today.nukz.net: Almanac October 7

Niels Henrik David Bohr (7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. He developed the model of the atom with the nucleus at the center and electrons in orbit around it, which he compared to the planets orbiting the sun. He worked on the idea in quantum mechanics that electrons move from one energy level to another in discrete steps, not continuously. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in Copenhagen. He was part of the British team of physicists working on the Manhattan Project. Bohr married Margrethe Nørlund in 1912, and one of their sons, Aage Bohr, was also a physicist and in 1975 also received the Nobel Prize.

Events

3761 BC – The epoch reference date epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar).
1477 – Uppsala University is inaugurated after receiving its corporate rights from Pope Sixtus IV in February the same year.
1513 – Battle of La Motta: Spanish troops under Ramón de Cardona defeat the Venetians.
1542 – Explorer Cabrillo discovers Santa Catalina Island off of the California coast.
1571 – The Battle of Lepanto is fought, and the Holy League (Spain and Italy) destroys the Turkish fleet.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, this day is skipped in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
1691 – The English royal charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay is issued.
1763 – George III of Great Britain issues British Royal Proclamation of 1763, closing aboriginal lands in North America north and west of Alleghenies to white settlements.
1776 – Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans defeat the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Kings Mountain American Patriot militia defeat Loyalist irregulars led by British colonel Patrick Ferguson in South Carolina.
1800 – French corsair Robert Surcouf, commander of the 18-gun ship La Confiance, captures the British 38-gun Kent inspiring the traditional French song Le Trente-et-un du mois d'août.
1826 – The Granite Railway begins operations as the first chartered railway in the U.S.
1828 – The city of Patras, Greece, is liberated by the French expeditionary force in the Peloponnese under General Maison.
1840 – Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
1849 – Death of Edgar Allan Poe
1862 – Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) opens as the first hospital in the Canadian province of British Columbia
1864 – American Civil War: USS Wachusett illegally captures the CSS Florida Confederate raider while in port in Bahia, Brazil in violation of Brazilian neutrality.
1868 – Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War – Siege of Paris: Leon Gambetta flees Paris in a balloon.
1879 – Germany and Austria-Hungary sign the "Twofold Covenant" and create the Dual Alliance.
1912 – The Helsinki Stock Exchange sees its first transaction.
1916 – Georgia Tech defeats Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.
1919 – KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands, is founded. It is the oldest airline still operating under its original name.
1924 – Andreas Michalakopoulos becomes Prime Minister of Greece for a short period of time.
1929 – Photios II becomes Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
1933 – Air France is inaugurated, after being formed by a merger of 5 French airlines.
1940 – World War II: the McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
1942 – World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
1944 – World War II: Uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jewish prisoners burn down the crematoria.
1949 – The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.
1955 – American poet Allen Ginsberg performs his poem Howl for the first time at the Six Gallery in San Francisco.
1958 – President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspends the 1956 constitution, imposes martial law, and cancels the elections scheduled for January 1959.
1958 – The U.S. manned space-flight project is renamed Project Mercury.
1959 – U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.
1960 – Nigeria joins the United Nations.
1963 – John F. Kennedy signs the ratification of the Partial Test Ban Treaty.
1971 – Oman joins the United Nations.
1976 – Hua Guofeng becomes Mao Zedong's successor as chairman of Communist Party of China.
1977 – The adoption of the Fourth Soviet Constitution.
1985 – The Achille Lauro is hijacked by Palestine Liberation Organization.
1985 – The Mameyes landslide kills close to 300 in the worst landslide in North American history.
1991 – Bombing of Banski dvori in Zagreb.
1993 – The Great Flood of 1993 ends at St. Louis, Missouri, 103 days after it began, as the Mississippi River falls below flood stage.
1998 – Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, is found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.
2001 – The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan begins with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.
2006 – Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya is shot and killed outside her home in Moscow.

Births

13 BC – Drusus Julius Caesar, Roman adoptive son of Emperor Tiberius and brother of Germanicus and Claudius (d. AD 23)
1471 – King Frederick I of Denmark and Norway (d. 1533)
1573 – William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1645)
1576 – John Marston, English writer (d. 1634)
1589 – Maria Magdalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (d. 1631)
1713 – Granville Elliott, British military officer (d. 1759)
1728 – Caesar Rodney, American lawyer (d. 1784)
1744 – Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and statesman (d. 1819)
1746 – William Billings, American composer (d. 1800)
1748 – King Charles XIII of Sweden (d. 1818)
1769 – Solomon Sibley, American politician and former Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan Territory (d. 1846)
1786 – Louis-Joseph Papineau, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1871)
1832 – Charles Crozat Converse, composer of church songs (d. 1918)
1835 – Felix Draeseke, German composer (d. 1913)
1836 – Henri Elzéar Taschereau, Canadian jurist and Chief justice of Canada (d. 1911)
1841 – King Nicholas I of Montenegro (d. 1921)
1849 – James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (d. 1916)
1866 – Wlodimir Ledochowski, Polish-Austrian director of the Society of Jesus (d. 1942)
1870 – Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine (d. 1873)
1870 – Uncle Dave Macon, American banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian (d. 1952)
1879 – Joe Hill, American Labor Activist and Poet (d. 1915)
1881 – Mikhail Drozdovsky, Russian general (d. 1918)
1884 – Major Harold Geiger, U.S. Army aviation pioneer (d. 1927)
1885 – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
1885 – Claud Ashton Jones, United States Navy rear admiral and Medal of Honor winner (d. 1948)
1888 – Henry A. Wallace, American politician, 11th United States Secretary of Agriculture, 33rd Vice President of the United States and 10th United States Secretary of Commerce (d. 1965)
1892 – Dwain Esper, director (d. 1982)
1894 – Del Lord, American director (d. 1970)
1895 – Maurice Grevisse, Belgian grammarian (d. 1980)
1897 – Elijah Muhammad, American Black Muslim leader (d. 1975)
1898 – Joe Giard, American baseball player (d. 1956)
1900 – Heinrich Himmler, German Nazi official (d. 1945)
1905 – Andy Devine, American actor (d. 1977)
1909 – Anni Blomqvist, Finnish novelist (d. 1990)
1909 – Erastus Corning 2nd, American politician, 72nd Mayor of Albany, New York (d. 1983)
1910 – Henry P. McIlhenny, American philanthropist (d. 1986)
1911 – Jo Jones, American drummer (d. 1985)
1911 – Vaughn Monroe, American singer (d. 1973)
1911 – Shura Cherkassky, Ukrainian classical pianist (d. 1995)
1912 – Fernando Belaúnde Terry, President of Peru (d. 2002)
1913 – Simon Carmiggelt, Dutch journalist and writer (d. 1987)
1914 – Alfred Drake, American actor (d. 1992)
1914 – Sarah Churchill, British actress (d. 1982)
1917 – June Allyson, American actress (d. 2006)
1919 – Sir Zelman Cowen, Australian academic and Governor-General (d.2011)
1919 – Georges Duby, French historian (d. 1996)
1920 – Georg Leber, German politician (d. 2012)
1920 – Jack Rowley, English footballer (d. 1998)
1921 – Raymond Goethals, Belgian football coach (d. 2004)
1922 – Grady Hatton, American baseball player
1922 – William Zinsser, American writer
1923 – Jean-Paul Riopelle, Québécois member of Les Automatistes (d. 2002)
1923 – Irma Grese, Supervisor at Nazi concentration camps (d. 1945)
1923 – Michel Joseph Kuehn, French bishop (d. 2012)
1926 – Diana Lynn, American actress (d. 1971)
1927 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist (d. 1989)
1927 – Al Martino, American singer and actor (d. 2009)
1928 – Sohrab Sepehri, Persian poet and painter (d. 1980)
1929 – Robert Westall, British author (d. 1993)
1929 – Graeme Ferguson, Canadian filmmaker and executive
1931 – Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)
1931 – Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and Nobel Laureate
1932 – Joannes Gijsen, Dutch bishop
1933 – Harold Dunaway, American race car driver (d. 2012)
1934 – Amiri Baraka, American writer
1934 – Ulrike Meinhof, German journalist and political activist (d. 1976)
1935 – Thomas Keneally, Australian author
1936 – Charles Dutoit, Swiss conductor
1936 – Michael Hurll, English television producer (d. 2012)
1937 – Maria Szyszkowska, Polish politician
1938 – Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer, actor, poet, writer, TV and radio host (d. 1992)
1939 – John Hopcroft, American computer scientist
1939 – Clive James, Australian television presenter and writer
1939 – Harold Kroto, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1939 – Bill Snyder, American football coach
1940 – Bruce Vento, American politician and former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota (d. 2000)
1942 – Joy Behar, American television personality
1943 – José Cardenal, Cuban baseball player
1943 – Oliver North, American former military officer
1944 – Judee Sill, American musician (d. 1979)
1944 – Donald Tsang, current Chief executive of Hong Kong
1945 – Kevin Godley, British musician (10cc)
1946 – Bernard Lavilliers, French singer
1946 – Catherine MacKinnon, American feminist and author
1946 – Pengiran Anak Saleha, Queen of Brunei
1947 – Chris Bambridge, former Australian football referee
1948 – Diane Ackerman, American poet and essayist
1948 – Stephen Rucker, American composer
1949 – Dave Hope, American musician (Kansas)
1949 – Kieran Kane, American alt country singer songwriter
1950 – Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzanian politician
1951 – John Mellencamp, American singer
1951 – David J. Halberstam, American radio executive
1952 – Mary Badham, American actress
1952 – Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation
1952 – Jacques Richard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2002)
1952 – Graham Yallop, Australian cricketer
1953 – Tico Torres, musician (Bon Jovi)
1954 – Kenneth Atchley, American composer
1955 – Yo-Yo Ma, French-born American cellist
1955 – Ralph Johnson, American computer scientist
1956 – Brian Sutter, Canadian ice hockey player
1957 – Michael W. Smith, American singer
1957 – Jayne Torvill, British figure skater
1959 – Dylan Baker, American character actor
1959 – Simon Cowell, English recording executive
1959 – Lourdes Flores, Peruvian politician
1959 – Jean-Marc Fournier, French-Canadian politician
1960 – Kyosuke Himuro, Japanese singer
1960 – Viktor Lazlo, Belgian singer
1961 – Matthew Roloff, American reality star
1961 – Brian Mannix, Australian singer and actor
1961 – Tony Sparano, American football coach
1962 – Dave Bronconnier, Canadian politician
1962 – William Johnson, English Cricketer
1964 – Sam Brown, English singer-songwriter
1964 – Dan Savage, American sex-columnist and author
1964 – Paul Stewart, English footballer
1965 – Genji Hashimoto, Japanese racing driver
1966 – Sherman Alexie, Native American author and comedian
1966 – Marco Beltrami, Italian-American film composer
1967 – Toni Braxton, American singer
1967 – Ellen ten Damme, Dutch actress and singer
1967 – Luke Haines, English musician (The Auteurs, Black Box Recorder)
1968 – Thom Yorke, English singer (Radiohead)
1969 – Bobbie Brown, American actress, model
1969 – Malia Hosaka, Hawaiian professional wrestler
1969 – Maria Whittaker, English model
1969 – Benny Chan Ho Man, Hong Kong actor and singer
1970 – Nicole Ari Parker, American actress
1971 – Daniel Boucher, Québécois musician
1972 – Loek van Wely, Dutch chess Grandmaster
1972 – Ben Younger, American screenwriter and film director
1973 – Dida, Brazilian footballer
1973 – Sami Hyypiä, Finnish footballer
1973 – Priest Holmes, American Football Running Back
1974 – Allison Munn, American actress
1974 – Charlotte Nilsson, Swedish singer
1974 – Alexander Polinsky, American actor
1975 – Terry Gerin, American professional wrestler
1975 – Damian Kulash, American musician (OK Go)
1975 – Tim Minchin, Australian comedian and musician
1975 – Kaspars Znotinš, Latvian actor
1975 – Jamie Hector, American actor
1976 – Taylor Hicks, American musician
1976 – Santiago Solari, Argentinian footballer
1976 – Gilberto Silva, Brazilian footballer
1976 – Charles Woodson, American football player
1976 – Marc Coma, Spanish motorcycle racer
1977 – Brandon Quinn, American actor
1977 – Meighan Desmond, New Zealand actress
1978 – Alesha Dixon, British pop singer (Mis-Teeq)
1978 – Jake Humphrey, English television presenter
1978 – Zaheer Khan, Indian cricketer
1979 – Simona Amânar, Romanian gymnast
1979 – Aaron Ashmore, Canadian actor
1979 – Shawn Ashmore, Canadian actor
1979 – Tang Wei, Chinese actress
1980 – Edison Chen, Canadian actor
1980 – Tim Cresswell, Hong Kong footballer
1981 – Doni Schroader, American avant garde composer,pop musician
1982 – Madjid Bougherra, Algerian footballer
1982 – Jermain Defoe, English footballer
1982 – Robby Ginepri, American tennis player
1982 – Li Yundi, Chinese classical pianist
1983 – Archie Bland, British journalist
1983 – Flying Lotus, American electronic music producer
1983 – Scottie Upshall, Canadian Hockey Player
1984 – Toma Ikuta, Japanese singer and actor
1984 – Salman Butt, Pakistani cricketer
1984 – Simon Poulsen, Danish footballer
1985 – Evan Longoria, American baseball player
1986 – Kaitlyn, American model and wrestler
1986 – Chase Daniel, American football player
1986 – Lee Nguyen, American soccer player
1986 – Gunnar Nielsen, Faroese footballer
1986 – Bree Olson, American porn actress
1987 – Jeremy Brockie, New Zealand footballer
1987 – Sam Querrey, American tennis player
1988 – Stacy DuPree, American musician (Eisley)
1988 – Diego da Silva Costa, Brazilian footballer
1990 – Ayla Kell, American actress
1990 – Sebastián Coates, Uruguayan footballer
1991 – Nicole Jung, Korean/American singer/actress
1991 – Zhang Yixing, Chinese/Korean singer
1995 – Slade Pearce, American actor
2001 – Princess Senate Seeiso, daughter of King Letsie III of Lesotho

Deaths

336 – Pope Mark
929 – King Charles III of France (b. 879)
1368 – Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III of England (b. 1338)
1553 – Cristóbal de Morales, Spanish composer (b. c.1500)
1555 – Louis of Praet, Habsburg diplomat (b. 1488)
1577 – George Gascoigne, English poet
1612 – Giovanni Battista Guarini, Italian poet, dramatist, and diplomat, (b. 1538)
1620 – Stanislaw Zólkiewski, Polish military leader (b. 1547)
1637 – Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (b. 1587)
1651 – Jacques Sirmond, French Jesuit scholar (b. 1559)
1653 – Fausto Poli, Italian Catholic priest (b. 1581)
1708 – Guru Gobind Singh, tenth Sikh Guru (b. 1666)
1772 – John Woolman, American Quaker preacher and abolitionist (b. 1720)
1780 – Patrick Ferguson, Scottish soldier (b. 1744; killed in the Battle of Kings Mountain)
1787 – Henry Muhlenberg, German-born founder of the U.S. Lutheran Church (b. 1711)
1792 – George Mason, American statesman (b. 1725)
1793 – Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire, English politician (b. 1718)
1796 – Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (b. 1710)
1849 – Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet (b. 1809)
1894 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American writer (b. 1809)
1896 – Emma Wedgwood, English naturalist, wife of Charles Darwin, (b. 1808)
1903 – Rudolf Lipschitz, German mathematician (b. 1832)
1904 – Isabella Bird, English explorer, writer, and natural historian (b. 1831)
1906 – Honoré Beaugrand, Canadian journalist and politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1848)
1911 – John Hughlings Jackson, English neurologist (b. 1835)
1919 – Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856)
1925 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (b. 1880)
1926 – Emil Kraepelin, German psychologist (b. 1856)
1931 – Eugen Schmidt, Danish athlete (b. 1862)
1939 – Harvey Cushing, Father of Modern Neurosurgery (b. 1869)
1943 – Eugeniusz Bodo, Polish actor (b. 1899)
1943 – Radclyffe Hall, British author (b. 1880)
1943 – Archibald Warden, British tennis player (b. 1869)
1944 – Helmut Lent, German night fighter pilot (b. 1918)
1951 – Anton Philips, Dutch co-founder Royal Philips Electronics N.V. (b. 1874)
1956 – Clarence Birdseye, American inventor (b. 1886)
1959 – Mario Lanza, American tenor (b. 1921)
1966 – Grigoris Asikis, Greek singer and songwriter. (b. 1890)
1966 – Smiley Lewis, American musician (b. 1913)
1967 – Sir Norman Angell, British politician and Nobel Laureate (b. 1872)
1969 – Léon Scieur, Belgian cyclist (b. 1888)
1970 – Alphonse-Marie Parent, Canadian priest, educator and academic executive (b. 1906)
1991 – Harry W. Brown, American pilot (b. 1921)
1991 – Leo Durocher, American baseball player and manager (b. 1905)
1991 – Darren Millane, Australian football player (b. 1965)
1992 – Allan Bloom, American philosopher and educator (b. 1930)
1992 – Tevfik Esenç, last known speaker of Ubykh (b. 1904)
1993 – Cyril Cusack, Irish actor (b. 1910)
1994 – Niels Kaj Jerne, English-born Danish immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1911)
1995 – Ernest Ingenito, American mass murderer (b. 1924)
1996 – Lou Lichtveld, Surinamese Dutch politician, playwright and poet (b. 1903)
1998 – Arnold Jacobs, American tuba player a.k.a. Song and Wind (b. 1915)
1998 – Cees de Vreugd, Dutch butcher, strongman and powerlifter (b. 1952)
2001 – Christopher Adams, British-born pro wrestler and judoka (b. 1955)
2001 – Herbert "Herblock" Block, American cartoonist (b. 1909)
2001 – Roger Gaudry, French Canadian chemist, businessman and corporate director (b. 1913)
2002 – Pierangelo Bertoli, Italian singer-songwriter (b. 1942)
2003 – Israel Harold "Izzy" Asper, Canadian tax lawyer and media magnate (b. 1932)
2003 – Arthur Berger, American composer (b. 1912)
2003 – Wally George, American conservative TV commentator (b. 1931)
2004 – Ken Bigley, British civil engineer, kidnapped and murdered in Iraq (b. 1942)
2005 – Charles Rocket, American actor (b. 1949)
2006 – Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist (b. 1958)
2006 – Abraham Afewerki, Eritrean singer (b.1966)
2006 – Julen Goikoetxea, Spanish Basque cyclist (b. 1985)
2007 – Norifumi Abe, Japanese motorcycle racer (b. 1975)
2007 – George E. Sangmeister, American politician (b. 1931)
2008 – Leslie Hardman, Jewish Orthodox rabbi (b. 1913)
2009 – Irving Penn, American photographer (b. 1917)
2010 – Milka Planinc, former PM of Yugoslavia (b. 1924)
2010 – T Lavitz, American musician (b. 1956)
2011 – Ramiz Alia, the former communist leader and first president of the Albanian pluralist (b. 1925)