On this date in 1942, Czech athlete and resistance figure Evzen Rosicky was shot with his father at Prague’s Kobyliske shooting grounds.
His country’s former champion in the 800 meters and 400 meter hurdles, Rosicky had the honor of representing Czechoslovakia at the 1936 Olympics … Hitler’s Berlin showcase.
Three years later, it was the Czechs unwillingly playing host to the Germans. By then, Rosicky was a journalist of left-wing proclivities (he was a card-carrying Communist) and he naturally segued right into anti-occupation resistance.
Arrested and shot along with his father, Jaroslav, Evzen Rosicky is the namesake of Prague’s Stadion Evzena Rosickeho.
On this day..
- 1950: The Martyred, at the outset of the Korean War
- 1999: Eduardo Agbayani, omnishambles execution
- 1942: Gordon Cummins, the Blackout Ripper
- 1880: Three juvenile offenders in Canton, Ohio
- 1483: Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers
- 1646: Jan Creoli, for sodomy in slavery
- 2003: He Xiuling, Ma Qingxui, Li Juhua and Dai Donggui
- 10 executions that defined the 1980s
- 1804: Georges Cadoudal, Chouan
- 1790: Thomas Bird, the first federal execution under the U.S. constitution
- 1591: Euphane MacCalzean, witch
- 1579: Hatano Hideharu, en route to the Tokugawa Shogunate
- 1959: Charles Starkweather, Nebraska spree killer