Important events in history
on August 17 ^th

Events

2019
1. A bomb explodes at a wedding in Kabul killing 63 people and leaving 182 injured.
  1. 17 August 2019 Kabul bombing
    
    On 17 August 2019, a suicide bombing took place during a wedding in a wedding hall in Kabul, Afghanistan. At least 92 people were killed in the attack and over 140 injured. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the bombing, stating that the attack targeted the Shi'ites. More than 1,000 people were gathered for the wedding when the attack took place. The attack occurred a day before the 100th Afghan Independence Day, causing the government to postpone the planned celebrations taking place at the Darul Aman Palace. It was the deadliest attack in Kabul since January 2018.
2017
1. Barcelona attacks: A van is driven into pedestrians in La Rambla, killing 14 and injuring at least 100.
  1. 2017 Barcelona attacks
    
    On the afternoon of 17 August 2017, 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van into pedestrians on La Rambla in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain killing 13 people and injuring at least 130 others, one of whom died 10 days later on 27 August. Abouyaaqoub fled the attack on foot, then killed another person in order to steal the victim's car to make his escape.
2015
1. A bomb explodes near the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, killing at least 19 people and injuring 123 others.
  1. 2015 Bangkok bombing
    
    On 17 August 2015, a bombing took place inside the Erawan Shrine at the Ratchaprasong intersection in Pathum Wan District, Bangkok, Thailand, killing 20 people and injuring 125. Thai police were reported to have arrested two suspects, the second of whom confessed to having been the bomber. He later retracted his confession.
  2. Erawan Shrine
    
    The Erawan Shrine, formally the Thao Maha Phrom Shrine, is a shrine in Bangkok, Thailand, which houses a statue of Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of Brahma, the Hindu god of creation. The name might also refer to Mahabrahma, the ruler of the Brahma realm in Asian mythology.
  3. Bangkok
    
    Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres (605.7 sq mi) in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population of 10.539 million as of 2020, 15.3 percent of the country's population. Over 14 million people lived within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region at the 2010 census, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, dwarfing Thailand's other urban centres in both size and importance to the national economy.
2009
1. A hydroelectric turbine at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Russia catastrophically failed, flooding the turbine hall, killing 75 people and causing widespread power outages.
  1. Water turbine
    
    A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work.
  2. Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam
    
    The Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam is located on the Yenisei River, near Sayanogorsk in Khakassia, Russia. It is the largest power plant in Russia and the 9th-largest hydroelectric plant in the world, by average power generation. The full legal name of the power plant, OJSC [Open Joint-Stock Society] P. S. Neporozhny Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP [hydro power plant], refers to the Soviet-time Minister of Energy and Electrification Pyotr Neporozhny. As of 2009 the head of the power plant was Valery Kyari.
  3. Sayano-Shushenskaya power station accident
    
    On 17 August 2009, a turbine at the hydroelectric power station of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam near Sayanogorsk in Russia failed catastrophically, flooding the turbine hall and killing 75 people. A section of the roof of the turbine hall collapsed; all but one of the ten turbines were damaged or destroyed. The entire plant output, totalling 6,400 megawatts (MW) – a significant portion of the supply to the local area – was lost, leading to widespread power outages. An official report on the accident was released in October 2009.
2. An accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, kills 75 and shuts down the hydroelectric power station, leading to widespread power failure in the local area.
  1. Sayano-Shushenskaya power station accident
    
    On 17 August 2009, a turbine at the hydroelectric power station of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam near Sayanogorsk in Russia failed catastrophically, flooding the turbine hall and killing 75 people. A section of the roof of the turbine hall collapsed; all but one of the ten turbines were damaged or destroyed. The entire plant output, totalling 6,400 megawatts (MW) – a significant portion of the supply to the local area – was lost, leading to widespread power outages. An official report on the accident was released in October 2009.
  2. Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam
    
    The Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam is located on the Yenisei River, near Sayanogorsk in Khakassia, Russia. It is the largest power plant in Russia and the 9th-largest hydroelectric plant in the world, by average power generation. The full legal name of the power plant, OJSC [Open Joint-Stock Society] P. S. Neporozhny Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP [hydro power plant], refers to the Soviet-time Minister of Energy and Electrification Pyotr Neporozhny. As of 2009 the head of the power plant was Valery Kyari.
  3. Khakassia
    
    Khakassia, officially the Republic of Khakassia, is a federal subject of Russia. Its capital city is Abakan, which is also the largest city in the republic. As of the 2010 Census, the republic's population was 532,403.
2008
1. Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Summer Olympics, the most golds by any person at a single games.
  1. Michael Phelps
    
    Michael Fred Phelps II is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (23), Olympic gold medals in individual events (13), and Olympic medals in individual events (16). When Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, he broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Phelps already tied the record of eight medals of any color at a single Games by winning six gold and two bronze medals. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four gold and two silver medals, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won five gold medals and one silver. This made him the most successful athlete of the Games for the fourth Olympics in a row.
  2. 2008 Summer Olympics
    
    The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and also known as Beijing 2008, were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competed in 28 sports and 302 events, one event more than those scheduled for the 2004 Summer Olympics. This was the first time China had hosted the Olympic Games, and the third time the Summer Olympic Games had been held in East Asia, following the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. These were also the second Summer Olympic Games to be held in a communist state, the first being the 1980 Summer Olympics in the Soviet Union.
2. American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals at one Olympic Games.
  1. Michael Phelps
    
    Michael Fred Phelps II is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (23), Olympic gold medals in individual events (13), and Olympic medals in individual events (16). When Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, he broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Phelps already tied the record of eight medals of any color at a single Games by winning six gold and two bronze medals. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four gold and two silver medals, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won five gold medals and one silver. This made him the most successful athlete of the Games for the fourth Olympics in a row.
2005
1. The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of Israeli disengagement from Gaza, starts.
  1. Israeli settlement
    
    Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
  2. Israeli disengagement from Gaza
    
    The Israeli disengagement from Gaza was the unilateral dismantling in 2005 of the 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of Israeli settlers and army from inside the Gaza Strip.
2. Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh.
  1. 2005 Bangladesh bombings
    
    On 17 August 2005, around 500 bomb explosions occurred at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh. The bombs exploded within a half-hour period starting from 11:30 am. A terrorist organization, Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) claimed responsibility for the bombings. The group, led by Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqur Rahman. Another terrorist group, named Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, was associated with JMB in executing the co-ordinated attack. Following the bombings, both groups were banned by the BNP Government of Bangladesh.
  2. Bangladesh
    
    Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of 148,460 square kilometres (57,320 sq mi). Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world, and shares land borders with India to the west, north, and east, and Myanmar to the southeast; to the south it has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal. It is narrowly separated from Bhutan and Nepal by the Siliguri Corridor; and from China by the Indian state of Sikkim in the north. Dhaka, the capital and largest city, is the nation's political, financial and cultural centre. Chittagong, the second-largest city, is the busiest port on the Bay of Bengal. The official language is Bengali, one of the easternmost branches of the Indo-European language family.
2004
1. The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Bože pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.
  1. National Assembly (Serbia)
    
    The National Assembly is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are proportionally elected to four-year terms by secret ballot. The assembly elects a president (speaker) who presides over the sessions.
  2. Serbia
    
    Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest, and claims a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo. Serbia with Kosovo has about 8.6 million inhabitants. Its capital Belgrade is also the largest city.
  3. Bože pravde
    
    "Bože pravde" is the national anthem of Serbia, as defined by the Article 7 of the Constitution of Serbia. "Bože pravde" was the state anthem of the Kingdom of Serbia until 1919 when Serbia became a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was re-adopted as the national anthem at first by the parliamentary recommendation on the use in 2004 and then constitutionally sanctioned in 2006, after Serbia became independent again.
  4. Coat of arms of Serbia
    
    The coat of arms of the Republic of Serbia is the coat of arms determined by the Law on the Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Serbia of June 16, 1882. It was officially readopted by the National Assembly in 2004 and later slightly redesigned in 2010. The coat of arms consists of two main heraldic symbols which represent the national identity of the Serbian people across the centuries, the Serbian eagle and the Serbian cross.
1999
1. An earthquake registering 7.6 Mw northwestern Turkey, killing more than 17,000 people and leaving more than 250,000 homeless.
  1. 1999 İzmit earthquake
    
    On the 17th of August, 1999 at 3:01 AM local time, a catastrophic magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Kocaeli Province of Turkey, causing monumental damage and 17,127–18,373 deaths. Named for the quakes proximity to the northeastern city of Izmit, the earthquake is also commonly referred to as the August 17 Earthquake or the 1999 Gölcük Earthquake. The earthquake occurred on 00:01 UTC at a shallow depth of 15 km. A maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme) was observed, marking this event as one of the most destructive earthquakes in the history of the region. The earthquake lasted for 37 seconds, causing seismic damage and becoming widely remembered as one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern Turkish history.
  2. Moment magnitude scale
    
    The moment magnitude scale is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 paper by Thomas C. Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori. Similar to the local magnitude scale (ML ) defined by Charles Francis Richter in 1935, it uses a logarithmic scale; small earthquakes have approximately the same magnitudes on both scales.
2. The 7.6 Mw  İzmit earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 17,118–17,127 dead and 43,953–50,000 injured.
  1. 1999 İzmit earthquake
    
    On the 17th of August, 1999 at 3:01 AM local time, a catastrophic magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Kocaeli Province of Turkey, causing monumental damage and 17,127–18,373 deaths. Named for the quakes proximity to the northeastern city of Izmit, the earthquake is also commonly referred to as the August 17 Earthquake or the 1999 Gölcük Earthquake. The earthquake occurred on 00:01 UTC at a shallow depth of 15 km. A maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme) was observed, marking this event as one of the most destructive earthquakes in the history of the region. The earthquake lasted for 37 seconds, causing seismic damage and becoming widely remembered as one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern Turkish history.
  2. Turkey
    
    Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It shares borders with the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is located off the south coast. Turks form the vast majority of the nation's population and Kurds are the largest minority. Ankara is Turkey's capital, while Istanbul is its largest city and financial centre.
  3. Modified Mercalli intensity scale
    
    The Modified Mercalli intensity scale, developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the effects of an earthquake at a given location, distinguished from the earthquake's inherent force or strength as measured by seismic magnitude scales. While shaking is caused by the seismic energy released by an earthquake, earthquakes differ in how much of their energy is radiated as seismic waves. Deeper earthquakes also have less interaction with the surface, and their energy is spread out across a larger volume. Shaking intensity is localized, generally diminishing with distance from the earthquake's epicenter, but can be amplified in sedimentary basins and certain kinds of unconsolidated soils.
1998
1. Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; later that same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.
  1. Clinton–Lewinsky scandal
    
    The Clinton–Lewinsky scandal was a sex scandal involving Bill Clinton, the president of the United States, and Monica Lewinsky, a 24-year-old White House intern. Their sexual relationship lasted between 1995 and 1997. Clinton ended a televised speech in late January 1998 with the later infamous statement: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the impeachment of Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives. He was subsequently acquitted on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day U.S. Senate trial.
  2. Bill Clinton
    
    William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became known as a New Democrat, as many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. He is the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was a senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.
  3. White House
    
    The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. The term "White House" is often used as a metonym for the president and his advisers.
  4. Monica Lewinsky
    
    Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American activist and writer. President Bill Clinton admitted to having an affair with Lewinsky while she worked at the White House as an intern in 1995 and 1996. The affair, and its repercussions, became known later as the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.
1991
1. Strathfield massacre: In Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots seven people and injures six others before turning the gun on himself.
  1. Strathfield massacre
    
    The Strathfield massacre was a shooting rampage at a shopping mall in Strathfield, Sydney, Australia, on 17 August 1991. The shooter was Wade Frankum, who killed himself as police arrived at the scene. The incident left eight dead and six wounded.
1988
1. President of Pakistan Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
  1. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
    
    General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in 1977. Zia served in office until his death in a plane crash in 1988. He remains the country's longest-serving de facto head of state and Chief of Army Staff.
  2. Arnold Lewis Raphel
    
    Arnold Lewis Raphel was the 18th United States Ambassador to Pakistan.
  3. Death and state funeral of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
    
    The state funeral of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was held on 19 August 1988 in the Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. General Zia-ul-Haq, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) who was also serving as the President of Pakistan, was killed when a C-130 Hercules plane crashed near the Sutlej river on 17 August 1988. Several conspiracy theories exist regarding this incident, as other high-profile civilian and military personnel also died in the crash including the Chairman Joint chiefs General Akhtar Abdur Rehman and the United States Ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Lewis Raphel, and the military attaché, Brigadier General Herbert M. Wassom.
1985
1. The 1985–86 Hormel strike begins in Austin, Minnesota.
  1. 1985–1986 Hormel strike
    
    The 1985–1986 Hormel strike was a labor strike that involved approximately 1,500 workers of the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota in the United States. The strike, beginning August 17, 1985 and lasting until September 13 of the following year, is considered one of the longest strikes in Minnesota history and ended in failure for the striking workers.
  2. Austin, Minnesota
    
    Austin is a city in, and the county seat of, Mower County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 26,174 at the 2020 census. The town was originally settled along the Cedar River and has two artificial lakes, East Side Lake and Mill Pond. It was named for Austin R. Nichols, the area's first European settler.
1978
1. Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
  1. Double Eagle II
    
    Double Eagle II, piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman, became the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it landed 17 August 1978 in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours 6 minutes after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
  2. Balloon (aeronautics)
    
    In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that can propel itself through the air in a controlled manner.
  3. Miserey
    
    Miserey is a commune in the Eure department in the Normandy region in Northern France. In 2017, it had a population of 629.
  4. Presque Isle, Maine
    
    Presque Isle is the commercial center and largest city in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 8,797 at the 2020 Census. The city is home to the University of Maine at Presque Isle, Northern Maine Community College, Husson University Presque Isle, Northern Maine Fairgrounds, The Aroostook Centre Mall, and the Presque Isle International Airport.
1977
1. The Soviet nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika became the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.
  1. Nuclear-powered icebreaker
    
    A nuclear-powered icebreaker is an icebreaker with an onboard nuclear power plant that produces power for the vessel's propulsion system. As of 2022, Russia is the only country that builds and operates nuclear-powered icebreakers, having built a number of such vessels to aid shipping along the Northern Sea Route since the Soviet times. Nuclear-powered icebreakers are much more powerful than their diesel-powered counterparts. Although nuclear propulsion is expensive to install and maintain, very heavy fuel demands, limitations on range, and difficulty refueling in the Arctic region can make diesel vessels less practical and less economical overall for these ice-breaking duties.
  2. Arktika (1972 icebreaker)
    
    Arktika is a retired nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Soviet Arktika class. In service from 1975 to 2008, she was the first surface ship to reach the North Pole, a feat achieved on August 17, 1977, during an expedition dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution.
  3. North Pole
    
    The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Magnetic North Pole.
2. The Soviet icebreaker Arktika becomes the first surface ship to reach the North Pole.
  1. Arktika (1972 icebreaker)
    
    Arktika is a retired nuclear-powered icebreaker of the Soviet Arktika class. In service from 1975 to 2008, she was the first surface ship to reach the North Pole, a feat achieved on August 17, 1977, during an expedition dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the October Revolution.
  2. North Pole
    
    The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Magnetic North Pole.
1976
1. A magnitude 7.9 earthquake hits off the coast of Mindanao, Philippines, triggering a destructive tsunami, killing between 5,000-8,000 people and leaving more than 90,000 homeless.
  1. 1976 Moro Gulf earthquake
    
    The 1976 Moro Gulf earthquake and tsunami took place on August 17, 1976, at 00:11 local time near the islands of Mindanao and Sulu, in the Philippines. Its magnitude was calculated as being as high as 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale.
  2. Mindanao
    
    Mindanao is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of the same name that also includes its adjacent islands, notably the Sulu Archipelago. According to the 2020 census, Mindanao has a population of 26,252,442 people, while the entire island group has an estimated population of 27,021,036 according to the 2021 census.
  3. Philippines
    
    The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the northwest. The Philippines covers an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) and, as of 2021, it had a population of around 109 million people, making it the world's thirteenth-most populous country. The Philippines has diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the country's capital, while the largest city is Quezon City; both lie within the urban area of Metro Manila.
1970
1. Venera program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).
  1. Venera
    
    The Venera program was the name given to a series of space probes developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather information about the planet Venus. Ten probes successfully landed on the surface of the planet, including the two Vega program and Venera-Halley probes, while thirteen probes successfully entered the Venusian atmosphere. Due to the extreme surface conditions on Venus, the probes could only survive for a short period on the surface, with times ranging from 23 minutes to two hours.
  2. Venera 7
    
    Venera 7 was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface on 15 December 1970, it became the first spacecraft to soft land on another planet and the first to transmit data from there back to Earth.
  3. Venus
    
    Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus appears in Earth's sky never far from the Sun, either as morning star or evening star. Aside from the Sun and Moon, Venus is the brightest natural object in Earth's sky, capable of casting visible shadows on Earth at dark conditions and being visible to the naked eye in broad daylight.
1969
1. Hurricane Camille struck the Mississippi coast of the United States, killing 259 people and causing $1.42 billion in damage..
  1. Hurricane Camille
    
    Hurricane Camille was the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. The most intense storm of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season, Camille originated as a tropical depression on August 14, south of Cuba, from a long-tracked tropical wave. Located in a favorable environment for strengthening, the storm quickly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane before striking the western part of Cuba on August 15. Emerging into the Gulf of Mexico, Camille underwent another period of rapid intensification and became a Category 5 hurricane the next day as it moved northward towards the Louisiana–Mississippi region. Despite weakening slightly on August 17, the hurricane quickly re-intensified back into a Category 5 hurricane before it made landfall a half-hour before midnight in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. At peak intensity, the hurricane had peak 1-minute sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 900 mbar (26.58 inHg). This was the second-lowest pressure recorded for a U.S. landfall, and is one of just four hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S at Category 5 status. Only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane had a lower pressure at landfall. As Camille pushed inland, it quickly weakened and was a tropical depression by the time it was over the Ohio Valley. Once it emerged offshore, Camille was able to restrengthen to a strong tropical storm, before it became extratropical on August 22. Camille was absorbed by a frontal storm over the North Atlantic later that day.
  2. Mississippi
    
    Mississippi is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mississippi's western boundary is largely defined by the Mississippi River. Mississippi is the 32nd largest and 35th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states and has the lowest per-capita income in the United States. Jackson is both the state's capital and largest city. Greater Jackson is the state's most populous metropolitan area, with a population of 591,978 in 2020.
2. Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the U.S. Gulf Coast, killing 256 and causing $1.42 billion in damage.
  1. Saffir–Simpson scale
    
    The Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS) classifies hurricanes—which in the Western Hemisphere are tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical storms—into five categories distinguished by the intensities of their sustained winds. This measuring system was formerly known as the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale, or SSHS.
  2. Hurricane Camille
    
    Hurricane Camille was the second most intense tropical cyclone on record to strike the United States, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. The most intense storm of the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season, Camille originated as a tropical depression on August 14, south of Cuba, from a long-tracked tropical wave. Located in a favorable environment for strengthening, the storm quickly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane before striking the western part of Cuba on August 15. Emerging into the Gulf of Mexico, Camille underwent another period of rapid intensification and became a Category 5 hurricane the next day as it moved northward towards the Louisiana–Mississippi region. Despite weakening slightly on August 17, the hurricane quickly re-intensified back into a Category 5 hurricane before it made landfall a half-hour before midnight in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. At peak intensity, the hurricane had peak 1-minute sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 900 mbar (26.58 inHg). This was the second-lowest pressure recorded for a U.S. landfall, and is one of just four hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S at Category 5 status. Only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane had a lower pressure at landfall. As Camille pushed inland, it quickly weakened and was a tropical depression by the time it was over the Ohio Valley. Once it emerged offshore, Camille was able to restrengthen to a strong tropical storm, before it became extratropical on August 22. Camille was absorbed by a frontal storm over the North Atlantic later that day.
  3. Gulf Coast of the United States
    
    The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and these are known as the Gulf States.
1962
1. Peter Fechter is shot and bleeds to death while trying to cross the new Berlin Wall.
  1. Killing of Peter Fechter
    
    Peter Fechter was a German bricklayer who became the twenty-seventh known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Fechter was 18 years old when he was shot and killed by East German border guards while trying to cross over to West Berlin.
  2. List of deaths at the Berlin Wall
    
    There were numerous deaths at the Berlin Wall, which stood as a barrier between West Berlin and East Berlin from 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989. Before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin. From there they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration.
1959
1. American musician Miles Davis released Kind of Blue, which became one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time.
  1. Miles Davis
    
    Miles Dewey Davis III was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musical directions in a five-decade career that kept him at the forefront of many major stylistic developments in jazz.
  2. Kind of Blue
    
    Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Columbia Records. For the recording, Davis led a sextet featuring saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track – "Freddie Freeloader" – in place of Evans.
  3. Jazz
    
    Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals.
2. Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.2 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.
  1. Quake Lake
    
    Quake Lake is a lake in the western United States, on the Madison River in southwestern Montana. It was created after an earthquake struck on August 17, 1959, with 28 fatalities. Northwest of West Yellowstone, Quake Lake is six miles (10 km) in length with a maximum depth of 125 feet (38 m).
  2. 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake
    
    The 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake occurred in the western United States on August 17 at 11:37 pm (MST) in southwestern Montana.
  3. Hebgen Lake
    
    Hebgen Lake is a reservoir created by the Hebgen Dam, located in Gallatin County in southwest Montana. It is well known for the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake which occurred nearby on August 17, 1959, forming Quake Lake, which is located immediately downstream.
  4. Montana
    
    Montana is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan to the north. It is the fourth-largest state by area, the eighth-least populous state, and the third-least densely populated state. Its state capital is Helena. The western half of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges, while the eastern half is characterized by western prairie terrain and badlands, with smaller mountain ranges found throughout the state.
1958
1. Pioneer 0, America's first attempt at lunar orbit, is launched using the first Thor-Able rocket and fails. Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country.
  1. Pioneer 0
    
    Pioneer 0 was a failed United States space probe that was designed to go into orbit around the Moon, carrying a television camera, a micrometeorite detector and a magnetometer, as part of the first International Geophysical Year (IGY) science payload. It was designed and operated by the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division as the first spacecraft in the Pioneer program and was the first attempted launch beyond Earth orbit by any country, but the rocket failed shortly after launch. The probe was intended to be called Pioneer, but the launch failure precluded that name.
1955
1. Hurricane Diane made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, and it went on to cause major floods and kill more than 184 people.
  1. Hurricane Diane
    
    Hurricane Diane was the first Atlantic hurricane to cause more than an estimated $1 billion in damage, including direct costs and the loss of business and personal revenue. It formed on August 7 from a tropical wave between the Lesser Antilles and Cape Verde. Diane initially moved west-northwestward with little change in its intensity, but began to strengthen rapidly after turning to the north-northeast. On August 12, the hurricane reached peak sustained winds of 105 mph (165 km/h), making it a Category 2 hurricane. Gradually weakening after veering back west, Diane made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, as a strong tropical storm on August 17, just five days after Hurricane Connie struck near the same area. Diane weakened further after moving inland, at which point the United States Weather Bureau noted a decreased threat of further destruction. The storm turned to the northeast, and warm waters from the Atlantic Ocean helped produce record rainfall across the northeastern United States. On August 19, Diane emerged into the Atlantic Ocean southeast of New York City, becoming extratropical two days later and completely dissipating by August 23.
  2. Wilmington, North Carolina
    
    Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.
1953
1. First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place, in Southern California.
  1. Narcotics Anonymous
    
    Narcotics Anonymous (NA), founded in 1953, describes itself as a "nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem." Narcotics Anonymous uses a 12-step model developed for people with varied substance use disorders and is the second-largest 12-step organization.
  2. Southern California
    
    Southern California is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban agglomeration in the United States. The region generally contains ten of California's 58 counties: Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
1950
1. Korean War: Forty-two American prisoners of war were massacred by the Korean People's Army on a hill above Waegwan, South Korea.
  1. Korean War
    
    The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union while South Korea was supported by the United States and allied countries. The fighting ended with an armistice on 27 July 1953.
  2. Prisoner of war
    
    A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
  3. Hill 303 massacre
    
    The Hill 303 massacre was a war crime that took place during the opening days of the Korean War on August 17, 1950, on a hill above Waegwan, Republic of Korea. Forty-one United States Army (US) prisoners of war were murdered by troops of the North Korean People's Army (KPA) during one of the engagements of the Battle of Pusan Perimeter.
  4. Korean People's Army
    
    The Korean People's Army is the military force of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Under the Songun policy, it is the central institution of North Korean society. Currently, WPK General Secretary Kim Jong-un serves as Supreme Commander and the chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission. The KPA consists of five branches: the Ground Force, the Naval Force, the Air and Anti-Air Force, the Strategic Rocket Forces, and the Special Operation Force.
  5. Waegwan
    
    Waegwan is the seat of government for Chilgok County, North Gyeongsang province, South Korea. It consists primarily of the administrative district of Waegwan-eup. It is situated on both sides of the Nakdong River, which is traversed by railroad, automobile and pedestrian bridges.
1949
1. The 6.7 Ms  Karlıova earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 320–450 dead.
  1. 1949 Karlıova earthquake
    
    The 1949 Karlıova earthquake occurred at 18:44 UTC on 17 August with an epicenter near Karlıova in Bingöl Province, Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. It had an estimated magnitude of 6.7, a maximum felt intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale, and caused 320–450 casualties and destroyed 3,500 buildings.
  2. Turkey
    
    Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. It shares borders with the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest. Cyprus is located off the south coast. Turks form the vast majority of the nation's population and Kurds are the largest minority. Ankara is Turkey's capital, while Istanbul is its largest city and financial centre.
  3. Modified Mercalli intensity scale
    
    The Modified Mercalli intensity scale, developed from Giuseppe Mercalli's Mercalli intensity scale of 1902, is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the effects of an earthquake at a given location, distinguished from the earthquake's inherent force or strength as measured by seismic magnitude scales. While shaking is caused by the seismic energy released by an earthquake, earthquakes differ in how much of their energy is radiated as seismic waves. Deeper earthquakes also have less interaction with the surface, and their energy is spread out across a larger volume. Shaking intensity is localized, generally diminishing with distance from the earthquake's epicenter, but can be amplified in sedimentary basins and certain kinds of unconsolidated soils.
2. Matsukawa derailment: Unknown saboteurs cause a passenger train to derail and overturn in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, killing three crew members and igniting a political firestorm between the Japanese Communist Party and the government of Occupied Japan that will eventually lead to the Japanese Red Purge.
  1. Matsukawa derailment
    
    The Matsukawa derailment occurred at 03:09 AM on August 17, 1949 when a Tōhoku Main Line passenger train derailed and overturned between Kanayagawa and Matsukawa stations in Fukushima Prefecture of Japan, killing three crew members. Together with the Mitaka and Shimoyama incidents, it was one of three major criminal cases involving allegations of sabotage blamed by the government on Japanese Communist Party and the Japan National Railway Union in the immediate post-war era. Twenty people were arrested and seventeen were convicted in 1953, but eventually all were acquitted on appeal, and the case was closed without determining the real cause in 1970.
  2. Tōhoku Main Line
    
    The Tōhoku Main Line is a 575.7 km (357.7 mi) long railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company. The line starts from Tokyo Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and passes through such cities as Saitama, Utsunomiya, Fukushima, and Sendai, before reaching the end of the line in Morioka. The line originally extended to Aomori, but was truncated upon the extension of the Tōhoku Shinkansen beyond Morioka, which mostly parallels the Tōhoku Main Line. A portion of the Tōhoku Main Line is also shared with the Keihin–Tōhoku Line and the Saikyō Line.
  3. Fukushima Prefecture
    
    Fukushima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 and has a geographic area of 13,783 square kilometres (5,322 sq mi). Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi Prefecture and Yamagata Prefecture to the north, Niigata Prefecture to the west, Gunma Prefecture to the southwest, and Tochigi Prefecture and Ibaraki Prefecture to the south.
  4. Japan
    
    Japan is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north toward the East China Sea, Philippine Sea, and Taiwan in the south. Japan is a part of the Ring of Fire, and spans an archipelago of 6852 islands covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the five main islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Fukuoka, Kobe, and Kyoto.
  5. Japanese Communist Party
    
    The Japanese Communist Party is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world.
  6. Occupation of Japan
    
    Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States with support from the British Commonwealth and under the supervision of the Far Eastern Commission, involved a total of nearly 1 million Allied soldiers. The occupation was overseen by American General Douglas MacArthur, who was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers by US President Harry Truman; MacArthur was succeeded as supreme commander by General Matthew Ridgway in 1951. Unlike in the occupation of Germany, the Soviet Union had little to no influence over the occupation of Japan, declining to participate because it did not want to place Soviet troops under MacArthur's direct command.
  7. Red Purge
    
    The Red Purge was an anticommunist movement in occupied Japan from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. Carried out by the Japanese government and private corporations with the aid and encouragement of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), the Red Purge saw tens of thousands of alleged members, supporters, or sympathizers of left-wing groups, especially those said to be affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party, removed from their jobs in government, the private sector, universities, and schools. The Red Purge emerged from rising Cold War tensions and the Red Scare after World War II, and was a significant element within a broader "Reverse Course" in Occupation policies. The Red Purge reached a peak following the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, began to ease after General Douglas MacArthur was replaced as commander of the Occupation by General Matthew Ridgway in 1951, and came to a final conclusion with the end of the Occupation in 1952.
1947
1. The Radcliffe Line, the border between the Dominions of India and Pakistan, is revealed.
  1. Radcliffe Line
    
    The Radcliffe Line was the boundary demarcated between the Indian and Pakistani portions of the Punjab Province and Bengal Presidency of British India. It was named after Cyril Radcliffe, who, as the joint chairman of the two boundary commissions for the two provinces, had the ultimate responsibility to equitably divide 175,000 square miles (450,000 km2) of territory with 88 million people.
  2. Dominion of India
    
    The Dominion of India, officially the Union of India, was an independent dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations existing between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950. Until its independence, India had been ruled as an informal empire by the United Kingdom. The empire, also called the British Raj and sometimes the British Indian Empire, consisted of regions, collectively called British India, that were directly administered by the British government, and regions, called the princely states, that were ruled by Indian rulers under a system of paramountcy. The Dominion of India was formalised by the passage of the Indian Independence Act 1947, which also formalised an independent Dominion of Pakistan—comprising the regions of British India that are today Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Dominion of India remained "India" in common parlance but was geographically reduced. Under the Act, the British government relinquished all responsibility for administering its former territories. The government also revoked its treaty rights with the rulers of the princely states and advised them to join in a political union with India or Pakistan. Accordingly, the British monarch's regnal title, "Emperor of India," was abandoned.
  3. Dominion of Pakistan
    
    The Dominion of Pakistan, officially Pakistan, was an independent federal dominion in the Commonwealth of Nations, existing between 14 August 1947 and 23 March 1956, created by the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British parliament, which also created an independent Dominion of India.
1945
1. Animal Farm, George Orwell's satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism, was first published.
  1. Animal Farm
    
    Animal Farm is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.
  2. George Orwell
    
    Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.
  3. Allegory
    
    As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.
  4. Totalitarianism
    
    Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regulation over public and private life. It is regarded as the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism. In totalitarian states, political power is often held by autocrats, such as dictators and absolute monarchs, who employ all-encompassing campaigns in which propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media in order to control the citizenry. By 1950, the term and concept of totalitarianism entered mainstream Western political discourse. Furthermore this era also saw anti-communist and McCarthyist political movements intensify and use the concept of totalitarianism as a tool to convert pre-World War II anti-fascism into Cold War anti-communism.
2. The independence of Indonesia was proclaimed by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta (pictured), igniting a revolution against the Dutch Empire.
  1. Proclamation of Indonesian Independence
    
    The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read at 10:00 on Friday, 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of the Indonesian National Revolution, fighting against the forces of the Netherlands and pro-Dutch civilians, until the latter officially acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. The document was signed by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who were appointed president and vice-president respectively the following day.
  2. Sukarno
    
    Sukarno was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
  3. Mohammad Hatta
    
    Mohammad Hatta was an Indonesian statesman and nationalist who served as the country's first vice president. Known as "The Proclamator", he and a number of Indonesians, including the first president of Indonesia, Soekarno, fought for the independence of Indonesia from the Dutch. Hatta was born in Fort de Kock, Dutch East Indies. After his early education, he studied in Dutch schools in the Dutch East Indies and studied in the Netherlands from 1921 until 1932.
  4. Indonesian National Revolution
    
    The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcolonial Indonesia. It took place between Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Netherlands' transfer of sovereignty over the Dutch East Indies to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia at the end of 1949.
  5. Dutch Empire
    
    The Dutch Empire or the Dutch colonial empire comprised the overseas territories and trading posts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies—mainly the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East India Company—and subsequently by the Dutch Republic (1581–1795), and by the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands after 1815. It was initially a trade-based system which derived most of its influence from merchant enterprise and from Dutch control of international maritime shipping routes through strategically placed outposts, rather than from expansive territorial ventures. The Dutch were among the earliest empire-builders of Europe, following Spain and Portugal.
3. Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
  1. Sukarno
    
    Sukarno was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
  2. Mohammad Hatta
    
    Mohammad Hatta was an Indonesian statesman and nationalist who served as the country's first vice president. Known as "The Proclamator", he and a number of Indonesians, including the first president of Indonesia, Soekarno, fought for the independence of Indonesia from the Dutch. Hatta was born in Fort de Kock, Dutch East Indies. After his early education, he studied in Dutch schools in the Dutch East Indies and studied in the Netherlands from 1921 until 1932.
  3. Proclamation of Indonesian Independence
    
    The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read at 10:00 on Friday, 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of the Indonesian National Revolution, fighting against the forces of the Netherlands and pro-Dutch civilians, until the latter officially acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. The document was signed by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who were appointed president and vice-president respectively the following day.
  4. Indonesia
    
    Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area, at 1,904,569 square kilometres. With over 275 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
  5. Indonesian National Revolution
    
    The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcolonial Indonesia. It took place between Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Netherlands' transfer of sovereignty over the Dutch East Indies to the Republic of the United States of Indonesia at the end of 1949.
  6. Dutch Empire
    
    The Dutch Empire or the Dutch colonial empire comprised the overseas territories and trading posts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies—mainly the Dutch West India Company and the Dutch East India Company—and subsequently by the Dutch Republic (1581–1795), and by the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands after 1815. It was initially a trade-based system which derived most of its influence from merchant enterprise and from Dutch control of international maritime shipping routes through strategically placed outposts, rather than from expansive territorial ventures. The Dutch were among the earliest empire-builders of Europe, following Spain and Portugal.
4. The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.
  1. Animal Farm
    
    Animal Farm is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.
  2. George Orwell
    
    Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and support of democratic socialism.
5. Evacuation of Manchukuo: At Talitzou by the Sino-Korean border, Puyi, then the Kangde Emperor of Manchukuo, formally renounces the imperial throne, dissolves the state, and cedes its territory to the Republic of China.
  1. Evacuation of Manchukuo
    
    The Evacuation of Manchukuo occurred during the Soviet Red Army's invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo as part of the wider Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation of August 1945.
  2. China–North Korea border
    
    The China–North Korea border is the international border separating the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). It runs for 1,352 km (840 mi) from the estuary of the Yalu River in the Korea Bay in the west to the tripoint with Russia in the east.
  3. Puyi
    
    Aisin-Gioro Puyi, courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 12 February 1912 during the Xinhai Revolution. His era name as Qing emperor, Xuantong, means "proclamation of unity". He was later installed as the Emperor Kangde (康德) of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo during World War II.
  4. Manchukuo
    
    Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and in 1934 it became a constitutional monarchy under the de facto control of Japan. It had limited international recognition.
  5. Republic of China (1912–1949)
    
    The Republic of China (ROC), between 1912 and 1949, was a sovereign state recognised as the official designation of China when it was based on Mainland China, prior to the relocation of its central government to Taiwan as a result of the Chinese Civil War. At a population of 541 million in 1949, it was the world's most populous country. Covering 11.4 million square kilometres, it consisted of 35 provinces, 1 special administrative region, 2 regions, 12 special municipalities, 14 leagues, and 4 special banners. The People's Republic of China (PRC), which rules mainland China today, considers ROC as a country that ceased to exist since 1949; thus, the history of ROC before 1949 is often referred to as Republican Era of China. The ROC, now based in Taiwan, today considers itself a continuation of the country, thus calling the period of its mainland governance as the Mainland Period of the Republic of China in Taiwan.
1943
1. Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met in a highly secret military conference held in Quebec City.
  1. Winston Churchill
    
    Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
  2. Franklin D. Roosevelt
    
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the leader of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. He built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended in victory shortly after he died in office.
  3. First Quebec Conference
    
    The First Quebec Conference, codenamed "Quadrant", was a highly secret military conference held during World War II by the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. It took place in Quebec City on August 17–24, 1943, at both the Citadelle and the Château Frontenac. The chief representatives were Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, hosted by the Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.
  4. Quebec City
    
    Quebec City, officially Québec, is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is the eleventh-largest city and the seventh-largest metropolitan area in Canada. It is also the second-largest city in the province after Montreal. It has a humid continental climate with warm summers coupled with cold and snowy winters.
2. Second World War: The Royal Air Force began a strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany's V-weapon programme by attacking the Peenemünde Army Research Center.
  1. World War II
    
    World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries.
  2. Royal Air Force
    
    The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world at the time. Since its formation, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history. In particular, it played a large part in the Second World War where it fought its most famous campaign, the Battle of Britain.
  3. Strategic bombing during World War II
    
    World War II (1939–1945) involved sustained strategic bombing of railways, harbours, cities, workers' and civilian housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory. Strategic bombing as a military strategy is distinct both from close air support of ground forces and from tactical air power. During World War II, many military strategists of air power believed that air forces could win major victories by attacking industrial and political infrastructure, rather than purely military targets. Strategic bombing often involved bombing areas inhabited by civilians, and some campaigns were deliberately designed to target civilian populations in order to terrorize them and disrupt their usual activities. International law at the outset of World War II did not specifically forbid the aerial bombardment of cities – despite the prior occurrence of such bombing during World War I (1914–1918), the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
  4. V-weapons
    
    V-weapons, known in original German as Vergeltungswaffen, were a particular set of long-range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II, particularly strategic bombing and/or aerial bombing of cities. They were the V-1, a pulsejet-powered cruise missile; the V-2, a liquid-fueled ballistic missile ; and the V-3 cannon. All of these weapons were intended for use in a military campaign against Britain, though only the V-1 and V-2 were so used in a campaign conducted 1944–45. After the invasion of Europe by the Allies, these weapons were also employed against targets on the mainland of Europe, mainly France and Belgium. Strategic bombing with V-weapons killed approximately 18,000 people, mostly civilians. The cities of London, Antwerp and Liège were the main targets.
  5. Operation Hydra (1943)
    
    Operation Hydra was an attack by RAF Bomber Command on a German scientific research centre at Peenemünde on the night of 17/18 August 1943. Group Captain John Searby, commanding officer of No. 83 Squadron RAF, commanded the operation, the first time that Bomber Command used a master bomber to direct the attack of the main force. Hydra began the Crossbow campaign against the German V-weapon programme. The British lost 215 aircrew and 40 bombers, and killed several hundred enslaved workers in the nearby Trassenheide forced labour camp. The Luftwaffe lost twelve night-fighters and about 170 German civilians were killed, including two V-2 rocket scientists. Prototype V-2 rocket launches were delayed for about two months, testing and production was dispersed and the morale of the German survivors was severely affected. However, the impact of the operation on German war production was deemed insufficient.
  6. Peenemünde Army Research Center
    
    The Peenemünde Army Research Center was founded in 1937 as one of five military proving grounds under the German Army Weapons Office (Heereswaffenamt). Several German guided missiles and rockets of World War II were developed by the HVP, including the V-2 rocket. The works were attacked by the British in Operation Crossbow from August 1943, before falling to the Soviets in May 1945.
3. World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.
  1. Eighth Air Force
    
    The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces Strategic – Global Strike, one of the air components of United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). The Eighth Air Force includes the heart of America's heavy bomber force: the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber aircraft.
  2. Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission
    
    The Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission was a strategic bombing mission during World War II carried out by Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces on August 17, 1943. The mission was an ambitious plan to cripple the German aircraft industry; it was also known as the "double-strike mission" because it entailed two large forces of bombers attacking separate targets in order to disperse fighter reaction by the Luftwaffe. It was also the first American "shuttle" mission, in which all or part of a mission landed at a different field and later bombed another target before returning to its base.
4. World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
  1. Seventh United States Army
    
    The Seventh Army was a United States army created during World War II that evolved into the United States Army Europe (USAREUR) during the 1950s and 1960s. It served in North Africa and Italy in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and France and Germany in the European Theater between 1942 and 1945.
  2. George S. Patton
    
    George Smith Patton Jr. was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France and Germany after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
  3. Messina
    
    Messina is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in the city proper and about 650,000 in the Metropolitan City. It is located near the northeast corner of Sicily, at the Strait of Messina and it is an important access terminal to Calabria region, Villa San Giovanni, Reggio Calabria on the mainland. According to Eurostat the FUA of the metropolitan area of Messina has, in 2014, 277,584 inhabitants.
  4. Eighth Army (United Kingdom)
    
    The Eighth Army was an Allied field army formation of the British Army during the Second World War, fighting in the North African and Italian campaigns. Units came from Australia, British India, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Free French Forces, Greece, New Zealand, Poland, Rhodesia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
  5. Bernard Montgomery
    
    Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein,, nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War.
  6. Allies of World War II
    
    The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. Its principal members by 1941 were the United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China.
  7. Allied invasion of Sicily
    
    The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers. It began with a large amphibious and airborne operation, followed by a six-week land campaign, and initiated the Italian campaign.
5. World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
  1. First Quebec Conference
    
    The First Quebec Conference, codenamed "Quadrant", was a highly secret military conference held during World War II by the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. It took place in Quebec City on August 17–24, 1943, at both the Citadelle and the Château Frontenac. The chief representatives were Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, hosted by the Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.
  2. Winston Churchill
    
    Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.
  3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
    
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the leader of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. He built the New Deal Coalition, which defined modern liberalism in the United States throughout the middle third of the 20th century. His third and fourth terms were dominated by World War II, which ended in victory shortly after he died in office.
  4. William Lyon Mackenzie King
    
    William Lyon Mackenzie King was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. King is best known for his leadership of Canada throughout the Great Depression and the Second World War. He played a major role in laying the foundations of the Canadian welfare state and established Canada's international reputation as a middle power fully committed to world order. With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.
6. World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the first air raid of the Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign against Germany's V-weapon program.
  1. Royal Air Force
    
    The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world at the time. Since its formation, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history. In particular, it played a large part in the Second World War where it fought its most famous campaign, the Battle of Britain.
  2. Operation Hydra (1943)
    
    Operation Hydra was an attack by RAF Bomber Command on a German scientific research centre at Peenemünde on the night of 17/18 August 1943. Group Captain John Searby, commanding officer of No. 83 Squadron RAF, commanded the operation, the first time that Bomber Command used a master bomber to direct the attack of the main force. Hydra began the Crossbow campaign against the German V-weapon programme. The British lost 215 aircrew and 40 bombers, and killed several hundred enslaved workers in the nearby Trassenheide forced labour camp. The Luftwaffe lost twelve night-fighters and about 170 German civilians were killed, including two V-2 rocket scientists. Prototype V-2 rocket launches were delayed for about two months, testing and production was dispersed and the morale of the German survivors was severely affected. However, the impact of the operation on German war production was deemed insufficient.
  3. Operation Crossbow
    
    Crossbow was the code name in World War II for Anglo-American operations against the German long range reprisal weapons (V-weapons) programme. The main V-weapons were the V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket – these were launched against Britain from 1944 to 1945 and used against continental European targets as well.
  4. Strategic bombing during World War II
    
    World War II (1939–1945) involved sustained strategic bombing of railways, harbours, cities, workers' and civilian housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory. Strategic bombing as a military strategy is distinct both from close air support of ground forces and from tactical air power. During World War II, many military strategists of air power believed that air forces could win major victories by attacking industrial and political infrastructure, rather than purely military targets. Strategic bombing often involved bombing areas inhabited by civilians, and some campaigns were deliberately designed to target civilian populations in order to terrorize them and disrupt their usual activities. International law at the outset of World War II did not specifically forbid the aerial bombardment of cities – despite the prior occurrence of such bombing during World War I (1914–1918), the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).
  5. V-weapons
    
    V-weapons, known in original German as Vergeltungswaffen, were a particular set of long-range artillery weapons designed for strategic bombing during World War II, particularly strategic bombing and/or aerial bombing of cities. They were the V-1, a pulsejet-powered cruise missile; the V-2, a liquid-fueled ballistic missile ; and the V-3 cannon. All of these weapons were intended for use in a military campaign against Britain, though only the V-1 and V-2 were so used in a campaign conducted 1944–45. After the invasion of Europe by the Allies, these weapons were also employed against targets on the mainland of Europe, mainly France and Belgium. Strategic bombing with V-weapons killed approximately 18,000 people, mostly civilians. The cities of London, Antwerp and Liège were the main targets.
1942
1. World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin.
  1. World War II
    
    World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries.
  2. United States Marine Corps
    
    The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combined arms, implementing its own infantry, artillery, aerial, and special operations forces. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States.
  3. Raid on Makin Island
    
    The Raid on Makin Island was an attack by the United States Marine Corps Raiders on Japanese military forces on Makin Island in the Pacific Ocean. The aim was to destroy Imperial Japanese installations, take prisoners, gain intelligence on the Gilbert Islands area, and divert Japanese attention and reinforcements from the Allied landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi. Only the first of these objectives was achieved, but the raid did boost morale and provide a test for Raider tactics.
  4. Empire of Japan
    
    The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent formation of modern Japan. It encompassed the Japanese archipelago and several colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories.
1918
1. Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.
  1. Bolsheviks
    
    The Bolsheviks, also known in English as the Bolshevists, were a far-left, revolutionary Marxist faction founded by Vladimir Lenin that split with the Mensheviks from the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), a revolutionary socialist political party formed in 1898, at its Second Party Congress in 1903.
  2. Moisei Uritsky
    
    Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia. After the October Revolution, he was Chief of Cheka of the Petrograd Soviet. Uritsky was assassinated by Leonid Kannegisser, a military cadet, who was executed shortly afterwards.
1916
1. World War I: Romania signed a secret treaty with the Entente Powers, agreeing to enter the war in return for promised territory in Austria-Hungary.
  1. World War I
    
    World War I or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, and referred to by some Anglophone authors as the "Great War" or the "War to End All Wars", was a global conflict which lasted from 1914 to 1918, and is considered one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war.
  2. Treaty of Bucharest (1916)
    
    The Treaty of Bucharest of 1916 was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 4 /17 August 1916 in Bucharest. The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary. The signatories bound themselves to keep secret the contents of the treaty until a general peace was concluded.
  3. Allies of World War I
    
    The Allies of World War I, Entente Powers, or Allied Powers were a coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, and their colonies during the First World War (1914–1918).
  4. Austria-Hungary
    
    Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and was dissolved shortly after its defeat in the First World War.
2. World War I: Romania signs a secret treaty with the Entente Powers. According to the treaty, Romania agreed to join the war on the Allied side.
  1. Kingdom of Romania
    
    The Kingdom of Romania was a constitutional monarchy that existed in Romania from 13 March (O.S.) / 25 March 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I, until 1947 with the abdication of King Michael I of Romania and the Romanian parliament's proclamation of the Romanian People's Republic.
  2. Treaty of Bucharest (1916)
    
    The Treaty of Bucharest of 1916 was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 4 /17 August 1916 in Bucharest. The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary. The signatories bound themselves to keep secret the contents of the treaty until a general peace was concluded.
  3. Allies of World War I
    
    The Allies of World War I, Entente Powers, or Allied Powers were a coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, and their colonies during the First World War (1914–1918).
1915
1. American Jew Leo Frank was lynched by a mob of prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia, for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl.
  1. American Jews
    
    American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora Jewish populations of Central and Eastern Europe and comprise about 90–95% of the American Jewish population.
  2. Leo Frank
    
    Leo Max Frank was an American factory superintendent who was convicted in 1913 of the murder of a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, Georgia. His trial, conviction, and appeals attracted national attention. His lynching two years later, in response to the commutation of his death sentence, became the focus of social, regional, political, and racial concerns, particularly regarding antisemitism. Today, the consensus of researchers is that Frank was wrongly convicted and Jim Conley was likely the actual murderer.
  3. Lynching
    
    Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an extreme form of informal group social control, and it is often conducted with the display of a public spectacle for maximum intimidation. Instances of lynchings and similar mob violence can be found in every society.
  4. Marietta, Georgia
    
    Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Cobb County, Georgia, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 60,972. The 2019 estimate was 60,867, making it one of Atlanta's largest suburbs. Marietta is the fourth largest of the principal cities by population of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
2. The Category 4 1915 Galveston hurricane made landfall in Galveston, Texas, and caused a great deal of destruction in its path, leaving 275-400 people dead and $50 million in damage.
  1. Saffir–Simpson scale
    
    The Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS) classifies hurricanes—which in the Western Hemisphere are tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical storms—into five categories distinguished by the intensities of their sustained winds. This measuring system was formerly known as the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale, or SSHS.
  2. 1915 Galveston hurricane
    
    The 1915 Galveston hurricane was a tropical cyclone that caused extensive damage in the Galveston area in August 1915. Widespread damage was also documented throughout its path across the Caribbean Sea and the interior United States. Due to similarities in strength and trajectory, the storm drew comparisons with the deadly 1900 Galveston hurricane. While the newly completed Galveston Seawall mitigated a similar-scale disaster for Galveston, numerous fatalities occurred along unprotected stretches of the Texas coast due to the storm's 16.2 ft (4.9 m) storm surge. Overall, the major hurricane inflicted at least $30 million in damage and killed 403–405 people. A demographic normalization of landfalling storms suggested that an equivalent storm in 2005 would cause $68.0 billion in damage in the United States.
  3. Galveston, Texas
    
    Galveston is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of 209.3 square miles (542 km2), with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
3. Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched in Marietta, Georgia, USA after a 13-year-old girl is murdered.
  1. Leo Frank
    
    Leo Max Frank was an American factory superintendent who was convicted in 1913 of the murder of a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, Georgia. His trial, conviction, and appeals attracted national attention. His lynching two years later, in response to the commutation of his death sentence, became the focus of social, regional, political, and racial concerns, particularly regarding antisemitism. Today, the consensus of researchers is that Frank was wrongly convicted and Jim Conley was likely the actual murderer.
  2. Lynching
    
    Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an extreme form of informal group social control, and it is often conducted with the display of a public spectacle for maximum intimidation. Instances of lynchings and similar mob violence can be found in every society.
  3. Marietta, Georgia
    
    Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Cobb County, Georgia, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 60,972. The 2019 estimate was 60,867, making it one of Atlanta's largest suburbs. Marietta is the fourth largest of the principal cities by population of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
4. A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 miles per hour (217 km/h).
  1. 1915 Galveston hurricane
    
    The 1915 Galveston hurricane was a tropical cyclone that caused extensive damage in the Galveston area in August 1915. Widespread damage was also documented throughout its path across the Caribbean Sea and the interior United States. Due to similarities in strength and trajectory, the storm drew comparisons with the deadly 1900 Galveston hurricane. While the newly completed Galveston Seawall mitigated a similar-scale disaster for Galveston, numerous fatalities occurred along unprotected stretches of the Texas coast due to the storm's 16.2 ft (4.9 m) storm surge. Overall, the major hurricane inflicted at least $30 million in damage and killed 403–405 people. A demographic normalization of landfalling storms suggested that an equivalent storm in 2005 would cause $68.0 billion in damage in the United States.
  2. Galveston, Texas
    
    Galveston is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of 209.3 square miles (542 km2), with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
1914
1. World War I: Ignoring orders to retreat, Hermann von François led a successful counterattack defending East Prussia at the Battle of Stallupönen and scored the first German victory in the Eastern Front.
  1. World War I
    
    World War I or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, and referred to by some Anglophone authors as the "Great War" or the "War to End All Wars", was a global conflict which lasted from 1914 to 1918, and is considered one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war.
  2. Hermann von François
    
    Hermann Karl Bruno von François was a German General der Infanterie during World War I, and is best known for his key role in several German victories on the Eastern Front in 1914.
  3. East Prussia
    
    East Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 ; following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia, until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg. East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast.
  4. Battle of Stallupönen
    
    The Battle of Stallupönen, fought between Russian and German armies on August 17, 1914, was the opening battle of World War I on the Eastern Front. The Germans under the command of Hermann von François conducted a successful counterattack against four Russian infantry divisions from different infantry corps, which heavily outnumbered them but were separated from each other, creating a gap between the 27th Infantry Division and the 40th Infantry Division, and had little coordination with each other. It was a minor German success, but did little to upset the Russian timetable.
  5. Eastern Front (World War I)
    
    The Eastern Front or Eastern Theater of World War I was a theater of operations that encompassed at its greatest extent the entire frontier between Russia and Romania on one side and Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and Germany on the other. It stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, involved most of Eastern Europe, and stretched deep into Central Europe as well. The term contrasts with "Western Front", which was being fought in Belgium and France.
2. World War I: Battle of Stallupönen: The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Paul von Rennenkampf near modern-day Nesterov, Russia.
  1. World War I
    
    World War I or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, and referred to by some Anglophone authors as the "Great War" or the "War to End All Wars", was a global conflict which lasted from 1914 to 1918, and is considered one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war.
  2. Battle of Stallupönen
    
    The Battle of Stallupönen, fought between Russian and German armies on August 17, 1914, was the opening battle of World War I on the Eastern Front. The Germans under the command of Hermann von François conducted a successful counterattack against four Russian infantry divisions from different infantry corps, which heavily outnumbered them but were separated from each other, creating a gap between the 27th Infantry Division and the 40th Infantry Division, and had little coordination with each other. It was a minor German success, but did little to upset the Russian timetable.
  3. General officer
    
    A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
  4. Hermann von François
    
    Hermann Karl Bruno von François was a German General der Infanterie during World War I, and is best known for his key role in several German victories on the Eastern Front in 1914.
  5. Paul von Rennenkampf
    
    Paul Georg Edler von Rennenkampf was a Baltic German nobleman, statesman and general of the Imperial Russian Army who commanded the 1st Army in the invasion of East Prussia during the initial stage of the Eastern front of World War I. He also served as the last commander of the Vilna Military District.
  6. Nesterov
    
    Nesterov, until 1938 known by its German name Stallupönen and in 1938-1946 as Ebenrode, is a town and the administrative center of Nesterovsky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located 140 kilometers (87 mi) east of Kaliningrad, near the Russian-Lithuanian border on the railway connecting Kaliningrad Oblast with Moscow. Population figures: 4,595 (2010 Census); 5,049 (2002 Census); 4,826 (1989 Census).
1907
1. Pike Place Market (pictured), one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the U.S. and a popular tourist attraction, opened in Seattle, Washington.
  1. Pike Place Market
    
    Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Puget Sound, it serves as a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. It is named for its central street, Pike Place, which runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street on the western edge of Downtown Seattle. Pike Place Market is Seattle's most popular tourist destination and the 33rd most visited tourist attraction in the world, with more than 10 million annual visitors.
  2. Seattle
    
    Seattle is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The Seattle metropolitan area's population is 4.02 million, making it the 15th-largest in the United States. Its growth rate of 21.1% between 2010 and 2020 makes it one of the nation's fastest-growing large cities.
1896
1. Bridget Driscoll became the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in the United Kingdom.
  1. Death of Bridget Driscoll
    
    The death of Bridget Driscoll was the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in Great Britain. Driscoll, in the company of her teenage daughter May and her friend Elizabeth Murphy, was crossing Dolphin Terrace in the grounds of the Crystal Palace in London when she was struck by a car belonging to the Anglo-French Motor Carriage Company that was being used to give demonstration rides. One witness described the car as travelling at "a reckless pace, in fact, like a fire engine".
1884
1. The German colony of Kamerun was established, in the region of today's Republic of Cameroon and surrounding areas.
  1. Kamerun
    
    Kamerun was an African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916 in the region of today's Republic of Cameroon. Kamerun also included northern parts of Gabon and the Congo with western parts of the Central African Republic, southwestern parts of Chad and far eastern parts of Nigeria.
  2. Cameroon
    
    Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Its nearly 27 million people speak 250 native languages.
1883
1. The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.
  1. Dominican Republic
    
    The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with Haiti, making Hispaniola one of only two Caribbean islands, along with Saint Martin, that is shared by two sovereign states. The Dominican Republic is the second-largest nation in the Antilles by area at 48,671 square kilometers (18,792 sq mi), and third-largest by population, with approximately 10.7 million people, down from 10.8 million in 2020, of whom approximately 3.3 million live in the metropolitan area of Santo Domingo, the capital city. The official language of the country is Spanish.
  2. National anthem
    
    A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European nations tend towards more ornate and operatic pieces, while those in the Middle East, Oceania, Africa, and the Caribbean use a more simplistic fanfare. Some countries that are devolved into multiple constituent states have their own official musical compositions for them ; their constituencies' songs are sometimes referred to as national anthems even though they are not sovereign states.
  3. National Anthem of the Dominican Republic
    
    The national anthem of the Dominican Republic, also known by its incipit Valiant Quisqueyans, was composed by José Rufino Reyes y Siancas (1835–1905), and its lyrics were authored by Emilio Prud'Homme (1856–1932).
1876
1. Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, the last opera in his Ring cycle, premieres at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus.
  1. Richard Wagner
    
    Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.
  2. Götterdämmerung
    
    Götterdämmerung, WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of the whole work.
  3. Der Ring des Nibelungen
    
    Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the Nibelungenlied. The composer termed the cycle a "Bühnenfestspiel", structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring cycle, Wagner's Ring, or simply The Ring.
  4. Bayreuth Festspielhaus
    
    The Bayreuth Festspielhaus or Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, built by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner and dedicated solely to the performance of his stage works. It is the venue for the annual Bayreuth Festival, for which it was specifically conceived and built. Its official name is Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus.
1866
1. The Grand Duchy of Baden announces its withdrawal from the German Confederation and signs a treaty of peace and alliance with Prussia.
  1. Grand Duchy of Baden
    
    The Grand Duchy of Baden was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.
  2. German Confederation
    
    The German Confederation was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved in 1806.
  3. History of Baden-Württemberg
    
    The history of Baden-Württemberg covers the area included in the historical state of Baden, the former Prussian Hohenzollern, and Württemberg, part of the region of Swabia since the 9th century.
  4. Prussia
    
    Prussia was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was de facto dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and de jure by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, expanding its size with the Prussian Army. Prussia, with its capital at Königsberg and then, when it became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany.
1864
1. American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville: Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.
  1. Battle of Gainesville
    
    The Battle of Gainesville was an American Civil War engagement fought on August 17, 1864, when a Confederate force defeated Union detachments from Jacksonville, Florida. The result of the battle was the Confederate occupation of Gainesville for the remainder of the war.
  2. Gainesville, Florida
    
    Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, which had a population of 339,247 in 2020.
1863
1. American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.
  1. Charleston, South Carolina
    
    Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley, Cooper, and Wando rivers. Charleston had a population of 150,277 at the 2020 census. The 2020 population of the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was 799,636 residents, the third-largest in the state and the 74th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States.
  2. Union (American Civil War)
    
    During the American Civil War, the Union, also known as the North, referred to the United States led by President Abraham Lincoln. It was opposed by the secessionist Confederate States of America (CSA), informally called "the Confederacy" or "the South". The Union is named after its declared goal of preserving the United States as a constitutional union. "Union" is used in the U.S. Constitution to refer to the founding formation of the people, and to the states in union. In the context of the Civil War, it has also often been used as a synonym for "the northern states loyal to the United States government;" in this meaning, the Union consisted of 20 free states and five border states.
  3. Fort Sumter
    
    Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle of Fort Sumter began the American Civil War. It was severely damaged during the war, left in ruins, and although there was some rebuilding, the fort as conceived was never completed.
1862
1. American Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Dakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.
  1. American Indian Wars
    
    The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settlers, against various American Indian and First Nation tribes. These conflicts occurred in North America from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the early 20th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for lands that the Indian tribes considered their own. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.
  2. Dakota War of 1862
    
    The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, the Dakota Uprising, the Sioux Outbreak of 1862, the Dakota Conflict, the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, or Little Crow's War, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of eastern Dakota also known as the Santee Sioux. It began on August 18, 1862, at the Lower Sioux Agency along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota.
  3. Minnesota
    
    Minnesota is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now partially cleared, farmed, and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation. Roughly a third of the state is covered in forests, and it is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" for having over 14,000 bodies of fresh water of at least ten acres. More than 60% of Minnesotans live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, known as the "Twin Cities", the state's main political, economic, and cultural hub. With a population of about 3.7 million, the Twin Cities is the 16th largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Other minor metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas in the state include Duluth, Mankato, Moorhead, Rochester, and St. Cloud.
  4. Dakota people
    
    The Dakota are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government in North America. They compose two of the three main subcultures of the Sioux people, and are typically divided into the Eastern Dakota and the Western Dakota.
  5. Minnesota River
    
    The Minnesota River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of 14,751 square miles (38,200 km2) in Minnesota and about 2,000 sq mi (5,200 km2) in South Dakota and Iowa.
2. American Civil War: Major General J. E. B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
  1. American Civil War
    
    The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union and the Confederacy, the latter formed by states that had seceded. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prevented from doing so, which was widely believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction.
  2. J. E. B. Stuart
    
    James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart was a United States Army officer from Virginia who became a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb,” from the initials of his given names. Stuart was a cavalry commander known for his mastery of reconnaissance and the use of cavalry in support of offensive operations. While he cultivated a cavalier image, his serious work made him the trusted eyes and ears of Robert E. Lee's army and inspired Southern morale.
  3. Confederate States of America
    
    The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States, the Confederacy, or "the South", was an unrecognized breakaway republic in North America that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy comprised U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War. Eleven U.S. states, nicknamed Dixie, declared secession and formed the main part of the CSA. They were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Kentucky, and Missouri also had declarations of secession and full representation in the Confederate Congress during their Union army occupation.
  4. Army of Northern Virginia
    
    The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was also the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac.
1836
1. British parliament accepts registration of births, marriages and deaths.
  1. Parliament of the United Kingdom
    
    The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and the overseas territories. Parliament is bicameral but has three parts, consisting of the sovereign (King-in-Parliament), the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. In theory, power is officially vested in the King-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation; thus power is de facto vested in the House of Commons.
  2. Marriage Act 1836
    
    The Marriage Act 1836, or the Act for Marriages in England 1836, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that legalised civil marriage in what is now England and Wales from 30 June 1837.
1827
1. Dutch King William I and Pope Leo XII sign concord.
  1. William I of the Netherlands
    
    William I was a Prince of Orange, the King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
  2. Pope Leo XII
    
    Pope Leo XII (Italian: Leone XII; born Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiorre Girolamo Nicola della Genga, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 28 September 1823 to his death in February 1829.
1808
1. The Finnish War: The Battle of Alavus is fought.
  1. Finnish War
    
    The Finnish War was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. Other notable effects were the Swedish parliament's adoption of a new constitution and the establishment of the House of Bernadotte, the new Swedish royal house, in 1818.
  2. Battle of Alavus
    
    The Battle of Alavus took place on 17 August 1808 in the vicinity of the town of Alavus, as part of the Finnish War. The Finnish army, under the command of General Carl Johan Adlercreutz defeated a smaller Russian force and drove it southwards. It was the last in a string of Swedish successes during the summer of 1808, and marked the turning point in the war.
1807
1. Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
  1. Robert Fulton
    
    Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the North River Steamboat. In 1807, that steamboat traveled on the Hudson River with passengers from New York City to Albany and back again, a round trip of 300 nautical miles, in 62 hours. The success of his steamboat changed river traffic and trade on major American rivers.
  2. North River Steamboat
    
    The North River Steamboat or North River, colloquially known as the Clermont, is widely regarded as the world's first vessel to demonstrate the viability of using steam propulsion for commercial water transportation. Built in 1807, the North River Steamboat operated on the Hudson River – at that time often known as the North River – between New York City and Albany, New York. She was built by the wealthy investor and politician Robert Livingston and inventor and entrepreneur Robert Fulton (1765–1815).
  3. Albany, New York
    
    Albany is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 10 miles (16 km) south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about 135 miles (220 km) north of New York City.
  4. Hudson River
    
    The Hudson River is a 315-mile (507 km) river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the Upper New York Bay between New York City and Jersey City, eventually draining into the Atlantic Ocean at New York Harbor. The river serves as a political boundary between the states of New Jersey and New York at its southern end. Farther north, it marks local boundaries between several New York counties. The lower half of the river is a tidal estuary, deeper than the body of water into which it flows, occupying the Hudson Fjord, an inlet which formed during the most recent period of North American glaciation, estimated at 26,000 to 13,300 years ago. Even as far north as the city of Troy, the flow of the river changes direction with the tides.
  5. Steamboat
    
    A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S or PS ; however, these designations are most often used for steamships.
1798
1. The Vietnamese Catholics report a Marian apparition in Quảng Trị, an event which is called Our Lady of La Vang.
  1. Vietnam
    
    Vietnam or Viet Nam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of 311,699 square kilometres (120,348 sq mi) and population of 96 million, making it the world's fifteenth-most populous country. Vietnam borders China to the north, and Laos and Cambodia to the west. It shares maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand, and the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia through the South China Sea. Its capital is Hanoi and its largest city is Ho Chi Minh City.
  2. Marian apparition
    
    A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance by Mary, the mother of Jesus, or a series of related such appearances during a period of time.
  3. Quảng Trị
    
    Quảng Trị is a district-level town in Quảng Trị Province in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. It is second of two municipalities in the province after the provincial capital Đông Hà.
  4. Our Lady of La Vang
    
    Our Lady of La Vang refers to a reported Marian apparition at a time when Catholics were persecuted and killed in Vietnam. The Shrine of our Lady of La Vang is situated in what is today Hai Phu commune in Hải Lăng District of Quảng Trị Province in Central Vietnam.
1784
1. Classical composer Luigi Boccherini receives a pay rise of 12,000 reals from his employer, the Infante Luis, Count of Chinchón.
  1. Luigi Boccherini
    
    Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini was an Italian, later Spanish, composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and galante style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. He is best known for a minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5, and the Cello Concerto in B flat major. The latter work was long known in the heavily altered version by German cellist and prolific arranger Friedrich Grützmacher, but has recently been restored to its original version.
  2. Spanish real
    
    The real was a unit of currency in Spain for several centuries after the mid-14th century. It underwent several changes in value relative to other units throughout its lifetime until it was replaced by the peseta in 1868. The most common denomination for the currency was the silver eight-real Spanish dollar or peso which was used throughout Europe, America and Asia during the height of the Spanish Empire.
  3. Infante Luis of Spain
    
    Luis Antonio Jaime of Spain, Infante of Spain, Cardinal Deacon of the titular church of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain, 13th Count of Chinchón, Grandee of Spain First Class, known as the Cardinal Infante, was a son of Philip V, King of Spain and his second wife, Elisabeth Farnese.
1740
1. Pope Benedict XIV, previously known as Prospero Lambertini, succeeds Clement XII as the 247th Pope.
  1. Pope Benedict XIV
    
    Pope Benedict XIV, born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758.
  2. Pope Clement XII
    
    Pope Clement XII, born Lorenzo Corsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 July 1730 to his death in February 1740.
1723
1. Ioan Giurgiu Patachi becomes Bishop of Făgăraș and is festively installed in his position at the St. Nicolas Cathedral in Făgăraș, after being formally confirmed earlier by Pope Clement XI.
  1. Ioan Giurgiu Patachi
    
    Ioan Giurgiu Patachi was Bishop of Făgăraș and Primate of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church from 1721 to his death in 1727.
  2. List of bishops of Făgăraș and Alba Iulia
    
    This is a list of Bishops of Făgăraș and Alba Iulia, who are the Primates of Romanian Greek Catholic Church.
  3. Făgăraș
    
    Făgăraș is a city in central Romania, located in Brașov County. It lies on the Olt River and has a population of 28,330 as of 2011. It is situated in the historical region of Transylvania, and is the main city of a subregion, Țara Făgărașului.
  4. Pope Clement XI
    
    Pope Clement XI, born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721.
1717
1. Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18: The month-long Siege of Belgrade ends with Prince Eugene of Savoy's Austrian troops capturing the city from the Ottoman Empire.
  1. Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718)
    
    The Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) was fought between Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. The 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz was not an acceptable permanent agreement for the Ottoman Empire. Twelve years after Karlowitz, it began the long-term prospect of taking revenge for its defeat at the Battle of Vienna in 1683. First, the army of Turkish Grand Vizier Baltacı Mehmet defeated Peter the Great's Russian Army in the Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711). Then, during the Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718), Ottoman Grand Vizier Damat Ali reconquered the Morea from the Venetians. As a reaction as the guarantor of the Treaty of Karlowitz, the Austrians threatened the Ottoman Empire, which caused it to declare war in April 1716.
  2. Siege of Belgrade (1717)
    
    The siege of Belgrade was a successful attempt by Austrian troops under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy to capture the strategically important city of Belgrade from the Ottoman Empire. It took place during the Seventh Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718), barely a year after the Austrian victory at the Battle of Petrovaradin (Peterwardein). The Austrians routed the Ottoman relief army under Grand Vizier Hacı Halil Pasha on 16 August. As a consequence, the Belgrade garrison, deprived of relief, surrendered to the Austrians on 21 August. The Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III sued for peace, resulting in the Treaty of Passarowitz a year later, which completed the transfer of the remainder of Hungary, the Banat and the city of Belgrade into Austrian hands.
  3. Prince Eugene of Savoy
    
    Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy–Carignano, better known as Prince Eugene, was a field marshal in the army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th and 18th centuries. He was one of the most successful military commanders of his time, and rose to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna.
  4. Habsburg monarchy
    
    The Habsburg monarchy, also known as the Danubian monarchy, or Habsburg Empire, was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities that were ruled by the House of Habsburg, especially the dynasty's Austrian branch.
  5. Ottoman Empire
    
    The Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire, was an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and, with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror.
1712
1. Action of 17 August 1712 New Deep naval battle between Denmark and Sweden.
  1. Action of 17 August 1712
    
    This battle took place on 17 August 1712 south of Rügen, in the Baltic Sea, during the Great Northern War. The site is known as Neues Tief in German, Nydyp in Danish, and Nya Djupet in Swedish, all meaning "New Deep." The action was a victory for Denmark, commanded by Hannibal Sehested, over Sweden, commanded by Henck.
  2. Denmark
    
    Denmark is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the most populous and politically central constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland in the North Atlantic Ocean. European Denmark is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, lying southwest of Sweden, south of Norway, and north of Germany.
  3. Sweden
    
    Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country in Scandinavia. It borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge–tunnel across the Öresund. At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the largest Nordic country, the third-largest country in the European Union, and the fifth-largest country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Stockholm. Sweden has a total population of 10.5 million, and a low population density of 25.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (66/sq mi), with around 87% of Swedes residing in urban areas in the central and southern half of the country.
1676
1. Scanian War: Swedish forces defeated Danish troops at the Battle of Halmstad, the last battle in Halland between the two countries.
  1. Scanian War
    
    The Scanian War was a part of the Northern Wars involving the union of Denmark–Norway, Brandenburg and Sweden. It was fought from 1675 to 1679 mainly on Scanian soil, in the former Danish and Norway provinces along the border with Sweden, and in Northern Germany. While the latter battles are regarded as a theater of the Scanian war in English, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish historiography, they are seen as a separate war in German historiography, called the Swedish-Brandenburgian War.
  2. Battle of Halmstad
    
    The Battle of Halmstad, also known as the Battle at Fyllebro, was fought on August 17, 1676, at Fyllebro, approximately five kilometres south of the town of Halmstad in the province of Halland in southwest Sweden. It was the last battle in Halland between Denmark and Sweden.
  3. Halland
    
    Halland is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (landskap), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Brömsebro, it was part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Its name means Land of Rocky Slabs referring to the coastal cliffs of the region.
1668
1. The magnitude 8.0 North Anatolia earthquake causes 8,000 deaths in northern Anatolia, Ottoman Empire.
  1. 1668 North Anatolia earthquake
    
    Northern Anatolia was struck by a large earthquake on 17 August 1668 in the late morning. It had an estimated magnitude in the range 7.8–8.0 Ms and the maximum felt intensity was IX on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale. The epicenter of the earthquake was on the southern shore of Ladik Lake. It caused widespread damage from at least Bolu in the west to Erzincan in the east and resulted in about 8,000 deaths. It remains the most powerful earthquake recorded in Turkey.
  2. Anatolia
    
    Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Turkish Straits to the northwest, the Black Sea to the north, the Armenian Highlands to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean seas through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the Balkan peninsula of Southeast Europe.
  3. Ottoman Empire
    
    The Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire, was an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and, with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror.
1597
1. Islands Voyage: Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on an expedition to the Azores.
  1. Islands Voyage
    
    The Islands Voyage, also known as the Essex-Raleigh Expedition, was an ambitious, but unsuccessful naval campaign sent by Queen Elizabeth I of England, and supported by the United Provinces, against Spain during the Anglo–Spanish War (1585–1604) and the Eighty Years' War.
  2. Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
    
    Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup d'état against the government of Elizabeth I and was executed for treason.
  3. Walter Raleigh
    
    Sir Walter Raleigh was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion in Ireland, helped defend England against the Spanish Armada and held political positions under Elizabeth I.
  4. Azores
    
    The Azores, officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores, is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal. It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atlantic Ocean, about 1,400 km (870 mi) west of Lisbon, about 1,500 km (930 mi) northwest of Morocco, and about 1,930 km (1,200 mi) southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.
1585
1. Eighty Years' War: Siege of Antwerp: Antwerp is captured by Spanish forces under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, who orders Protestants to leave the city and as a result over half of the 100,000 inhabitants flee to the northern provinces.
  1. Eighty Years' War
    
    The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Reformation, centralisation, taxation, and the rights and privileges of the nobility and cities. After the initial stages, Philip II of Spain, the sovereign of the Netherlands, deployed his armies and regained control over most of the rebel-held territories. However, widespread mutinies in the Spanish army caused a general uprising. Under the leadership of the exiled William the Silent, the Catholic- and Protestant-dominated provinces sought to establish religious peace while jointly opposing the king's regime with the Pacification of Ghent, but the general rebellion failed to sustain itself. Despite Governor of Spanish Netherlands and General for Spain, the Duke of Parma's steady military and diplomatic successes, the Union of Utrecht continued their resistance, proclaiming their independence through the 1581 Act of Abjuration, and establishing the Protestant-dominated Dutch Republic in 1588. In the Ten Years thereafter, the Republic made remarkable conquests in the north and east against a struggling Spanish Empire, and received diplomatic recognition from France and England in 1596. The Dutch colonial empire emerged, which began with Dutch attacks on Portugal's overseas territories.
  2. Fall of Antwerp
    
    The Fall of Antwerp on 17 August 1585 took place during the Eighty Years' War, after a siege lasting over a year from July 1584 until August 1585. The city of Antwerp was the focal point of the Protestant-dominated Dutch Revolt, but was forced to surrender to the Spanish forces. Under the terms agreed, all Protestants were given four years to settle their affairs and leave the city. Many migrated north, especially to Amsterdam, which became the capital of the Dutch Republic. Apart from losing a high proportion of its mercantile population, Antwerp's trade suffered for two centuries as Dutch forts blockaded the River Scheldt up to 1795.
  3. Antwerp
    
    Antwerp is the largest city in Belgium by area at 204.51 square kilometres (78.96 sq mi) and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, it is the most populous municipality in Belgium, and with a metropolitan population of around 1,200,000 people, it is the second-largest metropolitan region in Belgium, after only Brussels.
  4. Spanish Empire
    
    The Spanish Empire, also known as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predecessor states between 1492 and 1976. One of the largest empires in history, it was, in conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, the first to usher the European Age of Discovery and achieve a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, territories in Western Europe, Africa, and various islands in Asia and Oceania. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, becoming the first empire known as "the empire on which the sun never sets", and reached its maximum extent in the 18th century.
  5. Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma
    
    Alexander Farnese was an Italian noble and condottiero and later a general of the Spanish army, who was Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1586 to 1592, as well as Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1578 to 1592. Thanks to a steady influx of troops from Spain, during 1581–1587 Farnese captured more than thirty towns in the south and returned them to the control of Catholic Spain. During the French Wars of Religion he relieved Paris for the Catholics. His talents as a field commander, strategist and organizer earned him the regard of his contemporaries and military historians as the first captain of his age.
  6. Protestantism
    
    Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to be growing errors, abuses, and discrepancies within it.
  7. Dutch Republic
    
    The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, and commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a federal republic that existed from 1579, during the Dutch Revolt, to 1795. It was a predecessor state of the Netherlands and the first fully independent Dutch nation state.
2. A first group of colonists sent by Sir Walter Raleigh under the charge of Ralph Lane lands in the New World to create Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina.
  1. Walter Raleigh
    
    Sir Walter Raleigh was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion in Ireland, helped defend England against the Spanish Armada and held political positions under Elizabeth I.
  2. Ralph Lane
    
    Sir Ralph Lane was an English explorer of the Elizabethan era. He helped colonise the Kingdom of Ireland in 1583 and was sheriff of County Kerry, Ireland, from 1583 to 1585. He was part of the unsuccessful attempt in 1585 to colonise Roanoke Island, North Carolina. He was knighted by the Queen in 1593.
  3. New World
    
    The term New World is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The term gained prominence in the early 16th century, during Europe's Age of Discovery, shortly after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci concluded that America represented a new continent, and subsequently published his findings in a pamphlet he titled Latin: Mundus Novus. This realization expanded the geographical horizon of classical European geographers, who had thought the world consisted of Africa, Europe, and Asia, collectively now referred to as the Old World, or Afro-Eurasia. The Americas were thus also referred to as "the fourth part of the world".
  4. Roanoke Colony
    
    The establishment of the Roanoke Colony was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The English, led by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had briefly claimed St. John's, Newfoundland, in 1583 as the first English territory in North America at the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I, but Gilbert was lost at sea on his return journey to England.
  5. Roanoke Island
    
    Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina, United States. It was named after the historical Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English colonization.
  6. North Carolina
    
    North Carolina is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and South Carolina to the south, and Tennessee to the west. Raleigh is the state's capital and Charlotte is its largest city. The Charlotte metropolitan area, with a population of 2,595,027 in 2020, is the most-populous metropolitan area in North Carolina, the 21st-most populous in the United States, and the largest banking center in the nation after New York City. The Raleigh-Durham-Cary combined statistical area is the second-largest metropolitan area in the state and 32nd-most populous in the United States, with a population of 2,043,867 in 2020, and is home to the largest research park in the United States, Research Triangle Park.
1560
1. The Scottish Reformation Parliament approved a Protestant confession of faith, initiating the Scottish Reformation and disestablishing Catholicism as the national religion.
  1. Scottish Reformation Parliament
    
    The Scottish Reformation Parliament was the assembly commencing in 1560 that claimed to pass major pieces of legislation establishing the Scottish Reformation, most importantly the Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560; and Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560.
  2. Creed
    
    A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets.
  3. Scottish Reformation
    
    The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Scotland broke with the Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Kirk (church), which was strongly Presbyterian in its outlook. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation that took place from the sixteenth century.
  4. Catholic Church in Scotland
    
    The Catholic Church in Scotland overseen by the Scottish Bishops' Conference, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church headed by the Pope. After being firmly established in Scotland for nearly a millennium, the Catholic Church was outlawed following the Scottish Reformation in 1560. Catholic Emancipation in 1793 and 1829 helped Catholics regain both religious and civil rights. In 1878, the Catholic hierarchy was formally restored. Throughout these changes, several pockets in Scotland retained a significant pre-Reformation Catholic population, including Banffshire, the Hebrides, and more northern parts of the Highlands, Galloway at Terregles House, Munches House, Kirkconnell House, New Abbey and Parton House and at Traquair in Peebleshire.
2. The Catholic Church is overthrown and Protestantism is established as the national religion in Scotland.
  1. Catholic Church
    
    The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2019. As the world's oldest and largest continuously functioning international institution, it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization. The church consists of 24 sui iuris churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and eparchies located around the world. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the chief pastor of the church. The bishopric of Rome, known as the Holy See, is the central governing authority of the church. The administrative body of the Holy See, the Roman Curia, has its principal offices in Vatican City, a small enclave of the Italian city of Rome, of which the pope is head of state.
  2. Protestantism
    
    Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to be growing errors, abuses, and discrepancies within it.
  3. Scottish Reformation Parliament
    
    The Scottish Reformation Parliament was the assembly commencing in 1560 that claimed to pass major pieces of legislation establishing the Scottish Reformation, most importantly the Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560; and Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560.
  4. Kingdom of Scotland
    
    The Kingdom of Scotland was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England. It suffered many invasions by the English, but under Robert the Bruce it fought a successful War of Independence and remained an independent state throughout the late Middle Ages. Following the annexation of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles from the Kingdom of Norway in 1266 and 1472 respectively, and the final capture of the Royal Burgh of Berwick by the Kingdom of England in 1482, the territory of the Kingdom of Scotland corresponded to that of modern-day Scotland, bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, joining Scotland with England in a personal union. In 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union.
1549
1. Battle of Sampford Courtenay: The Prayer Book Rebellion is quashed in England.
  1. Battle of Sampford Courtenay
    
    The Battle of Sampford Courtenay was one of the chief military engagements in the Western Rebellion of 1549.
  2. Prayer Book Rebellion
    
    The Prayer Book Rebellion or Western Rising was a popular revolt in Cornwall and Devon in 1549. In that year, the Book of Common Prayer, presenting the theology of the English Reformation, was introduced. The change was widely unpopular, particularly in areas where firm Catholic religious loyalty still existed, such as Lancashire. Along with poor economic conditions, the enforcement of the English language literature led to an explosion of anger in Cornwall and Devon, initiating an uprising. In response, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset sent John Russell to suppress the revolt, with the rebels being defeated and its leaders executed two months after the beginning of hostilities.
  3. Kingdom of England
    
    The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1498
1. Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI, becomes the first person in history to resign the cardinalate; later that same day, King Louis XII of France names him Duke of Valentinois.
  1. Cesare Borgia
    
    Cesare Borgia was an Italian ex-cardinal and condottiero of Aragonese (Spanish) origin, whose fight for power was a major inspiration for The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli. He was an illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and member of the Spanish-Aragonese House of Borgia.
  2. Pope Alexander VI
    
    Pope Alexander VI was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503.
  3. Cardinal (Catholic Church)
    
    A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. Cardinals are created by the ruling pope and typically hold the title for life. Collectively, they constitute the College of Cardinals.
  4. Louis XII
    
    Louis XII was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the time, Charles VIII, who died without direct heirs in 1498.
  5. Duke of Valentinois
    
    Duke of Valentinois is a title of nobility, originally in the French peerage. It is currently one of the many hereditary titles claimed by the Prince of Monaco despite its extinction in French law in 1949. Though it originally indicated administrative control of the Duchy of Valentinois, based around the city of Valence, the duchy has since become part of France, making the title simply one of courtesy.
1424
1. Hundred Years' War: Allied English and Burgundian forces gained a strategically important victory at the bloody Battle of Verneuil in Normandy, France.
  1. Hundred Years' War
    
    The Hundred Years' War was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagenet and the French royal House of Valois. Over time, the war grew into a broader power struggle involving factions from across Western Europe, fuelled by emerging nationalism on both sides.
  2. Kingdom of England
    
    The Kingdom of England was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
  3. Duchy of Burgundy
    
    The Duchy of Burgundy emerged in the 9th century as one of the successors of the ancient Kingdom of the Burgundians, which after its conquest in 532 had formed a constituent part of the Frankish Empire. Upon the 9th-century partitions, the French remnants of the Burgundian kingdom were reduced to a ducal rank by King Robert II of France in 1004. Robert II's son and heir, King Henry I of France, inherited the duchy but ceded it to his younger brother Robert in 1032. Other portions had passed to the Imperial Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles, including the County of Burgundy (Franche-Comté).
  4. Battle of Verneuil
    
    The Battle of Verneuil was a battle of the Hundred Years' War, fought on 17 August 1424 near Verneuil-sur-Avre in Normandy between an English army and a combined Franco-Scottish force, augmented by Milanese heavy cavalry. The battle was a significant English victory, and was described by them as a second Agincourt.
  5. Normandy
    
    Normandy is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
2. Hundred Years' War: Battle of Verneuil: An English force under John, Duke of Bedford defeats a larger French army under Jean II, Duke of Alençon, John Stewart, and Earl Archibald of Douglas.
  1. Hundred Years' War
    
    The Hundred Years' War was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagenet and the French royal House of Valois. Over time, the war grew into a broader power struggle involving factions from across Western Europe, fuelled by emerging nationalism on both sides.
  2. Battle of Verneuil
    
    The Battle of Verneuil was a battle of the Hundred Years' War, fought on 17 August 1424 near Verneuil-sur-Avre in Normandy between an English army and a combined Franco-Scottish force, augmented by Milanese heavy cavalry. The battle was a significant English victory, and was described by them as a second Agincourt.
  3. John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford
    
    John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford KG was a medieval English prince, general and statesman who commanded England's armies in France during a critical phase of the Hundred Years' War. Bedford was the third son of King Henry IV of England, brother to Henry V, and acted as regent of France for his nephew Henry VI. Despite his military and administrative talent, the situation in France had severely deteriorated by the time of his death.
  4. John II, Duke of Alençon
    
    John II of Alençon was a French nobleman. He succeeded his father as Duke of Alençon and Count of Perche as a minor in 1415, after the latter's death at the Battle of Agincourt. He is best known as a general in the Last Phase of the Hundred Years' War and for his role as a comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc.
  5. John Stewart, Earl of Buchan
    
    John Stewart, Earl of Buchan was a Scottish nobleman and soldier who fought alongside Scotland's French allies during the Hundred Years War. In 1419 he was sent to France by his father the Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, with an army of 6,000 men. Stewart led the combined Franco-Scottish army at the Battle of Baugé on 21 March 1421, where he comprehensively defeated the English forces, proving that the English could at last be beaten. However, two years later, Stewart was defeated and captured by Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury at the Battle of Cravant in 1423. After the battle he was exchanged, and after his release in 1424 he was appointed Constable of France making him the effective Commander-in-Chief of the French army. On 17 August 1424 Buchan was killed at the disastrous Battle of Verneuil, along with most of the Scottish troops in France.
  6. Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas
    
    Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, Duke of Touraine, was a Scottish nobleman and warlord. He is sometimes given the epithet "Tyneman", but this may be a reference to his great-uncle Sir Archibald Douglas.
1386
1. Karl Topia, the ruler of Princedom of Albania forges an alliance with the Republic of Venice, committing to participate in all wars of the Republic and receiving coastal protection against the Ottomans in return.
  1. Karl Thopia
    
    Karl Thopia was an Albanian feudal prince and warlord who ruled Albania from the middle of the 14th century until the first Ottoman conquest of Albania. Thopia usually maintained good relations with the Roman Curia.
  2. Principality of Albania
    
    The Principality of Albania refers to the short-lived monarchy in Albania, headed by Wilhelm, Prince of Albania, that lasted from the Treaty of London of 1913 which ended the First Balkan War, through the invasions of Albania during World War I and the subsequent disputes over Albanian independence during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, until 1925, when the monarchy was abolished and the Albanian Republic declared.
  3. Republic of Venice
    
    The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic, traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and maritime republic in parts of present-day Italy that existed for 1100 years from AD 697 until AD 1797. Centered on the lagoon communities of the prosperous city of Venice, it incorporated numerous overseas possessions in modern Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Greece, Albania and Cyprus. The republic grew into a trading power during the Middle Ages and strengthened this position during the Renaissance. Citizens spoke the still-surviving Venetian language, although publishing in (Florentine) Italian became the norm during the Renaissance.
  4. Ottoman Empire
    
    The Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire, was an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and, with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed the Conqueror.
1186
1. Georgenberg Pact: Ottokar IV, Duke of Styria and Leopold V, Duke of Austria sign a heritage agreement in which Ottokar gives his duchy to Leopold and to his son Frederick under the stipulation that Austria and Styria would henceforth remain undivided.
  1. Georgenberg Pact
    
    The Georgenberg Pact was a treaty signed between Duke Leopold V of Austria and Duke Ottokar IV of Styria on 17 August 1186 at Enns Castle on the Georgenberg mountain.
  2. Ottokar IV, Duke of Styria
    
    Ottokar IV, a member of the Otakar dynasty, was Margrave of Styria from 1164 and Duke from 1180, when Styria, previously a margraviate subordinated to the stem duchy of Bavaria, was raised to the status of an independent duchy.
  3. Leopold V, Duke of Austria
    
    Leopold V, known as the Virtuous was a member of the House of Babenberg who reigned as Duke of Austria from 1177 and Duke of Styria from 1192 until his death. The Georgenberg Pact resulted in Leopold being enfeoffed with Styria by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1193, which would lead to the eventual creation of modern Austria. Leopold was also known for his involvement in the Third Crusade where he fought in the Siege of Acre in 1191.
  4. Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg)
    
    Frederick I, known as Frederick the Catholic, was the Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198. He was a member of the House of Babenberg.
986
1. Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: The Bulgarians defeated Byzantine forces at the Battle of the Gates of Trajan near present-day Ihtiman, with Emperor Basil II barely escaping.
  1. Byzantine–Bulgarian wars
    
    The Byzantine–Bulgarian wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Byzantines and Bulgarians which began when the Bulgars first settled in the Balkan peninsula in the 5th century, and intensified with the expansion of the Bulgarian Empire to the southwest after 680 AD. The Byzantines and Bulgarians continued to clash over the next century with variable success, until the Bulgarians, led by Krum, inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Byzantines. After Krum died in 814, his son Omurtag negotiated a thirty-year peace treaty. Simeon I had multiple successful campaigns against the Byzantines during his rule from 893 to 927. His son Peter I negotiated another long-lasting peace treaty. His rule was followed by a period of decline of the Bulgarian state.
  2. Byzantine Empire
    
    The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians distinguish Byzantium from its earlier incarnation because it was centered on Constantinople and not Rome, oriented towards Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterised by Eastern Orthodox Christianity, instead of Roman Catholicism or Paganism.
  3. Battle of the Gates of Trajan
    
    The Battle of the Gates of Trajan was a battle between Byzantine and Bulgarian forces in the year 986.
  4. Ihtiman
    
    Ihtiman is a town in western Bulgaria, part of Sofia Province. It is located in the Ihtimanska Sredna Gora mountains and lies in a valley 48 km from Sofia and 95 km from Plovdiv, close to the Trakiya motorway.
  5. Basil II
    
    Basil II Porphyrogenitus, nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer, was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but they were too young to rule. The throne thus went to two generals, Nikephoros Phokas and John Tzimiskes, before Basil became senior emperor, though his influential great-uncle Basil Lekapenos remained as the de facto ruler until 985. His reign of 49 years and 11 months was the longest of any Roman emperor.
2. Byzantine–Bulgarian wars: Battle of the Gates of Trajan: The Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Samuel and Aron defeat the Byzantine forces at the Gate of Trajan, with Byzantine Emperor Basil II barely escaping.
  1. Byzantine–Bulgarian wars
    
    The Byzantine–Bulgarian wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Byzantines and Bulgarians which began when the Bulgars first settled in the Balkan peninsula in the 5th century, and intensified with the expansion of the Bulgarian Empire to the southwest after 680 AD. The Byzantines and Bulgarians continued to clash over the next century with variable success, until the Bulgarians, led by Krum, inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Byzantines. After Krum died in 814, his son Omurtag negotiated a thirty-year peace treaty. Simeon I had multiple successful campaigns against the Byzantines during his rule from 893 to 927. His son Peter I negotiated another long-lasting peace treaty. His rule was followed by a period of decline of the Bulgarian state.
  2. Battle of the Gates of Trajan
    
    The Battle of the Gates of Trajan was a battle between Byzantine and Bulgarian forces in the year 986.
  3. First Bulgarian Empire
    
    The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgar-Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led by Asparuh, moved south to the northeastern Balkans. There they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating – possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes – the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV. During the 9th and 10th century, Bulgaria at the height of its power spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River to the Adriatic Sea and became an important power in the region competing with the Byzantine Empire. It became the foremost cultural and spiritual centre of south Slavic Europe throughout most of the Middle Ages.
  4. Cometopuli dynasty
    
    The Kometopuli dynasty was the last royal dynasty in the First Bulgarian Empire, ruling from ca. 976 until the fall of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule in 1018. The most notable member of the dynasty, Tsar Samuel, is famous for successfully resisting Byzantine conquest for more than 40 years. Sometimes the realm of the Cometopuli is called Western Bulgarian Kingdom or Western Bulgarian Empire.
  5. Samuel of Bulgaria
    
    Samuel was the Tsar (Emperor) of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 6 October 1014. From 977 to 997, he was a general under Roman I of Bulgaria, the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria, and co-ruled with him, as Roman bestowed upon him the command of the army and the effective royal authority. As Samuel struggled to preserve his country's independence from the Byzantine Empire, his rule was characterized by constant warfare against the Byzantines and their equally ambitious ruler Basil II.
  6. Aron of Bulgaria
    
    Aron was a Bulgarian noble, brother of Emperor Samuel of Bulgaria and third son of komes Nicholas. After the fall of the eastern parts of the country under Byzantine occupation in 971, he and his three brothers David, Moses and Samuel continued the resistance to the west. They were called Cometopuli and ruled the country together, as the rightful heirs to the throne, Boris II and Roman were imprisoned in Constantinople. The residence of Aron was Serdica, situated on the main road between Constantinople and Western Europe. He had to defend the area from enemy invasions and attack the Byzantine territories in Thrace.
  7. Byzantine Empire
    
    The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians distinguish Byzantium from its earlier incarnation because it was centered on Constantinople and not Rome, oriented towards Greek rather than Latin culture, and characterised by Eastern Orthodox Christianity, instead of Roman Catholicism or Paganism.
  8. Gate of Trajan
    
    The Gate of Trajan or Trajan's Gate is a historic mountain pass near Ihtiman, Bulgaria. In antiquity, the pass was called Succi. Later it was named after Roman Emperor Trajan, on whose order a fortress by the name of Stipon was constructed on the hill over the pass, as a symbolic border between the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia.
  9. List of Byzantine emperors
    
    This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised sovereign authority are included, to the exclusion of junior co-emperors (symbasileis) who never attained the status of sole or senior ruler, as well as of the various usurpers or rebels who claimed the imperial title.
  10. Basil II
    
    Basil II Porphyrogenitus, nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer, was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but they were too young to rule. The throne thus went to two generals, Nikephoros Phokas and John Tzimiskes, before Basil became senior emperor, though his influential great-uncle Basil Lekapenos remained as the de facto ruler until 985. His reign of 49 years and 11 months was the longest of any Roman emperor.
682
1. Pope Leo II begins his pontificate.
  1. Pope Leo II
    
    Pope Leo II was the bishop of Rome from 17 August 682 to his death. He is one of the popes of the Byzantine Papacy. Described by a contemporary biographer as both just and learned, he is commemorated as a saint in the Roman Martyrology on 28 June.

Births & Deaths

2016
1. Arthur Hiller, Canadian actor, director, and producer (b. 1923) deaths
  1. Arthur Hiller
    
    Arthur Hiller, was a Canadian-American television and film director with over 33 films to his credit during a 50-year career. He began his career directing television in Canada and later in the U.S. By the late 1950s he began directing films, most often comedies. He also directed dramas and romantic subjects, such as Love Story (1970), which was nominated for seven Oscars.
2015
1. Yvonne Craig, American ballet dancer and actress (b. 1937) deaths
  1. Yvonne Craig
    
    Yvonne Joyce Craig was an American actress and ballerina, who was best known for her role as Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman. Other notable roles in her career include Dorothy Johnson in the 1963 movie It Happened at the World's Fair, Azalea Tatum in the 1964 movie Kissin' Cousins and as the green-skinned Orion Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969).
2. Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, German businessman (b. 1933) deaths
  1. Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder
    
    Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, often called "MV", was the Vice President of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Prior to his UEFA career, Mayer-Vorfelder was a politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, and served in the state cabinet of Baden-Württemberg from 1976 to 1998. He was later president of German soccer club VfB Stuttgart, and the German Football Association.
3. László Paskai, Hungarian cardinal (b. 1927) deaths
  1. László Paskai
    
    László Paskai, O.F.M. was a Hungarian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, He served as the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest from 1987 to 2002.
2014
1. Børre Knudsen, Norwegian minister and activist (b. 1937) deaths
  1. Børre Knudsen
    
    Børre Arnold Knudsen (1937–2014) was a Norwegian Lutheran priest noted for his anti-abortion activism. Together with Ludvig Nessa, he staged protests at abortion clinics as well as other public stunts starting in the late 1980s, and he spent time in jail for refusing to pay fines received for his protests.
2. Wolfgang Leonhard, German historian and author (b. 1921) deaths
  1. Wolfgang Leonhard
    
    Wolfgang Leonhard was a German political author and historian of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and Communism. A German Communist whose family had fled Hitler's Germany and who was educated in the Soviet Union, after World War II Leonhard became one of the founders and leaders of the German Democratic Republic until he became disillusioned and fled in 1949, first defecting to Yugoslavia and then moving to West Germany in 1950 and later to the United Kingdom. In 1956 he moved to the United States, where he was a popular and influential professor at Yale University from 1966 to 1987, teaching the history of communism and the Soviet Union, topics about which he wrote several books. After the Cold War ended, he returned to Germany.
3. Sophie Masloff, American civil servant and politician, 56th Mayor of Pittsburgh (b. 1917) deaths
  1. Sophie Masloff
    
    Sophie Masloff was an American politician. A long-time member of the Democratic Party and civil servant, she was elected to the Pittsburgh City Council and later served as the mayor of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 1994. She was the first woman and the first Jew to hold that office.
  2. List of mayors of Pittsburgh
    
    The mayor of Pittsburgh is the chief executive of the government of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, as stipulated by the Charter of the City of Pittsburgh. This article is a listing of past mayors of Pittsburgh.
4. Miodrag Pavlović, Serbian poet and critic (b. 1928) deaths
  1. Miodrag Pavlović
    
    Miodrag Pavlović was a Serbian poet, physician writer, critic and academic. Pavlović was twice nominated for the Nobel Literature Prize.
5. Pierre Vassiliu, French singer-songwriter (b. 1937) deaths
  1. Pierre Vassiliu
    
    Pierre Vassiliu was a French singer, songwriter and actor.
2013
1. Odilia Dank, American educator and politician (b. 1938) deaths
  1. Odilia Dank
    
    Odilia Mary Russo Dank was an educator from Oklahoma City who served as a Republican member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, from District 85. Dank was elected in 1994 and served until she was term limited in 2006.
2. Jack Harshman, American baseball player (b. 1927) deaths
  1. Jack Harshman
    
    John Elvin Harshman was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the New York Giants, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, and Cleveland Indians between 1948 and 1960. He batted and threw left-handed.
3. John Hollander, American poet and critic (b. 1929) deaths
  1. John Hollander
    
    John Hollander was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter College, and the Graduate Center, CUNY.
4. Frank Martínez, American painter (b. 1924) deaths
  1. Frank Martínez (artist)
    
    Francisco Alonzo "Frank" Martínez was an American artist. He painted murals of his Mexican American heritage.
5. Gus Winckel, Dutch lieutenant and pilot (b. 1912) deaths
  1. Gus Winckel
    
    Willem Frederick August "Gus" Winckel was a Dutch military officer and pilot who flew for the Royal Netherlands East Indies Air Force (ML-KNIL) in World War II. During the attack on Broome, Western Australia, on 3 March 1942, Winckel managed to land his plane full of refugees safely on the Broome airstrip just before the Japanese attack. He then dismounted the plane's machine gun and shot down one of the Japanese fighters, the only Allied "kill" during the attack.
2012
1. Aase Bjerkholt, Norwegian politician, Minister of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion (b. 1915) deaths
  1. Aase Bjerkholt
    
    Aase Ingerid Nathalie Bjerkholt was a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. She was born in Oslo.
  2. Minister of Children and Families
    
    The Minister of Children and Families is a Councilor of State and Chief of Norway's Ministry of Children and Family Affairs. Since 14 October 2021, Kjersti Toppe has held the position. The ministry is responsible for policy and public operations related to children, youth and families as well as consumer rights. Major agencies subordinate to the ministry include the Consumer Council and the Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs.
2. Victor Poor, American engineer, developed the Datapoint 2200 (b. 1933) deaths
  1. Victor Poor
    
    Victor "Vic" Poor was an American engineer and computer pioneer. At Computer Terminal Corporation, he co-created the architecture that was ultimately implemented in the first successful computer microprocessor, the Intel 8008. Subsequently, Computer Terminal Corporation created the first personal computer, the Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal.
  2. Datapoint 2200
    
    The Datapoint 2200 was a mass-produced programmable computer terminal usable as a computer, designed by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) founders Phil Ray and Gus Roche and announced by CTC in June 1970. It was initially presented by CTC as a versatile and cost-efficient terminal for connecting to a wide variety of mainframes by loading various terminal emulations from tape rather than being hardwired as most contemporary terminals, including their earlier Datapoint 3300. However, Dave Gust, a CTC salesman, realized that the 2200 could meet Pillsbury Foods's need for a small computer in the field, after which the 2200 was marketed as a stand-alone computer. Its industrial designer John "Jack" Frassanito has later claimed that Ray and Roche always intended the Datapoint 2200 to be a full-blown personal computer, but that they chose to keep quiet about this so as not to concern investors and others. Also significant is the fact that the terminal's multi-chip CPU (processor)'s instruction set became the basis of the Intel 8008 instruction set, which inspired the Intel 8080 instruction set and the x86 instruction set used in the processors for the original IBM PC and its descendants.
3. Patrick Ricard, French businessman (b. 1945) deaths
  1. Patrick Ricard (entrepreneur)
    
    Patrick Ricard was a French entrepreneur and chairman and CEO of the liquor and wine group Pernod Ricard.
4. John Lynch-Staunton, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1930) deaths
  1. John Lynch-Staunton
    
    John George Lynch-Staunton was a Canadian senator, who served as interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, from December 2003 to March 2004. He represented the Senate division of Grandville, Quebec.
2010
1. Francesco Cossiga, Italian lawyer and politician, 8th President of Italy (b. 1928) deaths
  1. Francesco Cossiga
    
    Francesco Maurizio Cossiga was an Italian politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Party of Italy, he was prime minister of Italy from 1979 to 1980 and the president of Italy from 1985 to 1992. Cossiga is widely considered one of the most prominent and influential politicians of the First Republic.
  2. President of Italy
    
    The president of Italy, officially denoted as president of the Italian Republic is the head of state of Italy. In that role, the president represents national unity, and guarantees that Italian politics comply with the Constitution. The president is the commander-in-chief of the Italian Armed Forces and chairs the High Council of the Judiciary. A president's term of office lasts for seven years. The incumbent president is former constitutional judge Sergio Mattarella, who was elected on 31 January 2015, and re-elected on 29 January 2022.
2008
1. Franco Sensi, Italian businessman and politician (b. 1926) deaths
  1. Franco Sensi
    
    Francesco Sensi, Cavaliere del lavoro was an Italian oil tycoon. He was born in Rome, where he lived throughout his entire life, though he also served time as mayor of Visso, the city where his family came from. He had been for fifteen years, until his death, chairman of Associazione Sportiva Roma, the major football club of Rome. He took control of the club in May 1993, both with Pietro Mezzaroma, and he then became the chairman on 8 November 1993.
2007
1. Bill Deedes, English journalist and politician (b. 1913) deaths
  1. Bill Deedes
    
    William Francis Deedes, Baron Deedes, was a British Conservative politician, army officer and journalist. He was the first person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major daily newspaper, The Daily Telegraph.
2. Eddie Griffin, American basketball player (b. 1982) deaths
  1. Eddie Griffin (basketball)
    
    Eddie Jamaal Griffin was an American professional basketball player from Philadelphia. He last played for the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves, who waived him on March 13, 2007. Months later, he was killed in a car crash.
2006
1. Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi poet and journalist (b. 1929) deaths
  1. Shamsur Rahman (poet)
    
    Shamsur Rahman was a Bangladeshi poet, columnist and journalist. A prolific writer, Rahman produced more than sixty books of poetry collection and is considered a key figure in Bengali literature from the latter half of the 20th century. He was regarded as the unofficial poet laureate of Bangladesh. Major themes in his poetry and writings include liberal humanism, human relations, romanticised rebellion of youth, the emergence of and consequent events in Bangladesh, and opposition to religious fundamentalism.
2005
1. John N. Bahcall, American astrophysicist and academic (b. 1934) deaths
  1. John N. Bahcall
    
    John Norris Bahcall was an American astrophysicist, best known for his contributions to the solar neutrino problem, the development of the Hubble Space Telescope and for his leadership and development of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
2004
1. Thea Astley, Australian author and educator (b. 1925) deaths
  1. Thea Astley
    
    Thea Beatrice May Astley was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer. As well as being a writer, she taught at all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary.
2003
1. Nastasja Schunk, German tennis player births
  1. Nastasja Schunk
    
    Nastasja Mariana Schunk is a German tennis player.
2000
1. Lil Pump, American rapper and songwriter births
  1. Lil Pump
    
    Gazzy Garcia, known professionally as Lil Pump, is an American rapper. He is one of the most prominent members of the SoundCloud rap scene and is known for his minimalist music and hyperactive public persona, where he is often portrayed taking drugs such as marijuana, lean, and Xanax – actions that have garnered controversy.
2. Jack Walker, English businessman (b. 1929) deaths
  1. Jack Walker
    
    Jack Walker was a British industrialist and businessman. Walker built his fortune in the steel industry, amassing a personal fortune of £600 million. He then went on to become the owner and benefactor of Blackburn Rovers Football Club, winning the 1994–95 FA Premier League under his guidance.
1998
1. Władysław Komar, Polish shot putter and actor (b. 1940) deaths
  1. Władysław Komar
    
    Władysław Stefan Komar was a Polish shot putter, actor and cabaretist. Competing in three Summer Olympics between 1964 and 1972, he won the gold medal at the Munich Games in 1972 with a throw of 21.18 metres. His nickname was "King Kong" Komar as attributed to a Sports Illustrated article.
2. Tadeusz Ślusarski, Polish pole vaulter (b. 1950) deaths
  1. Tadeusz Ślusarski
    
    Tadeusz Ślusarski was a Polish Olympic gold medalist in pole vault at the 1976 Olympics, as well as a silver medalist at the 1980 Olympics.
1996
1. Jake Virtanen, Canadian ice hockey player births
  1. Jake Virtanen
    
    Jacob Virtanen is a Canadian professional ice hockey player for EHC Visp of the Swiss League (SL). He most recently played for Spartak Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Virtanen was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks sixth overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.
1995
1. Gracie Gold, American figure skater births
  1. Gracie Gold
    
    Grace Elizabeth Gold, known as Gracie Gold, is an American figure skater. She is a 2014 Olympic team event bronze medalist, the 2014 NHK Trophy champion, the 2015 Trophée Éric Bompard champion, and a two-time U.S. national champion. She is also a two-time World Team Trophy champion.
2. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, New Zealand rugby league player births
  1. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak
    
    Dallin Watene-Zelezniak is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a winger or fullback for the New Zealand Warriors in the NRL and New Zealand at international level.
3. Howard E. Koch, American playwright and screenwriter (b. 1902) deaths
  1. Howard Koch (screenwriter)
    
    Howard E. Koch was an American playwright and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood film studio bosses in the 1950s.
4. Ted Whitten, Australian footballer and coach (b. 1933) deaths
  1. Ted Whitten
    
    Edward James Whitten Sr. OAM was an Australian rules footballer who played for the Footscray Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
1994
1. Phoebe Bridgers, American singer/songwriter births
  1. Phoebe Bridgers
    
    Phoebe Lucille Bridgers is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. She was a member of Sloppy Jane and then embarked on a solo career. Bridgers' debut studio album, Stranger in the Alps, was released in 2017 to critical acclaim. In 2020, she followed it up with her second album, Punisher, to further critical success and mainstream recognition. Bridgers received four nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist. In addition to her solo work, Bridgers is also a member of the musical groups Boygenius and Better Oblivion Community Center.
2. Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver and businessman (b. 1901) deaths
  1. Luigi Chinetti
    
    Luigi Chinetti was an Italian-born racecar driver, who emigrated to the United States during World War II. He drove in 12 consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans races, taking three outright wins there and taking two more at the Spa 24 Hours race. Chinetti owned the North American Racing Team, which successfully ran privateer Ferraris in sports car and Formula One races. For many years he was the exclusive American importer of Ferrari automobiles to the United States.
3. Jack Sharkey, American boxer and referee (b. 1902) deaths
  1. Jack Sharkey
    
    Jack Sharkey was a Lithuanian-American world heavyweight boxing champion.
1993
1. Ederson Moraes, Brazilian footballer births
  1. Ederson (footballer, born 1993)
    
    Ederson Santana de Moraes, known as Ederson, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Manchester City and the Brazil national team.
2. Sarah Sjöström, Swedish swimmer births
  1. Sarah Sjöström
    
    Sarah Fredrika Sjöström is a Swedish competitive swimmer specialising in the sprint freestyle and butterfly events. She is the current world record holder in the 50-meter freestyle, the 100-meter freestyle, the 50-meter butterfly, the 100-meter butterfly, and the 4×50-meter medley relay. She is a former world record holder in the 50-meter freestyle, 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, and 200-meter freestyle. She is the first Swedish woman to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming. She won the Overall Swimming World Cup in 2017 and 2018. In 2022, she became the first swimmer representing a country from Europe to win 10 individual World Championships gold medals. She currently represents Energy Standard in the International Swimming League.
3. Feng Kang, Chinese mathematician and academic (b. 1920) deaths
  1. Feng Kang
    
    Feng Kang was a Chinese mathematician. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980. After his death, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Feng Kang Prize in 1994 to reward young Chinese researchers who made outstanding contributions to computational mathematics.
1992
1. Alex Elisala, New Zealand-Australian rugby player (d. 2013) births
  1. Alex Elisala
    
    Alex Elisala was a Samoa international rugby league footballer who was contracted to the North Queensland Cowboys at the time of his death. He primarily played as a hooker.
2. Chanel Mata'utia, Australian rugby league player births
  1. Chanel Mata'utia
    
    Chanel Mata'utia-Leifi is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer. He plays for the Cessnock Goannas in the Newcastle Rugby League. His positions are wing and centre. He previously played for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League.
3. Paige, English wrestler births
  1. Paige (wrestler)
    
    Saraya Jade Bevis is an English professional wrestler. She is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), under her real name Saraya. She is best known for her work with WWE under the ring name Paige. She was a two-time WWE Divas Champion and the inaugural NXT Women's Champion. She is the only woman to ever hold both Divas and NXT Women's Championships simultaneously.
1990
1. Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer (b. 1918) deaths
  1. Pearl Bailey
    
    Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress, singer and author. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She received a Special Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale. Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952.
1989
1. Rachel Corsie, Scottish footballer births
  1. Rachel Corsie
    
    Rachel Louise Corsie is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Aston Villa W.F.C in the FA Women’s Super League (WSL). She is also the captain of the Scotland national team.
1988
1. Natalie Sandtorv, Norwegian singer-songwriter births
  1. Natalie Sandtorv
    
    Natalie Sandtorv is a Norwegian jazz musician married July 29, 2016, to drummer Ole Mofjell, residing in Copenhagen, Denmark.
2. Jihadi John, Kuwaiti-British member of ISIS (d. 2015) births
  1. Jihadi John
    
    Mohammed Emwazi was a Kuwaiti–born British militant believed to be the person seen in several videos produced by the Islamist extremist group ISIL showing the beheadings of a number of captives in 2014 and 2015. A group of his hostages nicknamed him "John" since he was part of a four-person terrorist cell with English accents whom they called "The Beatles"; the press later began calling him "Jihadi John".
  2. Islamic State
    
    The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a militant Islamist group and former unrecognized quasi-state that follows the Salafi jihadist branch of Sunni Islam. It was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 1999 and gained global prominence in 2014, when it drove Iraqi security forces out of key cities during the Anbar campaign, which was followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre.
3. Erika Toda, Japanese actress births
  1. Erika Toda
    
    Erika Toda is a Japanese actress.
4. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistani general and politician, 6th President of Pakistan (b. 1924) deaths
  1. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
    
    General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in 1977. Zia served in office until his death in a plane crash in 1988. He remains the country's longest-serving de facto head of state and Chief of Army Staff.
  2. President of Pakistan
    
    The president of Pakistan, officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.
5. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., American lawyer and politician (b. 1914) deaths
  1. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.
    
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman. He served as a United States congressman from New York from 1949 to 1955 and in 1963 was appointed United States Under Secretary of Commerce by President John F. Kennedy. He was appointed as the first chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1965 to 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Roosevelt also ran for governor of New York twice. He was a son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and served as an officer in the United States Navy during World War II.
6. Victoria Shaw, Australian-American actress (b. 1935) deaths
  1. Victoria Shaw (actress)
    
    Victoria Shaw was an Australian film and television actress.
1987
1. Gary Chester, Italian drummer and educator (b. 1924) deaths
  1. Gary Chester
    
    Gary Chester was an American studio drummer, author, and teacher. Beginning in the 1960s, he played on hundreds of records for bands such as The Coasters, The Monkees, and The Lovin' Spoonful.
2. Rudolf Hess, German soldier and politician (b. 1894) deaths
  1. Rudolf Hess
    
    Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate the United Kingdom's exit from the Second World War. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace. He was still serving his life sentence at the time of his suicide in 1987.
3. Shaike Ophir, Israeli actor and screenwriter (b. 1929) deaths
  1. Shaike Ophir
    
    Shaike Ophir was an Israeli film and theater actor, comedian, playwright, screenwriter, director, and the country's first mime.
1986
1. Rudy Gay, American basketball player births
  1. Rudy Gay
    
    Rudy Carlton Gay Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 6'8" forward played college basketball for the University of Connecticut before being drafted eighth overall in the 2006 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets; he was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies days later.
2. Tyrus Thomas, American basketball player births
  1. Tyrus Thomas
    
    Tyrus Wayne Thomas is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for Louisiana State University (LSU) before being drafted fourth overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2006 NBA draft. He was then traded to the Chicago Bulls where he went on to play three and a half seasons when in February 2010, he was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats.
1985
1. Yū Aoi, Japanese actress and model births
  1. Yū Aoi
    
    Yu Aoi is a Japanese actress and model. She made her film debut as Shiori Tsuda in Shunji Iwai's 2001 film All About Lily Chou-Chou. She subsequently portrayed Tetsuko Arisugawa in Hana and Alice (2004), also directed by Iwai, Kimiko Tanigawa in the hula dancing film Hula Girls and Hagumi Hanamoto in the 2006 live-action adaptation of the Honey and Clover manga series.
1984
1. Dee Brown, American basketball player births
  1. Dee Brown (basketball, born 1984)
    
    Daniel "Dee" Brown is an American former professional basketball player and current college coach. Brown played at the University of Illinois from 2002 to 2006, receiving numerous awards and accolades, including the 2005 Sporting News National Player of the Year. Brown was selected in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz. Brown played for several international basketball teams from 2007 to 2015.
2. Oksana Domnina, Russian ice dancer births
  1. Oksana Domnina
    
    Oksana Alexandrovna Domnina is a Russian former competitive ice dancer. She and partner Maxim Shabalin are the 2010 Olympic bronze medalists, the 2009 World Champions, the 2008 & 2010 European Champions, the 2007 Grand Prix Final champions, and three-time Russian national champions.
3. Liam Heath, British sprint canoeist births
  1. Liam Heath
    
    Liam Heath is a British sprint canoeist. He is the most successful British canoeist at the Olympics with a total of four medals; he won a gold medal in the individual 200m kayak sprint event at the 2016 Summer Olympics and a bronze in the 2020 Olympics, as well as a silver in the men's double with Jon Schofield in 2016. and a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics in the K-2 200 with Schofield.
4. Garrett Wolfe, American football player births
  1. Garrett Wolfe
    
    Garrett Wolfe is a former American football running back. He was drafted by the Bears in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played his college football at Northern Illinois.
1983
1. Dustin Pedroia, American baseball player births
  1. Dustin Pedroia
    
    Dustin Luis Pedroia is an American former professional baseball second baseman who played his entire Major League Baseball career for the Boston Red Sox, from 2006 to 2019. He was a four-time All-Star, and won the American League (AL) Rookie of The Year Award in 2007 and the AL Most Valuable Player and Silver Slugger Award in 2008. He has also received four Gold Glove Awards and was named AL Defensive Player of the Year in 2013.
2. Ira Gershwin, American songwriter (b. 1896) deaths
  1. Ira Gershwin
    
    Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. With George, he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "The Man I Love" and "Someone to Watch Over Me". He was also responsible, along with DuBose Heyward, for the libretto to George's opera Porgy and Bess.
1982
1. Phil Jagielka, English footballer births
  1. Phil Jagielka
    
    Philip Nikodem Jagielka is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for EFL Championship club Stoke City.
2. Cheerleader Melissa, American wrestler and manager births
  1. Cheerleader Melissa
    
    Melissa Anderson is an American professional wrestler, better known by her ring name Cheerleader Melissa. She is best known for her work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where she worked as Alissa Flash and Raisha Saeed. She is currently performing on the independent circuit for promotions such as Shimmer Women Athletes, where she is a former two-time Shimmer Champion. In 2013, Anderson was ranked number 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated's annual Top 50 Females list.
3. Mark Salling, American actor and musician (d. 2018) births
  1. Mark Salling
    
    Mark Wayne Salling was an American actor and musician known for his role as Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the television series Glee.
1980
1. Keith Dabengwa, Zimbabwean cricketer births
  1. Keith Dabengwa
    
    Keith Mbusi Dabengwa is a Zimbabwean cricketer. He was appointed head coach of the Denmark national cricket team in October 2021.
2. Daniel Güiza, Spanish footballer births
  1. Dani Güiza
    
    Daniel González Güiza is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a striker for UD Algaida.
3. Jan Kromkamp, Dutch footballer births
  1. Jan Kromkamp
    
    Jan Kromkamp is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He currently manages CSV Apeldoorn.
4. Lene Marlin, Norwegian singer-songwriter births
  1. Lene Marlin
    
    Lene Marlin is a Norwegian musician, singer, and songwriter.
1979
1. Antwaan Randle El, American football player and journalist births
  1. Antwaan Randle El
    
    Antwaan Randle El is an American football coach and former player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He is currently the wide receivers coach for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He attended Indiana University where he played college football for the Indiana Hoosiers, and also played basketball and baseball as well. For a time, he was also a sideline reporter for the Big Ten Network for interconference games that the Indiana football team plays.
2. John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (b. 1907) deaths
  1. John C. Allen
    
    John C. Allen was a roller coaster designer who was responsible for the revival of wooden roller coasters which began in the 1960s. He attended Drexel University. He started working for the Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1934 as a coaster operator and rose to become president of the company by 1954. He has designed more than 25 coasters and made significant contributions to roller coaster technology. He once said, "You don't need a degree in engineering to design roller coasters, you need a degree in psychology."
  2. Roller coaster
    
    A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are often found in amusement parks and theme parks around the world. LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, related to the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. The track in a coaster design does not necessarily have to be a complete circuit, as shuttle roller coasters demonstrate. Most roller coasters have multiple cars in which passengers sit and are restrained. Two or more cars hooked together are called a train. Some roller coasters, notably Wild Mouse roller coasters, run with single cars.
3. Vivian Vance, American actress and singer (b. 1909) deaths
  1. Vivian Vance
    
    Vivian Vance was an American actress and singer best known for playing Ethel Mertz on the sitcom I Love Lucy (1951–1957), for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress, among other accolades. She also starred alongside Lucille Ball in The Lucy Show from 1962 until she left the series at the end of its third season in 1965. In 1991, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is most commonly identified as Lucille Ball’s longtime comedic foil from 1951 until her death in 1979.
1977
1. Nathan Deakes, Australian race walker births
  1. Nathan Deakes
    
    Nathan Deakes is an Australian former race walker. Deakes trained with the Australian Institute of Sport.
2. William Gallas, French footballer births
  1. William Gallas
    
    William Eric Gallas is a French former professional footballer who played as a defender. He played most of his footballing career in France and England before finishing his career in Australia with A-League club Perth Glory. Gallas began his career in France, before being signed by English club Chelsea in 2001. He transferred to Arsenal as part of an exchange deal in 2006. He then signed for rivals Tottenham Hotspur in 2010.
3. Thierry Henry, French footballer births
  1. Thierry Henry
    
    Thierry Daniel Henry is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best players to play in the Premier League, Henry was runner-up for the Ballon d'Or in 2003, FIFA World Player of the Year in 2004, and finished third place for the Ballon d'Or in 2006. He was named the FWA Footballer of the Year a record three times, the PFA Players' Player of the Year a joint-record two times, and was named in the PFA Team of the Year six consecutive times. He was also included in the FIFA FIFPro World XI once and the UEFA Team of the Year five times.
4. Mike Lewis, Welsh guitarist births
  1. Mike Lewis (musician)
    
    Michael Richard Lewis is a Welsh musician. He is best known as the former rhythm guitarist for the Welsh alternative rock band Lostprophets, Welsh/American alternative rock band No Devotion and hardcore punk band Public Disturbance.
5. Tarja Turunen, Finnish singer-songwriter and producer births
  1. Tarja Turunen
    
    Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli, known professionally as Tarja Turunen or simply Tarja, is a Finnish heavy metal singer, best known as the former lead vocalist of Nightwish. She is a soprano with a three and a half octave range.
6. Delmer Daves, American screenwriter, director and producer (b. 1904) deaths
  1. Delmer Daves
    
    Delmer Lawrence Daves was an American screenwriter, film director and film producer. He worked in many genres, including film noir and warfare, but he is best known for his Western movies, especially Broken Arrow (1950), The Last Wagon (1956), 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and The Hanging Tree (1959). He was forced to work on studio-based films only after heart trouble in 1959 but one of these, A Summer Place, was nevertheless a huge commercial success.
1976
1. Eric Boulton, Canadian ice hockey player births
  1. Eric Boulton
    
    Eric Boulton is a Canadian former professional ice hockey left winger. Boulton was drafted 234th overall in the ninth round of the 1994 draft by the New York Rangers. While he never played for the Rangers, he played for the Buffalo Sabres, Atlanta Thrashers, New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders between 2000 and 2016. Boulton was best known for his role as an enforcer.
2. Geertjan Lassche, Dutch journalist and director births
  1. Geertjan Lassche
    
    Geertjan Lassche is a Dutch reporter and documentary film maker.
3. Serhiy Zakarlyuka, Ukrainian footballer and manager (d. 2014) births
  1. Serhiy Zakarlyuka
    
    Serhiy Volodymyrovych Zakarlyuka was a Ukrainian footballer and football manager.
1974
1. Johannes Maria Staud, Austrian composer births
  1. Johannes Maria Staud
    
    Johannes Maria Staud is an Austrian composer.
1973
1. Conrad Aiken, American novelist, short story writer, critic, and poet (b. 1889) deaths
  1. Conrad Aiken
    
    Conrad Potter Aiken was an American writer and poet, honored with a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award, and was United States Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include poetry, short stories, novels, literary criticism, a play, and an autobiography.
2. Jean Barraqué, French pianist and composer (b. 1928) deaths
  1. Jean Barraqué
    
    Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué was a French composer and writer on music who developed an individual form of serialism which is displayed in a small output.
3. Paul Williams, American singer and choreographer (b. 1939) deaths
  1. Paul Williams (The Temptations singer)
    
    Paul Williams was an American baritone singer and choreographer. Williams was noted for being one of the founding members and original lead singer of the Motown group The Temptations. Along with Elbridge "Al" Bryant, Otis Williams, and fellow Alabamians Eddie Kendricks and Melvin Franklin, Williams was a member of The Temptations. Personal problems and failing health forced Williams to retire in 1971. He was found dead two years later as the result of an apparent suicide.
1972
1. Habibul Bashar, Bangladeshi cricketer births
  1. Habibul Bashar
    
    Qazi Habibul Bashar is a retired Bangladeshi cricketer and the former captain of the Bangladesh cricket team. Under the managership of Dav Whatmore, he has been found to be the most successful captain to lead the Bangladesh team to overcome several milestones. The first test victory of Bangladesh came under his hands in 2004 against Zimbabwe. Under Bashar's captaincy, Bangladesh have beaten Australia, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka in limited overs matches. Bashar is currently one of the chief selectors of BCB, along with Abdur Razzak and Minhajul Abedin.
1971
1. Uhm Jung-hwa, South Korean singer and actress births
  1. Uhm Jung-hwa
    
    Uhm Jung-hwa is a South Korean singer, actress and dancer. Uhm is considered to be one of the most influential women in the Korean entertainment industry, finding rare success in both music and film. Her legacy and career reinventions have given her the nickname of "Korean Madonna".
2. Jorge Posada, Puerto Rican-American baseball player births
  1. Jorge Posada
    
    Jorge Rafael Posada Villeta is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees. Posada recorded a .273 batting average, 275 home runs, and 1,065 runs batted in (RBIs) during his career. A switch hitter, Posada was a five-time All-Star, won five Silver Slugger Awards, and was on the roster for four World Series championship teams.
3. Shaun Rehn, Australian footballer and coach births
  1. Shaun Rehn
    
    Shaun Jason Rehn is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club and the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
4. Maedayama Eigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 39th Yokozuna (b. 1914) deaths
  1. Maedayama Eigorō
    
    Maedayama Eigorō was a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Ehime Prefecture. He was the sport's 39th yokozuna.
  2. Makuuchi
    
    Makuuchi (幕内), or makunouchi (幕の内), is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (rikishi), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments.
5. Wilhelm List, German field marshal (b. 1880) deaths
  1. Wilhelm List
    
    Wilhelm List was a German field marshal during World War II who was convicted of war crimes by a US Army tribunal after the war. List commanded the 14th Army in the invasion of Poland and the 12th Army in the invasions of France, Yugoslavia and Greece. In 1941 he commanded the German forces in Southeast Europe responsible for the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia. In July 1942 during Case Blue, the German summer offensive in Southern Russia, he was appointed commander of Army Group A, responsible for the main thrust towards the Caucasus and Baku.
1970
1. Jim Courier, American tennis player and sportscaster births
  1. Jim Courier
    
    James Spencer "Jim" Courier is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He won four major singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He was the youngest man to reach the singles finals of all four majors, at the age of 22 years and 11 months. He also won five Masters titles. Since 2005 he has worked as a tennis commentator, notably for the host broadcaster of the Australian Open, Nine, and as an analyst for Tennis Channel and Prime Video Sport.
2. Andrus Kivirähk, Estonian author births
  1. Andrus Kivirähk
    
    Andrus Kivirähk is an Estonian writer, a playwright, topical satirist, and screenwriter. As of 2004, 25,000 copies of his novel Rehepapp ehk November had been sold, making him the most popular 21st century Estonian writer. His book Mees, kes teadis ussisõnu (2007) has been one of the top selling books in Estonia. He has been a member of the Estonian Writers' Union since 1996.
3. Øyvind Leonhardsen, Norwegian footballer and coach births
  1. Øyvind Leonhardsen
    
    Øyvind Leonhardsen is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He retired after the 2007 season, ending a career with nine years in English football at clubs Wimbledon, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, and Aston Villa, and in Norway he played for Molde, Rosenborg, Lyn, and Strømsgodset. Between 1990 and 2003 he made 86 appearances for the Norway national team scoring 19 goals.
4. Rattana Pestonji, Thai director and producer (b. 1908) deaths
  1. Rattana Pestonji
    
    Rattana Pestonji was a Thai film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer and is regarded as the father of contemporary Thai film. Although his filmography was brief, his films placed Thai cinema on the world stage. He also pushed for innovations, and was one of the first Thai directors to use 35-mm film. He died just as he was giving a speech to government officials to call for support of a domestic industry he saw as coming under threat from Hollywood films.
1969
1. Christian Laettner, American basketball player and coach births
  1. Christian Laettner
    
    Christian Donald Laettner is an American former professional basketball player. His college career for the Duke Blue Devils is widely regarded as one of the best in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) history. He was the star player on the back-to-back Duke National Championship teams of 1991 and 1992, and the NCAA player of the year in his senior year. He is particularly famous for his game-winning shot against Kentucky in the 1992 tournament and for the hatred he received from opposing fans.
2. Donnie Wahlberg, American singer-songwriter, actor and producer births
  1. Donnie Wahlberg
    
    Donald Edmond Wahlberg Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, record producer, and film producer. He is a founding member of the boy band New Kids on the Block. Outside music, he has had roles in the Saw films, Zookeeper, Dreamcatcher, The Sixth Sense, Righteous Kill, and Ransom, as well as appearing in the World War II miniseries Band of Brothers as Carwood Lipton.
3. Kelvin Mercer, American rapper, songwriter and producer births
  1. Kelvin Mercer
    
    Kelvin Mercer, also known by his stage name Posdnuos and occasionally Pos, is an American rapper and producer from East Massapequa, New York best known for his work as one-third of the hip hop trio De La Soul. Through his work with the group, Mercer is considered to be one of the most consistent and underrated MCs of all time. Beginning with the highly acclaimed 3 Feet High and Rising in 1989, Mercer has gone on to release nine albums with De La Soul.
4. Otto Stern, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1888) deaths
  1. Otto Stern
    
    Otto Stern was a German-American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. He was the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize with 82 nominations in the years 1925–1945, ultimately winning in 1943.
  2. Nobel Prize in Physics
    
    The Nobel Prize in Physics is a yearly award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions for humankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901, the others being the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Physics is traditionally the first award presented in the Nobel Prize ceremony.
1968
1. Andriy Kuzmenko, Ukrainian singer-songwriter (d. 2015) births
  1. Andriy Kuzmenko
    
    Andriy Viktorovych "Kuzma" Kuzmenko was a Ukrainian singer, poet, writer, TV presenter, producer and actor, Hero of Ukraine (2020). He was best known as the lead singer of the Ukrainian rock band Skryabin, founded in 1989. He died in a traffic collision on 2 February 2015 in Lozuvatka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, aged 46.
2. Ed McCaffrey, American football player and sportscaster births
  1. Ed McCaffrey
    
    Edward Thomas McCaffrey, Jr. is an American football coach and former wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for thirteen seasons. McCaffrey played college football for Stanford University and earned first-team All-American honors. The New York Giants chose him in the third round of the 1991 NFL Draft. He also played for the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos. He served as the head coach of the Northern Colorado Bears football team from 2020–2022.
3. Helen McCrory, English actress (d. 2021) births
  1. Helen McCrory
    
    Helen Elizabeth McCrory was an English actress. After studying at the Drama Centre London, she made her stage debut in The Importance of Being Earnest in 1990. Other stage roles include playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, Olivia in Twelfth Night and Rosalind in As You Like It in the West End.
1967
1. Michael Preetz, German footballer and manager births
  1. Michael Preetz
    
    Michael Preetz is a German former professional footballer who played as a forward. He spent his whole career in Germany, playing for Fortuna Düsseldorf, 1. FC Saarbrücken, MSV Duisburg and SG Wattenscheid 09, but he is mostly remembered for his seven-year spell at Hertha BSC where he ended his career. After retiring from active play, he stayed with the club, going directly into management.
1966
1. Jüri Luik, Estonian politician and diplomat, 18th Estonian Minister of Defense births
  1. Jüri Luik
    
    Jüri Luik is an Estonian diplomat and politician who served as the Minister of Defence in the government of Prime Minister Jüri Ratas. In addition, he chaired the EPP Defense Ministers Meeting, which gathers the center-right EPP ministers ahead of meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC).
  2. Minister of Defence (Estonia)
    
    The Minister of Defence is the senior minister at the Ministry of Defence (Kaitseministeerium) in the Estonian Government. The minister is one of the most important members of the Estonian government, with responsibility for coordinating the governments policies on national defence and the military forces. The defence minister is chosen by the prime minister as a part of the government.
2. Rodney Mullen, American skateboarder and stuntman births
  1. Rodney Mullen
    
    John Rodney Mullen is an American professional skateboarder who practices freestyle skateboarding and street skateboarding. He is considered one of the most influential skaters in the history of the sport, being credited for inventing numerous tricks, including the flatground ollie, kickflip, heelflip, impossible, and 360-flip. As a result, he has been called the "Godfather of freestyle Skateboarding".
3. Don Sweeney, Canadian ice hockey player and manager births
  1. Don Sweeney
    
    Donald Clarke Sweeney is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman who played over 1,100 games in the National Hockey League (NHL), mostly with the Boston Bruins. He ranks among the top ten in many Bruins team statistics, including fourth overall in total games played. After retiring from hockey following the 2003–04 season, he worked briefly as a broadcaster before rejoining the Bruins as a team executive in 2006.
4. Ken Miles, English race car driver and engineer (b. 1918) deaths
  1. Ken Miles
    
    Kenneth Henry Jarvis Miles was a British sports car racing engineer and driver best known for his motorsport career in the US and with American teams on the international scene. He is an inductee to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.
1965
1. Steve Gorman, American drummer births
  1. Steve Gorman
    
    Steve Gorman is an American musician and sports talk radio host. Gorman is best known as the former drummer of the American rock and roll band The Black Crowes He spent time as the drummer for British rock band Stereophonics. He also hosted his own radio show Steve Gorman Sports! on Fox Sports Radio. He is now the host of Steve Gorman Rocks! on Westwood One radio station affiliates.
2. Dottie Pepper, American golfer births
  1. Dottie Pepper
    
    Dottie Pepper is an American professional golfer and television golf broadcaster. From 1988 to 1995 she competed as Dottie Mochrie, which was her married name before a divorce. She won two major championships and 17 LPGA Tour events in all.
1964
1. Colin James, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer births
  1. Colin James
    
    Colin James is a Canadian rock and blues singer and songwriter.
2. Maria McKee, American singer-songwriter births
  1. Maria McKee
    
    Maria Luisa McKee is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her work with Lone Justice, her 1990 song "Show Me Heaven", and her song "If Love Is a Red Dress " from the film Pulp Fiction. She is the half-sister of Bryan MacLean, who was best known as a guitarist and vocalist in the band Love.
3. Dave Penney, English footballer and manager births
  1. Dave Penney
    
    David Mark Penney is an English football manager and former player. Born in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, Penney entered professional football at the relatively late age of 21. He had been working as a bricklayer and playing for nothing at Pontefract Collieries for 5 years before he was spotted by Derby County scout Ron Jukes, who recommended him to manager Arthur Cox. He was offered a contract at the then Third Division club and they climbed two divisions before he left for Oxford United for £175,000. He then went on to Wales, where he played for Swansea City and Cardiff City, latterly signing for Doncaster Rovers in 1998. He played as a midfielder.
1963
1. Jon Gruden, American football player, coach, and sportscaster births
  1. Jon Gruden
    
    Jon David Gruden is a former American professional football coach who was a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons. He held his first head coaching position with the Raiders franchise during their Oakland tenure from 1998 to 2001, where he won two consecutive division titles and made an AFC Championship Game appearance. Gruden was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, whom he led to their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVII the same season. At age 39, he was the then-youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl. He served as Tampa Bay's head coach through 2008, setting the franchise record for wins, but made only two further playoff runs. After his firing from the Buccaneers, Gruden was featured as an analyst for ESPN's Monday Night Football broadcasts from the 2009 to the 2017 seasons.
2. Jackie Walorski, American politician (d. 2022) births
  1. Jackie Walorski
    
    Jacqueline Renae Walorski was an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Indiana's 2nd congressional district from 2013 until her death in 2022. She was a member of the Republican Party. Walorski served in the Indiana House of Representatives, representing Indiana's 21st district, from 2005 to 2010. In 2010, she won the Republican nomination for Indiana's 2nd congressional district, but narrowly lost the general election to Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly. Walorski won the seat in 2012 after Donnelly vacated it to run for the U.S. Senate, and was reelected four times.
1962
1. Gilby Clarke, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer births
  1. Gilby Clarke
    
    Gilbert J. "Gilby" Clarke is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He had a 3-year tenure as the rhythm guitarist of Guns N' Roses, replacing Izzy Stradlin in 1991 during the Use Your Illusion Tour, and also featured on "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993). Following this, Clarke went on to forge a solo career as well playing guitar with Slash's Snakepit, Kat Men, Heart, Nancy Sinatra, Kathy Valentine, MC5 and forming his own group Rock Star Supernova with members of Metallica and Mötley Crüe.
2. Dan Dakich, American basketball player, coach, and sportscaster births
  1. Dan Dakich
    
    Daniel John Dakich is an American basketball sportscaster. He is a former player, assistant coach, interim head coach for the Indiana University Hoosiers and former head coach at Bowling Green State University. He currently hosts the radio show Don't @ Me" for OutKick.
1960
1. Stephan Eicher, Swiss singer-songwriter births
  1. Stephan Eicher
    
    Stephan Eicher is a Swiss singer. He sings in a variety of languages, including French, German, English, Italian, Swiss German and Romansh, sometimes using different languages in the same song.
2. Sean Penn, American actor, director, and political activist births
  1. Sean Penn
    
    Sean Justin Penn is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River (2003) and the biopic Milk (2008).
1959
1. Jonathan Franzen, American novelist and essayist births
  1. Jonathan Franzen
    
    Jonathan Earl Franzen is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel The Corrections, a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist, earned a James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. His novel Freedom (2010) garnered similar praise and led to an appearance on the cover of Time magazine alongside the headline "Great American Novelist". Franzen's latest novel Crossroads was published in 2021, and is the first in a projected trilogy.
2. Jacek Kazimierski, Polish footballer births
  1. Jacek Kazimierski
    
    Jacek Kazimierski is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
3. Eric Schlosser, American journalist and author births
  1. Eric Schlosser
    
    Eric Matthew Schlosser is an American journalist and author known for his investigative journalism, such as in his books Fast Food Nation (2001), Reefer Madness (2003), and Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety (2013).
1958
1. Belinda Carlisle, American singer-songwriter births
  1. Belinda Carlisle
    
    Belinda Jo Carlisle is an American singer. She gained fame as the lead vocalist of the Go-Go's, the most successful all-female rock band of all time, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist.
2. Fred Goodwin, Scottish banker and accountant births
  1. Fred Goodwin
    
    Frederick Anderson Goodwin FRSE FCIBS is a Scottish chartered accountant and former banker who was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) between 2001 and 2009.
3. Maurizio Sandro Sala, Brazilian race car driver births
  1. Maurizio Sandro Sala
    
    Maurizio Sandro Sala is a Brazilian former racing driver. He drove in multiple classes of racing in a career lasting from 1978 to 2004.
4. Arthur Fox, English-American fencer (b. 1878) deaths
  1. Arthur Fox (fencer)
    
    Arthur George Fox was an English-American fencer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.
1957
1. Ken Kwapis, American director and screenwriter births
  1. Ken Kwapis
    
    Kenneth William Kwapis is an American film and television director, screenwriter, and author. He specialized in the single-camera sitcom in the 1990s and 2000s and has directed feature films such as Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird (1985), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005), and He's Just Not That Into You (2009).
2. Laurence Overmire, American poet, author, and actor births
  1. Laurence Overmire
    
    Laurence Overmire is an American poet, author, actor, educator, genealogist, peace activist, civil rights, human rights, and animal rights advocate and environmentalist.
3. Robin Cousins, British competitive figure skater births
  1. Robin Cousins
    
    Robin Cousins, MBE is a British former competitive figure skater who was BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1980. He was the 1980 Olympic champion, the 1980 European champion, a three-time World medalist (1978–1980) and four-time British national champion (1977–1980), winning all of these titles during his amateur career. He followed this with a successful career as a professional figure skater and later starred in ice shows as well as producing several of his own. He is able to spin in either direction, both clockwise and anti-clockwise, which is an unusual skill for a figure skater.
1956
1. Gail Berman, American businessman, co-founded BermanBraun births
  1. Gail Berman
    
    Gail Berman is an American producer and television executive. She is co-owner and founding partner of The Jackal Group, a production entity formed in partnership with Fox Networks Group. The Jackal Group develops and produces scripted, unscripted and factual entertainment programming for FNG's channels, including Fox Broadcasting Company, FX/FXX, the National Geographic Channels, and Fox International Channels. The partnership also provides for opportunities in digital and film, as well as for non-21st Century Fox distribution entities.
  2. Whalerock Industries
    
    Whalerock Industries is an American media and technology company. Based in West Hollywood, Whalerock partners with public figures and brands to create, build and operate direct-to-consumer multi-media apps which integrate music, video, live streaming, e-commerce, and gaming. Whalerock's partners include Sirius XM, Howard Stern, Warner Bros., Pottermore, MTV, Comedy Central, CMT, MSN, Microsoft, the Kardashian/Jenner sisters, and Tyler the Creator. The multi-media apps were described by Wired as "promising a new kind of interaction—one with more control for celebrities and more content for super fans."
2. Álvaro Pino, Spanish cyclist births
  1. Álvaro Pino
    
    Álvaro Pino Couñago is a former professional road racing cyclist from Galicia who raced between 1981 through 1991 and is most famous for winning the overall title at the 1986 Vuelta a España over favorites Robert Millar from Great Britain, Laurent Fignon from France and Sean Kelly from Ireland. The following year, Pino captured the 1987 Volta a Catalunya and at the 1988 Vuelta, Pino won two stages and the King of the Mountains jersey. In all, he won five stages over his career at the Vuelta a España.
1955
1. Colin Moulding, English singer-songwriter and bassist births
  1. Colin Moulding
    
    Colin Ivor Moulding is an English bassist, singer, and songwriter who was one of the core members of the rock band XTC. Though he was less prolific a songwriter than his bandmate Andy Partridge, Moulding wrote their first three charting UK singles: "Life Begins at the Hop" (1979), "Making Plans for Nigel" (1979) and "Generals and Majors" (1980).
1954
1. Eric Johnson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer births
  1. Eric Johnson (guitarist)
    
    Eric Johnson is an American guitarist, vocalist and composer. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single "Cliffs of Dover" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
2. Andrés Pastrana Arango, Colombian lawyer and politician, 38th President of Colombia births
  1. Andrés Pastrana Arango
    
    Andrés Pastrana Arango is a Colombian politician who was the 30th President of Colombia from 1998 to 2002, following in the footsteps of his father, Misael Pastrana Borrero, who was president from 1970 to 1974.
  2. President of Colombia
    
    The president of Colombia, officially known as the president of the Republic of Colombia or president of the nation is the head of state and head of government of Colombia. The office of president was established upon the ratification of the Constitution of 1819, by the Congress of Angostura, convened in December 1819, when Colombia was the "Gran Colombia". The first president, General Simón Bolívar, took office in 1819. His position, initially self-proclaimed, was subsequently ratified by Congress.
1953
1. Mick Malthouse, Australian footballer and coach births
  1. Mick Malthouse
    
    Michael Raymond Malthouse is a former Australian rules footballer, who played for the St Kilda Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
2. Herta Müller, Romanian-German poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate births
  1. Herta Müller
    
    Herta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Nițchidorf, Timiș County in Romania, her native language is German. Since the early 1990s, she has been internationally established, and her works have been translated into more than twenty languages.
  2. Nobel Prize in Literature
    
    The Nobel Prize in Literature is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction". Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize. The academy announces the name of the laureate in early October. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895. Literature is traditionally the final award presented at the Nobel Prize ceremony. On some occasions the award has been postponed to the following year, most recently in 2018 as of May 2022.
3. Korrie Layun Rampan, Indonesian author, poet, and critic (d. 2015) births
  1. Korrie Layun Rampan
    
    Korrie Layun Rampan was an Indonesian novelist, short story writer, poet, literary critic, journalist, and politician.
4. Kevin Rowland, English singer-songwriter and guitarist births
  1. Kevin Rowland
    
    Kevin Rowland is a British singer and musician best known as the frontman for the pop band Dexys Midnight Runners. The band had several hits in the early 1980s, the most notable being "Geno" and "Come On Eileen", both of which reached number one on the UK Singles Chart.
1952
1. Aleksandr Maksimenkov, Russian footballer and coach (d. 2012) births
  1. Aleksandr Maksimenkov
    
    Aleksandr Ivanovich Maksimenkov was a Soviet football player and a Russian coach.
2. Nelson Piquet, Brazilian race car driver and businessman births
  1. Nelson Piquet
    
    Nelson Piquet Souto Maior is a Brazilian retired racing driver and businessman. Since his retirement, Piquet, a three-time World Champion, has been ranked among the greatest Formula One (F1) drivers in various motorsport polls.
3. Mario Theissen, German engineer and businessman births
  1. Mario Theissen
    
    Mario Theissen is the former BMW Motorsport Director and was team principal of BMW Sauber, the company's Formula One team from 2005 until 2009, when BMW sold the team back to Peter Sauber.
4. Guillermo Vilas, Argentinian tennis player births
  1. Guillermo Vilas
    
    Guillermo Vilas is an Argentine former professional tennis player. Vilas was the No. 1 of the Grand Prix seasons in 1974, 1975 and 1977, and won four Grand Slam tournaments, one year-end Masters, nine Grand Prix Super Series titles and a total of 62 ATP titles. World Tennis, Agence France-Presse and Livre d'or du tennis 1977, among other rankings and publications, rated him as world No. 1 in 1977. In the ATP computer rankings, he peaked at No. 2 in April 1975, a position he held for a total of 83 weeks. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991, two years after his first retirement.
1951
1. Richard Hunt, American Muppet performer (d. 1992) births
  1. Richard Hunt (puppeteer)
    
    Richard Hunt was an American puppeteer, best known as a Muppet performer on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and other projects for The Jim Henson Company. His roles on The Muppet Show included Scooter, Statler, Janice, Beaker, and Sweetums and characters on Sesame Street include Gladys the Cow, Don Music, and Forgetful Jones.
1949
1. Norm Coleman, American lawyer and politician, 52nd Mayor of St. Paul births
  1. Norm Coleman
    
    Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a United States Senator for Minnesota. From 1994 to 2002, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota. First elected as a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Coleman became a Republican in 1996. Elected to the Senate in 2002, he was narrowly defeated in his 2008 reelection bid. As of 2022, he is the most recent Republican to have represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate.
  2. List of mayors of Saint Paul, Minnesota
    
    This is a list of people who have served as mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota.Parties
2. Sue Draheim, American fiddler and composer (d. 2013) births
  1. Sue Draheim
    
    Sue Draheim was an American fiddler, boasting a more than forty year musical career in the US and the UK. Growing up in North Oakland, Draheim began her first private violin lessons at age eleven, having started public school violin instruction at age eight while attending North Oakland's Peralta Elementary School. She also attended Claremont Jr. High, and graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1967.
3. Julian Fellowes, English actor, director, screenwriter, and politician births
  1. Julian Fellowes
    
    Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, and a Conservative peer of the House of Lords. He is primarily known as the author of several Sunday Times bestseller novels; for the screenplay for the film Gosford Park, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2002; and as the creator, writer and executive producer of the multiple award-winning ITV series Downton Abbey (2010–2015).
4. Sib Hashian, American rock drummer (d. 2017) births
  1. Sib Hashian
    
    John Thomas "Sib" Hashian was an American musician, best known as a drummer for the rock band Boston.
5. Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino journalist, jurist, and politician (b. 1891) deaths
  1. Gregorio Perfecto
    
    Gregorio Milian Perfecto was a Filipino journalist, politician and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 1945 to 1949. A controversial figure who was described as an "apostle of liberal causes", Perfecto was notable for his libertarian views, his colorful writing style, and the frequency of his dissenting opinions while on the Supreme Court.
1948
1. Alexander Ivashkin, Russian-English cellist and conductor (d. 2014) births
  1. Alexander Ivashkin
    
    Alexander Ivashkin, was a Russian cellist, writer, academic and conductor.
1947
1. Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (d. 2016) births
  1. Mohamed Abdelaziz (Sahrawi politician)
    
    Mohamed Abdelaziz was the 3rd Secretary General of the Polisario Front, from 1976, and the 1st President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from 1982, until his death in 2016.
  2. President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
    
    The president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is the head of state of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), a government in exile based in the Sahrawi refugee camps of Tindouf, Algeria.
2. Gary Talley, American guitarist, singer-songwriter, and author births
  1. Gary Talley
    
    Gary Talley is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and author. He began his career as lead guitarist for the Grammy-nominated group The Box Tops who were famous for hits like "The Letter", and "Cry Like a Baby".
1946
1. Hugh Baiocchi, South African golfer births
  1. Hugh Baiocchi
    
    Hugh John Baiocchi is a South African professional golfer who has won more than 20 professional tournaments around the world.
2. Martha Coolidge, American director, producer, and screenwriter births
  1. Martha Coolidge
    
    Martha Coolidge is an American film director and former President of the Directors Guild of America. She has directed such films as Valley Girl, Real Genius and Rambling Rose.
3. Patrick Manning, Trinidadian-Tobagonian politician, 4th Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2016) births
  1. Patrick Manning
    
    Patrick Augustus Mervyn Manning was a Trinidadian politician who was the fourth Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago; his terms ran from 17 December 1991 to 9 November 1995 and from 24 December 2001 to 26 May 2010. He was also Political Leader of the People's National Movement (PNM) from 1987 to 2010. A geologist by training, Manning served as Member of Parliament for the San Fernando East constituency from 1971 until 2015 when he was replaced by Randall Mitchell and was the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives. He was the Leader of the Opposition from 1986 to 1990 and again from 1995 to 2001.
  2. List of prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago
    
    The prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago is the head of the executive branch of government in Trinidad and Tobago.
1945
1. Rachel Pollack, American author, poet, and educator births
  1. Rachel Pollack
    
    Rachel Grace Pollack is an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot. She is involved in the women's spirituality movement.
2. Reidar Haaland, Norwegian police officer and soldier (b. 1919) deaths
  1. Reidar Haaland
    
    Reidar Haaland was a police officer and voluntary frontline soldier for the German forces.
1944
1. Larry Ellison, American businessman, co-founded the Oracle Corporation births
  1. Larry Ellison
    
    Lawrence Joseph Ellison is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology company Oracle Corporation. As of November 2022, he was listed by Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the seventh-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of $91 billion. Ellison is also known for his 98% ownership stake in Lanai, the sixth-largest island in the Hawaiian Archipelago.
  2. Oracle Corporation
    
    Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells database software and technology, cloud engineered systems, and enterprise software products, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise performance management (EPM) software, and supply chain management (SCM) software.
2. Jean-Bernard Pommier, French pianist and conductor births
  1. Jean-Bernard Pommier
    
    Jean-Bernard Pommier, is a French pianist and conductor.
1943
1. Edward Cowie, English composer, painter, and author births
  1. Edward Cowie
    
    Edward Cowie is an English composer, author, natural scientist, and painter.
2. Robert De Niro, American actor, entrepreneur, director, and producer births
  1. Robert De Niro
    
    Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2009, De Niro received the Kennedy Center Honor, and earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.
3. John Humphrys, Welsh journalist and author births
  1. John Humphrys
    
    Desmond John Humphrys is a Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter for the Nine O'Clock News, the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until 2019 he presented on the BBC Radio 4 breakfast programme Today. He was the host of the BBC Two television quiz show Mastermind from 2003 to 2021, for a total of 735 episodes.
4. Dave "Snaker" Ray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002) births
  1. Dave "Snaker" Ray
    
    Dave "Snaker" Ray was an American blues singer and guitarist from St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, who was most notably associated with Spider John Koerner and Tony "Little Sun" Glover in the early Sixties folk revival. Together, the three released albums under the name Koerner, Ray & Glover. They gained notice with their album Blues, Rags and Hollers, originally released by Audiophile in 1963 and re-released by Elektra Records later that year.
1942
1. Shane Porteous, Australian actor, animator, and screenwriter births
  1. Shane Porteous
    
    John Shane Porteous is an Australian actor, screenwriter, animation layout artist and animation voice artist. As a screenwriter, he is sometimes credited as "John Hanlon".
1941
1. Lothar Bisky, German businessman and politician (d. 2013) births
  1. Lothar Bisky
    
    Lothar Bisky was a German politician. He was the chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party (SED). In June 2007 he became co-chairman of The Left party, formed by a merger of the PDS and the much smaller Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. From 2007 until 2010 he was the President of the Party of the European Left. Also, he was the Publisher of the socialist newspaper Neues Deutschland.
2. Jean Pierre Lefebvre, Canadian director and screenwriter births
  1. Jean Pierre Lefebvre
    
    Jean Pierre Lefebvre is a Canadian filmmaker. He is widely admired as "the godfather of independent Canadian cinema," particularly among young, independent filmmakers.
1940
1. Eduardo Mignogna, Argentinian director and screenwriter (d. 2006) births
  1. Eduardo Mignogna
    
    Eduardo Mignogna was an Argentinian film director and screenwriter.
2. Barry Sheerman, English academic and politician births
  1. Barry Sheerman
    
    Barry John Sheerman is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Huddersfield, previously Huddersfield East, since 1979. He is also Labour's longest continuously serving MP and the oldest Labour MP in the current parliament; only Margaret Beckett has longer total service. Sheerman has announced he will not seek re-election at the next general election.
3. Billy Fiske, American soldier and pilot (b. 1911) deaths
  1. Billy Fiske
    
    William Meade Lindsley Fiske III was an American combat fighter pilot and Olympic bobsledder. At the 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics, Fiske won gold as driver for the US bobsledding team, also acting as the American Olympic flagbearer in 1932.
1939
1. Luther Allison, American blues guitarist and singer (d. 1997) births
  1. Luther Allison
    
    Luther Allison was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was born in Widener, Arkansas, although some accounts suggest his actual place of birth was Mayflower, Arkansas. Allison was interested in music as a child and during the late 1940s he toured in a family gospel group called The Southern Travellers. He moved with his family to Chicago in 1951 and attended Farragut High School where he was classmates with Muddy Waters' son. He taught himself guitar and began listening to blues extensively. Three years later he dropped out of school and began hanging around outside blues nightclubs with the hopes of being invited to perform. Allison played with the bands of Howlin' Wolf and Freddie King, taking over King's band when King toured nationally. He worked with Jimmy Dawkins, Magic Sam and Otis Rush, and also backed James Cotton. Chicago Reader has called him "the Jimi Hendrix of blues guitar".
1938
1. Theodoros Pangalos, Greek lawyer and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of Greece births
  1. Theodoros Pangalos (politician)
    
    Theodoros Pangalos is a Greek politician and leading member of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). He served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Greece, responsible for the coordination of the Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) and the new Economic & Social Policy Committee from 2009 to 2012
  2. Deputy Prime Minister of Greece
    
    The Deputy Prime Minister of Greece is the second senior-most member of the Greek Cabinet. Despite the English translation of the title, he does not actually deputize for the Prime Minister, rather it is a mostly honorific post for senior ministers, and is usually combined with another senior government portfolio or a coordinating role over several ministries. The post is not permanent, rather it is created on an ad hoc basis, usually for the leaders of junior parties in coalition cabinets, and may be held by more than one person at once.
1936
1. Seamus Mallon, Irish educator and politician, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland (d. 2020) births
  1. Seamus Mallon
    
    Seamus Frederick Mallon was an Irish politician who served as deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2001 and Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) from 1979 to 2001.
  2. First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland
    
    The First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland are the joint heads of government of the Northern Ireland Executive and have overall responsibility for the running of the Executive Office. Despite the different titles for the two offices, the two positions have the same governmental power, resulting in a duumvirate; the deputy First Minister is not subordinate to the First Minister. Created under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, both were initially nominated and appointed by members of the Northern Ireland Assembly on a joint ticket by a cross-community vote, using consociational principles. That process was changed following the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, meaning that the First Minister is nominated by the largest party overall, and the deputy First Minister is nominated by the largest party in the next largest community designation.
2. Margaret Heafield Hamilton, American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. births
  1. Margaret Hamilton (software engineer)
    
    Margaret Heafield Hamilton is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program. She later founded two software companies—Higher Order Software in 1976 and Hamilton Technologies in 1986, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
3. José María of Manila, Spanish-Filipino priest and martyr (b. 1880) deaths
  1. José María of Manila
    
    José María of Manila was a Filipino-born Spanish Catholic priest and friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He was martyred in the early phase of the Spanish Civil War, and is the third Filipino to have been declared blessed by the Roman Catholic Church.
1935
1. Adam Gunn, American decathlete (b. 1872) deaths
  1. Adam Gunn
    
    Adam Beattie Gunn was a Scottish-American athlete who competed mainly in the "All rounder", the forerunner of today's Decathlon. Gunn took first place in the Amateur Athletic Union's U.S. All-around championships in 1901 and 1902. The 1901 title was won in Buffalo, New York which Gunn adopted as his home town.
2. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American sociologist and author (b. 1860) deaths
  1. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    
    Charlotte Perkins Gilman, also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, advocate for social reform, and eugenicist. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis.
1934
1. João Donato, Brazilian pianist and composer births
  1. João Donato
    
    João Donato de Oliveira Neto is a Brazilian jazz and bossa nova pianist from Brazil. He first worked with Altamiro Carrilho and went on to perform with Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto.
2. Ron Henry, English footballer (d. 2014) births
  1. Ron Henry
    
    Ronald Patrick Henry was a footballer who played for Tottenham Hotspur, and won one cap for England. His grandson, Ronnie, is also a professional footballer.
1933
1. Mark Dinning, American pop singer (d. 1986) births
  1. Mark Dinning
    
    Max Edward Dinning, known by his stage name Mark Dinning was an American pop music singer.
1932
1. V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian-English novelist and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018) births
  1. V. S. Naipaul
    
    Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was a Trinidadian-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English. He is known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker novels of alienation in the wider world, and his vigilant chronicles of life and travels. He wrote in prose that was widely admired, but his views sometimes aroused controversy. He published more than thirty books over fifty years.
  2. Nobel Prize in Literature
    
    The Nobel Prize in Literature is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction". Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as a whole. The Swedish Academy decides who, if anyone, will receive the prize. The academy announces the name of the laureate in early October. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895. Literature is traditionally the final award presented at the Nobel Prize ceremony. On some occasions the award has been postponed to the following year, most recently in 2018 as of May 2022.
2. Duke Pearson, American pianist and composer (d. 1980) births
  1. Duke Pearson
    
    Columbus Calvin "Duke" Pearson Jr. was an American jazz pianist and composer. Allmusic describes him as having a "big part in shaping the Blue Note label's hard bop direction in the 1960s as a record producer."
3. Jean-Jacques Sempé, French cartoonist (d. 2022) births
  1. Jean-Jacques Sempé
    
    Jean-Jacques Sempé, usually known as Sempé, was a French cartoonist. He is known for the series of children's books he created with René Goscinny, Le Petit Nicolas, and also for his poster-like illustrations, usually drawn from a distant or high viewpoint depicting detailed countrysides or cities. For decades, he created covers for The New Yorker.
1931
1. Tony Wrigley, English historian, demographer, and academic (d. 2022) births
  1. Tony Wrigley
    
    Sir Edward Anthony Wrigley was a British historical demographer. Wrigley and Peter Laslett co-founded the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure in 1964.
1930
1. Harve Bennett, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2015) births
  1. Harve Bennett
    
    Harve Bennett was an American television and film producer and screenwriter.
2. Ted Hughes, English poet and playwright (d. 1998) births
  1. Ted Hughes
    
    Edward James "Ted" Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008 The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
1929
1. Francis Gary Powers, American captain and pilot (d. 1977) births
  1. Francis Gary Powers
    
    Francis Gary Powers was an American pilot whose Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission in Soviet Union airspace, causing the 1960 U-2 incident.
1928
1. T. J. Anderson, American composer, conductor, and educator births
  1. T. J. Anderson
    
    Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Anderson, Jr. is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and educator.
2. Willem Duys, Dutch tennis player, sportscaster, and producer (d. 2011) births
  1. Willem Duys
    
    Willem Duys was a Dutch radio and television presenter, commentator, tennis player and music producer.
1927
1. Sam Butera, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 2009) births
  1. Sam Butera
    
    Sam Butera was an American tenor saxophonist and singer-songwriter best noted for his collaborations with Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Butera is frequently regarded as a crossover artist who performed with equal ease in both R&B and the post-big band pop style of jazz that permeated the early Vegas nightclub scene.
2. F. Ray Keyser Jr., American lawyer and politician, 72nd Governor of Vermont (d. 2015) births
  1. F. Ray Keyser Jr.
    
    Frank Ray Keyser Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Vermont. He served as Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives from 1959 to 1961, and the 72nd governor of Vermont from 1961 to 1963.
  2. Governor of Vermont
    
    The governor of Vermont is the head of government of Vermont. The officeholder is elected in even-numbered years by direct voting for a term of 2 years. Vermont and bordering New Hampshire are the only states to hold gubernatorial elections every 2 years, instead of every 4 as in the other 48 U.S. states.
1926
1. Valerie Eliot, English businesswoman (d. 2012) births
  1. Valerie Eliot
    
    Esmé Valerie Eliot was the second wife and later widow of the Nobel prize-winning poet T. S. Eliot. She was a major stockholder in the publishing firm of Faber and Faber Limited and the editor and annotator of a number of books dealing with her late husband's writings.
2. Jiang Zemin, Chinese engineer and politician, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (paramount leader) and 5th President of China (d. 2022) births
  1. Jiang Zemin
    
    Jiang Zemin was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as president of China from 1993 to 2003. Jiang was paramount leader of China from 1989 to 2002. He was the core leader of the third generation of Chinese leadership, one of only four core leaders alongside Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Xi Jinping.
  2. General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
    
    The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader of the PRC.
  3. Paramount leader
    
    Paramount leader is an informal term for the most important political figure in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), often holding the titles of CCP General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC). The head of state (president) or head of government (premier) are not necessarily paramount leader—under China's party-state system, CCP roles are politically more important than state titles.
  4. President of the People's Republic of China
    
    The president of the People's Republic of China, commonly called the president of China, is the head of state and the second-highest political office of the People's Republic of China. The presidency is constitutionally a largely ceremonial office with very limited power in China's political system. However, the post has been held by the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 1993, who is China's de facto leader.
1925
1. Ioan Slavici, Romanian journalist and author (b. 1848) deaths
  1. Ioan Slavici
    
    Ioan Slavici was a Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania.
1924
1. Evan S. Connell, American novelist, poet, and short story writer (d. 2013) births
  1. Evan S. Connell
    
    Evan Shelby Connell Jr. was a U.S. novelist, short-story writer, essayist and author of epic historical works. He also published under the name Evan S. Connell Jr.
2. Tom Kendall, English-Australian cricketer and journalist (b. 1851) deaths
  1. Tom Kendall
    
    Thomas Kingston Kendall was an Australian cricketer, who played in two Test matches in 1877, including the inaugural Test which was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877.
1923
1. Carlos Cruz-Diez, Venezuelan artist (d. 2019) births
  1. Carlos Cruz-Diez
    
    Carlos Cruz-Diez was a Venezuelan artist said by some scholars to have been "one of the greatest artistic innovators of the 20th century."
2. Larry Rivers, American painter and sculptor (d. 2002) births
  1. Larry Rivers
    
    Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was one of the first artists to merge non-objective, non-narrative art with narrative and objective abstraction.
1922
1. Roy Tattersall, English cricketer (d. 2011) births
  1. Roy Tattersall
    
    Roy Tattersall was an English cricketer who played for Lancashire and played sixteen Tests for England as a specialist off spin bowler. He was born at Tonge Moor, Bolton, Lancashire, England.
1921
1. Geoffrey Elton, German-English historian and academic (d. 1994) births
  1. Geoffrey Elton
    
    Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton was a German-born British political and constitutional historian, specialising in the Tudor period. He taught at Clare College, Cambridge, and was the Regius Professor of Modern History there from 1983 to 1988.
1920
1. Maureen O'Hara, Irish-American actress and singer (d. 2015) births
  1. Maureen O'Hara
    
    Maureen O'Hara was a native Irish and naturalized American actress and singer, who became successful in Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural redhead who was known for playing passionate but sensible heroines, often in Westerns and adventure films. She worked with director John Ford and long-time friend John Wayne on numerous projects.
2. Lida Moser, American photographer and author (d. 2014) births
  1. Lida Moser
    
    Lida Moser was an American-born photographer and author, with a career that spanned more than six decades, before retiring in her 90s. She was known for her photojournalism and street photography as a member of both the Photo League and the New York School. Her portfolio includes black and white commercial, portrait, landscape, experimental, abstract, and documentary photography, with her work continuing to have an impact.
3. Ray Chapman, American baseball player (b. 1891) deaths
  1. Ray Chapman
    
    Raymond Johnson Chapman was an American baseball player. He spent his entire career as a shortstop for the Cleveland Indians.
1919
1. Georgia Gibbs, American singer (d. 2006) births
  1. Georgia Gibbs
    
    Georgia Gibbs was an American popular singer and vocal entertainer rooted in jazz. Already singing publicly in her early teens, Gibbs first achieved acclaim in the mid-1950s interpreting songs originating with the black rhythm and blues community and later as a featured vocalist on a long list of radio and television variety and comedy programs. Her key attribute was tremendous versatility and an uncommon stylistic range from melancholy ballad to uptempo swinging jazz and rock and roll.
1918
1. Evelyn Ankers, British-American actress (d. 1985) births
  1. Evelyn Ankers
    
    Evelyn Felisa Ankers was a British-American actress who often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably The Wolf Man (1941) opposite Lon Chaney Jr., a frequent screen partner.
2. Ike Quebec, American saxophonist and pianist (d. 1963) births
  1. Ike Quebec
    
    Ike Abrams Quebec was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He began his career in the big band era of the 1940s, then fell from prominence for a time until launching a comeback in the years before his death.
3. Michael John Wise, English geographer and academic (d. 2015) births
  1. Michael John Wise
    
    Michael John Wise CBE, MC was a British academic who served as a professor of geography at the University of London.
4. Moisei Uritsky, Russian activist and politician (b. 1873) deaths
  1. Moisei Uritsky
    
    Moisei Solomonovich Uritsky was a Bolshevik revolutionary leader in Russia. After the October Revolution, he was Chief of Cheka of the Petrograd Soviet. Uritsky was assassinated by Leonid Kannegisser, a military cadet, who was executed shortly afterwards.
1916
1. Moses Majekodunmi, Nigerian physician and politician (d. 2012) births
  1. Moses Majekodunmi
    
    ListenChief Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi C.F.R, C.M.G. was a Nigerian gynaecologist and obstetrician. He was also Minister of Health in the Nigerian First Republic.
1914
1. Bill Downs, American journalist (d. 1978) births
  1. Bill Downs
    
    William Randall Downs, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He worked for CBS News from 1942 to 1962 and for ABC News beginning in 1963. He was one of the original members of the team of war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys.
2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., American lawyer and politician (d. 1988) births
  1. Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.
    
    Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman. He served as a United States congressman from New York from 1949 to 1955 and in 1963 was appointed United States Under Secretary of Commerce by President John F. Kennedy. He was appointed as the first chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1965 to 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Roosevelt also ran for governor of New York twice. He was a son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and served as an officer in the United States Navy during World War II.
1913
1. Mark Felt (aka 'Deep Throat'), American lawyer and agent, 2nd Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (d. 2008) births
  1. Mark Felt
    
    William Mark Felt Sr. was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Felt was an FBI special agent who eventually rose to the position of Associate Director, the Bureau's second-highest-ranking post. Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters. In 1980, he was convicted of having violated the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground, by ordering FBI agents to break into their homes and search the premises as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal.
  2. Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
    
    The Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a senior United States government position in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The office is second in command to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. If the director is absent or the position is vacant, the deputy director automatically takes on the additional title and role of acting director. The office is also the highest position attainable within the FBI without being appointed by the President of the United States. Responsibilities as deputy director include assisting the director and leading prominent investigations. All other FBI executives and special agents in charge report to the director through the deputy director. From 1978 to 1987, the position of deputy director was not filled due to William Hedgcock Webster's decision to divide the deputy's responsibility between three positions.
2. Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1989) births
  1. Oscar Alfredo Gálvez
    
    Oscar Alfredo Gálvez was a racing driver from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on 18 January 1953, in which he scored two championship points.
3. Rudy York, American baseball player and manager (d. 1970) births
  1. Rudy York
    
    Preston Rudolph York was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher and a first baseman between 1934 and 1948, most notably as a member of the Detroit Tigers.
1911
1. Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player and engineer (d. 1995) births
  1. Mikhail Botvinnik
    
    Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess.
2. Martin Sandberger, German colonel and lawyer (d. 2010) births
  1. Martin Sandberger
    
    Martin Sandberger was a German SS functionary during the Nazi era and a convicted Holocaust perpetrator. He commanded Sonderkommando 1a of Einsatzgruppe A, as well as the Sicherheitspolizei and SD in Estonia. Sandberger perpetrated mass murder of the Jews in the Baltic states. He was also responsible for the arrest of Jews in Italy, and their deportation to Auschwitz concentration camp. Sandberger was the second-highest official of the Einsatzgruppe A to be tried and convicted. He was also the last-surviving defendant from the Nuremberg Military Tribunals.
1909
1. Larry Clinton, American trumpet player and bandleader (d. 1985) births
  1. Larry Clinton
    
    Larry Clinton was an American musician, best known as a trumpeter who became a prominent American bandleader and arranger.
2. Wilf Copping, English footballer (d. 1980) births
  1. Wilf Copping
    
    Wilfred Copping was an English footballer who played for Leeds United, Arsenal and the England national team.
3. Madan Lal Dhingra, Indian activist (b. 1883) deaths
  1. Madan Lal Dhingra
    
    Madan Lal Dhingra was an Indian revolutionary, pro-independence activist. While studying in England, he assassinated William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, a British official.
1908
1. Radoje Domanović, Serbian satirist and journalist (b. 1873) deaths
  1. Radoje Domanović
    
    Radoje Domanović was a Serbian writer and teacher, most famous for his satirical short stories. His adult years were a constant fight against tuberculosis. This circumstance of his life, and the affection which he inspired in all who knew him, created an aura of romanticism and sentimentality which stand in contrast to his literary accomplishments as a satirist and a powerful critic of the contemporary Serbian society.
1904
1. Mary Cain, American journalist and politician (d. 1984) births
  1. Mary Cain (editor)
    
    Mary Dawson Cain was an American newspaper editor, political activist, and gubernatorial candidate in Mississippi. A Democrat, she advocated for conservative causes and is particularly remembered for her campaigns against the Social Security tax. She ran for Governor of Mississippi in 1951 and 1955, the first woman to do so.
2. Leopold Nowak, Austrian composer and musicologist (d. 1991) births
  1. Leopold Nowak
    
    Leopold Nowak was an Austrian musicologist chiefly known for editing the works of Anton Bruckner for the International Bruckner Society. He reconstructed the original form of some of those works, most of which had been revised and edited many times.
1903
1. Hans Gude, Norwegian-German painter and academic (b. 1825) deaths
  1. Hans Gude
    
    Hans Fredrik Gude was a Norwegian romanticist painter and is considered along with Johan Christian Dahl to be one of Norway's foremost landscape painters. He has been called a mainstay of Norwegian National Romanticism. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
1901
1. Edmond Audran, French organist and composer (b. 1842) deaths
  1. Edmond Audran
    
    Achille Edmond Audran was a French composer best known for several internationally successful comic operas and operettas.
1900
1. Vivienne de Watteville, British travel writer and adventurer (d. 1957) births
  1. Vivienne de Watteville
    
    Vivienne Florence Beatrice de Watteville (1900–1957) was a British travel writer and adventurer, author of two books based on her experiences in East Africa in the 1920s, Out in the Blue (1927) and Speak to the Earth (1935). She is best remembered for taking charge of and continuing an expedition in the Congo and Uganda at the age of 24, when her father was killed by a lion.
2. Pauline A. Young, American teacher, historian, aviator and activist (d. 1991) births
  1. Pauline A. Young
    
    Pauline Alice Young was an African-American teacher, librarian, historian, lecturer, community activist, humanitarian, and individualist.
1897
1. William Jervois, English engineer and diplomat, 10th Governor of South Australia (b. 1821) deaths
  1. William Jervois
    
    Lieutenant General Sir William Francis Drummond Jervois was a British military engineer and diplomat. After joining the British Army in 1839, he saw service, as a second captain, in South Africa. In 1858, as a major, he was appointed Secretary of a Royal Commission set up to examine the state and efficiency of British land-based fortifications against naval attack; and this led to further work in Canada and South Australia. From 1875 to 1888 he was, consecutively, Governor of the Straits Settlements, Governor of South Australia and Governor of New Zealand.
  2. Governor of South Australia
    
    The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-general of Australia at the national level. In accordance with the conventions of the Westminster system of parliamentary government, the governor nearly always acts solely on the advice of the head of the elected government, the Premier of South Australia. Nevertheless, the governor retains the reserve powers of the Crown, and has the right to dismiss the Premier. As from June 2014, the Queen, upon the recommendation of the Premier, accorded all current, future and living former governors the title 'The Honourable' for life. The first six governors oversaw the colony from proclamation in 1836, until self-government and an elected Parliament of South Australia was granted in the year prior to the inaugural 1857 election.
1896
1. Leslie Groves, American general and engineer (d. 1970) births
  1. Leslie Groves
    
    Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. was a United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project, a top secret research project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II.
2. Tõnis Kint, Estonian lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (d. 1991) births
  1. Tõnis Kint
    
    Tõnis Kint was an Estonian politician. He served as "Prime Minister in duties of the President" from 23 December 1970 to 1 March 1990.
  2. Estonian government-in-exile
    
    The Estonian government-in-exile was the formally declared governmental authority of the Republic of Estonia in exile, existing from 1944 until the reestablishment of Estonian sovereignty over Estonian territory in 1991 and 1992. It traced its legitimacy through constitutional succession to the last Estonian government in power prior to the Soviet invasion of 1940. During its existence, it was the internationally recognized government of Estonia.
3. Oliver Waterman Larkin, American historian and author (d. 1970) births
  1. Oliver Waterman Larkin
    
    Oliver Waterman Larkin was an American art historian and educator. He won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Art and Life in America.
1894
1. William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes, English businessman, founded Rootes Group (d. 1964) births
  1. William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes
    
    William Edward Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes GBE was a British motor manufacturer. He opened his first car sales agency in 1913, leading to the global Rootes Group. During the Second World War he supervised the volume manufacture of aircraft and engines, as well as the supply of military motor vehicles and armoured fighting vehicles. He was knighted in 1942 for these services and for organising the reconstruction of bomb-damaged Coventry after its saturation bombing by the Luftwaffe on 14–15 November 1940. In the 1950s, he became a leader of Britain's export drive, and chaired a committee to found the University of Warwick with a vision of academic links with industry.
  2. Rootes Group
    
    The Rootes Group or Rootes Motors Limited was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. Run from London's West End, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dealers business in the south of England. In the decade beginning 1928 the Rootes brothers, William and Reginald, made prosperous by their very successful distribution and servicing business, were keen to enter manufacturing for closer control of the products they were selling. One brother has been termed the power unit, the other the steering and braking system.
1893
1. John Brahm, German-American director and production manager (d. 1982) births
  1. John Brahm
    
    John Brahm was a German film and television director. His films include The Undying Monster (1942), The Lodger (1944), Hangover Square (1945), The Locket (1946), The Brasher Doubloon (1947), and the 3D horror film, The Mad Magician (1954).
2. Mae West, American stage and film actress (d. 1980) births
  1. Mae West
    
    Mae West was an American stage and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, singer, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy sexual independence, and her lighthearted bawdy double entendres, often delivered in a husky contralto voice. She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry.
1890
1. Stefan Bastyr, Polish soldier and pilot (d. 1920) births
  1. Stefan Bastyr
    
    Stefan Bastyr was a Polish aviator and military pilot, one of the pioneers of the Polish aviation. He is credited with the first military flight in the history of the Polish Air Force on 5 November 1918, almost a week before Poland officially regained her independence, at the opening stages of the Polish-Ukrainian War.
2. Harry Hopkins, American politician and diplomat, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce (d. 1946) births
  1. Harry Hopkins
    
    Harry Lloyd Hopkins was an American statesman, public administrator, and presidential advisor. A trusted deputy to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hopkins directed New Deal relief programs before serving as the 8th United States Secretary of Commerce from 1938 to 1940 and as Roosevelt's chief foreign policy advisor and liaison to Allied leaders during World War II. During his career, Hopkins supervised the New York Temporary Emergency Relief Administration, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Civil Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration, which he built into the largest employer in the United States. He later oversaw the $50 billion Lend-Lease program of military aid to the Allies and, as Roosevelt's personal envoy, played a pivotal role in shaping the alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom.
  2. United States Secretary of Commerce
    
    The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary reports directly to the president and is a statutory member of Cabinet of the United States. The secretary is appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. The secretary of commerce is concerned with promoting American businesses and industries; the department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce".
1888
1. Monty Woolley, American actor, raconteur, and pundit (d. 1963) births
  1. Monty Woolley
    
    Edgar Montilion "Monty" Woolley was an American film and theater actor. At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his role in the 1939 stage play The Man Who Came to Dinner and its 1942 film adaptation. His distinctive white beard was his trademark and he was affectionately known as "The Beard."
1887
1. Charles I of Austria (d. 1922) births
  1. Charles I of Austria
    
    Charles I or Karl I was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, King of Croatia, King of Bohemia, and the last of the monarchs belonging to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine to rule over Austria-Hungary. The son of Archduke Otto of Austria and Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, Charles became heir presumptive of Emperor Franz Joseph when his uncle Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in 1914. In 1911, he married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, having been beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 October 2004, and is known to the Catholic Church as Blessed Karl of Austria.
2. Marcus Garvey, Jamaican journalist and activist, founded Black Star Line (d. 1940) births
  1. Marcus Garvey
    
    Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa. Ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, his ideas came to be known as Garveyism.
  2. Black Star Line
    
    The Black Star Line (1919−1922) was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, the organizer of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and other members of the UNIA. The shipping line was created to facilitate the transportation of goods and eventually African Americans throughout the African global economy. It derived its name from the White Star Line, a line whose success Garvey felt he could duplicate. The Black Star Line became a key part of Garvey's contribution to the Back-to-Africa movement, but it was mostly unsuccessful, partially due to infiltration by federal agents. It was one among many businesses which the UNIA originated, such as the Universal Printing House, Negro Factories Corporation, and the widely distributed and highly successful Negro World weekly newspaper.
1880
1. Percy Sherwell, South African cricketer and tennis player (d. 1948) births
  1. Percy Sherwell
    
    Percy William Sherwell was a South African cricketer who played in 13 Tests for South Africa as captain, wicketkeeper and batsman from 1906 to 1911.
1878
1. Reggie Duff, Australian cricketer (d. 1911) births
  1. Reggie Duff
    
    Reginald Alexander "Reggie" Duff was an Australian cricketer who played in 22 Tests between 1902 and 1905.
1877
1. Ralph McKittrick, American golfer and tennis player (d. 1923) births
  1. Ralph McKittrick
    
    Ralph McKittrick was an American golfer and tennis player who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.
1875
1. Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist and anthropologist (b. 1827) deaths
  1. Wilhelm Bleek
    
    Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was a German linguist. His work included A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages and his great project jointly executed with Lucy Lloyd: The Bleek and Lloyd Archive of ǀxam and !kun texts. A short form of this eventually reached press with Specimens of Bushman Folklore, which Laurens van der Post drew on heavily.
1873
1. John A. Sampson, American gynecologist and academic (d. 1946) births
  1. John A. Sampson
    
    John Albertson Sampson was a gynecologist who studied endometriosis.
1870
1. Perucho Figueredo, Cuban poet and activist (b. 1818) deaths
  1. Perucho Figueredo
    
    Pedro Felipe Figueredo,, mostly known as Perucho, was a Cuban poet, musician, and freedom fighter of the 19th century. In the 1860s, he was active in the planning of the Cuban uprising against the Spanish known as the Ten Years' War.
1866
1. Mahbub Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VI, Indian 6th Nizam of Hyderabad (d. 1911) births
  1. Mahboob Ali Khan
    
    Asaf Jah VI, also known as, Sir Mir Mahboob Ali Khan Siddiqi Bayafandi was the 6th Nizam of Hyderabad. He ruled Hyderabad state, one of the Princely states in India between 1869 and 1911.
  2. Nizam of Hyderabad
    
    The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State. Nizam, shortened from Nizam-ul-Mulk, meaning Administrator of the Realm, was the title inherited by Asaf Jah I. He was the former Naib (suzerain) of the Great Mughal in the Deccan, the premier courtier of Mughal India until 1724, the founding of an independent monarchy as the "Nizam (title) of Hyderabad".
1865
1. Julia Marlowe, English-American actress (d. 1950) births
  1. Julia Marlowe
    
    Julia Marlowe was an English-born American actress, known for her interpretations of William Shakespeare's plays.
1863
1. Gene Stratton-Porter, American author and photographer (d. 1924) births
  1. Gene Stratton-Porter
    
    Gene Stratton-Porter, born Geneva Grace Stratton, was an American author, nature photographer, and naturalist from Wabash County, Indiana. In 1917 Stratton-Porter urged legislative support for the conservation of Limberlost Swamp and other wetlands in Indiana. She was also a silent film-era producer who founded her own production company, Gene Stratton Porter Productions, in 1924.
1861
1. Alcée Louis la Branche, American politician and diplomat, 1st United States Ambassador to Texas (b. 1806) deaths
  1. Alcée Louis la Branche
    
    Alcée Louis la Branche was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of Louisiana. He served one term as a Democrat.
  2. List of ambassadors of the United States to Texas
    
    The United States recognized the Republic of Texas, created by a new constitution on March 2, 1836, as a new independent nation and commissioned its first representative, Alcee La Branche as the chargé d'affaires in 1837. The U.S. never sent a full minister to Texas, but a series of chargés represented the government in Austin until Texas joined the Union in 1845.
1850
1. José de San Martín, Argentinian general and politician, 1st President of Peru (b. 1778) deaths
  1. José de San Martín
    
    José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras, known simply as José de San Martín or the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru, was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru. Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, in modern-day Argentina, he left the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata at the early age of seven to study in Málaga, Spain.
  2. President of Peru
    
    The president of Peru, officially called the president of the Republic of Peru, is the head of state and head of government of Peru. The president is the head of the executive branch and is the Supreme Head of the Armed Forces and Police of Peru. The office of president corresponds to the highest magistracy in the country, making the president the highest-ranking public official in Peru. Due to broadly interpreted impeachment wording in the 1993 Constitution of Peru, the Congress of Peru can impeach the president without cause, effectively making the executive branch subject to the legislature.
1849
1. William Kidston, Scottish-Australian politician, 17th Premier of Queensland (d. 1919) births
  1. William Kidston
    
    William Kidston was an Australian bookseller, politician and Premier of Queensland, from January 1906 to November 1907 and again from February 1908 to February 1911.
  2. Premier of Queensland
    
    The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland.
1845
1. Henry Cadwalader Chapman, American physician and naturalist (d. 1909) births
  1. Henry Cadwalader Chapman
    
    Henry Cadwalader Chapman was an American physician and naturalist.
1840
1. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, English poet and activist (d. 1922) births
  1. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
    
    Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, sometimes spelt Wilfred, was an English poet and writer. He and his wife Lady Anne Blunt travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines through their farm, the Crabbet Arabian Stud. He was best known for his poetry, which appeared in a collected edition in 1914, and also wrote political essays and polemics. He became additionally known for strongly anti-imperialist views that were still uncommon in his time.
1838
1. Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian playwright and poet (b. 1749) deaths
  1. Lorenzo Da Ponte
    
    Lorenzo Da Ponte was an Italian, later American, opera librettist, poet and Roman Catholic priest. He wrote the libretti for 28 operas by 11 composers, including three of Mozart's most celebrated operas: The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790).
1834
1. Husein Gradaščević, Ottoman general (b. 1802) deaths
  1. Husein Gradaščević
    
    Husein Gradaščević (Husein-kapetan) was a Bosnian military commander who later led a rebellion against the Ottoman government, seeking autonomy for Bosnia. Born into a Bosnian noble family, Gradaščević became the captain of Gradačac in the early 1820s, succeeding his relatives at the position. He grew up surrounded by a political climate of turmoil in the western reaches of the Ottoman Empire. With the Russo-Turkish war (1828–29), Gradaščević's importance rose; the Bosnian governor gave him the task of mobilizing an army between the Drina and Vrbas. By 1830, Gradaščević became the spokesman of all Ottoman captains in Bosnia, and coordinated the defense in light of a possible Serbian invasion. Sparked by Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II's reforms that abolished the Janissaries and weakened the privileges of the nobility, and the autonomy and territory granted to the Principality of Serbia, much of the Bosnian nobility united and revolted. Gradaščević was chosen as the leader, and claimed the title of Vizier. This uprising, with goals of autonomy, lasted three years and included termination of Ottoman loyals mainly in Herzegovina. Among notable accomplishments, Gradaščević led forces victorious against the Ottoman field marshal in Kosovo. The uprising failed, while all captaincies were abolished by 1835. Temporarily exiled in Austria, he negotiated his return with the Sultan and was allowed to enter all of the Ottoman Empire except Bosnia. He died under controversial circumstances in 1834 and was buried in the Eyüp Cemetery in Istanbul.
1828
1. Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist and physician (d. 1897) births
  1. Jules Bernard Luys
    
    Jules Bernard Luys was a French neurologist who made important contributions to the fields of neuroanatomy and neuropsychiatry.
1814
1. John Johnson, English architect and surveyor (b. 1732) deaths
  1. John Johnson (architect, born 1732)
    
    John Johnson was an English architect and surveyor to the county of Essex. He is best known for designing the Shire Hall, Chelmsford.
1809
1. Matthew Boulton, English businessman and engineer, co-founded Boulton and Watt (b. 1728) deaths
  1. Matthew Boulton
    
    Matthew Boulton was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment.
  2. Boulton and Watt
    
    Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the English manufacturer Matthew Boulton and the Scottish engineer James Watt, the firm had a major role in the Industrial Revolution and grew to be a major producer of steam engines in the 19th century.
1801
1. Fredrika Bremer, Swedish writer and feminist (d. 1865) births
  1. Fredrika Bremer
    
    Fredrika Bremer was a Finnish-born Swedish writer and feminist reformer. Her Sketches of Everyday Life were wildly popular in Britain and the United States during the 1840s and 1850s and she is regarded as the Swedish Jane Austen, bringing the realist novel to prominence in Swedish literature. In her late 30s, she successfully petitioned King Charles XIV for emancipation from her brother's wardship; in her 50s, her novel Hertha prompted a social movement that granted all unmarried Swedish women legal majority at the age of 25 and established Högre Lärarinneseminariet, Sweden's first female tertiary school. It also inspired Sophie Adlersparre to begin publishing the Home Review, Sweden's first women's magazine as well as the later magazine Hertha. In 1884, she became the namesake of the Fredrika Bremer Association, the first women's rights organization in Sweden.
1786
1. Davy Crockett, American soldier and politician (d. 1836) births
  1. Davy Crockett
    
    David Crockett was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives and served in the Texas Revolution.
2. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (d. 1861) births
  1. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
    
    Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, later Princess of Leiningen and subsequently Duchess of Kent and Strathearn, was a German princess and the mother of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. As the widow of Charles, Prince of Leiningen (1763–1814), from 1814, she served as regent of the Principality during the minority of her son from her first marriage, Carl, until her second wedding in 1818 to Prince Edward, fourth son of King George III.
3. Frederick the Great, Prussian king (b. 1712) deaths
  1. Frederick the Great
    
    Frederick II was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment. Frederick was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia, declaring himself King of Prussia after annexing Polish Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great and was nicknamed "Old Fritz".
1785
1. Jonathan Trumbull, English-American merchant and politician, 16th Governor of Connecticut (b. 1710) deaths
  1. Jonathan Trumbull
    
    Jonathan Trumbull Sr. was an American politician and statesman who served as Governor of Connecticut during the American Revolution. Trumbull and Nicholas Cooke of Rhode Island were the only men to serve as governor of both a British colony and an American state, and he was the only governor to take up the Patriot cause at the start of the Revolutionary War. Trumbull College at Yale University, the town of Trumbull, Connecticut, Trumbull County, Ohio, and Jonathan the Husky are all named for him.
  2. List of governors of Connecticut
    
    The governor of Connecticut is the head of government of Connecticut, and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Connecticut General Assembly and to convene the legislature. Unusual among U.S. governors, the Governor of Connecticut has no power to pardon. The Governor of Connecticut is automatically a member of the state's Bonding Commission. He is an ex-officio member of the board of trustees of the University of Connecticut and Yale University.
1768
1. Louis Desaix, French general (d. 1800) births
  1. Louis Desaix
    
    Louis Charles Antoine Desaix was a French general and military leader during the French Revolutionary Wars. According to the usage of the time, he took the name Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de Veygoux. He was considered one of the greatest generals of the Revolutionary Wars.
2. Vasily Trediakovsky, Russian poet and playwright (b. 1703) deaths
  1. Vasily Trediakovsky
    
    Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky was a Russian poet, essayist and playwright who helped lay the foundations of classical Russian literature.
1753
1. Josef Dobrovský, Bohemian philologist and historian (d. 1828) births
  1. Josef Dobrovský
    
    Josef Dobrovský was a Czech philologist and historian, one of the most important figures of the Czech National Revival along with Josef Jungmann.
1723
1. Joseph Bingham, English scholar and academic (b. 1668) deaths
  1. Joseph Bingham
    
    Joseph Bingham was an English scholar and divine, who wrote on ecclesiastical history.
1720
1. Anne Dacier, French scholar and translator (b. 1654) deaths
  1. Anne Dacier
    
    Anne Le Fèvre Dacier, better known during her lifetime as Madame Dacier, was a French scholar, translator, commentator and editor of the classics, including the Iliad and the Odyssey. She sought to champion ancient literature and used her great capabilities in Latin and Greek for this purpose as well as for her own financial support, producing a series of editions and translations from which she earned her living. She was the dedicatee of Gilles Ménage's Historia mulierum philosopharum, whose characterisation of her and of Anna Maria van Schurman was used to provide leading examples in treatises arguing for female education across the following centuries.
1686
1. Nicola Porpora, Italian composer and educator (d. 1768) births
  1. Nicola Porpora
    
    Nicola Antonio Porpora was an Italian composer and teacher of singing of the Baroque era, whose most famous singing students were the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli. Other students included composers Matteo Capranica and Joseph Haydn.
1676
1. Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, German author (b. 1621) deaths
  1. Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen
    
    Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen was a German author. He is best known for his 1669 picaresque novel Simplicius Simplicissimus and the accompanying Simplician Scriptures series.
1673
1. Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641) deaths
  1. Regnier de Graaf
    
    Regnier de Graaf, original Dutch spelling Reinier de Graaf, or Latinized Reijnerus de Graeff was a Dutch physician, physiologist and anatomist who made key discoveries in reproductive biology. He specialized in iatrochemistry and iatrogenesis, and was the first to develop a syringe to inject dye into human reproductive organs so that he could understand their structure and function.
1629
1. John III Sobieski, Polish–Lithuanian king (d. 1696) births
  1. John III Sobieski
    
    John III Sobieski was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696.
1603
1. Lennart Torstensson, Swedish Field Marshal, Privy Councillour and Governor-General (d. 1651) births
  1. Lennart Torstensson
    
    Lennart Torstensson, Count of Ortala, Baron of Virestad, was a Swedish Field Marshal and military engineer.
1586
1. Johann Valentin Andrea, German theologian (d. 1654) births
  1. Johannes Valentinus Andreae
    
    Johannes Valentinus Andreae, a.k.a. Johannes Valentinus Andreä or Johann Valentin Andreae, was a German theologian, who claimed to be the author of an ancient text known as the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459. This became one of the three founding works of Rosicrucianism, which was both a legend and a fashionable cultural phenomenon across Europe in this period.
1582
1. John Matthew Rispoli, Maltese philosopher (d. 1639) births
  1. John Matthew Rispoli
    
    John Matthew Rispoli was a major Maltese philosopher of great erudition. He was held in high esteem by the Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller Order, the Bishops of Malta, the Viceroys of Sicily, cardinals, bishops, inquisitors, and the common people. Perhaps the most eminent Maltese philosopher of the Middle Ages, the various extant writings of his are witness to his philosophical aptitude and dexterity as to his high calibre as a philosopher. These qualities were highly appreciated during his lifetime, in Malta as in France and Italy. He lived a busy life, both as an intellectual and as an administrator. He was professor of philosopher at various institutions of high education, an able preacher, and an official at various posts within the Dominican Order, of which his was a member. He was an avid aficionado of music, and was talented with playing musical instruments. Though the fame of holiness accompanied him in his life, this did not deter the Inquisition from suspecting him of heresy, and keeping him in its dungeons for fourteen months. When he died, he was given an almost state funeral.
1578
1. Francesco Albani, Italian painter (d. 1660) births
  1. Francesco Albani
    
    Francesco Albani or Albano was an Italian Baroque painter who was active in Bologna (1591–1600), Rome (1600–1609), Bologna (1609), Viterbo (1609–1610), Bologna (1610), Rome (1610–1617), Bologna (1618–1660), Mantova (1621–1622), Roma (1623–1625) and Florence (1633).
2. Johann, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, first prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (d. 1638) births
  1. Johann, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
    
    Prince Johann of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the ruling Count of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from 1606 to 1623. He was elevated to the rank of prince in 1623 and so was Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from 1623 until his death.
1556
1. Alexander Briant, English martyr and saint (d. 1581) births
  1. Alexander Briant
    
    Alexander Briant was an English Jesuit and martyr, executed at Tyburn.
1547
1. Katharina von Zimmern, Swiss sovereign abbess (b. 1478) deaths
  1. Katharina von Zimmern
    
    Katharina von Zimmern, also known as the imperial abbess of Zürich and Katharina von Reischach, was the last abbess of the Fraumünster Abbey in Zürich.
1510
1. Edmund Dudley, English politician, Speaker of the House of Commons (b. 1462) deaths
  1. Edmund Dudley
    
    Edmund Dudley was an English administrator and a financial agent of King Henry VII. He served as a leading member of the Council Learned in the Law, Speaker of the House of Commons and President of the King's Council. After the accession of Henry VIII, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed the next year on a treason charge. While waiting for his execution he wrote The Tree of Commonwealth. Edmund Dudley was also the grandfather of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, a favourite of Henry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth I.
  2. Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)
    
    The speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the lower house and primary chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, was elected Speaker on 4 November 2019, following the retirement of John Bercow. Hoyle began his first full parliamentary term in the role on 17 December 2019, having been unanimously re-elected after the 2019 general election.
2. Richard Empson, English statesman deaths
  1. Richard Empson
    
    Sir Richard Empson, minister of Henry VII, was a son of Peter Empson. Educated as a lawyer, he soon attained considerable success in his profession, and in 1491 was a Knight of the shire for Northamptonshire in Parliament, and Speaker of the House of Commons.
1501
1. Philipp II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg (d. 1529) births
  1. Philipp II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg
    
    Philipp II was Count of Hanau-Münzenberg from 1512 until his death. He was the son of Count Reinhard IV and his wife, Katharina of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg.
1473
1. Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York (d. 1483) births
  1. Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York
    
    Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, was the sixth child and second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville, born in Shrewsbury. Richard and his older brother, who briefly reigned as King Edward V of England, mysteriously disappeared shortly after Richard III became king in 1483.
1465
1. Philibert I, Duke of Savoy (d. 1482) births
  1. Philibert I, Duke of Savoy
    
    Philibert I, surnamed the Hunter, was the son of Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy and Yolande of Valois. Philibert was Duke of Savoy from 1472 to 1482.
1424
1. John Stewart, Earl of Buchan (b. c. 1381) deaths
  1. John Stewart, Earl of Buchan
    
    John Stewart, Earl of Buchan was a Scottish nobleman and soldier who fought alongside Scotland's French allies during the Hundred Years War. In 1419 he was sent to France by his father the Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, with an army of 6,000 men. Stewart led the combined Franco-Scottish army at the Battle of Baugé on 21 March 1421, where he comprehensively defeated the English forces, proving that the English could at last be beaten. However, two years later, Stewart was defeated and captured by Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury at the Battle of Cravant in 1423. After the battle he was exchanged, and after his release in 1424 he was appointed Constable of France making him the effective Commander-in-Chief of the French army. On 17 August 1424 Buchan was killed at the disastrous Battle of Verneuil, along with most of the Scottish troops in France.
1338
1. Nitta Yoshisada, Japanese samurai (b. 1301) deaths
  1. Nitta Yoshisada
    
    Nitta Yoshisada was a samurai lord of the Nanboku-chō period Japan. He was the head of the Nitta clan in the early fourteenth century, and supported the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo in the Nanboku-chō period. He famously marched on Kamakura, besieging and capturing it from the Hōjō clan in 1333.
1324
1. Irene of Brunswick (b. 1293) deaths
  1. Irene of Brunswick
    
    Irene of Brunswick, born Adelheid, was the first wife of Andronikos III Palaiologos, and by marriage Empress of Constantinople, although she died before her husband became sole Emperor.
1304
1. Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243) deaths
  1. Emperor Go-Fukakusa
    
    Emperor Go-Fukakusa was the 89th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. This reign spanned the years 1246 through 1260.
1153
1. William IX, Count of Poitiers (d. 1156) births
  1. William IX, Count of Poitiers
    
    William was the first son of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was born in Normandy on the same day that his father's rival, Eustace IV of Boulogne, died.
2. Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne (b. 1130) deaths
  1. Eustace IV, Count of Boulogne
    
    Eustace IV ruled the County of Boulogne from 1146 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Stephen of England and Countess Matilda I of Boulogne. When his father seized the English throne on Henry I's death in 1135, he became heir apparent to the English throne but predeceased his father.
949
1. Li Shouzhen, Chinese general and governor deaths
  1. Li Shouzhen
    
    Li Shouzhen was a Chinese military general, monarch, and politician of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period states Later Jin and Later Han, as well as (briefly) the Khitan Liao dynasty. During the reign of Later Han's second emperor Liu Chengyou, he became concerned that he was being targeted by the officials assisting the young emperor, and therefore rebelled. His rebellion was defeated by the Later Han general Guo Wei, however, and he committed suicide.
754
1. Carloman, mayor of the palace of Austrasia deaths
  1. Carloman (mayor of the palace)
    
    Carloman was the eldest son of Charles Martel, majordomo or mayor of the palace and duke of the Franks, and his wife Chrotrud of Treves. On Charles's death (741), Carloman and his brother Pepin the Short succeeded to their father's legal positions, Carloman in Austrasia, and Pepin in Neustria. He was a member of the family later called the Carolingians and it can be argued that he was instrumental in consolidating their power at the expense of the ruling Merovingian kings of the Franks. He withdrew from public life in 747 to take up the monastic habit, "the first of a new type of saintly king," according to Norman Cantor, "more interested in religious devotion than royal power, who frequently appeared in the following three centuries and who was an indication of the growing impact of Christian piety on Germanic society".
  2. Austrasia
    
    Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the Franks, including both the so-called Salians and Rhineland Franks, which Clovis I conquered after first taking control of the bordering part of Roman Gaul, now northern France, which is sometimes described in this period as Neustria.

Holidays

Christian feast day: Clare of Montefalco
1. Clare of Montefalco
  
  Clare of Montefalco, also called Saint Clare of the Cross, was an Augustinian nun and abbess. Before becoming a nun, Clare was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis (Secular). She was canonized by Pope Leo XIII on December 8, 1881.
Christian feast day: Hyacinth of Poland
1. Hyacinth of Poland
  
  Hyacinth was a Polish Dominican priest and missionary who worked to reform women's monasteries in his native Poland. He was a Doctor of Sacred Studies, educated in Paris and Bologna.
Christian feast day: Jeanne Delanoue
1. Jeanne Delanoue
  
  Jeanne Delanoue was the founder of the Congregation of St. Anne of Providence, and is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
Christian feast day: Samuel Johnson, Timothy Cutler, and Thomas Bradbury Chandler (Episcopal Church)
1. Samuel Johnson (American educator)
  
  Samuel Johnson was a clergyman, educator, linguist, encyclopedist, historian, and philosopher in colonial America. He was a major proponent of both Anglicanism and the philosophies of William Wollaston and George Berkeley in the colonies, founded and served as the first president of the Anglican King's College, and was a key figure of the American Enlightenment.
2. Timothy Cutler
  
  Timothy Cutler was an American Episcopal clergyman and rector of Yale College.
3. Thomas Bradbury Chandler
  
  Thomas Bradbury Chandler was an American priest of the Church of England and author, who removed to England during the American Revolutionary War but returned to his long-time parish in Elizabeth, New Jersey and helped found the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
4. Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church)
  
  The veneration of saints in the Episcopal Church is a continuation of an ancient tradition from the early Church which honors important and influential people of the Christian faith. The usage of the term saint is similar to Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Episcopalians believe in the communion of saints in prayer and as such the Episcopal liturgical calendar accommodates feasts for saints.
Christian feast day: August 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
1. August 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  
  August 16 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - August 18
Engineer's Day (Colombia)
1. Engineer's Day
  
  Engineer's Day is observed in several countries on various dates of the year. On 25 November 2019, based on a proposal by the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), UNESCO has proclaimed March 4 as 'UNESCO World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development'.
2. Colombia
  
  Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with an insular region in North America. It is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east, Brazil to the southeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and Panama to the northwest. Colombia comprises 32 departments and the Capital District of Bogotá, the country's largest city. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 sq mi), with a population of 50 million. Colombia's cultural heritage reflects influences by various Amerindian civilizations, European settlement, enslaved Africans, as well as immigration from Europe and the Middle East. Spanish is the nation's official language, besides which over 70 languages are spoken.
Flag Day (Bolivia)
1. Public holidays in Bolivia
Independence Day, celebrates the independence proclamation of Indonesia from Japan in 1945.
1. Independence Day (Indonesia)
  
  The Independence Day of Indonesia is a national holiday in Indonesia commemorating the anniversary of Indonesia's proclamation of independence on 17 August 1945. It was made a national holiday by government decree in 1946.
2. Proclamation of Indonesian Independence
  
  The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence was read at 10:00 on Friday, 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of the Indonesian National Revolution, fighting against the forces of the Netherlands and pro-Dutch civilians, until the latter officially acknowledged Indonesia's independence in 1949. The document was signed by Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who were appointed president and vice-president respectively the following day.
3. Indonesia
  
  Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area, at 1,904,569 square kilometres. With over 275 million people, Indonesia is the world's fourth-most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Gabon from France in 1960.
1. Public holidays in Gabon
2. Gabon
  
  Gabon, officially the Gabonese Republic, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. It has an area of nearly 270,000 square kilometres (100,000 sq mi) and its population is estimated at 2.3 million people. There are coastal plains, mountains, and a savanna in the east.
Marcus Garvey Day (Jamaica)
1. Marcus Garvey
  
  Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa. Ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, his ideas came to be known as Garveyism.
2. Jamaica
  
  Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola ; the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 kilometres (134 mi) to the north-west.
Prekmurje Union Day (Slovenia)
1. Public holidays in Slovenia
  
  There are two kinds of public holidays in Slovenia – state holidays and work-free days. State holidays are those celebrated by the state. These include official functions and flying the national flag. The latter are actually Catholic religious holidays, which are equivalent to any Sunday: companies and schools are closed, but there is no official celebration.
2. Slovenia
  
  Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. Slovenia is mostly mountainous and forested, covers 20,271 square kilometres (7,827 sq mi), and has a population of 2.1 million. Slovenes constitute over 80% of the country's population. Slovene, a South Slavic language, is the official language. Slovenia has a predominantly temperate continental climate, with the exception of the Slovene Littoral and the Julian Alps. A sub-mediterranean climate reaches to the northern extensions of the Dinaric Alps that traverse the country in a northwest–southeast direction. The Julian Alps in the northwest have an alpine climate. Toward the northeastern Pannonian Basin, a continental climate is more pronounced. Ljubljana, the capital and largest city of Slovenia, is geographically situated near the centre of the country.
San Martin Day (Argentina)
1. Public holidays in Argentina
  
  The following are the national public holidays and other observances of Argentina.
2. Argentina
  
  Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi), making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourth-largest country in the Americas, and the eighth-largest country in the world. It shares the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, and is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. Argentina is a federal state subdivided into twenty-three provinces, and one autonomous city, which is the federal capital and largest city of the nation, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and a part of Antarctica.
Black Cat Appreciation Day (United States)
1. Black cat
  
  A black cat is a domestic cat with black fur that may be a mixed or specific breed, or a common domestic cat of no particular breed. The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) recognizes 22 cat breeds that can come with solid black coats. The Bombay breed is exclusively black. All-black fur pigmentation is slightly more prevalent in male cats than female cats. Most black cats have golden irises due to their high melanin pigment content. In popular myths, witches are believed to be associated with black cats.
2. United States
  
  The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. It is the third-largest country by both land and total area. The United States shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south. It has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 331 million, it is the most populous country in North America and the third most populous in the world. The national capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city and financial center is New York City.

Important events in history on August 17 th

Events

17 August 2019 Kabul bombing

2017 Barcelona attacks

2015 Bangkok bombing

Erawan Shrine

Bangkok

Water turbine

Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam

Sayano-Shushenskaya power station accident

Sayano-Shushenskaya power station accident

Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam

Khakassia

Michael Phelps

2008 Summer Olympics

Michael Phelps

Israeli settlement

Israeli disengagement from Gaza

2005 Bangladesh bombings

Bangladesh

National Assembly (Serbia)

Serbia

Bože pravde

Coat of arms of Serbia

1999 İzmit earthquake

Moment magnitude scale

1999 İzmit earthquake

Turkey

Modified Mercalli intensity scale

Clinton–Lewinsky scandal

Bill Clinton

White House

Monica Lewinsky

Strathfield massacre

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

Arnold Lewis Raphel

Death and state funeral of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq

1985–1986 Hormel strike

Austin, Minnesota

Double Eagle II

Balloon (aeronautics)

Miserey

Presque Isle, Maine

Nuclear-powered icebreaker

Arktika (1972 icebreaker)

North Pole

Arktika (1972 icebreaker)

North Pole

1976 Moro Gulf earthquake

Mindanao

Philippines

Venera

Venera 7

Venus

Hurricane Camille

Mississippi

Saffir–Simpson scale

Hurricane Camille

Gulf Coast of the United States

Killing of Peter Fechter

List of deaths at the Berlin Wall

Miles Davis

Kind of Blue

Jazz

Quake Lake

1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake

Hebgen Lake

Montana

Pioneer 0

Hurricane Diane

Wilmington, North Carolina

Narcotics Anonymous

Southern California

Korean War

Prisoner of war

Hill 303 massacre

Korean People's Army

Waegwan

1949 Karlıova earthquake

Turkey

Important events in history
on August 17 ^th