Today in History for 17th August 2015

Historical Events

Events 1 - 100 of 188

682 - St Leo II begins his reign as Catholic Pope

1180 - Yoritomo Minamoto leads uprising against Kiyomori Taira who installed his grandson,Emperor Antoku, to the throne

1544 - Imperial/English armies occupy Saint-Dizier France

1563 - King Charles IX of France (13) declared an adult

1577 - Peace of Bergerac: Political rights for Huguenots

1579 - Francois of Anjou visits English Queen Elizabeth I

1585 - Antwerp surrenders after 8 months siege by Duke of Parma

1590 - John White returns to Roanoke, NC to find no trace of colonists he had left there 3 yearsearlier [or Aug 18, 1591]

1648 - -20] Battle at Preston, Lancashire: Henry Ireton beats Scottish

1717 - France, Russia & Prussia sign agreement

1743 - Sweden & Russia sign peace treaty

1787 - Jews are granted permission in Budapest Hungary to pray in groups

1788 - Losantville, OH (now Cincinnati) founded

1795 - Slave revolt at Knip plantation, Curacao

1796 - British beat Batavian navy in Saldanha Bay, South Africa

1807 - Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins 1st trip up Hudson River

French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte

1808 - Napoleon asks King Louis for Holland brigade towards Spain

1819 - The Church Missionary Society establishes New Zealand's second mission station at Kerikeri

1827 - Dutch King Willem I/Pope Leo XII sign concord

1834 - Charles Darwin reaches top of Campana Chile during his Voyage on the Beagle

1835 - Solymon Merrick patents wrench

1836 - British parliament accept registration of birth/marriage/death

1836 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin leave South-America for last time

1846 - Commodore Robert F Stockton, US Navy, annexes California

1858 - 1st bank in Hawaii opens

1859 - 1st air mail (in a balloon) took off from Lafayette, Indiana

1862 - Confederate troops under Kirby Smith enter Kentucky

1863 - Federal batteries & ships attacked Fort Sumter in SC

Naturalist Charles Darwin

1863 - Skirmish at Calfkiller Creek (Sparta), Tennessee

1869 - 1st international boat race (River Thames, Oxford beats Harvard)

1870 - 1st ascent of Mt Rainier, Washington

1870 - Mrs Esther Morris becomes 1st US woman magistrate (South Pass, Wyoming)

1876 - Wagner's opera "Götterdämmerung" premieres in Bayreuth

1877 - Asaph Hall discovers Mars' moon Phobos

1879 - Ferdinand de Lesseps forms French Panama Canal Company

1883 - The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.

1891 - 1st public bathhouse with showers opens in NYC (People's Bath)

1891 - Electric self-starter for automobile patented

1892 - Russian/French generals Obruchev/Boisdeffre signs Double Alliance

1894 - Phils get 36 hits, Sam Thompson hits for cycle beating Louisville 29-4

1897 - W B Purvis patents electric railway switch

1901 - The Royal Titles Act adds the words 'and the British Dominions beyond the Seas' to themonarch's style

1903 - Joe Pulitzer donated $1 million to Columbia University & begins Pulitzer Prizes

1904 - Boston's Jesse Tannehell no-hits Chicago White Sox, 6-0

1904 - George H Reid succeeds John Watson as Prime Minister of Australia

1905 - Dutch government of De Master begins

1907 - Bishop forbids Christian membership in Dutch Textile Union

1908 - B Tarkington & HL Wilson's "Man from Home" premieres in NYC

1908 - Bank of Italy opens new HQ at Clay & Montgomery

1908 - Projection in Paris of the very first animated cartoon, Fantasmagorie realized by Émile Cohl.

1914 - French troops under gen de Castelnau occupy Chateau Salins

1914 - Lithuiana surrenders to Germans

1915 - German troops over run Kovno, Lithuiana

1915 - Hurricane strikes Galveston, Texas (275 killed)

1915 - Mob lynches Jewish businessman Leo Frank in Cobb County, Georgia, after death sentencefor murder of 13-year-old girl commuted to life

1916 - Bulgarian offensive in Macedonia

1917 - Italy declares war on Turkey

1918 - British troops attack Baku, Azerbaijan

1918 - Samuel Riddle buys Man o'War for $5,000

1918 - Turkish troops overthrow Caukasus

1918 - Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated

1920 - Yanks cancel game with Indians in memory of Ray Chapman (died Aug 16)

1924 - French-German trade agreement signed

1926 - Greek-Serbian/Croatian/Slavs peace treaty signed

Baseball Player Lou Gehrig

1933 - Lou Gehrig plays record 1,308th consecutive game

1933 - Soviet Union test GIRD-R1 rocket ("Object 09")

1938 - 1st aircraft owned by US Forest Service in service (Oakland)

1938 - Henry Armstrong won his 3rd concurrent boxing championship

1939 - "Wizard of Oz" opens at Loew's Capitol Theater in NY

1940 - FDR & Canadian PM William M King agree to joint defense commission

1940 - Greece mobilizes

1940 - Hitler orders total blockade of Great Britain

1941 - German raider attacks Dutch SS Kota Nopan

1942 - Task Force 17 leaves Pearl Harbor under Admiral George Murray on USS Hornet

1942 - Transport nr 20 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany

1942 - US 8th Air Force bombers stage first independent raid on Europe, attack Rouen, France

Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler

1943 - 498 British bombers attack Peenemunde

1943 - Gen Patton enters Messina, completing conquest of Sicily by Allies

1943 - US 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17O at attack on Regensburg/Schweinfurt

1944 - 4th Canadian Armoured division occupiers Trun, Normandy

1944 - Canadian 2nd division conquerors Falaise, Normandy

1944 - German field marshal Model replaces von Kluge in Normandy

1944 - Russian troops arrive at Austria-Prussia border

1944 - US 12 Army Corps occupies Orleans

1944 - US 320th regiment infantry occupies Châteaudun

1944 - Yanks Johnny Lindell ties record with 4 consecutive doubles in a game

1945 - Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declare Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) independent from theNetherlands

1945 - Korea is divided into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel

1946 - Arthur Honegger's 3rd Symphony "Liturgique" premieres

Writer George Orwell

1946 - George Orwell publishes "Animal Farm" in the United Kingdom

1947 - The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed.

1948 - Alger Hiss denies ever being a Communist agent

1948 - Phillies commit 8 errors in a game

1948 - Tom Henrich hits his then record tying 4th grand slam of season

1950 - Indonesia gains independence from Netherlands

1950 - Pee Wee Reese (Dodgers) & Sam Calderone (Giants) hit inside park HRs

1951 - 18th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: Cleveland 33, All-Stars 0 (92,180)

1951 - Hurricane winds drive 6 ships ashore, Kingston, Jamaica

1952 - "Fallout" 1st used (NY Times)

1952 - Betty Jameson wins LPGA World Golf Championship

Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 231

1473 - Richard, Duke of York (d. 1483?)

1578 - Francesco Albani, Italian painter(d. 1660)

1586 - Johann V Andreae, Germanvicar/writer (Christenburg)

1607 - Pierre de Fermat, mathematicianwho needed wider margins (Fermat'sLast Theorem) [or 1608]

1629 - King John [Jan] III Sobieski ofPoland. Victor over the Turks in 1683 (d.

1696)

1686 - Nicola Antonio Porpora, composer

1720 - Charles D J Eisen, French engraver/painter (Contes de La Fontaine)

1753 - Josef Dobrovský, Czech linguist (d. 1828)

1768 - Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French general (d. 1800)

1775 - Philippe Libon, composer

1779 - Franz de Paula Roser, composer

Frontiersman/Soldier Davy Crockett (1786)

1786 - Davy Crockett, Greene County, Tennessee, frontiersman/adventurer/politician (Alamo), (d.1836)

1786 - Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, mother of Queen Victoria (d. 1861)

1794 - Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest (d. 1849)

1811 - Johannes H Scholten, Dutch theologist (Free Will)

1817 - Joseph baron Kervyn de Lettenhove, Belgian Internal minister (1870-71)

1819 - James Henry Van Alen, Brigadier General (Union volunteers), (d. 1886)

1828 - George William Warren, composer

1828 - Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)

1834 - Peter Benoit, Flemish composer/conductor (Leie/Rubens Cantata)

1839 - Hubert Platt Main, composer

1839 - Thijs [Matthijs] Maris, Dutch painter/etcher

1840 - Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, England, writer (Irish Land League)

1841 - Luis NF Varela, Brazilian romantic poet

1844 - Menelik II, King of Ethiopia (1896-1913)

1851 - Henry Drummond, Scottish geologist/evangelist

1856 - Violet Paget, [Vernon Lee], British author (Satan the master)

1863 - Gene Stratton-Porter, American author and naturalist (d. 1924)

1866 - Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad (d. 1911)

1866 - Julia Marlowe, English actress (d. 1950)

1870 - Frederick Russell, developed 1st successful typhoid fever vaccine

1873 - John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (d. 1946)

1876 - Eric Drummond, 1st Secretary-General of League of Nations (1919-33)

1876 - Henri G Winkelman, Dutch general/supreme commander/navy 1940

1878 - Reg Duff, cricketer (Australian bat, century on debut 1902)

1880 - Leo Ascher, composer

1880 - Percy Sherwell, cricketer (great South African batsman-keeper-captain)

Hollywood Mogul Samuel Goldwyn (1882)

1882 - Samuel Goldwyn, [Shmuel Gelbfisz], Warsaw Poland, Hollywood movie producer (MGM)

1885 - Clara [G Meijer-]Wichmann, German anarchists/feminist (Wife & society)

1885 - Kurt Hiller, writer

1887 - Charles I, last emperor of Austria-Hungary (1916-18)

1887 - Marcus Garvey, began back-to-Africa movement among US African Americans

1888 - Monty Wooley, actor (Pied Piper, Man Who Came to Dinner), born in NYC, New York

1890 - Harry L Hopkins, US politician (Loan & Lease law)

1890 - Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator (d. 1920)

1893 - Mae West, New York, film and stage actress and singer (She Done him Wrong), (d. 1980)

1894 - Erik A Blomberg, Swedish art historian/poet/author (Jorden)

1894 - Johan Polet, Dutch sculptor

Actress Mae West (1893)

1896 - Henry P de Vries, Dutch painter/poet (Laws of the Americas)

1896 - Leslie Groves, American military engineer (d. 1970)

1898 - Gerard Schmook, Flemish librarian/historian/custodian

1900 - Quincy Howe, newscaster (CBS Weekend News), born in Boston, Massachusetts

1903 - Abram Chasins, composer

1904 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)

1904 - Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician (d. 1984)

1905 - John Hay Whitney, publisher (NY Herald Trib 1961-67)

1906 - Hazel Bishop, chemist/cosmetics manufacturer

1906 - Marcello J das Neves Alves Caetano, premier of Portugal (1968-74)

1907 - Marian Viktorovich Koval, composer

1908 - Kurt Hessenberg, composer

1909 - Larry Clinton, American trumpeter and bandleader (d. 1985)

1910 - Eric Aaltonen, composer

1910 - J A Manusama, Moluccan politician

1910 - R Peyrefitte, writer

1911 - Frederik de Merode, Belgian prince

1911 - Jan Lode Cantens, Flemish dramatist (God's Murderer)

1912 - Edgar Fernhout, Dutch painter/son of Charley Toorop

1913 - W. Mark Felt, American FBI official and Watergate secret informant known as "Deep Throat"

1913 - Rudy York, American baseball player (d. 1970)

1913 - Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentine racing driver (d. 1989)

1914 - Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr, son of FDR/(Rep-D-NY, 1949-55)

1916 - John de Young, resistance fighter

1917 - P Roger Peyrefitte, French writer (Singular Love)

1917 - Safa Khulusi, writer

1918 - Mort Marshall, actor (Cully-Dumplings), born in NYC, New York

1920 - Georgia Gibbs, Worcester Mass, singer (Ballin the Jack, Kiss of Fire)

1921 - Geoffery Rudolph Elton, historiographer

1921 - Maureen O'Hara [Fitzsimmons], Ranelagh, County Dublin, Irish actress and singer (Miracleon 34th St, The Quiet Man)

1922 - Paul Wiens, writer

1922 - Ralph Roberts, Salisbury NC, actor (Tradition, Gone are the Days)

1922 - Roy Tattersall, cricketer (brilliant England off-spinner early 50's)

1923 - Anton Kersjes, violinist/conductor (Amsterdam Philharmonic Orch)

1923 - Larry Rivers, [Grossberg], painter (Wash crossing Delaware-1953), born in NYC, New York

1923 - Chaleo Yoovidhya, Phichit, Thailand, co-creator of Red Bull, (d. 2012)

1924 - Evan S Connell, US writer

1924 - Helen Wallis, cartographer/librarian

1924 - John A Emmens, art historian/poet (Kunst & Vliegwerk)

1924 - Laurence Richard Deniz, jazz guitarist

1924 - Evan Connell, Kansas City, Missouri, author (The Patriot), (d. 2013)

1925 - John Hawkes, US writer (2nd Skin)

1925 - John Howard Purnell, scientist

1926 - Haakon Barfod, Norway, yachting (Olympic-gold-1948, 52), (d. 2013)

1926 - Jean Poiret, French actor/writer (Le Dernier Metro)

1926 - Jiang Zemin, Chinese politician

1926 - George Melly, British singer (d. 2007)

1927 - Bernard "Bernie" Cornfeld, Romanian/US financier (Fund of Funds)

1927 - Robert Moore, actor (Marshall-Diana), born in Detroit, Michigan

1928 - Jean R Adams, entomologist

1928 - Thomas Jefferson Anderson, composer

1928 - Willem Duys, Dutch radio/TV host

Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 7 of 7

1498 - Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander IV, 1st man to resign the cardinalate marries Charlotted'Albret of Navarre

Short Story Writer Dorothy Parker (1950)

1950 - Short story writer Dorothy Parker (57) weds screenwriter Alan Campbell (46)

1962 - Actor Jack Lemmon (37) weds actress/model Felicia Farr (29) in Paris, France

1964 - Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee (23) weds teacher Linda Emery (19)

1989 - Director Kathryn Bigelow (26) weds fellow director James Cameron (24)

1996 - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (72) weds Grace Marufu (31) at Kutama College inMashonaland West, Zimbabwe

1997 - Lead vocalist James Hetfield (34) weds Francesca Tomasi

Famous Divorces

Divorces 1 - 1 of 1

2008 - Genesis drummer and vocalist Phil Collins (57) divorces Swiss-born Orianne Cevey (35) aftersix years of marriage

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 117

754 - Karloman, abbot of Monte Cassino, dies at 39

1153 - Eustace IV of Boulogne, son of Stephen of England (b. 1130)

1304 - Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)

1464 - Nikolaus von Cusa, German theologist/mathematician/philosopher, dies

1510 - Edmund Dudley, English treasurer, beheaded

1510 - Richard Empson, English treasurer, beheaded

1536 - Pietersz, book publisher (Kersten Knight - on Index), dies

1553 - Charles III, Duke of Savoy, dies

1635 - Francisco de Moncada, Spanish earl of Osuna, dies at 48

1673 - Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist, dies of possible suicide at 32 (b. 1641)

1676 - Grimmelshausen, writer, dies

1681 - Nikon, [Nikita Minin], patriarch of Rus-orthodox church, dies at 76

1720 - Anne Lefèvre, French scholar (b. 1654)

1723 - Joseph Bingham, English scholar (b. 1668)

1730 - Mauritius Vogt, composer, dies at 61

1731 - Johann Augustin Kobelius, composer, dies at 57

1768 - Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (b. 1703)

1777 - Giuseppe Scarlotti, composer, dies at 54

1785 - Jonathan Trumbull, US patriot, dies

King of Prussia Frederick the Great (1786)

1786 - Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia (1740-86)/composer, dies at 74

1792 - Jan Jachym Kopriva, composer, dies at 38

1804 - Barbara Hec, organized 1st methodist church in US, dies

1834 - Husein Grada??evi?, Bosnian rebel leader (b. 1802)

1850 - Jose de San Martin, South American revolutionary hero and general, dies at 72

1861 - Alcée Louis la Branche, American Politician (b. 1806)

1865 - Johann Nepomuk Poissl, composer, dies at 82

1865 - Mosby Munroe Parsons, US Confederate gen-maj, dies in battle

1875 - Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (b. 1827)

1878 - Richard Upjohn, US architect, died

1880 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist and composer (b. 1810)

1887 - Franz Commer, composer, dies at 74

1888 - James Jameson, British nature investigator (Congo), dies

Revolutionary Leader José de San Martín (1850)

1889 - Ernst Franck, German composer/conductor, dies at 42

1893 - Aleksei N Apuchtin, Russian poet (Stichotvorenia), dies at 52[NS=8/29]

1896 - Bridget Driscoll, 1st Brit to die in an auto-accident

1898 - Carl Johann Adam Zeller, composer, dies at 56

1901 - Edmond Audran, composer, dies at 61

1909 - Richard Hoffman, composer, dies at 78

1914 - James Grierson, British general

1915 - Leo Frank, American convict, hanged in 1915 by a lynch mob in Georgia

1920 - Ray Chapman, hit in the head by Yanks' Carl Mays pitch, dies

1920 - Ray Chapman, American baseball player (b. 1891)

1924 - Pavel S "Paul" Urysohn, Russian mathematician, drowns at 26

1924 - Tom Kendall, cricketer (14 wickets in Australia's 1st two Tests), dies

1925 - Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer of Romanian origin (b. 1848)

1927 - Horace Alderman, US, murderer, hanged

1935 - Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American feminist, writer and lecturer for social reform, dies at 75

1936 - Pierre-Octave Ferroud, French composer (Surgery & Foules), dies at 36

1944 - John Trumble, cricketer (brother of Hugh 7 Tests 1885-86), dies

1945 - Gino Marinuzzi, composer, dies at 61

1945 - Pater Bleijs, [Louis], resistance fighter, dies in car accident

1948 - Nico J Polak, Dutch economist, dies at 60

1949 - Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino jurist & politician (b. 1891)

1953 - Johannes B Tielrooy, literature (French Living Lesson), dies at 66

1954 - Billy Murray, singer (Denver Nightengale), dies at 77

1958 - Florent Schmitt, French composer/critic (Jardin Secret), dies at 87

1961 - Carlos Leon Salzedo, composer, dies at 76

1962 - Peter Fechter trying to cross the Berlin Wall (b. 1944)

1963 - Richard Barthelmess, actor (Heroes for Sales), dies of cancer at 68

1966 - Archibald Palm, cricketer (Test South Africa v England 1927-28), dies

1966 - Michael Garrison, producer (Crowded Sky), dies after a fall at 43

1969 - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect (November Group), dies at 83

1969 - Philip Blaiberg, after 19 days with artificial heart, dies

1970 - Rattana Pestonji, Thai filmmaker (b. 1908)

1971 - Horace McMahon, actor (Martin Kane Private Eye), dies at 64

1971 - Wilhelm List, German field marshal (b. 1880)

1972 - Raymond Brulez, Flemish author (Schoone slaapster), dies at 76

1972 - Wampilow, writer, dies

1973 - Conrad Aiken, US poet (Pulitzer), dies at 74

1973 - Paul Williams, American musician (The Temptations), commits suicide at 32

1973 - Jean Barraqué, French composer (b. 1928)

1974 - Aldo Palazzeschi, [Giurlani], Italian writer, dies at 89

1974 - Edgar Dearing, actor (Free & Easy, Abraham Lincoln), dies at 81

1975 - Sig Arno, Hamburg Germany, actor (My Friend Irma), dies at 80

1975 - Vladimir Kutz, Russian distance runner (Olympic-gold-56) dies at 48

1976 - Murvyn Vye, actor (Road to Bali, Escape to Burma), dies at 63

1976 - William Redfield, actor (Jimmy Hughes Rookie Cop), dies at 48

1979 - Vivian Vance, actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy), dies of cancer at 67

1981 - Robert Russell Bennett, US composer/arranger (Oklahoma!), dies at 87

1982 - Barney Phillips, actor (Dragnet, Felony Squad), dies at 68

1982 - Ruth Voorst, South African (A World Apart), killed by letter bomb

1983 - Ira Gershwin, lyricist, dies in Beverly Hills at 86

1984 - Holly Roffey, youngest heart transplant, dies at 4 weeks

1987 - Charles Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet, dies at 84

1987 - Rudolph Hess, Nazi (46 years in Spandau Prison), commits suicide at 93

1987 - Shaike Ophir, Israeli actor (b. 1929)

1988 - Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr, (Rep-D-NY, 1949-55), dies on 74th birthday

1988 - Mohammad Zia Ul-Haq, pres of Pakistan (1978-88), dies in plane crash at 64

1988 - Victoria Shaw, actress (Alvarez Kelly, Westworld), dies

1990 - Pearl Bailey, actress (Landlord)/singer, dies of heart attack at 72

1990 - Roderick Cook, actor (Rockabye), dies of apparent heart attack at 58

1991 - Don Dubbins, actor (Enchanted Island, DI), dies at 63

1991 - Leo Geerts, [Marcel van der Linden], Belgian writer/critic, dies

1991 - Mervyn Nelson, director (Some of My Best Friends Are...), dies at 76

1992 - Andre de Villiers, South African, murdered

1992 - Barbara Morgan, photographer (Martha Graham), dies at 92

1992 - Tommy Nutter, fashion designer (bell bottom pants), dies of AIDs at 49

1993 - Max de Metz, Dutch publisher/translator, dies at 72

1993 - Robert C Maynard, CEO (Oakland Tribune), dies at 56

1993 - Feng Kang, Chinese mathematician (b. 1920)

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