Today in History

Historical Events

1932 - 1st totalisator (to record racetrack bets) in US is installed Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida
1940 - MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis gives free agency to 91 Detroit Tigers minor league players
1945 - In Greece, Communists and the British agree to a cease-fire in the struggle to control Athens (and with it Greece)
1972 - WMAU TV channel 17 in Bude, Mississippi (PBS) begins broadcasting
2019 - Spinning disk of ice 300m wide, resembling the moon, forms in the Presumpscot river, Westbrook, Maine

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Famous Birthdays

1861 - Wilhelm von Polenz, German writer (Der Pfarrer von Breitendorf), born in Cunewalde, Germany (d. 1903)
1910 - Renier van der Velden, Belgian composer, born in Borgerhout, Belgium (d. 1993)
1911 - Djuanda Kartawidjaja, Indonesian teacher, engineer, and politician (11th and final Prime Minister of Indonesia, 1957-59), born in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Dutch East Indies (d. 1963)
1914 - Harold Russell, Canadian actor (Best Years of Our Life, Dogtown), born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada (d. 2002)
1935 - Lucille Wheeler, Canadian alpine skier, born in Mont-Tremblant, Canada

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Famous Deaths

1822 - Franz Innocenz Joseph Kobell, German landscape painter, dies at 72
1959 - G. D. H. Cole, English poli...