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1013

July 18- History, Events, Births, Deaths Holidays and Observances On This Day

  • 477 BC – Battle of the Cremera as part of the Roman–Etruscan Wars. Veii ambushes and defeats the Roman army.
  • 387 BC– Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia: A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.
  • 362 – Roman–Persian Wars: Emperor Julian arrives at Antioch with a Roman expeditionary force (60,000 men) and stays there for nine months to launch a campaign against the Persian Empire.
  • 452 – Sack of Aquileia: After an earlier defeat on the Catalaunian Plains, Attila lays siege to the metropolis of Aquileia and eventually destroys it.
  • 645 – Chinese forces under general Li Shiji besiege the strategic fortress city of Anshi (Liaoning) during the Goguryeo–Tang War.
  • 1195 – Battle of Alarcos: Almohad forces defeat the Castilian army of Alfonso VIII and force its retreat to Toledo.
  • 1290 – King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B’Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities.
  • 1334 – The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.
  • 1389 – France and England agree to the Truce of Leulinghem, inaugurating a 13-year peace, the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years’ War.
  • 1391 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Kondurcha River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde in present-day southeast Russia.
  • 1507 – In Brussels, Prince Charles I, is crowned Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders, a year after inheriting the title.
  • 1555 – The College of Arms is reincorporated by Royal charter signed by Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain.
  • 1806 – A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, kills around 200 people.
  • 1812 – The Treaties of Orebro end both the Anglo-Russian and Anglo-Swedish Wars.
  • 1841 – Coronation of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.
  • 1857 – Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall’s war against the French.
  • 1862 – First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Wagner: One of the first formal African American military units, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, supported by several white regiments, attempts an unsuccessful assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.
  • 1870 – The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility.
  • 1872 – The Ballot Act 1872 in the United Kingdom introduced the requirement that parliamentary and local government elections be held by secret ballot.
  • 1914 – The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.
  • 1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.
  • 1936 – On the Spanish mainland, a faction of the army supported by fascists, rises up against the Second Spanish Republic in a coup d’etat starting the 3-year-long Civil War, resulting in the longest dictatorship in modern European history.
  • 1942 – World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia.
  • 1942 – The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time.
  • 1944 – World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort.
  • 1966 – Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
  • 1966 – A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order.
  • 1968 – Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.
  • 1976 – Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
  • 1982 – Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos (“peasants” or “country people”) are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre.
  • 1984 – McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.
  • 1992 – A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web.
  • 1994 – The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300.
  • 1994 – Rwandan genocide: The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and north western Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide.
  • 1995 – On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital, forcing most of the population to flee.
  • 1996 – Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec’s costliest natural disasters ever.
  • 1996 – Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army’s base, killing over 1200 soldiers.
  • 2012 – At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria.
  • 2013 – The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
  • 2019 – A man sets fire to an anime studio in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan, killing at 35 people and injuring dozens of others.

Births on July 18

  • 1013 – Hermann of Reichenau, German composer, mathematician, and astronomer (b. 1013)
  • 1501 – Isabella of Austria, queen of Denmark (d. 1526)
  • 1504 – Heinrich Bullinger, Swiss pastor and reformer (d. 1575)
  • 1534 – Zacharius Ursinus, German theologian (d. 1583)
  • 1552 – Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1612)
  • 1634 – Johannes Camphuys, Dutch politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1695)
  • 1659 – Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter (d. 1743)
  • 1670 – Giovanni Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1747)
  • 1702 – Maria Clementina Sobieska, Polish noble (d. 1735)
  • 1718 – Saverio Bettinelli, Italian poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1808)
  • 1720 – Gilbert White, English ornithologist and ecologist (d. 1793)
  • 1724 – Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony (d. 1780)
  • 1750 – Frederick Adolf, duke of Östergötland (d. 1803)
  • 1796 – Immanuel Hermann Fichte, German philosopher and academic (d. 1879)
  • 1811 – William Makepeace Thackeray, English author and poet (d. 1863)
  • 1818 – Louis Gerhard De Geer, Swedish lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1896)
  • 1821 – Pauline Viardot, French soprano and composer (d. 1910)
  • 1837 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian priest and activist (d. 1873)
  • 1843 – Virgil Earp, American marshal (d. 1905)
  • 1845 – Tristan Corbière, French poet (d. 1875)
  • 1848 – W. G. Grace, English cricketer and physician (d. 1915)
  • 1853 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
  • 1861 – Kadambini Ganguly, Indian physician, one of the first Indian women to obtain a degree (d. 1923)
  • 1864 – Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1937)
  • 1867 – Margaret Brown, American philanthropist and activist (d. 1932)
  • 1871 – Giacomo Balla, Italian painter (d.1958)
  • 1871 – Sada Yacco, Japanese actress and dancer (d. 1946)
  • 1881 – Larry McLean, Canadian-American baseball player (d. 1921)
  • 1884 – Alberto di Jorio, Italian cardinal (d. 1979)
  • 1886 – Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., American general (d. 1945)
  • 1887 – Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian military officer and politician, Minister President of Norway (d. 1945)
  • 1889 – Kōichi Kido, Japanese politician, 13th Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan (d. 1977)
  • 1890 – Frank Forde, Australian educator and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1983)
  • 1892 – Arthur Friedenreich, Brazilian footballer (d. 1969)
  • 1893 – David Ogilvy, 12th Earl of Airlie, Scottish peer, soldier and courtier (d. 1968)
  • 1895 – Olga Spessivtseva, Russian-American ballerina (d. 1991)
  • 1895 – Machine Gun Kelly, American gangster (d. 1954)
  • 1897 – Ernest Eldridge, English race car driver and engineer (d. 1935)
  • 1898 – John Stuart, Scottish-English actor (d. 1979)
  • 1899 – Ernst Scheller, German soldier and politician, 8th Mayor of Marburg (d. 1942)
  • 1900 – Nathalie Sarraute, French lawyer and author (d. 1999)
  • 1902 – Jessamyn West, American author (d. 1984)
  • 1902 – Chill Wills, American actor (d. 1978)
  • 1905 – Robert Elton Brooker, American business executive (d. 2000)
  • 1906 – S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-American academic and politician (d. 1992)
  • 1906 – Clifford Odets, American director, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1963)
  • 1908 – Peace Pilgrim, American mystic and activist (d. 1981)
  • 1908 – Lupe Vélez, Mexican-American actress and dancer (d. 1944)
  • 1908 – Beatrice Aitchison, American mathematician, statistician, and transportation economist (d. 1997)
  • 1909 – Bishnu Dey, Indian poet, critic, and academic (d. 1982)
  • 1909 – Andrei Gromyko, Belarusian-Russian economist and politician, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1989)
  • 1909 – Mohammed Daoud Khan, Afghan commander and politician, 1st President of Afghanistan (d. 1978)
  • 1909 – Harriet Nelson, American singer and actress (d. 1994)
  • 1910 – Diptendu Pramanick, Indian businessman (d. 1989)
  • 1910 – Mamadou Dia, Senegalese politician; 1st Prime Minister of Senegal (d. 2009)
  • 1911 – Hume Cronyn, Canadian-American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2003)
  • 1913 – Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (d. 1997)
  • 1914 – Gino Bartali, Italian cyclist (d. 2000)
  • 1914 – Oscar Heisserer, French footballer (d. 2004)
  • 1915 – Carequinha, Brazilian clown and actor (d. 2006)
  • 1915 – Roxana Cannon Arsht, American judge (d. 2003)
  • 1915 – Louis Le Bailly, British Royal Navy officer (d. 2010)
  • 1916 – Charles Kittel, American physicist (d. 2019)
  • 1917 – Henri Salvador, French singer and guitarist (d. 2008)
  • 1917 – Paul Streeten, Austrian-born British economics professor (d. 2019)
  • 1918 – Nelson Mandela, South African lawyer and politician, 1st President of South Africa, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
  • 1919 – Lilia Dale, Italian actress
  • 1920 – Eric Brandon, English race car driver and businessman (d. 1982)
  • 1921 – Peter Austin, English brewer, founded Ringwood Brewery (d. 2014)
  • 1921 – Aaron T. Beck, American psychiatrist and academic
  • 1921 – John Glenn, American colonel, astronaut, and politician (d. 2016)
  • 1921 – Richard Leacock, English-French director and producer (d. 2011)
  • 1921 – Heinz Bennent, German actor (d. 2011)
  • 1922 – Thomas Kuhn, American physicist, historian, and philosopher (d. 1996)
  • 1923 – Jerome H. Lemelson, American engineer and businessman (d. 1997)
  • 1923 – Michael Medwin, English actor (d. 2020)
  • 1924 – Inge Sørensen, Danish swimmer (d. 2011)
  • 1924 – Tullio Altamura, Italian actor
  • 1925 – Shirley Strickland, Australian runner and hurdler (d. 2004)
  • 1925 – Friedrich Zimmermann, German lawyer and politician, German Federal Minister of the Interior (d. 2012)
  • 1925 – Raymond Jones, Australian Modernist architect
  • 1925 – Windy McCall, American baseball relief pitcher (d. 2015)
  • 1926 – Margaret Laurence, Canadian author and academic (d. 1987)
  • 1926 – Nita Bieber, American actress (d. 2019)
  • 1926 – Bernard Pons, French politician and medical doctor
  • 1926 – Maunu Kurkvaara, Finnish film director and screenwriter
  • 1927 – Mehdi Hassan, Pakistani ghazal singer and playback singer (d. 2012)
  • 1927 – Kurt Masur, German conductor and educator (d. 2015)
  • 1927 – Antonio García-Trevijano, Spanish republican, political activist, and author (d. 2018)
  • 1927 – Keith MacDonald, Canadian politician
  • 1927 – Anthony Mirra, American gangster, member of the Bonanno Crime Family (d. 1982)
  • 1928 – Andrea Gallo, Italian priest and author (d. 2013)
  • 1928 – Baddiewinkle, American internet personality
  • 1929 – Dick Button, American figure skater and actor
  • 1929 – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, American R&B singer-songwriter, musician, and actor (d. 2000)
  • 1932 – Robert Ellis Miller, American director and screenwriter (d. 2017)
  • 1933 – Jean Yanne, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2003)
  • 1933 – Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet and playwright (d. 2017)
  • 1934 – Edward Bond, English director, playwright, and screenwriter
  • 1934 – Darlene Conley, American actress (d. 2007)
  • 1935 – Tenley Albright, American figure skater and physician
  • 1935 – Jayendra Saraswathi, Indian guru, 69th Shankaracharya
  • 1937 – Roald Hoffmann, Polish chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1937 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (d. 2005)
  • 1938 – John Connelly, English footballer (d. 2012)
  • 1938 – Ian Stewart, Scottish keyboard player and manager (d. 1985)
  • 1938 – Paul Verhoeven, Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1939 – Brian Auger, English rock and jazz keyboard player
  • 1939 – Dion DiMucci, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1939 – Jerry Moore, American football player and coach
  • 1940 – James Brolin, American actor
  • 1940 – Joe Torre, American baseball player and manager
  • 1941 – Frank Farian, German songwriter and producer
  • 1941 – Lonnie Mack, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
  • 1941 – Martha Reeves, American singer and politician
  • 1942 – Giacinto Facchetti, Italian footballer (d. 2006)
  • 1942 – Adolf Ogi, Swiss politician, 84th President of the Swiss Confederation
  • 1943 – Joseph J. Ellis, American historian and author
  • 1944 – David Hemery, English hurdler and author
  • 1945 – Pat Doherty, Irish Republican politician
  • 1946 – Kalpana Mohan, Indian actress
  • 1946 – John Naughton, Scottish-Irish journalist, author, and academic
  • 1947 – Steve Forbes, American publisher and politician
  • 1948 – Carlos Colón Sr., Puerto Rican-American wrestler and promoter
  • 1948 – Jeanne Córdova, American journalist and activist (d. 2016)
  • 1948 – Graham Spanier, 16th President of Pennsylvania State University
  • 1948 – Hartmut Michel, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1949 – Dennis Lillee, Australian cricketer and coach
  • 1950 – Richard Branson, English businessman, founded Virgin Group
  • 1950 – Jack Dongarra, American computer scientist and academic
  • 1950 – Kostas Eleftherakis, Greek footballer
  • 1950 – Glenn Hughes, American disco singer (Village People) and actor (d. 2001)
  • 1950 – Jack Layton, Canadian political scientist, academic, and politician (d. 2011)
  • 1950 – Mark Udall, American educator and politician
  • 1951 – Elio Di Rupo, Belgian chemist, academic, and politician, 68th Prime Minister of Belgium
  • 1951 – Margo Martindale, American actress
  • 1954 – Ricky Skaggs, American singer-songwriter, mandolin player, and producer
  • 1955 – Bernd Fasching, Austrian painter and sculptor
  • 1957 – Nick Faldo, English golfer and sportscaster
  • 1957 – Keith Levene, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
  • 1960 – Simon Heffer, English journalist and author
  • 1961 – Elizabeth McGovern, American actress
  • 1961 – Alan Pardew, English footballer and manager
  • 1961 – Pasi Rautiainen, Finnish footballer, coach, and manager
  • 1962 – Shaun Micallef, Australian comedian, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1963 – Marc Girardelli, Austrian-Luxembourgian skier
  • 1963 – Martín Torrijos, Panamanian economist and politician, 35th President of Panama
  • 1964 – Wendy Williams, American talk show host
  • 1965 – Vesselina Kasarova, Bulgarian soprano
  • 1966 – Dan O’Brien, American decathlete and coach
  • 1967 – Vin Diesel, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter1968 – Grant Bowler, New Zealand-Australian actor
  • 1968 – Scott Gourley, Australian rugby player
  • 1969 – Elizabeth Gilbert, American author
  • 1969 – The Great Sasuke, Japanese wrestler and politician
  • 1971 – Penny Hardaway, American basketball player and coach
  • 1971 – Sukhwinder Singh, Indian singer-songwriter and actor
  • 1974 – Alan Morrison, British poet
  • 1975 – Torii Hunter, American baseball player
  • 1975 – Daron Malakian, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1975 – M.I.A., English rapper and producer5
  • 1976 – Elsa Pataky, Spanish actress
  • 1976 – Go Soo-hee, South Korean actress
  • 1977 – Alexander Morozevich, Russian chess player and author
  • 1978 – Adabel Guerrero, Argentinian actress, singer, and dancer
  • 1978 – Shane Horgan, Irish rugby player and sportscaster
  • 1978 – Crystal Mangum, American murderer responsible for making false rape allegations in the Duke lacrosse case
  • 1978 – Joo Sang-wook, South Korean actor
  • 1978 – Ben Sheets, American baseball player and coach
  • 1978 – Mélissa Theuriau, French journalist
  • 1979 – Deion Branch, American football player
  • 1979 – Joey Mercury, American wrestler and producer
  • 1980 – Kristen Bell, American actress
  • 1981 – Dennis Seidenberg, German ice hockey player
  • 1982 – Ryan Cabrera, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1982 – Priyanka Chopra, Indian actress, singer, and film producer
  • 1982 – Carlo Costly, Honduran footballer
  • 1983 – Carlos Diogo, Uruguayan footballer
  • 1983 – Aaron Gillespie, American singer-songwriter and drummer
  • 1983 – Mikk Pahapill, Estonian decathlete
  • 1983 – Jan Schlaudraff, German footballer
  • 1985 – Chace Crawford, American actor
  • 1985 – Panagiotis Lagos, Greek footballer
  • 1985 – James Norton, English actor
  • 1986 – Natalia Mikhailova, Russian ice dancer
  • 1987 – Tontowi Ahmad, Indonesian badminton player
  • 1988 – Änis Ben-Hatira, German-Tunisian footballer
  • 1988 – César Villaluz, Mexican footballer
  • 1989 – Jamie Benn, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1989 – Sebastian Mielitz, German footballer
  • 1989 – Yohan Mollo, French footballer
  • 1993 – Lee Tae-min, South Korean singer and actor
  • 1993 – Michael Lichaa, Australian rugby league player
  • 1994 – Nilo Soares, East Timorese footballer
  • 1997 – Noah Lyles, American sprinter
  • 2001 – Agustina Roth, Argentine BMX rider

Deaths on July 18

  • 707 – Emperor Monmu of Japan (b. 683)
  • 715 – Muhammad bin Qasim, Umayyad general (b. 695)
  • 912 – Zhu Wen, Chinese emperor (b. 852)
  • 924 – Abu’l-Hasan Ali ibn al-Furat, Abbasid vizier (b. 855)
  • 928 – Stephen II, patriarch of Constantinople
  • 984 – Dietrich I, bishop of Metz
  • 1100 – Godfrey of Bouillon, Frankish knight (b. 1016)
  • 1185 – Stefan, first Archbishop of Uppsala (b. before 1143)
  • 1194 – Guy of Lusignan, king consort of Jerusalem (b. c. 1150)
  • 1232 – John de Braose, Marcher Lord of Bramber and Gower
  • 1270 – Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury
  • 1300 – Gerard Segarelli, Italian religious leader, founded the Apostolic Brethren (b. 1240)
  • 1450 – Francis I, Duke of Brittany (b. 1414)
  • 1488 – Alvise Cadamosto, Italian explorer (b. 1432)
  • 1566 – Bartolomé de las Casas, Spanish bishop and historian (b. 1484)
  • 1591 – Jacobus Gallus, Slovenian composer (b. 1550)
  • 1608 – Joachim Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1546)
  • 1610 – Caravaggio, Italian painter (b. 1571)
  • 1639 – Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, German general (b. 1604)
  • 1650 – Robert Levinz, English Royalist, hanged in London by Parliamentary forces as a spy (b. 1615)
  • 1695 – Johannes Camphuys, Dutch politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1634)
  • 1698 – Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian and author (b. 1633)
  • 1721 – Jean-Antoine Watteau, French painter (b. 1684)
  • 1730 – François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy, French general (b. 1644)
  • 1756 – Pieter Langendijk, Dutch poet and playwright (b. 1683)
  • 1792 – John Paul Jones, Scottish-American admiral and diplomat (b. 1747)
  • 1817 – Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775)
  • 1837 – Vincenzo Borg, Maltese merchant and rebel leader (b. 1777)
  • 1863 – Robert Gould Shaw, American colonel (b. 1837)
  • 1872 – Benito Juárez, Mexican lawyer and politician, 26th President of Mexico (b. 1806)
  • 1884 – Ferdinand von Hochstetter, Austrian geologist and academic (b. 1829)
  • 1887 – Dorothea Dix, American social reformer and activist (b. 1802)
  • 1890 – Lydia Becker, English journalist, author, and activist, co-founded the Women’s Suffrage Journal (b. 1827)
  • 1892 – Thomas Cook, English travel agent, founded the Thomas Cook Group (b. 1808)
  • 1899 – Horatio Alger, American novelist and journalist (b. 1832)
  • 1916 – Benjamin C. Truman, American journalist and author (b. 1835)
  • 1925 – Louis-Nazaire Bégin, Canadian cardinal (b. 1840)
  • 1932 – Jean Jules Jusserand, French author and diplomat, French Ambassador to the United States (b. 1855)
  • 1937 – Julian Bell, English poet and academic (b. 1908)
  • 1938 – Marie of Romania (b. 1875)
  • 1944 – Thomas Sturge Moore, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1870)
  • 1947 – Evald Tipner, Estonian footballer and ice hockey player (b. 1906)
  • 1948 – Herman Gummerus, Finnish historian, academic, and politician (b. 1877)
  • 1949 – Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer and educator (b. 1870)
  • 1949 – Francisco Javier Arana, Guatemalan Army colonel and briefly Guatemalan head of state (b.1905)
  • 1950 – Carl Clinton Van Doren, American critic and biographer (b. 1885)
  • 1952 – Paul Saintenoy, Belgian architect and historian (b. 1862)
  • 1954 – Machine Gun Kelly, American gangster (b. 1895)
  • 1966 – Bobby Fuller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1942)
  • 1968 – Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
  • 1969 – Mary Jo Kopechne, American educator and secretary (b. 1940)
  • 1973 – Jack Hawkins, English actor (b. 1910)
  • 1975 – Vaughn Bodē, American illustrator (b. 1941)
  • 1981 – Sonja Branting-Westerståhl, Swedish lawyer (b. 1890)
  • 1982 – Roman Jakobson, Russian–American linguist and theorist (b. 1896)
  • 1984 – Lally Bowers, English actress (b. 1914)
  • 1984 – Grigori Kromanov, Estonian director and screenwriter (b. 1926)
  • 1987 – Gilberto Freyre, Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter, journalist and congressman (b. 1907)
  • 1988 – Nico, German singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and actress (b. 1938)
  • 1988 – Joly Braga Santos, Portuguese composer and conductor (b. 1924)
  • 1989 – Donnie Moore, American baseball player (b. 1954)
  • 1989 – Rebecca Schaeffer, American model and actress (b.1967)
  • 1990 – Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1896)
  • 1990 – Yun Posun, South Korean politician, 2nd President of South Korea (b. 1897)
  • 2001 – Mimi Fariña, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1945)
  • 2002 – Metin Toker, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1924)
  • 2004 – André Castelot, Belgian-French historian and author (b. 1911)
  • 2004 – Émile Peynaud, French wine maker (b. 1912)
  • 2005 – Amy Gillett, Australian cyclist and rower (b. 1976)
  • 2005 – William Westmoreland, American general (b. 1914)
  • 2006 – Henry Hewes, American theater writer (b. 1917)
  • 2007 – Jerry Hadley, American tenor (b. 1952)
  • 2007 – Kenji Miyamoto, Japanese politician (b. 1908)
  • 2009 – Henry Allingham, English soldier (b. 1896)
  • 2009 – Jill Balcon, English actress (b. 1925)
  • 2012 – Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Lithuanian-Israeli rabbi and author (b. 1910)
  • 2012 – Jean François-Poncet, French politician and diplomat, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1928)
  • 2012 – Dawoud Rajiha, Syrian general and politician, Syrian Minister of Defense (b. 1947)
  • 2012 – Assef Shawkat, Syrian general and politician (b. 1950)
  • 2012 – Hasan Turkmani, Syrian general and politician, Syrian Minister of Defense (b. 1935)
  • 2012 – Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor (b. 1942)
  • 2013 – Vaali, Indian poet, songwriter, and actor (b. 1931)
  • 2013 – Olivier Ameisen, French-American cardiologist and academic (b. 1953)
  • 2014 – Andreas Biermann, German footballer (b. 1980)
  • 2014 – João Ubaldo Ribeiro, Brazilian journalist, author, and academic (b. 1941)
  • 2014 – Dietmar Schönherr, Austrian-Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1926)
  • 2015 – Alex Rocco, American actor (b. 1936)
  • 2018 – Jonathan Gold, American food critic (b. 1960)
  • 2018 – Adrian Cronauer, American Radio personality (b. 1938)

Holidays and observances on July 18

  • Christian feast day:
    • Arnulf of Metz
    • Bartolomé de las Casas (Episcopal Church (USA))
    • Bruno of Segni
    • Camillus de Lellis (optional memorial, United States only)
    • Eadburh (or Edburga) of Bicester
    • Elizabeth Ferard (Church of England)
    • Frederick of Utrecht
    • Goneri of Brittany
    • Gundenis
    • Marina of Aguas Santas
    • Maternus of Milan
    • Minnborinus of Cologne
    • Pambo
    • Philastrius (or Filaster)
    • Symphorosa
    • Teneu (or Theneva)
    • Theodosia of Constantinople
    • July 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Constitution Day (Uruguay)
  • Nelson Mandela International Day

July 18- History, Events, Births, Deaths Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

May 21 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

  • 293 – Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy.
  • 878 – Syracuse, Sicily, is captured by the Muslim Aghlabids after a nine-month siege.
  • 879 – Pope John VIII gives blessings to Branimir of Croatia and to the Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of the Croatian state.
  • 996 – Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
  • 1349 – Dušan’s Code, the constitution of the Serbian Empire, is enacted by Dušan the Mighty.
  • 1403 – Henry III of Castile sends Ruy González de Clavijo as ambassador to Timur to discuss the possibility of an alliance between Timur and Castile against the Ottoman Empire.
  • 1554 – Queen Mary I grants a royal charter to Derby School, as a grammar school for boys in Derby, England.
  • 1659 – In the Concert of The Hague, the Dutch Republic, the Commonwealth of England and the Kingdom of France set out their views on how the Second Northern War should end.
  • 1660 – The Battle of Long Sault concludes after five days in which French colonial militia, with their Huron and Algonquin allies, are defeated by the Iroquois Confederacy.
  • 1674 – The nobility elect John Sobieski King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.
  • 1703 – Daniel Defoe is imprisoned on charges of seditious libel.
  • 1725 – The Order of St. Alexander Nevsky is instituted in Russia by Empress Catherine I. It would later be discontinued and then reinstated by the Soviet government in 1942 as the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
  • 1758 – Ten-year-old Mary Campbell is abducted in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War. She is returned six and a half years later.
  • 1792 – A lava dome collapses on Mount Unzen, near the city of Shimbara on the Japanese island of Kyūshū, creating a deadly tsunami that kills nearly 15,000 people.
  • 1809 – The first day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling between the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles and the French army led by Napoleon I of France sees the French attack across the Danube held.
  • 1851 – Slavery in Colombia is abolished.
  • 1856 – Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army succeeds in closing off the last escape route from Port Hudson, Louisiana, in preparation for the coming siege.
  • 1864 – Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
  • 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
  • 1864 – The Ionian Islands reunite with Greece.
  • 1871 – French troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of “Bloody Week”, some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
  • 1871 – Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi Bahnen on Mount Rigi.
  • 1879 – War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
  • 1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C.
  • 1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal in the United Kingdom is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who later knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
  • 1904 – The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is founded in Paris.
  • 1911 – President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz and the revolutionary Francisco Madero sign the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez to put an end to the fighting between the forces of both men, concluding the initial phase of the Mexican Revolution.
  • 1917 – The Imperial War Graves Commission is established through royal charter to mark, record, and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of the British Empire’s military forces.
  • 1917 – The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 300 acres including 2,000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but leading to only one fatality (due to heart attack).
  • 1924 – University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a “thrill killing”.
  • 1927 – Charles Lindbergh touches down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
  • 1932 – Bad weather forces Amelia Earhart to land in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, and she thereby becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
  • 1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
  • 1936 – Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover’s severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan’s most notorious scandals.
  • 1937 – A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean.
  • 1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
  • 1946 – Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
  • 1951 – The opening of the Ninth Street Show, otherwise known as the 9th Street Art Exhibition: A gathering of a number of notable artists, and the stepping-out of the post war New York avant-garde, collectively known as the New York School.
  • 1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
  • 1966 – The Ulster Volunteer Force declares war on the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland.
  • 1969 – Civil unrest in Rosario, Argentina, known as Rosariazo, following the death of a 15-year-old student.
  • 1972 – Michelangelo’s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
  • 1976 – Twenty-nine people are killed in the Yuba City bus disaster in Martinez, California.
  • 1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
  • 1981 – The Italian government releases the membership list of Propaganda Due, an illegal pseudo-Masonic lodge that was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries.
  • 1981 – Transamerica Corporation agrees to sell United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $380 million after the box office failure of the 1980 film Heaven’s Gate.
  • 1982 – Falklands War: A British amphibious assault during Operation Sutton leads to the Battle of San Carlos.
  • 1991 – Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
  • 1991 – Mengistu Haile Mariam, president of the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, flees Ethiopia, effectively bringing the Ethiopian Civil War to an end.
  • 1992 – After 30 seasons Johnny Carson hosted his penultimate episode and last featuring guests (Robin Williams and Bette Midler) of The Tonight Show.
  • 1994 – The Democratic Republic of Yemen unsuccessfully attempts to secede from the Republic of Yemen; a war breaks out.
  • 1996 – The ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000.
  • 1998 – In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.
  • 1998 – President Suharto of Indonesia resigns following the killing of students from Trisakti University earlier that week by security forces and growing mass protests in Jakarta against his ongoing corrupt rule.
  • 2001 – French Taubira law is enacted, officially recognizing the Atlantic slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.
  • 2003 – The 6.8 Mw  Boumerdès earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). More than 2,200 people were killed and a moderate tsunami sank boats at the Balearic Islands.
  • 2005 – The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey.
  • 2006 – The Republic of Montenegro holds a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro; 55% of Montenegrins vote for independence.
  • 2010 – JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
  • 2011 – Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.
  • 2012 – A bus accident near Himara, Albania kills 13 people and injures 21 others.
  • 2012 – A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana’a, Yemen.
  • 2017 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed their final show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Births on May 21

  • 1471 – Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, and mathematician (d. 1528)
  • 1497 – Al-Hattab, Muslim jurist (d. 1547)
  • 1527 – Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
  • 1653 – Eleonore of Austria, Queen of Poland (d. 1697)
  • 1688 – Alexander Pope, English poet, essayist, and translator (d. 1744)
  • 1755 – Alfred Moore, American lawyer and judge (d. 1810)
  • 1756 – William Babington, Irish-born, English physician and mineralogist (d. 1833)
  • 1763 – Joseph Fouché, French lawyer and politician (d. 1820)
  • 1775 – Lucien Bonaparte, French soldier and politician (d. 1840)
  • 1780 – Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer, philanthropist and Quaker (d. 1845)
  • 1790 – William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, English politician, Lord Chamberlain of the Household (d. 1858)
  • 1792 – Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1843)
  • 1799 – Mary Anning, English paleontologist (d. 1847)
  • 1801 – Princess Sophie of Sweden, Swedish princess (d. 1865)
  • 1806 – Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland, English duchess (d. 1868)
  • 1808 – David de Jahacob Lopez Cardozo, Dutch Talmudist (d. 1890)
  • 1827 – William P. Sprague, American banker and politician (d. 1899)
  • 1828 – Rudolf Koller, Swiss painter (d. 1905)
  • 1835 – František Chvostek, Czech-Austrian physician and academic (d. 1884)
  • 1837 – Itagaki Taisuke, Japanese soldier and politician (d. 1919)
  • 1843 – Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss lawyer and politician, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1914)
  • 1843 – Louis Renault, French jurist, educator, and Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1918)
  • 1844 – Henri Rousseau, French painter (d. 1910)
  • 1850 – Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian priest and volcanologist (d. 1914)
  • 1851 – Léon Bourgeois, French police officer and politician, 64th Prime Minister of France, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
  • 1853 – Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
  • 1856 – José Batlle y Ordóñez, Uruguayan journalist and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 1929)
  • 1860 – Willem Einthoven, Indonesian-Dutch physician, physiologist, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1927)
  • 1861 – Abel Ayerza, Argentinian physician and academic (d. 1918)
  • 1863 – Archduke Eugen of Austria (d. 1954)
  • 1864 – Princess Stéphanie of Belgium (d. 1945)
  • 1873 – Hans Berger, German neurologist and academic (d. 1941)
  • 1878 – Glenn Curtiss, American cyclist and engineer (d. 1930)
  • 1880 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1967)
  • 1884 – Manuel Pérez y Curis, Uruguayan poet and publisher (d. 1920)
  • 1885 – Princess Sophie of Albania, (Princess Sophie of Schönburg-Waldenburg) (d. 1936)
  • 1893 – Arthur Carr, English cricketer (d. 1963)
  • 1893 – Giles Chippindall, Australian public servant (d. 1969)
  • 1895 – Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexican general, president (1934–1940) and father of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (d. 1970)
  • 1898 – Armand Hammer, American physician and businessman, founded Occidental Petroleum (d. 1990)
  • 1898 – Charles Léon Hammes, Luxembourgian lawyer and judge (d. 1967)
  • 1898 – Carl Johnson, American long jumper (d. 1932)
  • 1898 – John McLaughlin, American painter and translator (d. 1976)
  • 1901 – Regina M. Anderson, Multiracial playwright and librarian (d. 1993)
  • 1901 – Horace Heidt, American pianist, bandleader, and radio host (d. 1986)
  • 1901 – Sam Jaffe, American film producer and agent (d. 2000)
  • 1901 – Suzanne Lilar, Belgian author and playwright (d. 1992)
  • 1902 – Earl Averill, American baseball player (d. 1983)
  • 1902 – Marcel Breuer, Hungarian-American architect and academic, designed the Ameritrust Tower (d. 1981)
  • 1902 – Anatole Litvak, Ukrainian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1974)
  • 1903 – Manly Wade Wellman, American author (d. 1986)
  • 1904 – Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)
  • 1904 – Fats Waller, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1943)
  • 1907 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (d. 1979)
  • 1912 – Chen Dayu, Chinese painter and calligrapher (d. 2001)
  • 1912 – John Curtis Gowan, American psychologist and academic (d. 1986)
  • 1912 – Monty Stratton, American baseball player and coach (d. 1982)
  • 1913 – Gina Bachauer, Greek pianist and composer (d. 1976)
  • 1915 – Cathleen Cordell, American actress (d. 1997)
  • 1915 – Chakravarthi V. Narasimhan, Indian Civil Service Officer and former Under Secretary-General of the UN (d. 2003)
  • 1916 – Dennis Day, American singer and actor (d. 1988)
  • 1916 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch sprinter and police officer (d. 2002)
  • 1916 – Harold Robbins, American author and screenwriter (d. 1997)
  • 1917 – Raymond Burr, Canadian-American actor and director (d. 1993)
  • 1918 – Anthony Steel, English actor and singer (d. 2001)
  • 1919 – George P. Mitchell, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
  • 1920 – Bill Barber, American tuba player and educator (d. 2007)
  • 1920 – Forrest White, American businessman, co-founded the Music Man Company (d. 1994)
  • 1921 – Sandy Douglas, English computer scientist and academic, designed OXO (d. 2010)
  • 1921 – Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
  • 1923 – Vernon Biever, American photographer (d. 2010)
  • 1923 – Armand Borel, Swiss-American mathematician and academic (d. 2003)
  • 1923 – Ara Parseghian, American football player and coach (d. 2017)
  • 1923 – Dorothy Hewett, Australian feminist poet, novelist and playwright (d. 2002)
  • 1923 – Evelyn Ward, American actress (d. 2012)
  • 1924 – Peggy Cass, American actress, comedian, and game show panelist (d. 1999)
  • 1926 – Robert Creeley, American novelist, essayist, and poet (d. 2005)
  • 1927 – Kay Kendall, English actress and comedian (d. 1959)
  • 1927 – Péter Zwack, Hungarian businessman and diplomat (d. 2012)
  • 1928 – Tom Donahue, American radio host and producer (d. 1975)
  • 1928 – Alice Drummond, American actress (d. 2016)
  • 1929 – Larance Marable, American drummer (d. 2012)
  • 1929 – Robert Welch, English silversmith and industrial designer (d. 2000)
  • 1930 – Tommy Bryant, American bassist (d. 1982)
  • 1930 – Keith Davis, New Zealand rugby player (d. 2019)
  • 1930 – Malcolm Fraser, Australian politician, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2015)
  • 1932 – Inese Jaunzeme, Latvian javelin thrower and surgeon (d. 2011)
  • 1932 – Leonidas Vasilikopoulos, Greek admiral and intelligence chief (d. 2014)
  • 1933 – Maurice André, French trumpet player (d. 2012)
  • 1933 – Yevgeny Minayev, Russian weightlifter (d. 1993)
  • 1934 – Jocasta Innes, Chinese-English journalist and author (d. 2013)
  • 1934 – Bob Northern, American horn player and bandleader
  • 1934 – Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1935 – Terry Lightfoot, English clarinet player and bandleader (d. 2013)
  • 1936 – Günter Blobel, Polish-American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
  • 1938 – Lee “Shot” Williams, American singer (d. 2011)
  • 1939 – Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist, composer, and conductor
  • 1940 – Tony Sheridan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
  • 1941 – Martin Carthy, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1941 – Bobby Cox, American baseball player and manager
  • 1941 – Ambrose Greenway, 4th Baron Greenway, English photographer and politician
  • 1941 – Ronald Isley, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1942 – David Hunt, Baron Hunt of Wirral, English politician, Secretary of State for Wales
  • 1942 – John Konrads, Australian swimmer
  • 1942 – Danny Ongais, American race car driver
  • 1943 – Vincent Crane, English pianist and composer (d. 1989)
  • 1943 – John Dalton, English bass player
  • 1943 – Hilton Valentine, English guitarist and songwriter
  • 1944 – Haleh Afshar, Baroness Afshar, Iranian-English academic and politician
  • 1944 – Marcie Blane, American singer
  • 1944 – Janet Dailey, American author and entrepreneur (d. 2013)
  • 1944 – Mary Robinson, Irish lawyer and politician, 7th President of Ireland
  • 1945 – Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut
  • 1945 – Richard Hatch, American actor, writer, and producer (d. 2017)
  • 1946 – Allan McKeown, English-American screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
  • 1946 – Wayne Roycroft, Australian equestrian rider and coach
  • 1947 – Bill Champlin, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1947 – Linda Laubenstein, American physician and academic (d. 1992)
  • 1947 – İlber Ortaylı, Turkish historian and academic
  • 1948 – Elizabeth Buchan, English author and critic
  • 1948 – Joe Camilleri, Maltese-Australian singer-songwriter and saxophonist
  • 1948 – Jonathan Hyde, Australian-English actor
  • 1948 – Denis MacShane, Scottish journalist and politician, UK Minister of State for Europe
  • 1948 – Leo Sayer, English-Australian singer-songwriter and musician
  • 1949 – Andrew Neil, Scottish journalist and academic
  • 1949 – Denis O’Connor, British police officer
  • 1949 – Rosalind Plowright, English soprano
  • 1950 – Will Hutton, English economist and journalist
  • 1951 – Al Franken, American actor, screenwriter, and politician
  • 1951 – Adrian Hardiman, Irish lawyer and judge (d. 2016)
  • 1952 – Mr. T, American actor and wrestler
  • 1953 – Nora Aunor, Filipino actress and recording artist
  • 1954 – D. B. S. Jeyaraj, Sri Lankan-Canadian journalist and blogger
  • 1954 – Janice Karman, American film producer, record producer, singer, and voice actress
  • 1954 – Marc Ribot, American guitarist and composer
  • 1955 – Paul Barber, English field hockey player
  • 1955 – Stan Lynch, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
  • 1957 – James Bailey, American basketball player
  • 1957 – Nadine Dorries, English nurse and politician
  • 1957 – Judge Reinhold, American actor and producer
  • 1957 – Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
  • 1958 – Christian Audigier, French fashion designer (d. 2015)
  • 1958 – Muffy Calder, Canadian-Scottish computer scientist and academic
  • 1958 – Michael Crick, English journalist and author
  • 1958 – Naeem Khan, Indian-American fashion designer
  • 1958 – Jefery Levy, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1959 – Nick Cassavetes, American actor, director, and screenwriter
  • 1959 – Abdulla Yameen, Maldivian politician, 6th President of the Maldives
  • 1960 – Jeffrey Dahmer, American serial killer (d. 1994)
  • 1960 – Kent Hrbek, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1960 – Mohanlal, Indian actor
  • 1960 – Mark Ridgway, Australian cricketer
  • 1960 – Vladimir Salnikov, Russian swimmer
  • 1962 – David Crumb, American composer and educator
  • 1963 – Richard Appel, American screenwriter and producer
  • 1963 – Patrick Grant, American musician and producer
  • 1963 – David Lonsdale, English actor
  • 1964 – Pete Sandoval, Salvadoran-American drummer
  • 1963 – Kevin Shields, American-Irish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1963 – Dave Specter, American guitarist
  • 1963 – Laurie Spina, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
  • 1964 – Danny Bailey, English footballer and coach
  • 1965 – Josh Richman, American actor and producer
  • 1966 – Lisa Edelstein, American actress and playwright
  • 1966 – Tatyana Ledovskaya, Belarusian hurdler
  • 1967 – Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2007)
  • 1968 – Ilmar Raag, Estonian director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1968 – Matthias Ungemach, German-Australian rower
  • 1968 – Julie Vega, Filipino actress and singer (d. 1985)
  • 1969 – Pierluigi Brivio, Italian footballer
  • 1969 – Georgiy Gongadze, Georgian-Ukrainian journalist and director (d. 2000)
  • 1969 – Masayo Kurata, Japanese voice actress and singer
  • 1969 – George LeMieux, American lawyer and politician
  • 1969 – Brian Statham, Rhodesian born English footballer, defender and manager
  • 1970 – Brigita Bukovec, Slovenian hurdler
  • 1970 – Dorsey Levens, American football player and sportscaster
  • 1970 – Pauline Menczer, Australian surfer
  • 1970 – Carl Veart, Australian footballer and coach
  • 1972 – The Notorious B.I.G., American rapper (d. 1997)
  • 1973 – Stewart Cink, American golfer
  • 1973 – Noel Fielding, English comedian, musician and television presenter
  • 1974 – Brad Arthur, Australian rugby league coach
  • 1974 – Fairuza Balk, American actress
  • 1974 – Aditi Gowitrikar, Indian model, actress, and physician, Mrs. World 2001
  • 1974 – Havoc, American rapper and producer
  • 1975 – Anthony Mundine, Australian rugby league player and boxer
  • 1976 – Stuart Bingham, English snooker player
  • 1976 – Abderrahim Goumri, Moroccan runner (d. 2013)
  • 1976 – Deron Miller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1977 – Quinton Fortune, South African international footballer midfielder and coach
  • 1977 – Michael Fuß, German footballer
  • 1977 – Ricky Williams, American football player and coach
  • 1978 – Max B, American rapper and songwriter
  • 1978 – Briana Banks, German-American porn actress and model
  • 1978 – Jamaal Magloire, Canadian basketball player and coach
  • 1979 – Damián Ariel Álvarez, Argentinian-Mexican footballer
  • 1979 – Jamie Hepburn, Scottish politician, Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health
  • 1979 – James Clancy Phelan, Australian author and academic
  • 1979 – Scott Smith, American mixed martial artist
  • 1979 – Sonja Vectomov, Czech musician/composer
  • 1980 – Gotye, Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter
  • 1981 – Craig Anderson, American ice hockey player
  • 1981 – Edson Buddle, American soccer player
  • 1981 – Josh Hamilton, American baseball player
  • 1981 – Maximilian Mutzke, German singer-songwriter
  • 1981 – Anna Rogowska, Polish pole vaulter
  • 1983 – Līga Dekmeijere, Latvian tennis player
  • 1983 – Deidson Araújo Maia, Brazilian footballer
  • 1983 – Kaori Shimizu, Japanese voice actress and singer
  • 1984 – Brandon Fields, American football player
  • 1984 – Sara Goller, German volleyball player
  • 1984 – Syamsul Yusof, Malaysian actor, film director, scriptwriter, film producer, rapper and singer
  • 1985 – Mutya Buena, English singer-songwriter
  • 1985 – Alison Carroll, English gymnast, model, and actress
  • 1985 – Mark Cavendish, Manx cyclist
  • 1985 – Alexander Dale Oen, Norwegian swimmer (d. 2012)
  • 1985 – Isa Guha, English cricketer
  • 1985 – Lucie Hradecká, Czech tennis player
  • 1985 – Kano, English rapper, producer, and actor
  • 1985 – Dušan Kuciak, Slovak footballer
  • 1985 – Heath L’Estrange, Australian rugby league player
  • 1985 – Andrew Miller, American baseball player
  • 1986 – Mario Mandžukić, Croatian footballer
  • 1986 – Myra, American singer and actress
  • 1986 – Eder Sánchez, Mexican race walker
  • 1986 – Park Sojin, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
  • 1986 – Greg Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1987 – Beau Falloon, Australian rugby league player
  • 1988 – Claire Cashmore, English Paralympic swimmer
  • 1988 – Park Gyu-ri, South Korean singer
  • 1988 – Jonny Howson, English footballer
  • 1988 – Kaire Leibak, Estonian triple jumper
  • 1989 – Emily Robins, New Zealand actress and singer
  • 1989 – Hal Robson-Kanu, English footballer
  • 1990 – Kierre Beckles, Barbadian athlete
  • 1990 – Rene Krhin, Slovenian footballer
  • 1991 – Guilherme, Brazilian footballer
  • 1992 – Hutch Dano, American actor
  • 1992 – Lisa Evans, Scottish footballer
  • 1992 – Philipp Grüneberg, German footballer
  • 1992 – Olivia Olson, American singer and actress
  • 1993 – Grete Gaim, Estonian biathlete
  • 1993 – Luke Garbutt, English footballer, left-back
  • 1994 – Tom Daley, English diver
  • 1995 – Katharina Andresen, Norwegian heiress and equestrian
  • 1995 – Diego Loyzaga, Filipino actor
  • 1996 – Josh Allen, American footballer
  • 1996 – Indy de Vroome, Dutch tennis player
  • 1996 – Karen Khachanov, Russian tennis player
  • 1997 – Ivan De Santis, Italian footballer
  • 1997 – Sisca Folkertsma, Dutch footballer
  • 1997 – Viktoria Petryk, Ukrainian singer-songwriter

Deaths on May 21

  • 252 – Sun Quan, Chinese emperor of Eastern Wu (b. 182)
  • 954 – Feng Dao, Chinese prince and chancellor (b. 882)
  • 987 – Louis V, king of West Francia (b. c. 966)
  • 1075 – Richeza of Poland, queen of Hungary (b. 1013)
  • 1086 – Wang Anshi, Chinese statesman and poet (b. 1021)
  • 1237 – Olaf the Black, Manx son of Godred II Olafsson
  • 1254 – Conrad IV, king of Germany (b. 1228)
  • 1416 – Anna of Celje, queen consort of Poland (b. 1386)
  • 1471 – Henry VI, king of England (b. 1421)
  • 1481 – Christian I, king of Denmark (b. 1426)
  • 1512 – Pandolfo Petrucci, Italian ruler (b. 1452)
  • 1524 – Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier and politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1443)
  • 1542 – Hernando de Soto, Spanish-American explorer (b. 1496)
  • 1563 – Martynas Mažvydas, Lithuanian writer (b. 1510)
  • 1607 – John Rainolds, English scholar and academic (b. 1549)
  • 1619 – Hieronymus Fabricius, Italian anatomist (b. 1537)
  • 1639 – Tommaso Campanella, Italian astrologer, theologian, and poet (b. 1568)
  • 1647 – Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet and playwright (b. 1581)
  • 1650 – James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish general and politician (b. 1612)
  • 1664 – Elizabeth Poole, English settler, founded Taunton, Massachusetts (b. 1588)
  • 1670 – Niccolò Zucchi, Italian astronomer and physicist (b. 1586)
  • 1686 – Otto von Guericke, German physicist and inventor of the Magdeburg Hemispheres (b. 1602)
  • 1690 – John Eliot, English-American minister and missionary (b. 1604)
  • 1719 – Pierre Poiret, French mystic and philosopher (b. 1646)
  • 1724 – Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1661)
  • 1742 – Lars Roberg, Swedish physician and academic (b. 1664)
  • 1762 – Alexander Joseph Sulkowski, Polish and Saxon general (b. 1695)
  • 1771 – Christopher Smart, English actor, playwright, and poet (b. 1722)
  • 1786 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, German-Swedish chemist and pharmacist (b. 1742)
  • 1790 – Thomas Warton, English poet and critic (b. 1728)
  • 1810 – Chevalier d’Eon, French diplomat and spy (b. 1728)
  • 1844 – Giuseppe Baini, Italian priest and composer (b. 1775)
  • 1858 – José de la Riva Agüero, Peruvian soldier and politician, 1st President of Peru and 2nd President of North Peru (b. 1783)
  • 1862 – John Drew, Irish-American actor and manager (b. 1827)
  • 1879 – Arturo Prat, Chilean lawyer and commander (b. 1848)
  • 1894 – Émile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)
  • 1894 – August Kundt, German physicist and academic (b. 1839)
  • 1895 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer and conductor (b. 1819)
  • 1901 – Joseph Olivier, French rugby player (b. 1874)
  • 1911 – Williamina Fleming, Scottish-American astronomer and academic (b. 1857)
  • 1915 – Leonid Gobyato, Russian general and engineer (b. 1875)
  • 1919 – Evgraf Fedorov, Russian mathematician, crystallographer, and mineralogist (b. 1853)
  • 1920 – Venustiano Carranza, Mexican politician, 54th President of Mexico (b. 1859)
  • 1925 – Hidesaburō Ueno, Japanese agriculturalist, guardian of Hachikō (b. 1871)
  • 1926 – Ronald Firbank, English-Italian author (b. 1886)
  • 1929 – Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
  • 1932 – Marcel Boulenger, French fencer and author (b. 1873)
  • 1935 – Jane Addams, American activist and author, co-founded Hull House, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1860)
  • 1935 – Hugo de Vries, Dutch botanist and geneticist (b. 1848)
  • 1940 – Billy Minter, English footballer and manager (b. 1888)
  • 1949 – Klaus Mann, German-American novelist, playwright, and critic (b. 1906)
  • 1952 – John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
  • 1956 – Harry Bensley, English businessman and adventurer (b. 1877)
  • 1957 – Alexander Vertinsky, Ukrainian-Russian singer-songwriter, actor, and poet (b. 1889)
  • 1964 – James Franck, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
  • 1965 – Marguerite Bise, French chef (b. 1898)
  • 1965 – Geoffrey de Havilland, English pilot and engineer, designed the de Havilland Mosquito (b. 1882)
  • 1968 – Doris Lloyd, English actress (b. 1896)
  • 1970 – E. L. Grant Watson, English-Australian biologist and author (b. 1885)
  • 1973 – Vaughn Monroe, American singer, trumpet player, bandleader, and actor (b. 1911)
  • 1973 – Ivan Konev, Soviet Marshal and general (b. 1897)
  • 1981 – Raymond McCreesh, PIRA volunteer (b. 1957)
  • 1981 – Patsy O’Hara, INLA volunteer (b. 1957)
  • 1983 – Kenneth Clark, English historian and author (b. 1903)
  • 1984 – Ann Little, American actress (b. 1891)
  • 1988 – Sammy Davis Sr., American actor and dancer (b. 1900)
  • 1991 – Lino Brocka, Filipino director and screenwriter (b. 1939)
  • 1991 – Rajiv Gandhi, Indian politician, 6th Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
  • 1995 – Les Aspin, American captain and politician, 18th United States Secretary of Defense (b. 1938)
  • 1996 – Paul Delph, American singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1957)
  • 1996 – Lash LaRue, American actor and producer (b. 1917)
  • 1996 – Villem Raam, Estonian art historian, art critic and conservator (b. 1910)
  • 1998 – Robert Gist, American actor and director (b. 1917)
  • 2000 – Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)
  • 2000 – John Gielgud, English actor (b. 1904)
  • 2000 – Mark R. Hughes, American businessman, founded Herbalife (b. 1956)
  • 2002 – Niki de Saint Phalle, French-American sculptor and painter (b. 1930)
  • 2003 – Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentinian-Italian race car driver and businessman, founded De Tomaso (b. 1928)
  • 2003 – Frank D. White, American captain, banker, and politician, 41st Governor of Arkansas (b. 1933)
  • 2005 – Deborah Berger, American outsider artist (b. 1956)
  • 2005 – Stephen Elliott, American actor (b. 1918)
  • 2005 – Howard Morris, American actor and director (b. 1919)
  • 2006 – Spencer Clark, American race car driver (b. 1987)
  • 2006 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer, choreographer, and author (b. 1909)
  • 2006 – Cherd Songsri, Thai director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1931)
  • 2006 – Billy Walker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1929)
  • 2012 – Eddie Blazonczyk, American singer-songwriter (b. 1941)
  • 2012 – Otis Clark, American butler and preacher, survivor of the Tulsa race riot (b. 1903)
  • 2012 – Constantine of Irinoupolis, Metropolitan of Irinoupolis and Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA (b. 1936)
  • 2012 – Roman Dumbadze, Georgian commander (b. 1964)
  • 2012 – Douglas Rodríguez, Cuban boxer (b. 1950)
  • 2012 – Bill Stewart, American football player and coach (b. 1952)
  • 2012 – Alan Thorne, Australian anthropologist and academic (b. 1939)
  • 2013 – Count Christian of Rosenborg, member of the Danish royal family (b. 1942)
  • 2013 – Frank Comstock, American trombonist, composer, and conductor (b. 1922)
  • 2013 – Cot Deal, American baseball player and coach (b. 1923)
  • 2013 – Mohammad Khaled Hossain, Bangladeshi mountaineer (b. 1979)
  • 2013 – Leonard Marsh, American businessman, co-founded Snapple (b. 1933)
  • 2013 – Bob Thompson, American pianist and composer (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – Dominique Venner, French journalist and historian (b. 1935)
  • 2013 – David Voelker, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1953)
  • 2014 – Tunku Annuar, Malaysian son of Badlishah of Kedah (b. 1939)
  • 2014 – Evelyn Blackmon, American businesswoman and politician (b. 1924)
  • 2014 – Johnny Gray, American baseball player (b. 1926)
  • 2014 – Jaime Lusinchi, Venezuelan physician and politician, President of Venezuela (b. 1924)
  • 2014 – Alireza Soleimani, Iranian wrestler (b. 1956)
  • 2015 – Annarita Sidoti, Italian race walker (b. 1969)
  • 2015 – Twinkle, English singer-songwriter (b. 1948)
  • 2015 – Jassem Al-Kharafi, Kuwaiti businessman and politician, 8th Kuwaiti Speaker of the National Assembly (b. 1940)
  • 2015 – Fred Gladding, American baseball player and coach (b. 1936)
  • 2015 – Louis Johnson, American bass player and producer (b. 1955)
  • 2016 – Nick Menza, American drummer and songwriter (b. 1964)
  • 2019 – Rik Kuypers, Belgian film director (b. 1925)
  • 2019 – Binyavanga Wainaina, Kenyan writer (b. 1971)
  • 2020 – Alan Merten, fifth President of George Mason University (b. 1941)

Holidays and observances on May 21

  • Afro-Colombian Day (Colombia)
  • Christian feast day:
    • Arcangelo Tadini
    • Blessed Adílio Daronch and Manuel Gómez González
    • Blessed Franz Jägerstätter
    • Earliest day on which Corpus Christi can fall, while June 24 is the latest; held on Thursday after Trinity Sunday (often locally moved to Sunday). (Roman Catholic Church)
    • Emperor Constantine I
    • Eugène de Mazenod
    • Helena of Constantinople, also known as “Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helen, Equal-to-the-Apostles.” (Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion)
    • John Elliot (Episcopal Church)
    • Saints of the Cristero War, including Christopher Magallanes
    • May 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Circassian Day of Mourning (Circassians)
  • Day of Patriots and Military (Hungary)
  • Independence Day, celebrates the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006, celebrated until the next day. (Montenegro)
  • Navy Day (Chile)
  • Saint Helena Day, celebrates the discovery of Saint Helena in 1502. (Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha)
  • World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development (International)
  • International Tea Day (International)

May 21 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

April 19 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

  • AD 65 – The freedman Milichus betrays Piso’s plot to kill Emperor Nero and all the conspirators are arrested.
  • 531 – Battle of Callinicum: A Byzantine army under Belisarius is defeated by the Persians at Raqqa (northern Syria).
  • 797 – Empress Irene organizes a conspiracy against her son, the Byzantine emperor Constantine VI. He is deposed and blinded. Shortly after, Constantine dies of his wounds; Irene proclaims herself basileus.
  • 1506 – The Lisbon Massacre begins, in which accused Jews are being slaughtered by Portuguese Catholics.
  • 1529 – Beginning of the Protestant Reformation: After the Second Diet of Speyer bans Lutheranism, a group of rulers (German: Fürst) and independent cities protests the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms.
  • 1539 – The Treaty of Frankfurt between Protestants and the Holy Roman Emperor is signed.
  • 1608 – In Ireland: O’Doherty’s Rebellion is launched by the Burning of Derry.
  • 1677 – The French army captures the town of Cambrai held by Spanish troops.
  • 1713 – With no living male heirs, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female; his daughter and successor, Maria Theresa was not born until 1717.
  • 1770 – Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
  • 1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI of France in a proxy wedding.
  • 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
  • 1782 – John Adams secures the Dutch Republic’s recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.
  • 1809 – An Austrian corps is defeated by the forces of the Duchy of Warsaw in the Battle of Raszyn, part of the struggles of the Fifth Coalition. On the same day the Austrian main army is defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.
  • 1810 – Venezuela achieves home rule: Vicente Emparán, Governor of the Captaincy General is removed by the people of Caracas and a junta is installed.
  • 1818 – French physicist Augustin Fresnel signs his preliminary “Note on the Theory of Diffraction” (deposited on the following day). The document ends with what we now call the Fresnel integrals.
  • 1839 – The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and guarantees its neutrality.
  • 1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
  • 1903 – The Kishinev pogrom in Kishinev (Bessarabia) begins, forcing tens of thousands of Jews to later seek refuge in Palestine and the Western world.
  • 1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
  • 1942 – World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
  • 1943 – World War II: In Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins, after German troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up the remaining Jews.
  • 1943 – Albert Hofmann deliberately doses himself with LSD for the first time, three days after having discovered its effects on April 16.
  • 1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.
  • 1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign.
  • 1971 – Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.
  • 1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.
  • 1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.
  • 1973 – The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.
  • 1975 – India’s first satellite Aryabhata launched in orbit from Kapustin Yar, Russia.
  • 1984 – Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia’s national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
  • 1985 – Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.
  • 1987 – The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with Good Night.
  • 1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
  • 1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. 76 Davidians, including eighteen children under the age of ten, died in the fire.
  • 1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six.
  • 1999 – The German Bundestag returns to Berlin.
  • 2000 – Air Philippines Flight 541 crashes in Samal, Davao del Norte, killing all 131 people on board.
  • 2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.
  • 2011 – Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.
  • 2013 – Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.
  • 2020 – A killing spree in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves 22 people and the perpetrator dead, making it the deadliest rampage in the country’s history.

Births on April 19

  • 1452 – Frederick IV, King of Naples (d. 1504)
  • 1593 – Sir John Hobart, 2nd Baronet, English politician (d. 1647)
  • 1603 – Michel Le Tellier, French politician, French Minister of Defence (d. 1685)
  • 1613 – Christoph Bach, German musician (d. 1661)
  • 1633 – Willem Drost, Dutch painter (d. 1659)
  • 1655 – George St Lo(e), Royal Navy officer and administrator (d. 1718)
  • 1658 – Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, German husband of Archduchess Maria Anna Josepha of Austria (d. 1716)
  • 1665 – Jacques Lelong, French author (d. 1721)
  • 1686 – Vasily Tatishchev, Russian ethnographer and politician (d. 1750)
  • 1715 – James Nares, English organist and composer (d. 1783)
  • 1721 – Roger Sherman, American lawyer and politician (d. 1793)
  • 1734 – Karl von Ordóñez, Austrian violinist and composer (d. 1786)
  • 1757 – Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, English admiral and politician (d. 1833)
  • 1758 – William Carnegie, 7th Earl of Northesk, Scottish admiral (d. 1831)
  • 1785 – Alexandre Pierre François Boëly, French pianist and composer (d. 1858)
  • 1787 – Deaf Smith, American soldier (d. 1837)
  • 1793 – Ferdinand I of Austria (d. 1875)
  • 1806 – Sarah Bagley, American labor organizer (d. 1889)
  • 1814 – Louis Amédée Achard, French journalist and author (d. 1875)
  • 1832 – José Echegaray, Spanish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1916)
  • 1835 – Julius Krohn, Finnish poet and journalist (d. 1888)
  • 1863 – Hemmo Kallio, Finnish actor (d. 1940)
  • 1872 – Alice Salomon, German social reformer (d. 1948)
  • 1873 – Sydney Barnes, English cricketer (d. 1967)
  • 1874 – Ernst Rüdin, Swiss psychiatrist, geneticist, and eugenicist (d. 1952)
  • 1877 – Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American engineer, invented the outboard motor (d. 1934)
  • 1879 – Arthur Robertson, Scottish runner (d. 1957)
  • 1882 – Getúlio Vargas, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 14th President of Brazil (d. 1954)
  • 1883 – Henry Jameson, American soccer player (d. 1938)
  • 1883 – Richard von Mises, Austrian-American mathematician and physicist (d. 1953)
  • 1885 – Karl Tarvas, Estonian architect (d. 1975)
  • 1889 – Otto Georg Thierack, German jurist and politician (d. 1946)
  • 1891 – Françoise Rosay, French actress (d. 1974)
  • 1892 – Germaine Tailleferre, French composer and educator (d. 1983)
  • 1894 – Elizabeth Dilling, American author and activist (d. 1966)
  • 1897 – Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman and philanthropist (d. 1970)
  • 1897 – Jiroemon Kimura, Japanese super-centenarian, oldest verified man ever (d. 2013)
  • 1898 – Constance Talmadge, American actress and producer (d. 1973)
  • 1899 – George O’Brien, American actor (d. 1985)
  • 1899 – Cemal Tollu, Turkish lieutenant and painter (d. 1968)
  • 1900 – Iracema de Alencar, Brazilian film actress (d. 1978)
  • 1900 – Richard Hughes, English author, poet, and playwright (d. 1976)
  • 1900 – Roland Michener, Canadian lawyer and politician, 20th Governor General of Canada (d. 1991)
  • 1900 – Rhea Silberta, Yiddish songwriter and singing teacher (d. 1959)
  • 1902 – Veniamin Kaverin, Russian author and screenwriter (d. 1989)
  • 1903 – Eliot Ness, American law enforcement agent (d. 1957)
  • 1907 – Alan Wheatley, English actor (d. 1991)
  • 1908 – Irena Eichlerówna, Polish actress (d. 1990)
  • 1912 – Glenn T. Seaborg, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
  • 1913 – Ken Carpenter, American discus thrower and coach (d. 1984)
  • 1917 – Sven Hassel, Danish-German soldier and author (d. 2012)
  • 1919 – Sol Kaplan, American pianist and composer (d. 1990)
  • 1920 – Gene Leis, American guitarist, composer, and producer (d. 1993)
  • 1920 – Marvin Mandel, American lawyer and politician, 56th Governor of Maryland (d. 2015)
  • 1920 – John O’Neil, American baseball player and manager (d. 2012)
  • 1920 – Julien Ries, Belgian cardinal (d. 2013)
  • 1920 – Marian Winters, American actress (d. 1978)
  • 1921 – Anna Lee Aldred, American jockey (d. 2006)
  • 1921 – Leon Henkin, American logician (d. 2006)
  • 1921 – Roberto Tucci, Italian Jesuit leader, cardinal, and theologian (d. 2015)
  • 1922 – Erich Hartmann, German colonel and pilot (d. 1993)
  • 1922 – David Smith, politician in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe (d. 1996)
  • 1925 – John Kraaijkamp, Sr., Dutch actor (d. 2011)
  • 1925 – Hugh O’Brian, American actor (d. 2016)
  • 1926 – Rawya Ateya, Egyptian captain and politician (d. 1997)
  • 1928 – John Horlock, English engineer and academic (d. 2015)
  • 1928 – Azlan Shah of Perak, Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia (d. 2014)
  • 1931 – Walter Stewart, Canadian journalist and author (d. 2004)
  • 1932 – Fernando Botero, Colombian painter and sculptor
  • 1933 – Dickie Bird, English cricketer and umpire
  • 1933 – Jayne Mansfield, American model and actress (d. 1967)
  • 1933 – Philip Lavallin Wroughton, English captain and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire
  • 1934 – Dickie Goodman, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 1989)
  • 1935 – Dudley Moore, English actor, comedian, and pianist (d. 2002)
  • 1935 – Justin Francis Rigali, American cardinal
  • 1936 – Wilfried Martens, Belgian politician, 60th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2013)
  • 1936 – Jack Pardee, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
  • 1937 – Antonio Carluccio, Italian-English chef and author (d. 2017)
  • 1937 – Elinor Donahue, American actress
  • 1937 – Joseph Estrada, Filipino politician, 13th President of the Philippines
  • 1938 – Stanley Fish, American theorist, author, and scholar
  • 1939 – E. Clay Shaw, Jr., American accountant, judge, and politician (d. 2013)
  • 1941 – Roberto Carlos, Brazilian singer-songwriter
  • 1941 – Clark Dimond, American musician and author
  • 1941 – Michel Roux, French-English chef and author (d. 2020)
  • 1941 – Bobby Russell, American singer-songwriter (d. 1992)
  • 1942 – Bas Jan Ader, Dutch-American photographer and director (d. 1975)
  • 1942 – Alan Price, English keyboard player, singer, and composer
  • 1942 – Jack Roush, American businessman, founded Roush Fenway Racing
  • 1942 – Maarten van den Bergh, American-Dutch businessman
  • 1943 – Margo MacDonald, Scottish journalist and politician (d. 2014)[28]
  • 1943 – Lorenzo Sanz, Spanish businessman
  • 1944 – Keith Erickson, American basketball player and sportscaster
  • 1944 – James Heckman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1944 – Bernie Worrell, American keyboard player and songwriter (d. 2016)[29]
  • 1946 – Duygu Asena, Turkish journalist, author, and activist (d. 2006)
  • 1946 – Tim Curry, English actor[30]
  • 1947 – Murray Perahia, American pianist and conductor
  • 1947 – Wilfrid Stevenson, Baron Stevenson of Balmacara, English civil servant
  • 1947 – Yan Pascal Tortelier, French violinist and conductor
  • 1947 – Mark Volman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1948 – Stuart McLean, Canadian radio host and author (d. 2017)
  • 1948 – Rick Miller, American baseball player and manager
  • 1949 – Paloma Picasso, French-Spanish fashion designer
  • 1949 – Larry Walters, American truck driver and pilot (d. 1993)
  • 1950 – Julia Cleverdon, English businesswoman and philanthropist
  • 1951 – Barry Brown, American actor and playwright (d. 1978)
  • 1951 – Jóannes Eidesgaard, Faroese educator and politician, Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
  • 1952 – Alexis Argüello, Nicaraguan boxer and politician (d. 2009)
  • 1952 – Tony Plana, Cuban-American actor and director
  • 1952 – Michael Trend, English journalist and politician
  • 1953 – Rod Morgenstein, American drummer
  • 1953 – Sara Simeoni, Italian high jumper
  • 1953 – Ruby Wax, British-based American comedian, actress, and screenwriter
  • 1954 – Trevor Francis, English footballer and manager
  • 1954 – Bob Rock, Canadian guitarist, songwriter, and producer
  • 1956 – Sue Barker, English tennis player and journalist
  • 1956 – Randy Carlyle, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1956 – Anne Glover, Scottish biologist and academic
  • 1957 – Tony Martin, English singer-songwriter
  • 1957 – Mukesh Ambani, Indian businessman, chairman of Reliance Industries and currently the richest man in Asia[31][32]
  • 1958 – Steve Antin, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1958 – Stevie B, American singer-songwriter and record producer
  • 1958 – Denis O’Brien, Irish businessman, founded BT Ireland
  • 1958 – Vytautas Šapranauskas, Lithuanian actor (d. 2013)
  • 1958 – Keith Shine, British academic and educator
  • 1959 – Jane Campbell, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton, English activist
  • 1959 – Teofisto Guingona III, Filipino lawyer and politician
  • 1959 – Donald Markwell, Australian sociologist and academic
  • 1960 – Nicoletta Braschi, Italian actress and producer
  • 1960 – Ara Gevorgyan, Armenian pianist, composer, and producer
  • 1960 – Roger Merrett, Australian footballer and coach
  • 1960 – John Schweitz, American basketball player and coach
  • 1960 – Frank Viola, American baseball player and coach[33]
  • 1961 – Alan Kirschenbaum, American producer and writer (d. 2012)
  • 1961 – Albert Martinez, Filipino actor, director, and producer
  • 1961 – Spike Owen, American baseball player and coach
  • 1962 – Al Unser Jr., American race car driver
  • 1964 – Gordon Marshall, Scottish footballer and coach
  • 1964 – Kim Weaver, American astrophysicist, astronomer, and academic
  • 1965 – Natalie Dessay, French soprano and actress
  • 1965 – Suge Knight, American record producer, co-founded Death Row Records
  • 1966 – Véronique Gens, French soprano and actress
  • 1966 – David La Haye, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1966 – Paul Reiffel, Australian cricketer and umpire
  • 1966 – El Samurai, Japanese wrestler
  • 1967 – Philippe Saint-André, French rugby player and coach
  • 1968 – Ashley Judd, American actress and activist
  • 1968 – Arshad Warsi, Indian film actor and producer
  • 1969 – Andrew Carnie, Canadian-American linguist, author, and academic
  • 1969 – Susan Polgar, Hungarian-American chess player
  • 1970 – Luis Miguel, Mexican singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1970 – Kelly Holmes, English runner
  • 1970 – Abelardo Fernández, Spanish footballer and manager
  • 1971 – Brendon Burns, Australian comedian, podcaster, writer and author
  • 1971 – Scott McCord, Canadian voice actor
  • 1972 – Rivaldo, Brazilian footballer
  • 1972 – Jeff Wilkins, American football player
  • 1973 – George Gregan, Zambian-Australian rugby player and coach
  • 1973 – Alessio Scarpi, Italian footballer
  • 1975 – Jason Gillespie, Australian cricketer and coach
  • 1975 – Jussi Jääskeläinen, Finnish footballer
  • 1976 – Ruud Jolie, Dutch guitarist
  • 1976 – Scott Padgett, American basketball player, coach, and radio host
  • 1976 – Kim Young-oh, South Korean author and illustrator
  • 1977 – Joe Beimel, American baseball player
  • 1977 – Anju Bobby George, Indian long jumper
  • 1977 – Lucien Mettomo, Cameroonian footballer
  • 1977 – Dennys Reyes, Mexican baseball player
  • 1977 – Jonny Storm, English wrestler and trainer
  • 1978 – James Franco, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1978 – Gabriel Heinze, Argentinian footballer
  • 1978 – Amanda Sage, American-Austrian painter and educator
  • 1979 – Rocky Bernard, American football player
  • 1979 – Kate Hudson, American actress
  • 1979 – Zhao Junzhe, Chinese footballer
  • 1980 – Jason Blaine, Canadian singer-songwriter
  • 1980 – Robyn Regehr, Brazilian-Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1981 – Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor and producer
  • 1981 – Ryuta Hara, Japanese footballer
  • 1981 – Martin Havlát, Czech ice hockey player
  • 1981 – James Hibberd, English cricketer
  • 1981 – Troy Polamalu, American football player
  • 1981 – Catalina Sandino Moreno, Colombian actress
  • 1982 – Joseph Hagerty, American gymnast
  • 1982 – Filip Jícha, Czech handball player
  • 1982 – Samuel C. Morrison, Jr., Liberian-American journalist, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1982 – Rocco Sabato, Italian footballer
  • 1982 – Ignacio Serricchio, Argentinian-American actor
  • 1982 – Sitiveni Sivivatu, New Zealand rugby player
  • 1983 – Alberto Callaspo, Venezuelan-American baseball player
  • 1983 – Zach Duke, American baseball player
  • 1983 – Joe Mauer, American baseball player
  • 1983 – Patrick Platins, German footballer
  • 1983 – Curtis Thigpen, American baseball player
  • 1984 – Christopher Pearce, English cricketer
  • 1985 – Valon Behrami, Swiss footballer
  • 1985 – David Cavazos, Mexican singer-songwriter
  • 1985 – Sabrina Jalees, Canadian comedian, dancer, actress, presenter, and writer
  • 1985 – Jan Zimmermann, German footballer
  • 1986 – Pascal Angan, Beninese footballer
  • 1986 – Candace Parker, American basketball player
  • 1986 – Gabe Pruitt, American basketball player
  • 1986 – Will Thursfield, English-Australian footballer
  • 1987 – Luigi Giorgi, Italian footballer
  • 1987 – Joe Hart, English footballer
  • 1987 – Daniel Schuhmacher, German singer-songwriter
  • 1987 – Maria Sharapova, Russian tennis player
  • 1987 – Lauren Wilson, Canadian figure skater
  • 1988 – Enrique Esqueda, Mexican footballer
  • 1989 – Dominik Mader, German footballer
  • 1989 – Daisuke Watabe, Japanese footballer
  • 1989 – Genoveva Añonma, Equatoguinean footballer
  • 1990 – Jackie Bradley, Jr., American baseball player
  • 1990 – Kim Chiu, Filipino actress, singer, and dancer[34]
  • 1990 – Héctor Herrera, Mexican footballer
  • 1990 – Ayaka Takahashi, Japanese badminton player
  • 1991 – Steve Cook, English footballer

Deaths April 19

  • 843 – Judith of Bavaria, Frankish empress
  • 1012 – Ælfheah of Canterbury, English archbishop and saint (b. 954)
  • 1013 – Hisham II, Umayyad caliph of Córdoba (b. 966)
  • 1044 – Gothelo I, duke of Lorraine
  • 1054 – Leo IX, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1002)
  • 1321 – Gerasimus I, patriarch of Constantinople
  • 1390 – Robert II, king of Scotland (b. 1316)
  • 1405 – Thomas West, 1st Baron West, English nobleman (b. 1335)[35]
  • 1431 – Adolph III, count of Waldeck (b. 1362)
  • 1560 – Philip Melanchthon, German theologian and reformer (b. 1497)
  • 1567 – Michael Stifel, German monk and mathematician (b. 1487)
  • 1578 – Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1530)
  • 1588 – Paolo Veronese, Italian painter (b. 1528)
  • 1608 – Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, English poet, playwright, and politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1536)
  • 1618 – Thomas Bastard, English priest and author (b. 1566)
  • 1619 – Jagat Gosain, Mughal empress (b. 1573)[36]
  • 1629 – Sigismondo d’India, Italian composer (b. 1582)
  • 1632 – Sigismund III Vasa, king of Sweden and Poland (b. 1566)
  • 1686 – Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra, Spanish historian and playwright (b. 1610)
  • 1689 – Christina, queen of Sweden (b. 1626)
  • 1733 – Elizabeth Hamilton, countess of Orkney (b. 1657)
  • 1739 – Nicholas Saunderson, English mathematician and academic (b. 1682)
  • 1768 – Canaletto, Italian painter and etcher (b. 1697)
  • 1776 – Jacob Emden, German rabbi and author (b. 1697)
  • 1791 – Richard Price, Welsh-English preacher and philosopher (b. 1723)
  • 1813 – Benjamin Rush, American physician and educator (b. 1745)
  • 1824 – Lord Byron, English-Scottish poet and playwright (b. 1788)
  • 1831 – Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1765)
  • 1833 – James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier, Bahamian-English admiral and politician, 36th Commodore Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1756)
  • 1840 – Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Canadian bishop (b. 1777)
  • 1854 – Robert Jameson, Scottish mineralogist and academic (b. 1774)
  • 1881 – Benjamin Disraeli, English journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)
  • 1882 – Charles Darwin, English biologist and theorist (b. 1809)
  • 1893 – Martin Körber, Estonian-German pastor, composer, and conductor (b. 1817)
  • 1901 – Alfred Horatio Belo, American publisher, founded The Dallas Morning News (b. 1839)
  • 1906 – Pierre Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
  • 1906 – Spencer Gore, English tennis player and cricketer (b. 1850)
  • 1909 – Signe Rink, Greenland-born Danish writer and ethnologist (b. 1836)
  • 1914 – Charles Sanders Peirce, American mathematician and philosopher (b. 1839)
  • 1915 – Thomas Playford II, English-Australian politician, 17th Premier of South Australia (b. 1837)
  • 1916 – Ephraim Shay, American engineer, designed the Shay locomotive (b. 1839)
  • 1926 – Alexander Alexandrovich Chuprov, Russian-Swiss statistician and theorist (b. 1874)
  • 1930 – Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1827)
  • 1937 – Martin Conway, 1st Baron Conway of Allington, English cartographer and politician (b. 1856)
  • 1937 – William Morton Wheeler, American entomologist and zoologist (b. 1865)
  • 1941 – Johanna Müller-Hermann, Austrian composer (b. 1878)
  • 1949 – Ulrich Salchow, Danish-Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)
  • 1950 – Ernst Robert Curtius, French-German philologist and scholar (b. 1886)
  • 1955 – Jim Corbett, British-Indian colonel, hunter, and author (b. 1875)
  • 1960 – Beardsley Ruml, American economist and statistician (b. 1894)
  • 1961 – Max Hainle, German swimmer (b. 1882)
  • 1967 – Konrad Adenauer, German politician, 1st Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
  • 1971 – Luigi Piotti, Italian race car driver (b. 1913)
  • 1975 – Percy Lavon Julian, American chemist and academic (b. 1899)
  • 1987 – Hugh Brannum, American vocalist, arranger, and composer (b. 1910)
  • 1989 – Daphne du Maurier, English novelist and playwright (b. 1907)
  • 1991 – Stanley Hawes, English-Australian director and producer (b. 1905)
  • 1992 – Frankie Howerd, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1917)
  • 1993 – David Koresh, American religious leader (b. 1959)
  • 1993 – George S. Mickelson, American captain, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor of South Dakota (b. 1941)
  • 1998 – Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, philosopher, and academic Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1914)
  • 1999 – Hermine Braunsteiner, Austrian-German SS officer (b. 1919)
  • 2000 – Louis Applebaum, Canadian composer and conductor (b. 1918)
  • 2001 – Meldrim Thomson, Jr.. American publisher and politician, 73rd Governor of New Hampshire (b. 1912)
  • 2002 – Reginald Rose, American writer (b. 1920)
  • 2003 – Mirza Tahir Ahmad, Indian-English caliph (b. 1928)
  • 2004 – Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (b. 1925)
  • 2004 – John Maynard Smith, English biologist and geneticist (b. 1920)
  • 2004 – Jenny Pike, Canadian WWII servicewoman and photographer (b. 1922)[37]
  • 2005 – George P. Cosmatos, Italian-Greek director and screenwriter (b. 1941)
  • 2005 – Ruth Hussey, American actress (b. 1911)
  • 2005 – Clement Meadmore, Australian-American sculptor and author (b. 1929)
  • 2005 – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish bassist and composer (b. 1946)
  • 2006 – Albert Scott Crossfield, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1921)
  • 2007 – Jean-Pierre Cassel, French actor (b. 1932)
  • 2008 – John Marzano, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1963)
  • 2008 – Alfonso López Trujillo, Colombian cardinal (b. 1935)
  • 2009 – J. G. Ballard, English novelist, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1930)
  • 2011 – Elisabeth Sladen, English actress (b. 1946)[38]
  • 2012 – Leopold David de Rothschild, English financier and philanthropist (b. 1927)
  • 2012 – Greg Ham, Australian saxophonist, songwriter, and actor (b. 1953)
  • 2012 – Levon Helm, American singer-songwriter, drummer, guitarist, instrumentalist, and actor (b. 1940)
  • 2012 – Valeri Vasiliev, Russian ice hockey player (b. 1949)
  • 2013 – Sivanthi Adithan, Indian businessman (b. 1936)
  • 2013 – Allan Arbus, American actor and photographer (b. 1918)
  • 2013 – Mike Denness, Scottish-English cricketer and referee (b. 1940)
  • 2013 – François Jacob, French biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
  • 2013 – E. L. Konigsburg, American author and illustrator (b. 1930)
  • 2013 – Al Neuharth, American journalist, author, and publisher, founded USA Today (b. 1924)
  • 2014 – Lindy Berry, American football player (b. 1927)
  • 2014 – Ian McIntyre, Scottish journalist and producer (b. 1930)
  • 2014 – Frits Thors, Dutch journalist (b. 1909)
  • 2015 – Raymond Carr, English historian and academic (b. 1919)
  • 2015 – William Price Fox, American journalist and author (b. 1926)
  • 2015 – Roy Mason, English miner and politician, Secretary of State for Defence (b. 1924)[39]
  • 2015 – Tom McCabe, Scottish social worker and politician (b. 1954)[40]
  • 2015 – Oktay Sinanoğlu, Italian-Turkish chemist and academic (b. 1935)
  • 2016 – Patricio Aylwin, Chilean politician (b. 1918)[41]
  • 2016 – Milt Pappas, American baseball player (b. 1939)[42]
  • 2017 – Aaron Hernandez, American football player (b. 1989)[43]

Holidays and observances on April 19

  • Christian feast day:
    • Ælfheah of Canterbury (Anglican, Catholic)
    • Conrad of Ascoli
    • Emma of Lesum
    • Expeditus
    • George of Antioch
    • Olaus and Laurentius Petri (Lutheran)
    • Pope Leo IX
    • Ursmar
    • April 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Earliest day on which First Day of Summer or Sumardagurinn fyrsti can fall, while April 25 is the latest; celebrated on the first Thursday after April 18. (Iceland)
  • Army Day (Brazil)
  • Beginning of the Independence Movement (Venezuela)
  • Bicycle Day[44]
  • Dutch-American Friendship Day (United States)
  • Holocaust Remembrance Day (Poland)
  • Indian Day (Brazil)
  • King Mswati III’s birthday (Eswatini)
  • Landing of the 33 Patriots Day (Uruguay)
  • Patriots’ Day (Massachusetts, Maine and Wisconsin, United States)

April 19 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

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