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1964–The Beatles, on tour in America, perform at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio. During the performance a group of fans manage to break through the line of police and rush the stage. Police order the Beatles off stage in the middle of a song, and the concert only resumes after Derek Taylor gets on the public address system and pleads for order to be restored so that the rest of the performance can go on.



24–Roman Emperor, Vitellius, is born in Rome, Italy. He was Emperor for eight months, from April 16th to December 22nd in the year 69. Vitellius was proclaimed Emperor following the quick succession of the previous Emperors Galba and Otho, in a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.

601–Ali ibn Abi Talib is born in Mecca, Arabia. Ali was the only person born in the sacred sanctuary of the Kaaba in Mecca, the holiest place in Islam.

668–Eastern Roman Emperor Constans II is assassinated in his bath at Syracuse, Italy.

921–At Tetin, Saint Ludmila is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law.

994–Major Fatimid victory over the Byzantine Empire takes place at the Battle of the Orontes.

1254–Explorer, Marco Polo, is born in Venice, Republic of Venice. Polo was not the first European to reach China, but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience. The book, The Travels of Marco Polo, inspired Christopher Columbus and many other explorers. There is substantial literature based on Polo's writings, and he also influenced European cartography, leading to the introduction of the Fra Mauro map.

1440–Gilles de Rais, one of the earliest known serial killers, is taken into custody upon an accusation brought against him by the Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes.

1530–The miraculous portrait of Saint Dominic in Soriano appears in Soriano Calabro, Calabria, Italy. Shortly before the pre-dawn daily service of Matins, three mysterious ladies appeared at the friary. One of them gave a rolled-up canvas to the sacristan, and instructed him to give it to the Superior of the House. When it was unrolled, the friars found that it contained a portrait of Saint Dominic. It was later revealed that the three ladies were the Virgin Mary, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Mary Magdalene. This is the story accepted by the Dominican Order. The painting may no longer exist.

1533–Catherine of Austria, Queen of Poland, is born in Innsbruck, Austria. She was one of the 15 children of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.

1556–Departing from Vlissingen, ex-Holy Roman Emperor Charles V returns to Spain.

1559–Isabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary, dies after a long illness in Alba Iulia, Transylvania, at age 40.

1616–The first non-aristocratic, free public school in Europe is opened in Frascati, Italy.

1750–Composer, Charles Theodore Pachelbel, dies in Charleston, South Carolina, at age 59. He was a organist and harpsichordist of the late Baroque era. He was the son of the more famous Johann Pachelbel, composer of the popular Canon in D.

1776–British forces occupy New York City during the American Revolution.

1789–The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs, established by law in July, is renamed the Department of State and given a variety of domestic duties.

1789–Novelist, James Fenimore Cooper, is born in Burlington, New Jersey. His family will later move to the banks of Ostego Lake in New York, where his father founds the settlement of Cooperstown. His work The Spy was the first widely read American novel.

1794–Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) sees his first combat at the Battle of Boxtel during the Flanders Campaign of the French Revolutionary War.

1795–Britain seizes the Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa to prevent its use by the Batavian Republic.

1812–The French army, under Napoleon, reaches the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.

1812–In the War of 1812, a second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.

1816–The HMS Whiting runs aground on the Doom Bar.

1820–A constitutionalist revolution takes place in Lisbon, Portugal.

1821–Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain.

1830–The Liverpool to Manchester railway line opens in northern England.

1831–The locomotive John Bull operates for the first time on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey.

1835–The HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. The ship lands at Chatham or San Cristobal, the easternmost of the archipelago.

1851–Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1862–During the American Civil War, Confederate forces capture Harpers Ferry, Virginia (present-day Harpers Ferry, West Virginia).

1864–Prince Sigismund of Prussia is born in Franz Friedrich Sigismund at New Palace, Potsdam, Prussia German Empire. He was the fourth child and third son of Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia (later King of Prussia and German Emperor as Frederick III), and Victoria, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria. He would only live for 21 months.

1873–In the Franco-Prussian War, the last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.

1881–Engineer and businessman, Ettore Bugatti, is born Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti in Milan, Italy. He founded the automobile manufacturing company Automobiles E. Bugatti.

1889–Humorist,, newspaper columnist and actor, Robert (Charles) Benchley, is born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He is best known for his often humorous, even absurd, articles in The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. His film, How to Sleep, won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject in 1935. He appeared in the films Foreign Correspondent, Hired Wife, The Relunctant Dragon, Nice Girl?, You’ll Never Get Rich, The Major and the Minor, and The Sky’s the Limit.

1890–Novelist, Agatha Christie, is born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in Torquay, Devon, England. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Her works include Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, Ten Little Indians, and The Mirror Crack'd. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's highest honour, the Grand Master Award.

1894–In the first Sino-Japanese War, Japan defeats Qing dynasty China in the Battle of Pyongyang.

1894–Film director, Jean Renoir, is born in the Montmartre district of Paris, France. He was the son of the impressionist painter, Pierre August Renoir. He was taken with motion pictures when he watched quite a few while recovering from an injury in World War I. He began his career as a screenwriter, then became a director to make sure his screenplays were done right. His films include Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game. He also wrote a memoir, Renoir, My Father.

1903–Country singer, Roy (Claxton) Acuff, is born in Maynardville, Tennessee. Known as the "King of Country Music," Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful. Acuff began his music career in the 1930s, and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, The Smoky Mountain Boys. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, and he remained one of the Opry's key figures and promoters for nearly four decades. In 1942, Acuff co-founded the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company, Acuff-Rose Music, which signed acts such as Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and The Everly Brothers.

1907–Actress, (Vina) Fay Wray, is born in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. She is best known for playing the female lead in the 1933 film King Kong. Through an acting career that spanned 57 years, Wray attained international renown as an actress in horror movie roles. She was one of the first "scream queens."

1908–Actress, Penny Singleton, is born Marianna Dorothy Agnes Letitia McNulty in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During her 60-year career, she appeared as the comic strip heroine, Blondie Bumstead, in a series of 28 films from 1938 until 1950, and the popular Blondie radio program from 1939 until 1950. Singleton also provided the voice of Jane Jetson on the animated series The Jetsons. She also appeared in the films Good News, The Mad Miss Manton, and It’s a Great Life.

1915–The Empire Picture Theatre (the present-day The New Empire Cinema), the oldest running cinema in mainland Australia, opens in Bowral, New South Wales.

1916–During World War I, tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.

1918–Comedian, Nipsey Russell, is born Julian Russell in Atlanta, Georgia.

1922–Actor, Jackie Cooper, is born John Cooper, Jr. in Los Angeles, California. He began as a child actor, starring in The Champ, then carried on with his acting career, as well as directing for both television and film. He starred in the sitcoms The People’s Choice and Hennesey. He appeared in the films Skippy, Broadway to Hollywood, Treasure Island, Zeigfeld Girl, Men of Texas, Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring, The Love Machine, The Astronaut, Journey into Fear, Superman, Izzy & Moe, and Surrender.

1924–Singer and pianist, Bobby Short, is born Robert Waltrip Short in Danville, Illinois. He is a cabaret performer, best known for his interpretations of songs by popular composers of the first half of the 20th century, including Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Richard A. Whiting, Vernon Duke, Noël Coward, and George and Ira Gershwin. He also championed African-American composers of the same period, such as Eubie Blake, James P. Johnson, Andy Razaf, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn. He appeared in the films Call Me Mister, Roots: The Next Generation, Hardhat and Legs, You're the Top: The Cole Porter Story, Hannah and Her Sisters, For Love or Money, and Man of the Century.

1928–Saxophonist, Cannonball Adderley, is born Julian Edwin Adderley in Tampa, Florida. He was a jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s.

1935–The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of their citizenship and make the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany.

1938–Billy Holiday records The Very Thought of You in New York City.

1938–Novelist, Thomas Wolfe, dies of tuberculosis in Baltimore, Maryland, at age 37. He is considered one of the most important American writers of the early 20th century. Wolfe was the author of Look Homeward, Angel, From Death to Morning, and You Can't Go Home Again.

1940–At the height of the Battle of Britain, Britain announces its pilots shot down 185 German planes in a single day.

1941–Les Braid, of The Swinging Blue Jeans, is born in Liverpool, England.

1941–Singer, Signe Anderson, is born in Seattle, Washington. She went on to be the original female vocalist in Jefferson Airplane, before Grace Slick took her place in 1966.

1942–In World War II, U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Wasp, is sunk by Japanese torpedos at Guadalcanal.

1942–(Douglas) Lee Dorman, bass player for Iron Butterfly, is born in St. Louis, Missouri.

1944–Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Quebec, Canada, as part of the Octagon Conference to discuss strategy.

1944–The Battle of Peleliu begins as the U.S. Marine Corps' 1st Marine Division and the U.S. Army's 81st Infantry Division hit White and Orange beaches under heavy fire from Japanese infantry and artillery.

1944–Bandleader, Glenn Miller, disappears in a plane over the English Channel, having volunteered for active duty in the U.S. Army two years earlier.

1945–Ho Chi Minh assumes his position as the leader of the Communist regime in North Vietnam.

1945–A hurricane strikes southern Florida and the Bahamas, destroying 366 airplanes and 25 blimps at Naval Air Station Richmond.

1946–Actor, Tommy Lee Jones, is born in San Saba, Texas. He appeared in the films Love Story, Jackson County Jail, Rolling Thunder, The Betsy, Eyes of Laura Mars, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Back Roads, The River Rat, JFK, Under Siege, The Fugitive, Blown Away, The Client, Natural Born Killers, Blue Sky, Batman Forever, Volcano, Men in Black. U.S. Marshals, Space Cowboys, A Prairie Home Companion, No Country for Old Men, and Lincoln.

1946–Film director and screenwriter, (William) Oliver Stone, is born in New York, New York. His films include Midnight Express, The Hand, Scarface, 8 Million Ways to Die, Salvador, Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, Born on the Fourth of July, Blue Steel, Reversal of Fortune, The Doors, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, Evita, The People vs. Larry Flynt, U Turn, and W.

1947–Typhoon Kathleen hits the Kanto Region in Japan, killing 1,077 people.

1948–The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 mph.

1950–During the Korean War, U.S. forces land at Inchon.

1952–The United Nations cedes Eritrea to Ethiopia.

1953–Expressionist architect, Erich Mendelsohn, dies of cancer in San Francisco, California, at age 66. He was a pioneer of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne movement in architecture.

1957–A chart topper: Tammy by Debbie Reynolds.

1958–A Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train runs through an open drawbridge at the Newark Bay, killing 48 people.

1958–Actress, Wendie Jo Sperber, is born in Hollywood, California. She is best known for her role on the TV series Busom Buddies. She appeared in the films Corvette Summer, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, 1941, Used Cars, Bachelor Party, and Back to the Future.

1959–Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet leader to visit the United States.

1961–Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 mph.

1962–The Soviet ship, Poltava, heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1962–An early Beatles press call doesn’t go too well. After meeting the band members, Peter Jones, of The Daily Mirror, decides they are “a nothing group.”

1963–Four children are killed at the African-American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

1964–The Beatles, on tour in America, perform at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio. During the performance a group of fans manage to break through the line of police and rush the stage. Police order The Beatles off stage in the middle of a song, and the concert only resumes after Derek Taylor gets on the public address system and pleads for order to be restored so that the rest of the performance can go on.

1965–A chart topper: Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire.

1967–President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas, writes a letter to U.S. Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.

1968–The Soviet Zond 5 spaceship is launched, becoming the first spacecraft to fly around the Moon and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

1969–Deep Purple performs Concerto for Rock Band and Orchestra with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London, England.

1970–Vice President Spiro Agnew says the proliferation of rock music, movies, and underground publications is making America’s kids “brainwashed into a drug culture.”

1971–The first Greenpeace ship sets sail to protest against nuclear testing on Amchitka Island.

1972–A Scandinavian Airlines System domestic flight from Gothenburg to Stockholm is hijacked and flown to Malmö Bulltofta Airport.

1972–Queen Letizia of Spain is born Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. Before her marriage to King Felipe VI, Letizia was a journalist and news anchor.

1974–Air Vietnam Flight 706 is hijacked, then crashes while attempting to land with 75 people on board.

1975–The French department of "Corse" (the entire island of Corsica) is divided into two: Haute-Corse (Upper Corsica) and Corse-du-Sud (Southern Corsica).

1978–In a rematch with Leon Spinks, Muhammad Ali becomes the first boxer to win the World Heavyweight Championship three times at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1980–Jazz pianist, Bill Evans, dies of a peptic ulcer, cirrhosis, bronchial pneumonia, and untreated hepatitis in New York, New York, at age 61. Evans' use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block chords, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines, continues to influence jazz pianists.

1980–The Elephant Man opens on Broadway with David Bowie in the lead role.

1981–The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

1981–The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, when the Smithsonian Institution operates it under its own power outside Washington, D.C.

1981–Vanuatu becomes a member of the United Nations.

1983–Israeli Premier Menachem Begin resigns.

1984–Prince Harry of Wales is born Henry Charles Albert David at St Mary's Hospital, London, England. He is the younger son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. At the time of his birth, he was third in line of succession to the British throne.

1989–Novelist and poet, Robert Penn Warren, dies of complications arising from bone cancer in Stratton, Vermont, at age 84. He was one of the founders of New Criticism.

2000–The XXVII Olympic Games begin in Sydney, Australia.

2001–Four days after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush declares war on “terrorism,” leading to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. America braces itself for an uncertain future.

2004–Musician, Johnny Ramone, dies of prostate cancer in Los Angeles, California, at age 55. He was a member of the punk rock band, The Ramones.

2005–Film producer, Sidney Luft, dies of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California, at age 89. His biggest success was as producer of the remake of A Star Is Born, starring his wife, Judy Garland.

2007–Actress, Brett Somers, dies of stomach and colon cancer in Westport, Connecticut, at age 83. She appeared on many TV shows, including Naked City, Ben Casey, Have Gun Will Travel, The Defenders, The Fugitive, Love, American Style, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Odd Couple, The Love Boat, and Barney Miller.

2008–Lehman Brothers files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history.

2008–Richard Wright, of Pink Floyd, dies of cancer in London, England, at age 65. He performed on the majority of the group's albums, including The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Division Bell, as well as playing on all of their tours.

2012–Muslim protesters shouting anti-American slogans clash with police, injuring 19 people, outside the U.S. Embassy in Sydney, Australia.

2013–Musician, Jackie Lomax, dies after a short illness in Wirral Peninsula, England, at age 69. He was a guitarist and singer-songwriter, best known for his association with George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Leon Russell, and Nicky Hopkins.

2014–Fifty-one years after her last late-night talk show appearance on The Tonight Show, Barbra Streisand returns to NBC Studio 6B to promote her new album Partners.

2014–A 5.6 earthquake hits near Tokyo, Japan, but there was no immediate risk of a tsunami and no damage was reported. The operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was battered by a tsunami after a powerful undersea quake in 2011, said nothing unusual had been noted at the still-fragile site.

2014–Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia, dies in Tuscany, Italy, at age 91. He was a claimant to the headship of the House of Romanov and President of the Romanov Family Association. Although undoubtedly a descendant of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, his claimed titles and official membership in the former Imperial House were disputed.

2016–Japan's Democratic Party elects Sha Renh

2016–FBI Director James Comey says that people should be covering up the webcams on their laptops to prevent someone from authorizing the device without permission. Comey also says that it's standard practice in government buildings to cover the webcams, and that ordinary citizens should be taking this precaution as well.

2016–Through the U.S. Justice Department, the Obama administration seeks a fine of $14 billion against Deutsche Bank in regards to mortgage securities.

2016–The European Union extends the asset freeze and travel ban by six months against 146 persons and 37 entities, including close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

2016–The China National Space Administration (CNSA) launches the Tiangong-2 space laboratory from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia.

2017–An explosion on a train at Parsons Green tube station in London, England, injures 22 people. Scotland Yard confirms the incident to be a terrorist attack.

2017–A North Korean missile flies over Hokkaido, Japan, triggering the J-Alert system. South Korea responds with its own missile firing just six minutes after the North's test is detected.

2017–In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, the island of Barbuda is fully depopulated for the first time in 300 years.

2017–A journalist for the British newspaper, The Financial Times, is killed by a crocodile in Sri Lanka.

2017–Typhoon Doksuri (Maring) hits central Vietnam, killing one person and injuring ten others.

2017–Super-centenarian, Violet Brown, dies in Montego Bay, Saint James Parish, Jamaica, at age 117 (and 189 days). Brown was born when Jamaica was a part of the British Empire and was the last known living former subject of Queen Victoria. She is the fifth oldest person in recorded history and was one of the last two living people known to have been born in the 19th century.

2017–Actor, Harry Dean Stanton, dies of natural causes in Los Angeles, California, at age 91. His career as a character actor spanned more than 60 years. He appeared in the films How the West Was Won, Ride in the Whirlwind, In the Heat of the Night, Cool Hand Luke, Two-Lane Blacktop, Cisco Pike, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Dillinger, Where the Lilies Bloom, Zandy's Bride, Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins, Rancho Deluxe, Straight Time, The Rose, Private Benjamin, Escape from New York, Repo Man, Red Dawn, Pretty in Pink, The Last Temptation of Christ, Twister, Wild at Heart, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Straight Story, and The Green Mile.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Roman Emperor, Vitellius; James Fenimore Cooper; the Liverpool-Manchester Railway; Robert Benchley; Jackie Cooper; The Swinging Blue Jeans; Debbie Reynolds as Tammy; The Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire; Bill Evans; Sidney Luft; Jackie Lomax; a webcam; and Harry Dean Stanton.

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