[edit]

• 1066 – Norman Conquest: Battle of Hastings: In England on Senlac Hill, seven miles from Hastings, the Norman forces of William the Conqueror defeat the English army and kill King Harold II of England.
• 1322 – Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence.
• 1582 – Because of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I of England.
• 1656 – Massachusetts enacts the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism makes them regard the Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive.
• 1758 – Seven Years' War: Austria defeats Prussia at the Battle of Hochkirch.
• 1773 – The first recorded Ministry of Education, the Commission of National Education, is formed in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• 1773 – Just before the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, several of the British East India Company's tea ships are set ablaze at the old seaport of Annapolis, Maryland.
• 1805 – Battle of Elchingen, France defeats Austria.
• 1806 – Battle of Jena–Auerstedt France defeats Prussia.
• 1808 – The Republic of Ragusa is annexed by France.
• 1843 – Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell arrested by British on charges of criminal conspiracy.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Bristoe Station: Confederate troops under the command of General Robert E. Lee fail to drive the Union Army completely out of Virginia.
• 1884 – American inventor George Eastman receives a U.S. Government patent on his new paper-strip photographic film.
• 1888 – Louis Le Prince films first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene.
• 1898 – The steamer ship SS Mohegan sinks after impacting the Manacles near Cornwall, United Kingdom, killing 106.
• 1908 – The Chicago Cubs defeat the Detroit Tigers, 2–0, clinching the World Series; this would be their last until clinching the 2016 World Series.
• 1910 – English aviator Claude Grahame-White lands his Farman Aircraft biplane on Executive Avenue near the White House in Washington, D.C.
• 1912 – While campaigning in Milwaukee, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, is shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carries out his scheduled public speech.
• 1913 – Senghenydd colliery disaster, the United Kingdom's worst coal mining accident claims the lives of 439 miners.
• 1915 – World War I: Bulgaria joins the Central Powers.
• 1920 – Part of Petsamo Province is ceded by the Soviet Union to Finland.
• 1926 – The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, is first published.
• 1933 – Nazi Germany withdraws from the League of Nations and World Disarmament Conference.
• 1938 – The first flight of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter plane.
• 1939 – World War II: The German submarine U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak within her harbour at Scapa Flow, Scotland.
• 1940 – World War II: The Balham underground station disaster kills sixty-six people during the London Blitz.
• 1943 – World War II: Prisoners at the Sobibór extermination camp in Poland revolt against the Germans.
• 1943 – World War II: The American Eighth Air Force loses 60 of 291 B-17 Flying Fortress during the Second Raid on Schweinfurt.
• 1943 – World War II: The Second Philippine Republic, a puppet of the Empire of Japan, was inaugurated with Jose P. Laurel as its president.
• 1944 – World War II: Athens, Greece, is liberated by British Army troops entering the city as the Wehrmacht pulls out. This clears the way for the Greek government-in-exile to return to its historic capital city, with Georgios Papandreou, as the head of government.
• 1944 – World War II: Linked to a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is forced to commit suicide.
• 1947 – Captain Chuck Yeager of the United States Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft, the Glamorous Glennis, faster than the speed of sound at Mach 1.06 (700 miles per hour (1,100 km/h; 610 kn) over the high desert of Southern California and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight.
• 1949 – Eleven leaders of the American Communist Party are convicted, after a nine-month trial in a Federal District Court, of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. Federal Government.
• 1949 – Chinese Civil War: Chinese Communist forces occupy Guangzhou.
• 1952 – Korean War: United Nations and South Korean forces launch Operation Showdown against Chinese strongholds at the Iron Triangle. The resulting Battle of Triangle Hill is the biggest and bloodiest battle of 1952.
• 1956 – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the Indian Untouchable caste leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 of his followers (see Neo-Buddhism).
• 1957 – Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian monarch to open up an annual session of the Canadian Parliament, presenting her Speech from the throne in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• 1957 – At least 81 people are killed in the most devastating flood in the history of the Spanish city of Valencia.
• 1958 – The District of Columbia's Bar Association votes to accept African-Americans as member attorneys.
• 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U.S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane and its pilot flies over the island of Cuba and takes photographs of Soviet SS-4 Sandal missiles being installed and erected in Cuba.
• 1964 – Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence.
• 1964 – Leonid Brezhnev becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and thereby, along with his allies, such as Alexei Kosygin, the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), ousting the former monolithic leader Nikita Khrushchev, and sending him into retirement as a nonperson in the USSR.
• 1966 – The city of Montreal begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid transit system.
• 1967 – Vietnam War: American folk singer and activist Joan Baez is arrested concerning a physical blockade of the U.S. Army's induction center in Oakland, California.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: Twenty-seven soldiers are arrested at the Presidio of San Francisco in California for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps will send about 24,000 soldiers and Marines back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours of duty in the combat zone there.
• 1968 – Apollo program: The first live TV broadcast by American astronauts in orbit performed by the Apollo 7 crew.
• 1968 – The 6.5 M_w Meckering earthquake shook the southwest portion of Western Australia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing $2.2 million in damage and leaving 20–28 people dead.
• 1968 – Jim Hines of the United States of America becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100-meter sprint in the Summer Olympic Games held in Mexico City with a time of 9.95 seconds.
• 1969 – The United Kingdom introduces the British fifty-pence coin, which replaces, over the following years, the British ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalization of the British currency in 1971, and the abolition of the shilling as a unit of currency anywhere in the world.
• 1973 – In the Thammasat student uprising over 100,000 people protest in Thailand against the Thanom military government, 77 are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers.
• 1979 – The first Gay Rights March on Washington, D.C., the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, demands "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people", and draws approximately 100,000 people.
• 1981 – Citing official misconduct in the investigation and trial, Amnesty International charges the U.S. Federal Government with holding Richard Marshall of the American Indian Movement as a political prisoner.
• 1981 – Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected as the President of Egypt one week after the assassination of the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat.
• 1982 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs.
• 1983 – Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, is overthrown and later executed in a military coup d'état led by Bernard Coard.
• 1991 – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1994 – The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the Foreign Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the establishment of the Oslo Accords and the framing of the future Palestinian Self Government.
• 1998 – Eric Rudolph is charged with six bombings including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.
• 2012 – Felix Baumgartner successfully jumped to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere in the Red Bull Stratos project.
• 2014 – A snowstorm and avalanche in the Nepalese Himalayas triggered by the remnants of Cyclone Hudhud kills 43 people.
• 2014 – Utah State University receives a bomb threat against feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian, who was to give a lecture the next day.
• 2015 – A suicide bomb attack in Pakistan, kills at least seven people and injures 13 others.

Births[edit]

• 1257 – Przemysł II of Poland (d. 1296)
• 1404 – Marie of Anjou (d. 1463)
• 1425 – Alesso Baldovinetti, Italian painter (d. 1499)
• 1465 – Konrad Peutinger, German humanist and antiquarian (d. 1547)
• 1493 – Shimazu Tadayoshi, Japanese daimyo (d. 1568)
• 1542 – Philip IV, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (d. 1602)
• 1563 – Jodocus Hondius, Flemish engraver and cartographer (d. 1611)
• 1569 – Giambattista Marino, Italian poet (d. 1625)
• 1609 – Ernest Günther, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (d. 1689)
• 1630 – Sophia of Hanover (d. 1714)
• 1633 – James II of England (d. 1701)
• 1639 – Simon van der Stel, Dutch commander and politician, 1st Governor of the Dutch Cape Colony (d. 1712)
• 1641 – Joachim Tielke German instrument maker (d. 1719)
• 1643 – Bahadur Shah I, Mughal emperor (d. 1712)
• 1644 – William Penn, English businessman who founded Pennsylvania (d. 1718)
• 1687 – Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician and academic (d. 1768)
• 1712 – George Grenville, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1770)
• 1726 – Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, Scottish-English admiral and politician (d. 1813)
• 1733 – François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt, Austrian field marshal (d. 1798)
• 1784 – Ferdinand VII of Spain (d. 1833)
• 1801 – Joseph Plateau, Belgian physicist and academic, created the Phenakistoscope (d. 1883)
• 1806 – Preston King, American lawyer and politician (d. 1865)
• 1824 – Adolphe Monticelli, French painter (d. 1886)
• 1840 – Dmitry Pisarev, Russian author and critic (d. 1868)
• 1842 – Joe Start, American baseball player and manager (d. 1927)
• 1844 – John See, English-Australian politician, 14th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1907)
• 1848 – Byron Edmund Walker, Canadian banker and philanthropist (d. 1924)
• 1853 – John William Kendrick, American engineer and businessman (d. 1924)
• 1867 – Masaoka Shiki, Japanese poet, author, and critic (d. 1902)
• 1869 – Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen, English art dealer (d. 1939)
• 1872 – Reginald Doherty, English tennis player (d. 1910)
• 1882 – Éamon de Valera, American-Irish rebel and politician, 3rd President of Ireland (d. 1975)
• 1882 – Charlie Parker, English cricketer, coach, and umpire (d. 1959)
• 1888 – Katherine Mansfield, British novelist, short story writer, and essayist (d. 1923)
• 1888 – Yukio Sakurauchi, Japanese businessman and politician, 27th Japanese Minister of Finance (d. 1947)
• 1890 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, American general and politician, 34th President of the United States (d. 1969)
• 1892 – Sumner Welles, American politician and diplomat, 11th Under Secretary of State (d. 1961)
• 1893 – Lillian Gish, American actress (d. 1993)
• 1894 – E. E. Cummings, American poet and playwright (d. 1962)
• 1894 – Victoria Drummond, British marine engineer (d. 1978)
• 1898 – Thomas William Holmes, Canadian sergeant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1950)
• 1900 – W. Edwards Deming, American statistician, author, and academic (d. 1993)
• 1902 – Learco Guerra, Italian cyclist and manager (d. 1963)
• 1904 – Christian Pineau, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1995)
• 1904 – Mikhail Pervukhin, Soviet politician, First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1978)
• 1906 – Hassan al-Banna, Egyptian religious leader, founded the Muslim Brotherhood (d. 1949)
• 1906 – Hannah Arendt, German-American philosopher and theorist (d. 1975)
• 1907 – Allan Jones, American actor and singer (d. 1992)
• 1908 – Ruth Hale, American actress and playwright (d. 2003)
• 1909 – Mochitsura Hashimoto, Japanese commander (d. 2000)
• 1909 – Dorothy Kingsley, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1996)
• 1909 – Bernd Rosemeyer, German race car driver (d. 1938)
• 1910 – John Wooden, American basketball player and coach (d. 2010)
• 1911 – Lê Đức Thọ, Vietnamese general and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
• 1914 – Harry Brecheen, American baseball player and coach (d. 2004)
• 1914 – Raymond Davis Jr., American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
• 1914 – Alexis Rannit, Estonian poet and critic (d. 1985)
• 1915 – Loris Francesco Capovilla, Italian cardinal (d. 2016)
• 1916 – C. Everett Koop, American admiral and surgeon, 13th United States Surgeon General (d. 2013)
• 1918 – Marcel Chaput, Canadian biochemist, journalist, and politician (d. 1991)
• 1918 – Thelma Coyne Long, Australian tennis player and captain (d. 2015)
• 1918 – Doug Ring, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2003)
• 1921 – José Arraño Acevedo, Chilean journalist and historian (d. 2009)
• 1923 – Joel Barnett, English accountant and politician, Chief Secretary to the Treasury (d. 2014)
• 1925 – Clancy Lyall, American sergeant (d. 2012)
• 1926 – Willy Alberti, Dutch singer and actor (d. 1985)
• 1927 – Roger Moore, English actor and producer (d. 2017)
• 1928 – Frank E. Resnik, American chemist and businessman (d. 1995)
• 1929 – Yvon Durelle, Canadian boxer and wrestler (d. 2007)
• 1930 – Ahmad Shah of Pahang, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia
• 1930 – Robert Parker, American singer and saxophonist
• 1930 – Mobutu Sese Seko, Congolese soldier and politician, President of Zaire (d. 1997)
• 1930 – Alan Williams, Welsh journalist and politician, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales (d. 2014)
• 1932 – Enrico Di Giuseppe, American tenor and actor (d. 2005)
• 1932 – Anatoly Larkin, Russian-American physicist and academic (d. 2005)
• 1936 – Hans Kraay, Dutch footballer and manager
• 1936 – Jürg Schubiger, Swiss psychotherapist and author (d. 2014)
• 1938 – Farah Pahlavi, Empress of Iran
• 1938 – John Dean, American lawyer and author, 13th White House Counsel
• 1938 – Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, English curator and academic
• 1938 – Ron Lancaster, American-Canadian football player and coach (d. 2008)
• 1938 – Shula Marks, South African historian and academic
• 1938 – Melba Montgomery, American country music singer
• 1939 – Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer, founded the Ralph Lauren Corporation
• 1939 – Rocky Thompson, American golfer and politician
• 1940 – Perrie Mans, South African snooker player
• 1940 – Cliff Richard, Indian-English singer-songwriter and actor
• 1940 – J. C. Snead, American golfer
• 1940 – Christopher Timothy, Welsh actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1941 – Jerry Glanville, American football player and coach
• 1941 – Eddie Keher, Irish sportsman (hurling)
• 1941 – Laurie Lawrence, Australian rugby player and coach
• 1941 – Art Shamsky, American baseball player and manager
• 1941 – Roger Taylor, English tennis player
• 1942 – Bob Hiller, English rugby player
• 1942 – Evelio Javier, Filipino lawyer and politician (d. 1986)
• 1942 – Péter Nádas, Hungarian author and playwright
• 1942 – Suzzanna, Indonesian actress (d. 2008)
• 1944 – Udo Kier, German-American actor and director
• 1945 – Colin Hodgkinson, English bass player
• 1945 – Daan Jippes, Dutch author and illustrator
• 1945 – Lesley Joseph, English actress
• 1946 – François Bozizé, Gabonese general and politician, President of the Central African Republic
• 1946 – Joey de Leon, Filipino comedian, actor and television host
• 1946 – Justin Hayward, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1946 – Dan McCafferty, Scottish singer-songwriter
• 1946 – Al Oliver, American baseball player
• 1946 – Craig Venter, American biologist, geneticist, and academic
• 1947 – Norman Harris, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer (d. 1987)
• 1947 – Charlie Joiner, American football player
• 1947 – Nikolai Volkoff, Croatian-American wrestler
• 1948 – Marcia Barrett, Jamaican-English singer
• 1948 – Norman Ornstein, American political scientist and scholar
• 1949 – Damian Lau, Hong Kong actor, director, and producer
• 1949 – Katy Manning, English-Australian actress and production manager
• 1949 – Katha Pollitt, American poet and author
• 1949 – Dave Schultz, Canadian ice hockey player and referee
• 1950 – Joey Travolta, American actor, director, and producer
• 1951 – Aad van den Hoek, Dutch cyclist
• 1952 – Harry Anderson, American actor and screenwriter
• 1952 – Nikolai Andrianov, Russian gymnast and coach (d. 2011)
• 1952 – Rick Aviles, American comedian and actor (d. 1995)
• 1953 – Kazumi Watanabe, Japanese guitarist and composer
• 1954 – Carole Malone, English journalist
• 1954 – Mordechai Vanunu, Moroccan-Israeli technician and academic
• 1955 – Iwona Blazwick, English curator and critic
• 1956 – Ümit Besen, Turkish singer-songwriter
• 1956 – Beth Daniel, American golfer and sportscaster
• 1956 – Jennell Jaquays, American game designer
• 1956 – Arleen Sorkin, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
• 1957 – Michel Després, Canadian lawyer and politician
• 1957 – Gen Nakatani, Japanese lawyer and politician, 13th Japanese Minister of Defense
• 1958 – Thomas Dolby, English singer-songwriter and producer
• 1959 – A. J. Pero, American drummer (d. 2015)
• 1960 – Steve Cram, English runner and coach
• 1960 – Zbigniew Kruszyński, Polish footballer and coach
• 1961 – Isaac Mizrahi, American fashion designer
• 1962 – Jaan Ehlvest, Estonian chess player
• 1962 – Trevor Goddard, English-American actor (d. 2003)
• 1962 – Chris Thomas King, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor
• 1963 – Lori Petty, American actress
• 1964 – Joe Girardi, American baseball player and manager
• 1965 – Steve Coogan, English actor, producer, and screenwriter
• 1965 – Jüri Jaanson, Estonian rower and politician
• 1965 – Constantine Koukias, Greek-Australian flute player and composer
• 1965 – Karyn White, American singer-songwriter
• 1967 – Pat Kelly, American baseball player, coach, and manager
• 1967 – Sylvain Lefebvre, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
• 1967 – Jason Plato, English race car driver and television host
• 1967 – Werner Daehn, German actor
• 1968 – Jay Ferguson, Canadian guitarist and songwriter
• 1968 – Johnny Goudie, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor
• 1968 – Matthew Le Tissier, English footballer and journalist
• 1968 – Timothy Lincoln Beckwith, American lawyer
• 1968 – Dwayne Schintzius, American basketball player and coach (d. 2012)
• 1969 – P. J. Brown, American basketball player
• 1969 – David Strickland, American actor (d. 1999)
• 1970 – Martin Barbarič, Czech footballer and coach (d. 2013)
• 1970 – Jim Jackson, American basketball player and sportscaster
• 1970 – Meelis Lindmaa, Estonian footballer
• 1970 – Hiromi Nagasaku, Japanese actress and singer
• 1970 – Pär Zetterberg, Swedish footballer
• 1971 – Jorge Costa, Portuguese footballer and manager
• 1971 – Robert Jaworski Jr., Filipino basketball player and politician
• 1972 – Erika de Lone, American tennis player
• 1972 – Julian O'Neill, Australian rugby league player
• 1973 – Thom Brooks, American-British political philosopher and legal scholar
• 1973 – Lasha Zhvania, Georgian businessman and politician
• 1974 – Jessica Drake, American porn actress and director
• 1974 – Samuel José da Silva Vieira, Brazilian footballer
• 1974 – Natalie Maines, American singer-songwriter
• 1974 – Viktor Röthlin, Swiss runner
• 1974 – Shaggy 2 Dope, American rapper and producer
• 1974 – Tümer Metin, Turkish footballer
• 1975 – Michael Duberry, English footballer
• 1975 – Floyd Landis, American cyclist
• 1975 – Shaznay Lewis, English singer-songwriter
• 1975 – Carlos Spencer, New Zealand rugby player
• 1976 – Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sri Lankan cricketer
• 1977 – Saeed Ajmal, Pakistani cricketer
• 1977 – Barry Ditewig, Dutch footballer
• 1977 – Carl Johan Grimmark, Swedish guitarist
• 1977 – Kelly Schumacher, American-Canadian basketball and volleyball player
• 1978 – Justin Lee Brannan, American guitarist and songwriter
• 1978 – Ryan Church, American baseball player
• 1978 – Paul Hunter, English snooker player (d. 2006)
• 1978 – Jana Macurová, Czech tennis player
• 1978 – Steven Thompson, Scottish footballer
• 1978 – Usher, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
• 1978 – Javon Walker, American football player
• 1979 – Stacy Keibler, American wrestler and actress
• 1979 – Liina-Grete Lilender, Estonian figure skater and coach
• 1980 – Paúl Ambrosi, Ecuadorian footballer
• 1980 – Amjad Khan, Danish-English cricketer
• 1980 – Scott Kooistra, American football player
• 1980 – Niels Lodberg, Danish footballer
• 1980 – Terrence McGee, American football player
• 1980 – Ben Whishaw, English actor
• 1981 – Boof Bonser, American baseball player
• 1981 – Gautam Gambhir, Indian cricketer
• 1982 – Ryan Hall, American runner
• 1982 – Matt Roth, American football player
• 1983 – Betty Heidler, German hammer thrower
• 1983 – Abdelaziz Khourdifi, Moroccan short story writer
• 1983 – David Oakes, English Actor
• 1984 – LaRon Landry, American football player
• 1984 – Alex Scott, English footballer
• 1985 – Alexandre Sarnes Negrão, Brazilian race car driver
• 1985 – Ivan Pernar, Croatian Member of Parliament
• 1986 – Tom Craddock, English footballer
• 1986 – Skyler Shaye, American actress
• 1988 – Will Atkinson, English footballer
• 1988 – Glenn Maxwell, Australian cricketer
• 1988 – Mario Titone, Italian footballer
• 1988 – Ocean Vuong, Vietnamese-American poet
• 1989 – Mia Wasikowska, Australian actress
• 1990 – Jordan Clark, English cricketer
• 1992 – Ahmed Musa, Nigerian footballer
• 1992 – Savannah Outen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1993 – Ashton Agar, Australian cricketer
• 1994 – Joe Burgess, English rugby league player
• 1994 – Jaelen Feeney, Australian rugby league player
• 1999 – Laura Zeng, American rhythmic gymnast
• 2001 – Rowan Blanchard, American actress

Deaths[edit]

• 530 – Antipope Dioscorus
• 841 – Shi Yuanzhong, Chinese governor
• 869 – Pang Xun, Chinese rebel leader
• 1066 – Harold Godwinson, English king (b. 1022)
• 1066 – Leofwine Godwinson, English son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex (b. 1035)
• 1066 – Gyrth Godwinson, brother of King Harold II
• 1077 – Andronicus Ducas, Byzantine courtier (b. 1022)
• 1092 – Nizam al-Mulk, Persian scholar and politician (b. 1018)
• 1184 – Yusuf I, Almohad Caliph (b. 1135)
• 1213 – Geoffrey Fitz Peter, 1st Earl of Essex
• 1217 – Isabella, Countess of Gloucester, wife of King John of England (b. c. 1173)
• 1256 – Kujō Yoritsugu, Japanese shogun (b. 1239)
• 1318 – Edward Bruce, High King of Ireland (b. 1275)
• 1416 – Henry the Mild, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
• 1536 – Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish poet (b. 1503)
• 1552 – Oswald Myconius, Swiss theologian and reformer (b. 1488)
• 1565 – Thomas Chaloner, English poet and politician (b. 1521)
• 1568 – Jacques Arcadelt, Dutch singer and composer (b. 1507)
• 1610 – Amago Yoshihisa, Japanese daimyo (b. 1540)
• 1619 – Samuel Daniel, English poet and historian (b. 1562)
• 1631 – Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Queen and regent of Denmark (b. 1557)
• 1637 – Gabriello Chiabrera, Italian poet (b. 1552)
• 1669 – Antonio Cesti, Italian organist and composer (b. 1623)
• 1703 – Thomas Kingo, Danish bishop and poet (b. 1634)
• 1711 – Tewoflos, Ethiopian emperor (b. 1708)
• 1758 – James Francis Edward Keith, Scottish-Prussian field marshal (b. 1696)
• 1831 – Jean-Louis Pons, French astronomer and educator (b. 1761)
• 1911 – John Marshall Harlan, American lawyer and politician (b. 1833)
• 1923 – Marcellus Emants, Dutch-Swiss author, poet, and playwright (b. 1848)
• 1929 – Henri Berger, German composer and bandleader (b. 1844)
• 1930 – Samuel van Houten, Dutch lawyer and politician, Dutch Minister of the Interior (b. 1837)
• 1942 – Noboru Yamaguchi, Japanese mob boss (b. 1902)
• 1943 – Sobibór uprising:
  • Rudolf Beckmann, German SS officer (b. 1910)
  • Siegfried Graetschus, German sergeant (b. 1916)
  • Johann Niemann, German lieutenant (b. 1913)
• 1944 – Erwin Rommel, German field marshal (b. 1891)
• 1953 – Émile Sarrade, French rugby player and tug of war competitor (b. 1877)
• 1953 – Kyuichi Tokuda, Japanese lawyer and politician (b. 1894)
• 1958 – Douglas Mawson, Australian geologist, academic, and explorer (b. 1882)
• 1959 – Jack Davey, New Zealand-Australian singer and radio host (b. 1907)
• 1959 – Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor, singer, and producer (b. 1909)
• 1960 – Abram Ioffe, Russian physicist and academic (b. 1880)
• 1961 – Paul Ramadier, French politician, 129th Prime Minister of France (b. 1888)
• 1961 – Harriet Shaw Weaver, English journalist and activist (b. 1876)
• 1965 – William Hogenson, American sprinter (b. 1884)
• 1965 – Randall Jarrell, American poet and author (b. 1914)
• 1967 – Marcel Aymé, French author and playwright (b. 1902)
• 1969 – Haguroyama Masaji, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 36th Yokozuna (b. 1914)
• 1969 – August Sang, Estonian poet and translator (b. 1914)
• 1973 – Edmund A. Chester, American journalist and broadcaster (b. 1897)
• 1973 – Ahmed Hamdi, Egyptian general and engineer (b. 1929)
• 1976 – Edith Evans, English actress (b. 1888)
• 1977 – Bing Crosby, American singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1903)
• 1982 – Louis Rougier, French philosopher from the Vienna Circle (b. 1889)
• 1983 – Willard Price, Canadian-American historian and author (b. 1887)
• 1984 – Martin Ryle, English astronomer and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
• 1985 – Emil Gilels, Ukrainian-Russian pianist (b. 1916)
• 1986 – Keenan Wynn, American actor (b. 1916)
• 1986 – Takahiko Yamanouchi, Japanese physicist (b. 1902)
• 1990 – Leonard Bernstein, American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1918)
• 1997 – Harold Robbins, American author (b. 1915)
• 1998 – Cleveland Amory, American author and activist (b. 1917)
• 1998 – Frankie Yankovic, American accordion player (b. 1916)
• 1999 – Julius Nyerere, Tanzanian educator and politician, 1st President of Tanzania (b. 1922)
• 2000 – Art Coulter, Canadian-American ice hockey player (b. 1909)
• 2000 – Tony Roper, American race car driver (b. 1964)
• 2002 – Norbert Schultze, German composer and conductor (b. 1911)
• 2003 – Patrick Dalzel-Job, English linguist, commander, and navigator (b. 1913)
• 2006 – Freddy Fender, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1937)
• 2006 – Klaas Runia, Dutch theologian and journalist (b. 1926)
• 2006 – Gerry Studds, American educator and politician (b. 1937)
• 2008 – Robert Furman, American engineer and intelligence officer (b. 1915)
• 2008 – Kazys Petkevičius, Lithuanian basketball player and coach (b. 1926)
• 2009 – Martyn Sanderson, New Zealand actor and screenwriter (b. 1938)
• 2009 – Collin Wilcox, American actress (b. 1935)
• 2010 – Simon MacCorkindale, English actor, director, and producer (b. 1952)
• 2010 – Benoit Mandelbrot, Polish-American mathematician and economist (b. 1924)
• 2011 – Reg Alcock, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1948)
• 2011 – Ashawna Hailey, American computer scientist and philanthropist (b. 1949)
• 2012 – John Clive, English actor and author (b. 1933)
• 2012 – Max Fatchen, Australian journalist and author (b. 1920)
• 2012 – James R. Grover Jr., American lawyer and politician (b. 1919)
• 2012 – Larry Sloan, American publisher, co-founded Price Stern Sloan (b. 1922)
• 2012 – Arlen Specter, American lieutenant and politician (b. 1930)
• 2012 – Dody Weston Thompson, American photographer (b. 1923)
• 2012 – Gart Westerhout, Dutch-American astronomer and academic (b. 1927)
• 2013 – Wally Bell, American baseball player and umpire (b. 1965)
• 2013 – Max Cahner, German-Catalan historian and politician (b. 1936)
• 2013 – Kōichi Iijima, Japanese author and poet (b. 1930)
• 2013 – Bruno Metsu, French footballer and manager (b. 1954)
• 2013 – Frank Moore, American painter and poet (b. 1946)
• 2013 – Käty van der Mije-Nicolau, Romanian-Dutch chess player (b. 1940)
• 2014 – A. H. Halsey, English sociologist and academic (b. 1923)
• 2014 – Leonard Liggio, American author and academic (b. 1933)
• 2014 – Elizabeth Peña, American actress (b. 1959)
• 2015 – Nurlan Balgimbayev, Kazakh politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Kazakhstan (b. 1947)
• 2015 – Mathieu Kérékou, Beninese soldier and politician, President of Benin (b. 1933)
• 2015 – Margaret Keyes, American historian and academic (b. 1918)
• 2015 – Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani, Indian admiral (b. 1930)
• 2016 – Helen Kelly, New Zealand trade union leader (b. 1964)

Ed Sheeran's 'Shape of You' 

goes five times platinum

Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You single has gone five times platinum.

When streams and downloads are added together, it works out as three million sales, according to the BPI which represents the UK music industry.

Only Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? and Elton John's Candle In The Wind '97 have sold more copies in the UK.

Shape Of You is also the biggest selling single of 2017 so far, according to Official Charts data.

The BPI made the announcement on Twitter.

The song has also spent a total of 14 weeks at the top of the Official Singles Chart.

It's been streamed 224 million times and downloaded nearly 765,000 times since its release on 6th January 2017. 

The track comes from Ed Sheeran's third album Divide (÷) that recently achieved 7x platinum status.

The BPI's Gennaro Castaldo said: "Shape of You has become an anthem for a generation and an instant classic that is sure to remain a staple of streaming playlists and 'best of' album compilations for years to come."

ο Στινγκ  αγοράζει στον ουρανοξύστη 

των δισεκατομμυριούχων 

Το σπίτι στο οποίο μένει ο Στινγκ και η σύζυγός του, η παραγωγός και σκηνοθέτης Τρούντι Στάιλερ είναι «μυθικό». 

Μια μεζονέτα, στην οδό 15 Central Park West, στο κτίριο-τοπόσημο της Νέας Υόρκης που σχεδίασε ο αρχιτέκτονας Ρόμπερτ Α.Μ. Στερν.

Ποιον να πρωτοθυμηθούμε από τους διάσημους που έχουν μείνει σ'αυτό το κτίριο! Τον Ρόμπερτ Ντε Νίρο; Τον Ντένζελ Ουάσινγκτον; Μήπως, τον Άλεξ Ροντρίγκεζ; Ή, τον διευθύνοντα σύμβουλο της Goldman Sachs, τον Λόιντ Μπλακφέιν; 

Ε, λοιπόν, το ζεύγος πούλησε το σπίτι τους για 50 εκατομμύρια δολάρια!

Το σπίτι στην οδό 15 Central Park West

Σύμφωνα με το αποκλειστικό του «Page Six» κρατείται «άπειρη» μυστικότητα

 για το όνομα του αγοραστή, αν και πιστεύεται ότι είναι ξένος.

Και πού θα μείνει ο Στινγκ και η Τρούντι; 

Λέγεται ότι αγοράζουν στο 66 ορόφων καινούργιο κτίριο το οποίο 

χτίζεται σε αρχιτεκτονικά σχέδια του Στερν στην οδό 220 Central Park

 South και το οποίο θα είναι έτοιμο του χρόνου. 

Το καινούργιο κτίριο -του οποίου το προσωνύμιο είναι «το μπούνκερ των

 δισεκατομμυριούχων»- έχει ήδη αποκτήσει φήμη μετά την αγορά του ρετιρέ, 

για το φημολογούμενο ποσό των 200 εκατομμυρίων δολαρίων και βάλε, από τον

 τιτάνα των hedge funds Κεν Γκρίφιν.

Πηγή η οποία γνωρίζει τα της πώλησης του σπιτιού του ζεύγους δήλωσε ότι

 «η συμφωνία (σσ. για την πώληση) έχει υπογραφεί, αλλά η πώληση δεν θα

 κλείσει πριν το 2018. Γεγονός που δίνει χρόνο στον Στινγκ και την Τρούντι να 

ετοιμάσουν το καινούργιο διαμέρισμά τους».

Κι αν στενοχωρηθεί κάποιος που οι Στινγκ και Τρούντι πούλησαν το σπίτι τους 

για 50 εκατομμύρια δολάρια μόνον ενώ τον περασμένο Μάιο ζητούσαν 56

 εκατομμύρια, ας παρηγορηθεί με το ότι, το 2008, αγόρασαν αυτήν τη μεζονέτα 

με την εντυπωσιακή θέα στο Σέντραλ Παρκ για περίπου 27 εκατομμύρια, μόλις!

Εκπρόσωπος των Στινγκ και Τρούντι δεν θέλησε να σχολιάσει όλα αυτά τα ωραία.

[edit]

• 1066 – Edgar the Ætheling is proclaimed King of England, but is never crowned. He reigns until 10 December 1066.
• 1211 – Battle of the Rhyndacus: The Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeats the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Laskaris.
• 1529 – The Siege of Vienna ends as the Austrians rout the invading Turks, turning the tide against almost a century of unchecked conquest throughout eastern and central Europe by the Ottoman Empire.
• 1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.
• 1764 – Edward Gibbon observes a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspires him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
• 1783 – The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon (tethered) makes the first human ascent, piloted by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier.
• 1793 – Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.
• 1815 – Emperor Napoleon I begins his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship, sinks during a test, killing its inventor, Horace L. Hunley.
• 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Glasgow is fought, resulting in the surrender of Glasgow, Missouri and its Union garrison, to the Confederacy.
• 1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation.
• 1888 – The "From Hell" letter allegedly sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators.
• 1894 – The Dreyfus affair: Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying.
• 1904 – The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
• 1910 – Airship America is launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft.
• 1917 – World War I: At Vincennes outside Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.
• 1923 – The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.
• 1928 – The airship, Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States.
• 1932 – Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight.
• 1934 – The Soviet Republic of China collapses when Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army successfully encircles Ruijin, forcing the fleeing Communists to begin the Long March.
• 1939 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed LaGuardia Airport) is dedicated.
• 1940 – The President of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, is executed by the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco, making him the only European president to have been executed.
• 1944 – The Arrow Cross Party (very similar to Hitler's NSDAP (Nazi party)) takes power in Hungary.
• 1945 – World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.
• 1951 – Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes conducts the very last step of the first synthesis of norethisterone, the progestin that would later be used in one of the first three oral contraceptives.
• 1951 – The first episode of I Love Lucy, an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, airs on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).
• 1953 – British nuclear test Totem 1 is detonated at Emu Field, South Australia.
• 1954 – Hurricane Hazel devastates the eastern seaboard of North America, killing 95 and causing massive floods as far north as Toronto. As a Category 4 upon landfall, it is the strongest storm on record to strike as far north as North Carolina.
• 1956 – Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: The Catholic Worker Movement stages an anti-war rally in Manhattan including a public burning of a draft card; the first such act to result in arrest under a new amendment to the Selective Service Act.
• 1966 – The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale.
• 1969 – Vietnam War; The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam is held in Washington D.C. and across the US. Over two million demonstrate nationally; about 250,000 in Washington D.C..
• 1970 – Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.
• 1979 – Black Monday in Malta. The building of the Times of Malta, the residence of the opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami and several Nationalist Party clubs are ransacked and destroyed by supporters of the Malta Labour Party.
• 1989 – Wayne Gretzky becomes the all-time leading points scorer in the NHL.
• 1990 – Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.
• 1991 – The "Oh-My-God particle", an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray measured at 40,000,000 times that of the highest energy protons produced in a particle accelerator is observed at the University of Utah HiRes observatory in Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.
• 1995 – Marco Campos is killed in an accident in an International Formula 3000 race at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours circuit, making him the only driver ever killed in the International Formula 3000 series.
• 1997 – The first supersonic land speed record is set by Andy Green in ThrustSSC (United Kingdom), 50 years and one day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Earth's atmosphere.
• 1997 – The Cassini probe launches from Cape Canaveral on its way to Saturn.
• 2001 – NASA's Galileo spacecraft passes within 112 miles of Jupiter's moon Io.
• 2003 – China launches Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission.
• 2005 – A riot in Toledo, Ohio breaks out during a National Socialist/Neo-Nazi protest; over 100 are arrested.
• 2006 – Kiholo Bay earthquake: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake rocks Hawaii, causing property damage, injuries, landslides, power outages, and the closure of Honolulu International Airport.
• 2007 – Seventeen activists in New Zealand are arrested in the country's first post-9/11 anti-terrorism raids.
• 2008 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes down 733.08 points, or 7.87%, the second worst day in the Dow's history based on a percentage drop.
• 2011 – The 2011 Global Protests occur.
• 2013 – A 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes the Philippines, resulting in more than 215 deaths.

Births[edit]

• 99 BC – Lucretius, Roman poet and philosopher (d. 55 BCE)
• 70 BC – Virgil, Roman poet (d. 19 BC)
• 1218 – Hulagu Khan, Mongol ruler (d. 1265)
• 1265 – Temür Khan, Emperor Chengzong of Yuan (d. 1307)
• 1440 – Henry III, Landgrave of Upper Hesse, German noble (d. 1483)
• 1471 – Konrad Mutian, German epigrammatist and academic (d. 1526)
• 1542 – Akbar, Mughal emperor (d. 1605)
• 1561 – Richard Field, English cathedral dean (d. 1616)
• 1564 – Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1613)
• 1599 – Cornelis de Graeff, Dutch mayor and regent of Amsterdam (d. 1664)
• 1608 – Evangelista Torricelli, Italian physicist and mathematician (d. 1647)
• 1622 – Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, Swedish statesman and military man (d. 1686)
• 1686 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish poet and playwright (d. 1758)
• 1701 – Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, Canadian nun and saint, founded Grey Nuns (d. 1771)
• 1711 – Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine (d. 1741)
• 1762 – Samuel Adams Holyoke, American composer and educator (d. 1820)
• 1767 – Gabriel Richard, French-born American Roman Catholic priest, missionary, educator, and politician (d. 1832)
• 1784 – Thomas Robert Bugeaud, French general and politician, Governor-General of Algeria (d. 1849)
• 1785 – José Miguel Carrera, Chilean general and politician (d. 1821)
• 1789 – William Christopher Zeise, Danish chemist who prepared Zeise's salt, one of the first organometallic compounds (d. 1847)
• 1814 – Mikhail Lermontov, Russian author, poet, and painter (d. 1841)
• 1816 – John Robertson, English-Australian politician, 5th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1891)
• 1818 – Alexander Dreyschock, Czech pianist and composer (d. 1869)
• 1825 – Marie of Prussia (d. 1889)
• 1829 – Asaph Hall, American astronomer and academic (d. 1907)
• 1833 – John Alexander MacPherson, Australian politician, 7th Premier of Victoria (d. 1894)
• 1836 – James Tissot, French painter and illustrator (d. 1902)
• 1840 – Honoré Mercier, Canadian journalist, lawyer, and politician, 9th Premier of Quebec (d. 1894)
• 1844 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German composer, poet, and philosopher (d. 1900)
• 1858 – John L. Sullivan, American boxer, actor, and journalist (d. 1918)
• 1865 – Charles W. Clark, American singer and educator (d. 1925)
• 1872 – Wilhelm Miklas, Austrian educator and politician, 3rd President of Austria (d. 1956)
• 1872 – August Nilsson, Swedish pole vaulter, shot putter, and tug of war competitor (d. 1921)
• 1874 – Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1899)
• 1878 – Paul Reynaud, French lawyer and politician, 118th Prime Minister of France (d. 1966)
• 1879 – Jane Darwell, American actress (d. 1967)
• 1881 – P. G. Wodehouse, English novelist and playwright (d. 1975)
• 1882 – Charley O'Leary, American baseball player and coach (d. 1941)
• 1884 – Archibald Hoxsey, American pilot (d. 1910)
• 1887 – Frederick Fleet, English sailor (d. 1965)
• 1888 – S. S. Van Dine, American author and critic (d. 1939)
• 1890 – Álvaro de Campos, Portuguese poet and engineer (d. 1935)
• 1893 – Carol II of Romania (d. 1953)
• 1894 – Moshe Sharett, Ukrainian-Israeli lieutenant and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1965)
• 1897 – Johannes Sikkar, Estonian soldier and politician, Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (d. 1960)
• 1899 – Adolf Brudes, Polish-German race car driver (d. 1986)
• 1900 – Mervyn LeRoy, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1987)
• 1901 – Enrique Jardiel Poncela, Spanish playwright and novelist (d. 1952)
• 1905 – C. P. Snow, English chemist and author (d. 1980)
• 1906 – Hiram Fong, American soldier and politician (d. 2004)
• 1906 – Alicia Patterson, American journalist and publisher, co-founded Newsday (d. 1963)
• 1906 – Victoria Spivey, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1976)
• 1907 – Varian Fry, American journalist and author (d. 1967)
• 1908 – Herman Chittison, American pianist (d. 1967)
• 1908 – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-American economist and diplomat, 7th United States Ambassador to India (d. 2006)
• 1909 – Jesse L. Greenstein, American astronomer and academic (d. 2002)
• 1909 – Robert Trout, American journalist (d. 2000)
• 1910 – Edwin O. Reischauer, Japanese-American scholar and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Japan (d. 1990)
• 1912 – Nellie Lutcher, American singer and pianist (d. 2007)
• 1913 – Wolfgang Lüth, German commander (d. 1945)
• 1914 – Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghan king (d. 2007)
• 1916 – Al Killian, American trumpet player and bandleader (d. 2007)
• 1916 – George Turner, Australian author and critic (d. 1997)
• 1917 – Jan Miner, American actress (d. 2004)
• 1917 – Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., American historian and critic (d. 2007)
• 1917 – Paul Tanner, American trombonist and educator (d. 2013)
• 1919 – Malcolm Ross, American captain, balloonist, and physicist (d. 1985)
• 1919 – Chuck Stevenson, American race car driver (d. 1995)
• 1920 – Chris Economaki, American sportscaster and actor (d. 2012)
• 1920 – Patricia Jessel, Hong Kong-English actress (d. 1968)
• 1920 – Mario Puzo, American author and screenwriter (d. 1999)
• 1920 – Henri Verneuil, Turkish-French director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2002)
• 1921 – Angelica Rozeanu, Romanian-Israeli table tennis player (d. 2006)
• 1922 – Agustina Bessa-Luís, Portuguese author
• 1922 – Preben Munthe, Norwegian economist and politician, State Conciliator of Norway (d. 2013)
• 1922 – William Y. Thompson, American historian and author (d. 2013)
• 1923 – Italo Calvino, Italian novelist, short story writer, and journalist (d. 1985)
• 1923 – Antonio Fontán, Spanish journalist and politician (d. 2010)
• 1923 – Eugene Patterson, American journalist and activist (d. 2013)
• 1924 – Marguerite Andersen, German-Canadian author and educator
• 1924 – Lee Iacocca, American businessman and author
• 1924 – Warren Miller, American director and screenwriter
• 1925 – Mickey Baker, American-French guitarist (d. 2012)
• 1925 – Aurora Bautista, Spanish actress (d. 2012)
• 1925 – Tony Hart, English painter and television host (d. 2009)
• 1926 – James E. Akins, American soldier and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (d. 2010)
• 1926 – Agustín García Calvo, Spanish philosopher and poet (d. 2012)
• 1926 – Michel Foucault, French historian and philosopher (d. 1984)
• 1926 – Ed McBain, American author and screenwriter (d. 2005)
• 1926 – Jean Peters, American actress (d. 2000)
• 1926 – Karl Richter, German organist and conductor (d. 1981)
• 1927 – B. S. Abdur Rahman, Indian businessman and philanthropist (d. 2015)
• 1929 – Will Insley, American painter and architect (b. 1929)
• 1930 – FM-2030, Belgian-Iranian basketball player, philosopher and diplomat (d. 2000)
• 1931 – Freddy Cole, American singer and pianist
• 1931 – Gail Harris, American baseball player and coach (d. 2012)
• 1931 – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Indian engineer, academic, and politician, 11th President of India (d. 2015)
• 1931 – Pauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark, English academic and politician
• 1932 – Jaan Rääts, Estonian guitarist and composer
• 1933 – Nicky Barnes, American drug lord
• 1934 – Alan Elsdon, English trumpet player (d. 2016)
• 1934 – N. Ramani, Indian flute player (d. 2015)
• 1935 – Barry McGuire, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1935 – Dick McTaggart, Scottish boxer
• 1935 – Bobby Morrow, American sprinter
• 1935 – Willie O'Ree, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1936 – Michel Aumont, French actor
• 1936 – Robert Baden-Powell, 3rd Baron Baden-Powell, South African-English businessman
• 1937 – Linda Lavin, American actress and singer
• 1938 – Marv Johnson, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1993)
• 1938 – Brice Marden, American painter
• 1938 – Robert Ward, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 2008)
• 1940 – Tommy Bishop, English rugby league player and coach
• 1940 – Peter C. Doherty, Australian surgeon and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1941 – Roy Masters, Australian rugby league coach, journalist, and author
• 1942 – Hilo Chen, Taiwanese-American painter
• 1942 – Harold W. Gehman, Jr., American admiral
• 1942 – Don Stevenson, American singer-songwriter and drummer
• 1943 – Penny Marshall, American actress, director, and producer
• 1944 – Sali Berisha, Albanian cardiologist and politician, 2nd President of Albania
• 1944 – A. Chandranehru, Sri Lankan Tamil merchant seaman and politician (d. 2005)
• 1944 – Haim Saban, Egyptian-American businessman, co-founded Saban Entertainment
• 1944 – David Trimble, Northern Irish lawyer and politician, 3rd First Minister of Northern Ireland, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1945 – Steve Camacho, Guyanese cricketer (d. 2015)
• 1945 – Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Spanish cardinal
• 1945 – Neophyte of Bulgaria, Bulgarian patriarch
• 1945 – Jim Palmer, American baseball player and sportscaster
• 1946 – Victor Banerjee, Indian actor and director
• 1946 – Richard Carpenter, American singer-songwriter and pianist
• 1946 – Palle Danielsson, Swedish bassist and composer
• 1946 – Stewart Stevenson, Scottish engineer and politician, Minister for Environment and Climate Change
• 1947 – Hümeyra, Turkish singer-songwriter and actress
• 1947 – Jaroslav Erno Šedivý, Czech drummer
• 1948 – Renato Corona, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 23rd Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (d. 2016)
• 1948 – Chris de Burgh, Argentinian singer-songwriter and pianist
• 1949 – Laurie McBain, American author
• 1949 – Prannoy Roy, Indian journalist, economist, and broadcaster, founded NDTV
• 1950 – Candida Royalle, American porn actress, director, and producer (d. 2015)
• 1951 – Atoy Co, Filipino basketball player, coach, and actor
• 1951 – Peter Richardson, English actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1951 – Roscoe Tanner, American tennis player
• 1951 – Rafael Vaganian, Armenian chess player
• 1951 – A. F. Th. van der Heijden, Dutch author
• 1953 – Betsy Clifford, Canadian skier
• 1953 – Tito Jackson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1953 – Larry Miller, American actor and screenwriter
• 1953 – Peter Phillips, English conductor and musicologist
• 1953 – Walter Jon Williams, American author
• 1954 – Peter Bakowski, Australian poet and educator
• 1954 – Steve Bracks, Australian politician, 44th Premier of Victoria
• 1954 – Jere Burns, American actor
• 1954 – Princess Friederike of Hanover
• 1954 – Julia Yeomans, English physicist and academic
• 1955 – Kulbir Bhaura, Indian field hockey player
• 1955 – Emma Chichester Clark, English author and illustrator
• 1957 – Michael Caton-Jones, Scottish actor, director, and producer
• 1957 – Mira Nair, Indian-American actress, director, and producer
• 1957 – Stacy Peralta, American skateboarder, director, producer, and businessman, co-founded Powell Peralta
• 1958 – Stephen Clarke, English-French journalist and author
• 1959 – Sarah, Duchess of York
• 1959 – Emeril Lagasse, American chef and author
• 1959 – Alex Paterson, English keyboard player
• 1959 – Todd Solondz, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1961 – Vyacheslav Butusov, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1963 – Stanley Menzo, Dutch footballer and manager
• 1964 – Roberto Vittori, Italian colonel, pilot, and astronaut
• 1965 – Nasser El Sonbaty, German bodybuilder and trainer (d. 2013)
• 1966 – Jorge Campos, Mexican footballer and manager
• 1966 – Bill Charlap, American pianist and composer
• 1966 – Ilse Huizinga, Dutch singer
• 1966 – Dave Stead, English drummer
• 1967 – Götz Otto, German actor and screenwriter
• 1967 – Dan Forest, American politician, 34th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina
• 1968 – Didier Deschamps, French footballer and manager
• 1968 – Vanessa Marcil, American actress
• 1968 – Rod Wishart, Australian rugby league player
• 1968 – Trent Zimmerman, Australian politician
• 1969 – Vítor Baía, Portuguese footballer
• 1969 – Dominic West, English actor and director
• 1970 – Ginuwine, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
• 1970 – Eric Benét, American musician
• 1971 – Joey Abs, American wrestler
• 1971 – Andy Cole, English footballer and coach
• 1971 – Lauri Pilter, Estonian author and translator
• 1972 – Fred Hoiberg, American basketball player and coach
• 1972 – Matt Keeslar, American actor
• 1972 – Michél Mazingu-Dinzey, German-Congolese footballer and manager
• 1973 – Maria Hjorth, Swedish golfer
• 1974 – Ömer Çatkıç, Turkish footballer
• 1974 – Bianca Rinaldi, Brazilian actress
• 1975 – Alessandro Doga, Italian footballer
• 1975 – Glen Little, English footballer and manager
• 1976 – Christian Allen, American video game designer
• 1976 – Manuel Dallan, Italian rugby player
• 1977 – Masato Kawabata, Japanese race car driver
• 1977 – David Trezeguet, French footballer
• 1977 – Patricio Urrutia, Ecuadorian footballer
• 1978 – Devon Gummersall, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1978 – Takeshi Morishima, Japanese wrestler
• 1979 – Bohemia, Pakistani-American rapper and producer
• 1979 – Blue Adams, American football player and coach
• 1979 – Jekaterina Golovatenko, Estonian figure skater
• 1979 – Paul Robinson, English footballer
• 1979 – Jaci Velasquez, American singer-songwriter and actress
• 1979 – Māris Verpakovskis, Latvian footballer
• 1980 – Tom Boonen, Belgian cyclist
• 1980 – Siiri Nordin, Finnish singer-songwriter
• 1981 – Keyshia Cole, American singer-songwriter and producer
• 1981 – Elena Dementieva, Russian tennis player
• 1981 – Radoslav Židek, Slovak snowboarder
• 1982 – Paulini, Fijian-Australian singer
• 1982 – Sachiko Yamada, Japanese swimmer
• 1983 – Bruno Senna, Brazilian race car driver
• 1983 – Stephy Tang, Hong Kong singer
• 1984 – Izale McLeod, English footballer
• 1984 – Johan Voskamp, Dutch footballer
• 1984 – Jessie Ware, English singer-songwriter
• 1985 – Arron Afflalo, American basketball player
• 1985 – Walter Alberto López, Uruguayan footballer
• 1985 – Marcos Martínez, Spanish race car driver
• 1986 – Lee Donghae, South Korean singer-songwriter
• 1986 – Carlo Janka, Swiss skier
• 1987 – Jesse Levine, Canadian-American tennis player
• 1987 – Chantal Strand, Canadian voice actress and singer
• 1987 – Ott Tänak, Estonian race car driver
• 1988 – Lassy Mbouity, Congolese writer and politician
• 1988 – Mesut Özil, German footballer
• 1989 – Blaine Gabbert, American football player
• 1989 – Leandro Antonio Martínez, Argentinian-Italian footballer
• 1990 – Jeon Ji-yoon, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
• 1994 – Stephen Arthurworrey, English footballer
• 1995 – Jakob Pöltl, Austrian basketball player
• 1996 – Zelo, South Korean rapper and dancer

Deaths[edit]

• 412 – Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria
• 892 – Al-Mu'tamid, Muslim caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate
• 898 – Lambert of Italy (b. 880)
• 912 – Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Umawi, Spanish emir (b. 844)
• 925 – Rhazes, Persian polymath (b. 864)
• 961 – Abd-al-Rahman III, caliph of Córdoba
• 1002 – Otto-Henry, Duke of Burgundy (b. 946)
• 1080 – Rudolf of Rheinfelden (b. 1025)
• 1173 – Petronilla of Aragon (b. 1135)
• 1326 – Walter de Stapledon, English bishop and politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1261)
• 1385 – Dionysius I, Metropolitan of Moscow
• 1389 – Pope Urban VI (b. 1318)
• 1496 – Gilbert, Count of Montpensier (b. 1443)
• 1564 – Andreas Vesalius, Belgian-Greek anatomist, physician, and author (b. 1514)
• 1622 – Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, Swedish statesman and military man (d. 1686)
• 1674 – Robert Herrick, English poet (b. 1591)
• 1690 – Juan de Valdés Leal, Spanish painter and illustrator (b. 1622)
• 1715 – Humphry Ditton, English mathematician and philosopher (b. 1675)
• 1788 – Samuel Greig, Scottish-Russian admiral (b. 1735)
• 1810 – Alfred Moore, American captain and judge (b. 1755)
• 1811 – Nathaniel Dance-Holland, English painter and politician (b. 1735)
• 1817 – Tadeusz Kościuszko, Polish-Lithuanian general and engineer (b. 1746)
• 1819 – Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and politician, War Governor of Saint Petersburg (b. 1744)
• 1820 – Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg (b. 1771)
• 1837 – Ivan Dmitriev, Russian poet and politician, Russian Minister of Justice (b. 1760)
• 1891 – Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, English author and songwriter (b. 1837)
• 1900 – Zdeněk Fibich, Czech pianist and composer (b. 1850)
• 1910 – Stanley Ketchel, American boxer (b. 1886)
• 1917 – Mata Hari, Dutch dancer and spy (b. 1876)
• 1918 – Sai Baba of Shirdi, Indian guru and saint (b. 1838)
• 1930 – Herbert Henry Dow, Canadian-American businessman, founded the Dow Chemical Company (b. 1866)
• 1934 – Raymond Poincaré, French lawyer and politician, 10th President of France (b. 1860)
• 1940 – Lluís Companys, Catalan lawyer and politician, President of Catalonia (b. 1882)
• 1945 – Pierre Laval, French lawyer and politician, 101st Prime Minister of France (b. 1883)
• 1946 – Hermann Göring, German general and politician (b. 1893)
• 1948 – Edythe Chapman, American actress (b. 1863)
• 1955 – Fumio Hayasaka, Japanese composer (b. 1914)
• 1958 – Asaf Halet Çelebi, Turkish poet and author (b. 1907)
• 1958 – Elizabeth Alexander, British geologist, academic, and physicist (b. 1908)
• 1959 – Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian soldier and politician (b. 1909)
• 1959 – Lipót Fejér, Hungarian mathematician and academic (b. 1880)
• 1960 – Clara Kimball Young, American actress and producer (b. 1890)
• 1961 – Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala', Indian poet and author (b. 1896)
• 1963 – Horton Smith, American golfer and captain (b. 1908)
• 1964 – Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter (b. 1891)
• 1965 – Abraham Fraenkel, German-Israeli mathematician and academic (b. 1891)
• 1966 – Frederick Montague, 1st Baron Amwell, English lieutenant and politician (b. 1876)
• 1968 – Virginia Lee Burton, American author and illustrator (b. 1909)
• 1976 – Carlo Gambino, Italian-American mob boss (b. 1902)
• 1978 – W. Eugene Smith, American photojournalist (b. 1918)
• 1980 – Mikhail Lavrentyev, Russian physicist and mathematician (b. 1900)
• 1980 – Apostolos Nikolaidis, Greek footballer and volleyball player (b. 1896)
• 1981 – Philip Fotheringham-Parker, English race car driver (b. 1907)
• 1983 – Pat O'Brien, American actor (b. 1899)
• 1987 – Thomas Sankara, Burkinabe captain and politician, 5th President of Burkina Faso (b. 1949)
• 1987 – Donald Wandrei, American author and poet (b. 1908)
• 1988 – Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, English pianist, composer, and critic (b. 1892)
• 1990 – Delphine Seyrig, French actress and director (b. 1932)
• 1993 – Aydın Sayılı, Turkish historian and academic (b. 1913)
• 1994 – Sarah Kofman, French philosopher and academic (b. 1934)
• 1995 – Bengt Åkerblom, Swedish ice hockey player (b. 1967)
• 1995 – Marco Campos, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1976)
• 1999 – Josef Locke, British-Irish soldier, policeman, tenor and actor (b. 1917)
• 2000 – Konrad Emil Bloch, Polish-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1912)
• 2000 – Vincent Canby, American journalist and critic (b. 1924)
• 2003 – Ben Metcalfe, Canadian journalist and activist (b. 1919)
• 2005 – Jason Collier, American basketball player (b. 1977)
• 2005 – Matti Wuori, Finnish lawyer and politician (b. 1945)
• 2007 – Piet Boukema, Dutch jurist and politician (b. 1933)
• 2008 – Edie Adams, American actress and singer (b. 1927)
• 2008 – Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca, Turkish soldier and poet (b. 1914)
• 2008 – Jack Narz, American game show host and announcer (b. 1922)
• 2009 – Heinz Versteeg, Dutch-German footballer (b. 1939)
• 2010 – Richard C. Miller, American photographer (b. 1912)
• 2010 – Mildred Fay Jefferson, American physician and activist (b. 1926)
• 2010 – Johnny Sheffield, American actor (b. 1931)
• 2011 – Betty Driver, English actress, singer, and author (b. 1920)
• 2012 – Claude Cheysson, French lieutenant and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1920)
• 2012 – Erol Günaydın, Turkish actor and screenwriter (b. 1933)
• 2012 – Maria Petrou, Greek-English computer scientist and academic (b. 1953)
• 2012 – Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Cambodia (b. 1922)
• 2012 – Pat Ward, American lawyer and politician (b. 1957)
• 2013 – Donald Bailey, American drummer (b. 1933)
• 2013 – Nevill Drury, English-Australian journalist and publisher (b. 1947)
• 2013 – Cancio Garcia, Filipino lawyer and jurist (b. 1937)
• 2013 – Gloria Lynne, American singer (b. 1931)
• 2013 – Rudy Minarcin, American baseball player and coach (b. 1930)
• 2013 – Hans Riegel, German businessman (b. 1923)
• 2014 – Giovanni Reale, Italian philosopher and historian (b. 1931)
• 2014 – Jiří Reynek, Czech poet and graphic designer (b. 1929)
• 2014 – Robert Tiernan, American lawyer and politician (b. 1929)
• 2014 – Nobby Wirkowski, American-Canadian football player and coach (b. 1926)
• 2015 – Sergei Filippenkov, Russian footballer and manager (b. 1971)
• 2015 – Nate Huffman, American basketball player (b. 1975)
• 2015 – Neill Sheridan, American baseball player (b. 1921)
• 2015 – Kenneth D. Taylor, Canadian businessman and diplomat (b. 1934)
• 2015 – Tyrone Young, American football player (b. 1960)

First commercial flight lands on 

remote St Helena

The first scheduled commercial airline service to the remote British island of St Helena in the south Atlantic has touched down safely.

The virgin flight, an SA Airlink service from South Africa, ends the island's long-standing reliance on a ship which sailed every three weeks.

It is hoped that the service, funded by the UK, will boost tourism and help make St Helena more self-sufficient. 

But British media have dubbed it "the most useless airport in the world". 

Image copyrightPA

Built with £285m ($380m) of funding from the UK Department for International Development (Dfid), the airport should have opened in 2016, but dangerous wind conditions delayed the launch.

After further trials this summer, the weekly service between Johannesburg and St Helena was passed as safe.

Image copyrightAFP

St Helena had for decades been one of the world's most inaccessible locations, served only by a rare ship service from South Africa.

It is chiefly known as the island to which French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled after his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and where died.

The Embraer E190-100IGW aircraft took off from Johannesburg on Saturday morning, carrying 78 passengers. It reached St Helena in the afternoon after stopping in the Namibian capital, Windhoek. 

"I for one am getting really excited about the new chapter in St Helena's history," said St Helena governor Lisa Phillips. 

St Helena 

British Overseas Territory 

• Population 4,255 
• Area 122 sq km (47 sq miles) 
• Major language English 
• Major religion Christianity 
• Currency St Helena Pound (equal to British pound) 
• Economy Agriculture, fishing concessions and tourism 

UN, World Bank

BBC

Previously travel to and from the tiny island, with its population of just 4,255, was only possible on the RMS St Helena, which took around six days to complete the journey from South Africa. 

The ship's final voyage is scheduled for February.

St Helena relies on British aid of £52m a year and officials hope increased tourism will make it more self-sufficient. 

"This is an important moment in St Helena's route to self-sufficiency," a Dfid spokeswoman said. 

"It will boost its tourism industry, creating the opportunity to increase its revenues, and will bring other benefits such as quicker access to healthcare for those living on the island."

Skip Twitter post by @johnleewriter

End of Twitter post by @johnleewriter

According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, the island's diverse geology and wildlife, such as the whales that gather off its coast, may appeal to visitors. 

But "more flights will have to be added if the airport is to be deemed a success - and not an expensive white elephant", the report said.