today.nukz.net: Almanac September 12

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who specialized in the sprints and the long jump. He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team. He was the most successful athlete at the 1936 Summer Olympics, a victory more poignant and often noted because Adolf Hitler had intended the 1936 games to showcase his Aryan ideals and prowess.

Events

490 BC – Battle of Marathon: The conventionally accepted date for the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians and their Plataean allies, defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece.
372 – Sixteen Kingdoms: Jin Xiaowudi, age 10, succeeds his father Jin Jianwendi as Emperor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
1213 – Albigensian Crusade: Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, defeats Peter II of Aragon at the Battle of Muret.
1229 – The Aragonese army under the command of James I of Aragon disembarks at Santa Ponça, Majorca, with the purpose of conquering the island.
1609 – Henry Hudson begins his exploration of the Hudson River while aboard the Halve Maen.
1683 – Austro-Ottoman War: Battle of Vienna – several European armies join forces to defeat the Ottoman Empire.
1814 – Battle of North Point: an American detachment halts the British land advance to Baltimore in the War of 1812.
1846 – Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning.
1847 – Mexican-American War: the Battle of Chapultepec begins.
1848 – Switzerland becomes a Federal state.
1857 – The SS Central America sinks about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, drowning a total of 426 passengers and crew, including Captain William Lewis Herndon. The ship was carrying 13–15 tons of gold from the San Francisco Gold Rush.
1874 – The District of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada is founded.
1885 – Arbroath 36–0 Bon Accord, a world record scoreline in professional football.
1890 – Salisbury, Rhodesia, is founded.
1897 – Tirah Campaign: Battle of Saragarhi.
1906 – The Newport Transporter Bridge is opened in Newport, South Wales by Viscount Tredegar.
1910 – Premiere performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Munich (with a chorus of 852 singers and an orchestra of 171 players. Mahler's rehearsal assistant conductor was Bruno Walter)
1919 – Adolf Hitler joins the German Workers Party.
1930 – Wilfred Rhodes ends his 1110-game first-class career by taking 5 for 95 for H.D.G. Leveson Gower's XI against the Australians.
1933 – Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction.
1938 – Adolf Hitler demands autonomy and self-determination for the Germans of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.
1940 – Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France.
1940 – An explosion at the Hercules Powder Company plant in Kenvil, New Jersey kills 51 people and injures over 200.
1942 – World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks with a heavy loss of life.
1942 – World War II: First day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge during the Guadalcanal campaign. U.S. Marines protecting Henderson Field on Guadalcanal are attacked by Imperial Japanese Army forces.
1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi, by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny.
1944 – World War II: The liberation of Serbia from Nazi Germany and the Chetniks continues. Bajina Bašta in western Serbia is among those liberated cities. Near Trier, American troops enter Germany for the first time.
1948 – Invasion of the State of Hyderabad by the Indian Army on the day after the Pakistani leader Jinnah's death.
1952 – Strange occurrences, including a monster sighting, take place in Flatwoods, West Virginia.
1953 – U.S. Representative John Fitzgerald Kennedy marries Jacqueline Lee Bouvier at St. Mary's Church in Newport, Rhode Island.
1958 – Jack Kilby demonstrates the first integrated circuit.
1959 – Premiere of Bonanza, the first regularly scheduled TV program presented in color.
1959 – The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the moon.
1961 – The African and Malagasy Union is founded.
1964 – Canyonlands National Park is designated as a National Park.
1966 – Gemini 11, the penultimate mission of NASA's Gemini program, and the current human altitude record holder (except for the Apollo lunar missions)
1970 – Palestinian terrorists blow up three hijacked airliners in Jordan, continuing to hold the passengers hostage in various undisclosed locations in Amman.
1974 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, 'Messiah' of the Rastafari movement, is deposed following a military coup by the Derg, ending a reign of 58 years.
1974 – Juventude Africana Amilcar Cabral is founded in Guinea-Bissau.
1977 – South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko is killed in police custody.
1979 – Indonesia is hit with an earthquake that measures 8.1 on the Richter scale.
1980 – Military coup in Turkey.
1983 – A Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, is robbed of approximately US$7 million by Los Macheteros.
1983 – The USSR vetoes a UN Security Council Resolution deploring the Soviet shooting down of a Korean civilian jetliner on September 1.
1984 – Dwight Gooden sets the baseball record for strikeouts in a season by a rookie with 246, previously set by Herb Score in 1954. Gooden's 276 strikeouts that season, pitched in 218 innings, set the current record.
1988 – Hurricane Gilbert devastates Jamaica; it turns towards Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula 2 days later, causing an estimated $5 billion in damage.
1990 – The two German states and the Four Powers sign the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany in Moscow, paving the way for German re-unification.
1992 – NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space.
1992 – Abimael Guzmán, leader of the Shining Path, is captured by Peruvian special forces; shortly thereafter the rest of Shining Path's leadership fell as well.
1994 – Frank Eugene Corder crashes a single-engine Cessna 150 into the White House's south lawn, striking the West wing and killing himself.
1999 – Indonesia announces it will allow international peace-keepers into East Timor.
2001 – Ansett Australia, Australia's first commercial interstate airline, collapses due to increased strain on the international airline industry, leaving 10,000 people unemployed.
2003 – The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
2003 – In Fallujah, US forces mistakenly shoot and kill eight Iraqi police officers.
2005 – Hong Kong Disneyland opens in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong.
2007 – Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada is convicted of the crime of plunder.
2008 – The 2008 Chatsworth train collision in Los Angeles between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train kills 25 people.

Births

1492 – Duke Lorenzo II de' Medici of Urbino (d. 1519)
1494 – King Francis I of France (d. 1547)
1605 – William Dugdale, English antiquarian (d. 1686)
1688 – Ferdinand Brokoff, Czech sculptor (d. 1731)
1690 – Peter Dens, Flemish Catholic theologian (d. 1775)
1725 – Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer (d. 1792)
1736 – Hsinbyushin, Burmese king (d. 1776)
1740 – Johann Heinrich Jung, German author (d. 1817)
1768 – Benjamin Carr, American composer, singer, teacher, and music publisher (d. 1831)
1797 – Samuel Joseph May, American abolitionist (d. 1871)
1812 – Sir Edward Creasy, English historian (d. 1878)
1812 – Richard Hoe, American inventor and industrialist (d. 1886)
1818 – Richard Gatling, American firearms inventor (d. 1903)
1818 – Theodor Kullak, German pianist, composer, teacher (d. 1882)
1830 – William Sprague IV, American politician (d. 1915)
1837 – Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse (d. 1892)
1852 – H. H. Asquith, British statesman (d. 1928)
1855 – Simon-Napoléon Parent, Canadian politician (d. 1920)
1856 – Johann Heinrich Beck, American composer and conductor (d. 1924)
1857 – Manuel Espinosa Batista, Panamanian Politician and business. Founder of the Republic. (d. 1919)
1862 – Carl Eytel, German-American artist working in Palm Springs, California (9. 1925)
1866 – 1st Marquess of Willingdon, Governor General of Canada, Viceroy of India (d. 1941)
1875 – Matsunosuke Onoe, Japanese actor (d. 1926)
1880 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist and author (d. 1956)
1885 – Heinrich Hoffmann, German photographer (d. 1957)
1888 – Maurice Chevalier, French singer and actor (d. 1972)
1891 – Pedro Albizu Campos, Puerto Rican independence advocate (d. 1965)
1891 – Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times 1935-61 (d. 1968)
1892 – Alfred A. Knopf Sr., American publisher (d. 1984)
1894 – Billy Gilbert, American actor and comedian (d. 1971)
1895 – Freymóður Jóhannsson, Icelandic artist (d. 1973)
1897 – Grietje Jansen-Anker, Dutch super-centenarian (d. 2009)
1897 – Irene Joliot-Curie, French physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 1956)
1898 – Salvador Bacarisse, Spanish composer (d. 1963)
1898 – Alma Moodie, Australian classical violinist (d. 1943)
1898 – Ben Shahn, Lithuanian-born American artist (d. 1969)
1901 – Ben Blue, Canadian actor and comedian (d. 1975)
1901 – Shmuel Horowitz, Russian-born Israeli agronomist (d. 1999)
1902 – Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, Brazilian politician (d. 1976)
1905 – Linda Agostini, Australian murder victim known as the "Pyjama Girl" (d. 1934)
1907 – Louis MacNeice, Irish poet (d. 1963)
1909 – Donald MacDonald, Canadian politician (d. 1986)
1913 – Jesse Owens, American athlete (d. 1980)
1913 – Eiji Toyoda, Japanese industrialist
1914 – Rais Amrohvi, Pakistani poet and psychoanalyst (d. 1988)
1914 – Desmond Llewelyn, Welsh actor (d. 1999)
1915 – Billy Daniels, American singer with big bands and solo (d. 1988)
1915 – Frank McGee, American journalist (d. 1974)
1916 – Tony Bettenhausen, American race car driver (d. 1961)
1916 – Edward Binns, American actor (d. 1990)
1917 – Pierre Sévigny, Canadian politician (d. 2004)
1917 – Han Suyin, Eurasian novelist
1920 – Irene Dailey, American actress (d. 2008)
1921 – Stanislaw Lem, Polish writer (d. 2006)
1922 – Ellen Demming, American actress (d. 2002)
1922 – Mark Rosenzweig, American brain researcher (d. 2009)
1922 – Jackson Mac Low, American poet, performance artist, composer and playwright(d. 2004)
1925 – Stan Lopata, American baseball player
1927 – Mathé Altéry, French singer
1927 – Freddie Jones, English character actor
1928 – Ernie Vandeweghe, Canadian-born American basketball player and physician
1929 – Harvey Schmidt, American composer for musical theatre
1930 – Larry Austin, American composer
1931 – Ian Holm, English actor
1931 – George Jones, American country music singer
1931 – Bill McKinney, American actor (d. 2011)
1932 – Atli Dam, Faroese politician, 5th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 2005)
1933 – Tatiana Doronina, Russian actress
1934 – Glenn Davis, American football player (d. 2009)
1934 – Jaegwon Kim, Korean-born American philosopher
1937 – George Chuvalo, Canadian boxer
1938 – Claude Ruel, French Canadian ice hockey coach
1938 – Tatiana Troyanos, American mezzo-soprano (d. 1993)
1939 – Henry Waxman, American politician
1939 – Phillip Ramey, American composer, pianist and writer on music
1940 – Linda Gray, American actress
1940 – Skip Hinnant, American actor
1940 – Mickey Lolich, American baseball player
1940 – Patrick Mower, English actor
1940 – Stephen J. Solarz, American politician (d. 2010)
1942 – Michel Drucker, French journalist and television host
1942 – François Tavenas, Canadian academic (d. 2004)
1942 – Tomás Marco, Spanish composer
1943 – Maria Muldaur, American singer
1943 – Michael Ondaatje, Sri Lankan writer
1944 – Fred Fay, American disability rights activist
1944 – Leonard Peltier, American activist
1944 – Vladimir Spivakov, Russian violinist and conductor
1944 – Barry White, American singer (d. 2003)
1944 – Colin Young, American singer
1945 – John Mauceri, American conductor
1946 – Tony Bellamy, American guitarist, pianist and vocalist
1947 – Bjørn Floberg, Norwegian actor
1948 – Luis Lima, Argentinian tenor
1948 – Bruce Mahler, American actor
1948 – Max Walker, Australian cricketer
1949 – Charles Burlingame, American pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 (d. 2001)
1949 – Irina Rodnina, Russian figure skater
1950 – Marguerite Blais, Canadian journalist, radio host and politician
1950 – Gustav Brunner, Austrian engineer
1950 – Cynthia Myers, American model (d. 2011)
1950 – Mike Murphy, Canadian ice hockey player
1951 – Bertie Ahern, Irish politician
1951 – Norm Dubé, Canadian ice hockey player
1951 – Ray Gravell, Welsh rugby union player (d. 2007)
1951 – Joe Pantoliano, American actor
1951 – Gerald Stano, American serial killer (d. 1998)
1951 – Ali-Ollie Woodson, American singer & musician (The Temptations) (d. 2010)
1952 – Gerry Beckley, American musician (America)
1952 – Neil Peart, Canadian drummer, lyricist and author (Rush)
1954 – Adrian Adonis, American professional wrestler (d. 1988)
1955 – Peter Scolari, American actor
1956 – Barry Andrews, British musician
1956 – Sam Brownback, American politician
1956 – Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong artist and director (d. 2003)
1956 – Brian Robertson, Scottish rock guitarist
1956 – Ricky Rudd, American race car driver
1956 – Walter Woon, Singaporean attorney and politician
1957 – Rachel Ward, English actress
1957 – Hans Zimmer, German composer
1958 – Wilfredo Benitez, American boxer
1958 – Gregg Edelman, American actor
1959 – Scott Brown, American politician
1960 – Stefanos Korkolis, Greek songwriter and pianist
1961 – Mylène Farmer, French singer and songwriter
1961 – Kathem Al Saher, Iraqi singer
1962 – Dino Merlin, Bosnian singer
1962 – Amy Yasbeck, American actress
1963 – Paul Bellini, Canadian screenwriter, comedian
1964 – Simon Bowthorpe, British businessman
1964 – Dieter Hecking, German footballer
1965 – Einstein Kristiansen, Norwegian cartoonist, designer and TV host
1965 – Vernon Maxwell, American basketball player
1966 – Darren E. Burrows, American actor
1966 – Ben Folds, American musician
1966 – Vezio Sacratini, Italian ice hockey player
1967 – Pat Listach, American baseball player
1967 – Jason Statham, English actor
1967 – Louis C.K., American comedian
1968 – Ler LaLonde, American guitarist (Primus)
1968 – Richard Snell, South African cricketer
1968 – Paul F. Tompkins, American comedian
1969 – Ángel Cabrera, Argentine golfer
1969 – James Frey, American writer
1969 – Shigeki Maruyama, Japanese golfer
1970 – Josh Hopkins, American actor
1970 – Nathan Larson, American musician (Shudder To Think, Hot One)
1971 – Ahn Jae Wook, South Korean actor and composer
1972 – Sidney, Brazilian footballer
1973 – Darren Campbell, British athlete
1973 – Ki-Jana Carter, American football player
1973 – Martin Lapointe, Canadian hockey player
1973 – Paul Walker, American actor
1974 – Caroline Aigle, French fighter pilot (d. 2007)
1974 – Jennifer Nettles, American country singer (Sugarland)
1974 – Nuno Valente, Portuguese footballer
1975 – Luis Castillo, Dominican baseball player
1976 – Bizzy Bone, American rapper, (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony)
1976 – Maciej Zurawski, Polish footballer
1977 – Nathan Bracken, Australian cricketer
1977 – Grant Denyer, Australian television personality and TV host
1977 – Jeff Irwin, American musician
1977 – James McCartney, British musician, son of Paul McCartney
1977 – Idan Raichel, Israeli musician
1977 – David Thompson, English footballer
1978 – Elisabetta Canalis, Italian model and actress
1978 – Benjamin McKenzie, American actor
1978 – Ruben Studdard, American singer
1980 – Roda Antar, Lebanese football player
1980 – Sean Burroughs, American baseball player
1980 – Fernando Cesar de Souza, Brazilian footballer
1980 – Gus G., Greek musician
1980 – Joe Loeffler, American musician (Chevelle)
1980 – Kevin Sinfield, English Rugby League player
1980 – Josef Vašícek, Czech ice hockey player (d. 2011)
1980 – Yao Ming, Chinese basketball player
1981 – Marty Adams, Canadian actor and comedian
1981 – Alan Arruda, Brazilian footballer
1981 – Jennifer Hudson, American actress and singer
1981 – Staciana Stitts, American swimmer
1981 – Hosea Chanchez, American actor
1982 – Nana Ozaki, Japanese model
1982 – Zoran Planinic, Croatian basketball player
1983 – Tom Geißler, German footballer
1983 – Rami Haikal, Jordanian guitarist
1983 – Sebastian Hofmann, German footballer
1983 – Daniel Muir, American football player
1983 – Sergio Parisse, Argentina-born Italian rugby player
1983 – Clayton Richard, American baseball player
1983 – Carly Smithson, Irish singer
1984 – September, Swedish singer
1984 – Nashat Akram, Iraqi footballer
1985 – Jonatan Cerrada, Belgian singer and actor
1986 – Joanne Jackson, English swimmer
1986 – Yuto Nagatomo, Japanese footballer
1986 – Dimitrios Regas, Greek sprinter
1986 – Emmy Rossum, American actress and singer
1988 – Amanda Jenssen, Swedish singer
1989 – Freddie Freeman, American baseball player
1989 – Andrew Luck, American football player
1991 – Scott Wootton, English footballer
1996 – Colin Ford, American actor

Deaths

1185 – Andronikos I Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (b. 1118)
1213 – King Peter II of Aragon (b. 1174)
1362 – Pope Innocent VI
1369 – Blanche of Lancaster, English noblewoman (b. 1345)
1500 – Albert, Duke of Saxony (b. 1443)
1612 – Tsar Vasili IV of Russia (b. 1552)
1642 – Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars, French conspirator (b. 1620)
1660 – Jacob Cats, Dutch poet, jurist, and politician (b. 1577)
1665 – Jean Bolland, Belgian writer (b. 1596)
1672 – Tanneguy Lefebvre, French classical scholar (b. 1615)
1683 – King Afonso VI of Portugal (b. 1643)
1691 – John George III, Elector of Saxony (b. 1647)
1695 – Jacob Abendana, Spanish scholar (b. 1630)
1712 – Jan van der Heyden, Dutch painter (b. 1637)
1764 – Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer (b. 1683)
1779 – Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple, English politician (b. 1711)
1810 – Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet, English merchant banker (b. 1740)
1814 – Robert Ross, English Army officer (b. 1766)
1819 – Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (b. 1742)
1833 – Charles Larkin, English auctioneer and electoral reformer (b. 1775)
1836 – Christian Dietrich Grabbe, German writer (b. 1801)
1869 – Peter Mark Roget, British lexicographer (b. 1779)
1870 – Fitz Hugh Ludlow, American author (b. 1836)
1874 – François Guizot, French historian and statesman (b. 1787)
1903 – Duncan Gillies, Australia politician (b. 1834)
1907 – Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, Georgian noble (b. 1837)
1912 – Pierre-Hector Coullie, French Archbishop (b. 1829)
1918 – George Reid, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1845)
1919 – Leonid Andreyev, Russian writer (b. 1871)
1923 – Jules Violle, French physicist and inventor (b. 1841)
1927 – Sarah Frances Whiting, American physicist and astronomer (b. 1847)
1929 – Rainis, Latvian poet and playwright (b. 1865)
1938 – Prince Arthur of Connaught (b. 1883)
1944 – William Stickney, American golfer (b. 1879)
1945 – Hajime Sugiyama, Japanese general (b. 1880)
1953 – Hugo Schmeisser, German weapons designer (b. 1884)
1953 – Lewis Stone, American character actor (b. 1879)
1956 – Hans Carossa, German writer (b. 1878)
1956 – Sándor Graf Festetics, Hungarian politician (b. 1882)
1956 – Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes, English RMS Titanic survivor (b. 1878)
1960 – Dino Borgioli, Italian lyric tenor (b. 1891)
1961 – Carl Hermann, German physicist (b. 1898)
1962 – Spot Poles, American baseball player b. 1887
1967 – Vladimir Bartol, Slovene writer (b. 1903)
1968 – Tommy Armour, Scottish golfer (b. 1894)
1971 – Walter Egan, American golfer (b. 1881)
1972 – William Boyd, American actor (b. 1895)
1977 – Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist (b. 1946)
1977 – Les Haylen, Australian politician and novelist (b. 1898)
1977 – Robert Lowell, American poet (b. 1917)
1978 – Sir William Hudson, Australian engineer (b. 1896)
1981 – Eugenio Montale, Italian poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1896)
1982 – Federico Moreno Torroba, Spanish composer (b. 1891)
1986 – Jacques Henri Lartigue, French photographer (b. 1894)
1990 – Athene Seyler, English actress and centenarian (b. 1889)
1991 – Bruce Matthews, Canadian Army officer and businessman (b. 1909)
1992 – Anthony Perkins, American actor (b. 1932)
1993 – Raymond Burr, Canadian actor (b. 1917)
1993 – Willie Mosconi, American billiards player (b. 1913)
1994 – Tom Ewell, American actor (b. 1909)
1994 – Boris Yegorov, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1937)
1995 – Jeremy Brett, English actor (b. 1933)
1995 – Yasutomo Nagai, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1965)
1996 – Ernesto Geisel, President of Brazil (b. 1907)
1999 – Bill Quackenbush, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1922)
2000 – Konrad Kujau, German illustrator and forger (b. 1938)
2000 – Stanley Turrentine, American saxophonist (b. 1934)
2001 – Victor Wong, Chinese-American actor (b. 1927)
2003 – Johnny Cash, American singer and guitarist (b. 1932)
2004 – Kenny Buttrey, American drummer, b. 1945
2008 – Bob Quinn, Australian footballer (b. 1915)
2008 – David Foster Wallace, American author and essayist (b. 1962)
2009 – Norman Borlaug, American agronomist (b. 1914)
2009 – Jack Kramer, American tennis player (b. 1921)
2009 – Willy Ronis, French photographer (b. 1910)
2010 – Claude Chabrol, French director and screenwriter (b. 1930)
2010 – Giulio Zignoli, Italian footballer (b. 1946)
2011 – Alexander Galimov, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1985)