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1914–Julia Stanley Lennon, is born at 8 Head Street (now demolished) in Toxteth, South Liverpool, England. She was the fourth of five sisters. She was the mother of musician, John Lennon, who was born during her marriage to Alfred “Freddie” Lennon. After complaints to Liverpool's Social Services by her eldest sister, Mimi Smith, she handed over the care of her son to her sister. She later had one daughter after an affair with a Welsh soldier, but the baby was given up for adoption after pressure from her family. She then had two daughters, Julia and Jackie, with John 'Bobby' Dykins. She never divorced her husband, Alfred, preferring to live as the common-law wife of Dykins for the rest of her life. Lennon wrote the songs Julia and My Mummy’s Dead about her, and his first son, Julian, is named after her.


BC 515–Construction is completed on the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

417–Pope Innocent I dies at age 39.

538–Vitiges, King of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius.

604–Pope Gregory I dies in Rome, Byzantine Empire, at age 64. He is the patron saint of musicians, singers, students, and teachers.

641–Chinese Princess, Wen Cheng, goes to Tibet to marry the Tibetan ruler. This marriage becomes the basis for China's claim to sovereignty over the region.

969–Emperor Muzong of Liao dies in China, at age 37. Just before his death, he goes on a hunting trip. He and his servants drink and have a feast. After midnight, the emperor calls for his servants to bring him food, but no one responds. He becomes angry and threatens to kill the chefs. The frightened chefs, along with other servants, sneak into the emperor's tent and murder him. Emperor Muzong's reign was one of the darkest in the history of the Liao dynasty, and his government was in shambles.

1289–Demetrius II of Georgia dies from execution by beheading in Movakani, at age 30.

1316–Stefan Dragutin of Serbia dies in a monestery near Novi Paza, Serbia.

1374–Japanese Emperor Go-Kogon dies at age 35.

1475–Astrologer, Luca Gaurico, is born in Naples, Italy. He was an astronomer, astrological data collector, and mathematician. His most famous work is the Tractatus Astrologicus, which contained the natal charts of popes and cardinals, kings and nobles, scholars, musicians, and artists. Gaurico systematically examined each natal chart, compared it to the life of the person in question, and in the case of living subjects, predicted the outcome of their lives and careers. Gaurico also attempted to calculate the exact date of Jesus' crucifixion, and the number of hours between it and the resurrection.

1550–Several hundred Spanish and indigenous troops, under the command of Pedro de Valdivia, defeat an army of 60,000 Mapuche at the Battle of Penco during the Arauco War in (present-day) Chile.

1609–Bermuda becomes an English colony.

1619–Richard Burbage, a fellow in Shakespeare’s acting company The Lord Chamaberlain’s Men (later The King’s Men), dies.

1622–Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Jesuits, are canonized as Saints by the Catholic Church.

1626–English biographer, John Aubrey, is born in Kington St. Michael, Wiltshire, England. He's best known for his “Brief Lives,” sketches he made to help a friend of his who was writing official biographies. He wrote about eminent Englishmen from Thomas Hobbes to William Shakespeare. His portraits include details about what his subjects liked to eat for breakfast, the texture of their skin, and their preference in hats. And Aubrey was the first person to propose that Stonehenge was a temple built by the Druids.

1689–The Williamite War begins in Ireland.

1781–Frederica of Baden is born Friederike Dorothea Wilhelmina in Karlsruhe, Germany.

1789–The United State Post Office is established.

1795–Journalist and politician, William Lyon Mackenzie, is born in Springfield, Dundee, Scotland. He was the first Mayor of Toronto, Canada, and was a leader during the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.

1806–Jane Pierce, wife of President Franklin Pierce is born Jane Means Appleton in Hampton, New Hampshire. She was the 15th First Lady of the United States.

1811–In the Peninsular War, a day after a successful rearguard action, French Marshal Michel Ney once again successfully delays the pursuing Anglo-Portuguese force at the Battle of Redinha.

1821–Politician, John Abbott, is born John Joseph Caldwell Abbott in Saint-André, Lower Canada (present-day Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec, Canada). He was the third Prime Minister of Canada.

1831–Automobile pioneer, Clement Studebaker, is born in Pinetown, Pennsylvania. He was the founder of a family firm that became the world's largest manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles, including the “Conestoga Wagon.” After his death, the Studebaker company made a successful transition into manufacturing automobiles.

1850–The U.S. $20 gold piece is issued.

1864–In the American Civil War, the Red River Campaign begins as a U.S. Navy fleet of 13 Ironclads and seven Gunboats and other support ships enter the Red River.

1868–Henry O'Farrell attempts to assassinate Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.

1868–Basutoland (present-day Lesotho) is annexed by the United Kingdom.

1869–Mary E. “May” Manning, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was was an American sharpshooter and equestrian. In 1886, she married Gordon William Lillie (who became famous as Pawnee Bill) at her parent's home in Philadelphia. May traveled the country as the “Champion Girl Horseback Shot of the West.” Eventually, May and Gordon settled in Pawnee, Oklahoma, on Blue Hawk Peak. They built a cabin and established a buffalo herd. May was the hands-on manager of the Lillie Buffalo Ranch. She believed in the buffalo’s importance to the heritage of the American West and to Plains Indian culture. In 1936, she and her husband celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Taos, New Mexico.

1881–Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain.

1885–France captures the citadel of Bac Ninh, Vietman.

1889–Idris of Libya is born Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi in Al-Jaghbub, Ottoman Cyrenaica. He was the first and only King of Libya, reigning from 1951 to 1969, and the chief of the Senussi Muslim order. While in Turkey for medical treatment, Idris was deposed in a 1969 coup d'etat by army officers led by Muammar Gaddafi.

1894–Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time. Prior to this, it was only “mixed to order” at a soda fountain.

1901–Steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie, gives New York City $5.2 million to construct 65 branch libraries. He had just sold his Carnegie steel company for $250 million and decided to retire to devote himself to charity work. He later gave money to create more than 1,700 libraries all over the United States and in Great Britain, as well as numerous other philanthropic projects for education and the arts.

1904–The first main line electric train begins operation in the U.K. (Liverpool to Southport).

1910–The Greek cruiser, Georgios Averof, is launched at Livorno.

1910–Theatrical producer, Roger (Lacey) Stevens, is born in Detroit, Michigan. He is the founding Chairman of both the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. His production credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Bus Stop, West Side Story, A Man for All Seasons, Deathtrap, and Death of a Salesman.

1912–The Girl Scouts of America (formerly The Girl Guides) is founded by Juliette Gordon Low of Savannah, Georgia.

1912–The Helen Hayes Theater opens in New York City.

1913–The foundation stone of the Federal Parliament Building is laid in the Australian capital of Canberra.

1914–Julia Stanley Lennon, is born at 8 Head Street (now demolished) in Toxteth, South Liverpool, England. She was the fourth of five sisters. She was the mother of musician, John Lennon, who was born during her marriage to Alfred “Freddie” Lennon. After complaints to Liverpool's Social Services by her eldest sister, Mimi Smith, she handed over the care of her son to her sister. She later had one daughter after an affair with a Welsh soldier, but the baby was given up for adoption after pressure from her family. She then had two daughters, Julia and Jackie, with John 'Bobby' Dykins. She never divorced her husband, Alfred, preferring to live as the common-law wife of Dykins for the rest of her life. Lennon wrote the songs Julia and My Mummy’s Dead about her, and his first son, Julian, is named after her.

1914–Engineer, George Westinghouse, founder of Westinghouse Electric, dies due to declining health in New York, New York, at age 67. Westinghouse was one of Thomas Edison's main rivals in the early implementation of the American electricity system. Westinghouse's electricity distribution system, based on alternating current, ultimately prevailed over Edison's insistence on direct current.

1917–Leonard Chess is born Lejzor Czyz in a Jewish community in Motal, Poland (present-day in Belarus). He and his brother, Phil, created the Chess record label, based in Chicago, Illinois. The company’s artists included Muddy Waters, Gene Ammons, Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson, The Moonglows, The Flamingos, Chuck Berry, Etta James, and Fontella Bass.

1918–Moscow becomes the capital of Russia once more, after Saint Petersburg held that status for 215 years.

1918–Artist and academic, Elaine de Kooning, is born Elaine Marie Catherine Fried in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. She was an Abstract Expressionist and Figurative Expressionist painter in the post-World War II era. She wrote extensively on the art of the period, and was an editorial associate for Art News magazine. She was married to painter, Willem de Kooning.

1920–The Kapp Putsch begins when the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt is ordered to march on Berlin, Germany.

1921–Istikial Marsi is adopted in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

1921–Musical actor, (Albert) Gordon MacRae, is born in East Orange, New Jersey. He was known for his handsome appearance and smooth, yet powerful singing voice. He appeared in the films Tea for Two, The West Point Story, On Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, Three Sailors and a Girl, Oklahoma!, and Carousel. He was married to actress, Sheila MacRae, and their daughter is actress, Meredith MacRae.

1922–Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan form The Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.

1922–American beat writer, Jack Kerouac, is born Jean Louis Kerouac in Lowell, Massachusetts. Kerouac published his first novel The Town and the City in 1950. He was strongly influenced in his writing by others of the Beat generation, including his friends, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. His best-known work, On the Road, was inspired by a cross-country trip taken while under the influence of drugs and drink. His novel The Dharma Bums, which describes a mountain climbing trip he and poet, Gary Snyder, took in Yosemite, contributed to popularizing Zen Buddhism as a philosophy for bohemian artists in America. In all, Kerouac published over 20 books.

1923–Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrates his method of adding sound to motion picture film. One of the pioneers of radio in the early 1900s, DeForest called his invention phonofilm. Today, it is simply called a soundtrack.

1923–Astronaut, Wally Shirra, is born Walter M. Schirra, Jr. in Hackensack, New Jersey. He flew the six-orbit, nine-hour Mercury-Atlas 8 mission on October 3, 1962, becoming the fifth American, and the ninth human, to ride a rocket into space. He was the first person to go into space three times, and the only person to have flown in Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, logging a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in space. He retired from the U.S. Navy at the rank of Captain and from NASA after his Apollo flight, becoming a consultant to CBS News for its coverage of the subsequent Apollo flights. He joined Walter Cronkite as co-anchor for the seven Moon landing missions.

1925–Sun Yat-sen, first President of the Republic of China, dies of liver cancer in Beijing, China, at age 58.

1926–Publisher, E.W. Scripps, dies in Monrovia Liberia, West Africa, at age 71. Scripps became somewhat of a hermit, calling himself a "damned old crank." He enjoyed sailing the seven seas on his yacht, smoking 50 cigars a day. After his death, as requested, his body was buried at sea by being dumped overboard from his yacht. He founded the E.W. Scripps Company, a diversified media conglomerate, and United Press news service. It became United Press International (UPI) when International News Service merged with United Press in 1958.

1928–The St. Francis Dam in California fails, killing 400 people.

1928–Playwright, Edward Albee, is born Edward Franklin Albee III in Washington, D.C. His works include A Delicate Balance, Seascape, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1929–Druggist, Asa Griggs Candler, dies from a stroke in Atlanta, Georgia, at age 77. In 1887, he purchased the formula for Coca-Cola from John S. Pemberton, its originator, for $2,300. In 1919, Chandler would sell the company for $25 million.

1930–Indian political and spiritual leader, Mohandas K. Gandhi, begins a 200-mile march to protest a British tax on salt.

1930–Comedian-actor, Scoey Mitchell, is born in Newburgh, New York. He worked primarily in television and appeared in the TV shows Here Comes the Brides, That Girl, The Odd Couple, The Six Million Dollar Man, Police Story, Rhoda, Baretta, and Taxi.

1931–Businessman, Herb Kelleher, is born in Camden, New Jersey. He co-founded Southwest Airlines.

1931–Child actor, William "Buckwheat" Thomas, Jr., of The Little Rascals and Our Gang Comedies, is born in Los Angeles, California. Thomas remained in Our Gang for 10 years, appearing in all but one of the shorts made from 1934 through the series' end in 1944. During the first half of his Our Gang tenure, his Buckwheat character was often paired with Eugene "Porky" Lee as a tag-along team of "little kids" rallying against (and often outsmarting) the "big kids" George "Spanky" McFarland and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer.

1933–Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation on radio for the first time as President of the United States. This was the first of his “Fireside Chats.”

1933–Actress, Barbara Feldon, is born in Butler, Pennsylvania. She is best known for the role of Agent 99 on the 1960s sitcom Get Smart. She appeared in the films Fitzwilly, Smile, No Deposit, No Return, and The Last Request.

1934–Konstantin Pats and General Johan Laidoner stage a coup in Estonia, and ban all political parties.

1935–England establishes a 30 mph speed limit within towns and villages.

1938–Nazi Germany invades and occupies Austria.

1940–Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. Finnish troops and the remaining population are immediately evacuated.

1940–Singer, Al Jarreau, is born Alwin Lopez Jarreau in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His recordings include Teach Me Tonight, Your Precious Love, and Moonlighting (Theme).

1942–The Battle of Java ends with an ABDACOM surrender to the Japanese Empire in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies.

1943–The Italian occupying forces abandon the town of Karditsa to the partisans. On the same day, an Italian motorized column razes the village of Tsaritsani, Greece, burning 360 of its 600 houses and shooting 40 civilians.

1945–Anne Frank dies of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Lower Saxony, Nazi Germany, at age 15. She kept a diary while she and her family were hiding from the Nazis during World War II. In 1952, it was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English as The Diary of a Young Girl. The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944.

1946–Singer-actress, Liza (May) Minnelli, is born in Hollywood, California. She appeared in the films Charlie Bubbles, The Sterile Cuckoo, Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, Caberet, Lucky Lady, Silent Movie, New York, New York, Arthur, and Stepping Out. Her parents are film director, Vincente Minnelli, and actress-singer, Judy Garland. Her half-sister is actress, Lorna Luft. She was married to singer, Peter Allen, and film producer, Jack Haley, Jr.

1947–The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.

1947–Politician, (Willard) Mitt Romney, is born in Detroit, Michigan. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts and a U.S. Presidential candidate in 2012. Romney was defeated by incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama in the November general election, losing by 332-206 electoral college votes. The popular vote margin was 51-47 percent in Obama's favor.

1948–Writer, Sandra Brown, is born in Waco, Texas. She is a best-selling author of both romantic and thriller-suspense novels. Brown has also published works under the pen names of Rachel Ryan, Laura Jordan, and Erin St. Claire.

1948–Singer, James (Vernon) Taylor, is born in Boston, Massachusetts. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970, with the #3 single Fire and Rain, and had his first #1 hit with the song You've Got a Friend, written by Carole King. Taylor wrote his first song on guitar at age 14, and continued to effortlessly learn the instrument. In the mid-1960s, he descended into depression: his grades collapsed and he slept 20 hours every day. In late 1965, he committed himself to the renowned McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. As the Vietnam War escalated, Taylor received a psychological rejection from the Selective Service System when he appeared before them with two white-suited McLean assistants. In late 1967, funded by a small family inheritance, he moved to London, living variously in Notting Hill, Belgravia, and Chelsea. After Peter Asher, who was A&R head for The Beatles' newly formed label Apple Records, showed some Taylor demos to Paul McCartney, Taylor became the first non-British act signed to Apple, resulting in the album simply titled James Taylor. His follow-up was the highly successful LP Sweet Baby James. His brother is singer, Livingston Taylor. He was married to singer-songwriter, Carly Simon.

1949–Mike Gibbons, drummer for Badfinger, is born Michael Gibbons in Swansea, South Wales. The group had hits with Come and Get It, No Matter What, Day After Day, and Baby Blue. During his tenure with Badfinger, Gibbins along with the other members of the band, contributed musically to George Harrison's album All Things Must Pass, and played at the Concert for Bangladesh. While working on All Things Must Pass, producer Phil Spector recognized Gibbins' talent at playing the tambourine, earning Gibbins the nickname "Mr. Tambourine Man" after the Bob Dylan song.

1949–Bill Payne, of Little Feat, is born William Payne in Waco, Texas. In addition to his trademark barrelhouse blues piano, he is noted for his work on other keyboard instruments, particularly the Hammond B3 organ.

1950–The Llandow air disaster occurs near Sigingstone, Wales, killing 80 people in the plane crash.

1950–Child actor, Jon Provost, is born Jonathan Bion Provost in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for the role of Timmy Martin on the TV series Lassie. He appeared in the films So Big, The Country Girl, Back from Eternity, All Mine to Give, Toward the Unknown, This Property is Condemned, and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.

1952–Mercedes introduces the 300 SL to the press.

1953–Porn actor and director, Ron Jeremy, is born Ronald Jeremy Hyatt in Queens, New York. He is ranked by AVN at number one in their list "The 50 Top Porn Stars of All Time." Jeremy is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for "Most Appearances in Adult Films": his entry on the Internet Adult Film Database lists more than 2,000 films in which he has performed, and an additional 281 films which he directed.

1955–The Dave Brubeck Quartet appears for the first time at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Joining with Brubeck, in what would become one of the most popular concert draws on college campuses, were names that would become legends in their own right, including Paul Desmond on alto sax, Joe Morello on drums, and Eugene Wright on bass. Despite his illustrious and lengthy career in jazz, spanning several decades, Brubeck is probably best known for the huge 1960s hit Take Five.

1955–Jazz saxophonist, Charlie "Bird" Parker, dies of heart failure in New York, New York, at age 34. He more-or-less invented the be-bop form of music and had just the week before played at the New York City jazz club, Birdland, which was named after him. The postmortem on the hard-living musician suggests he may have died from pneumonia, a heart attack, burst stomach ulcers, or cirrhosis of the liver.

1956–RCA Records issues the first album and extended play releases by Elvis Presley.

1957–Marlon (David) Jackson, of The Jackson 5, is born in Gary Indiana. He was the seventh child of the Jackson family. Marlon's twin brother, Brandon, died within 24 hours of birth: they were several weeks premature.

1958–Jazz singer, Billie Holiday, who had pled guilty to a narcotics possession charge in 1956, is given a year's probation by a court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1958–The Recording Industry Association of America introduces its awards for record sales, (RIAA). The Beatles hold the record to this day for the most awards, with 76 platinum certifications.

1961–The first winter ascent is made of the North Face of the Eiger, in the Bernese Alps, overlooking Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in the Bernese Oberland, just north of the main watershed and border with Valais.

1962–Baseball player, Darryl (Eugene) Strawberry, is born in Los Angeles, California. During his 17-year career, he helped lead the New York Mets to a World Series championship in 1986, and the New York Yankees to three World Series championships in 1996, 1998, and 1999.

1964–Malcolm X resigns from the Nation of Islam.

1966–Jockey, Johnny Longden, retires after 40 years and 6,032 wins.

1966–The U.S. conducts a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1967–Suharto takes over from Sukarno to become Acting President of Indonesia.

1967–A four-day storm rages across California. Winds of 90 mph closed mountain passes, heavy rains flooded the lowlands, and in 60 hours Squaw Valley was buried under eight feet of snow.

1968–Mauritius achieves independence from the United Kingdom.

1968–Minnesota Senator, Eugene McCarthy, wins the majority of the delegates in the New Hampshire presidential primary. This was reportedly a major factor in persuading incumbent President Lyndon Johnson not to seek re-election.

1968–The U.S. conducts a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1969–The 11th Annual Grammy Awards announces its winners. Record of the Year: Simon & Garfunkel for Mrs. Robinson; Album of the Year: Glen Campbell for By the Time I Get to Phoenix; Song of the Year: Bobby Russell (songwriter) for Little Green Apples; Best Vocal Performance, Male: Jose Feliciano for Light My Fire; Best Vocal Performance, Female: Dionne Warwick for Do You Know the Way to San Jose?; Best Performance by a Vocal Group: Simon & Garfunkel for Mrs. Robinson; Best Country & Western Performance: Johnny Cash for Folsom Prison Blues; Best Rhythm & Blues Performance: Aretha Franklin for Chain of Fools; Best Instrumental Performance: Mason Williams for Classical Gas; Best New Artist: José Feliciano. The ceremonies are held Chicago, Illinois; Nashville, Tennessee; Los Angeles, California; and New York. There is no host.

1969–Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman at Marylebone Register Office in London, England. Paul's brother, Mike, is best man, Mal Evans is a witness, and Linda's daughter, Heather, is flower girl. Magistrate E.R. Sanders performs the ceremony, which is followed by a luncheon at the Ritz Hotel. None of the other Beatles or family members are in attendance (they weren't invited). A throng of crying female fans waited outside for the newlywed couple to make their way to their car.

1969–George and Pattie Harrison are arrested and charged with possession of cannabis after a raid on their home in Esher, Surrey, England. The raid is timed to coincide with Paul McCartney's wedding. George claims that some of the “evidence” was planted by the police. George and Pattie are released on bail on March 18th, with their trial set for March 31st.

1969–Journalist, Jake Tapper, is born Jacob Paul Tapper in New York, New York. As of 2013, he was the Chief Washington Correspondent and anchor of the CNN weekday television news show The Lead with Jake Tapper. Prior to working with CNN, he worked with ABC News.

1971–The March 12 Memorandum is sent to the Suleyman Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns.

1971–Rolling Stone, Mick Jagger, marries Bianca Pérez Morena de Macias.

1974–John Lennon and Harry Nilsson are ejected from the Troubadour Club in Santa Monica, California, for causing a disturbance during The Smothers Brothers' act. Out of their minds on Brandy Alexanders, Lennon and Nilsson get a little too rowdy for the management’s taste. The Smothers Brothers said that they were partly responsible, having talked to the drunken Lennon from the stage; they also accused the newspapers of blowing the incident all out of proportion, even though there are photos that clearly show John lashing out at those who are escorting him off the premises. Lennon and Nilsson sent flowers and apologies to The Smothers Brothers the next day. A club waitress claimed that Lennon assaulted her, but that charge would be dismissed. Says Tommy Smothers: “It was a big Hollywood opening. During our first set, I heard someone yelling about pigs... the heckling got so bad that our show was going downhill rapidly. No one cared, but there was a scuffle going on and we stopped the show. Flowers came the next day apologizing. My wife ended up with Lennon’s glasses because of the punches that were thrown.” Says John: “So I was drunk... when it’s Errol Flynn, the show biz writers say ‘those were the days, when men were men.’ When I do it, I’m a bum. So it was a mistake, but hell, I’m human. I was drunk in Liverpool, and I smashed up phone boxes, but it didn’t get into the papers then.”

1977–Egypt's Anwar Sadat pledges to regain Arab territory from Israel.

1980–A Chicago jury finds John Wayne Gacy guilty of murdering 33 people.

1985–Symphony conductor, Eugene Ormandy, dies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at age 85. He was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist who became internationally famous as the music director and conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. His papers, including his marked scores and complete arrangements, fill 501 boxes in the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Library.

1987–The USSR conducts a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh.

1989–Actor, Maurice Evans, dies of heart failure as a result of a bronchial infection in Rottingdean, East Sussex, England, at age 87. He is best known for the role of as Samantha Stephens' father, Maurice, on the TV sitcom Bewitched. He appeared in the films Checkmate, Scrooge, Gilbert and Sullivan, The War Lord, Jack of Diamonds, Planet of the Apes, Rosemary’s Baby, The Body Stealers, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Terror in the Wax Museum, and The Jerk.

1990–The Los Angeles Raiders announce that they are returning to Oakland, California.

1992–Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

1992–Native American potter, Lucy M. Lewis, dies at age 102. She was from Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, and is known for her black-on-white decorative ceramics made using traditional techniques.

1993–At its height, the “Storm of the Century” stretches from Canada towards Central America, affecting 26 states and most of eastern Canada. Heavy precipitation and hurricane force winds cause blizzard conditions over much of America, with thunder snow storms from Texas to Pennsylvania.

1993–Bomb attacks in Bombay, India, claim 317 lives.

1993–North Korea announces its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

1994–The Church of England ordains its first female priests.

1994–Singer, Christina (Victoria) Grimmie, is born in Marlton, New Jersey. She is best known as a contestant on the 6th season of the TV series The Voice.

1996–Nancy Sinatra donates her white go-go boots from the 1960s to the Hard Rock Cafe in Beverly Hills, California.

1998–Illustrator and potter, Beatrice Wood, dies in Ojai, California, at age 105. She was involved in the Avant Garde movement in America, and in 1916, she founded The Blind Man magazine in New York City, with French artist, Marcel Duchamp, and writer, Henri-Pierre Roché. Wood was called the "Mama of Dada."

1999–Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland join NATO.

1999–Violinist and conductor, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, dies from complications of bronchitis in Berlin, Germany, at age 83. Menuhin began his recording career in 1928, with Victor in America. A year later, he moved to Europe and signed with HMV, then with EMI, where he made more than 300 recordings. His nearly 70-year record deal is the longest in music history.

2001–Morton Downey, Jr., TV talk show host, dies of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 68. In the 1980s, he pioneered the "trash TV" format on his talk show The Morton Downey, Jr. Show.

2001–Writer, Robert Ludlum, dies while recovering from severe burns in Naples, Florida, at age 73. He was an American author of 27 thriller novels including The Osterman Weekend and The Bourne Identity. The number of copies of his books in print is estimated between 290 million and 500 million, and they have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries.

2002–Record producer, Speedy Keen, dies of heart failure at age 56. He is best known for his association with the rock band Thunderclap Newman. He wrote Something in the Air for the band, which reached #1 in the U.K. Singles chart.

2003–Zoran Dindic, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.

2004–South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by the National Assembly. It is the first impeachment in the nation's history.

2005–Karolos Papoulias becomes President of Greece.

2006–High school senior, Matt Suter, survives being blown 1,307 feet by a tornado. The twister rips open his grandmother's mobile home and tosses Suter into the night, launching him over a barbed wire fence, and eventually landing him on soft grass in an open field. He suffers only a head wound from being hit by a lamp.

2007–The 22nd Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is held. This year’s inductees are: (Performers) Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, R.E.M, Van Halen, The Ronettes, and Patti Smith; (Non-Performer) No awards given; and (Sidemen) No awards given. The ceremony takes place at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Ahmet Ertegun, Chairman and Founding Father of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had passed away in December 2006, and Jann Wenner speaks eloquently about his colleague.

2009–Financier, Bernard Madoff, pleads guilty to scamming $18 billion, the largest amount in Wall Street history.

2011–A day after Japan's massive earthquake, a reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant melts down and explodes, releasing radioactivity into the atmosphere. This proves to be the second largest nuclear accident in history, and one of only two events to be classified as a Level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

2011–Joe Morello, drummer for The Dave Brubeck Quartet, dies in Irvington, New Jersey, at age 82. He was frequently noted for playing in the unusual time signatures employed by the group in such pieces as Take Five and Blue Rondo à la Turk. During his career, Morello appeared on over 120 albums, 60 of which were with The Dave Brubeck Quartet. He was the recipient of many awards, including Playboy magazine's best drummer award for seven years in a row, and Down Beat magazine's best drummer award five years in a row.

2011–Owsley Stanley dies in a car accident in Queensland, Australia, at age 76. He was a sound engineer for The Grateful Dead and a manufactuer of pure LSD in 1960s. By his own account, between 1965 and 1967, he produced less than 500 grams of LSD, amounting to a little over a million doses at the time. Myth has it that John Lennon bought a mason jar full of Owsley’s liquid LSD and buried it in the back of his house in Kenwood, but he was never able to dig it up.

2012–Entrepreneur, Samuel Glazer, dies of leukemia in Cleveland, Ohio, at age 89. He co-founded Mr. Coffee, one of the first automatic drip coffee makers to be introduced to the American consumer market. By 1975, just three years after its introduction, Mr. Coffee was the top selling coffee maker in the United States.

2012–Michael Hossack, drummer for The Doobie Brothers, dies of cancer in Dubois, Wyoming.

2014–A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight people and injures 70 others.

2015–While on the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, actor, Sean Penn, says his is a big fan of the reality show franchise The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. Penn went on to say, “I want to know the decisions. Is he going to decide on this one or this one? And I want to see somebody cry. And then see somebody get ecstatic, and then see them cry.” Supposedly Penn watches the show with his girlfriend actress, Charlize Theron.

2016–A protestor attempts to storm the stage as Donald Trump is speaking at a presidental campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, causing Secret Service agents to jump on the stage and form a wall around the candidate amid the chaos. The suspect was later identified as Thomas Dimassimo, 32, and was charged with disorderly conduct and inducing panic.

2017–Two people become critically ill after drinking toxic tea from a Chinatown herbalist in San Francisco, California. The tea leaves bought at Sun Wing Wo Trading Company contained the plant-based toxin Aconite. Aconite, also known as monkshood, helmet flower, and wolfsbane, is used in Asian herbal medicines, but it must be processed properly to be safe.

2017–A landslide at a rubbish dump on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, kills at least 48 people.

2018–An aircraft operated by Bangladeshi airline US-Bangla Airlines crashes at Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal, killing 49 of the 71 people on board.

2018–Nokie Edwards, lead guitarist for The Ventures, dies following complications from hip surgery in Yuma, Arizona, at age 82.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Pope Innocent; John Aubrey; Mary Manning; Girl Scouts of America art; Gordon MacRae; Jack Karouac; Edward Albee; "Buckwheat"; Mitt Romney; James Taylor; Jon Provost with Lassie; Charlie Parker; Darryl Strawberry; Paul and Linda McCartney on their wedding day; John Lennon and Harry Nilsson are thrown out of The Troubadour; Eugene Ormandy; Nancy Sinatra; Speedy Keen; Bernard Madoff; Owsley Stanley with Jerry Garcia.
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