today.nukz.net: Almanac August 4

John Venn FRS (4 August 1834 – 4 April 1923), was a British logician and philosopher. He is famous for introducing the Venn diagram, which is used in many fields, including set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science.

Events

70 – The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.
367 – Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, is named co-Augustus by his father and associated to the throne aged eight.
1265 – Second Barons' War: Battle of Evesham – the army of Prince Edward (the future king Edward I of England) defeats the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, killing de Montfort and many of his allies.
1327 – First War of Scottish Independence: James Douglas leads a raid into Weardale and almost kills Edward III of England.
1532 – the Duchy of Brittany is annexed to the Kingdom of France.
1578 – Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir – the Moroccans defeat the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal is killed in the battle, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiates a succession crisis in Portugal.
1693 – Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of Champagne, although he actually did not have anything to do with sparkling wine.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Gibraltar is captured by an English and Dutch fleet, commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke and allied with Archduke Charles.
1789 – In France members of the National Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.
1790 – A newly passed tariff act creates the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the United States Coast Guard).
1791 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg wars.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Napoleon leads the French Army of Italy to victory in the Battle of Lonato.
1821 – Atkinson & Alexander publish the Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.
1824 – The Battle of Kos is fought between Turk and Greek forces.
1854 – The Hinomaru is established as the official flag to be flown from Japanese ships.
1863 – Matica slovenská, Slovakia's public-law cultural and scientific institution focusing on topics around the Slovak nation, is established in Martin.
1873 – American Indian Wars: whilst protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the United States 7th Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer clashes for the first time with the Sioux near the Tongue River; only one man on each side is killed.
1892 – The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.
1902 – The Greenwich foot tunnel under the River Thames opens.
1906 – Central Railway Station, Sydney opens.
1914 – World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declare their neutrality.
1916 – World War I: Liberia declares war on Germany.
1924 – Diplomatic relations between Mexico and the Soviet Union are established.
1936 – Prime Minister of Greece Ioannis Metaxas suspends parliament and the Constitution and establishes the 4th of August Regime.
1944 – The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find and arrest Jewish diarist Anne Frank, her family, and four others.
1946 – An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. 100 are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.
1947 – The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
1958 – The Billboard Hot 100 is published for the first time.
1964 – American civil rights movement: civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are found dead in Mississippi after disappearing on June 21.
1964 – Gulf of Tonkin Incident: U.S. destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.
1965 – The Constitution of Cook Islands comes into force, giving the Cook Islands self-governing status within New Zealand.
1969 – Vietnam War: at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, American representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
1974 – A bomb explodes in the Italicus Express train at San Benedetto Val di Sambro, Italy, killing 12 people and wounding 22.
1975 – The Japanese Red Army takes more than 50 hostages at the AIA Building housing several embassies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hostages include the U.S. consul and the Swedish chargé d’affaires. The gunmen win the release of five imprisoned comrades and fly with them to Libya.
1977 – US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.
1984 – The Republic of Upper Volta changes its name to Burkina Faso.
1987 – The Federal Communications Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine which had required radio and television stations to present controversial issues "fairly".
1989 – Licence to Kill goes on general cinema release in the United Kingdom.
1991 – The Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa.
1993 – A federal judge sentences LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in prison for violating motorist Rodney King's civil rights.
1995 – Operation Storm begins in Croatia.
2002 – Soham murders: 10 year old school girls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells go missing from the town of Soham, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.
2005 – Prime Minister Paul Martin announces that Michaëlle Jean will be Canada's 27th Governor General.
2006 – A massacre, is carried out by Sri Lankan government forces, killing 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger (known internationally as Action Contre la Faim, or ACF).
2007 – NASA's Phoenix spaceship is launched.
2007 – Airport police officer María del Luján Telpuk discovers a suitcase containing the undeclared sum of US$800,000 as it goes through an x-ray machine in Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires, sparking an international scandal involving Venezuela and Argentina known as "Maletinazo".
2010 – California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage passed by the state's voters in 2008, is overturned by Judge Vaughn Walker in the case Perry v. Schwarzenegger.

Births

1222 – Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, English soldier (d. 1262)
1290 – Duke Leopold I of Austria (d. 1326)
1521 – Pope Urban VII (d. 1590)
1604 – François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French writer (d. 1676)
1701 – Thomas Blackwell, Scottish classical scholar (d. 1757)
1719 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann, German mineralogist and geologist (d. 1767)
1721 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (d. 1803)
1755 – Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French painter and inventor (d. 1805)
1792 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (d. 1822)
1805 – William Rowan Hamilton, Irish mathematician (d. 1865)
1821 – James Springer White, American theologian (d. 1881)
1821 – Louis Vuitton, French designer (d. 1892)
1834 – John Venn, English mathematician (d. 1923)
1839 – Walter Pater, English essayist and critic (d. 1894)
1844 – Henri Berger, German composer and royal bandmaster (d. 1929)
1848 – Vladimir Sukhomlinov, Russian general (d. 1926)
1859 – Knut Hamsun, Norwegian writer, Nobel Laureate (d. 1952)
1865 – Gus Kempis, South African cricketer (d. 1890)
1867 – Jake Beckley, American baseball player (d. 1918)
1870 – Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish entertainer (d. 1950)
1876 – Giovanni Giuriati, Italian politician (d. 1970)
1884 – Henri Cornet, French cyclist (d. 1941)
1884 – Béla Balázs, Hungarian-Jewish film critic, writer and poet (d. 1949)
1888 – Syedna Taher Saifuddin, Indian Dawoodi Bohra leader, 51st Da'i al-Mutlaq (d. 1965)
1890 – Dolf Luque, Cuban baseball player (d. 1957)
1891 – Margit Makay, Hungarian actress (d. 1989)
1899 – Ezra Taft Benson, American religious figure (d. 1994)
1900 – Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Scottish consort of George VI (d. 2002)
1901 – Louis Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter and singer (d. 1971)
1901 – Clarence Passailaigue, Jamaican cricketer (d. 1972)
1902 – Wild Bill Hallahan, American baseball player (d. 1981)
1904 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
1904 – Helen Kane, American singer, dancer, and actress (d. 1966)
1904 – Joe Tate, English footballer (d. 1973)
1906 – Eugen Schuhmacher, German zoologist (d. 1973)
1906 – Marie-José of Belgium, consort of Umberto II of Italy (d. 2001)
1908 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor (d. 1994)
1909 – Glenn Cunningham, American middle-distance runner (d. 1988)
1909 – Saunders Mac Lane, American mathematician (d. 2005)
1910 – Anita Page, American actress (d. 2008)
1910 – William Schuman, American composer (d. 1992)
1910 – Hedda Sterne, Romanian-born American painter and printmaker (d. 2011)
1912 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician and mountaineer (d. 1999)
1912 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat (d. 1947)
1913 – Robert Hayden, American poet (d. 1980)
1915 – Warren Avis, American entrepreneur (d. 2007)
1918 – Iceberg Slim, American author (d. 1992)
1919 – Michel Déon, French writer
1920 – Helen Thomas, American journalist
1921 – Herb Ellis, American jazz guitarist (d. 2010)
1921 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
1922 – Luis Aponte Martínez, Puerto Rican archbishop (d. 2012)
1923 – Reg Grundy, Australian media and television mogul
1923 – Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi, Pakistani satirical and humor writer
1926 – George Irving Bell, American mountaineer (d. 2000)
1927 – Jess Thomas, American tenor (d. 1993)
1928 – Christian Goethals, Belgian racing driver (d. 2003)
1929 – Kishore Kumar, Indian singer and actor (d. 1987)
1930 – Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iranian Shi'a cleric
1931 – Naren Tamhane, Indian cricketer (d. 2002)
1932 – Liang Congjie, Chinese environmentalist (d. 2010)
1934 – Dallas Green, American baseball player
1935 – Hans-Walter Eigenbrodt, German footballer (d. 1997)
1937 – David Bedford, English keyboardist and composer
1938 – Ellen Schrecker, American college professor
1939 – Frank Vincent, American actor
1940 – Timi Yuro, American singer (d. 2004)
1940 – Larry Knechtel, keyboard and bass player (d. 2009)
1941 – Martin Jarvis, English actor
1941 – Ted Strickland, American politician
1942 – Don S. Davis, American actor and painter (d. 2008)
1942 – Cleon Jones, American baseball player
1942 – David Lange, New Zealand politician (d. 2005)
1943 – Bjørn Wirkola, Norwegian ski jumper
1943 – Vicente Alberto Álvarez Areces, Spanish politician
1944 – Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian
1944 – Doudou Ndoye, Senegalese lawyer and politician
1945 – Alan Mulally, American businessman
1946 – Maureen Starkey, English ex-wife of Ringo Starr (d. 1994)
1947 – Klaus Schulze, German composer
1948 – Johnny Grubb, American baseball player
1949 – John Riggins, American football player
1952 – Moya Brennan, Irish singer
1952 – Gábor Demszky, Hungarian politician
1953 – Hiroyuki Usui, Japanese footballer
1954 – Anatoliy Kinakh, Ukrainian politician
1954 – François Valéry, French singer-songwriter and composer
1955 – Alberto Gonzales, 80th U.S. Attorney General
1955 – Dariusz Lipinski, Polish politician
1955 – Billy Bob Thornton, American actor and writer
1956 – Gerry Cooney, American boxer
1957 – Brooks D. Simpson, American historian
1957 – John Wark, Scottish footballer
1958 – Ian Broudie, English music producer and vocalist (Lightning Seeds)
1958 – Allison Hedge Coke, American poet and writer
1958 – Mary Decker, American middle-distance runner
1958 – Kym Karath, American actress
1959 – Robbin Crosby, American guitarist (Ratt) (d. 2002)
1959 – John Gormley, Irish politician
1960 – Dean Malenko, American professional wrestler
1960 – Bernard Rose, English director
1960 – Tim Winton, Australian writer
1960 – José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, 5th Prime Minister of Spain
1961 – Eddie James, American murderer and sex offender
1961 – Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
1961 – Peter Reichert, German footballer
1961 – Lauren Tom, American actress
1962 – Roger Clemens, American baseball player
1962 – Paul Reynolds, British guitarist (A Flock of Seagulls)
1964 – Andrew Bartlett, Australian politician and activist
1964 – Gary King, British radio presenter
1964 – Anna Sui, American fashion designer
1965 – Crystal Chappell, American actress
1965 – Dennis Lehane, American crime writer
1965 – Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States
1965 – Fredrik Reinfeldt, 42nd Prime Minister of Sweden
1965 – Michael Skibbe, German football manager
1965 – James Tupper, Canadian actor
1965 – Terri Lyne Carrington, American jazz drummer and composer
1966 – Kensuke Sasaki, Japanese professional wrestler
1967 – Timothy Adams, American actor
1967 – Michael Marsh, American sprinter
1968 – Daniel Dae Kim, American actor
1968 – Lee Mack, British comedian
1968 – Marcus Schenkenberg, Swedish model
1969 – Max Cavalera, Brazilian vocalist and guitarist (Sepultura, Soulfly)
1969 – Michael DeLuise, American actor
1969 – Troy O'Leary, American baseball player
1969 – Mark Bickley, Australian AFL football player
1970 – John August, American screenwriter
1970 – Bret Baier, FOX News Channel anchor
1970 – Steve House, American mountaineer
1970 – Steven Jack, South African cricketer
1971 – Jeff Gordon, American race car driver
1972 – Stefan Brogren, Canadian actor
1973 – Eva Amaral, Spanish singer and songwriter
1973 – Xavier Marchand, French swimmer
1973 – Marek Penksa, Slovak footballer
1973 – Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis, Brazilian footballer
1974 – Kily González, Argentine footballer
1974 – Keenan Milton, American professional skater (d. 2001)
1975 – Andy Hallett, American actor (d. 2009)
1975 – Nikos Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
1975 – Daniella van Graas, Dutch model and actress
1975 – Jutta Urpilainen, Finnish politician
1976 – Andrew McLeod, Australian rules footballer
1977 – Luís Boa Morte, Portuguese footballer
1977 – Frankie Kazarian, American professional wrestler
1978 – Kurt Busch, American race car driver
1979 – Robin Peterson, South African cricketer
1980 – Richard Dawson, English cricketer
1981 – Marques Houston, American singer (IMx) and actor
1981 – Ben Scott, English cricketer
1984 – Mardy Collins, American basketball player
1985 – Crystal Bowersox, American singer
1985 – Kina Grannis, American musician
1985 – Mark Milligan, Australian footballer
1985 – Ha Seung-Jin, Korean basketball player
1985 – Luis Antonio Valencia, Ecuadorean footballer
1986 – Nick Augusto, Italian-American drummer (Trivium)
1987 – Jang Geun-suk, Korean actor
1988 – Carly Foulkes, Canadian model and actress
1988 – Tom Parker, British singer (The Wanted)
1989 – Michael Allen Martinez, American drummer (Allstar Weekend)
1989 – Jessica Mauboy, Australian singer (Young Divas)
1991 – Thiago Cardoso, Brazilian footballer
1991 – River Viiperi, Spanish model
1991 – Lucinda Dryzek, British actress
1992 – Tiffany Evans, American singer
1992 – Cole Sprouse, American actor
1992 – Dylan Sprouse, American actor
1994 – Mayuko Fukuda, Japanese actress
1995 – Jessica Sanchez, American singer
2001 – Seishiro Kato, Japanese actor

Deaths

1060 – King Henry I of France (b. 1008)
1113 – Gertrude of Saxony, daughter of Bernard II, Duke of Saxony and wife of Floris I, Count of Holland (b. 1030)
1265 – Killed in the Battle of Evesham:
- Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer (b. 1223)
- Henry de Montfort (b. 1238)
- Peter de Montfort (b. c. 1215)
- Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (b. 1208)
1306 – King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland (b. 1289)
1338 – Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, son of Edward I of England (b. 1300)
1526 – Juan Sebastián Elcano, Spanish explorer (b. 1476)
1578 – King Sebastian of Portugal (b. 1554)
1578 – Thomas Stukley, English adventurer (b. c. 1520)
1598 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English statesman (b. 1520)
1612 – Hugh Broughton, English scholar (b. 1549)
1639 – Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Mexican dramatist
1718 – René Lepage de Sainte-Claire, French lord-founder of the town of Rimouski in New France (b. 1656)
1727 – Victor-Maurice, comte de Broglie, French general (b. 1647)
1741 – Andrew Hamilton, American lawyer
1778 – Pierre de Rigaud, French colonial governor in North America (b. 1698)
1792 – John Burgoyne, British general (b. 1723)
1795 – Timothy Ruggles, American politician (b. 1711)
1804 – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan Royal Navy Admiral (b. 1731)
1834 – Dimitrios Panourgias Greek military commander during the Greek War of Independence (b. 1754)
1844 – Jakob Aall, Norwegian journalist and statesman (b. 1773)
1859 – Jean Vianney, French priest (b. 1786)
1873 – Viktor Hartmann, Russian painter (b. 1834)
1875 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (b. 1805)
1886 – Samuel Jones Tilden, Governor of New York and Democratic candidate for President of the United States in the 1876 presidential election (b. 1814)
1900 – Isaac Levitan, Russian painter (b. 1860)
1914 – Jules Lemaître, French critic and dramatist (b. 1853)
1919 – Dave Gregory, Australian cricketer (b. 1845)
1938 – Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)
1941 – Mihály Babits, Hungarian writer and poet (b. 1883)
1942 – Alberto Franchetti, Italian opera composer (b. 1860)
1957 – Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, 13th President of Brazil (b. 1869)
1958 – Ethel Anderson, Australian poet (b. 1883)
1959 – József Révai, Hungarian politician (b. 1898)
1967 – Peter Smith, English cricketer (b. 1908)
1976 – Roy Herbert Thomson, Canadian publisher (b. 1894)
1976 – Enrique Angelelli, Argentine bishop (b. 1923)
1981 – Melvyn Douglas, American actor (b. 1901)
1982 – Bruce Goff, American architect (b. 1904)
1985 – Don Whillans, British mountaineer (b. 1933)
1991 – Nikiforos Vrettakos, Greek writer and poet (b. 1912)
1992 – Seicho Matsumoto, Japanese writer and journalist (b. 1909)
1993 – Bernard Barrow, American actor (b. 1927)
1996 – Geoff Hamilton, British gardener and broadcaster (b. 1936)
1997 – Jeanne Calment, French supercentenarian, the world's oldest human on record and the only person ever to live past the age of 122 (b. 1875)
1998 – Yuri Artyukhin, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1930)
1999 – Rodney Ansell, Australian who was the inspiration for Crocodile Dundee (b. 1953)
1999 – Victor Mature, American actor (b. 1913)
2000 – Leslie Glass, American adult film actress (b. 1963)
2001 – Lorenzo Music, American actor (b. 1937)
2003 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Laureate (b. 1916)
2005 – Anatoly Larkin, Russian-born American physicist (b. 1932)
2005 – Iván Szabó, Hungarian politician (b. 1934)
2007 – Lee Hazlewood, American country singer, songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
2007 – Raul Hilberg, Austrian-born American political scientist and historian of the Holocaust (b. 1926)
2008 – Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (b. 1985)
2009 – Blake Snyder, American screenwriter (b. 1957)
2011 – Naoki Matsuda, Japanese Soccer player (b. 1977)