1793 – John Hancock – president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts – died at the age of 56. Hancock was president of Congress when the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed. He is primarily remembered by Americans for his large, flamboyant signature on the Declaration, so much so that “John Hancock” became, in the United States, an informal synonym for signature.
1869 – Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, died in Concord, NH after a lengthy battle with cirrhosis of the liver. He was 64.
1871 – The worst recorded forest fire in North American history raged through Northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, destroying millions of dollars worth of property and timberland, and taking between 1,200 and 2,400 lives.
The blaze began at an unknown spot in the dense Wisconsin forest. It first spread to the small village of Sugar Bush, where every resident was killed. High winds then sent the 200-foot flames racing northeast toward the neighboring community of Peshtigo. Temperatures reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing trees to literally explode in the flames.
In Peshtigo, Wisconsin, two hundred people died in a single tavern. Others fled to a nearby river, where several people died from drowning. Three people who sought refuge in a water tank boiled to death when the fire heated the tank. A mass grave of nearly 350 people was established because extensive burns made it impossible to identify the bodies.
In total, 1,200 people lost their lives and 2 billion trees were consumed by flames. Despite the massive scale of the blaze, it was overshadowed by the Great Chicago Fire, which began about 250 miles away.
1871 – Flames sparked in the Chicago barn of Patrick and Catherine O’Leary, igniting a two-day blaze that killed between 200 and 300 people, destroyed 17,450 buildings, left 100,000 homeless and caused an estimated $200 million (in 1871 dollars; $3.4 billion in 2014 dollars) in damages.
Legend has it that a cow kicked over a lantern in the O’Leary barn and started the fire, but other theories hold that humans or even a comet may have been responsible for the event that left four square miles of the Windy City, including its business district, in ruins. Dry weather and an abundance of wooden buildings, streets and sidewalks made Chicago vulnerable to fire. The city averaged two fires per day in 1870; there were 20 fires throughout Chicago the week before the Great Fire of 1871.
1904 – Little Johnny Jones opened in Hartford, CT. The show became a hit, due in part to a little ditty which became quite popular. Give My Regards To Broadway was penned, as was the entire musical, by the Yankee Doodle Dandy himself, George M. Cohan.
1918 – United States Corporal Alvin C. York killed 28 German soldiers and captured an additional 132 at the head of a small detachment in the Argonne Forest near the Meuse River in France. His battalion – consisting of just 17 men – w ere fired upon by a German machine-gun nest at the top of a nearby hill. The gunners cut down nine men, including a superior officer, before York made his historic attack. The exploits earned York the Congressional Medal of Honor.
1919 – The first transcontinental air race in the United States begins, with 63 planes competing in the round-trip aerial derby between California and New York. As 15 planes departed the Presidio in San Francisco, California, 48 planes left Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York.
Lieutenant Belvin Maynard, flying a Havilland-4 with a Liberty motor, won the 5,400-mile race across the continent and back.
1944 – At the Battle of Crucifix Hill (Aachen, Germany), Capt. Bobbie E. Brown grabbed a Bangalore torpedo and ran 100 yards with bullets whipping by him, and placed the charge in a German bunker, destroying it. He did this twice more to two other pillboxes, each time successfully destroying the bunker; on the third one was he wounded by a mortar round. After the hill was secure, he went by himself on a reconnaissance mission to locate enemy troops beyond the hill. He deliberately drew the enemy fire to find out where enemy emplacements were. While doing this, he was wounded twice more.
The information he discovered about German emplacements allowed his company to repel two German counterattacks. Only after the position was completely secure did he allow treatment for his wounds. For his actions, Capt. Brown received the Medal of Honor.
1944 – The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet premiered on CBS Radio. The show would continue on radio until 1953 and on ABC-TV from 1952 to 1966.
1944 – Wendell Wilkie, the Republican Party nominee for president in 1940 – despite the fact he had never held major elected or appointive office – died after suffering a suffered a coronary thrombosis. He was 44.
Although he was soundly defeated by President Franklin Roosevelt in the general election of 1940, Wilkie’s nomination (defeating the much better known Senators Robert Taft of Ohio, Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, and Thomas E. Dewey of New York) is still considered by most political historians to be one of the most dramatic moments in the history of American presidential conventions.
1945 – President Harry S. Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.
1956 – New York Yankees right-hander Don Larsen pitched the first no-hitter in the history of the World Series. Even better, it was a perfect game – no runs, no hits and no errors, and no batter reached first base. Larson threw 97 pitches, faced 27 batters, and struck out 11. Larsen’s performance anchored his team’s third-straight win against their cross-town rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1957 – Jerry Lee Lewis recorded ‘Great Balls Of Fire’ at Sun Studio in Memphis
1957 – Walter O’Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, announced that after 68 seasons in Brooklyn, the Dodgers would be moving to Los Angeles.
1961 – The Green Bay Packers beat the Baltimore Colts, 45-7. But that’s not what makes it a historic day. This is … Packers’ running back (and kicker) Paul Hornung set a Packer records for points scored in a game: 33. Hornung scored 33 points: four touchdowns and kicked six extra points and one field goal.
1964 – The Beatles recorded ‘She’s A Woman’.
1967 – A Bolivian guerrilla force led by Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara was defeated in a skirmish with a special detachment of the Bolivian army. Guevara was wounded, captured, and executed the next day.
1968 – The Beatles recorded ‘I’m So Tired’ and ‘The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill’ which featured the first – and only – female lead vocal on a Beatles recording. Yoko Ono’s mercifully short appearance on Bungalow Bill (“not when she looked so fierce”) reflected her increasing studio presence at the time (as well as her shaky grasp of melody).
1974 – Franklin National Bank (New York) collapsed due to fraud and mismanagement. At the time, it was the largest bank failure in the history of the United States.
1977 – Billy Joel released ‘The Stranger’.
1981 – Cagney & Lacey premiered on CBS. The show starred Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless as New York City police detectives. The two actresses combined to win the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama for six consecutive years (Daly won four of them).
1981 – President Ronald Reagan sent for presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon to Egypt as U.S. representatives for Anwar Sadat’s funeral.
1987 – Chuck Berry’s documentary film (Hail! Hail Rock & Roll) premiered in New York City.
1990 – Barrie James “B.J.” Wilson (drummer with Procol Harum – ‘Conquistador’ and Joe Cocker – ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’) died of pneumonia at the age of 43. In 1987, Wilson collapsed after a drug overdose and was hospitalized for three years, remaining in a vegetative state until his death.
1991 – A U.S. District Court in Anchorage, Alaska, approved a $900-million settlement (annual payments stretched over ten years) with Exxon Shipping Company (Exxon Oil Corporation) for the Valdez oil spill. Exxon also agreed to pay a $250-million fine, which would reimburse the state of Alaska and the U.S. for the costs of cleanup, damage assessment and litigation.
1992 – Willy Brandt, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1969 to 1974, died of colon cancer at the age of 78. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of the Soviet bloc.
2001 – President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security and named former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge as its first director. The office was (and still is), by definition, “a concerted national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur.”
2004 – Martha Stewart, having been convicted on felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators, reported to Federal Prison Camp, Alderson, West Virginia to begin serving a five-month sentence.
2005 – A massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Kashmir border region between India and Pakistan. An estimated 70,000 people – nearly half of them children – were killed and 70,000 more were injured. More than 3 million were left homeless and without food and basic supplies.
2011 – Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders – “Just win, baby” was his motto – died of congestive heart failure at the age of 82. He remains the only executive in NFL history to be an assistant coach, head coach, general manager, commissioner (AFL) and owner.
For all of his faults – and he had many – Davis was active in civil rights, refusing to allow the Raiders to play in any city where black and white players had to stay in separate hotels. He was the first NFL owner to hire an African American head coach and a female chief executive.
2011 – Roger Williams (pianist – ‘Autumn Leaves’) died at the age of 87 of pancreatic cancer. Billboard magazine ranks him as the top selling piano recording artist in history with 18 gold and platinum albums to his credit.
2013 – Larry Verne (‘Mr. Custer’) died of heart failure and Alzheimer’s disease.
Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2015 RayLemire.com. All Rights Reserved.