Today in History for 5th January 2018:
Historical Events
1593 – William Louis of Nassau becomes governor/viceroy of Drenthe
1916 – Austria-Hungary offensive against Montenegro
1927 – Judge Landis begins 3-day public hearing on charges that 4 games played between Chicago and Detroit in 1917 had been thrown to White Sox
1950 – Carson McCuller’s “Member of the Wedding” premieres in NYC
1975 – 14 die when British freighter “Lake Illawarra” rams pylon bridge between Derwent and Hobart, Tasmania and ship sinks
1990 – J Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of CFL
Famous Birthdays
1587 – Xu Xiake, Chinese geographer (d. 1641)
1696 – Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect/painter (d. 1757)
1787 – John Burke, Irish genealogist (Burke’s Peerage)
1810 – Auguste Mermet, composer
1829 – Sir Roger Tichborne, missing U.K. heir who was the subject of the longest criminal trial in British history (d. c.1854)
1940 – General Sir Michael Rose, UK military officer, prominent in Bosnia
Famous Deaths
1960 – Pavel P Parenago, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 53
1987 – Herman Smith-Johannsen, Norwegian-born Canadian cross-country skier (b. 1875)
1988 – Pete Maravich, American basketball player, dies of heart failure at 40
1994 – Louis R J Ridder van Rappard, Dutch mayor of Zoelen, dies at 87
1996 – Joseph Daniel White, singer/bandleader, dies at 84
2004 – Tug McGraw, American baseball player, father of Tim McGraw (b. 1944)