Events

* 1170 - Thomas Becket is slain in his own cathedral by knights eager to please Henry II of England.
* 1813 - War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.
* 1835 - The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
* 1845 - Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state. (Republic of Texas and United States agree to annexation of Texas.)
* 1851 - The first American-based YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
* 1860 - The first British seagoing iron-clad warship, the HMS Warrior is launched.
* 1862 - American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou ends.
* 1876 - The Ashtabula River Railroad bridge disaster, 64 injured, 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.
* 1890 - Wounded Knee Massacre: The United States soldiers massacre over 400 men, women and children of the Great Sioux Nation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
* 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the radio.
* 1911 - Sun Yat-sen becomes the first President of the Republic of China.
* 1913 - Seligs Polyscope Company releases The Unwelcome Throne, the first serial motion picture.
* 1921 - William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes Prime Minister of Canada.
* 1930 - Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the Two-Nation Theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan.
* 1934 - The first college basketball game at New York City's Madison Square Garden is played between the University of Notre Dame and New York University.
* 1934 - Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
* 1937 - The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.
* 1940 - World War II: In The Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe firebombs City of London, killing almost 200 civilians.
* 1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.
* 1963 - 22 people perish in the Hotel Roosevelt fire, the worst fire to occur in Jacksonville, Florida since the Great Fire of 1901.
* 1972 - An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed "Tristar" crashed on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101.
* 1975 - A bomb explodes at New York City's LaGuardia Airport killing 11.
* 1979 - Closing night of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea at the Hammersmith Odeon; a benefit concert for the citizens of Cambodia who were victims of dictator Pol Pot
* 1987 - Yuri Romanenko of USSR returns to Earth after 326 days in space.
* 1989 - Václav Havel becomes President of Czechoslovakia.
* 1989 - Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
* 1989 - On the final day of trading for the year and decade, the Japanese Nikkei 225 Average closes at an all-time high of 38,915.87.
* 1992 - Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tried to resign among corruption charges, but ended up being impeached.
* 1993 - Construction of the Tian Tan Buddha, the world's tallest outdoor bronze statue of the seated Buddha, is completed.
* 1996 - Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.
* 1997 - Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
* 1998 - Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million.
* 2001 - A massive fire in the historic district of downtown Lima, Peru kills at least 274 people.
* 2002 - Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field is demolished.

[edit]

Births

* 1709 - Empress Elizabeth of Russia (d. 1762)
* 1721 - Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France (d. 1764)
* 1796 - Johann Christian Poggendorff, German physicist (d. 1877)
* 1800 - Charles Goodyear, American inventor (d. 1860)
* 1808 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (d. 1875)
* 1809 - William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1897)
* 1816 - Carl Ludwig, German physician (b. 1895)
* 1856 - Thomas Joannes Stieltjes],Dutch mathematician (d. 1894)
* 1859 - Venustiano Carranza, 54th President of Mexico (d. 1920)
* 1876 - Pablo Casals, Catalan musician (d. 1973)
* 1881 - Jess Willard, American boxer (d. 1968)
* 1899 - Nie Rongzhen, Chinese Communist military leader (d. 1992)
* 1908 - Helmut Gollwitzer, German theologian (d. 1993)
* 1910 - Ronald Coase, British economist, Nobel laureate
* 1914 - Billy Tipton, American musician (d. 1989)
* 1914 - Albert Tucker, Australian artist (d. 1999)
* 1915 - Bill Osmanski, American football player (d. 1996))
* 1917 - Tom Bradley, American politician (d. 1998)
* 1927 - Andy Stanfield, American athlete (d. 1985)
* 1928 - Bernard Cribbins, British actor
* 1931 - Prince Gu of Korea (d. 2005)
* 1936 - Mary Tyler Moore, American actress
* 1936 - Ray Nitschke, American football player (d. 1998)
* 1937 - Barbara Steele, British actress
* 1937 - Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Miami Dolphins
* 1938 - Jon Voight, American actor
* 1941 - Ray Thomas, British musician (The Moody Blues)
* 1942 - Rick Danko, Canadian musician (The Band) (d. 1999)
* 1942 - Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor
* 1946 - Marianne Faithfull, British singer
* 1947 - Ted Danson, American actor
* 1949 - Syed Kirmani, Indian cricket player
* 1951 - Yvonne Elliman, American disco singer
* 1952 - Gelsey Kirkland, American dancer
* 1953 - Gali Atari, Israeli singer
* 1954 - Roger Voudouris, American singer
* 1954 - Prince Norihito of Japan (d. 2002)
* 1957 - Brad Grey, American film producer
* 1959 - Patricia Clarkson, American actress
* 1963 - Francisco Bustamante, Filipino billiard player
* 1963 - Dave McKean, British artist and filmmaker
* 1965 - Dexter Holland, American musician (The Offspring)
* 1966 - Stefano Eranio, Italian footballer
* 1967 - Andy Wachowski, American director
* 1967 - Ashleigh Banfield, Canadian journalist
* 1967 - Chris Barnes, American singer
* 1970 - Aled Jones, Welsh singer
* 1970 - Kevin Weisman, American actor
* 1970 - Glen Phillips, American musician (Toad The Wet Sprocket)
* 1972 - Evan Seinfeld, American musician (Biohazard) and actor
* 1972 - Jason Kreis, American soccer player
* 1972 - Jude Law, British actor
* 1973 - Theo Epstein, American baseball general manager
* 1974 - Richie Sexson, American baseball player
* 1976 - Katherine Moennig, American actress
* 1977 - Jimmy Journell, baseball player
* 1978 - Alexis Amore, Peruvian pornographic actress
* 1978 - Kieron Dyer, British footballer
* 1978 - LaToya London, American singer
* 1979 - Justin Roberts, American wrestlink announcer
* 1981 - Angela Via, American singer
* 1981 - Shizuka Arakawa, Japanese figure skater
* 1988 - Samantha Lainez, Peruvian actress
* 1994 - Princess Kako of Japan

[edit]

Deaths

* 1170 - Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (assassinated) (b. 1118)
* 1563 - Sebastian Castellio, French theologian (b. 1515)
* 1634 - John Albert Vasa, Polish bishop (b. 1612)
* 1661 - Antoine Gérard de Saint-Amant, French poet (b. 1594)
* 1689 - Thomas Sydenham, English physician (b. 1624)
* 1731 - Brook Taylor, English mathematician (b. 1685)
* 1737 - Joseph Saurin, French mathematician (b. 1659)
* 1785 - Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian poet (b. 1742)
* 1825 - Jacques-Louis David, French painter (b. 1748)
* 1891 - Leopold Kronecker, mathematician (b. 1823)
* 1894 - Christina Rossetti, English poet (b. 1830)
* 1916 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk (b. 1869)
* 1924 - Carl Spitteler, Swiss writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1845)
* 1926 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian writer (b. 1875)
* 1929 - Wilhelm Maybach, German automobile designer (b. 1846)
* 1937 - Don Marquis, American author (b. 1878)
* 1960 - Eden Phillpotts, British writer (b. 1862)
* 1967 - Paul Whiteman, American musician and conductor (b. 1890)
* 1980 - Tim Hardin, American musician (b. 1941)
* 1980 - Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian writer (b. 1899)
* 1993 - Frunzik Mkrtchyan, Soviet Armenian actor (b. 1930)
* 1986 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1894)
* 2003 - Earl Hindman, American actor (lung cancer) (b. 1942)
* 2003 - Dinsdale Landen, English actor (cancer) (b. 1932)
* 2003 - Bob Monkhouse, English comedian and game show host (b. 1928)
* 2004 - Julius Axelrod, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1912)
* 2004 - Liddy Holloway, New Zealand actress (b. 1947)
* 2004 - Ken Burkhart, Baseball player (b. 1915)