today.nukz.net: Almanac

2.3.1959 – Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson killed in plane crash in Iowa.

Events

1112 – Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and Douce I of Provence marry, uniting the fortunes of those two states.
1377 – More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are slaughtered by Papal Troops (Cesena Bloodbath).
1451 – Sultan Mehmed II inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
1488 – Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.
1509 – The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.
1534 – The Irish rebel Silken Thomas is executed by the order of Henry VIII in London, England.
1637 – Tulip mania collapses in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) as sellers could no longer find buyers for their bulb contracts.
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.
1706 – During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.
1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
1787 – Shays' Rebellion is crushed.
1807 – A British military force, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty captures the city of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire now the capital of Uruguay.
1809 – The Illinois Territory is created.
1813 – José de San Martín defeats a Spanish royalist army at the Battle of San Lorenzo, part of the Argentine War of Independence.
1830 – The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol.
1834 – Wake Forest University is established.
1852 – Justo José de Urquiza defeats Juan Manuel de Rosas at the Battle of Caseros.
1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
1900 – Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies of wound sustained in an assassination attempt three days earlier in Frankfort, Kentucky.
1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.
1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
1917 – World War I: The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the latter announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
1918 – The Twin Peaks Tunnel in San Francisco, California begins service as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet (3,633 meters) long.
1931 – The Hawke's Bay earthquake, New Zealand's worst natural disaster, kills 258.
1943 – The USAT Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survived. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, dedicated by President Harry Truman, is one of many memorials established to commemorate the Four Chaplains story.
1944 – World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
1945 – World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 to 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
1945 – World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.
1947 – The lowest temperature in North America is recorded in Snag, Yukon.
1957 – Senegalese political party Democratic Rally merges into the Senegalese Party of Socialist Action (PSAS).
1958 – Founding of the Benelux Economic Union, creating a testing ground for a later European Economic Community.
1959 – A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died.
1960 – British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of the "a wind of change" of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government is likely to support decolonisation.
1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post.
1961 – A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.
1967 – Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption. Many believe the incident proves that NYPD officers tried to kill him.
1972 – The first day of the seven-day 1972 Iran blizzard, which would kill at least 4,000 people, making it the deadliest snowstorm in history.
1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.
1989 – After a stroke two weeks previous, South African President P. W. Botha resigns as leader of the National Party, but stays on as president for six more months.
1989 – A military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay since 1954.
1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
1996 – The Lijiang earthquake in Lijiang, Yunnan, China.
1998 – Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
1998 – Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States Military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.
2007 – A Baghdad market bombing kills at least 135 people and injures a further 339.
2008 – The New York Giants defeated the heavily favored and previously undefeated 18-0 New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, 17-14, in what is known to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
2011 – All available blocks of IPv4 internet addresses are officially distributed to regional authorities.

Births

1338 – Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V of France (d. 1378)
1654 – Pietro Antonio Fiocco, Italian Baroque composer (d. 1714)
1677 – Jan Santini Aichel, Czech architect (d. 1723)
1689 – Blas de Lezo, Spanish admiral (d. 1741)
1690 – Richard Rawlinson, English minister (d. 1755)
1721 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (d. 1773)
1736 – Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian musician (d. 1809)
1747 – Samuel Osgood, American patriot (d. 1813)
1777 – John Cheyne, British physician, surgeon and author (d. 1836)
1795 – Antonio José de Sucre, South American independence leader (d. 1830)
1807 – Joseph E. Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1891)
1808 – Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Princess of Prussia (d. 1877)
1809 – Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847)
1811 – Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher (d. 1872)
1817 – Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist (d. 1881)
1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician (d. 1910)
1824 – Ranald MacDonald, Canadian-born Scottish educator and interpreter (d. 1894)
1826 – Walter Bagehot, English essayist, journalist and businessman (d. 1877)
1830 – Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1903)
1842 – Sidney Lanier, American writer (d. 1881)
1843 – William Cornelius Van Horne, American-born railway pioneer and executive (d. 1915)
1857 – Giuseppe Moretti, Italian sculptor (d. 1935)
1859 – Hugo Junkers, German aircraft designer (d. 1935)
1862 – James Clark McReynolds, American Supreme Court Justice (d. 1946)
1872 – Lou Criger, American baseball player (d. 1934)
1874 – Gertrude Stein, American writer (d. 1946)
1876 – William Tedmarsh, English-born American silent movie actor (d. 1937)
1887 – Juan Negrín, Spanish Prime Minister (d. 1956)
1887 – Georg Trakl, Austrian poet (d. 1914)
1889 – Carl Theodor Dreyer, Danish film director (d. 1968)
1893 – Gaston Julia, French mathematician (d. 1978)
1894 – Norman Rockwell, American illustrator (d. 1978)
1898 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (d. 1976)
1899 – João Café Filho, Brazilian president (d. 1970)
1899 – Lao She, Chinese writer (d. 1966)
1899 – Doris Speed, English actress (d. 1994)
1900 – Mabel Mercer, English born cabaret singer (d. 1984)
1903 – Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, Scottish aviator (d. 1973)
1903 – Joe Stripp, American baseball player d. 1989
1904 – Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
1905 – Arne Beurling, Swedish/American mathematician(d. 1986)
1907 – James Michener, American author (d. 1997)
1909 – André Cayatte, French filmmaker (d. 1989)
1909 – Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
1911 – Jehan Alain, French organist and composer (d. 1940)
1911 – Robert Earl Jones, American actor (d. 2006)
1912 – Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist (d. 1990)
1912 – Mary Carlisle, American actress and singer
1913 – Richard Seaman, British racing driver (d. 1939)
1918 – Joey Bishop, American entertainer, member of the Rat Pack (d. 2007)
1918 – Shlomo Goren, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel (d. 1994)
1918 – Helen Stephens, American runner (d. 1994)
1920 – Russell Arms, American actor and singer
1920 – Tony Gaze, Australian racing driver
1920 – Henry Heimlich, American physician
1923 – Alys Robi, Canadian singer
1924 – E. P. Thompson, English socialist historian, (The Making of the English Working Class), (d. 1993)
1924 – Martial Asselin, Canadian politician and lieutenant governor of Quebec
1925 – Keith Dunstan, Australian author and journalist
1925 – John Fiedler, American voice actor (d. 2005)
1925 – Leon Schlumpf, member of the Swiss Federal Council
1926 – Shelley Berman, American comedian
1926 – Hans-Jochen Vogel, German politician
1927 – Kenneth Anger, American Underground Filmmaker
1927 – Val Doonican, Irish singer and entertainer
1927 – Joan Lowery Nixon, American writer (d. 2003)
1927 – Blas Ople, Filipino politician (d. 2003)
1928 – Frankie Vaughan, English singer (d. 1999)
1929 – Ken Shipp, American football coach
1930 – Gillian Ayres, English painter
1932 – Peggy Ann Garner, American actress (d. 1984)
1933 – Paul Sarbanes, American politician
1933 – Than Shwe, Burmese military ruler
1934 – Juan Carlos Calabró, Argentine actor
1935 – Johnny "Guitar" Watson, American singer and guitarist (d. 1996)
1936 – Jim Marshall, American photographer (d. 2010)
1937 – Billy Meier, Swiss ufologist
1938 – Victor Buono, American actor (d. 1982)
1938 – Emile Griffith, US Virgin Islands boxer
1939 – Michael Cimino, American film director
1940 – Angelo D'Aleo, American singer (Dion and the Belmonts)
1940 – Fran Tarkenton, American football player
1941 – Neil Bogart, American record executive (d. 1982)
1941 – Dory Funk, Jr., American professional wrestler
1941 – Bridget Hanley, American actress
1943 – Blythe Danner, American actress
1943 – Dennis Edwards, American singer (The Temptations)
1943 – Shawn Phillips, American singer, guitarist and songwriter
1944 – Trisha Noble, Australian singer and actress
1945 – Johnny Cymbal, American singer and songwriter (d. 1993)
1945 – Bob Griese, American football player
1947 – Paul Auster, American novelist
1947 – Dave Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
1947 – Stephen McHattie, Canadian actor
1947 – Melanie Safka, American singer-songwriter
1948 – Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timorese politician, Nobel Peace laureate
1948 – Henning Mankell, Swedish author
1948 – Jim Lockhart, Irish musician (Horslips)
1949 – Arthur Kane, American musician (d. 2004)
1949 – Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist
1949 – Donald Palma, American musician
1950 – Morgan Fairchild, American actress
1950 – Pamela Franklin, British actress
1951 – Eugenijus Riabovas, Lithuanian football manager
1952 – Fred Lynn, American baseball player
1953 – Savvas Tsitouridis, Greek politician
1954 – Tiger Williams, Canadian ice hockey player
1955 – Stephen Euin Cobb, American novelist
1955 – Kirsty Wark, British broadcast journalist
1956 – John Jefferson, American football player
1956 – Nathan Lane, American actor
1956 – Lee Ranaldo, American musician (Sonic Youth)
1957 – Chico Serra, Brazilian racing driver
1957 – Steven Stapleton, English musician (Nurse With Wound)
1958 – Joe F. Edwards, Jr., American astronaut
1958 – N. Gregory Mankiw, American economist
1959 – Thomas Calabro, American actor
1959 – Yasuharu Konishi, Japanese musician (Pizzicato Five)
1959 – Lol Tolhurst, English musician (The Cure)
1959 – Ferzan Özpetek, Turkish film director
1960 – Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1993)
1960 – Tim Chandler, American bass guitar player (Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies)
1960 – Joachim Löw, German football manager
1961 – Jay Adams, American skateboarder
1961 – Linda Eder, American singer
1961 – Keith Gordon, American actor
1962 – Michele Greene, American actress
1962 – Marty Jannetty, American professional wrestler
1963 – Raghuram Rajan, American economist
1965 – Kathleen Kinmont, American actress
1965 – Karlous Marx Shinohamba, Namibian politician
1965 – Maura Tierney, American actress
1966 – Frank Coraci, American film director
1966 – Kostas Patavoukas, Greek basketball player
1967 – Dave Benson Phillips, English children's TV presenter
1967 – Mixu Paatelainen, Finnish footballer and coach
1967 – Bob Taylor, English footballer
1968 – Vlade Divac, Serbian basketball player
1969 – Retief Goosen, South African golfer
1969 – Robert Pack, American basketball player
1970 – Óscar Córdoba, Colombian footballer
1970 – Warwick Davis, English actor
1971 – Sean Dawkins, American football player
1971 – Elisa Donovan, American actress
1971 – Vincent Elbaz, French actor
1971 – Hong Seok-cheon, South Korean actor
1971 – Sarah Kane, English playwright (d. 1999)
1971 – Christian Liljegren (Per Christian Liljegren), Swedish Christian melodic power metal singer/songwriter, owner of Liljegren Records (Narnia, Audiovision, Divinefire)
1971 – Rockwilder, American hip-hop/R&B producer
1972 – Jesper Kyd, Danish film and video game music composer
1972 – Mart Poom, Estonian footballer
1973 – Ilana Sod, Mexican journalist
1974 – Konrad Galka, Polish swimmer
1974 – Julie Meadows, American pornographic actress
1974 – Miriam Yeung, Hong Kong actress
1976 – Mathieu Dandenault, Canadian ice hockey player
1976 – Isla Fisher, Scottish-Australian actress
1976 – Tim Heidecker, American comedian
1976 – Dwayne Rudd, American football player
1977 – Daddy Yankee, Puerto Rican reggaeton singer/rapper
1978 – Joan Capdevila, Spanish footballer
1978 – Adrian R'Mante, American actor
1978 – Eliza Schneider, American actress and singer
1980 – Sarah Lewitinn, American writer
1980 – Kim E-Z, former member of the Korean girl group, Baby V.O.X.
1981 – Alisa Reyes, American actress and singer
1981 – Maurice Ross, Scottish footballer
1982 – Marie-Eve Drolet, Canadian short track speed skater
1982 – Alan Gurr, Australian V8 Supercar driver
1982 – Jessica Harp, American singer (The Wreckers)
1982 – Bridget Regan, American actress
1983 – Richard Bartel, American football player
1983 – Silambarasan Rajendar, Indian actor
1983 – Gabriel Sargissian, Armenian chess Grandmaster
1984 – Sara Carbonero, Spanish TV presenter and journalist
1985 – Andrei Kostitsyn, Belarusian hockey player
1986 – Lucas Duda, American baseball player
1986 – Mathieu Giroux, Canadian speed skater
1987 – Angela Fong, Canadian professional wrestler, model, cheerleader
1988 – Kyuhyun, South Korean singer (Super Junior)
1988 – Nicola Redomi, Italian footballer
1988 – Gregory van der Wiel, Dutch footballer
1989 – Slobodan Rajkovic, Serbian footballer
1989 – Ryne Sanborn, American actor
1989 – Julio Jones, American Football player
1990 – Sean Kingston, Jamaican-American singer
1990 – Sterling Moore, American Football player
1993 – Getter Jaani, Estonian actress and singer

Deaths

619 – Laurence of Canterbury, 2nd Archbishop of Canterbury
699 – Saint Werburgh
1014 – Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, England and Norway (b. c. 960)
1116 – King Coloman of Hungary (b. 1070)
1399 – John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (b. 1340)
1428 – Ashikaga Yoshimochi, Japanese shogun (b. 1386)
1451 – Murad II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1404)
1468 – Johannes Gutenberg, German publisher (b. c. 1398)
1549 – Sri Suriyothai, Chief Queen of Ayutthaya
1566 – George Cassander, Flemish theologian (b. 1513)
1619 – Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, English conspirator (b. 1564)
1737 – Tommaso Ceva, Italian mathematician (b. 1648)
1802 – Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman (b. 1723)
1820 – Emperor Gia Long the founded the Nguy?n Dynasty, the last of the Vietnamese dynasties (b. 1762)
1832 – George Crabbe, English naturalist (b. 1754)
1862 – Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (b. 1774)
1866 – François-Xavier Garneau, French Canadian poet and historian (b. 1809)
1873 – Isaac Baker Brown, English gynaecologist and surgeon (b. 1811)
1874 – King William Charles Lunalilo of Hawai?i (b. 1835)
1889 – Belle Starr, American outlaw (b. 1848)
1922 – John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist (b. 1839)
1924 – Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, Nobel laureate (b. 1856)
1929 – Agner Krarup Erlang, Danish scientist (b. 1878)
1935 – Hugo Junkers, German engineer (b. 1859)
1936 – Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg, consort of William of Wied, Prince of Albania (b. 1885)
1937 – Marija Leiko, Latvian film actress (b. 1887)
1945 – Roland Freisler, Nazi leader (b. 1893)
1947 – Marc Mitscher, American Navy Admiral (b. 1887)
1952 – Harold L. Ickes, American administrator and politician (b. 1874)
1955 – Vasili Blokhin, Soviet Union executioner (b. 1895)
1956 – Émile Borel, French mathematician (b. 1871)
1956 – Johnny Claes, Belgian racing driver (b. 1916)
1959 – The Day the Music Died
- Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936)
- Roger Peterson, pilot (b. 1937)
- Ritchie Valens, American singer (b. 1941)
- J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, American singer (b. 1930)
1960 – Fred Buscaglione, Italian singer and actor (b. 1921)
1961 – Viscount Dunrossil, Australian governor-general (b. 1893)
1961 – Anna May Wong, American actress (b. 1905)
1964 – Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (b. 1880)
1967 – Joe Meek, English record producer (b. 1929)
1969 – Eduardo Mondlane Mozambican independence founder (b. 1920)
1975 – William D. Coolidge, American physicist and inventor (b. 1873)
1975 – Umm Kulthum, Egyptian singer (b. 1904)
1985 – Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1912)
1989 – John Cassavetes, American actor (b. 1929)
1989 – Lionel Newman, American movie music orchestra leader, composer and arranger (b. 1916)
1991 – Harry Ackerman, American TV executive producer (b. 1912)
1991 – Nancy Kulp, American actress (b. 1921)
1993 – Françoys Bernier, Canadian pianist and conductor (b. 1927)
1996 – Audrey Meadows, American actress (b. 1922)
1998 – Fat Pat, American rapper (Screwed Up Click) (b. 1970)
1998 – Karla Faye Tucker, American murderer (b. 1959)
2002 – Lucien Rivard, Quebec criminal (b. 1914)
2003 – Lana Clarkson, American actress and model (b. 1962)
2004 – Jason Raize, American actor (b. 1975)
2006 – Al Lewis, American actor (b. 1923)
2009 – Sheng-yen, Buddhist monk and founder of Dharma Drum Mountain. (b. 1930)
2010 – Regina, Crown Princess of Austria (b. 1925)
2011 – Ron Piché, Canadian baseball player (b. 1935)
2011 – Maria Schneider, French actress (b. 1952)