On This Day in History........

0274 St Eutychian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
0871 Battle at Reading Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1357 Flemish Earl Louis & Luxembourg Duke Wenceslaus sign peace treaty
1493 Columbus left new world on return from 1st voyage
1519 1st Altenburger sermon (Luther & Karl von Miltitz)
1570 Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
1642 King Charles I with 400 soldiers attacks the English parliament
1717 Netherlands, England & France sign Triple Alliance
1725 Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
1754 Columbia University founded, as Kings College (New York City NY)
1762 England declares war on Spain & Naples
1780 Snowstorm hit Washington's army at Morristown New Jersey
1781 André Méchain discovers M80 (globular cluster in Scorpio)
1832 Insurrection of Trinidad negroes
1843 Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale" premieres in Paris
1843 Royal Academy (Technical Hague court) Delft opens
1861 President Buchanan appoints a fast on account of threatened succession
1861 US Fort Morgan, Mobile, seized by Alabama
1862 Battle of Fort Hindman, AR (Arkansas Post)
1862 Battle of Helena, AR
1862 Romney Campaign-Stonewall Jackson occupies Bath
1863 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY
1881 Johannes Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture" premieres, Breslau
1883 Ontario Rugby Football Union (forerunner of CFL) formed
1884 Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)
1885 Dr W W Grant of Iowa, performs 1st appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22)
1887 Thomas Stevens is 1st man to bicycle around the world (San Francisco-San Francisco); 21,700km
1893 US President Harrison grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
1894 France ratifies Duple Alliance with Russia
1896 AFL charters Actors' National Protective Union, New York City NY
1896 Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
1898 1st installment of William Dean Howell's "Life & Letters" appears
1902 Hugh Trumble takes a hat-trick vs England at the MCG
1904 Ottawa Silver 7 beat Winnipeg Rowing Club 2 games to 1 (Stanley Cup)
1904 Supreme Court rules Puerto Ricans cannot be denied admission to US
1906 South Africa beat England by one wicket, their 1st Test win
1907 George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" premieres in London
1912 Smallest earth-moon distance this century, 356,375 km center-to-center
1915 1st elected Jewish Governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho
1915 Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops
1920 1st Black baseball league, National Negro Baseball League, organizes
1920 Amsterdam actors decide to strike for retirement benefits
1921 Eugene O'Neill's "Diff'rent" premieres in New York City NY
1923 1st broadcast of "Barn Dance Show" (WBAP - Fort Worth TX)
1923 Lenin's "Political Testament" calls for removal of Stalin
1925 French psychologist Emil Coué brings his self-esteem therapy to US "Every day in every way I am getting better & better"
1926 Theodorus Pangalos resigns as Greek dictator
1932 Bradman scores 167 for Australia vs South Africa at the MCG
1932 British East Indies Viceroy Willingdon arrests Gandhi & Nehru
1932 State of siege proclaimed in Honduras
1934 1st Dutch talkie movie, Jan Teunissen's "Willem of Orange" premieres
1935 Fort Jefferson National Monument, Florida established
1935 Bob Hope 1st heard on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue"
1936 Billboard magazine publishes its 1st music hit parade
1936 Grimmett becomes world record wicket taker with no 190 vs South Africa
1939 Frieda Wunderlich elected 1st woman dean of a US graduate school
1939 Hermann Goering appoints Reinhard Heydrich head of Jewish Emigration
1941 Resistance fighters counter d'Estienne d'Orves/Jan Doornik, 1st meet
1941 Sergey Rachmaninov's "Symphonie Dances" premieres in Philadelphia
1942 NFL Pro Bowl Chicago Bears beats NFL All-Stars 35-24
1942 Premier Churchill & General Marshall fly to Florida
1942 Rogers Hornsby is 14th player selected to the Hall of Fame
1943 Thomas Mann completes his tetralogy, "Joseph & His Brothers"
1944 Ralph Bunche appointed 1st Negro official in US State Department
1945 Germans execute resistance fighters in Amsterdam
1945 US jeep-aircraft carrier Ommaney Bay sinks after kamikaze attack
1947 "Park Avenue" closes at Shubert Theater New York City NY after 72 performances
1947 "Show Boat" closes at Ziegfeld Theater New York City NY after 417 performances
1948 Britain grants independence to Burma
1951 During Korean conflict, North Korean forces captured Seoul
1953 KTSM TV channel 9 in El Paso TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1954 Elvis Presley records a 10 minute demo in Nashville
1954 Soap Opera "The Brighter Day" premieres
1957 "Blondie" situation comedy premieres on NBC TV (later on CBS)
1957 Dodgers buy 44 passenger twin-engine airplane for $775,000
1958 Sputnik 1 reenters atmosphere & burns up
1959 Luna 1 (Mechta) becomes 1st craft to leave Earth's gravity
1960 European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm
1961 Longest recorded strike ends-33 years-Danish barbers' assistants
1962 1st automated (unmanned) subway train (New York City NY)
1963 Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon
1965 LBJ's "Great Society" State of the Union Address
1966 Doug Walters scores second Test century in his second Test
1966 WFLD TV channel 32 in Chicago, IL (IND) begins broadcasting
1968 Leo Fender sells Fender Guitars for $13 million
1968 Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas
1969 "Fig Leaves Are Falling" closes at Broadhurst New York City NY after 4 performances
1969 France begins arms embargo against Israel
1970 Beatles last recording session at EMI studios
1970 Kansas City Chiefs beat Oakland Raiders 17-7 in AFC championship game
1970 Minnesota Vikings beat Cleveland Browns 27-7 in NFC championship game
1970 New York City NY transit fare rises from 20¢ to 30¢, new larger tokens used
1970 Walter Cronkite ends hosting weekly documentary
1971 Dr Melvin H Evans inaugurated as 1st elected Governor of Virgin Islands
1971 Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims
1971 Philadelphia's Veteran Stadium dedicated
1971 Congressional Black Caucus organizes
1974 Nixon refuses to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee
1975 Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica
1975 Montréal Canadiens shutout Washington Capitals 10-0
1975 "Good News" closes at St James Theater New York City NY after 16 performances
1975 "Gypsy" closes at Winter Garden Theater New York City NY after 120 performances
1975 "Over Here" closes at Shubert Theater New York City NY after 341 performances
1975 Ford Executive Order on CIA Activities within the US (No 11828)
1976 "Candide" closes at Broadway Theater New York City NY after 740 performances
1976 "Home Sweet Homer" opens & closes at Palace Theater New York City NY
1977 Mary Shane hired by Chicago White Sox as 1st woman TV play-by-play
1980 President Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
1981 "Frankenstein" opens & closes on Broadway
1981 "Peter Pan" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater New York City NY after 578 performances
1981 69th Australian Mens Tennis B Teacher beats Kim Warwick (75 76 63)
1981 British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"
1982 Chris Wallace becomes co-anchor of the Today Show
1982 Golden Gate Bridge closed for 3rd time by fierce storm
1982 ABC Direction Network (57 affiliates) & ABC Rock Network (40 affiliates) become the 5th & 6th ABC radio network
1982 Bryant Gumbel became co-host of NBC's "Today Show"
1983 US Football League holds its 1st player draft
1984 "Night Court" starring Harry Anderson premieres on NBC TV
1984 Edmonton beats Minnesota 12-8-highest-scoring modern NHL game
1986 NCAA basketball's David Robinson blocks a record 14 shots
1986 David Boon's second Test century, 131 vs India at Adelaide
1987 16 die in a train crash in Chase MD
1989 Comet Tempel 1 at perihelion
1989 Vice President Bush is 1st since Vice President Van Buren to declare himself President
1989 US F-14s shoot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean
1991 AT&T workers in Newark accidentally snap a cable
1991 Iraq agrees to send Aziz to Geneva to meet Baker on Jan 9th
1991 Fu Mingxia, 12, of China wins World Swimming Championships gold medal
1991 Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland
1992 8th largest wrestling crowd (60,000-Tokyo Dome)
1993 7th largest wrestling crowd (63,500-Tokyo Dome)
1994 10th largest wrestling crowd (58,000-Tokyo Dome)
1995 Newt Gingrich ® becomes speaker of the House
1996 "Father" opens at Criterion Theater New York City NY for 52 performances
1998 "Funny Thing Happened" closes at St James New York City NY after 715 performances
1998 "Ivanov" closes at Vivian Beaumont Theater New York City NY after 51 performances
1998 "Triumph of Love" closes at Royale Theater New York City NY
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Missing In Action....

1968 MINNICH RICHARD W. COLLEGEVILLE PA REMAINS RECOVERED 12/04/85
1969 LANE MITCHELL S. ALBUQUERQUE NM
1969 NEELD BOBBY G. ALBUQUERQUE NM
1973 JOHNSTON STEVEN B. MUSKOGEE OK

Births which occurred on January 04:

1334 Amadeus VI [Green Earl], Earl of Savoye
1567 Franciscus Aguilon physicist/mathematician/jesuit/architect
1579 Willem Teellinck Dutch theologist/vicar
1581 Bishop James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh, calculated Earth's beginning (November 23, 4004 BC)
1604 Jacob Balde German jesuit/barok conductor (Jephthe)
1710 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Italian composer (Il Prigioniero Superbo)
1717 Antonio Maria Mazzoni composer
1720 Johann Friedrich Agricola German (court)composer/organist
1726 Cornelis Ploos van Amstel Dutch engraver/art collector
1739 Henrik C Cras Dutch lawyer (Laudatio Hugonis Grotii)
1756 Anne Nagell van Ampsen Dutch politician
1759 Maria Rosa Coccia composer
1772 Paul-Louis Courier (de Méré), French writer/interpreter
1773 Johann Peter Heuschkel composer
1785 Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm Germany, librarian (fairy tale collector)
1789 Benjamin Lundy philanthropist/abolitionist
1797 Wilhelm Beer Germany, amateur astronomer (constructed 1st Moon map)
1805 Stephan Hale Alonzo Marsh composer
1807 Baltasar Saldoni composer
1809 Louis Braille Coupvray France, developer (reading system for blind)
1813 Sir Isaac Pitman inventor (shorthand)
1813 Alexander Freiherr von Bach Austria attorney/premier (1852-59)
1813 Louis L Bonaparte English/French linguist/senator
1821 John James Peck Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1878
1822 Joseph Jones Reynolds Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1899
1823 Otto van Rees Governor-General of Dutch-Indies (1884-88)
1823 Peter Joseph Osterhaus Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1917
1837 Casimiro de Abreu Brazil, poet (Camoes e o jau)
1838 Charles Stratton [General Tom Thumb] (famous short person)
1844 Thomas H Rollinson composer
1847 Hendrik Goeman Borgesius Dutch politician
1869 Percy Pitt composer
1872 Edmund Rumpler Austria, auto/airplane builder
1874 Josef Suk Czech violinist/composer (Asrael)
1874 Sven Fleuron writer
1877 Gibson Gowland England, actor (Blind Husbands, Phantom of the Opera)
1878 Alfred Edgar Coppard England, writer (Black Dogs & Other Stories)
1881 Wilhelm Lehmbruck German painter/poet/sculptor (Seated Youth)
1883 Johanna Westerdijk botanist/Netherlands 1st female profressor (Utrecht, 1917-52)
1883 Max F Eastman US, critic/essayist (Masses)
1888 Arthur Berry England, soccer player (Olympics-gold-1908, 12)
1889 Albertus W "Albert" van Dalsum actor/director (Abandoned Child)
1890 Alfred G Jodl German Wehrmacht General/Chief of Staff
1890 Mosa Pijade Yugoslavia, MP (communist)
1893 Manuel Palau Boix composer
1894 Wesley La Violette composer
1895 Lourens G M Baas Becking Dutch botanist/resistance fighter
1896 Everett McKinley Dirkson (Senator-R-IL)
1896 André Aimé René Masson French Surrealist artist (Labyrinth)
1898 Roger Vuataz composer
1903 Joris Diels Flemish actor/director (Haagsche Comedy)
1903 Ramón Ernesto Cruz Uclés Honduras President (1971-72); overthrown
1905 Sterling Holloway Cedartown GA, actor (Waldo-Life of Riley)
1908 Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal Austrian nude model/Hitler's lover
1908 Walther Vanbeselaere Flemish art historian
1913 Malietoa Tanumafili II King of West-Samoa (1962- )
1914 Jane Wyman St Joseph MO, 1st Mrs Ron Reagan, (Magnificent Obsession)
1914 Mohammed Sahir shah (Afghanistan)
1916 Catherina Elisabeth "Tootje" Vreede portrait painter
1916 Robert Parrish Columbus GA, director (Casino Royale)
1917 Jesse [Marc Weidenfeld] White Buffalo NY, actor (Maytag Repairman, Bedtime for Bonzo, Million Dollar Mermaid)
1917 Maurice Wohl English broker/multi-millionaire
1919 Al "Jazbo" Collins New York City NY, disk jockey (Tonight! America After Dark)
1919 Havelock Henry Trevor Hudson underwriter (Lloyd's of London)
1920 Benito Perez Galdos Spanish writer (Fortunata y Jacinta)
1920 William Egan Colby CIA director (Nixon)
1922 Frank Wess flutist/saxophonist/composer
1923 Flavio Testi composer
1925 Veikko Hakulinen Finland, 30K/50K cross country skier (Olympics-gold-1956)
1927 Barbara Rush Denver CO, actress (Marsha-Peyton Place, Flamingo Road)
1929 Amitai W Etzioni US sociologist (Active Society)
1929 Bobby Tulloch ornithologist
1930 Don Shula winningest NFL coach (Miami Dolphins)
1930 Iain Cuthbertson British actor (Guilty, Scandal, Rep, Danger UXB)
1930 Sorrell Booke Buffalo NY, actor (Bye Bye Braverman, Black Like Me)
1932 Richard Stahl Detroit MI, actor (Howard-It's a Living)
1933 Ed Jenkins (Representative-D-GA, 1977- )
1935 Floyd Patterson heavyweight champ (1956-59, 1960-62) (Olympics-gold-1952)
1935 Kenneth Money Canada, astronaut (STS 42-alt)
1937 Dyan Cannon Tacoma WA, Mrs Cary Grant, actress (Heaven Can Wait)
1937 Grace Bumbry St Louis, mezzo-soprano (Venus in Tannhäuser)
1937 R Surendranath cricketer (Indian pace bowler in 11 Tests early 60s)
1938 Louis Krebs Graham Nashville TN, PGA golfer (1975 US Open)
1939 Jon Appleton composer
1939 Oliver Clark Buffalo NY, actor (Bob Newhart Show, Two of Us)
1940 Anthony Skooter Teague Texas, actor (How to Succeed in Business)
1940 Brian Josephson British physicist (Nobel 1973)
1941 John Bennett Perry Williamstown MA, singer/actor (Falcon Crest)
1941 Maureen Reagan 1st daughter (Ronald Reagan)
1941 Jörg Remé German/Dutch painter/graphic artist
1942 John McLaughlin rock guitarist (Sentimental Journey/Clouds of Joy)
1943 Tom Wilkinson CFL QB (Edmonton Eskimos)
1944 Volker Hornback rocker (Tangerine Dream)
1945 Jay Dee Maness Loma Linda CA, singer (Desert Rose Band-Love Reunited)
1946 Bernard Sumner rocker (New Order-Round & Round)
1947 J Danforth Quayle (Senator-R-IN, 44th Vice President 1989-1993)
1949 Mick Mills British soccer player
1951 Barbara Ann Cochran Claremont NH, slalom skier (Olympics-gold-1972)
1955 Kathy Forester Lookout Mountain GA, country singer (Forester Sister-Men)
1955 Mark Hollis English pop musician (Talk Talk, Dum Dum Girl)
1956 Ann Magnuson Charleston WV, actress (Anything But Love, Hunger)
1956 Barney Sumner rock guitarist/vocalist (New Order-Blue Monday)
1956 Bernard Albrecht English pop guitarist (Joy Division)
1957 Patty Loveless [Ramey], Pikeville KY, singer (Blue Side of Town)
1958 Matt Frewer Washington DC, actor (Max Headroom, Doctor Doctor)
1958 Nina Foust Asheboro NC, LPGA golfer (1994 Hawaiian Ladies Open-6th)
1959 Vanity [Denise Marquardt], Ontario Canada, actress (52 Pick Up)
1960 Cory Everson Racine Wisconsin, body builder (6X Ms Olympia)
1960 Michael Stipe US rock vocalist (REM-Losing My Religion, Stand)
1961 Lee Curreri New York City NY, actor (Bruno Martelli-Fame)
1962 Martin McAloon rocker (Prefab Sprout-2 Wheels Good)
1962 Joe Kleine NBA center (Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls)
1962 Patrick Cassidy Los Angeles CA, actor/composer (Fever Pitch, Off the Wall)
1963 Dave Foley actor/comedian (Kids In The Hall, Dave Nelson-NewsRadio)
1963 Linda Muri Killingly CT, rower (Olympics-96)
1964 Stephanie Maxwell-Pierson Somerville NJ, US rower (Olympics-92)
1965 David Glasper rocker (Breathe-All I Need)
1965 Guy Forget Morocco, tennis star
1965 Jergus Baca Liptovsky Mikulas Czechoslovakia, IHL defenseman (Team Slovakia 98)
1965 John Jackson NFL offensive tackle (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1965 Julia Ormond London England, actress (Sabrina, Legends of the Fall)
1965 Kevin Wickander US baseball pitcher (Cincinnati Reds)
1965 Mitch Booth Australian tornado yachter (Olympics-96)
1965 Rick Hearst Howard Beach New York City NY, actor (Alan-Michael-Guiding Light)
1966 Deana Carter country singer (Strawberry Wine)
1967 David Wayne Toms Monroe LA, PGA golfer (1992 Northern Telecom-3rd)
1967 Michael "Mike" Peterson Washington DC, rower (Olympics-1996)
1967 Rick Cunningham NFL tackle (Minnesota Vikings, Oakland Raiders)
1968 Jackie Harris NFL tight end (Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
1969 Lindsay Kennedy Atlanta GA, actor (Jeb-Little House on the Prairie)
1969 Corie Blount NBA forward (Los Angeles Lakers)
1969 Kees van Wonderen Dutch soccer player (NEC/NAC)
1970 Colin Scrivener CFL defensive tackle (Winnipeg Blue Bombers)
1970 Sean Lumpkin NFL safety (New Orleans Saints)
1971 Jeremy Licht Los Angeles CA, actor (Mark-Valerie/Hogan Family)
1971 Carlos Perez Dominican/US baseball pitcher (Montréal Expos)
1971 Deb Sonnenberg Edmonton Alberta, softball pitcher (Olympics-96)
1971 Errol Brown CFL defensive back (Winnipeg Blue Bombers)
1971 Garrison Hearst NFL running back (Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers)
1971 Orlanda Truitt wide receiver (Oakland Raiders)
1971 Richard Chee Quee cricketer (New South Wales opening batsman Fiji/Chin ancestry)
1972 Mike McCoy WLAF quarterback (Amsterdam Admirals)
1973 Lamont Warren NFL running back (Indianapolis Colts)
1973 Ray Mickens cornerback (New York Jets)
1973 Todd Sauerbrun NFL punter/kicker (Chicago Bears)
1974 Carl Powell defensive end (Indianapolis Colts)
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Deaths which occurred on January 04:

0041 Caligula murdered
0838 Babak Persian social/religious reformer, martyred
1584 Tobias Stimmer Swiss painter/cartoonist/playwright, dies at 44
1612 Henry L Spieghel Dutch merchant/writer, dies at 62
1678 Johan Maetsuyker Dutch Governor-General of Ceylon (1653-78), dies at 71
1695 Duke of Luxembourg Luxembourg/French marshal, dies
1701 Ernst R Tarhemberg Austria, field marshal, dies at 62
1707 Louis Willem I count of Baden-Baden, dies
1729 Joseph de Montesquiou Earl d'Artagnan French Lieutenant-General , dies at 77
1729 Meir Bacharach Hebrew poet, dies
1745 Willem I Kerricx the Young, Flemish architect/painter, dies at 62
1752 Gabriel Cramer Swiss mathematician (paradox of Cramer), dies at 47
1761 Stephen Hales English vicar/inventor (ventilator), dies at 83
1765 Joseph Franz Xaver Dominik Stalder composer, dies at 39
1778 Charles D J Eisen French engraver/painter, dies at 57
1782 Ange-Jacques Gabriel French architect (Ecole Military), dies at 83
1786 Mozes Mendelssohn Jewish/German philosopher (Haksalah), dies at 56
1793 Bengt Lidner Swedish poet (Medea/Yttersa domen), dies at 35
1799 Galib Dede/Seyh Galib Turkish poet (Hüsn ü Ask), dies at about 40
1804 Charlotte Lennox English novelist (The Female Quixote), dies
1809 Bartolomeo Giacometti composer, dies at 67
1821 Elizabeth Ann Seton 1st native-born American saint, dies in Maryland
1825 Ferdinand I King of Sicily/Naples (Ferdinand IV), dies at 73
1831 Nikola P Neofit Rilski Bulgaria abbot/poet, dies at 37
1843 Petronella Moens Frisian author/poetess, dies at 80
1864 Mateo Ferrer composer, dies at 75
1877 Cornelius Vanderbilt US robber baron, dies at 82
1880 Anselm Feuerbach German painter, dies
1883 Nicolas Ledesma composer, dies at 91
1885 Eduard Yosif Kotek composer, dies at 29
1886 Ernest Panckoucke French publisher (Horace), dies at 77
1891 Joe Hunter cricket wicket-keeper (England on 1884-85 Autralian tour), dies
1898 Frantisek Pivoda composer, dies at 73
1903 Geo[rge J H] Poggenbeek Dutch surrealist painter, dies at 49
1903 W H M "Dicky" Richards cricketer (score 4 & 0 in Test for South Africa), dies
1908 Antony Winkler Prins writer (Groiller Encyclopaedia), dies at 70
1910 Léon Delagrange French aviation pioneer, dies
1913 Alfred von Schlieffen Prussian General-field marshal, dies at 79
1914 Redjâizade M Ekrem Turkish poet/writer, dies at about 66
1914 Silas Weir Mitchell US physician/author (Free Quaker), dies at 84
1920 Benito Pérez Galdós Spanish writer (Gloria), dies at 76
1931 Art Acord western actor (Set Free, Spurs & Saddles), dies at 40
1933 Lucas Lindeboom Dutch evangelist (Vredebond), dies at 87
1940 Conrad Weiss German writer/poet (Heart of Words), dies at 59
1941 Henri Bergson French philosopher (Le Rire, Nobel 1928), dies at 81
1942 Leon Jessel composer, dies at 70
1944 Henri "Hans" Flu Indonesian/Dutch family doctor/anti-fascist, murder
1944 Kaj Munk [Harald Leininger], anti-fascist writer (Kaj Munk), dies
1946 Barney Oldfield daredevil, dies at 67
1947 Forrest Reid Irish author/critic (Young Tom, Apostate), dies at 71
1952 Constantly Permeke Flemish painter (Boerin), dies at 65
1953 Arthur Hoyt actor (Gold Rush Gertie, Lost World), dies at 78
1955 Dominicus Johner composer, dies at 80
1955 François Rasse composer, dies at 81
1955 Jan D Domela Nieuwenhuis Nyegaard Dutch preacher, dies at 84
1956 Alexandr Tikhonovich Grechaninov composer, dies at 91
1957 Theodor Körner von Siegringen Austrian President (1951-57), dies at 84
1958 Waverley John Anderson Scotland, Viscount/Governor of Bengal, dies at 75
1960 Albert Camus French author (Stranger), dies in an automobile accident at 46
1961 Barry Fitzgerald actor (Going My Way), dies at 72
1964 Ralph Dumke actor (Movieland Quiz), dies at 64
1965 T S Eliot poet (Washed Country), dies in London at 76
1967 Donald Campbell boat racer, dies trying to break 300 mph on water
1968 Joseph Pholien Belgian PM (1950-52) communist fighter, dies at 83
1969 Montague Fawcett Phillips composer, dies at 83
1972 Carl-Olof Anderberg composer, dies at 57
1974 Karel Janacek composer, dies at 70
1975 Carlo Levi Italian writer (Parole Sono Pietre), dies at 72
1976 Jan B Cammans Flemish actor (Brothers Karamazov), dies at 84
1978 Willem Bruynzeel Dutch timber/lumber/wood manufacturer, dies at 76
1979 Charles Mingus jazz bassist, dies of heart attack
1985 Brian Gwynne Horrocks English Lieutenant-General (A Full Life), dies at 89
1986 Christopher Isherwood British writer (Lions & Shadows), dies at 81
1986 Phil Lynott rocker (Thin Lizzy), dies of overdose at 34
1987 Peggy Bacon author/illustrator (Off With Their Heads), dies at 91
1987 F van Heek Dutch sociologist, dies at 79
1987 Jack Martin cricketer (English pace bowler, 1-111 & 0-18 in Test), dies
1990 Alberto Lleras Camargo President of Colombia (1945-46, 58-62), dies
1990 Robert F Adams US, sci-fi author (Castaways in Time), dies at 57
1991 Berry Kroeger actor (Demon Seed), dies of kidney failure at 78
1991 Harry Krimer actor (Napoleon), committed suicide at 94
1991 Leo N Wright US saxophonist (I Left My Heart in San Francisco), dies at 57
1992 Earl Colbert entertainer, dies
1992 William Walker stuntman/actor (Our Man Flint), dies at 74
1993 Daniel H Craven South African rugby coach, dies
1993 Joe Keenan actor (Conviction of Kitty Dodd), dies of cancer at 69
1994 Jim Booth New Zealand producer (Heavenly Creatures), dies at 48
1994 Michiel P "Michael" Gorsira Governor of Curaçao (1951-67), dies at 80
1995 D Elmina Davies filmmaker, dies at 36
1995 Dorothy Granger US actress (Hog Wild, Dentist), dies at about 80
1995 Eduardo Mata Mexican conductor, dies in air crash at 52
1995 Jonathan Zeitlyn artist, dies at 43
1995 Leonard Hirsch British violinist/conductor (BBC Empire Orchestra), dies at 92
1995 Robert Clifford Latham Pepys Scholar, dies at 82
1996 Ramon Vinay operatic tenor/baritone, dies at 83
1996 Roy McKelvie soldier/sports writer, dies at 83
1997 Harry B Helmsley owner (Empire State Building), dies at 87
1998 John Gary singer, dies at 65

1789, 1792 Washington unanimously elected by Electoral College to first and second terms

On this day in 1789, George Washington becomes the first and only president to be unanimously elected by the Electoral College. He repeated this notable feat on the same day in 1792.

The peculiarities of early American voting procedure meant that although Washington won unanimous election, he still had a runner-up, John Adams, who served as vice president during both of Washington’s terms. Electors in what is now called the “Electoral College” named two choices for president. They each cast two ballots without noting a distinction between their choice for president and vice president. Washington was chosen by all of the electors and therefore is considered to have been unanimously elected. Of those also named on the electors’ ballots, Adams had the most votes and became vice president.

Although Washington’s overwhelming popularity prevented problems in 1789 and 1792, this procedure caused great difficulty in the elections of 1796 and 1800. In 1796, Federalist supporters of John Adams cast only one of their two votes in an effort to ensure that Adams would win the presidency without giving votes to any of the other candidates. This led to a situation in which the Federalist Adams won the highest number of votes and became president, but Thomas Jefferson, the opposing Democratic-Republican candidate, came in second and therefore became his opponent’s vice president.

In 1800, the system led to a tie between the Democratic-Republican candidates for president and vice president, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. This sent the vote to the House of Representatives, where Federalists voted for Burr instead of Jefferson, whom they despised. As a result, the Congressional vote ended in a tie 35 times before the Federalists decided to hand in blank ballots and concede the White House to Jefferson.

In 1804, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution ended this particular form of electoral chaos by stipulating that separate votes be cast for president and vice president.
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1861 Provisional Confederate Congress convenes

The Confederate State of America is open for business when the Provisional Congress convenes in Montgomery, Alabama.

The official record read: "Be it remembered that on the fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the Capitol of the State of Alabama, in the city of Montgomery, at the hour of noon, there assembled certain deputies and delegates from the several independent South State of North America..."

The first order of business was drafting a constitution. They used the U.S. Constitution as a model, and most of it was taken verbatim. It took just four days to hammer out a tentative document to govern the new nation. The president was limited to one six-year term. Unlike the U.S. Constitution, the word "slave" was used and the institution protected in all states and any territories to be added later. Importation of slaves was prohibited, as this would alienate European nations and would detract from the profitable "internal slave trade" in the South. Other components of the constitution were designed to enhance the power of the states--governmental money for internal improvements was banned and the president was given a line-item veto on appropriations bills.

The Congress then turned its attention to selecting a president. The delegates settled on Jefferson Davis, a West Point graduate who was the U.S. Secretary of War in the 1850s and a senator from Mississippi.
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1915 Germany declares war zone around British Isles

A full two years before Germany’s aggressive naval policy would draw the United States into the war against them, Kaiser Wilhelm announces an important step in the development of that policy, proclaiming the North Sea a war zone, in which all merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, were liable to be sunk without warning.

In widening the boundaries of naval warfare, Germany was retaliating against the Allies for the British-imposed blockade of Germany in the North Sea, an important part of Britain’s war strategy aimed at strangling its enemy economically. By war’s end—according to official British counts—the so-called “hunger blockade” would take some 770,000 German lives.

The German navy, despite its attempts to build itself up in the pre-war years, was far inferior in strength to the peerless British Royal Navy. After resounding defeats of its battle cruisers, such as that suffered in the Falkland Islands in December 1914, Germany began to look to its dangerous U-boat submarines as its best hope at sea. Hermann Bauer, the leader of the German submarine service, had suggested in October 1914 that the U-boats could be used to attack commerce ships and raid their cargoes, thus scaring off imports to Britain, including those from neutral countries. Early the following month, Britain declared the North Sea a military area, warning neutral countries that areas would be mined and that all ships must first put into British ports, where they would be searched for possible supplies bound for Germany, stripped of these, and escorted through the British minefields. With this intensification of the blockade, Bauer’s idea gained greater support within Germany as the only appropriate response to Britain’s actions.

Though German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg and the German Foreign Ministry worried about angering neutral countries, pressure from naval leaders and anger in the German press about the British blockade convinced them to go through with the declaration. On February 4, 1915, Kaiser Wilhelm announced Germany’s intention to sink any and all ships sailing under the flags of Britain, Russia or France found within British waters. The Kaiser warned neutral countries that neither crews nor passengers were safe while traveling within the designated war zone around the British Isles. If neutral ships chose to enter British waters after February 18, when the policy went into effect, they would be doing so at their own risk.

The U.S. government immediately and strongly protested the war-zone designation, warning Germany that it would take “any steps it might be necessary to take” in order to protect American lives and property. Subsequently, a rift opened between Germany’s politicians—who didn’t want to provoke America’s anger—and its navy, which was determined to use its deadly U-boats to the greatest possible advantage.

After a German U-boat sank the British passenger ship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, killing over 1,000 people, including 128 Americans, pressure from the U.S. prompted the German government to greatly constrain the operation of submarines; U-boat warfare was completely suspended that September. Unrestricted submarine warfare was resumed on February 1, 1917, prompting the U.S., two days later, to break diplomatic relations with Germany.

1945 The Yalta Conference commences

On this day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin meet at Yalta, in the Crimea, to discuss and plan the postwar world--namely, to address the redistribution of power and influence. It is at Yalta that many place the birth of the Cold War.

It had already been determined that a defeated Germany would be sliced up into zones occupied by the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, the principal Allied powers. Once in Germany, the Allies would see to the deconstruction of the German military and the prosecution of war criminals. A special commission would also determine war reparations.

But the most significant issue, the one that marked the conference in history, was Joseph Stalin's designs on Eastern Europe. (Stalin's demands had started early with his desire that the location of the conference be at a Black Sea resort close to the USSR. He claimed he was too ill to travel far.) Roosevelt and Churchill attempted to create a united front against the Soviet dictator; their advisers had already mapped out clear positions on Europe and the creation and mission of the United Nations. They propounded the principles of the Atlantic Charter, formulated back in August 1941, that would ensure "life, liberty, independence, and religious freedom" for a free Europe and guarantee that only those nations that had declared war on the Axis powers would gain entry into the new United Nations.

Stalin agreed to these broad principles (although he withdrew his promise that all 16 Soviet republics would have separate representation within the United Nations), as well as an agreement that the Big Three would help any nation formerly in the grip of an Axis power in the establishment of "interim governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population...and the earliest possible establishment through free elections of governments responsive to the will of the people." Toward that end, Roosevelt and Churchill gave support to the Polish government-in-exile in London; Stalin demurred, insisting that the communist-dominated and Soviet-loyal Polish Committee of National Liberation, based in Poland, would govern. The only compromise reached was the inclusion of "other" political groups in the committee. As for Poland's new borders, they were discussed, but no conclusions were reached.

The conference provided the illusion of more unanimity than actually existed, especially in light of Stalin's reneging on his promise of free elections in those Eastern European nations the Soviets occupied at war's end. Roosevelt and Churchill had believed Stalin's promises, primarily because they needed to--they were convinced the USSR's support in defeating the Japanese was crucial. In fact, the USSR played much less of a role in ending the war in the East than assumed. But there was no going back. A divisive "iron curtain," in Churchill's famous phrase, was beginning to descend in Europe.
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1962 First U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam.

The first U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam. It was one of 15 helicopters ferrying South Vietnamese Army troops into battle near the village of Hong My in the Mekong Delta.

The first U.S. helicopter unit had arrived in South Vietnam aboard the ferry carrier USNS Core on December 11, 1961. This contingent included 33 Vertol H-21C Shawnee helicopters and 400 air and ground crewmen to operate and maintain them. Their assignment was to airlift South Vietnamese Army troops into combat.
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1965 Rumors fly about U.S.-Soviet pressure on allies in Vietnam

McGeorge Bundy, American Special Assistant for National Security, arrives in Saigon for talks with U.S. Ambassador General Maxwell Taylor. Two days later Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin arrived in Hanoi. There was worldwide speculation that their visits were linked--that the United States and the Soviet Union had agreed to pressure their "clients" into negotiations--but this was denied by all the principals. Bundy, in fact, was there to confer with Ambassador Taylor on the best way to deal with the political situation. And although Kosygin publicly proclaimed continued Soviet support for North Vietnam and the communist war, a Soviet participant in the talks later described the North Vietnamese as "a bunch of stubborn bastards."
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1972 Last Thai contingent departs South Vietnam

A force of 824 soldiers, the last of Thailand's 12,000 troops serving in South Vietnam, departs. The Thai contingent, which had first arrived in country in the fall of 1967, had been part of the Free World Military Forces, an effort by President Lyndon B. Johnson to enlist allies for the United States and South Vietnam. By securing support from other nations, Johnson hoped to build an international consensus behind his policies in Vietnam. The effort was also known as the "many flags" program. In all, 44 countries responded to Johnson plea for military aid to South Vietnam, but only Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and Thailand provided combat troops. In the end, the program never achieved the widespread international support that Johnson sought.