:: wikimiki.org ::
| Herbert Huncke |
Herbert Huncke
Herbert Huncke (January 9, 1915 – August 8, 1996) was a rare blend of sub-culture icon, writer, homosexual pioneer (he participated in Alfred Kinsey's studies), drug addict, common criminal, friend and enemy to America's most important social movements of the 20th century. He lived a remarkable, and yet all-too-human, life spending decades incarcerated and decades more writing and contributing to the Beat Generation among other artistic endeavours.
Early Life
Born and reared in Chicago, Herbert Huncke was a street hustler, high school drop out and drug addict who lived the lifestyle described by Jack Black (author) in his autobiography You Can't Win. The book—and Huncke's life—was centered around living as an outlaw hobo, jumping trains across the vast expanse of the United States, bonding through a shared destitution and comraderie with other hoboes of all walks of life. Although Huncke later came to regret his loss of family ties, in his autobiography, Guilty of Everything, he states his lenghty jail sentences were a partial result of his lack of family support. Huncke left Chicago as a teenager after his parents divorced.
New York City & Times Square
Huncke arrived in New York City in 1939. He was dropped off at 103rd and Broadway, and he asked the person from whom he had hitched a ride how to find 42nd Street. "You walk straight down Broadway", he was told, "and you will find 42nd Street". Huncke, always a good dresser, bought a boutonniere for his jacket and headed for 42nd Street. For the next ten years Huncke was a 42nd Street regular and became known as the "Mayor of 42nd Street".
At this point, Huncke's regular haunts were 42nd Street and Times Square, where he associated with people of all kinds including prostitutes (both male and female) and sailors. During World War II, Huncke shipped out to sea as a merchant marine to ports in South America, Africa and Europe. He landed on the beach of Normandy three days after the invasion.
Aboard ships, Huncke would kick his drug habit or keep it up with morphine syrettes supplied by the ship medic. When he returned to New York, he returned to 42nd Street, and it was after one of these trips where he met then-unknown writer William S. Burroughs, who was selling a sawed-off shotgun and a box of morphine syrettes. Huncke took an immediate dislike to Burroughs and thought he was "heat," slang for undercover police or FBI. Assured that Burroughs was all right, Huncke bought the morphine and, at Burroughs' request, immediately gave him an injection.
Thus began a long career of drug use by Burroughs, and Huncke became a lead character in William Burrough's first pulp novel, written under the pseudonyme Bill Lee, JUNKIE: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict. After Huncke first exposed Burroughs to both jive talk and morphine, these elements became central to Burroughs' writing. Huncke was a close friend of Joan Adams Vollmer Burroughs, William's common-law wife, sharing a fondness for amphetamines with her. In the late 1940s Huncke was invited to Texas to grow marijuana on the Burroughs farm.
Huncke was a bisexual hustler, drug user, thief and burglar. His autobiography, titled Guilty of Everything, was lived in the 1940s and 1960s but published in the 1990s. He was a non-violent man and an exceptionally good story teller.
During the late 1940s, Huncke was recruited to be a subject in Alfred Kinsey's research on the sexual habits of the American male. He was interviewed by Kinsey, and recruited fellow addicts and friends to participate. Huncke was a writer, unpublished, since his days in Chicago and oscillated toward literary types and musicians. In the music world, Huncke visited all the jazz clubs and associated with Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker and Dexter Gordon (with whom he was once busted on 42nd Street for breaking into a parked car). When he first met Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, they were interested in writing and also unpublished. They were inspired by his stories of 42nd Street life, criminal life, street slang and Huncke's vast experience with drugs. Huncke told them stories of life on 42nd Street, his life on the road prior to New York City and, obligingly, turned them on to drugs.
Although it was his passion for thievery, heroin use and the outlaw lifestyle which fueled his daily activities, ultimately, when he was caught, he never ratted out his friends. In the late 1940s, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Melody and "Detroit Redhead" flipped a car in Queens, New York, while trying to run down a motorcycle cop. Although Huncke was not at the scene of the crime, he was picked-up in Manhattan because he lived with Ginsberg, and Huncke received the heavy prison sentence.
"Someone had to do the bit." Huncke said years later.
Writing Career
Huncke himself was a natural storyteller, a unique character with a paradoxically honest take on life. Later, after the formation of the so-called Beat Generation, members of the Beats encouraged Huncke to publish his notebook writings, which he did with limited success in 1964 with Diane DiPrima's Poet's Press. (Huncke's Journal) Huncke used the word "Beat" to describe someone living roughly with no money and few prospects. Huncke was considered to have coined the phrase that eventually came to describe an entire generation. Jack Kerouac later insisted that "Beat" was derived from beatification, to be supremely happy. However, it is thought that this definition was a defense of the beat way of life, which was frowned upon and offended many American sensibilities.
Huncke died in 1996. He had been living for a number of years in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, supported fiancially in old age by his friends, David Sands, Jerome Poynton, Tim Moran, Raymond Foye and many others. His rent at the Hotel came from financial support from Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, whom Huncke never met.
Works
- Guilty of Everything: The Autobiography of Herbert Huncke (New York: Paragon House Publishers, 1990), ISBN 1557780447.
- Guilty of Everything (excerpt) (New York & Madras: Hanuman Books, 1987), ISBN 093781508X
- The Evening Sun Turned Crimson (Cherry Valley, NY: Cherry Valley Editions, 1980), ISBN 0916156435.
- Huncke's Journal (Poets Press, 1965). Out of Print.
- The Herbert Huncke Reader (New York: Morrow, 1997), ISBN 068815266X. (Includes the complete texts of The Evening Sun Turned Crimson and Huncke's Journal).
External Links
- [http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/12.04.97/books-9749.html Metroactive.com article, Herbert Huncke, the unsung Beat, finally gets his due, by Harvey Pekar]
- [http://www.litkicks.com/BeatPages/page.jsp?what=HerbertHuncke Lit Kicks Bio]
- [http://metaclick.com/huncke/ Huncke and Louis A Video Documentary by Laki Vazakas]
- [http://www.neonalley.com/huncke.html Blue Neon Alley Bio and Directory]
January 9
January 9 is the 9th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 356 days remaining (357 in leap years).
Events
- 1431 - The trial of Joan of Arc begins in Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government.
- 1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in Battle of Barari Ghat.
- 1768 - Philip Astley stages the first modern circus (London).
- 1788 - Connecticut becomes the fifth state to join the United States.
- 1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a balloon in the United States.
- 1806 - Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
- 1839 - The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.
- 1857 - Fort Tejon earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.9
- 1858 - Anson Jones, final President of the Republic of Texas commits suicide.
- 1861 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, preceding the American Civil War.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Fort Hindman
- 1878 - Humbert I becomes King of Italy.
- 1880 - The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow.
- 1882 - Oscar Wilde gives his first lecture on "The English Renaissance of Art" in New York.
- 1894 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
- 1903 - Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia
- 1905 - According to the Julian Calendar which was used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Czarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905.
- 1912 - Marines invade Honduras.
- 1916 - The Ottoman Empire prevails in the Battle of Çanakkale, as the last British troops are evacuated.
- 1917 - Battle of Rafa
- 1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes first autogiro flight.
- 1929 - The Seeing Eye is established with the mission to train dogs to assist the blind (Nashville, Tennessee).
- 1937 - The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States.
- 1945 - The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.
- 1951 - United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.
- 1956 - First "Dear Abby" column appears in newspapers.
- 1960 - Construction of the Aswan Dam begins in Egypt.
- 1962 - The NFL prohibits grabbing face masks.
- 1964 - Several Panamanian youths put up the Panamanian flag, and are fired on from the Canal Zone, setting off four days of anti-imperialist insurrection around the country.
- 1972 - RMS Queen Elizabeth is destroyed by fire (Hong Kong harbor).
- 1977 - Super Bowl XI: Oakland Raiders defeat Minnesota Vikings, 32-14.
- 1984 - Clara Peller is featured in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's Restaurants for the first time.
- 1986 - After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak leaves the instant camera business.
- 1989 - The Sega Genesis is released in New York, New York and Los Angeles, California.
- 1991 - The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.
- 1995 - Valeri Poliakov completes 366 days in space while aboard the Mir space station, breaking a duration record.
- 1996 - Sun Microsystems announces the formation of JavaSoft.
- 1997 - A Comair Embraer 120 crashes during approach into Detroit Metro Airport, killing 29.
- 1999 - After nearly 16 years of operation, the Horizons pavilion at Walt Disney World's Epcot closes permanently. It is razed more than a year later to make way for the new Mission: SPACE attraction.
- 2002 - The United States Department of Justice announces it is going to pursue a criminal investigation of Enron.
- 2005 - Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat.
Births
1554 to 1899
- 1554 - Pope Gregory XV (d. 1623)
- 1571 - Karel Bonaventura Buquoy, French soldier (d. 1621)
- 1589 - Ivan Gundulic, Croatian poet (d. 1638)
- 1624 - Empress Meisho of Japan (d. 1696)
- 1685 - Tiberius Hemsterhuis, Dutch philologist (d. 1766)
- 1728 - Thomas Warton, English poet (d. 1790)
- 1790 - Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom, Swedish poet (b. 1790)
- 1811 - Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, English writer (d. 1856)
- 1823 - Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch, German surgeon (d. 1908)
- 1829 - Thomas William Robertson, English playwright (d. 1871)
- 1829 - Adolf von Schlagintweit, German explorer (d. 1857)
- 1854 - Jennie Jerome, American society beauty (d. 1921)
- 1856 - Anton Aškerc, Slovenian priest and poet (d. 1912)
- 1864 - Vladimir Steklov, Russian mathematician (d. 1926)
- 1868 - S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist (d. 1939)
- 1870 - Joseph B Strauss, American civil engineer (d. 1938)
- 1873 - Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Ukrainian poet and translator (d. 1934)
- 1875 - Gertrude Whitney, American sculptor (d. 1942)
- 1879 - John Broadus Watson, American behaviorist psychologist (d. 1958)
- 1881 - Lascelles Abercrombie, British poet and critic (d. 1938)
- 1881 - Giovanni Papini, Italian writer (d. 1956)
- 1890 - Karel Čapek, Czech writer (d. 1938)
- 1890 - Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist, writer, satirist, and social critic (d. 1935)
- 1892 - Eva Bowring, American politician (d. 1985)
- 1897 - Karl Löwith, German philosopher (d. 1973)
- 1898 - Vilma Banky, Hungarian actress (d. 1991)
- 1898 - Gracie Fields, English vaudeville performer (d. 1979)
- 1899 - Alexander Tcherepnin, Russian composer (d. 1977)
1900 to 1999
- 1901 - Chic Young, cartoonist (d. 1973)
- 1902 - Rudolph Bing, Austrian-born opera manager (d. 1997)
- 1902 - Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish religious author (d. 1975)
- 1904 (O. S.)- George Balanchine, Russian dancer, choreographer, and ballet producer (d. 1983)
- 1908 - Simone de Beauvoir, French author (d. 1986)
- 1912 - Ralph Tubbs, British architect
- 1913 - Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (d. 1994)
- 1914 - Kenny (Klook) Clarke, American jazz drummer and composer
- 1915 - Fernando Lamas, Argentine actor (d. 1982)
- 1915 - Les Paul, American guitarist and inventor
- 1916 - Vic Mizzy, American orchestra leader
- 1916 - Peter Twinn, English mathematician and World War II code-breaker (d. 2004)
- 1917 - Herbert Lom, Czech actor
- 1920 - Clive Dunn, British actor
- 1922 - Har Gobind Khorana, Indian biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1922 - Ahmed Sékou Touré, President of Guinea (d. 1984)
- 1925 - Lee Van Cleef, American actor (d. 1989)
- 1928 - Judith Krantz, American author
- 1928 - Domenico Modugno, Italian singer and songwriter
- 1929 - Heiner Muller, German dramatist (d. 1995)
- 1929 - Dorothea Puente, American serial killer
- 1931 - Algis Budrys, American author
- 1932 - Robert P. Casey, American politician (d. 2000)
- 1934 - Bart Starr, American football player
- 1935 - Bob Denver, American actor (d. 2005)
- 1935 - Dick Enberg, American sportscaster
- 1936 - Anne Rivers Siddons, American writer
- 1940 - Jimmy Boyd, American actor, singer
- 1940 - Barbara Buczek, Polish composer (d. 1993)
- 1940 - Ruth Dreifuss, Swiss politician
- 1941 - Joan Baez, American singer and activist
- 1942 - K Callan, American actress
- 1942 - Susannah York, British actress
- 1944 - Jimmy Page, English guitarist (Led Zeppelin)
- 1950 - David Johansen American singer
- 1950 - Rio Reiser, German singer (d. 1996)
- 1951 - Crystal Gayle, American singer
- 1952 - Hugh Bayley, British politician
- 1955 - J. K. Simmons, American actor
- 1956 - Kimberly Beck, American actress
- 1956 - Imelda Staunton, British actress
- 1958 - Mehmet Ali Ağca, Turkish attempted assassin of Pope John Paul II
- 1959 - Mark Martin, NASCAR driver
- 1959 - Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1959 - Cristi Minculescu, Romanian musician
- 1963 - Michael Everson, American expert in writing systems and Unicode
- 1965 - Eric Erlandson, American musician (Hole)
- 1965 - Joely Richardson, British actress
- 1967 - Claudio Caniggia, Argentinian footballer
- 1967 - Steven Harwell, American singer and musician (Smash Mouth)
- 1967 - Dave Matthews, South African singer and musician
- 1968 - Jimmy Adams, West Indian cricketer
- 1975 - Angela Bettis, American actress
- 1978 - Chad Johnson, American football player
- 1978 - AJ McLean, American singer (Backstreet Boys)
- 1980 - Sergio García, Spanish golfer
Deaths
1283 to 1899
- 1283 - Wen Tianxiang, Chinese prime minister (executed) (b. 1236)
- 1499 - Johann Cicero, elector of Brandenburg (b. 1455)
- 1514 - Anna, Duchess of Brittany, queen of Charles VIII of France (b. 1477)
- 1543 - Guillaume du Bellay, French diplomat and general (b. 1491)
- 1562 - Amago Haruhisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1514)
- 1571 - Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, French naval officer (b. 1510)
- 1598 - Jasper Heywood, English translator (b. 1553)
- 1757 - Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist and man of letters (b. 1657)
- 1677 - Aernout van der Neer, Dutch cartoonist and painter (b. 1603)
- 1766 - Thomas Birch, British historian (b. 1705)
- 1799 - Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian scientist (b. 1718)
- 1800 - Jean Étienne Championnet, French general (b. 1762)
- 1805 - Noble Jones, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)
- 1848 - Caroline Herschel, German-born astronomer (b. 1750)
- 1858 - Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (suicide) (b. 1798)
- 1873 - Emperor Napoleon III of France (b. 1808)
- 1876 - Samuel Gridley Howe, American abolitionist (b. 1801)
- 1878 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (b. 1820)
- 1895 - Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watch manufacturer (b. 1812)
1900 to 1999
- 1901 - Richard Copley Christie, English scholar (b. 1830)
- 1908 - Wilhelm Busch, German painter (b. 1832)
- 1908 - Abraham Goldfaden, Russian-born actor (b. 1840)
- 1911 - Edwin Arthur Jones, American composer (b. 1853)
- 1918 - Émile Reynaud, French scientist (b. 1844)
- 1923 - Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand writer (b. 1888)
- 1936 - John Gilbert, American actor (b. 1899)
- 1939 - Johann Strauss III, Austrian conductor (b. 1866)
- 1946 - Countee Cullen, American poet (b. 1903)
- 1947 - Karl Mannheim, German sociologist (b. 1893)
- 1961 - Emily Greene Balch, American writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1867)
- 1971 - Elmer Flick, baseball player (b. 1876)
- 1972 - Ted Shawn, American dancer (b. 1891)
- 1975 - Pierre Fresnay, French actor (b. 1897)
- 1979 - Sara Carter, American singer, guitarist (b. 1898)
- 1981 - Kazimierz Serocki, Polish composer (b. 1922)
- 1984 - Wolfgang Staudte, German director (b. 1906)
- 1985 - Robert Mayer, British businessman and philantropist (b. 1879)
- 1987 - Marion Hutton, American singer (b. 1919)
- 1987 - Arthur Lake, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1990 - Spud Chandler, baseball player (b. 1907)
- 1992 - Bill Naughton, British playwright (b. 1910)
- 1993 - Svetoslav Roerich, Russian painter (b. 1904)
- 1994 - Johnny Temple, baseball player (b. 1927)
- 1995 - Peter Cook, British actor. satirist, writer, and comedian (b. 1937)
- 1995 - Souphanouvong, President of Laos (b. 1909)
- 1997 - Edward Osobka-Morawski, Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1909)
- 1998 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (1918)
2000 onwards
- 2000 - Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and author (b. 1909)
- 2003 - Will McDonough, American sports journalist (b. 1935)
- 2005 - Gonzalo Gavira, Mexican film sound technician (b. 1925)
Holidays and observances
- 1788 - Ratification Day in Connecticut
- 1822 - "I Will Stay" Day, when the portuguese prince Pedro decided to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portugal king João VI, starting the brazilian independence process.
- 1964 - Memorial day of Patriotic Panamanians for the Panama Canal (Martyrs' Day/Dia de los Martires)
- Roman Catholic - Feast of Saint Adrian
- Eastern Orthodox - Feast of Saint Theophan the Recluse
- Philippines - Feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo district, Manila.
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/9 BBC: On This Day]
----
January 8 - January 10 - December 9 - February 9 — listing of all days
ko:1월 9일
ms:9 Januari
ja:1月9日
simple:January 9
th:9 มกราคม
1915
1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).
Events
- January 12 - The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
- January 12 - United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote.
- January 13 – An earthquake (6.8 in Richter scale) in Avezzano, Italy - 32.610 dead
- January 19 - George Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
- January 19 - German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom for the first time, killing more than 20.
- January 21 - Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, Michigan.
- January 27 - United States Marines occupy Haiti.
- January 27 - Chinese president Yuan Shikai declares himself Emperor
- January 28 - An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.
- January 31 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russians.
- February 8 - The controversial film The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith premieres (Los Angeles, California).
- February 12 - In Washington, DC the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.
- March 3 - NACA, the predecessor of NASA, is founded.
- March 14 - World War I: Off the coast of Chile, the Royal Navy sinks the German battleship SMS Dresden.
- March 14 - Britain, France and Russia agree to give Constantinople and the Bosporus to Russia in case of victory (the treaty is later nullified by the Bolshevik revolution)
- March 18 - World War I: British attack on the Dardanelles fails.
- March 19 - Pluto is photographed for the first time but was not recognized as a planet.
- March 25 - US submarine F-4 sinks off Hawaii - 21 dead
- March 28 - The first Roman Catholic Liturgy is celebrated by Archbishop John Ireland at the newly consecrated Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul.
- April 13 - Mexican Revolution - Pancho Villa's attack against Alvaro Obregon's troops in Celaya. Charge of Villa's troops is no match against Obregon's barbed wire and machineguns
- April 22 - World War I: Second Battle of Ypres - German troops introduce poison gas at Ypres, Belgium.
- April 24 - Turkish troops attack the Armenian region of Van, starting the Armenian Genocide. In Constantinople, Turkish officers round up 300 ethnically Armenian intellectuals and execute them
- April 25 - The Anzac tradition begins during World War I with a landing at Gallipoli on the Turkish coast.
- April 30 - Australian submarine AE2 sunk in Sea of Marmora.
- May 3 - John McCrae writes In Flanders Fields
- May 7 - World War I: The RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat killing 1,198.
- May 9 - World War I: Second Battle of Artois - German and French forces fight.
- May 17 - The last purely Liberal government in the United Kingdom ends when Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith forms an all party coalition.
- May 22 - Quintinshill railway disaster, Scotland, UK. 200 killed.
- May 23 - World War I: Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
- June 3 - Troops of Obregon and Villa clash at León. Obregon loses his right arm in grenade attack but Villa is decisively defeated
- June 9 - U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigns over a disagreement regarding his nation's handling of the RMS Lusitania sinking.
- June 16 - Foundation of the British Women's Institute
- June 29 – Roger Casement is sentenced to be hanged for treason
- July 24 - The steamer Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, Illinois, with the loss of 845 lives.
- August 5 – 23 - hurricane over Galveston and New Orleans – 275 dead
- August 6 - World War I: Battle of Sari Bair begins - The Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
- August 16 - The Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia, should victory be achieved over Austro-Hungary and it's allied Central Powers, the territories of Baranja, Srem and Slavonia from the Cisleithanian part of the Dual Monarchy; Bosnia and Herzegovina; and eastern 2/3 of Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to Bar).
- August 17 - Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Atlanta, Georgia.
- September 6 - The first prototype tank is tested for the British Army for the first time.
- September 7 - Former cartoonist John B. Gruelle is given a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll.
- October 12 - World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium.
- October 19 - US recognizes Mexican government of Victoriano Carranza de facto (not de jure until 1917)
- October 27 - William Morris Hughes becomes 7th Prime Minister of Australia.
- November 25 - The theory of general relativity is formulated.
- December 26 - Irish Republican Brotherhood Military Council decides to stage a rising on Easter Sunday 1916.
Unknown dates
- Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of Pangea.
- Emory College is rechartered as Emory University, and plans to move its main campus from Oxford, Georgia to Atlanta.
- U.S. recognizes government of President Venustiano Carranza of Mexico.
- Lord Beaverbrook buys the London Daily Express.
- Automobile speed record of 102.6 m.p.h. set at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y.. by Gil Anderson driving a Stutz.
- The first stop sign appears in Detroit, Michigan.
- Female suffrage in Denmark and Iceland
- Henri Désiré Landru begins his serial kills
- Typhoid Mary isolated
Ongoing events
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Armenian Genocide (1915-1918)
- Assyrian Genocide (1914-1922)
Births
January
- January 5 - Arthur H. Robinson, American geographer and cartographer (d. 2004)
- January 14 - Mark Goodson, American television game show producer (d. 1992)
- January 20 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan
- January 23 - Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- January 24 - Robert Motherwell, American painter (d. 1991)
- January 30 - Joachim Peiper, German SS officer (d. 1976)
- January 31 - Alan Lomax, American folklorist and musicologist (d. 2002)
- January 31 - Thomas Merton, American monk and author (d. 1968)
February
- February 1 - Artur London, Czech statesman (d. 1986)
- February 1 - Sir Stanley Matthews, English footballer (d. 2000)
- February 2 - Khushwant Singh, Indian writer
- February 4 - Sir Norman Wisdom, English comedian, singer, and actor
- February 5 - Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- February 16 - Jim O'Hora, American college football coach, (d. 2005)
- February 28 - Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1987)
March
- March 9 - John Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson, English WW2 pilot (d. 2001)
- March 10 - Harry Bertoia, Italian artist and designer (d. 1978)
- March 11 - Vijay Hazare, Indian cricketer (d. 2004)
- March 14 - Alexander Brott, Canadian conductor and composer (d. 2005)
- March 20 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian born Soviet pianist (d. 1997)
- March 23 - Vasily Zaitsev, Soviet sniper, World War II hero (d. 1991).
- March 30 - Arsenio Erico, Paraguayan footballer in Argentina (d. 1977)
- March 31 - Albert Hourani, English Middle Eastern historian (d. 1993)
April
- April 4 - Muddy Waters, American blues musician (d. 1983)
- April 7 - Billie Holiday, American jazz and blues singer (d. 1959)
- April 21 - Anthony Quinn, Mexican actor (d. 2001)
May
- May 1 - Krystyna Skarbek, Polish-born heroine of World War II (d. 1952)
- May 1 - Archie Williams, American athlete (d. 1993)
- May 2 - Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (d. 2003)
- May 5 - Alice Faye, American entertainer (d. 1998)
- May 6 - Orson Welles, American film director (d. 1985)
- May 10 - Denis Thatcher, husband of Margaret Thatcher (d. 2003)
- May 15 - Paul Samuelson, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- May 20 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician (d. 1981)
- May 26 - Sam Edwards, American actor (d. 2004)
- May 29 - Karl Münchinger, German conductor (d. 1990)
June
- June 1 - John Randolph, American actor (d. 2004)
- June 10 - Saul Bellow, Canadian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- June 15 - Thomas Huckle Weller, American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- June 17 - Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor (d. 1996)
- June 24 - Sir Fred Hoyle, British astronomer (d. 2001)
July-August
- July 28 - Charles Townes, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- August 22 - Hugh Paddick, British actor (d. 2000)
- August 27 - Norman F. Ramsey, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
September-October
- September 23 - Clifford Shull, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
- September 30 - Lester Maddox, Governor of Georgia (d. 2003)
- October 13 - Terry Frost, English artist (d. 2003)
- October 9 - Clifford M. Hardin, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
- October 17 - Arthur Miller, American playwright (d. 2005)
- October 24 - Bob Kane, American comic book creator, Creator of Batman (d. 1998)
- October 24 - Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone (d. 1984)
- October 29 - William Berenberg, American physician (d. 2005)
November
- November 9 - Sargent Shriver, American politician
- November 11 - William Proxmire, American politician
- November 12 - Roland Barthes, French philosopher and literary critic (d. 1980)
- November 14 - Martha Tilton, Britih actress
- November 19 - Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr., American physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1974)
- November 25 - Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile
- November 30 - Brownie McGhee, American musician (d. 1996)
- November 30 - Henry Taube, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
December
- December 7 - Eli Wallach, American actor
- December 8 - Ernest Lehman American screenwriter (d. 2005)
- December 9 - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, German soprano
- December 12 - Frank Sinatra, American entertainer (d. 1998)
- December 19 - Edith Piaf, French singer (d. 1963)
- December 27 - Gyula Zsengellér, Hungarian footballer
Deaths
- January 15 - Mary Slessor, Scottish Christian missionary (b. 1848)
- February 5 - Ross Barnes, baseball player (b. 1850)
- March 31 - Wyndham Halswelle, Scottish runner (b. 1882)
- April 16 - Nelson W. Aldrich, Senator from Rhode Island (b. 1841)
- April 23 - Rupert Brooke, English poet (b. 1887)
- July 16 - Ellen G. White, American prophetess, co-founder of Seventh-Day Adventism (b. 1827)
- August 20 - Paul Ehrlich, German scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1854)
- August 26 - John Bunny American silent film comedian (b. 1863)
- September 9 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (b. 1850)
- September 13 - Andrew L. Harris, American Civil War hero and Governor of Ohio (b. 1835)
- October 12 - Charles Sorley, British poet (b. 1895)
- November 15 - Booker T. Washington, African-American educator (b. 1856)
Marriages
- January 20 - Richard E. Byrd & Marie Donaldson
- April 27 - Bert Wheeler & Margaret Grae
- June 26 - T.S. Eliot & Vivienne Haigh-Wood
- August 11 - Buck Jones & Odelle Osborne
- August 29 - Julian Reed & Mrs. Mary Darcey Goodwin
- September 21 - Averell Harriman & Kitty Lawrence
- September 22 - Siegfried Wagner & Winifred Wagner
- October 21 - Graciliano Ramos & Maria Augusta de Barros
- December 5 - Kurt Schwitters & Helma Fischer
- December 12 - Mae Busch & Francis McDonald
- December 17 - Benito Mussolini & Donna Rachele Guidi
- December 18 - Paul Hoffman & Dorothy Brown
- December 18 - Woodrow Wilson & Edith Bolling Galt
Nobel Prizes
- Chemistry - Richard Willstätter
- Literature - Romain Rolland
- Medicine - not awarded
- Peace - not awarded
- Physics - William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg
Category:1915
----
ko:1915년
ms:1915
ja:1915年
simple:1915
th:พ.ศ. 2458
August 8August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining.
Events
- 1509 - The Emperor Krishnadeva Raya is crowned in the town of Chittoor in the present-day state of Andhra Pradesh, India. His accession marks the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire after a period of internal strife.
- 1585 - John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in quest for the Northwest Passage.
- 1588 - Battle of Gravelines ends - Defeated by the English during an invasion attempt, the surviving parts of the Spanish Armada begin to sail home. Only 67 of the original 130 ships will later reach Spain and most of these will be in poor condition.
- 1605 - The city of Oulu, Finland, is founded by Charles IX of Sweden.
- 1647 - Battle of Dangan Hill - Irish forces are defeated by British Parliamentary forces.
- 1786 - Mont Blanc is climbed for the first time by Dr. Michael-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat.
- 1839 - Beta Theta Pi was founded in Oxford, OH.
- 1844 - During a meeting held in Nauvoo, the Quorum of Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is created as the leading body of the Mormon Church.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (Davis will refuse the request upon receipt).
- 1876 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.
- 1911 - Public Law 62-5 sets the number of representatives in the United States House of Representatives at 435. The law will take effect in 1913.
- 1918 - World War I: Battle of Amiens - Canadian troops, backed by Australians, begin a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines. German General Erich Ludendorff will later call this the "black day of the German army."
- 1929 - The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight (will end on August 29).
- 1930 - Betty Boop premieres in the animated film "Dizzy Dishes".
- 1938 - The Mauthausen concentration camp opens.
- 1942 - World War II: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others cooperate and receive life imprisonment instead).
- 1942- Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the AICC, which leads to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India
- 1945 - World War II - The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria with more than 1 million troops. Japan surrenders on August 15
- 1945 - The United Nations Charter is ratified by the United States, and that nation becomes the third to join the new international organization.
- 1949 - Bhutan becomes independent
- 1962 - Elizabeth Ann Duncan becomes the last woman to be executed in the United States prior to the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1977. She and the two men she hired to murder her pregnant daughter-in-law in 1958 die in San Quentin's gas chamber.
- 1963 - Great Train Robbery: In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal 2.6 million pounds in bank notes.
- 1967 - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded.
- 1968 - Jurō Wada, a doctor at the Sapporo Medical School, successfully performs Japan's first heart transplant.
- 1969 - An iconic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AbbeyRoad.jpg picture] of the Beatles is taken to be used on their album Abbey Road.
- 1972 - Richard Nixon accepts the nomination as candidate for the presidency at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida and chooses Maryland Govenor Spiro Agnew to be his running mate.
- 1973 - U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew goes on television to denounce accusations he had taken kickbacks from contractors while governor of Maryland. He calls the charges as "damned lies" and vows not to resign. (See also October 10)
- 1973 - Kim Dae-Jung, a South Korean politician and later president of South Korea, is kidnapped from a Tokyo hotel.
- 1974 - Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his resignation (effective the next day, August 9).
- 1976 - Boston, the self-titled debut album for the rock band Boston is released. It sells over 17 million copies and becomes the #1 best-selling debut album in history.
- 1978 - Odie makes his first appearance in the cartoon strip Garfield
- 1988 - General Ne Win, ruler of Burma since 1962, suddenly resigns.
- 1988 - Chicago's Wrigley Field installs lights and attempts to play first game at night.
- 1989 - STS-28: The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off on a secret five-day military mission.
- 1991 - Collapse of Warsaw radio mast, the tallest construction ever built
- 1999 - The series finale of Mystery Science Theater 3000 airs on the Sci-Fi Channel.
- 2000 - Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.
Births
- 1079 - Emperor Horikawa of Japan (d. 1107)
- 1602 - Gilles de Roberval, French mathematician (d. 1675)
- 1605 - Cæcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, colonial Governor of Maryland (d. 1675)
- 1646 - Godfrey Kneller, German-born painter (d. 1723)
- 1673 - John Ker, Scottish spy (d. 1726)
- 1693 - Laurent Belissen, French composer (d. 1762)
- 1694 - Francis Hutcheson, Irish philosopher (d. 1746)
- 1720 - Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish politician (d. 1796)
- 1814 - Esther Morris, suffragist and the first U. S. woman judge (d. 1902)
- 1839 - Nelson Miles, U.S. general (d. 1925)
- 1866 - Matthew Henson, Arctic explorer (d. 1955)
- 1875 - Artur da Silva Bernardes, President of Brazil (d. 1955)
- 1879 - Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1919)
- 1880 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)
- 1891 - Adolf Busch, German violinist (d. 1952)
- 1892 - Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, Spanish footballer (d. 1922)
- 1896 - Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, American author (d. 1953)
- 1901 - Ernest O. Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
- 1902 - Paul Dirac, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984)
- 1905 - André Jolivet, French composer (d. 1974)
- 1907 - Benny Carter, American musician and arranger (d. 2003)
- 1908 - Arthur Goldberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1980)
- 1910 - Sylvia Sidney, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1911 - Rosetta LeNoire, American actress (d. 2002)
- 1915 - James "Jumbo" Elliott, American track coach (d. 1981)
- 1919 - Dino De Laurentiis, Italian film producer
- 1920 - Leo Chiosso, Italian lyricist
- 1921 - William Asher, American film producer
- 1921 - John Herbert Chapman, British physicist
- 1921 - Webb Pierce, American singer (d. 1991)
- 1921 - Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, Indian medical scientist
- 1921 - Esther Williams, American actress and swimmer
- 1922 - Rory Calhoun, American actor (d. 1999)
- 1922 - Rudi Gernreich, Austrian-born fashion designer (d. 1985)
- 1925 - Alija Izetbegovic, President of Bosnia-Herzegovina (d. 2003)
- 1927 - Johnny Temple, baseball player (d. 1994)
- 1929 - Larisa Bogoraz, Soviet dissident (d. 2004)
- 1931 - Sir Roger Penrose, British physicist
- 1932 - Mel Tillis, American singer
- 1936 - Donald P. Bellisario, American television producer
- 1936 - Keith Barron, English actor
- 1937 - Dustin Hoffman, American actor
- 1938 - Connie Stevens, American singer and actress
- 1939 - Alexander Watson, American ambassador and diplomat
- 1944 - Peter Weir, Australian film director
- 1944 - Uli Derickson, Czech-born flight attendant
- 1944 - Brooke Bundy, American actress
- 1949 - Keith Carradine, American actor
- 1951 - Mamoru Oshii, Japanese film director
- 1952 -Jostein Gaarder, Norwegian author
- 1952 - Robin Quivers, American radio personality
- 1953 - Don Most American actor
- 1954 - Nigel Mansell, English race car driver
- 1955 - Herbert Prohaska, Austrian footballer
- 1956 - Branscombe Richmond, American actor
- 1958 - Deborah Norville, American reporter and television host
- 1961 - The Edge, Irish guitarist (U2)
- 1966 - Chris Eubank, English boxer
- 1973 - Scott Stapp, American singer (Creed)
- 1974 - Ulises De la Cruz, Ecuadoran footballer
- 1976 - J.C. Chasez, American singer (
- NSYNC)
- 1976 - Drew Lachey, American singer
- 1978 - Louis Saha, French footballer
- 1979 - Richard Harwood, British cellist
- 1980 - Sabine Klaschka, German tennis player
- 1980 - Pat Noonan, American soccer player
- 1981 - Vanessa Amorosi, Australian singer and songwriter
- 1981 - Roger Federer, Swiss tennis player
- 1988 - Princess Beatrice of York
Deaths
- 869 - Lothair II of Lotharingia (b. 825)
- 1445 - Oswald von Wolkenstein, Austrian composer
- 1553 - Girolamo Fracastoro, Italian physician (b. 1478)
- 1588 - Alonso Sánchez Coello, Spanish painter
- 1604 - Horio Tadauji, Japanese warlord (b. 1578)
- 1684 - George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer (b. 1622)
- 1694 - Antoine Arnauld, French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1612)
- 1759 - Carl Heinrich Graun, German composer
- 1828 - Carl Peter Thunberg, Swedish naturalist (b. 1743)
- 1879 - Immanuel Hermann Fichte, German philosopher (b. 1797)
- 1887 - Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and soldier (b. 1808)
- 1898 - Eugène Boudin, French painter (b. 1824)
- 1902 - James Tissot, French artist (b. 1836)
- 1911 - William P. Frye, American politician (b. 1830)
- 1933 - Adolf Loos, Austrian architect (b. 1870)
- 1940 - Johnny Dodds, American musician (b. 1892)
- 1944 - Chaim Soutine, Russian painter (b. 1894)
- 1965 - Shirley Jackson, American author (b. 1916)
- 1972 - Andrea Feldman, American actor (b. 1948)
- 1975 - Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1928)
- 1985 - Louise Brooks, American actress (b. 1906)
- 1987 - Danilo Blanuša, Croatian mathematician (b. 1903)
- 1991 - James Irwin, astronaut (b. 1930)
- 1995 - Joan Croydon, theatre actress who made one movie (The Bad Seed) (b. 1923)
- 1996 - Nevill Mott, English physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics (b. 1905)
- 1997 - Sviatoslav Richter, Ukrainian pianist (b. 1915)
- 2004 - Fay Wray, American actress (b. 1907)
- 2005 - Barbara Bel Geddes, American actress (b. 1922)
- 2005 - John H. Johnson, African-American publisher; billionaire (b. 1918)
- 2005 - Gene Mauch, American athlete and manager (b. 1925)
- 2005 - Monica Sjoo, Swedish artist (cancer)
- 2005 - Ilse Werner, German actress (b. 1921)
Holidays and observances
- Taiwan: Father's Day. (In Mandarin, Ba Ba means father and 8-8, or August 8).
- Sweden - Namesday of Queen Silvia, an Official Flag Day.
Religious observances
- Roman Catholic Church: Memorial of St Dominic de Guzman, priest, (1170-1221).
External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/8 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050808.html The New York Times: On This Day]
----
August 7 - August 9 - July 8 - September 8 -- listing of all days
ko:8월 8일
ms:8 Ogos
ja:8月8日
simple:August 8
th:8 สิงหาคม
1996
1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty.
Events
January
- January 5 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
- January 7 - One of the worst blizzards in American history hits eastern states, killing more than 100.
- January 8 - Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital Kinshasa - 350 dead.
- January 9 - Assassination of Eric Hebborn, art forger, in Rome, Italy.
- January 14 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
- January 20 - Yasser Arafat is re-elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
- January 22 - Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece resigns due to health problems. New government forms under Costas Simitis.
- January 24 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charge he spied for Moscow.
- January 26 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
- US millionaire John Dupont shoots wrestler David Schultz
- January 27 - Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
- January 29
- President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.
- Fire destroys La Fenice, Venice's opera house.
- A Greek flag is hoisted above Kardac Rocks, initiating the Imia-Kardak crisis
- Duke Nukem 3D Shareware released to public
- January 30 - Leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed, in an internal feud, while in line for his unemployment benefit.
- January 30 - February 5 - Sarah Balabagan caned in the United Arab Emirates
- January 31 - An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
February
- February - Iraq disarmament crisis: Recently defected Iraqi w | | |
