August 14th – On This Day in History
Important Events
- 1281 During Kublai Khan’s second Mongol invasion of Japan his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near Japan
- 1842 Second Seminole War declared over by Colonel Worth; Indians go on to be removed from Florida to Oklahoma
- 1945 V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)
- 1947 Pakistan gains independence from Great Britain
- 1969 British Army deploys on the streets of Northern Ireland, marking the beginning of Operation Banner
- 1980 17,000 workers go on strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, marking the beginning of the Solidarity movement
Today In Sports
- 1903 James J. Jeffries KOs James J Corbett in 10 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1917 Leeuwen soccer team forms
- 1919 White Sox Happy Felsch ties record of 4 outfield assists in a game
- 1920 VII Summer Olympic Games open in Antwerp, Belgium; first time Olympic Oath voiced, doves released to symbolise peace, and Olympic Flag flown
- 1932 X Summer Olympic Games close in Los Angeles, USA
- 1932 Dodger John Quinn, 49, is oldest pitcher to win a major league game
- 1936 United States beats Canada, 19-8 in poor conditions outdoors to win the gold medal in the inaugural men’s basketball competition at the Olympics Games in Berlin
- 1936 American swimmers Adolph Kiefer and Al Vande Veghe quinella the 100m backstroke at the Berlin Olympics
Today in Music
- 1922 1st “old time” musicians broadcasted on radio (Jenkins-WSB Atlanta)
- 1965 Beatles tape an appearance for Ed Sullivan Show
- 1965 Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” hits #1
- 1966 Cleveland Stadium’s 1st rock concert is held, featuring Beatles
- 1975 Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow
- 1987 “Les Miserables” opens at Rock Theatre, Szeged, Hungary
- 1995 “Battle of Brit Pop” rival bands Oasis (Roll with It) and Blur (Country House) release singles on the same day
- 1997 “1776” opens at Criterion Theater NYC
Today in Film & TV
- 1908 The first beauty contest is held in Folkestone, England.
- 1938 BBC’s 1st feature film on TV (Student of Prague)
- 1951 “A Place in the Sun”, directed by George Stevens, starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters, is released (Academy Awards Best Director 1952)
- 1953 KXLF TV channel 4 in Butte, MT (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1954 WGR TV (now WGRZ) TV channel 2 in Buffalo, NY (NBC) begins
- 1965 Beatles tape an appearance for Ed Sullivan Show
- 1967 Celebrity hairdresser Vidal Sassoon cuts actress Mia Farrow’s hair into the famous pixie cut, costing $5,000. In reality, just a publicity stunt, Farrow had previously cut her own hair.
- 1978 French TV announced a rating of “0” for a program about an Armenian’s woman’s 40th birthday, (comp: Napoleanic drama-67%, Knockout-33%)
Today’s Deaths in Film & Television
- 1788 Thomas Sheridan, Irish actor, biographer and lexicographer (Intelligencer), dies at approximately 69
- 1969 Sigrid Gurie, Norwegian American actress (Algiers, Sofia, Refugee), dies from a blood clot at 58
- 1972 Oscar Levant, American actor (An American in Paris, Dance of Life), dies at 65
- 1972 Pierre Brasseur [Espinasse], French actor (Eyes Without a Face, Children of Paradise), dies from a heart attack at 66
- 1980 Dorothy Stratten [Hoogstraten], Canadian playmate (August, 1979), model and actress (Galixina), murdered by estranged husband and manager Paul Snider at 20
- 1982 Patrick Magee [McGee], Northern Irish actor and director (A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon), dies from a heart attack at 60
- 1985 Gale Sondergaard, actress (Letter), dies of cerebral thrombosis at 86
- 1991 Douglas Kiker, newscaster (NBC-TV), dies of a heart attack at 61
- 1994 Joan Harrison, English screenwriter and producer who often worked with Alfred Hitchcock (Rebecca, They Won’t Believe Me), dies at 83
- 1996 Camilla Horn, actress (Rebus, Vertigine, Matinee Idol), dies at 93
- 2000 John Milford, American actor (Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Homefront), dies at 72
- 2006 Bruno Kirby, American actor (b. 1949)
- 2010 Abbey Lincoln [Anna Wooldridge], African-American civil rights activist, jazz vocalist, songwriter and actress (Nothing But a Man), dies at 80
- 2011 Shammi Kapoor, Indian actor and director known as the “Elvis Presley of India” (Amaran, Brahmachari, Vidhaata), dies of chronic renal failure at 79
- 2012 Ron Palillo, American actor (Arnold Horshack-Welcome Back Kotter), dies from a heart attack at 63
- 2012 Phyllis Thaxter, American actress (Nora, Fort Worth), dies from Alzheimer’s disease at 92
- 2012 John Herbert “Jonathan” Frid, Canadian actor (Barnabas Collins-Dark Shadows), dies of pneumonia at 87
- 2013 Lisa Robin Kelly, American actress, dies at 43
- 2016 Philip “Fyvush” Finkel, American actor (Boston Public, Picket Fences), dies at 93
