Discover

Contents

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical feasts

External links

Events

★ 1329 - Pope John XXII issues his 'In Agro Dominico' condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical.

★ 1513 (not 1512 as often cited) - Explorer Juan Ponce de León sights North America (specifically Florida) for the first time, mistaking it for another island.

★ 1613 - First English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy.

★ 1625 - Charles I becomes King of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as claiming the title King of France.

★ 1782 - Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

★ 1794 - The government of the United States establishes a permanent United States Navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.

★ 1794 - Denmark and Sweden form a neutrality compact.

★ 1814 - War of 1812: In central Alabama, United States forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

★ 1834 - Andrew Jackson is censured by the U.S. Senate for his actions regarding the U.S. National Bank.

★ 1836 - Texas Revolution: Goliad massacre - Antonio López de Santa Anna orders the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texans at Goliad, Texas.

★ 1846 - Mexican-American War: Siege of Fort Texas.

★ 1851 - First reported case of Europeans seeing Yosemite Valley.

★ 1854 - Crimean War: United Kingdom declares war on Russia.

★ 1868 - ??The Lake Ontario Shore Railroad Company is organized in Oswego, New York.

★ 1871 - First international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.

★ 1881 - Rioting takes place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of rigid Temperence by the Salvation Army

★ 1890 - A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 and injuring 200.

★ 1906 - Founding of the Alpine Club of Canada in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

★ 1918 - Moldova and Bessarabia join Romania.

★ 1938 - Battle of Tai er zhuang.

★ 1941 - World War II: Yugoslavian Air Force officers topple the pro-axis government in a bloodless coup.

★ 1942 -World War II: United Kingdom forces raid the U-boat base at St. Nazaire, France.

★ 1943 - World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands - In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.

★ 1945 - World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.

★ 1948 - The Second Congress of the Workers Party of North Korea is convened.

★ 1958 - Nikita Khrushchev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.

★ 1963 - Dr. Richard Beeching issues a report calling for huge cuts to the United Kingdom's rail network. See Beeching axe.

★ 1964 - The Good Friday Earthquake, the most powerful earthquake in U.S. history at a magnitude of 9.2 strikes South Central Alaska, killing 125 people and inflicting massive damage to the city of Anchorage.

★ 1968 - Yuri Gagarin, Soviet Cosmonaut, first human in space dies in aircraft training accident.

★ 1969 - Mariner 7 is launched.

★ 1970 - The Concorde makes its first supersonic flight

★ 1971 - SS Texaco Oklahoma breaks in half and sinks off Cape Hatteras, killing 31 of 44 aboard.

★ 1976 - The first 4.6 miles of the Washington, DC Metro system is opened.

★ 1977 - Tenerife disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583.

★ 1980 - The Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.

★ 1980 - Silver Thursday market crash.

★ 1986 - Car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing 1 police officer, Angela Taylor, and injuring 21 people.

★ 1990 - The United States begins broadcasting TV Martí to Cuba in an effort to bridge the information blackout imposed by the Castro regime.

★ 1993 - Jiang Zemin is appointed President of the People's Republic of China.

★ 1994 - One of the biggest tornado outbreaks in recent memory hits the Southeastern United States. One tornado slams into a church in Piedmont, Alabama during Palm Sunday services killing 20 and injuring 90.

★ 1998 - The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States.

★ 1999 - Kosovo War: Army of Yugoslavia downed F117A nighthawk.

★ 2002 - Passover Massacre: A suicide bomber kills 29 people in Netanya, Israel.

★ 2004 - HMS ''Scylla'', a decommissioned Leander frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.

★ 2006 - The UN Commission on Human Rights holds its final meeting.

★ 2007 - Michael Phelps breaks world record in 200m freestyle with time of 1:43.86 in Melbourne Australia

Births

★ 972 - King Robert II of France (d. 1031)

★ 1416 - Antonio Squarcialupi, Italian composer (d. 1480)

★ 1627 - Stephen Fox, English politician (d. 1716)

★ 1676 - Francis II Rákóczi, leader of the Hungarian uprising against the Habsburg (d. 1735)

★ 1696 - Antoine Court, French Huguenot minister (d. 1760)

★ 1702 - Johann Ernst Eberlin, German composer (d. 1762)

★ 1712 - Claude Bourgelat, French veterinary surgeon (d. 1779)

★ 1714 - Francesco Antonio Zaccaria, Italian theologian and historian (d. 1795)

★ 1730 - Thomas Tyrwhitt, English classical scholar (d. 1786)

★ 1746 - Michael Bruce, Scottish poet (d. 1767)

★ 1765 - Franz Xaver von Baader, German philosopher and theologian (d. 1841)

★ 1785 - King Louis XVII of France (d. 1795)

★ 1797 - Alfred de Vigny, French author (d. 1863)

★ 1809 - Baron Haussmann, French civic planner (d. 1891)

★ 1810 - William Hepworth Thompson, English classical scholar (d. 1886)

★ 1813 - Nathaniel Currier, American illustrator (d. 1888)

★ 1817 - Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, Swiss biologist (d. 1891)

★ 1845 - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)

★ 1847 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1931)

★ 1851 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)

★ 1857 - Karl Pearson, English statistician (d. 1936)

★ 1859 - George Giffen, Australian cricketer (d. 1927)

★ 1860 - Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar (d. 1924)

★ 1863 - Sir Henry Royce, English automobile pioneer (d. 1933)

★ 1869 - James McNeill, Irish politician (d. 1938)

★ 1871 - Heinrich Mann, German writer (d. 1950)

★ 1879 - Miller Huggins, American baseball player and manager (d. 1929)

★ 1883 - Marie Under, Estonian author and poet (d. 1980)

★ 1886 - Sergey Kirov, Russian bolshevik leader (d. 1934)

★ 1886 - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect (d. 1969)

★ 1892 - Ferde Grofé, American composer (d. 1972)

★ 1893 - Karl Mannheim, Hungarian sociologist (d. 1947)

★ 1899 - Gloria Swanson, American actress (d. 1983)

★ 1897 - Douglas Hartree, English mathematical physicist (d. 1958)

★ 1901 - Carl Barks, American illustrator (d. 2000)

★ 1901 - Sasaki Naojiro, Japanese author (d. 1943)

★ 1901 - Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (d. 1963)

★ 1901 - Eisaku Sato, Prime Minister of Japan, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1975)

★ 1901 - Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (d. 1971)

★ 1902 - Charles Lang, American cinematographer (d. 1998)

★ 1905 - Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer (d. 1980)

★ 1906 - Pee Wee Russell, American musician (d. 1969)

★ 1909 - Golo Mann, German historian (d. 1994)

★ 1909 - Ben Webster, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1973)

★ 1912 - James Callaghan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)

★ 1913 - Theodor Dannecker, SS officer (d. 1945)

★ 1914 - Richard Denning, American actor (d. 1998)

★ 1914 - Budd Schulberg, American screenwriter and novelist

★ 1915 - Robert Lockwood Jr., American blues guitarist (d. 2006)

★ 1917 - Cyrus Vance, American politician (d. 2002)

★ 1920 - Robin Jacques, illustrator (d. 1995)

★ 1921 - Harold Nicholas, American dancer (d. 2000)

★ 1922 - Stefan Wul, French author (d. 2003)

★ 1923 - Endo Shusaku, Japanese author (d. 1996)

★ 1923 - Louis Simpson, Jamaican-born poet

★ 1924 - Sarah Vaughan, American singer (d. 1990)

★ 1927 - Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (d. 2007)

★ 1931 - David Janssen, American actor (d. 1980)

★ 1935 - Abelardo Castillo, Argentine writer

★ 1935 - Julian Glover, British actor

★ 1937 - Thomas Aquinas Daly, American painter

★ 1939 - Cale Yarborough, American race car driver

★ 1940 - Janis Martin, American singer (d. 2007)

★ 1941 - Ivan Gašparovič, President of Slovakia

★ 1942 - John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

★ 1942 - Michael York, English actor

★ 1942 - Michael Jackson, English writer (d. 2007)

★ 1946 - Olaf Malolepski, German musician (Die Flippers)

★ 1947 - Brian Jones, British balloonist

★ 1947 - Walt Mossberg, the highest-paid journalist at the Wall Street Journal

★ 1950 - Tony Banks, English musician (Genesis)

★ 1950 - Lynn McGlothen, American baseball player (d. 1984)

★ 1952 - Maria Schneider, French actress

★ 1952 - Richard Séguin, Quebec singer and songwriter

★ 1956 - Leung Kwok Hung, Hong Kong activist

★ 1956 - Thomas Wassberg, Swedish cross-country skier

★ 1957 - Nick Hawkins, British politician

★ 1959 - Andrew Farriss, Australian musician (INXS)

★ 1960 - Hans Pflügler, German footballer

★ 1961 - Tak Matsumoto, Japanese guitarist (B'z)

★ 1961 - Tony Rominger, Swiss cyclist

★ 1962 - Jann Arden, Canadian musician

★ 1963 - Charly Alberti, Argentinian musician

★ 1963 - Randall Cunningham American football player

★ 1963 - Quentin Tarantino, American director, writer, and producer

★ 1963 - Xuxa, Brazilian television personality

★ 1964 - Glenn Carter, English actor and singer-songwriter

★ 1966 - Paula Trickey, American actress

★ 1967 - Paul Adams, American celebrity

★ 1967 - Talisa Soto, American actress

★ 1968 - Sandra Hess, Swiss-born actress and model

★ 1969 - Keith Flint, member of British group The Prodigy

★ 1969 - Pauley Perrette, American actress, photographer, poet, writer

★ 1970 - Mariah Carey, American singer

★ 1970 - Brendan Hill, British drummer (Blues Traveler)

★ 1970 - Princess Leila of Iran (d. 2001)

★ 1970 - Elizabeth Mitchell, American actress

★ 1971 - Thom Barron, German porn star

★ 1971 - David Coulthard, Scottish Formula One driver

★ 1971 - Nathan Fillion, Canadian actor

★ 1972 - Charlie Haas, professional wrestler

★ 1972 - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dutch footballer

★ 1974 - Russ Haas, wrestler (d. 2001)

★ 1974 - Gaizka Mendieta, Spanish footballer

★ 1975 - Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson, American musician (Black Eyed Peas)

★ 1976 - Carl Ng, Hong Kong/British actor and model

★ 1977 - Violet Blue, American porn star

★ 1977 - Vitor Meira, Brazilian racing driver

★ 1977 - Adrian Anca, Romanian footballer

★ 1979 - Michael Cuddyer, Minnesota Twins baseball player

★ 1981 - Lin Jun Jie, Chinese Singer

★ 1981 - Terry McFlynn, Northern Irish footballer

★ 1982 - Kurara Chibana, Japanese beauty queen, first runner-up Miss Universe 2006

★ 1985 - Caroline Winberg, Swedish supermodel

★ 1986 - Valerie "So Cal Val" Wyndham, American professional wrestling valet

★ 1987 - Chad Denny, Canadian ice hockey player

★ 1988 - Brenda Song, American actress

★ 1995 - Taylor Atelian, American actress

★ 1997 - Princess Sara bint Al Faisal, of Jordan

★ 1997 - Princess Aisha bint Al Faisal, of Jordan

Deaths

★ 973 - Herman, Duke of Saxony

★ 1191 - Pope Clement III

★ 1350 - King Alfonso XI of Castile (b. 1312)

★ 1378 - Pope Gregory XI

★ 1462 - Vasili II of Russia, Grand Prince of Moscow (b. 1415)

★ 1482 - Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold; wife of Maximilian I (b. 1457)

★ 1555 - William Hunter, Protestant martyr

★ 1572 - Girolamo Maggi, Italian Renaissance man (b. abt. 1523)

★ 1625 - King James I of England and Ireland, James VI of Scotland (b. 1566)

★ 1635 - Robert Naunton, English politician (b. 1563)

★ 1697 - Simon Bradstreet, English colonial magistrate (b. 1603)

★ 1757 - Johann Stamitz, Czech-born composer (b. 1717)

★ 1770 - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian artist (b. 1696)

★ 1809 - Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter (b. 1716)

★ 1827 - François Alexandre Frédéric, French social reformer (b. 1747)

★ 1836 - James Fannin, Texas revolutionary (b. 1804)

★ 1843 - Karl Salomo Zachariae von Lingenthal, German jurist (b. 1769)

★ 1849 - Archibald Acheson, 2nd Earl of Gosford (b. 1776)

★ 1850 - Wilhelm Beer, German astronomer (b. 1797)

★ 1864 - Jean-Jacques Ampère, French scholar (b. 1800)

★ 1865 - Petrus Hoffman Peerlkamp, Dutch scholar (b. 1786)

★ 1873 - Amedée Simon Dominique Thierry, French journalist and historian (b. 1797)

★ 1875 - Edgar Quinet, French historian (b. 1803)

★ 1878 - Sir George Gilbert Scott, English architect (b. 1811)

★ 1889 - John Bright, English statesman (b. 1811)

★ 1898 - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian Muslim intellectual (b. 1817)

★ 1910 - Alexander Emanuel Agassiz, American scientist; son of Louis Agassiz (b. 1835)

★ 1918 - Henry Adams, American historian (b. 1838)

★ 1923 - Sir James Dewar, Scottish chemist (b. 1842)

★ 1924 - Walter Parratt, English composer (b. 1841)

★ 1926 - Georges Vézina, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1887)

★ 1927 - Joe Start, American baseball player (b. 1842)

★ 1931 - Arnold Bennett, British novelist (b. 1867)

★ 1940 - Michael Joseph Savage, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1872)

★ 1967 - Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)

★ 1967 - Jim Thompson, American designer (disappeared) (b. 1906)

★ 1968 - Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1934)

★ 1972 - Sharkey Bonano, American musician (b. 1904)

★ 1972 - M.C. Escher, Dutch artist (b. 1898)

★ 1977 - A. P. Hamann, American politician

★ 1977 - Diana Hyland, American actress (b. 1936)

★ 1981 - Mao Dun, Chinese writer (b. 1895)

★ 1989 - May Allison, American actress (b. 1890)

★ 1989 - Jack Starrett, American actor and film director (b. 1936)

★ 1991 - Ralph Bates, British actor (b. 1940)

★ 1991 - Aldo Ray, American actor (b. 1926)

★ 1992 - Easley Blackwood, American bridge player (b. 1903)

★ 1993 - Clifford Jordan, American saxophonist and bandleader (b. 1931)

★ 1993 - Paul László, Hungarian interior designer and architect (b. 1900)

★ 1998 - David McClelland, American psychologist (b. 1917)

★ 1998 - Ferry Porsche, Austrian automobile manufacturer (b. 1909)

★ 2000 - Ian Dury, English musician (b. 1942)

★ 2002 - Milton Berle, American actor and comedian (b. 1908)

★ 2002 - Dudley Moore, British actor (b. 1935)

★ 2002 - Billy Wilder, American director (b. 1906)

★ 2003 - Daniel Ceccaldi, French actor (b. 1927)

★ 2003 - Ricardo Munguia, Salvadoran aid worker

★ 2003 - Paul Zindel, American writer (b. 1936)

★ 2004 - Adán Sánchez, Mexican-American singer (b. 1984)

★ 2005 - Wilfred Bigelow, Canadian heart surgeon (b. 1913)

★ 2005 - Bob Casey, American baseball announcer (b. 1925)

★ 2005 - Grant Johannesen, American concert pianist (b. 1921)

★ 2006 - Dan Curtis, American television producer and director (b. 1928)

★ 2006 - Stanisław Lem, Polish writer (b. 1921)

★ 2006 - Ruari McLean, British typographer (b. 1917)

★ 2006 - Lyn Nofziger, American journalist and political advisor to Ronald Reagan (b. 1924)

★ 2007 - Paul Lauterbur, American chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances

★ Angolan Victory Day.

★ Osweiler in Luxembourg.

Liturgical feasts

★ Feast day of Rupert of Salzburg in the Roman Catholic Church.

★ St. John of Egypt

★ St. Augusta

★ St. Lydia

External links

★ BBC: On This Day

★

★ On This Day in Canada
----