1056 - Supernova Crab nebula last seen by the naked eye
1164 - Raynald of Dassel names Guido di Crema as anti-pope Paschalis III
1370 - Bastille built in Paris
1500 - Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral became the first European to arrive in what is now Brazil when, sailing along Africa en route to India, his ship was carried by a storm to South America.
1509 - Henry VIII ascended the throne of England following the death of his
father, Henry VII.
1521 - French king Francois I declares war on Spain
1526 - 1st slave revolt occurs in SC
1648 - English army claims king Charles I responsible for bloodshed
1659 - Lord protector Cromwell disbands English parliament
1671 - King Charles II sits in on English parliament
1692 - Edward Bishop is jailed for proposing flogging as cure for witchcraft
1722 - 19 VOC "komplotteurs" in Batavia executed
1769 - Madame du Barry becomes King Louis XV's "official" mistress
1793 - Pres Washington attends opening of Rickett's, 1st circus in US
1796 - Napoleon defeats Piedmontese at Battle of Mondovi
1804 - Gioacchino Rossini (12) performs in Imola
1809 - Battle at Eckmahl - Napoleon beats Austria archduke Karl
1823 - R J Tyers patents roller skates
1838 - The British steamship "Sirius" became the first to cross the Atlantic from Great Britain to New York solely on steam power.
1861 - Robert E Lee named commander of Virginia Confederate forces
1864 - US mints 2 cent coin (1st appearance of "In God We Trust")
1876 - Tchaikovsky completes his "Swan Lake" ballet
1884 - Thomas Stevens starts 1st bike trip around world (2 yrs 9 mos)
1889 - The Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon, some 20,000 homesteaders massed
along the border of the Oklahoma Territory, awaiting the signal to start the
Oklahoma land rush. [H]
1897 - NYC Jewish newspaper "Forward" begins publishing (still active)
1898 - 1st Spanish-American War action: USS Nashville, takes enemy ship
1898 - Congress passes Volunteer Army Act calling for a Volunteer Cavalry
1898 - US President McKinley orders blockade of Cuban harbors (sound familiar?)
1906 - New rule puts umpire in sole charge of all game balls
1914 - Babe Ruth's 1st professional game (as a pitcher) is a 6-hit 6-0 win
1915 - 1st military use of poison gas (chlorine, by Germany) in WW I [H]
2nd Battle of Ypres begins
1931 - An autogyro landed on the lawn of the White House.
1933 - Dutch government forbids left-wing radio address
1940 - Rear Adm Joseph Taussig testifies before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable
1943 - German counter attack in North Tunisia
1943 - RAF shoots down 14 German transport planes over Mediterranean Sea
1944 - Hitler & Mussolini meet at Obersalzburg
1944 - During World War II, U.S. forces began invading Japanese-held New Guinea
with amphibious landings near Hollandia.
1945 - Concentration Camp at Sachsenhausen liberated
1951 - Ticker-tape parade for General MacArthur in NYC
1952 - An atomic test conducted in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion
shown on live network television.
1954 - Senate Army-McCarthy televised hearings began
1955 - Congress orders all US coins bear motto "In God We Trust"
1961 - Uprising of French parachutists led by Gen Salan/Challe in Algeria
1964 - Tanganyika & Zanzibar form republic Tanzania
1964 - President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair (Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, NY)
1969 - 1st human eye transplant performed
1970 - 1st Earth Day held internationally to conserve natural resources [H]
1972 - Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charles Duke walked and
rode on the surface of the moon for seven hours, 23 minutes.
1974 - Barbara Walters becomes news co-anchor of Today Show
1976 - Director Ingmar Bergman leaves Sweden due to taxation
1977 - Simon Peres becomes premier of Israel
1981 - Almost 1 million West German metal workers in strike
1983 - Stern mag announces major historical find-discovery of 60 volume personal diaries written by Adolph Hitler (turned out to be a hoax)
1987 - A divided U.S. Supreme Court said capital punishment does not
discriminate against blacks.
1989 - Nolan Ryan strikes out his 5,000th batter (Rickey Henderson)
1990 - Pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon freed American hostage Robert Polhill
after nearly 39 months of captivity.
1991 - Intel releases 486SX chip
1991 - Johnny Carson announces he will retire next year from Tonight Show
1991 - At least 70 people were killed and 500 more injured when an earthquake
measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale struck Costa Rica.
1992 - 6.0 earthquake in California
1992 - The Supreme Court heard arguments on Pennsylvania's restrictive abortion
law (the court upheld most of the law's provisions the following June, but also
reaffirmed a woman's basic right to an abortion).
1992 - In Guadalajara, Mexico, more than 200 people were killed by a series of
sewer explosions.
1993 - Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Wash DC
1993 - Gov. Guy Hunt, Alabama's first Republican governor since the
Reconstruction, was removed from office after being convicted of felony ethics
violations.
1994 - 7,000 Tutsi's slaughtered in stadium of Kibuye Rwanda
1994 - Ice skater Tonya Harding sues ex-husband Jeff Gillooly for $42,500
1997 - In Peru, government commandos stormed the Japanese ambassador's
residence, ending a 126-day hostage crisis; all 14 Tupac Amaru rebels were
killed, 71 hostages were rescued.
1997 - A jury of seven men and five women was chosen in Denver to hear the
Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh.
2000 - In a predawn raid, armed U.S. immigration agents broke into the Miami
house where Elian Gonzalez had been staying and took the 6-year-old Cuban
refugee by force, flying him to be reunited with his Cuban father outside
Washington, D.C.
2001 - Leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations meeting in Quebec agreed to
stick with an ambitious plan to create the world's largest free-trade zone by
2005 and penalize any country that strayed from the path of democracy.
2001 - Two spacewalking astronauts, including Canadian Chris Hadfield, installed
a massive Canadian-built robot arm on the international space station.
2001 - In a boxing match in South Africa, Hasim Rahman stopped Lennox Lewis in
the fifth round to capture the WBC and IBF heavyweight titles in one of the
biggest upsets in boxing history.
Birthdays
Today
1357 - Johan I, King of Portugal (1383-1433)
1451 - Isabella I, of Castile, Queen of Spain (1479-1504), sponsored the voyages
of Christopher Columbus, was born in Madrigal, Spain.
1610 - Alexander VIII, [Pietro Ottoboni], Italy, lawyer/Pope (1689-91)
1658 - Giuseppe Torelli, Italy, composer (Concert Grossi op 8)
1707 - Henry Fielding (author: The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling)
1707 - Henry Fielding, England, novelist (Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones)
1724 - Immanuel Kant (philosopher: The Critique of Pure Reason)
1724 - Immanuel Kant, Konigsberg Germ, philosopher (Critique of Pure Reason)
1870 - Nikolai Lenin, [Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov], Bolshevik revolutionist
1881 - Alexander Kerensky, Simbirsk, Russian PM (1917)
1904 - J. (John) Robert Oppenheimer (physicist: Enrico Fermi Award for work in nuclear physics: designed & built 1st atomic bomb)
1904 - J[ulius] Robert Oppenheimer, NY, head of Manhattan (A-bomb) Project
1908 - Eddie Albert (Heimberger) (actor: Green Acres, Teahouse of the August Moon, Roman Holiday)
1916 - Yehudi Menuhin (violinist: child prodigy: solo with San Francisco Orchestra at age of 7, played with New York Symphony Orchestra at ten)
1918 - Mickey Vernon (baseball)
1920 - Hal March (Mendelson) (TV emcee: What's It For, The $64,000 Question, Laughs for Sale; actor: My Friend Irma, The Soldiers, The Imogene Coca Show, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show)
1921 - Candido (Camero) (bongo player)
1922 - Charles Mingus (musician: bassist, piano; singer, bandleader, composer: 20th century black music)
1922 - Richard Diebenkorn (artist)
1925 - Aaron Spelling (Emmy Award-winning executive producer: Day One, AT&T Presents [1988-89], And the Band Played On [1993-94]; Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place)
1926 - James Stirling, Scottish D-day-parachutist/architect/knight
1933 - Mark Damon (Alan Harris) (actor: Black Sabbath, Between Heaven and Hell, The Fall of the House of Usher)
1936 - Glen Campbell (Grammy Award-winning singer: By the Time I Get to Phoenix, Gentle on My Mind, CMA Entertainer of the Year [1968]; Galveston, Wichita Lineman, Southern Nights, Rhinestone Cowboy; TV host: The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour; actor: True Grit, Norwood, Strange Homecoming)
1937 - Jack Nicholson (Rose) (Academy Award-winning actor: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [1975], Terms of Endearment [1983]; Five Easy Pieces, The Shining, Batman, Broadcast News, Chinatown, Easy Rider, Prizzi's Honor, The Witches of Eastwicke, Little Shop of Horrors, A Few Good Men)
1937 - Jack Nicholson, NJ, actor (One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest, Shining)
1938 - Deane Beman (golfer)
1943 - Mel Carter (singer: Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me; actor: Quincy, Sanford and Son, Marcus Welby, M.D., Magnum P.I.)
1946 - Dectuplets, Bacacay Brazil, 8 males & 2 females
1949 - Spencer Haywood (basketball)
1950 - Peter Frampton (guitarist, singer: Show Me the Way, Do You Feel Like We Do, I Can't Stand it No More)
1953 - Tom Lysiak (hockey)
1954 - Joseph Bottoms (actor: The Black Hole, Holocaust, Liar's Edge, Treacherous Crossing, Surfacing, The Dove, Inner Sanctum)
1964 - Chris Makepiece (actor: My Bodyguard, Vamp, Undergrads, Last Chase, Aloha Summer, The Terry Fox Story, Captive Hearts)
Famous
deaths
0536 - Agapitus I, Pope (535-36), dies
1521 - Juan de Padilla, Spanish nobleman/communero-rebel, beheaded
1776 - Johann Adolph Scheibe, German music theroist/composer, dies at 67
1778 - James Hargreaves, inventor (spinning jenny), dies
1833 - Richard Trevithick, inventor (steam locomotive), dies at 62
1978 - Will Geer, actor (Grandpa Walton-Waltons), dies at 75
1982 - Melville Bell Grosvenor, pres (Natl Geographic Society), dies at 80
1983 - Walter Slezak, actor (Bedtime For Bonzo), commits suicide in NY at 80
1984 - Ansel Adams, US photographer, dies at 82
1989 - Huey Newton, US, Black Panther leader, shot dead at 47
1993 - Cesar Chavez, US farm worker (United Farm Workers), dies at 66
1994 - Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the United States, (1969-75),
died at a New York hospital four days after suffering a stroke; he was 81.
1995 - Maggie Kuhn, activist (Gray Panthers), dies at 89
1996 - Erma Bombeck, humorist (Grass is Greener), dies at 69
