today.nukz.net: Almanac August 7

Jimmy Donal Wales ( born August 7, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company. Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, where he attended Randolph School, a university-preparatory school, then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance. While in graduate school, he taught at two universities, but left before completing a PhD in order to take a job in finance and later worked as the research director of a Chicago futures and options firm. In 1996, he and two partners founded Bomis, a male-oriented web portal featuring entertainment and adult content. The company would provide the initial funding for the peer-reviewed free encyclopedia Nupedia (2000–2003) and its successor, Wikipedia.

On January 15, 2001, with Larry Sanger and others, Wales launched Wikipedia, a free, open content encyclopedia that enjoyed rapid growth and popularity, and as Wikipedia’s public profile grew, he became the project’s promoter and spokesman. He is historically cited as a co-founder of Wikipedia, though he has disputed the "co-" designation, declaring himself the sole founder. Wales serves on the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit charitable organization he helped establish to operate Wikipedia, holding its board-appointed "community founder" seat. In 2004, he co-founded Wikia, a for-profit wiki-hosting service. His role in creating Wikipedia, which has become the world’s largest encyclopedia, prompted Time magazine to name him in its 2006 list of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World".

Events

322 BC – Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon.
461 – Roman Emperor Majorian is beheaded near the river Iria in north-west Italy following his arrest and deposition by the magister militum Ricimer.
626 – The Avar and Slav armies leave the siege of Constantinople.
936 – Coronation of King Otto I of Germany.
1420 – Construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore begins in Florence.
1427 – The Visconti of Milan's fleet is destroyed by the Venetians on the Po River.
1461 – The Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor.
1679 – The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the south-eastern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.
1714 – The Battle of Gangut: the first important victory of the Russian Navy.
1782 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.
1789 – The United States Department of War is established.
1791 – United States troops destroy the Miami town of Kenapacomaqua near the site of present-day Logansport, Indiana in the Northwest Indian War.
1794 – U.S. President George Washington invokes the Militia Acts of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.
1819 – Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.
1879 – The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester, England, United Kingdom.
1890 – Anna Månsdotter becomes the last woman in Sweden to be executed, for the 1889 Yngsjö murder.
1909 – Alice Huyler Ramsey and three friends become the first women to complete a transcontinental auto trip, taking 59 days to travel from New York, New York to San Francisco, California.
1927 – The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
1930 – The last confirmed lynching of blacks in the Northern United States occurs in Marion, Indiana. Two men, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, are killed.
1933 – The Simele massacre: The Iraqi Government slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Simele. The day becomes known as Assyrian Martyrs Day.
1938 – The Holocaust: The building of Mauthausen concentration camp begins.
1940 – World War II: Alsace-Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich.
1942 – World War II: the Battle of Guadalcanal begins – United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
1944 – IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
1947 – Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
1947 – The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
1955 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, sells its first transistor radios in Japan.
1959 – The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the "sheaves of wheat" design, and was minted until 2008.
1959 – Explorer program: Explorer 6 launches from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1960 – Ivory Coast becomes independent.
1964 – Vietnam War: the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
1964 – Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world's oldest tree, is cut down.
1965 – The infamous first Reyes party between Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and motorcycle gang the Hells Angels takes place at Kesey's estate in La Honda, California introducing psychedelics to the gang world and forever linking the hippie movement to the Hell's Angels.
1966 – Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
1967 – Vietnam War: China agrees to give North Vietnam an undisclosed amount of aid in the form of a grant.
1970 – California judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his courtroom and killed during in an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.
1974 – Philippe Petit performs a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center 1,368 feet (417 m) in the air.
1976 – Viking program: Viking 2 enters orbit around Mars.
1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal due to toxic waste that had been negligently disposed of.
1979 – Several tornadoes struck the city of Woodstock, Ontario, Canada and the surrounding communities.
1981 – The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
1985 – Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
1989 – U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
1998 – The United States embassy bombings in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya kill approximately 212 people.
1999 – The Chechnya-based Islamic International Brigade invades the neighboring Russian Dagestan.
2007 – Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks baseball great Hank Aaron's record by hitting his 756th home run.
2008 – Georgia launches a large-scale military offensive against South Ossetia, in an attempt to reclaim the territory from Russia, starting the 2008 South Ossetia war.
2012 – Flooding in the Phillipines capital Manilla forces at least 20,000 people to flee their homes with the death toll after eight days of heavy rain throughout the country reaching 53.

Births

317 – Constantius II, Roman emperor (d. 361)
1282 – Princess Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (d. 1316)
1533 – Alonso de Ercilla, Basque soldier and poet (d. 1595)
1560 – Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian countess and serial killer (d. 1614)
1571 – Thomas Lupo, English composer and viol player (d. 1627)
1574 – Robert Dudley, English writer (d. 1649)
1598 – Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (d. 1672)
1726 – James Bowdoin, American Revolutionary leader and politician (d. 1790)
1734 – Duchess Maria Anna Josepha of Bavaria, consort of Baden-Baden (d. 1776)
1742 – Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary general (d. 1786)
1751 – Wilhelmina of Prussia, Princess of Orange (d. 1820)
1779 – Louis de Freycinet, French explorer (d. 1842)
1779 – Carl Ritter, German geographer (d. 1859)
1783 – Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom (d. 1810)
1844 – Auguste Michel-Lévy, French geologist (d. 1911)
1860 – Alan Leo, British astrologer (d. 1917)
1862 – Victoria of Baden, Queen of Sweden (d. 1931)
1867 – Emil Nolde, German painter (d. 1956)
1868 – Ladislaus Bortkiewicz, Russian mathematician (d. 1931)
1876 – Mata Hari, Dutch spy (d. 1917)
1877 – Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (d. 1949)
1879 – Johannes Kotze, South African cricketer (d. 1931)
1884 – Billie Burke, American actress (d. 1970)
1901 – Ann Harding, American actress (d. 1981)
1903 – Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)
1904 – Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1971)
1907 – Albert Kotin, American abstract painter (d. 1980)
1911 – Nicholas Ray, American director and scenarist (d. 1979)
1911 – István Bibó, Hungarian lawyer and politician (d. 1979)
1913 – George Van Eps, American guitarist (d. 1998)
1918 – Gordon Zahn, American sociologist and pacifist (d. 2007)
1921 – Manitas de Plata, French guitarist
1925 – M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
1925 – Felice Bryant, American country songwriter and singer (d. 2003)
1926 – Stan Freberg, American voice comedian
1926 – Géza Kádas, Hungarian swimmer (d. 1979)
1927 – Edwin Edwards, American politician
1927 – Art Houtteman, American baseball player (d. 2003)
1927 – Carl Switzer, American child actor (d. 1959)
1928 – Betsy Byars, American author
1928 – Romeo Muller, American screenwriter (d. 1992)
1928 – James Randi, Canadian-American magician
1929 – Don Larsen, American baseball player
1931 – Charles E. Rice, American legal scholar and author
1932 – Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian athlete (d. 1973)
1932 – Edward Hardwicke, British actor (d. 2011)
1932 – Maurice Rabb, Jr., American ophthalmologist
1933 – Eddie Firmani, South African football player and coach
1933 – Jerry Pournelle, American writer
1934 – Sándor Simó, Hungarian film producer, director and screenwriter (d. 2001)
1936 – Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American saxophonist (d. 1977)
1937 – Don Wilson, England cricketer
1937 – Zoltán Berczik, Hungarian table tennis player (d. 2011)
1939 – Anjanette Comer, American actress
1940 – Jean-Luc Dehaene, Belgian politician
1942 – Tobin Bell, American actor
1942 – Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
1942 – Carlos Monzón, Argentine boxer (d. 1995)
1942 – B. J. Thomas, American singer
1942 – Caetano Veloso, Brazilian musician
1943 – Lana Cantrell, Australian-American singer and entertainment lawyer
1943 – Alain Corneau, French film director {d. 2010}
1944 – John Glover, American actor
1944 – Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
1944 – David Rasche, American actor
1945 – Alan Page, American football player and Minnesota Supreme Court justice
1946 – Ed Seykota, American commodities and futures trader
1947 – Franciscus Henri, Dutch-born Australian entertainer
1948 – Marty Appel, American public relations executive and author
1948 – Greg Chappell, Australian cricketer and coach
1949 – Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese political leader
1950 – Alan Keyes, American diplomat and political activist
1951 – Joachim Thiel, German footballer
1952 – Alexei Sayle, British comedian
1953 – Anne Fadiman, American writer; daughter of Clifton Fadiman
1954 – Jonathan Pollard, Israeli spy
1955 – Diane Downs, American convicted murderer
1955 – Wayne Knight, American actor
1955 – Greg Nickels, American politician
1955 – Blas Giraldo Reyes Rodríguez, Cuban dissident
1955 – Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer
1955 – Gregoris Valtinos, Greek actor and director
1956 – Sharon Isbin, American classical guitarist, founder of Juilliard guitar department
1957 – Caroline Aaron, American actress
1957 – Alexander Dityatin, Soviet gymnast
1958 – Russell Baze, Canadian-born American horse racing jockey
1958 – Bruce Dickinson, English singer (Iron Maiden)
1958 – Alberto Salazar, American distance runner
1959 – Ali Shah, Zimbabwean cricketer
1960 – David Duchovny, American actor
1960 – Jacquie O'Sullivan, British singer (Bananarama)
1961 – Brian Conley, English comedian
1961 – Yelena Davydova, Soviet gymnast
1962 – Alain Robert, French urban climber
1962 – Alison Brown, American banjo player and guitarist
1962 – Bruno Pelletier, Canadian singer
1963 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, son of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (d. 1963)
1963 – Harold Perrineau, American actor
1963 – Marcus Roberts, American jazz musician
1964 – John Birmingham, Australian author
1964 – Michael Weishan, American TV host
1966 – Kristin Hersh, American singer and guitarist (Throwing Muses)
1966 – Jimmy Wales, American internet entrepreneur
1967 – Jason Grimsley, American baseball player
1968 – Lynn Strait, American singer (Snot) (d. 1998)
1969 – Paul Lambert, Scottish Footballer and Manager
1970 – Eric Namesnik, American swimmer (d. 2006)
1971 – Dominic Cork, England cricketer
1971 – Sydney Penny, American actress
1971 – Rachel York, American actress and singer
1972 – Greg Serano, American actor
1973 – Danny Graves, American baseball player
1973 – Zane Lowe, New Zealand radio and television presenter
1973 – Kevin Muscat, Australian footballer
1974 – Chico Benymon, American actor
1974 – Loso, Thai Singer
1974 – Michael Shannon, American actor
1974 – Andrejs Štolcers, Latvian footballer
1975 – Koray Candemir, Turkish singer
1975 – David Hicks, Australian alleged terrorist
1975 – Hans Matheson, Scottish Actor
1975 – Edgar Rentería, Colombian baseball player
1975 – Vanessa Stacey, New Zealand actress
1975 – Charlize Theron, South African actress
1975 – Gaahl (Kristian Eivind Espedal), Norwegian musician
1976 – Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos, Greek footballer
1976 – Shane Lechler, American football player
1977 – Charlotte Ronson, British fashion designer
1977 – Samantha Ronson, British DJ
1978 – Alexandre Aja, French director
1978 – Mark McCammon, Barbadian football player
1978 – Jamey Jasta, American singer (Hatebreed)
1978 – Cirroc Lofton, American actor
1978 – Vanness Wu, Taiwanese singer
1978 – Shirley Yeung, Hong Kong actress
1979 – Eric Johnson, American actor
1979 – Wendy van der Plank, English actress
1979 – Birgit Zotz, Austrian writer and anthropologist
1980 – Anomie Belle, American musician
1980 – Carsten Busch, German footballer
1980 – Aurélie Claudel, French model
1980 – Tácio Caetano Cruz Queiroz, Brazilian footballer
1982 – Yana Klochkova, Ukrainian swimmer
1982 – Marco Melandri, Italian motorcycle racer
1982 – Vassilis Spanoulis, Greek basketball player
1983 – Christian Chávez, Mexican singer and actor (RBD)
1983 – Andriy Hryvko, Ukrainian cyclist
1983 – Tina O'Brien, British actress
1984 – Stratos Perperoglou, Greek basketball player
1986 – Paul Biedermann, German swimmer
1986 – Valter Birsa, Slovenian footballer
1986 – Nancy Sumari, Tanzanian beauty queen and model
1987 – Sidney Crosby, Canadian ice hockey player
1987 – Mustapha Dumbuya, English footballer
1987 – Ryan Lavarnway, American baseball player
1987 – Rouven Sattelmaier, German footballer
1988 – Melody Oliveria, American internet blogger
1988 – Beanie Wells, American football player
1989 – DeMar DeRozan, American basketball player
1990 – Helen Flanagan, English actress
1991 – Mike Trout, American baseball player
1991 – Mitchell te Vrede, Dutch footballer
1993 – Zaur Sizo, Russian footballer

Deaths

461 – Majorian, Roman Emperor (b. 420)
479 – Emperor Yuryaku of Japan
1106 – Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1050)
1485 – Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany, Scottish prince
1613 – Thomas Fleming, English judge (b. 1544)
1616 – Vincenzo Scamozzi, Italian architect (b. 1548)
1635 – Friedrich Spee, German writer (b. 1591)
1639 – Martin van den Hove, Dutch scientist (b. 1605)
1661 – Jin Shengtan, Chinese editor, writer and critic (b. 1608)
1817 – Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, French industrialist (b. 1739)
1834 – Joseph Marie Jacquard, French weaver and inventor (b. 1752)
1848 – Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist (b. 1779)
1855 – Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (b. 1802)
1864 – Li Xiucheng, Chinese General in the Taiping Rebellion.(b. 1823)
1893 – Alfredo Catalani, Italian musician (b. 1854)
1904 – Louis Dutfoy, French sports shooter (b. 1860)
1912 – François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (b. 1841)
1917 – Edwin Harris Dunning, first pilot to land his aircraft on a moving ship. (b. 1891)
1938 – Constantin Stanislavski, Russian/Soviet theatre practitioner (b. 1863)
1941 – Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1861)
1946 – George Wilkinson, British water polo player (b. 1879)
1948 – Charles Bryant, British actor and film director (b. 1879)
1953 – Abner Powell, American baseball player (b. 1860)
1957 – Oliver Hardy, American comedian and actor (b. 1892)
1960 – Luis Ángel Firpo, Argentine Boxer (b. 1894)
1969 – Joseph Kosma, French composer (Autumn Leaves) (b. 1905)
1970 – Harold Haley, American judge (b. 1904)
1970 – Jonathan Jackson, instigator of the Marin County Civic Center shootout and brother of Black Panther George Jackson (b. 1953)
1972 – Joi Lansing, American model and actress (b. 1929)
1972 – Aspasia Manos, wife of king Alexander of Greece (b. 1896)
1973 – Jack Gregory, Former Australian cricketer (b. 1895)
1974 – Rosario Castellanos, Mexican poet (b. 1925)
1974 – Sylvio Mantha, professional ice hockey player (b. 1902)
1984 – Esther Phillips, American singer (b. 1935)
1985 – Grayson Hall, American actress (b. 1923)
1987 – Camille Chamoun, Lebanese President (b. 1900)
1989 – Mickey Leland, American politician, United States Congressman from Texas (b. 1944)
1991 – Billy T. James, New Zealand comedian, (b. 1944)
1992 – John Anderson, American actor (b. 1922)
1994 – Larry Martyn, comedy actor (b. 1934)
1995 – Brigid Brophy, British author (b. 1929)
1999 – Brion James, American actor (b. 1945)
2003 – Mickey McDermott, baseball player (b. 1929)
2004 – Red Adair, American oil field firefighter (b. 1915)
2004 – Colin Bibby, English ornithologist (b. 1948)
2005 – Peter Jennings, Canadian-born news anchor (b. 1938)
2006 – Mary Anderson Bain, American New Deal politician (b. 1911)
2007 – Hal Fishman, American television personality (b. 1931)
2007 – Ernesto Alonso, Mexican actor, director and producer (b. 1917)
2007 – Angus Tait, New Zealand electronics innovator and businessman (b. 1919)
2008 – Bernie Brillstein, American talent agent/manager and producer (b. 1931)
2008 – Andrea Pininfarina, Italian engineer (b. 1957)
2009 – Louis E. Saavedra, American mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico (b. 1933)
2009 – Mike Seeger, American folk musician (b. 1933)
2010 – Roberto Cantoral, Mexican singer-songwriter (b. 1935)
2011 – Nancy Wake, British war agent (b. 1912)
2011 – Mark Hatfield, American politician, U.S. Senator from Oregon and Governor of Oregon (b. 1922)