today.nukz.net: Almanac August 6

Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy. One of the most popular and influential stars in the United States during her lifetime, with one of Hollywood's longest careers, especially on television, Ball began acting in the 1930s, becoming both a radio actress and B-movie star in the 1940s, and then a television star during the 1950s. She was still making films in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1962, Ball became the first woman to run a major television studio, Desilu, which produced many successful and popular television series.

Ball was nominated for an Emmy Award thirteen times, and won four times. In 1977 Ball was among the first recipients of the Women in Film Crystal Award. She was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1979, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center Honors in 1986 and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1989.

Events

1284 – The Republic of Pisa is defeated in the Battle of Meloria by the Republic of Genoa, thus losing its naval dominance in the Mediterranean.
1506 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Crimean Khanate in the Battle of Kletsk
1538 – Bogotá, Colombia, is founded by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada.
1661 – The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The bloody Battle of Oriskany prevents American relief of the Siege of Fort Stanwix.
1787 – Sixty proof sheets of the Constitution of the United States are delivered to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1806 – Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates ending the Holy Roman Empire.
1819 – Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
1825 – Bolivia gains independence from Spain.
1845 – The Russian Geographical Society is founded in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1861 – The United Kingdom annexes Lagos, Nigeria.
1862 – American Civil War: the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with USS Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: the Battle of Wörth results in a decisive Prussian victory.
1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed by electric chair.
1901 – Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.
1912 – The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum.
1914 – World War I: First Battle of the Atlantic – two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Heligoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
1914 – World War I: Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.
1915 – World War I: Battle of Sari Bair – the Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
1917 – World War I: Battle of Marasesti between the Romanian and German armies begins.
1926 – Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
1926 – In New York, New York, the Warner Brothers' Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juan starring John Barrymore.
1926 – Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.
1930 – Judge Joseph Force Crater steps into a taxi in New York and disappears never to be seen again.
1940 – Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union.
1942 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
1945 – World War II: Hiroshima, Japan is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 Enola Gay. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
1953 – Pope Pius XII establishes the Dioceses of Norwich and Bridgeport and makes the Diocese of Hartford an archdiocese.
1956 – After going bankrupt in 1955, the American broadcaster DuMont Television Network makes its final broadcast, a boxing match from St. Nicholas Arena in New York in the Boxing from St. Nicholas Arena series.
1960 – Cuban Revolution: Cuba nationalizes American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
1962 – Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1964 – Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world's oldest tree, is cut down.
1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law.
1965 – The largest swimming pool in Europe was opened in Fürstenfeld, Austria.
1966 – Braniff Airlines Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska killing all 42 on board.
1976 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto lays the foundation stone of Port Qasim, Karachi.
1986 – A low-pressure system that redeveloped off the New South Wales coast dumps a record 328 millimeters (13 inches) of rain in a day on Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
1988 – The Tompkins Square Park Riot in New York City spurs a reform of the NYPD, held responsible for the event.
1990 – Gulf War: the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
1991 – Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.
1991 – Takako Doi, chair of the Social Democratic Party, becomes Japan's first female speaker of the House of Representatives.
1993 – Heavy rains and debris kill 72 in the Kagoshima and Aira areas of Kyushu, Japan.
1996 – NASA announces that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contains evidence of primitive life-forms.
1997 – Korean Air Flight 801, a Boeing 747-300, crashes into the jungle on Guam on approach to airport, killing 228.
2001 – Erwadi fire incident, 28 mentally ill persons tied to chain were burnt to death at a faith based institution at Erwadi, Tamil Nadu.
2008 – A military junta led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz stages a coup d'état in Mauritania, overthrowing president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.
2011 – A helicopter containing members of Navy SEAL 6 is shot down in Afghanistan killing 38.
2011 – A peaceful march in protest of the death of Mark Duggan in Tottenham, London ends in a riot, sparking off a wave of rioting throughout the country over the following four nights.
2012 – Nasa's Curiosity rover lands on Mars.

Births

1180 – Emperor Go-Toba of Japan (d. 1239)
1504 – Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1575)
1609 – Richard Bennett, British Colonial Governor of Virginia (d. 1675)
1619 – Barbara Strozzi (baptized), Italian singer and composer (d. 1677)
1638 – Nicolas Malebranche, French philosopher (d. 1715)
1644 – Louise de La Vallière, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (d. 1710)
1656 – Claude de Forbin, French naval commander (d. 1733)
1666 – Maria Sofia of Neuburg, German-born consort of Peter II of Portugal (d. 1699)
1697 – Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1745)
1715 – Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French writer (d. 1747)
1765 – Petros Mavromichalis, Greek leader in the Greek War of Independence and Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1848)
1766 – William Hyde Wollaston, English chemist (d. 1828)
1768 – Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French marshal (d. 1813)
1775 – Daniel O'Connell, Irish politician (d. 1847)
1809 – Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, English poet (d. 1892)
1826 – Thomas Alexander Browne, Australian writer (d. 1915)
1844 – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1900)
1844 – James Henry Greathead, British engineer (d. 1896)
1861 – Edith Roosevelt, American First Lady of the United States (d. 1948)
1866 – Matthew Henson, American Arctic explorer (d. 1955)
1868 – Paul Claudel, French poet (d. 1955)
1874 – Charles Fort, American writer and researcher (d. 1932)
1877 – Wallace H. White, Jr., American politician (d. 1952)
1880 – Hans Moser, Austrian actor (d. 1964)
1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor (d. 1961)
1881 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1955)
1881 – Louella Parsons, American gossip columnist (d. 1972)
1882 – Ernst Eklund, Swedish actor (d. 1971)
1883 – Scott Nearing, American writer and educator (d. 1983)
1886 – Edward Ballantine, American composer (d. 1971)
1887 – Dudley Benjafield, British racing driver (d. 1957)
1888 – Heinrich Schlusnus, German baritone (d. 1952)
1889 – George Kenney, American Air Force General (d. 1977)
1889 – John Middleton Murry, English poet (d. 1957)
1891 – William Slim, British general (d. 1970)
1892 – Hoot Gibson, American actor (d. 1962)
1893 – Wright Patman, American politician (d. 1976)
1895 – Ernesto Lecuona, Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1963)
1900 – Cecil H. Green, American geophysicist (d. 2003)
1902 – Dutch Schultz, American organized crime figure (d. 1935)
1904 – Jean Dessès, Greek-Egyptian fashion designer (d. 1970)
1904 – Henry Iba, American basketball coach (d. 1993)
1906 – Vic Dickenson, American trombonist (d. 1984)
1907 – László Heller, Hungarian engineer (d. 1980)
1908 – Helen Jacobs, American tennis player (d. 1997)
1908 – Will Lee, American actor (d. 1982)
1908 – Lajos Vajda, Hungarian painter (d. 1941)
1910 – Charles Crichton, British film director (d. 1999)
1911 – Lucille Ball, American actress (d. 1989)
1911 – Norman Gordon, South African cricketer
1911 – Constance Fecher Heaven, British romance writer (d. 1995)
1912 – Richard C. Miller, American photographer (d. 2010)
1916 – Richard Hofstadter, American historian (d. 1970)
1916 – Dom Mintoff, Maltese politician
1917 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (d. 1997)
1918 – Norman Granz, American record producer (d. 2001)
1920 – Ella Raines, American actress (d. 1988)
1922 – Sir Freddie Laker, English entrepreneur (d. 2006)
1923 – Jess Collins, American artist (d. 2004)
1924 – Samuel Bowers, American murder and Ku Klux Klan leader (d. 2006)
1925 – Barbara Bates, American actress (d. 1969)
1926 – Elisabeth Beresford, British author and creator of The Wombles (d. 2010)
1926 – Frank Finlay, British actor
1926 – Clem Labine, American baseball player (d. 2007)
1926 – János Rózsás, Hungarian writer
1926 – Norman Wexler, American screenwriter (d. 1999)
1928 – Herb Moford, American baseball player (d. 2005)
1928 – Andy Warhol, American artist (d. 1987)
1929 – Roch La Salle, Canadian politician (d. 2007)
1929 – Mike Elliott (saxophonist), Jamaican born ska, pop, jazz musician
1930 – Abbey Lincoln, American jazz singer (d. 2010)
1931 – Chalmers Johnson, American political scholar and author (d. 2010)
1932 – Howard Hodgkin, British painter
1933 – A. G. Kripal Singh, Indian cricketer (d. 1987)
1934 – Piers Anthony, English writer
1934 – Chris Bonington, British mountaineer
1934 – Billy Boston, Welsh rugby league footballer
1935 – Fortunato Baldelli, Cardinal, Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary
1937 – Baden Powell de Aquino, Brazilian guitarist (d. 2000)
1937 – Barbara Windsor, English actress
1938 – Paul Bartel, American actor (d. 2000)
1938 – Peter Bonerz, American actor
1940 – Mukhu Aliyev, Russian politician
1940 – Louise Sorel, American actress
1941 – Lyle Berman, American poker player
1941 – Ray Culp, American baseball player
1942 – George Jung, American convicted drug trafficker
1943 – Jon Postel, American computer scientist (d. 1998)
1944 – Inday Badiday, Filipina journalist and television personality (d. 2003)
1945 – Ron Jones, British TV director (d. 1993)
1945 – Andy Messersmith, American baseball player
1946 – Allan Holdsworth, British guitarist and composer
1946 – Masaaki Sakai, Japanese comedian
1947 – Tony Dell, Australian cricketer
1949 – Dino Bravo, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1993)
1949 – Alan Campbell, Northern Irish clergyman
1949 – Clarence Richard Silva, American Catholic Bishop of Honolulu
1950 – Dorian Harewood, American actor
1951 – Catherine Hicks, American actress
1951 – Daryl Somers, Australian television personality
1952 – Vinnie Vincent, American musician (Kiss)
1952 – Ton Scherpenzeel, Dutch keyboard player
1952 – Pat MacDonald (musician), American musician and songwriter
1953 – Iqbal Qasim, Pakistani cricketer
1954 – Paul Steigerwald, American sports announcer
1955 – Gregory Bryant-Bey, American convicted murderer (d. 2008)
1955 – Rusty Magee, American composer (d. 2003)
1956 – Stepfanie Kramer, American actress
1957 – Bob Horner, American baseball player
1957 – Jim McGreevey, American politician
1958 – Randy DeBarge, American bass guitarist and singer
1959 – Rajendra Singh Indian water conservationist, Ramon Magsaysay Award (2001)
1960 – Dale Ellis, American basketball player
1962 – Marc Lavoine, French singer and actor
1962 – Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian-born Hong Kong actress
1963 – Charles Ingram, British game show contestant
1963 – Kevin Mitnick, American computer hacker
1964 – Moosie Drier, American actor and director
1964 – Gary Valenciano, Filipino singer
1965 – Yuki Kajiura, Japanese composer
1965 – Juliane Köhler, German actress
1965 – David Robinson, American basketball player
1965 – Mark Speight, British television presenter (d. 2008)
1965 – Vincent Wells, England cricketer
1967 – Archbishop Alexy Bondarenko, Ukrainian-born American theologian
1967 – Mike Greenberg, American sportscaster
1967 – Julie Snyder, Quebec talk show host and producer
1968 – Jack de Gier, Dutch footballer
1969 – Simon Doull, New Zealand cricketer
1969 – Elliott Smith, American musician (d. 2003)
1970 – M. Night Shyamalan, Indian-born American film director
1970 – Erwin Thijs, Belgian cyclist
1971 – Merrin Dungey, American actress
1971 – Scott Minto, English footballer
1971 – Piyal Wijetunge, Sri Lankan cricketer
1972 – Geri Halliwell, British singer (Spice Girls)
1972 – Ray Lucas, American Football player
1973 – Vera Farmiga, American actress
1973 – Max Kellerman, American sportscaster
1973 – Monica Goodling, American George W. Bush Administration appointee
1973 – Stuart O'Grady, Australian cyclist
1973 – Karenna Gore Schiff, American author and political figure
1974 – Ever Carradine, American actress
1974 – Bobby Petta, Dutch footballer
1974 – DaVe.VeDa, American author
1974 – Luis Vizcaíno, Dominican baseball player
1974 – Alvin Williams, American basketball player
1975 – Renate Götschl, Austrian alpine skier
1975 – Víctor Zambrano, Venezuelan baseball player
1976 – Soleil Moon Frye, American actress
1976 – Melissa George, Australian actress
1977 – Leandro Amaral, Brazilian footballer
1977 – Jennifer Lyons, American actress
1977 – Jimmy Nielsen, Danish footballer
1977 – Luciano Zavagno, Argentine footballer
1978 – Brian Maillard, Swiss guitarist (Dominici)
1978 – Marisa Miller, American model
1979 – Francesco Bellotti, Italian cyclist
1980 – Danny Collins, Welsh footballer
1980 – András Horváth, Hungarian footballer
1980 – Wilber Pan, American-born Taiwanese singer and actor
1980 – Seneca Wallace, American football player
1981 – Diána Póth, Hungarian figure skater
1982 – Adrianne Curry, American model and reality television personality
1982 – Kevin van der Perren, Belgian figure skater
1982 – Romola Garai, British actress and model
1983 – C.J. Mosley, American football player
1983 – Neil Harvey, Barbadian footballer
1983 – Robin van Persie, Dutch footballer
1984 – Vedad Ibiševic, Bosnian footballer
1985 – Mickaël Delage, French cyclist
1985 – Bafétimbi Gomis, French footballer
1985 – Garrett Weber-Gale, American swimmer
1986 – Raphael Pyrasch, German rugby player
1986 – Reby Sky, American glamour model, radio & television personality, dancer and professional wrestler
1987 – Joran van der Sloot, Dutch figure in the Natalee Holloway case
1988 – Jared Murillo, American dancer
1990 – JonBenét Ramsey, American beauty pageant contestant and murder victim (d. 1996)
1991 – Jiao Liuyang, Chinese swimmer
1991 – Gria, Venezuelan - Canadian Artist
1997 – Jenny Lucas, Mexican American Amazing Person
2001 – Ty Simpkins, American actor

Deaths

258 – Pope Sixtus II (birth date unknown)
523 – Pope Hormisdas (b. c. 450)
1162 – Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona (b. c. 1113)
1195 – Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria (b. 1129)
1221 – Saint Dominic, Spanish founder of the Dominican Order (b. 1170)
1272 – King Stephen V of Hungary (b. 1239)
1414 – King Ladislaus of Naples (b. 1377)
1458 – Pope Callixtus III (b. 1378)
1623 – Anne Hathaway, English wife of William Shakespeare (b. 1555 or 1556)
1628 – Johannes Junius, German Mayor of Bamberg, condemned to death at the Bamberg witch trials (b. 1573)
1637 – Ben Jonson, English writer (b. 1572)
1645 – Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, English merchant (b. 1575)
1657 – Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ukrainian-born Polish-Lithuanian noble
1660 – Diego Velázquez, Spanish painter (b. 1599)
1679 – John Snell, English royalist (b. 1629)
1694 – Antoine Arnauld, French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1612)
1695 – François de Harlay de Champvallon, French Catholic archbishop (b. 1625)
1753 – Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Russian physicist (struck by lightning) (b. 1711)
1757 – Ádám Mányoki, Hungarian painter (b. 1673)
1759 – Eugene Aram, English philologist (b. 1704)
1794 – Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst, British politician (b. 1714)
1815 – James Bayard, American Senator from Delaware (b. 1767)
1828 – Konstantin von Benckendorff, Russian general and statesman (b. 1785)
1850 – Edward Walsh, Irish poet (b. 1805)
1866 – John Mason Neale, English divine, scholar and hymnwriter (b. 1818)
1881 – James Springer White, American co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (b. 1821)
1884 – Robert Spear Hudson, English businessman (b. 1812)
1890 – William Kemmler, American axe murderer (b. 1860)
1893 – Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1811)
1904 – Eduard Hanslick, Austrian music critic (b. 1825)
1914 – Ellen Louise Wilson, first wife of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (b. 1860)
1920 – Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator, author of the first military flight in independent Poland (b. 1890)
1925 – Sir Surendranath Banerjee, Indian leader of the Indian National Congress (b. 1848)
1931 – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz cornetist and pianist (b. 1903)
1945 – Richard Bong, American ace fighter pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1920)
1945 – Hiram Johnson, American politician (b. 1866)
1945 – Wu, Prince of Korea (b. 1912)
1946 – Tony Lazzeri, American baseball player (b. 1903)
1959 – Preston Sturges, American playwright, screenwriter, and director (b. 1898)
1964 – Sir Cedric Hardwicke, English actor (b. 1893)
1966 – Cordwainer Smith, American writer (b. 1913)
1969 – Theodor Adorno, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1903)
1970 – Nikos Tsiforos, Greek screenwriter and film director (b. 1912)
1973 – Fulgencio Batista, Cuban president and de facto leader (b. 1901)
1973 – Memphis Minnie, American blues singer (b. 1897)
1974 – Gene Ammons, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1925)
1976 – Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian cellist (b. 1903)
1978 – Pope Paul VI, Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (b. 1897)
1978 – Edward Durell Stone, American architect (b. 1902)
1979 – Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, German biochemist, Nobel Laureate (b. 1911)
1983 – Klaus Nomi, German singer (b. 1944)
1985 – Forbes Burnham, Guyanese visionary, 3rd President and 1st Prime Minister of Guyana (b. 1923)
1986 – Emilio Fernández, Mexican actor, screenwriter and film director (b. 1904)
1987 – Ira C. Eaker, American Air Force leader (b. 1896)
1990 – Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist (b. 1912)
1991 – Shapour Bakhtiar, Iranian prime minister (assassinated) (b. 1915)
1991 – Roland Michener, Canadian politician and governor general (b. 1900)
1991 – Harry Reasoner, American television reporter (b. 1923)
1992 – Leszek Blazynski, Polish boxer (b. 1949)
1993 – Tex Hughson, American baseball player (b. 1916)
1994 – Domenico Modugno, Italian singer and songwriter (b. 1928)
1998 – André Weil, French mathematician (b. 1906)
1999 – Rita Sakellariou, Greek singer (b. 1934)
2001 – Jorge Amado, Brazilian writer (b. 1912)
2001 – Wilhelm Mohnke, one of the original 120 members of the Nazi SS-Staff Guard (b. 1911)
2001 – Dorothy Tutin, English actress (b. 1930)
2002 – Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist (b. 1930)
2004 – Rick James, American R&B singer and multi-instrumentalist (b. 1948)
2005 – Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (b. 1928)
2005 – Robin Cook, British politician (b. 1946)
2005 – Ibrahim Ferrer, Cuban singer (Buena Vista Social Club) (b. 1927)
2007 – Heinz Barth, German SS officer (b. 1920)
2007 – Zsolt Daczi, Hungarian rock guitarist (b. 1969)
2008 – Angelos Kitsos, Greek lawyer and script writer (b. 1934)
2009 – Riccardo Cassin, Italian mountaineer (b. 1909)
2009 – Willy DeVille, American singer and songwriter (b. 1950)
2009 – John Hughes, American film director (b. 1950)
2009 – W. S. Rendra, Indonesian poet and playwright (b. 1935)
2011 – Fe del Mundo, Filipino pediatrician and National Scientist (b. 1911)