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1997–Four Elvis confidants known as “The Memphis Mafia” commemorate the 20th anniversary of The King’s passing with a webcast interview. In the chat, hosted live on the internet, Lamar Fike, Marty Lacker, and Red and Sonny West discuss Presley’s humble beginnings, the women in his life, his incredible fame, and his serious drug problems.


BC 3114–The Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar begins, It is used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans.

BC 2492–The traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation.

106–The southwestern part of Dacia (present-day Romania) becomes a Roman province called Roman Dacia.

353–Roman usurper, Magnentius, dies from suicide by falling on his sword during the Battle of Mons Seleucus in Southern France, at age 50.

355–Claudius Silvanus, accused of treason, proclaims himself Roman Emperor against Constantius II.

490–The Goths, under Theodoric the Great and his ally Alaric II, defeat the forces of Odoacer on the Adda River, near Milan.

1081–Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, is born in Goslar, Saxony.

1204–Guttorm of Norway dies at age 4. Guttorm's reign ended abruptly when the child king suddenly became ill. Rumors among the Birkebeiner held that Guttorm's illness and death had been caused by Haakon the Crazy's future wife, Christina Nilsdatter, a claim considered dubious by modern historians.

1259–Mongolian Emperor, Möngke Khan, dies of dysentery or cholera at Diaoyu Fortress in (present-day) Chongqing, at age 50. He was the first Great Khan from the Toluid line and made significant reforms to improve the administration of the Empire during his reign. Under Möngke, the Mongols conquered Iraq and Syria, as well as the kingdom of Nanzhao.

1332–During the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Scots, under Domhnall II, Earl of Mar, are routed by Edward Balliol Battle of Dupplin Moor.

1467–Mary of York is born at Windsor Castle, Berkshire, England.

1473–Mehmed the Conqueror of the Ottoman Empire decisively defeats Uzun Hassan of Aq Qoyunlu.

1596–Hamnet Shakespeare dies possibly from the Bubonic Plague in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, at age 11. He was the only son of William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway, and the fraternal twin of Judith Shakespeare.

1673–Physician, Richard Mead, is born in Stepney, London, England. His work, A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion and the Method to be used to prevent it (1720), was of historic importance in the understanding of transmissible diseases.

1675–During the Franco-Dutch War, forces of the Holy Roman Empire defeat the French in the Battle of Konzer Brücke.

1725–Prince Vittorio Amedeo Theodore of Savoy dies at the Royal Palace of Turin in Turin, Italy, at age 2.

1786–Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia.

1804–Francis II assumes the title of first Emperor of Austria.

1813–In Colombia, Juan del Corral declares the independence of Antioquia.

1837–Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of France (1887-1894), is born in Limoges, France.

1858–The Eiger, in the Bernese Alps, is ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington, accompanied by Christian Almer and Peter Bohren.

1860–The first silver mill in America is established in Virginia City, Nevada.

1898–American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in the Spanish-American War.

1902–Actor, Lloyd (Benedict) Nolan, is born in San Francisco, California. He appeared in the films The Texas Rangers, Ebb Tide, St. Louis Blues, Johnny Apollo, Blues in the Night, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Lemon Drop Kid, A Hatful of Rain, Peyton Place, Portrait in Black, Susan Slade, Never Too Late, Ice Station Zebra, Airport, Earthquake, and Hannah and Her Sisters.

1919–The constitution of the Weimar Republic is adopted.

1919–American philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie, dies of bronchial pneumonia in Lenox, Massachusetts, at age 83. During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away close to $350 million in contributions, endowing numerous museums, universities, and foundations.

1920–The Latvian-Soviet Peace Treaty, which relinquished Russia's authority and pretenses to Latvia, is signed, ending the Latvian War of Independence.

1920–Entertainer and talk show host, Mike Douglas, is born Michael Delaney Dowd, Jr. in Chicago, Illinois. He is best known for his daytime talk show, The Mike Douglas Show.

1921–Author, Alex Haley, is born Alexander Murray Palmer Haley in Ithaca, New York. He is best known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Haley's work on the novel involved 10 years of research, intercontinental travel, and writing. Roots was eventually published in 37 languages, and Haley won a special Pulitzer Prize for the work in 1977. The same year, Roots was adapted into a popular mini-series by ABC-TV.

1925–Actress, Arlene (Carol) Dahl, is born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She appeared in the films My Wild Irish Rose, Scene of the Crime, Ambush, Three Little Words, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Kisses for My President. She was married to actor, Fernando Lamas, and their son is actor, Lorenzo Lamas.

1926–Attorney, Claus von Bülow, is born Claus Cecil Borberg in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1979, he was accused of the attempted murder of his wife, Sunny von Bülow, which had left her in a coma from which she later recovered. That conviction was reversed, and he was found not guilty at his second trial.

1929–Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career, with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

1933–Evangelist and conservative activist, Jerry (Lamon) Falwell, is born in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, and he founded Lynchburg Christian Academy (now Liberty Christian Academy) and Liberty University. He co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.

1934–The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island near San Francisco, California.

1937–Author, Edith Wharton, dies from a stroke at her home in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt, France, at age 85. She was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928, and 1930. Her works include The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and The Age of Innocence.

1939–Sportscar designer, Jean Bugatti, dies when he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree after hitting a cyclist in Duppigheim, France, at age 30. He was a French automotive designer and test engineer.

1942–Actress, Hedy Lamarr, and composer, George Antheil, receive a patent for a frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that will later become the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi.

1942–Mike Hugg, of Manfred Mann, is born Michael John Hugg, in Gosport, Hampshire, England.

1943–Heiress and activist, Abigail Folger, is born in California. She would be one of the people murdered in the killing spree by the Manson Family on August 9, 1969.

1943–Jim Kale, of The Guess Who, is born Michael James Kale in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

1943–Politician, Pervez Musharraf, is born in Old Delhi, British India. He was a retired four-star army general who was the 10th President of Pakistan from 2001 until tendering resignation in 2008, to avoid impeachment.

1943–Denis Payton, of The Dave Clark Five, is born Denis Archibald West Payton in Walthamstow, North London, England.

1944–Businessman, Frederick W. Smith, is born in Marks, Mississippi. He is the founder, chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx, originally known as Federal Express.

1947–Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan, gives a speech to the Constituent Assembly.

1949–Singer-songwriter, Eric (Howard) Carmen, is born in Cleveland, Ohio. His biggest hit was All By Myself.

1950–Erik Brann, of Iron Butterfly, is born Rick Davis in Pekin, Illinois. He is featured on the band's greatest hit, the 17-minute In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, recorded when he was 17.

1950–Engineer, Gennadiy (Nikolayevich) Nikonov, is born in Izhevsk, Russia. He designed the AN-94 assault rifle.

1950–Computer scientist and programmer, Steve Wozniak, is born Stephen Gary Wozniak in San Jose, California. He is an electronics engineer, programmer, and technology entrepreneur who co-founded Apple Inc. He is known as a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs. In 1976, Wozniak single-handedly developed the Apple I, which was the computer that launched Apple, and he was the primary designer the Apple II in 1977. His colorful nicknames include “Woz,” “The Second Steve,” and “The Wonderful Wizard of Woz.”

1952–Hussein bin Talal is proclaimed King of Jordan.

1952–Bob Mothersbaugh, of Devo, is born Robert Leroy Mothersbaugh, Jr. in Akron, Ohio. The new wave group’s biggest hit was Whip It. The band has maintained a cult following throughout its existence. Bob is the younger brother of co-founder and lead singer, Mark Mothersbaugh.

1953–Wrestler and actor, Hulk Hogan, is born Terry Eugene Bollea in Augusta, Georgia. Hogan is regarded as the greatest professional wrestler of all time: according to IGN, he is "the most recognized wrestling star worldwide and the most popular wrestler of the 1980s." Hogan enjoyed considerable mainstream popularity between the mid 1980s and early 1990s in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), and continued for the remainder of the 1990s in World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

1954–Musician, Joe Jackson, is born David Ian Jackson in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. His hits include Is She Really Going Out with Him?, Sunday Papers, One More Time, Fools in Love, Steppin’ Out, and It’s Different for Girls.

1956–Elvis Presley’s Don’t Be Cruel is released.

1956–Abstract artist, Jackson Pollock, is killed in an automobile accident in East Hampton, New York, at age 44.

1957–Richie Ramone, drummer for The Ramones, is born Richard Reinhardt in Passaic, New Jersey.

1959–Sheremetyevo International Airport, the second-largest airport in Russia, opens.

1960–Chad declares independence.

1961–The former Portuguese territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli in India, are merged to create the Union Territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

1962–Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut, Andrian Nikolayev, becomes the first person to float in microgravity.

1962–Video game designer, Charles Cecil, is born in England. He co-founded Revolution Software.

1964–The Beatles’ first feature film, A Hard Day's Night, opens in the U.S. It is a big hit with the fans, and the critics also give it very favorable reviews.

1965–Thirty-four people die, more than 3,000 are arrested, and there is over $40 million in damage to property as riots break out in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California. The six days of riots was caused by a minor confrontation between the California Highway Patrol and two young black men.

1965–The Beatles’ second movie, Help!, premieres in New York.

1966–In Chicago, Illinois, for the beginning of The Beatles’ final U.S. tour, John Lennon makes a nervous apology at a press conference for his “Beatles are bigger than Jesus” remarks. Lennon’s comments about contemporary religion, which had appeared over five months previously in London’s Evening Standard, were quoted out of context in the July 29th issue of the U.S. teen magazine Datebook. What Lennon had actually said was, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that, I’m right and will be proved right. We’re [The Beatles] more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” Reaction in the U.S. is so negative that Brian Epstein even considers canceling The Beatles tour, fearing that one or more of the boys will be assassinated. The city of Memphis, Tennessee, asks The Beatles not to play any concerts there and the price of Capitol Records stock drops. A number of radio stations in the U.S. (22 by some counts, 30 by others) ban Beatles music, though other stations play even more Beatles music than before to show contempt for the outburst of religious hypocrisy. Under pressure from reporters determined to force an apology out of him, Lennon tries reason, explanation, and puzzlement to clarify what he had said and to illustrate how the remarks had been taken far out of context. John remarks, in part, “I suppose if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I would have gotten away with it. I’m sorry I opened my mouth. I’m not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religion. I was not knocking it. I was not saying we are greater or better...” Nonetheless, John’s’apology is an important gesture, and the media and much of the offended public accept it. The Beatles concerts during this tour were marred by demonstrations by the KKK, telephone death threats, and firecrackers being thrown on stage. The overall feeling is perhaps best summed up by The London Catholic Herald, which opines that John’s comments, while “arrogant, were still probably true.”

1967–The Beatles arrive at Thomson House in London, England, for a photo session with the world-famous photographer, Richard Avedon. The outcome is some of the most beautiful photos of The Beatles ever taken. The photos are used as regular black and white images, but some are turned into psychedelic masterpieces that later appear in Life magazine.

1968–The last steam-hauled train runs on British Rail in England.

1969–John Lennon and Yoko Ono move to the Tittenhurst Park estate. This residence will prove to be one of the more “historic” of Lennon’s English homes, with hours of film footage shot here. This will also serve as the location for the recording of his album Imagine, in his own home studio, as well as the video for that song where he sits at the white grand piano. This proves to be the last home Lennon will own in England, for once he and Yoko relocate to New York, he will never return to his homeland. Lennon eventually sells Tittenhurst to Ringo Starr, with the solemn promise from this bandmate that he will always have a room waiting there for him. After John’s death, Ringo sold the property, which is now owned by a Middle Eastern mogul.

1972–The last U.S. ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

1974–Graphic designer and typographer, Jan Tschichold, dies in Locarno, Switzerland. He became a leading advocate of Modernist design: first with an influential magazine supplement in 1925, a personal exhibition in 1927, and his most noted work Die neue Typographie. Between 1926 and 1929, he designed a “universal alphabet” to clean up the few multigraphs and non-phonetic spellings in the German language. The typefaces he designed are Transit, Saskia, Zeus, and Sabon.

1976–Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, is admitted into a Miami, Florida, hospital after collapsing.

1978–Boxer, Jermain Taylor, is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He remains the most recent undisputed middleweight champion, having unified the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, Ring magazine, and lineal titles in 2005, by beating Bernard Hopkins, ending Hopkins' 12-year reign as middleweight champion. This made Taylor the first boxer in history to claim each title from all four major boxing sanctioning organizations in a single fight (Hopkins had won each of his world titles separately from 1995 to 2004). He has also held the IBF middleweight title twice.

1979–Two Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-134s collide over the Ukrainian city of Dniprodzerzhynsk. They crash, killing all 178 people aboard both airliners.

1982–A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo, Japan, to Honolulu, Hawaii, killing one teenager and injuring 15 other passengers.

1984–"We begin bombing in five minutes," said President Ronald Reagan, joking about the Cold War with Russia while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.

1987–Rolling Stone declares The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band the best album of the last 20 years.

1992–Camp Snoopy opens in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. It is themed around the Charles M. Schulz "Peanuts" comic strip characters. It became Nickelodeon Universe in March 2008.

1994–Actor, Peter Cushing, dies of prostate cancer in Canterbury, Kent, England, at age 81. He appeared in the films The Man in the Iron Mask, A Chump at Oxford, Hamlet, Moulin Rouge, The End of the Affair, The Curse of Frankenstein, the Abominable Snowman, Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Mummy, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Scream and Scream Again, The Creeping Flesh, Star Wars, and Top Secret!

1995-All U.S. nuclear tests are banned by President Bill Clinton.

1995–A subway accident in Toronto, Canada, kills three people and injures 30 others.

1995–Entertainer, Phil Harris, dies of a heart attack in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 91. He found much success as an orchestra leader, and was a pioneer in radio situation comedy, first with fellow comedian, Jack Benny. He appeared in the films The High and the Mighty, Anything Goes, Goodbye My Lady, The Wheeler Dealers, The Pasty, and The Cool Ones.

1997–Four Elvis confidants known as “The Memphis Mafia” commemorate the 20th anniversary of The King’s passing with a webcast interview. In the chat, hosted live on the internet, Lamar Fike, Marty Lacker, and Red and Sonny West discuss Presley’s humble beginnings, the women in his life, his incredible fame, and his serious drug problems.

1999–A tornado tears through the downtown district of Salt Lake City, killing one person.

2003–NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year history.

2003–Jemaah Islamiyah leader, Riduan Isamuddin (better known as Hambali), is arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

2006–The oil tanker M/T Solar 1 sinks off the coast of Guimaras and Negros Islands in the Philippines, causing the country's worst oil spill.

2006–Entertainer and talk show host, Mike Douglas, dies in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, at age 86. He is best known for his daytime talk show, The Mike Douglas Show.

2009–Activist and Kennedy family member, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, dies from a stroke in Hyannis, Massachusetts, at age 88. She was the sister of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Senator Ted Kennedy.

2012–A pair of earthquakes hit near Tabriz, Iran, killing 306 people and injuring 3,000 others.

2014–Comedian and actor, Robin Williams, dies of suicide by hanging at his home in Tiburon, California, at age 63. He had been suffering with depression and the onset of Parkinsons disease. Starting as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1970s, he is credited with leading San Francisco's comedy renaissance. He went on to establish a career in both stand-up comedy and feature film acting. He was known for his amazing improvisational skills and his starring role in the TV sitcom Mork & Mindy. He appeared in the films Popeye, The World According to Garp, Moscow on the Hudson, Good Morning, Vietman, Dead Poets Socciety, Awakenings, The Fisher King, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, The Birdcage, Jack, Good Will Hunting, What Dreams May Come, Patch Adams, Bicentennial Man, One Hour Photo, Insomnia, The Night Listener, Night at the Museum, and The Face of Love.

2015–For the first time in Major League Baseball history, all 15 home teams win their games. Prior to this, the record was 12 teams, which was reached over a century ago in 1914.

2016–An apartment building explosion in Silver Spring, Maryland, kills at least two people and injures 34 others. The blast displaces more than 90 residents.

2016–At least 21 people are killed and five others are injured, following an explosion at a power plant in the city of Dangyang, Hubei province in central China.

2016–Singer, Glenn Yarbrough, dies from complications of dementia in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 86. He was the lead singer with the Limeliters from 1959 to 1963. He also had a prolific solo career, recording on various labels. His biggest hit was Baby, the Rain Must Fall.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: The Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar; Mary of York; a silver mill in Virginia City, Nevada; Alex Haley; Edith Wharton; Eric Carmen; Joe Jackson; John Lennon on tour with The Beatles in Chicago, Illinois, 1966; John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their Tittenhurst Estate in England; a promo for Camp Snoopy; and Robin Williams.
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