1157 Richard I - King of England from 1189 to 1199. He was known as Coeur de Lion (the Lionhearted)
1841 Antonin Dvorak – Bohemian composer (The Water Nymph, Carnival, Gypsy Melodies)
1871 Robert Samuel McLaughlin – Canadian auto manufacturer. In 1892, McLaughlin and his father and brother started The McLaughlin Carriage Works in Oshawa, Ontario. In 1908 they began building auto bodies for William Durant of the Buick Motor Company in Flint, Michigan. The McLaughlin Buick was followed by the Chevrolet in 1915. McLaughlin was also an avid horseman, entering his first show in 1926 and winning over 1,500 ribbons for jumping in Canada and the US. His Parkwood Stables produced three Queen's Plate winners
1897 Jimmie Rodgers - Country singer known as The Blue Yodeler ('T' for Texas, Brakeman's Blues, Blue Yodel) He was the first country singer to be in a film (Singing Brakeman)
1921 Sir Harry Secombe – Welsh-born comedian and actor (The Harry Secombe Show, The Last Goon Show, Highway) He was a member of the Goons, who appeared in the popular BBC radio programme of the 1950s, The Goon Show
1922 Sid Caesar – Actor and comedian (Your Show of Shows, Admiral Broadway Revue, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Silent Movie, Grease, The Cheap Detective)
1925 Peter Sellers – British comedian and actor (The Pink Panther movies, What's New Pussycat, Casino Royale, Dr. Strangelove, Being There, The Party, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu) He was also a member of the Goons
1931 Jack Rosenthal – British playwright (London’s Burning, Yentl, Coronation Street)
1932 Patsy Cline - Country singer (Crazy, I Fall to Pieces, She's Got You, Heartaches, Sweet Dreams Of You)
1937 Virna Lisi – Actress (Queen Margot, Night Flight from Moscow, The Statue, I Love NY)
1947 Ann Beattie – US short story writer and novelist (Distortions, Chilly Scenes of Winter, The Burning House)
1957 Heather Thomas – Actress (The Fall Guy, Flair, The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission, Hoover vs. the Kennedys: The Second Civil War)
1958 Sonja Smits – Canadian actress (The Eleventh Hour, Traders, Spenser: Pale Kings and Princes, The Diviners, Street Legal)
1971 Martin Freeman – British actor (The Hobbit, The Old Curiosity Shop, Hot Fuzz, The Robinsons, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Love Actually) He plays Dr. John Watson in the series Sherlock, which is set in present-day London
1981 Jonathan Taylor Thomas - Actor (The Lion King, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Tom and Huck, Home Improvement, The Wild Thornberrys)
Died this Day
1560 Amy Robsart – Wife of the Earl of Leicester. She died from a fall down the great staircase at Cumnor Place, which broke her neck. It was suspected that she was pushed, for soon after, the Earl became an active suitor to Queen Elizabeth I, although he failed in his attempt to become her consort
1784 Ann Lee – British-born leader of the Shakers
1853 George Bradshaw, age 52 – British publisher and originator of the Bradshaw Railway Guide, which was used so often by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
1888 Annie Chapman, age 45 – The second victim of Jack the Ripper. She was found murdered behind 29 Hanbury Street, in Spitalfields, London
1979 Jean Seberg, age 40 – US actress (Airport, Paint Your Wagon, Lilith, Saint Joan) She was found dead under mysterious circumstances, in Paris
2022 Queen Elizabeth II, age 96. She was the longest serving monarch in British history, ascending to the throne upon the death of her father, King George VI in 1952. At that time she became the head of the Commonwealth and Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, among others. She was married to Prince Philip for 73 years until his death in 2021
On this Day
1619 The first Lutheran service in Canada was held by the Jens Munk expedition to Hudson Bay
1664 New Amsterdam became New York, as Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam, the capital of New Netherland, to an English naval squadron under Colonel Richard Nicolls. Stuyvesant had hoped to resist the English, but he was an unpopular ruler, and his Dutch subjects refused to rally around him. Following its capture, New Amsterdam's name was changed to New York, in honour of the Duke of York, who organised the mission. The colony of New Netherland was established by the Dutch West India Company in 1624 and grew to encompass all of present-day New York City and parts of Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey. A successful Dutch settlement in the colony grew up on the southern tip of Manhattan Island and was christened New Amsterdam. In 1664, when New Amsterdam passed to English control, English and Dutch settlers lived together peacefully. In 1673, there was a short interruption of English rule when the Netherlands temporarily regained the settlement. In 1674, New York was returned to the English, and in 1686 it became the first city in the colonies to receive a royal charter. After the American Revolution, it became the first capital of the United States
1760 Montréal passed from French to British control. A force of 20,000 British soldiers had surrounded the city the day before and the French position was hopeless. The governor agreed to surrender, provided the French soldiers were allowed to march out of the city with their guns and flags. The request was refused and that evening, the red cross of Britain replaced the fleur-de-lis at the Place d'Armes. The French burned their battle flags to save the humiliation of surrendering them to the English. The British agreed to give the French fair treatment, including freedom of worship, freedom to trade furs on an equal basis with the British, freedom of emigration and continued property rights
1775 Nova Scotia was hit by the “Hurricane of Independence,” which started a week earlier in the West Indies. An estimated 4,170 people from North Carolina northward died in the storm
1900 Galveston, Texas, was struck by a hurricane that killed about 6,000 people
1921 Margaret Gorman of Washington, DC, was crowned the first Miss America in Atlantic City, NJ
1930 The comic strip Blondie first appeared
1935 Louisiana Senator Huey Long was shot by Dr. Carl Weiss at point-blank range outside the main hall of the Capitol Building. Long died two days later. Called a demagogue by critics, the populist leader was a larger-than-life figure who boasted that he bought legislators "like sacks of potatoes, shuffled them like a deck of cards." In 1928 Long became the youngest governor of Louisiana at age 34. His brash style alienated many people, including the heads of the biggest corporation in the state, Standard Oil. Long preached the redistribution of wealth, which he believed could be done by heavily taxing the rich. Later, Long would develop these theories into the Share Our Wealth society, which promised a $2,500 minimum income per family. Long also abolished the state's poll tax on voting and gained free textbooks for every student. His motto was "Every Man a King." His populism led to an impeachment attempt, but he successfully foiled the charges. In 1930, he won the election for Louisiana senator but declined to serve until his handpicked successor was able to win the governor's seat in 1932. Soon after vigorously campaigning for Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, Long, with his own designs on the office, began loudly denouncing the new president. In response, many of his allies in the Louisiana legislature turned against him and would no longer vote for his candidates. In an effort to regain power in the state, Long managed to pass a series of laws giving him control over the appointment of every public position in the state, including every policeman and schoolteacher. Weiss had apparently been acting out of revenge when he shot Long, angry that his father-in-law, who had been a Louisiana judge, lost his job because he was not part of the Long political machine
1943 Italy made a secret unconditional surrender in the Second World War. However, German troops continued fighting against the Allies throughout the country
1952 The bank-robbing, cop-killing Boyd gang escaped from Toronto's Don Jail, sparking one of the greatest manhunts in Canadian history. The gang was recaptured eight days later in a North York barn
1953 Continental Trailways offered the first transcontinental express bus service in the US. The 3,154-mile ride from New York City to San Francisco lasted 88 hours and 50 minutes, for a cost of $56.70
1966 The television series Star Trek premiered on NBC, with the episode, The Man Trap. Although the original Star Trek series ran for only three years and never placed better than No. 52 in the ratings, Gene Roddenberry's series became a cult classic and spawned numerous other television series and feature films. In 1992, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, opened an exhibit honouring the original Star Trek television series. The exhibit featured more than 80 costumes, props, and models from the show, including Mr. Spock's pointy ears and a replica of the bridge of the starship Enterprise
1974 In a controversial executive action, President Gerald Ford issued a "full, free and absolute" pardon for his disgraced predecessor Richard Nixon, for any crimes he may have committed or participated in while in office. The pardon came exactly one month after Nixon announced his resignation, and was widely condemned at the time. Ford later defended this action before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal. Decades later, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation presented its 2001 Profile in Courage Award to Gerald Ford for his 1974 pardon of Nixon. In pardoning Nixon, said the foundation, Ford placed his love of country ahead of his own political future and brought needed closure to the divisive Watergate affair. Ford left politics after losing the 1976 presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter
1977 20-year-old Toronto swimmer Cindy Nicholas became the first person to swim the English Channel non-stop in both directions. During her swimming career, Nicholas swam the Channel 19 times
1980 At L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, UNESCO unveiled a plaque declaring its Viking ruins a World Heritage Site. The first Europeans known to visit North America landed there c. AD950. It is the earliest known location in the New World of European structures and of iron working, and as such, L'Anse aux Meadows has been recognised as one of the world's major archaeological properties. It was the first historic site to be placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List of cultural and natural sites of outstanding value
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