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Contents

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

Religious observances

Notes and References

External links

Events

★ 306 - Maxentius is proclaimed Roman Emperor.

★ 312 - Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman Emperor.

★ 1061 - Empress Agnes, acting as Regent for her son, brings about the election of Bishop Cadalus, the antipope Honorius II

★ 1492 - Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba.

★ 1516 - Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza.

★ 1531 - Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia falls under Imam Ahmad's control.

★ 1538 - The first university in the New World, the Universidad Santo Tomás de Aquino, is established.

★ 1628 - The Siege of La Rochelle, which had been ongoing for 14 months, ends with Huguenot surrender

★ 1636 - A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.

★ 1664 - The Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, is established.

★ 1775 - American Revolutionary War A British proclamation forbids residents from leaving Boston.

★ 1776 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of White Plains - British Army forces arrive at White Plains, attack and capture Chatterton Hill from the Americans.

★ 1834 - The Battle of Pinjarra occurs in the Swan River Colony in present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia. Between 14 and 40 Aborigines are killed by British colonists.

★ 1848 - The first railroad in Spain - between Barcelona and Mataró - is opened.

★ 1864 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends - Union Army forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.

★ 1868 - Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, an electrical vote recorder.

★ 1886 - In New York Harbor, President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty.

★ 1893 - Tchaikovksy's Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, ''Pathétique'', premiered in St. Petersburg, only nine days before the composer's death.

★ 1905 - George Bernard Shaw's ''Mrs. Warren's Profession'' is first performed in New York; though it had previously been performed in London, it had been censored, and the American performance was the first on the public stage.

★ 1914 - The single largest one-day percentage decline of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the recorded history of the New York stock market.

★ 1918 - World War I: Czechoslovakia is granted its independence from Austria-Hungary.

★ 1918 - The German fleet is immobilized when sailors mutiny en masse and disobey an order to leave port five times; 1,000 would ultimately be arrested.

★ 1918 - New Polish government in Western Galicia (Central Europe) is established.

★ 1919 - The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January.

★ 1922 - March on Rome: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini march on Rome and take over the Italian government.

★ 1936 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.

★ 1940 - World War II: Italy invades Greece through Albania. This was the selected anniversary of Greece's entry into World War II. It is celebrated in Greece as Okhi Day (Όχι=No) Day.

★ 1941 - Holocaust in Kaunas, Lithuania: German SS forces arrange the massacre of more than 9,000 Jews of the Kaunas ghetto. After the victims assembled on the Demokratu square at 6 am to be shot they are buried in gigantic ditches.

★ 1942 - The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.

★ 1942 - Holocaust: 2,000 Jewish children and 6,000 Jewish adults from Cracow are deported by Germans to Belzec death camp.

★ 1942 - Holocaust: SS directive orders all Jewish children's mittens and stockings to be sent from the death camps to the SS families.

★ 1943 - The alleged Philadelphia Experiment supposedly occurred.

★ 1948 - Swiss chemist Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

★ 1949 - Georges Bidault becomes Prime Minister of France

★ 1950 - The Jack Benny Show, starring Jack Benny, premieres on American TV. It ran for 15 years.

★ 1954 - The modern Kingdom of the Netherlands is re-founded as a federal monarchy.

★ 1956 - The second-generation Tsutenkaku tower in Osaka is opened to the public.

★ 1958 - Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes the Pope and takes the name Pope John XXIII.

★ 1961 - Chuck Berry goes on trial for the second time.

★ 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

★ 1962 - Y.A. Tittle of the New York Giants became the third quarterback in NFL history to throw seven touchdown passes in one game.

★ 1964 - Vietnam War: U.S. officials deny any involvement in bombing North Vietnam.

★ 1965 - French foreign minister Couve de Murville travels to Moscow.

★ 1965 - Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions" of the Second Vatican Council, is promulgated by Pope Paul VI; it absolves the Jews of the alleged killing of Jesus, reversing Innocent III's declaration from 760 years ago. In short, Pope Paul VI announces that the ecumenical council has decided that Jews are not collectively responsible for the killing of Christ.

★ 1965 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall parabolic (catenarian) stainless steel Gateway Arch monument is completed.

★ 1970 - The land speed record set by Gary Gabelich in a rocket-powered automobile called the Blue Flame, fueled with natural gas.

★ 1971 - Britain launches its first (and as of 2007, only) satellite, Prospero, into low Earth orbit atop a Black Arrow carrier rocket.

★ 1976 - John D. Ehrlichman, former domestic policy adviser of President Nixon and convicted Watergate felon, arrives at the Swift Trail Camp minimum-security facility in southeastern Arizona.

★ 1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan debate in Cleveland, Ohio. Reagan's genial, witty performance causes him to overtake Carter in the polls.

★ 1981 - The heavy metal band Metallica is founded.

★ 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.

★ 1985 - The English-language version of the musical ''Les Miserables'' premieres in London.

★ 1985 - Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and makes peace overtures to the United States; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

★ 1986 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is re-celebrated in New York Harbor.

★ 1988 - The French drug manufacturer Roussel Uclaf states that it will resume distribution of the so-called abortion drug RU-486.

★ 1997 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains a record 337.17 points to close at 7,498.32.

★ 1998 - An Air China (Mainland China) jetliner is hijacked by disgruntled pilot Yuan Bin and flown to Taiwan.

★ 2005 - Plame affair: Lewis Libby, Vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is indicted in the Valerie Plame case. Libby resigns later that day.

★ 2006 - Voting on a new constitution that would make Kosovo officially a part of Serbia begins; voter turnout on day one was low. (BBC)

★ 2006 - Funeral service for the peace of the executed at Bykivnia forest, outside of Kiev, Ukraine, with reburial of 817 Ukrainian civilians (out of some 100.000) executed by bolsheviks at Bykivnia in 1930s - early 1940s.

Births

★ 1510 - Francis Borgia, Spanish duke and Jesuit priest (d. 1572)

★ 1585 - Cornelius Jansen, Dutch bishop (d. 1638)

★ 1667 - Maria Anna of Neuburg, second wife of Charles II of Spain (d. 1740)

★ 1691 - Peder Tordenskjold, Norwegian naval hero (d. 1720)

★ 1697 - Canaletto, Italian artist (d. 1768)

★ 1703 - Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (d. 1768)

★ 1718 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian Jesuit missionary (d. 1793)

★ 1793 - Eliphalet Remington, American firearms manufacturer (d. 1861)

★ 1804 - Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician (d. 1849)

★ 1818 (O.S.) - Ivan Turgenev, Russian writer (d. 1883)

★ 1845 - Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski, Polish physicist (d. 1888)

★ 1846 - Georges Auguste Escoffier, French chef (d. 1935)

★ 1875 - Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, American geographer and editor (d. 1966)

★ 1877 - Joe Adams, American baseball player (d. 1952)

★ 1881 - Bruno Söderström, Swedish athlete (d. 1969)

★ 1885 (O.S.) - Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet (d. 1922)

★ 1891 - Ormer Locklear, American movie stunt pilot (d. 1920)

★ 1892 - Dink Johnson, American musician (d. 1954)

★ 1896 - Howard Hanson, American composer (d. 1981)

★ 1902 - Elsa Lanchester, British-born actress (d. 1986)

★ 1903 - Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)

★ 1907 - Edith Head, American costume designer (d. 1981)

★ 1907 - John Harold Hewitt, Northern Irish poet (d. 1987)

★ 1908 - Arturo Frondizi, President of Argentina (d. 1995)

★ 1909 - Francis Bacon, Anglo-Irish painter (d. 1992)

★ 1912 - Richard Doll, English epidemiologist (d. 2005)

★ 1914 - Jonas Salk, American medical scientist (d. 1995)

★ 1914 - Richard Laurence Millington Synge, Nobel laureate (d. 1994)

★ 1914 - Glenn Robert Davis, U.S. Congressman (d. 1988)

★ 1915 - Paul Jarrico, American screenwriter (d. 1997)

★ 1917 - Jack Soo, American actor (d. 1979)

★ 1922 - Gershon Kingsley, German composer

★ 1922 - Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwe politician (d. 2003)

★ 1926 - Bowie Kuhn, American Commissioner of Baseball (d. 2007)

★ 1927 - Dame Cleo Laine, British singer

★ 1928 - Ion Mihai Pacepa, Romanian general

★ 1929 - Joan Plowright, British actress

★ 1929 - Marcel Bozzuffi, French actor (d. 1988)

★ 1929 - John Hollander, American poet

★ 1930 - Bernie Ecclestone, English racing official

★ 1932 - Suzy Parker, American actress (d. 2003)

★ 1933 - Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (d. 1983)

★ 1936 - Charlie Daniels, American musician

★ 1936 - Curtis Lee, American singer

★ 1936 - Carl Davis, American-born musical conductor and composer

★ 1937 - Lenny Wilkens, American basketball player and coach

★ 1938 - David Dimbleby, English television commentator

★ 1938 - Anne Perry, English-born novelist

★ 1939 - Jane Alexander, American actress

★ 1939 - Miroslav Cerar, Yugoslav gymnast

★ 1940 - Susan Harris, American television writer and producer

★ 1941 - John Hallam, Irish actor

★ 1941 - Hank Marvin, English guitarist

★ 1942 - Kees Verkerk, Dutch speed skater

★ 1943 - Conny Froboess, German singer

★ 1943 - Charo López, Spanish actress

★ 1944 - Dennis Franz, American actor

★ 1944 - Anton Schlecker, German billionaire

★ 1944 - Coluche, French comedian and actor (d. 1986)

★ 1946 - Wim Jansen, Dutch footballer and coach

★ 1946 - John Hewson, Australian politician

★ 1948 - Telma Hopkins, American singer (Tony Orlando and Dawn)

★ 1949 - Bruce Jenner, American athlete

★ 1949 - Tracy Reed, American actress

★ 1950 - Sihem Bensedrine, Tunisian human rights activist

★ 1952 - Annie Potts, American actress

★ 1953 - Pierre Boivin, Canadian businessman and hockey executive

★ 1955 - Bill Gates, American software executive

★ 1956 - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran

★ 1956 - Dave Wyndorf, American singer (Monster Magnet)

★ 1962 - Daphne Zuniga, American actress

★ 1962 - Scotty Nguyen, professional poker player

★ 1963 - Lauren Holly, American actress

★ 1963 - James Miller, the "Fan Man" (d. 2002)

★ 1963 - Eros Ramazzotti, Italian singer

★ 1965 - Jami Gertz, American actress

★ 1965 - Luigi Miraglia, Italian Latinist

★ 1966 - Steve Atwater, American football player

★ 1967 - Julia Roberts, American actress

★ 1967 - John Romero, American video game designer

★ 1967 - Sophie, Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein

★ 1969 - Ben Harper. American musician

★ 1969 - Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Puerto Rican screenwriter and producer

★ 1972 - Terrell Davis, American football player

★ 1972 - Brad Paisley, American musician

★ 1973 - Montel Vontavious Porter, Pro Wrestler

★ 1974 - Joaquin Phoenix, Puerto Rican-born actor

★ 1974 - Vicente Moreno, Spanish footballer

★ 1974 - Braden Looper, American baseball player

★ 1974 - Dejan Stefanović, Serbian footballer

★ 1974 - Dayanara Torres, Puerto Rican actress and beauty queen

★ 1975 - Antonio Banks, American professional wrestler

★ 1976 - Karl Tremblay, Canadian singer (Les Cowboys Fringants)

★ 1979 - Aki Hakala, Finnish drummer (The Rasmus)

★ 1979 - Martin Škoula, Czech ice hockey player

★ 1980 - Alan Smith, English footballer

★ 1980 - Christy Hemme, American professional wrestler

★ 1980 - Kanzi, Most Literate Non-Human

★ 1981 - Milan Baroš, Czech footballer

★ 1981 - Solomon Andargachew, Ethiopian footballer

★ 1982 - Jeremy Bonderman, American baseball player

★ 1982 - Mai Kuraki, Japanese singer

★ 1982 - Anthony Lerew, American baseball player

★ 1983 - Jarrett Jack, American basketball player

★ 1984 - Obafemi Martins, Nigerian footballer

★ 1996 - Naelee Rae, American actress

★ 1996 - Jasmine Jessica Anthony, American actress

Deaths

★ 312 - Maxentius, Roman emperor (b. c. 278)

★ 1225 - Jien, Japanese poet and historian (b. 1155)

★ 1312 - Elisabeth of Tirol, German queen

★ 1412 - Margaret I of Denmark, wife of Haakon VI of Norway (b. 1353)

★ 1485 - Rodolphus Agricola, Dutch humanist (b. 1443)

★ 1520 - Pier Gerlofs Donia, Frisian pirate and freedom fighter

★ 1568 - Ashikaga Yoshihide, Japanese shogun (b. 1539)

★ 1627 - Jahangir, Mughal Emperor of India (b. 1569)

★ 1639 - Stefano Landi, Italian composer (b. 1587)

★ 1646 - William Dobson, English painter (b. 1610)

★ 1661 - Agustín Moreto y Cavana, Spanish playwright (b. 1518)

★ 1676 - Jean Desmarets, French writer (b. 1595)

★ 1703 - John Wallis, English mathematician (b. 1616)

★ 1704 - John Locke, English philosopher (b. 1632)

★ 1708 - Prince George of Denmark, consort of Queen Anne of England (b. 1653)

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

★ 1740 - Empress Anna of Russia (b. 1693)

★ 1754 - Friedrich von Hagedorn, German poet (b. 1708)

★ 1755 - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, French composer (b. 1689)

★ 1763 - Heinrich, count von Brühl, German statesman (b. 1700)

★ 1768 - Michel Blavet, French flutist (b. 1700)

★ 1792 - Paul Möhring, German physician and scientist (b. 1710)

★ 1792 - John Smeaton, English civil engineer (b. 1724)

★ 1800 - Artemas Ward, American politician and soldier (b. 1727)

★ 1806 - Charlotte Turner Smith, English poet and novelist (b. 1749)

★ 1818 - Abigail Adams, First Lady of the United States (b. 1744)

★ 1841 - Johan August Arfwedson, Swedish chemist (b. 1792)

★ 1857 - Louis Eugène Cavaignac, French soldier and politician (b. 1802)

★ 1877 - Robert Swinhoe, British naturalist (b. 1835)

★ 1879 - Marie Roch Louis Reybaud, French writer (b. 1799)

★ 1897 - Hercules Robinson, British colonial administrator (b. 1824)

★ 1899 - Ottmar Mergenthaler, German-born inventor (tuberculosis) (b. 1854)

★ 1900 - Max Müller, German-born orientalist (b. 1823)

★ 1916 - Cleveland Abbe, American meteorologist (b. 1838)

★ 1916 - Oswald Boelcke, German pilot (b. 1891)

★ 1917 - Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (b. 1831)

★ 1918 - Ulisse Dini, Italian mathematician (b. 1845)

★ 1929 - Bernhard von Bülow, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1849)

★ 1952 - Billy Hughes, seventh Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1862)

★ 1957 - Ernst Gräfenberg, German physician and scientist (b. 1881)

★ 1959 - Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary (b. 1932)

★ 1965 - Earl Bostic, American saxophonist (b. 1913)

★ 1969 - Constance Dowling, American actress (b. 1920)

★ 1973 - Taha Hussein, Egyptian writer (b. 1889)

★ 1973 - Sergio Tofano, Italian actor (b. 1883)

★ 1975 - Georges Carpentier, French boxer (b. 1894)

★ 1975 - Oliver Nelson, American jazz composer and arranger (b. 1932)

★ 1986 - John Braine, English novelist (b. 1922)

★ 1987 - André Masson, French artist (b. 1896)

★ 1998 - Ted Hughes, English poet (b. 1930)

★ 2000 - Lída Baarová, Czech actress (b. 1914)

★ 2000 - Carlos Guastavino, Argentine composer (b. 1912)

★ 2001 - Gerard Hengeveld, Dutch composer (b. 1910)

★ 2002 - Margaret Booth, American film editor (b. 1898)

★ 2002 - Erling Persson, Swedish entrepreneur (b. 1917)

★ 2004 - Jimmy McLarnin, Northern Irish-born boxer (b. 1907)

★ 2005 - Eugene K. Bird, German prison director (b. 1926)

★ 2005 - Bob Broeg, American sports writer (b. 1918)

★ 2005 - Raymond Hains, French artist (b. 1926)

★ 2005 - Tony Jackson, American basketball player (b. 1942)

★ 2005 - Fernando Quejas, Cape Verdean singer and musician (b. 1922)

★ 2005 - Richard Smalley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1943)

★ 2005 - Ljuba Tadić, Serbian actor (b. 1929)

★ 2006 - Red Auerbach, American basketball coach and executive (b. 1917)

★ 2006 - Trevor Berbick, Jamaican boxer (b. 1955)

★ 2006 - Marijohn Wilkin, American songwriter (b. 1920)

Holidays and observances

★ Day of death of the god Osiris during the pagan celebration the Discovery of Osiris (''Inventio Osiridis'').^[1]

★ Czechoslovakia - granted its independence from Austria-Hungary (1918); This is a holiday in the Czech Republic and Remembrance Day in Slovakia.

★ Greece - Oxi (No) Day marking the beginning of the invasion of Greece by Italy via Albania (1940)

Religious observances

★ Christian feast days

★
★ Abdias of Babylon^[2]

★
★ Abgar V of Edessa

★
★ St. Abraham

★
★ St. Anastasia II

★
★ St. Anglinus

★
★ St. Eadsin

★
★ St. Ferrutius

★
★ St. Fidelis of Como

★
★ Saint Godwin

★
★ St. Honoratus of Vercelli

★
★ Saint Job of Pochayiv

★
★ St. John Dat

★
★ Saint Jude (a.k.a Saint Thaddaeus or "of James")

★
★ St. Remigius

★
★ St. Salvius

★
★ St. Simon the Zealot (erroneously a.k.a. "the Canaanite")

Notes and References

1. Pagan Christ Osiris
2. Holweck, F. G. ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints''. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1924.

External links

★ BBC: On This Day

★

★ On This Day in Canada
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