today.nukz.net: Almanac October 21

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer and occasional singer.

Allmusic's Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated . . . Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time."

Events

1096 – People's Crusade: The Turkish army annihilates the People's Army of the West.
1097 – First Crusade: Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, and Raymond IV of Toulouse, begin the Siege of Antioch.
1209 – Otto IV is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III.
1392 – Nanboku-cho: Emperor Go-Kameyama abdicates in favor of rival claimant Go-Komatsu.
1512 – Martin Luther joins the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.
1520 – Ferdinand Magellan discovers a strait now known as Strait of Magellan.
1520 – João Álvares Fagundes discovers the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, bestowing them their original name of "Islands of the 11,000 Virgins".
1600 – Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate that in effect rules Japan until the mid-nineteenth century.
1774 – First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America.
1797 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Trafalgar: A British fleet led by Vice Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain under Admiral Villeneuve. It signals almost the end of French maritime power and leaves Britain's navy unchallenged until the 20th century.
1816 – The Penang Free School is founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, by the Rev Hutchings. It is the oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia.
1824 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.
1854 – Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses are sent to the Crimean War.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Ball's Bluff – Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is killed in the fighting.
1867 – Manifest Destiny: Medicine Lodge Treaty – Near Medicine Lodge, Kansas a landmark treaty is signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty requires Native American Plains tribes to relocate a reservation in western Oklahoma.
1892 – Opening ceremonies for the World's Columbian Exposition are held in Chicago, though because construction was behind schedule, the exposition did not open until May 1, 1893.
1895 – The Republic of Formosa collapses as Japanese forces invade.
1902 – In the United States, a five month strike by United Mine Workers ends.
1910 – HMS Niobe arrives in Halifax Harbour to become the first ship of the Royal Canadian Navy.
1912 – During the First Balkan War, Kardzhali is liberated by Bulgarian forces
1921 – President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting President against lynching in the deep south.
1921 – George Melford's silent film, The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, premiers.
1931 – The Sakurakai, a secret society in the Imperial Japanese Army, launches an abortive coup d'état attempt.
1944 – World War II: The first kamikaze attack: A Japanese plane carrying a 200-kilogram (440 lb) bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
1944 – World War II: Battle of Aachen: The city of Aachen falls to American forces after three weeks of fighting, making it the first German city to fall to the Allies.
1945 – Women's suffrage: Women are allowed to vote in France for the first time.
1950 – Korean War: heavy fighting begins between British and Australian forces from the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade and the North Korean 239th Regiment during the Battle of Yongju.
1956 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is captured by the British Army, signalling the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau Uprising, and essentially ending the British military campaign.
1959 – In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.
1959 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Wernher von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA.
1965 – Comet Ikeya-Seki approaches perihelion, passing 450,000 kilometers from the sun.
1966 – Aberfan disaster: A slag heap collapses on the village of Aberfan in Wales, killing 144 people, mostly schoolchildren.
1967 – Vietnam War: More than 100,000 war protesters gather in Washington, D.C.. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility. Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.
1969 – A coup d'état in Somalia brings Siad Barre to power.
1971 – A gas explosion kills 22 people at a shopping centre in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, near Glasgow, Scotland.
1973 – John Paul Getty III's ear is cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; it doesn't arrive until November 8.
1973 – Fred Dryer of the then Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.
1977 – The European Patent Institute is founded.
1978 – Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.
1979 – Moshe Dayan resigns from the Israeli government because of strong disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policy towards the Arabs.
1983 – The metre is defined at the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
1986 – In Lebanon, pro-Iranian kidnappers claim to have abducted American writer Edward Tracy (he is released in August 1991).
1987 – Jaffna hospital massacre is carried out by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka killing 70 ethnic Tamil patients, doctors and nurses.
1994 – North Korea nuclear weapons program: North Korea and the United States sign an agreement that requires North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.
1994 – In Seoul, 32 people are killed when the Seongsu Bridge collapses.
2003 – Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz.

Births

1449 – George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (d. 1478)
1527 – Louis I, Cardinal of Guise (d. 1578)
1581 – Domenico Zampieri, Italian painter (d. 1641)
1650 – Jean Bart, French sailor and admiral (d. 1702)
1675 – Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (d. 1710)
1687 – Nicolaus I Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1759)
1712 – James Steuart, English economist (d. 1780)
1725 – Franz Moritz von Lacy, Austrian field marshal (d. 1801)
1757 – Pierre Augereau, French general (d. 1816)
1762 – Herman Willem Daendels, Dutch politician, 36th Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1818)
1772 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and philosopher (d. 1834)
1775 – Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (d. 1844)
1790 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet and politician (d. 1869)
1833 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize (d. 1896)
1845 – Will Carleton, American poet (d. 1912)
1847 – Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian poet and playwright (d. 1906)
1851 – George Ulyett, English cricketer (d. 1898)
1884 – Claire Waldoff, German singer (d. 1957)
1886 – Eugene Burton Ely, American aviation pioneer (d. 1911)
1894 – Edogawa Rampo, Japanese author and critic (d. 1965)
1895 – Edna Purviance, American actress (d. 1958)
1898 – Eduard Pütsep, Estonian wrestler (d. 1960)
1907 – Nikos Engonopoulos, Greek painter and poet (d. 1985)
1911 – Mary Blair, American illustrator and animator (d. 1978)
1912 – Don Byas, American saxophonist (d. 1972)
1912 – Alfredo Pián, Argentine race car driver (d. 1990)
1912 – Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1997)
1914 – Martin Gardner, American author (d. 2010)
1917 – Dizzy Gillespie, American trumpet player, bandleader, and composer (d. 1993)
1918 – Milton Himmelfarb, American sociographer (d. 2006)
1921 – Malcolm Arnold, English composer (d. 2006)
1921 – Sena Jurinac, Bosnian soprano (d. 2011)
1922 – Liliane Bettencourt, French businesswoman and philanthropist
1923 – Samuel Khachikian, Iranian director, screenwriter and author (d. 2001)
1924 – Celia Cruz, Cuban-American singer (d. 2003)
1924 – Joyce Randolph, American actress
1926 – Leonard Rossiter, English comedian and actor (d. 1984)
1927 – Fritz Wintersteller, Austrian mountaineer
1928 – Whitey Ford, American baseball player
1929 – Fritz Hollaus, Austrian footballer (d. 1994)
1929 – Ursula K. Le Guin, American author
1930 – Ivan Silayev, Soviet-Russian politician, 12th Premier of the Soviet Union
1931 – Shammi Kapoor, Indian actor (d. 2011)
1931 – Vivian Pickles, English actress
1935 – Derek Bell, Irish pianist, and songwriter (The Chieftains) (d. 2002)
1937 – Said Afandi al-Chirkawi, Russian spiritual leader (d. 2012)
1938 – Carl Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2001)
1940 – Geoff Boycott, English cricketer
1940 – Frances FitzGerald, American journalist and author
1940 – Manfred Mann, South African-English keyboard player (Manfred Mann, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and Manfred Mann Chapter Three)
1940 – Marita Petersen, Faroese politician, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 2001)
1941 – Steve Cropper, American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and actor (Booker T. & the M.G.'s, The Mar-Keys, and The Blues Brothers)
1942 – Elvin Bishop, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1942 – Allan Grice, Australian race car driver
1942 – Lou Lamoriello, American businessman
1942 – Judith Sheindlin, American judge and television host
1943 – Tariq Ali, Pakistani author and historian
1945 – Everett McGill, American actor
1946 – Jim Hill, American football player and sportscaster
1946 – Lux Interior, American singer-songwriter (The Cramps) (d. 2009)
1946 – Lee Loughnane, American singer-songwriter and trumpet player (Chicago)
1947 – Mary Pipher, American psychologist and author
1948 – Shaye J. D. Cohen, American historian and academic
1948 – Tom Everett, American actor
1948 – Allen Vigneron, American archbishop
1949 – Michel Brière, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1971)
1949 – Mike Keenan, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1949 – Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli politician, 9th Prime Minister of Israel
1950 – Ronald McNair, American astronaut (d. 1986)
1952 – Trevor Chappell, Australian cricketer
1952 – Patti Davis, American actress and author
1952 – Allen Hoey, American poet and author
1952 – Brent Mydland, German-American keyboard player (Grateful Dead, Bobby and the Midnites, and Silver) (d. 1990)
1953 – Charlotte Caffey, American guitarist and songwriter (The Go-Go's and The Graces)
1953 – Eric Faulkner, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Bay City Rollers)
1953 – Keith Green, American singer-songwriter and minister (d. 1982)
1953 – Marc Johnson, American bassist, composer, and bandleader
1953 – Peter Mandelson, English politician
1954 – Brian Tobin, Canadian politician, 6th Premier of Newfoundland
1955 – Dick DeVos, American businessman
1955 – Fred Hersch, American pianist
1955 – Rich Mullins, American singer-songwriter (A Ragamuffin Band) (d. 1997)
1956 – Carrie Fisher, American actress, screenwriter, and author
1957 – Julian Cope, English singer-songwriter and author (The Teardrop Explodes, Crucial Three, Black Sheep, Brain Donor, and Queen Elizabeth)
1957 – Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1957 – Steve Lukather, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Toto)
1958 – Sir Andre Konstantin Geim, Russian-English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1959 – George Bell, Dominican baseball player
1959 – Tony Ganios, American actor
1959 – Rose McDowall, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (Strawberry Switchblade, Spell, and Current 93)
1959 – Andy Picheta, English director, producer, and screenwriter
1959 – Kevin Sheedy, Irish footballer
1959 – Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
1962 – David Campese, Australian rugby player
1964 – Jon Carin, American singer-songwriter and musician (Pink Floyd, The Who, and Industry)
1965 – Ion Andoni Goikoetxea, Spanish footballer
1965 – Horace Hogan, American wrestler
1965 – Hisashi Imai, Japanese singer-songwriter and guitarist (BUCK-TICK, Schaft, and Schwein)
1966 – Arne Sandstø, Norwegian footballer
1967 – Paul Ince, English footballer
1968 – Alexandros Alexandris, Greek footballer
1968 – Kerstin Andreae, German politician
1968 – Melora Walters, American actress
1969 – Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Bahraini prince
1969 – Michael Hancock, Australian rugby player
1969 – Mo Lewis, American football player
1970 – Louis Koo, Hong Kong actor
1971 – Hal Duncan, Scottish author
1971 – Jade Jagger, French-English model and jewellery Designer
1971 – Damien Martyn, Australian cricketer
1971 – Nick Oliveri, American singer-songwriter and bass player (Mondo Generator, Kyuss, and Queens of the Stone Age)
1971 – Conor O'Shea, Irish rugby player
1971 – Paul Telfer, Scottish footballer
1971 – Thomas Ulsrud, Norwegian curler
1972 – Felicity Andersen, Australian actress
1972 – Matthew Friedberger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Fiery Furnaces)
1972 – Masakazu Morita, Japanese voice actor
1972 – Evhen Tsybulenko, Ukrainian academic and scholar
1973 – Lera Auerbach, Russian composer
1973 – Charlie Lowell, American pianist and songwriter (Jars of Clay)
1974 – Costel Busuioc, Romanian tenor
1975 – Toby Hall, American baseball player
1975 – Henrique Hilário, Portuguese footballer
1976 – Jeremy Miller, American actor
1976 – Lavinia Milosovici, Romanian gymnast
1976 – Josh Ritter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1976 – Andrew Scott, Irish actor
1976 – Mélanie Turgeon, Canadian skier
1978 – Will Estes, American actor
1978 – Joey Harrington, American football player
1978 – Henrik Klingenberg, Finnish singer and keyboard player (Sonata Arctica)
1979 – Khalil Greene, American baseball player
1979 – Gabe Gross, American baseball player
1980 – Kim Kardashian, American model and actress
1980 – Brian Pittman, American bass player (Relient K and Inhale Exhale)
1981 – Martin Castrogiovanni, Argentine-Italian rugby player
1981 – Nemanja Vidic, Serbian footballer
1982 – Matt Dallas, American actor
1982 – Ray Ventrone, American football player
1982 – Lee Chong Wei, Malaysian badminton player
1982 – James White, American basketball player
1982 – Tim Wildsmith, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1983 – Zack Greinke, American baseball player
1983 – Andy Marté, Dominican baseball player
1983 – Charlotte Sullivan, Canadian actress
1983 – Ninet Tayeb, Israeli singer and actress
1983 – Shelden Williams, American basketball player
1984 – Tom Brandstater, American football player
1984 – Kenny Cooper, American soccer player
1984 – Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, Canadian speed skater
1984 – Marvin Mitchell, American football player
1984 – Kieran Richardson, English footballer
1986 – Almen Abdi, Swiss footballer
1986 – Chibuzor Chilaka, Nigerian footballer
1986 – Natalee Holloway, American missing person (d. 2005)
1986 – Christopher Uckermann, Mexican singer-songwriter and actor (RBD)
1990 – Ricky Rubio, Spanish basketball player
1992 – Bernard Tomic, Australian tennis player
1994 – DeAndre Brackensick, American singer
1995 – Shannon Magrane, American singer

Deaths

1125 – Cosmas of Prague, Bohemian priest and historian (b. 1045)
1204 – Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester
1221 – Alix, Duchess of Brittany (b. 1201)
1266 – Birger Jarl, Swedish statesman (b. 1210)
1422 – Charles VI of France (b. 1368)
1500 – Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (b. 1442)
1505 – Paul Scriptoris, German mathematician (b. 1460)
1558 – Julius Caesar Scaliger, Italian scholar (b. 1484)
1600 – Toda Katsushige, Japanese warlord (b. 1557)
1623 – William Wade, English politician and diplomat (b. 1546)
1662 – Henry Lawes, English composer (b. 1595)
1687 – Edmund Waller, English poet (b. 1606)
1708 – Guru Gobind Singh, Indian 10th Sikh gurus (b. 1666)
1765 – Giovanni Paolo Panini, Italian painter (b. 1691)
1775 – Peyton Randolph, American politician, 1st President of the Continental Congress (b. 1721)
1777 – Samuel Foote, English actor and playwright (b. 1720)
1805 – John Cooke, English navy officer (b.1763)
1805 – George Duff, Scottish navy officer (b.1764)
1805 – Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, English navy officer (b. 1758)
1821 – Dorothea Ackermann, German actress (b. 1752)
1872 – Jacques Babinet, French physicist (b. 1794)
1873 – Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet (b. 1807)
1896 – James Henry Greathead, South African-English engineer (b. 1844)
1903 – Jinmaku Kyugoro, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 12th Yokozuna (b. 1829)
1904 – Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and journalist (b. 1877)
1907 – Jules Chevalier, French priest, founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (b. 1824)
1931 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian author and playwright (b. 1862)
1938 – Dorothy Hale, American actress (b. 1905)
1940 – William G. Conley, American politician, 18th Governor of West Virginia (b. 1866)
1944 – Alois Kayser, German-French missionary (b. 1877)
1952 – Hans Merensky, South African geologist and philanthropist (b. 1871)
1963 – Józef Franczak, Polish soldier (b. 1918)
1965 – Bill Black, American bass player (The Blue Moon Boys) (b. 1926)
1969 – Jack Kerouac, American author (b. 1922)
1969 – Waclaw Sierpinski, Polish mathematician (b. 1882)
1973 – Nasif Estéfano, Argentine race car driver (b. 1932)
1975 – Charles Reidpath, American runner (b. 1887)
1978 – Anastas Mikoyan, Soviet politician (b. 1895)
1980 – Hans Asperger, Austrian psychologist (b. 1906)
1984 – François Truffaut, French director (b. 1932)
1985 – Dan White, American politician, assassin of George Moscone and Harvey Milk (b. 1946)
1986 – Lionel Murphy, Australian politician and jurist, 22nd Attorney-General of Australia (b. 1922)
1989 – Jean Image, Hungarian-French animator (b. 1910)
1990 – Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, Indian philosopher and author (b. 1921)
1990 – Dany Chamoun, Lebanese politician (b. 1934)
1991 – Lorenc Antoni, Albanian composer (b. 1909)
1992 – Jim Garrison, American attorney (b. 1921)
1993 – Sam Zolotow, American journalist (b. 1899)
1995 – Maxene Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters) (b. 1916)
1995 – Jesús Blasco, Spanish writer and illustrator (b. 1919)
1995 – Shannon Hoon, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Blind Melon) (b. 1967)
1996 – Georgios Zoitakis, Greek general (b. 1910)
1998 – Francis W. Sargent, American politician, 64th Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1915)
1999 – Lars Bo, Danish writer and illustrator (b. 1924)
2003 – Fred Berry, American actor (b. 1951)
2003 – Louise Day Hicks, American politician (b. 1916)
2003 – Luis A. Ferré, Puerto Rican engineer and politician, 3rd Governor of Puerto Rico (b. 1904)
2003 – Elliott Smith, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Heatmiser) (b. 1969)
2006 – Sandy West, American singer-songwriter and drummer (The Runaways) (b. 1959)
2007 – Paul Fox, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Ruts) (b. 1951)
2010 – A. Ayyappan, Indian poet (b. 1949)
2012 – Harvie Andre, Canadian politician (b. 1940)
2012 – Yash Chopra, Indian director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1932)
2012 – Ted Kazanoff, American actor (b. 1922)
2012 – Alf Khumalo, South African photographer (b. 1930)
2012 – George McGovern, American historian and politician (b. 1922)
2012 – Mike Morris, English journalist (b. 1947)