On this day
1864: Stephen Foster, US composer of minstrel songs and ballads (The Old
Folks At Home, Beautiful Dreamer, etc) died after hitting his head on a chamber pot.
1887: Sophie Tucker, singer and vaudeville star known in America as “the last of the Red Hot Mamas”, was born in Russia.
1893: The Independent British Labour Party was formed by Keir Hardie.
1904: English composer Richard Addinsell was born. His most famous work was the Warsaw Concerto which he wrote for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight.
1921: The first British patent for windscreen wipers was registered by Mills Munitions of Birmingham.
1942: The pilot of an experimental jet fighter became the first to leave his plane via an emergency ejector seat. 1962: An outbreak of smallpox spread throughout Britain.
1964: A reluctant Capitol Records released the first Beatles record in the US “to see how it goes”. I Wanna Hold Your Hand became their fastest-selling single - one million copies were sold in the first three weeks.
1982: A Boeing 737 crashed into a bridge, hitting five ships and killing 78 people, on the Potomac River in Washington DC.
1990: An army undercover unit shot
dead three men robbing a betting shop in west Belfast, causing uproar among republicans. Two of the raiders were hooded and carried replica guns.
2010: Pope Benedict XVI met and forgave the woman who knocked him down at Christmas Eve Mass in 2009. 2013: Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave won the coveted Golden Globe for best movie drama.