46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Caecilius Metellus Scipio and Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger) in the battle of Thapsus.
1199 – King Richard I of England dies from an infection following the removal of an arrow from his shoulder.
1580 – One of the largest earthquakes recorded in the history of England, Flanders, or Northern France, takes place.
1712 – The New York Slave Revolt of 1712 begins near Broadway.
1808 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company, that would eventually make him America’s first millionaire.
1841 – John Tyler is sworn in, two days after having become President upon William Henry Harrison’s death.
1866 – The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956.
1895 – Oscar Wilde is arrested in the Cadogan Hotel, London, after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I.
1909 – Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole.
1930 – Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire,” beginning the Salt Satyagraha.
1957 – Aristotle Onassis buys the Hellenic National Airlines (TAE) and founds Olympic Airlines.
1962 – Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks from the podium during a New York Philharmonic concert featuring Glenn Gould performing Brahms’ First Piano Concerto.
Bernstein’s remarks from the podium:
“Don’t be frightened. Mr. Gould is here. He will appear in a moment. I’m not, um, as you know, in the habit of speaking on any concert except the Thursday night previews, but a curious situation has arisen, which merits, I think, a word or two.
You are about to hear a rather, shall we say, unorthodox performance of the Brahms D Minor Concerto, a performance distinctly different from any I’ve ever heard, or even dreamt of for that matter, in its remarkably broad tempi and its frequent departures from Brahms’ dynamic indications. I cannot say I am in total agreement with Mr. Gould’s conception and this raises the interesting question: “What am I doing conducting it?” I’m conducting it because Mr. Gould is so valid and serious an artist that I must take seriously anything he conceives in good faith and his conception is interesting enough so that I feel you should hear it, too.
But the age old question still remains: “In a concerto, who is the boss; the soloist or the conductor?” The answer is, of course, sometimes one, sometimes the other, depending on the people involved. But almost always, the two manage to get together by persuasion or charm or even threats to achieve a unified performance. I have only once before in my life had to submit to a soloist’s wholly new and incompatible concept and that was the last time I accompanied Mr. Gould. (The audience roared with laughter at this.)
But, but this time the discrepancies between our views are so great that I feel I must make this small disclaimer. Then why, to repeat the question, am I conducting it? Why do I not make a minor scandal – get a substitute soloist, or let an assistant conduct? Because I am fascinated, glad to have the chance for a new look at this much-played work; Because, what’s more, there are moments in Mr. Gould’s performance that emerge with astonishing freshness and conviction. Thirdly, because we can all learn something from this extraordinary artist, who is a thinking performer, and finally because there is in music what Dimitri Mitropoulos used to call “the sportive element”, that factor of curiosity, adventure, experiment, and I can assure you that it has been an adventure this week collaborating with Mr. Gould on this Brahms concerto and it’s in this spirit of adventure that we now present it to you.”
1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit.
1998 – Travelers Group announces an agreement to undertake the $76 billion merger between Travelers and Citicorp, and the merger is completed on October 8, of that year, forming Citibank.
Births
1483 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (d. 1520)
1820 – Nadar, French photographer, journalist, and author (d. 1910)
1888 – Hans Richter, Swiss painter, illustrator, and director (d. 1976)
1892 – Lowell Thomas, American journalist and author (d. 1981)
1909 – Hermann Lang, German race car driver (d. 1987)
1927 – Gerry Mulligan, saxophonist, clarinet player, and composer
1928 – James Watson, American biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 – André Previn, American pianist, composer, and conductor
1951 – Phil Schaap, American jazz disc jockey and historian
Deaths
1250 – Guillaume de Sonnac, Grand Master of the Knights Templar
1520 – Raphael, Italian painter and architect (b. 1483)
1528 – Albrecht Dürer, painter, engraver, and mathematician (b. 1471)
1676 – John Winthrop the Younger, first Governor of Connecticut
1971 – Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1882)
1992 – Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer (b. 1920)
2015 – Ray Charles, American singer-songwriter and conductor (b. 1918)
2016 – Merle Haggard, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1937)
Edited from various sources including historyorb.com, the NYTimes.com Wikipedia and other internet searches