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Children's Books Month Children's Eye Health and Safety Month National Childhood Injury Prevention Month National Honey Month National Piano Month National Rice Month National School Success Month National Sewing Month National Sickle Cell Month National Youth Pastors Appreciation Month Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Southern Gospel Music Month |
1494: Francis I, King of France (1515-47)
1559: Italian painter and architect Lodovico Cardi da Cigoli
1575: Explorer Henry Hudson (Hudson River)
1655: Composer Sebastien de Brossard
1761:Composer Georg Friedrich Theodor Wolf
1768:Composer Bemnjamin Carr, composer
1788: Alexander Campbell, US founder of the Disciples of Christ.
1803: Composer Frantisek Matej Hilmar
1818: Richard Jordan Gatling, US inventor of hand-cranked machine gun
1829: Newspaperman Charles Dudley Warner (With Mark Twain he wrote The
Guilded Age)
1851: Francis E. Clark, American Congregationalist clergyman. In 1881,
at age 29, Clark organized the world's first church "youth fellowship" in
Portland, Maine. Clark's original name for this Christian group concept was "The
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor."
1852: H.H. Asquith, British prime minister (1908-16)
1880: Author and journalist H.L. Mencken (The American Language)
1888: French entertainer Maurice Chevalier
1892: US publisher, Alfred A. Knopf
1898: Artist Ben Schahn in Lithuania.
1913: U.S. Olympic track star Jesse Owens. He won four medals at the
Berlin Olympics in 1936
1920: Actress Irene Dailey
1925: Actor Dickie Moore ("Our Gang")
1927: Actor Freddie Jones
1931: Country singer George Jones
1931: Actor Ian Holm
1940: Actress Linda Gray
1943: Singer Maria Muldaur
1944: Singer Barry White
1951: Actor Joe Pantoliano
1952: Singer-musician Gerry Beckley (America)
1952: Rock musician Neil Peart (Rush)
1954: Actor Peter Scolari
1957: Actress Rachel Ward
1965: Rock musician Norwood Fisher (Fishbone)
1966: Rock singer-musician Ben Folds (Ben Folds Five
1966: Actor Darren E. Burrows ("Northern Exposure")
1968: Rock musician Larry LaLonde (Primus)
1972: Rock singer Liam Gallagher (Oasis)
0490 BC: Athenian and Plataean hoplites commanded by
General Miltiades drive back a Persian invasion force under General Datis at Marathon.
1021: Death of St, Guy of Anderlecht
1213: Simon de Montfort defeats Raymond of Toulouse and
Peter II of Aragon at Muret, France.
1294: Mongol paper money introduced in Persia
1609: English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the river
that now bears his name.
1642: Execution of the Marquis of Cinq Mars, for treason
1654: 1st Jewish congregational service in Manhattan held
1662: Governor Berkley of Virginia is denied his attempts
to repeal the Navigation Acts.
1683: A combined Austrian and Polish army defeats the
Turks at Kahlenberg and lifts the siege on Vienna, Austria.
1687: John Alden, the last Mayflower passenger, died.
According to history and Longfellow, he courted Priscilla Mullen in the name of his friend
Miles Standish and won her himself.
1722: The Treaty of St. Petersburg puts an end to the
Russo-Persian War.
1740: The French philosopher Voltaire and the Prussian
enlightened king Frederick the Great first met after corresponding for years. Voltaire
spent 1850-52 at Frederick's court at Potsdam.
1764: The philosopher Rameau died. Rameau was also a
musician. He fancied himself both a composer and a harpsichordist. One acquaintance said,
"His heart was in his harpsichord... when he shut the lid there was no one at
home."
1786: Despite his failed efforts to suppress the American
Revolution, Lord Cornwallis is appointed governor general of India.
1836: Mexican authorities crush the revolt which broke out
on August 25.
1864: The Brownings were secretly married at St Marylebone
Church in London. They ran away to Italy together a week later.
1910: Mrs. Alice Stebbins Wells becomes the first
policewoman with full powers of arrest and wearing a uniform. History Focus for Today
1918: During World War One, US forces led by General John
J. Pershing launched an attack on the German-occupied St. Mihiel salient north of Verdun,
France.
1919: Adolf Hitler joins German Workers Party.
1922: The House of Bishops of the U.S. Protestant
Episcopal Church voted 36-27 to delete the word "obey" from the vows of their
denomination's official marriage service.
1928: Katharine Hepburn makes her New York stage debut in
"Night Hostess."
1938: In a speech in Nuremberg, Adolf Hitler demanded
self-determination for the Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia.
1940: Italian forces begin an offensive into Egypt from
Libya. Italy's Breda Ba.65 was not the best ground-attack plane to see action in World War
II--it may well have been the worst.
1943: German paratroopers took Benito Mussolini from the
hotel where he was being held by the Italian government.
1944: During World War Two, US Army troops entered Germany
for the first time, near Trier.
1945: French troops land in Indochina.
1953: Khrushchev becomes First Secretary of the Communist
Party.
1954: "Lassie" made its television debut on CBS.
1958: Little Rock High School in Arkansas was ordered by
the U.S. Supreme Court to admit blacks.
1959: "Bonanza" premieres on NBC and ran through
1973.
1959: Luna 1 launched by USSR; first spacecraft to impact
on the moon.
1960: Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy
addressed the issue of his Roman Catholic faith, telling a Protestant group in Houston,
"I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for
me."
1966: The comedy-musical "The Monkees" made its
debut on NBC television and the situation comedy "Family Affair" premiered on
CBS television.
1969: Heavy bombing of Vietnam resumed under orders from
President Nixon.
1974: Military officers deposed Emperor Haile Selassie
from the Ethiopian throne he had occupied for more than a half-century.
1976: Chicago White Sox designated hitter Minnie Minoso
became the oldest player (age 53) to collect a hit in a regulation game.
1977: It was announced that Charles Dutoit would become
music director of the Montreal Symphony. The Montrealers had played under Otto Klemperer,
Zubin Mehta, Franz-Paul Decker and Rafael Frubeck de Burgos. Charles Dutoit would benefit
from that, and build on it.
1977: South African black student leader Steven Biko died
while in police custody, triggering an international outcry.
1978: The critically acclaimed TV sitcom Taxi began and
ran through 1982.
1982: Jimmy Connors won his fourth U.S. Open, defeating
Ivan Lendl.
1983: The Soviet Union vetoed a U.N. Security Council
resolution deploring the shooting-down of a Korean jetliner by a Soviet jet fighter on
Sept. 1.
1985: A South African panel proposed the repeal of the
country's "pass laws" that kept South Africa's blacks out of white areas.
1986: Joseph Cicippio, the acting comptroller at the
American University in Beirut, was kidnapped; he was released in December 1991.
1986: The United States released Soviet physicist Gennadiy
Zakharov and the Soviet Union released American journalist Nicholas Daniloff to the
custody of their respective countries' embassies, pending their espionage trials.
1987: Reports surfaced that Democratic presidential
candidate Joseph Biden had borrowed, without attribution, passages of a speech by British
Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock for one of his own campaign speeches. (The Kinnock report,
along with other damaging revelations, prompted Biden to drop his White House bid.)
1988: Hurricane "Gilbert" slammed into Jamaica
with torrential rains and winds of 145 miles-an-hour, killing 45 people and causing damage
estimated at up to $1-billion.
1989: Manhattan Borough President David N. Dinkins won New
York City's Democratic mayoral primary, defeating incumbent Mayor Edward Koch and two
other candidates on his way to becoming the city's first black mayor.
1990: Representatives of the World War II Allies and West
and East Germany signed a treaty in Moscow giving international sanction to German unity.
1991: Saying Middle East peace negotiations might be in
jeopardy, President Bush told reporters he would use his veto authority, if necessary, to
delay action on Israel's call for $10 billion in housing loan guarantees.
1991: The space shuttle Discovery blasted off on a mission
to deploy an observatory designed to study the Earth's ozone layer.
1992: The space shuttle "Endeavour" blasted off,
carrying with it Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space; Mae Jemison,
the first black woman in space; and Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly on a
US spaceship.
1992: Police in Peru captured Shining Path founder Abimael
Guzman.
1992: Monica Seles won her sixth Grand Slam title, beating
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the U.S. Open final.
1992: Actor Anthony Perkins died in Hollywood at age 60 of
AIDS.
1993: The space shuttle "Discovery" blasted off
from Cape Canaveral on a ten-day mission.
1993: Actor Raymond Burr died at his Northern California
ranch at age 76.
1993: PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat arrived in Washington on
the eve of the signing of a peace accord with Israel.
1994: A stolen, single-engine Cessna crashed into the
South Lawn of the White House, the pilot, Frank Corder, was killed.
1994: In Canada, the separatist Parti Quebecois won a
majority of seats in the province's legislature.
1994: In Poland, NATO soldiers and former Warsaw Pact
nations held their first joint maneuvers.
1995: The Belarussian military shot down a hydrogen
balloon during an international race, killing its two American pilots.
1996: Last-minute intervention by Republican ptesidential
candidate Bob Dole led to Senate postponement of action on a treaty designed to eliminate
chemical weapons. President Clinton said the agreement was threatened by "a bitter
partisan debate."
1997: With little to show after three days of shuttle
diplomacy, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright declared she wouldn't return to the
Mideast until Israeli and Palestinian leaders made the "hard decisions"
necessary to restart peace talks.
1997: Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jesse Helms,
exercising iron control, prevented any committee hearing on William Weld's nomination to
be ambassador to Mexico.
1998: Leaders of striking pilots at Northwest Airlines
ratified a new contract, ending a walkout that began August 28th.
1998: Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs became the fourth
player in major league baseball history to reach 60 homers in a single season.
1998: Lindsay Davenport won the U-S Open, defeating
defending champion Martina Hingis, 6-3, 7-5.
1998: The White House, having no valid recourse, responded
to Kenneth Starr's graphic report on President Clinton by calling it a "hit-and-run
smear campaign."
1999: Under intense international pressure, Indonesia
announced it would allow an international peacekeeping force to restore order to the
devastated territory of East Timor.
1999: Andre Agassi captured his second U.S. Open title,
dominating Todd Martin 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-2.
1999: "The Practice" and "Ally
McBeal," both created by writer-producer David E. Kelley, were named best drama
series and best comedy series at the 51st Emmy Awards.
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