today.nukz.net: Almanac

William S. Burroughs 1914-1997

Events

62 – Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy.
1576 – Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours and rejoins the Protestant forces in the French Wars of Religion.
1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
1631 – Roger Williams emigrates to Boston.
1778 – South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
1782 – Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.
1783 – In Calabria a sequence of strong earthquakes begins.
1810 – Peninsular War: Siege of Cádiz begins.
1818 – Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.
1852 – The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.
1859 – Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities, an autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire, which ushered the birth of the modern Romanian state.
1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.
1885 – King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.
1900 – The United States and the United Kingdom sign a treaty for the Panama Canal.
1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.
1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.
1917 – The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
1917 – The Congress of the United States passes the Immigration Act of 1917 over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. Also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, it forbade immigration from nearly all of south and southeast Asia.
1918 – Stephen W. Thompson shoots down a German airplane. It is the first aerial victory by the U.S. military.
1918 – SS Tuscania (1914) is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.
1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.
1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".
1937 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States.
1939 – Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain.
1941 – World War II: Allied forces begin the Battle of Keren to capture Keren, Eritrea.
1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
1946 – The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea.
1958 – Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic.
1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
1962 – French President Charles De Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
1963 – The European Court of Justice's ruling in Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen establishes the principle of direct effect, one of the most important, if not the most important, decisions in the development of European Union law.
1971 – Astronauts land on the moon in the Apollo 14 mission.
1972 – Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
1976 – The 1976 swine flu outbreak begins at Fort Dix, NJ.
1982 – Ugo Vetere, then the mayor of Rome, and Chedli Klibi, then the mayor of Carthage meet in Tunis to sign a treaty of friendship officially ending the Third Punic War which lasted 2,131 years.
1988 – Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges.
1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
1994 – During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell slams into a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.
1997 – The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
2000 – Russian forces massacre at least 60 civilians in the Novye Aldi suburb of Grozny, Chechnya.
2004 – Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. Twenty-one bodies are recovered.
2004 – Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
2008 – A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United States leaves 57 dead, the most since the May 31, 1985 outbreak that killed 88.
2009 – The United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal runs aground off Oahu, Hawaii, damaging the ship as well as a coral reef.

Births

976 – Emperor Sanjō, of Japan (d. 1017)
1505 – Aegidius Tschudi, Swiss historian (d. 1572)
1519 – René of Châlon, (d. 1544)
1534 – Giovanni de' Bardi, Italian writer (d. 1612)
1589 – Esteban Manuel de Villegas, Spanish poet (d. 1669)
1594 – Biagio Marini, Italian virtuoso violinist and composer (d. 1663)
1608 – Gaspar Schott, German mathematician (d. 1666)
1626 – Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné, French author (d. 1696)
1650 – Anne-Jules, French general (d. 1708)
1703 – Gilbert Tennent, Irish-born religious leader (d. 1764)
1725 – James Otis, American lawyer and patriot (d. 1783)
1744 – John Jeffries, Physician, Surgeon, Balloonist (d. 1819)
1748 – Christian Gottlob Neefe, German opera composer and conductor (d. 1798)
1784 – Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1818)
1788 – Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)
1795 – Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist (d. 1871)
1804 – Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet (d. 1877)
1808 – Carl Spitzweg, German painter (d. 1885)
1810 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (d. 1880)
1837 – Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (d. 1899)
1840 – John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish inventor (d. 1921)
1840 – Hiram Stevens Maxim, American inventor (Maxim gun) (d. 1916)
1848 – Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author (d. 1907)
1848 – Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean war hero (d. 1882)
1848 – Belle Starr, American outlaw (d. 1889)
1878 – André Citroën, French automobile pioneer (d. 1935)
1880 – Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (d. 1973)
1889 – Ernest Tyldesley, English cricketer (d. 1962)
1900 – Adlai Stevenson, American politician, 31st Governor of Illinois (d. 1965)
1903 – Joan Whitney Payson, American heiress (d. 1975)
1906 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
1907 – Pierre Pflimlin, French Politician (d. 2000)
1908 – Bob Dunn (musician), pioneer Western swing musician (d. 1971)
1908 – Peg Entwistle, English actress (d. 1932)
1908 – Daisy and Violet Hilton, British conjoined twins (d. 1969)
1909 – Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish composer and violinist (d. 1969)
1910 – Charles Leblond, Canadian cell biologist (d. 2007)
1910 – Francisco Varallo, Argentine footballer (d. 2010)
1911 – Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (d. 1960)
1914 – William S. Burroughs, American author (d. 1997)
1914 – Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1998)
1915 – Robert Hofstadter, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1990)
1917 – Isuzu Yamada, Japanese actress
1919 – Red Buttons, American actor (d. 2006)
1919 – Kenneth Hare, Canadian climatologist and academic (d. 2002)
1919 – Tim Holt, American actor (d. 1973)
1919 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek politician, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996)
1920 – Frank Muir, British comedian (d. 1998)
1921 – John Pritchard, British conductor (d. 1989)
1922 – Alain de Changy, Belgian racing driver (d. 1994)
1923 – Claude King, American musician
1923 – Fatmawati, Indonesian First Lady
1927 – Robert Allen, pianist and composer of popular songs (d. 2000)
1927 – Ruth Fertel, American entrepreneur (d. 2002)
1928 – Andrew Greeley, American priest and novelist
1929 – Luc Ferrari, French composer (d. 2005)
1929 – Fred Sinowatz, Austrian politician (d. 2008)
1929 – Al Worthington, American baseball player
1930 – John A. Gambling, American radio show host (d. 2004)
1932 – Cesare Maldini, Italian footballer and manager
1933 – Jörn Donner, Finnish writer/director
1934 – Hank Aaron. American baseball player
1934 – Don Cherry, Canadian ice hockey commentator
1935 – Alex Harvey, Scottish rock musician (d. 1982)
1936 – K. S. Nissar Ahmed, Kannada Poet
1937 – Stuart Damon, American actor
1937 – Larry Hillman, Canadian ice hockey player
1937 – Gaston Roelants, Belgian athlete
1937 – Wang Xuan, Chinese scientist (d. 2006)
1939 – Jane Bryant Quinn, American journalist
1940 – H.R. Giger, Swiss artist
1940 – Dick Warlock, Canadian actor and stuntman
1941 – Stephen J. Cannell. American television producer and writer (d. 2010)
1941 – David Selby, American actor
1941 – Kaspar Villiger, Swiss Federal Councilor
1942 – Roger Staubach, American football player
1942 – Cory Wells, American singer (Three Dog Night)
1943 – Nolan Bushnell, American video game pioneer
1943 – Michael Mann, American film director
1943 – Craig Morton, American football player
1944 – James B. Cobb, Jr., American guitarist (Classics IV)
1944 – Al Kooper, American musician
1944 – Tamanoumi Masahiro, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 51st Yokozuna (d. 1971)
1946 – Charlotte Rampling, British actress
1947 – Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver
1948 – Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish football manager
1948 – Christopher Guest, American film actor and director
1948 – Barbara Hershey, American actress
1948 – Errol Morris, American film director
1949 – Yvon Vallières, French-Canadian politician
1950 – Jonathan Freeman, American actor
1951 – Russell Grant, British astrologer
1952 – Daniel Balavoine, French singer and songwriter (d. 1986)
1953 – John Beilein, American basketball coach
1953 – Takashi Ishikawa, Japanese sumo and professional wrestler
1953 – Loretta Tofani, American journalist
1954 – Cliff Martinez, American musician
1955 – Mike Heath, American baseball player
1956 – Betty Ong, Flight attendant of American Airlines Flight 11 on September 11, 2001 (d. 2001)
1956 – Hector Rebaque, Mexican racing driver
1959 – Jennifer Granholm American politician, 47th Governor of Michigan
1960 – Aris Christofellis, Greek countertenor
1961 – Savvas Kofidis, Greek footballer and manager
1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh, American actress
1963 – Steven Shainberg, American film director
1964 – Alexia, Cypriot singer
1964 – Laura Linney, American actress
1964 – Duff McKagan, American musician (Guns N' Roses)
1965 – Gheorghe Hagi, Romanian footballer
1965 – Keith Moseley, American musician (The String Cheese Incident)
1965 – Andreas Vogler, German footballer
1966 – Apostolos Nanos, Greek archer
1966 – Rok Petrovič, Slovenian skier (d. 1993)
1967 – Chris Parnell, American actor
1967 – Frederick Pitcher, Nauruan politician
1968 – Roberto Alomar, Puerto Rican baseball player
1968 – Eyþór Guðjónsson, Icelandic actor
1968 – Nir Kabaretti, Israeli conductor
1968 – Qasim Melho, Syrian actor
1969 – Bobby Brown, American singer
1969 – Michael Sheen, Welsh actor
1971 – Sara Evans, American singer
1972 – Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
1972 – Koriki Chōshū, Japanese comedian
1973 – Richard Matvichuk, Canadian ice hockey player
1973 – Trijntje Oosterhuis, Dutch singer
1975 – Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Dutch footballer
1975 – Adam Carson, American musician (AFI)
1976 – John Aloisi, Australian soccer player
1976 – Abhishek Bachchan, Indian actor
1976 – Tony Jaa, Thai actor
1976 – Brian Moorman, American football player
1977 – Ben Ainslie, British sailor
1977 – Adam Everett, American baseball player
1977 – Ahmad Merritt, American football player
1978 – Shawn Reaves, American actor
1978 – Brian Russell, American football player
1980 – Stefano Di Fiordo, Italian footballer
1980 – Brad Fitzpatrick, American programmer
1980 – Prince Peter, American-born Yugoslav royalty
1980 – Jo Swinson, British politician
1980 – Robin Vik, Czech tennis player
1981 – Loukas Vyntra, Greek football player
1981 – Nora Zehetner, American actress
1982 – Aidin Nikkhah Bahrami, Iranian basketball player (d. 2007)
1982 – Deidra Dionne, Canadian freestyle skier
1982 – Kevin Everett, American football player
1982 – Marc Kennedy, Canadian Curler
1982 – Tomáš Kopecký, Slovak ice hockey player
1982 – Dionysis Makris, Greek singer
1982 – Rodrigo Palacio, Argentine footballer
1982 – Wheesung, Korean R&B singer
1984 – Nate Salley, American football player
1984 – Carlos Tévez, Argentinine footballer
1985 – Lindsey Cardinale, American singer
1985 – Crystal Hunt, American actress
1985 – Laurence Maroney, American football player
1985 – Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
1986 – Vedran Ćorluka, Croatian football player
1986 – Manuel Fernandes, Portuguese footballer
1986 – Ashley Simmons, American professional wrestler
1986 – Billy Sharp, English footballer
1986 – Reed Sorenson, American racecar driver
1986 – Carlos Villanueva, Chilean footballer
1987 – Darren Criss, American actor, singer
1987 – Linus Omark, Swedish ice hockey player
1988 – Johnathan Haggerty, American football player
1988 – Kevin J. Maclean, Scottish singer-songwriter
1989 – Cristine Reyes, Filipino actress
1989 – Jeremy Sumpter, American actor
1990 – Marvin Knoll, German footballer
1991 – Alba Riquelme, Paraguayan model
1992 – Neymar, Brazilian footballer
1994 – Saki Nakajima, Japanese singer
2002 – Davis Cleveland, American actor

Deaths

995 – William IV, Duke of Aquitaine (b. 937)
1520 – Sten Sture the Younger, regent of Sweden (b. 1493)
1574 – Nicolaas Kruik, Dutch cartographer (b. 1678)
1578 – Giambattista Moroni, Italian painter (b. c.1520-24)
1705 – Philipp Jakob Spener, German theologian (b. 1635)
1766 – Leopold Josef Graf Daun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
1775 – Eusebius Amort, German Catholic theologian (b. 1692)
1790 – William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (b. 1710)
1807 – Pasquale Paoli, Corsican patriot and military leader (b. 1725)
1881 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer and historian (b. 1795)
1882 – Adolfo Rivadeneyra, Spanish traveler, writer and diplomat (b. 1841)
1892 – Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Swedish novelist (b. 1807)
1915 – Ross Barnes, baseball player (b. 1850)
1917 – Jaber II Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1860)
1922 – Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Croatian inventor (b. 1871)
1922 – Christiaan De Wet, South African general (b. 1854)
1927 – Inayat Khan, Indian sufi (b. 1882)
1933 – Josiah Thomas, Australian politician (b. 1863)
1937 – Lou Andreas-Salome, Russian-born writer (b. 1861)
1938 – Hans Litten, German jurist (b. 1903)
1941 – Banjo Paterson, Australian poet, author of "Walzing Matilda" (b. 1864)
1946 – George Arliss, English actor (b. 1868)
1948 – Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (b. 1883)
1952 – Adela Verne, English pianist (b. 1877)
1957 – Sami Ibrahim Haddad, Lebanese surgeon (b. 1890)
1962 – Jacques Ibert, French composer (b. 1890)
1967 – Leon Leonwood Bean, American department store founder (b. 1872)
1967 – Violeta Parra, Chilean folklorist and visual artist (b. 1917)
1969 – Thelma Ritter, American actress (b. 1905)
1970 – Rudy York, American baseball player (b. 1913)
1972 – Marianne Moore, American poet (b. 1887)
1976 – Rudy Pompilli, American musician (Bill Haley and His Comets) (b. 1926)
1977 – Oskar Klein, Swedish physicist (b. 1894)
1981 – Ella Grasso, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1919)
1984 – Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, Mexican wrestler and film actor (b. 1917)
1985 – Georges-Émile Lapalme, French-Canadian politician (b. 1907)
1987 – William Collier, American film and stage actor (b. 1902)
1991 – Dean Jagger, American actor (b. 1903)
1992 – Miguel Rolando Covian, Brazilian physiologist (b. 1913)
1993 – Seán Flanagan, Irish Gaelic footballer and politician (b. 1922)
1993 – Marcel Léger, Quebec politician (b. 1930)
1993 – Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American writer, producer, and director (b. 1909)
1993 – Tip Tipping, British actor and stuntman (parachuting accident) (b. 1958)
1995 – Doug McClure, American actor (b. 1935)
1997 – Pamela Harriman, English-born American diplomat (b. 1920)
1997 – René Huyghe, French writer (b. 1906)
1998 – Tim Kelly, American musician (b. 1963)
1999 – Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1906)
2000 – Claude Autant-Lara, French film director (b. 1901)
2003 – Helge Boes, American Central Intelligence Agency officer (b. 1970)
2004 – John Hench, American animator (b. 1908)
2005 – Gnassingbe Eyadema, President of Togo (b. 1937)
2005 – Henri Rochon, Canadian tennis player (b. 1912)
2006 – Norma Candal, Puerto Rican actress and comedian (b. 1930)
2006 – Franklin Cover, American actor (b. 1928)
2007 – Fred Ball, American movie studio executive, actor, and the brother of comedienne Lucille Ball (b. 1915)
2007 – Leo T. McCarthy, American politician and 43rd Lieutenant Governor of California (1983–1995) (b. 1930)
2007 – Alfred Worm, Austrian investigative journalist (b. 1945)
2008 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, founder of Transcendental Meditation (b. c. 1917)
2010 – Brendan Burke, Gay rights activist, son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke (b. 1988)
2010 – Ian Carmichael, English actor (b. 1920)
2010 – Harry Schwarz, South African lawyer, politician and diplomat, leader of the anti-apartheid movement (b. 1924)
2011 – Brian Jacques, English author, author of the Redwall series (b. 1939)
2011 – Peggy Rea, American actress (b. 1921)