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1930–Playwright, Harold Pinter, is born in London, England. In 1957, a friend asked Pinter to write a play for the Drama Department at Bristol University. In four days, he wrote a one-act play called The Room. That play, and his next one, The Dumb Waiter, are characteristic of all his plays: commonplace situations that are invested with menace and mystery. In 1958, Pinter's first full-length play, The Birthday Party, was produced.



19–Julius Caesar Germanicus, Roman commander, dies most likely of poisoning in Antioch, Syria, Roman Empire, at age 33.

680–Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, is decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. This is commemorated by Muslims as Aashurah.

732–A force commanded by Charles Martel defeats an army of the Umayyad Caliphate between Poitiers and Tours in western France.

786–Emperor Saga of Japan is born Kamino in Japan. According to legend, he was the first Japanese emperor to drink tea.

827–Pope Valentine dies in Rome, Papal States.

867–Emperor Li Siyuan of China is born Miaojilie in Yingzhou, Tang Empire (present-day Ying County, Shanxi).

1359–Hugh IV of Cyprus dies in Nicosia, Cyprus, at age 64.

1471–With the help of farmers and miners, Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, repels an attack by King Christian I of Denmark.

1575–Roman Catholic forces under Henry I, Duke of Guise, defeat the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay, among others.

1580–Over 600 Papal troops land at Dún an Óir, Ireland, to support the Second Desmond Rebellion.

1581–King Bayinnaung of Burma dies after a long illness in Pegu, in the Bago Region of Burma, at age 65. During his 31-year reign, Bayinnaung assembled the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia, which included much of present-day Burma, the Chinese Shan states, Lan Na, Lan Xang, Manipur, and Siam.

1582–Due to the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain.

1631–An Electorate of Saxony army takes over Prague.

1760–In a treaty with the Dutch colonial authorities, the Ndyuka people of Suriname (descended from escaped slaves) gain territorial autonomy.

1780–The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000 to 30,000 people in the Caribbean.

1802–The first non-Indian settlement is made in Oklahoma.

1806–Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia dies in the Battle of Saalfeld during the War of the Fourth Coalition, at age 33.

1813–Opera composer, Giuseppe Verdi, is born in Rancola, Italy. A musical prodigy, he became a church organist at the age of seven. Verdi became extremely popular, commanding higher fees than any other composers of his time. Verdi produced three masterpieces: Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, and La Traviata.

1816–Lord Byron and his entourage enter Italy through the Simplon Pass. He would stay in Italy for the next seven years, at which time he would leave to join the Greek Revolution.

1830–Isabel II of Spain is born María Isabel Luisa de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias in Madrid, Spain. She came to the throne as an infant, but her succession was disputed by the Carlists, who refused to recognise a female sovereign, leading to the Carlist Wars. After a troubled reign, she was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1868, and formally abdicated in 1870.

1845–The U.S. Naval Academy opens in Annapolis, Maryland.

1865–John Hyatts patents the billiard ball.

1845–The U.S. Naval Academy opens in Annapolis, Maryland, with 50 midshipman students and seven professors.

1846–Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune, is discovered by English astronomer, William Lassell.

1868–Carlos Céspedes issues the Grito de Yara from his plantation, La Demajagua, proclaiming Cuba's independence.

1871–The city of Chicago, Illinois, burns after a barn accident. The fire lasts from October 8th through the 10th.

1875–Poet, author, and playwright, Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, dies after giving himself a lethal injection of morphine in Chernigov Governorate, Bryansk Province, Tsarist Russia, at age 58. He is considered to be the most important 19th-century Russian historical dramatist, primarily on the strength of his dramatic trilogy The Death of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, and Tsar Boris. Aleksey was a member of the Tolstoy family, and a second cousin of Leo Tolstoy.

1877–Businessman, William (Richard) Morris, is born in Worcester, England. Morris was a British motor manufacturer and philanthropist. He was the founder of Morris Motors Limited. The first Morris Minor was produced in 1928. The original MG Midget, launched in 1929, was based on the Minor. Morris Motors Limited merged with Austin Motor Company in 1952, in the new holding company, British Motor Corporation (BMC), of which Nuffield was chairman for its first year.

1897–German chemist, Felix Hoffmann, discovers an improved way of synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin).

1900–Actress, Helen Hayes (Brown), is born in Washington, D.C. Her career spanned almost 80 years and she garnered the nickname "First Lady of American Theatre." Her stage appeareances include A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Prince and the Pauper, Caesar and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, Harriet, The Glass Menagerie, The Chalk Garden, Good Morning Miss Dove, The White House, Harvey, and Long Day's Journey Into Night. She appeared in the films A Farewell to Arms, This Side of Heaven, What Every Woman Knows, Stage Door Canteen, Anastasia, Airport, and Herbie Rides Again. She was married to playwright, Charles MacArthur, and their son is actor, James MacArthur.

1901–Lorenzo Snow, 5th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dies in Salt Lake City, Utah, at age 87. He was the last president of the LDS Church in the 19th century, and the first in the 20th century.

1903–The Women's Social and Political Union is founded by Emmeline Pankhurst.

1911–The Wuchang Uprising leads to the demise of the Qing dynasty, the last Imperial court in China, and the founding of the Republic of China.

1911–Journalist, Clare Hollingworth, is born in Knighton, Leicester, England. She was the first war correspondent to report the outbreak of World War II, described as "the scoop of the century." A rookie reporter for The Daily Telegraph in 1939, she spotted German forces massed on the Polish border, while traveling from Poland to Germany. During the following decades, Hollingworth reported on conflicts in Palestine, Algeria, China, Aden, and Vietnam.

1911–Businessman, Jack Daniel, dies of blood poisoning in Lynchburg, Tennessee, at age 61. He was an American distiller and the founder of the Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distillery.

1913–President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.

1913–Businessman, Adolphus Busch, dies of dropsy in Lindschied, Hesse, Germany, at age 74. He co-founded Anheuser-Busch. He introduced numerous innovations, building the success of the company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

1917–Jazz composer, Thelonious Monk, is born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He began playing in bands when he was 13 years old. By the 1930s, Monk had moved to Harlem, and had a steady job at Minton's Playhouse, where then unknown musicians Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie came to jam. Out of this group of artists came a new kind of jazz, called “bebop.”

1920–The Carinthian plebiscite determines that the larger part of the Duchy of Carinthia should remain a part of Austria.

1920–John Nicanor Hemingway (nicknamed Bumby) is born to Ernest and Hadley Richardson Hemingway. He was christened in Paris, France, according to the rites of the Anglican Church, with Gertrude Stein as his Godmother. He later did travel shows on public television, with the “g” dropped from his name. He was the father of actresses, Mariel and Margaux Hemingway.

1921–Writer, James Clavell, is born in Sydney, Australia. He was an Australian-born British (later naturalized American) novelist, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his epic Asian Saga series of novels: King Rat, Tai-Pan, Shogun, Noble House, Whirlwind, and Gai-Jin. His screenplays include The Fly, The Great Escape, The Satan Bug, and To Sir, with Love.

1924–Ed Wood, actor, director, producer, screenwriter, is born Edward Davis Wood, Jr. in Poughkeepsie, New York. He has the distinction of making what is widely considered to be the worst movie of all time, Plan 9 from Outer Space. In the 1950s, Wood made a number of low-budget films in the science fiction, comedy, and horror genres, intercutting stock footage. In the 1960s and 1970s, he made sexploitation movies and wrote over 80 pulp crime, horror, and sex novels. Tim Burton's biopic of Wood's life, Ed Wood (1994), is a critically acclaimed film starring Johnny Depp in the title role. Wood’s films include Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, The Violent Years, Night of the Ghouls, Drop Out Wife, and The Beach Bunnies.

1925–Mob member, Johnny Stompanato, is born in Woodstock, Illinois. He was a former U.S. Marine who became a bodyguard and enforcer for gangster Mickey Cohen. He was stabbed to death by Turner's daughter, Cheryl Crane, in 1958. She was acquitted in a subsequent trial after stating she was defending her mother, who was being attacked by Stompanato.

1926–Actor, Richard (Hanley) Jaeckel, is born in Long Beach, Long Island, New York. He co-starred in the TV series Frontier Circus. He appeared in the films Sands of Iwo Jima, The Gunfighter, Come Back, Little Sheba, The Shanghai Story, The Violent men, 3:10 to Yuma, Cowboy, Flaming Star, Town Without Pity, The Dirty Dozen, The Green Slime, Chisum, Sometimes a Great Notion, The Drowning Pool, and Starman.

1927–Actor, (Ibsen) Dana Elcar, is born in Ferndale, Michigan. He appeared in the films Fail Safe, A Lovely Way to Die, The Boston Strangler, The Maltese Bippy, The Learning Tree, Mrs. Pollifax–Spy, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, The Sting, Report to the Commissioner, W.C. Fields and Me, Baby Blue Marine, The Champ, Buddy Buddy, and All of Me.

1928–Chiang Kai-shek becomes Chairman of the Republic of China.

1930–Playwright, Harold Pinter, is born in London, England. In 1957, a friend asked Pinter to write a play for the Drama Department at Bristol University. In four days, he wrote a one-act play called The Room. That play, and his next one, The Dumb Waiter, are characteristic of all his plays: commonplace situations that are invested with menace and mystery. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Trial, and Sleuth.

1933–A United Airlines Boeing 247 is sabotaged and explodes in mid-air, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.

1935–A coup d'état by the royalist leadership of the Greek Armed Forces takes place in Athens, Greece. It overthrows the government of Panagis Tsaldaris and establishes a regency under Georgios Kondylis, ending the Second Hellenic Republic.

1935–The stage play, Porgy and Bess, opens in New York. In 1926, George Gershwin read the book Porgy by DuBose Heyward, which inspired the show about the black inhabitants of Catfish Row, a slum neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina.

1938–The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.

1939–Eleanor Rigby dies. This was a real person whose name on a Liverpool, England, gravestone may have suggested the title to the song by The Beatles.

1943–Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as President of China.

1945–The Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang sign a principle agreement in Chongqing about the future of post-war China. Later, the pact is commonly referred to as the Double Tenth Agreement.

1945–Alan (George) Cartwright, of Procol Harum, is born in London, England.

1946–Songwriter, John Prine, is born in Maywood, Illinois. Becoming a part of the Chicago's folk revival, he was discovered by Kris Kristofferson, resulting in the production of Prine's self-titled debut album with Atlantic Records in 1971.

1946–Keith Reid, of Procol Harum, is born Keith Stuart Brian Reid in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England.

1948–Percussionist and vocalist, Cyril Garrett Neville, is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known for his work with his brothers in the Neville Brothers band. Neville has worked on recordings by Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Willie Nelson, and Dr. John. After Hurricane Katrina, he left New Orleans for Austin, Texas. He currently lives in Slidell, Louisiana. Neville penned an article for CounterPunch, entitled "Why I'm Not Going Back To New Orleans," and was featured in the 2006 film New Orleans Music in Exile.

1953–A Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and the Republic of Korea is concluded in Washington, D.C.

1955–David Lee Roth, lead singer of Van Halen, is born in Bloomington, Indiana.

1957–President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, after he is refused service in a restaurant in Dover, Delaware.

1957–The Windscale fire in Cumbria, U.K., is the world's first major nuclear accident.

1958–Country singer, Tanya (Denise) Tucker, is born in Seminole, Texas. At the age of 13, she had her first hit, Delta Dawn. Over the succeeding decades, Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature into adulthood without losing her audience, and during the course of her career, she notched a streak of “Top 10” and “Top 40” hits.

1959–Pan Am Airlines begins regular flights to exotic locations around the world.

1959–Actor, Bradley Whitford, is born in Madison, Wisconsin. He is best known for the roles of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman on the TV series The West Wing, Danny Tripp on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and Timothy Carter on the The Mentalist.

1963–France cedes control of the Bizerte naval base to Tunisia.

1963–The Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed by the United State, the United Kingdom, and the USSR.

1963–Chanteuse, Edith Piaf, dies of liver cancer in Grasse, on the French Riviera, at age 47. She was revered in France as the “Sparrow of Paris.” Her signature songs were La Vie en Rose and Non, Je Regrette Rien (No, I Regret Nothing).

1964–The opening ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, is broadcast live in the first Olympic telecast relayed by geostationary satellite.

1964–Entertainer, Eddie Cantor, dies of a heart attack in Beverly Hills, California, at age 72. As a recording artist, his hits include Makin' Whoopee, Ida, Yes! We Have No Bananas, If You Knew Susie, Ma! He's Makin' Eyes at Me, Baby, Margie, and How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)? He appeared in the films Whoopie!, Roman Scandals, Kid Millions, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Show Business, Hollywood Canteen, and The Story of Will Rogers.

1965–Actor, Chris Penn, is born Christopher Shannon Penn in Los Angeles, California. He appeared in the films All the Right Moves, Rumble Fish, Footloose, Pale Rider, At Close Range, Young Riders, Reservoir Dogs, Short Cuts, Mulholland Falls, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. His father was film director, Leo Penn. His brothers are actor, Sean Penn, and musician, Michael Penn.

1966–A chart topper: 96 Tears by ? & The Mysterians.

1967–The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27th by more than 60 nations, comes into force.

1970–Fiji becomes independent.

1970–A national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour, Pierre Laporte, becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.

1971–After being sold, dismantled, and moved to the United States, London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

1973–U.S. Vice President, Spiro Agnew, resigns after being charged with evasion of federal income tax.

1975–Papua New Guinea joins the United Nations.

1975–Ken Russell’s film, Lisztomania, premieres in New York. It stars Roger Daltrey of The Who as Franz Liszt and Ringo Starr in a cameo role as the Pope. It will open in London, England, on November 13th.

1980–A 7.1 earthquake shakes northern Algeria, killing at least 2,633 people and injuring 8,369 others.

1980–The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) is founded in El Salvador. It is formed as an umbrella group from five leftist guerrilla organizations: Fuerzas Populares de Liberación Farabundo Martí (FPL), People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), Resistencia Nacional (RN), Partido Comunista Salvadoreño (PCS), and Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos (PRTC).

1980–William “Buckwheat” Thomas, child actor in Our Gang and The Little Rascals, dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, at age 49. Thomas remained in “Our Gang” for 10 years, appearing in all but one of the shorts made from 1934 through the series' end in 1944.

1982–Actor, Daniel Jonathan Stevens, is born in Croydon, London, England. He is best known for the roles of Edward Ferrars in the BBC adaptatation of Sense and Sensibility, and Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey.

1983–Actor, Sir Ralph Richardson, dies after a series of strokes in Marylebone, London, England, at age 80. He appeared in the films The Return of Bulldog Drummond, Things to Come, The Citadel, The Four Feathers, Anna Karenina, The Holly and the Ivy, Richard III, Our Man in Havana, Exodus, Doctor Zhivago, The Wrong Box, Oh! What a Lovely War, The Bed Sitting Room, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, O Lucky Man!, A Doll’s House, Dragonslayer, Time Bandits, and Give My Regards to Broad Street.

1985–U.S. Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise ship: they force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily, where the hijackers are arrested.

1985–Actor, Yul Brynner, dies of lung cancer in in New York, New York, at age 65. A few days after his death, a recorded anti-cigarette public service announcement was shown on all the major U.S. television networks and in many other countries. In it, he expressed his desire to make an anti-smoking commercial after discovering how sick he was, and that his death was imminent. He then looked directly into the camera for 30 seconds and said, "Now that I'm gone, I tell you: Don't smoke. Whatever you do, just don't smoke. If I could take back that smoking, we wouldn't be talking about any cancer. I'm convinced of that." He is best known for the role of King Mongkut of Siam in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won two Tony Awards and an Academy Award for the film version. He played the role 4,625 times on stage. He appeared in the films The Ten Commmandments, Anastasia, The Brothers Karamazov, The Buccaneer, The Sound and the Fury, Solomon and Sheba, The Magnificent Seven, Taras Bulba, Invitation to a Gunfighter, Cast a Giant Shadow, The Poppy Is Also a Flower, and Westworld.

1985–Actor and film director, Orson Welles, dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, at age 70. He directed a version of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds for radio in 1938, which was so realistic it caused a nationwide panic. Welles' first motion picture was Citizen Kane, made in 1941, when he was 25 years old. His other films include The Magnificent Ambersons, The Stranger, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth, Othello, Mr. Arkadin, Touch of Evil, The Trial, Chimes at Midnight, and The Immortal Story.

1986–A 5.7 earthquake strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.

1986–The John Lennon/Yoko Ono album, Double Fantasy, is re-released on CD in the U.S. and the U.K.

1997–An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74 people.

1998–A Lignes Aériennes Congolaises Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 41 people.

1998–A “poem” by John Lennon is sold at auction for £3,352 ($5,700). The poem, which consists of the phrase “F**k You” repeated 104 times, was sent to fan, Susan Baker, in 1969, after she wrote to Lennon asking him to send her a poem. The poem was signed by both Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono. Lennon’s cover letter to Ms. Baker, telling her that she could publish the poem if she wished, was included with the piece.

2004–Actor, Christopher Reeve, dies of cardiac arrest in Mount Kisco, New York, at age 52. On May 27, 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He required a wheelchair and a portable ventilator for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal-cord injuries and for human embryonic stem cell research, founding the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founding the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. He appeared in the films Superman, Somewhere in Time, Deathtrap, Street Smart, The Remains of the Day, and Village of the Damned.

2009–Armenia and Turkey sign protocols in Zurich, Switzerland, to open their borders.

2010–The Netherlands Antilles are dissolved as a country.

2010–Opera singer, Joan Sutherland, dies of cardiopulmonary failure in Les Avants, Vaud, Switzerland, at age 83. She is noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through the 1980s.

2012–Actor, Alex Karras, dies of kidney failure at age 77. In recent years, he had battled heart disease, kidney disease, stomach cancer, and dementia. Karras spent 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions as a defensive tackle before seguing into acting.

2013–Astronaut, Scott Carpenter, dies from a stroke in Denver, Colorado, at age 88. He was one of the original seven astronauts selected for NASA's Project Mercury in April 1959. Carpenter was the second American (after John Glenn) to orbit the Earth, and the fourth American in space, following Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, and John Glenn.

2015–Actor, Charlie Sheen, incites a fight during a night out at Hennessey's Tavern in Dana Point, California. Things reportedly got heated after a bass player, who was performing at the pub, attempted to take a picture of Sheen with his cell phone. Sheen was escorted off the premises.

2015–Twin bomb blasts near the main train station in the Turkish capital of Ankara, leave kill at least 102 people and injure over 400 others.

2016–Samsung halts output of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone due to persistent problems with battery explosions that have been causing fires.

2017–Facebook Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg, is called a "heartless billionaire" and accused of "exploiting disaster" by online users after live-streaming a virtual reality (VR) cartoon avatar of himself in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico. In the video on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said: "One of the things that's really magical about virtual reality, is you can get the feeling that you're really in a place." NOT!

2017–A South Korean lawmaker reveals that in 2016, North Korean hackers stole classified military documents detailing joint operations between the South Korean and United States military forces in the event of war with North Korea.

2017–The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, on behalf of the Trump administration, announces that it will roll back clean energy regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, imposed under the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.

2017–Authorities in Sonoma County, California, claim that they have received over 100 missing persons reports since the massive wildfires began in Northern California. The death toll has risen to at least 13 people.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: King Bayinnaung of Burma; Giuseppe Verdi; vintage poster for the MG Midget; Thelonious Monk; Johnny Stompanato; Harold Pinter; John Prine; Edith Piaf; a poster for Lisztomania; Orson Welles; Christopher Reeve; and Scott Carpenter.

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