today.nukz.net: Almanac October 12

Arthur "Art" Clokey (October 12, 1921 – January 8, 2010) was an American pioneer in the popularization of stop motion clay animation, beginning in 1955 with a film experiment called Gumbasia, influenced by his professor, Slavko Vorkapich, at the University of Southern California.

After the Gumbasia project, Art Clokey and his wife Ruth came up with the clay character Gumby. Gumby and his horse Pokey became a familiar presence on American television; they had their start in the Howdy Doody Show, and later got their own series The Adventures of Gumby. The characters enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1980s when American actor and comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Gumby in a skit on Saturday Night Live. In the 1990s Gumby: The Movie was released, sparking even more interest.

Events

539 BC – The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon.
1216 – King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash, probably near Fosdyke, perhaps near Sutton Bridge.
1279 – Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the Dai-Gohonzon.
1398 – The Treaty of Salynas is signed between Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Teutonic Knights, who received Samogitia.
1492 – Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached India.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1654 – The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100 people.
1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
1748 – British and Spanish naval forces engage at the Battle of Havana during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
1773 – America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia.
1792 – First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York.
1793 – The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina.
1799 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse was the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute, from an altitude of 900 meters.
1810 – First Oktoberfest: The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
1822 – Peter I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor of the Brazil.
1823 – Charles Macintosh of Scotland sells the first raincoat.
1871 – Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enacted by British rule in India, which named over 160 local communities 'Criminal Tribes', i.e. hereditary criminals. Repealed in 1949, after Independence of India.
1892 – The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools, as part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage.
1901 – President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
1915 – World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium
1917 – World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single day loss of life in New Zealand history.
1918 – A massive forest fire kills 453 people in Minnesota.
1928 – An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Children's Hospital, Boston
1933 – The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island, is acquired by the United States Department of Justice
1942 – World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Goto dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
1944 – World War II: The Liberation of Athens from the German invaders.
1945 – World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
1953 – "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" opens at Plymouth Theatre, New York
1959 – At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.
1960 – Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe
1960 – Television viewers in Japan unexpectedly witness the assassination of Inejiro Asanuma, leader of the Japan Socialist Party, when he is stabbed and killed during a live broadcast.
1962 – Infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities; 46 dead and at least U.S. $230 million in damages
1964 – The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew and the first flight without space suits
1967 – Vietnam War: US Secretary of State Dean Rusk states during a news conference that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace initiatives are futile because of North Vietnam's opposition
1968 – Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain
1970 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas
1979 – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams is published.
1979 – The lowest recorded non-tornadic atmospheric pressure, 87.0 kPa (870 mbar or 25.69 inHg), occurred in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Tip.
1983 – Japan's former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei is found guilty of taking a $2 million bribe from Lockheed and is sentenced to 4 years in jail.
1984 – Brighton hotel bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet. Thatcher escapes but the bomb kills five people and wounds 31.
1986 – Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit the People's Republic of China
1988 – Jaffna University Helidrop: Commandos of Indian Peace Keeping Force raided the Jaffna University campus to capture the LTTE chief and walked into a trap.
1988 – Two officers of the Victoria Police are gunned down executional style in the Walsh Street police shootings, Australia.
1991 – Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republic's Supreme Soviet, is confirmed president in an uncontested poll.
1992 – 5.8 earthquake occurred in Cairo, Egypt. At least 510 died.
1994 – NASA loses radio contact with the Magellan spacecraft as the probe descends into the thick atmosphere of Venus (the spacecraft presumably burned up in the atmosphere).
1997 – Sidi Daoud massacre in Algeria; 43 killed at a fake roadblock.
1999 – Pervez Musharraf takes power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.
1999 – The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia
2000 – The USS Cole is badly damaged in Aden, Yemen, by two suicide bombers, killing 17 crew members and wounding at least 39
2002 – Terrorists detonate bombs in the Sari Club in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 and wounding over 300.
2005 – The second Chinese human spaceflight Shenzhou 6 launched carrying Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Haishèng for five days in orbit.

Births

1006 – Emperor Go-Ichijo of Japan (d. 1036)
1350 – Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Prince of Moscovy (d. 1389)
1490 – Bernardo Pisano, Italian composer (d. 1548)
1537 – King Edward VI of England (d. 1553)
1558 – Archduke Maximilian III of Austria (d. 1618)
1558 – Jacques Sirmond, French scholar and Jesuit (d. 1651)
1576 – Thomas Dudley, English-born American colonial magistrate (d. 1653)
1602 – William Chillingworth, English religious leader (d. 1644)
1687 – Sylvius Leopold Weiss, German composer and lutenist (d. 1750)
1710 – Jonathan Trumbull, American politician and 16th Governor of Connecticut (d. 1785)
1712 – William Shippen, American physician and statesman (d. 1801)
1725 – Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French pharmacist and entomologist (d. 1810)
1792 – Christian Gmelin, German chemist (d. 1860)
1798 – Pedro I of Brazil (d. 1834)
1801 – Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Swiss statesman (d. 1873)
1815 – William J. Hardee, American Confederate general (d. 1873)
1840 – Helena Modjeska, Polish actress (d. 1909)
1855 – Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian conductor (d. 1922)
1860 – Elmer Sperry, American inventor (d. 1930)
1865 – Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
1866 – Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1937)
1872 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (d. 1958)
1874 – Jimmy Burke, American baseball player (d. 1942)
1875 – Aleister Crowley, English occultist and author (d. 1947)
1878 – Truxtun Hare, American track and field athlete (d. 1956)
1880 – Louis Hémon, French novelist (d. 1913)
1887 – Paula von Preradovic, Croatian-Austrian poet (d. 1951)
1891 – Edith Stein, Carmelite Catholic nun (d. 1942)
1892 – Gilda dalla Rizza, Italian soprano (d. 1975)
1893 – Velvalee Dickinson, American spy (d. 1980)
1894 – Elisabeth of Romania (d. 1956)
1896 – Eugenio Montale, Italian poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
1904 – Ding Ling, Chinese writer (d. 1986)
1904 – Lester Dent, American writer (d. 1959)
1906 – Joe Cronin, American baseball player and executive (d. 1984)
1906 – John Murray, American playwright (d.1984)
1908 – Paul Engle, American writer (d. 1991)
1908 – Ann Petry, American novelist (d. 1997)
1910 – Robert Fitzgerald, American poet and translator (d. 1985)
1913 – Alice Chetwynd Ley, British romance writer (d. 2004)
1916 – Alice Childress, American actress and playwright (d. 1994)
1917 – Roque Máspoli, Uruguayan footballer (d. 2004)
1919 – Gilles Beaudoin, Quebec politician (d. 2007)
1920 – Christy Ring, Irish hurler (d. 1979)
1920 – Christopher Soames, Baron Soames, British politician (d. 1987)
1921 – Art Clokey, American animator (Gumby) (d. 2010)
1921 – Jaroslav Drobný, Czech-Egyptian-British tennis player (d. 2001)
1921 – Logie Bruce Lockhart, Writer, journalist, rugby player
1923 – Goody Petronelli, American boxing trainer and manager (d. 2012)
1924 – Doris Grau, American actress (d. 1995)
1924 – Leonidas Kyrkos, Greek politician (d. 2011)
1925 – Denis Lazure, Quebec politician (d. 2008)
1929 – Robert Coles, American psychologist and author
1929 – Nappy Brown, American R&B singer (d. 2008)
1929 – Magnús Magnússon, Icelandic television presenter (d. 2007)
1930 – Denis Brodeur, French-Canadian hockey photographer
1930 – Milica Kacin Wohinz, Slovenian historian
1931 – Ole-Johan Dahl, Norwegian computer scientist (d. 2002)
1932 – Dick Gregory, American comedian and activist
1932 – Ned Jarrett, American race car driver
1933 – Guido Molinari, Canadian painter (d. 2004)
1934 – James "Sugar Boy" Crawford, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 2012)
1934 – Richard Meier, American architect
1934 – Albert Shiryaev, Russian mathematician
1935 – Tony Kubek, American baseball player
1935 – Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor (d. 2007)
1935 – Sam Moore, American R&B singer (Sam & Dave)
1935 – Don Howe, English football player and manager
1937 – Paul Hawkins, Australian racing driver (d. 1969)
1937 – Robert Mangold, American artist
1938 – Bob Miller, American NHL broadcaster
1941 – Michael Mansfield, English barrister
1942 – Melvin Franklin, American singer (The Temptations) (d. 1995)
1942 – Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter (Black Panther Party) (d. 1969)
1942 – Daliah Lavi, Israeli actress and singer
1944 – Angela Rippon, British television personality
1945 – Aurore Clément, French actress
1945 – Dusty Rhodes, American professional wrestler
1947 – Chris Wallace, American journalist
1947 – George Lam, Hong Kong singer
1948 – Rick Parfitt, British musician (Status Quo)
1948 – Hans Sprenger, German footballer
1949 – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, Venezuelan international terrorist
1949 – Stan Hansen, American professional wrestler
1949 – Dave Lloyd, British cyclist
1949 – Paul Went, English footballer
1950 – Susan Anton, American actress
1950 – Robin Askwith, English actor
1950 – Caroline Ellis, English actress
1950 – Dave Freudenthal, American politician and 31st Governor of Wyoming
1950 – Kaga Takeshi, Japanese actor
1951 – Sally Little, South-African-born American golfer
1951 – Ed Royce, American politician
1952 – Danielle Proulx, Quebec actress
1953 – Les Dennis, British comedian and presenter
1953 – Serge Lepeltier, French politician
1954 – Linval Thompson, Jamaican musician and record producer
1955 – Einar Jan Aas, Norwegian footballer
1955 – Ante Gotovina, Croatian general
1955 – Brigitte Lahaie, French talk show host and actress
1955 – Aggie MacKenzie, Scottish television presenter
1955 – Jane Siberry, Canadian musician
1956 – David Vanian, British singer, (The Damned)
1957 – Kristen Bjorn, British film director
1958 – Bryn Merrick, British musician, (The Damned)
1958 – Steve Austria, American politician
1959 – Anna Escobedo Cabral, 42nd Treasurer of the United States
1960 – Carlo Perrone, Italian football manager and player
1960 – Hiroyuki Sanada, Japanese actor
1962 – Carlos Bernard, American actor
1962 – Chris Botti, American jazz musician
1962 – Amanda Castro, Hondurian poet
1962 – John Coleman, English football manager and player
1962 – Branko Crvenkovski, Macedonian politician
1962 – Deborah Foreman, American actress
1963 – Raimond Aumann, German footballer
1963 – Lane Frost, American professional bull rider (d. 1989)
1963 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese anime director (d. 2010)
1963 – Alan McDonald, Northern Irish footballer
1963 – Luis Polonia, Dominican baseball player
1965 – Jean-Jacques Daigneault, Canadian hockey player
1965 – Scott O'Grady, American military officer
1966 – Jonathan Crombie, Canadian actor
1966 – Wim Jonk, Dutch football player
1966 – Brian Kennedy, Northern Irish musician and author
1967 – Paul Laine Canadian singer/composer
1968 – Bill Auberlen, American race car driver
1968 – Paul Harragon, Australian Rugby League player
1968 – Hugh Jackman, Australian actor and singer
1968 – Adam Rich, American actor
1969 – Martie Maguire, American musician (Dixie Chicks)
1969 – Judit Mascó, Spanish model
1969 – Željko Milinovic, Slovenian footballer
1969 – Olaf Renn, German footballer
1969 – Dwayne Roloson, Canadian ice hockey player
1969 – José Valentín, American baseball player
1970 – Kirk Cameron, American actor
1970 – Tanyon Sturtze, American baseball player
1970 – Charlie Ward, American pro basketball player
1970 – Julian, American pornographic actor
1971 – Tony Fiore, American baseball player
1971 – Steve Johnston, Australian speedway rider
1972 – Juan Manuel Silva, Argentine racing driver
1972 – Tom Van Mol, Belgian football player
1972 – Mechele Linehan, American convicted murderess
1972 – Neriah Davis, American model and actress
1973 – Lesli Brea, Dominican baseball player
1973 – Martin Corry, English rugby player
1974 – Stephen Lee, English snooker player
1974 – Kate Beahan, Australian actress
1974 – Marie Wilson, Canadian actress
1975 – Marion Jones, American track and field athlete
1975 – Ahmad, American rapper
1976 – Sarah Lane, American television personality
1977 – Jessica Barker, Canadian actress
1977 – Bode Miller, American alpine ski-racer
1977 – Javier Toyo, Venezuelan footballer
1978 – Stefan Binder, German footballer
1978 – Baden Cooke, Australian cyclist
1978 – Marko Jaric, Serbian basketball player
1979 – Steven Agnew, Northern Irish politician
1979 – Jordan Pundik, American singer (New Found Glory)
1980 – Ledley King, English footballer
1981 – Shola Ameobi, English footballer
1981 – Tom Guiry, American actor
1981 – Brian Kerr, Scottish footballer
1981 – Sneha, Indian actress
1981 – Brian J. Smith, American actor
1981 – Sun Tiantian, Chinese tennis player
1981 – Conrad Smith, New Zealand rugby player
1981 – Giuseppe Lanzone, American rower
1983 – Alex Brosque, Australian soccer player
1983 – Carlton Cole, English footballer
1983 – Katie Piper, English campaigner and television presenter
1985 – Mike Green, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Ioannis Maniatis, Greek footballer
1986 – Emmanuel Nwachi, Nigerian footballer
1986 – Sergio Peter, German footballer
1986 – Tyler Blackburn, American actor and singer
1987 – Marvin Ogunjimi, Belgian footballer
1988 – Sam Whitelock, New Zealand rugby player
1990 – Henri Lansbury, English footballer
1991 – Nicolao Dumitru, Italian footballer
1992 – Kyron Duke, Welsh power-lifter
1992 – Taylor Horn, American singer
1992 – Josh Hutcherson, American actor
1992 – Cüneyt Köz, German footballer
1995 – Jordan Howe, Welsh paralympic athlete

Deaths

632 – Edwin of Northumbria (b.c. 586)
638 – Pope Honorius I
642 – Pope John IV
1095 – Margrave Leopold II of Austria (b. 1050)
1176 – William d'Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel, English politician (b.c. 1109)
1320 – Michael IX Palaeologus (b. 1277)
1491 – Fritz Herlen, German artist (b.c. 1449)
1492 – Piero della Francesca, Italian painter
1565 – Jean Ribault, French explorer and colonizer (b. 1520)
1576 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1527)
1590 – Kano Eitoku, Japanese painter (b. 1543)
1600 – Luis Molina, Spanish Jesuit (b. 1535)
1632 – Kutsuki Mototsuna, Japanese samurai commander (b. 1549)
1646 – François de Bassompierre, Marshal of France (b. 1579)
1678 – Edmund Berry Godfrey, English magistrate (b. 1621)
1679 – William Gurnall, English writer (b. 1617)
1685 – Christoph Ignaz Abele, Austrian jurist (b. 1628)
1730 – King Frederick IV of Denmark (b. 1671)
1758 – Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth, British field marshal (b. 1680)
1812 – Juan José Castelli, Argentinian politician and lawyer
1845 – Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer and philanthropist (b. 1780)
1870 – Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (b. 1807)
1875 – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (b. 1827)
1896 – Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Danish nobleman and politician (b. 1817)
1898 – Calvin Fairbank, American abolitionist minister (b. 1816)
1915 – Edith Cavell, English nurse (b. 1865)
1920 – Yu Gwan-sun, Korean independence leader (b. 1904)
1924 – Anatole France, French author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1844)
1932 – Ioannis Chrysafis, Greek gymnast (b. 1873)
1933 – John Lister, English politician (b. 1847)
1940 – Tom Mix, American actor (b. 1880)
1946 – Joseph Stilwell, American general (b. 1883)
1948 – Susan Sutherland Isaacs, English educational psychologist and psychoanalyst (b. 1885).
1954 – George Welch, American pilot (b. 1918)
1956 – Lorenzo Perosi, Italian composer (b. 1872)
1958 – Gordon Griffith, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1907)
1960 – Inejiro Asanuma, Japanese politician (b. 1898)
1965 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
1967 – Ram Manohar Lohia, Indian Socialist politician leader (b. 1910)
1969 – Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (b. 1912)
1970 – Mustafa Zaidi, Pakistani poet (b. 1930)
1971 – Dean Acheson, American statesman (b. 1893)
1971 – Gene Vincent, American rock musician (b. 1935)
1972 – Robert Le Vigan, French actor (b.1900)
1973 – Peter Aufschnaiter, Austrian mountaineer (b. 1899)
1978 – Nancy Spungen, American groupie and murder victim (b. 1958)
1983 – Ernie Roth, American pro wrestling manager (b. 1929)
1984 – Sir Anthony Berry, British politician (b. 1925)
1985 – Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (b. 1910)
1985 – Ricky Wilson, American musician (The B-52's) (b. 1953)
1987 – Alf Landon, American politician (b. 1887)
1988 – Ruth Manning-Sanders, Welsh poet and children's book author (b. 1886)
1988 – Coby Whitmore, American painter and magazine illustrator (b. 1913)
1989 – Carmen Cavallaro, American pianist (b. 1913)
1989 – Jay Ward, American animator (Rocky and Bullwinkle) (b. 1920)
1990 – Peter Wessel Zapffe, Norwegian author and mountaineer (b. 1899)
1990 – Rifaat el-Mahgoub, Egyptian politician (b. 1926)
1991 – Sheila Florance, Australian film and television actress (b. 1916)
1991 – Arkady Strugatsky, Russian novelist (b. 1925)
1991 – Regis Toomey, American film and television actor (b. 1898)
1993 – Leon Ames, American actor (b. 1902)
1993 – Tofik Bakhramov, Azerbaijani linesman (b. 1926)
1994 – Gérald Godin, Québécois poet and politician (b. 1938)
1996 – Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (b. 1911)
1996 – René Lacoste, French tennis player (b. 1904)
1997 – John Denver, American singer (b. 1943)
1998 – Matthew Shepard, American murder victim (b. 1976)
1998 – Mario Beaulieu, French Canadian politician (b. 1930)
1999 – Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player (b. 1936)
1999 – Robert Marsden Hope, Australian jurist (b. 1919)
2001 – Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone, British politician (b. 1907)
2002 – Ray Conniff, American bandleader and musician (b. 1916)
2002 – Audrey Mestre, French diver (b. 1974)
2003 – Jim Cairns, Australian politician (b. 1914)
2003 – Joan Kroc, American philanthropist (b. 1928)
2003 – Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (b. 1931)
2005 – C. Delores Tucker, American politician and civil rights activist (b. 1927)
2006 – Gillo Pontecorvo, Italian film director (b. 1919)
2007 – Kisho Kurokawa, Japanese architect (b. 1934)
2007 – Noel Coleman, British Actor (b. 1919)
2008 – Karl Chircop, Maltese politician (b. 1965)
2009 – Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian cyclist (b. 1974)
2009 – Dickie Peterson American musician (b. 1948)
2010 – Woody Peoples, American football player (b. 1943)
2010 – Belva Plain, American novelist (b. 1919)
2011 – Heinz Bennent, German actor (b. 1921)
2011 – Patricia Breslin, American actress (b. 1931)
2011 – Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist (b. 1941)