today.nukz.net: Almanac September 27

Còsimo di Giovanni degli Mèdici (27 September 1389 – 1 August 1464) was the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance; also known as "Cosimo 'the Elder'" ("il Vecchio") and "Cosimo Pater Patriae" (Latin: 'father of the nation').

Events

1066 – William the Conqueror and his army set sail from the mouth of the Somme River, beginning the Norman Conquest of England.
1331 – The Battle of Plowce between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order is fought.
1422 – after the brief Gollub War the Teutonic Knights sign the Treaty of Melno with the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania
1529 – The Siege of Vienna begins when Suleiman I attacks the city.
1540 – The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) receives its charter from Pope Paul III.
1590 – Pope Urban VII dies 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.
1605 – The armies of Sweden are defeated by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kircholm.
1669 – The Venetians surrender the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans, thus ending the 21-year long Siege of Candia.
1777 – Lancaster, Pennsylvania is the capital of the United States, for one day.
1821 – Mexico gains its independence from Spain.
1822 – Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone.
1825 – The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens, and begins operation of the world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.
1854 – The steamship SS Arctic sinks with 300 people on board. This marks the first great disaster in the Atlantic Ocean.
1903 – Wreck of the Old 97, a train crash made famous by the song of the same name.
1905 – The physics journal Annalen der Physik received Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².
1908 – The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.
1916 – Iyasu is proclaimed deposed as ruler of Ethiopia in a palace coup in favor of his aunt Zauditu.
1922 – King Constantine I of Greece abdicates his throne in favor of his eldest son, King George II.
1928 – The Republic of China is recognised by the United States.
1930 – Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Amateur Championship to complete the Grand Slam of golf. The old structure of the grand slam was the U.S. Open, British Open, U.S. Amateur, and British Amateur.
1937 – Balinese Tiger declared extinct.
1938 – Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched in Glasgow.
1940 – World War II: The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.
1941 – The SS Patrick Henry is launched becoming the first of more than 2,700 Liberty ships.
1942 – Last day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps troops barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces near the Matanikau River.
1944 – The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II.
1949 – The first Plenary Session of the National People's Congress approves the design of the Flag of the People's Republic of China.
1954 – The nationwide debut of Tonight Starring Steve Allen (The Tonight Show) hosted by Steve Allen on NBC.
1956 – USAF Captain Milburn G. Apt becomes the first man to exceed Mach 3 while flying the Bell X-2. Shortly thereafter, the craft goes out of control and Captain Apt is killed.
1959 – Nearly 5000 people die on the main Japanese island of Honshu as the result of a typhoon.
1961 – Sierra Leone joins the United Nations.
1962 – The Yemen Arab Republic is established.
1964 – The British TSR-2 aircraft XR219 makes its maiden flight from Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.
1968 – The stage musical Hair opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where it played 1,998 performances until its closure was forced by the roof collapsing in July 1973.
1979 – The United States Department of Education receives final approval from the U.S. Congress to become the 13th US Cabinet agency.
1983 – Richard Stallman announces the GNU project to develop a free Unix-like operating system.
1988 – National League for Democracy is formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and various others to help fight against dictatorship in Myanmar.
1993 – The Sukhumi massacre takes place in Abkhazia.
1995 – The Government of the United States unveils the first of its redesigned bank notes with the $100 bill featuring a larger portrait of Benjamin Franklin slightly off-center.
1996 – In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture the capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
1996 – The Julie N. tanker ship crashes into the Million Dollar Bridge in Portland, Maine spilling thousands of gallons of oil.
1997 – Communications are suddenly lost with the Mars Pathfinder space probe.
1998 – The Google internet search engine retrospectively claims this as its birthday.
2001 – Zug massacre: In Zug, Switzerland, Friedrich Leibacher shoots 18 citizens, killing 14 and then kills himself.
2002 – Timor-Leste (East Timor) joins the United Nations.
2003 – Smart 1 satellite is launched.
2007 – NASA launches the Dawn probe.
2008 – CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7.

Births

823 – Ermentrude of Orléans, consort of Charles the Bald (d. 869)
1271 – Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Poland (d. 1305)
1275 – John II of Brabant (d. 1312)
1389 – Cosimo de' Medici, Italian art patron and de facto ruler of Florence (d. 1464)
1544 – Takenaka Shigeharu, Japanese samurai (d. 1579)
1601 – King Louis XIII of France (d. 1643)
1627 – Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, French bishop (d. 1704)
1643 – Solomon Stoddard, American Puritan clergyman
1657 – Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia, regent of Russia (d. 1704)
1677 – Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari, Italian musical composer and maestro di cappella (chapel-master) at Pistoia (d. 1754)
1696 – Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Italian Catholic bishop (d. 1787)
1719 – Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician (d. 1800)
1722 – Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader (d. 1803)
1729 – Michael Denis, Austrian poet (d. 1800)
1765 – Antoine Philippe de La Trémoille, French counterrevolutionary (d. 1794)
1772 – Martha Jefferson Randolph, daughter of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1836)
1803 – Samuel Francis du Pont, American admiral (d. 1865)
1805 – George Müller, Prussian orphanage builder (d. 1898)
1818 – Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe, German chemist (d. 1884)
1821 – Henri Frederic Amiel, Swiss writer (d. 1881)
1824 – William "Bull" Nelson, American Civil War general (d. 1862)
1830 – William Babcock Hazen, American Civil War general (d. 1887)
1838 – Lawrence Sullivan Ross, American Confederate general and 19th Governor of Texas (d. 1898)
1840 – Alfred Thayer Mahan, American captain and historian (d. 1914)
1840 – Thomas Nast, German-born American political cartoonist (d. 1902)
1842 – Alphonse Francois Renard, Belgian geologist (d. 1903)
1843 – Gaston Tarry, French mathematician (d. 1913)
1861 – Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, sister of Theodore Roosevelt (d. 1933)
1864 – Andrej Hlinka, Slovak politician and Catholic Priest (d. 1938)
1866 – Eurosia Fabris, Italian Catholic Blessed (d. 1932)
1871 – Grazia Deledda, Italian writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1936)
1871 – George Ducker, Canadian football player (d. 1952)
1879 – Hans Hahn, Austrian mathematician (d. 1934)
1879 – Fred Schule, American athlete (d. 1962)
1879 – Cyril Scott, English composer (d. 1970)
1885 – Harry Blackstone, Sr., American magician (d. 1965)
1885 – Charles Benjamin Howard, Canadian industrialist and politician (d. 1964)
1894 – Olive Tell, American actress (d. 1951)
1894 – Lothar von Richthofen German pilot (d. 1922)
1895 – Woolf Barnato, British racing driver (d. 1948)
1896 – Sam Ervin, American politician (d. 1985)
1898 – Vincent Youmans, American composer and producer (d. 1946)
1904 – Edvard Kocbek, Slovenian poet and politician (d. 1981)
1906 – William Empson, British poet (d. 1984)
1906 – Jim Thompson, American author (d. 1977)
1907 – Maurice Blanchot, French philosopher (d. 2003)
1907 – Bhagat Singh, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1931)
1907 – Bernard Miles, English character actor, writer and director (d. 1991)
1911 – John Harvey, actor (d. 1982)
1911 – Marcey Jacobson, American photographer (d. 2009)
1913 – Albert Ellis, American psychologist (d. 2007)
1916 – Frank Handlen, American artist
1916 – S. Yizhar, Israeli author (d. 2006)
1917 – Louis Auchincloss, American novelist (d. 2010)
1917 – William T. Orr, American television producer (d. 2002)
1917 – Carl Ballantine, American magician and entertainer (d. 2009)
1918 – Martin Ryle, English radio astronomer, Nobel laureate (d. 1984)
1919 – James H. Wilkinson, American mathematician (d. 1986)
1919 – Johnny Pesky, American baseball player (d. 2012)
1919 – Charles H. Percy, American politician (d. 2011)
1920 – William Conrad, American actor (d. 1994)
1920 – Jayne Meadows, American actress
1921 – Milton Subotsky, American TV and film producer (d. 1991)
1922 – Arthur Penn, American director (d. 2010)
1922 – Sammy Benskin, African American pianist and bandleader (d. 1992)
1924 – Bernard Waber, American author
1924 – Fred Singer, American scientist
1924 – Bud Powell, American jazz pianist (d. 1966)
1924 – Josef Škvorecký, Czech writer and publisher (d. 2012)
1927 – Chrysostomos I, Greek orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus (d. 2007)
1927 – Romano Scarpa, Italian comic book artist (d. 2005)
1927 – Steve Stavro, Canadian businessman (d. 2006)
1927 – Red Rodney, jazz trumpeter (d. 1994)
1929 – Barbara Murray, English actress
1929 – Calvin Jones, American trombonist, bassist, pianist, bandleader, composer and educator (d. 2004)
1931 – Freddy Quinn, Austrian singer
1932 – Geoff Bent, English footballer (d. 1958)
1932 – Roger C. Carmel, American actor (d. 1986)
1932 – Yash Chopra, Indian director
1932 – Michael Colvin, British politician
1932 – Gabriel Loubier, Canadian politician
1932 – Oliver E. Williamson, American economist
1933 – Will Sampson, American actor (d. 1987)
1933 – Greg Morris, American actor (d. 1996)
1933 – Rodney Cotterill, Danish-born English physicist (d. 2007)
1933 – Paul Goble, American children's author
1934 – Wilford Brimley, American actor
1934 – Claude Jarman Jr., American actor
1934 – Dick Schaap, American sports reporter (d. 2001)
1935 – Al MacNeil, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1936 – Don Cornelius, American television host (d. 2012)
1936 – Gordon Honeycombe, British playwright
1937 – Vasyl Durdynets, Ukrainian statesman and diplomat
1938 – Jean-Loup Dabadie, French lyricist and screenwriter
1939 – Ioannis Banias, Greek politician
1939 – Carol Lynn Pearson, American poet and writer
1939 – Kathy Whitworth, American golfer
1940 – Benoni Beheyt, Belgian cyclist
1941 – Serge Ménard, Québécois politician
1941 – Peter Bonetti, English footballer
1941 – Gay Kayler, Australian country music singer
1941 – Don Nix, songwriter, composer, arranger, musician, and author
1942 – Dith Pran, Cambodian photojournalist (d. 2008)
1942 – Alvin Stardust, English singer
1943 – Randy Bachman, Canadian musician
1943 – Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta, Italian aristocrat
1944 – Gary Sutherland, American baseball player
1945 – Max Boyce, Welsh comedian
1945 – Jack Goldstein, Canadian artist (d. 2003)
1945 – Kay Ryan, American poet
1945 – Bob Spiers, British television director (d. 2008)
1946 – Nicos Anastasiades, Greek-Cypriot politician, leader of Democratic Rally
1946 – Robin Nedwell, English comedy actor (d. 1999)
1946 – T.C. Cannon, American artist (d. 1978)
1947 – Barbara Dickson, Scottish singer
1947 – Denis Lawson, Scottish actor
1947 – Meat Loaf, American singer
1947 – Liz Torres, American actress and singer
1948 – Michele Dotrice, English actress
1948 – Duncan Fletcher, Rhodesian-born Zimbabwean cricketer and coach
1948 – A Martinez, American actor
1948 – Tom Braidwood, Canadian actor
1948 – Les Chapman, English footballer and football manager
1948 – Robin Jackson, Northern Irish loyalist (d. 1998)
1949 – Graham Richardson, Australian politician
1949 – Mike Schmidt, American baseball player
1949 – Jahn Teigen, Norwegian singer
1950 – Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Japanese actor
1951 – Jim Shooter, American comic book writer
1951 – Paul Craig, British law professor
1951 – David Starobin, American classical guitarist, record producer, and film director
1951 – Michel Rivard, Québécois singer and composer (Beau Dommage)
1952 – Didier Dubois, French mathematician
1952 – Dumitru Prunariu, Romanian cosmonaut
1952 – André Viger, French Canadian marathoner
1952 – Katie Fforde, née Gordon-Cumming, British writer
1953 – Diane Julie Abbott, British politician
1953 – Mata Amritanandamayi, Indian religious leader
1953 – Claudio Gentile, Italian footballer
1953 – Greg Ham, Australian musician and songwriter (Men at Work) (d. 2012)
1953 – Robbie Shakespeare, Jamaican bassist and producer
1954 – Ray Hadley, Australian radio broadcaster
1954 – Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Russian violinist and conductor
1955 – Richard Bucher, Swiss ice hockey player (d. 2012)
1958 – Shaun Cassidy, American singer
1958 – Irvine Welsh, Scottish writer
1959 – Beth Heiden, American speed skater
1960 – Barron Lerner, American physician and historian
1960 – Jean-Marc Barr, French-American actor and director
1961 – Andy Lau, Hong Kong actor and singer
1963 – Marc Maron, American comedian
1964 – Predrag Brzakovic, Serbian footballer (d. 2012)
1964 – Stephan Jenkins, American singer (Third Eye Blind)
1965 – Ricky Fuji, Japanese professional wrestler
1965 – Steve Kerr, American basketball player
1965 – Peter MacKay, Canadian politician
1965 – Alexis Stewart, American radio personality
1965 – Bernard Lord, Canadian politician
1966 – Uche Okechukwu, Nigerian footballer
1966 – Stephanie Wilson, American engineer and astronaut
1968 – Mari Kiviniemi, Finnish politician
1968 – Patrick Muldoon, American actor
1969 – Sofia Milos, American actress
1970 – Yoshiharu Habu, Japanese professional shogi player
1970 – Tamara Taylor, American actress
1970 – Wes Carroll, vocal percussionist
1971 – Aaron Belz, American poet
1971 – Amanda Detmer, American actress
1971 – Horacio Sandoval, Mexican artist
1971 – Li Yapeng, Chinese actor
1972 – Sylvia Crawley, American basketball player
1972 – Lhasa de Sela, American singer and songwriter (d. 2010)
1972 – Clara Hughes, Canadian cyclist
1972 – Gwyneth Paltrow, American actress
1972 – Craig L. Rice, American politician
1974 – Carrie Brownstein, American musician, writer, and actress
1974 – Sascha Licht, German footballer
1975 – Thanos Petrelis, Greek singer
1976 – Dean Butterworth, English drummer
1976 – Matt Harding, American video game developer
1976 – Jason Phillips, American baseball player
1976 – Francesco Totti, Italian footballer
1978 – Ani Lorak, Ukrainian singer and actress
1978 – Jon Rauch, American baseball player
1978 – Pastora Soler, Spanish singer
1978 – Mihaela Ursuleasa, Romanian pianist (d. 2012)
1979 – Jon Garland, American baseball player
1979 – La'Myia Good, American singer and actress
1979 – Zita Görög, Hungarian actress and model
1979 – Christian Jones, Australian racing driver
1979 – Steve Simpson, Australian rugby league footballer
1980 – Asashoryu Akinori, Mongolian sumo wrestler, the 68th Yokozuna
1980 – Ehron VonAllen, American singer
1981 – Lakshmipathy Balaji, Indian cricketer
1981 – Sophie Crumb, American comics artist
1981 – Brendon McCullum, New Zealand cricketer
1981 – Cytherea, American adult actress
1982 – Anna Camp, American actress
1982 – Cassandra Cruz, American pornographic actress
1982 – Zero Kazama, Japanese-American game show host
1982 – Markus Rosenberg, Swedish footballer
1982 – Lil Wayne, American rapper
1982 – Darrent Williams, American football player (d. 2007)
1983 – Travis MacRae, Canadian singer-songwriter
1983 – Shermon Tang, Hong Kong actress
1983 – Jeon Hye Bin, Korean actress
1984 – Paul Bevan, Australian rules footballer
1984 – Davide Capello, Italian footballer
1984 – John Lannan, American baseball player
1984 – Avril Lavigne, Canadian singer-songwriter
1984 – Abhinav Shukla, Indian Television Actor
1985 – Massimo Bertocchi, Canadian decathlete
1985 – Daniel Pudil, Czech footballer
1986 – Vin Mazzaro, American baseball player
1986 – Ricardo Risatti, Argentine racecar driver
1987 – Austin Carlile, American musician (Attack Attack!, Of Mice & Men)
1987 – Olga Puchkova. Russian tennis player
1987 – Ádám Bogdán, Hungarian footballer
1989 – Park Tae-Hwan, South Korean swimmer
1992 – Jake Burbage, American actor
1992 – Luc Castaignos, Dutch footballer
1992 – Gabriel Vasconcelos Ferreira, Brazilian footballer
1992 – Pak Kwang-Ryong, North Korean footballer
1992 – Granit Xhaka, Swiss footballer
1995 – Lina Leandersson, Swedish actress
1995 – Anderson Lim, Bruneian swimmer

Deaths

1249 – Count Raymond VII of Toulouse (b. 1197)
1404 – William of Wykeham, English bishop (b. 1320)
1557 – Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (b. 1497)
1590 – Pope Urban VII (b. 1521)
1615 – Arbella Stuart, English noblewoman (b. 1575)
1651 – Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria (b. 1573)
1660 – Vincent de Paul, French saint (b. 1580)
1700 – Pope Innocent XII (b. 1615)
1719 – George Smalridge, English Bishop of Bristol (b. 1662)
1730 – Laurence Eusden, English poet (b. 1688)
1735 – Peter Artedi, Swedish naturalist (b. 1705)
1737 – John Sidney, 6th Earl of Leicester, English privy councillor (b. 1680)
1742 – Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh (b. 1672)
1783 – Étienne Bézout, French mathematician (b. 1730)
1832 – Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher (b. 1781)
1833 – Ram Mohan Roy, Hindu reformer (d. 1772)
1838 – Bernard Courtois, French chemist (b. 1777)
1876 – Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (b. 1817)
1886 – Charles Gordon Greene, American journalist (b. 1804)
1891 – Ivan Goncharov, Russian author (b. 1812)
1911 – Auguste Michel-Lévy, French geologist (b. 1844)
1915 – Remy de Gourmont, French poet (b. 1858)
1917 – Edgar Degas, French painter (b. 1834)
1921 – Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (b. 1854)
1940 – Walter Benjamin, German philosopher (b. 1892)
1940 – Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian neuroscientist, Nobel laureate (b. 1857)
1944 – Aimee Semple McPherson, American evangelist (b. 1890)
1956 – Gerald Finzi, English composer (b. 1901)
1956 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete (b. 1911)
1960 – Sylvia Pankhurst, English suffragette (b. 1882)
1965 – Clara Bow, American actress (b. 1905)
1965 – Sir William Stanier, British railway engineer (b. 1876)
1967 – Felix Yusupov, Russian prince, participated in the murder of Grigori Rasputin (b. 1887)
1972 – S. R. Ranganathan, Indian mathematician (b. 1892)
1972 – Rory Storm, British singer (b. 1939)
1974 – Silvio Frondizi, Argentine lawyer, assassinated by the Triple A(b. 1907)
1975 – Jack Lang, Australian politician (b. 1876)
1979 – Dame Gracie Fields, British comedian (b. 1898)
1979 – Jimmy McCulloch, Scottish guitarist (b. 1953)
1981 – Robert Montgomery, American actor (b. 1904)
1983 – Wilfred Burchett, Australian journalist (b. 1911)
1984 – Chronis Exarhakos, Greek actor (b. 1932)
1985 – Lloyd Nolan, American actor (b. 1902)
1986 – Cliff Burton, American bassist (Metallica) (b. 1962)
1991 – Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill and 4th wife of Charlie Chaplin (b. 1926)
1993 – Jimmy Doolittle, American general (b. 1896)
1997 – Walter Trampler, American violist (b. 1915)
1998 – Narita Bryan, Japanese racehorse (b. 1991)
1998 – Doak Walker, American football player (b. 1927)
2003 – Donald O'Connor, American actor (b. 1925)
2004 – John E. Mack, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1929)
2005 – Ronald Golias, Brazilian comedian (b. 1929)
2007 – Dale Houston, American singer (Dale & Grace) (b. 1940)
2007 – Kenji Nagai, Japanese photojournalist (b. 1957)
2008 – Mahendra Kapoor, Indian singer (b. 1934)
2009 – Ivan Dykhovichnyy, Russian film director and screenwriter (b. 1947)
2009 – Charles Houston, American mountaineer (b. 1913)
2009 – William Safire, American Columnist (b. 1929)
2010 – George Blanda, American football player (b. 1927)
2010 – Balaji Sadasivan, Singaporean politician and neurosurgeon (b. 1955)
2011 – David Croft, English writer, producer and director (b. 1922)
2011 – Johnny "Country" Mathis, American country singer (b. 1933)