March 4......

March 4 is the 63rd (64th in leap years) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 302 days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 51 - Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).

● 303 or 304 - Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.

● 852 - Croatian Duke Trpimir I issued a statute, a document with the first known written mention of the Croats name in Croatian sources.

● 932 - Translation of the relics of martyr Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, Prince of the Czechs.

● 1152 - Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.

● 1215 - King John of England makes an oath to the Pope as a crusader to gain the support of Innocent III.

● 1238 - The Battle of the Sit River was fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol Hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Russia.

● 1275 - Chinese astronomers observe a total eclipse of the sun.

● 1351 - Ramathibodi becomes King of Siam.

● 1386 - Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) was crowned King of Poland.

● 1461 - Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.

● 1492 - King James IV of Scotland concludes an alliance with France against England.

● 1493 - Explorer Christopher Columbus arrives back in Lisbon, Portugal aboard his ship Niña from his discovery voyage to America. He returned to Spain on March 15.

● 1519 - Hernan Cortes arrives in Mexico in search of the Aztec civilization and their wealth.

● 1570 - King Philip II of Spain bans foreign Dutch students.

● 1590 - Mauritius of Nassau's ship reaches Breda

● 1611 - George Abbot is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.

● 1621 - Jakarta, Java is renamed Batavia.

● 1629 - Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had the role of colonizing the Americas, is granted a Royal charter.

● 1634 - Samuel Cole opens the first tavern in Boston, Massachusetts.

● 1665 - English King Charles II declares war on The Netherlands which marked the start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.

● 1675 - John Flamsteed appointed first Astronomer Royal of England.

● 1681 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.

● 1699 - Jews are expelled from Lubeck Germany

● 1712 - Jane Wenham ("A witch and a bitch") tried for talking to her cat and for flying. The last witchcraft trial in England.

● 1738 - Moravian missionary Peter Bohler, 26, advised future English founder of Methodism John Wesley, 34: 'Preach faith until you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.'

● 1741 - English fleet under Admiral Ogle reaches Cartagena

● 1766 - The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, which had caused bitter and violent opposition in the U.S. colonies.

● 1774 - First sighting of Orion Nebula by William Herschel.

● 1776 - The American War of Independence: The Americans capture "Dorchester Heights" dominating the port of Boston, Massachusetts.

● 1778 - The Continental Congress voted to ratify both the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance with France. The two treaties were the first entered into by the United States government.

● 1789 - In New York City, the first U.S. Congress meets and declares the new Constitution of the United States is in effect (9 senators, 13 representatives).

● 1790 - France is divided into 83 départements, which cut across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on noble ownership of land.

● 1791 - 1st Jewish member of US Congress, Israel Jacobs (Pennsylvania), takes office

● 1791 - President Washington calls the US Senate into its 1st special session

● 1791 - Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state.

● 1791 - A Constitutional Act is introduced by the British House of Commons in London which envisages the separation of Canada into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).

● 1792 - Oranges were introduced into Hawaii.

● 1793 - French troops conquer Geertruidenberg, Netherlands.

● 1793 - President Washington's 2nd inauguration, shortest speech (133 words)

● 1794 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. The Amendment limited the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state. Later interpretations expanded this to include citizens of the state being sued, as well.

● 1797 - John Adams inaugurated as 2nd President of US

● 1798 - Catholic women force to do penance for kindling sabbath fire for Jews

● 1801 - 1st President inaugurated in Washington DC (Thomas Jefferson)

● 1804 - The Battle of Vinegar Hill, colony of New South Wales (Australia), when Irish convicts (some of whom had been involved in Ireland’s Battle of Vinegar Hill in 1798) led the colony’s only significant convict uprising.

● 1804 - The British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) was founded at a large interdenominational meeting in London. Its purpose was "to promote the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment, both at home and in foreign lands."

● 1809 - Madison becomes 1st President inaugurated in American-made clothes

● 1813 - Russian troops fighting the army of Napoleon reach Berlin in Germany and the French garrison evacuate the city without a fight.

● 1814 - Americans defeat the British at the Battle of Longwoods between London and Thamesville near present-day Wardsville, Ontario.

● 1824 - The "National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck" was founded in the United Kingdom, later to be renamed The Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1858.

● 1825 - John Quincy Adams inaugrated as 6th President

● 1826 - 1st US RR chartered, Granite Railway in Quincy MA

● 1827 - The Illustrious Sigma Phi Society is founded at Union College.

● 1829 - Andrew Jackson inaugurated as 7th President

● 1829 - Unruly crowd mobs White House during President Jackson inaugural ball

● 1835 - HMS Beagle moves into Bay of Concepción

● 1837 - Martin Van Buren inaugrated as 8th President

● 1837 - Chicago is granted a city charter by Illinois.

● 1841 - Longest inauguration speech (8,443 words), William Henry Harrison

● 1841 - Pres. William Henry Harrison caught a fatal cold while standing hatless in the drizzle at his own Presidential inauguration. A month later, he is the first U.S. president to die in office. {That long speech was of little help.}

● 1845 - James K Polk inaugrated as 11th President

● 1848 - Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will later represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia

● 1849 - Zachary Taylor refuses to be sworn in office as 12th President of the United States on a Sabbath (Sunday). Urban legend instead holds that the office of President of the United States is vacant for a single day and that David Rice Atchison, President pro tempore of the United States Senate was President de jure that day. However, Taylor was president despite not taking the oath.

● 1850 - Future statesman James A. Garfield, at age 18, was "buried with Christ in baptism." Thirty-one years, to the day! after his conversion, Garfield took the oath of office as 20th President of the United States.

● 1853 - William Rufus de Vane King (D) sworn in as 13th US Vice President

● 1853 - Pope Pius IX recovers Roman Catholic hierarchy in Netherlands.

● 1853 - An oncoming mail train shatters the rear car of a stalled Pennsylvania Railroad emigrant train in the Allegheny Mountains near Mount Union, Pennsylvania, killing seven. This was the highest single U.S. accident toll up to this time.

● 1859 - Charter of the French Opera House in New Orleans is granted, which opens on December 1 of the same year with a gala performance of Rossini's "William Tell".

● 1861 - Lincoln inaugurated as 16th President; 1st time US has 5 former Presidents living

● 1861 - President Lincoln opens Government Printing Office.

● 1861 - Confederate States adopt "Stars and Bars" flag, on the same day that Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as 16th President of the United States.

● 1863 - Territory of Idaho established.

● 1863 - Battle of Thompson's Station, Tennessee

● 1865 - Confederate congress approves final design of "official flag"

● 1865 - President Lincoln inaugurated for his 2nd term as President

● 1869 - Ulysses Grant inaugurated as 18th President

● 1876 - US Congress decides to impeach Minister of War Belknap

● 1877 - Emile Berliner invents the microphone.

● 1877 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake premiers at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

● 1880 - New York Daily Graphic publishes the first half-tone engraving.

● 1881 - California becomes 1st state to pass plant quarantine legislation

● 1881 - James A Garfield inaugurated as 20th President

● 1881 - Eliza Ballou Garfield became the first mother of a U.S. President to live in the executive mansion.

● 1881 - South African President Kruger accepts ceasefire

● 1882 - Britain's first electric trams run in East London.

● 1882 - Birth of Joseph Spivak, Uman, Russia. Lifelong anarchist who emigrated to the U.S. and during WWI was actively involved around the country in anti-militarist campaigns with Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.

● 1885 - Grover Cleveland inaugrated as 1st Democratic President since Civil War

● 1887 - Gottlieb Daimler unveils his first automobile which he test runs in Esslingen and Cannstatt, Germany.

● 1887 - 23-year-old William Randolph Hearst buys the San Francisco Examiner, and starts to build the Hearst newspaper empire.

● 1888 - Knute Rockne, who changed the strategy of football as coach at Notre Dame, was born.

● 1889 - Benjamin Harrison inaugurated as 23rd President

● 1890 - The longest bridge in the United Kingdom, the Forth Bridge (railway) (1,710 ft) in Scotland is opened by the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII.

● 1891 - The International Copyright Act, halting the piracy of British, Belgium, French, and Swiss books by U.S. publishers, is passed by Congress.

● 1893 - Grover Cleveland (D) inaugrated as 24th US President (2nd term)

● 1893 - Congo Free State: The army of Francis, Baron Dhanis attacks the Lualaba, enabling him to transport his troops across the Upper Congo and, capture Nyangwe almost without an effort.

● 1894 - Great fire in Shanghai. Over 1,000 buildings are destroyed.

● 1897 - William McKinley inaugurated as 25th President of US

● 1899 - Cyclone Mahina sweeps in north of Cooktown, Queensland, with a 12 m wave that reaches up to 5 km inland - over 300 dead.

● 1901 - 1st advanced copy of inaugural speech (Jefferson-National Intelligencer)

● 1901 - President William McKinley inaugurated for 2nd term as President

● 1901 - Term of George H White, last of post-Reconstruction congressmen, ends

● 1902 - In Chicago, the American Automobile Association is established.

● 1904 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.

● 1905 - Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in for his second term as president.

● 1906 - Rosa Luxemburg is arrested and imprisoned at the Warsaw Citadel for revolutionary activities in Warsaw.

● 1907 - Louis Botha is appointed Prime Minister of the Transvaal, South Africa.

● 1908 - The New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.

● 1908 - France notified signatories of Algeciras that it would send troops to Chaouia, Morocco.

● 1908 - The Collinwood School Fire, Collinwood near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.

● 1909 - President Taft inaugrated as 27th President during 10" snowstorm

● 1909 - US prohibits interstate transportation of game birds

● 1909 - President William Taft approves Congressional Gold Medals for the Wright brothers.

● 1910 - Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) begins Spokane, Wash. free speech fight (which they win).

● 1911 - Victor Berger (Wisconsin) becomes the first socialist congressman in U.S..

● 1912 - Suffragettes, walking single file in Knightsbridge, London, smash every window they pass to protest government inaction.

● 1913 - The United States Department of Commerce and United States Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Department of Commerce and Labor.

● 1913 - First U.S. law regulating the shooting of migratory birds passed.

● 1913 - Woodrow Wilson inaugurated as 28th President

● 1914 - Doctor Fillatre successfully separated Siamese twins.

● 1917 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana, first U.S. Congresswoman, begins term. Rankin becomes the only Congressperson to vote against U.S. entry into both World Wars. Well into her advanced years, she also led protests against the war in Vietnam.

● 1917 - Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia's renunciation of the throne is made public, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia publicly issues his abdication manifesto. The victory of the February Revolution.

● 1918 - Terek Autonomous Republic established in RSFSR (until 1921)

● 1920 - Last day of Julian civil calendar in Greece

● 1921 - Hot Springs National Park created in Arkansas.

● 1921 - E. M. Forster sets out on a passage to India to assume his duties as secretary to the Maharaja of the state of Dewas Senior.

● 1922 - Tippeerary, Ireland gas workers seize their plant, hoist red flag.

● 1923 - Lenin's last article about Red bureaucracy was published in Pravda.

● 1924 - The song 'Happy Birthday To You' is published by Clayton Summy.

● 1925 - Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to have his inauguration broadcast on radio.

● 1925 - Swain's Island (near American Samoa) annexed by US

● 1926 - The government of Dirk Jan de Geer takes office in The Netherlands.

● 1929 - Herbert Hoover inaugurated as 31st President

● 1929 - Charles Curtis becomes the first native-American Vice President.

● 1930 - Coolidge Dam in Arizona dedicated

● 1930 - Terrible floods ransack Languedoc and the surrounds in south-west France, resulting in twelve departments being submerged by water and causing the death of over 700 people.

● 1930 - Blaze levels hangar at Atlanta Airport, destroying twenty aircraft

● 1931 - The British Viceroy of India, Governor-General Edward Frederick Lindley Wood and Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) meet to sign an agreement envisaging the release of political prisoners and allowing that salt is freely used by the poorest layers of the population.

● 1933 - Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, first female member of the United States Cabinet.

● 1933 - Bertha Wilson is appointed as first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada.

● 1933 - FDR inaugrated as 32nd President, pledges to pull US out of Depression & says "We have nothing to fear but fear itself"

● 1933 - The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure - Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates authoritarian rule by decree.

● 1933 - Frances Perkins becomes Secretary of Labor, 1st US woman cabinet member

● 1936 - First flight of airship Hindenburg, Germany.

● 1937 - UAW workers win sit-down strike victory in Flint, Michigan, forcing General Motors to recognize them. The 40-day action at Fisher Body Plant Number One had become the longest sit-down strike in history. Employees inside were protected by 5,000 armed workers circling the plant. After police tear-gassed attacks, workers fought back with firehoses. The gunfire wounded 13 workers, but the police were driven back. By the time the National Guard arrived, the strike had spread to GM plants across the nation.

● 1941 - 18 Geuzen resistance fighters sentenced to death in The Hague

● 1941 - Serbian Prince Paul visits Hitler

● 1941 - The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, during World War II.

● 1941 - Adolf Hitler applies pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Tripartite Pact.

● 1942 - Birth of Gloria Gaither, wife of songwriter Bill Gaither, and female vocalist in the Bill Gaither Trio. Gloria is also co-author of the contemporary Christian songs, "Because He Lives," "Something Beautiful" and "The King is Coming."

● 1943 - Transport number 50 departs with French Jews to Maidanek/Sobibor

● 1944 - First U.S. daylight bombing of Berlin and Anti-Germany strikes in northern Italy.

● 1944 - In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing.

● 1945 - In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth, later to become Queen Elizabeth II, joins the British Army as a driver.

● 1945 - Lapland War: Finland declares war on Nazi-Germany.

● 1946 - Canada reported that it had uncovered a spy ring that had been organized by the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa. All four people accused admitted to being involved.

● 1946 - C.G.E. Mannerheim resigns from the post of President of Finland.

● 1946 - The United States, France and the United Kingdom launch a call with the Spaniards in favour of the inversion of the pro-Franco mode.

● 1947 - France and Britain signed an alliance treaty.

● 1948 - The first American civilian (Herbert Henry Hoover) flies at supersonic speeds in Bell X-1 in Muroc, California.

● 1949 - Andrei Vishinsky succeeds Molotov as Soviet Foreign minister

● 1949 - Security Council of United Nations recommends membership for Israel.

● 1952 - U.S. President Harry Truman dedicated the "Courier," the first seagoing radio broadcasting station.

● 1954 - JE Wilkins, appointed 1st Black US sub-cabinet member

● 1954 - Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, announces the first successful kidney transplant.

● 1954 - U.S. warns Latin America against international communism.

● 1955 - First radio facsimile transmission is sent across the continent of America.

● 1957 - The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.

● 1959 - U.S. Pioneer IV misses Moon and becomes the second (U.S. first) artificial planet.

● 1960 - It is revealed, in connection with the current congressional investigation into payola, that FCC Chairman John Doerfer took a six-day trip to Florida courtesy of Storer Broadcasting.

● 1960 - French freighter 'La Coubre' explodes in Havana, Cuba killing 100. Fidel Castro blames the U.S.

● 1961 - Paul-Henri Spaak resigns as Secretary-General of NATO

● 1962 - United States Atomic Energy Commission announces that the first atomic power plant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica is in operation.

● 1963 - In Paris six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle.

● 1964 - Jimmy Hoffa, President of the Teamsters, is convicted by a Federal jury of tampering with a Federal jury.

● 1966 - London's "Evening Standard" newspaper published an interview with Beatle John Lennon in which he remarked: 'Christianity will... vanish and shrink... We're more popular than Jesus Christ right now.' The quote touched off a storm of international protest, resulting in burnings and boycotts of the Beatles' records.

● 1966 - Canadian Pacific airliner explodes on landing at Tokyo, killing 64 people.

● 1967 - The first North Sea gas is pumped ashore at Easington, County Durham by BP (British Petroleum).

● 1967 - Queens Park Rangers win the League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium beating West Bromwich Albion.

● 1968 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. announces he will lead a Poor People's March on Washington in April.

● 1968 - Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5 launched

● 1969 - Union of Concerned Scientists founded.

● 1969 - S.S. Yukon, carrying 150,000 barrels of oil, hits a submerged object and spilled its cargo into Cook Inlet, Alaska.

● 1969 - Kray twins guilty of McVitie murder; The Kray twins, Ronald and Reginald, face life sentences after being found guilty of murder at the Central Criminal Court.

● 1970 - Puerto Rican student killed by police during a demonstration against the Vietnam War.

● 1970 - French submarine Eurydice explodes.

● 1971 - "City Command" kidnaps 4 US military men at Ankara, Turkey

● 1972 - Two killed, 136 injured by IRA bomb in restaurant, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

● 1972 - Last train run between Penrith to Keswick UK

● 1972 - A Libyan-Soviet accord is agreed for the development of Libyan oil reserves.

● 1974 - Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister following the resignation of his predecessor Edward Heath.

● 1974 - The first People Magazine hits stores.

● 1974 - The Rio-Niterói Bridge connecting the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói in Brazil is opened.

● 1975 - Comic genius Chaplin is knighted; Silent film legend Charlie Chaplin has become Sir Charles after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

● 1975 - The first television coverage of a Canadian parliamentary committee is broadcast.

● 1976 - The Maguire Seven are found guilty of the offence of possessing explosives and are subsequently jailed for 14 years. Their convictions are later quashed.

● 1976 - The Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention is formally dissolved in Northern Ireland resulting in direct rule of Northern Ireland from London via the British parliament.

● 1976 - ABBA arrive at Sydney airport for a promotional tour in Australia.

● 1977 - The 1977 Bucharest Earthquake in southern and eastern Europe kills more than 1,500.

● 1977 - The first Cray-1 supercomputer is shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.

● 1978 - Forty thousand demonstrate against uranium enrichment plant, Almelo, Netherlands.

● 1978 - Chicago Daily News, founded in 1875, publishes its last issue.

● 1979 - U.S. Voyager I photo reveals Jupiter's rings.

● 1979 - The Ugandan capital of Kampala is threatened by invading Tanzanian forces.

● 1979 - The first encyclical written by Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis (Latin for "The Redeemer of Man") is promulgated less than five months after his installation as pope.

● 1980 - Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.

● 1982 - NASA launches "Intelsat V".

● 1985 - The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.

● 1985 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds right of Oneida nation of New York to sue for lands illegally taken in 1795.

● 1985 - STS 51-E vehicle rolls back to Vandenberg AFB; mission cancelled

● 1985 - Virtual ban on leaded gas ordered by EPA

● 1986 - Launch of the UK's Today tabloid newspaper (now defunct), pioneering the use of computer photosetting and full-colour offset printing at a time when British national newspapers are still using Linotype machines and letterpress.

● 1987 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan addresses the American nation on the Iran-Contra Affair, acknowledging his overtures to Iran had “deteriorated” into an arms-for-hostages deal.

● 1988 - Building of the Louvre Pyramid begins at the Napoleon court of the Louvre, in Paris, France.

● 1989 - Six people die and 80 are injured, some of them seriously, at the Purley Station rail crash in Surrey, England.

● 1989 - Eastern Airlines machinists strike

● 1990 - Space Shuttle program: STS-36 (Space Shuttle Atlantis) U.S. 65th manned space mission returns from space.

● 1991 - Most primitive form of World Wide Web is put online.

● 1991 - Bank of Credit and Commerce International divests itself of First American National Bank.

● 1991 - The Soviet parliament in Moscow, Russia ratifies a six-nation treaty on German unification.

● 1991 - In Iraq, Saddam Hussein releases 6 U.S., 3 British and 1 Italian prisoners of war.

● 1991 - Sheik Saad Al-Abdallah Al-Salim Al-Sabah, the Prime Minister of Kuwait, returned to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion. {All the government heads fled well ahead of Iraq's troops but those who stay and resist are branded the cowards and the fleers, heros.}

● 1993 - Authorities announced the arrest of Mohammad Salameh. He was later convicted for his role in the World Trade Center Bombing in New York City.

● 1994 - Space shuttle STS-62 (Columbia 16) launches into orbit.

● 1994 - Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.

● 1994 - Bosnia's Croats and Moslems signed an agreement to form a federation in a loose economic union with Croatia.

● 1994 - Oliver Robotham was born. Patriot and long live the king.

● 1995 - Blind teenage boy receives a 'Bionic Eye' at a Washington Hospital

● 1996 - A train carrying propane and sodium hydroxide derails in Weyauwega, Wisconsin and catches fire. 2,200 homes near the accident site are evacuated for 16 days.

● 1996 - Comet Hyakutake was imaged by the USA Asteroid Orbiter NEAR, (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous).

● 1997 - US President Bill Clinton bans federally funded human cloning research.

● 1997 - Comet Hale-Bopp flies directly above the Sun (1.04 AU).

● 1997 - Brazil Senate allows women to wear slacks

● 1997 - Zeya Start-1 launched (Russia)

● 1998 - Ford sued for compensation for using 10,000 slave laborers supplied by Hitler's regime.

● 1998 - Gay rights: Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.

● 1998 - Government, naval and university computers running Windows NT across the United States crash as a result of a hacker. The crash affects computers running at MIT, Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of California campuses at Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Microsoft repaired the software that apparently allowed hackers to shut down computers in government and university offices nationwide.

● 1999 - Retired Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, who wrote the 1973 decision that legalized abortion, died in Arlington, Va., at age 90.

● 1999 - In a military court, Captain Richard Ashby of the United States Marines is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable. {One might wonder why he wasn't tried in an Italian court!}

● 1999 - Monica Lewinsky's book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton went on sale in the U.S.

● 2001 - A massive car bomb explodes in front of the BBC Television Centre in London, seriously injuring 11 people. The attack was attributed to the Real IRA.

● 2001 - Switzerland and the European Union: Swiss voters overwhelmingly reject a proposal for immediate membership talks with the European Union.

● 2001 - Hintze Ribeiro disaster, a bridge collapses in northern Portugal, killing up to 70 people.

● 2002 - Canada bans human embryo cloning but permits government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.

● 2002 - U.S. Attack on Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission.

● 2002 - The moderate leader albanophone Ibrahim Rugova is elected President of Kosovo by the Parliament of the Serb province that had been under international control since 1999.

● 2003 - In the southern Philippines, a bomb hidden in a backpack explodes and kills 21 people at an airport in Davao City.

● 2003 - In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, at least 9 people are killed and 52 are injured when a bus falls into a deep gorge.

● 2004 - The guilty verdict for Moroccan al-Qaeda suspect Mounir el Motassadeq's involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks is overturned by the German appeals court, which orders a retrial.

● 2004 - The files of Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun are released to the public five years after his death.

● 2005 - The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena is fired on by US soldiers in Iraq, causing the death of an Italian Secret Service Agent and injuring two passengers including Sgrena herself.

● 2005 - United Nations warns that about 90 million Africans could be infected by the HIV virus in the future without further action against the spread of the disease.

● 2005 - Martha Stewart, imprisoned for five months for her role in a stock scandal, left federal prison to start five months of home confinement.

● 2006 - A new species of shark, Mustelus hacat, is discovered in Mexico's Sea of Cortez, bringing the number of Mustelus species found in the eastern North Pacific to 5.

● 2006 - The central Papeete power station is damaged by a fire, resulting in limited power for some areas of Tahiti for a couple of weeks.

● 2006 - Final contact attempt with Pioneer 10 by the Deep Space Network. No response is received.

● 2006 - Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway is christened by Bishop Ole Christian Kvarme at the chapel inside the Royal Palace, Oslo.

● 2007 - The first of two total lunar eclipse in 2007, observed during the early hours (penumbral eclipse ending 02:23:44 UT), will be unique in that it will be partly visible from every continent around the world.

BIRTHS

● 1188 - Blanche of Castile, wife of Louis VIII of France (d. 1252)

● 1394 - Henry the Navigator, Portuguese sponsor of voyages of exploration (d. 1460)

● 1492 - Francesco de Layolle, Italian composer (d. c.1540)

● 1525 - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer of Renaissance music (d. 1594)

● 1651 - John Somers, 1st Baron Somers (d. 1716)

● 1665 - Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Swedish soldier (d. 1694)

● 1678 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (d. 1741)

● 1719 - George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (d. 1777)

● 1745 - Charles Dibdin, English composer (d.1814)

● 1746 - Kazimierz Pułaski, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1779)

● 1756 - Sir Henry Raeburn, Scottish painter (d. 1823)

● 1781 - Rebecca Gratz, American educator and philanthropist (d. 1869)

● 1782 - Johann Rudolf Wyss, Swiss folklorist (d. 1830)

● 1792 - Samuel Slocum, American inventor (d. 1861)

● 1793 - Karl Lachmann, German philologist (d. 1851)

● 1817 - Edwards Pierrepont, American statesman, jurist and lawyer; 34th United States Attorney General (d. 1892)

● 1819 - Charles Oberthur, German-born harpist (d. 1895)

● 1822 - Jules Antoine Lissajous, French mathematician (d. 1880)

● 1826 - John Buford, American Civil War Union cavalry officer (d. 1863)

● 1826 - Theodore Judah, American railroad engineer (d. 1863)

● 1835 - John Hughlings Jackson, English neurologist (d. 1911)

● 1847 - Karl Bayer, Austrian chemist (d. 1904)

● 1854 - Sir Napier Shaw, British meteorologist (d. 1945)

● 1856 - Toru Dutt, English and French poet and author (d. 1877)

● 1856 - Alfred William Rich, English painter (d. 1921)

● 1859 - Alexander Stepanovich Popov, Russian physicist (d. 1905)

● 1862 - Jacob Robert Emden, Swiss astrophysicist and meteorologist (d. 1940)

● 1863 - John Henry Wigmore, American jurist and expert in the law of evidence (d. 1943)

● 1864 - David Watson Taylor, U.S. Navy architect (d. 1940)

● 1870 - Thomas Sturge Moore, English poet (d. 1944)

● 1871 - Boris Galerkin, Russian mathematician (d. 1945)

● 1873 - Guy Wetmore Carryl, American humorist and poet (d. 1904)

● 1873 - John H. Trumbull, 54th Governor of the U.S. state of Connecticut (d. 1961)

● 1875 - Mihály Károlyi, former Prime Minister of Hungary and President of Hungary (d. 1955)

● 1875 - Enrique Larreta, Argentine novelist (d. 1961)

● 1876 - Léon-Paul Fargue, French poet (d. 1947)

● 1876 - Theodore Hardeen, Magician and stunt performer, founder of the Magician's Guild (d. 1945)

● 1877 - Alexander Fyodorovich Gedike, Russian composer (d. 1957)

● 1877 - Fritz Graebner, German ethnologist (d. 1934)

● 1877 - Garrett Morgan, American inventor (d. 1963)

● 1878 - Egbert Van Alstyne, American songwriter and pianist (d. 1951)

● 1878 - Peter D. Ouspensky, Russian philosopher (d. 1947)

● 1878 - Arishima Takeo, Japanese novelist, short-story writer and essayist (d. 1923)

● 1879 - Josip Murn Aleksandrov, Slovenian poet (d. 1901)

● 1880 - Channing Pollock (writer), American playwright and critic (d. 1946)

● 1881 - Todor Aleksandrov, 19th century Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1924)

● 1881 - Maude Fealy, American actor (d. 1971)

● 1881 - Thomas Sigismund Stribling, American writer (d. 1965)

● 1881 - Richard C. Tolman, American mathematical physicist (d. 1948)

● 1883 - Sam Langford, Canadian boxer (d. 1956)

● 1886 - Paul Bazelaire, French cellist (d. 1958)

● 1887 - Violet MacMillan, American Broadway theatre actress (d. 1953)

● 1888 - Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (d. 1931)

● 1889 - Oscar Chisini, Italian mathematician (d. 1967)

● 1889 - Oren E. Long, 10th Territorial Governor of Hawai'i (d. 1965)

● 1889 - Pearl Fay White, American actress (d. 1938)

● 1891 - Lois Wilson (activist), founder of Al-Anon (d. 1988)

● 1895 - Bjarne Brustad, Norwegian violinist (d. 1978)

● 1895 - Milt Gross, American comic book illustrator (d. 1953)

● 1897 - Lefty O'Doul, American baseball player (d. 1969)

● 1898 - Georges Dumézil, French philologist (d. 1940)

● 1899 - Emilio Prados, Spanish poet and editor (d. 1962)

● 1900 - Herbert Biberman, American screenwriter (d. 1971)

● 1901 - Charles Goren, American bridge player and writer (d. 1991)

● 1901 - Jean Joseph Rabearivelo, Malagasy/French poet (d. 1937)

● 1903 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)

● 1903 - William C. Boyd, American immunochemist (d. 1983)

● 1903 - Dorothy Mackaill, British-born actress (d. 1990)

● 1903 - John Scarne, American magician (d. 1985)

● 1904 - George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (d. 1968)

● 1904 - Joseph Schmidt Austrian-Hungarian tenor and actor (d. 1942)

● 1904 - Chief Tahachee (actor), American-born Old Settler Cherokee Indian stage and film actor (d. 1978)

● 1906 - Meindert DeJong American author (d. 1991)

● 1906 - Georges Ronsse, Belgian national cyclo-cross and world champion road bicycle racer (d. 1969)

● 1906 - Charles Rudolph Walgreen, Jr., American businessman (d. 2007)

● 1908 - T.R.M. Howard, American civil rights leader (d. 1976)

● 1909 - Harry Helmsley, American real estate entrepreneur (d.1997)

● 1912 - Afro Basaldella, Italian painter (d. 1976)

● 1912 - Judith Furse, British character actress (d. 1974)

● 1912 - Carl Marzani, American documentarian (d. 1994)

● 1913 - Taos Amrouche, Algerian writer and singer (d. 1976)

● 1913 - John Garfield, American actor (d. 1952)

● 1914 - Gino Colaussi (Luigi Colaussi), Italian footballer (d. 1991)

● 1914 - Ward Kimball, American cartoonist (d. 2002)

● 1914 - Robert R. Wilson, American physicist, sculptor and architect (d. 2000)

● 1915 - Carlos Surinach, Spanish composer (d. 1997)

● 1916 - William Alland, American actor, producer, writer and director (d. 1997)

● 1916 - Giorgio Bassani, Italian writer (d. 2000)

● 1916 - Hans Eysenck, German-born psychologist (d. 1997)

● 1917 - Clyde McCullough, American baseball player (d. 1982)

● 1918 - Margaret Osborne duPont, American tennis player

● 1919 - Buck Baker, American racecar driver (d. 2002)

● 1920 - Jean Lecanuet, French politician (d. 1993)

● 1920 - Alan MacNaughtan, Scottish actor (d. 2002)

● 1921 - Halim El-Dabh, Egyptian-born composer

● 1921 - Joan Greenwood, English actress (d. 1987)

● 1921 - Wilson Harris, Guyanese writer

● 1922 - Richard E. Cunha, American cinematographer and film director (d. 2005)

● 1922 - Martha O'Driscoll, American film actress (d. 1998)

● 1922 - Dina Pathak (Deena Pathak), Veteran Gujarati theatre and film actress (d. 2002)

● 1923 - Sir Patrick Moore, British astronomer

● 1924 - Kenneth O'Donnell, Aide to US President John F. Kennedy (d. 1977)

● 1925 - Paul Mauriat, French musician (d. 2006)

● 1926 - Richard DeVos, American billionaire, co-founder of Amway

● 1926 - James J. Eagan, Former Mayor of Florissant, Missouri. Second longest serving Mayor in the United States (d. 2000)

● 1926 - Fran Warren, American singer

● 1927 - Philip Batt, 29th Governor of the U.S. state of Idaho

● 1927 - Thayer David, American actor (d. 1978)

● 1927 - Robert Orben, American magician

● 1927 - Dick Savitt, American tennis player

● 1928 - Samuel Adler, American composer

● 1928 - Alan Sillitoe, English writer

● 1929 - Bernard Haitink, Dutch conductor

● 1929 - Josep Mestres Quadreny, Catalan composer

● 1931 - Wally Bruner, American journalist and television host (d. 1997)

● 1931 - William Henry Keeler, American Roman Catholic Archbishop and Cardinal

● 1931 - Alice Rivlin, American economist

● 1932 - Ryszard Kapuściński, Polish journalist (d. 2007)

● 1932 - Miriam Makeba, South African singer

● 1932 - Ed Roth, American car designer (d. 2001)

● 1932 - Frank Wells, American entertainment businessman (d. 1994)

● 1933 - John W Mills, British sculptor

● 1934 - Mario Davidovsky, Argentinian composer

● 1934 - John Duffey, bluegrass musician (d. 1996)

● 1934 - Anne Haney, American actress (d. 2001)

● 1934 - Barbara McNair, American singer and actress (d. 2007)

● 1934 - Janez Strnad, Slovenian physicist

● 1935 - Bent Larsen, Danish chess player

● 1936 - Jim Clark, Scottish Formula One racing driver (d. 1968)

● 1936 - Aribert Reimann, German composer

● 1937 - Graham Dowling, New Zealand cricketer

● 1937 - Leslie Gelb, American foreign policy advisor

● 1937 - Yuri Senkevich, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2003)

● 1937 - Barney Wilen, French jazz saxophonist (d. 1996)

● 1938 - Angus MacLise, American percussionist (d. 1979)

● 1938 - Don Perkins, American football player

● 1939 - Jack Fisher, American baseball player

● 1939 - Paula Prentiss, American actress

● 1939 - Carlos Vereza, Brazilian actor

● 1940 - Volodymyr Morozov, retired Ukranian flatwater canoer

● 1941 - John Aprea, American actor

● 1941 - Adrian Lyne, English film director

● 1942 - Gloria Gaither, American gospel songwriter

● 1942 - Charles C. Krulak, 31st Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps

● 1943 - Lucio Dalla, Italian singer and songwriter

● 1943 - Zoltan Jeney, Hungarian composer

● 1944 - Harvey Postlethwaite, British engineer and race car designer (d. 1999)

● 1944 - Bobby Womack, American singer

● 1945 - Dieter Meier, Swiss singer

● 1945 - Tommy Svensson, Swedish football manager

● 1945 - Gary Williams, American basketball coach

● 1946 - Michael Ashcroft, English entrepreneur

● 1946 - Haile Gerima, Ethiopian filmmaker

● 1946 - Harvey Goldsmith, British impresario

● 1947 - David Franzoni, American screenwriter

● 1947 - Jan Garbarek, Norwegian musician

● 1947 - Gunnar Hansen, Icelandic actor

● 1947 - Gwen Welles, American actress (d. 1993)

● 1948 - Lindy Chamberlain, Australian author

● 1948 - James Ellroy, American writer

● 1948 - Tom Grieve, American baseball player

● 1948 - Leron Lee, American baseball player

● 1948 - Jean O'Leary, American gay and lesbian rights activist and politician (d. 2005)

● 1948 - Chris Squire, British bassist (Yes)

● 1948 - Shakin' Stevens, British musician

● 1949 - Carroll Baker (singer), Canadian country music singer and songwriter

● 1950 - Ofelia Medina, Mexican actress and screenwriter

● 1950 - Rick Perry, Governor of Texas

● 1951 - Edelgard Bulmahn, German politician

● 1951 - Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, American novelist (d. 1982)

● 1951 - Kenny Dalglish, Scottish footballer and manager

● 1951 - Mike Quarry, American light heavyweight boxer (d. 2006)

● 1951 - Chris Rea, British singer

● 1951 - Linda Yamamoto, Japanese pop star

● 1952 - Scott Hicks, Ugandan-born movie director

● 1952 - Ronn Moss, American actor (''The Bold and the Beautiful'')

● 1952 - Umberto Tozzi, Italian singer

● 1953 - Emilio Estefan, Cuban percussianist (Miami Sound Machine)

● 1953 - Kay Lenz, American actress

● 1953 - Chris Smith (US politician), American Republican Party politician

● 1953 - Scott Hicks, Director

● 1954 - Mark Chorvinsky, American author and editor (d. 2005)

● 1954 - Peter Jacobsen, American professional golfer

● 1954 - Catherine O'Hara, Canadian actress

● 1954 - Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian writer

● 1954 - Willie Thorne, British snooker player

● 1954 - Adrian Zmed, American actor and dancer

● 1955 - Dominique Pinon, French actor

● 1957 - Jim Dwyer, American journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner

● 1957 - Rick Mast, American NASCAR driver

● 1958 - Patricia Heaton, American actress (''Everybody Loves Raymond'')

● 1958 - Lennie Lee, British artist

● 1959 - Rick Ardon, Australian news presenter

● 1960 - Mikko Kuustonen, Finnish singer and songwriter

● 1960 - John Mugabi, Ugandan boxer

● 1960 - Mykelti Williamson, American actor

● 1961 - Ray Mancini, American boxer

● 1961 - Steven Weber, American actor ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "Wings")

● 1961 - Roger Wessels, South African golfer

● 1962 - Simon Bisley, British comic book artist

● 1962 - Lolo Ferrari, French actress (d. 2000)

● 1962 - Greg Kragen, American footballer

● 1962 - David Sparrow, British actor

● 1963 - Janey Lee Grace, British singer, author, television presenter and radio disc jockey

● 1963 - Jason Newsted, American bassist (Metallica)

● 1963 - Daniel Roebuck, American actor

● 1964 - Tom Lampkin, American baseball player

● 1965 - Paul W.S. Anderson, British filmmaker

● 1965 - Andrew Collins (broadcaster), British journalist, scriptwriter and broadcaster

● 1965 - Stacy Edwards, American actress (''Chicago Hope'')

● 1965 - Gary Helms, American country singer

● 1965 - Khaled Hosseini, Afghan author and physician

● 1965 - WestBam (Maximillian Lenz), German rave techno DJ

● 1966 - Daniela Amavia, American actress and international model

● 1966 - Steve Bastoni, Italian Australian actor

● 1966 - Patrick Hannan, Rock musician (The Sundays)

● 1966 - Sophia Ferrari, Italian actress

● 1966 - Emese Hunyady, former Hungarian speed skater

● 1966 - Kevin Johnson, American basketball player

● 1966 - Dav Pilkey, American author

● 1966 - Grand Puba, American rapper

● 1966 - Wash Westmoreland, British film director

● 1967 - Evan Dando, American musician (Lemonheads)

● 1967 - Daryll Cullinan, South African cricketer

● 1968 - Patsy Kensit, British actress

● 1968 - Giovanni Carrara, Venezuelan baseball player

● 1969 - Chastity Bono, American actress and gay rights activist, daughter of Sonny and Cher

● 1969 - Pierluigi Casiraghi, Italian football manager

● 1969 - Annie Shizuka Inoh, Taiwanese actress

● 1969 - Patrick Roach, Canadian actor

● 1969 - Jason Townsend, American artist and record producer

● 1970 - Andrea Bendewald, American actress

● 1970 - Álex Crivillé, former Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer

● 1971 - Iain Baird, Canadian soccer player

● 1971 - Fergal Lawler, Irish drummer (The Cranberries)

● 1971 - Shavar Ross, American actor-turned film director, writer, film producer and editor

● 1971(70? NYT) - Nick Stabile, American actor

● 1971 - Jovan Stanković, Serbian footballer

● 1971 - Jason Sellers, Country singer

● 1972 - Pae Gil-Su, North Korean gymnast

● 1972 - Ivy Queen, American composer and singer

● 1972 - Robert Smith (football), American footballer

● 1972 - Jos Verstappen, Dutch race car driver

● 1972 - Alison Wheeler (singer), British singer (The Beautiful South)

● 1973 - Summer Cummings, American actress

● 1973 - Phillip Daniels, American footballer

● 1973 - Len Wiseman, American director

● 1974 - Edward Hancock II, American author

● 1974 - Karol Kučera, Slovak tennis player

● 1974 - Ariel Ortega, Argentine footballer

● 1974 - Tommy Phelps, American baseball player

● 1975 - Kim Jung-Eun, South Korean actress

● 1975 - Myrna Veenstra, Dutch field hockey player

● 1975 - Hawksley Workman, Canadian rock singer-songwriter

● 1976 - Hiram Bocachica, Puerto Rican baseball player

● 1976 - Sean Covel, American film producer

● 1976 - Thierry Renaer, Belgian field hockey player

● 1976 - Vic Wunderle, American archer

● 1977 - Ana Guevara, Mexican athlete

● 1977 - Daniel Klewer, German footballer

● 1977 - Jason Marsalis, American musician

● 1977 - Sabrina Sabrok, Argentine-Mexican model, television actress and singer

● 1978 - Denis Dallan, Italian rugby union footballer

● 1978 - Rachel Roberts (model), Canadian model and actress

● 1979 - Ben Fouhy, New Zealand flatwater canoeist

● 1979 - Geoff Huegill, Australian swimmer

● 1980 - Omar Bravo, Mexican footballer

● 1980 - Jung Da Bin, South Korean actress (d. 2007)

● 1980 - Jack Hannahan, American baseball player

● 1981 - Carol Banawa, Filipina singer and celebrity

● 1981 - Donny Tourette, lead singer of British punk rock band Towers of London

● 1982 - Landon Donovan, American soccer player

● 1982 - Charity Rahmer, American actress

● 1983 - Matthew Krok, former Australian child actor

● 1984 - Ai Iwamura, Japanese actress

● 1984 - Zak Whitbread, American-born English soccer player

● 1986 - Margo Harshman, American actress

● 1986 - Bohdan Shust, Ukrainian footballer

● 1990 - Andrea Bowen, American actress (''Desperate Housewives'')

● 1991 - Diandra Newlin, American actress, singer, and fashion model

● 1992 - Jazmin Grace Rotolo, daughter of Albert II, Prince of Monaco

● 1993 - Jenna Boyd, American actress

● 1993 - Alice Jones, British actress

● 1993 - Abigail Mavity, American actress

● 1998 - Prince Paul Louis of Nassau, son of Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg

DEATHS

● 251 - Pope Lucius I

● 480 - Saint Landry, Bishop of Seez

● 561 - Pope Pelagius I

● 1172 - Stephen III of Hungary (b. 1147)

● 1193 - Saladin, Turkish sultan (b. 1137)

● 1238 - Joan of England, Queen Consort of Scotland, wife of Alexander II (b. 1210)

● 1238 - Yuri II, Grand Prince of Vladimir (b. 1189)

● 1303 - Daniel of Moscow, Russian Saint, Grand Prince of Muscovy (b. 1261)

● 1484 - Saint Casimir, Prince of Poland (b. 1458)

● 1496 - Sigismund of Austria (b. 1427)

● 1583 - Bernard Gilpin, English clergyman, "Apostle of the North" (b. 1517)

● 1604 - Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (b. 1539)

● 1615 - Hans von Aachen, German painter (b. 1552)

● 1619 - Anne of Denmark, wife of James I (b. 1574)

● 1710 - Louis III, Prince of Condé (b. 1668)

● 1733 - Claude de Forbin, French naval commander (b. 1656)

● 1762 - Johannes Zick, German fresco painter (b. 1702)

● 1793 - Louis de Bourbon, French admiral (b. 1725)

● 1795 - John Collins, American politician (b. 1717)

● 1805 - Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter (b. 1725)

● 1807 - Abraham Baldwin, American politician (b. 1754)

● 1832 - Jean-François Champollion, French scholar (b. 1790)

● 1851 - James Richardson, British explorer (b. 1809)

● 1852 - Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (b. 1809)

● 1853 - Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist (b. 1774)

● 1858 - Matthew Perry, U.S. naval officer (b. 1794)

● 1864 - Thomas Starr King, influential Californian Unitarian minister during the American Civil War (b. 1824)

● 1866 - Alexander Campbell, Irish founder of the Disciples of Christ (b. 1788)

● 1868 - Jesse Chisholm, American pioneer of the Chisholm Trail (b. 1805)

● 1872 - Johannes Carsten Hauch, Danish poet (b. 1790)

● 1883 - Alexander Hamilton Stephens, former Vice President of the Confederate States of America (b. 1812)

● 1888 - Amos Bronson Alcott, American philosopher (b. 1799)

● 1903 - Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (b. 1834)

● 1906 - John McAllister Schofield, former U.S. Secretary of War and Commanding General of the U.S. Army (b. 1831)

● 1910 - Knut Ångström, Swedish physicist (b. 1857)

● 1915 - William Willett, Inventor of Daylight Saving Time (b. 1856)

● 1916 - Franz Marc, German artist (b. 1880)

● 1922 - Bert Williams, American entertainer (b. 1874)

● 1925 - Moritz Moszkowski, Polish/German composer (b. 1854)

● 1925 - James Ward, English psychologist and philosopher (b. 1843)

● 1925 - Monte Ward, American baseball player (b. 1860)

● 1927 - Ira Remsen American chemist (b. 1846)

● 1938 - George Foster Peabody, American politician (b. 1852)

● 1938 - Jack Taylor, American baseball player (b. 1874)

● 1940 - Hamlin Garland, American novelist (b. 1860)

● 1941 - Ludwig Quidde, German pacifist, Nobel laureate (b. 1858)

● 1944 - Louis Buchalter, Jewish American mobster (b.1897) (executed)

● 1944 - Louis Capone, New York organized crime figure (b. 1896) (executed)

● 1944 - Emanuel Weiss, American hitman (b. 1906) (executed)

● 1944 - Fannie Barrier Williams, American educator and political activist (b. 1855)

● 1945 - Lucille La Verne, American actress (d. 1972)

● 1945 - Mark Sandrich, American film director, writer and producer (b. 1900)

● 1946 - Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Danish big-game hunter (b. 1886)

● 1948 - Antonin Artaud, French actor/director (b. 1896)

● 1950 - Adam Rainer, the only man in recorded human history ever to have been both a dwarf and a giant (b. 1899)

● 1952 - Charles Scott Sherrington, English scientist, Nobel laureate (b. 1857)

● 1954 - Noel Gay, English composer, (b. 1898)

● 1959 - Maxey Long, American athlete (b. 1878)

● 1960 - Herbert O'Conor, 51st Governor of the US State of Maryland (b. 1896)

● 1960 - Leonard Warren, American baritone (b. 1911)

● 1963 - William Carlos Williams, American poet (b. 1883)

● 1967 - Vladan Desnica, Croatian and Serbian writer (b. 1905)

● 1967 - Michel Plancherel, Swiss mathematician (b. 1885)

● 1967 - José Martínez Ruiz, Spanish poet and writer (b. 1873)

● 1969 - Nicholas Schenck, Russian-born film empresario (b. 1881)

● 1973 - Samuel Tolansky, British scientist and expert on spectroscopy (b. 1907)

● 1974 - Adolph Gottlieb, American painter (b. 1903)

● 1976 - Walter H. Schottky, German physicist (b. 1886)

● 1977 - Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (b. 1951)

● 1977 - Toma Caragiu, Romanian actor (b. 1925)

● 1977 - Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, German politician and former Chancellor of Germany (b. 1887)

● 1978 - Wesley Bolin, former Governor of the U.S. State of Arizona (b. 1909)

● 1979 - Willi Unsoeld, American mountain climber (b. 1926)

● 1981 - Yip Harburg, American lyricist (b. 1896)

● 1981 - Torin Thatcher, Indian actor (b. 1905)

● 1984 - Ernest Buckler, Canadian novelist (b. 1908)

● 1984 - Jewel Carmen, American actress (b. 1897)

● 1984 - Geoffrey Lumsden, British actor (b. 1914)

● 1986 - Howard Greenfield, American songwriter (b. 1936)

● 1986 - Richard Manuel, Canadian musician (b. 1943)

● 1990 - Hank Gathers, American basketball player (b. 1967)

● 1992 - Art Babbitt, American animator (b. 1907)

● 1994 - John Candy, Canadian comedian (b. 1950)

● 1995 - Eden Ahbez, American composer (b. 1908)

● 1996 - Minnie Pearl, American comedian (b. 1912)

● 1997 - Robert H. Dicke, American physicist (b. 1916)

● 1997 - Carey Loftin, American actor/stuntman (b. 1914)

● 1999 - Harry Blackmun, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (b. 1908)

● 1999 - Del Close, American actor (b. 1934)

● 1999 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (b. 1921)

● 2001 - Glenn Hughes, American musician

● 2001 - Fred Lasswell, American cartoonist (b. 1916)

● 2001 - James Rhodes, two-time Governor of Ohio (b. 1909)

● 2001 - Harold Stassen, American politician (b. 1907)

● 2002 - Claire Davenport, English actress (b. 1933)

● 2002 - Eric Flynn, British actor/singer (b. 1939)

● 2002 - Elyne Mitchell, Australian author (b. 1913)

● 2002 - Velibor Vasović, Yugoslavian footballer (b. 1939)

● 2003 - Jaba Ioseliani, Georgian bank robber (b. 1926)

● 2003 - Sébastien Japrisot, French author, screenwriter and film director (b. 1931)

● 2004 - John McGeoch, Scottish musician (b. 1955)

● 2004 - Claude Nougaro, French singer (b. 1929)

● 2004 - George Pake, American physicist (b. 1924)

● 2004 - Stephen Sprouse, American fashion designer (b. 1953)

● 2005 - Nicola Calipari, Italian secret service agent (b. 1953)

● 2005 - Robert Consoli, American actor and musician (b. 1964)

● 2005 - Una Hale, Australian soprano (b. 1922)

● 2005 - Yuriy Kravchenko, Ukrainian statesman (b. 1951)

● 2005 - Carlos Sherman, Uruguayan-born writer (b. 1934)

● 2006 - Roman Ogaza, Polish footballer (b. 1952)

● 2006 - John Reynolds Gardiner, American engineer (b. 1944)

● 2006 - Dave Rose, American artist (b. 1910)

● 2006 - Edgar Valter, Estonian illustrator/cartoonist (b. 1929)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Adrian of Nicomedia, bishop of St. Andrew's, and his Companions.
● St. Appian
● St. Basil and his Companions
● St. Basinus
● St. Casimir, patron saint of Lithuania.
● St. Efrem
● St. Felix of Rhuys
● St. Lucius I, Pope, martyr.
● St. Owen
● St. Peter of Pappacarbone
● St. Pierre de Cluny
● St. Placide Viel
● Bl. Humbert III of Savoy

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 21 (Civil Date: March 4)
● St. Timothy of Symbola in Bithynia.
● St. Eustathius (Eustace), Archbishop of Antioch.
● St. George, Bishop of Amastris on the Black Sea.
● Services combined with St. Eustathius
● St. John the Scholastic, Patriarch of Constantinople.
● St. Zachariah, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
● "Kozelshchanskaya" Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.
● Repose of Blessed Simon Todorsky, Bishop of Pskov (1754), and Elder Macarius of Glinsk Hermitage (1864).

● Pennsylvania - Charter Day (1681).

● St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada - Charter Day (1881)

● Thailand : Magka Puja

● United States: Constitution Day (1789)

● United States - Inauguration Day (1789 - 1933)

● Admission Day to the United States
● Vermont - 14th state (1791)

● Wales - Feast day of Rhiannon, Celtic Moon Goddess.

IN FICTION

● 1881 - Holmes & Watson begin "A Study in Scarlet", 1st case together


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Permanent Backlink to Post