Today’s Important Historical Events

406 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia

1744 English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion (wobble)

1775 Battle of Quebec in American Revolutionary War; Americans defeated trying to take British stronghold

1861 22,990mm of rain falls in Cherrapunji Assam in India in 1861, a world record

1958 Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista tells his Cabinet he is fleeing the country

Today’s Historical Events

192 Roman Emperor Commodus survives poisoning attempt by his mistress only to be strangled in the bath in assassination plot

406 80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine at Mainz, beginning invasion of Gallia

535 Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year

765 Coffin of Ho-tse Shen-hui interred in a stupa built in China

870 Skirmish at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army

1229 James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (Palma) consummating Christian conquest of the island of Majorca

1492 100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily

1502 Cesare Borgia (son of pope Alexander VI) occupies Urbino

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

1923 BBC begins using Big Ben chime ID

1943 NYC’s Times Square greets Frank Sinatra at Paramount Theater

1953 WFBC (now WYFF) TV channel 4 in G’ville-Spartanburg, SC (NBC) begins

1962 “Match Game” debuts on NBC with host Gene Rayburn

1963 Dear Abby show premieres on CBS radio (runs 11 years)

1971 KAID TV channel 4 in Boise, ID (PBS) begins broadcasting

1981 CNN Headline News debuts

1982 CBS Mystery Theater final episode on radio after 8 years

Today’s Historical Music Events

1680 Amsterdam opera at Leidsegracht opens

1879 Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera “Pirates of Penzance” premieres in NYC

1923 Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy’s musical “Kid Boots,” premieres in New York City

1955 “Vamp” closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 60 performances

1961 “lrma La Douce” closes at Plymouth Theater NYC after 527 performances

1963 Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir play music together for the 1st time

1966 Monkee’s “I’m a Believer” hits #1 & stays there for 7 weeks

1967 “Henry, Sweet Henry” closes at Palace Theater NYC after 80 performances

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

1906 Australasian Championships Men’s Tennis, Christchurch, NZ: All-NZ final; Antony Wilding beats Francis Fisher 6-0, 6-4, 6-4

1918 Kid Gleason replaces Pants Rowland as Chicago White Sox manager; reach World Series but lose in the “Black Sox” betting scandal; Gleason not involved

1920 Victorian all-rounder Roy Park makes Test cricket debut for Australia v England in 2nd Test in Melbourne; bowled by Harry Howell for a first ball ‘golden duck’ in his first and only Test innings

1920 International Lawn Tennis Challenge, Auckland, NZ: Bill Johnson & Bill Tilden (US) beat Norman Brookes & Gerald Patterson (Australasia) 6-4, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 for an unassailable 3-0 lead; ends 5-0

1921 Australasian Championships Men’s Tennis, Perth: Australian Rhys Gemmell beats countryman Alf Hedeman 7-5, 6-1, 6-4

1945 Before the biggest Adelaide Oval crowd of the season, batting maestro Don Bradman scores his first post-WWII century; 112 for South Australia v Australian Services

1950 American thoroughbred jockeys Bill Shoemaker and Joe Culmone end the year tied, leading the nation with record 388 wins

1952 Davis Cup Men’s Tennis, Memorial Drive, Adelaide: Vic Seixas beats Ken McGregor in 4 sets but Australia retains title for third straight year; beats US, 4-1 in Adelaide

Today’s Important Historical Events

1460 Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield (Northern England), Duke of York killed and his forces soundly defeated by forces for King Henry VI

1703 Tokyo hit by Earthquake; about 37,000 die

1906 The All India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India Empire, later laid down the foundations of Pakistan

1922 Creation of the USSR formally proclaimed in Moscow from the Bolshoi Theatre, Soviet Union organized as a federation of RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belorussian SSR and Transcaucasian SSR

1924 Astronomer Edwin Hubble formally announces existence of other galactic systems at meeting of the American Astronomical Society

1950 Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia become Independent states within the French Union

Today’s Historical Events

987 French King Hugo Capet crowns his son Robert the compassionate king

1317 Pontifical decree “Sancta Romania” against spiritualists

1460 Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield (Northern England), Duke of York killed and his forces soundly defeated by forces for King Henry VI

1610 Hungarian aristocrat Elizabeth Báthory arrested at Csejte Castle on suspicion of killing and torturing hundreds of young girls and women

1621 English King James I cracks Protestation of Parliament

1665 “Messiah” Sjabtai Tswi departs to Constantinople

1666 Abraham Crijnssen departs to Suriname

1672 Baron Karl Rabenhaupt occupies Coevorden Neth

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

1936 Beginning of the “feud” between comedians Fred Allen and Jack Benny on Allen’s “Town Hall Tonight” show

1939 “Of Mice and Men”, starring Burgess Meredith as George, Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie, is released

1953 The first ever NTSC color television sets go on sale for about USD at $1,175 each from RCA.

1963 “Let’s Make A Deal,” debuts on NBC-TV

1968 Frank Sinatra first records “My Way” with lyrics were written by Paul Anka and based on the French song “Comme d’habitude”

1980 “Wonderful World of Disney” last performance on NBC-TV

Today’s Historical Music Events

1689 Henry Purcell & Tates opera “Dido & Aeneas” premieres in Chesea

1731 1st US music concert (Peter Pelham’s great room in Boston)

1844 Opera “Stradella” after being rewritten is produced (Hamburg)

1877 Johannes Brahms‘ 2nd Symphony in D, premieres in Vienna

1884 Anton Bruckner‘s 7th Symphony in E, premieres in Leipzig

1929 Cole Porter‘s musical “Wake Up And Dream” opens at the Selwyn Theatre, NYC; runs for 136 performances

1944 Sergei Prokofjev’s 8th Piano sonata, premieres in Moscow

1948 “Kiss Me, Kate” opens at New Century Theater NYC for 1077 performances

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

1896 Stanley Cup, Granite Rink, Winnipeg, Manitoba: Ernie McLea scores a hat-trick as Montreal Victorias beat Winnipeg Victorias, 6-5; first SC Challenge game played outside of Montreal

1907 Abraham Mills’ commission declares Abner Doubleday invented baseball

1908 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers outscore Edmonton HC, 14-9 in 2 game challenge series

1911 English cricketer Sydney Barnes takes 5-6 in 1st 11 overs v Australia at MCG

1926 Chicago Tribune reports the Tigers threw a 4-game series to the White Sox in 1917 to help Chicago win the pennant (never substantiated)

1934 New York Rangers and Boston Bruins battle out a 0-0 tie; first of a 37-game overtime undefeated streak for the Bruins, the longest in NHL history; streak spans over 4 years and includes 27 ties

1939 Bradman scores 267 South Australia v Vic, world record 34th double cricket century

1943 Phillies trade Babe Dahlgren to Pitts for Babe Phelps & cash

Today’s Important Historical Events

1835 Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States

1845 Texas admitted as 28th state of the Union

1903 French Equatorial Africa separates into Gabon, Chad and Ubangi-Shari

1911 Sun Yat-sen elected 1st President of the Republic of China

1997 Hong Kong begins slaughtering all its chickens to prevent bird flu

Today’s Historical Events

1170 English Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket assassinated before the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral by four knights

1503 Battle of Garigliano: Spanish army under Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba defeats French forces in Italy, giving Spain control of the Kingdom of Naples

1539 St Jacob’s Church burns after being hit by lightning

1541 Isabella of Poland and King Ferdinand of Austria sign Treaty of Gyalu

1558 Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, buried in El Escorial, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain

1653 Dutch painter Jan Vermeer becomes a member of the Guild of Saint Luke for painters in Delft

1705 Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon’s play “Idoménée” premieres in Paris

1708 Great Alliance occupies Gent

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

1806 Thomas Dibdin’s pantomime “Harlequin and Mother Goose” starring Joseph Grimaldi, in his most famous clown performance, opens at the Covent Garden Theatre, London

1913 1st movie serial “Adventures of Kathlyn” premieres in Chicago

1932 Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers‘ 1st joint movie “Flying Down to Rio,” directed by Thornton Freeland, premieres in NYC

1933 “Sons of the Desert” film directed by William A. Seiter starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is released

1937 Lou Thesz beats Everett Marshall in St Louis, to win NWA World heavyweight title – youngest ever

1949 1st UHF television station operating regular basis Bridgeport, Connecticut

1955 Barbra Streisand‘s 1st recording “You’ll Never Know” at age 13

1965 “Thunderball”, 4th James Bond film starring Sean Connery and Claudine Auger premieres in Tokyo, Japan

Today’s Historical Music Events

1857 Franz Liszt‘s symphonic poem “Die Hunnenschlacht” premieres in Weimar

1902 “The Entertainer” is one of several piano rag compositions copyrighted for Scott Joplin by the US Copyright Office

1911 San Francisco Symphony forms

1948 “Rape of Lucretia” opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC for 23 performances

1982 Bob Marley postage stamp issued in Jamaica

1984 Blues took 27 shots against Islanders in 1 period

1993 Courtney Love sues doctors for leaking news of her methadone treatment

1996 “Dreams & Nightmares” closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

1906 Stanley Cup, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Montreal Wanderers beat New Glasgow (NS), 7-2 for 17-5 aggregate challenge series victory

1933 New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert refuses to release future Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Babe Ruth to manage the Cincinnati Reds

1934 First collegiate basketball doubleheader is played at Madison Square Garden, NYC; New York University beats Notre Dame, 25-18; Westminster edges St. John’s, 37-33

1937 Lou Thesz beats Everett Marshall in St Louis, to win NWA World heavyweight title – youngest ever

1940 3rd NFL All Star Game: Chicago Bears beats NFL All-Stars, 28-14

1945 Montreal right wing Maurice Richard scores twice in Canadiens’ 5-4 loss to Chicago Black Hawks to record his 100th NHL career goal; reaches mark in 145 games, then fastest in history; since broken by Mike Bossy, 100 goals in 129 games

1955 NHL officials wear new vertically striped black-and-white sweaters for the first time in Montreal Canadiens’ 5-2 win over Toronto Maple Leafs

1957 National Football League Championship, Briggs Stadium, Detroit: Detroit Lions beat Cleveland Browns, 50-14; Lions score 2 touchdowns in each quarter

Today’s Important Historical Events

1065 Westminster Abbey Consecrated in London

1612 First observation of Neptune – Galileo observes and records a “fixed star” without realising it is a planet

1767 King Taksin crowned King of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as his capital

1836 Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico

1860 Harriet Tubman arrives in Auburn, New York, on her last mission to free slaves, having evaded capture for 8 years on the Underground Railroad

1908 Earthquake strikes Messina in Italy, killing nearly 80,000

1943 All Kalmyk inhabitants of the Republic of Kalmukkie deported by the Soviet Union to Central Asia and Siberia. Many die en route.

Today’s Historical Events

418 St Boniface I begins his reign as Catholic Pope

801 Louis the Vrome occupies Barcelona

1065 Westminster Abbey Consecrated in London

1308 The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Japan, begins

1612 First observation of Neptune – Galileo observes and records a “fixed star” without realising it is a planet

1614 Sperm whale beached at Noordwijk

1732 Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym Richard Saunders begins publication of “Poor Richard’s Almanack”

1767 King Taksin crowned King of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as his capital

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

1895 Filmmakers the Lumiere brothers, hold the first commercial film screening at Salon Indien du Grand Café, Paris

1927 Arthur Honegger‘s opera “Antigone” premieres with a libretto by Jean Cocteau, sets by Pablo Picasso and costumes by Coco Chanel at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels

1934 Film “Bright Eyes” premieres starring Shirley Temple and featuring the song “On the Good Ship Lollipop”

1949 20th Century Fox announces it will produce TV programs

1953 WLBT TV channel 3 in Jackson, MS (NBC) begins broadcasting

1954 KEPR TV channel 19 in Pasco-Kennewick-Richl, WA (CBS) 1st broadcast

1956 Miss Frances [Horwich], last Ding Dong School on NBC-TV

1957 CBS states it won’t broadcast baseball where minor league games are on

Today’s Historical Music Events

1821 Composer Gioachino Rossini moves to Bologna

1910 Opera “Konigskinder” is produced (NYC)

1925 George and Ira Gershwin‘s musical “Tip-Toes” premieres in New York City

1928 Ma Rainey, “Mother of the Blues” makes her last record “Big Feelin’ Blues”

1944 Leonard Bernstein‘s musical “On the Town” premieres in NYC

1958 Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon & Theodore with David Seville) hits #1

1963 “Double Dublin” closes at Little Theater NYC after 4 performances

1963 “Jennie” closes at Majestic Theater NYC after 82 performances

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

1887 John Layton Jarvis becomes first British race horse trainer to be knighted for services to racing

1905 Intercollegiate Athletic Association of US founded (becomes NCAA in 1910)

1918 Montreal’s Georges Vezina becomes the first NHL goalie to record an assist during the Canadiens’ 6-3 win over the Toronto Arenas

1934 First ever Women’s cricket international begins England vs Australia in Australia

1938 Paul Gibb scores 106 on Test Cricket debut v South Africa

1940 Cricketer Arthur Morris scores 111 in 2nd innings of 1st game after 148

1944 Former Wash 3rd baseman Buddy Lewis wins Distinguished Flying Cross

1944 Montreal right wing Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard becomes first player in NHL history to score 8 points in one game with 5 goals and 3 assists in the Canadiens’ 9-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings