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Today in History ~ August 23
Events0406 - Battle at Florence: Stilicho's Roman army beats Radagaisus' Barbarians
0476 - Odoacer elected King of Byzantine
1617 - 1st one-way streets open (London)
1784 - Eastern Tennessee settlers declare their area an independent state & name it Franklin; a year later the Continental Congress rejects it
1796 - African Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated
1813 - Battle of Grossbeeren - Prussians under Von Bulow repulse French
1821 - Mexico declares independence; 11 years after the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence, Spanish Viceroy Juan de O'Donoju signed the Treaty of Cordoba, which approved a plan to make Mexico an independent constitutional monarchy
1833 - Britain abolishes slavery in colonies; 700,000 slaves freed
1838 - Mt Holyoke Female Seminary (South Hadley, Mass) 1st graduating class
1839 - British capture Hong Kong from China
1850 - 1st national women's rights convention convenes in Worcester Mass
1861 - Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow placed under house arrest in Washington, D.C. [H]
1864 - Union troops/fleet occupy Fort Morgan, Alabama
1866 - Treaty of Prague ends Austro-Prussian war
1869 - 1st carload of freight (boots & shoes) arrives in San Francisco, from Boston, after a 16-day rail trip.
1872 - 1st Japanese commercial ship visits San Francisco with a cargo of tea.
1877 - Texas Rangers arrest John Wesley Hardin in Florida. [H]
1879 - Governor-general Charles Gordon of Sudan returns to Cairo
1889 - 1st ship-to-shore wireless message received in US: US lightship to Cliff House.
1911 - Ishi, believed to be the last member of the Yahi tribe, was found alone and starving near Mount Lassen, northern California.
1914 - Gen von Hausen executes 612 inhabitants of Dinant Belgium
1914 - Japan declares war on Germany in World War I
1915 - Czar Nicolaas II takes control of Russian Army
1919 - "Gasoline Alley" cartoon strip premieres in Chicago Tribune
1920 - M R Rinehart & A Hopwood's "Bat," premieres in NYC
1922 - A twenty-three-litre car named “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” won the first Southsea (England) Speed Carnival in 1922, driven by Count Louis Zborowski at 73.1 miles per hour. The name “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” reappeared in Ian Fleming’s book about a magical car, and again in the 1968 movie of the same name starring Dick Van Dyke.
1927 - Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery. (Sacco and Vanzetti were vindicated in 1977 by Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.) [H]
1939 - Molotov-Ribbentrop-pact (Soviet Union neutral/Poland divided)
1939 - Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty.
1940 - German Luftwaffe begins night bombing on London
1942 - 1st US flights land on Guadalcanal
1942 - Battle of Stalingrad: 600 Luftwaffe bombers attack Stalingrad (40,000 die)
1942 - Walter Johnson pitches to Babe Ruth in pre-game attraction that draws 69,000 for NY-Wash game (raises $80,000 for Army-Navy relief
1944 - Allied troops capture Marseilles France
1944 - General George Leclerc's troops advance towards Paris
1944 - King Michael of Romania ordered his forces to cease fire against Allies & dismissed the pro-Axis premier, Marshal Ion Antonescu Romania liberated from Nazi occupation (National Day)
1944 - US B-24 crashes into school in Freckelton England, 76 killed
1947 - Pres Truman's daughter, Margaret's 1st public singing concert
1948 - Count Bernadotte asks aid for fugitives to Palestine
1952 - Arab League security pact goes into effect
1958 - China PR resumes fire on Quemoi & Matsu
1960 - World's largest frog (3.3 kg) caught (Equatorial Guinea)
1961 - East Germany imposed new curbs on travel between West & East Berlin
1963 - Beatles release "She Loves You" in UK
1972 - The Republican national convention, meeting in Miami Beach, Fla., nominated Vice President Spiro T. Agnew for a second term. (but not unanimous-1 vote went to NBC newsman David Brinkley)
1973 - Intelsat communications satellite launched
1975 - Communists take over Laos
1977 - Bryan Allen pedaled the human-powered aircraft "Gossamer Condor."
1977 - Marxist philosopher Rudolf Bahro imprisoned in German DR
1978 - Iranian students occupies Iranian embassy at Wassenaar
1979 - Iran army opens offensive against Kurds
1979 - Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defected while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in New York.
1982 - Lebanon's parliament elected Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel president. (However, Gemayel was assassinated some three weeks later and succeeded by his brother, Amin.)
1987 - 15-year old boy hijacks KLM B737, demands $1 billion
1989 - In a case that inflamed racial tensions in New York City, Yusuf Hawkins, a black 16-year-old, was shot dead after he and his friends were confronted by white youths in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn.
1990 - Armenia declares independence
1990 - East & West Germany announced that they would unite on Oct 3
1990 - US begins call up of 46,000 reservists to the Persian Gulf
1991 - In the wake of a failed coup by hard-liners in the Soviet Union, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin acted to strip the Communist Party of its power and take control of the army and the KGB.
1992 - Hurricane Andrew slammed into the Bahamas with 120-mph winds.
1992 - James A. Baker III bowed out as Secretary of State to become White House chief of staff.
1992 - Three people were killed when their truck was struck at a railroad crossing by an Amtrak passenger train in Wallingford, Conn.
1996 - President Clinton imposed limits on peddling cigarettes to children as he unveiled Food and Drug Administration regulations declaring nicotine an addictive drug. The same day, a jury in Indianapolis found cigarette companies were not responsible for the lung cancer death of a 52-year-old lawyer who began smoking at age 5.
1998 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired his reformist premier, Sergei Kiriyenko and brought back Viktor Chernomyrdin as acting premier.
1999 - Berlin once again became the capital of Germany.
2000 - A Gulf Air Airbus crashed into the Persian Gulf near Bahrain, killing all 143 people aboard.
2000 - An estimated 51 million viewers tuned in for the finale of CBS' reality series "Survivor," in which contestant Richard Hatch won the $1 million prize.
2000 - Negotiators for Verizon and more than 35,000 telephone workers reached tentative agreement on a new contract, ending an 18-day strike.
2001 - Democratic Rep. Gary Condit of California denied any involvement in the disappearance of intern Chandra Levy; his comments came during an interview with Connie Chung on ABC.
2001 - Thierry Devaux, a Frenchman using a motor-driven parachute, was arrested after becoming snagged on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.
2001 - NATO soldiers streamed into Macedonia as part of a mission to help end six months of ethnic hostilities by collecting and destroying rebel weapons.
Birthdays Today
1593 - Fulvio Testi, Italian poet (Pianto d'Italia)
1754 - Louis XVI, Versailles, king of France (1774-93) eventually guillotined
1785 - Oliver Hazard Perry (American naval officer: Battle of Lake Erie: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours.")
1869 - Edger Lee Masters (poet: Spoon River Anthology)
1903 - William Primrose, Glasgow Scot, violist (Method for Violin & Viola)
1912 - Gene Kelly (dancer, actor: Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, Anchors Aweigh,The Three Musketeers, Marjorie Morningstar, Inherit the Wind, North and South Book I; director: Singin' in the Rain, Hello, Dolly!, A Guide for the Married Man, The Cheyenne Social Club) His real name was Eugene Curan and he was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kelly debuted on Broadway in 1938 musical 'Pal Joey' and in the film 'For Me and My Gal' four years later
1917 - Tex Williams (singer: Smoke, Smoke, Smoke [that Cigarette], Shame on You, The Rose of the Alamo, Bluebird on Your Windowsill, Bottom of a Mountain)
1922 - George Kell (Baseball Hall of Famer: Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles)
1923 - Richard Adler, composer/songwriter (Damn Yankees, Pajama Game)
1923 - Wolfgang Sawallisch, Munich Ger, conductor (Vienna Symph 1960-70)
1925 - Jean Darling (LeVake) (actress: March of the Wooden Soldiers, Little Rascals-Book 17)
1929 - Peter Thompson (golf champion: British Open [1954, 55, 56, 58, 65])
1930 - Vera Miles (Ralston) (actress: The Wrong Man, Psycho, The FBI Story, Autumn Leaves, Into the Night, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Sergeant Ryker, Jigsaw, Our Family Business)
1934 - Barbara Eden (Huffman) (actress: I Dream of Jeannie, Harper Valley P.T.A., The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Seven Faces of Dr. Lao)
1934 - Johnny Romano (baseball)
1934 - Sonny (Christian) Jurgensen (Pro Football Hall of Famer: Washington Redskins QB: shares record for longest pass completion [99 yds. - 1968]; Philadelphia Eagles; broadcasting: sports announcer)
1936 - Rudy Lewis (singer: group: Drifters: Up on the Roof, On Broadway)
1940 - Richard Sanders (actor: WKRP in Cincinnati, You Can't Take It with You, Spencer, Berrengers, Forbidden Choices, Neon City)
1942 - Nancy Richey Gunter (tennis)
1942 - Patricia McBride, Teaneck, NJ, ballerina (NYC Ballet Co)
1945 - Tom Boerwinkle (basketball)
1947 - Keith Moon (singer, drummer: group: The Who: Substitute, I'm a Boy, Happy Jack, Pinball Wizard, See Me, Feel Me; solo: Two Sides of the Moon; actor: Sextette, Tommy, That'll Be the Day)
1948 - Ron Blomberg (baseball)
1949 - Rick Springfield (singer: Jessie's Girl; actor: General Hospital, Hard to Hold, The Human Target)
1949 - Shelley Long (Emmy Award-winning actress: Cheers [1982-83], Irreconcilable Differences, Outrageous Fortune, Troop Beverly Hills, Night Shift, Don't Tell Her It's Me, The Brady Bunch Movie, The Money Pit)
1951 - Jimi Jamison (singer: group: Survivor: I Can't Hold Back, Burning Heart)
1951 - Lisa Najeeb Halaby (Queen Noor) (wife of Jordan's King Hussein)
1951 - Mark Hudson (singer: group: The Hudson Brothers: So You are a Star, Rendevous; TV: The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Comedy Show)
1970 - River Phoenix (actor: Running on Empty, Stand By Me, This Thing Called Love, Sneakers, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Little Nikita, The Mosquito Coast, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers)
1977 - Nicole Bobeck, Chic, figure skater (US Champ 1995)
Famous deaths
0634 - Aboe Bekr Abd Allah, [al-Siddik], friend/successor of Mohammed, dies
1305 - William Wallace, Scottish patriot, hanged, disemboweled & beheaded
1819 - Oliver Hazard Perry, naval hero, dies on 34th birthday
1869 - James "Sunny Jim" Rolph, Mayor (1912-1931), Muni backer.
1914 - Felix Fivet, Belgian baby, executed by German troops at 3 weeks
1926 - Rudolph Valentino, silent movie idol (Sheik), dies in NY at 31sending his fans into hysterical mourning [H]
1927 - Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti, executed in Mass., despite worldwide demonstrations in support of their innocence [H]
1937 - Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel, composer, dies at 68
1960 - Oscar Hammerstein II, Broadway librettist, dies at 65
1989 - Yusef Hawkins, shot by 30 whites in Bensonhurst because he's black
1990 - David Rose, composer (Holiday for Strings, Stripper), dies at 80
1992 - Wayne McLaren, Marlboro Man, dies of lung cancer at 51
1995 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, photojournalist, dies at 96
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
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