On this day (actually, this night) in 1916, Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin, a Russian mystic who had acquired great powers over the imperial family and the government, was assassinated by a group of aristocrats.
On this date in 1972, actor Jude Law was born (London, England); he shares a birthday with both Andrew Johnson, the 17th U.S. president (b. 1808, Raleigh, NC; died 1875) and British prime minister William Gladstone (b. 1809, Liverpool, England; died 1898).
Born This Day
1721: Marquise de
Pompadour, influential mistress of Louis XV, king of France
(Paris, France; died 1764)
1808: Andrew
Johnson, 17th president of the United
States (Raleigh, NC; died 1875)
1809: William
Gladstone, British prime minister (Liverpool, England; died 1898)
1876: Pablo
Casals, cellist (Venrell, Spain; died 1973)
1896: David A.
Siqueiros, muralist (Chihuahua, Mexico; died 1974)
1911: Klaus
Fuchs, physicist who passed crucial nuclear secrets to the Soviet
Union (Russelsheim, Germany; died 1988)
1917: Tom
Bradley, Los Angeles
mayor (Calvert, TX; died 1998)
1936: Mary Tyler
Moore, actress (Brooklyn, NY)
1938: Jon Voight,
actor (Yonkers, NY)
1939: H. Wayne
Huizenga, entrepreneur/sports executive (Evergreen
Park, IL)
1946: Marianne
Faithfull, singer (London, England)
1947: Ted Danson,
actor (San Diego, CA)
1953: Gelsey
Kirkland, ballerina (Bethlehem,
PA)
1972: Jude Law,
actor (London, England)
This Day in History
1170: English religious leader Thomas à Becket,
archbishop of Canterbury,
is murdered in his own cathedral by King Henry's men.
1837: The Caroline,
a privately owned American ship, is seized and destroyed by Canadian troops on
the American side of the Niagara River off Grand Island,
NY, threatening to cause war between the U.S. and Great Britain.
1845: Texas is admitted to the Union
as the 28th state.
1851: The YMCA is
organized in Boston.
1890: At the
Battle of Wounded Knee, SD, the last major conflict between the Indians and U.S.
troops, about 200 Indian men, women, and children are killed, along with 29
soldiers.
1895: In southern
Africa, British administrator Sir Leander Starr Jameson leads a force of about
500 men in a raid into the Boer-controlled Transvaal,
helping to precipitate the Boer War.
1916: Grigory
Yefimovich Rasputin, a Russian mystic who had acquired great powers over the
imperial family and the government, is assassinated on the night of December
29-30 by a group of aristocrats.
1940: In World War II, Germany
begins dropping incendiary bombs on London.
2002: The party
of Kenyan Pres. Daniel arap Moi loses a national presidential election; it has
led the country since its independence in 1963.
