freely, yet stops short of awarding citizenship.
1920		The Negro National League, the first black baseball league, is organized by Rube Foster.
1923		The Paris Conference on war reparations hits a deadlock as the French insist on the hard line and the British insist on Reconstruction.
1935		President Franklin D. Roosevelt claims in his State of the Union message that the federal government will provide jobs for 3.5 million Americans on welfare.
1936		Billboard magazine publishes its first music Hit Parade.
1941		On the Greek-Albanian front, the Greeks launch an attack towards Valona from Berat to Klisura against the Italians.
1942		Japanese forces begin the evacuation of Guadalcanal.
1951		UN forces abandon Seoul, Korea, to the Chinese Communist Army.
1952		The French Army in Indochina launches Operation Nenuphar in hopes of ejecting a Viet Minh division from the Ba Tai forest.
1969		Spain returns the Ifni province to Morocco.
1970		A 7.7 earthquake kills 15,000+ people in Tonghai County, China.
1972		Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, England.
1974		President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1975		The Khmer Rouge launches its newest assault in its five-year war in Phnom Penh. The war in Cambodia would go on until the spring of 1975.
1976		The Ulster Volunteer Force kills six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day 10 Protestant civilians are murdered in retaliation.
1979		Ohio officials approve an out-of-court settlement awarding $675,000 to the victims and families in the 1970 shootings at Kent State University, in which four students were killed and nine wounded by National Guard troops.
1990		Over 300 people die and more than 700 are injured in Pakistan’s deadliest train accident, when an overloaded passenger train collides with an empty freight train.
1999		Jesse “The Body” Ventura, a former professional wrestler, is sworn in as populist governor of Minnesota.
1999		The euro, the new money of 11 European nations, goes into effect on the continent of Europe.
2004		NASA Mars rover Spirit successfully lands on Mars.
2004		Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia following the Rose Revolution of November 2003.
2007		Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) becomes the first female speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
2010		Burj Khalifa (Khalifa tower) officially opens in Dubai, UAE. At 2,722 ft (829.8 m) it is the world’s tallest man-made structure.
Born on January 4
1643		Sir Isaac Newton, scientist who developed the laws of gravity and planetary relations.
1785		Jacob Ludwig Grimm, German philosopher who wrote fairy tales with his brother.
1809		Louis Braille, developer of a reading system for the blind.
1914		Jane Wyman, American film actress, received Academy Award for Johnny Belinda; she was the first wife of future US President Ronald Reagan.
1935		Floyd Patterson, professional boxer; at age 21 he became the youngest man to win the world heavyweight title (later replaced by Mike Tyson at age 20) and the first heavyweight to regain the title.
1940		Gao Xingjian, novelist, playwright, critic; awarded Nobel Prize for Literature (2000).
1941		Maureen Reagan, actress, political activist; first child born to Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman.
1943		Doris Kearns Goodwin, biographer, historian, political commentator; won Pulitzer Prize in 1995 (No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Homefront During WWII) and the Lincoln Prize in 2005 (Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln).
1957		Patty Loveless, country singer; her multiple awards include Academy of Country Music Top Female Vocalist 1996, 1997.

Today In History [3rd January, 2017]

1521

		Martin Luther is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
1777		General George Washington defeats the British led by British General Lord Charles Cornwallis, at Princeton, New Jersey.
1861		Delaware rejects a proposal that it join the South in seceding from the Union.
1903		The Bulgarian government renounces the Treaty of Commerce tying it to the Austro-Hungarian empire.
1910		The Social Democratic Congress in Germany demands universal suffrage.
1912		Plans are announced for a new $150,000 Brooklyn stadium for the Trolley Dodgers baseball team.
1916		Three armored Japanese cruisers are ordered to guard the Suez Canal.
1920		The last of the U.S. troops depart France.
1921		Italy halts the issuing of passports to those emigrating to the United States.
1924		King Tutankhamen’s sarcophagus is uncovered near Luxor, Egypt.
1930		The second conference on Germany’s war reparations begins at the Hague, in the Netherlands.
1931		Hundreds of farmers storm a small town in depression-plagued Arkansas demanding food.
1933		The Japanese take Shuangyashan, China, killing 500 Chinese.
1946		President Harry S. Truman calls on Americans to spur Congress to act on the on-going labor crisis.
1958		The British create the West Indies Federation with Lord Hailes as governor general.
1959		Alaska is admitted into the Union as the 49th and largest state.
1959		Fidel Castro takes command of the Cuban army.
1961		The United States breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1966		Cambodia warns the United Nations of retaliation unless the United States and South Vietnam end intrusions.
1977		Apple Computers incorporates.
1978		North Vietnamese troops reportedly occupy 400 square miles in Cambodia. North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops were using Laos and Cambodia as staging areas for attacks against allied forces.
1985		President Ronald Reagan condemns a rash of arson attacks on abortion clinics.
1990		Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to US forces.
1993		George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
1994		More than 7 million people receive South African citizenship that had previously been denied under Apartheid policies.
1996		The first mobile flip phone, the Motorola StarTAC, goes on sale.
1999		Mars Polar Lander launched.
2000		The last original weekday Peanuts comic strip is published after a 50-year run, following the death of the strip’s creator, Charles Schultz.
Born on January 3
106 BC		Marcus Cicero, Roman statesman and author.
1621		William Tucker, believed to be first African-American born in the New World.
1793		Lucretia Coffin Mott, women’s rights advocate and founder of the first Women’s Rights Convention.
1901		Ngo Dinh Diem, South Vietnamese president assassinated by his own generals.
1907		Ray Milland, Welsh actor and director; won Academy Award for his role in The Lost Weekend.
1909		Victor Borge, pianist, comedian, conductor.
1911		John Sturges, director (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape).
1917		Vernon A. Walters, US Army lieutenant general, diplomat, deputy director of Central Intelligence; member of Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
1923		Bud Adams, owner of Houston Oilers (later Tennessee Titans) football team; instrumental in founding the former American Football League.
1929		Sergio Leone, Italian director, instrumental in creating the “Spaghetti Western” genre (A Fistful of Dollars, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly).
1956		Mel Gibson, actor, director, producer, screenwriter (Mad Max, Passion of the Christ).

Today In History [August 22, 2016]

1350		John II, also known as John the Good, succeeds Philip VI as king of France.
1485		Henry Tudor defeats Richard III at Bosworth. This victory establishes the Tudor dynasty in England and ends the War of the Roses.
1642		Civil war in England begins as Charles I declares war on Parliament at Nottingham.
1717		The Austrian army forces the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in the Balkans.
1777		With the approach of General Benedict Arnold‘s army, British Colonel Barry St. Ledger abandons Fort Stanwix and returns to Canada.
1849		The Portuguese governor of Macao, China, is assassinated because of his anti-Chinese policies.
1911		The Mona Lisa, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, is stolen from the Louvre in Paris, where it had hung for more than 100 years. It is recovered in 1913.
1922		Michael Collins, Irish politician, is killed in an ambush.
1942		Brazil declares war on the Axis powers. She is the only South American country to send combat troops into Europe.
1945		Soviet troops land at Port Arthur and Dairen on the Kwantung Peninsula in China.
1945		Conflict in Vietnam begins when a group of Free French parachute into southern Indochina, in response to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
1952		Devil’s Island‘s penal colony is permanently closed.
1956		Incumbent US President Dwight D. Eisenhower & Vice President Richard Nixon renominated by Republican convention in San Francisco.
1962		OAS (Secret Army Organization) gunmen unsuccessfully attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle; the incident inspires Frederick Forsyth’s novel, The Day of the Jackal.
1962		The world’s first nuclear-powered passenger-cargo ship, NS Savannah, completes its maiden voyage from Yorktown, Va., to Savannah, Ga.
1968		First papal visit to Latin America; Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota.
1969		Hurricane Camille hits US Gulf Coast, killing 256 and causing $1.421 billion in damages.
1971		Bolivian military coup: Col. Hugo Banzer Suarez ousts leftist president, Gen. Juan Jose Torres and assumes power.
1971		FBI arrests members of The Camden 28, an anti-war group, as the group is raiding a draft office in Camden, NJ.
1972		International Olympic Committee votes 36–31 with 3 abstentions to ban Rhodesia from the games because of the country’s racist policies.
1975		US President Gerald Ford survives second assassination attempt in 17 days, this one by Sarah Jane Moore in San Francisco, Cal.
1983		Benigno Aquino, the only real opposition on Ferdinand Marcos’ reign as president of the Philippines, is gunned down at Manila Airport.
1989		First complete ring around Neptune discovered.
1995		During 11-day siege at at Ruby Ridge, Id., FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi kills Vicki Weaver while shooting at another target.
2003		Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suspended for refusing to comply with federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court building’s lobby.
2005		Art heist: a version of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
2007		Most runs scored by any team in modern MLB history as the Texas Rangers thump the Baltimore Orioles 30-3.
Born on August 22
1647		Denis Papin, inventor of the pressure cooker.
1880		George Herriman, cartoonist, creator of Krazy Kat.
1891		Jacque Lipchitz, sculptor.
1893		Dorothy Parker, poet, satirist and founding member of the Algonquin Round Table.
1904		Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader from 1977 to 1987, held nominal leadership position until his death in 1997.
1908		Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer.
1917		John Lee Hooker, blues singer and guitarist.
1920		Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer whose works include Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles.
1934		H. Norman Schwarzkopf, American general and commander of the coalition forces during the Persian Gulf War.
1935		Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize–winning author (The Shipping News).
1938		Delmar Allen “Dale” Hawkins, pioneer rockabilly singer/songwriter (“Suzy Q”).
1939		Valerie Harper, actress (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda).
1940		Anthony Crosthwaite-Eyre, English publisher.
1942		Kathy Lennon, singer, member of the Lennon Sisters.
1943		Masatoshi Shima, Japanese computer scientist who helped develop the Intel 4004, the world’s first commercial microprocessor.
1947		Donna Godchaux, singer with The Grateful Dead and Heart of Gold Band.
1950		I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney during the administration of Pres. George W. Bush; sentenced to 30 months for felony convictions, his sentence was commuted by Pres. Bush.
1968		Rich Lowry, editor of National Review.
1970		Giada De Laurentiis, chef and television host.
1986		Keiko Kitagawa, Japanese model and actress (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift).

Today In History [August 20, 2016]

Today in History
August 20

917		A Byzantine counter-offensive is routed by Syeon at Anchialus, Bulgaria.
1619		The first group of twenty Africans is brought to Jamestown, Virginia.
1667		John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
1741		Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering, commissioned by Peter the Great of Russia to find land connecting Asia and North America, discovers America.
1794		American General “Mad Anthony” Wayne defeats the Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in the Northwest territory, ending Indian resistance in the area.
1847		General Winfield Scott wins the Battle of Churubusco on his drive to Mexico City.
1904		Dublin’s Abbey Theatre is founded, an outgrowth of the Irish Literary Theatre founded in 1899 by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory.
1908		The American Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.
1913		700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegoud becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.
1914		Russia wins an early victory over Germany at Gumbinnen.
1940		After a previous machine gun attack failed, exiled Russian Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City, with an alpine ax to the back of the head.
1940		Radar is used for the first time, by the British during the Battle of Britain. Also on this day, in a radio broadcast, Winston Churchill makes his famous homage to the Royal Air Force: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
1941		Adolf Hitler authorizes the development of the V-2 missile.
1944		United States and British forces close the pincers on German units in the Falaise-Argentan pocket in France.
1953		USSR publicly acknowledges it tested a hydrogen bomb eight days earlier.
1955		Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
1960		USSR recovers 2 dogs, Belka and Strelka, the first animals to be launched into orbit and returned alive (Sputnik 5).
1961		East Germany begins erecting a wall along western border to replace barbed wire put up Aug 13; US 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry Division arrives in West Berlin.
1964		US President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion, as part of his War on Poverty.
1968		Some 650,000 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to quell reformers there.
1971		The Cambodian military launches a series of operations against the Khmer Rouge.
1974		US Vice President Gerald Ford, who had replaced Spiro Agnew, assumes the Office of the President after Richard Nixon resigns; Ford names Nelson Rockefeller as VP.
1978		NASA launches Viking 1; with Viking 2, launched a few days later, provided high-resolution mapping of Mars, revolutionizing existing views of the planets.
1979		The Penmanshiel Diversion on the the East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland opens, replacing the 134-year-old Penmanshiel Tunnel that had collapsed in March.
1980		UN Security Council condemns Israel’s declaration that all of Jerusalem is its capital; vote is 14-0, with US abstaining.
1982		A multinational force including 800 US Marines lands in Beirut, Lebanon, to oversee Palestinian withdrawal during the Lebanese Civil War.
1986		Part-time mail carrier Patrick Sherrill shoots 20 fellow workers killing 14 at Edmond Okla., the first mass shooting by an individual in an office environment in the US. His actions give rise to the phrase “going postal,” for sudden violent outbursts.
1990		Iraq moves Western hostages to military installations to use them as human shields against air attacks by a US-led multinational coalition.
1991		After an attempted coup in the Soviet Union, Estonia declares independence from the USSR.
1993		Secret negotiations in Norway lead to agreement on the Oslo Peace Accords, an attempt to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
1994		Miracle, the Sacred White Buffalo, born on Heider Farm near Janesville, Wisc. The first white (not albino) buffalo born since 1933, she was a important religious symbol for many US and Canadian Indian tribes.
1998		The Supreme Court of Canada rules Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government’s approval.
1998		US launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the Aug. 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
2002		A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein seize the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin; after five hours they release their hostages and surrender.
Born on August 20
1833		Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States and grandson of President William Henry Harrison.
1886		Paul Tillich, theologian and philosopher who wrote Systematic Theology.
1890		H.P. Lovecraft, author of horror tales; created the Cthulhu mythos.
1905		Jack Teagarden, jazz trombonist.
1941		Slobodan Milosevic, President of Serbia (1989–1997) and of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1997–2000); tried by UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for war crimes but died before trial concluded.
1942		Isaac Hayes, composer, musician, actor, voice-over actor; co-wrote “Soul Man,” won Academy Award for his composition “Theme from Shaft.”
1944		Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minster of India.
1952		John Hiatt, singer/songwriter (“Have a Little Faith in Me”).
1954		Al Roker, weatherman (Today on NBC; Weather Channel).
1958		Patricia Rozema, film director, screenwriter (Mansfield Park).
1974		Amy Adams, actress; multiple nominations for Academy Awards, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards (Enchanted, The Fighter).

Today In History [August 19, 2016]

Today in History August 19

1493		Maximilian succeeds his father Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor.
1587		Sigismund III is chosen to be the king of Poland.
1692		Five women are hanged in Salem, Massachusetts after being convicted of the crime of witchcraft. Fourteen more people are executed that year and 150 others are imprisoned.
1772		Gustavus III of Sweden eliminates the rule of parties and establishes an absolute monarchy.
1779		Americans under Major Henry Lee take the British garrison at Paulus Hook, New Jersey.
1812		The USS Constitution earns the nickname "Old Ironsides" during the battle off Nova Scotia that saw her defeat the HMS Guerriere.
1914		The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) lands in France.
1934		38 million Germans vote to make Adolf Hitler the official successor to President von Hindenburg.
1936		Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca is shot by Franco's troops after being forced to dig his own grave.
1942		A raid on Dieppe, France by British and Canadian commandos is repulsed by the German Army.
1944		In an effort to prevent a communist uprising in Paris, Charles De Gualle begins attacking German forces all around the city.
1950		Edith Sampson becomes the first African-American representative to the United Nations.
1957		The first balloon flight to exceed 100,000 feet takes off from Crosby, Minnesota.
1965		US forces destroy a Viet Cong stronghold near Van Tuong, in South Vietnam.
1974		US Ambassador to Cyrus Rodger P. Davies assassinated by a sniper of Greek Cypriot paramilitary group EOKA-B during a demonstration outside the embassy in Nicosia.
1976		Gerald R Ford, who had become President of the United States after Richard Nixon resigned, wins Republican Party's presidential nomination at Kansas City convention.
1987		Hungerford Massacre in the UK; armed with semi-automatic rifles and a handgun Michael Ryan kills 16 people before committing suicide. In response, Parliament passed the Firearms (Amendment) Act of 1988 banning ownership of certain classes of firearms.
1988		Cease fire begins in 8-year war between Iran and Iraq.
1991		Communist hard-liners place President Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest in an attempted coup that failed two days later.
2002		A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
2003		Shmuel Hanavi bus bombing: suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, some of them children, and wounds 130. Islamist militant group Hamas claims responsibility for the attack.
2004		Google Inc. stock begins selling on the Nasdaq Stock Market, with an initial price of $85; the stock ended the day at $100.34 with more than 22 million shares traded.
2005		Toronto Supercell: A series of thunderstorms spawn several tornadoes and cause flash floods in Southern Ontario. Losses exceed $500 million Canadian dollars, the highest ever in the province.
2010		Operation Iraqi Freedom ends; the last US combat brigade, 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, leaves the country. Six brigades remain to train Iraqi troops.
Born on August 19
1870		Bernard Baruch, U.S. representative to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission.
1871		Orville Wright, aviation pioneer.
1883		Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, fashion designer.
1902		Ogden Nash, humorist.
1919		Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine.
1921		Gene Roddenberry, television writer and producer, best known for the series Star Trek.
1931		Willie Shoemaker, record-setting jockey (won 8,833 of 40,350 starts); received Mike Venezia Memorial Award for "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship" in 1990.
1940		Jill St John, (Jill Arlyn Oppenheim), Los Angeles California, actress (Diamonds are Forever).
1942		Fred Thompson, US Senator (R-Tenn); minority counsel on Senate Watergate Committee, lobbyist; actor (Law and Order)).
1945		William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton, 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001); first president from the Baby Boomer generation.
1948		Tipper Gore, wife of US Vice President Al Gore (1993-2001); co-founder, Parents Music Resource Center, which lobbied to have parental advisory labels placed on the packaging of music containing violent, sexual or drug-use lyrics.
1952		Jonathan Frakes, actor (Commander William T Riker, Star Trek: The Next Generation); character given same birth-date but in 2335.
1966		Lee Ann Womack, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter ("I Hope You Dance").

Today In History [August 16, 2016]

Today in History
August 16

1513		Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian defeat the French at Guinegatte, France, in the Battle of the Spurs.
1777		France declares a state of bankruptcy.
1780		American troops are badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
1812		American General William Hull surrenders Detroit without resistance to a smaller British force under General Issac Brock.
1858		U.S. President James Buchanan and Britain’s Queen Victoria exchange messages inaugurating the first transatlantic telegraph line.
1861		Union and Confederate forces clash near Fredericktown and Kirkville, Missouri.
1863		Union General William S. Rosecrans moves his army south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in Chattanooga.
1896		Gold is discovered in the Klondike of Canada’s Yukon Territory, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
1914		Liege, Belgium, falls to the German army.
1945		Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on May 6, 1942, is released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops.
1965		The Watts riots end in south-central Los Angeles after six days.
1977		Elvis Presley dies of a heart attack in the upstairs bedroom suite area of his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.
1984		The safe of the sunken ocean liner Andrea Doria is opened on TV after three decades, revealing cash and certificates but no other valuables.
1986		Sudanese rebels shoot down a Sudanese Airways plane, killing 57 people.
1987		Astrological alignment of sun, moon and six planets marks what believers maintain is the dawning of a New Age.
1988		IBM introduces artificial intelligence software.
1990		Iraq orders 2,500 Americans and 4,000 British nationals in Kuwait to Iraq, in the aftermath of Iraq’s invasion of that country.
2012		In South Africa police fire on striking mine workers, killing at least 34.
Born on August 16
1645		Jean de la Bruyere, French writer and moralist famous for his work Characters of Theophratus.
1868		Bernard McFadden, publisher responsible for the magazine True Story.
1913		Menachem Begin, Israeli statesman and Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
1920		Charles Bukowski, poet and novelist.
1929		Bill Evans, jazz pianist.
1930		Ted Hughes, English poet.
1940		Bruce Beresford, Australian film director whose films include Breaker Morant and Driving Miss Daisy.
1945		Suzanne Farrel, ballerina.
1958		Madonna [Louise Veronica Ciccone], entertainer and singer.
1960		Timothy Hutton, youngest actor ever to receive an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (Ordinary People).
1962		Steve Carell, actor and comedian (The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Office, Evan Almighty).
1967		Ulrika Jonsson, Swedish-born actress, model and UK television personality.
1972		Emily Robison, singer, musician, songwriter, member of the bestselling Country group Dixie Chicks.

Today In History [August 15, 2016]

1513		Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian defeat the French at Guinegatte, France, in the Battle of the Spurs.
1777		France declares a state of bankruptcy.
1780		American troops are badly defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
1812		American General William Hull surrenders Detroit without resistance to a smaller British force under General Issac Brock.
1858		U.S. President James Buchanan and Britain’s Queen Victoria exchange messages inaugurating the first transatlantic telegraph line.
1861		Union and Confederate forces clash near Fredericktown and Kirkville, Missouri.
1863		Union General William S. Rosecrans moves his army south from Tullahoma, Tennessee to attack Confederate forces in Chattanooga.
1896		Gold is discovered in the Klondike of Canada’s Yukon Territory, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
1914		Liege, Belgium, falls to the German army.
1945		Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese on Corregidor on May 6, 1942, is released from a POW camp in Manchuria by U.S. troops.
1965		The Watts riots end in south-central Los Angeles after six days.
1977		Elvis Presley dies of a heart attack in the upstairs bedroom suite area of his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee.
1984		The safe of the sunken ocean liner Andrea Doria is opened on TV after three decades, revealing cash and certificates but no other valuables.
1986		Sudanese rebels shoot down a Sudanese Airways plane, killing 57 people.
1987		Astrological alignment of sun, moon and six planets marks what believers maintain is the dawning of a New Age.
1988		IBM introduces artificial intelligence software.
1990		Iraq orders 2,500 Americans and 4,000 British nationals in Kuwait to Iraq, in the aftermath of Iraq’s invasion of that country.
2012		In South Africa police fire on striking mine workers, killing at least 34.
Born on August 16
1645		Jean de la Bruyere, French writer and moralist famous for his work Characters of Theophratus.
1868		Bernard McFadden, publisher responsible for the magazine True Story.
1913		Menachem Begin, Israeli statesman and Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
1920		Charles Bukowski, poet and novelist.
1929		Bill Evans, jazz pianist.
1930		Ted Hughes, English poet.
1940		Bruce Beresford, Australian film director whose films include Breaker Morant and Driving Miss Daisy.
1945		Suzanne Farrel, ballerina.
1958		Madonna [Louise Veronica Ciccone], entertainer and singer.
1960		Timothy Hutton, youngest actor ever to receive an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (Ordinary People).
1962		Steve Carell, actor and comedian (The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Office, Evan Almighty).
1967		Ulrika Jonsson, Swedish-born actress, model and UK television personality.
1972		Emily Robison, singer, musician, songwriter, member of the bestselling Country group Dixie Chicks.

Today In History [August 6, 2016]

		John Cabot returns to England after his first successful journey to the Labrador coast.
1863		The CSS Alabama captures the USS Sea Bride near the Cape of Good Hope.
1888		Martha Turner is murdered by an unknown assailant, believed to be Jack the Ripper, in London, England.
1890		William Kemmler becomes the first man to be executed by the electric chair.
1904		The Japanese army in Korea surrounds a Russian army retreating to Manchuria.
1914		Ellen Louise Wilson, the first wife of the twenty-eighth president, Woodrow Wilson, dies of Bright’s disease.
1927		A Massachusetts high court hears the final plea from Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italians convicted of murder.
1942		The Soviet city of Voronezh falls to the German army.
1945		Paul Tibbets, the commander of Enola Gay, drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. It was the second atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki, that induced the Japanese to surrender.
1962		Jamaica becomes independent, after 300 years of British rule.
1965		President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act, outlawing the literacy test for voting eligibility in the South.
1972		Atlanta Braves’ right fielder Hank Aaron hits his 660th and 661st home runs, setting the Major League record for most home runs by a player for a single franchise.
1973		Singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder is in an automobile accident and goes into a four-day coma.
1979		Twelve-year-old Marcus Hooper becomes the youngest person to swim the English Channel.
1981		Argentina’s ex-resident Isabel Peron freed from house arrest.
1988		A melee that became known as the Tompkins Square Park Police Riot in New York City leads to NYPD reforms.
1991		Tim Berners-Lee publishes the first-ever website, Info.cern.ch.
1993		Pope John Paul II publishes “Veritatis splendor encyclical,” regarding fundamentals of the Catholic Church’s role in moral teachings.
1997		Microsoft announces it will invest $150 million in troubled rival Apple Computer, Inc.
2012		New Zealand’s Mount Tongariro erupts for the first time since 1897.
Born on August 6
1809		Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet laureate (1850), wrote “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”
1881		Alexander Flemming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin in 1928.
1889		Major General George Kenney, commander of the U.S. Fifth Air Force in New Guinea and the Solomons during World War II.
1911		Lucille Ball, American actress and comedian.
1916		Richard Hofstadter, historian who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work.
1927		Andy Warhol, American pop artist.
1934		Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob, science fiction and fantasy author (Xanth series).
1950		Winston E. Scott, US Navy commander and astronaut.
1970		M. Night Shyamalan, Indian-American screenwriter, director and producer (The Sixth Sense, The Village).

Today In History [16th July, 2016]

Today in History
July 16

1765		English Prime Minister Lord Grenville resigns and is replaced by Lord Rockingham.
1774		Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their six-year war.
1779		American troops under General Anthony Wayne capture Stony Point, N.Y.
1875		The new French constitution is finalized.
1882		Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln, dies of a stroke.
1918		Czar Nicholas and his family are murdered by Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg, Russia.
1940		Adolf Hitler orders preparations for the invasion of England.
1944		Soviet troops occupy Vilnius, Lithuania, in their drive towards Germany.
1945		The United States detonates the first atomic bomb in a test at Alamogordo, N. M.
1969		Apollo 11 blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, heading for a landing on the moon.
1999		A private plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. is lost over the waters off Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
Born on July 16
1723		Joshua Reynolds, British portrait painter.
1821		Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science movement.
1862		Ida Bell Wells, journalist.
1896		Trygve Lie, first secretary-general of the United Nations.
1907		Barbara Stanwyck, actress.
1911		Ginger Rogers, actress and dancer.
1928		Anita Brookner, writer (Hotel du Lac).
1941		Dag Solstad, Norwegian novelist and playwright.
1948		Ruben Blades, songwriter and actor.
1948		Pinchas Zukerman, violinist and conductor.

Today In History [3rd July, 2016]

1775		George Washington takes command of the Continental Army.
1790		In Paris, the Marquis of Condorcet proposes granting civil rights to women.
1844		American ambassador Caleb Cushing successfully negotiates a commercial treaty with China.
1863		Confederate forces attack the center of the Union line at Gettysburg, but fail to break it.
1878		John Wise flies the first dirigible in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1901		The Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy, commits its last American robbery near Wagner, Montana, taking $65,000 from a Great Northern train.
1903		The first cable across the Pacific Ocean is spliced between Honolulu, Midway, Guam and Manila.
1944		The U.S. First Army opens a general offensive to break out of the hedgerow area of Normandy, France.
1945		U.S. troops land at Balikpapan and take Sepinggan airfield on Borneo in the Pacific.
1950		U.S. carrier-based planes attack airfields in the Pyongyang-Chinnampo area of North Korea in the first air-strike of the Korean War.
1954		Food rationing ends in Great Britain almost nine years after the end of World War II.
1962		Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
1967		North Vietnamese soldiers attack South Vietnam’s only producing coal mine at Nong Son.
Born on July 3
1683		Edward Young, English poet, dramatist and literary critic (Night Thoughts).
1844		Dankmar Adler, architect and engineer.
1871		William Henry Davies, Welsh poet.
1878		George M. Cohan, American entertainer and songwriter.
1883		Franz Kafka, Prague-born German novelist (The Metamorphosis, The Trail).
1908		M.F.K. Fisher, food writer.
1912		Elizabeth Taylor, novelist and short story writer.
1921		Francois-Arnold Reichenbach, documentary filmmaker.
1937		Tom Stoppard, British playwright (Rosencrantz and Guilderstern are Dead).

Today In History [2ndJuly, 2016]

Today in History
July 2

1298		An army under Albert of Austria defeats forces led by Adolf of Nassau.
1625		The Spanish army takes Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.
1644		Oliver Cromwell crushes the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor.
1747		Marshall Saxe leads the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
1776		The Continental Congress resolves with the Declaration of Independence that the American colonies “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
1822		Denmark Vesey is executed in Charleston, South Carolina, for planning a massive slave revolt.
1858		Czar Alexander II frees the serfs working on imperial lands.
1863		The Union left flank holds at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.
1881		Charles J. Guiteau fatally wounds President James A. Garfield in Washington, D.C.
1926		Congress establishes the Army Air Corps.
1937		American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappears in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world.
1961		Novelist Ernest Hemingway commits suicide at his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
1964		President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law.
1967		The U.S. launches Operation Buffalo in Vietnam.
1976		North and South Vietnam are officially reunified.
1980		President Jimmy Carter reinstates draft registration for males 18 years of age.
Born on July 2
1489		Thomas Cranmer, first Protestant archbishop of Canterbury (1533-1556).
1877		Hermann Hesse, German novelist and poet.
1894		Andre Kertesz, photographer.
1900		Tyrone Guthrie, English theater director.
1908		Thurgood Marshall, first African-American Supreme Court Justice.
1916		Barry Gray, radio talk show host.
1918		Robert Sarnoff, president of NBC.
1926		Medgar Evers, American civil rights activist.

Today In History [1st July, 2016]

Today in History
July 1

69		Vespasian, a Roman army leader, is hailed as a Roman emperor by the Egyptian legions.
1543		England and Scotland sign the Peace of Greenwich.
1596		An English fleet under the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Vere capture and sack Cadiz, Spain.
1690		Led by Marshall Luxembourg, the French defeat the forces of the Grand Alliance at Fleurus in the Netherlands.
1777		British troops depart from their base at the Bouquet River to head toward Ticonderoga, New York.
1798		Napoleon Bonaparte takes Alexandria, Egypt.
1838		Charles Darwin presents a paper on his theory of evolution to the Linnean Society in London.
1862		Union artillery stops a Confederate attack at Malvern Hill, Virginia.
1863		In the first day’s fighting at Gettysburg, Federal forces retreat through the town and dig in at Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.
1867		Canada, by the terms of the British North America Act, becomes an independent dominion.
1876		Montenegro declares war on the Turks.
1898		American troops take San Juan Hill and El Caney, Cuba, from the Spaniards.
1916		The Battle of the Somme begins. Approximately 30,000 men are killed on the first day, two-thirds of them British.
1942		Axis troops capture Sevastopol, Crimea, in the Soviet Union.
1945		The New York State Commission Against Discrimination is established–the first such agency in the United States.
1950		American ground troops arrive in South Korea to halt the advancing North Korean army.
1961		British troops land in Kuwait to aid against Iraqi threats.
1963		The U.S. postmaster introduces the ZIP code.
1966		The U.S. Marines launch Operation Holt in an attempt to finish off a Vietcong battalion in Thua Thien Province in Vietnam.
Born on July 1
1649		Gottfried Von Leibniz, German philosopher and mathematician.
1804		George Sand (Amandine-Aurore Lucile Dupin), French novelist.
1876		Susan Glaspell, playwright, (Alison’s House).
1892		James M. Cain, author (The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce).
1899		Thomas Dorsey, American songwriter, singer and pianist, the “father of gospel music.”
1902		William Wyler, film director (The Best Years of Our Lives, Ben Hur).
1903		Amy Johnson, English aviator.
1915		Willie Dixon, blues musician.
1915		Sydney Pollack, film director (Tootsie, Out of Africa).
1915		Jean Stafford, American writer (The Mountain Lion).
1916		Roland Robert Tuck, British fighter ace during World War II.
1961		Diana Frances Spencer, Princess of Wales.

Today In History [30th June, 2016]

Today in History
June 30

1520		Montezuma II is murdered as Spanish conquistadors flee the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan during the night.
1857		Charles Dickens reads from A Christmas Carol at St. Martin’s Hall in London–his first public reading.
1859		Jean Francois Gravelet aka Emile Blondin, a French daredevil, becomes the first man to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1908		A mysterious explosion, possibly the result of a meteorite, levels thousands of trees in the Tunguska region of Siberia with a force approaching twenty megatons.
1934		Adolf Hitler orders the purge of his own party in the “Night of the Long Knives.”
1936		Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone With the Wind, is published.
1948		John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley demonstrate their invention, the transistor, for the first time.
1960		Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Psycho, opens.
1971		Three Soviet cosmonauts die when their spacecraft depressurizes during reentry.
Born on June 30
1685		John Gay, poet and playwright (The Beggar’s Opera).
1768		Elizabeth Kortright, later Elizabeth Monroe, first lady to U.S. President James Monroe.
1911		Czeslaw Milosz, Polish poet and critic.
1917		Lena Horne, American singer.
1919		Susan Hayward, actress.
1926		Paul Berg, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist.
1932		Mongo Beti, novelist and political writer.

Today In History [29th June, 2016]

Today in History
June 29

1236		Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon take Cordoba in Spain.
1652		Massachusetts declares itself an independent commonwealth.
1767		The British parliament passes the Townshend Revenue Act, levying taxes on America.
1862		Union forces, falling back from Richmond, fight at the Battle of Savage’s Station.
1880		France annexes Tahiti.
1888		Professor Frederick Treves performs the first appendectomy in England.
1903		The British government officially protests Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
1905		Russian troops intervene as riots erupt in ports all over the country, leaving many ships looted.
1917		The Ukraine proclaims independence from Russia.
1925		An earthquake ravages Santa Barbara, California.
1926		Fascists in Rome add an hour to the work day in an economic efficiency measure.
1932		Siam’s army seizes Bangkok and announces an end to the absolute monarchy.
1938		Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, and Olympic National Park, Washington, are founded.
1950		President Harry S. Truman authorizes a sea blockade of Korea.
1951		The United States invites the Soviet Union to the Korean peace talks on a ship in Wonsan Harbor.
1955		The Soviet Union sends tanks to Poznan, Poland, to put down anti-Communist demonstrations.
1966		The U.S. Air Force bombs fuel storage facilities near Hanoi, North Vietnam.
1967		Israel removes barricades, re-unifying Jerusalem.
1970		U.S. troops pull out of Cambodia.
1982		Israel invades Lebanon.
Born on June 29
1858		George Washington Goethals, engineer of the Panama Canal.
1861		William James Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
1865		William E. Borah, Republican senator from Idaho, opponent of the League of Nations.
1886		James Van Der Zee, African-American photographer.
1900		Antoine de Saint-Exupery, aviator and writer.
1910		Frank Loesser, songwriter.
1930		Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist.
1941		Stokely Carmichael, African-American civil rights leader.

Today In History [28th June, 2016]

Today in History
June 28

1635		The French colony of Guadeloupe is established in the Caribbean.
1675		Frederick William of Brandenburg crushes the Swedes.
1709		Russians defeat the Swedes and Cossacks at the Battle of Poltava.
1776		Colonists repulse a British sea attack on Charleston, South Carolina.
1778		Mary “Molly Pitcher” Hays McCauley, wife of an American artilleryman, carries water to the soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth.
1839		Cinque and other Africans are kidnapped and sold into slavery in Cuba.
1862		Fighting continues between Union and Confederate forces during the Seven Days’ campaign.
1863		General George Meade replaces General Joseph Hooker three days before the Battle of Gettysburg.
1874		The Freedmen’s Bank, created to assist former slaves in the United States, closes. Customers of the bank lose $3 million.
1884		Congress declares Labor Day a legal holiday.
1902		Congress passes the Spooner bill, authorizing a canal to be built across the isthmus of Panama.
1911		Samuel J. Battle becomes the first African-American policeman in New York City.
1914		Austria’s Archduke Francis Ferdinand is assassinated at Sarajevo, Serbia.
1919		Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles under protest.
1921		A coal strike in Britain is settled after three months.
1930		More than 1,000 communists are routed during an assault on the British consulate in London.
1938		Congress creates the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure construction loans.
1942		German troops launch an offensive to seize Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus and the city of Stalingrad.
1945		General Douglas MacArthur announces the end of Japanese resistance in the Philippines.
1949		The last U.S. combat troops are called home from Korea, leaving only 500 advisers.
1950		General Douglas MacArthur arrives in South Korea as Seoul falls to the North.
1954		French troops begin to pull out of Vietnam’s Tonkin province.
1964		Malcolm X founds the Organization for Afro-American Unity to seek independence for blacks in the Western Hemisphere.
1967		14 people are shot during race riots in Buffalo, New York.
1970		Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay] stands before the Supreme Court regarding his refusal of induction into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
1971		The Supreme Court overturns the draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali.
1972		Richard Nixon announces that no new draftees will be sent to Vietnam.
1976		The first women enter the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Born on June 28
1491		Henry VIII, King of England (1509-1547), founder of the Church of England.
1577		Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter.
1712		Jean Jacques Rousseau, French social philosopher (The Social Contract).
1867		Luigi Pirandello, Italian playwright (Six Characters in Search of an Author).
1873		Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize-winning French surgeon and biologist.
1891		Esther Forbes, author (Johnny Tremain).
1902		Richard Rodgers, American composer.
1906		Maria Goeppert Mayer, Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
1909		Eric Ambler, British mystery writer (The Dark Frontier, Uncommon Danger).
1926		Mel Brooks, comedian, actor, and director (The Producers, Blazing Saddles).
1947		Mark Helprin, novelist (Winter’s Tale).

Pages

Wednesday, 4 January 2017

Today In History [4th January, 2017]

Tuesday, 3 January 2017

Today In History [3rd January, 2017]

Monday, 22 August 2016

Today In History [August 22, 2016]

Saturday, 20 August 2016

Today In History [August 20, 2016]

Friday, 19 August 2016

Today In History [August 19, 2016]

Tuesday, 16 August 2016

Today In History [August 16, 2016]

Monday, 15 August 2016

Today In History [August 15, 2016]

Saturday, 6 August 2016

Today In History [August 6, 2016]

Saturday, 16 July 2016

Today In History [16th July, 2016]

Sunday, 3 July 2016

Today In History [3rd July, 2016]

Saturday, 2 July 2016

Today In History [2ndJuly, 2016]

Friday, 1 July 2016

Today In History [1st July, 2016]

Thursday, 30 June 2016

Today In History [30th June, 2016]

Wednesday, 29 June 2016

Today In History [29th June, 2016]

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Today In History [28th June, 2016]