BIRTHS

Boris Kostic 1887-03.11.1963), One of the top Serbian players before WWII. At New York in 1916, he once played twenty opponents without sight of a board and won nineteen games and drew one, while engaging in polite conversation with opponents and spectators.
Cenek Kottnauer (1910-14.02.1996), an English International Master and International Arbiter who played few Olympiads for Czechoslovakia and England.
Klaus Darga (24.02.1934), a German Grandmaster who was West German chess champion in 1955 and 1961 and one of the best German players of his time.
Orest Gritsak(1973), a Ukrainian Grandmaster who was Ukrainian Champion in 1993 and a coach of Ivanchuk for few years.
Surya, Shekhar Ganguly (1983), an Indian Grandmaster who became 2009 Asian champion and six-time Indian champion.
Xiaowen Zhang (1989), a Chinese Woman Grandmaster.
Vasif Durarbayli (1992), an Azeri Grandmaster who won the World U18 Youth Chess Championship for boys.

DEATH

James Mortimer (April 22/04.1833-1911), an American player and journalist who was living in England.

WORLD EVENTS

1582 With the papal bull Inter gravissimas, Pope Gregory XIII announces the Gregorian calendar.
1607 L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as an opera, receives its première performance.
1848 King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.
1854 A Penny Red with perforations was the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution.
1868 US House of Representatives votes 126 to 47 to impeach President Andrew Johnson.
1895 Revolution breaks out in Baire, a town near Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban War of Independence, that ends with the Spanish–American War in 1898.
1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence.
1920 The Nazi Party is founded.
1944 Argentina coup by the minister of war Juan Peron.
1945 Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree.
1946 Juan Peron (Labor Party) first elected President of Argentina
2008 Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years.
2013 Raúl Castro is elected to a second term as the President of Cuba.
(Source: Wikipedia-Onthisday)

GAME OF THE DAY