Today in History

904 Thessalonica is sacked by Saracen pirates led by renegade Leo of Tripoli

1221 Emperor Go-Horikawa aged only 10 years old ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan

1567 James VI is crowned King of Scots at Stirling

1588 The Battle of Gravelines - Spanish Armada damaged and scattered by the English fleet

1609 Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs at Ticonderoga, New York setting the stage for French-Iroquois conflicts for the next 150 years

1676 Nathaniel Bacon declared a rebel for assembling frontiersmen to protect settlers from Indians

1794 African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, dedicated

1848 Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt - an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule put down by police

1864 American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.

1905 US Secretary of War William Howard Taft makes secret agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Katsura agreeing to Japanese free rein in Korea in return for non-interference with the US in the Philippines

1907 Sir Robert Baden-Powell forms Boy Scouts in England

1914 1st transcontinental phone link made between New York City and San Francisco

1921 Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party

1923 Albert Einstein speaks on pacifism in Berlin

1927 1st iron lung installed (Bellevue hospital, NY)

1932 Great Depression: in Washington, D.C., U.S. troops disperse the last of the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans

1948 King George VI opens 14th modern Olympic Games in London

1949 Moscow ends the blockade of West Berlin

1954 Publication of “Fellowship of the Ring” 1st volume of “Lord of the Rings” by J. R. R. Tolkien published by George Allen and Unwin in London

1955 USSR performs nuclear Test

1956 Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso anchors in 7,500 m of water (record)

1958 US President Eisenhower signs into law National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958

1959 First United States Congress elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union.

1968 Pope Paul VI, in an encyclical entitled “Humanae Vitae” (Of Human Life), declares any artificial forms of birth control prohibited

1969 Mariner 6 begins transmitting far-encounter photos of Mars

1974 2nd impeachment vote against Nixon by House Judiciary Committee

1974 Episcopal Church ordained female priests

1975 Ford became 1st US President to visit Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz

1976 In New York City, the “Son of Sam” kills one person and seriously wounds another in first of a series of attacks

1987 Ben & Jerry’s and Jerry Garcia agree on a new flavor Cherry Garcia

1988 FDIC bails out 1st Republic Bank, Dallas, with $4 billion

1988 Gorbachev pushes plan electing president and parliament in March, 1989

1988 Judge orders NASA to release unedited tape from Challenger cockpit

2015 Microsoft launches Windows 10

2015 Zion Harvey became the first paediatric patient to receive a double hand transplant at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

2016 Hillary Clinton accepts the Democratic nomination for US President at Democratic convention in Philadelphia - first woman by a major US party

Movies & TV

1928 Test footage first created for Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” with Mickey Mouse

1957 Jack Paar’s The Tonight show premieres

1965 Beatles movie “Help” premieres, Queen Elizabeth attends

Music

1973 Led Zeppelin have more than $200,000 in cash stolen from a safety-deposit box at the New York Hilton

2019 Record for longest run at the top of US singles chart made by country rap single “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X remixed with Billy Ray Cyrus, No. 1 for 17 weeks

Sports

1915 Pirate Honus Wagner at 41, hits a grand slam HR

1950 Pee Wee Reese, hits the 3,000th Dodger home run

1961 Phillies lose 1st of 23 straight games

1974 St Louis Card Lou Brock steals his 700th base

1978 On Old Timer’s Day, NY Yankees announce that Billy Martin will return as NY Yankee manager in 1980 and Bob Lemon will become GM

1991 Yankee Stadium fans throw cups and blowup dolls at Jose Canseco

2014 Chicago Cubs player John Baker scores the win against the Colorado Rockies at Wrigley Field in the longest game in Cubs history

Birthdays

1796 Walter Hunt, American inventor (safety pin, sewing machine), born in Martinsburg, New York (d. 1859)

1883 Benito Mussolini [Il Duce], Fascist Italian dictator (1922-43), born in Predappio, Forlì, Italy (d. 1945)

1888 Vladimir K. Zworykin, Russian-American inventor (development of television, cathode ray tube), born in Murom, Russian Empire (d. 1982)

1892 William Powell, American actor (Thin Man, My Man Godfrey), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1984)

1905 Clara Bow, American silent screen actress (It, Saturday Night Kid), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1965)

1932 Nancy Landon Kassebaum, (Sen-R-Kansas )

1936 Elizabeth Hanford Dole, US Secretary of Transportation (1983-87)

1937 Charles Schwab, American investor and entrepreneur (Charles Schwab Corporation), born in Sacramento, California

1938 Peter Jennings, Canadian-American news anchor (ABC Evening News), born in Toronto, Ontario (d. 2005)

1953 Geddy Lee, lead vocalist/bassist (Rush-Tom Sawyer), born in Toronto, Ontario

1953 Ken Burns [Kenneth Lauren], American director and documentary film producer (The Civil War, Baseball), born in Brooklyn, New York

1953 Tim Gunn, American television and fashion personality (Project Runway), born in Washington, D.C.

1966 Martina McBride, country singer

1972 Wil Wheaton, American actor (Star Trek Next Generation-Wesley, Stand By Me), born in Burbank, California

1980 Ryan Braun, Canadian baseball player (Los Angeles Angels), born in Kitchener, Ontario

1993 Rayne Dakota “Dak” Prescott, American NFL quarterback (Dallas Cowboys), born in Sulphur, Louisiana