Lincoln reluctantly restores McClellan to full command after Bull Run (1862), and Olavi Laiho executed by firing squad in Oulu (1944). Born on this day: Keir Starmer, Keanu Reeves and Salma Hayek. Died: J.R.R. Tolkien, Ho Chi Minh and Pierre, baron de Coubertin.
31 events, 62 births and 64 deaths on this date.
After John Pope's crushing defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Lincoln grudgingly gave General George McClellan back full control of the Union armies. Lincoln distrusted McClellan, but with few alternatives he had little choice.
Alexander Gardner · Public domainSoldier Olavi Laiho was shot in Oulu, the last Finn to be executed in Finland. The case was tied to wartime military justice during the Lapland War, when Finland turned against its former German allies.
The UN's Rwanda tribunal convicted Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former town mayor in Rwanda, on nine charges of genocide. It was a verdict on one man's role in the killings that tore the country apart.
The agency dropped two of its planned crewed Moon landings, cutting the Apollo programme short. The Apollo 15 name was later given to a different mission, which did reach the Moon.
Transnistrian leaders declared their region a Soviet republic without consulting Moldova, the first step toward the breakaway that later led to war. Moscow's leader rejected the move, though the declaration set the stage for the 1992 conflict.
Cicero, Rome's great orator, opened a run of attacks on Mark Antony, the first of fourteen speeches he would aim at the rival politician over the coming months. These Philippics became some of the most scathing political invective in Latin.
José Luiz · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Keir Starmer is a former barrister who was Director of Public Prosecutions before entering Parliament in 2015. He led the Labour Party from 2020 and served as Prime Minister from 2024 to 2026.
Prime Minister's Office · OGL 3
Canadian actor known for Neo in The Matrix and the title role in the John Wick films. He also starred in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which made him a box-office draw in the late 1980s.
Gabriel Hutchinson · CC BY-SA 4.0
Mexican and American actress and producer, still working today. She is best known for playing painter Frida Kahlo in the 2002 biopic Frida, earning the first Academy Award nomination for a Mexican actress in the Best Actress category.
Martin Kraft · CC BY-SA 4.0
An Oxford philologist who invented whole languages and a fantasy world, Middle-earth. He wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, books that did much to shape modern fantasy as a genre.
Unknown photo studio commissioned by Tolkien's students 1925/6 (private communication from Catherine McIlwaine, Tolkien Archivist, Bodleian Library) · Public domain
Vietnamese communist revolutionary who became the first leader of North Vietnam, serving as its president until his death. He had earlier directed the Viet Minh, the resistance front fighting Japanese rule, and helped found the Indochinese Communist Party.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Pierre de Coubertin is remembered as the driving force behind reviving the modern Olympic Games and as a co-founder and second president of the International Olympic Committee. He also pushed to bring sport into French schools, and he came to the idea of the Games while studying at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.
Photograph from Bain News Service. · Public domain
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