today.nukz.net: Almanac August 23

Keith John Moon (23 August 1946 – 7 September 1978) was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon joined The Who in 1964. He played on all albums and singles from their debut, 1964's "Zoot Suit", to 1978's Who Are You, which was released three weeks before his death.

Moon was known for dramatic, suspenseful drumming—often eschewing basic back beats for a fluid, busy technique focused on fast, cascading rolls across the toms, ambidextrous double bass drum work and wild cymbal crashes and washes. He is mentioned in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the greatest of all rock and roll drummers, and was posthumously inducted into the Rock Hall as a member of The Who in 1990.

Moon's legacy, as a member of The Who, as a solo artist, and as an eccentric personality, continues to garner awards and praise, including a Rolling Stone readers' pick placing him in second place of the magazine's "best drummers of all time" in 2011, nearly 35 years after his death.

Events

79 – Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
406 – Radagaisus is executed after he is defeated by the Roman army under Stilicho.
476 – Odoacer, chieftain of the Germanic tribes (Herulic - Scirian foederati), is proclaimed rex Italiae ("king of Italy") by his troops.
1305 – Sir William Wallace is executed for High Treason at Smithfield in London.
1328 – Battle of Cassel: French troops stop an uprising of Flemish farmers.
1514 – Battle of Chaldiran ended with a decisive victory for the Sultan Selim I, Ottoman Empire, over the Shah Ismail I, Safavids founder.
1541 – French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada.
1572 – Mob violence against Huguenots in Paris – St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.
1595 – Michael the Brave confronts the Ottoman army in the Battle of Calugareni.
1650 – Colonel George Monck of the English Army forms Monck's Regiment of Foot, which will later become the Coldstream Guards.
1765 – Beginning of Burmese–Siamese War (1765–1767)
1775 – American Revolutionary War: King George III delivers his Proclamation of Rebellion to the Court of St. James's stating that the American colonies have proceeded to a state of open and avowed rebellion.
1784 – Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it wasn’t accepted into the United States, and only lasted for four years.
1799 – Napoleon leaves Egypt for France en route to seize power.
1813 – At the Battle of Grossbeeren, the Prussians under Von Bülow repulse the French army.
1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.
1858 – The Round Oak rail accident occurs in Brierley Hill in the Black Country, England. It is 'Arguably the worst disaster ever to occur on British railways'.
1864 – The Union Navy captures Fort Morgan, Alabama, thus breaking Confederate dominance of all ports on the Gulf of Mexico.
1866 – Austro-Prussian War ends with the Treaty of Prague.
1873 – Albert Bridge in Chelsea, London opened.
1896 – Officially recognised date of the Cry of Pugad Lawin, the start of the Philippine Revolution is made in Pugad Lawin (Quezon City), in the province of Manila (actual date and location is disputed).
1904 – The automobile tire chain is patented.
1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany and bombs Qingdao, China.
1914 – World War I: the Battle of Mons; the British Army begins withdrawal.
1921 – British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull in England and crashes in the Humber estuary. Of her 49 British and American training crew, only 4 survive.
1923 – Capt. Lowell Smith and Lt. John P. Richter performed the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours.
1927 – Sacco and Vanzetti are executed.
1929 – Hebron Massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attack on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, continuing until the next day, resulted in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.
1938 – English cricketer Len Hutton sets a world record for the highest individual Test innings of 364, during a Test match against Australia.
1939 – World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.
1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
1943 – World War II: Kharkov liberated as a result of the Battle of Kursk.
1944 – World War II: Marseille liberated.
1944 – World War II King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies (see King Michael's Coup)
1944 – Freckleton Air Disaster – A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people.
1946 – Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Land (state) of Schleswig-Holstein.
1948 – World Council of Churches is formed.
1954 – First flight of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft.
1958 – Chinese Civil War: The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
1970 – Organized by Mexican American union leader César Chávez, the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history, begins.
1973 – A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome".
1977 – The Gossamer Condor wins the Kremer prize for human powered flight.
1982 – Bachir Gemayel is elected Lebanese President amidst the raging civil war.
1985 – Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany.
1989 – Singing Revolution: two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stand on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands (Baltic Way).
1989 – 1,645 Australian domestic airline pilots resign after the airlines threaten to fire them and sue them over a dispute.
1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War.
1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1990 – West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on October 3.
1994 – Eugene Bullard, The only black pilot in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled 'A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.'
2000 – Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf near Manama, Bahrain, killing 143.
2006 – Natascha Kampusch, who had been abducted at the age of 10, managed to escape from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil, after 8 years of captivity.
2007 – The skeletal remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and his sister Anastasia are found near Yekaterinburg, Russia.
2010 – Manila hostage crisis, in which 8 hostages were killed
2011 – A 5.8 earthquake occurred in Mineral, Virginia, the earthquake was felt as far north as Ontario and as far south as Atlanta, Georgia. Damaged occurred to monuments in Washington D.C. and the resulted damage was estimated at $100 Million.
2011 – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after the National Transitional Council forces take control of Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan civil war.

Births

1486 – Sigismund von Herberstein, Austrian diplomat and historian (d. 1566)
1524 – François Hotman, French lawyer and writer (d. 1590)
1623 – Stanislaw Lubieniecki, Polish Socinian theologist (d. 1675)
1724 – Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (d. 1796)
1741 – Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse, French explorer (d. 1788)
1754 – King Louis XVI of France (d. 1793)
1757 – Marie Magdalene Charlotte Ackermann, German actress (d. 1775)
1769 – Georges Cuvier, French biologist and statesman (d. 1832)
1783 – William Tierney Clark, English civil engineer (d. 1852)
1785 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (d. 1819)
1805 – Anton von Schmerling, Austrian statesman (d. 1893)
1814 – James Roosevelt Bayley, American religious leader (d. 1877)
1829 – Moritz Cantor, German mathematician (d. 1920)
1836 – Marie Henriette of Austria, Queen of the Belgians (d. 1902)
1843 – William Southam, Canadian newspaper publisher (d. 1932)
1846 – Alexander Milne Calder, American sculptor (d. 1923)
1847 – Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (d. 1927)
1849 – William Ernest Henley, British poet, critic, and editor (d. 1903)
1852 – Arnold Toynbee, English economist and social reformer (d. 1883)
1852 – Clímaco Calderón, President of Colombia. (d. 1913)
1854 – Moritz Moszkowski, Polish/German composer (d. 1925)
1864 – Eleftherios Venizelos, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1936)
1868 – Edgar Lee Masters, American author (d. 1950)
1875 – William Eccles, English radio pioneer (d. 1966)
1875 – Eugene Lanceray, Russian artist (d. 1946)
1877 – István Medgyaszay, Hungarian architect and writer (d. 1959)
1880 – Alexander Grin, Russian writer (d. 1932)
1883 – Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, American general (d. 1953)
1884 – Will Cuppy, American humorist (d. 1949)
1884 – Ogden L. Mills, American Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1937)
1890 – Harry Frank Guggenheim, American businessman and publisher, co-founded Newsday (d. 1971)
1900 – Ernst Krenek, Austrian-born composer (d. 1991)
1900 – Louise Nevelson, American sculptor (d. 1988)
1900 – Malvina Reynolds, American folk singer/songwriter (d. 1978)
1901 – Guy Bush, Major League Baseball pitcher (d. 1985)
1901 – John Sherman Cooper, American politician (d. 1991)
1903 – William Primrose, Scottish violist (d. 1982)
1905 – Constant Lambert, British composer (d. 1951)
1908 – Hannah Frank, Scottish artist (d. 2008)
1909 – Syd Buller, English cricketer (d. 1970)
1910 – Giuseppe Meazza, Italian footballer (d. 1979)
1910 – Lonny Frey, American baseball player (d. 2009)
1911 – Birger Ruud, Norwegian ski-jumper (d. 1998)
1912 – Gene Kelly, American dancer and actor (d. 1996)
1917 – Tex Williams, American singer (d. 1985)
1919 – Vladimir Rokhlin, Soviet mathematician (d. 1984)
1921 – Kenneth Arrow, American economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner
1921 – Sam Cook, England cricketer (d. 1996)
1922 – Jean Darling, American child actress
1922 – Pierre Gauvreau, French Canadian painter, television writer and producer
1922 – George Kell, American baseball player (d. 2009)
1922 – Nazik Al-Malaika, Iraqi poet (d. 2007)
1923 – Edgar F. Codd, English computer scientist (d. 2003)
1924 – Ephraim Kishon, Israeli writer (d. 2005)
1924 – Robert Solow, American economist, Nobel laureate
1925 – Robert Mulligan, American film director (d. 2008)
1926 – Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist, (d. 2006)
1926 – Gyula Hernádi, Hungarian writer and screenwriter (d. 2005)
1927 – Dick Bruna, Dutch illustrator
1927 – Martial Solal, French jazz pianist and composer
1928 – Marian Seldes, American actress
1929 – Vera Miles, American actress
1929 – Zoltán Czibor, Hungarian footballer (d. 1997)
1930 – Michel Rocard, French politician
1931 – Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1932 – Houari Boumediène, President of Algeria (d. 1978)
1932 – Mark Russell, American comedian and political commentator
1933 – Robert Curl, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1933 – Pete Wilson, American politician
1934 – Barbara Eden, American actress and singer
1934 – Sonny Jurgensen, American football player
1936 – Henry Lee Lucas, American serial killer (d. 2001)
1942 – Letta Mbulu, South African singer
1943 – Nelson DeMille, American novelist
1944 – Antonia Novello, former United States Surgeon General
1945 – Rayfield Wright, American football player
1945 – Bob Peck, British actor (d. 1999)
1946 – Keith Moon, English musician (The Who) (d. 1978)
1947 – Willy Russell, British playwright
1947 – David Robb, British actor
1947 – Rex Allen Jr., country singer
1948 – Atef Bseiso, PLO head of intelligence (d. 1992)
1948 – Andrei Plesu, Romanian writer, essayist
1948 – Daniel Ruettiger, American motivational speaker
1948 – Lev Zeleny, Soviet and Russian physicist
1949 – Geoff Capes, English strongman
1949 – Shelley Long, American actress
1949 – Rick Springfield, Australian singer and actor
1949 – Vicky Leandros, Greek singer
1951 – Akhmad Kadyrov, President of Chechnya (d. 2004)
1951 – Allan Bristow, American basketball head coach
1951 – Queen Noor of Jordan
1951 – Jimi Jamison, American singer (Survivor)
1952 – Vicky Leandros, Greek singer and politician
1952 – Georgios Paraschos, Greek footballer
1953 – Bobby G, British singer (Bucks Fizz)
1953 – Ernst Savkovic, German footballer
1954 – Charles Busch, American director, writer, actor and drag queen
1956 – Andreas Floer, German mathematician (d. 1991)
1956 – Hans-Jürgen Salewski, German footballer
1956 – Skipp Sudduth, American actor
1956 – Valgerd Svarstad Haugland, Norwegian politician
1957 – Tasos Mitropoulos, Greek footballer and politician
1958 – Julio Franco, Dominican baseball player
1959 – George Kalovelonis, Greek tennis player
1960 – Rodney Alan Greenblat, American graphic artist
1960 – Gary Hoey, American Guitarist
1960 – Chris Potter, Canadian actor
1961 – Dean DeLeo, American musician (Stone Temple Pilots)
1961 – Gary Mabbutt, English footballer
1962 – Martin Cauchon, Canadian politician
1962 – Shaun Ryder, English musician
1963 – Hans-Henning Fastrich, German field hockey player
1963 – Richard Illingworth, England cricketer
1963 – Kenny Wallace, American race car driver
1963 – Park Chan-wook, Korean director and screenwriter
1964 – Johan Bruyneel, Belgian cyclist
1964 – Kong Hee, Singaporean pastor
1964 – Yoshikazu Taru, Japanese professional wrestler
1964 – Wendy Pepper, American designer
1965 – Roger Avary, Canadian screenwriter, director, and producer
1966 – Rik Smits, Dutch-American basketball player
1967 – Richard Petrie, New Zealand cricketer
1968 – Chris DiMarco, American golfer
1968 – Laura Claycomb, American operatic soprano
1969 – Keith Tyson, English artist
1969 – Jeremy Schaap, American sportswriter
1969 – Geneviève Brouillette, Canadian television and film actress
1970 – Lawrence Frank, American basketball coach
1970 – Krishnakumar Kunnath, Indian singer
1970 – Brad Mehldau, American pianist
1970 – Jay Mohr, American actor and comedian
1970 – River Phoenix, American actor (d. 1993)
1971 – Demetrio Albertini, Italian footballer
1971 – BoneCrusher, American rapper
1971 – Tim Gutberlet, German footballer
1972 – Mark Butcher, England cricketer
1972 – Raul Casanova, Puerto Rican baseball player
1972 – Martin Grainger, English footballer
1973 – Casey Blake, American baseball player
1973 – Malaika Arora Khan, Indian actress and model
1973 – Kerry Walmsley, New Zealand cricketer
1974 – Mark Bellhorn, American baseball player
1974 – Sir Konstantin Sergeevich "Kostya" Novoselov, Russo-British physicist, Nobel Laureate
1974 – Christian Beranek, American graphic novelist and actor
1974 – Benjamin Limo, Kenyan runner
1974 – Ray Park, Scottish actor
1974 – Shifty Shellshock, American musician (Crazy Town)
1975 – Eliza Carthy, English singer and fiddler
1975 – Sean Marks, New Zealander-born basketball player
1976 – Scott Caan, American actor
1976 – Pat Garrity, American basketball player
1977 – Douglas Sequeira, Costa Rican footballer
1978 – Kobe Bryant, American basketball player
1978 – Julian Casablancas, American singer (The Strokes)
1979 – Jessica Bibby, Australian basketball player
1979 – Ritchie Neville, British musician
1979 – Edgar Sosa, Mexican boxer
1979 – Zuzana Váleková, Slovak tennis player
1980 – Denny Bautista, Dominican baseball player
1980 – Rex Grossman, American football player
1980 – Nenad Vuckovic, Serbian handball player
1980 – Diamondog, Angolan rapper
1981 – Carlos Cuéllar, Spanish footballer
1981 – Stephan Loboué, Ivorian footballer
1981 – Ozzy Lusth, American Survivor contestant
1981 – Carmen Luvana, American pornographic actress
1982 – Natalie Coughlin, American swimmer
1982 – Scott Palguta, American soccer player
1982 – YTCracker, American musician and computer hacker
1982 – Trevor Wright, American actor
1983 – Sun Ming Ming, Chinese basketball player
1983 – Tony Moll, American football player
1983 – James Collins, Welsh footballer
1984 – Glen Johnson, English footballer
1986 – Neil Cicierega, American cartoonist and musician
1986 – Brett Morris, Australian rugby league footballer
1987 – Nikki Gil, Filipina actress and host
1987 – Danny Page, Australian basketball coach
1988 – Olga Govortsova, Belarusian tennis player
1988 – Carl Hagelin, Swedish ice hockey player
1988 – Jeremy Lin, American basketball player
1989 – Heiko Schwarz, German footballer
2001 – Zaijian Jaranilla, Filipino actor

Deaths

93 – Gnaeus Julius Agricola, Roman Governor of Britain (b. 40)
406 – Radagaisus, Gothic king
634 – Abu Bakr, Arabian caliph (b. 578)
818 – Ali al-Ri?a, Shia Imam (b. 765)
1106 – Magnus, Duke of Saxony (b. 1045)
1176 – Emperor Rokujo of Japan (b. 1164)
1305 – William Wallace, Scottish patriot (b. 1272)
1387 – King Olav IV of Norway (b. 1370)
1507 – Jean Molinet, French writer (b. 1435)
1519 – Philibert Berthelier, Swiss patriot (b. 1465)
1540 – Guillaume Budé, French scholar (b. 1467)
1591 – Luis Ponce de León, Spanish poet and mystic (b. 1527)
1618 – Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero, Dutch writer (b. 1585)
1628 – George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (b. 1592)
1652 – John Byron, 1st Baron Byron, English royalist politician (b. 1600)
1706 – Colonel Edward Nott, Esq., British Crown Governor of Virginia (b. 1654)
1723 – Increase Mather, New England Puritan minister (b. 1639)
1806 – Charles Augustin de Coulomb, French physicist (b. 1736)
1813 – Alexander Wilson, Scottish-born ornithologist (b. 1766)
1819 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (b. 1785)
1831 – Ferenc Kazinczy, Hungarian author (b. 1759)
1838 – Ferenc Kölcsey, Hungarian poet and politician (b. 1790)
1853 – Alexander Calder, first mayor of Beaumont, Texas (b. 1806)
1858 – Antal Reguly, Hungarian linguist and ethnographer (b. 1819)
1867 – Auguste-Marseille Barthélemy, French poet (b. 1796)
1892 – Deodoro da Fonseca, 1st President of Brazil (b. 1827)
1924 – Heinrich Berté, Austrian operetta composer (b. 1856)
1926 – Rudolph Valentino, Italian-American actor (b. 1895)
1927 – Nicola Sacco, Italian anarchist (b. 1891)
1927 – Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist (b. 1888)
1933 – Adolf Loos, Austrian architect (b. 1870)
1937 – Albert Roussel, French composer (b. 1869)
1939 – Eugène-Henri Gravelotte, French fencer (b. 1876)
1949 – Helen Churchill Candee, American author, journalist and RMS Titanic survivor (b. 1858)
1952 – Géza Kiss, Hungarian freestyle swimmer (b. 1882)
1955 – Reginald Tate, British actor (b. 1896)
1960 – Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist (b. 1895)
1962 – Walter Anderson, German folklorist (b. 1885)
1962 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (b. 1892)
1963 – Glen Gray, American jazz musician and leader of the Casa Loma Orchestra (b. 1900)
1966 – Francis X. Bushman, American actor (b. 1883)
1967 – Georges Berger, Belgian racing driver (b. 1918)
1967 – Nathaniel Cartmell, American athlete (b. 1883)
1971 – The original Shamu, SeaWorld orca
1974 – Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist (b. 1888)
1977 – Naum Gabo, Russian artist (b. 1890)
1982 – Stanford Moore, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913)
1987 – Didier Pironi, French racing car driver (b. 1952)
1989 – Mohammed Abed Elhai, Sudanese writer and academic (b. 1944)
1989 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (b. 1927)
1990 – David Rose, American composer and orchestra leader (b. 1910)
1994 – Zoltán Fábri, Hungarian film director and screenwriter (b. 1917)
1995 – Dwayne Goettel, Canadian musician (Skinny Puppy)(b. 1964)
1996 – Margaret Tucker Indigenous Australian activist and autobiographer (b. 1904)
1997 – John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1917)
1999 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (b. 1926)
1999 – James White, Northern Irish writer (b. 1928)
2000 – John Anthony Kaiser, Roman Catholic priest (b. 1932)
2001 – Kathleen Freeman, American actress (b. 1919)
2001 – Peter Maas, American novelist (b. 1929)
2002 – Hoyt Wilhelm, American baseball player (b. 1922)
2003 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and manager (b. 1946)
2003 – Jack Dyer, Australian rules footballer (b. 1913)
2003 – John Geoghan, American Catholic priest (b. 1935)
2005 – Brock Peters, American actor (b. 1927)
2006 – Maynard Ferguson, Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader (b. 1928)
2007 – Robert Symonds, American actor (b. 1926)
2008 – John Russell, British-born American art critic and author (b. 1919)