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Contents

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Liturgical feasts

External links

Events

★ 240 BC - 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.

★ 1282 - The people of Sicily rebel against the Angevin king Charles I, in what becomes known as the Sicilian Vespers.

★ 1296 - Edward I sacks Berwick-upon-Tweed, during armed conflict between Scotland and England.

★ 1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella sign the Alhambra decree aimed at expelling all Jews from Spain unless they convert to Roman Catholicism.

★ 1814 - Napoleonic Wars: Sixth Coalition forces march into Paris.

★ 1822 - Florida Territory created in the United States.

★ 1842 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation by Dr. Crawford Long.

★ 1844 - One of the most important battles of the Dominican War of Independence from Haiti takes place near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.

★ 1855 - Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas - "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.

★ 1856 - The Treaty of Paris (1856) is signed, ending the Crimean War.

★ 1858 - Hymen Lipman patents a pencil with an attached eraser.

★ 1863 - Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.

★ 1867 - Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. The news media call this Seward's Folly.

★ 1870 - Mississippi is readmitted to the Union following Reconstruction.

★ 1885 - The Battle for Kushka triggers the Pandjeh Incident which nearly gives rise to war between the British Empire and Russian Empire.

★ 1909 - The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan & Queens.

★ 1910 - Mississippi Legislature founded The University of Southern Mississippi.

★ 1912 - Sultan Abdelhafid signs the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French protectorate.

★ 1939 - The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets the world airspeed record of 463 mph.

★ 1939 - First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway.

★ 1940 - Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.

★ 1945 - World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna, Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.

★ 1945 - World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans.

★ 1951 - Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.

★ 1954 - Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada.

★ 1961 - The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.

★ 1965 - Vietnam War: A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.

★ 1972 - Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.

★ 1979 - Airey Neave, a British politician, is killed by a car bomb as he exits the Palace of Westminster. The Irish National Liberation Army claims responsibility.

★ 1981 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr.

★ 1982 - Space Shuttle program: STS-3 Mission completed with the landing of ''Columbia'' at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

★ 2006 - Marcos Pontes is the first Brazilian astronaut in space.

★ 2006 - UK Terrorism Act 2006 becomes law.

Births

★ 1135 - Maimonides, Spanish rabbi and philosopher (d. 1204)

★ 1326 - Ivan II of Russia, Grand Duke of Muscovy (d. 1359)

★ 1432 - Mehmed II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1481)

★ 1640 - John Trenchard, English politician (d. 1695)

★ 1746 - Francisco Goya, Spanish painter (d. 1828)

★ 1750 - John Stafford Smith, English composer (d. 1836)

★ 1820 - Anna Sewell, British author (d. 1878)

★ 1844 - Paul Verlaine, French poet (d. 1896)

★ 1853 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890)

★ 1857 - Leon Charles Thevenin, French telegraph engineer (d. 1926)

★ 1864 - Franz Oppenheimer, German sociologist (d. 1943)

★ 1879 - Coen de Koning, Dutch ice skater (d. 1954)

★ 1880 - Sean O'Casey, Irish dramatist (d. 1964)

★ 1892 - Fortunato Depero, Italian artist (d. 1960)

★ 1892 - Erhard Milch, German field marshal (d. 1972)

★ 1894 - Sergey Ilyushin, Russian aerospace engineer (d. 1977)

★ 1895 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1975)

★ 1895 - Jean Giono, French author (d. 1970)

★ 1899 - Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, well known Bengali writer (d. 1970)

★ 1902 - Brooke Astor, American philanthropist (d. 2007)

★ 1902 - Ted Heath, British musician and band leader (d. 1969)

★ 1903 - Countee Cullen, American poet (d. 1946)

★ 1904 - Ripper Collins, baseball player (d. 1970)

★ 1910 - Józef Marcinkiewicz, mathematician (d. 1940)

★ 1913 - Marc Davis, American animator (d. 2000)

★ 1913 - Richard Helms, American CIA director (d. 2002)

★ 1913 - Frankie Laine, American singer (d. 2007)

★ 1913 - Censu Tabone, President of Malta

★ 1914 - Sonny Boy Williamson I, American musician (d. 1948)

★ 1919 - McGeorge Bundy, American National Security Advisor (d. 1996)

★ 1922 - Turhan Bey, Turkish actor

★ 1923 - Milton Acorn, Canadian poet (d. 1986)

★ 1926 - Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish entrepreneur

★ 1927 - Peter Marshall, American game show host

★ 1928 - Robert Badinter, French politician

★ 1929 - Richard Dysart, American actor

★ 1930 - John Astin, American actor

★ 1930 - Rolf Harris, Australian artist and entertainer

★ 1932 - Ted Morgan, Swiss-born writer

★ 1933 - Jean-Claude Brialy, French actor and director

★ 1935 - Willie Galimore, American football player (d. 1964)

★ 1937 - Warren Beatty, American actor and director

★ 1940 - Jerry Lucas, American basketball player

★ 1941 - Graeme Edge, British musician (Moody Blues)

★ 1941 - Wasim Sajjad, President of Pakistan

★ 1945 - Eric Clapton, British guitarist/singer

★ 1948 - Mervyn King, British economist

★ 1949 - Lene Lovich, American singer

★ 1949 - Naomi Sims, American fashion model and businesswoman

★ 1949 - Liza Frulla, Quebec politician

★ 1950 - Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor and comedian

★ 1951 - Yves Séguin, Quebec politician

★ 1952 - Peter Knights, Australian footballer and coach

★ 1955 - Randy VanWarmer, American singer, guitarist and songwriter (d. 2004)

★ 1956 - Bill Butler, Scottish politician

★ 1957 - Paul Reiser, American actor

★ 1958 - Maurice LaMarche, Canadian voice actor

★ 1959 - Peter Ellis, convicted child abuser

★ 1959 - Sabine Meyer, German clarinetist

★ 1961 - Doug Wickenheiser, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1999)

★ 1963 - Eli-Eri Moura, Brazilian composer and conductor

★ 1964 - Tracy Chapman, American singer

★ 1964 - Ian Ziering, American actor

★ 1964 - Dave Ellett, Canadian hockey player

★ 1966 - Joey Castillo, American drummer (Queens of the Stone Age)

★ 1966 - Efstratios Grivas, Greek chess grandmaster and author

★ 1967 - Hayashibara Megumi, Japanese voice actress and singer

★ 1968 - Donna D'Errico, American actress and model

★ 1968 - Celine Dion, Canadian singer

★ 1970 - Mark Consuelos, American actor

★ 1970 - Secretariat, American racehorse (d. 1989)

★ 1972 - Mili Avital, Israeli-American actress

★ 1973 - Jan Koller, Czech footballer

★ 1975 - Bahar Soomekh, American actress

★ 1976 - Mark McClelland, Northern Irish musician (Degrassi)

★ 1976 - Ty Conklin, American ice hockey player

★ 1976 - Obadele Thompson, Barbadian athlete

★ 1978 - Chris Paterson, Scottish rugby player

★ 1978 - Fabian Basabe, American reality series star

★ 1979 - Norah Jones, American singer and pianist

★ 1979 - Simon Webbe, English singer

★ 1980 - Yalin, Turkish singer and songwriter

★ 1980 - Ricardo Osorio, Mexican footballer

★ 1982 - Pitbull, American latin rapper

★ 1982 - Jason Dohring, American actor

★ 1983 - Jérémie Aliadière, French footballer

★ 1983 - Zach Gowen, American professional wrestler

★ 1983 - Scott Moffatt, Canadian singer and songwriter

★ 1983 - Hebe (Fuzhen) Tian, member of the Taiwanese girl-group S.H.E

★ 1983 - Davis Romero, Panamanian baseball player

★ 1984 - Anna Nalick, American singer and songwriter

★ 1984 - Mario Ancic, Croatian tennis player

★ 1986 - Sergio Ramos, Spanish footballer

★ 1986 - Beni Arashiro, Japanese singer

Deaths

★ 1486 - Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury

★ 1526 - Konrad Mutian, German humanist (b. 1471)

★ 1540 - Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, German statesman and Archbishop of Salzburg (b. 1469)

★ 1559 - Adam Ries, German mathematician (b. 1492)

★ 1587 - Ralph Sadler, English statesman (b. 1507)

★ 1662 - François le Métel de Boisrobert, French poet (b. 1592)

★ 1707 - Vauban, French architect (b. 1633)

★ 1764 - Pietro Locatelli, Italian composer (b. 1695)

★ 1783 - William Hunter, Scottish anatomist (b. 1718)

★ 1804 - Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France (b. 1718)

★ 1840 - Beau Brummell, English celebrity and dandy (b. 1778)

★ 1842 - Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, French painter (b. 1755)

★ 1879 - Thomas Couture, French painter and teacher (b. 1815)

★ 1886 - Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, French Canadian politician (b. 1838)

★ 1896 - Charilaos Trikoupis, seven times prime-minister of Greece (b. 1832)

★ 1912 - Karl May, German author (b. 1842)

★ 1925 - Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher

★ 1936 - Conchita Supervía, Spanish opera singer (b. 1895)

★ 1943 - Jan Bytnar, Polish activist (b. 1921)

★ 1943 - Maciej Aleksy Dawidowski, Polish activist (b. 1920)

★ 1949 - Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)

★ 1950 - Léon Blum, French prime minister (b. 1872)

★ 1959 - Daniil Andreev, Russian writer and mystic (b. 1906)

★ 1965 - Philip Showalter Hench, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)

★ 1966 - Maxfield Parrish, American artist (b. 1870)

★ 1967 - Jean Toomer, American writer (b. 1894)

★ 1968 - Bobby Driscoll, American actor (b. 1937)

★ 1970 - Heinrich Brüning, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1885)

★ 1972 - Gabriel Heatter, American radio commentator (b. 1890)

★ 1977 - Abdel Halim Hafez, Egyptian singer and actor (b. 1929)

★ 1981 - DeWitt Wallace, American publisher (b. 1889)

★ 1984 - Karl Rahner, German theologian (b. 1904)

★ 1985 - Harold Peary, American actor and singer (heart attack) (b. 1908)

★ 1986 - James Cagney, American actor (b. 1899)

★ 1988 - Edgar Faure, French politician (b. 1908)

★ 1992 - Manolis Andronikos, Greek archeologist, professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (b. 1919)

★ 1999 - Gary Morton, American film and television producer (b. 1924)

★ 2002 - Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Queen Mother of the United Kingdom (b. 1900)

★ 2003 - Michael Jeter, American actor (b. 1952)

★ 2003 - Valentin Pavlov, Prime Minister of the Soviet Union (b. 1937)

★ 2004 - Alistair Cooke, English-born journalist (b. 1908)

★ 2004 - Hubert Gregg, British broadcaster (b. 1914)

★ 2004 - Michael King, New Zealand historian (b. 1945)

★ 2004 - Timi Yuro, American singer (b. 1940)

★ 2005 - Emil Dimitrov, Bulgarian singer (b. 1940)

★ 2005 - Robert Creeley, American poet (b. 1926)

★ 2005 - Milton Green, American athlete (b. 1913)

★ 2005 - Fred Korematsu, American civil rights activist (b. 1919)

★ 2005 - O. V. Vijayan, Indian author and cartoonist (b. 1930)

★ 2005 - Derrick Plourde, American drummer (b. 1971)

★ 2006 - Red Hickey, American football coach (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances

★ Roman Empire - Festival devoted to Salus.

★ Land Day.

★ Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day - Public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago.

★ National Doctor's Day

Liturgical feasts

★ Saint John Climacus (died 649)

★ Saint Quirinus (d. 117)

★ Saint Veronus

★ Tola of Clonard

★ Blessed Amadeus IX of Savoy

External links

★ BBC: On This Day

★

★ On This Day in Canada
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