1892 - 112 years ago John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born (d. 1973), an English writer, a literature specialist, the author of the five book series Middle Earth (Hobbit or There and Back Again, novel Lord of the Rings and the cycle of Elf legends Silmarillion). He is traditionally acknowledged as the founder of the fantasy genre.
1929 - 75 years ago Sergio Leone was born (d.1989), an Italian film director, founder of the spaghetti western genre, his most famous film is his last one, Once Upon a Time in America.
1939 - 65 years ago Bobby (Robert Marvin) Hull, Canadian hockey player, a prominent forward of the North American professional hockey.
1944 - 60 years ago Jurgis Baltrusaitis (b.1873), Lithuanian poet, the author of the Green Steps collection, Lilia and Sickle, Wreath of Tears, etc.
1969 - 35 years ago Michael Schumacher, German car racer of Formula-1, five-time champion of the world, who has scored a record number of victories in Formula-1.
Russia:
1744 - 260 years ago Ippolit Bogdanovich (d.1803) was born, a poet.
1814 - 190 years ago a silver medal In Memory of Patriotic War of 1812 was established; on the one side there was the image of the All-Seeing Eye, and on the reverse - a four-line inscription Not unto Us, Not unto Us but unto Thy Name.
1923 - 71 years ago Jaroslav Hasek (b.1883) died, a Czech satirical writer, participant in WWI, author of the great novel, The Good Soldier Schweik.
1924 - 80 years ago Uliana Gromova was born, a Hero of the Soviet Union, a member of the underground Komsomol organisation Young Guards which operated in Ukraine during the Great Patriotic War. Executed by Nazis in 1943.
1929 - 75 years ago Garry Grodberg, a musician, an organ player, soloist of the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic, People's Artist of Russia, an active promoter and interpreter of Bach's works, an author of some collections for organ playing, Russian State Prize laureate.
1938 - 66 years ago Alexander Lazarev was born, an actor of the Mayakovsky Theatre, People's Artist of the Russian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic, winner of the USSR State Prize.
1959 - 45 years ago Fedor Yurchikhin was born, a cosmonaut of Russia, made a space flight in October 2002 within the crew of the Atlantis shuttle to deliver and fix a rail-road there.
1994 - 10 years ago a TU-154 aircraft bound from Irkutsk to Moscow crashed over Irkutsk killing 121 people.
According to the Orthodox calendar, this day is in memory of Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow and all-Russia, a wonder-worker; he was the one who moved his chair to Moscow from Vlladimir on the request of Ivan Kalita during the Tatar Mongol yoke, which later had crucial importance for all Russia.
