Today is.................

[Alikado]

Endangered Species Day

International Virtual Assistants Day

World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

International Tea Day

1703 – Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel

1866 1st-class debut of G. F. Grace aged 15 years 159 days, Brother of W G

1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi.

1891 Boxers Peter Jackson & Jim Corbett fight to a draw in 61 rounds

1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams

1904 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) forms in Paris

1906 Louis H Perlman patents a demountable tyre carrying rim for cars

1914 Greyhound Bus Co begins in Minnesota

1916 Britain begins "Summer Time" (daylight saving time)

1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).

1917 – The Imperial War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record, and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of the British Empire's military forces.

1927 Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St Louis, lands in Le Bourget Field, Paris after the first solo air crossing of Atlantic

1929 Automatic electric stock quotation board installed, NYC

1929 Sergei Prokoviev's ballet "Prodigal Son" premieres in Paris

1932 After flying for 17 hours from Newfoundland, Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture near Londonderry, Northern Ireland, becoming the 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman

1936 Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals. a geisha and prostitute, who erotically asphyxiated her lover, Kichizo Ishidathen cut off his penis and testicles and carried them around with her

1940 AVRO-chairman Willem Vogt fires all Jewish employees

1940 Allied counter attack at Atrecht, northern France

1941 SS Robin Moor becomes the first US ship sunk by a U-boat during World War II

1941 German airforce occupies airport at Maleme, Crete

1942 Convoy PQ16 departs Great Britain for Russia

1945 Nazi SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler captured

1946 Physicist Louis Slotin is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation while preparing a plutonium core experiment at the Los Alamos lab, he dies 9 days later and the accident ends all hands-on nuclear assembly work at Los Alamos

1966 Muhammad Ali TKOs Henry Cooper in 6 for heavyweight boxing title

1966 A "loyalist" group calling itself the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) issued a statement declaring war on the Irish Republican Army (IRA)

1968 Nuclear-powered sub USS Scorpion, with 99 men, reported missing & is later found at the bottom of the ocean off Azores

1971 Chelsea win 11th European Cup Winner's Cup against Real Madrid 2-1 in Athens (replay)

1981 Reggae musician Bob Marley receives a Jamaican state funeral

1982 British troops land on Falkland Islands

1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.

1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.

2003 An earthquake hits northern Algeria killing more than 2,000 people.

2005 FA Cup Final, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (71,876): Arsenal beats Manchester United, 5-4 on penalties after 0 – 0 (a.e.t.); Gunners' 10th title

2007 Cutty Sark, the last surviving tea clipper, is badly damaged by fire in Greenwich

2008 UEFA Champions League Final, Moscow: Manchester United beats Chelsea, 6-5 on penalties after scores tied at 1-1 after extra time; first all-English final in the competition's history

2013 Microsoft announces the release of Xbox One

2016 On same card, American boxer Jermell Charlo KOs John Jackson in 8th to claim vacant WBC super welterweight title, and Jermall Charlo beats Austin Trout on points to retain IBF version; first twins to hold world championships in same weight division

2016 FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Manchester United beats Crystal Palace, 2-1 (a.e.t.); Jesse Lingard scores 110' winner

2017 Barnum & Bailey Circus performs for the last time at the Nassau Coliseum in NYC after 146 years

2018 Mushrooms have poisoned more than 800 in western Iran, killing 11

2018 Teenager who started California's 2017 Eagle Creek Fire ordered to pay $36.6 million to cover damages by district judge

2018 US Justice Department says it is expanding its internal investigation into whether FBI infiltrated Donald Trump's 2016 campaign

2018 Former US president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama sign deal with Netflix to produce films and series

2019 More than 600 people, 75% children, identified as HIV in a month in Sindh province, Pakistan, thought to be due to use of infected needles

2019 Nepalese Sherpa Kami Rita sets a new record for the number of climbs of Mt Everest - 24

2019 Washington is the first US state to legalize human composting

Born Today ;-

1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician

1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet, essayist, and translator, The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, as well as for his translation of Homer. After Shakespeare, Pope is the second-most quoted writer in the English language

1780 – Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, philanthropist and Quaker, has often been referred to as the "angel of prisons". She was depicted on the Bank of England £5 note from 2001–2016

1904 Fats Waller [Thomas Wright], American jazz singer and composer (Ain't Misbehavin', Hot Chocolate), born in NYC, New York

1907 Dandy Nichols [Daisy Sander], British actress (Till Death Us Do Part, Confessions of a Window Cleaner), born in London

1916 Harold Robbins, American author (Moneychangers, Carpetbaggers, Betsy), born in NYC, New York

1917 Raymond Burr, Canadian-American actor (Perry Mason, Ironsides, Godzilla), born in New Westminster, British Columbia

1921 – Sandy Douglas, English computer scientist and academic, designed OXO

1948 – Leo Sayer, English-Australian singer-songwriter and musician

1949 – Andrew Neil, Scottish journalist and academic, (Sunday Times), born in Paisley

1952 Mr. T, [Lawrence Tureaud], American actor (A-Team, Rocky III, T & T), born in Chicago

1957 – Nadine Dorries, English nurse and politician

1963 – David Lonsdale, actor, Born Southport, still resident.

1973 – Noel Fielding, English comedian, musician and television presenter (The Mighty Boosh, The Great British Baking Show)

1978 – Briana Banks, German-American porn actress and model

1985 – Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist

1994 – Tom Daley, diver

Died Today ;-

1237 – Olaf the Black, Manx son of Godred II Olafsson

1471 King Henry VI of England (1422-1471) is executed in the Tower of London at 49

1965 – Geoffrey de Havilland, English pilot and engineer, designed the de Havilland Mosquito and others, dies at 82

1991 Rajiv Gandhi, Indian Prime Minster (1984-89), assassinated at 46 by a suicide bomber from the LTTE

2000 Barbara Cartland, English romance author dies at 98

2000 Sir John Gielgud, British stage and screen actor and director (Hamlet, Arthur, Ages of Man), dies at 96

2015 – Twinkle, (Lynn Annette Ripley) 1960's singer-songwriter "Terry" and "Golden Lights".

[Alikado]

World Goth Day

International Day for Biological Diversity

Sherlock Holmes Day

World Fiddle Day

Canadian Immigrants Day

1370 – Brussels massacre: Hundreds Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, for allegedly descrating consecrated Host

1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.

1762 – Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome

1799 Napoleon makes statement in support of re-establishing Jerusalem for Jews

1807 Former US Vice President Aaron Burr is tried for treason in Richmond, Virginia (acquitted)

1807 Townsend Speakman 1st sells fruit-flavored carbonated drinks in Philadelphia

1819 – SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean

1826 HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage to survey Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

1836 Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio "St Paul" premieres in Dusseldorf

1840 The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished

1843 1st wagon train with 700 - 1000 migrants, departs Independence, Missouri for Oregon

1849 Abraham Lincoln receives a patent (only US President to do so) for a device to lift a boat over shoals and obstructions

1897 The Blackwall Tunnel, London, under the River Thames is officially opened

1906 Wright Brothers are granted a patent for their "flying machine," having applied for one 3 years earlier (patent no. 821,393)

1906 A British garrison leaves Esquimalt, on the Pacific coast, after a military occupation that began in 1858: the last British soldiers stationed in Canada

1907 Albert Trott takes two hat-tricks in an innings, Middlesex v Somerset

1915 Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster,Local train collides with troop train killing 226 near Gretna, Scotland

1927 – Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes.

1931 Canned rattlesnake meat 1st goes on sale in Florida

1933 First modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster by Aldie and John Mackay saw "something resembling a whale"

1941 British troops attack Baghdad

1942 Mexico declares war on Nazi-Germany & Japan

1950 Richard Strauss' "4 Last Songs" (4 letzte Lieder) in London

1972 Over 400 women in Derry attack the offices of Official Sinn Féin in Derry, North Ireland, following the shooting of William Best by the Official Irish Republican Army

1973 President Nixon confesses his role in Watergate cover-up

1977 Final European scheduled run of the Orient Express (after 94 years)

1990 Dow Jones avg hits a record 2,852.23

1990 Microsoft releases Windows 3.0

2004 FA Cup Final, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (71,350): Manchester United beats Millwall, 3-0; Ruud van Nistelrooy scores 2 and Cristiano Ronaldo 1 in Red Devils' 11th title win

2013 British Army Fusilier Lee Rigby is murdered near the Royal Artillery Barracks in London by two Islamic terrorists, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.

2015 Ireland becomes 1st country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote

2017 Suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, after Ariana Grande concert kills 22 and injures 59

2018 Outbreak of Nipah virus confirmed to have killed 10 including a nurse in Kozhikode, India

2018 Australian court finds Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson guilty of covering up sexual abuse in 1970s, most senior Catholic priest to be convicted

2019 UN General Assembly votes for a motion condemning UK occupation of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean and for them to reunite with nearby Mauritius

Born Today ;-

1770 Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, 7th child and 3rd daughter of King George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, born in Buckingham House, London

1813 Richard Wagner, German composer (The Ring of the Nibelung, Flying Dutchman), born in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany

1852 – Émile Sauret, French violinist and composer

1859 – Arthur Conan Doyle, writer - Sherlock Holmes

1907 – Hergé, Belgian author and illustrator - The Adventures of TinTin

1907 – Laurence Olivier, actor, director, and producer

1924 Charles Aznavour [Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian], French-Armenian singer (Monsieur Carnavel, Tin Drum), born in Paris

1930 – Kenny Ball, jazz trumpet player, vocalist, and bandleader born in Ilford

1933 Don Estelle [Ronald Edwards], British actor and singer (It Ain't Half Hot Mum), born in Crumpsall

1941 – Menzies Campbell, Scottish sprinter and politician, At one time he was known as "the fastest white man on the planet

1946 – George Best, Northern Irish footballer

1946 – Howard Kendall, Everton & England footballer and manager

1959 [Steven] Morrissey, British rock vocalist (The Smiths), born in Davyhulme

1970 – Naomi Campbell, model

1978 – Katie Price, English television personality & glamour model

1987 Novak Ðokovic [Djokovic], Serbian tennis player (15 Grand Slam singles titles), born in Belgrade, Serbia

Died Today ;-

1409 – Blanche of England, sister of King Henry V

1455 – Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, English commander
1455 – Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, Lancastrian commander
1455 – Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, English commander at the First Battle of St Albans

1878 Franz von Holstein, composer, dies at 52

1885 Victor Hugo, French author (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables), dies at 83

1972 Margaret Rutherford, English actress (Murder Ahoy, VIP's), dies at 80

1972 Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet (British Poet Laureate 1968-72) and detective writer (Nicholas Blake), dies of cancer at 68

1990 Max Wall, Comedian, actor (Jabberwocky)

1990 Rocky Graziano, American boxer (World Middleweight title 1947-48; famous Tony Zale trilogy) and entertainer (Pantomime Quiz, Miami Undercover), dies of heart failure at 71

1991 – Stan Mortensen, Blackpool, Southport & England footballer and manager, the only player ever to score a hat-trick in a Wembley FA Cup Final (The Mathews Final). He was also both the first player to score for England in a FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign and the first England player to score in the tournament proper.

1998 John Derek, American actor, director and photographer (Knock on Any Door, All the King's Men, Rogues of Sherwood Forest), dies at 71

2006 Lee Jong-wook, Korean Director-General of the World Health Organization, dies of stroke at 61

2013 Fusilier Lee Rigby, British Army soldier, murdered near the Royal Artillery Barracks in London

2019 Judith Kerr, British children's writer and illustrator (The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mog books), dies at 95

[Alikado]

World Turtle Day

World Crohn's and Colitis Day


1275 King Edward I of England orders cessation of persecution of French Jews

1420 Jews of Syria and Austria expelled

1421 Jews of Austria imprisoned & expelled

1430 Joan of Arc is captured at Compiegne and sold to the English

1618 Second Defenestration of Prague: Two Catholic Lords Regent and their secretary are thrown out of a window and amazingly are not seriously injured by the 70 foot (21m) fall. Triggers the Thirty Years' War.

1660 King Charles II returns from exile sails from Scheveningen to England

1701 Captain William Kidd is hanged in London after being convicted of piracy and the murder of William Moore

1785 Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals

1829 – Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian in Vienna, Austrian Empire

1873 Canada's North West Mounted Police Force forms (it didn't get the "Royal" until 1904)

1931 Whipsnade Zoo opens in Bedfordshire

1934 American outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow - Bonnie and Clyde - are killed by police in an ambush near Sailes, Louisiana

1939 Dmitri Shostakovich appointed professor at conservatory of Leningrad

1939 Submarine USS Squalus sinks in the Gulf of Maine, drowning 26, 33 remaining crew rescued from a depth of 243 ft (74 m) by divers using newly developed heliox air systems (divers later awarded the Medal of Honor)

1940 1st great dogfight between Spitfires and Luftwaffe

1943 826 Allied bombers attack Dortmund

1945 – Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, commits suicide while in Allied custody.

1945 The Allies arrest the members of the Nazi Flensburg government, including Admiral Karl Donitz, formally dissolving Nazi Germany

1945 German island of Helgoland in the North Sea surrenders to British

1945 Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) arrested at Danish border

1949 Federal Republic of [West] Germany created out of the American, British and French occupation zones

1960 Israel announces capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina

1969 BBC orders 13 episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus

1970 A fire breaks out in the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits in north Wales contributing to its partial destruction and causing approximately £1,000,000 worth of fire damage

1979 1st edition of "Wisden Cricket Monthly"

1981 Puerto Rican boxer Wilfred Benítez (22) becomes the youngest 3-division world champion in history by knocking out WBC World Super Welterweight champion Maurice Hope in 12 rounds in Las Vegas

1981 Peter Sutcliffe is convicted for the "Yorkshsire Ripper" murders of 13 women at the Old Bailey in London and sentenced to life sentences for each

1984 16 people have been killed and dozens more injured in an explosion at a water treatment plant in Abbeystead, near Lancaster.

1990 Dow Jones average hits a record 2,856.26

1995 – The first version of the Java programming language is released.

1998 The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.

2001 Marco Siffredi becomes the first person to snowboard down Mount Everest via the Norton Couloir (some share record accreditation with Stefan Gatt)

2003 The Euro exceeds its initial trading value as it hits $1.18 for the first time since its introduction in 1999

2007 UEFA Champions League Final, Athens: Filippo Inzaghi scores twice as AC Milan beats Liverpool, 2-1 for 7th title

2016 Chinese archaeologists announce findings of earliest use of barley in China to make beer, Shaanxi province 3400-2900 BC

2018 Hamburg, Germany, becomes the first city to ban diesel cars

2019 The last slave ship to smuggle slaves to America from Africa, the Clotilda (sunk 1860), is found in Mobile river, Alabama

2019 Prototype of new high-speed train that will float above the track, capable of travelling 600km an hour (370 mph), unveiled by Chinese Railway Rolling Stock Corporation in Qingdao

2019 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins re-election in a landslide over the opposition Congress Party, world's largest-ever democratic election with over 600 million voters

2019 More than 170 tornadoes reported in a week in US states of Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa, killing seven and causing widespread damage

2019 Fifty children rescued from an international paedophile ring on the dark web in Thailand, Australia and the US by Interpol under Operation Blackwrist, main organizer sentenced to 146 years

2019 Six migrant children have now died in US custody in eight months prompting calls for an investigation

2019 Brazilian cosmetics group Natura buys UK's Avon for $2 billion, creating the world's fourth-largest cosmetics company

Born Today ;-

1617 Elias Ashmole, English antiquarian and collector (Ashmolean Museum), born in Litchfield

1883 Douglas Fairbanks, American actor (The Mark of Zorro, 3 Musketeers, Robin Hood), born in Denver

1918 Dennis Compton, England cricket batsman & footballer (5,807 Test runs, Arsenal 1950 FA Cup), born in Hendon

1928 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress

1928 – Nigel Davenport, English actor

1933 – Joan Collins, English actress

1950 – Martin McGuinness, Irish republican and Sinn Féin politician, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland

1954 – Marvelous Marvin Hagler, American boxer and actor

1971 – George Osborne, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer

1997 – Joe Gomez, Liverpool & England footballer

Died Today ;-

1701 William Kidd, Scottish pirate legend, hanged at London's execution Dock

1937 – John D. Rockefeller, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Standard Oil Company and Rockefeller University

1941 Herbert Austin, English automobile designer and builder (founder of Austin Motor Company)

1952 Georg Alfred Schumann, German composer, dies at 85

1996 Patrick Cargill, British actor (Help!, No Wreath for the General, Hammerhead), dies of a brain tumor at 77

2017 Roger Moore, British actor (The Saint, James Bond), dies at 89

2018 Glynn Edwards, television actor, many film & TV roles inc Dave Harris the Barman in 95 episodes of Minder.

[Alikado]

Asparagus Day

International Tiara Day

1153 Malcolm IV becomes King of Scots

1487 – The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel is crowned in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.

1607 – 100 English settlers disembark in Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America.

1683 – The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum

1689 English Parliament guarantees freedom of religion for Protestants

1738 John Wesley is converted, launching the Methodist movement; celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day

1798 Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule begins

1809 Dartmoor Prison opens to house French prisoners of war

1830 "Mary Had A Little Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale is first published by Boston firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon

1844 Samuel Morse taps out "What hath God wrought" in the world's first telegraph message

1862 Westminster Bridge across The Thames opens in London, England

1881 Canadian ferry Princess Victoria sinks near London Ontario, 200 die

1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.

1901 Seventy-eight miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales

1902 Empire Day 1st celebrated in Britain

1915 Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations

1916 Conscription begins in Britain

1930 – Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).

1933 Dmitri Shostakovich's Preludes premieres in Moscow

1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1940 German tanks reach Atrecht, France

1941 German battleship Bismarck sinks the British battle cruiser HMS Hood; 1,416 die, 3 survive

1943 U-441 shoots Sunderland seaplane down over Bay of Biscay

1944 Enver Hoxha becomes head of Albania's anti fascists

1944 Icelandic voters severe all ties with Denmark

1948 Benjamin Britten's "Beggar's Opera" premieres in Cambridge

1954 IBM announces vacuum tube "electronic" brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour

1956 – The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland.

1959 Empire Day renamed Commonwealth Day in Great Britain

1964 Panic in Lima Peru soccer stadium, kills 300

1972 Glasgow Rangers win 12th European Cup Winner's Cup against Dynamo Moscow 3-2 of the Soviet Union 3-2 in Barcelona

1988 – Section 28 of the United Kingdom's Local Government Act 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, is enacted. Repealed 2001/2004

1989 French war criminal Paul Touvier arrested in monastery in Nice

1989 Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, is awarded £600,000 in damages after winning a libel action against satyrical magazine Private Eye (later reduced to £60,000 on appeal) .

1991 – Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

1994 – Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Miloševic and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

2001 Mountain climbing: 15-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

2009 Manchester United wins 1-0 at Hull City Stadium to win English Premier League title for 3rd consecutive season, for a second time; equals Liverpool's record of 18 league titles

2017 UEFA Europa League won by Manchester United 2-0 against Ajax in Stockholm
2018 Record US fentanyl seizure of 120lbs (54kg) confirmed by police in Nebraska in April, enough to kill 26 million people, one of largest drug busts in US history

2019 – Under pressure over her handling of Brexit, British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation as Leader of the Conservative Party, effective as of June 7.

2020 Millions of cicadas in a once in 17-year event about to emerge from the earth in the US south posing crop danger and noise issues, according to scientists from Virginia Tech

2020 The New York Times prints front page with nearly 1,000 names of people who have died from COVID-19, as the US toll nears 100,000

2020 British PM Boris Johnson refuses to sack his senior aide Dominic Cummings, after it is revealed he broke the country's lockdown rules to drive across the country


Born Today ;-

1686 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Dutch-German-Polish physicist, inventor, and scientific instrument maker, who invented the thermometer and the Fahrenheit scale, born in Danzig, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

1819 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

1836 Joseph Rowntree, British social reformer, born in York

1926 – Stanley Baxter, Scottish actor and screenwriter

1941 Bob Dylan [Robert Zimmerman], American singer-songwriter (Blowin' in Wind, The Times They Are a-Changin') and cultural icon, born in Duluth, Minnesota

1945 – Priscilla Presley, American actress and businesswoman

1945 Steven Norris, British Conservative politician, born in Liverpool

1949 – Jim Broadbent, English actor

1956 – Dominic Grieve, English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales

1964 Adrian Moorhouse, British 100m breaststroker (Olympic gold 1988), born in Bradford

1964 Elizabeth McColgan, British running star (world record 5 km indoor), born in Dundee

1966 Eric Cantona, French footballer and actor (Looking for Eric), born in Marseille, France

1969 – Jacob Rees-Mogg, English politician

Died Today ;-

1153 David I, King of Scots (1124-53), dies at about 68

1543 Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer who theorized that planets revolve around the sun (Heliocentric theory)

1908 Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer (British Open 1861-62, 64, 67), dies as result of a fall at 86

1981 Jack Warner [Waters], British actor (Dixon of Dock Green, Christmas Carol), dies from pneumonia at 85

1995 Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister (Labour: 1964-70, 74-76), dies of cancer at 79

2010 Ray Alan, English ventriloquist (Lord Charles, Tich & Quackers) & television entertainer

2016 Burt Kwouk, English actor (Pink Panther movies), dies at 85

[Hamble]

We saw aeroplanes today.
They fly quite low over Stockport.

Quite emotional.

[Alikado]

International Missing Children's Day


1241 1st attack on Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main, Germany

1521 Edict of Worms outlaws Martin Luther and his followers

1659 Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England, earning the nickname "Tumbledown Dick" as a result of his abrupt fall from power

1660 – Charles II lands at Dover at the invitation of the Convention Parliament (England), which marks the end of the Cromwell-proclaimed Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and begins the Restoration (1660) of the British monarchy.

1720 The Ship "Le Grand St Antoine" reaches Marseille, bringing Europe's last major plague outbreak. Kills around 100,000

1784 Jews are expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek

1816 Collection of poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge published by John Murray in London, including "Kubla Khan" and "Christabel"

1842 Christian Doppler presents his idea, now known as the Doppler Effect, to the Royal Bohemian Society, Prague

1878 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "H.M.S. Pinafore" premieres in London, their first international success

1887 Gas lamp at Paris Opera catches fire; 200 die

1895 Oscar Wilde sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons"

1900 Retired London fire master Eyre Massey Shaw aged 70 reputedly becomes oldest gold medalist in Olympics for sailing (disputed)

1914 British House of Commons passes the Irish Home Rule Bill

1915 Second Battle of Ypres ends with 105,000 casualties

1927 Henry Ford announces that he is ending production of the Model T Ford

1934 Béla Bartòk's "Enchanted Deer" premieres

1935 Track and field athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks 4 world records in 45 minutes at a Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Remembered as "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport".

1938 Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths.

1940 – The German 2nd Panzer Division captures the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer; the surrender of the last French and British troops marks the end of the Battle of Boulogne.

1963 England ends its amateur-professional classes in cricket

1965 Muhammad Ali KOs Sonny Liston in 1 for heavyweight boxing title rematch

1967 European Cup Final, Estádio Nacional, Lisbon: Glasgow Celtic beats Internazionale, 2-1; first British team to win the Cup

1977 – Star Wars is released in cinemas.

1977 21st European Cup: Liverpool beats Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 at Rome

1982 – Falklands War: HMS Coventry is sunk by Argentine Air Force A-4 Skyhawks.

1986 95-year-old woman scores a hole-in-one in Florida

1986 Ferry boat Shamia sinks on Maghna River Bangladesh, 600 killed

1991 Israel evacuates 14,000 Ethiopian Jews

2001 – Erik Weihenmayer becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, in the Himalayas, with Dr. Sherman Bull

2005 13th UEFA Champions League Final: Liverpool beats Milan (3-3, 3-2 on penalties)

2011 – Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her 25-year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

2012 – The SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station

2013 Yuichiro Miura of Japan becomes the oldest person to climb Mount Everest at 80

2018 – The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes enforceable.

2018 Harvey Weinstein turns himself in to New York police to face charges of rape, a criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct

2020 – George Floyd, a black man, is murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest when he is restrained in a prone position face-down on the ground for almost nine minutes, provoking protests across the United States and around the world.

Born Today ;-

1803 Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher (Concord Hymn), born in Boston, Massachusetts

1879 – Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, Canadian-English businessman and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

1889 – Igor Sikorsky, Russian-American aircraft designer, founded Sikorsky Aircraft

1898 Gene Tunney, American boxer, world heavyweight boxing champion (1926-30), born in NYC, New York

1913 – Richard Dimbleby, English journalist and producer

1927 Robert Ludlum, American spy novelist (Bourne Identity), born in NYC, New York

1939 Sir Ian McKellen, English film and theatre actor (Lord of the Rings, X-Men), born in Burnley

1944 – Frank Oz, English-born puppeteer, filmmaker, and actor He began his career as a puppeteer, performing the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in The Muppet Show; and Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover in Sesame Street.[5] He is also known for the role of Yoda in the Star Wars

1945 Dave Lee Travis [David Griffin], British DJ and presenter (Top of the Pops], convicted of indecent assault, born in Buxton

1957 – Alastair Campbell, English journalist and author

1959 Julian Clary, English television personality, born in Surbiton

1960 – Anthea Turner, English journalist and television host

1976 Cillian Murphy, Irish actor (28 Days Later, Peaky Blinders), born in Douglas, County Cork

1986 – Geraint Thomas, Welsh cyclist Tour De France winner

Died Today ;-

1934 Gustav Holst, English composer (The Planets, Ode to Death), dies at 59

1948 Witold Pilecki, Polish WWII resistance fighter (volunteered to go to Auschwitz, Witold's Report), executed by communist secret police after a show trial at age 47

2002 Patricia "Pat" Coombs, British comedienne and actress (Carry On Again Doctor, Cranford), dies at 75

2006 Desmond Dekker, Jamaican reggae pioneer (Aces-Israelites), dies at 64

2020 George Floyd, African American bouncer, murdered at 46 while restrained in police custody by Minneapolis police

[Alikado]

World Dracula Day

World Lindy Hop Day

World Redhead Day

World Product Day

946 – King Edmund I of England is murdered by a thief whom he personally attacks while celebrating St Augustine's Mass Day.

1293 – An earthquake strikes Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 23,000

1637 Mystic Massacre: in 1st battle of Pequot War in Connecticut about 500 Pequot Native Americans are killed by Colonial forces

1805 – Napoléon Bonaparte assumes the title of King of Italy and is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan Cathedral, the gothic cathedral in Milan.

1822 – One hundred sixteen people die in the Grue Church fire, the biggest fire disaster in Norway's history.

1830 – The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later.

1876 HMS Challenger returns from 128,000-km oceanographic exploration

1884 Fred Spofforth takes 7-34 & 7-3 v England in 4 hours

1896 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average an index of 12 industrial stocks (closing is 40.94)

1897 – Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.

1905 A pogrom against Jews in Minsk, Belorussia

1923 – The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was held and has since been run annually in June.

1927 Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce the last (and 15th million) Model T Ford / Tin Lizzie

1940 – Operation Dynamo: In northern France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk

1940 – The Siege of Calais ends with the surrender of the British and French garrison.

1942 – The Battle of Gazala takes place.

1942 Belgium Jews are required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star

1942 Tank battle at Bir Hakeim: Afrika Korps vs British army

1943 Jews riot against Germany in Amsterdam

1945 US drop fire bombs on Tokyo

1951 Vaughan Williams' "Pilgrim's Progress" premieres in London

1955 Conservatives led by Anthony Eden win Parliamentary Election

1967 – The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is released. It would go to number one for 15 weeks in the US and 22 weeks in the UK

1970 – The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.

1982 British ship Atlantic Conveyor carrying Chinook helicopters and destroyer HMS Coventry hit in Falkland war: 39 crew members die

1982 26th European Cup: Aston Villa beats Bayern Munich 1-0 at Rotterdam

1999 7th UEFA Champions League Final: Manchester United beats Bayern Munich 2-1 at Barcelona

2003 Only three days after a previous record, Sherpa Lakpa Gelu climbs Mount Everest in 10 hours 56 minutes. The tourism ministry of Nepal confirms this record in July that year.

2018 UEFA Champions League Final, Kiev: Real Madrid beats Liverpool, 3-1 for third straight title. Zinédine Zidane first manager to win 3 consecutive titles

2019 Nine climbers die in a week on Mt Everest after overcrowding leads to a huge queue to reach the summit

2020 US restricts travel from Brazil as the country posts world's second highest number of recorded cases of COVID-19

2020 Twitter adds warning labels to warn about inaccuracies in US President Donald Trump's tweets for the first time

Born Today ;-

1863 Bob Fitzsimmons, English boxer (sport's first 3-division world champion; Middleweight, Light Heavyweight, Heavyweight), born in Helston

1867 Mary of Teck, Queen of Great Britain and consort of George V, born in Kensington Palace,

1874 Henri Farman, British-French aviator who broke several aviation records, born in Paris

1877 Isadora Duncan, American free form/interpretative dancer, born in San Francisco

1886 Al Jolson [Asa Yoelson], American-Lithuanian jazz singer and silent actor (Mamie, Swanee), born in Seredžius, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire

1904 George Formby, British singer and comedian, born in Wigan

1907 John Wayne [Marion Mitchell Morrison], American actor (Green Berets, True Grit), born in Winterset, Iowa

1908 Robert Morley, British actor (Marie Antoinette, The Young Ones, How the Other Half Loves), born in Semley, Wiltshire

1909 – Matt Busby, Scottish footballer and manager, former Liverpool player, born in Orbiston, Bellshill, Scotland

1913 – Peter Cushing,actor (Dracula, Star Wars, Dr Who), born in Kenley, Surrey

1920 Peggy Lee [Norma Delores Egstrom], American singer (Is That All There Is), born in Jamestown, North Dakota

1948 Stevie [Stephanie] Nicks, American singer songwriter (Fleetwood Mac, Bella Donna), born in Phoenix, Arizona

1949 – Jeremy Corbyn, British journalist and politician, former Labour Leader, born in Chippenham

1953 – Michael Portillo, TV Presenter,journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Defence

1963 – Mary Nightingale, TV Newscaster & journalist

1966 – Zola Budd, Barefoot South African runner

1966 Helena Bonham Carter, British actress (Harry Potter, Fight Club, The King's Speech, Enid, The Wings of the Dove), born in London

1981 – Jason Manford, English actor, screenwriter, and television host

Died Today ;-

735 Bede (Beda Venerabilis), English historian and monk

946 – Edmund I, king of England

1703 Samuel Pepys, English navy administrator and Member of Parliament famous for his Diary of the English Restoration period, dies at 70

1868 Michael Barrett, Irish nationalist, last British public execution

1902 – Almon Brown Strowger, American soldier and inventor of electromechanical telephone exchange technology that his invention and patent inspired.

1904 Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French neurologist and namesake of Tourette's syndrome, dies from Syphilis at 46

1955 – Alberto Ascari, Italian racing driver twice Formula One World Champion. He was a multitalented racer who competed in motorcycle racing before switching to cars. Ascari won consecutive world titles in 1952 and 1953 for Scuderia Ferrari. He was the team's first World Champion and the last Italian to date to win the title.

1989 Don Revie, English footballer and soccer manager (Leeds and England), dies at 61

2001 Anne Haney, American actress (Mrs. Doubtfire - "Mrs. Sellner"; Liar Liar - "Greta"), dies of congestive heart failure at 67

2006 – Kevin O'Flanagan, Irish footballer and physician, An outstanding all-rounder, he represented his country at both soccer and rugby union. He was also a noted sprinter and long jumper was Irish long jump champion in 1939 and the 60 yards and 100 yards champion in 1941. In 1941 he tied with David Guiney for the long jump title, but with only one gold medal available, he insisted his rival accept it as he already had one. As a youth played Gaelic football. In his spare time he also played golf and tennis at a decent level. O'Flanagan played soccer for among others, Bohemian and Arsenal was also offered terms by Liverpool, Aston Villa & Man Utd but continued his education, and as an international he played for both Ireland teams – the FAI XI and the IFA XI. O'Flanagan also played rugby union for UCD, London Irish and Ireland. In 1946 he played rugby for Ireland against France and then played soccer for the IFA XI against Scotland seven days later. His brother, Mick O'Flanagan, was also a notable sportsman and also represented Ireland at both soccer and rugby union. On 30 September 1946 both brothers played together for the FAI XI against England. A third brother, Charlie O'Flanagan, also played for Bohs. O'Flanagan subsequently became an Olympic official and served on the International Olympic Committee from 1976 to 1994. On his retirement he was made an honorary lifetime member of IOC.

2014 Manuel Uribe Garza, Mexican man who suffered from morbid obesity (peak weight of 600 kg - 95 stone), dies at 48

[Alikado]

1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.

1199 – John is crowned King of England.

1257 – Richard of Cornwall, and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, are crowned King and Queen of the Germans at Aachen Cathedral

1529 30 Jews of Posing, Hungary, charged with blood ritual, burned at stake

1644 The Siege of Lathom House was a military confrontation between a Parliamentarian army and a Royalist stronghold in Lathom near Ormskirk in Lancashire, during the First English Civil War. The first lasted from late February to 27th May

1703 Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Russian Tsar Peter the Great

1849 Opening of the Great Hall at Euston station in London

1878 Australians Cricket 41 & 12-1 defeat MCC 33 & 19

1895 British inventor Birt Acres patents film camera/projector

1907 Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco

1918 Third Battle of Aisne: German offensive overcomes British forces

1930 Richard Drew invents masking tape

1930 The 1,046-foot (319-meter) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public

1933 – The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

1936 RMS Queen Mary leaves Southampton for NY on maiden voyage

1937 Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco opens to pedestrians

1938 Bradman scores his 1000th cricket run of English season, earliest to do so

1940 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII

1940 In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops

1941 Roosevelt declares state of emergency due to Germany's sinking of Robin Moor

1941 German battleship Bismarck sunk by British naval force killing almost 2,100 men.

1942 Hitler orders 10,000 Czechs murdered

1942 Italian army begin siege of French western Fort Bir Hachim

1942 Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich is shot and mortally wounded by Czech rebels in Prague during Operation Anthropoid

1961 Fiorentina of Italy win 1st European Cup Winner's Cup against Glasgow Rangers 4-2 in Florence

1966 55th German F-104 Starfighter crashes

1966 6 French fighters crash above Spain

1975 Worst motor vehicle disaster in UK; bus full of elderly women plunge into Dibble's Bridge near Grassington Yorkshire, killing 38

1977 The Sex Pistols release "God Save the Queen", sparking major controversy and leading to a ban on the song by the BBC

1981 25th European Cup: Liverpool beats Real Madrid 1-0 at Paris

1985 Britain agrees to return Hong Kong to China in 1997

1994 Writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia after 20 years in exile

1995 Actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia
Proves Superman can't fly!

2016 3 ships in 3 days sink carrying immigrants across the Mediterraneann, drowning over 700 people

2017 English FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Arsenal beats Chelsea, 2-1; Aaron Ramsey scores 79' winner as Arsène Wenger becomes most successful manager in FA Cup history, winning his 7th title

2020 America's COVID-19 death toll passes 100,000 (Johns Hopkins figures) equal to number of US servicemen and women killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan put together

2020 Spain begins 10 days of mourning for victims of COVID-19 with death toll just under 27,000

2020 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Hong Kong no longer has autonomy from China, doesn't merit special trade relationship, in note to Congress

2020 Locust swarms in western and central India worst since 1993 after spreading from Pakistan and Iran and due to extreme weather

Born Today ;-

1837 "Wild Bill" Hickok [James Butler], American cowboy and scout, born in Troy Grove, Illinois

1863 – Arthur Mold, Lancs & England cricketer

1876 – William Stanier, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.

1911 Vincent Price, American actor (House on Haunted Hill, Fly, Laura), born in St Louis, Missouri

1922 Sir Christopher Lee, English actor (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit), born in London

1943 Cilla Black [Priscilla White], pop singer and TV personality (Blind Date), born in Liverpool

1951 – John Conteh, Liverpool born boxer, WBC Light Heavyweight crown

1955 – Ian Tracey, English organist and conductor, Liverpool Cathedral & Philharmonic

1957 Duncan Goodhew, English 100m breast stroke swimmer (Olympic gold 1980), born in London

1967 Paul Gascoigne, Everton & England soccer player

1970 – Tim Farron, politician, Former leader Lib Dems

1970 – Joseph Fiennes, actor (Enemy at the Gates, Shakespeare in Love), born in Salisbury

1975 – Jamie Oliver, chef and author

Died Today ;-

1790 Jeremiah Carlton, laziest man in history, heir to a large fortune at 19 went to bed & stayed there for next 70 yrs, dies at 89

1964 Jawaharlal Nehru, 1st Prime Minister of India (1947-64) and important leader of the Indian independence movement, dies of an assumed heart attack

1975 Ezzard Charles, heavyweight boxing champion (1949-51), dies of ALS at 53

2013 Bill Pertwee, British actor (Warden Hodges in Dad's Army), dies at 86

2015 – Andy King, Everton, Southport & England U21 footballer and manager

[Alikado]

Amnesty International Day

International Hamburger Day


1349 60 Jews murdered in Breslau, Silesia

1431 Joan of Arc is accused of relapsing into heresy by donning male clothing again, providing justification for her execution

1588 – The Spanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, heading for the English Channel. (It will take 3 days for all ships to leave port.)

1644 Bolton Massacre by Royalist troops under the command of the Earl of Derby (English Civil War) upto 1600 dead

1742 1st indoor swimming pool opens (Goodman's Fields, London)

1830 US President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, authorizing the Army to force Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes out of Georgia and surrounding states, setting the stage for the Cherokee Trail of Tears

1845 Fire in Quebec, Canada, 1,500 houses destroyed

1907 – The first Isle of Man TT race was held.

1912 Jackie Matthews takes 2 cricket hat-tricks same day Australia v South Africa

1923 US Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere

1927 Lancashires Wally Hammond scores his 1,000th cricket run of the season after 22 days

1934 Bradman gets 160 Aust v Middlesex, 124 mins, 27 fours, 1x6, 1x5

1934 Sir Jack Hobbs scores his 197th & last first class cricket century at 51 years 163 days

1934 The Glyndebourne festival in Sussex, England, inaugurated

1936 Alan Turing submits "On Computable Numbers" for publication, in which he set out the theoretical basis for modern computers.

1937 Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1937 – Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer is founded.

1940 Belgium surrenders to Germany, King Leopold III gives himself up

1940 – Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway. This is the first allied infantry victory of the War.

1941 Allied troops begin evacuation of Crete

1942 1,800 Czechs murdered by Nazis during attack on Heydrich

1951 Radio programme "Crazy People" (later titled The Goon Show) premieres on the BBC, created by Spike Milligan

1961 – Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.(Nobel Peace Prize 1977)

1961 Last trip (Paris to Bucharest) on the Orient Express (after 78 years)

1962 US stock market drops $20.8 B in 1 day

1964 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 9th String quartet

1966 Dmitri Shostakovich's 11th String quartet premieres in Leningrad

1967 Dmitri Shostakovich completes his 2nd Violin concert

1967 Francis Chichester arrives home at Plymouth from Round-the-world trip

1972 White House "plumbers" first break in at the Democratic National Headquarters at Watergate Complex in Washington, D.C.

1974 – Northern Ireland's power-sharing Sunningdale Agreement collapses following a general strike by loyalists.

1975 19th European Cup: Bayern Munich beats Leeds United 2-0 at Paris

1980 24th European Cup: Nottingham Forest beats Hamburg 1-0 at Madrid

1982 Pope John Paul II is 1st reigning pope to visit Great Britain (Adrian IV was born in England, as Nicholas Breakspear)

1987 – A West German pilot, Mathias Rust, who was 18 years old, evades Soviet Union air defenses and lands a private plane in the Red Square in Moscow, Russia. He is immediately detained and released on August 3, 1988.

2011 UEFA Champions League Final, London: FC Barcelona beats Manchester United, 3-1; 4th title for Barça

2018 One million French smokers quit in one year after anti-smoking measures introduced according to Public Health France

2018 One million French smokers quit in one year after anti-smoking measures introduced according to Public Health France

2020 Minnesota Governor Tim Walz declares State of Emergency in Minneapolis and activates the Minnesota National Guard after protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody

2020 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani calls for new protections for women after the 'honor killing' of a 14-year old by her father

Born Today ;-

1660 George I, King of England (1714-27), born in Hanover, Holy Roman Empire

1759 – William Pitt the Younger, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (Tory: 1783-1801, 1804-06), born in Hayes

1851 Dick Barlow, Lancashire & England cricketer (immortal England all-rounder of 1880s), born in Bolton also Umpire & Football Referee, refereed record FA Cup Score Match PNE v Hyde 26-0

1883 – Clough Williams-Ellis, English-Welsh architect, designed the Portmeirion Village

1908 – Ian Fleming, English journalist and author, created James Bond

1911 Dame Thora Hird, British actress, comedian, presenter and writer (Last of the Summer Wine, The Love Match), born in Morecambe

1919 Frank Middlemass, British actor (Heart Beat, As Time Goes By, Oliver Twist), born in Eaglescliffe, County Durham

1939 – Maeve Binchy, Irish novelist

1944 Gladys Knight, American singer known as the Empress of Soul (The Pips, Midnight Train to Georgia), born in Atlanta, Georgia

1944 Rudy Giuliani, American Mayor of New York City (Republican: 1994-2001) at the time of the September 11 attacks, born in NYC, New York

1944 Faith Brown, British actress and impressionist

1946 – Bruce Alexander, actor (ATouch of Frost)

1960 – Mary Portas, English journalist and author

1968 – Kylie Minogue, Australian singer-songwriter, producer, and actress born in Melbourne

1994 – John Stones, ex Everton & England footballer

Died Today ;-

1849 Anne Brontë, English novelist (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), dies at 29

1904 – Kicking Bear, Native American tribal leader, chief of the Miniconjou Lakota Sioux. He fought in several battles with his brother, Flying Hawk and first cousin, Crazy Horse during the War for the Black Hills, including Battle of the Greasy Grass.

1948 Unity Mitford, English fascist sympathizer and one of the Mitford sisters, dies from the effects of a bullet in her head at 33

1972 Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India (Jan 20th, 1936 until his abdication on Dec 11th, 1936), dies at 77

1982 Lt Col 'H'. Jones VC, Commanding Officer, 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment (Falklands War)

1984 Eric Morecambe [John Bartholomew], British comedian (Morecambe & Wise, Picadilly Palace), dies of a heart attack at 58

2017 John Noakes, British TV presenter, dies at 83

[Alikado]

World Digestive Health Day

Oak Apple Day (England), and its related observance:
Castleton Garland Day (Castleton)

International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers

International Jazz Day

End of the Middle Ages Day

International Coq Au Vin Day

1660 – English Restoration: Charles II is restored to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1753 Joseph Haydn's "Krumme Teufel" premieres

1798 – United Irishmen Rebellion: Between 300 and 500 United Irishmen are executed as rebels by the British Army in County Kildare, Ireland.

1849 Abraham Lincoln says "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time."

1886 – The pharmacist John Pemberton places his first advertisement for Coca-Cola, which appeared in The Atlanta Journal.

1905 Pogrom against Jewish community in Brisk Lithuania

1912 Ballets Russes premieres their ballet L'après-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Faun) in Paris, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky

1913 Igor Stravinsky's ballet score "The Rite of Spring" premieres in Paris, provoking a riot

1914 Ship rams Canadian ship Empress of Ireland on St Lawrence River; 1,024 die

1919 Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, that when light passes a large body, gravity will bend the rays confirmed by Arthur Eddington's expedition to photograph a solar eclipse on the island of Principe, West Africa

1935 – First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aeroplane.

1940 Arthur Seyss-Inquart installed as Reich commissar of The Hague, Netherlands

1940 In WWII, Germans capture Ostend & Ypres in Belgium and Lille in France

1942 Bing Crosby records "White Christmas", world's best-selling single (estimated 100 million copies sold)

1953 Edmund Hillary (NZ) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are first to reach the summit of Mount Everest as part of a British Expedition

1954 British runner Diane Leather becomes first woman to run the mile in under 5 minutes; 4:59.6 at Alexander Sports Ground in Birmingham

1959 Saunders-Roe SR.N1, the first practical hovercraft, performs its first engine run

1960 Everly Brothers "Cathy's Clown" hits #1

1968 European Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London: Bobby Charlton scores twice as Manchester United beats Benfica, 4-1; first English club to win the trophy

1972 The Official IRA announce a ceasefire

1982 – Falklands War: British forces defeat the Argentines at the Battle of Goose Green.

1985 – Heysel Stadium disaster at Brussels
: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses. 29th European Cup: Juventus beats Liverpool 1-0

1990 Dow Jones average hits a record 2,870.49

1999 Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

2005 France resoundingly rejects the European Constitution

2012 Indonesian police make the biggest drug bust in ten years after seizing over a million ecstasy pills valued at $45 million

2015 Sepp Blatter is elected to a fifth term as president of FIFA

2019 US Special Counsel Robert Mueller says charging President Donald Trump with a crime never an option as no legal means to charge a sitting president; and that his report does not exonerate the president

2019 World's smallest surviving baby, a girl, discharged from Sharp March Birch Hospital in San Diego after being born at 23 weeks weighing 8.6 ounces (245 grams)

2019 16 people charged for setting fire to and murdering a teenager who reported sexual harassment at an Islamic school in Feni, Bangladesh

2019 British politician Boris Johnson ordered to appear in court over claims he lied to the public during Britain's Brexit campaign

2019 Transgender no longer classified as a mental health illness by the World Health Organization


Born Today ;-

1630 Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland (1660-85), born in St James's Palace, London

1838 Nat Thompson, Australian cricket batsman (2 Tests, 1st batsman dismissed in first Test match 1877), born in Sydney, New South Wales

1874 – G. K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, and playwright

1903 Bob Hope [Leslie Townes Hope], British born American entertainer, born in London

1917 John F. Kennedy, 35th US President (1961-1963) and Senator (D-Mass), born in Brookline, Massachusetts

1926 – Katie Boyle, Italian-English actress and television host, born in Florence

1934 Nanette Newman, English writer and actress (Endless Game, Of Human Bondage), born in Northampton

1949 – Francis Rossi, English singer-songwriter and guitarist, His father's side of the family were Italian ice cream merchants responsible for the Rossi's Ice Cream parlours

1949 Brian Kidd, England soccer forward, coach, manager (England 2 caps, Man Utd, Man City & Everton), born in Manchester

1962 – Carol Kirkwood, Scottish journalist, Tv & Weather Presenter

1967 – Noel Gallagher, English singer-songwriter and guitarist - Oasis

1975 – Mel B, English singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress - Scary Spice

1975 – Sarah Millican, English comedian

Died Today ;-

1829 Humphry Davy, English chemist, studied electro-chemistry, invented the Davy lamp), dies at 50

1911 William Schwenck Gilbert, English dramatist (Gilbert & Sullivan), dies at 74

1979 Mary Pickford, actress (Coquette, Suds, Secrets), dies of cerebral hemorrhage at 87

1979 – Mary Pickford, Canadian-American actress, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded United Artists

1994 Erich Honecker, German politician, Head of State of East Germany (1971-89), dies in Chile at 81

2017 Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and dictator (1983-89), dies at 83

2017 Constantine Mitsotakis [Konstantinos Mitsotakis], Prime Minister of Greece (1990 –1993), dies at 98

[Alikado]

World MS Day

1381 English peasant uprising begins in Essex, lead by Watt Tyler

1431 Hundred Years' War: 19 year old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal in Rouen

1445 Coronation of Margaret of Anjou as Queen Consort of Henry VI of England at Westminster Abbey

1536 English King Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour, his 3rd wife

1821 James Boyd patents Rubber Fire Hose

1842 John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria

1848 William G Young patents ice cream freezer

1895 W. G. Grace scores his 1,000th Cricket run of the season after 22 days

1896 1st car accident occurs, Henry Wells hits a cyclist in NYC

1914 The new and then largest Cunard ocean liner RMS Aquitania, 45,647 tons, sets sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York City.

1941 – World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb the Athenian Acropolis and tear down the German flag.

1942 1,047 bombers bomb Cologne in RAF's raid of WW II

1943 – The Holocaust: Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Zigeunerfamilienlager (Romani family camp) at Auschwitz concentration camp.

1944 Transport number 75 departs with French Jews to Nazi Germany

1972 – The Angry Brigade goes on trial over a series of 25 bombings throughout the United Kingdom.

1974 – The Airbus A300 passenger aircraft first enters service

1979 23rd European Cup: Nottingham Forest beats Malmo FF 1-0 at Munich

1983 Surrey all out for 14 vs Essex, their lowest score ever

1984 28th European Cup: Liverpool beats Roma (1-1, 4-2 on penalties) at Rome

1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: The 33-foot high "Goddess of Democracy" statue is unveiled in Tiananmen Square by student demonstrators.

1990 Dow Jones average hits a record 2,878.56

2009 FA Cup Final, Wembley Stadium, London (89,391): Chelsea beats Everton, 2-1; Frank Lampard scores 72' winner

2015 Alistair Cook becomes the leading run scorer of all time in test cricket for England

2019 Two new studies find eating processed foods leads to an early death and ill health published in "British Medical Journal"

2020 Record number of COVID-10 cases reported worldwide 134,064, driven by hot spots in Brazil, Peru, Egypt, South Africa and Bangladesh

2020 SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launches carrying the Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral to the International Space Station. First private company to launch astronauts into space.

Born Today ;-

1846 Peter Carl Fabergé, Russian goldsmith and jeweler (famous for Fabergé eggs), born in Saint Petersburg

1934 Alexei Leonov, Russian cosmonaut (Voskhod 2, first person to walk in space), born in Listvyanka, Soviet Union

1949 – Bob Willis, England cricketer, Captain and sportscaster (90 Tests, 325 wickets; 64 ODIs), born in Sunderland

1961 Harry Enfield, Horsham, West Sussex, English comedian (Dermot-Men Behaving Badly, Saturday Live)

1980 – Steven Gerrard, Liverpool & England footballer

Died Today ;-

1431 Joan of Arc, Roman Catholic Saint and national heroine of France , executed and burnt at the stake at 19

1593 Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist and poet (Tamburlaine the Great), stabbed to death in a pub brawl in Deptford at about 29

1730 Arabella Churchill, mistress of James II of England, sister of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

1744 Alexander Pope, English poet (The Rape of the Lock)

1778 Voltaire [Francois-Marie Arouet], French writer, philosopher and playwright (Candide), dies at 83

1912 Wilbur Wright, US aviation pioneer, dies at 45

1960 Boris Pasternak, Russian poet and novelist (Doctor Zhivago) (Nobel Prize 1958), dies at 70

2020 Michael Angelis actor, The Liver Birds and Boys from the Blackstuff, The voice of Thomas The Tank Engine.

[Alikado]

World No Tobacco Day

World Parrot Day

World Meditation Day

1669 Citing poor eyesight, English civil servant Samuel Pepys records the last event in his famous diary

1859 – The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time

1870 E J DeSemdt patents asphalt pavement

1878 German battleship SMS Grosser Kurfürst sinks, 284 killed

1884 Dr John Harvey Kellogg patents "flaked cereal"

1902 Australia Cricket all out 36 v England, Edgbaston, their lowest ever

1911 RMS Titanic launched in Belfast

1915 An LZ-38 Zeppelin makes an air raid on London

1916 Battle of Jutland: Largest naval battle of World War I between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet which killed 8,645 in an inconclusive battle but strategic British victory. German fleet never puts to sea again in WWI. battle cruiser HMS Invincible explodes, only 6 crew members survive

1928 Lancashires Charlie Hallows scores his 1,000th run of Cricket season

1937 German warships bombard Almeria, Spain

1938 Bill Edrich scores his 1,000th run of cricket season, all at Lord's

1941 1st issue of "Parade" goes on sale

1941 German occupiers forbids Jews access to beach & swimming pools

1941 A Luftwaffe air raid in Dublin, in neutral Ireland, claims 38 lives.

1942 – Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.

1942 Luftwaffe bombs Canterbury

1942 U-boats sink and damage 146 allied ships this month (722,666 tons)

1943 42 U-boats sunk by the Allies this month

1944 Allied breakthrough in Italy

1950 Laker takes 14-12-2-8 in Test Cricket trial

1965 Jim Clark becomes 1st foreigner in 49 years to win Indianapolis 500 - 3:19:05.370 (242.506 km/h)

1967 Bayern Munchen of West Germany wins 7th European Cup Winner's Cup against Rangers of Scotland 1-0 in Nuremberg

1968 Movie star James Stewart retires from the US Air Force after 27 years of service

1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance"

1976 The Who set the record for the loudest concert of all time, 120 decibels at 50 metres, at The Valley in Charlton

1985 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) became a Schedule I drug in the United States.

2004 British children's cartoon "Peppa Pig" created by Astley Baker Davies premieres on Channel 5

2008 Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 100m sprint, with a wind-legal (+1.7m/s) 9.72 seconds

2010 Gaza Flotilla raid: Israeli Shayetet 13 soldiers board ships trying to break blockade of Gaze, during violent confrontation aboard MV Mavi Marmara 9 activists killed and several activists and soldiers injured

2012 Egypt formally ends its 31 year state of emergency

2014 Psy's "Gangnam Style" becomes the first video to reach 2 billion views on YouTube

2015 Harriette Thompson aged 92 and 65 days becomes the oldest woman to complete a marathon (Suja Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego)

2017 Kenya's Madaraka Express, a Chinese-built high speed railway from Mombasa to Nairobi is opened by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta

2018 Danish government bans garments that cover the face, including the niqab and burqa

2018 Kim Kardashian West meets US President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss prison reform

2019 US President Donald Trump threatens to impose extra 5% tax on Mexican goods if country does not increase its efforts to curb immigration

Born Today ;-

1443 Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII and paternal grandmother of King Henry VIII of England, born in Bletsoe Castle, Bedfordshire

1922 – Denholm Elliott, actor

1930 – Clint Eastwood, American actor, director, musician, and producer

1938 – John Prescott, British sailor and politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1939 Terry Waite, English Anglican Church envoy/Lebanese hostage, born in Bollington, Cheshire

1948 Lynda Bellingham, Canadian-born English actress (Sweeney, Scarlet Tunic), born in Montreal, Quebec

1965 Brooke Shields, American model/actress (Blue Lagoon, Suddenly Susan), born in NYC, New York

Died Today ;-

1495 Cecily Neville, mother of Edward IV of England and Richard III of England, dies at 80

1809 – Joseph Haydn, Austrian pianist and composer

1837 Joseph Grimaldi, English pantomimist and the "greatest clown in history", dies at 57

1979 Nigel Howard, English cricket batsman and captain (4 Tests; Lancashire, MCC), dies at 54

1983 Jack Dempsey, American boxer (world heavyweight champion 1919-26), dies of heart failure at 86

1989 – C. L. R. James, Trinidadian journalist and historian, cricket writer

2009 Danny La Rue, entertainer

2016 – Carla Lane, English television writer(Liver Birds, Bread, Bless This House), Animal Lover, born Liverpool

[Alikado]

Children's Day

World Milk Day

1495 First written record of Scotch Whisky appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, Friar John Cor is the distiller

1533 Anne Boleyn crowned Queen of England

1660 Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony

1845 Homing pigeon completes 11,000 km trip (Namibia-London) in 55 days

1869 Thomas Edison granted his first patent for the Electric Vote Recorder (U.S. Patent 90,646)

1879 Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed serving with British forces in the Anglo-Zulu War. He is buried in Farnborough

1907 -27°F (-33°C), Sarmiento, Argentina (South American record)

1918 Canadian ace Billy Bishop downs 6 aircrafts over a three-day span, including German ace Paul Bilik, reclaiming his top scoring title from James McCudden

1918 – Battle of Belleau Wood: Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord engage Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.

1922 Royal Ulster Constabulary is founded

1935 Driving test & license plates introduced in England, Deaths caused by accidents on UK roads fell by 1,000 within a year of the driving test being introduced

1939 British submarine "Thetis" sinks in Liverpool Bay with all 99 aboard, it was later recovered and renamed Thunderbolt and was lost again with all hands again in 1943.

1940 Nazi occupiers kick Jews out of Dutch air guard

1941 British troops occupy Baghdad,

1941 Germany bans all Catholic publications

1941 Germany occupies Crete after Allied evacuation

1943 – BOAC Flight 777 is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing British actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation that it was actually an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

1944 Nazi occupiers make it punishable to give aid to allied pilots

1950 – The Chinchaga fire ignites. By September, it would become the largest single fire on record in North America. over 3.5. acres of British Combia and Alberta burned

1951 International Cheese treaty signed

1954 Emile Zatopek runs record 6 mile: (27:59.2)/10,000m (28:54.2)

1958 Charles de Gaulle elected premier of France

1962 SS officer Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel after being found guilty of war crimes

1972 Dmitri Shostakovich's 15th Symphony, Dutch premieres in West Berlin

1974 Chemical plant explodes in Flixborough Lincolnshire killing 28

1974 The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine

1985 West Indian Cricketer Viv Richards scores 300 in a day on the way to 322 v Warwickshire

1990 Dow Jones Avg hits a record high of 2,900.97

1998 European Central Bank is founded in Brussels to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy

2001 Nepalese Royal Massacre: Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal slaughters his parents, two siblings, and five other family members during dinner at the Narayanhiti Palace, in Katmandu

2009 Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 passengers and crew were killed.

2009 General Motors files for chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is the fourth largest United States bankruptcy in history.

2015 Cruise ship carrying 458 people capsizes on Yangtze River, less than 50 survive

2016 Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel is completed - world’s longest at 57km and most expensive tunnel costing €11bn

2017 US President Donald Trump announces the US is withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement

2018 Rouzan al-Najjar, a 22 year-old Palestinian medic is shot and killed by Israeli forces on the Gaza border, causing widespread condmnation

2019 UEFA Champions League Final, Madrid: Liverpool beats Tottenham, 2-0 for Reds' 6th title

2020 US President Trump threatens to employ the military to quell protests across the country sparked by the death of George Floyd then infamously walks with staff to closed St. John’s Church for photo opportunity.

Born Today ;-

1804 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer

1826 Carl Bechstein, German piano inventor

1843 Henry Faulds, Scottish fingerprinting pioneer

1878 John Masefield, writer and poet (Salt-Water Ballads), Poet Laureate (1930-67), born in Ledbury, Herefordshire

1907 Sir Frank Whittle, RAF engineer air officer and inventor of the turbojet engine, born in Coventry

1926 Marilyn Monroe [Norma Jean Mortenson], American actress (Some Like It Hot), born in Los Angeles

1928 – Bob Monkhouse, Comedian, Presenter, actor and screenwriter

1930 – Edward Woodward, actor was married to actress Michele Dotrice, he was bombed out of his home three times during the Blitz. He wasomising footballer making 3 apearances for Brentford until a Knee injury curtailed that career. Woodward appeared in the Welsh language drama, Tan ar y Comin. Versions were made in both English and Welsh, and Woodward appeared in both, being specially coached in the latter since he did not speak a word of the language.

1934 Charles "Pat" Boone, American singer, actor (April Love, Cross & Switchblade, No More Mr. Nice Guy) and TV personality (The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom), born in Jacksonville, Florida

1937 – Morgan Freeman, American actor and producer

1947 Ron Wood, rock guitarist (Faces, Jeff Beck Group, Rolling Stones)

1968 – Jason Donovan, Australian actor and singer

1973 – Heidi Klum, German-American model, fashion designer, and producer

1974 – Alanis Morissette, Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actress

Died Today ;-

1879 Napoléon IV, Prince Imperial, Head of the House of Bonaparte (1873-79), killed in action during the Anglo-Zulu war at 23

1943 Leslie Howard [Stainer], actor (Gone With the Wind, Of Human Bondage), dies after Nazis shoot down his plane at 50

1960 Paula Hitler, sister of Adolf Hitler

1968 Helen Keller, American political activist, author (The Story of My Life) and lecturer, who was the 1st deaf-blind person to earn a BA, dies at 87

1985 – Richard Greene, actor, Robin Hood

1999 Christopher Cockerell, engineer and inventor (Hovercraft), invented various other applications for the air cushion principle, such as the hovertrain. and also developed the Cockerell Raft, a wave power hydraulic device which may have implications in the future for electricity generation, died at 88

2002 Hansie Cronje, Disgraced South African cricketer, died in air crash, was the only captain to ever forfeit an innings during a Test match

2008 – Yves Saint Laurent, French fashion designer, founded Saint Laurent Paris

2009 – Vincent O'Brien, Irish horse trainer

2015 – Charles Kennedy, Scottish journalist and politician Lib Dem Leader dies at 55

[Alikado]

International Sex Workers Day

Global Running Day

1857 James Gibbs of Virginia, patents the chain-stitch single-thread sewing machine

1896 Guglielmo Marconi applies to patent the radio

1910 – Charles Rolls, a co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.

1916 Battle of Verdun: German troops launch attack on Fort Vaux with flamethrowers, forcing French defenders inside. The fort changes hand 16 times during the entire Battle of Verdun.

1916 German troops under Lt Rackow take Fort Vaux

1917 Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop undertakes a solo mission behind enemy lines, shooting down three aircraft as they were about to take off and several more on the ground, for which he is awarded the Victoria Cross

1940 Heavy German bombing on Dunkirk beach

1941 – German paratroopers murder Greek civilians in the villages of Kondomari and Alikianos. 23-60 dead

1943 German assault on Sebastopol, Crimea, begins

1944 Herzogenbusch concentration camp near Vught, Netherlands, is disbanded by Allied forces, one of two SS-run camps outside Germany

1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey

1962 – During the 1962 FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.

1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is formed.[

1965 2nd of 2 cyclones in less than a month kills 35,000 (Ganges River, India)

1975 First recorded snowfall in London in June

1983 Toilet catches fire on Air Canada's DC-9, 23 die at Cincinnati, a flashover occurs as the plane's doors open.

1989 10,000 Chinese soldiers are blocked by 100,000 citizens in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, protecting students demonstrating for democracy

1994 Chinook helicopter crashes in North Scotland (29 killed)

2012 – Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

2015 100 volunters in Bhutan set a world record for tree planting - 49,672 in 1 hour

2015 FIFA President Sepp Blatter announces his resignation, 5 days after his re-election, amid FIFA's involvement in a bribery scandal

2020 UK death toll from COVID-19 passes 50,000 (50,032) according to its Office of National Statistics

2020 New outbreak of Ebola has killed five people in city of Mbandaka, Democratic Republic of Congo

2020 Brazilian death toll passes 30,000 from COVID-19 at 31,199 with 555,383 number of cases confirmed, 2nd only to the US

Born Today ;-

1740 Marquis de Sade, French philosopher and writer (Justine). The words sadism and sadist are derived from his name., born in Paris

1840 Thomas Hardy, poet and novelist (Far from the Madding Crowd), born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset

1857 Edward Elgar, composer (Coronation Ode, Pomp and Circumstance), born in Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire

1878 – Wallace Hartley, violinist and bandleader on the Titanic, born in Colne

1920 – Johnny Speight, English screenwriter and producer (Till Death Us Do Part ,In Sickness and in Health )

1941 – Charlie Watts, English drummer, songwriter, and producer

1946 – Peter Sutcliffe, UK serial killer - Yorkshire Ripper

1957 – Mark Lawrenson, Irish footballer, manager & TV Pundit, Played for PNE & Liverpool, born Preston, Southport Resident

Died Today ;-

1871 George Stevens, jockey (record 5 Grand National wins), dies from fractured skull at 38

1962 Vita Sackville-West, novelist, poet (The Land) and gardener (Sissinghurst), dies at 70

1970 – Bruce McLaren, New Zealand race car driver and engineer, founded the McLaren racing team

1990 – Rex Harrison, Huyton born actor won Oscar for Dr Doolittle, was married 6 times

2008 Bo Diddley, American musician

2017 Peter Sallis, British actor (Wallace and Gromit, Last of the Summer Wine), dies at 96

[Alikado]

World Bicycle Day

Corpus Christi

World Clubfoot Day

1353 Peter of Castile [Peter the Cruel] (18) marries Blanch of Bourbon (14) in Valladolid, Spain. Peter abandons her 2 days later for his secret wife (mistress) Maria de Padilla.

1885 – In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, the Cree leader, Big Bear, escapes the North-West Mounted Police.

1937 Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII) weds Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson in France

1871 Jesse James & his gang robs Obocock Bank (Corydon Iowa), of $15,000

1886 24 Christians burn to death in Namgongo, Uganda

1889 The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed from coast to coast.

1899 W. G. Grace's last day of Test cricket aged 50 yrs 320 days

1915 Austro-German forces recapture Przemysl, a crucial city in southeastern Poland, and the entire Russian front begins to collapse

1935 French liner SS Normandie sets Atlantic crossing record of four days, three hours and 14 minutes on her maiden voyage

1940 Last British and French troops evacuated from Dunkirk

1940 – The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.

1940 – Franz Rademacher proposes plans to make Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that had first been considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.

1941 – The Wehrmacht razes the Greek village of Kandanos to the ground and murders 180 of its inhabitants.

1941 German occupiers stamp "J" on Jewish passports

1942 – Japan begins the Aleutian Islands Campaign by bombing Unalaska Island.

1943 A mob of 60 from the Los Angeles Naval Reserve Armory beat up everyone perceived to be Hispanic, starting the week-long Zoot Suit Riots

1944 Nazis pull out of Rome

1946 1st bikini bathing suit displayed (Paris)

1946 International Military Tribunal opens in Tokyo against 28 Japanese war criminals

1956 3rd class travel on British Railways ends

1973 At Paris air show, Tupolev 144, a Soviet supersonic airliner ("Concorde-ski"), crashes, 15 killed

1979 – A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels (480,000 m3) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded.

1984 – Operation Blue Star, a military offensive, is launched by the Indian government at Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, in Amritsar. The operation continues until June 6, with casualties, most of them civilians, in excess of 5,000.

1998 – After suffering a mechanical failure, a high speed train derails at Eschede, Germany, killing 101 people.

2017 London Bridge attack: Terrorist attack in Borough Market, London by three men who drive van into pedestrians then stab and kill 7 and wound 48. 3 Attackers shot dead by police.

2018 Dead whale found with 17 pounds (80 pieces) of plastic in its stomach in Songkhla province, Thailand

2019 Canadian government inquiry find deaths of over 1,000 indigenous women and girls over decades who have been murdered or are missing a "national genocide"

2019 US President Donald Trump begins a three-day visit to the UK by calling London Mayor Sadiq Khan "a stone cold loser" after Khan called Trump's language that of a 20th century fascist

2019 Apple announces it is shutting down iTunes and replacing it with three different apps

2020 Three former police officers charged in connection with death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin's charge upgraded to second degree murder

2020 Former Defense Secretary James Mattis says in The Atlantic: "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us."

Born Today ;-

1761 Henry Shrapnel, English Army officer and inventor (created the shrapnel shell), born in Wiltshire

1865 George V, King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India (1910-36), born in Marlborough House, London

1904 Charles R. Drew, American physician and surgeon who pioneered blood plasma research and developed the blood bank concept, born in Washington, D. C.

1906 – Josephine Baker, French actress, singer, and dancer; Parisian night club owner (Folies-Bergere),
French Resistance operative , US Civil Rights activist

1918 Patrick Cargill, British actor (Help!, No Wreath for the General, Hammerhead), born in London

1925 – Tony Curtis, American actor

1945 – Bill Paterson, Scottish actor

1950 – Suzi Quatro, singer-songwriter, bass player, producer, and actress

1966 – Wasim Akram, Lancashire & Pakistan cricketer, coach, and sportscaster

1982 Jodie Whittaker, English actress (1st female Doctor Who), born in Skelmanthorpe

1986 – Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player

Died Today ;-

1872 Heinrich Esser, composer, dies at 53

1875 Georges Bizet, French composer (Carmen), dies at 36

1898 Samuel Plimsoll, English MP , devised the Plimsoll Loading Lines for ships, dies at 74

1924 Franz Kafka, Czech writer (Trial, Amerika, Metamorphosis), dies at 40

1963 Pope John XXIII [Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli], 261st Pope (1958-63), dies at 81

1967 Arthur Mitchell Ransome, critic/children's book author, Swallows and Amazons

1986 Anna Neagle, English actress (London Melody, Nurse Edith Cavell), dies at 81

1989 Beginning of the Tiananmen Square Massacre as Chinese troops open fire on pro-democracy supporters in Beijing

1989 Ayatollah Khomeini [Ruhollah Khomeini], Supreme leader of Iran (1979-89), dies of a heart attack at 89

1992 – Robert Morley, English actor and screenwriter

2004 Frances Shand Kydd, mother of Diana, Princess of Wales

2009 David Carradine, American actor (Kung Fu, Mean Streets, Kill Bill V.1 & 2), dies at 72

2016 Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay], American boxer (world heavyweight champion 1964-7 74-8), dies of respiratory illness at 74