View Full Version : Today In History
Funkwerkz
2008-11-24, 13:55
November 24, 1928 was the first day that Turkish teachers began teaching in brand new latin alphabet.
November 24, 1981 was the first Teachers' Day in Turkland (Turkey), as a tribute to November 24, 1928.
Happy Teachers' Day to all teachers.
1715 - Sybilla Thomas Masters became the first American to be granted an English patent for cleaning and curing Indian corn.
1758 - During the French and Indian War, the British captured Fort Duquesne at what is now known as Pittsburgh.
1783 - During the Revolutionary War, the British evacuated New York. New York was their last military position in the U.S.
1837 - William Crompton patented the silk power loom.
1850 - Texas relinquished one-third of its territory in exchange for $10 million from the U.S. to pay its public debts and settle border disputes.
1867 - Alfred Nobel patented dynamite.
1882 - The first of 400 performances of "lolnathe" took place.
1884 - J.B. Meyenberg received the patent for evaporated milk.
1920 - The first play-by-play broadcast of a football game was aired in College Station, TX. The game was between the University of Texas and Texas A&M.
1936 - The Anti-Comintern Pact, an agreement between Japan and Germany, was signed.
1947 - Movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the "Hollywood 10," who were cited a day earlier and jailed for contempt of Congress when they failed to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.
1952 - Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opened in London.
1955 - In the U.S., the Interstate Commerce Commission banned racial segregation on interstate trains and buses.
1957 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a stroke.
1970 - Japanese author Yukio Mishima committed ritual suicide after giving a speech attacking Japan's post-war constitution.
1973 - Greek President George Papadapoulos was ousted in military coup.
1976 - O.J. Simpson (Buffalo Bills) ran for 273 yards against the Detroit Lions.
1983 - Mediators from Syria and Saudi Arabia announced a cease-fire in the PLO civil war in Tripoli, Lebanon.
1985 - Ronald W. Pelton was arrested on espionage charges. Pelton was a former employee of the National Security Agency. He was later convicted of 'selling secrets' to Soviet agents.
1986 - U.S. President Reagan and Attorney Gen. Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to rebels in Nicaragua.
1990 - Poland held its first popular presidential election.
1992 - The Czech parliament voted to split the country into separate Czech and Slovak republics beginning January 1, 1993.
1993 - Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Sedki escaped an attempt on his life when a bomb was detonated by Islamic militants near his motorcade.
1995 - Serbs protested in the streets of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo The protest was against a peace plan.
1998 - Britain's highest court ruled that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, whose extradition was being sought by Spain, could not claim immunity from prosecution for the crimes he committed during his rule.
1998 - President Jiang Zemin arrived in Tokyo for the first visit to Japan by a Chinese head of state since World War II.
1998 - The IMF (International Monetary Fund) approved a $5.5 billion bailout for Pakistan.
Current Birthdays
Christina Applegate turns 37 years old today.
88 Ricardo Montalban
Actor ("Fantasy Island")
88 Noel Neill
Actress
75 Kathryn Crosby
Actress
72 Matt Clark
Actor
68 Joe Gibbs
Hall of Fame football coach
68 Percy Sledge
R&B singer
64 Bob Lind
Singer
64 Ben Stein
Actor, game show host
61 Jonathan Kaplan
Director
61 John Larroquette
Actor ("Night Court")
56 John Lynch
Governor of New Hampshire
48 Amy Grant
Country-gospel singer
44 Eric Grossman
Rock musician (K's Choice)
44 Mark Lanegan
Rock singer
43 Tim Armstrong
Rock musician (Rancid)
42 Stacy Lattisaw
R&B singer
42 Rodney Sheppard
Rock musician (Sugar Ray)
40 Erick Sermon
Rapper, producer
39 Jill Hennessy
Actress ("Crossing Jordan," "Law and Order")
35 Eddie Steeples
Actor
32 Donovan McNabb
Football player
27 Barbara Bush
Daughter of President George W. Bush
27 Jenna Bush
Daughter of President George W. Bush
Historic Birthdays
Andrew Carnegie
11/25/1835 - 8/11/1919
Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist
72 Lope de Vega
11/25/1562 - 8/27/1635
Spanish dramatist
59 Henrietta Maria de Bourbon
11/25/1609 - 9/10/1669
French wife of King Charles I of England
94 John Bigelow
11/25/1817 - 12/19/1911
American diplomat, author and editor of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography
64 Carry Nation
11/25/1846 - 6/9/1911
American temperance advocate
35 Joe Gans
11/25/1874 - 8/10/1910
American boxer
81 John XXIII
11/25/1881 - 6/3/1963
Italian pope (1958-63)
76 Joseph Krutch
11/25/1893 - 5/22/1970
American naturalist and author
92 Virgil Thomson
11/25/1896 - 9/30/1989
American composer, conducter and music critic
80 Lewis Thomas
11/25/1913 - 12/3/1993
American physician and essayist
84 Joe DiMaggio
11/25/1914 - 3/8/1999
American baseball player
marquis2
2008-11-26, 04:01
The Mousetrap is still running , making it by far the longest continuous run of any play in history.
gunslingingbird
2008-11-26, 09:51
The Mousetrap is still running , making it by far the longest continuous run of any play in history.
That would be more of a "Trivia Today" thread entry, not really "Today in History". :hatsoff:
1716 - The first lion to be exhibited in America went on display in Boston, MA.
1731 - English poet William Cowper was born. He is best known for "The Poplar Trees" and "The Task."
1789 - U.S. President Washington set aside this day to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.
1825 - The first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College in Schenectady, NY.
1832 - Public streetcar service began in New York City.
1861 - West Virginia was created (out of Virginia) over a dispute of slavery. West Virginia was against slavery.
1867 - J.B. Sutherland patented the refrigerated railroad car.
1922 - In Egypt, Howard Carter peered into the tomb of King Tutankhamen.
1940 - The Nazis forced 500,000 Jews of Warsaw, Poland to live within a walled ghetto.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. In 1939 Roosevelt had signed a bill that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November.
1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered nationwide gasoline rationing to begin December 1.
1942 - The motion picture "Casablanca" had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.
1943 - The HMS Rohna became the first ship to be sunk by a guided missile. The German missile attack led to the death of 1,015 U.S. troops.
1949 - India's Constituent Assembly adopted the country's constitution The country became republic within the British Commonwealth two months later.
1950 - China entered the Korean conflict forcing UN forces to retreat.
1958 - Maurice Richard (Montreal Canadiens) scored his 600th NHL career goal.
1965 - France became the third country to enter space when it launched its first satellite the Diamant-A.
1973 - Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she was responsible for the 18-1/2 minute gap in a key Watergate tape. Woods was U.S. President Nixon's personal secretary.
1975 - Lynette"Squeaky" Fromme was found guilty by a federal jury in Sacramento, CA, for trying to assassinate U.S. President Ford on September 5.
1979 - The International Olympic Committee voted to re-admit China after a 21-year absence.
1983 - A Brinks Mat Ltd. vault at London's Heathrow Airport was robbed by gunmen. The men made off with 6,800 gold bars worth nearly $40 million. Only a fraction of the gold has ever been recovered and only two men have been convicted in the heist.
1985 - The rights to Ronald Reagan's autobiography were acquired by Random House for $3,000,000.
1986 - U.S. President Reagan appointed a commission headed by former Sen. John Tower to investigate his National Security Council staff after the Iran-Contra affair.
1988 - The U.S. denied an entry visa to PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, who was seeking permission to travel to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.
1990 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz at the Kremlin to demand that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait.
1990 - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. agreed to acquire MCA Inc. for $6.6 billion.
1992 - The British government announced that Queen Elizabeth II had volunteered to start paying taxes on her personal income. She also took her children off the public payroll.
1995 - Two men set fire to a subway token booth in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The clerk inside was fatally burned.
1997 - The U.S. and North Korea held high-level discussions at the State Department for the first time.
1998 - British Prime Minister Toney Blair made a speech to the Irish Parliament. It was a first time event for a British Prime Minister.
1998 - Hulk Hogan announced that he was retiring from pro wrestling and would run for president in 2000.
2003 - The U.N. atomic agency adopted a resolution that censured Iran for past nuclear cover-ups and warning that it would be policed to put to rest suspicions that the country had a weapons agenda.
Current Birthdays
Natasha Bedingfield turns 27 years old today.
90 Ellen Albertini Dow
Actress
70 Samuel Bodman
Secretary of energy
70 Porter Goss
Former CIA director
70 Rich Little
Comedian
69 Tina Turner
Rock singer
63 John McVie
Rock musician (Fleetwood Mac)
62 Art Shell
Football Hall of Famer
55 Harry Carson
Football Hall of Famer
49 Jamie Rose
Actress
46 Linda Davis
Country singer
43 Bernard Allison
Blues musician
43 Steve Grisaffe
Country musician
35 Kristin Bauer
Actress
35 Peter Facinelli
Actor
32 Maia Campbell
Actress
32 Joe Nichols
Country singer
28 Jessica Bowman
Actress
23 Lil Fizz
R&B singer
21 Aubrey Collins
Country singer
Historic Birthdays
Charles Schulz
11/26/1922 - 2/12/2000
American cartoonist and creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip
68 William Cowper
11/26/1731 - 4/25/1800
English poet
81 Sarah Grimke
11/26/1792 - 12/23/1873
American abolitionist and early feminist
96 Katharine Drexel
11/26/1858 - 3/3/1955
American founder of Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament
73 Willis H. Carrier
11/26/1876 - 10/7/1950
American inventor and industrialist
84 Heinrich Bruning
11/26/1885 - 3/30/1970
German statesman, chancellor and foreign minister
69 Norbert Wiener
11/26/1894 - 3/18/1964
American mathematician
36 Bruno Hauptmann
11/26/1899 - 4/3/1936
Kidnapper of the son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh
84 Eugene Ionesco
11/26/1909 - 3/28/1994
Romanian-born French dramatist
79 Eric Sevareid
11/26/1912 - 7/9/1992
American journalist
marquis2
2008-11-27, 03:07
HMS Rohna was in fact hit by a radio controlled glide bomb not a guided missile.
1684 - Japan's shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa was born.
1701 - Anders Celsius was born in Sweden. He was the inventor of the Celsius thermometer.
1779 - The College of Pennsylvania became the University of Pennsylvania. It was the first legally recognized university in America.
1839 - The American Statistical Association was founded in Boston.
1889 - Curtis P. Brady was issued the first permit to drive an automobile through Central Park in New York City.
1901 - The Army War College was established in Washington, DC.
1910 - New York's Pennsylvania Station opened.
1939 - The play "Key Largo," by Maxwell Anderson, opened in New York.
1951 - Hosea Richardson became the first black horse racing jockey to be licensed in Florida.
1963 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress.
1970 - Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was attacked at the Manila airport by a Bolivian painter disguised as a priest.
1973 - The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president after the resignation of Spiro T. Agnew.
1978 - San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, a gay-rights activist, were shot to death inside City Hall by Dan White, a former supervisor.
1980 - Dave Williams (Chicago Bears) became the first player in NFL history to return a kick for touchdown in overtime.
1983 - 183 people were killed when a Colombian Avianca Airlines Boeing 747 crashed near Barajas airport in Madrid.
1985 - The British House of Commons approved the Anglo-Irish accord giving Dublin a consulting role in the governing of British-ruled Northern Ireland.
1987 - French hostages Jean-Louis Normandin and Roger Auque were set free by their pro-Iranian captors in West Beirut, Lebanon.
1989 - 107 people were killed when a bomb destroyed a Colombian jetliner minutes after the plane had taken off from Bogota's international airport. Police blamed the incident on drug traffickers.
1991 - The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution that led the way for the establishment of a UN peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia.
1992 - In Venezuela, rebel forces tried but failed to overthrow President Carlos Andres Perez for the second time in ten months.
Current Birthdays
Jimmy Rollins turns 30 years old today.
60 James Avery
Actor
53 Bill Nye
TV personality
52 William Fichtner
Actor
51 Caroline Kennedy
Daughter of President John F. Kennedy
50 Mike Scioscia
Baseball manager
49 Charlie Burchill
Rock musician (Simple Minds)
48 Tim Pawlenty
Governor of Minnesota
46 Charlie Benante
Rock musician (Anthrax)
46 Mike Bordin
Rock musician (Faith No More)
45 Fisher Stevens
Actor
44 Robin Givens
Actress
40 Michael Vartan
Actor ("Alias")
38 Skoob
Rapper (DAS EFX)
37 Kirk Acevedo
Actor
36 Twista
Rapper
32 Jaleel White
Actor
23 Alison Pill
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Chaim Weizmann
11/27/1874 - 9/9/1952
Zionist pioneer and first president of Israel
42 Anders Celsius
11/27/1701 - 4/25/1744
Swedish astronomer and inventor of the Celsius thermometer scale
66 Robert Livingston
11/27/1746 - 2/26/1813
American landowner, politician and merchant
83 Fanny Kemble
11/27/1809 - 1/15/1893
English author and actress
73 Charles Beard
11/27/1874 - 9/1/1948
American historian
45 James Agee
11/27/1909 - 5/16/1955
American writer
70 Alexander Dubcek
11/27/1921 - 11/7/1992
Czech communist leader; initiated reforms put down by Soviets in 1968
50 Benigno Aquino Jr.
11/27/1932 - 8/21/1983
Phillipine opposition leader under Pres. Ferdinand Marcos
27 Jimi Hendrix
11/27/1942 - 9/18/1970
American rock guitarist
27 jimi hendrix
11/27/1942 - 9/18/1970
american rock guitarist
r.i.p.
1520 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait. The strait was named after him. He was the first European to sail the Pacific from the east.
1582 - William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were married.
1757 - English poet, painter and engraver William Blake was born. Two of his best known works are "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience."
1919 - American-born Lady Astor was elected the first female member of the British Parliament.
1922 - Capt. Cyril Turner of the Royal Air Force gave the first public exhibition of skywriting. He spelled out, "Hello USA. Call Vanderbilt 7200" over New York's Times Square.
1925 - The Grand Ole Opry made its radio debut on station WSM.
1934 - The U.S. bank robber George "Baby Face" Nelson was killed by FBI agents near Barrington, IL.
1942 - 491 people died in a fire that destroyed the Coconut Grove in Boston.
1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to map out strategy concerning World War II.
1953 - New York City began 11 days without newspapers due to a strike of photoengravers.
1958 - The African nation of Chad became an autonomous republic within the French community.
1963 - U.S. President Johnson announced that Cape Canaveral would be renamed Cape Kennedy in honor of his assassinated predecessor. The name was changed back to Cape Canaveral in 1973 by a vote of residents.
1964 - The U.S. launched the space probe Mariner IV from Cape Kennedy on a course set for Mars.
1977 - Larry Bird was introduced as "College Basketball's Secret Weapon" with a cover story in Sports Illustrated. (NBA)
1978 - The Iranian government banned religious marches.
1979 - An Air New Zealand DC-10 flying to the South Pole crashed in Antarctica killing all 257 people aboard.
1985 - The Irish Senate approved the Anglo-Irish accord concerning Northern Ireland.
1987 - A South African Airways Boeing 747 crashed into the Indian Ocean. All 159 people aboard were killed.
1989 - Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci arrived in New York after escaping her homeland through Hungary.
1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister of Britain.
1992 - In Bosnia-Herzegovina, 137 tons of food and supplies were to be delivered to the isolated town of Srebrenica.
1992 - In King William's Town, South Africa, black militant gunmen attacked a country club killing four people and injuring 20.
1993 - The play "Mixed Emotions" closed after 48 performances.
1994 - Jeffrey Dahmer, a convicted serial killer, was clubbed to death in a Wisconsin prison by a fellow inmate.
1994 - Norwegian voters rejected European Union membership.
1995 - U.S. President Clinton signed a $6 billion road bill that ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.
Current Birthdays
Jon Stewart turns 46 years old today.
Comedian Jon Stewart ("The Daily Show") turns 46 years old today.
79 Berry Gordy Jr.
Motown Records founder
72 Gary Hart
Former U.S. senator, D-Colo.
68 Bruce Channel
Singer, songwriter
66 Paul Warfield
Football Hall of Famer
65 Randy Newman
Singer, songwriter
62 Joe Dante
Movie director
59 Paul Shaffer
Bandleader ("Late Show With David Letterman")
58 Ed Harris
Actor
56 S. Epatha Merkerson
Actress ("Law and Order")
55 Michael Chertoff
Secretary of homeland security
52 Kristine Arnold
Country singer (Sweethearts of the Rodeo)
49 Judd Nelson
Actor
47 Alfonso Cuaron
Director ("Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban")
46 Matt Cameron
Rock musician
46 Jane Sibbett
Actress
42 Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon
Actress
40 Dawn Robinson
R&B singer
34 apl.de.ap
Hip-hop artist (Black Eyed Peas)
30 Aimee Garcia
Actress ("George Lopez")
29 Chamillionaire
Rapper
24 Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Actress
20 Scarlett Pomers
Actress ("Reba")
Historic Birthdays
Nancy Mitford
11/28/1904 - 6/30/1973
English writer of social commentary
54 Jean-Baptiste Lully
11/28/1632 - 3/22/1687
Italian-born French composer
69 William Blake
11/28/1757 - 8/12/1827
English poet and painter
68 William Froude
11/28/1810 - 5/4/1879
English naval architect
74 Friedrich Engels
11/28/1820 - 8/5/1895
German socialist philosopher
82 John Wesley Hyatt
11/28/1837 - 5/10/1920
American inventor
90 Helen Magill White
11/28/1853 - 10/28/1944
American educator and first American woman to earn a Ph.D. degree
57 Henry Bacon
11/28/1866 - 2/16/1924
American architect and designer of the Lincoln Memorial
84 David Warfield
11/28/1866 - 6/27/1951
American actor
77 Jose Iturbi
11/28/1895 - 6/28/80
Spanish pianist
45 Alexander Godunov
11/28/1949 - 5/18/1995
Russian ballet dancer
William Blake
11/28/1757 - 8/12/1827
English poet and painter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake
One of my favorite english poet.
In the Moon is a certain Island near by a mighty continent, which small island seems to have some affinity with England, &, what is more extraordinary, the people are so much alike, & their language as much the same, that you would think you was among your friends. In this Island dwells three Philosophers - Suction the Epicurean, Quid the Cynic, & Sipsop the Pythagorean. I call them by the names of those sects, tho' the sects are not ever mention'd there, as being quite out of date; however, the things still remain, and the vanities are the same.
(from An Island on the Moon)
And an example of his drawings: The Great Red Dragon (http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Great-red-dragon-L.jpg)
pastyphil
2008-11-28, 17:11
[QUOTE=minidog;2714419]
1582 - William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway were married.
Lucky bastard
1016 - English King Edmund II died.
1700 - 8,000 Swedish troops under King Charles XII defeated an army of at least 50,000 Russians at the Battle of Narva. King Charles XII died on this day.
1782 - The United States and Britain signed preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
1803 - Spain completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France.
1804 - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase went on trial accused of political bias. He was later acquitted by the U.S. Senate.
1835 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born. He wrote "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" under the name Mark Twain.
1838 - Three days after the French occupation of Vera Cruz Mexico declared war on France.
1853 - During the Crimean War, the Russian fleet attacked and destroyed the Turkish fleet at the battle of Sinope.
1875 - A.J. Ehrichson patented the oat-crushing machine.
1897 - Thomas Edison's own motion picture projector had its first commercial exhibition.
1936 - London's famed Crystal Palace was destroyed in a fire. The structure had been constructed for the International Exhibition of 1851.
1939 - The Russo-Finnish War began when 20 divisions of Soviet troops invaded Finland.
1940 - Lucille Ball and Cuban musician Desi Arnaz were married.
1949 - Chinese Communists captured Chungking.
1954 - In Sylacauga, AL, Elizabeth Hodges was injured when a meteorite crashed through the roof of her house. The rock weighed 8½-pounds.
1956 - CBS replayed the program "Douglas Edward and the News" three hours after it was received on the West Coast. It was the world's first broadcast via videotape.
1962 - U Thant of Burma was elected secretary-general of the United Nations, succeeding the late Dag Hammarskjold.
1966 - The former British colony of Barbados became independent.
1967 - Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower announced their engagement.
1971 - ABC-TV aired "Brian's Song." The movie was about Chicago Bears' Brian Picolo and his friendship with Gale Sayers.
1981 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union opened negotiations in Geneva that were aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.
1982 - The motion picture "Ghandi" had its world premiere in New Delhi.
1986 - "Time" magazine published an interview with U.S. President Reagan. In the article, Reagan described fired national security staffer Oliver North as a "national hero."
1988 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. took over RJR Nabisco Inc. with a bid of $24.53 billion.
1989 - Alfred Herrhausen was killed in a bombing. The Red Army Faction claimed responsibility of killing Herrhausen the chairman of West Germany's largest bank.
1989 - PLO leader Yasser Arafat was refused a visa to enter the United States in order to address the U.N. General Assebly in New York City.
1993 - U.S. President Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill. The bill required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.
1993 - Richard Allen Davis was arrested by authorities in California. Davis confessed to abducting and slaying 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma.
1995 - President Clinton became the first U.S. chief executive to visit Northern Ireland.
1998 - The Deutsche Bank AG announced that it would acquire Bankers Trust Corp. for $10.1 billion creating the world's largest financial institution.
2000 - David Spade was assaulted with a stun gun by his longtime personal assistant, David Warren Malloy. Malloy attacked Spade during a burglary of Spade's home in Beverly Hills.
2001 - For the first time in its history, McDonald's teamed up with a retail partner on its Happy Meal promotions. Toys R Us provided plush figures from its Animal Alley.
2001 - In Seattle, WA, Gary Leon Ridgeway was arrested for four of the Green River serial killings. He was pled innocent on December 18, 2001.
2004 - In Stockholm, Sweden, the Carl Larsson painting "Boenskoerd" ("Bean Harvest") was sold at auction for $730,000. The work had been in a private collection for more than a century. The Larsson work "Vid Kattegatt" ("By Kattegatt") sold for $640,000 at the same auction.
Current Birthdays
Don Cheadle turns 44 years old today.
81 Vin Scully
Sportscaster
76 Jacques Chirac
Former president of France
75 John Mayall
Blues singer, musician
73 Diane Ladd
Actress
68 Chuck Mangione
Musician, composer
67 Jody Miller
Country singer
64 Felix Cavaliere
Pop singer, musician (The Rascals)
62 Suzy Chaffee
Skier
59 Garry Shandling
Actor, comedian ("The Larry Sanders Show")
54 Joel Coen
Director ("Fargo")
56 Jeff Fahey
Actor
53 Howie Mandel
Comedian, game show host ("Deal or No Deal")
51 Janet Napolitano
Governor of Arizona
48 Cathy Moriarty
Actress
47 Kim Delaney
Actress ("NYPD Blue")
47 Tom Sizemore
Actor
46 Andrew McCarthy
Actor
43 Neill Barry
Actor, producer
43 Wallis Buchanan
Musician (Jamiroquai)
40 Martin Carr
Rock musician (Boo Radleys)
40 Jonathan Knight
Singer (New Kids on the Block)
39 Mariano Rivera
New York Yankees pitcher
38 Larry Joe Campbell
Actor ("According to Jim")
37 Gena Lee Nolin
Actress
36 Brian Baumgartner
Actor ("The Office")
32 Anna Faris
Actress
32 Julian Ovenden
Actor
29 The Game
Rapper
27 Ringo Garza
Rock musician (Los Lonely Boys)
26 Lucas Black
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Louisa May Alcott
11/29/1832 - 3/6/1888
American writer
70 Pierre-Andre Latreille
11/29/1762 - 2/6/1833
French zoologist
50 Gaetano Donizetti
11/29/1797 - 4/8/1848
Italian opera composer
49 Christian Doppler
11/29/1803 - 3/17/1853
Austrian physicist and discoverer of the Doppler effect
71 Morrison Waite
11/29/1816 - 3/23/1888
Seventh chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1874-88)
80 Busby Berkeley
11/29/1895 - 3/14/1976
American film director and choreographer
75 William Tubman
11/29/1895 - 7/23/1971
Liberian statesman and president for 27 years
64 C.S. Lewis
11/29/1898 - 11/22/1963
English writer and scholar
87 Mildred Gillars
11/29/1900 - 6/25/1988
American Nazi radio propagandist
85 Marcel Lefebvre
11/29/1905 - 3/25/1991
French Roman Catholic archbishop
63 Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
11/29/1908 - 4/4/1971
American minister and civil-rights leader; congressman from New York (1945-70)
51 Billy Strayhorn
11/29/1915 - 5/31/1967
American pianist and composer
1835 - Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales.
1909 - The Pennsylvania Trust Company, of Carlisle, PA, became the first bank in the in the U.S. to offer a Christmas Club account.
1913 - Ford Motor Co. began using a new movable assembly line that ushered in the era of mass production.
1913 - The first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh, PA.
1919 - Lady Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament.
1925 - The Locarno Pact finalized the treaties between World War I protagonists.
1934 - Sergei M. Kirov, a collaborator of Joseph Stalin, was assassinated at the Leningrad party headquarters.
1941 - In the U.S., the Civil Air Patrol was created. In April 1943 the Civil Air Patrol was placed under the jurisdiction of the Army Air Forces.
1942 - In the U.S., nationwide gasoline rationing went into effect.
1943 - In Teheran, leaders of the United States, the USSR and the United Kingdom met to reaffirm the goal set on October 30, 1943. The previous meeting called for an early establishment of an international organization to maintain peace and security.
1952 - In Denmark, it was announced that the first successful sex-change operation had been performed.
1955 - Rosa Parks, a black seamstress in Montgomery, AL, refused to give up her seat to a white man. Mrs. Parks was arrested marking a milestone in the civil rights movement in the U.S.
1959 - 12 countries, including the U.S. and USSR, signed a treaty that set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, which would be free from military activity.
1965 - An airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began.
1969 - The U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II.
1973 - David Ben-Gurion, the founding father of Israel and its first prime minister, died at the age of 87.
1981 - 180 people were killed when a chartered Yugoslav DC9 jetliner crashed into a mountain while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica.
1983 - Rita M. Lavelle, a former Environmental Protection Agency official, was convicted in Washington of perjury and trying to obstruct a congressional inquiry.
1984 - A remote-controlled Boeing 720 jetliner was deliberately crashed into California's Mojave Desert to test an anti-flame fuel additive. The test proved to be disappointing.
1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan said he would welcome an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair if it were recommended by the Justice Department.
1987 - NASA announced four companies had been given contracts to help build a space station. The companies were Boeing Aerospace, G. E.'s Astro-Space Division, McDonnell Douglas Aeronautics, and Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International.
1989 - Dissidents in the Philippine military launched an unsuccessful coup against Corazon Aquino's government.
1989 - East Germany's Parliament abolished the Communist Party's constitutional guarantee of supremacy.
1990 - Iraq accepted a U.S. offer to talk about resolving the Persian Gulf crisis.
1990 - British and French workers digging the Channel Tunnel finally met under the English Channel.
1991 - Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers pledged to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio within 48 hours.
1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin survived an impeachment attempt by hard-liners at the opening of the Russian Congress.
1992 - Amy Fisher was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
1993 - In Minnesota, 18 people were killed when a Northwest Airline commuter plane crashed.
1994 - The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval to the 124-nation General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
1997 - Michael Carneal, 14 years old, fired upon a morning prayer group at Heath High School in West Paducah, KY. Three students were killed and five were wounded. Carneal plead guilty but insane and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole for 25 years.
1998 - Exxon announced that it was buying Mobil for $73.7 billion creating the largest company in the world to date.
Current Birthdays
Sarah Silverman turns 38 years old today.
86 Paul Picerni
Actor
85 Stansfield Turner
Former CIA director
74 Billy Paul
R&B singer
73 Woody Allen
Writer, director
69 Lee Trevino
Golfer
69 Dianne Lennon
Singer (The Lennon Sisters)
66 Casey Van Beek
Country musician
65 David Salzman
TV producer
64 Eric Bloom
Rock musician (Blue Oyster Cult)
64 John Densmore
Rock musician (The Doors)
63 Bette Midler
Actress, singer
62 Gilbert O'Sullivan
Singer
57 Treat Williams
Actor
52 Kim Richey
Country singer
50 Charlene Tilton
Actress ("Dallas")
48 Carol Alt
Model, actress
47 Jeremy Northam
Actor
42 Larry Walker
Baseball player
41 Nestor Carbonell
Actor ("Lost")
38 Golden Brooks
Actress
36 Ron Melendez
Actor
33 Sarah Masen
Singer
31 Brad Delson
Rock musician (Linkin Park)
20 Ashley Monique Clark
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Gerard Swope
12/1/1872 - 11/20/1957
American industrialist
74 Etienne-Maurice Falconet
12/1/1716 - 1/24/1791
French sculptor
73 Martin Heinrich Klaproth
12/1/1743 - 1/1/1817
German chemist and discoverer of uranium
88 Marie Tussaud
12/1/1761 - 4/16/1850
French-born museum proprietress
77 Sir Dominic Corrigan
12/1/1802 - 2/1/1880
Irish physician and author
88 Rex Stout
12/1/1886 - 10/27/1975
American author
72 Walter Alston
12/1/1911 - 10/1/1984
American manager of the Brooklyn & Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team
73 Minoru Yamasaki
12/1/1912 - 2/6/1986
American architect
76 Mary Martin
12/1/1913 - 11/3/1990
American actress
Cyril Ritchard
12/1/ - 12/18/1977
British actor
1804 - Napoleon was crowned emperor of France at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
1816 - The first savings bank in the U.S., the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.
1823 - U.S. President James Monroe outlined his doctrine opposing European expansion in the Western Hemisphere.
1859 - John Brown, a militant abolitionist, was hanged for his raid on Harper's Ferry the previous October.
1862 - Circus entrepreneur Charles Ringling was born.
1901 - Gillette patented the first disposable razor.
1917 - During World War I, hostilities were suspended on the eastern front.
1927 - The Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model A automobile. It was the successor to the Model T.
1939 - New York's La Guardia Airport began operations as an airliner from Chicago landed at 12:01 a.m.
1942 - A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated by Dr. Enrico Fermi and his staff at the University of Chicago.
1943 - "Carmen Jones" opened on Broadway.
1954 - The U.S. Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy for what it called "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." The censure was related to McCarthy's controversial investigation of suspected communists in the U.S. government, military and civilian society.
1961 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared in a nationally broadcast speech that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that he was going to lead Cuba to communism.
1969 - The Boeing 747 jumbo jet got its first public preview as 191 people flew from Seattle, WA, to New York City, NY. Most of the passengers were reporters and photographers.
1970 - The Environmental Protection Agency began operating under its first director, William Ruckelshaus.
1980 - The Central Committee of Poland’s Communist Party announced major Politburo changes. The changes were apparently aimed at coping with labor unrest.
1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah implanted a permanent artificial heart in the chest of retired dentist Barney Clark. He lived 112 days with the device. The operation was the first of its kind.
1985 - A Philippine civilian court acquitted armed forces chief Gen. Fabian C. Ver of charges related to the 1983 shooting death of opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino. 25 other defendants were also acquitted.
1988 - Benazir Bhutto was sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan.
1989 - V.P. Singh was sworn in as prime minister of India.
1990 - Chancellor Hekmut Kohl's coalition won the first free all-German elections since 1932.
1990 - The Midwest section of the U.S. prepared for a massive earthquake predicted by Iben Browning. Nothing happened.
1991 - American hostage Joseph Cicippio was released by his kidnappers. He had been held captive in Lebanon for over five years.
1992 - Germany's lower house of parliament voted in favor of the Maastricht Treaty on European unity.
1993 - Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was shot to death by security forces in Medellin.
1993 - An unemployed man opened fire at an unemployment agency in Oxnard, CA. He killed three workers at the location and a police officer during a chase that ended in Ventura, where the man himself was gunned down.
1993 - The space shuttle Endeavor blasted off on a mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope.
1994 - The U.S. government agreed not to seek a recall of allegedly fire-prone General Motors pickup trucks. Instead a deal was made with GM under which the company would spend more than $51 million on safety and research.
1994 - "Hollywood Madam" Heidi Fleiss was convicted in Los Angeles of three counts of pandering.
1994 - In Pensacola, FL, Paul Hill was given two life sentences for murdering a doctor and security guard outside an abortion clinic in July 1994.
1995 - NASA launched a U.S.-European observatory on a $1 billion dollar mission intended to study the sun.
1997 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of telephone fund-raising by President Clinton and Vice President Gore. It was concluded that they had not violated election laws.
1997 - Actress Anat Elimelech was killed by her boyfriend David Afuta. Afuta then killed himself.
1998 - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates donated $100 million to help immunize children in developing countries.
1999 - The British government transferred political power over the province of Northern Ireland to a the Northern Ireland Executive.
2001 - Enron Corp. filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The filing came five days after Dynegy walked away from a $8.4 billion buyout. It was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Current Birthdays
Lucy Liu turns 40 years old today.
94 Bill Erwin
Actor
84 Alexander M. Haig
Former secretary of state
83 Julie Harris
Actress
77 Edwin Meese III
Former attorney general
69 Harry Reid
Senate majority leader, D-Nev.
65 Wayne Allard
U.S. senator, R-Colo.
64 Cathy Lee Crosby
Actress
63 Penelope Spheeris
Director
59 Ron Raines
Actor
58 John Wesley Ryles
Country singer
56 Keith Szarabajka
Actor
54 Dan Butler
Actor
54 Stone Phillips
Broadcast journalist
53 Dennis Christopher
Actor
52 Steven Bauer
Actor
48 Joe Henry
Country singer
48 Rick Savage
Rock musician (Def Leppard)
40 Jimi Haha
Rock singer (Jimmie's Chicken Shack)
40 Nate Mendel
Rock musician (Foo Fighters)
40 Rena Sofer
Actress
38 Treach
Rapper (Naughty by Nature)
35 Monica Seles
Tennis player
30 Nelly Furtado
Rock singer
27 Britney Spears
Singer
25 Aaron Rodgers
Football player
Historic Birthdays
Maria Callas
12/2/1923 - 9/16/1977
Greek-American opera singer
46 John Breckinridge
12/2/1760 - 12/14/1806
American politician
57 Rene Waldeck-Rousseau
12/2/1846 - 8/10/1904
French premier
31 Georges Seurat
12/2/1859 - 3/29/1891
French painter
63 Charles Ringling
12/2/1863 - 12/3/1926
American circus owner
72 Ruth Draper
12/2/1884 - 12/30/1956
American entertainer
64 George Richards Minot
12/2/1885 - 2/25/1950
American physician and Nobel Prize winner
70 Sir John Barbirolli
12/2/1899 - 7/29/1970
English conductor and cellist
71 Peter Carl Goldmark
12/2/1906 - 12/7/1977
Hungarian-American engineer; developed the first commercial color television
50 Gianni Versace
12/2/1946 - 7/15/1997
Italian-American fashion designer
pastyphil
2008-12-02, 15:47
Thanks minidog, usual standard of excellence.
1818 - Illinois was admitted as the 21st state of the union.
1828 - Andrew Jackson was elected president of the United States.
1833 - Oberlin College in Ohio opened as the first truly coeducational school of higher education in the United States.
1835 - In Rhode Island, the Manufacturer Mutual Fire Insurance Company issued the first fire insurance policy.
1910 - The neon lamp was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show. The lamp was developed by French physicist Georges Claude.
1917 - The Quebec Bridge opened for traffic after almost 20 years of planning and construction. The bridge suffered partial collapses in 1907 (August 29) and 1916 (September 11).
1931 - Alka Seltzer was sold for the first time.
1947 - The Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theater.
1948 - The "Pumpkin Papers" came to public light. The House Un-American Activities Committee announced that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.
1950 - Paul Harvey began his national radio broadcast.
1950 - Tom Fears (Los Angeles Rams) caught an NFL-record 18 passes against the Green Bay Packers. Terrell Owens (San Francisco 49ers) broke the record with 20 catches for 283 yards and a touchdown against the Chicago Bears on December 17, 2000.
1964 - Police arrested about 800 students at the University of California at Berkeley. The arrest took place one day after the students staged a massive sit-in inside an administration building.
1967 - In Cape Town, South Africa, a team of surgeons headed by Dr. Christian Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky. Washkansky only lived 18 days.
1967 - The famed luxury train, "20th Century Limited," completed its final run from New York to Chicago.
1968 - The rules committee of Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that in 1969 the pitcher's mound would be lowered from 15 to 10 inches. This was done in order to "get more batting action."
1973 - Pioneer 10 sent back the first close-up images of Jupiter. The first outer-planetary probe had been launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on March 2, 1972.
1980 - U.S. Representatives Frank Thompson, Jr. (D-NJ) and John Murphy (D-NY) were convicted on Abscam charges.
1982 - Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center removed the respirator of Barney Clark. The retired dentist had become the world's first recipient of a permanent artificial heart only one day before.
1983 - 3-foot-high concrete barriers were installed at two White House entrances.
1984 - In Bhopal, India, more than 2,000 people were killed after a cloud of poisonous gas escaped from a pesticide plant. The plant was operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary.
1987 - U.S. President Reagan said there was a good chance of progress toward a treaty on long-range weapons with Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
1988 - In South Africa, 11 black funeral mourners were slain in Natal Province in an attack blamed on security forces.
1988 - Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State University won the Heisman Trophy.
1990 - A collision, on the ground, of a Northwest Airlines DC-9 and a Northwest Boeing 727 at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, resulted in a fire that claimed eight lives.
1991 - After nearly five years, Shiite Muslim radicals in Lebanon released American hostage Allen Sutten.
1992 - The UN Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-led military mission to help starving Somalians.
1992 - The Greek tanker "Aegean Sea" ran aground at La Coruna, Spain and spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil.
1993 - Britain's Princess Diana announced she would be limiting her public appearances because she was tired of the media's intrusions into her life.
1993 - Angola's government and its rebel enemies agreed to a cease-fire in their 18-year war.
1994 - Rebel Serbs in Bosnia failed to keep a pledge to release hundreds of UN peacekeepers.
1994 - AIDS activist Elizabeth Glaser died at the age 47. She and her two children were infected with HIV because of a blood transfusion.
1995 - Former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan was arrested for his role in a 1979 coup.
1997 - Pierce Brosnan received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1997 - In Ottawa, Canada, more than 120 countries were represented to sign a treaty prohibiting the use and production of anti-personnel land mines. The United States, China and Russia did not sign the treaty.
1997 - South Korea received $55 billion from the International Monetary Fund to bailout its economy.
1998 - In Manilla, 28 people were killed in an orphanage that caught fire. Most of the victims were children.
1999 - Tori Murden became the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean alone. It took her 81 days to reach the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.
1999 - The World Trade Organization (WTO) concluded a four-day meeting in Seattle, WA, without setting an agenda for a new round of trade talks. The meeting was met with fierce protests by various groups.
1999 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) lost radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander as it entered Mars' atmosphere. The spacecraft was unmanned.
Current Birthdays
Brendan Fraser turns 40 years old today.
83 Ferlin Husky
Country singer
81 Andy Williams
Singer
78 Jean-Luc Godard
Director
77 Jaye P. Morgan
Singer ("The Gong Show")
67 Mary Alice
Actress
60 Ozzy Osbourne
Rock singer (Black Sabbath)
59 Heather Menzies
Actress
54 Paul Gregg
Country musician (Restless Heart)
53 Steven Culp
Actor
48 Julianne Moore
Actress
48 Daryl Hannah
Actress
40 Montell Jordan
R&B singer
39 Royale Watkins
Actor, comedian
38 Paul Byrd
Baseball player
35 Bruno Campos
Actor
35 Holly Marie Combs
Actress ("Charmed")
33 Lauren Roman
Actress
29 Daniel Bedingfield
Singer
28 Anna Chlumsky
Actress ("My Girl" movies)
27 Brian Bonsall
Actor
23 Amanda Seyfried
Actress ("Mamma Mia," "Big Love")
21 Michael Angarano
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Anna Freud
12/3/1895 - 10/9/1982
Austrian/English psychoanalyst
72 Gilbert Stuart
12/3/1755 - 7/9/1828
American portrait painter
58 George Brinton McClellan
12/3/1826 - 10/29/1885
American general
77 Cleveland Abbe
12/3/1838 - 10/28/1916
American meteorologist
73 Octavia Hill
12/3/1838 - 8/13/1912
English activist and leader of the British open-space movement
56 Charles Alfred Pillsbury
12/3/1842 - 9/17/1899
American flour miller and food products manufacturer
68 Ellen Swallow Richards
12/3/1842 - 3/30/1911
American chemist
66 Joseph Conrad
12/3/1857 - 8/3/1924
English novelist
86 Carl Koller
12/3/1857 - 3/21/1944
Czech-born American eye surgeon
61 Anton von Werbern
12/3/1883 - 9/15/1945
Austrian composer
65 Hayato Ikeda
12/3/1899 - 8/13/1965
Japanese prime minister (1960-4)
66 Richard Kuhn
12/3/1900 - 8/1/1967
German biochemist and Nobel Prize winner
53 John von Neumann
12/3/1903 - 2/8/1957
Hungarian-American mathematician
1783 - Gen. George Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
1791 - Britain's Observer newspaper was first published.
1812 - Peter Gaillard patented the power mower.
1867 - The National Grange of Husbandry was founded.
1875 - William Marcy Tweed, the "Boss" of New York City's Tammany Hall political organization, escaped from jail and fled from the U.S.
1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson set sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference. Wilson became the first chief executive to travel to Europe while in office.
1942 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration. The program had been created in order to provide jobs during the Great Depression.
1942 - U.S. bombers attacked the Italian mainland for the first time during World War II.
1943 - Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis announced that any club was free to employ black players.
1945 - The U.S. Senate approved American participation in the United Nations.
1965 - The U.S. launched Gemini 7 with Air Force Lt. Col. Frank Borman and Navy Comdr. James A. Lovell on board.
1973 - Pioneer 10 reached Jupiter.
1977 - Jean-Bedel Bokassa, ruler of the Central African Empire, crowned himself emperor in a ceremony believed to have cost more than $100 million. He was deposed 2 years later.
1978 - Dianne Feinstein became San Francisco's first woman mayor when she was named to replace George Moscone, who had been murdered.
1979 - For the second time, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to urge Iran to free American hostages that had been taken on November 4.
1980 - The bodies of four American nuns slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. Five national guardsmen were later convicted of the murders.
1983 - U.S. jet fighters struck Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon in retaliation for attacks directed at American reconnaissance planes. Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman Jr. was shot down and captured by Syria.
1984 - A five-day hijack drama began as four men seized a Kuwaiti airliner en route to Pakistan and forced it to land in Tehran. Two American passengers were killed by the hijackers.
1986 - Both U.S. houses of Congress moved to establish special committees to conduct their own investigations of the Iran-Contra affair.
1987 - Cuban inmates at a federal prison in Atlanta freed their 89 hostages, peacefully ending an 11-day uprising.
1988 - The government of Argentina announced that hundreds of heavily armed soldiers had ended a four-day military revolt.
1990 - Iraq promised to release 3,300 Soviet citizens it was holding.
1991 - Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson was released after nearly seven years in captivity in Lebanon.
1991 - Pan American World Airways ceased operations.
1992 - U.S. President Bush ordered American troops to lead a mercy mission to Somalia.
1993 - The Angolan government and its UNITA guerrilla foes formally adopted terms for a truce. The conflict was killing an estimated 1,000 people per day.
1994 - Bosnian Serbs released 53 out of about 400 UN peacekeepers they were holding as insurance against further NATO airstrikes.
1997 - The play revival "The Diary of Anne Frank" opened.
1997 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) suspended Latrell Sprewell of the Golden State Warriors for one year for choking and threatening to kill his coach, P.J. Carlesimo.
2000 - O.J. Simpson was involved in an incident with another motorist in Miami, FL. Simpson was accused of scratching the other motorists face while pulling off the man's glasses.
2001 - O.J. Simpson's home in Florida was raided by the FBI in an ongoing two year international investigation into drug trafficking, satellite service pilfering and money laundering. Some satellite equipment was taken from Simpson's home and no drugs were found.
Current Birthdays
Jeff Bridges turns 59 years old today.
87 Deanna Durbin
Actress
74 Wink Martindale
Game show host
71 Max Baer Jr.
Actor, producer
66 Gemma Jones
Actress
66 Bob Mosley
Rock musician (Moby Grape)
64 Chris Hillman
Rock singer, musician (The Byrds)
61 Terry Woods
Musician (The Pogues)
60 Johnny Lyon
Rock singer (Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes)
60 Mary Peters
Secretary of transportation
57 Gary Rossington
Rock musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
57 Patricia Wettig
Actress
54 Tony Todd
Actor
53 Brian Prout
Country musician (Diamond Rio)
53 Cassandra Wilson
Jazz singer
49 Bob Griffin
Rock musician (The BoDeans)
46 Vinnie Dombroski
Rock singer (Sponge)
44 Marisa Tomei
Actress
44 Chelsea Noble
Actress
42 Fred Armisen
Actor, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
39 Jay-Z
Rapper
38 Kevin Sussman
Actor ("Ugly Betty")
35 Tyra Banks
Model, TV host ("America's Next Top Model")
27 Lila McCann
Country singer
24 Lindsay Felton
Actress
21 Orlando Brown
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Francisco Franco
12/4/1892 - 11/20/1975
Spanish dictator
67 John Cotton
12/4/1585 - 12/23/1652
American Puritan leader
85 Thomas Carlyle
12/4/1795 - 2/5/1881
English philosopher and historian
27 Crazy Horse
12/4/1849 - 9/5/1877
American Indian Chief
60 Lillian Russell
12/4/1861 - 6/6/1922
American singer and actress
78 Wassily Kandinsky
12/4/1866 - 12/13/1944
Russian abstract painter
50 Rainer Maria Rilke
12/4/1875 - 12/29/1926
German poet
94 Fung Yu-lan
12/4/1895 - 11/26/1990
Chinese philosopher
88 Alfred Hershey
12/4/1908 - 5/22/1997
American psychologist
75 Pappy Boyington
12/4/1912 - 1/11/1988
American flying ace
1492 - Christopher Columbus discovered Hispaniola (now Haiti).
1560 - Charles IX succeeded as King of France on the death of Francis II.
1766 - James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.
1776 - In Williamsburg, VA, at the College of William and Mary the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized.
1782 - The first native U.S. president, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, NY.
1792 - The trial of France's King Louis XVI began.
1797 - Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris to command forces for the invasion of England.
1812 - Napoleon Bonaparte left his army as they were retreating from Russia.
1839 - General George Armstrong Custer was born in New Rumley, OH.
1848 - U.S. President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming the fact that gold had been discovered in California.
1876 - The Stillson wrench was patented by D.C. Stillson. The device was the first practical pipe wrench.
1901 - Movie producer Walt Disney was born in Chicago. He created his first Mickey Mouse cartoon at the age of 27.
1904 - The Russian fleet was destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur, during the Russo-Japanese War.
1908 - At the University of Pittsburgh, numerals were first used on football uniforms worn by college football players.
1913 - Britain outlawed the sending of arms to Ireland.
1932 - German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa making it possible for him to travel to the U.S.
1933 - Prohibition came to an end when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1934 - Fighting broke out between Italian and Ethiopian troops on the Somalian border.
1934 - The Soviet Union executed 66 people charged with plotting against Joseph Stalin's government.
1935 - In Montebello, CA, the first commercial hydrophonics operation was established.
1936 - The Soviet Union adopted a new Constitution under a Supreme Council.
1944 - During World War II, Allied troops took Ravenna, Italy.
1945 - The so-called "Lost Squadron" disappeared. The five U.S. Navy Avenger bombers carrying 14 Navy flyers began a training mission at the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station. They were never heard from again.
1951 - The first push button-controlled garage opened in Washington, DC.
1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO.
1956 - British and French forces began a withdrawal from Egypt during the Suez War.
1958 - Britain's first motorway, the Preston by-pass, was opened by Prime Minister Macmillan.
1961 - United Nations forces launched an attack in Katanga, the Congo, near Elizabethville.
1962 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to cooperate in the peaceful uses of outer space.
1971 - The Soviet Union, at United Nations Security Council, vetoed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in hostilities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
1976 - Jacques Chirac re-founded the Gaullist party as the RPR (Rassemblement pour la République).
1977 - Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen due to peaceful relations with Israel.
1978 - The American space probe Pioneer Venus I, orbiting Venus, and began beaming back its first information and picture of the planet.
1979 - Sonia Johnson was formally excommunicated by the Mormon Church due to her outspoken support for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
1983 - In west Beirut, Lebanon, more than a dozen people were killed when a car bomb shattered a nine-story apartment building.
1983 - The video arcade game "NFL Football" was unveiled in Chicago. It was the first video arcade game to be licensed by the National Football League.
1984 - Iran's official news agency quoted the hijackers of a Kuwaiti jetliner parked at Tehran airport as saying they would blow up the plane unless Kuwait released 14 imprisoned extremists.
1985 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 1,500 for the first time.
1986 - The Soviet Union said it would continue to abide by the SALT II treaty limits on nuclear weapons. This was despite the decision by the U.S. to exceed them.
1988 - Jim Bakker and former aide Richard Dortch were indicted by a federal grand jury in North Carolina on fraud and conspiracy charges.
1989 - Israeli soldiers killed five heavily armed Arab guerrillas who crossed the border from Egypt. The guerrillas were allegedly going to launch a terrorist attack commemorating the anniversary of the Palestinian uprising.
1989 - East Germany's former leaders were placed under house arrest.
1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia's Congress.
1998 - James P. Hoffa became the head of the Teamsters union, 23 years after his father was the head. His father disappeared and was presumed dead.
2001 - In Germany, Afghan leaders signed a pact to create a temporary administration for post-Taliban Afghanistan. Two women were included in the cabinet structure. Hamid Karzai and his Cabinet were planned to take over power in Afghanistan on December 22.
Current Birthdays
Cliff Floyd turns 36 years old today.
76 Little Richard
Rock singer, musician
74 Joan Didion
Author
73 Calvin Trillin
Author
70 J.J. Cale
Rock musician
64 Jeroen Krabbe
Actor
62 Jose Carreras
Opera singer
61 Jim Messina
Rock singer (Loggins and Messina, Poco)
57 Morgan Brittany
Actress ("Dallas")
52 Brian Backer
Actor
51 Art Monk
Football Hall of Famer
45 Ty England
Country singer
43 John Rzeznik
Rock musician (The Goo Goo Dolls)
41 Gary Allan
Country singer
40 Margaret Cho
Comedian-actress
39 Alex Kapp Horner
Actress ("The New Adventures of Old Christine")
36 Regina Zernay
Rock musician (Cowboy Mouth)
33 Paula Patton
Actress
32 Amy Acker
Actress ("Angel")
29 Nick Stahl
Actor
23 Frankie Muniz
Actor ("Malcolm in the Middle")
20 Ross Bagley
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Walt Disney
12/5/1901 - 12/15/1966
American television producer and creator of Mickey Mouse
69 Pope Julius II
12/5/1443 - 2/21/1513
Italian pope
79 Martin Van Buren
12/5/1782 - 7/24/1862
Eighth President of the United States (1837-41)
84 Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz
12/5/1822 - 6/27/1907
American naturalist and educator
64 Christina Rossetti
12/5/1830 - 12/29/1894
English poet
36 George Armstrong Custer
12/5/1839 - 6/25/1876
American cavalry officer
58 Marcus Daly
12/5/1841 - 11/12/1900
American mining tycoon
74 Clyde Vernon Cessna
12/5/1879 - 11/20/1954
American aircraft manufacturer
85 Fritz Lang
12/5/1890 - 8/2/1976
Austrian-American motion picture director
74 Werner Heisenberg
12/5/1901 - 2/1/1976
German physicist and philosopher
77 Kate Simon
12/5/1912 - 2/4/1990
American travel writer
1492 - Columbus discovered Hispaniola (now Haiti) and the Dominican Republic.
1774 - Austria became the first nation to introduce a state education system.
1790 - The U.S. Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.
1865 - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment abolished slavery in the U.S.
1876 - The city of Anaheim was incorporated for a second time.
1877 - Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb.
1883 - "Ladies' Home Journal" was published for the first time.
1884 - The construction of the Washington Monument was completed by Army engineers. The project took 34 years.
1889 - Jefferson Davis died in New Orleans. He was the first and only president of the Confederate States of America.
1907 - In Monongah, WV, 361 people were killed in America's worst mine disaster.
1917 - More than 1,600 people died when two munitions ships collided in the harbor at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1917 - Finland proclaimed independence from Russia.
1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State was created as a self-governing dominion of Britain when an Anglo-Irish treaty was signed.
1923 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge became the first president to give a presidential address that was broadcast on radio.
1926 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini introduced a tax on bachelors.
1947 - Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by U.S. President Truman.
1957 - AFL-CIO members voted to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters were readmitted in 1987.
1957 - America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed when the satellite blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, FL.
1960 - Gene Autry and Bob Reynolds were granted the Los Angeles Angels baseball franchise by the American League.
1973 - Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the vice-president of the United States after vice-president Spiro Agnew resigned.
1982 - 11 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed when a bomb exploded in a pub in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. The Irish National Liberation Army was responsible for planting the bomb.
1983 - In Jerusalem, a bomb planted on a bus exploded killing six Israelis and wounding 44.
1985 - Congressional negotiators reached an agreement on a deficit-cutting proposal that later became the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law.
1989 - The worst mass shooting in Canadian history occurred when a man gunned down 14 women at the University of Montreal's school of engineering. The man then killed himself.
1989 - Egon Krenz resigned as leader of East Germany.
1990 - Iraq announced that it would release all its 2,000 foreign hostages.
1990 - U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle was enshrined in the Little League Museum's Hall of Excellence.
1992 - Germany's primary political parties agreed to tighten postwar asylum laws.
1992 - In India, thousands of Hindu extremists destroyed a mosque. The following two months of Hindu-Muslim rioting resulted in at least 2,000 people being killed.
1993 - Former priest James R. Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Porter had admitted molesting 28 children in the 1960s.
1994 - Orange County, CA, filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about $2 billion. The county is one of the richest in the U.S. and became to largest municipality to file for bankruptcy.
1997 - A Russian Antonov 124 military transport crashed into a residential area in Irkutsk, Russia, shortly after takeoff. 70 people were killed.
1998 - In Venezuela, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez was elected president. He had staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier.
1998 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour connected the first two building blocks of the international space station in the shuttle cargo bay.
2002 - Winona Ryder was sentenced to 36 months of probation and 480 hours of community service stemming from her conviction for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue. She was also ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and restitution.
2002 - Officials released the detailed plans for a $4.7 million memorial commemorating Princess Diana. The large oval fountain was planned to be constructed in London's Hyde Park.
DrMotorcity
2008-12-07, 13:04
December 7, 1941 (http://www.nps.gov/usar/)
1431 - In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France.
1732 - The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House) was opened.
1787 - Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. constitution becoming the first of the United States.
1796 - John Adams was elected to be the second president of the United States.
1836 - Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.
1889 - The first of 554 performances of "The Gondoliers" took place.
1907 - At London's National Sporting Club, Eugene Corri became the first referee to officiate from inside a boxing ring.
1925 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 150-yard freestyle with a time of 1 minute, 25 and 2/5 seconds. He went on to play "Tarzan" in several movies.
1926 - The gas operated refrigerator was patented by The Electrolux Servel Corporation.
1941 - Pearl Harbor, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu was attacked by nearly 200 Japanese warplanes. The attack resulted in the U.S. entering into World War II.
1946 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta killed 119 people. It was America's worst hotel fire disaster. The hotel founder, W. Frank Winecoff, was also killed in the fire.
1971 - Libya announced the nationalization of British Petroleum's assets.
1972 - Apollo 17 was launched at Cape Canaveral. It was the last U.S. moon mission.
1972 - Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant. The man was then shot and killed by her bodyguards.
1974 - President Makarios returned to Cyprus after five months in exile.
1980 - General Antonio Ramlho Eanes was reelected president of Portugal. His right-wing opposition was thrown into disarray by the death of Premier Francisco Sa Carneiro in a plane crash.
1982 - Charlie Brooks Junior, a convicted murderer, became the first prisoner in the U.S. to be executed by injection, at a prison in Huntsville, TX.
1983 - Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC-9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff. The collision resulted in the death of all 42 people aboard the DC-9 and 51 on the Iberia jet.
1987 - Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev set foot on American soil for the first time. He had come to the U.S. for a Washington summit with U.S. President Reagan.
1987 - 43 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on a fellow passenger and the two pilots aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner.
1988 - An estimated 25,000 people were killed when a major earthquake hit northern Armenia in the Soviet Union. The quake measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale.
1988 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev announced the reduction of the number of Soviet military troops by half a million.
1989 - East Germany's Communist Party agreed to cooperate with the plan for free elections and a revised constitution.
1992 - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Mississippi abortion law which, required women to get counseling and then wait 24 hours before terminating their pregnancies.
1993 - Six people were killed and 17 were injured when a gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train.
1993 - Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary revealed that the U.S. government had conducted more than 200 nuclear weapons tests in secret at its Nevada test site.
1993 - Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders suggested that the U.S. government study the impact of drug legalization.
1995 - A probe sent from the Galileo spacecraft entered into Jupiter's atmosphere. The probe sent back data to the mothership before it was presumably destroyed.
1996 - The space shuttle Columbia returned from the longest-ever shuttle flight of 17 days, 15 hours and 54 minutes.
1998 - The U.N. evacuated 14 peacekeepers that were trapped by fighting between army and rebel forces in central Angola.
1998 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing.
1999 - A U.S. federal grand jury indicted a former convict in the 1995 disappearance of atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
2002 - In Amsterdam, Netherlands, two Van Gogh paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum. The two works were "View of the Sea st Scheveningen" and "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen." On July 26, 2004, two men were convicted for the crime and were sentenced to at least four years in prison each.
2002 - In Mymensingh, Bangladesh, four movies theaters were bombed within 30 minutes of each other. At least 15 people were killed and over 200 were injured.
2003 - A 12-inch by 26-inch painting of a river landscape and sailing vessel by Martin Johnson Heade was sold at auction for $1 million. The painting was found in the attic of a suburban Boston home where it had been stored for more than 60 years
Current Birthdays
Susan Collins turns 56 years old today.
93 Eli Wallach
Actor
77 Bobby Osborne
Bluegrass singer
71 Thad Cochran
U.S. senator, R-Miss.
68 Gerry Cheevers
Hockey Hall of Famer
68 Carole Simpson
Broadcast journalist
61 Johnny Bench
Baseball Hall of Famer
60 Gary Morris
Country singer
59 Tom Waits
Rock singer, actor
53 Priscilla Barnes
Actress
52 Larry Bird
Basketball Hall of Famer
50 Tim Butler
Rock musician (The Psychedelic Furs)
43 Jeffrey Wright
Actor
42 C. Thomas Howell
Actor
35 Terrell Owens
Football player
33 Nicole Appleton
Singer (All Saints)
32 Sunny Sweeney
Country singer
31 Eric Chavez
Baseball player
30 Shiri Appleby
Actress
29 Sara Bareilles
Singer
25 Fausto Carmona
Baseball player
21 Aaron Carter
Singer
Historic Birthdays
Willa Cather
12/7/1873 - 4/24/1947
American novelist
81 Gian Lorenzo Bernini
12/7/1598 - 11/28/1680
Italian sculptor
57 Allan Cunningham
12/7/1784 - 10/30/1842
Scottish poet
86 Sir Joseph Cook
12/7/1860 - 7/30/1947
Australian prime minister (1913-14)
81 Pietro Mascagni
12/7/1863 - 8/2/1945
Italian operatic composer
50 R.W. Sears
12/7/1863 - 9/28/1914
American merchant and founder of Sears, Roebuck retail company
92 Rudolf Friml
12/7/1879 - 11/12/1972
American operetta composer
102 Hamilton Fish
12/7/1888 - 1/18/1991
American politician
51 Joyce Cary
12/7/1888 - 12/18/1957
English novelist
51 Heywood Broun
12/7/1888 - 12/18/1939
American journalist
Facetious
2008-12-07, 15:46
A short lived genius by the name of James Douglas Morrison was born 65 Years ago !!
Happy Birthday, Jim ! It seems as if you've never left us . . or have you ? :bowdown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHFK1yKfiGo&feature=related
Peace
December 7, 1941 (http://www.nps.gov/usar/)
:hatsoff:
historylover
2008-12-07, 21:57
1796 - John Adams was elected to be the second president of the United States.
1836 - Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.
Seems odd - Shouldn't every president be listed?
1765 - Eli Whitney was born in Westboro, MA. Whitney invented the cotton gin and developed the concept of mass-production of interchangeable parts.
1776 - George Washington's retreating army in the American Revolution crossed the Delaware River from New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
1854 - Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The theory holds that Mary, mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment she was conceived.
1863 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the Reconstruction of the South.
1863 - Tom King of England defeated American John Heenan and became the first world heavyweight champion.
1886 - At a convention of union leaders in Columbus, OH, the American Federation of Labor was founded.
1941 - The United States entered World War II when it declared war against Japan. The act came one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Britain and Canada also declared war on Japan.
1949 - The Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa due to Communists pressure.
1952 - On the show "I Love Lucy," a pregnancy was acknowledged in a TV show for the first time.
1953 - Los Angeles became the third largest city in the United States.
1962 - Workers of the International Typographical Union began striking and closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike lasted 114 days and ended April 1, 1963.
1980 - Zimbabwe’s manpower minister, Edgar Tekere, was found guilty in the killing of a white farmer. He was freed under a law that protected ministers acting to suppress terrorism.
1982 - Norman D. Mayer demanding an end to nuclear weapons held the Washington Monument hostage. He threatened to blow it up with explosives he claimed were inside a van. 10 hours later he was shot to death by police.
1984 - In Roanoke, Virginia, a jury found Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt innocent of libeling Reverend Jerry Falwell with a parody advertisement. However Falwell was awarded $200,000 for emotional distress.
1987 - U.S. President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed a treaty agreeing to destroy their nations' arsenals of intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
1987 - The "intefadeh" (Arabic for uprising) by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories began.
1989 - Communist leaders in Czechoslovakia offered to surrender their control over the government and accept a minority role in a coalition Cabinet.
1991 - Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine declared the Soviet national government to be dead. They forged a new alliance to be known as the Commonwealth of Independent States. The act was denounced by Russian President Gorbachev as unconstitutional.
1992 - Americans got to see live television coverage of U.S. troops landing on the beaches of Somalia during Operation Restore Hope. (Due to the time difference, it was December 9 in Somalia.)
1993 - U.S. President Clinton signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement.
1994 - Bosnian Serbs released dozens of hostage peacekeepers, but continued to detain about 300 others.
1994 - In Los Angeles, 12 alternate jurors were chosen for the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
1997 - The second largest bank was created with the announcement that Union Bank Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation would merge. The combined assets were more than $590 billion.
1997 - Jenny Shipley was sworn in as the first female prime minister of New Zealand.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police could not search a person or their cars after ticketing for a routine traffic violation.
1998 - The FBI opened its files on Frank Sinatra to the public. The file contained over 1,300 pages.
1998 - Nkem Chukwu and Iyke Louis Udobi's first of eight babies was born. The other seven were delivered 12 days later.
1998 - AT&T Corp. announced that it was buying IBM's data networking business for $5 billion cash.
1998 - The first female ice hockey game in Olympic history was played. Finland beat Sweden 6-0.
1999 - In Memphis, TN, a jury found that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin.
1999 - Russia and Belarus agreed in principle to form an economic and political confederation.
2000 - Mario Lemieux announced to the Pittsburgh Penguins that he planned to return to the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player at age 35. He would be the first modern owner-player in U.S. pro sports.
Current Birthdays
Teri Hatcher turns 44 years old today.
78 Maximilian Schell
Actor, director
72 David Carradine
Actor
71 James MacArthur
Actor ("Hawaii Five-O")
69 Jerry Butler
R&B singer
69 James Galway
Flutist
67 Bobby Elliott
Rock musician (The Hollies)
63 Toots Hibbert
Reggae singer (Toots and the Maytals)
62 John Rubinstein
Actor
61 Gregg Allman
Rock singer, musician (The Allman Brothers)
55 Kim Basinger
Actress
52 Warren Cuccurullo
Rock musician (Duran Duran)
51 Phil Collen
Rock musician (Def Leppard)
49 Marty Raybon
Country singer
46 Marty Friedman
Rock musician (Megadeth)
46 Wendell Pierce
Actor
42 Bushwick Bill
Rapper (Geto Boys)
42 Matthew Laborteaux
Actor
42 Sinead O'Connor
Rock singer
40 Mike Mussina
Baseball player
36 Ryan Newell
Rock musician (Sister Hazel)
32 Dominic Monaghan
Actor ("Lost")
30 Ian Somerhalder
Actor
29 Ingrid Michaelson
Rock singer
15 AnnaSophia Robb
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Sammy Davis Jr.
12/8/1925 - 5/16/1990
American entertainer
44 Queen of Scots Mary
12/8/1542 - 2/8/1587
Scottish queen
62 Queen of Sweden Christina
12/8/1626 - 4/19/1689
Swedish queen
59 Eli Whitney
12/8/1765 - 1/8/1825
American inventor of the cotton gin
52 Richard Carlile
12/8/1790 - 2/10/1843
English journalist
82 Aristide Maillol
12/8/1861 - 9/27/1944
French artist
78 Camille Claudel
12/8/1864 - 10/19/1943
French sculptor
91 Jean Sibelius
12/8/1865 - 9/20/1957
Finnish composer
70 Diego Rivera
12/8/1886 - 11/25/1957
Mexican painter
66 James Thurber
12/8/1894 - 11/2/1961
American writer and cartoonist
43 Elzie (Crisler) Segar
12/8/1894 - 10/13/1938
American cartoonist and creator of Popeye
89 Josephine Bell
12/8/1897 - 4/24/1987
English physician and novelist
1594 - Gustavus II of Sweden was born.
1608 - English poet John Milton was born in London.
1625 - The Treaty of the Hague was signed by England and the Netherlands. The agreement was to subsidize Christian IV of Denmark in his campaign in Germany.
1783 - The first executions at Newgate Prison took place.
1793 - "The American Minerva" was published for the first time. It was the first daily newspaper in New York City and was founded by Noah Webster.
1803 - The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President.
1848 - American author and creator of "Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit," Joel Chandler Harris was born.
1854 - Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," was published in England.
1879 - Thomas Edison organized the Edison Ore Milling Company.
1884 - Levant M. Richardson received a patent for the ball-bearing roller skate.
1892 - In London, "Widowers' Houses," George Bernard Shaw's first play, opened at the Royalty Theater.
1907 - Christmas Seals went on sale for the first time, in the Wilmington, DE, post office.
1926 - The United States Golf Association legalized the use of steel-shafted golf clubs.
1914 - The Edison Phonograph Works was destroyed by fire.
1917 - Turkish troops surrendered Jerusalem to British troops led by Viscount Allenby.
1940 - During World War II, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa.
1940 - The Longines Watch Company signed for the first FM radio advertising contract with experimental station W2XOR in New York City.
1941 - China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.
1942 - The Aram Khachaturian ballet "Gayane" was first performed by the Kirov Ballet.
1955 - Sugar Ray Robinson knocked out Carl Olson and regained his world middleweight boxing title.
1958 - In Indianapolis, IN, Robert H.W. Welch Jr. and 11 other men met to form the anti-Communist John Birch Society.
1960 - Sperry Rand Corporation unveiled a new computer, known as "Univac 1107."
1960 - The first episode of "Coronation Street" was screened on ITV.
1962 - "Lawrence of Arabia," by David Lean had its world premiere in London.
1965 - Nikolai V. Podgorny replaced Anastas I. Mikoyan as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
1975 - U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan authorization to prevent New York City from having to default.
1978 - The first game of the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) was played between the Chicago Hustle and the Milwaukee Does.
1983 - NATO foreign ministers called on the Soviet Union to join in a "comprehensive political dialogue" to ease tensions in the world.
1984 - Iranian security men seized control of the plane ending a five-day hijacking of a Kuwaiti jetliner, which was parked at the Tehran airport.
1985 - In Argentina, five former military junta members received sentences in prison for their roles in the "dirty war" in which nearly 9,000 people had "disappeared."
1987 - West Bank Palestinians launched an intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation.
1987 - In the Gaza Strip, an Israeli patrol attacked the Jabliya refugee camp.
1990 - Lech Walesa won Poland's first direct presidential election in the country's history.
1990 - Slobodan Milosovic was elected president in Serbia's first free elections in 50 years.
1990 - The first American hostages to be released by Iraq began arriving in the U.S.
1991 - European Community leaders agreed to begin using a single currency in 1999.
1992 - Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation.
1992 - Clair George, former CIA spy chief, was convicted of lying to the U.S. Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. U.S. President George Bush later pardoned George.
1992 - U.S. troops arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, to oversee delivery of international food aid, in operation 'Restore Hope'.
1993 - The U.S. Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos that were marked for elimination under an arms control treaty.
1993 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope.
1993 - At Princeton University in New Jersey, scientists produced a controlled fusion reaction equivalent to 3 million watts.
1994 - Representatives of the Irish Republican Army and the British government opened peace talks in Northern Ireland.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders after learning that she had told a conference that masturbation should be discussed in school as a part of human sexuality.
1996 - UN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali approved a deal allowing Iraq to resume its exports of oil and easing the UN trade embargo imposed on Iraq in 1990.
1999 - The U.S. announced that it was expelling a Russian diplomat that had been caught gathering information with an eavesdropping device at the U.S. State Department.
2002 - United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after losing $4 billion in the previos two years. It was the sixth largest bankruptcy filing.
2003 - In Australia, thieves broke into a home and stole two 300-year-old etchings by Rembrandt. The 4-by-4-inch etchings, a self-portait and a depiction of the artist's mother, were valued around $518,000.
Current Birthdays
Kirk Douglas turns 92 years old today.
80 Dick Van Patten
Actor ("Eight is Enough")
78 Buck Henry
Actor, writer
74 Judi Dench
Actress
70 Deacon Jones
Football Hall of Famer
67 Beau Bridges
Actor
67 Dan Hicks
Jazz guitarist
66 Dick Butkus
Football Hall of Famer
63 Michael Nouri
Actor
61 Tom Daschle
Former U.S. senator, D-S.D.
59 Tom Kite
Golfer
58 Joan Armatrading
Rock singer
56 Michael Dorn
Actor
55 John Malkovich
Actor
52 Sylvia
Country singer
51 Donny Osmond
Singer, game show host
50 Nick Seymour
Rock musician (Crowded House)
49 Mario Cantone
Comedian
47 Joe Lando
Actor
43 Jerry Hughes
Country musician (Yankee Grey)
41 Thomas Flowers
Rock musician (Oleander)
40 Brian Bell
Rock musician (Weezer)
39 Jakob Dylan
Rock musician (Wallflowers)
39 Brian Hayes
Country musician
39 Allison Smith
Actress
38 Kara DioGuardi
Songwriter, TV personality ("American Idol")
38 David Kersh
Country singer
36 Tre Cool
Rock musician (Green Day)
34 Canibus
Rapper
32 Eric Zamora
Saxophonist (Save Ferris)
31 Imogen Heap
Rock singer
30 Jesse Metcalfe
Actress
28 Simon Helberg
Actor ("The Big Bang Theory")
Historic Birthdays
Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill
12/9/1912 - 1/5/1994
American politician and longest serving speaker of the House of Representatives (1977-86)
65 John Milton
12/9/1608 - 11/8/1674
English poet and scholar
43 Carl Wilhelm Scheele
12/9/1742 - 5/21/1786
Swedish chemist
73 Comte Claude-Louis Berthollet
12/9/1748 - 11/6/1822
French chemist
69 Clarence Birdseye
12/9/1886 - 10/7/1956
American businessman and pioneer of frozen foods
80 Emmett Kelly
12/9/1898 - 3/28/1979
American circus clown
70 Dalton Trumbo
12/9/1905 - 9/10/1976
American screenwriter and novelist
85 Grace Murray Hopper
12/9/1906 - 1/1/1992
American admiral
59 John Cassavetes
12/9/1929 - 2/3/1989
American actor and film director
khartoum
2008-12-09, 14:28
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor they killed around 2,000 people, most of which were soldiers. We killed 200,000 non-combatant civilians with atomic bombs. moral of the story: killing innocent people is wrong, if it's Americans that are being killed. If we are the one's doing the killing, then it's OK.
The japanese started an un-provoked war. The Japanese murdered, executed and enslaved more than 400,000 Chinese civilians in Nanking alone. They did similar in every inch of territory they acquired by war. They used real torture, not the Guantanamo stuff, maiming, murder, be-headings, disembowelment, starvation, germ warfare, rape and burial alive. The people of Manchuria, Russia, China, India, Thailand, Burma and Singapore would like to compare numbers of "innocents" with people of your opinion.
One should know history before one types the word 'innocent'.
1520 - Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict. The papacy demanded that he recant or face excommunication. Luther refused and was formally expelled from the church in January 1521.
1768 - The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in London by George III. Joshua Reynolds was its first president.
1787 - Thomas H. Gallaudet, a pioneer of educating the deaf, was born in Philadelphia.
1817 - Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th American state.
1830 - Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, MA. Only seven of her works were published while she was alive.
1845 - British civil engineer Robert Thompson patented the first pneumatic tires.
1851 - American librarian Melvil Dewey was born. He created the "Dewey Decimal Classification" system.
1869 - Women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory.
1896 - Alfred Bernhard Nobel died in San Remo, Italy. He was a Swedish chemist who invented dynamite. In his in his will he stipulated that income from his $9 million estate be used for annual prizes for people judged to have made valuable humanitarian deeds.
1898 - A treaty was signed in Paris that officially ended the Spanish-American War. Also, Cuba became independent of Spain.
1901 - The first Nobel prizes were awarded.
1906 - U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1931 - Jane Addams became a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, she was the first American woman to do so.
1939 - The National Football League's attendance exeeded 1 million in a season for the first time.
1941 - Japan invaded the Philippines.
1941 - The Royal Naval battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Malaya.
1948 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
1950 - Dr. Ralph J. Bunche was presented the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the first African-American to receive the award. Bunche was awarded the prize for his efforts in mediation between Israel and neighboring Arab states.
1953 - Hugh Hefner published the first "Playboy" magazine with an investment of $7,600.
1958 - The first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. when 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami on a National Airlines Boeing 707.
1962 - Frank Gifford (New York Giants) was on the cover of "Sports Illustrated."
1964 - In Oslo, Norway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the youngest person to receive the award.
1980 - South Carolina Representative John W. Jenretter resigned to avoid being expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives following his conviction on charges to the FBI's Abscam investigation.
1982 - The Law of the Sea Convention was signed by 118 countries in Montego Bay, Jamaica. 23 nations and the U.S. were excluded.
1983 - Raul Alfonsin was inaugurated as Argentina's first civilian president after nearly eight years of military rule.
1984 - South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize.
1990 - Industrialist Armand Hammer died at age 92.
1990 - The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved wtf?wtf?wtf?wtf?lant, a long-acting contraceptive implant.
1991 - The play Revival "The Crucible" opened.
1992 - Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called "unwelcome and offensive" actions toward women. However, he refused to resign.
1993 - The crew of the space shuttle Endeavor deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth's orbit.
1994 - Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ, was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber.
1994 - Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize. They pledged to pursue their mission of healing the Middle East.
1995 - The first U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in the former Yugoslavia.
1996 - South Africa's President Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country's transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy.
1998 - Six astronauts opened the doors to the new international space station 250 miles above the Earth's surface.
1998 - The Palestinian leadership scrapped constitutional clauses that rejected Israel's existence.
1999 - After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later plead guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped.
2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contibutions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)
2003 - The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts.
Current Birthdays
Raven-Symone turns 23 years old today.
85 Harold Gould
Actor
67 Fionnula Flanagan
Actress
67 Tommy Kirk
Actor
67 Chad Stuart
Singer (Chad and Jeremy)
62 Gloria Loring
Actress, singer
60 Jessica Cleaves
R&B singer (Friends of Distinction)
60 Ralph Tavares
R&B singer
57 Johnny Rodriguez
Country singer
56 Susan Dey
Actress ("L.A. Law," "The Partridge Family")
52 Rod Blagojevich
Governor of Illinois
51 Michael Clarke Duncan
Actor
51 Paul Hardcastle
Jazz musician
48 Kenneth Branagh
Actor, director
47 Nia Peeples
Actress
44 Bobby Flay
TV chef
43 J Mascis
Rock musician
38 Kevin Sharp
Country singer
37 Scot Alexander
Rock musician (Dishwalla)
34 Meg White
Rock musician (The White Stripes)
Historic Birthdays
Melvil Dewey
12/10/1851 - 12/26/1931
American librarian and inventor of the Dewey Decimal classification system
73 (Giovanni) Battista Guarini
12/10/1538 - 10/7/1612
Italian poet and dramatist
? Adriaen von Ostade
12/10/1610 - ?/2/1685
Dutch painter and printmaker
63 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
12/10/1787 - 9/10/1851
American philanthropist
67 Cesar Franck
12/10/1822 - 11/8/1890
Belgian-French Romantic composer
80 George Macdonald
12/10/1824 - 9/18/1905
Scottish novelist
55 Emily Dickinson
12/10/1830 - 5/15/1886
American poet
62 Adolf Loos
12/10/1870 - 8/23/1933
Austrian architect
78 Nelly Sachs
12/10/1891 - 5/12/1970
German poet and dramatist
88 Mary Norton
12/10/1903 - 8/29/1992
English children's author
82 Morton Gould
12/10/1913 - 2/21/1996
American composer and pianist
1282 - Llywelyn (Llewelyn ap Gruffydd) was killed in Cilmeri, central Wales.
1719 - The first recorded sighting of the Aurora Borealis was in New England.
1769 - Edward Beran of London patented venetian blinds.
1792 - France's King Louis XVI went before the Convention, which had replaced the National Assembly, to face charges of treason. He was convicted and condemned and was sent to the guillotine the following January.
1816 - Indiana was admitted to the Union as the 19th American state.
1844 - Dr. Horace Wells became the first person to have a tooth extracted after receiving an anesthetic for the dental procedure. Nitrous Oxide, or laughing gas, was the anesthetic.
1872 - Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback became America's first black governor when he took office as acting governor of Louisiana.
1882 - Boston's Bijou Theater had its first performance. It was the first American playhouse lit exclusively by electricity.
1894 - The world's first motor show opened in Paris with nine exhibitors.
1928 - In Buenos Aires, police thwarted an attempt on the life of President-elect Herbert Hoover.
1930 - The Bank of the United States in New York failed.
1936 - Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated in order to marry American Wallis Warfield Simpson. He became the Duke of Windsor.
1937 - The Fascist Council in Rome, withdrew Italy from the League of Nations.
1941 - Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The U.S in turn declared war on the two countries.
1943 - The City Center of Music and Drama was dedicated in New York by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.
1946 - The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established by the U.N. General Assembly. The fund provides relief to children in countries devastated by war.
1951 - Joe DiMaggio (New York Yankees) announced his retirement from major league baseball. DiMaggio only played for the Yankees during his 13-year career.
1961 - The first direct American military support for South Vietnam occurred when a U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon.
1967 - The prototype of the Concorde was shown for the first time in Toulouse, France.
1973 - West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and Czech Prime Minister Lubomir Strougal formally nullified the 1938 Munich pact when they signed a treaty sanctioning Hitler's seizure of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed into law legislation creating $1.6 billion environmental "superfund" that would be used to pay for cleaning up chemical spills and toxic waste dumps.
1981 - Muhammad Ali fought his last fight. He lost his 61st fight to Trevor Berbick.
1985 - The U.S. House of Representatives joined the U.S. Senate by giving final congressional approval to the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.
1985 - General Electric Company agreed to buy RCA Corporation for $6.3 billion. Also included in the deal was NBC Radio and Television.
1986 - The government of South Africa expanded its media restrictions by imposing prior censorship and banning coverage of a wide range of peaceful anti-apartheid protests.
1987 - Charlie Chaplin's trademark cane and bowler hat were sold at Christie's for £82,500.
1988 - 62 people were killed in a Mexico City marketplace when tons of illegal fireworks exploded.
1990 - Ivana Trump was divorced from Donald Trump after 12 years of marriage.
1991 - Salman Rushdie, under an Islamic death sentence for blasphemy, made his first public appearance since 1989 in New York, at a dinner marking the 200th anniversary of the First Amendment (which guarantees freedom of speech in the U.S.).
1994 - Thousands of Russian troops, armored columns and jets entered Chechnya. The move by Moscow was an effort to restore control the breakaway republic.
1994 - The world's largest free trade zone was created when leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations signed a free-trade declaration known as "The Miami Process."
1996 - In Crystal City, VA, "The Art of the Toy" opened. The exhibit was at the Patent and Trademark Office Museum.
1997 - Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams became the first political ally of the IRA to meet a British leader in 76 years. He conferred with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.
1997 - More than 270 Tutsi refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo were killed by Juto guerillas in Mudende, Rwanda.
1997 - More than 150 countries agreed at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control the Earth's "greenhouse gases."
1998 - Scientists announced that they had deciphered the entire genetic blueprint of a tiny worm.
1998 - The Mars Climate Orbiter blasted off on a nine-month journey to the Red Planet. However, the probe disappeared in September of 1999, apparently destroyed because scientists had failed to convert English measures to metric values.
1998 - Majority Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee pushed through three articles of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton.
2000 - Mario Lemeiux, owner of Pittsburgh Penquins, announced that he would end his three-plus year retirement and become an active National Hockey League (NHL) player again. When Lemieux returned officially he became the first owner/player in NHL history.
2001 - U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft announced the first federal indictment directly related to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Zacarias Moussaoui was charged with six conspiracy charges. Moussaoui was in custody at the time of the attacks.
2001 - Ted Turner purchased 12,000 acres in Nebraska for Bison ranches.
2001 - It was announced that U.S. President George W. Bush would withdraw the U.S. from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia.
2001 - Federal agents seized computers in 27 U.S. cities as part of "Operation Buccaneer." The raids were used to gain evidence against an international software piracy ring.
Current Birthdays
Rita Moreno turns 77 years old today.
69 Tom Hayden
Activist
68 David Gates
Singer (Bread)
67 Max Baucus
U.S. senator, D-Mont.
66 Donna Mills
Actress ("Knots Landing")
65 John Kerry
U.S. senator, D-Mass.
64 Lynda Day George
Actress
64 Brenda Lee
Singer
62 Tony Brown
Country music producer
60 Teri Garr
Actress
56 Susan Seidelman
Director
55 Bess Armstrong
Actress
54 Jermaine Jackson
Singer (The Jackson 5)
51 Mike Mesaros
Rock musician (The Smithereens)
50 Nikki Sixx
Rock musician (Motley Crue)
47 Darryl Jones
Rock musician
44 David Schools
Rock musician (Widespread Panic)
44 Justin Currie
Rock musician (Del Amitri)
42 Gary Dourdan
Actor ("CSI")
41 Mo'Nique
Actress, comedian
35 Mos Def
Rapper, actor
29 Rider Strong
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Fiorello H. La Guardia
12/11/1882 - 9/20/1947
New York City mayor
45 Leo X
12/11/1475 - 12/1/1521
Italian pope
86 Sir David Brewster
12/11/1781 - 2/10/1868
Scottish physicist
65 (Louis-)Hector Berlioz
12/11/1803 - 3/8/1869
French composer and conductor
46 Alfred de Musset
12/11/1810 - 5/2/1857
French poet and playwright
66 Robert H.H. Koch
12/11/1843 - 5/27/1910
German physician
77 Annie Jump Cannon
12/11/1863 - 4/13/1941
American astronomer
87 Max Born
12/11/1882 - 1/5/1970
German physicist and Nobel Prize winner
68 Erskine (Hamilton) Childers
12/11/1905 - 11/17/1974
Irish statesman and fourth president (1973-74)
62 Sir Kenneth MacMillan
12/11/1929 - 10/29/1992
Scottish-English choreographer
1787 - Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1792 - In Vienna, 22-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven received one of his first lessons in music composition from Franz Joseph Haydn.
1800 - Washington, DC, was established as the capital of the United States.
1805 - Henry Wells was born in Thetford, VT. He was one of the founders of the American Express Company and he teamed up with William Fargo to form the Wells Fargo Company.
1863 - Norwegian painter Edvard Munch was born. His most known work is "The Scream."
1870 - Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black lawmaker to be sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.
1896 - Guglielmo Marconi gave the first public demonstration of radio at Toynbee Hall, London.
1897 - The comic strip"The Katzenjammer Kids" (Hans and Fritz), by Rudolph Dirks, appeared in the New York Journal for the first time.
1899 - George Grant patented the wooden golf tee.
1900 - Charles M. Schwab formed the United States Steel Corporation.
1901 - The first radio signal to cross the Atlantic was picked up near St. John's Newfoundland, by inventor Guglielmo Marconi.
1912 - The Mother's Day International Association was incorporated with the purpose of furthering meaningful observations of Mother's Day.
1915 - The first all-metal aircraft, the German Junkers J1, made its first flight.
1917 - Father Edward Flanagan opened Boys Town in Nebraska. The farm village was for wayward boys. In 1979 it was opened to girls.
1925 - The "Motel Inn," the first motel in the world, opened in San Luis Obispo, CA.
1937 - Japanese aircraft sank the U.S. gunboat "Panay" on China's Yangtze River. Japan apologized for the attack, and paid $2.2 million in reparations.
1946 - A United Nations committee voted to accept a six-block tract of Manhattan real estate to be the site of the UN's headquarters. The land was offered as a gift by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
1947 - The United Mine Workers union withdrew from the American Federation of Labor.
1951 - The U.S. Navy Department announced that the world's first nuclear powered submarine would become the sixth ship to bear the name Nautilus.
1955 - It was announced that the Ford Foundation gave $500,000,000 to private hospitals, colleges and medical schools.
1955 - British engineer Christopher Cockerell patented the first hovercraft.
1963 - Kenya gained its independence from Britain.
1975 - Sara Jane Moore pled guilty to a charge of trying to kill U.S. President Ford in San Francisco the previous September.
1982 - 20,000 women encircled Greenham Common air base in Britain in protest against proposed cite of U.S. Cruise missiles there.
1983 - Car bombs were set off in front of the French and U.S. embassies in Kuwait City. Shiite extremists were responsible for the five deaths and 86 wounded. Total of five bombs went off in different locations.
1984 - In a telephone conversation with U.S. President Reagan, William J. Schroeder complained of a delay in his Social Security benefits. Schroeder received a check the following day.
1985 - 248 American soldiers and eight crewmembers were killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed in Gander, Newfoundland after takeoff.
1989 - Britain forcibly removed 51 Vietnamese from Hong Kong and returned them to their homeland.
1989 - Leona Helmsley was fined $7 million and sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion.
1994 - The Brazilian Supreme Court acquitted former President Fernando Collor de Mello of corruption charges that had forced him to resign in 1992.
1994 - IBM stopped shipments of personal computers with Intel's flawed Pentium chip.
1995 - The U.S. Senate stopped a constitutional amendment giving Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of desecration against the American flag.
1995 - Two French airmen shot down over Bosnia arrived home after almost four months of being held captive by the Bosnian Serbs.
1997 - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the international terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," went on trial in Paris on charges of killing two French investigators and a Lebanese national. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
1997 - The U.S. Justice Department ordered Microsoft to sell its Internet browser separately from its Windows operating system to prevent it from building a monopoly of Web access programs.
1997 - Denver Pyle received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - The House Judiciary Committee rejected censure, and approved the final article of impeachment against U.S. President Clinton. The case was submitted to the full House for a verdict.
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court found that the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was unconstitutional. U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush the next day.
2000 - Timothy McVeigh, over the objections of his lawyers, abandoned his final round of appeals and asked that his execution be set within 120 days. McVeigh was convicted of the April 1995 truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Fedal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, that killed 168 and injured 500.
2000 - The Texas Rangers signed Alex Rodriguez to a record breaking 10-year, $252 million contract. The contract amount broke all major league baseball records and all professional sports records.
2001 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would implement minimum federal election standards and provide funding to help states modernize their voting systems.
2001 - Gerardo Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison for being the leader of a Cuban spy ring. His conviction was based on his role in the infiltration of U.S. military bases and in the deaths of four Cuban-Americans whose planes were shot down five years before.
2001 - In Beverly Hills, CA, actress Winona Ryder was arrested at Saks Fifth Avenue for shoplifting and possessing pharmaceutical drugs without a prescription. The numerous items of clothing and hair accessories were valued at $4,760.
2002 - North Korea announced that it would reactivate a nuclear power plant that U.S. officials believed was being used to develop weapons.
Current Birthdays
Jennifer Connelly turns 38 years old today.
85 Bob Barker
TV game show host ("The Price is Right")
84 Ed Koch
Former New York City mayor
70 Connie Francis
Singer, actress
68 Dionne Warwick
R&B singer
65 Dickey Betts
Rock musician (The Allman Brothers)
61 Wings Hauser
Actor
59 Bill Nighy
Actor ("Pirates of the Caribbean" movies)
58 Duane Chase
Actor (Kurt in "The Sound of Music")
58 LaCosta
Country singer
56 Cathy Rigby
Actress, Olympic gymnast
51 Sheila E.
Singer, musician
50 Sheree J. Wilson
Actress
47 Daniel O'Donnell
Singer
46 Tracy Austin
Tennis Hall of Famer
45 Eric Schenkman
Rock musician (Spin Doctors)
41 Nicholas Dimichino
Rock musician (Nine Days)
39 Maggie Rodriguez
TV host ("The Early Show")
38 Madchen Amick
Actress
36 Hank Williams III
Country singer
33 Mayim Bialik
Actress ("Blossom")
31 Bridget Hall
Model
Historic Birthdays
Frank Sinatra
12/12/1915 - 5/14/1998
American actor and singer
61 Alvaro de Bazan Santa Cruz
12/12/1526 - 2/9/1588
Spanish naval commander
83 John Jay
12/12/1745 - 5/17/1829
First chief justice of the United States
73 William Lloyd Garrison
12/12/1805 - 5/24/1879
American abolitionist
64 Stand Watie
12/12/1806 - 9/9/1871
Cherokee chief
67 Gustave Flaubert
12/12/1821 - 5/8/1880
French novelist
80 Edvard Munch
12/12/1863 - 1/23/1944
Norweigan painter
72 Arthur Garfield Brisbane
12/12/1864 - 12/25/1936
American editor and writer
51 Alvin Kraenzlein
12/12/1876 - 1/6/1928
American Olympic athlete; first competitor to win four gold medals in a single Olympics
73 Arthur Garfield Hays
12/12/1881 - 12/14/1954
American lawyer and defender of civil liberties
79 Edward G. Robinson
12/12/1893 - 1/26/1973
American actor and singer
85 Henry Armstrong
12/12/1912 - 10/24/1988
American boxer
65 John Osborne
12/12/1929 - 12/24/1994
English playwright
1577 - Five ships under the command of Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake's circumnavigation of the globe. The journey took almost three years.
1636 - The United States National Guard was created when militia regiments were organized by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1642 - New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman.
1769 - Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, received its charter.
1809 - The first abdominal surgical procedure was performed in Danville, KY, on Jane Todd Crawford. The operation was performed without an anesthetic.
1816 - John Adamson received a patent for a dry dock.
1862 - In America, an estimated 11,000 Northern soldiers were killed or wounded when Union forces were defeated by Confederates under General Robert E. Lee, at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
1883 - The border between Ontario and Manitoba was established.
1884 - Percy Everitt received a patent for the first coin-operated weighing machine.
1913 - The Federal Reserve System was established as the first U.S. central bank.
1913 - It was announced by authorities in Florence, Italy, that the "Mona Lisa" had been recovered. The work was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911.
1918 - U.S. President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit a European country while holding office.
1921 - Britain, France, Japan and the United States signed the Pacific Treaty.
1937 - Japanese forces took the Chinese city of Nanking (Nanjing). An estimated 200,000 Chinese were killed over the next six weeks. The event became known as the "Rape of Nanking."
1944 - During World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze suicide attack. 138 people were killed in the attack.
1961 - Anna Mary Robertson Moses, "Grandma Moses," passed away at the age of 101.
1964 - In El Paso, TX, President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande River, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border. This ended a century-old border dispute.
1966 - The rights to the first four Super Bowls were sold to CBS and NBC for total of $9.5 million.
1978 - The Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony U.S. dollar. The coin began circulation the following July.
1980 - Three days after a disputed general election, Uganda’s President Milton Obote was returned to office.
1981 - Authorities in Poland imposed martial law in an attempt to crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. Martial law ended formally in 1983.
1982 - The Sentry Armored Car Company in New York discovered that $11 million had been stolen from its headquarters overnight. It was the biggest cash theft in U.S. history.
1987 - U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark, that the Reagan administration would begin making funding requests for the proposed Star Wars defense system.
1988 - PLO chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva, were it had recovened after the United States had refused to grant Arafat a visa to visit New York.
1988 - A bankruptcy judge in Columbia, SC, ordered the assets of the troubled PTL television ministry sold to a Toronto real estate developer for $65 million.
1989 - South African President F.W. de Klerk met for the first time with imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, at de Klerk's office in Cape Town.
1991 - Five Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union agreed to join the new Commonwealth of Independent States.
1991 - North Korea and South Korea signed a historic non-aggression agreement.
1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people must receive a hearing before property linked to illegal drug sales can be seized.
1993 - The European Community ratified a treaty creating the European Economic Area (EEA), to go into effect January 1, 1994.
1994 - An American Eagle commuter plane carrying 20 people crashed short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15 people.
1995 - China's most influential democracy activist, Wei Jingsheng, who already had spent 16 years in prison, was sentenced to 14 more years.
1997 - The Getty Center in Los Angeles, CA, was opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
1998 - Puerto Rican voters rejected U.S. statehood in a non-binding referendum.
1998 - Gary Anderson (Minnesota Vikings) kicked six field goals against Baltimore. In the game Anderson set an National Football League (NFL) record for 34 straight field goals without a miss.
2000 - U.S. Vice President Al Gore conceded the 2000 Presidential election to Texas Gov. George W. Bush. The Florida electoral votes were won by only 537 votes, which decided the election. The election had been contested up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which said that the Florida recount (supported by the Florida Supreme Court) was unconstitutional.
2000 - Seven convicts, the "Texas 7," escaped from Connally Unit in Kenedy, TX, southeast of San Antonio, by overpowering civilian workers and prison employees. They fled with stolen clothing, pickup truck and 16 guns and ammunition.
2001 - The U.S. government released a video tape that showed Osama bin Laden and others discussing their knowledge of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush served formal notice to Russia that the United States was withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2001 - Israel severed all contact with Yasser Arafat. Israel also launched air strikes and sent troops into Palestine in response to a bus ambush that killed 10 Israelis.
2001 - Gunmen stormed the Indian Parliament and killed seven people and injured 18. Security forces killed the attackers during a 90-minute gunbattle.
2001 - NBC-TV announced that it would begin running hard liquor commercials. NBC issued a 19-point policy that outlined the conditions for accepting liquor ads.
2001 - Michael Frank Goodwin was arrested and booked on two counts of murder, one count of conspiracy and three special circumstances (lying in wait, murder for financial gain and multiple murder) in connection to the death of Mickey Thompson. Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway on March 16, 1988. Thompson, known as the "Speed King," set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.
Current Birthdays
Taylor Swift turns 19 years old today.
88 George P. Shultz
Former Secretary of State
83 Dick Van Dyke
Actor
79 Christopher Plummer
Actor
78 Buck White
Country singer
78 Lou Adler
Music producer
74 Richard Zanuck
Movie producer
67 John Davidson
Singer
65 Ferguson Jenkins
Baseball Hall of Famer
63 Kathy Garver
Actress ("Family Affair")
60 Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
Rock musician (The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan)
60 Ron Getman
Country singer (The Tractors)
60 Ted Nugent
Rock musician
59 Robert Lindsay
Actor
59 Randy Owen
Country singer, musician (Alabama)
58 Wendie Malick
Actress ("Just Shoot Me")
58 Tom Vilsack
Former governor of Iowa
55 Ben Bernanke
Federal Reserve chairman
54 John Anderson
Country singer
54 Steve Forbert
Rock singer
52 Morris Day
R&B singer-actor (The Time)
51 Steve Buscemi
Actor
49 Johnny Whitaker
Actor ("Family Affair")
39 Gary Zimmerman
Football Hall of Famer
41 Jamie Foxx
Actor, singer
39 Sergei Fedorov
Hockey player
34 Debbie Matenopoulos
TV personality
33 Thomas Delonge
Rock musician
33 James Kyson Lee
Actor ("Heroes")
27 Chelsea Hertford
Actress ("Major Dad")
27 Amy Lee
Rock singer (Evanescence)
Historic Birthdays
Carlos Montoya
12/13/1903 - 3/3/1993
Spanish-American flamenco guitarist
85 Carlos Gozzi
12/13/1720 - 4/4/1806
Italian poet and dramatist
72 Sir William Hamilton
12/13/1730 - 4/6/1803
English diplomat and archaeologist
68 Joseph Howe
12/13/1804 - 6/1/1873
Canadian statesman and publisher
86 Lawrence Lowell
12/13/1856 - 1/6/1943
American lawyer, educator, and president of Harvard University (1909-1933)
73 Emily Carr
12/13/1871 - 3/2/1945
Canadian painter and writer
76 Alvin York
12/13/1887 - 9/2/1964
American military hero of World War I
90 Marc Connelly
12/13/1890 - 12/21/1980
American playwright and journalist
84 Archie Moore
12/13/1913 - 12/9/1998
American boxer
1503 - Physician, astrologer and clairvoyant Nostradamus was born at St. Remy, Provence, France.
1798 - David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patented the nut and bolt machine.
1799 - The first president of the United States, George Washington, died at the age 67.
1819 - Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.
1896 - Gen. James H. Doolittle, who led the first air raid on Japan during World War II, was born.
1900 - Professor Max Planck of Berlin University revealed his revolutionary Quantum Theory.
1903 - Orville Wright made the first attempt at powered flight. The engine stalled during take-off and the plane was damaged in the attempt. Three days later, after repairs were made, the modern aviation age was born when the plane stayed aloft for 12 seconds and flew 102 feet.
1911 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole. He reached the destination 35 days ahead of Captain Robert F. Scott.
1915 - Jack Johnson became the first black world heavyweight champion.
1918 - For the first time in Britain women (over 30) voted in a General Election.
1939 - The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.
1945 - Josef Kramer, known as "the beast of Belsen," and 10 others were executed in Hamelin for the crimes they committed at the Belsen and Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps.
1946 - The U.N. General Assembly voted to establish the United Nation's headquarters in New York City.
1959 - Archbishop Makarios was elected Cyprus' first president.
1962 - The U.S. space probe Mariner II approached Venus. It transmitted information about the planet's atmosphere and surface temperature.
1975 - Six South Moluccan terrorists surrendered to police after holding 23 people hostage for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen.
1981 - Israel annexed the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in war in 1967.
1983 - The U.S. battleship New Jersey fired on Syrian positions in Lebanon for the first time after American F-14 reconnaissance flights were fired on.
1984 - Howard Cosell retired from the NFL's Monday Night Football.
1985 - Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she formally took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
1986 - The experimental aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, took off from California on the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world. The trip took nine days to complete.
1987 - Chrysler pled no contest to federal charges of selling several thousand vehicles as new. Chrysler employees had driven the vehicles with the odometer disconnected.
1988 - CBS won the exclusive rights to major league baseball's 1990-94 seasons for $1.1 billion.
1988 - The first transatlantic underwater fiber-optic cable went into service.
1990 - After 30 years in exile, ANC president Oliver Tambo returned to South Africa.
1993 - A judge in Colorado struck down the state's voter-approved Amendment Two prohibiting gay rights laws, calling it unconstitutional.
1993 - The United Mine Workers approved a five-year contract that ended a strike that had reached seven states and involved some of the nation's biggest coal operators.
1995 - The presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia signed the Dayton Accords to end fighting in Bosnia.
1995 - AIDS patient Jeff Getty received the first-ever bone-marrow transplant from a baboon.
1997 - Iran's newest president, Mohammad Khatami, called for a dialogue with the people of the United States. The preceding Iranian leaders had reviled the U.S. as "The Great Satan."
1997 - Mike Gartner (Phoenix Coyotes) became only the fifth player in National Hockey League (NHL) history to score 700 career goals.
1997 - Cuban President Fidel Castro declared Christmas 1997 an official holiday to ensure the success of Pope John Paul II's upcoming visit to Cuba.
1998 - Hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.
1999 - U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slave and forced laborers.
1999 - Charles M. Schulz announced he was retiring the "Peanuts" comic strip. The last original "Peanuts" comic strip was published on February 13, 2000.
2000 - It was announced that American businessman Edmond Pope would be released from a Russian prison for humanitarian reasons. Pope had been sentenced to 20 years in prison after his conviction on espionage charges.
2001 - European Union leaders agreed to dispatch 3,000-4,000 troops to join an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.
2001 - The first commercial export, since 1963, of U.S. food to Cuba began. The 24,000 metric tons for corn were being sent to replenish what was lost when Hurricane Michelle struck on November 4.
1654 - A meteorological office established in Tuscany began recording daily temperature readings.
1791 - In the U.S., the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, went into effect following ratification by the state of Virginia.
1815 - Jane Austen's "Emma" was published.
1840 - Napoleon Bonapart's remains were interred in Les Invalides in Paris, having been brought from St. Helena, where he died in exile.
1854 - In Philadelphia, the first street cleaning machine was put into use.
1877 - Thomas Edison patented the phonograph.
1890 - American Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, SD, during an incident with Indian police working for the U.S. government.
1925 - The third Madison Square Gardens opened.
1938 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt presided over the ground-breaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
1939 - "Gone With the Wind," produced by David O. Selznick based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, premiered at Loew's Grand Theater in Atlanta. The movie starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt singed into practice Bill of Rights Day.
1944 - A single-engine plane carrying U.S. Army Major Glenn Miller disappeared in thick fog over the English Channel while en route to Paris.
1944 - American forces invaded Mindoro Island in the Philippines.
1944 - Dr. R. Townley Paton and a small group of doctors laid the groundwork for the Eye-Bank for Sight Restoration.
1961 - Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death in Jerusalem by an Israeli court. He had been tried on charges for organizing the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.
1961 - The U.N. General Assembly voted against a Soviet proposal to admit Communist China as a member.
1964 - Canada's House of Commons approved a newly designed flag thereby dropping the Canadian "Red Ensign" flag.
1965 - Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered within 10 feet of each other while in orbit around the Earth.
1966 - Walter Elias "Walt" Disney died in Los Angeles at the age of 65.
1970 - The Soviet probe Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land softly on the surface of Venus. The probe only survived the extreme heat and pressure for about 23 minutes and transmitted the first date received on Earth from the surface of another planet.
1973 - J. Paul Getty III was found in southern Italy after being held captive for five months, during which his right ear was cut off and sent to a newspaper in Rome.
1978 - U.S. President Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year's Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.
1979 - The former shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, left the United States for Panama. He had gone to the U.S. for medical treatment on October 22, 1979.
1979 - In a preliminary ruling, the International Court of Justice ordered Iran to release all hostages that had been taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.
1982 - Paul "Bear" Bryant announced his retirement as head football coach at the University of Alabama.
1982 - Gibraltar's frontier with Spain was opened to pedestrian use after 13 years.
1983 - The last 80 U.S. combat soldiers in Grenada withdrew. It was just over seven weeks after the U.S.-led invasion of the Caribbean island.
1989 - An uprising in Romania began as demonstrators gathered to prevent the arrest of the Reverend Laszlo Tokes, a dissident clergyman.
1992 - IBM announced it would eliminate 25-thousand employees in the coming year.
1992 - Bettino Craxi, the leader of Italy's Socialist Party, was informed that he was under investigation in a burgeoning corruption scandal in the northern city of Milan.
1992 - El Salvador's government and leftist guerrilla leaders formally declared the end of the country's 12-year civil war.
1993 - In Geneva, 117 countries completed the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The countries agreed on a reform package.
1993 - The prime ministers of Britain and the Republic of Ireland (John Major and Albert Reynolds respectively) made the "Downing Street Declaration," stating the basis for trying to achieve peace in Northern Ireland.
1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized NATO to take over the peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.
1995 - French rail workers voted to end a three-week-old strike.
1996 - Boeing Co. announced plans to pay $13.3 billion to acquire rival aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas Corp.
1997 - The San Francisco 49ers retired Joe Montana's number 16 during halftime of a game against the Denver Broncos.
1999 - Syria reopened peace talks with Israel in Washington, DC, with the mediation of U.S. President Clinton.
2000 - The Chernobyl atomic power plant in Kiev, Ukraine, was shut down.
2000 - New York Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton agreed to accept an $8 million book deal with Simon & Schuster. The book was to be about her eight years in the White House. The advance was the highest ever to be paid to a member of the U.S. Congress.
2001 - It was announced that Siena Heights University would begin offering a class called "Animated Philosophy and Religion." The two-credit class would cover how religion and philosophy are part of popular culture and is based on the television series "The Simpsons."
Current Birthdays
Mark Warner turns 54 years old today.
80 Ernest Ashworth
Country singer
75 Tim Conway
Comedian ("The Carol Burnett Show")
69 Cindy Birdsong
Singer (The Supremes)
68 Nick Buoniconti
Football Hall of Famer
66 Dave Clark
Rock musician, producer (The Dave Clark Five)
62 Carmine Appice
Rock musician (Vanilla Fudge)
59 Don Johnson
Actor ("Miami Vice")
56 Julie Taymor
Director
54 Alex Cox
Director ("Repo Man," "Sid and Nancy")
54 Justin Ross
Actor
53 Paul Simonon
Rock musician (The Clash)
48 Doug Phelps
Country singer
47 Reginald Hudlin
Movie producer
45 Helen Slater
Actress
43 Molly Price
Actress
38 Michael Shanks
Actor ("Stargate SG-1," "Stargate: Atlantis")
36 Stuart Townsend
Actor
31 Kito Trawick
Crowd hyper (Ghostown DJs)
29 Adam Brody
Actor ("The O.C.")
27 George O. Gore II
Actor ("My Wife and Kids")
Historic Birthdays
J. Paul Getty
12/15/1892 - 6/6/1976
American oil tycoon
31 Nero
12/15/AD 37 - 6/9/AD 68
Roman emperor
67 George Romney
12/15/1734 - 11/15/1802
English portrait painter
75 Joseph Moses Levy
12/15/1812 - 10/12/1888
English newspaperman; founded the London newspaper Daily Telegraph
85 Franklin Sanborn
12/15/1831 - 2/24/1917
American journalist and biographer
91 Gustave Eiffel
12/15/1832 - 12/28/1923
French civil engineer and designer of the Eiffel Tower
43 Niels Ryberg Finsen
12/15/1860 - 9/24/1904
Danish physician, founder of modern phototherapy and Nobel prize winner
76 Charles Duryea
12/15/1861 - 9/28/1938
American automobile inventor
70 Maxwell Anderson
12/15/1888 - 2/28/1959
American playwright
65 Kaare Klint
12/15/1888 - 3/28/1954
Danish architect and furniture designer
78 Harold Abrahams
12/15/1899 - 1/14/1978
English athlete and Olympic gold medalist
1653 - Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1773 - Nearly 350 chests of tea were dumped into Boston Harbor off of British ships by Colonial patriots. The patriots were disguised as Indians. The act was to protest taxation without representation and the monopoly the government granted to the East India Company.
1809 - Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate.
1835 - In New York, 530 buildings were destroyed by fire.
1838 - The Zulu chief Dingaan was defeated by a small force of Boers at Blood River celebrated in South Africa as 'Dingaan's Day'.
1850 - The first immigrant ship, the Charlotte Jane, arrived at Lyttleton, New Zealand.
1901 - "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," by Beatrix Potter, was printed for the first time.
1903 - Women ushers were employed for the first time at the Majestic Theatre in New York City.
1905 - Sime Silverman published the first issue of "Variety".
1912 - The first postage stamp to depict an airplane was issued was a 20-cent parcel-post stamp.
1916 - Gregory Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was murdered by a group of noblemen.
1940 - French Premier Petain arrested Pierre Laval after learning of a plan for Laval to seize power and set up a new government with German support.
1944 - During World War II, the Battle of the Bulge began in Belgium. It was the final major German counteroffensive in the war.
1950 - U.S. President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."
1951 - NBC-TV debuted "Dragnet" in a special preview on "Chesterfield Sound Off Time". The show began officially on January 3, 1952.
1960 - A United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City, killing 134 people.
1972 - The Miami Dolphins became the first NFL team to go unbeaten and untied in a 14-game regular season. The Dolphins went on to defeat the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII.
1973 - O.J. Simpson broke Jim Brown’s single-season rushing record in the NFL. Brown had rushed for 1,863 yards, while Simpson attained 2,003 yards.
1984 - The play "Diamonds" opened in New York City.
1985 - Reputed organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a New York City restaurant.
1990 - Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a leftist priest, was elected president in Haiti's first democratic elections.
1991 - The U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a vote of 111-25.
1993 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for negotiations on a comprehensive test ban.
1995 - Many U.S. government functions were again closed as a temporary finance provision expired and the budget dispute between President Clinton and Republicans in Congress continued.
1995 - NATO launched a military operation in support of the Bosnia peace agreement.
1996 - Britain's agriculture minister announced the slaughter of an additional 100,000 cows thought to be at risk of contracting BSE in an effort to persuade the EU to lift its ban on Britain.
1998 - The U.S. and Britain fired hundreds of missiles on Iraq in response to Saddam Hussein's refusal to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors.
1999 - Sigourney Weaver received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 - wtf?wtf?wtf?wtf?wtf?wtf?wtf?ial rains and mudslides in Venezuela left thousands of people dead and forced at least 120,000 to leave their homes.
2000 - Researchers announced that information from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicated that Ganymede appeared to have a liquid saltwater ocean beneath a surface of solid ice. Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, is the solar system's largest moon. The discovery is considered important since water is a key ingredient for life.
2000 - U.S. President-elect George W. Bush selected Colin Powell to be the first African-American secretary of state. Powell was sworn in January 20, 2001.
2001 - In Tora Bora, Afghanistan, tribal fighters announced that they had taken the last al-Quaida positions. More than 200 fighters were killed and 25 captured. They also announced that they had found no sign of Osama bin Laden.
2001 - Cuba received the first commercial food shipment from the United States in nearly 40 years. The shipment was sent to help Cuba after Hurrican Michelle hit Cuba on November 4, 2001.
2001 - A British newspaper, The Observer, reported that a notebook had been found at an al-Quaida training camp in southern Afghanistan. The notebook contained a "blue print" for an bomb attack on London's financial district.
2002 - Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The 1997 treaty was aimed a reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Current Birthdays
Benjamin Bratt turns 45 years old today
72 Morris Dees
Civil rights attorney
71 Joyce Bulifant
Actress
70 Liv Ullmann
Actress
67 Lesley Stahl
Broadcast journalist ("60 Minutes")
66 Don Carcieri
Governor of Rhode Island
65 Steven Bochco
TV producer ("NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues")
64 Jim Gibbons
Governor of Nevada
63 Tony Hicks
Rock musician (The Hollies)
62 Benny Andersson
Singer (ABBA)
61 Ben Cross
Actor
57 Bill Bateman
Rock musician (The Blasters)
49 Alison LaPlaca
Actress
47 Sam Robards
Actor
47 Jon Tenney
Actor ("The Closer")
45 Jeff Carson
Country singer, songwriter
37 Michael McCary
R&B singer (Boyz II Men)
26 Chris Scruggs
Country musician
21 Hallee Hirsh
Actress ("JAG")
20 Anna Popplewell
Actress ("The Chronicles of Narnia" films )
Historic Birthdays
Margaret Mead
12/16/1901 - 11/15/1978
American anthropologist
50 Catherine of Aragon
12/16/1485 - 1/7/1536
English queen
41 Jane Austen
12/16/1775 - 7/18/1817
English novelist
58 Francois Boieldieu
12/16/1775 - 10/8/1834
French composer
61 Josephine Shaw Lowell
12/16/1843 - 10/12/1905
American social reformer
51 Hans Buchner
12/16/1850 - 4/5/1902
German bacteriologist
88 George Santayana
12/16/1863 - 9/26/1952
Spanish-American philosopher and poet
81 Sir John Berry Hobbs
12/16/1882 - 12/21/1963
English athlete
73 Sir Noel Coward
12/16/1899 - 3/26/1973
English actor and playwright
96 V.S. Pritchett
12/16/1900 - 3/20/1997
English author
61 James McCracken
12/16/1926 - 4/29/1988
American operatic tenor
Baill Inneraora
2008-12-16, 13:53
1653 - Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Not Wales? Can a British person help with an explanation?
marquis2
2008-12-16, 14:16
Not Wales? Can a British person help with an explanation?
Certainly.In 1536 the Act of Union made Wales a part of England so the reference to England included Wales.This Act was repealed in 1993.
Notice that in 1773 some tea was tipped into the sea.THIS IS NOT how to make a good cup of tea. Use BOILING fresh water and NOT seawater.
Certainly.In 1536 the Act of Union made Wales a part of England so the reference to England included Wales.This Act was repealed in 1993.
Notice that in 1773 some tea was tipped into the sea.THIS IS NOT how to make a good cup of tea. Use BOILING fresh water and NOT seawater.
:hatsoff:
Baill Inneraora
2008-12-16, 14:23
Well that makes sense. I would have been pissed off if I was Welsh and all of a sudden my country doesn't even exist anymore!
marquis2
2008-12-16, 14:28
Well that makes sense. I would have been pissed off if I was Welsh and all of a sudden my country doesn't even exist anymore!
It happens! There is a border town between England and Scotland called Berwick on Tweed. As far as I know it is at war with Russia.
When the Crimean War started the British declaration of war was by"England,Ireland,Scotland and Berwick on Tweed" but the peace settlement was on behalf of "England,Ireland and Scotland"
Wheeler Ronan
2008-12-16, 15:50
Howard Sterns last day on shitty terresrial radio in 2005..
2002 - Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The 1997 treaty was aimed a reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
It seems that Canada won't honor his signature.
Margaret Mead
12/16/1901 - 11/15/1978
American anthropologist
An influential anthropologist. I enjoyed reading her works in my classes.
R.I.P
Jane Austen
12/16/1775 - 7/18/1817
English novelist
A great writer, a woman ahead of it's time.
R.I.P.
1777 - France recognized American independence.
1791 - A traffic regulation in New York City established the first street to go "One Way."
1830 - South American patriot Simon Bolivar died in Colombia.
1895 - George L. Brownell received a patent for his paper-twine machine.
1903 - The first successful gasoline-powered airplane flight took place near Kitty Hawk, NC. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the flight.
1925 - Col. William "Billy" Mitchell was convicted of insubordination at his court-martial.
1936 - The "The Rudy Vallee Show" debuted on NBC.
1939 - The German pocket battleship Graf Spee was scuttled by its crew, bringing the World War II Battle of the Rio de la Plata off Uruguay to an end.
1944 - The U.S. Army announced the end of its policy of excluding Japanese-Americans from the West Coast which ensured that Japanese-Americans were released from detention camps.
1953 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided to approve RCA’s color television specifications.
1957 - The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.
1959 - The film "On the Beach" premiered in New York City and in 17 other cities. It was the first motion picture to debut simultaneously in major cities around the world.
1969 - The U.S. Air Force closed its Project "Blue Book" by concluding that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.
1969 - Television history was made when Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki Budinger were married on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.
1973 - Thirty-one people were killed at Rome airport when Arab guerillas hijacked a German airliner.
1975 - Lynette Fromme was sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of U.S. President Ford.
1976 - WTCG-TV, Atlanta, GA, changed its call letters to WTBS, and was uplinked via satellite. The station became the first commercial TV station to cover the entire U.S.
1978 - OPEC decided to raise oil prices by 14.5% by the end of 1979.
1979 - Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance executive, was fatally beaten after a police chase in Miami, FL. Four white police officers were later acquitted of charges stemming from McDuffie's death.
1986 - Wayne "Danke Schoen" Newton won a $19.2 million suit against NBC News. NBC had aired reports claiming a link between Newton and mob figures. The reports were proven to be false.
1986 - Davina Thompson became the world's first recipient of a heart, lungs, and liver transplant.
1986 - Eugene Hasefus was pardoned and then released by Nicaragua. He had been convicted of running guns to the Contras.
1992 - U.S. President Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.
1992 - Israel deported over 400 Palestinians to Lebanese territory in an unprecedented mass expulsion of suspected militants.
1996 - Peruvian guerrillas took hundreds of people hostage at the Japanese embassy in Lima. The siege ended on April 22, 1997, with a commando raid that resulted in the deaths of all the rebels, two commandos and one hostage.
1996 - The Red Cross pulled all but a few of its western staff out of Chechnya after six foreign aid workers were killed by masked gunmen.
1997 - U.S. President Clinton signed the No Electronic Theft Act. The act removed protection from individuals who claimed that they took no direct financial gains from stealing copyrighted works and downloading them from the Internet.
1998 - U.S. House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston admitted he'd had extramarital affairs.
2000 - Terrell Owens (San Francisco 49ers) caught an NFL-record 20 passes for 283 yards and a touchdown against the Chicago Bears. The previous record was held by Tom Fears (Los Angeles Rams) with 18 catches on December 3, 1950, against the Green Bay Packers. Owens also broke Jerry Rice's franchise record of 16 receptions set in 1994 against the Los Angeles Rams.
2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the Pentagon to have ready for use within two years a system for protecting American territory, troops and allies from ballistic missile attacks.
2002 - McDonald's Corp. warned that they would report its first quarterly loss in its 47-year history.
2002 - The insurance and finance company Conseco Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection. It was the third-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
2002 - Congo's government, opposition parties and rebels signed a peace agreement that ended four years of civil war.
2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of U.S. intelligence gathering in 50 years. The bill aimed to tighten borders and aviation security. It also created a federal counterterrorism center and a new intelligence director.
Current Birthdays
Chase Utley turns 30 years old today.
79 William Safire
Newspaper columnist
78 Bob Guccione
Magazine publisher ("Penthouse")
78 Armin Mueller-Stahl
Actor
73 George Lindsey
Actor
72 Tommy Steele
Singer, actor
71 Art Neville
Rock musician, singer (The Neville Brothers)
64 Bernard Hill
Actor
63 Christopher Cazenove
Actor
63 Ernie Hudson
Actor
62 Eugene Levy
Actor ("American Pie" movies, "SCTV")
61 Wes Studi
Actor
60 Jim Bonfanti
Rock musician (The Raspberries)
59 Paul Rodgers
Rock singer (Bad Company)
57 Wanda Hutchinson
R&B singer (The Emotions)
55 Barry Livingston
Actor ("My Three Sons")
55 Bill Pullman
Actor
55 Sharon White
Country singer
52 Peter Farrelly
Director, producer
50 Mike Mills
Rock musician (R.E.M.)
47 Sarah Dallin
Singer (Bananarama)
46 Tim Chewning
Country musician
42 Tracy Byrd
Country singer
42 Duane Propes
Country musician
38 DJ Homicide
DJ (Sugar Ray)
38 Sean Patrick Thomas
Actor
35 Eddie Fisher
Rock musician (OneRepublic)
34 Sarah Paulson
Actress
34 Giovanni Ribisi
Actor
34 Marissa Ribisi
Actress
33 Milla Jovovich
Actress
33 Bree Sharp
Rock singer
29 Jennifer Carpenter
Actress
22 Vanessa Zima
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Arthur Fiedler
12/17/1894 - 7/10/1979
American conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra
87 Sir Roger L'Estrange
12/17/1616 - 12/11/1704
English journalist and pamphleteer
51 Domenico Cimarosa
12/17/1749 - 1/11/1801
Italian composer
80 Joseph Henry
12/17/1797 - 5/13/1878
American scientist
84 John Greenleaf Whittier
12/17/1807 - 9/7/1892
American poet and abolitionist
65 Ford Madox Ford
12/17/1873 - 6/26/1939
English novelist and editor
75 Mackenzie King
12/17/1874 - 7/22/1950
Canadian prime minister (1921-26, 1926-30, 1935-48)
60 Edwin Cohn
12/17/1892 - 10/1/1953
American biochemist
83 Erskine Caldwell
12/17/1903 - 4/11/1987
American author
1787 - New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1796 - The "Monitor," of Baltimore, MD, was published as the first Sunday newspaper.
1862 - The first orthopedic hospital was organized in New York City. It was called the Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled.
1865 - Slavery was abolished in the United States with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution being ratified.
1898 - A new automobile speed record was set at 39 mph (63 kph).
1903 - The Panama Canal Zone was acquired 'in perpetuity' by the U.S. for an annual rent.
1912 - The U.S. Congress prohibited the immigration of illiterate persons.
1912 - The discovery of the Piltdown Man in East Sussex was announced. It was proved to be a hoax in 1953.
1915 - U.S. President Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.
1916 - During World War I, after 10 months of fighting the French defeated the Germans in the Battle of Verdun.
1917 - The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress.
1935 - A $1 silver certificate was issued for the first time in the U.S.
1936 - Su-Lin, the first giant panda to come to the U.S. from China, arrived in San Francisco, CA. The bear was sold to the Brookfield Zoo for $8,750.
1940 - Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation "Barbarossa" was launched in June 1941.
1944 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but also stated that undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained.
1950 - NATO foreign ministers approved plans to defend Western Europe, including the use of nuclear weapons, if necessary.
1953 - WPTZ, in Philadelphia, PA, presented a Felso commercial, it was the first color telecast seen on a local station.
1956 - "To Tell the Truth" debuted on CBS-TV.
1956 - Japan was admitted to the United Nations.
1957 - The Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania went online. It was the first nuclear facility to generate electricity in the United States. It was taken out of service in 1982.
1963 - Ron Clarke set a world record when he ran six miles in 28 minutes and 15.6 seconds.
1965 - Kenneth LeBel jumped 17 barrels on ice skates.
1969 - Britain's Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.
1970 - Divorce became legal in Italy.
1972 - The United States began the heaviest bombing of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The attack ended 12 days later.
1973 - The IRA launched its Christmas bombing campaign in London.
1979 - The sound barrier was broken on land for the first time by Stanley Barrett when he drove at 739.6 mph.
1983 - Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers) scored his 100th point in the 34th game of the season.
1984 - Christopher Guest and Jamie Lee Curtis were married.
1987 - Ivan F. Boesky was sentenced to three years in prison for plotting Wall Street's biggest insider-trading scandal. He only served about two years of the sentence.
1996 - Despite a U.N. truce, factional fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, broke out in which at least 300 fighters and civilians were killed.
1998 - The U.S. House of Representatives began the debate on the four articles of impeachment concerning U.S. President Bill Clinton. It was only the second time in U.S. history that process had begun.
1998 - Russia recalled its U.S. ambassador in protest of the U.S. attacks on Iraq.
1998 - South Carolina proceeded with the U.S.' 500th execution since capital punishment was restored.
1999 - After living atop an ancient redwood in Humboldt County, CA, for two years, environmental activist Julia "Butterfly" Hill came down, ending her anti-logging protest.
2001 - Mark Oliver Gebel, a Ringling Bros. Circus star, went on trial for animal abuse. The charges stemmed from an incident with an elephant that was marching too slowly into a circus performance on August 25, 2001. He was acquitted on December 21, 2001.
2001 - A fire damaged New York City's St. John Cathedral. The cathedral is the largest in the United States.
2001 - In Seattle, WA, Gary Leon Ridgeway pled innocent to the charge of murder for four of the Green River serial killings. He had been arrested on November 30, 2001.
2002 - Nine competing designs for the World Trade Center site were unveiled. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. expected to choose a design by January 31, 2003.
2003 - Adam Rich was arrested for driving onto a closed section of Interstate 10 and nearly struck a California Highway Patrol car.
Current Birthdays
Keith Richards turns 65 years old today.
90 Hal Kanter
TV writer, producer
81 Ramsey Clark
Former U.S. attorney general
76 Roger Smith
Actor
75 Lonnie Brooks
Blues musician
65 Alan Rudolph
Writer, director
62 Steven Spielberg
Director, producer
61 Rod Piazza
Blues musician
58 Gillian Armstrong
Director
58 Leonard Maltin
Movie critic
55 Elliot Easton
Rock musician (The Cars)
53 Ray Liotta
Actor
52 Ron White
Comedian
45 Brad Pitt
Actor
40 Rachel Griffiths
Actress
40 Alejandro Sanz
Singer
38 Cowboy Troy
Country singer, rapper ("Nashville Star")
38 DMX
Rapper
37 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario
Tennis Hall of Famer
36 DJ Lethal
DJ (Limp Bizkit)
30 Katie Holmes
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Robert Moses
12/18/1888 - 7/29/1981
American public works planner; supervised construction of Lincoln Center and Shea Stadium
83 Sir J. J. Thompson
12/18/1856 - 8/30/1940
English physicist
50 Francis Ferdinand
12/18/1863 - 6/28/1914
Austrian archduke
60 Paul Klee
12/18/1879 - 6/29/1940
Swiss painter
74 Ty Cobb
12/18/1886 - 7/17/1961
American baseball player
82 Dame Gladys Cooper
12/18/1888 - 11/17/1971
English actress
70 George Stevens
12/18/1904 - 3/8/1975
American film director
78 Willy Brandt
12/18/1913 - 10/8,9/1992
German statesman
56 Betty Grable
12/18/1916 - 7/2/1973
American actress
pastyphil
2008-12-18, 16:09
1979 - The sound barrier was broken on land for the first time by Stanley Barrett when he drove at 739.6 mph.
I thought Andy Green was the first supersonic pass on October 15, 1997 in Thrust SSC at Black Rock Desert recorded at 760.34 MPH.
The USAF who timed Barrett would not give official ratification to the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser_Rocket
1154 - Henry II became King of England.
1562 - The Battle of Dreux was fought between the Huguenots and the Catholics, beginning the French Wars of Religion.
1732 - Benjamin Franklin began publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac."
1776 - Thomas Paine published his first "American Crisis" essay.
1777 - General George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, PA, to camp for the winter.
1842 - Hawaii's independence was recognized by the U.S.
1843 - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published in England.
1871 - Corrugated paper was patented by Albert L. Jones.
1887 - Jake Kilrain and Jim Smith fought in a bare knuckles fight which lasted 106 rounds and 2 hours and 30 minutes. The fight was ruled a draw and was halted due to darkness.
1903 - The Williamsburg Bridge opened in New York City. It opened as the largest suspension bridge on Earth and remained the largest until 1924. It was also the first major suspension bridge to use steel towers to support the main cable.
1907 - A coalmine explosion in Jacobs Creek, PA, killed 239 workers.
1917 - The first games of the new National Hockey League (NHL) were played. Five teams made up the league: Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, the Montreal Canadiens and the Montreal Wanderers.
1918 - Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column in "The New York Globe".
1932 - The British Broadcasting Corp. began transmitting overseas with its "Empire Service" to Australia.
1957 - Meredith Wilson’s "The Music Man" opened at the Majestic Theatre in New York City. It ran for 1,375 shows.
1957 - Air service between London and Moscow was inaugurated.
1959 - Penn State’s Nittany Lions beat Alabama, 7-0, in the first Liberty Bowl football game.
1959 - Walter Williams died in Houston, TX, at the age of 117. He was said to be the last surviving veteran of the U.S. Civil War.
1961 - "Judgment At Nuremberg" opened in New York City.
1972 - Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.
1973 - Johnny Carson started a fake toilet-paper scare on the "Tonight Show."
1978 - Indira Gandhi was expelled from the Lok Sabha for contempt and imprisoned.
1979 - ESPN televised its first NHL game. The teams were the Washington Capitals and the Hartford Whales.
1984 - Wayne Gretsky, 23, of the Edmonton Oilers, became only the 18th player in the National Hockey League (NHL) to score more than 1,000 points.
1984 - Ted Hughes was appointed England's poet laureate.
1984 - Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.
1985 - Jan Stenerud announced his retirement from the NFL. The football kicker held the record for the most career field goals with 373.
1985 - ABC Sports announced that it was severing ties with Howard Cosell and released ‘The Mouth’ from all TV commitments. Cosell continued on ABC Radio for another five years.
1986 - The Soviet Union announced it had freed dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile, and pardoned his wife, Yelena Bonner.
1989 - U.S. troops invaded Panama to overthrow the regime of General Noriega.
1990 - Bo Jackson (Los Angeles Raiders) became the first athlete to be chosen for All Star Games in two sports.
1996 - The school board of Oakland, CA, voted to recognize Black English, also known as "ebonics." The board later reversed its stance.
1997 - "Titanic" opened in American movie theaters.
1998 - U.S. President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives.
1998 - A four-day bombing of Iraq by British and American forces ended.
2000 - The U.N. Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless they closed all terrorist training camps and surrender U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden.
2003 - Images for the new design for the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site were released. The building slopes into a spire that reaches 1,776 feet.
Current Birthdays
Cicely Tyson turns 75 years old today
88 Little Jimmy Dickens
Country singer
83 Robert Sherman
Composer
67 Maurice White
R&B musician (Earth, Wind and Fire)
64 Richard E. Leakey
Palaeontologist
64 Alvin Lee
Rock singer (Ten Years After)
64 Tim Reid
Actor ("WKRP in Cincinnati")
63 Elaine Joyce
Actress
63 John McEuen
Country musician (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
61 Janie Fricke
Country singer
53 Rob Portman
Former White House budget director
51 Kevin McHale
Basketball Hall of Famer
48 Mike Lookinland
Actor ("The Brady Bunch")
45 Jennifer Beals
Actress
44 Scott Cohen
Actor
42 Robert MacNaughton
Actor
41 Criss Angel
Magician
40 Kevin Shepard
Rock musician
39 Kristy Swanson
Actress
37 Amy Locane
Actress
36 Rosa Blasi
Actress
36 Alyssa Milano
Actress ("Charmed," "Who's the Boss?")
36 Warren Sapp
Football player
34 Jake Plummer
Football player
28 Jake Gyllenhaal
Actor
28 Marla Sokoloff
Actress
23 Lady Sovereign
Rapper
Historic Birthdays
Leonid Brezhnev
12/19/1906 - 11/10/1982
Russian statesman
80 Charles-Julien Brianchon
12/19/1783 - 4/29/1864
French mathematician
55 Edwin Stanton
12/19/1814 - 12/24/1869
American Secretary of War under President Lincoln
78 A.A. Michelson
12/19/1852 - 5/9/1931
German-born American physicist
83 Barry Byrne
12/19/1883 - 12/17/1967
American architect
74 Fritz Reiner
12/19/1888 - 11/15/1963
Hungarian-born American conductor
80 Sir Ralph Richardson
12/19/1902 - 10/10/1983
English actor
92 George Davis Snell
12/19/1903 - 6/6/1996
American geneticist and Nobel Prize winner
75 Jean Genet
12/19/1910 - 4/15/1986
French novelist
47 Edith Piaf
12/19/1915 - 10/11/1963
French singer and actress
1606 - The "Susan Constant," "Godspeed" and "Discovery" set sail from London. Their landing at Jamestown, VA, was the start of the first permanent English settlement in America.
1699 - Peter the Great ordered that the Russian New Year be changed from September 1 to January 1.
1790 - The first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, RI.
1803 - The United States Senate ratified a treaty that included the Louisiana Territories from France for $15 million. The transfer was completed with formal ceremonies in New Orleans.
1820 - The state of Missouri enacted legislation to tax bachelors between the ages of 21-50 for being unmarried. The tax was $1 a year.
1860 - South Carolina became the first state to secede from the American Union.
1864 - Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, GA as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."
1879 - Thomas A. Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, NJ.
1880 - New York's Broadway became known as the "Great White Way" when it was lighted by electricity.
1892 - Alexander T. Brown and George Stillman patented the pneumatic tire.
1928 - Mail delivery by dog sled began in Lewiston, ME.
1933 - The film "Flying Down to Rio" was first shown in New York.
1938 - Vladimir Kosma Zworykin patented the iconoscope television system.
1946 - The Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life" had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, a day before its "official" world premiere. James Stewart and Donna Reed star in the film.
1946 - In Indochina (Vietnam), full-scale guerrilla warfare between Vietnam partisans and French troops began.
1954 - Buick Motor Company signed Jackie Gleason to one of the largest contracts ever entered into with an entertainer. Gleason agreed to produce 78 half-hour shows over a two-year period for $6,142,500.
1962 - A world indoor pole-vault record was set by Don Meyers when he cleared 16 feet, 11/4 inches.
1963 - The Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners. It was only for the holiday season. It closed again on January 6, 1964.
1968 - Author John Steinbeck died at the age of 66.
1973 - The Spanish premier Carrero Blanco was assassinated in Madrid.
1987 - More than 3,000 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island, setting off a double explosion.
1989 - General Noriega, Panama's former dictator, was overthrown by a United States invasion force invited by the new civilian government. The project was known as Operation Just Cause.
1991 - Ante Markovic resigned as federal Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
1991 - Oliver Stone's "JFK" opened in the U.S.
1994 - Marcelino Corniel, a homeless man, was shot and mortally wounded by White House security officers. He had brandished a knife near the executive mansion.
1994 - Ivan Lendl retired after a 17-year tennis career.
1995 - An American Airlines Boeing 757 en route to Cali, Colombia, crashed into a mountain, killing all but four of the 163 people aboard.
1996 - Doctors reported that a Cypriot woman who had taken fertility drugs was carrying about 11 embryos.
1998 - In Houston, TX, a 27-year-old woman gave birth to the only known living set of octuplets.
1999 - The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.
1999 - Sovereignty over the colony of Macao was transferred from Portugal to China.
2001 - The U.S. Congress passed a $20 billion package to finance the war against terrorism taking place in Afghanistan.
2001 - Argentina's President Fernando De la Rua resigned after two years in power.
2001 - The first British peacekeepers arrived in Afghanistan to help the nation heal after decades of war
Current Birthdays
David Cook turns 26 years old today.
91 Audrey Totter
Actress
81 Charlie Callas
Comedian, actor
77 Ike Skelton
House Armed Services Committee chairman, D-Mo.
76 John Hillerman
Actor ("Magnum P.I.")
75 Jean Carnahan
Former U.S. senator, D-Mo.
69 Kathryn Joosten
Actress
64 Bobby Colomby
Rock musician (Blood, Sweat and Tears)
63 Peter Criss
Rock musician (Kiss)
62 Uri Geller
Illusionist
62 Sonny Perdue
Governor of Georgia
62 Dick Wolf
TV producer ("Law and Order" shows)
60 Alan Parsons
Rock musician
56 Jenny Agutter
Actress
54 Michael Badalucco
Actor
52 Blanche Baker
Actress
51 Billy Bragg
Rock singer
51 Mike Watt
Rock musician
44 Kris Tyler
Country singer
42 Chris Robinson
Rock singer (The Black Crowes)
38 Nicole deBoer
Actress
27 Roy Williams
Football player
26 David Wright
Baseball player
18 JoJo
Singer
Historic Birthdays
Branch Rickey
12/20/1881 - 12/9/1965
American baseball executive
43 Dan Leno
12/20/1860 - 10/31/1904
English entertainer
69 Harvey Firestone
12/20/1868 - 2/7/1938
American industrialist
87 Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman
12/20/1886 - 12/5/1974
American tennis champion
83 Sir Robert Menzies
12/20/1894 - 5/16/1978
Australian prime minister (1939-41, 1949-66)
91 Irene Dunne
12/20/1898 - 9/4/1990
American actress
65 Robert Van de Graaff
12/20/1901 - 1/16/1967
American physicist and inventor
89 Max Lerner
12/20/1902 - 6/5/1992
American educator and columnist
86 Sidney Hook
12/20/1902 - 7/12/1989
American social philosopher
69 Jean Marchand
12/20/1918 - 8/28/1988
Canadian politician
Thread Of The Week (TOTW) winner!
21 December 2008
:partysml:
1620 - The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA.
1849 - The first ice-skating club in America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.
1879 - Ibsen's "A Doll's House" was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a revised happy ending.
1898 - Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
1909 - McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S.
1913 - The "New York World" Sunday edition included a crossword puzzle as an added feature of the "Fun" supplement. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published.
1914 - Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appeared in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy. The film was entitled "Tillie’s Punctured Romance".
1925 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was first shown in Moscow.
1937 - Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
1944 - Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II.
1945 - U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.
1948 - The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.
1951 - Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from major league baseball.
1958 - Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.
1968 - Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27.
1971 - The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general.
1978 - Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing.
1981 - Cincinnati defeated Bradley 75-73 in seven overtimes. The game was the longest collegiate basketball game in the history of NCAA Division I competition.
1988 - 270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack.
1990 - In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline.
1991 - Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1995 - The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
1996 - After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules.
1998 - Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections. It was the signal to the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government.
1998 - A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents to long prison terms for attempting to organize an opposition party. A third man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 22, 1998.
1998 - The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved.
2001 - The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel.
2002 - Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.
1783 - George Washington returned home to Mount Vernon, after the disbanding of his army following the Revolutionary War.
1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government. About two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore (" 'Twas the night before Christmas...") was published.
1834 - English architect Joseph Hansom patented his 'safety cab', better known as the Hansom cab.
1852 - The Theatre of Celestial John opened on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco, CA. It was the first Chinese theatre in the U.S.
1880 - Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Electric Light Company of Europe.
1888 - Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.
1893 - The Engelbert Humperdinck opera "Hansel und Gretel" was first performed, in Weimar, Germany.
1913 - The Federal Reserve Bill was signed into law by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. The act established 12 Federal Reserve Banks.
1919 - The first ship designed to be used as an ambulance for the transport patients was launched. The hospital ship was named USS Relief and had 515 beds.
1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation began daily news broadcasts.
1930 - Ruth Elizabeth Davis, an unknown actress, arrived in Hollywood, under contract to Universal Studios. Universal changed her name to Bette Davis for the movies.
1938 - "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" was heard for the final time on the radio.
1941 - During World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.
1942 - Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of the traditional Christmas shows.
1943 - "Hansel and Gretel," the opera, was televised on New York's WRBG. It was the first complete opera to be televised.
1947 - John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain and William Shockley invented the transistor.
1948 - Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo. They had been found guilty of crimes against humanity.
1951 - A National Football League (NFL) championship game was televised nationally for the first time. The Los Angeles Rams beat the Cleveland Browns 24-17. The DuMont Network had paid $75,000 for the rights to the game.
1953 - Soviet secret police chief Lavrenti Beria and six of his associates were shot for treason following a secret trial.
1954 - The Walt Disney movie "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was released.
1957 - Dan Blocker made his acting debut on television in the "Restless Gun."
1965 - A 70-mph speed limit was introduced in Britain.
1968 - Eighty-two crewmembers of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.
1972 - The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second play that was dubbed the "Immaculate Reception." Pittsburgh's Franco Harris caught a deflected pass and ran it in for the winning touchdown.
1986 - The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1987 - Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. She was recaptured two days later.
1989 - Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were captured as they were attempting to flee their country.
1990 - Elections in Yugoslavia ended, leaving four of its six republics with non-Communist governments.
1995 - A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children's school.
1995 - The bodies of 16 members of the Solar Temple religious sect were found in a clearing near Grenoble, France. 14 were presumed shot by two people who then committed suicide.
1997 - Terry Nichols was convicted by a Denver jury on charges of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 federal building bombing in Oklahoma City. The bomb killed 168 people.
1998 - Guerrillas in south Lebanon fired dozens of rockets at northern Israel.
Current Birthdays
Eddie Vedder turns 44 years old today
87 Gerald S. O'Loughlin
Actor
84 Bob Kurland
Basketball Hall of Famer
77 Ronnie Schell
Actor
75 Akihito
Emperor of Japan
73 Paul Hornung
Football Hall of Famer
72 Frederic Forrest
Actor
72 James Stacy
Actor
68 Jorma Kaukonen
Rock musician (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
67 Ron Bushy
Rock musician (Iron Butterfly)
65 Harry Shearer
Actor, comedian ("The Simpsons")
62 Susan Lucci
Actress ("All My Children")
60 Jack Ham
Football Hall of Famer
59 Adrian Belew
Rock musician, producer
50 Dave Murray
Rock musician (Iron Maiden)
50 Joan Severance
Actress
37 Corey Haim
Actor
33 Jamie Murphy
Rock musician
31 Alge Crumpler
Football player
31 Irvin Mayfield
Jazz trumpeter
30 Estella Warren
Actress
25 Hanley Ramirez
Baseball player
18 Anna Maria Perez de Tagle
Actress ("Hannah Montana," "Camp Rock")
Historic Birthdays
Sarah Breedlove Walker
12/23/1867 - 5/25/1919
American philanthropist
41 Robert Barclay
12/23/1648 - 10/3/1690
English-born American Quaker leader
71 James Gibbs
12/23/1682 - 8/5/1754
Scottish architect
41 Jean-Francois Champollion
12/23/1790 - 3/4/1832
French historian and linguist
38 Joseph Smith
12/23/1805 - 6/27/1844
American founder of the Mormon Church
75 Oscar Solomon Straus
12/23/1850 - 5/3/1926
American member of President Wilson's cabinet
68 James Buchanan Duke
12/23/1856 - 10/10/1925
American tobacco magnate
84 Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
12/23/1858 - 4/25/1943
Russian playwright
76 Emil Brunner
12/23/1889 - 4/6/1966
Swiss theologian
1814 - The War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.
1818 - Franz Gruber of Oberndorf, Germany composed the music for "Silent Night" to words written by Josef Mohr.
1828 - William Burke who, with his partner William Hare, dug up the dead and murdered to sell the corpses for dissection, went on trial in Edinburgh.
1851 - A fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, destroying about 35,000 volumes.
1865 - Several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, TN, called the Ku Klux Klan.
1906 - Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, MA.
1914 - In World War I, the first air raid on Britain was made when a German airplane dropped a bomb on the grounds of a rectory in Dover.
1928 - The first broadcast of "The Voice of Firestone" was heard.
1943 - U.S. President Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord.
1944 - The Andrews Sisters starred in the debut of "The Andrews Sisters’ Eight-To-The-Bar-Ranch" on ABC Radio.
1944 - A German submarine torpedoed the Belgian transport ship S.S. Leopoldville with 2,235 soldiers aboard. About 800 American soldiers died. The soldiers were crossing the English Channel to be reinforcements at the battle that become known as the Battle of the Bulge.
1948 - For the first time ever, a midnight Mass was broadcast on television. It was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
1948 - The first completely solar-heated house became occupied in Dover, MA.
1951 - NBC-TV presented, "Amal and the Night Visitors," the first opera written for television.
1951 - Libya achieved independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, under King Idris.
1965 - A meteorite landed on Leicestershire. It weighed about 100lbs.
1966 - Luna 13 landed on the moon.
1967 - Joe Namath (New York Jets) became the first NFL quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards.
1968 - The crew of the U.S. Navy ship, Pueblo, was released by North Korea. The Captain of the Pueblo, Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, and 82 of his crew were held for 11 months after the ship was seized by North Korea because of suspected spying by the Americans.
1968 - Three astronauts, James A. Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman, reached the moon. They orbited the moon 10 times before coming back to Earth. Seven months later man first landed on the moon.
1979 - Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan in support of the country's Marxist government.
1981 - Reggie Jackson announced that he would join Gene Autry’s California Angels for the 1982 season.
1985 - Fidel Castro, the Cuban president, announced that he was a non-smoker.
1989 - Ousted Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega took refuge at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Panama City.
1990 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were married.
1992 - U.S. President Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
1997 - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as "Carlos the Jackal," was sentenced by a French court to life in prison for the 1975 murders of two French investigators and a Lebanese national.
1998 - At Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, a tourist was hit by a piece of flying metal while waiting to board a ride. The man's wife and a Disneyland employee were also injured. Luan Phi Dawson died December 26th from his injuries.
1999 - Ivory Coast President Henri Konan Bédié was overthrown in a coup.
1999 - An Indian Airplines plane was seized during a flight from Katmandu, Nepal, to New Delhi. In Afghanistan, the 150 hostages were freed on December 31 after India released three Kashmir militants from prison.
2000 - 36 minutes after the end of a game, both the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins were called back to the playing field. The teams had to play the final 3 seconds of the game which the Dolphins had won 27-24. The end result did not change.
2000 - The "Texas 7," seven convicts that had escaped a Texas prison, robbed a sports store in Irving, TX. The suspects killed Officer Aubrey Hawkins, stole $70,000, 25 weapons and clothing. The men had escaped on December 13.
Current Birthdays
Ryan Seacrest turns 34 years old today
88 Dave Bartholomew
Bandleader
81 Mary Higgins Clark
Mystery writer
68 Anthony Fauci
Public health official
64 Mike Curb
Recording company executive
63 Lemmy
Rock musician (Motorhead)
62 Jeff Sessions
U.S. senator, R-Ala.
53 Grand L. Bush
Actor
53 Clarence Gilyard
Actor
52 Stephanie Hodge
Actress
51 Ian Burden
Rock musician (The Human League)
46 Kate Spade
Designer
45 Mary Ramsey
Rock singer (10,000 Maniacs)
44 Mark Valley
Actor
42 Diedrich Bader
Actor ("The Drew Carey Show")
38 Amaury Nolasco
Actor ("Prison Break")
37 Ricky Martin
Singer
Eric Lindros celebrates today
Historic Birthdays
I. F. Stone
12/24/1907 - 6/18/1989
American journalist
(Go to obit.)
60 William Paterson
12/24/1745 - 9/9/1806
Irish-born American governor of New Jersey
58 Kit Carson
12/24/1809 - 5/23/1868
American frontiersman and folk hero
65 Matthew Arnold
12/24/1822 - 4/15/1888
English poet and social critic
73 Michael Curtiz
12/24/1886 - 4/10/1962
Hungarian-born American film director
22 Georges-Marie Guynemer
12/24/1894 - 9/11/1917
French World War I combat pilot
60 Baby Dodds
12/24/1898 - 2/14/1959
American jazz musician
70 Howard Hughes
12/24/1905 - 4/5/1976
American manufacturer and aviator
67 Ava Gardner
12/24/1922 - 1/25/1990
American actress
1620 - The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.
1776 - The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.
1865 - The coffee percolator was patented by James H. Mason.
1871 - The "Gods Grown Old" was performed for the first time. It ran for 64 shows.
1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.
1908 - Texan boxer "Galveston Jack" Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight title.
1917 - During World War I, the U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads.
1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain.
1927 - The East-West Shrine football game featured numbers on both the front and back of players’ jerseys.
1941 - Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.
1943 - The German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk in the North Sea, during the Battle of North Cape.
1944 - Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago, IL.
1947 - Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast United States, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours. The severe weather was blamed for about 80 deaths.
1953 - "Big Sister" was heard for the last time on CBS Radio. The show ran for 17 years.
1954 - "The Shadow" aired on radio for the last time.
1956 - Fidel Castro attempted a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. All but 11 of his supporters were killed.
1959 - The first charity walk took place, along Icknield Way, in aid of the World Refugee Fund.
1974 - Comedian Jack Benny died at age 80.
1982 - The Man of the Year in "TIME" magazine was a computer. It was the first time a non-human received the honors.
1986 - Doug Jarvis, age 31, set a National Hockey League (NHL) record as he skated in his 916th consecutive game. Jarvis eventually set the individual record for most consecutive games played with 964.
1986 - "Search for Tomorrow" was seen for the last time on CBS-TV. The show had been on the air for 35-years.
1990 - Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain the chess championship.
1991 - The Soviet Union's parliament formally voted the country out of existence.
1995 - Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority.
1996 - Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, CO.
1998 - Iraq announced that it would fire on U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the skies over northern and southern Iraq.
1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, won Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in 40 years.
2000 - Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.
2002 - The first cloned human baby was born. The announcement was made the December 27 by Clonaid.
2004 - Under the Indian Ocean, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake sent 500-mph waves across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The tsunami killed at least 283,000 people in a dozen countries, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra, Thailand and India
Current Birthdays
Chris Daughtry turns 29 years old today.
78 Donald Moffat
Actor
73 Abdul "Duke" Fakir
R&B singer (The Four Tops)
75 Caroll Spinney
Actor (Big Bird on "Sesame Street")
68 Phil Spector
Record producer
63 John Walsh
TV host ("America's Most Wanted")
62 Bob Carpenter
Country musician (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
61 Carlton Fisk
Baseball Hall of Famer
54 Ozzie Smith
Baseball Hall of Famer
53 Evan Bayh
U.S. senator, D-Ind.
52 David Sedaris
Humorist
46 James Kottak
Rock musician (The Scorpions)
46 Brian Westrum
Country musician (Sons of the Desert)
45 Lars Ulrich
Rock musician (Metallica)
43 Nadia Dajani
Actress
41 J
Rock musician
41 Audrey Wiggins
Country singer
39 Peter Klett
Rock musician (Candlebox)
38 James Mercer
Rock singer (The Shins)
28 Ryan Shaw
R&B singer
13 Zach Mills
Actor ("Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium")
Historic Birthdays
Mao Tse-tung
12/26/1893 - 9/9/1976
Chinese statesman and leader of his nation's communist revolution
64 Leopold Mannes
12/26/1899 - 8/11/1964
American co-developer of Kodachrome film
88 Henry Miller
12/26/1891 - 6/7/1980
American novelist
93 Sir Norman Angell
12/26/1872 - 10/7/1967
English economist and Nobel Peace Prize winner
79 George Dewey
12/26/1837 - 1/16/1917
American naval commander
69 Dion Boucicault
12/26/1820 - 9/18/1890
Irish-born American playwright and actor
79 Charles Babbage
12/26/1791 - 10/18/1871
English mathematician and inventor
54 Thomas Gray
12/26/1716 - 7/30/1771
English poet
historylover
2008-12-26, 14:38
1982 - The Man of the Year in "TIME" magazine was a computer. It was the first time a non-human received the honors.
And, thus began our Digital Age. Roughly two years later, Apple unleashed their infamous commercial advertising the Macintosh.
marquis2
2008-12-26, 16:56
And, thus began our Digital Age. Roughly two years later, Apple unleashed their infamous commercial advertising the Macintosh.
Coincidentally the date coincides with the birth of Charles Babbage who is credited as being one of the fathers of the computer.Although mechanical his designs incorporated many modern computer features including a printer.
http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/?gclid=CKv5saai35cCFQoi3godZXdrDQ
1703 - The Methuen Treaty was signed between Portugal and England, giving preference to the import of Portuguese wines into England.
1831 - Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. Darwin's discoveries during the voyage helped him form the basis of his theories on evolution.
1845 - Dr. Crawford Williamson Long used anesthesia for childbirth for the first time. The event was the delivery of his own child in Jefferson, GA.
1900 - Carrie Nation staged her first raid on a saloon at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, KS. She broke each and every one of the liquor bottles that could be seen.
1904 - James Barrie's play "Peter Pan" premiered in London.
1927 - Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.
1938 - The first skimobile course in America opened in North Conway, NH.
1945 - The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.
1947 - The children's television program "Howdy Doody," hosted by Bob Smith, made its debut on NBC.
1949 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted sovereignty to Indonesia after more than 300 years of Dutch rule.
1951 - In Cincinnati, OH, a Crosley automobile, with a steering wheel on the right side, became the first vehicle of its kind to be placed in service for mail delivery.
1965 - The BP oil rig Sea Gem capsized in the North Sea, with the loss of 13 lives.
1968 - "The Breakfast Club" signed off for the last time on ABC radio, after 35 years on the air.
1971 - Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and Woodstock of Charles Schulz’ "Peanuts" comic strip were on the cover of "Newsweek" magazine.
1978 - Spain adopted a new constitution and became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.
1979 - Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal succeeded President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed.
1985 - Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports. A total of twenty people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel.
1985 - Dian Fossey, an American naturalist, was found murdered at a research station in Rawanda.
1992 - The U.S. shot down an Iraqi fighter jet during what the Pentagon described as a confrontation between a pair of Iraqi warplanes and U.S. F-16 jets in U.N.-restricted airspace over southern Iraq.
1996 - Muslim fundamentalist Taliban forces retook the strategic air base of Bagram, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.
1997 - In Northern Ireland, Billy Wright was assassinated. He was imprisoned as a Protestant paramilitary leader.
2000 - Mario Lemeiux (Pittsburgh Penguins) returned to the National Hockey League (NHL) as a player after over 3 years of retirement. He was the first owner-player in the modern era of pro sports. Lemieux had purchased the Pittsburgh Penguins during his retirement from playing.
2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal trade status with the United States.
2002 - North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said that it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.
2002 - Clonaid announced the birth of the first cloned human baby. The baby had been born December 26.
2002 - In Chechnya, at least 40 people were killed when suicide bombers attacked the administartion of Grozny.
Current Birthdays
Emilie de Ravin turns 27 years old today
84 James A. McClure
Former U.S. senator, R-Idaho
77 Scotty Moore
Rock musician
69 John Amos
Actor
65 Cokie Roberts
Broadcast journalist
64 Mick Jones
Rock musician (Foreigner)
64 Tracy Nelson
Blues singer
60 Gerard Depardieu
Actor
59 T.S. Monk
Jazz drummer, vocalist
56 Tovah Feldshuh
Actress ("Law and Order")
56 David Knopfler
Rock musician (Dire Straits)
52 Karen Hughes
Former White House aide
49 Andre Tippett
Football Hall of Famer
48 Maryam D'Abo
Actress
46 Jeff Bryant
Country musician
44 Ian Gomez
Actor
44 Theresa Randle
Actress
42 Eva La Rue
Actress ("All My Children")
39 Darrin Vincent
Bluegrass musician
39 Sarah Vowell
Author
36 Matt Slocum
Rock musician (Sixpence None the Richer)
35 Wilson Cruz
Actor
35 Olu
R&B singer
34 Masi Oka
Actor ("Heroes")
30 Deuce McAllister
Football player
29 Carson Palmer
Football player
25 Cole Hamels
Baseball player
Historic Birthdays
Marlene Dietrich
12/27/1901 - 5/6/1992
German-born American actress
59 Louis Bromfield
12/27/1896 - 3/18/1956
American novelist and essayist
95 Cyrus Eaton
12/27/1883 - 5/9/1979
Canadian-born American industrialist and philanthropist
93 Sir Mackenzie Bowell
12/27/1823 - 12/10/1917
Canadian prime minister
72 Louis Pasteur
12/27/1822 - 9/28/1895
French biologist and chemist; invented pasteurization process
84 Sir George Cayley
12/27/1773 - 12/15/1857
English aerial navigator
62 William Johnson
12/27/1771 - 8/4/1834
American Supreme Court justice
58 Johannes Kepler
12/27/1571 - 11/15/1630
German astronomer
1170 - St Thomas à Becket, the 40th archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in his own cathedral by four knights acting on Henry II's orders.
1812 - The USS Constitution won a battle with the British ship HMS Java about 30 miles off the coast of Brazil. Before Commodore William Bainbridge ordered the sinking of the Java he had her wheel removed to replace the one the Constitution had lost during the battle.
1813 - The British burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.
1837 - Canadian militiamen destroyed the Caroline, a U.S. steamboat docked at Buffalo, NY.
1845 - U.S. President James Polk and signed legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.
1848 - U.S. President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House.
1851 - The first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized, in Boston, MA.
1860 - The HMS Warrior, Britain's first seagoing first iron-hulled warship, was launched.
1888 - The first Performance of Macbeth took place at the Lyceum Theatre.
1890 - The U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, SD. This was the last major conflict between Indians and U.S. troops.
1895 - The Jameson Raid from Mafikeng into Transvaal, which attempted to overthrow Kruger's Boer government, started.
1911 - Sun Yat-sen became the first president of a republican China, following the Revolution.
1913 - "The Unwelcome Throne" was released by Selig’s Polyscope Company. This was a moving picture and the first serial motion picture.
1934 - The first regular-season, college basketball game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York City. New York University defeated Notre Dame 25-18.
1934 - Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
1937 - Babe Ruth returned to baseball as the new manager of the Class D, De Land Reds of the Florida State League. Ruth had retired from baseball in 1935.
1940 - During World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London.
1945 - The mystery voice of Mr. Hush was heard for the first time on the radio show, "Truth or Consequences", hosted by Ralph Edwards.
1945 - Sheb Wooley recorded the first commercial record made in Nashville, TN.
1949 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut became the first ultrahigh frequency (UHF) television station to begin operating on a regular daily schedule.
1952 - The first transistorized hearing aid was offered for sale by Sonotone Corporation.
1953 - Jean Stapleton debuted in her first Broadway play, "In the Summer House", which closed after only 55 performances.
1972 - Following 36 years of publication, the last weekly issue of "LIFE" magazine hit the newsstands. The magazine later became a monthly publication.
1975 - A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport. 11 people were killed.
1985 - Phil Donahue and a Soviet radio commentator hosted the "Citizens’ Summit" via satellite TV.
1986 - The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, FL, reopened for business after eighteen years and $47 million expended on restoration.
1989 - Following Hong Kong's decision to forcibly repatriate some Vietnamese refugees, thousands of Vietnamese 'boat people' battled with riot police.
1996 - The Guatemalan government and leaders of the leftist Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union signed a peace accord in Guatemala City, ending a civil war that had lasted 36 years.
1997 - Hong Kong began killing 1.25 million chickens, the entire population, for fear of the spread of 'bird flu'.
1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.
Current Birthdays
Jon Voight turns 70 years old today
91 Clarence Swensen
Actor ("The Wizard of Oz")
76 Inga Swenson
Actress ("Benson")
74 Tom Jarriel
Broadcast journalist
71 Mary Tyler Moore
Actress
68 Ed Bruce
Country singer, actor
67 Ray Thomas
Flutist (The Moody Blues)
62 Marianne Faithfull
Rock singer
61 Ted Danson
Actor ("Cheers," "Becker")
58 Jon Polito
Actor
57 Yvonne Elliman
Singer, actress
49 Paula Poundstone
Comedian
47 Jim Reid
Rock singer, musician (The Jesus and Mary Chain)
45 Sean Payton
Football coach
43 Dexter Holland
Rock singer (The Offspring)
42 Mystro Clark
Actor, comedian
42 Jason Gould
Actor
41 Andy Wachowski
Director ("Matrix" films)
39 Jennifer Ehle
Actress
38 Glen Phillips
Rock musician
38 Kevin Weisman
Actor ("Alias")
36 Jude Law
Actor
34 Mekhi Phifer
Actor ("ER")
33 Shawn Hatosy
Actor
31 Laveranues Coles
Football player
29 Diego Luna
Actor
25 Jessica Andrews
Country singer
Historic Birthdays
Andrew Johnson
12/29/1808 - 7/31/1875
17th President of the United States (1865-69)
75 William Gaddis
12/29/1922 - 12/16/1998
American novelist
76 Klaus Fuchs
12/29/1911 - 1/28/1988
German-born American physicist and spy
86 Jess Willard
12/29/1881 - 12/15/1968
American prizefighter
56 William Mitchell
12/29/1879 - 2/19/1936
U.S. Army officer and early advocate of a separate air force
96 Pablo Casals
12/29/1876 - 10/22/1973
Spanish cellist and conductor
88 William Gladstone
12/29/1809 - 5/19/1898
English statesman and four-time prime minister (1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94)
59 Charles Goodyear
12/29/1800 - 7/1/1860
American inventor; pioneered commercial use of rubber
76 Charles Macintosh
12/29/1766 - 7/25/1843
Scottish chemist and inventor
42 Jeanne-Antoinette Pompadour
12/29/1721 - 4/15/1764
French mistress of Louis XV
1460 - At the Battle of Wakefield, in England's Wars of the Roses, the Duke of York was defeated and killed by the Lancastrians.
1853 - The United States bought about 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
1879 - Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" was first performed, at Paignton, Devon, England.
1880 - The Transvaal was declared a republic. Paul Kruger became its first president.
1887 - A petition to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays was handed to the home secretary.
1903 - About 600 people died when fire broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, IL.
1911 - Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.
1919 - Lincoln's Inn, in London, admitted the first female bar student.
1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed.
1924 - Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galactic systems.
1927 - The first subway in the Orient was dedicated in Tokyo, Japan.
1935 - Italian bombers destroyed a Sweedish Red Cross unit in Ethiopia.
1936 - The United Auto Workers union staged its first sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI.
1940 - California's first freeway was officially opened. It was the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena.
1942 - "Mr. and Mrs. North" debuted on NBC radio.
1944 - King George II of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne.
1947 - King Michael of Romania abdicated in favor of a Communist Republic. He claimed he was forced from his throne.
1948 - "Kiss Me Kate" opened at the New Century Theatre in New York City. Cole Porter composed the music for the classic play that ran for 1,077 performances.
1953 - The first color TV sets went on sale for about $1,175.
1954 - Pearl Bailey opened on Broadway in the play, "House of Flowers."
1954 - James Arness made his dramatic TV debut in "The Chase". The "Gunsmoke" series didn’t begin for Arness until the fall of 1955.
1961 - Jack Nicklaus lost his first attempt at pro golf to Gary Player in an exhibition match in Miami, FL.
1972 - The United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
1976 - The Smothers Brothers, Tom and Dick, played their last show at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas and retired as a team from show business. Both continued as solo artists and they reunited several years later.
1978 - Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl. Bauman had intercepted an Ohio pass.
1980 - "The Wonderful World of Disney" was cancelled by NBC after more than 25 years on the TV. It was the longest-running series in prime-time television history.
1993 - Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.
1996 - A passenger train was bombed by Bodo separatists in India's eastern state of Assam. At least 26 people were killed and dozens were seriously injured.
1996 - About 250,000 striking workers shut down vital services across Israel in protests against budget cuts proposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
1997 - More than 400 people were massacred in four villages in the single worst incident during Algeria's insurgency.
1999 Former Beatle George Harrison fought off a knife-wielding intruder who broke into his mansion west of London and stabbed him in the chest.
2003 The federal government announced it would ban the sale of ephedra, an herbal stimulant linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks and strokes.
2006 Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hanged.
2007 Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of an election that opponents and observers alleged was rigged; violence flared in Nairobi slums and coastal resort towns, killing scores in the following days.
Current Birthdays
LeBron James turns 24 years old today.
74 Joseph Bologna
Actor
74 Russ Tamblyn
Actor
73 Jack Riley
Actor ("The Bob Newhart Show")
73 Sandy Koufax
Baseball Hall of Famer
71 Paul Stookey
Folk singer (Peter, Paul and Mary)
68 James Burrows
TV director ("Taxi," "Cheers," "Will and Grace")
66 Michael Nesmith
Rock singer, musician (The Monkees)
66 Fred Ward
Actor
63 Davy Jones
Rock singer (The Monkees)
62 Patti Smith
Rock musician
61 Jeff Lynne
Rock singer, musician (ELO)
55 Meredith Viera
TV host ("Today")
53 Sheryl Lee Ralph
Actress
52 Suzy Bogguss
Country singer
52 Patricia Kalember
Actress
51 Matt Lauer
TV host ("Today")
49 Tracey Ullman
Actress, comedian
48 Rob Hotchkiss
Rock musician
47 Sean Hannity
TV host ("Hannity & Colmes")
39 Jay Kay
Singer (Jamiroquai)
39 Byron McMackin
Rock musician (Pennywise)
39 Meredith Monroe
Actress ("Dawson's Creek")
37 Daniel Sunjata
Actor ("Rescue Me")
36 Maureen Flanniga
Actress
35 Jason Behr
Actor
33 Tiger Woods
Golfer
32 A.J. Pierzynski
Baseball player
31 Laila Ali
Boxer, TV personality
30 Tyrese
R&B singer, actor
28 Tim Lopez
Rock musician (Plain White T's))
26 Kristin Kreuk
Actress ("Smallville")
Historic Birthdays
Alfred Smith
12/30/1873 - 10/4/1944
American politician and four-time governor of New York State
77 Bert Parks
12/30/1914 - 2/2/1992
American game show host
69 Sir Carol Reed
12/30/1906 - 4/25/1976
English film director
71 Alfred Einstein
12/30/1880 - 2/13/1952
German-born American musicologist and critic
70 Ramana Maharshi
12/30/1879 - 4/14/1950
Hindu philosopher and yogi
70 Rudyard Kipling
12/30/1865 - 1/18/1936
English writer
77 Asa Griggs Candler
12/30/1851 - 3/12/1929
American developer of Coca-Cola
62 John Milne
12/30/1850 - 7/30/1913
English seismologist and geologist; inventor of the seismograph
1492 - The leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.
1788 - Georgia became the 4th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1842 - In Fairmount, PA, the first wire suspension bridge was opened to traffic.
1859 - Erastus Beadle published "The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette."
1872 - Brigham Young, the 71-year-old leader of the Mormon Church, was arrested on a charge of bigamy. He had 25 wives.
1879 - Thomas Edison began construction on his first generator.
1890 - Alice Sanger became the first female White House staffer.
1893 - The first commemorative postage stamps were issued.
1900 - U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announced the Open Door Policy to prompt trade with China.
1900 - The Chicago Canal opened.
1910 - The first junior high school in the United States opened. McKinley School in Berkeley, CA, housed seventh and eighth grade students. In a separate building students were housed who attended grades 9-12.
1917 - Royal Bank of Canada took over the Quebec Bank.
1921 - The first religious broadcast on radio was heard on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, PA, as Dr. E.J. Van Etten of Calvary Episcopal Church preached.
1921 - DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opened.
1929 - The United States and Canada reached an agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.
1935 - Bruno Richard Hauptmann went on trial for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindberghs baby. Hauptmann was found guilt and executed.
1942 - The Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.
1953 - "The Life of Riley" debuted on NBC-TV.
1955 - Panamanian President Jose Antonio Remon was assassinated.
1957 - The San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merged.
1959 - CBS Radio ended four soap operas. "Our Gal Sunday", "This is Nora Drake", "Backstage Wife" and "Road of Life" all aired for the last time.
1960 - U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1965 - "Broadway" Joe Namath signed the richest rookie contract ($400,000) in the history of pro football.
1968 - Dr. Christian Barnard performed the first successful heart transplant.
1968 - Fidel Castro announced petroleum and sugar rationing in Cuba.
1971 - In the U.S., a federally imposed ban on television cigarette advertisements went into effect.
1974 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill requiring all states to lower the maximum speed limit to 55 MPH. The law was intended to conserve gasoline supplies during an embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries. Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.
1983 - The final edition of Garry Trudeau’s comic strip, "Doonesbury", appeared in 726 newspapers. "Doonesbury" began running again in September 1984.
1983 - The musical "Annie" closed on Broadway at the Uris Theatre after 2,377 performances.
1985 - The Rebels of UNLV beat Utah State in three overtime periods. The final score of 142-140 set a new NCAA record for total points in a basketball game (282). The game took over three hours to play.
1991 - Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC. She was the first black woman to head a city of that size and prominence.
1996 - AT&T announced that it would eliminate 40,000 jobs over three years.
1998 - Russia began circulating new rubles in effort to keep inflation in check and promote confidence
Current Birthdays
Kate Bosworth turns 26 years old today
83 Harold Bradley
Country musician
69 Jim Bakker
Former TV evangelist
67 Dennis Hastert
Former House speaker
62 Jack Hanna
TV host
57 Wendy Phillips
Actress
48 Gabrielle Carteris
Actress
48 Todd Haynes
Director
42 Tia Carrere
Actress
41 Cuba Gooding Jr.
Actor
40 Christy Turlington
Model
38 Scott Underwood
Rock musician (Train)
34 Doug Robb
Rock singer (Hoobastank)
34 Dax Shepard
Actor ("Punk'd")
33 Paz Vega
Actress
31 Chris Hartman
Country musician
30 Jerry DePizzo Jr.
Rock musician (O.A.R.)
28 Kelton Kessee
R&B singer (IMX)
Historic Birthdays
Isaac Asimov
1/2/1920 - 4/6/1992
American science fiction author
32 James Wolfe
1/2/1727 - 9/13/1759
English general who captured Quebec
67 Johann Daniel Titius
1/2/1729 - 12/11/1796
Prussian astronomer and physicist
66 Rudolf Clausius
1/2/1822 - 8/24/1888
German mathematical physicist
66 Justin Winsor
1/2/1831 - 10/22/1897
American librarian and historian
68 Ernst Barlach
1/2/1870 - 10/24/1938
German sculpture and playwright
58/59 Tex Rickard
1/2/1870/71 - 1/6/1929
American fight promoter and gambler
79 Albert Coombs Barnes
1/2/1872 - 7/24/1951
American inventor and art collector
24 Saint Theresa of Lisieux
1/2/1873 - 9/30/1897
French Carmelite nun
53 Count Folke Bernadotte
1/2/1895 - 9/17/1948
Swedish diplomat, humanitarian
75 Sally Rand
1/2/1904 - 8/31/1979
American actress and fan dancer
1781 - Richmond, VA, was burned by a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold.
1885 - The Long Island Railroad Company became the first to offer piggy-back rail service which was the transportation of farm wagons on trains.
1896 - It was reported by The Austrian newspaper that Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered the type of radiation that became known as X-rays.
1900 - In Ireland, Nationalist leader John Edward Redmond called for a revolt against British rule.
1903 - The general public could use the Pacific cable for the very first time.
1914 - Ford Motor Company announced that there would be a new daily minimum wage of $5 and an eight-hour workday.
1925 - Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross was sworn in as the governor of Wyoming She was the first female governor in the U.S.
1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began.
1934 - Both the National and American baseball leagues decided to use a uniform-size baseball. It was the first time in 33 years that both leagues used the same size ball. (MLB)
1935 - Phil Spitalny’s All-Girl Orchestra was featured on CBS radio on the program, "The Hour of Charm."
1940 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) got its very first demonstration of FM radio.
1944 - The London "Daily Mail" was the first transoceanic newspaper to be published.
1948 - Warner Brothers-Pathe showed the very first color newsreel. The footage was of the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football classic.
1956 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Snoop walked on two legs for the first time.
1961 - "Mr. Ed" debuted. The show would run for six years.
1970 - "All My Children" premiered on ABC.
1972 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle.
1987 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan underwend prostate surgery.
1993 - The state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd. It was America's first legal hanging since 1965. Dodd was an admitted child sex killer.
1996 - Yahya Ayyash, a member of the Hamas in Israel, is killed by a booby-trapped cellular phone.
1998 - U.S. Representative Sonny Bono died in skiing accident.
2002 - A 15 year-old student pilot, Charles Bishop, crashed a small plane into a building in Tampa, FL. Bishop was about to begin a flying lesson when he took off without permission and without an instructor.
Current Birthdays
Robert Duvall turns 78 years old today.
84 Lou Carnesecca
Hall of Fame basketball coach
81 Walter F. Mondale
Former vice president
77 Chuck Noll
Hall of Fame football coach
71 King Juan Carlos
King of Spain
67 Charlie Rose
Broadcast journalist
65 Ed Rendell
Governor of Pennsylvania
63 Diane Keaton
Actress
61 Ted Lange
Actor ("The Love Boat")
60 George "Funky" Brown
R&B musician (Kool and the Gang)
59 Chris Stein
Rock musician (Blondie)
56 Pamela Sue Martin
Actress ("Dynasty")
56 George Tenet
Former CIA director
55 Alex English
Basketball Hall of Famer
50 Clancy Brown
Actor
48 Iris Dement
Country singer
44 Ricky Paull Goldin
Actor ("All My Children")
44 Vinnie Jones
Actor
43 Kate Schellenbach
Rock musician (Luscious Jackson)
40 Heather Paige Kent
Actress
40 Marilyn Manson
Rock singer
34 Warrick Dunn
Football player
31 January Jones
Actress ("Mad Men")
28 Brooklyn Sudano
Actress ("Mad Men")
Historic Birthdays
Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky
1/5/1863 (1/17/1863 N.S.) - 8/7/1938
Russian actor, producer, teacher and philosopher of theater
69 Francisco Suárez
1/5/1548 - 9/25/1617
Spanish theologian
74 Shah Jahan
1/5/1592 - 1/22/1666
Mughal emperor of India and builder of the Taj Mahal
34 Zebulon Montgomery Pike
1/5/1779 - 4/27/1813
American army officer and explorer
41 Stephen Decatur
1/5/1779 - 3/22/1820
American naval officer
77 King Camp Gillette
1/5/1855 - 7/9/1932
American inventor and manufacturer
91 Konrad Adenauer
1/5/1876 - 4/19/1967
First chancellor of West Germany (1949-63)
77 Henry Sloane Coffin
1/5/1877 - 11/25/1954
American clergyman
76 Herbert Bayard Swope
1/5/1882 - 6/20/1958
American journalist and editor
55 Yves Tanguy
1/5/1900 - 1/15/1955
French Surrealist painter
87 Stella Gibbons
1/5/1902 - 12/19/1989
English novelist and poet
87 Hubert Beuve-Méry
1/5/1902 - 8/6/1989
French publisher and editor of "Le Monde"
72 Dame Kathleen Kenyon
1/5/1906 - 8/24/1978
English archaeologist
58 Alvin Ailey Jr.
1/5/1931 - 12/1/1989
American choreographer and dancer; founded Ailey American Dance Theater
0871 - England's King Alfred defeated the Danes at the Battle of Ashdown.
1205 - Philip of Swabia was crowned as King of the Romans.
1453 - Frederick III erected Austria into an Archduchy.
1540 - King Henry VIII of England was married to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife.
1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble published its findings.
1759 - George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married.
1838 - Samuel Morse publicly demonstrated the telegraph for the first time.
1896 - The first American women’s six-day bicycle race was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
1900 - In India, it was reported that millions of people were dying from starvation.
1900 - Off of South Africa, the British seized the German steamer Herzog. The boat was released on January 22, 1900.
1912 - New Mexico became the 47th U.S. state.
1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip was completed after a run of 792 miles from Indianapolis, IN, to New York City, NY.
1931 - Thomas Edison executed his last patent application.
1941 - Richard Widmark made his debut on radio in "The Home of the Brave."
1941 - Alice Marble made her professional tennis debut when she defeated Ruth Hardwick of Great Britain at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
1942 - The first commercial around-the-world airline flight took place. Pan American Airlines was the company that made history with the feat.
1942 - The National Collegiate Football Rules Committee abolished the Y formation.
1945 - The Battle of the Bulge ended with 130,000 German and 77,000 Allied casualties.
1950 - Britain recognized the Communist government of China.
1952 - "Peanuts" debuted in Sunday papers across the United States.
1963 - "Wild Kingdom" premiered on NBC.
1967 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces launched a major offensive, known as Operation "Deckhouse V", in the Mekong River delta.
1974 - CBS radio debuted "Radio Mystery Theatre."
1975 - The Broadway show "The Wiz" opened.
1975 - ABC-TV debuted "A.M. America."
1982 - William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles, CA, of being the "freeway killer" who had murdered 14 young men and boys.
1987 - After a 29-year lapse, the Ford Thunderbird was presented with the Motor Trend Car of the Year Award. It was the first occurrence of a repeat winner of the award.
1994 - Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI. Four men were later sentenced to prison for the attack, including Tonya Harding's ex-husband.
1998 - The spacecraft Lunar Prospect was launched into orbit around the moon. The craft was crashed into the moon, in an effort to find water under the lunar surface, on July 31, 1999.
1999 - The 106th U.S. Congress opened. The first item on the agenda was the impeachment proceedings of U.S. President Bill Clinton. The trial was set to begin January 7, 1999.
1999 - Bob Newhart received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Current Birthdays
John Singleton turns 41 years old today
88 Louis Harris
Pollster
85 Earl Scruggs
Bluegrass musician
78 E.L. Doctorow
Author
65 Bonnie Franklin
Actress ("One Day At A Time")
58 Kim Wilson
Rock musician (The Fabulous Thunderbirds
56 Jett Williams
Singer
56 Malcolm Young
Rock musician (AC-DC)
54 Rowan Atkinson
Actor, comedian ("Mr Bean" films)
52 Nancy Lopez
Golfer
50 Kathy Sledge
R&B singer (Sister Sledge)
49 Nigella Lawson
TV chef
49 Howie Long
Football Hall of Famer, sportscaster
49 Eric Williams
R&B singer (BLACKstreet)
39 Julie Chen
TV host ("The Early Show," "Big Brother")
33 Danny Pintauro
Actor
28 Rinko Kikuchi
Actress ("Babel")
28 Asante Samuel
Football player
23 Alex Turner
Rock singer (Arctic Monkeys)
Historic Birthdays
Sam Rayburn
1/6/1882 - 11/16/1961
American Speaker of the House
70 Martin Agricola
1/6/1486 - 6/10/1556
German composer and teacher
50 Jakob Bernoulli
1/6/1655 - 8/16/1705
Swiss mathematician
63 Charles Sumner
1/6/1811 - 3/11/1874
American Civil War statesman
68 Heinrich Schliemann
1/6/1822 - 12/26/1890
German-born Greek excavator
86 Victor Horta
1/6/1861 - 9/8/1947
Belgian architect
89 Carl Sandburg
1/6/1878 - 7/22/1967
American poet and novelist
67 Joseph Medill Patterson
1/6/1879 - 5/26/1946
American journalist and publisher
60 Tom Mix
1/6/1880 - 10/12/1940
American silent screen actor
48 Khalil Gibran
1/6/1883 - 4/10/1931
Lebanese-born American novelist and poet
88 Morris Wright
1/6/1910 - April/25/1998
American author
1558 - Calais, the last English possession on mainland France, was recaptured by the French.
1610 - Galileo Galilei sighted four of Jupiter's moons. He named them Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
1782 - The Bank of North America opened in Philadelphia. It was the first commercial bank in the United States.
1785 - French aeronaut/balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard successfully made the first air-crossing of the English Channel from the English coast to France.
1789 - Americans voted for the electors that would choose George Washington to be the first U.S. president.
1887 - Thomas Stevens completed the first worldwide bicycle trip. He started his trip in April 1884. Stevens and his bike traveled 13,500 miles in almost three years time.
1894 - W.K. Dickson received a patent for motion picture film.
1896 - "Fannie Farmer Cookbook" cookbook was published.
1904 - The distress signal "CQD" was established. Two years later "SOS" became the radio distress signal because it was quicker to send by wireless radio.
1926 - George Burns and Gracie Allen were married.
1927 - Transatlantic telephone service Service began between New York and London. 31 calls were made on this first day.
1927 - In Hinckley IL, the Harlem Globetrotters played their first game.
1929 - The debut of "Buck Rogers 2429 A.D." occurred in newspapers around the U.S. The title of the comic strip was later changed to "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."
1932 - Chancellor Heinrich Brüning declared that Germany cannot, and will not, resume reparations payments.
1935 - French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed the Italo-French agreements.
1940 - "Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch" debuted on CBS Radio. The show aired for 16 years.
1941 - The NBC Blue radio network presented "The Squeaky Door" for the first time. The show was later known as "Inner Sanctum."
1942 - The World War II siege of Bataan began.
1949 - The announcement of the first photograph of genes was shown at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
1953 - U.S. President Harry Truman announced the development of the hydrogen bomb.
1954 - The Duoscopic TV receiver was unveiled this day. The TV set allowed the watching of two different shows at the same time.
1959 - The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.
1968 - The cost of a U.S. first class stamp was raised to 6 cents.
1975 - OPEC agreed to raise crude oil prices by 10%, which began a time of world economic inflation.
1979 - Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.
1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that authorized $1.5 billion in loans for the bail out of Chrysler Corp.
1989 - Crown Prince Akihito became the emperor of Japan following the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito.
1990 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public. The accelerated rate of "leaning" raised fears for the safety of its visitors.
1996 - Alvaro Arzu was elected president of Guatemala.
1996 - One of the biggest blizzards in U.S. history hit the eastern states. More than 100 deaths were later blamed on the severe weather.
1998 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signed an affidavit denying that she had an affair with U.S. President Clinton.
1999 - U.S. President Clinton went on trial before the Senate. It was only the second time in U.S. history that an impeached president had gone to trial. Clinton was later acquitted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges.
2002 - Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates introduced a new device code named Mira. The device was tablet-like and was a cross between a handheld computer and a TV remote control.
Katie Couric turns 52 years old today
81 William Peter Blatty
Author ("The Exorcist")
79 Jack Greene
Country singer
71 Paul Revere
Rock musician
63 Jann Wenner
Magazine publisher (Rolling Stone)
61 Kenny Loggins
Rock singer
60 Marshall Chapman
Rock singer, songwriter
59 Juan Gabriel
Singer
59 Erin Gray
Actress
57 Sammo Hung
Actor
53 David Caruso
Actor ("CSI: Miami")
50 David Lee Murphy
Country singer
50 Kathy Valentine
Rock musician (The Go-Gos)
49 David Marciano
Actor
48 John Thune
U.S. senator, R-S.D.
47 Hallie Todd
Actress ("Lizzie McGuire")
45 Nicolas Cage
Actor
44 John Ondrasik
Rock siger, songwriter (Five for Fighting)
39 Doug E. Doug
Actor
38 Kevin Rahm
Actor
36 Bobby Engram
Football player
35 John Rich
Country musician (Big and Rich)
33 Eric Gagne
Baseball player
33 Alfonso Soriano
Baseball player
32 Dustin Diamond
Actor
27 Francisco Rodriguez
Baseball player
26 Robert Ri'chard
Actor
19 Liam Aiken
Actor
19 Camryn Grimes
Actress
18 Max Morrow
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Adolph Zukor
1/7/1873 - 6/10/1976
American entrepreneur
66 James Harrington
1/7/1611 - 9/11/1677
English political philosopher
63 Johann Christian Fabricius
1/7/1745 - 3/3/1808
Dutch entomologist
74 Millard Fillmore
1/7/1800 - 3/8/1874
13th president of the United States (1850-53)
35 Saint Bernadette of Lourdes
1/7/1844 - 4/16/1879
French nun
76 Herbert John Gladstone
1/7/1854 - 3/6/1930
English statesman
85 Émile Borel
1/7/1871 - 2/3/1956
French mathematician
64 Francis Poulenc
1/7/1899 - 1/30/1963
French composer
69 Aristotle Onassis
1/7/1906 (O.S.) - 3/15/1975
Greek shipping magnate
59 Henry Allen
1/7/1908 - 4/17/1967
American jazz musician
76 Charles Addams
1/7/1912 - 9/29/1988
American cartoonist
historylover
2009-01-08, 00:05
1558 - Calais, the last English possession on mainland France, was recaptured by the French.
So ended the Angevin Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angevin_Empire).
1999 - U.S. President Clinton went on trial before the Senate. It was only the second time in U.S. history that an impeached president had gone to trial. Clinton was later acquitted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges.
Andrew Johnson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson) was the other.
1642 - Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.
1675 - The first corporation was charted in the United States. The company was the New York Fishing Company.
1790 - In the United States, George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address.
1815 - The Battle of New Orleans began. The War of 1812 had officially ended on December 24, 1814, with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The news of the signing had not reached British troops in time to prevent their attack on New Orleans.
1838 - Alfred Vail demonstrated a telegraph code he had devised using dots and dashes as letters. The code was the predecessor to Samuel Morse's code.
1853 - A bronze statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse was unveiled in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC. The statue was the work of Clark Mills.
1856 - Borax (hydrated sodium borate) was discovered by Dr. John Veatch.
1877 - Crazy Horse (Tashunca-uitco) and his warriors fought their final battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.
1886 - The Severn Railway Tunnel, Britain's longest, was opened.
1889 - The tabulating machine was patented by Dr. Herman Hollerith. His firm, Tabulating Machine Company, later became International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
1894 - Fire caused serious damage at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, IL.
1900 - U.S. President McKinley placed Alaska under military rule.
1900 - In South Africa, General White turned back the Boers attack of Ladysmith.
1901 - The first tournament sanctioned by the American Bowling Congress was held in Chicago, IL.
1908 - A catastrophic train collision occurred in the smoke-filled Park Avenue Tunnel in New York City. Seventeen were killed and thirty-eight were injured. The accident caused a public outcry and increased demand for electric trains.
1916 - During World War I, the final withdrawal of Allied troops from Gallipoli took place.
1918 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points as the basis for peace upon the end of World War I.
1921 - David Lloyd George became the first prime minister tenant at Chequers Court, Buckinghamshire.
1929 - William S. Paley appeared on CBS Radio for the first time to announce that CBS had become the largest regular chain of broadcasting chains in radio history.
1935 - The spectrophotometer was patented by A.C. Hardy.
1952 - Marie Wilson came to TV as "My Friend Irma".
1955 - After 130 home basketball wins, Georgia Tech defeated Kentucky 59-58. It was the first Kentucky loss at home since January 2, 1943.
1957 - Jackie Robinson announced his retirement from major league baseball in an article that appeared in "LOOK" magazine.
1958 - Bobby Fisher, at the age of 14, won the United States Chess Championship for the first time.
1959 - Charles De Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.
1960 - The NCAA met in New York and voted against reviving the unlimited substitution rule for college football.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty."
1961 - Robert Goulet made his national TV debut this night on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS.
1962 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was exhibited in America for the first time at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The next day the exhibit opened to the public.
1973 - Secret peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed near Paris, France.
1973 - The trial opened in Washington, of seven men accused of bugging Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, DC.
1975 - Ella Grasso became the governor of Connecticut. She was the first woman to become a governor of a state without a husband preceding her in the governor’s chair.
1982 - American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) settled the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against it by agreeing to divest itself of the 22 Bell System companies.
1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed over the 2000 mark for the first time at 2,002.25.
1992 - U.S. President George Bush collapsed during a state dinner in Tokyo. White House officials said Bush was suffering from stomach flu.
1993 - Bosnian President Izetbegovic visited the U.S. to plead his government's case for Western military aid and intervention to halt Serbian aggression.
1994 - Tonya Harding won the ladies' U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, MI, a day after Nancy Kerrigan dropped out because of a clubbing attack that injured her right knee. The U.S. Figure Skating Association later took the title from Harding because of her involvement in the attack.
1997 - Mister Rogers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - Ramzi Yousef was sentenced to life in prison for his role of mastermind behind the World Trade Center bombing in New York.
1998 - Scientists announced that they had discovered that galaxies were accelerating and moving apart and at faster speeds.
1999 - The top two executives of Salt Lake City's Olympic Organizing Committee resigned amid disclosures that civic boosters had given cash to members of the International Olympic Committee.
1999 - British Prime Minister Tony Blair concluded a three-day visit to South Africa.
2005 - The rate for U.S. First Class mail was raised to 39¢.
Current Birthdays
Stephen Hawking turns 67 years old today
86 Larry Storch
Actor ("F Troop")
85 Ron Moody
Actor
83 Soupy Sales
Comedian
81 Sander Vanocur
Broadcast journalist
76 Charles Osgood
Broadcast journalist
72 Shirley Bassey
Singer
71 Bob Eubanks
Game show host ("The Newlywed Game")
69 Cristy Lane
Country-gospel singer
68 Anthony Gourdine
R&B singer (Little Anthony and the Imperials)
67 Yvette Mimieux
Actress
67 Bob Taft
Former governor of Ohio
63 Robby Krieger
Rock musician (The Doors)
62 David Bowie
Rock singer
58 John McTiernan
Director ("Die Hard" movies)
56 Bruce Sutter
Baseball Hall of Famer
54 Harriet Sansom Harris
Actress
45 Ron Sexsmith
Rock singer, songwriter
44 Michelle Forbes
Actress
44 Maria Pitillo
Actress
42 R. Kelly
R&B singer
40 Jeff Abercrombie
Rock musician (Fuel)
40 Ami Dolenz
Actress
38 Jason Giambi
Baseball player
36 Sean Paul
Reggae singer
34 Tift Merritt
Country singer
33 Jenny Lewis
Actress, rock singer
32 Amber Benson
Actress ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer")
31 Scott Whyte
Actor
30 Sarah Polley
Actress, director
29 Rachel Nichols
Actress
27 Gaby Hoffman
Actress
26 Disashi Lumumbo-Kasongo
Rock musician (Gym Class Heroes)
Historic Birthdays
Emily Greene Balch
1/8/1867 - 1/9/1961
American pacifist and Nobel Peace Prize winner
80 John Carroll
1/8/1735 - 12/3/1815
First Roman Catholic bishop in the United States
58 Nicholas Biddle
1/8/1786 - 2/27/1844
American financier
64 Hans von Bulow
1/8/1830 - 2/12/1894
German pianist and conductor
72 Frank Nelson Doubleday
1/8/1862 - 1/30/1934
American publisher
89 William T. Piper
1/8/1881 - 1/15/1970
American aircraft manufacturer
60 John Curtin
1/8/1885 - 7/5/1945
Australian prime minister
66 Walther Bothe
1/8/1891 - 2/8/1957
German atomic physicist
85 Carl R. Rogers
1/8/1902 - 2/4/1987
American psychologist
64 Peter Arno
1/8/1904 - 2/22/1968
American cartoonist
86 Evelyn Wood
1/8/1909 - 8/26/1995
American educator
80 Jose Ferrer
1/8/1912 - 1/26/1992
American actor and director
42 Elvis Presley
1/8/1935 - 8/16/1977
American singer
January 8th
On this day...
0624 Moslem army occupies Kurashitische Caravan
0794 Church at Lindisfarne, England destroyed by Vikings
0871 Battle at Ashdown Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1198 Lotario di Segni elected Pope Innocentius III
1214 Earl Ferrand of Flanders drops ties with France
1499 Louis XII of France after papal divorce marries Anne, Duchess of Brittany to keep the duchy for the crown
1558 French troops under duke de Guise occupy Calais
1598 Jews are expelled from Genoa Italy
1598 Genoa Italy expels Jews
1656 Oldest surviving commercial newspaper begins (Haarlem, Netherlands)
1675 1st American commercial corporation chartered (New York Fishing Co)
1705 Georg F Händels 1st opera "Almira" premieres in Hamburg
1716 Dutch gang leader "Sjako" arrested
1745 England, Austria, Netherlands & Saxon sign anti-Prussian Quadruple Alliance
1746 Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling
1760 Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1790 George Washington delivers 1st "State of the Union" address
1798 11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed
1800 Austrians defeat French in 2nd battle of Novi
1800 Wild Boy of Aveyron discovered in southern France
1806 Cape colony becomes English colony
1806 Lewis & Clark find skeleton of 105' blue whale in Oregon
1811 Louisiana slave revolt by Charles Deslondes at German Coast
1815 Battle of New Orleans-War of 1812 ended 12/24/1814 but nobody knew
1830 Dutch King Willem I fires him displeasing parliament members
1833 Boston Academy of Music, 1st US music school, established
1838 1st telegraph message sent using dots & dashes, New Jersey
1838 Rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out
1842 Dutch King Willem II charters Technical College Delft
1848 Austrian soldiers kill 10 students, Pavia
1853 1st US bronze equestrian statue (of Andrew Jackson) unveiled, Washington
1856 Dr John A Veatch discovers borax, Tuscan Springs CA
1857 Dion Boucicauly's "Poor of NY" premieres in New York City NY
1867 Legislation gives suffrage to DC blacks, despite President Johnson's veto
1870 US mint at Carson City NV begins issuing coins
1878 Secret meeting of King Leopold II's agent & Henry Morton Stanley
1884 Chrome tanning process for leather patented by Augustus Schultz
1889 Dr Herman Hollerith receives 1st US patent for a tabulating machine (1st Computer)
1894 Columbus World's fair in Chicago destroyed by fire
1897 Michael Eagan wins 1st US national amateur handball championship
1901 New South Wales score 918 all out vs South Australia in 560 minutes
1902 1st National Bowling Championship held (Chicago IL)
1904 Pope Pius X banned low cut dresses in the presence of churchmen
1913 Frank Chance becomes Yankee manager
1917 Austria-Hungarian troops conquer Forlani Italy
1918 Mississippi becomes 1st state to ratify 18th amendment (prohibition)
1918 President Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after WWI
1923 Typography strike in Amsterdam
1925 1st all-female US state supreme court appointed, Texas
1926 Abdul-Aziz ibn Sa'ud becomes king of Hejaz; renames it Saudi Arabia
1929 1st telephone connection between Netherlands & West-Indies
1929 CBS radio network buys WABC in New York City NY
1930 Belgium Princess Marie-José marries Italian's crown prince Umberto
1931 Philadelphia Quakers set then NHL record of 15 straight loses
1932 Ratification of present San Francisco City Charter
1934 Jaap Speyers "Bluejackets" premieres in Amsterdam
1935 Spectrophotometer patented, AC Hardy
1937 -50ºF (-45.6ºC), San Jacinto NV (state record)
1938 Bradman scores 107 for South Australia vs Queensland (1st innings)
1940 Britain's 1st WWII rationing (bacon, butter & sugar)
1941 British Air Marshal Richard Peirse resigns
1945 "Youth for Christ" organizes
1947 Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in a game
1947 General George Marshall becomes Secretary of State
1948 Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason
1949 "Make Mine Manhattan" closes at Broadhurst Theater New York City NY after 429 performances
1949 "My Romance" closes at Shubert Theater New York City NY after 95 performances
1949 "Small Wonder" closes at Coronet Theater New York City NY after 134 performances
1951 Thought extinct since 1615, a Cahow is rediscovered in Bermuda
1952 Jordan adopts constitution
1953 Indians bar night games with Browns (who refuse to share TV receipts)
1953 René Mayer forms French government
1954 Elvis Presley pays $4 to a Memphis studio & records his 1st two songs, "Casual Love" & "I'll Never Stand in Your Way"
1955 Furman sets NCAA basketball single-game scoring record with 154 points
1955 Georgia Tech ends Kentucky's 130-game home basketball win streak
1955 Louise Sugg wins LPGA Los Angeles Golf Open
1955 WUNC TV channel 4 in Chapel Hill NC (PBS) begins broadcasting
1956 Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" single goes to #1 & stays #1 for a record 11 weeks (for a single)
1956 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Conrad Aiken
1958 Cuban revolutionary forces capture Havana
1959 Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as President of France's 5th Republic
1961 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Yvor Winters
1962 Dutch express train crashes into slow commuter train, 91 die (Netherlands)
1962 Golfer Jack Nicklaus, 21, 1st pro appearance, he came in 50th
1963 "Mona Lisa", on loan, unveiled in America's National Gallery of Art
1963 Dmitri Shostakovich's Katharina Ismailova, premieres in Riga
1964 President Lyndon B Johnson declares "War on Poverty"
1964 European Parliament accept Mansholt Plan
1965 Senator Everett Dirksen introduces a bill to make marigold the national flower (didn't pass)
1965 Star of India returned to American Museum of Natural History
1966 Beatles' "Rubber Soul" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 6 weeks
1966 Beatles' "We Can Work It Out" single goes #1 & stays #1 for 3 weeks
1966 Georges Pompidou appointed French premier
1966 Who & the Kinks perform on the last "Shindig" TV show on ABC
1968 Jacques Cousteau's 1st undersea special on US network TV
1971 Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota established
1971 29 pilot whales beach themselves & die at San Clemente Island CA
1972 Dmitri Shostakovich's 15th Symphony, premieres in Moscow
1972 NCAA announces freshman can play on teams starting in fall
1973 Secret peace talks between US & North Vietnam resumed near Paris
1973 USSR launches Luna 21 for Moon landing
1973 "Tricks" opens at Alvin Theater New York City NY for 8 performances
1973 Greg Chappell's best Test bowling, 5-61 vs Pakistan at SCG
1974 Gold hits record $126.50 an ounce in London
1974 Silver hits record $3.40 an ounce in New York
1974 E Wilson Jr's musical "Let My People Come" premieres in New York City NY
1974 Loch Ness Monster photographed
1975 Judge Sirica orders release of Watergate's John W Dean III, Herbert W Kalmbach & Jeb Stuart Magruder from prison
1976 Franklin Mint strikes 1st gold coins for Netherlands Antilles
1978 Israel's Cabinet votes to `strengthen' settlements in occupied Sinai
1979 512 die as oil tanker Bantry Bay blows up
1979 Today Show gets a new theme song
1979 Argentina & Chile sign Beagle Canal accord
1979 Vietnamese troops overtook Khmer Rouge & occupy Phnom Penh
1980 Islander Glenn Resch's 20th shut-out opponent-Canucks 3-0
1980 NCAA decides to sponsor women's championships in 5 sports
1981 "Pirates of Penzance" opens at Uris Theater New York City NY for 772 performances
1981 India all out 63 in one-day international vs Australia
1981 Reds become last team to sign a free agent (Larry Biitner)
1982 Justice Department withdraws antitrust suit against IBM, pending since 1969
1982 Johnny Cash Parkway opens in Hendersonville Tennessee
1984 Washington Capitals Bengt Gustafsson scores 5 goals
1984 NCAA announces that basketball tournament will have 64 teams
1985 Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet
1986 President Reagan freezes Libyan assets in the US
1986 Willie McCovey is 16th elected to Hall of Fame in his 1st year
1987 Jack Sikma (Milwaukee) begins NBA free throw streak of 51 games
1987 Dow Jones closes above 2,000 for 1st time (2,002.25)
1988 9th largest NBA crowd 38,873-Chicago at Detroit
1988 Dow Jones down 140.58 points
1988 Hewlett-Packard introduces the HP-28S Advanced Scientific Calculator
1988 US female Figure Skating championship won by Debi Thomas
1989 Soviet Union promises to eliminate stockpiles of chemical weapons
1989 "42nd Street" closes at Winter Garden Theater New York City NY after 3,486 performances
1989 "Starlight Express" closes at Gershwin Theater New York City NY after 761 performances
1989 Boeing 737-400 crashes in England, 46 die
1991 Davis Rules with Jonathan Winters & Randy Quaid premieres on ABC-TV
1991 Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins & Rod Carew elected to Hall of Fame
1991 Rod Carew is 22nd player elected to Hall of Fame on 1st try
1991 Tamás Darnyi swims world record 400m medley (4 12.36)
1992 US President George Bush gets ill & vomits on Japanese prime minister's lap during Japanese tour
1993 Chicago Bull Michael Jordan scores his 20,000th career point
1993 Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp goes on sale
1993 NBC offers "Tonight Show" to David Letterman
1994 Rintje Ritsma skates world record 1500m (1 51.60)
1994 Russian manned space craft TM-18, launches into orbit
1994 US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Davis
1995 "Guys & Dolls" closes at Martin Beck Theater New York City NY after 1143 performances
1995 15th United Negro College Fund raises $12,200,000
1995 Mike Schmidt is elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame
1996 Blizzard buries eastern US causing at least 50 deaths
1996 For 1st time in 25 years no one is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1998 New York Giant GM George Young resigns to accept NFL position
1998 Roseanne files for divorce from 3rd husband Ben Thomas
1998 Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski asks to act as his own lawyer
1998 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life
1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the U.S.
1799 - British prime minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax, at two shillings (10p) in the pound, to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars.
1848 - The first commercial bank was established in San Francisco, CA.
1861 - The state of Mississippi seceded from the United States.
1894 - The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company put the first battery-operated switchboard into operation in Lexington, MA.
1902 - New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public.
1905 - In Russia, the civil disturbances known as the Revolution of 1905 forced Czar Nicholas II to grant some civil rights.
1929 - The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, TN. The company's purpose was to train dogs to guide the blind.
1936 - The United States Army adopted the semi-automatic rifle.
1937 - The first issue of "Look" went on sale. Within a month, "Look" became a biweekly magazine.
1940 - Television was used for the first time to present a sales meeting to convention delegates in New York City.
1951 - The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City.
1961 - The play, "Rhinoceros," opened on Broadway.
1969 - The supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight, at Bristol.
1972 - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor.
1972 - British miners went on strike for the first time since 1926.
1981 - Hockey Hall of Famer, Phil Esposito, announced that he would retire as a hockey player after the New York Rangers-Buffalo Sabres hockey game. The game ended in a tie. (NHL)
1984 - Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's.
1986 - Kodak got out of the instant camera business after 10 years due to a loss in a court battle that claimed that Kodak copied Polaroid patents.
1991 - U.S. secretary of state Baker and Iraqi foreign minister Aziz met for 61/2 hours in Geneva, but failed to reach any agreement that would forestall war in the Persian Gulf.
1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov, 51, completed his 366th day in outer space aboard the Mir space station, breaking the record for the longest continuous time spent in outer space.
1997 - Tamil rebels attact a military base in Sri Lanka. 200 soldiers and 140 rebels were killed.
2000 - ABC-TV began airing "The Mole."
2002 - Yasmine Bleeth was sentenced to two years of probation, regular drug tests, 100 hours of community service and pay the court costs in connection to a cocaine-possession charge.
2002 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corp. The company had filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001.
2003 - Archaeologists announced that they had found five more chambers in the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor. The rooms were believed to cover about 750,000 square feet.
2005 - Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a dual ceremony.
Current Birthdays
Dave Matthews turns 42 years old today.
81 Judith Krantz
Author
75 Bart Starr
Football Hall of Famer
74 Dick Enberg
Sportscaster
68 Joan Baez
Folk singer
68 Roy Head
Rockabilly singer
68 Susannah York
Actress
65 Jimmy Page
Rock musician (Led Zeppelin)
59 David Johansen
Rock singer (New York Dolls, "Buster Poindexter")
58 Crystal Gayle
Country singer
54 J.K. Simmons
Actor ("The Closer," "Law & Order")
46 Eric Erlandson
Rock musician
44 Joely Richardson
Actress
42 Carl Bell
Rock musician (Fuel)
42 Steve Harwell
Rock singer (Smash Mouth)
41 Joey Lauren Adams
Actress
31 Chad Johnson
Football player
31 A.J. Mclean
Singer (Backstreet Boys)
25 Drew Brown
Rock musician (OneRepublic)
22 Paolo Nutini
Rock, soul singer
Historic Birthdays
Richard M. Nixon
1/9/1913 - 4/22/1994
37th president of the United States (1969-74)
80 Lemuel Shaw
1/9/1781 - 3/30/1861
American jurist
88 Carrie Chapman Catt
1/9/1859 - 3/9/1947
American feminist leader
68 Joseph B Strauss
1/9/1870 - 5/16/1938
American civil engineer; designed the Golden Gate Bridge
67 Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
1/9/1875 - 4/18/1942
American sculptor and arts patron
75 Giovanni Papini
1/9/1881 - 7/8/1956
Italian journalist and novelist
81 Dame Gracie Fields
1/9/1898 - 9/27/1979
English entertainer
39 Richard Halliburton
1/9/1900 - 3/23/1939
American travel writer
72 Chic Young
1/9/1901 - 3/14/1973
American cartoonist
78 Simone de Beauvoir
1/9/1908 - 4/14/1986
French feminist writer
71 Kenny Clarke
1/9/1914 - 1/25/1985
American drummer
56 Gypsy Rose Lee
1/9/1914 - 4/26/1970
American striptease artist
1865 - The coffee percolator was patented by James H. Mason.
This Sir have my forever gratitude!
1776 - Thomas Paine published his pamphlet "Common Sense."
1840 - The penny post, whereby mail was delivered at a standard charge rather than paid for by the recipient, began in Britain.
1861 - Florida seceded from the United States.
1863 - Prime Minister Gladstone opened the first section of the London Underground Railway system, from Paddington to Farringdon Street.
1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.
1901 - Oil was discovered at the Spindletop oil field near Beaumont, TX.
1911 - Major Jimmie Erickson took the first photograph from an airplane while flying over San Diego, CA.
1920 - The League of Nations ratified the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I with Germany.
1920 - The League of Nations held its first meeting in Geneva.
1927 - Fritz Lang's film "Metropolis" was first shown, in Berlin.
1928 - The Soviet Union ordered the exile of Leon Trotsky.
1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sailed from Miami, FL, to Trinidad thus becoming the first American President to visit a foreign country during wartime.
1943 - The quiz show, "The Better Half," was heard for the first time on Mutual Radio.
1946 - The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly took place with 51 nations represented.
1949 - Vinyl records were introduced by RCA (45 rpm) and Columbia (33.3 rpm).
1950 - Ben Hogan appeared for the first time in a golf tournament since an auto accident a year earlier. He tied ‘Slammin’ Sammy Snead in the Los Angeles Open, however, Hogan lost in a playoff.
1951 - Donald Howard Rogers piloted the first passenger jet on a trip from Chicago to New York City.
1957 - Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Britain, following the resignation Anthony Eden.
1963 - The Chicago Cubs became the first baseball club to hire an athletic director. He was Robert Whitlow. (MLB)
1969 - The final issue of "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared after 147 years of publication.
1971 - "Masterpiece Theatre" premiered on PBS with host Alistair Cooke. The introduction drama series was "The First Churchills."
1978 - The Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz capsule for a redezvous with the Salyut VI space laboratory.
1984 - The United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.
1986 - The uncut version of Jerome Kern’s musical, "Showboat", opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
1990 - Chinese Premier Li Peng ended martial law in Beijing after seven months. He said that crushing pro-democracy protests had saved China from "the abyss of misery."
1990 - Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. completed a $14 billion merger. The new company, Time Warner, was the world's largest entertainment company.
1994 - In Manassas, VA, Lorena Bobbitt went on trial. She had been charged with maliciously wounding her husband John. She was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.
1997 - Shelby Lynne Barrackman was strangled to death by her grand-father when she licked the icing off of cupcakes. He was convicted of the crime on September 15, 1998.
2000 - It was announced that Time-Warner had agreed to buy America On-line (AOL). It was the largest-ever corporate merger priced at $162 billion. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the deal on December 14, 2000.
2001 - American Airlines agreed to acquire most of Trans World Airlines (TWA) assets for about $500 million. The deal brought an end to the financially troubled TWA.
2002 - In France, the "Official Journal" reported that all women could get the morning-after contraception pill for free in pharmacies.
2003 - North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the global nuclear arms control treaty and that it had no plans to develop nuclear weapons.
Current Birthdays
Jake Delhomme turns 34 years old today
74 Eddy Clearwater
Blues musician
74 Ronnie Hawkins
Rock singer, musician
74 Sherrill Milnes
Opera singer
71 Willie McCovey
Baseball Hall of Famer
70 Scott McKenzie
Singer
69 Walter Hill
Writer-director
65 Frank Sinatra Jr.
Singer
64 Rod Stewart
Rock singer
61 Donald Fagen
Rock singer, musician (Steely Dan)
61 William Sanderson
Actor ("Deadwood," "Newhart")
60 George Foreman
Boxing Hall of Famer
59 Roy Blunt
House minority whip, R-Mo.
58 Alejandro Escovedo
Rock singer
57 Scott Thurston
Rock musician (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
56 Pat Benatar
Rock singer
54 Michael Schenker
Rock musician (The Scorpions)
53 Shawn Colvin
Rock singer
50 Curt Kirkwood
Rock singer, musician (Meat Puppets)
48 Evan Handler
Actor
46 Mark Pryor
U.S. senator, D-Ark.
45 Brad Roberts
Rock singer (Crash Test Dummies)
42 Trini Alvarado
Actress
31 Matt Roberts
Rock musician (3 Doors Down)
31 Brent Smith
Rock singer (Shinedown)
30 Chris Smith
Rapper (Kris Kross)
29 DeShaun Foster
Football player
29 Sarah Shahi
Actress ("Life")
Historic Birthdays
Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova
1/10/1910 - 3/21/1998
Russian prima ballerina
48 Nicolaus Steno
1/10/1638 - 11/26/1686
Danish geologist and anatomist
68 John Emerich, Lord Acton
1/10/1834 - 6/19/1902
English historian
66 Yukichi Fukuzawa
1/10/1835 - 2/3/1901
Japanese educator and publisher
41 John Wellborn Root
1/10/1850 - 1/15/1891
American architect
71 Frederick Gardner Cottrell
1/10/1877 - 11/16/1948
American educator and scientist
83 Francis X. Bushman
1/10/1883 - 8/23/1966
American actor
94 Dumas Malone
1/10/1892 - 12/27/1986
American historian; wrote authoritative biography of Thomas Jefferson
87 Uri Zvi Greenberg
1/10/1894 - 5/8/1981
Hebrew and Yiddish poet
72 Dame Barbara Hepworth
1/10/1903 - 5/20/1975
English sculptor
83 Ray Bolger
1/10/1904 - 1/15/1987
American dancer and actor
84 Paul Henreid
1/10/1908 - 3/29/1992
Austrian-born American actor
49 BC - Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River signaling a war between Rome and Gaul.
1519 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died.
1773 - The first public museum in America was established in Charleston, SC.
1866 - The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded in London.
1875 - Kwang-su was made emperor of China.
1882 - Thomas Edison's central station on Holborn Viaduct in London began operation.
1895 - The first performance of King Arthur took place at the Lyceum Theatre.
1896 - At Davidson College, several students took x-ray photographs. They created the first X-ray photographs to be made in America.
1908 - A wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1915 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.
1915 - The U.S. Congress established the Rocky Mountain National Park.
1926 - "Sam ‘n’ Henry" debuted on WGN Radio in Chicago, IL.
1932 - Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
1938 - Austria recognized the Franco government in Spain.
1940 - Soviet bombers raided cities in Finland.
1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board.
1943 - The Office of Price Administration announced that standard frankfurters/hot dogs/wieners would be replaced by 'Victory Sausages.'
1945 - During World War II, Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe.
1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not discriminate against law-school applicants because of race.
1949 - "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" was debuted on CBS-TV. The show stayed on the network for seven years.
1949 - "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", the Chicago-based children’s show, made its national debut on NBC-TV.
1955 - Rod Serling’s stellar career began with the TV production of "Patterns."
1960 - Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals became the first pro basketball player in the NBA to score more than 15,000 points in his career.
1964 - Leftist rebels in Zanzibar began their successful revolt against the government and a republic was proclaimed.
1966 - U.S. President Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there was ended.
1966 - "Batman" debuted on ABC-TV.
1967 - "Dragnet" returned to NBC-TV after being off the network schedule for eight years.
1970 - The breakaway state of Biafra capitulated and the Nigerian civil war came to an end.
1970 - Nigeria's civil war ended.
1971 - "All In the Family" debuted on CBS-TV.
1973 - Yassar Arafat was re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1986 - Space shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.
1991 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing President Bush to use military power to force Iraq out of Kuwait.
1995 - Northern Ireland Secretary Patrick Mayhew announced that as of January 16 British troops would no longer carry out daylight street patrols in Belfast.
1998 - Tyson Foods Inc. plead guilty to giving $12,000 to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Tyson was fined $6 million.
1998 - 19 European nations agreed to prohibit human cloning.
1998 - Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
1999 - Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball was sold at auction in New York for $3 million to an anonymous bidder.
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.
2000 - Charlotte Hornets guard Bobby Phills was killed in a crash during a drag race.
2005 - NASA launched "Deep Impact". The spacecraft was planned to impact on Comet Tempel 1 after a six-month, 268 million-mile journey.
2006 - The U.S. Mint began shipping new 5-cent coins to the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. The coin has an image of Thomas Jefferson taken from a 1800 Rembrandt Peale portrait in which the president is looking forward. Since 1909, when presidents were first depicted on circulating coins, all presidents had been shown in profile.
Current Birthdays
Jeff Bezos turns 45 years old today.
99 Luise Rainer
Actress
83 Ray Price
Country singer
79 Glenn Yarborough
Singer
74 The Amazing Kreskin
Magician
70 William Lee Golden
Country singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)
65 Joe Frazier
Boxing Hall of Famer
65 Cynthia Robinson
Rock musician (Sly and the Family Stone)
63 George Duke
Jazz singer-musician
61 Anthony Andrews
Actor
60 Wayne Wang
Director
58 Kirstie Alley
Actress ("Cheers")
58 Rush Limbaugh
Radio talk show host
57 Walter Mosley
Author
57 Ricky Van Shelton
Country singer
55 Howard Stern
Radio talk show host
52 Tom Ardolino
Rock musician (NRBQ)
52 John Lasseter
Writer, director (Pixar films)
51 Christiane Amanpour
Broadcast journalist
49 Charlie Gillingham
Rock musician (Counting Crows)
49 Oliver Platt
Actor
49 Dominique Wilkins
Basketball Hall of Famer
43 Olivier Martinez
Actor
43 Rob Zombie
Rock singer
42 TBird
Rapper (B-Rock and the Bizz)
42 Vendela
Model
41 Farrah Forke
Actress
41 Rachael Harris
Actress
39 Zack de la Rocha
Rock singer (Rage Against the Machine)
39 Raekwon
Rapper (Wu-Tang Clan)
36 Matt Wong
Rock musician (Reel Big Fish)
35 Melanie Chisholm
Singer (Spice Girls)
29 Amerie
R&B singer
27 Dontrelle Willis
Baseball player
22 Will Rothhaar
Actor
21 Andrew Lawrence
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Jack London
1/12/1876 - 11/22/1916
American novelist
61 John Winthrop
1/12/1588 (O.S.) - 3/26/1649 (O.S.)
Massachusetts Bay Colony founder
75 Charles Perrault
1/12/1628 - 5/16/1703
French poet
56 John Hancock
1/12/1737(O.S.)- 10/8/1793 (O.S.)
American revolutionary leader
41 Jakob Michael Lenz
1/12/1751 - 5/24/1792
Russian-born German poet
69 Francis Henry Underwood
1/12/1825 - 8/7/1894
American lawyer/author
69 John Singer Sargent
1/12/1856 - 4/15/1925
Italian-born American artist
86 Max Eastman
1/12/1883 - 3/25/1969
American poet/editor
80 Louis Horst
1/12/1884 - 1/23/1964
American pianist/composer
53 Hermann Goering
1/12/1893 - 10/15/1946
German Nazi commander
1794 - U.S. President Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.
1854 - Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, PA, patented the accordion.
1893 - Britain's Independent Labor Party, a precursor to the current Labor Party, met for the first time.
1898 - Emile Zola's "J'accuse" was published in Paris.
1900 - In Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph decreed that German would be the language of the imperial army to combat Czech nationalism.
1906 - Hugh Gernsback, of the Electro Importing Company, advertised radio receivers for sale for the price of just $7.50 in "Scientific American" magazine.
1928 - Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television.
1942 - Henry Ford patented the plastic automobile, which allowed for a 30% decrease in car weight.
1957 - Wham-O began producing "Pluto Platters." This marked the true beginning of production of the flying disc.
1962 - Ernie Kovacs died in a car crash in west Los Angeles, CA.
1966 - Elizabeth Montgomery’s character, Samantha, on "Bewitched," had a baby. The baby's name was Tabitha.
1966 - Robert C. Weaver became the first black Cabinet member when he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by U.S. President Johnson.
1982 - An Air Florida 737 crashed into the capital's 14th Street Bridge after takeoff and fell into the Potomac River. 78 people were killed.
1984 - Wayne Gretzky extended his NHL consecutive scoring streak to 45 games.
1986 - The NCAA adopted the controversial "Proposal 48," which set standards for Division 1 freshman eligibility.
1986 - "The Wall Street Journal" printed a real picture on its front page. The journal had not done this in nearly 10 years. The story was about artist, O. Winston Link and featured one of his works.
1989 - Bernhard H. Goetz was sentenced to one year in prison for possession of an unlicensed gun that he used to shoot four youths he claimed were about to rob him. He was freed the following September.
1990 - L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, the nation's first elected black governor, took the oath of office in Richmond.
1992 - Japan apologized for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.
1997 - Debbie Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - NBC agreed to pay almost $13 million for each episode of the TV show E.R. It was the highest amount ever paid for a TV show.
1998 - ABC and ESPN negotiated to keep "Monday Night Football" for $1.15 billion a season.
1998 - One of the 110 missing episodes of the British TV show "Doctor Who" was found in New Zealand.
1999 - Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) announced his retirement from the NBA.
2002 - The exhibit "In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." opened at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. More than 100 artists supplied the collection of 120 works of art.
2002 - Japan and Singapore signed a free trade pact that would remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between the two countries.
2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush fainted after choking on a pretzel.
Current Birthdays
Patrick Dempsey turns 43 years old today.
79 Liz Anderson
Country singer
79 Frances Sternhagen
Actress
75 Rip Taylor
Comedian
71 Billy Gray
Actor ("Father Knows Best")
66 Richard Moll
Actor ("Night Court")
55 Trevor Rabin
Rock musician (Yes)
54 Fred White
R&B musician (Earth, Wind and Fire)
49 Kevin Anderson
Actor
48 Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Actress
48 Graham "Suggs" McPherson
Rock singer (Madness)
47 Trace Adkins
Country singer
45 Penelope Ann Miller
Actress
41 Traci Bingham
Actress ("Baywatch")
39 Keith Coogan
Actor
37 Nicole Eggert
Actress
32 Orlando Bloom
Actor ("Pirates of the Caribbean" and "The Lord of the Rings" movies)
Historic Birthdays
Ross Granville Harrison
1/13/1870 - 9/30/1959
American zoologist
60 Jan van Goyen
1/13/1596 - 4/27/1656
Dutch artist
77 Christoph Graupner
1/13/1683 - 5/10/1760
German composer
81 Sir Isaac Goldsmid
1/13/1778 - 4/27/1859
English financier
65 Salmon Chase
1/13/1808 - 5/7/1873
American politician/lawyer
67 Horatio Alger
1/13/1832 - 7/18/1899
American author
51 Felix Tisserand
1/13/1845 - 10/20/1896
French astronomer
82 Sophie Tucker
1/13/1884 - 2/9/1966
American entertainer
68 Elmer Davis
1/13/1890 - 5/18/1958
American broadcaster/writer
90 A.B. Jr. Guthrie
1/13/1901 - 4/26/1991
American novelist
marquis2
2009-01-14, 06:10
Quote ;1928 - Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television.
This was 2 years after TV was first publically shown in London. By 1928 Baird was publically demonstrating colour TV.
1639 - Connecticut's first constitution, the "Fundamental Orders," was adopted.
1784 - The United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.
1858 - French emperor Napoleon III escaped an attempt on his life.
1873 - John Hyatt's 1869 invention ‘Celluloid’ was registered as a trademark.
1878 - Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for Britain's Queen Victoria.
1882 - The Myopia Hunt Club, in Winchester, MA, became the first country club in the United States.
1907 - An earthquake killed over 1,000 people in Kingston, Jamaica.
1939 - "Honolulu Bound" was heard on CBS radio for the first time.
1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office. He flew from Miami, FL, to French Morocco where he met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss World War II.
1951 - The first National Football League Pro Bowl All-Star Game was played in Los Angeles, CA.
1952 - NBC's "Today" show premiered.
1953 - Josip Broz Tito was elected president of Yugoslavia by the country's Parliament.
1954 - Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married. The marriage only lasted nine months.
1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merged with Nash-Kelvinator. The new company was called the American Motors Corporation.
1963 - George C. Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama.
1969 - An explosion aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise off Hawaii killed 25 crew members.
1972 - NBC-TV debuted "Sanford & Son."
1973 - The Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII and became the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.
1985 - Martina Navratilova won her 100th tournament. She joined Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert Lloyd as the only professional tennis players to win 100 tournaments.
1985 - Former Miss America, Phyllis George, joined Bill Kurtis as host of "The CBS Morning News".
1986 - "Rambo: First Blood, Part II" arrived at video stores. It broke the record set by "Ghostbusters", for first day orders. 435,000 copies of the video were sold.
1993 - Television talk show host David Letterman announced he was moving from NBC to CBS.
1993 - The British government pledged to introduce legislation to criminalize invasions of privacy by the press.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed Kremlin accords to stop aiming missiles at any nation and to dismantle the nuclear arsenal of Ukraine.
1996 - Jorge Sampaio was elected president of Portugal.
1996 - Juan Garcia Abrego was arrested by Mexican agents. The alleged drug lord was handed over to the FBI the next day.
1998 - Whitewater prosecutors questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House for 10 minutes about the gathering of FBI background files on past Republican political appointees.
1998 - In Dallas, researchers report an enzyme that slows the aging process and cell death.
1999 - The impeachment trial of U.S. President Clinton began in Washington, DC.
1999 - The U.S. proposed the lifting of the U.N. ceilings on the sale of oil in Iraq. The restriction being that the money be used to buy medicine and food for the Iraqi people.
2000 - A U.N. tribunal sentenced five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 massacre of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
2000 - The Dow Jones industrial average hit a new high when it closed at 11,722.98. Earlier in the session, the Dow had risen to 11,750.98. Both records stood until October 3, 2006.
2002 - NBC's "Today" celebrated its 50th anniversary on television.
2002 - Actor Brad Renfro, 19, was arrested after being stopped on a traffic violation. He was charged with public intoxication and driving without a license.
2004 - In St. Louis, a Lewis and Clark Exhibition opened at the Missouri History Museum. The exhibit featured 500 rare and priceless objects used by the Corps of Discovery.
2005 - A probe, from the Cassini-Huygens mission, sent back pictures during and after landing on Saturn's moon Titan. The mission was launched on October 15, 1997.
Current Birthdays
Jason Bateman turns 40 years old today.
90 Andy Rooney
Commentator ("60 Minutes")
73 Clarence Carter
Blues singer
72 Billie Jo Spears
Country singer
71 Jack Jones
Singer
71 Allen Toussaint
R&B singer, songwriter
69 Julian Bond
Civil rights activist
68 Faye Dunaway
Actress
66 Holland Taylor
Actress
62 Bev Perdue
Governor of North Carolina
61 T-Bone Burnett
Rock singer, producer
61 Carl Weathers
Actor
60 Lawrence Kasdan
Screenwriter, director
57 Maureen Dowd
Columnist
50 Geoff Tate
Rock singer (Queensryche)
46 Steven Soderbergh
Director
45 Mark Addy
Actor
45 Shepard Smith
Broadcast journalist ("The Fox Report")
44 Slick Rick
Rapper
43 Dan Schneider
Actor
42 Tom Rhodes
Actor, comedian
42 Emily Watson
Actress
42 Zakk Wylde
Rock musician
40 Dave Grohl
Rock singer, musician (Foo Fighters)
34 Jordan Ladd
Actress
27 Marc Broussard
Singer, songwriter
27 Caleb Followill
Rock musician (Kings of Leon)
26 Joe Guese
Rock musician (The Click Five)
Historic Birthdays
Albert Schweitzer
1/14/1875 - 9/4/1965
Alsatian/German physician
60 Benedict Arnold
1/14/1741 - 6/14/1801
American patriot/traitor
64 Henry Baldwin
1/14/1780 - 4/21/1844
American Supreme Court justice
54 Berthe Morisot
1/14/1841 - 3/2/1895
French painter/printmaker
77 Art Young
1/14/1866 - 12/29/1943
American cartoonist
61 Hugh Lofting
1/14/1886 - 9/26/1947
English/American author
100 Hal Roach
1/14/1892 - 11/2/1992
American producer/director
74 John Dos Passos
1/14/1896 - 9/28/1970
American writer/journalist
86 Carlos Romulo
1/14/1899 - 12/15/1985
Philippine diplomat
76 Sir Cecil Beaton
1/14/1904 - 1/18/1980
American photographer
1559 - England's Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth Tudor) was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
1777 - The people of New Connecticut (now the state of Vermont) declared their independence.
1844 - The University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana.
1863 - "The Boston Morning Journal" became the first paper in the U.S. to be published on wood pulp paper.
1870 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" appeared in "Harper's Weekly." The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party for the first time.
1892 - "Triangle" magazine in Springfield, MA, published the rules for a brand new game. The original rules involved attaching a peach baskets to a suspended board. It is now known as basketball.
1899 - Edwin Markham's poem, "The Man With a Hoe," was published for the first time.
1906 - Willie Hoppe won the billiard championship of the world in Paris, France.
1908 - Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority became America's first Greek-letter organization established by African-American college women.
1936 - The first, all glass, windowless building was completed in Toledo, OH. The building was the new home of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company Laboratory.
1943 - The Pentagon was dedicated as the world's largest office building just outside Washington, DC, in Arlington, VA. The structure covers 34 acres of land and has 17 miles of corridors.
1945 - CBS Radio debuted "House Party". The show was on the air for 22 years.
1953 - Harry S Truman became the first U.S. President to use radio and television to give his farewell as he left office.
1955 - The first solar-heated, radiation-cooled house was built by Raymond Bliss in Tucson, AZ.
1967 - The first National Football League Super Bowl was played. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League. The final score was 35-10.
1973 - U.S. President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam. He cited progress in peace negotiations as the reason.
1974 - "Happy Days" premiered on ABC-TV.
1976 - Sara Jane Moore was sentenced to life in prison for her attempt on the life of U.S. President Ford in San Francisco.
1978 - Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, two students at Florida State University in Tallahassee, were murdered in their sorority house. Ted Bundy was later convicted of the crime and was executed.
1987 - Paramount Home Video reported that it would place a commercial at the front of one of its video releases for the first time. It was a 30-second Diet Pepsi ad at the beginning of "Top Gun."
1998 - Lance Carvin, a stalker of Howard Stern, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for threatening to kill Stern and his family.
2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Congress had permission to repeatedly extend copyright protection.
Current Birthdays
Matt Holliday turns 29 years old today.
72 Margaret O'Brien
Actress
68 Captain Beefheart
Singer
62 Andrea Martin
Actress
52 Mario Van Peebles
Actor, director
44 James Nesbitt
Actor
42 Lisa Lisa
Singer (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam)
38 Regina King
Actress
34 Mary Pierce
Tennis player
31 Eddie Cahill
Actor ("CSI: NY")
28 Pitbull
Rapper, reggaeton artist
Historic Birthdays
Martin Luther King
1/15/1929 - 4/4/1968
American minister and civil rights leader
51 (Jean B. Poquelin) Moliere
1/15/1622 - 2/17/1673
French playwright
75 Jean Coralli
1/15/1779 - 5/1/1854
French dancer/choreographer
76 Abigail Kelley Foster
1/15/1810 - 1/14/1887
American feminist/abolitionist
83 Josef Breuer
1/15/1842 - 6/20/1925
Austrian physician/physiologist
84 Pierre Samuel du Pont
1/15/1870 - 4/5/1954
American businessman
78 Arturi Virtanen
1/15/1895 - 11/11/1973
Finnish biochemist
83 Goodman Ace
1/15/1899 - 3/25/1982
American writer/producer
64 Gene Krupa
1/15/1909 - 10/16/1973
American jazz drummer
52 Gamal Nasser
1/15/1918 - 9/28/1970
Egyptian Prime Minister
1377 - The Papal See was transferred from Avignon in France back to Rome.
1562 - French Protestants were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain.
1773 - Captain Cook's Resolution became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle.
1795 - The Dudingston Curling Society was organized in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1806 - James Madison Randolph, grandson of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, was the first child born in the White House.
1852 - The independence of the Transvaal Boers was recognized by Britain.
1871 - Andrew S. Hallidie received a patent for a cable car system.
1882 - Thomas Edison's exhibit opened the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London.
1893 - Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.
1900 - The U.S. took Wake Island where there was in important cable link between Hawaii and Manila.
1900 - Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaimed their independence from Mexico.
1900 - Mormon Brigham Roberts was denied a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for his practicing of polygamy.
1905 - Punchboards were patented by a manufacturing firm in Chicago, IL.
1912 - English explorer Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole. Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by one month. Scott and his party died during the return trip.
1913 - All partner interests in 36 Golden Rule Stores were consolidated and incorporated in Utah into one company. The new corporation was the J.C. Penney Company.
1916 - The Professional Golfers Association was formed in New York City.
1928 - The fully automatic, film-developing machine was patented by A.M. Josepho.
1934 - Ferdinand Porsche submitted a design for a people's car, a "Volkswagen," to the new German Reich government.
1938 - "Stepmother" debuted on CBS radio.
1945 - Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II.
1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody. Wallenberg was credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews.
1946 - The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting.
1949 - "The Goldbergs" debuted on CBS-TV. The program had been on radio since 1931. The TV version lasted for four years.
1959 - Senegal and the French Sudan joined to form the Federal State of Mali.
1961 - In his farewell address, U.S. President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."
1966 - A B-52 carrying four H-bombs collided with a refuelling tanker. The bombs were released and eight crewmembers were killed.
1977 - Double murderer Gary Gilmore became the first to be executed in the U.S. in a decade. The firing squad took place at Utah State Prison.
1985 - Leonard Nimoy got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1991 - Coalition airstrikes began against Iraq after negotiations failed to get Iraq to retreat from the country of Kuwait.
1992 - An IRA bomb, placed next to a remote country road in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, killed seven building workers and injured seven others.
1994 - The Northridge earthquake rocked Los Angeles, CA, registering a 6.7 on the Richter Scale. At least 61 people were killed and about $20 billion in damage was caused.
1995 - More than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.
1997 - A court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.
1997 - Israel gave over 80% of Hebron to Palestinian rule, but held the remainder where several hundred Jewish settlers lived among 20,000 Palestinians.
1998 - U.S. President Clinton gave his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him. He was the first U.S. President to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil lawsuit.
2000 - British pharmaceutical companies Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC agreed to a merger that created the world's largest drugmaker.
2001 - Congo's President Laurent Kabila was shot and killed during a coup attempt. Congolese officials temporarily placed Kabila's son in charge of the government.
2001 - The director of Palestinian TV, Hisham Miki, was killed at a restaurant when three masked gunmen walked up to his table and shot him more than 10 times.
2002 - It was announced that Microsoft had signed a joint venture agreement to produce software with two partners in China. The two partners were Beijin Centergate Technologies (Holding) Co. and the Stone Group.
Current Birthdays
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. turns 55 years old today
87 Betty White
Actress ("The Golden Girls")
78 James Earl Jones
Actor
78 Don Zimmer
Baseball coach
74 Ruth Ann Minner
Governor of Delaware
70 Maury Povich
Talk show host
67 Muhammad Ali
Boxing Hall of Famer
67 Chris Montez
Singer
64 William Hart
R&B singer (The Delfonics)
61 Mick Taylor
Rock musician (Rolling Stones)
56 Sheila Hutchinson
R&B singer (The Emotions)
54 Steve Earle
Rock singer
53 Paul Young
Rock singer
52 Steve Harvey
Actor, comedian
50 Susanna Hoffs
Rock musician, singer (The Bangles)
47 Jim Carrey
Actor
45 Michelle Obama
Wife of President-elect Barack Obama
43 Joshua Malina
Actor ("The West Wing," "Sports Night")
43 Shabba Ranks
Reggae singer
40 Naveen Andrews
Actor ("Lost")
38 Kid Rock
Rapper
34 Freddy Rodriguez
Actor ("Six Feet Under")
28 Ray J
Actor, R&B singer
27 Amanda Wilkinson
Country singer (The Wilkinsons)
Historic Birthdays
Al Capone
1/17/1899 - 1/25/1947
American gangster
62 Philip II of Burgandy
1/17/1342 - 4/27/1404
French Duke
59 Guarino Guarini
1/17/1624 - 3/6/1683
Italian architect
69 Jacques-Francois Blondel
1/17/1705 - 1/9/1774
French architect
29 Anne Bronte
1/17/1820 - 5/28/1849
English novelist
82 David Lloyd George
1/17/1863 - 3/26/1945
English Prime Minister
80 Mack Sennett
1/17/1880 - 11/5/1960
American director/producer
69 Glenn Martin
1/17/1886 - 12/4/1955
American airplane inventor
61 Nevil Shute
1/17/1899 - 1/12/1960
English/Australian writer
78 Robert M. Hutchins
1/17/1899 - 5/14/1977
American educator
67 Nora Kaye
1/17/1920 - 2/28/1987
American ballerina
34 Thomas Dooley
1/17/1927 - 1/18/1961
American physician/author
1803 - Thomas Jefferson, in secret communication with Congress, sopught authorization for the first official exploration by the U.S. government.
1778 - English navigator Captain James Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, which he called the "Sandwich Islands."
1788 - The first English settlers arrived in Australia's Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.
1871 - Wilhelm, King of Prussia from 1861, was proclaimed the first German Emperor.
1886 - The Hockey Association was formed in England. This date is the birthday of modern field hockey.
1896 - The x-ray machine was exhibited for the first time.
1911 - For the first time an aircraft landed on a ship. Pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbor.
1919 - The World War I Peace Congress opened in Versailles, France.
1929 - Walter Winchell made his debut on radio.
1937 - CBS radio debuted "Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories".
1939 - Louis Armstrong and his orchestra recorded "Jeepers Creepers."
1943 - During World War II, the Soviets announced that they had broken the Nazi siege of Leningrad, which had began in September of 1941.
1943 - U.S. commercial bakers stopped selling sliced bread. Only whole loaves were sold during the ban until the end of World War II.
1948 - "The Original Amateur Hour" debuted. The show was on the air for 22 years.
1950 - The federal tax on oleomargarine was repealed.
1951 - Joan Blondell made her TV debut on "Pot of Gold" episode of "Airflyte Theatre" on CBS-TV.
1957 - The first, non-stop, around-the-world, jet flight came to an end at Riverside, CA. The plane was refueled in mid-flight by huge aerial tankers.
1958 - Willie O'Ree made his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins. He was the first black player to enter the league.
1967 - Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the "Boston Strangler," was convicted in Cambridge, MA, of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. He was sentenced to life in prison. Desalvo was killed in 1973 by a fellow inmate.
1972 - Former Rhodesian prime minister Garfield Todd and his daughter were placed under house arrest for campaigning against Rhodesian independence.
1975 - "The Jeffersons" debuted on CBS-TV.
1978 - The European Court of Human Rights cleared the British government of torture but found it guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in Northern Ireland.
1985 - Mary Decker broke a world, indoor record when she ran the women’s, 2,000-meter race in 5:34.2. She also ran the outdoor mile in 4:16.7.
1987 - For the first time in history the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was seen by over 100 million viewers. The audience was measured during the week of January 12-18.
1990 - A jury in Los Angeles, CA, acquitted former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, of 52 child molestation charges.
1990 - In an FBI sting, Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession. He was later convicted of a misdemeanor.
1991 - Eastern Airlines shut down after 62 years in business due to financial problems.
1993 - The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 U.S. states for the first time.
1995 - A network of caves were discovered near the town of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southern France. The caves contained paintings and engravings that were 17,000 to 20,000 years old.
1997 - Hutu militiamen killed three Spanish aid workers and three soldiers and seriously wound an American in a night attack in NW Rwanda.
2002 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of a saliva-based ovulation test.
1419 - Rouen surrendered to Henry V, completing his conquest of Normandy.
1764 - John Wilkes was expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
1793 - King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine.
1825 - Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City patented a canning process to preserve salmon, oysters and lobsters.
1861 - Georgia seceded from the Union.
1883 - Thomas Edison's first village electric lighting system using overhead wires began operation in Roselle, NJ.
1907 - The first film reviews appeared in "Variety" magazine.
1915 - George Claude, of Paris, France, patented the neon discharge tube for use in advertising signs.
1915 - More than 20 people were killed when German zeppelins bombed England for the first time. The bombs were dropped on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn.
1937 - Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record. He flew from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
1942 - The Japanese invaded Burma (later Myanmar).
1944 - The U.S. federal government relinquished control of the nation's railroads after the settlement of a wage dispute.
1949 - The salary of the President of the United States was increased from $75,000 to $100,000 with an additional $50,000 expense allowance for each year in office.
1952 - The National Football League (NFL) bought the franchise of the New York Yankees from Ted Collins. The franchise was then awarded to a group in Dallas on January 24.
1953 - Sixty-eight percent of all TV sets in the U.S. were tuned to CBS-TV, as Lucy Ricardo, of "I Love Lucy," gave birth to a baby boy.
1955 - U.S. President Eisenhower allowed a filmed news conference to be used on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time.
1957 - Philadelphia comedian, Ernie Kovacs, did a half-hour TV show without saying a single word of dialogue.
1966 - Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.
1969 - In protest against the Russian invasion of 1968, Czech student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square.
1971 - At the Charles Manson murder trial, the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" was played. At the scene of one of his gruesome murders, the words "helter skelter" were written on a mirror.
1971 - "No, No Nanette" opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York City.
1977 - U.S. President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino (the "Tokyo Rose").
1979 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.
1981 - The U.S. and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months and for arrangements to unfreeze Iranian assets and to resolve all claims against Iran.
1993 - IBM announced a loss of $4.97 billion for 1992. It was the largest single-year loss in U.S. corporate history.
1995 - Russian forces overwhelmed the resistance forces in Chechnya.
1996 - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. The investigation was concerning the discovery of billing records related to the Whitewater real estate investment venture.
1997 - Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron for the first time in more than 30 years. He joined 60,000 Palestinians in celebration over the handover of the last West Bank city in Israeli control.
2000 - In New York's Time Square, the first WWF restraunt opened.
2001 - Texas officials demoted a warden and suspended three other prison workers in the wake of the escape of the "Texas 7."
Current Birthdays
Shawn Johnson turns 17 years old today.
86 Jean Stapleton
Actress ("All in the Family")
83 Fritz Weaver
Actor
79 Tippi Hedren
Actress ("The Birds")
78 Robert MacNeil
Journalist
77 Richard Lester
Movie director
70 Phil Everly
Singer (The Everly Brothers)
67 Michael Crawford
Actor, singer
65 Shelley Fabares
Actress
65 Dan Reeves
Football coach
63 Dolly Parton
Country singer, actress
62 Ann Compton
Broadcast journalist
62 Paula Deen
TV chef
58 Martha Davis
Rock singer (The Motels)
57 Dewey Bunnell
Singer (America)
56 Desi Arnaz Jr.
Actor
54 Paul Rodriguez
Comedian
52 Katey Sagal
Actress ("Married ... With Children")
52 Mickey Virtue
Reggae musician (UB40)
48 Paul McCrane
Actor
48 William Ragsdale
Actor
43 Stefan Edberg
Tennis Hall of Famer
41 Whitfield Crane
Rock singer (Ugly Kid Joe)
40 Trey Lorenz
R&B singer
40 Junior Seau
Football player
38 Eric Mangini
Football coach
38 John Wozniak
Rock musician (Marcy Playground)
37 Drea de Matteo
Actress ("The Sopranos")
35 Frank Caliendo
Comedian, impressionist ("Frank TV")
33 Marsha Thomason
Actress
27 Jodie Sweetin
Actress ("Full House")
17 Logan Lerman
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Robert E. Lee
1/19/1807 - 10/12/1870
American Civil War general
53 Tai Chen
1/19/1724 - 7/1/1777
Chinese philosopher
83 James Watt
1/19/1736 - 8/25/1819
Scottish steam engine inventor
82 Isaiah Thomas
1/19/1749 - 4/4/1831
American anti-British journalist
67 Auguste Comte
1/19/1790 - 9/5/1857
French philosopher
40 Edgar Allan Poe
1/19/1809 - 10/7/1849
American writer/poet
95 William Keen
1/19/1837 - 6/7/1932
American-1st Am. Brain surgeon
67 Paul Cezanne
1/19/1839 - 10/22/1906
French Post-Impressionist painter
79 George Trumbull Ladd
1/19/1842 - 8/8/1921
American philosopher/psychologist
56 Alexander Woollcott
1/19/1887 - 1/23/1943
American author/critic
72 Olafur Thors
1/19/1892 - 12/31/1964
Icelandic Prime Minister
90 Oveta Culp Hobby
1/19/1905 - 8/16/1995
American publisher and first secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1953-55)
1265 - The first English parliament met in Westminster Hall.
1801 - John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.
1839 - Chile defeated a confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay.
1841 - The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.
1885 - The roller coaster was patented by L.A. Thompson.
1886 - The Mersey Railway Tunnel was officially opened by the Prince of Wales.
1887 - The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
1891 - James Hogg took office as the first native-born governor of Texas.
1892 - The first official basketball game was played by students at the Springfield, MA, YMCA Training School.
1929 - The movie "In Old Arizona" was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.
1937 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated on January 20th. The 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution officially set the date for the swearing in of the President and Vice President.
1942 - Nazi officials held the Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews.
1944 - The British RAF dropped 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
1952 - In Juarez, Mexico, Patricia McCormick debuted as the first professional woman bullfighter from the United States.
1953 - "Studio One" became the first television show to be transmitted from the United States to Canada.
1954 - The National Negro Network was formed on this date. Forty radio stations were charter members of the network.
1961 - Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were divorced. They were married on June 29, 1956.
1972 - The number of unemployed in Britain exceeded 1 million.
1981 - Iran released 52 Americans that had been held hostage for 444 days. The hostages were flown to Algeria and then to a U.S. base in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The release occurred minutes after the U.S. presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
1985 - The most-watched Super Bowl game in history was seen by an estimated 115.9 million people. The San Francisco 49ers downed the Miami Dolphins, 38-16. Super Bowl XIX marked the first time that TV commericals sold for a million dollars a minute.
1986 - The U.S. observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
1986 - Britain and France announced their plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
1986 - New footage of the 1931 "Frankenstein" was found. The footage was originally deleted because it was considered to be too shocking.
1987 - Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon. He was there attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages. He was not freed until November 1991.
1994 - Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina. Faulkner joined the cadet corps in August 1995 under court order but soon dropped out.
1996 - Yasser Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian Authority and his supporters won two thirds of the 80 seats in the Legislative Council.
1997 - Bill Clinton was inagurated for his second term as president of the United States.
1998 - American researchers announced that they had cloned calves that may produce medicinal milk.
1998 - In Chile, a judge agreed to hear a lawsuit that accused Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet with genocide.
1999 - The China News Service announced that the Chinese government was tightening restrictions on internet use. The rules were aimed at 'Internet Bars.'
2000 - Greece and Turkey signed five accords aimed to build confidence between the two nations.
2002 - Michael Jordan (Washington Wizards) played his first game in Chicago as a visiting player. The Wizards beat the Bulls 77-69.
Current Birthdays
Rainn Wilson turns 43 years old today
85 Slim Whitman
Country singer
80 Arte Johnson
Comedian ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In")
79 Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
Former astronaut
72 Dorothy Provine
Actress
64 Eric Stewart
Singer
63 David Lynch
Director
59 Daniel Benzali
Actor
57 Ian Hill
Rock musician (Judas Priest)
57 Paul Stanley
Rock musician (Kiss)
53 Bill Maher
Comedian, talk show host
51 Lorenzo Lamas
Actor
46 James Denton
Actor ("Desperate Housewives")
44 Greg K.
Rock musician (The Offspring)
44 John Michael Montgomery
Country singer
42 Stacey Dash
Actress
41 Melissa Rivers
TV personality
41 Xavier
R&B singer
39 Edwin McCain
Rock singer
39 Skeet Ulrich
Actor
34 David Eckstein
Baseball player
30 Rob Bourdon
Rock musician (Linkin Park)
26 Geovany Soto
Baseball player
22 Evan Peters
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Federico Fellini
1/20/1920 - 10/31/1993
Italian film director
44 Johannes Schein
1/20/1586 - 11/19/1630
German composer
46 Henry Cromwell
1/20/1628 - 3/23/1674
English, brief ruler of Ireland
62 Richard Henry Lee
1/20/1732 - 6/19/1794
American statesman/orator
72 Anne J. Clough
1/20/1820 - 2/27/1892
English educator/feminist
77 Johannes Jenson
1/20/1873 - 11/25/1950
Danish novelist/essayist
91 Ruth St. Denis
1/20/1877 - 7/21/1968
American dancer & choreographer
82 Walter Piston
1/20/1894 - 11/12/1976
American composer/teacher
74 Harold Gray
1/20/1894 - 5/9/1968
American "Orphan Annie" cartoonist
69 Joy Adamson
1/20/1910 - 1/3/1980
Australian conservationist/writer
youwanttoshagme
2009-01-20, 12:32
20th Jan 2008 - Nothing much happening really. Think it'll go down in history just like any other Tuesday.
Oh, US unemployment went up by one person, and a house exchange hands, but at a rock bottom price of nothing. Tenancy agreement will be reviewed in 4 years though.
1789 - W.H. Brown's "Power of Sympathy" was published. It was the first American novel to be published.
1793 - During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was executed on the guillotine. He had been condemned for treason.
1812 - The Y-bridge in Zanesville, OH, was approved for construction.
1846 - The first issue of the "Daily News," edited by Charles Dickens, was published.
1853 - Dr. Russell L. Hawes patented the envelope folding machine.
1861 - The future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, resigned from the U.S. Senate. Four other Southerners also resigned.
1865 - An oil well was drilled by torpedoes for the first time.
1900 - Canadian troops set sail to fight in South Africa. The Boers had attacked Ladysmith on January 8, 1900.
1908 - The Sullivan Ordinance was passed in New York City making smoking by women became illegal. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
1911 - The first Monte Carlo car rally was held. Seven days later by French it was won by Henri Rougier.
1915 - The first Kiwanis club was formed in Detroit, MI.
1924 - Soviet leader Vladimir Llyich Lenin died. Joseph Stalin began a purge of his rivals for the leadership of the Soviet Union.
1927 - The first opera broadcast over a national radio network was presented in Chicago, IL. The opera was "Faust".
1941 - The British communist newspaper, the "Daily Worker," was banned due to wartime restrictions.
1946 - "The Fat Man" debuted on ABC radio.
1954 - The Nautilus was launched in Groton, CT. It was the first atomic-powered submarine. U.S. First Lady Mamie Eisenhower broke the traditional bottle of champagne across the bow.
1954 - The gas turbine automobile was introduced in New York City.
1970 - The Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight from New York to London for Pan American.
1970 - ABC-TV presented "The Johnny Cash Show" in prime time.
1976 - The French Concorde SST aircraft began regular commercial service for Air France and British Airways.
1977 - U.S. President Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.
1980 - Gold was valued at $850 an ounce.
1986 - Former major-league player, Randy Bass, became the highest-paid baseball player in Japanese history. Bass signed a three-year contract for $3.25 million. He played for the Hanshin Tigers.
1994 - A jury in Manassas, VA, acquitted Lorena Bobbitt by reason of temporary insanity of maliciously wounding (severing his penis) her husband John. She accused him of sexually assaulting her.
1997 - Newt Gingrich was fined as the U.S. House of Representatvies voted for first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.
1998 - A former White House intern said on tape that she had an affair with U.S. President Clinton.
1999 - The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a ship headed for Houston, TX, that had over 9,500 pounds of cocaine aboard. It was one of the largest drug busts in U.S. history.
2002 - In Goma, Congo, about fifty people were killed when lava flow ignited a gas station. The people killed were trying to steal fuel from elevated tanks. The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo began on January 17, 2002.
2002 - In London, a 17th century book by Capt. John Smith, founder of the English settlement at Jamestown, was sold at auction for $48,800. "The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles" was published in 1632.
2003 - It was announced by the U.S. Census Bureau that estimates showed that the Hispanic population had passed the black population for the first time.
Current Birthdays
Placido Domingo turns 68 years old today.
75 Ann Wedgeworth
Actress
73 Snooks Eaglin
Blues singer-musician
69 Jack Nicklaus
Golfer
69 Richie Havens
Folk singer, musician
67 Mac Davis
Singer
62 Jill Eikenberry
Actress ("L.A. Law")
62 Jim Ibbotson
Country musician (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
59 Billy Ocean
R&B singer
53 Robby Benson
Actor, director
53 Geena Davis
Actress
46 Hakeem Olajuwon
Basketball player
41 Charlotte Ross
Actress
40 John Ducey
Actor
40 Karina Lombard
Actress
39 Levirt
Rapper (B-Rock and the Bizz)
39 Mark Trojanowski
Rock musician (Sister Hazel)
37 Cat Power
Rock singer
36 Chris Kilmore
DJ (Incubus)
36 Princess Mathilde
Member of the Belgian royal family
35 Vincent Laresca
Actor
33 Emma Bunton
Singer (Spice Girls)
31 Phil Stacey
Country singer ("American Idol")
30 Nokio
R&B singer (Dru Hill)
28 Izabella Miko
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Christian Dior
1/21/1905 - 10/24/1957
French fashion designer
35 George Gillespie
1/21/1613 - 12/17/1648
Scottish minister/polemical writer
51 Ethan Allen
1/21/1738 - 2/12/1789
American soldier - frontiersman
55 John Fitch
1/21/1743 - 7/2/1798
American steamboat builder
77 John Fremont
1/21/1813 - 7/13/1890
Americium mapmaker/explorer
39 Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
1/21/1824 - 5/10/1863
American Civil War general
71 Sophia Jex-Blake
1/21/1840 - 1/7/1912
English physician
71 John Browning
1/21/1855 - 11/26/1926
American weapons designer
98 Maxime Weygand
1/21/1867 - 1/28/1965
Belgian-bn.French army officer
77 Cristobal Balenciaga
1/21/1895 - 3/23/1972
Spanish dress designer
88 Sir Charles Moses
1/21/1900 - 2/9/1988
English-bn. Australian broadcaster
1666 - Shah Jahan, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Timur, died at the age of 74. He was the Mogul emperor of India that built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz-i-Mahal.
1771 - The Falkland Islands were ceded to Britain by Spain.
1789 - "The Power of Sympathy," by Philenia (Mrs. Sarah W.) Morton, was published in Boston, MA.
1824 - The Asante army crushed British troops in the Gold Coast.
1879 - James Shields began a term as a U.S. Senator from Missouri. He had previously served Illinois and Minnesota. He was the first Senator to serve three states.
1879 - British troops were massacred by the Zulus at Isandhlwana.
1889 - The Columbia Phonograph Company was formed in Washington, DC.
1895 - The National Association of Manufacturers was organized in Cincinnati, OH.
1900 - Off of South Africa, the British released the German steamer Herzog, which had been seized on January 6.
1901 - Queen Victoria of England died after reigning for nearly 64 years. Edward VII, her son, succeeded her.
1905 - Insurgent workers were fired on in St Petersburg, Russia, resulting in "Bloody Sunday." 500 people were killed.
1917 - U.S. President Wilson pleaded for an end to war in Europe, calling for "peace without victory." America entered the war the following April.
1924 - Ramsay MacDonald became Britain's first Labour Prime Minister.
1936 - In Paris, Premier Pierre Laval resigned over diplomatic failure in the Ethiopian crisis.
1938 - "Our Town," by Thornton Wilder, was performed publicly for the first time, in Princeton, NJ.
1941 - Britain captured Tobruk from German forces.
1944 - Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy, during World War II.
1947 - KTLA, Channel 5, in Hollywood, CA, began operation as the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River.
1950 - Alger Hiss, a former adviser to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, was convicted of perjury for denying contacts with a Soviet agent. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
1951 - Fidel Castro was ejected from a Winter League baseball game after hitting a batter. He later gave up baseball for politics.
1953 - The Arthur Miller drama "The Crucible" opened on Broadway.
1956 - Raymond Burr starred as Captain Lee Quince in the "Fort Laramie" debut on CBS radio.
1957 - Suspected "Mad Bomber" was arrested in Waterbury, CT. George P. Metesky was accused of planting more than 30 explosive devices in the New York City area.
1957 - The Israeli army withdrew from the Sinai. They had invaded Egypt on October 29, 1956.
1959 - British world racing champion Mike Hawthorn was killed while driving on the Guildford bypass.
1961 - Wilma Rudolph, set a world indoor record in the women’s 60-yard dash. She ran the race in 6.9 seconds.
1962 - Cuba's membership in the Organization of American States (OAS) was suspended.
1964 - Kenneth Kaunda was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia.
1968 - "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", debuted on NBC TV.
1970 - The first regularly scheduled commercial flight of the Boeing 747 began in New York City and ended in London about 6 1/2 hours later.
1972 - The United Kingdom, the Irish Republic, and Denmark joined the EEC.
1973 - Joe Frazier lost the first fight of his professional career to George Foreman. He been the undefeated heavyweight world champion since February 16, 1970 when he knocked out Jimmy Ellis.
1973 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws that had been restricting abortions during the first six months of pregnancy. The case (Roe vs. Wade) legalized abortion.
1983 - Bjorn Borg retired from tennis. He had set a record by winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.
1984 - Apple introduced the Macintosh. It was the first computer to use point-and-click technology.
1987 - Phil Donahue became the first talk show host to tape a show from inside the Soviet Union. The shows were shown later in the year.
1992 - Rebel soldiers seized the national radio station in Kinshasa, Zaire's capital, and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.
1995 - Two Palestinian suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip detonated powerful explosives at a military transit point in central Israel, killing 19 Israelis.
1997 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the first female secretary of state.
1998 - Theodore Kaczynski plead guilty to federal charges for his role as the Unabomber. He agreed to life in prison without parole.
2000 - Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers met privately with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno as they appealed for help in removing the boy from his Florida relatives and reuniting him with his father in Cuba.
2001 - Former National Football League (NFL) player Rae Carruth was sentenced to a minimum 18 years and 11 months in prison for his role in the 1999 shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend, Cherica Adams. Adams died a month later from her wounds. The baby survived and lives with the victim's mother.
2001 - Acting on a tip, authorities captured four of the "Texas 7" in Woodland Park, CO, at a convenience store. A fifth convict killed himself inside a motor home.
2002 - In Calcutta, India, Heavily armed gunmen attacked the U.S. government cultural center. Five police officers were killed and twenty others, including one pedestrian and one private security guard, were wounded.
2002 - Lawyers suing Enron Corp. asked a court to prevent further shredding of documents due to the pending federal investigation.
2002 - Amazon.com announced that it had posted its first net profit in the fourth quarter (quarter ending December 31, 2001).
2002 - AOL Time Warner filed suit against Microsoft in federal court seeking damages for harm done to AOL's Netscape Internet Browser when Microsoft began giving away its competing browser.
2002 - Marc Chagall's work "Study for 'Over Vitebsk" was found at a postal installation in Topeka, KS. The 8x10 oil painting is valued at about $1 million. The work was stolen a year before form the Jewish Museum in New York City.
2002 - Kmart Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy making it the largest retailer in history to seek legal protection from its creditors.
2003 - In New York, the "Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsmen" exhibit opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2003 - It was reported that scientists in China had found fossilized remains of a dinosaur with four feathered wings.
Current Birthdays
Piper Laurie turns 77 years old today.
81 Birch Bayh
Former U.S. senator, D-Ind.
74 Seymour Cassel
Actor
72 Joseph Wambaugh
Author
69 John Hurt
Actor
60 Steve Perry
Rock singer (Journey)
57 Teddy Gentry
Country singer, musician (Alabama)
56 Jim Jarmusch
Director
52 Mike Bossy
Hockey Hall of Famer
50 Linda Blair
Actress ("The Excorcist")
44 Jazzy Jeff
Actor, rapper ("The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air")
44 Diane Lane
Actress
44 Regina Nicks
Country singer (Regina Regina)
40 Marc Gay
R&B singer (Shai)
37 Gabriel Macht
Actor
34 Balthazar Getty
Actor
29 Christopher Kennedy Masterson
Actor ("Malcolm in the Middle")
28 Willa Ford
Singer
28 Beverley Mitchell
Actress ("7th Heaven")
28 Ben Moody
Rock musician
Historic Birthdays
Fred Vinson
1/22/1890 - 9/8/1953
Chief Justice of the United States
36 Lord George Gordan Byron
1/22/1788 - 4/19/1824
English romantic/satirical poet
63 August Strindberg
1/22/1849 - 5/14/1912
Swedish playwright/novelist
82 Robert Brookings
1/22/1850 - 11/15/1932
American businessman/philanthropist
73 D. W. Griffith
1/22/1875 - 7/23/1948
American film director
94 Marcel Dassault
1/22/1892 - 4/18/1986
French aircraft designer
84 Rosa Ponselle
1/22/1897 - 5/25/1981
American coloratura soprano
79 George Balanchine
1/22/1904 - 4/30/1983
Russian-bn. American choreographer
65 U. Thant
1/22/1909 - 11/25/1974
Myanmar 3rd U.N. Secy. General
65 Howard Moss
1/22/1922 - 9/16/1987
American poet/editor of The New Yorker
1556 - An earthquake in Shanxi Province, China, was thought to have killed about 830,000 people.
1571 - The Royal Exchange in London, founded by financier Thomas Gresham, was opened by Queen Elizabeth I.
1789 - Georgetown College was established as the first Catholic college in the U.S. The school is in Washington, DC.
1845 - The U.S. Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
1849 - English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive medical degree. It was from the Medical Institution of Geneva, NY.
1907 - Charles Curtis, of Kansas, began serving in the United States Senate. He was the first American Indian to become a U.S. Senator. He resigned in March of 1929 to become U.S. President Herbert Hoover’s Vice President.
1920 - The Dutch government refused the demands from the Allies to hand over the ex-kaiser of Germany.
1924 - The first Labour government was formed, under Ramsay MacDonald.
1937 - In Moscow, seventeen people went on trial during Josef Stalin's "Great Purge."
1941 - The play, "Lady in the Dark" premiered.
1943 - Duke Ellington and the band played for a black-tie crowd at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
1943 - The British captured Tripoli from the Germans.
1950 - The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
1960 - The U.S. Navy bathyscaphe Trieste descended to a record depth of 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) in the Pacific Ocean.
1964 - Ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was completed. This amendment eliminated the poll tax in federal elections.
1968 - North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation's territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
1971 - In Prospect Creek Camp, AK, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was reported as minus 80 degrees.
1973 - U.S. President Nixon announced that an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.
1974 - Mike Oldfield’s "Tubular Bells" opened the credits of the movie, "The Exorcist".
1975 - "Barney Miller" made his debut on ABC-TV.
1977 - The TV mini-series "Roots," began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel.
1978 - Sweden banned aerosol sprays because of damage to environment. They were the first country to do so.
1983 - "The A-Team" debuted on TV.
1985 - O.J. Simpson became the first Heisman Trophy winner to be elected to pro football’s Hall of Fame in Canton, OH.
1985 - The proceedings of the House of Lords were televised for the first time.
1989 - Surrealist artist Salvador Dali died in Spain at age 84.
1997 - A judge in Fairfax, VA, sentenced Mir Aimal Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside the CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people.
1997 - A British woman received a record £186,000 damages for Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).
2001 - A van used by the remaining two fugitives of the "Texas 7" was recovered in Colorado Springs, CO. A few hours later police surrounded a hotel where the convicts were hiding. Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody the next morning without incident.
2002 - John Walker Lindh returned to the U.S. under FBI custody. Lindh was charge with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorists and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban while a member of the al-Quaida terrorist organization in Afghanistan.
2003 - North Korea announced that it would consider sanctions an act of war for North Korea's reinstatement of its nuclear program.
Current Birthdays
Mariska Hargitay turns 45 years old today.
85 Frank Lautenberg
U.S. senator, D-N.J.
81 Jeanne Moreau
Actress
79 Derek Walcott
Nobel Prize-winning poet, playwright
76 Chita Rivera
Actress, dancer
75 Lou Antonio
Actor, director
66 Gil Gerard
Actor
65 Rutger Hauer
Actor
65 Jerry Lawson
R&B singer (The Persuasions)
62 Thomas R. Carper
U.S. senator, D-Del.
61 Anita Pointer
Singer (The Pointer Sisters)
59 Richard Dean Anderson
Actor
59 Bill Cunningham
Rock musician (The Box Tops)
56 Antonio Villaraigosa
Mayor of Los Angeles
56 Robin Zander
Rock singer (Cheap Trick)
52 Princess Caroline
Member of Monaco's royal family
51 Anita Baker
R&B singer
50 Earl Falconer
Reggae musician (UB40)
46 Gail O'Grady
Actress
38 Marc Nelson
R&B singer
35 Tiffani Thiessen
Actress ("Beverly Hills, 90210")
34 Nick Harmer
Rock musician (Death Cab for Cutie)
Historic Birthdays
Sergei Eisenstein
1/23/1898 - 2/11/1948
Russian film director
56 John Hancock
1/23/1737 (N.S.) - 10/8/1793
American Revolutionary statesman
59 Stendhal
1/23/1783 - 3/23/1842
French writer
82 Camilla Collett
1/23/1813 - 3/6/1895
Norwegian novelist/feminist
51 Edouard Manet
1/23/1832 - 4/30/1883
French Impressionist painter
81 David Hilbert
1/23/1862 - 2/14/1943
German mathematician
77 Sergius
1/23/1867 - 5/15/1944
Russian Patriarch of Moscow
61 Herbert D. Croly
1/23/1869 - 5/17/1930
American Founder of New Republic
72 Ralph De Palma
1/23/1884 - 3/31/1956
American race car driver
70 Potter Stewart
1/23/1915 - 12/7/1985
United States Associate Supreme Court Justice
81 Gertrude Belle Elion
1/23/1918 - 2/21/1999
American pharmacologist
assholebythedoor
2009-01-23, 13:47
1994 - A jury in Manassas, VA, acquitted Lorena Bobbitt by reason of temporary insanity of maliciously wounding (severing his penis) her husband John. She accused him of sexually assaulting her.
my uncle and I gave her a lift back to her house a day before this happened. She was a rock chick, who loved the song sweet cheery he said her husband was a perv. Shes probably one of the coolest people I have ever met.
1848 - James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of '49.
1888 - The typewriter ribbon was patented by Jacob L. Wortman.
1899 - Humphrey O’Sullivan patented the rubber heel.
1908 - In England, the first Boy Scout troop was organized by Robert Baden-Powell.
1916 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that income tax was unconstitutional.
1916 - Conscription was introduced in Britain.
1922 - Christian K. Nelson patented the Eskimo Pie.
1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg.
1930 - Primo Carnera made his American boxing debut by knocking out Big Boy Patterson in one minute, ten seconds of the opening round.
1935 - Krueger Brewing Company placed the first canned beer on sale in Richmond, VA.
1942 - "Abie’s Irish Rose" was first heard on NBC radio.
1943 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
1952 - Vincent Massey was the first Canadian to be appointed governor-general of Canada.
1955 - The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound.
1964 - CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League’s 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years.
1965 - Winston Churchill died at the age of 90.
1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.
1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated. The radioactive debris was scattered over parts of Canada's Northwest Territory.
1985 - Penny Harrington became the first woman police chief of a major city. She assumed the duties as head of the Portland, Oregon, force of 940 officers and staff.
1986 - The Voyager 2 space probe flew past Uranus. The probe came within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.
1987 - In Lebanon, gunmen kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. They were all later released.
1989 - Ted Bundy, the confessed serial killer, was put to death in Florida's electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.
1990 - Japan launched the first probe to be sent to the Moon since 1976. A small satellite was placed in lunar orbit.
1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigned due to allegations that he had spied for Moscow.
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Missouri law that limited the contributions that individuals could donate to a candidate during a single election.
2001 - In Colorado Springs, CO, Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody after a 5-minute phone interview was granted with a TV station. They were the remaining fugitives of the "Texas 7."
2002 - The U.S. Congress began a hearing on the collapse of Enron Corp.
2002 - John Walker Lindh appeared in court for the first time concerning the charges that he conspired to kill Americans abroad and aided terrorist groups. Lindh had been taken into custody by U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.
2003 - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began operations under Tom Ridge.
Current Birthdays
Neil Diamond turns 68 years old today.
92 Ernest Borgnine
Actor
91 Oral Roberts
Evangelist
90 Jerry Maren
Actor ("Wizard of Oz")
82 Marvin Kaplan
Actor
73 Doug Kershaw
Cajun musician
70 Ray Stevens
Country singer
68 Aaron Neville
Singer
63 Michael Ontkean
Actor
59 Daniel Auteuil
Actor
59 Becky Hobbs
Country singer, songwriter
58 Yakov Smirnoff
Comedian
51 Jools Holland
Rock musician (Squeeze)
50 Nastassja Kinski
Actress
46 Keech Rainwater
Country musician (Lonestar)
42 Phil LaMarr
Comedian
41 Mary Lou Retton
Olympic gold-medal gymnast
39 Sleepy Brown
R&B singer (Society of Soul)
39 Matthew Lillard
Actor
38 Merrilee McCommas
Actress
35 Ed Helms
Actor ("The Office," "The Daily Show")
30 Tatyana Ali
Actress, singer
23 Mischa Barton
Actress ("The O.C.")
Historic Birthdays
Edith Wharton
1/24/1862 - 8/11/1937
American author
58 William Congreve
1/24/1670 - 1/19/1729
English dramatist
75 Christian Wolff
1/24/1679 - 4/9/1754
German philosopher
77 Farinelli
1/24/1705 - 7/15/1782
Italian castrato singer
67 Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais
1/24/1732 - 5/18/1799
French author
89 Henry Barnard
1/24/1811 - 7/5/1900
American education commissioner
49 Henry Jarvis Raymond
1/24/1820 - 6/18/1869
American journalist/politician
86 Harold Babcock
1/24/1882 - 4/8/1968
American astronomer
70 Ernst Heinkel
1/24/1888 - 1/30/1958
German rocket designer
67 Cassandre
1/24/1901 - 6/19/1968
French graphic artist
77 Mark Goodson
1/24/1915 - 12/18/1992
American radio/TV producer
76 Robert Motherwell
1/24/1915 - 7/16/1991
American abstract painter
1504 - The English Parliament passed statutes against retainers and liveries, to curb private warfare.
1533 - England's King Henry VIII secretly married his second wife Anne Boleyn. Boleyn later gave birth to Elizabeth I.
1579 - The Treaty of Utrecht was signed marking the beginning of the Dutch Republic.
1799 - Eliakim Spooner patented the seeding machine.
1858 - Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" was presented for the first time, as the daughter of Queen Victoria married the Crown Prince of Prussia.
1870 - G.D. Dows patented the ornamental soda fountain.
1881 - Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others signed an agreement to organize the Oriental Telephone Company.
1890 - The United Mine Workers of America was founded.
1915 - In New York, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant in San Francisco, inaugurating the first transcontinental telephone service.
1924 - The 1st Winter Olympic Games were inaugurated in Chamonix in the French Alps.
1927 - Jack Benny married Sadye Marks on this day. Sadye changed her name to Mary Livingstone.
1937 - NBC radio presented the first broadcast of "The Guiding Light." The show remained on radio until 1956 and began on CBS-TV in 1952.
1945 - Richard Tucker debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in the production of "La Gioconda".
1946 - The United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor.
1949 - The first Emmys were presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
1950 - A federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury.
1959 - In the U.S., American Airlines had the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.
1961 - John F. Kennedy presented the first live presidential news conference from Washington, DC. The event was carried on radio and television.
1971 - Charles Manson and three female members of his "family" were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit murder and seven counts of murder in the first degree. They were all sentenced to death for the 1969 killings. The sentences were later commuted to life sentences.
1971 - Maj. Gen. Idi Amin led a coup that deposed Milton Obote and became president of Uganda.
1981 - Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, was tried for treason and received a death sentence, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.
1981 - The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States and were reunited with their families.
1987 - The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos, 39-20, in Super Bowl XXI on NBC. The game featured TV commercials cost $550,000 for 30 seconds.
1993 - A gunman shot and killed two CIA employees outside the agencies headquarters in Virginia. Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani national, was later convicted of the shootings.
1995 - The defense gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson trial.
1998 - The Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers 31-24 in Super Bowl XXXII. The Broncos had lost 3 previous Super Bowl appearances with quarterback John Elway.
1999 - At least 1,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit western Columbia. The quake registered 6.0 on the Richter Scale.
1999 - In Louisville, KY, man received the first hand transplant in the United States.
2001 - A minor earthquake hit northeastern Ohio. The quake measured only 4.2 on the Richter Scale.
Current Birthdays
Alicia Keys turns 28 years old today.
90 Edwin Newman
Journalist
81 Eduard Shevardnadze
Former president of Georgia
78 Dean Jones
Actor
77 Claude Gray
Country singer
76 Corazon Aquino
Former Philippine president
74 Conrad Burns
Former U.S. senator, R-Mont.
71 Etta James
Blues singer
66 Tobe Hooper
Director
64 Leigh Taylor-Young
Actress
52 Jenifer Lewis
Actress
51 Dinah Manoff
Actress ("Empty Nest," "Soap")
43 Mike Burch
Country musician (River Road)
43 Chet Culver
Governor of Iowa
40 Kina
R&B singer
38 China Kantner
Actress
38 Ana Ortiz
Actress ("Ugly Betty")
34 Mia Kirshner
Actress
30 Christine Lakin
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Virginia Woolf
1/25/1882 - 3/28/1941
British author
71 Giovanni Morone
1/25/1509 - 12/1/1580
Italian cardinal and diplomat
64 Robert Boyle
1/25/1627 - 12/30/1691
Anglo-Irish chemist
77 Joseph-Louis Lagrange
1/25/1736 - 4/10/1813
Italian-French mathematician
37 Robert Burns
1/25/1759 - 7/21/1796
Scottish national poet
60 Benjamin Robert Haydon
1/25/1786 - 6/22/1846
English historical painter/writer
77 Dan Rice
1/25/1823 - 2/22/1900
American clown
50 George Edward Pickett
1/25/1825 - 7/30/1875
American Confederate Army officer
76 Charles Curtis
1/25/1860 - 2/8/1936
American 31st vice president
85 Rufus Matthew Jones
1/25/1863 - 6/16/1948
American Quaker and author
91 W. Somerset Maugham
1/25/1874 - 12/16/1965
English novelist/playwright
76 William C. Bullitt
1/25/1891 - 2/15/1967
U.S. diplomat
73 Paul-Henri Spaak
1/25/1899 - 7/31/1972
Post-World War II statesmen from Belgium
54 Viljo Revell
1/25/1910 - 11/8/1964
Finnish architect
1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón discovered Brazil.
1736 - Stanislaus I formally abdicated as King of Poland.
1784 - In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the symbol to be the turkey.
1788 - The first European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in what became known as Sydney. The group had first settled at Botany Bay eight days before. This day is celebrated as Australia Day.
1802 - The U.S. Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.
1827 - Peru seceded from Colombia in protest against Simón Bolívar's alleged tyranny.
1837 - Michigan became the 26th state to join the United States.
1841 - Britain formally occupied Hong Kong, which the Chinese had ceded to the British.
1861 - In the U.S., Louisiana seceded from the Union.
1870 - The state of Virgina rejoined the Union.
1875 - George F. Green patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth.
1905 - The Cullinan diamond, weighing 114 lbs, was found by Captain Wells at the Premier Mine, near Pretoria, South Africa.
1911 - Inventor Glenn H. Curtiss flew the first successful seaplane.
1934 - The Apollo Theatre opened in New York City.
1939 - In the Spanish Civil War, Franco's forces, with Italian aid, took Barcelona.
1942 - The first American expeditionary force to go to Europe during World War II went ashore in Northern Ireland.
1947 - "The Greatest Story Ever Told" was first heard on ABC radio.
1950 - India officially proclaimed itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad took the oath of office as president.
1950 - The American Associated Insurance Companies, of St. Louis, MO, issued the first baby sitter’s insurance policy.
1959 - "Alcoa Presents" debuted on ABC-TV. The show would later be renamed "One Step Beyond".
1961 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Janet G. Travell as the first woman to be the "personal physician to the President".
1962 - The U.S. launched Ranger 3 to land scientific instruments on the moon. The probe missed its target by about 22,000 miles.
1965 - Hindi was made the official language of India.
1972 - In Hermsdorf, Czechoslovakia, a JAT Yugoslav Airlines flight crashed after the detonation of a bomb in the forward cargo hold killing 27 people. The bomb was believed to have been placed on the plane by a Croatian extremist group. Vesna Vulovic, a stewardess, survived after falling 33,000 feet in the tail section. She broke both legs and became paralyzed from the waist down.
1979 - The ‘Gizmo’ guitar synthesizer was first demonstrated.
1984 - CBS television debuted Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer."
1992 - Russian president Boris Yeltsin announced that his country would stop targeting U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.
1993 - Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.
1994 - In Sydney, Australia, a young man lunged at and fired two blank shots at Britain's Prince Charles.
1996 - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury concerning the Whitewater probe.
1998 - U.S. President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern, saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."
1999 - Saddam Hussein vowed revenge against the U.S. in response to air-strikes that reportedly killed civilians. The strikes were U.S. planes defending themselves against anti-aircraft fire.
1999 - Gary Busey was released from jail after being arrested the night before for investigation of misdemeanor spousal abuse. Tiana Busey had no visible injuries.
2001 - Near Ciudad Boliva, Venezuela, twenty four people were killed when a 50-year-old DC-3 crashed.
Current Birthdays
Ellen DeGeneres turns 51 years old today
86 Anne Jeffreys
Actress
84 Joan Leslie
Actress
74 Bob Uecker
Sportscaster-actor
70 Scott Glenn
Actor
66 Jean Knight
R&B singer
61 Corky Laing
Rock musician (Mountain)
60 David Strathairn
Actor ("Good Night, and Good Luck")
59 Jack Youngblood
Football Hall of Famer
56 Lucinda Williams
Country singer
54 Eddie Van Halen
Rock musician (Van Halen)
51 Anita Baker
R&B singer
51 Norman Hassan
Reggae musician (UB40)
48 Wayne Gretzky
Hockey Hall of Famer
46 Jazzie B.
R&B singer (Soul II Soul)
46 Andrew Ridgeley
Rock musician (Wham!)
45 Paul Johansson
Actor ("One Tree Hill")
39 Kirk Franklin
Gospel singer
36 Jennifer Crystal
Actress
35 Chris Hesse
Rock musician (Hoobastank)
32 Vince Carter
Basketball player
31 Sara Rue
Actress
26 Michael Martin
Country musician (Marshall Dyllon)
20 Emily Hughes
Figure skater
Historic Birthdays
Douglas MacArthur
1/26/1880 - 4/5/1964
American general
71 Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
1/26/1714 - 8/21/1785
French sculptor
56 Claude-Adrien Helvatius
1/26/1715 - 12/26/1771
French philosopher
81 Charles XIV John
1/26/1763 - 3/8/1844
French general and later king of Sweden and Norway
68 Benjamin Franklin Keith
1/26/1846 - 3/26/1914
American impresario
87 Samuel Hopkins Adams
1/26/1871 - 11/15/1958
American journalist and author
85 Julia Morgan
1/26/1872 - 2/2/1957
American architect
82 Frank Costello
1/26/1891 - 2/18/1973
American syndicate gangster
33 Bessie Coleman
1/26/1892 - 4/30/1926
American aviator
83 Sean MacBride
1/26/1904 - 1/15/1988
Irish statesman and winner of 1974 Nobel Peace Prize
77 Jimmy Van Heusen
1/26/1913 - 2/7/1990
American songwriter
71 Nicolae Ceausescu
1/26/1918 - 12/25/1989
Romanian dictator
1606 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were executed on January 31.
1870 - Kappa Alpha Theta, the first women’s sorority, was founded at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, IN.
1880 - Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp.
1888 - The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC.
1900 - In China, foreign diplomats in Peking, fearing a revolt, demanded that the imperial government discipline the Boxer rebels.
1926 - John Baird, a Scottish inventor, demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine called television.
1927 - United Independent Broadcasters Inc. started a radio network with contracts with 16 stations. The company later became Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).
1931 - NBC radio debuted "Clara, Lu ’n’ Em" on its Blue network (later, ABC radio).
1943 - During World War II, the first all American air raid against Germany took place when about 50 bombers attacked Wilhlemshaven.
1944 - The Soviet Union announced that the two year German siege of Leningrad had come to an end.
1945 - Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.
1948 - Wire Recording Corporation of America announced the first magnetic tape recorder. The ‘Wireway’ machine with a built-in oscillator sold for $149.50.
1951 - In the U.S., atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.
1957 - The "CBS Radio Workshop" was heard for the first time.
1967 - At Cape Kennedy, FL, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.
1967 - More than 60 nations signed the Outer Space Treaty which banned the orbiting of nuclear weapons and placing weapons on celestial bodies or space stations.
1973 - The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.
1977 - The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.
1981 - U.S. President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.
1984 - Carl Lewis beat his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4 inches when he set a new indoor world record with a long-jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches.
1984 - Wayne Gretzky set a National Hockey League (NHL) record for consecutive game scoring. He ended the streak at 51 games.
1985 - The Coca-Cola Company, of Atlanta, GA, announced a plan to sell its soft drinks in the Soviet Union.
1992 - Former world boxing champion Mike Tyson went on trial for allegedly raping an 18-year-old contestant in the 1991 Miss Black America Contest.
1996 - Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of Niger, was overthrown by a military coup. Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara declared himself head of state.
1997 - It was revealed that French national museums were holding nearly 2,000 works of art stolen from Jews by the Nazis during World War II.
1998 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on NBC's "Today" show. She charged that the allegations against her husband were the work of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."
1999 - The U.S. Senate blocked dismissal of the impeachment case against President Clinton and voted for new testimony from Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses.
2002 - A series of explosions occurred at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria. More than 1,000 people were killed in the blast and in the attempt to escape.
2003 - Altria Group, Inc. became the name of the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris Capital Corporation.
Current Birthdays
John Roberts turns 54 years old today
79 Bobby "Blue" Bland
Singer
69 James Cromwell
Actor
67 John Witherspoon
Actor
64 Nick Mason
Rock musician (Pink Floyd)
63 Nedra Talley
R&B singer (The Ronettes)
61 Mikhail Baryshnikov
Ballet dancer
54 Cheryl White
Country singer (The Whites)
54 Richard Young
Country musician (The Kentucky Headhunters)
53 Mimi Rogers
Actress
52 Janick Gers
Rock musician (Iron Maiden)
50 Keith Olbermann
TV host
48 Gillian Gilbert
Rock musician (New Order)
48 Margo Timmois
Rock singer (Cowboy Junkies)
45 Bridget Fonda
Actress
44 Alan Cumming
Actor
41 Tracy Lawrence
Country singer
41 Mike Patton
Rock singer (Faith No More)
41 Tricky
Rapper
40 Michael Kulas
Rock musician (James)
37 Josh Randall
Actor ("Ed")
33 Kevin Denney
Country singer
33 Fred Taylor
Football player
29 Marat Safin
Tennis player
Historic Birthdays
Jerome (David) Kern
1/27/1885 - 11/11/1945
American musical comedy composer
35 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1/27/1756 - 12/5/1791
Austrian composer
66 David Friedrich Strauss
1/27/1808 - 2/8/1874
German-Protestant philosopher, theologian
69 Édouard Lalo
1/27/1823 - 4/22/1892
French composer
87 Jozef Israëls
1/27/1824 - 8/12/1911
Dutch painter and etcher
65 Lewis Carroll
1/27/1832 - 1/14/1898
English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist
89 Learned Hand
1/27/1872 - 8/18/1961
American jurist
59 Victor Moritz Goldschmidt
1/27/1888 - 3/20/1947
Swiss-born Norwegian mineralogist and petrologist
89 Ch'ing-ling Soong
1/27/1892 - 5/29/1981
Chinese political figure
86 Hyman G. Rickover
1/27/1900 - 7/8/1986
American naval officer and nuclear engineer
1521 - The Diet of Worms began, at which Protestant reformer Luther was declared an outlaw by the Roman Catholic church.
1547 - England's King Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his 9 year-old son, Edward VI.
1788 - The first British penal settlement was founded at Botany Bay.
1807 - London's Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight.
1871 - France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War.
1878 - The first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT.
1878 - "The Yale News" was published for the first time. It was the first, daily, collegiate newspaper in the U.S.
1902 - The Carnegie Institution was established in Washington, DC. It began with a gift of $10 million from Andrew Carnegie.
1909 - The United States ended direct control over Cuba.
1915 - The Coast Guard was created by an act of the U.S. Congress.
1916 - Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by President Wilson to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.
1918 - The Bolsheviks occupied Helsinki, Finland.
1922 - The National Football League (NFL) franchise in Decatur, IL, transferred to Chicago. The team took the name Chicago Bears.
1935 - Iceland became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.
1938 - The first ski tow started operation in Vermont.
1945 - During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that circus clown Emmett Kelly had been hired to entertain fans at baseball games.
1958 - Roy Campanella (Brooklyn Dodgers) was seriously injured in an auto accident in New York. He would never return to play again.
1958 - Construction began on first private thorium-uranium nuclear reactor.
1965 - General Motors reported the biggest profit of any U.S. company in history.
1973 - CBS-TV debuted "Barnaby Jones."
1980 - Six Americans who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, left Iran using false Canadian diplomatic passports. The Americans had been hidden at the Canadian embassy in Tehran.
1982 - Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier. 42 days before he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.
1986 - The U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. All seven of its crewmembers were killed.
1994 - In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez in the murder of his parents. Lyle, and his brother Erik, were both retried later and were found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1997 - Clive Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - In Manilla, Philippines, gunmen held at least 400 children and teachers for several hours at an elementary school.
1999 - Ford Motor company announced the purchase of Sweden's Volvo AB for $6.45 billion.
2002 - Toys R Us Inc. announced that it would be closing 27 Toys R Us stores and 37 Kids R Us stores in order to cut costs and boost operating profits.
Current Birthdays
Jeanne Shaheen turns 62 years old today
80 Acker Bilk
Musician, composer
74 Nicholas Pryor
Actor
73 Alan Alda
Actor ("M*A*S*H*")
67 Susan Howard
Actress
64 Marthe Keller
Actress
59 Barbi Benton
Actress
54 Nicolas Sarkozy
President of France
52 Harley Jane Kozak
Actress
52 Nick Price
Golfer
50 Frank Darabont
Director ("The Shawshank Redemption")
50 Dave Sharp
Rock musician (The Alarm)
47 Sam Phillips
Rock singer
46 Dan Spitz
Rock musician (Anthrax)
44 Greg Cook
Country musician (Ricochet)
42 Marvin Sapp
Gospel singer
41 Sarah McLachlan
Rock singer
41 DJ Muggs
DJ (Cypress Hill)
41 Rakim
Rapper
40 Kathryn Morris
Actress ("Cold Case")
38 Anthony Hamilton
R&B singer
36 Brandon Bush
Rock musician (Train)
35 Magglio Ordonez
Baseball player
32 Daunte Culpepper
Football player
32 Joey Fatone Jr.
Singer ('N Sync)
32 Rick Ross
Rapper
30 Rosamund Pike
Actress
29 Nick Carter
Singer (Backstreet Boys)
28 Elijah Wood
Actor ("Lord of the Rings" movies)
Historic Birthdays
Arthur Rubinstein
1/28/1887 - 12/20/1982
Polish-American virtuoso pianist
52 Henry VII
1/28/1457 - 4/21/1509
English King
63 Sir Henry Morton Stanley
1/28/1841 - 5/10/1904
English/American explorer
43 William Seward Burroughs
1/28/1855 - 9/15/1898
American inventor
78 Franklin Hooper
1/28/1862 - 8/14/1940
American editor in chief of Encyclopedia Britiannica.
81 (Sidonie-Gabrielle) Colette
1/28/1873 - 8/3/1954
French writer
78 Auguste Piccard
1/28/1884 - 3/24/1962
Swiss-bn. Belgian physicist, balloonist, deep sea diver
55 Ernst Lubitsch
1/28/1892 - 11/30/1947
German/American film director
68 Dame Kathleen Lonsdale
1/28/1903 - 4/1/1971
British crystallographer
44 Jackson Pollock
1/28/1912 - 8/11/1956
American painter
80 Virgilio Ferreira
1/28/1916 - 3/1/1996
Portuguese teacher and novelist
1728 - John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was first performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London.
1802 - John Beckley became the first Librarian of Congress.
1820 - Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle.
1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" was published for the first time in the "New York Evening Mirror."
1848 - Greenwich Mean Time was adopted by Scotland.
1850 - Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.
1856 - Britain's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria.
1861 - In America, Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.
1886 - The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.
1900 - The American Baseball League was organized in Philadelphia, PA. It consisted of 8 teams.
1916 - In World War I, Paris was bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
1924 - R. Taylor patented the ice cream cone rolling machine.
1936 - The first members of major league baseball's Hall of Fame were named in Cooperstown, NY.
1940 - The W. Atlee Burpee Seed Company displayed the first tetraploid flowers at the New York City Flower Show.
1949 - "The Newport News" was commissioned as the first air-conditioned naval ship in Virginia.
1956 - "Indictment" debuted on CBS radio and stayed on the air for three years.
1958 - Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.
1958 - Charles Starkweather was captured by police in Wyoming.
1963 - The first members to the NFL's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, OH.
1963 - Britain was refused entry into the EEC.
1966 - "Sweet Charity" opened at the Palace Theatre in New York City. It ran for 608 performances.
1979 - U.S. President Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House. The visit followed the establishment of diplomatic relations.
1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average peaked at 1,292.62.
1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."
1990 - Joseph Hazelwood, the former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, went on trial in Anchorage, AK, on charges that stemmed from America's worst oil spill. Hazelwood was later acquitted of all the major charges and was convicted of a misdemeanor.
1995 - The San Francisco 49ers became the first team in National Football League (NFL) history to win five Super Bowl titles. The 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers 49-26.
1996 - French President Jacques Chirac announced the "definitive end" to nuclear testing.
1996 - La Fenice, the 204 year old opera house in Venice, was destroyed by fire. Arson was suspected.
1997 - America Online agreed to give refunds to frustrated customers under threat of lawsuits across the country. Customers were unable to log on after AOL offered a flat $19.95-a-month rate.
1998 - A bomb exploded at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL, killing an off-duty policeman and severely wounding a nurse. Eric Rudolph was charged with this bombing and three other attacks in Atlanta.
1999 - Paris prosecutors announced the end of the investigation into the accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana.
1999 - The U.S. Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two presidential advisers for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial.
2001 - In Indonesia, thousands of student protesters stormed the parliament property and demanded that President Abdurrahman Wahid quit due to his alleged involvement in two corruption scandals. Wahid announced that he would not resign.
Current Birthdays
Oprah Winfrey turns 55 years old today
91 John Forsythe
Actor ("Dynasty")
75 Noel Harrison
Actor
69 Katharine Ross
Actress
64 Tom Selleck
Actor ("Magnum P.I.")
63 Bettye LaVette
R&B singer
61 Marc Singer
Actor
59 Ann Jillian
Actress
57 Tommy Ramone
Rock musician (The Ramones)
56 Louie Perez
Rock musician (Los Lobos)
53 Irlene Mandrell
Country singer
52 Diane Delano
Actress
51 Judy Norton Taylor
Actress ("The Waltons")
50 Johnny Spampinato
Rock musician (NRBQ)
49 Greg Louganis
Olympic gold-medal diver
48 David Baynton-Power
Rock musician (James)
48 Eddie Jackson
Rock musician (Queensryche)
47 Nicholas Turturro
Actor ("NYPD Blue")
45 Roddy Frame
Rock musician (Aztec Camera)
44 Dominik Hasek
Hockey player
41 Edward Burns
Actor-director
39 Heather Graham
Actress
34 Sharif Atkins
Actor
34 Sara Gilbert
Actress ("Roseanne," "The Big Bang Theory")
30 Andrew Keegan
Actor
29 Jason James Richter
Actor
28 Jonny Lang
Blues musician
Historic Birthdays
William McKinley
1/29/1843 - 9/14/1901
America's 25th President
84 Emanuel Swedenborg
1/29/1688 - 3/29/1772
Swedish scientist/Christian mystic
80 Jeffery Amherst
1/29/1717 - 8/3/1797
English/American army commander
72 Thomas Paine
1/29/1737 - 6/8/1809
English/American political pamphleteer
62 Henry Lee
1/29/1756 - 3/25/1818
American Revolutionary War officer
44 Anton Chekhov
1/29/1860 - 7/15/1904
Russian playwright
72 Frederick Delius
1/29/1862 - 6/10/1934
English/French composer
78 Romain Rolland
1/29/1866 - 12/30/1944
French novelist/dramatist
86 John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
1/29/1874 - 5/11/1960
American philanthropist
68 Barney Oldfield
1/29/1878 - 10/4/1946
American race car driver
66 W.C. Fields
1/29/1880 - 12/25/1946
American comedian
58 Paddy Chayefsky
1/29/1923 - 8/1/1981
American playwright/screenwriter
1649 - England's King Charles I was beheaded.
1790 - The first purpose-built lifeboat was launched on the River Tyne.
1798 - The first brawl in the U.S. House of Representatives took place. Congressmen Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold fought on the House floor.
1847 - The town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.
1862 - The U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship, the "Monitor", was launched.
1889 - Rudolph, crown prince of Austria, and his 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Marie Vetsera, were found shot in his hunting lodge at Mayerling, near Vienna.
1894 - C.B. King received a patent for the pneumatic hammer.
1900 - The British fighting the Boers in South Africa ask for a larger army.
1910 - Work began on the first board-track automobile speedway. The track was built in Playa del Ray, CA.
1911 - The first airplane rescue at sea was made by the destroyer "Terry." Pilot James McCurdy was forced to land in the ocean about 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.
1933 - "The Lone Ranger" was heard on radio for the first time. The program ran for 2,956 episodes and ended in 1955.
1933 - Adolf Hitler was named the German Chancellor.
1948 - Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.
1950 - NBC-TV debuted "Robert Montgomery Presents." The show lasted for seven seasons.
1958 - Yves Saint Laurent, at age 22, held his first major fashion show in Paris.
1958 - The first two-way moving sidewalk was put in service at Love Field in Dallas, TX. The length of the walkway through the airport was 1,435 feet.
1960 - The women’s singles U.S. figure skating championship was won by Carol Heiss.
1962 - Two members of the "Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, MI.
1964 - January 30 - The U.S. launched Ranger 6. The unmanned spacecraft carried television cameras and was intentionally crash-landed on the moon. The cameras did not return any pictures to Earth.
1968 - The Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.
1972 - In Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot and killed thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers. The day is known as "Bloody Sunday."
1979 - The civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to return. He had been living in exile in France.
1989 - The U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan was closed.
1994 - Peter Leko became the world's youngest-ever grand master in chess.
1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized the deployment of a 6,000-member U.N. peace-keeping contingent to assume security responsibilities in Haiti from U.S. forces.
1995 - Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced that clinical trials had demonstrated the effectiveness of the first preventative treatment for sickle cell anaemia.
1996 - Gino Gallagher, the reputed leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, was shot and killed as he queued for his unemployment benefit.
1997 - A New Jersey judge ruled that the unborn child of a female prisoner must have legal representation. He denied the prisoner bail reduction to enable her to leave the jail and obtain an abortion.
2002 - Slobodan Milosevic accused the U.N. war crimes tribunal of an "evil and hostile attack" against him. Milosevic was defending his actions during the Balkan wars.
2002 - Japan's last coal mine was closed. The closures were due to high production costs and cheap imports.
2002 - In Los Angeles, 15 students and 3 adults were injured when they were hit by a car.
Current Birthdays
Christian Bale turns 35 years old today.
84 Dorothy Malone
Actress
81 Harold Prince
Producer, director
79 Gene Hackman
Actor
75 Tammy Grimes
Actress
72 Vanessa Redgrave
Actress
72 Jeanne Pruett
Country singer
71 Norma Jean
Country singer
68 Dick Cheney
Former vice president
67 Marty Balin
Rock singer (Jefferson Airplane/Starship)
60 William King
R&B musician (The Commodores)
58 Phil Collins
Rock singer, musician (Genesis)
58 Charles S. Dutton
Actor
54 John Baldacci
Governor of Maine
51 Brett Butler
Actress, comedian ("Grace Under Fire")
50 Jody Watley
R&B singer
47 King Abdullah II
King of Jordan
42 Norbert Leo Butz
Actor
37 Tammy Cochran
Country singer
29 Josh Kelley
Rock singer, songwriter
29 Wilmer Valderrama
Actor ("That '70s Show")
19 Jake Thomas
Actor ("Lizzie McGuire")
Historic Birthdays
Franklin Roosevelt
1/30/1882 - 4/12/1945
America's 32nd President
59 George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
1/30/1628 - 4/16/1687
English politician
60 Bernardo Bellotto
1/30/1720 - 10/17/1780
Italian "Vedute" painter
70 Philip Henry Stanhope
1/30/1805 - 12/24/1875
English politician/historian
54 Samuel Armstrong
1/30/1839 - 5/11/1893
American founder of Hampton Institute
58 Felix Faure
1/30/1841 - 2/16/1899
6th President of French Republic
64 Edward Martyn
1/30/1859 - 12/5/1923
Irish dramatist
88 Walter Damrosch
1/30/1862 - 12/22/1950
Prussian-bn.American conductor
78 Roy Eldridge
1/30/1911 - 2/26/1989
American musician
77 Barbara Tuchman
1/30/1912 - 2/6/1989
American author/historian
87 Livia Drusilla
1/30/58BC - //AD 29
Political wife of Emperor Augustus
1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the steamboat.
1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York City.
1793 - France declared war on Britain and Holland.
1793 - Ralph Hodgson patented oiled silk.
1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union.
1862 - "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe was first published in the "Atlantic Monthly."
1867 - In the U.S., bricklayers start working 8-hour days.
1884 - The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.
1893 - Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world's first motion picture studio in West Orange, NJ.
1896 - Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered in Turin.
1898 - The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, CT, issued the first automobile insurance policy. Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, NY, paid $11.25 for the policy, which gave him $5,000 in liability coverage.
1900 - Eastman Kodak Co. introduced the $1 Brownie box camera.
1913 - Grand Central Terminal (also known as Grand Central Station) opened in New York City, NY. It was the largest train station in the world.
1919 - The first Miss America was crowned in New York City.
1920 - The first armored car was introduced.
1920 - Canada's Royal North West Mounted Police changed their name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The organization was commissioned in 1873.
1921 - Carmen Fasanella registered as a taxicab owner and driver in Princeton, New Jersey. Fasanella retired November 2, 1989 after 68 years and 243 days of service.
1929 - Weightlifter, Charles Rigoulet of France, achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he lifted 402-1/2 pounds.
1930 - The Times published its first crossword puzzle.
1946 - Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations.
1951 - The first telecast of an atomic explosion took place.
1951 - The first X-ray moving picture process was demonstrated.
1953 - CBS-TV debuted "Private Secretary."
1954 - CBS-TV showed "The Secret Storm" for the first time.
1957 - P.H. Young became the first black pilot on a scheduled passenger airline.
1958 - The United Arab Republic was formed by a union of Egypt and Syria. It was broken 1961.
1960 - Four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They had been refused service.
1968 - During the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. The scene was captured in a news photograph.
1976 - "Sonny and Cher" resumed on TV despite a real life divorce.
1979 - Patty Hearst was released from prison after serving 22 months of a seven-year sentence for bank robbery. Her sentence had been commuted by U.S. President Carter.
1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was welcomed in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.
1987 - Terry Williams won the largest slot machine payoff, at the time, when won $4.9 million after getting four lucky 7s on a machine in Reno, NV.
1991 - A USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane at Los Angeles International Airport. 35 people were killed.
1994 - Jeff Gillooly plead guilty in Portland, OR, for his role in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Gillooly, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, struck a plea bargain under which he confessed to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony implicating Harding.
1996 - Visa and Mastercard announced security measures that would make it safe to shop on the Internet.
1998 - Stuart Whitman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a deposition that was videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against U.S. President Clinton.
2001 - Three Scottish judges found Abdel Basset al-Mergrahi guilty of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people. The court said that Megrahi was a member of the Libyan intelligence service. Al-Amin Khalifa, who had been co-accused, was acquitted and freed.
2003 - NASA's space shuttle Columbia exploded while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.
Current Birthdays
Princess Stephanie turns 44 years old today
81 Stuart Whitman
Actor
72 Don Everly
Singer
72 Garrett Morris
Actor, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
72 Ray Sawyer
Singer
71 Sherman Hemsley
Actor ("The Jeffersons")
70 Del McCoury
Bluegrass singer
70 Joe Sample
Jazz pianist
67 Terry Jones
Actor, writer (Monty Python)
65 Mike Enzi
U.S. senator, R-Wyo.
59 Mike Campbell
Rock musician (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers)
58 Sonny Landreth
Blues singer, musician
55 Bill Mumy
Actor, writer ("Lost in Space")
53 Exene Cervenka
Rock singer (X)
45 Linus Roache
Actor ("Law and Order")
44 Dwayne Dupuy
Country musician (Ricochet)
44 Sherilyn Fenn
Actress
41 Lisa Marie Presley
Rock singer, daughter of Elvis Presley
41 Pauly Shore
Actor, comedian
40 Brian Krause
Actor
40 Joshua Redman
Jazz saxophonist
40 Patrick Wilson
Rock musician (Weezer)
38 Michael C. Hall
Actor
38 Ron Welty
Rock musician
34 Big Boi
Rapper (Outkast)
30 Julie Roberts
Country singer
27 Jarrett Lennon
Actor
23 Lauren Conrad
Reality TV personality ("The Hills")
Historic Birthdays
Langston Hughes
2/1/1902 - 5/22/1967
American poet and writer
82 Sir Edward Coke
2/1/1552 - 9/3/1634
English jurist and politician
66 John Philip Kemble
2/1/1757 - 2/26/1823
English Shakespearean actor and theater manager
47 Thomas Cole
2/1/1801 - 2/11/1848
American painter
56 Joseph Keppler
2/1/1838 - 2/19/1894
Austria bn. American caricaturist and magazine founder
80 Stanley Granville Hall
2/1/1844 - 4/24/1924
American psychologist
65 Victor Herbert
2/1/1859 - 5/26/1924
American composer
72 Hattie O. Caraway
2/1/1878 - 12/21/1950
First female U.S. senator
78 John Ford
2/1/1895 - 8/31/1973
American motion picture director
59 Clark Gable
2/1/1901 - 11/16/1960
American film actor
75 S.J. Perelman
2/1/1904 - 10/17/1979
American humorist
84 Emilio Segre
2/1/1905 - 4/22/1989
Italian-bn. American physicist
1536 - The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.
1653 - New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated.
1802 - The first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown by Othello Pollard in Boston, MA.
1848 - The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845.
1848 - The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco, CA.
1863 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain.
1870 - The "Cardiff Giant" was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, NY, was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human.
1876 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed in New York.
1878 - Greece declared war on Turkey.
1880 - The S.S. Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia.
1887 - The beginning of groundhog day in Punxsutawney, PA.
1892 - William Painter patented the crown-cork bottle cap.
1893 - The Edison Studio in West Orange, NJ, made history when they filmed the first motion picture close-up. The studio was owned and operated by Thomas Edison.
1897 - The Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated nine years later on the same site.
1900 - Six U.S. cities, Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Chicago, and St. Louis, agreed to form baseball's American League. (MLB)
1913 - Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Even though construction was not entirely complete more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day.
1935 - Leonard Keeler conducted the first test of the polygraph machine, in Portage, WI.
1943 - During World War II, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. Stalingrad has since been renamed Volgograd.
1945 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill left for a summit in Yalta with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1946 - The first Buck Rogers automatic pistol was made.
1946 - The Mutual Broadcasting System aired "Twenty Questions" for the first time on radio. The show moved to television 3 years later.
1949 - Golfer Ben Hogan was seriously injured in an auto accident in Van Horn, TX.
1950 - "What's My Line" debuted on CBS television.
1962 - The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.
1967 - The American Basketball Association was formed by representatives of the NBA.
1971 - Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.
1980 - The situation known as "Abscam" began when reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation that targeted members of the U.S. Congress. A phony Arab businessmen were used in the operation.
1989 - The final Russian armored column left Kabul, Afghanistan, after nine years of military occupation.
1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.
1998 - U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.
1999 - 19 people were killed at Luanda international airport when a cargo plane crashed just after takeoff.
1999 - Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.
2004 - It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.
Current Birthdays
Shakira turns 32 years old today.
84 Elaine Stritch
Actress
77 Robert Mandan
Actor
72 Tom Smothers
Comedian
67 Barry Diller
TV-film executive
67 Bo Hopkins
Actor
67 Graham Nash
Rock singer, musician (Crosby, Stills and Nash)
63 Howard Bellamy
Country singer (The Bellamy Brothers)
62 Farrah Fawcett
Actress ("Charlie's Angels")
60 Jack McGee
Actor
60 Brent Spiner
Actor
60 Ross Valory
Rock musician (Journey)
57 John Cornyn
U.S. senator, R-Texas
55 Christie Brinkley
Model
54 Michael Talbott
Actor ("Miami Vice")
54 Kim Zimmer
Actress ("Guiding Light")
43 Robert DeLeo
Rock musician (Stone Temple Pilots)
39 Jennifer Westfeldt
Actress
38 Ben Mize
Rock musician (Counting Crows)
37 T-Mo
Rapper
36 Marissa Jaret Winokur
Actress
33 Lori Beth Denberg
Actress
23 Blaine Larsen
Country singer
Historic Birthdays
James Joyce
2/2/1882 - 1/13/1941
Irish novelist
43 Lodovico Ferrari
2/2/1522 - 10/5/1565
Italian mathematician
37 Nell Gwyn
2/2/1650 - 11/14/1687
English actress
84 Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand
2/2/1754 - 5/17/1838
French statesman/diplomat
59 Albert Sidney Johnston
2/2/1803 - 4/6/1862
American Confederate general in Civil War
80 Havelock Ellis
2/2/1859 - 7/8/1939
English essayist/physician
86 Fritz Kreisler
2/2/1875 - 1/29/1962
Austrian-born violinist
62 Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
2/2/1889 - 1/11/1952
French army officer
88 George Stanley Halas
2/2/1895 - 10/31/1983
American founder/owner of Chicago Bears
86 Jascha Heifetz
2/2/1901 - 12/10/1987
Russian-born American violinist
77 Ayn Rand
2/2/1905 - 3/6/1982
Russian-born American writer/philosopher
49 Jussi Bjorling
2/2/1911 - 9/9/1960
Swedish tenor
73 James Dickey
2/2/1923 - 1/19/1997
American author
1488 - The Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Diaz landed at Mossal Bay in the Cape, the first European known to have landed on the southern extremity of Africa.
1690 - The first paper money in America was issued by the Massachusetts colony. The currency was used to pay soldiers that were fighting in the war against Quebec.
1783 - Spain recognized the independence of the United States.
1809 - The territory of Illinois was created.
1815 - The world's first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland.
1862 - Thomas Edison printed the "Weekly Herald" and distributed it to train passengers traveling between Port Huron and Detroit, MI. It was the first time a newspaper had been printed on a train.
1869 - Edwin Booth opened his new theatre in New York City. The first production was "Romeo and Juliet".
1900 - In Frankfort, KY, gubernatorial candidate William Goebels died from an assasin's bullet wounds. On August 18, 1900, Ex-Sec. of State Caleb Powers was found guilt of conspiracy to murder Gov. Goebels.
1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized the power to impose and collect income tax.
1916 - In Ottawa, Canada's original parliament buildings burned down.
1917 - The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel began service. It is the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet.
1919 - The League of Nations held its first meeting in Paris.
1927 - The Federal Radio Commission was created when U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill.
1941 - In Vichy, France, the Nazis used force to restore Pierre Laval to office.
1945 - Russia agreed to enter World War II against Japan.
1946 - The first issue of "Holiday" magazine appeared.
1947 - Percival Prattisbecame the first black news correspondent admitted to the House and Senate press gallery in Washington, DC. He worked for "Our World" in New York City.
1951 - Dick Button won the U.S. figure skating title for the sixth time.
1951 - The Tennessee Williams play, "The Rose Tattoo", opened on Broadway in New York.
1966 - The first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet space vehicle Luna IX.
1969 - At the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed leader of the PLO.
1972 - The first Winter Olympics in Asia were held at Sapporo, Japan.
1984 - Challenger 4 was launched as the tenth space shuttle mission.
1988 - The U.S. House of Representatives handed rejected U.S. President Reagan's request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.
1989 - South African politician P.W. Botha unwillingly resigned both party leadership and the presidency after suffering a stroke.
1998 - Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker. She was the first woman executed in the U.S. since 1984.
1998 - In Italy, a U.S. Military plane hit a cable causing the death of 20 skiers on a lift.
Current Birthdays
Blythe Danner turns 66 years old today.
83 Shelley Berman
Comedian
76 Paul Sarbanes
Former U.S. senator, D-Md.
69 Fran Tarkenton
Football Hall of Famer
68 Bridget Hanley
Actress
66 Dennis Edwards
R&B singer
64 Bob Griese
Football Hall of Famer
62 Dave Davies
Rock musician (The Kinks)
62 Melanie
Folk singer
59 Morgan Fairchild
Actress
53 Nathan Lane
Actor ("The Producers")
53 Lee Ranaldo
Rock musician (Sonic Youth)
50 Thomas Calabro
Actor ("Melrose Place")
48 Keith Gordon
Actor, director
47 Michele Greene
Actress ("L.A. Law")
45 Matraca Berg
Country singer
41 Vlade Divac
Basketball player
39 Warwick Davis
Actor
33 Daddy Yankee
Reggaeton singer
32 Grant Barry
Musician
27 Jessica Harp
Singer, songwriter
19 Sean Kingston
Rapper
Historic Birthdays
Gertrude Stein
2/3/1874 - 7/27/1946
American writer
38 Felix Mendelssohn
2/3/1809 - 11/4/1847
German composer/pianist/teacher
61 Horace Greeley
2/3/1811 - 11/29/1872
American newspaper editor
72 Sir William C. Van Horne
2/3/1843 - 9/11/1915
American-bn. Canadian railway official
102 Naruhiko Higashikuni
2/3/1887 - 1/20/1990
Japanese imperial prince/prime minister
84 Norman Rockwell
2/3/1894 - 11/8/1978
American illustrator
62 Juan Negrin
2/3/1894 - 11/14/1956
Spanish Republican prime minister during Spanish Civil War
78 Alvar Aalto
2/3/1898 - 5/11/1976
Finnish architect/city planner
90 James Michener
2/3/1907 - 10/16/1997
American novelist/short story writer
34 Simone Weil
2/3/1909 - 8/24/1943
French mystic and Resistance activist
75 Helen Stephens
2/3/1918 - 1/17/1994
American Olympic gold medal runner
1783 - Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.
1789 - Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.
1824 - J.W. Goodrich introduced rubber galoshes to the public.
1847 - In Maryland, the first U.S. Telegraph Company was established.
1861 - Delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, AL, to form the Confederate States of America.
1865 - The Hawaiian Board of Education was formed.
1895 - The Van Buren Street Bridge opened in Chicago, IL.
1901 - "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" opened in New York City.
1904 - The Russo-Japanese War began after Japan laid seige to Port Arthur.
1913 - Louis Perlman received a patent for his demountable tire-carrying rims.
1932 - The first Winter Olympics were held in the United States at Lake Placid, NY.
1935 - CBS radio presented "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" for the first time.
1936 - Radium E. became the first radioactive substance to be produced synthetically.
1938 - The play "Our Town", by Thornton Wilder, opened in New York City.
1941 - The United Service Organizations (USO) was created.
1945 - During World War II, U.S. President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a conference at Yalta to outline plans for Germany's defeat.
1948 - Ceylon gained independence within the British Commonwealth. The country later became known as Sri Lanka.
1952 - Jackie Robinson was named Director of Communication for NBC. He was the first black executive of a major radio-TV network.
1953 - "The Stooge" premiered at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.
1957 - Smith-Corona Manufacturing Inc., of New York, began selling portable electric typewriters. The first machine weighed 19 pounds.
1964 - The Admistrator of General Services announced that the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been ratified. The amendment banned the poll tax.
1968 - The world's largest hovercraft was launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.
1973 - The Reshef was unveiled as Israel's missile boat.
1974 - Patricia (Patty) Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, CA, by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
1976 - An earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras killed more than 22,000 people.
1985 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan's defense budget called for a tripling of the expenditure on the "Star Wars" research program.
1993 - Russian scientists unfurled a giant mirror in orbit and flashed a beam of sunlight across Europe during the night. Observers saw it only as an momentary flash.
1997 - A civil jury in California found O.J. Simpson liable in the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Goldman's parents were awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages.
1997 - Two Israeli troop-carrying helicopters collided on their way to Lebanon, all 73 soldiers and airmen aboard were killed.
1997 - President Milosevic of Serbia apparently surrendered to the will of his people, ordering his government to recognize opposition victories in local elections held in November 1996.
1997 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) scored his 600th National Hockey League (NHL) goal during his 719th game. Lemieux reached the milestone second fastest in history. Gretzky had reached the plateau during his 718th game.
1998 - In northeast Afghanistan, at least 5,000 people were killed in an earthquake that measured 6.1 on the Richter Scale.
1999 - Warplanes from Israel attacked south Lebanon just after rockets were fired toward Israel. No casualies were claimed on either side.
1999 - Gary Coleman was sentenced to a $400 fine, a suspended 90-day jail sentence, and ordered to attend 52 anger-management classes. The sentence stemmed from Coleman assaulting an autograph seeker on July 30, 1998.
1999 - Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was shot and killed in front of his Bronx home by four plainclothes New York City police officers. The officers had been conducting a nighttime search for a rape suspect.
2000 - Austrian President Thomas Klestil swore in a coalition government that included Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party. European Union sanctions were a result of the action.
2003 - Yugoslavia was formally dissolved by lawmakers. The country was replaced with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro.
Current Birthdays
Clint Black turns 47 years old today.
87 William Phipps
Actor
86 Conrad Bain
Actor ("Diff'rent Strokes")
73 Gary Conway
Actor
69 George A. Romero
Director
68 John Steel
Rock musician (The Animals)
65 Florence LaRue
Singer (The Fifth Dimension)
62 Dan Quayle
Former vice president
61 Alice Cooper
Rock singer
60 Michael Beck
Actor
57 Lisa Eichhorn
Actress
50 Lawrence Taylor
Football Hall of Famer
49 Tim Booth
Rock singer (James)
48 Henry Bogdan
Rock musician
43 Dave Buchanan
Country musician (Yankee Grey)
39 Gabrielle Anwar
Actress
38 Rob Corddry
Actor
38 David Garza
Rock singer
38 Michael Goorjian
Actor
34 Rick Burch
Rock musician (Jimmy Eat World)
34 Natalie Imbruglia
Rock singer
33 Cam'ron
Rapper
32 Gavin DeGraw
Rock singer
21 Carly Patterson
Gymnast
Historic Birthdays
Charles A. Lindbergh
2/4/1902 - 8/26/1974
American aviator
85 Mark Hopkins
2/4/1802 - 6/17/1887
American educator and theologian
85 Clement Ader
2/4/1841 - 3/5/1926
French engineer and pioneer of flight
78 Ludwig Prandtl
2/4/1875 - 8/15/1953
German physicist, "father of aerodynamics"
70 Jacques Copeau
2/4/1879 - 10/20/1949
French actor/critic/director
74 Fernand Leger
2/4/1881 - 8/17/1955
French painter
75 George Kennedy Bell
2/4/1883 - 10/3/1958
English Anglican bishop of Chichester
95 Raymond Dart
2/4/1893 - 11/22/1988
Australian-bn. South African physical anthropologist
73 MacKinlay Kantor
2/4/1904 - 10/11/1977
American author/newspaperman
39 Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2/4/1906 - 4/9/1945
German Protestant theologian
90 Clyde W. Tombaugh
2/4/1906 - 1/17/1997
American astronomer who discovered Pluto
1782 - The Spanish captured Minorca from the British.
1783 - Sweden recognized the independence of the United States.
1846 - "The Oregon Spectator", based in Oregon City, became the first newspaper published on the Pacific coast.
1861 - Samuel Goodale patented the moving picture peep show machine.
1885 - Congo State was established under Leopold II of Belgium, as a personal possession.
1881 - Phoenix, AZ, was incorporated.
1900 - The U.S. and Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which gave the U.S. the right to build a canal in Nicaragua but not the right fortify it.
1917 - Mexico's constitution was adopted.
1924 - The BBC time signals, or "pips", from Greenwich Observatory were heard for the first time. They are broadcast every hour.
1931 - Maxine Dunlap became the first woman licensed as a glider pilot.
1937 - U.S. President Roosevelt proposed enlarging the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan failed.
1940 - "Amanda of Honeymoon Hill" debuted on radio.
1953 - The Walt Disney’s film "Peter Pan" opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.
1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser was formally nominated to become the first president of the United Arab Republic.
1961 - The first issue of the "Sunday Telegraph" was published.
1962 - French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria's independence.
1972 - Bob Douglas became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.
1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 2,200-point for the first time. The market closed at 2201.49.
1988 - A pair of indictments were unsealed in Florida, accusing Panama's military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, of bribery and drug trafficking.
1994 - White separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, MS, of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
1997 - Switzerland's "Big Three" banks announced they would create a $71 million fund for Holocaust victims and their families.
1997 - Investment bank Morgan Stanley announced a $10 billion merger with Dean Witter.
1999 - Mike Tyson was sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting two people after a car accident on August 31, 1998. Tyson was also fined $5,000, had to serve 2 years of probation, and had to perform 200 hours of community service upon release.
2001 - It was announced the Kelly Ripa would be Regis Philbin's cohost. The show was renamed to "Live! With Regis and Kelly."
2001 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced their separation.
2003 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the U.N. concerning Iraq's material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441.
Current Birthdays
Laura Linney turns 45 years old today.
86 Claude King
Country singer
81 Rev. Andrew M. Greeley
Professor, author
75 Hank Aaron
Baseball Hall of Famer
72 Stuart Damon
Actor ("General Hospital")
68 Stephen J. Cannell
TV writer, producer
68 David Selby
Actor
68 Barrett Strong
Singer, songwriter
67 Roger Staubach
Football Hall of Famer
67 Cory Wells
Singer (Three Dog Night)
66 Michael Mann
Director
65 Al Kooper
Rock musician, singer (Blood, Sweat and Tears)
63 Charlotte Rampling
Actress
61 Christopher Guest
Actor, screenwriter ("This is Spinal Tap")
61 Barbara Hershey
Actress
61 Tom Wilkinson
Actor
50 Jennifer Granholm
Governor of Michigan
48 Tim Meadows
Actor, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
47 Jennifer Jason Leigh
Actress
45 Duff McKagan
Rock musician (Guns N' Roses)
41 Roberto Alomar
Baseball player
41 Chris Barron
Rock singer (Spin Doctors)
40 Bobby Brown
R&B singer
38 Sara Evans
Country singer
20 Jeremy Sumpter
Actor ("Peter Pan")
Historic Birthdays
Adlai Ewing Stevenson
2/5/1900 - 7/14/1965
American politician/diplomat
70 Marie Sevigne
2/5/1626 - 4/17/1696
French writer, mostly of letters to her daughter
41 Belle Starr
2/5/1848 - 2/3/1889
American outlaw in Texas and Oklahoma territory
57 Andre-Gustave Citroen
2/5/1878 - 7/3/1935
French engineer/industrialist
71 Ralph E. McGill
2/5/1898 - 2/3/1969
American journalist
82 John Carradine
2/5/1906 - 11/27/1988
American actor
83 William S. Burroughs
2/5/1914 - 8/2/1997
American writer
75 Robert Hofstadter
2/5/1915 - 11/17/1990
American physicist, winner of Nobel prize
77 Andreas Papandreou
2/5/1919 - 6/23/1996
Greek prime minister
1795 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
1818 - "Academician" began publication in New York City.
1877 - The first Guernsey Cattle Club was organized in New York City.
1882 - The last bareknuckle fight for the heavyweight boxing championship took place in Mississippi City.
1893 - Elisha Gray patented a machine called the telautograph. It automatically signed autographs to documents.
1904 - In Baltimore, a fire raged for about 30 hours and destroyed over 1,500 buildings.
1922 - DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace offered 5,000 copies of "Reader's Digest" magazine for the first time.
1931 - The American opera, "Peter Ibbetson", by Deems Taylor premiered in New York City.
1936 - The U.S. Vice President’s flag was established by executive order.
1940 - "Pinocchio" world premiered at the Center Theatre in Manhattan.
1941 - The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Frank Sinatra recorded "Everything Happens to Me".
1943 - The U.S. government announced that shoe rationing would go into effect in two days.
1944 - During World War II, the Germans launched a counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy.
1959 - The play, "The Rivalry," opened in New York City.
1962 - The U.S. government banned all Cuban imports and re-export of U.S. products to Cuba from other countries.
1966 - "Crawdaddy" magazine was published by Paul Williams for the first time.
1974 - The nation of Grenada gained independence from Britain.
1976 - Darryl Sittler (Toronto Maple Leafs) set a National Hockey League (NHL) record when he scored 10 points in a game against the Boston Bruins. He scored six goals and four assists.
1977 - Russia launched Soyuz 24.
1984 - Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart made the first untethered space walk.
1985 - "Sports Illustrated" released its annual swimsuit edition. It was the largest regular edition in the magazine’s history at 218 pages.
1985 - "New York, New York" became the official anthem of the Big Apple.
1986 - Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country. 28 years of family rule ended.
1991 - The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president.
1999 - King Hussein of Jordan died. His son was sworn in as king four hours after the announcement that his father had died.
2000 - California's legislature declared that February 13 would be "Charels M. Schulz Day."
2001 - Robert Pickett, 47, fired several shots at the White House near the South Lawn. He was subdued after being shot in the knee. No one else was hurt in the incident.
2003 - Nootka Sound, Sandra Bohn was cited for petting a killer whale under the federal Fisheries Act. She was later fined $74.
Current Birthdays
Eddie Izzard turns 47 years old today.
88 Wilma Lee Cooper
Country singer
77 Gay Talese
Author
74 Herb Kohl
U.S. senator, D-Wis.
54 Miguel Ferrer
Actor
50 Brian Travers
Reggae musician (UB40)
49 James Spader
Actor ("Boston Legal")
47 Garth Brooks
Country singer
47 David Bryan
Rock musician (Bon Jovi)
44 Chris Rock
Comedian
42 Jason Gedrick
Actor
37 Essence Atkins
Actress
34 Wes Borland
Rock singer, musician
31 Ashton Kutcher
Actor ("That '70s Show")
24 Tina Majorino
Actress Big Love
Historic Birthdays
Frederick Douglass
2/7/1817 - 2/20/1895
American black abolitionist
58 St. Thomas More
2/7/1478 - 7/6/1535
English humanist/chancellor
82 John Deere
2/7/1804 - 5/17/1886
American inventor of agricultural implements
58 Charles Dickens
2/7/1812 - 6/9/1870
English novelist
84 Gardner Quincy Colton
2/7/1814 - 8/9/1898
American anesthetist/inventor
78 Sir James Murray
2/7/1837 - 7/26/1915
Scottish lexicographer/editor
90 Laura Ingalls Wilder
2/7/1867 - 2/10/1957
American author of children's fiction
67 Alfred Adler
2/7/1870 - 5/28/1937
Austrian physician/psychologist
100 Eubie Blake
2/7/1883 - 2/12/1983
American pianist/composer
65 Sinclair Lewis
2/7/1885 - 1/10/1951
American novelist/social critic
73 Buster Crabbe
2/7/1908 - 4/23/1983
American swimmer/actor
79 Ruth Sager
2/7/1918 - 3/29/1997
American geneticist
1587 - Mary, the Queen of Scots, was executed.
1693 - A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.
1802 - Simon Willard patented the banjo clock.
1861 - The Confederate States of America was formed.
1861 - A Cheyenne delegation and some Arapohoe leaders accepted a new settlement (Treaty of Fort Wise) with the U.S. Federal government. The deal ceded most of their land but secured a 600-square mile reservation and annuity payments.
1896 - The Western Conference was formed by representatives of Midwestern universities. The group changed its name to the Big 10 Conference.
1900 - In South Africa, British troops under Gen. Buller were beaten at Ladysmith. The British fled over the Tugela River.
1904 - The Russo-Japanese War began with Japan attacking Russian forces in Manchuria.
1910 - William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America.
1918 - "The Stars and Stripes" newspaper was published for the first time.
1922 - The White House began using radio after U.S. President Harding had it installed.
1924 - The first U.S. execution to make use of gas took place in Nevada State Prison.
1927 - The original version of "Getting Gertie’s Garter" opened at the Hippodrome Theatre in New York City.
1936 - The first National Football League draft was held. Jay Berwanger was the first to be selected. He went to the Philadelphia Eagles. (NFL)
1952 - Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the British throne. Her father, George VI, had died on February 6.
1963 - The Kennedy administration prohibited travel to Cuba and made financial and commercial transactions with Cuba illegal for U.S. citizens.
1963 - Lamar Hunt, owner of the American Football League franchise in Dallas, TX, moved the operation to Kansas City. The new team was named the Chiefs. (NFL)
1968 - In Orangeburg, SC, three college students died during a civil rights protest against a whites-only bowling alley after a confrontation with highway patrolmen.
1969 - The last issue of the "Saturday Evening Post" was published.
1971 - The Nasdaq stock-market index debuted.
1973 - U.S. Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate scandal.
1974 - The three-man crew of the Skylab space station returned to Earth after 84 days.
1978 - The U.S. Senate deliberations were broadcast on radio for the first time. The subject was the Panama Canal treaties.
1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced a plan to re-introduce draft registration.
1985 - "The Dukes of Hazzard" ended its 6-1/2 year run on CBS television.
1993 - General Motors sued NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" had rigged two car-truck crashes to show that some GM pickups were prone to fires after certain types of crashes. The suit was settled the following day by NBC.
1999 - In Sri Lanka, 23 rebels were killed in fighting with Sri Lankan forces.
2002 - The exhibit "Places of Their Own" opened at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The works displayed were by Geogia O'Keeffe, Frida Kahlo and Emily Carr.
Current Birthdays
Mary Steenburgen turns 56 years old today.
77 John Williams
Composer, conductor
69 Ted Koppel
Broadcast journalist
68 Nick Nolte
Actor
67 Robert Klein
Comedian
66 Creed Bratton
Actor ("The Office")
61 Dan Seals
Country singer
60 Brooke Adams
Actress
54 John Fox
Football coach
54 John Grisham
Author
50 Henry Czerny
Actor
48 Sammy Llanas
Rock musician (The BoDeans)
48 Vince Neil
Rock singer (Motley Crue)
47 Lisa Jackson
EPA administrator
41 Gary Coleman
Actor ("Diff'rent Strokes")
40 Mary McCormack
Actress
39 Alonzo Mourning
Basketball player
35 Seth Green
Actor ("Austin Powers" movies)
35 Josh Morrow
Actor ("The Young and the Restless")
32 Phoenix
Rock musician (Linkin Park)
24 Jeremy Davis
Rock musician (Paramore)
21 Ryan Pinkston
Actor
17 Karle Warren
Actress ("Judging Amy")
Historic Birthdays
Martin Buber
2/8/1878 - 6/13/1965
German -Jewish religious philosopher
75 Il Guercino
2/8/1591 - 12/22/1666
Italian fresco painter
79 Jacques Cassini
2/8/1677 - 4/18/1756
French astronomer
82 Daniel Bernoulli
2/8/1700 - 3/17/1782
Swiss mathematician
80 John Ruskin
2/8/1819 - 1/20/1900
English writer/critic/artist
71 William Tecumseh Sherman
2/8/1820 - 2/14/1891
American Civil War general
77 Jules Verne
2/8/1828 - 3/24/1905
French author
88 Dame Edith Evans
2/8/1888 - 10/14/1976
English stage actress
88 King Vidor
2/8/1894 - 11/1/1982
American film director
62 Chester Carlson
2/8/1906 - 9/19/1968
American physicist and inventor of xerography
68 Elizabeth Bishop
2/8/1911 - 10/6/1979
American poet/short story writer
74 Lana Turner
2/8/1921 - 6/29/1995
American film actress
24 James Dean
2/8/1931 - 9/30/1955
American film actor
1825 - The U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. No candidate had received a majority of electoral votes.
1861 - The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis as its president.
1870 - The United States Weather Bureau was authorized by Congress. The bureau is officially known as the National Weather Service (NWS).
1884 - Thomas Edison and Patrick Kenny executed a patent application for a chemical recording stock quotation telegraph (U.S. Pat. 314,115).
1885 - The first Japanese arrived in Hawaii.
1895 - Volley Ball was invented by W.G. Morgan.
1895 - The first college basketball game was played as Minnesota State School of Agriculture defeated the Porkers of Hamline College, 9-3.
1900 - Dwight F. Davis put up a new tennis trophy to go to the winner in matches against England. The trophy was a silver cup that weighed 36 pounds.
1909 - The first forestry school was incorporated in Kent, Ohio.
1932 - America entered the 2-man bobsled competition for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games held at Lake Placid, NY.
1942 - The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II.
1942 - Daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the U.S.
1943 - During World War II, the battle of Guadalcanal ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.
1950 - U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. This was the beginning of "McCarthyism."
1953 - The movie "Superman" premiered.
1958 - CBS radio debuted "Frontier Gentleman".
1960 - A verbal agreement was reached between representatives of the American and National Football Leagues. Both agreed not to tamper with player contracts.
1960 - The first star was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was for Joanne Woodward.
1969 - The Boeing 747 flew its inaugural flight.
1971 - The San Fernando Valley experienced the Sylmar earthquake that registered 6.4 on the Richter Scale.
1971 - The Apollo 14 spacecraft returned to Earth after mankind's third landing on the moon.
1975 - The Russian Soyuz 17 returned to Earth.
1984 - NBC Entertainment president, Brandon Tartikoff, gave an interviewer the "10 Commandments for TV Programmers."
1989 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. completed the $25 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco, Inc.
1997 - "The Simpsons" became the longest-running prime-time animated series. "The Flintstones" held the record previously.
2001 - "Hannibal," the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs", opened in theaters.
Current Birthdays
Judith Light turns 60 years old today
87 Kathryn Grayson
Actress ("Show Boat," "Kiss Me Kate")
81 Roger Mudd
Broadcast journalist
70 Janet Suzman
Actress
69 J.M. Coetzee
Nobel Prize-winning author
67 Carole King
Singer, songwriter
66 Barbara Lewis
R&B singer
66 Joe Pesci
Actor
65 Alice Walker
Author ("The Color Purple")
64 Mia Farrow
Actress
63 Jim Webb
U.S. senator, D-Va.
62 Joe Ely
Country singer
58 Dennis "DT"' Thomas
R&B musician (Kool & the Gang)
54 Charles Shaughnessy
Actor
46 Travis Tritt
Country singer
44 Julie Warner
Actress
39 Danni Leigh
Country singer
37 Jason George
Actor
33 Charlie Day
Actor
33 Vladimir Guerrero
Baseball player
32 A.J. Buckley
Actress ("CSI: NY")
30 Richard On
Rock musician (O.A.R.)
30 Ziyi Zhang
Actress ("Memoirs of a Geisha")
24 David Gallagher
Actor ("7th Heaven")
21 Marina Malota
Actress
19 Camille Winbush
Actress ("The Bernie Mac Show")
Historic Birthdays
Jacques Monod
2/9/1910 - 5/31/1976
French Nobel Prize-winning biologist
71 Gasparo Angiolini
2/9/1731 - 2/6/1803
Italian choreographer/composer
78 Luther Martin
2/9/1748 - 7/10/1826
American lawyer
68 William Henry Harrison
2/9/1773 - 4/4/1841
9th President of the United States
72 Samuel Tilden
2/9/1814 - 8/4/1886
American lawyer and governor of New York
75 Mrs. Patrick Campbell
2/9/1865 - 4/9/1940
English actress
51 Amy Lowell
2/9/1874 - 5/12/1925
American critic/lecturer/and poet
67 Ronald Colman
2/9/1891 - 5/19/1958
English-bn. American stage and film actor
85 Dean Rusk
2/9/1909 - 12/20/1994
American secretary of state under Kennedy and Johnson
71 Bill Veeck
2/9/1914 - 1/2/1986
American baseball club owner
41 Brendan Behan
2/9/1923 - 3/20/1964
Irish author/political commentator
1763 - The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War. In the treaty France ceded Canada to England.
1840 - Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.
1846 - Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began their exodus to the west from Illinois.
1863 - In New York City, two of the world’s most famous midgets, General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren were married.
1863 - The fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane.
1870 - The city of Anaheim was incorporated for the first time.
1870 - The YWCA was founded in New York City.
1879 - The electric arc light was used for the first time.
1897 - "The New York Times" began printing "All the news that's fit to print" on their front page.
1920 - Major league baseball representatives outlawed pitches that involve tampering with the ball.
1923 - Ink paste was manufactured for the first time by the Standard Ink Company.
1925 - The first waterless gas storage tank was placed in service in Michigan City, IN.
1933 - The singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegraph Company of New York City.
1933 - Primo Carnera knocked out Ernie Schaaf in round 13 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Schaaf died as a result of the knockout punch.
1934 - The first imperforated, ungummed sheets of postage stamps were issued by the U.S. Postal Service in New York City.
1935 - The Pennsylvania Railroad began passenger service with its electric locomotive. The engine was 79-1/2 feet long and weighed 230 tons.
1942 - The Normandie, the former French liner, capsized in New York Harbor. The day before the ship had caught fire while it was being fitted for the U.S. Navy.
1949 - "Death of a Salesman" opened at the Morocco Theatre in New York City.
1962 - The Soviet Union exchanged capture American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for the Soviet spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel being held by the U.S.
1967 - The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment required the appointment of a vice-president when that office became vacant and instituted new measures in the event of presidential disability.
1981 - The Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino caught fire. Eight people were killed and 198 were injured.
1989 - Ron Brown became the first African American to head a major U.S. political party when he was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk announced that black activist Nelson Mandela would be released the next day after 27 years in captivity.
1992 - Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Washington, Miss Black American contestant.
1997 - The U.S. Army suspended its top-ranking enlisted soldier, Army Sgt. Major Gene McKinney following allegations of sexual misconduct. McKinney was convicted of obstruction of justice and acquitted of 18 counts alleging sexual harassment of six military women.
1998 - A man became the first to be convicted of committing a hate crime in cyberspace. The college dropout had e-mailed threats to Asian students.
1998 - Voters in Maine repealed a 1997 gay rights law. Maine was the first state to abandone such legislation.
1999 - Avalanches killed at least 10 people when they roared down the French Alps 30 miles from Geneva.
2005 - North Korea publicly announced for the first time that it had nuclear arms. The country also rejected attempts to restart disarmament talks in the near future saying that it needed the weapons as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.
Current Birthdays
Laura Dern turns 42 years old today.
82 Leontyne Price
Opera singer
79 Robert Wagner
Actor ("Hart to Hart")
76 Don Wilson
Rock musician (The Ventures)
70 Roberta Flack
Singer
69 Jimmy Merchant
Singer (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers)
69 Kenny Rankin
Jazz singer
62 Bob Spalding
Rock musician (The Ventures)
59 Mark Spitz
Olympic gold-medal swimmer
58 Robert Iger
Walt Disney Co. president and CEO
49 Lionel Cartwright
Country singer
48 Alexander Payne
Director ("Sideways")
48 George Stephanopoulos
Broadcast journalist ("This Week")
37 Dude Mowrey
Country singer
35 Elizabeth Banks
Actress
35 Ty Law
Football player
33 Lance Berkman
Baseball player
29 Jeremy Baxter
Country musician (Carolina Rain)
27 Eric Dill
Rock singer
27 Ben Romans
Rock musician (The Click Five)
18 Emma Roberts
Actress ("Nancy Drew")
15 Makenzie Vega
Actress
12 Chloe Moretz
Actress ("Dirty Sexy Money")
Historic Birthdays
Boris Pasternak
2/10/1890 - 5/30/1960
Russian Nobel Prize-winning novelist/poet
64 Aaron Hill
2/10/1685 - 2/8/1750
English poet/dramatist/essayist
72 Andre-Ernest Gretry
2/10/1741 - 9/24/1813
French operatic composer
59 Charles Lamb
2/10/1775 - 12/27/1834
English essayist/critic
80 Harrison Gray Otis
2/10/1837 - 7/30/1917
American newspaper publisher-Los Angeles Times
75 William Allen White
2/10/1868 - 1/29/1944
American journalist/writer
86 Jimmy Durante
2/10/1893 - 1/29/1980
American comedian/entertainer
92 Harold Macmillan
2/10/1894 - 12/29/1986
English politician/prime minister
93 Dame Judith Anderson
2/10/1898 - 1/3/1992
Australian-bn. American stage and film actress
58 Bertolt Brecht
2/10/1898 - 8/14/1956
German poet/playwright
91 Stella Adler
2/10/1901 - 12/21/1992
American actress/teacher
1752 - The Pennsylvania Hospital opened as the very first hospital in America.
1808 - Judge Jesse Fell experimented by burning anthracite coal to keep his house warm. He successfully showed how clean the coal burned and how cheaply it could be used as a heating fuel.
1812 - The term "gerrymandering" had its beginning when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a redistricting law that favored his party.
1858 - A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.
1878 - The first U.S. bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, was formed.
1929 - The Lateran Treaty was signed. Italy now recognized the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.
1936 - Pumping began the process to build San Francisco's Treasure Island.
1937 - General Motors agreed to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union, thereby ending the current sit-down strike against them.
1940 - NBC radio presented "The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street" for the first time.
1943 - General Dwight David Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
1945 - During World War II, the Yalta Agreement was signed by U.S. President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1957 - The NHL Players Association was formed in New York City.
1958 - Ruth Carol Taylor was the first black woman to become a stewardess by making her initial flight.
1960 - Jack Paar walked off while live on the air on the "Tonight Show" with four minutes left. He did this in response to censors cutting out a joke from the show the night before.
1968 - The new 20,000 seat Madison Square Garden officially opened in New York. This was the fourth Garden.
1972 - McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and Life magazine canceled plans to publish an autobiography of Howard Hughes. The work turned out to be fake.
1979 - Nine days after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran (after 15 years in exile) power was seized by his followers.
1982 - ABC-TV’s presentation of "The Winds of War" concluded. The 18-hour miniseries cost $40 million to produce and was the most-watched television program in history at the time.
1984 - The tenth Space Shuttle mission returned to Earth safely.
1989 - Rev. Barbara C. Harris became the first woman to be consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church.
1990 - Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.
1990 - In Tokyo, Japan, James "Buster" Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in the tenth round to win the heavyweight championship.
1993 - Janet Reno was appointed to the position of attorney general by U.S. President Clinton. She was the first female to hold the position.
2000 - The space shuttle Endeavor took off. The mission was to gather information for the most detailed map of the earth ever made.
2000 - Great Britain suspended self-rule in Northern Ireland after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) failed to begin decommissioning (disarming) by a February deadline.
2002 - The six stars on NBC's "Friends" signed a deal for $24 million each for the ninth and final season of the series
Current Birthdays
Jennifer Aniston turns 40 years old today
83 Leslie Nielsen
Actor
81 Conrad Janis
Actor ("Mork and Mindy")
75 Tina Louise
Actress ("Gilligan's Island")
73 Burt Reynolds
Actor
70 Gerry Goffin
Songwriter
68 Sonny Landham
Actor
68 Sergio Mendes
Bandleader
67 Otis Clay
R&B singer
57 Philip Anglim
Actor
56 Jeb Bush
Former governor of Florida, brother of former President George W. Bush
53 Catherine Hickland
Actress ("One Life to Live")
53 David Uosikkinen
Rock musician (The Hooters)
48 Carey Lowell
Actress ("Law and Order")
47 Sheryl Crow
Rock singer, musician
45 Sarah Palin
Governor of Alaska
38 Damian Lewis
Actor ("Band of Brothers")
37 Marisa Petroro
Actress
35 D'Angelo
R&B singer
33 Brice Beckham
Actor
32 Mike Shinoda
Rock musician (Linkin Park)
30 Brandy
R&B singer, actress
29 Matthew Lawrence
Actor
28 Kelly Rowland
R&B singer (Destiny's Child)
19 Q'orianka Kilcher
Actress ("The New World")
17 Taylor Lautner
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Thomas Alva Edison
2/11/1847 - 10/18/1931
American inventor holding 1,093 patents
99 Bernard Le Bovier Fontenelle
2/11/1657 - 1/9/1757
French scientist and man of letters
73 Hans Jarta
2/11/1774 - 4/6/1847
Swedish political activist/administrator/publicist
77 William Henry Fox Talbot
2/11/1800 - 9/17/1877
English chemist/pioneer photographer
52 Otto Ludwig
2/11/1813 - 2/25/1865
German novelist/playwright/critic
44 Thomas, Jr. Hitchcock
2/11/1900 - 4/19/1944
American polo player
69 Arne Jacobsen
2/11/1902 - 3/24/1971
Danish architect/designer
50 Max Baer
2/11/1909 - 11/21/1959
American boxer
45 Farouk I
2/11/1920 - 3/18/1965
King of Egypt,1936-1952
76 Eva Gabor
2/11/1919 - 7/4/1995
Hungarian actress/pianist
1541 - The city of Santiago, Chile was founded.
1554 - Lady Jane Grey was beheaded after being charged with treason. She had claimed the throne of England for only nine days.
1733 - Savannah, GA, was founded by English colonist James Oglethorpe.
1870 - In the Utah Territory, women gained the right to vote.
1878 - Frederick W. Thayer patented the baseball catcher’s mask.
1879 - The first artificial ice rink opened in North America. It was at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY.
1880 - The National Croquet League was organized in Philadelphia, PA.
1892 - In the U.S., President Lincoln's birthday was declared to be a national holiday.
1907 - A collision of the steamer Larchmont and a schooler resulted in the death of more than 300 people. The incident occurred off New England's Block Island.
1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.
1912 - China's boy emperor Hsuan T'ung announced that he was abdicating, ending the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty. Subsequently, the Republic of China was established.
1915 - The cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, DC.
1918 - All theatres in New York City were shut down in an effort to conserve coal.
1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential political speech on radio.
1924 - "The Eveready Hour" became radio’s first sponsored network program. The National Carbon Company was the first sponsor of a network show.
1934 - The Export-Import Bank was incoporated.
1940 - Mutual Radio presented the first broadcast of the radio play "The Adventures of Superman."
1968 - "Soul on Ice" by Eldridge Cleaver was published for the first time.
1971 - James Cash (J.C.) Penney died at the age of 95. The company closed for business for one-half day as a memorial to the company's founder.
1973 - The State of Ohio went metric, becoming the first in the U.S. to post metric distance signs.
1973 - American prisoners of war were released for the first time during the Vietnam conflict.
1985 - Johnny Carson surprised his audience by shaving the beard he had been wearing on "The Tonight Show."
1993 - In Liverpool, England, a 2-year-old boy, James Bulger, was lured away from his mother at a shopping mall and beaten to death. Two ten-year-old boys were responsible.
1998 - A U.S. federal judge declared that the presidential line-item veto was unconstitutional.
1999 - U.S. President Clinton was acquitted by the U.S. Senate on two impeachment articles. The charges were perjury and obstruction of justice.
2001 - The space probe NEAR landed on the asteroid Eros. It was the first time that any craft had landed on a small space rock.
2002 - Kenneth Lay, former Enron CEO, exercised his constitutional rights and refused to testify to the U.S. Congress about the collapse of Enron.
2002 - The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic began at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. Milosevic was accused of war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
2002 - Pakistan charged three men in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
2002 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco and Franco Knie won a defamation-of-character lawsuit against the Swiss magazine "Facts." The case involved a photomontage created by the magazine.
2003 - The U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation of international treaties. The complaint was sent to the Security Council.
2004 - Mattel announced that "Barbie" and "Ken" were breaking up. The dolls had met on the set of their first television commercial together in 1961.
Current Birthdays
Josh Brolin turns 41 years old today.
86 Franco Zeffirelli
Director
85 Louis Zorich
Actor
83 Joe Garagiola
Sportscaster
79 Arlen Specter
U.S. senator, R-Pa.
75 Bill Russell
Basketball Hall of Famer
73 Joe Don Baker
Actor
71 Judy Blume
Author
70 Ray Manzarek
Rock musician (The Doors)
65 Moe Bandy
Country singer
64 Maud Adams
Actress
63 Cliff DeYoung
Actor
59 Steve Hackett
Rock musician (Genesis)
59 Michael Ironside
Actor
57 Michael McDonald
Singer (The Doobie Brothers)
56 Joanna Kerns
Actress ("Growing Pains")
54 Arsenio Hall
Actor
46 John Michael Higgins
Actor
44 Christine Elise
Actress
41 Chynna Phillips
Singer (Wilson Philips)
39 Jim Creeggan
Rock musician (Barenaked Ladies)
38 Keri Lewis
R&B musician
30 Jesse Spencer
Actor ("House")
29 Sarah Lancaster
Actress ("Chuck," "Everwood")
29 Christina Ricci
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Charles Darwin
53 Thomas Campion
2/12/1567 - 3/1/1620
English poet,composer and musical theorist
44 Caspar Bartholin
2/12/1585 - 7/13/1629
Danish physician/theologian
65 Cotton Mather
2/12/1663 - 2/13/1728
American Congregational minister/author
92 Peter Cooper
2/12/1791 - 4/4/1883
American inventor,manufacturer and philanthropist
56 Abraham Lincoln
2/12/1809 - 4/15/1865
16th President of the United States
40 John Graham Chambers
2/12/1843 - 3/4/1883
English sportsman and journalist
89 John L. Lewis
2/12/1880 - 6/11/1969
American labor leader and founder of the C.I.O.
96 Alice Roosevelt Longworth
2/12/1884 - 2/20/1980
American politically influential daughter of Theodore Roosevelt
66 Max Beckmann
2/12/1884 - 12/27/1950
German expressionist painter/printmaker
88 Omar Bradley
2/12/1893 - 4/8/1981
American general, 1st chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
47 Louis Buchalter
2/12/1897 - 3/4/1944
American crime boss
81 Roy Harris
2/12/1898 - 10/1/1979
American composer/teacher
81 Joseph Alioto
2/12/1916 - 1/29/1998
Mayor of San Francisco
1542 - Catherine Howard was executed for adultery. She was the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII.
1633 - Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition.
1635 - The Boston Public Latin School was established. It was the first public school building in the United States.
1741 - "The American Magazine," the first magazine in the U.S., was published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1875 - Mrs. Edna Kanouse gave birth to America’s first quintuplets. All five of the baby boys died within two weeks.
1880 - Thomas Edison observed what became known as the Edison Effect for the first time.
1889 - Norman Coleman became the first U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
1900 - The Anglo-German accord of 1899 was ratified by Reichstag, in which Britain renounced rights in Samoa in favor of Germany and the U.S.
1914 - The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (known as ASCAP) was formed in New York City. The society was founded to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.
1920 - The League of Nations recognized the continued neutrality of Switzerland.
1920 - The National Negro Baseball League was organized.
1935 - In Flemington, New Jersey, a jury found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of the kidnapping and death of the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann was later executed for the crimes.
1937 - The comic strip "Prince Valiant" appeared for the first time.
1939 - Virginia Payne became a new character in NBC’s soap opera, "The Carter’s of Elm Street". She played the part of Mrs. Carter.
1945 - During World War II, the Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the German army.
1945 - During World War II, Allied aircraft began bombing the German city of Dresden.
1947 - "Family Theatre" was heard for the first time on Mutual radio.
1955 - Israel acquired 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.
1960 - France detonated its first atomic bomb.
1965 - Sixteen-year-old Peggy Fleming won the ladies senior figure skating title at Lake Placid, NY.
1971 - South Vietnamese troops invaded Laos. They were backed by U.S. air and artillery support.
1984 - Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.
1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high of 1297.92 after it topped the 1300 mark earlier in the trading session.
1990 - In Ottawa, the United States and its European allies forged an agreement with the Soviet Union and East Germany on a two-stage formula to reunite Germany.
1991 - Hundreds of Iraqis were killed by two laser-guided bombs that destroyed an underground facility in Baghdad. U.S. officials identified the facility as a military installation, but Iraqi officials said it was a bomb shelter.
1997 - Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery brought the Hubble Space Telescope aboard for a tune up. The tune up allowed the telescope to see further into the universe.
1997 - The Dow Jones industrial average passed the 7,000 mark for the first time. The day ended at 7,022.44.
1999 - A bomb exploded just outside a government-owned bank in southern Kosovo. Nine people were killed.
2000 - Charles M. Schulz's last original Sunday "Peanuts" comic strip appeared in newspapers. Schulz had died the day before.
2001 - El Savador was hit with an earthquake that measured 6.6 on the Richter Scale. At least 400 people were killed.
2002 - In Alexandria, VA, John Walker Lindh plead innocent to a 10-count federal indictment. He was charged with conspiring to kill Americans and aiding Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
2002 - Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
Current Birthdays
Stockard Channing turns 65 years old today
86 Chuck Yeager
Test pilot
76 Kim Novak
Actress
75 George Segal
Actor
68 Bo Svenson
Actor
67 Carol Lynley
Actress
67 Peter Tork
Singer, musician (The Monkees)
65 Jerry Springer
Talk show host
65 Bo Svenson
Actor
62 Stephen Hadley
Former national security adviser
62 Mike Krzyzewski
Men's basketball coach, Duke University
59 Peter Gabriel
Rock singer
58 David Naughton
Actor
53 Peter Hook
Rock musician
53 Jay Nixon
Governor of Missouri
49 Matt Salinger
Actor, producer
48 Henry Rollins
Rock singer
43 Neal McDonough
Actor
43 Freedom Williams
Rock singer (C&C Music Factory)
41 Kelly Hu
Actress
37 Todd Harrell
Rock musician (3 Doors Down)
35 Robbie Williams
Rock singer
30 Natalie Stewart
Emcee (Floetry)
32 Randy Moss
Football player
30 Mena Suvari
Actress
Historic Birthdays
William Shockley
2/13/1910 - 8/12/1989
American engineer, teacher and Nobel Prize-winner
72 Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
2/13/1682 - 4/28/1754
Italian painter, illustrator and designer
65 John Hunter
2/13/1728 - 10/16/1793
English surgeon and founder of pathological anatomy
45 Lord Randolph Churchill
2/13/1849 - 1/24/1895
English politician and father of Winston Churchill
68 Leopold Godowsky
2/13/1870 - 11/21/1938
Russian-bn. American pianist and composer
65 Feodor Chaliapin
2/13/1873 - 4/12/1938
Russian operatic bass
80 Georgios Papandreou
2/13/1888 - 11/1/1968
Greek Prime Minister three times
50 Grant Wood
2/13/1891 - 2/12/1942
American painter
86 Georges Simenon
2/13/1903 - 9/4/1989
Belgian novelist
84 Pauline Frederick
2/13/1906 - 5/9/1990
American television news correspondent
Baill Inneraora
2009-02-13, 14:58
1541 - The city of Santiago, Chile was founded.
1554 - Lady Jane Grey was beheaded after being charged with treason. She had claimed the throne of England for only nine days.
1733 - Savannah, GA, was founded by English colonist James Oglethorpe.
1870 - In the Utah Territory, women gained the right to vote.
1878 - Frederick W. Thayer patented the baseball catcher’s mask.
1879 - The first artificial ice rink opened in North America. It was at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY.
1880 - The National Croquet League was organized in Philadelphia, PA.
1892 - In the U.S., President Lincoln's birthday was declared to be a national holiday.
1907 - A collision of the steamer Larchmont and a schooler resulted in the death of more than 300 people. The incident occurred off New England's Block Island.
1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.
1912 - China's boy emperor Hsuan T'ung announced that he was abdicating, ending the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty. Subsequently, the Republic of China was established.
1915 - The cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, DC.
1918 - All theatres in New York City were shut down in an effort to conserve coal.
1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential political speech on radio.
1924 - "The Eveready Hour" became radio’s first sponsored network program. The National Carbon Company was the first sponsor of a network show.
1934 - The Export-Import Bank was incoporated.
1940 - Mutual Radio presented the first broadcast of the radio play "The Adventures of Superman."
1968 - "Soul on Ice" by Eldridge Cleaver was published for the first time.
1971 - James Cash (J.C.) Penney died at the age of 95. The company closed for business for one-half day as a memorial to the company's founder.
1973 - The State of Ohio went metric, becoming the first in the U.S. to post metric distance signs.
1973 - American prisoners of war were released for the first time during the Vietnam conflict.
1985 - Johnny Carson surprised his audience by shaving the beard he had been wearing on "The Tonight Show."
1993 - In Liverpool, England, a 2-year-old boy, James Bulger, was lured away from his mother at a shopping mall and beaten to death. Two ten-year-old boys were responsible.
1998 - A U.S. federal judge declared that the presidential line-item veto was unconstitutional.
1999 - U.S. President Clinton was acquitted by the U.S. Senate on two impeachment articles. The charges were perjury and obstruction of justice.
2001 - The space probe NEAR landed on the asteroid Eros. It was the first time that any craft had landed on a small space rock.
2002 - Kenneth Lay, former Enron CEO, exercised his constitutional rights and refused to testify to the U.S. Congress about the collapse of Enron.
2002 - The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic began at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. Milosevic was accused of war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
2002 - Pakistan charged three men in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.
2002 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco and Franco Knie won a defamation-of-character lawsuit against the Swiss magazine "Facts." The case involved a photomontage created by the magazine.
2003 - The U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation of international treaties. The complaint was sent to the Security Council.
2004 - Mattel announced that "Barbie" and "Ken" were breaking up. The dolls had met on the set of their first television commercial together in 1961.
Current Birthdays
Josh Brolin turns 41 years old today.
86 Franco Zeffirelli
Director
85 Louis Zorich
Actor
83 Joe Garagiola
Sportscaster
79 Arlen Specter
U.S. senator, R-Pa.
75 Bill Russell
Basketball Hall of Famer
73 Joe Don Baker
Actor
71 Judy Blume
Author
70 Ray Manzarek
Rock musician (The Doors)
65 Moe Bandy
Country singer
64 Maud Adams
Actress
63 Cliff DeYoung
Actor
59 Steve Hackett
Rock musician (Genesis)
59 Michael Ironside
Actor
57 Michael McDonald
Singer (The Doobie Brothers)
56 Joanna Kerns
Actress ("Growing Pains")
54 Arsenio Hall
Actor
46 John Michael Higgins
Actor
44 Christine Elise
Actress
41 Chynna Phillips
Singer (Wilson Philips)
39 Jim Creeggan
Rock musician (Barenaked Ladies)
38 Keri Lewis
R&B musician
30 Jesse Spencer
Actor ("House")
29 Sarah Lancaster
Actress ("Chuck," "Everwood")
29 Christina Ricci
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Charles Darwin
53 Thomas Campion
2/12/1567 - 3/1/1620
English poet,composer and musical theorist
44 Caspar Bartholin
2/12/1585 - 7/13/1629
Danish physician/theologian
65 Cotton Mather
2/12/1663 - 2/13/1728
American Congregational minister/author
92 Peter Cooper
2/12/1791 - 4/4/1883
American inventor,manufacturer and philanthropist
56 Abraham Lincoln
2/12/1809 - 4/15/1865
16th President of the United States
40 John Graham Chambers
2/12/1843 - 3/4/1883
English sportsman and journalist
89 John L. Lewis
2/12/1880 - 6/11/1969
American labor leader and founder of the C.I.O.
96 Alice Roosevelt Longworth
2/12/1884 - 2/20/1980
American politically influential daughter of Theodore Roosevelt
66 Max Beckmann
2/12/1884 - 12/27/1950
German expressionist painter/printmaker
88 Omar Bradley
2/12/1893 - 4/8/1981
American general, 1st chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
47 Louis Buchalter
2/12/1897 - 3/4/1944
American crime boss
81 Roy Harris
2/12/1898 - 10/1/1979
American composer/teacher
81 Joseph Alioto
2/12/1916 - 1/29/1998
Mayor of San Francisco
1812: Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky and Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England.
They were so important, I wanted to mention them twice.
1741 - Benjamin Franklin published America’s second magazine, "The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle".
1804 - A raid was led by Lt. Stephen Decatur to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia. The ship had been taken by pirates.
1857 - The National Deaf Mute College was incorporated in Washington, DC. It was the first school in the world for advanced education of the deaf. The school was later renamed Gallaudet College.
1862 - During the U.S. Civil War, about 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Donelson, TN.
1868 - The Jolly Corks organization, in New York City, changed it name to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
1883 - "Ladies Home Journal" began publication.
1914 - The first airplane flight between Los Angeles and San Francisco took place.
1918 - Lithuania proclaimed its independence.
1923 - Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day he entered the chamber with several invited guests. He had originally found the tomb on November 4, 1922.
1932 - The first fruit tree patent was issued to James E. Markham for a peach tree which ripens later than other varieties.
1937 - Wallace H. Carothers received a patent for nylon. Carothers was a research chemist for Du Pont.
1938 - The U.S. Federal Crop Insurance program was authorized.
1945 - During World War II, U.S. troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines.
1946 - The first commercially designed helicopter was tested in Connecticut.
1948 - NBC-TV began airing its first nightly newscast, "The Camel Newsreel Theatre", which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.
1959 - Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba after the overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista.
1960 - The U.S.S. Triton began the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip ended on May 10.
1962 - Jimmy Bostwick defeated his brother, Pete, to win the U.S. Open Court-Tennis championships for the third time.
1963 - Paul Anka married Marie-Ann DeZogheb in Paris.
1968 - In the U.S., the first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, AL.
1970 - Joe Frazier began his reign as the undefeated heavyweight world champion when he knocked out Jimmy Ellis in five rounds. He lost the title on January 22, 1973, when he lost for the first time in his professional career to George Foreman.
1972 - Wilt Chamberlain (Los Angeles Lakers) reached the 30,000-point mark in his NBA career during a game against the Phoenix Suns.
1977 - The Anglican archbishop of Uganda, Janani Luwum, was killed in automobile accident. Two other men were also killed.
1985 - "Kojak" returned to network television after an absence of seven years with the CBS-TV special, "Kojak: The Belarus File."
1987 - John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem. He was accused of being "Ivan the Terrible", a guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. He was convicted, but the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the ruling.
1989 - Investigators in Lockerbie, Scotland, announced that a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was the reason that Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down the previous December. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground were killed.
1999 - A bomb exploded at the government headquarters in Uzbekistan. Gunfire followed the incident. The event apparently was an attempt on the life of President Islam Karimov.
1999 - Kurds seized embassies and held hostages across Europe following Turkey's arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
1999 - Testimony began in the Jasper, TX, trial of John William King. He was charged with murder in the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. King was later convicted and sentenced to death.
2002 - The operator of a crematory in Noble, GA, was arrested after dozens of corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered around in the surrounding woods.
2005 - The Kyoto global warming pact went into effect in 140 nations.
2005 - The NHL announced the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season due to a labor dispute. It was the first time a major sports league in North America lost an entire season to a labor dispute.
Current Birthdays
John McEnroe turns 50 years old today
91 Patty Andrews
Singer (The Andrews Sisters)
63 Jeremy Bulloch
Actor
63 Pete Postlethwaite
Actor
58 William Katt
Actor
52 LeVar Burton
Actor
51 Ice-T
Actor, rapper ("Law and Order: Special Victims Unit")
51 Lisa Loring
Actress
48 Andy Taylor
Rock musician (Duran Duran)
44 Dave Lombardo
Rock musician (Slayer)
37 Jerome Bettis
Football player
37 Taylor Hawkins
Rock musician (Foo Fighters)
34 Sam Salter
R&B singer
32 Ahman Green
Football player
27 Lupe Fiasco
Rapper
16 Mike Weinberg
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Katharine Cornell
2/16/1893 - 6/9/1974
American stage actress
68 Frederick William
2/16/1620 - 5/9/1688
Elector of Brandenburg (1640-88)
73 Giambattista Bodoni
2/16/1740 - 11/29/1813
Italian printer who designed several typefaces
63 Henry Wilson
2/16/1812 - 11/22/1875
Vice President of the United States (1873-75)
64 Nikolay Semyonovich Leskov
2/16/1831 - 3/5/1895
Russian novelist and short-story writer
80 Henry Adams
2/16/1838 - 3/27/1918
American historian and author
89 Henry Martyn Leland
2/16/1843 - 3/26/1932
American engineer and manufacturer
85 Wilhelm Schmidt
2/16/1868 - 2/10/1954
German anthropologist and Roman Catholic priest
67 Robert Flaherty
2/16/1884 - 7/23/1951
American explorer and filmmaker
75 Edgar Bergen
2/16/1903 - 9/30/1978
American ventriloquist and comedian
1801 - The U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Jefferson was elected president and Burr became vice president.
1817 - The first gaslit streetlights appeared on the streets of Baltimore, MD.
1865 - Columbia, SC, burned. The Confederates were evacuating and the Union Forces were moving in.
1876 - Julius Wolff was credited with being the first to can sardines.
1878 - In San Francisco, CA, the first large city telephone exchange opened. It had only 18 phones.
1897 - The National Congress of Mothers was organized in Washington, DC, by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. It was the forerunner of the National PTA.
1913 - The Armory Show opened at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The full-scale exhibition was of contemporary paintings and was organized by the Association of Painters and Sculptors.
1924 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100-yard freestyle. He did it with a time of 52-2/5 seconds in Miami, FL.
1933 - "Newsweek" was first published.
1933 - Blondie Boopadoop married Dagwood Bumstead three years after Chic Young’s popular strip first debuted.
1934 - The first high school automobile driver’s education course was introduced in State College, PA.
1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. U.S. forces won the battle on February 22, 1944.
1947 - The Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.
1964 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be approximately equal in population. (Westberry v. Sanders)
1965 - Comedienne Joan Rivers made her first guest appearances on "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" on NBC-TV.
1968 - The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened in Springfield, MA.
1985 - U.S. Postage stamp prices were raised from 20 cents to 22 cents for first class mail.
1992 - In Milwaukee, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison. In November of 1994, he was beaten to death in prison.
1995 - Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings. He was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.
1996 - World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue" in Philadelphia, PA.
1997 - Pepperdine University announced that Kenneth Starr was leaving the Whitewater probe to take a full-time job at the school. Starr reversed the announcement four days later.
2005 - U.S. President George W. Bush named John Negroponte as the first national intelligence director
Current Birthdays
Paris Hilton turns 28 years old today.
84 Hal Holbrook
Actor
79 Ruth Rendell
Author
76 Bobby Lewis
Rock singer
75 Dame Edna
Comedian
74 Johnny Bush
Country singer
73 Jim Brown
Football Hall of Famer
70 Mary Ann Mobley
Actress
64 Brenda Fricker
Actress
55 Rene Russo
Actress
53 Richard Karn
Actor
47 Lou Diamond Phillips
Actor
46 Michael Jordan
Basketball player
46 Larry the Cable Guy
Actor, comedian ("Blue Collar TV")
44 Michael Bay
Director
42 Chante Moore
R&B singer
39 Timothy J. Mahoney
Rock musician (311)
39 Dominic Purcell
Actor ("Prison Break")
38 Denise Richards
Actress
37 Billie Joe Armstrong
Rock musician (Green Day)
35 Jerry O'Connell
Actor
35 Bryan White
Country singer
33 Kelly Carlson
Actress ("Nip/Tuck")
29 Jason Ritter
Actor ("Joan of Arcadia")
28 Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Actor ("3rd Rock From the Sun")
17 Meaghan Jette Martin
Actress ("Camp Rock")
Historic Birthdays
Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
2/17/1874 - 6/19/1956
American industrialist who built IBM
59 Arcangelo Corelli
2/17/1653 - 1/8/1713
Italian violinist and composer
34 Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
2/17/1836 - 12/22/1870
Spanish poet and author
70 A. Montgomery Ward
2/17/1843 - 12/7/1913
American mail-order merchant
76 Andrew B. Paterson
2/17/1864 - 2/5/1941
Australian poet, journalist and songwriter
54 Andre Maginot
2/17/1877 - 1/7/1932
French statesman for whom Maginot Line was named
85 H. L. Hunt
2/17/1889 - 11/29/1974
American oil tycoon
76 Hans J. Morgenthau
2/17/1904 - 7/19/1980
German-bn. American political scientist and historian
84 Red Barber
2/17/1908 - 10/22/1992
American baseball broadcaster
75 Arthur Kennedy
2/17/1914 - 1/5/1990
American character actor
47 Huey P. Newton
2/17/1942 - 8/22/1989
American activist who co-founded the Black Panthers
1564 - The artist Michelanglelo died in Rome.
1685 - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France's claim to Texas.
1735 - The first opera performed in America. The work was "Flora" (or "Hob in the Well") was presented in Charleston, SC.
1841 - The first continuous filibuster in the U.S. Senate began. It lasted until March 11th.
1861 - Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States.
1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published in the U.S. for the first time.
1900 - A San Francisco man claimed that X-rays had cured his cancer.
1913 - The famous French painting "Nude Descending a Staircase", by the French artist, Marcel Duchamp, was displayed at an "Armory Show" in New York City.
1930 - Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane.
1930 - The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930.
1932 - Sonja Henie won her 6th world women’s figure skating title in Montreal, Canada.
1938 - "The Big Broadcast of 1938" was released.
1949 - "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar" debuted on CBS radio.
1952 - Greece and Turkey became members of NATO.
1953 - "Bwana Devil" opened. It was the first three-dimensional feature.
1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed a contract worth $8,000,000 to continue the "I Love Lucy" TV show through 1955.
1964 - "Any Wednesday" opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. The play established Gene Hackman as an actor.
1970 - The Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention.
1972 - The California Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty.
1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise went on its maiden "flight" sitting on top of a Boeing 747.
1984 - Reed Larson (Detroit Red Wings) got two assists to become the highest scoring, American-born player in the history of the National Hockey League. Larson broke the record by scoring his 432nd point.
1987 - The executives of the Girl Scout movement decided to change the color of the scout uniform from the traditional Girl Scout green to the newer Girl Scout blue.
1998 - In Russia, money shortages resulted in the shutting down of three plants that produced nuclear weapons.
1998 - In Nevada, two white separatists were arrested and accused of plotting a bacterial attack on subways in New York City.
2000 - The U.S. Commerce Department reported a deficit in trade goods and services of $271.3 billion for 1999. It was the largest calender-year trade gap in U.S. history.
2001 - NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500 race.
2003 - In South Korea, at least 120 people were killed when a man lit a fire on a subway train.
Current Birthdays
John Travolta turns 55 years old today.
87 Helen Gurley Brown
Author, editor
84 George Kennedy
Actor
82 John Warner
Former U.S. senator, R-Va.
78 Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize-winning author
77 Milos Forman
Director
76 Yoko Ono
Artist and singer
68 Herman Santiago
Singer (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers)
68 Irma Thomas
Soul singer
62 Dennis DeYoung
Rock singer (Styx)
61 Sinead Cusack
Actress
59 John Hughes
Screenwriter, director
59 Cybill Shepherd
Actress
57 Randy Crawford
Singer
57 Juice Newton
Singer
56 Robbie Bachman
Rock musician (Bachman Turner Overdrive)
56 Larry Rust
Rock musician (Iron Butterfly)
52 Vanna White
Game show host ("Wheel of Fortune")
49 Greta Scacchi
Actress
45 Matt Dillon
Actor
44 Dr. Dre
Rapper
41 Molly Ringwald
Actress ("Pretty in Pink, "The Breakfast Club")
35 Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Tennis player
34 Sarah Brown
Actress
32 Sean Watkins
Bluegrass musician (Nickel Creek)
30 Tyrone Burton
Actor
29 Regina Spektor
Rock singer, musician
21 Shane Lyons
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Louis Comfort Tiffany
2/18/1848 - 1/17/1933
American painter, decorator and designer
42 Mary (Mary I) Tudor
2/18/1516 - 11/17/1558
English queen (1553-58)
82 Alessandro Volta
2/18/1745 - 3/5/1827
Italian physicist and inventor
65 James Biddle
2/18/1783 - 10/1/1848
American career naval officer
50 Ramakrishna
2/18/1836 - 8/16/1886
Hindu religious leader
63 Max Klinger
2/18/1857 - 7/5/1920
German painter, sculptor and engraver
77 Charles M. Schwab
2/18/1862 - 9/18/1939
American entrepreneur who pioneered Bethlehem Steel
52 Wendell Willkie
2/18/1892 - 10/8/1944
American Republican presidential candidate
25 George Gipp
2/18/1895 - 12/14/1920
American football player ("The Gipper")
90 Enzo Ferrari
2/18/1898 - 8/14/1988
Italian automobile manufacturer, designer and racing-car driver
85 Sir Arthur Bryant
2/18/1899 - 1/2/1985
English historian and biographer
84 Wallace Stegner
2/18/1909 - 4/13/1993
American author
1807 - Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was later tried and acquitted on charges of treason.
1846 - The Texas state government was formally installed in Austin.
1856 - The tintype camera was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith.
1864 - The Knights of Pythias was founded in Washington, DC. A dozen members formed what became Lodge No. 1.
1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (the phonograph).
1881 - Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
1922 - Ed Wynn became the first big-name, vaudeville talent to sign on as a radio talent.
1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.
1942 - The New York Yankees announced that they would admit 5,000 uniformed servicemen free to each of their home ball games during the coming season.
1942 - Approximately 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin.
1945 - During World War II, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima.
1949 - Bollingen Foundation and Yale University awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry ($5,000) to Ezra Pound.
1953 - The State of Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the U.S. Newspapers were excluded from the new legislation.
1959 - Cyprus was granted its independence with the signing of an agreement with Britain, Turkey and Greece.
1963 - The Soviet Union informed U.S. President Kennedy it would withdraw "several thousand" of its troops in Cuba.
1985 - Mickey Mouse was welcomed to China as part of the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. The touring mouse played 30 cities in 30 days.
1985 - William Schroeder became the first artificial-heart patient to leave the confines of the hospital.
1985 - Cherry Coke was introduced by the Coca-Cola Company.
1986 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide. The pact had been submitted 37 years earlier for ratification.
1986 - The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station.
1987 - A controversial, anti-smoking publice service announcement aired for the first time on television. Yul Brynner filmed the ad shortly before dying of lung cancer. Brynner made it clear in the ad that he would have died from cigarette smoking before ad aired.
1997 - Deng Xiaoping of China died at the age of 92. He was the last of China's major revolutionaries.
1999 - Dennis Franz received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2001 - The museum at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center was dedicated.
2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft began using its thermal emission imaging system to map Mars.
Current Birthdays
Jeff Daniels turns 54 years old today.
69 Carlin Glynn
Actress
69 Smokey Robinson
R&B singer, songwriter
69 Bobby Rogers
R&B singer (The Miracles)
66 Lou Christie
Singer
64 Michael Nader
Actor
61 Tony Iommi
Rock musician (Black Sabbath)
57 Amy Tan
Author
53 Dave Wakeling
Rock musician, singer (General Public, English Beat)
52 Lorianne Crook
Talk show host
52 Ray Winstone
Actor
50 Roger Goodell
NFL commissioner
49 Prince Andrew
Member of the British royal family
47 Hana Mandlikova
Tennis Hall of Famer
46 Seal
Rock singer
44 Jon Fishman
Rock musician (Phish)
43 Justine Bateman
Actress ("Family Ties")
42 Benicio Del Toro
Actor
34 Daniel Adair
Rock musician (Nickelback)
24 Haylie Duff
Singer, actress ("7th Heaven")
Historic Birthdays
Stan Kenton
2/19/1912 - 8/25/1979
American jazz bandleader, pianist and composer
70 Nicolaus Copernicus
2/19/1473 - 5/24/1543
Polish astronomer
61 David Garrick
2/19/1717 - 1/20/1779
English actor, producer, dramatist and comanager of the Drury Lane Theatre
62 Luigi Boccherini
2/19/1743 - 5/28/1805
Italian composer and cellist
73 Elie Ducommun
2/19/1833 - 12/7/1906
Swiss writer, editor and Nobel Peace Prize winner
82 Rudolf Stammler
2/19/1856 - 4/25/1938
German jurist and teacher
68 Svante Arrhenius
2/19/1859 - 10/2/1927
Swedish Nobel Prize-winning physical chemist
68 Merle Oberon
2/19/1911 - 11/23/1979
English/American film actress
81 Eddie Arcaro
2/19/1916 - 11/14/1997
American jockey
50 Carson McCullers
2/19/1917 - 9/29/1967
American author
1673 - The first recorded wine auction took place in London.
1725 - The first known Indian scalping by white men was reported in the New Hampshire colony.
1792 - U.S. President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act thereby creating the U.S. Post Office.
1809 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was greater than that of any individual state.
1815 - The USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart fought the British ships Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captures both, but lost the Levant after encountering a British squadron. The Constitution and the Cyane returned to New York safely on May 15, 1815. The Cyane was purchased and became the USS Cyane.
1839 - The U.S. Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.
1872 - Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine that manufactured paper bags.
1872 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.
1872 - Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley patented the toothpick manufacturing machine.
1873 - The University of California got its first Medical School.
1880 - The American Bell Company was incorporated.
1901 - The first territorial legislature of Hawaii convened.
1921 - The motion picture "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" was released starring Rudolph Valentino.
1931 - The U.S. Congress allowed California to build the Oakland Bay Bridge.
1933 - The U.S. House of Representatives completed congressional action on the amendment to repeal Prohibition.
1944 - "Big Week" began as U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers during World War II.
1952 - Emmett L. Ashford became the first black umpire in organized baseball. He was authorized to be a substitute in the Southwestern International League.
1952 - "The African Queen" opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.
1958 - Racing jockey Eddie Arcaro got win number 4,000, as he rode the winner at Santa Anita race track in Southern California.
1962 - John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.
1965 - Ranger 8 crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of its surface.
1987 - After 11 years, David Hartman left ABC’s "Good Morning America."
1987 - A bomb exploded in a computer store in Salt Lake City, UT. The blast was blamed on the Unabomber.
1993 - Two ten-year-old boys were charged by police in Liverpool, England, in the abduction and death of a toddler. The two boys were later convicted.
1998 - American Tara Lipinski, at age 15, became the youngest gold medalist in winter Olympics history when she won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, Japan.
2001 - FBI Agent Robert Phillip Hanssen was arrested and charged with spying for the Russians for 15 years.
2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire raced through a train killing at least 370 people and injuring at least 65.
2003 - In West Warwick, RI, 99 people were killed when fire destroyed the nightclub The Station. The fire started with sparks from a pyrotechnic display being used by Great White. Ty Longley, guitarist for Great White, was one of the victims in the fire.
Current Birthdays
Gordon Brown turns 58 years old today.
85 Gloria Vanderbilt
Fashion designer
82 Sidney Poitier
Actor
73 Marj Dusay
Actress
72 Nancy Wilson
Jazz singer
68 Buffy Sainte-Marie
Folk singer
67 Mitch McConnell
U.S. senator, R-Ky.
67 Phil Esposito
Hockey Hall of Famer
66 Mike Leigh
Director
63 Brenda Blethyn
Actress
63 Sandy Duncan
Actress
63 J. Geils
Rock musician
62 Peter Strauss
Actor
59 Walter Becker
Rock musician (Steely Dan)
58 Kathie Baillie
Country singer
55 Anthony Stewart Head
Actor ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer")
55 Patricia Hearst
Newspaper heiress
52 Leland Martin
Country singer
51 James Wilby
Actor
50 Sebastian Steinberg
Rock musician
49 Joel Hodgson
Comedian ("Mystery Science Theater 3000")
46 Charles Barkley
Basketball Hall of Famer
46 Ian Brown
Rock musician (Stone Roses)
45 French Stewart
Actor ("3rd Rock from the Sun")
44 Ron Eldard
Actor
43 Cindy Crawford
Model
42 Andrew Shue
Actor ("Melrose Place")
42 Lili Taylor
Actress
34 Livan Hernandez
Baseball player
34 Brian Littrell
Singer (Backstreet Boys)
32 Stephon Marbury
Basketball player
31 Lauren Ambrose
Actress ("Six Feet Under")
31 Jay Hernandez
Actor
28 Majandra Delfino
Actress
28 Chris Thile
Bluegrass musician (Nickel Creek)
26 Justin Verlander
Baseball player
24 Jake Richardson
Actor
21 Rihanna
Singer
Historic Birthdays
Ansel Adams
2/20/1902 - 4/22/1984
American photographer
92 Mary Garden
2/20/1874 - 1/3/1967
Scottish-bn. American opera singer
60 Georges Bernanos
2/20/1888 - 7/5/1948
French novelist and polemical writer
53 Jimmy Yancey
2/20/1898 - 9/17/1951
American blues pianist
93 Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
2/20/1899 - 12/13/1992
American businessman
81 Rene Dubos
2/20/1901 - 2/20/1982
French-born American microbiologist, environmentalist and author
73 Louis Kahn
2/20/1901 - 3/17/1974
American architect
76 Aleksey Kosygin
2/20/1904 - 12/18/1980
Russian statesman and premier of the Soviet Union (1964-80)
82 Konstantin Sergeyev
2/20/1910 - 4/1/1992
Russian ballet dancer, director, and choreographer
1804 - The first self-propelled locomotive on rails was demonstrated in Wales.
1842 - John J. Greenough patented the sewing machine.
1858 - The first electric burglar alarm was installed in Boston, MA.
1866 - Lucy B. Hobbs became the first woman to graduate from a dental school. The school was the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati.
1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune began publication.
1878 - The first telephone directories issued in the U.S. were distributed to residents in New Haven, CT. It was a single page of only fifty names.
1904 - The National Ski Association was formed in Ishpeming, MI.
1916 - During World War I, the Battle of Verdun began in France. The battle ended on December 18, 1916 with a French victory over Germany.
1925 - The first issue of "The New Yorker" was published.
1932 - William N. Goodwin patented the camera exposure meter.
1943 - "Free World Theatre" debuted on the Blue network (now ABC radio).
1945 - "The Lion and the Mouse" was first broadcast on "Brownstone Theatre."
1947 - Edwin Land demonstrated the Polaroid Land Camera to the Optical Society of America in New York City. It was the first camera to take, develop and print a picture on photo paper all in about 60 seconds. The photos were black and white. The camera went on sale the following year.
1950 - The first International Pancake Race was held in Liberal, Kansas.
1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City at the age of 39 by assassins identified as Black Muslims.
1968 - An agreement between baseball players and club owners increased the minimum salary for major league players to $10,000 a year.
1973 - Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan Airlines jet over the Sinai Desert. More than 100 people were killed.
1975 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.
1988 - In Baton Rouge, LA, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart confessed to his congregation that he was guilty of an unspecified sin. He announced that he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Swaggart had been linked to an admitted prostitute.
1989 - U.S. President Bush called Ayatollah Khomeini's death warrant against "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie "deeply offensive to the norms of civilized behavior."
1995 - Chicago stockbroker Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. He landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada.
1999 - India's Prime Minister Atal Bihair Vajpayee concluded two days of meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammad Nowaz Sharif.
2000 - David Letterman returned to his Late Night show about five weeks after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass operation.
2003 - David Hasselhoff and his wife Pamela were injured in a motorcycle accident. The accident was caused by a strong gust of wind. Hasselhoff fractured his lower back and broke several ribs. His wife fractured her left ankle and right wrist.
Current Birthdays
Jack Coleman turns 51 years old today
76 Bob Rafelson
Director
74 Rue McClanahan
Actress ("The Golden Girls")
72 Gary Lockwood
Actor
70 Richard Beymer
Actor ("West Side Story")
69 Peter McEnery
Actor
66 David Geffen
Recording executive
63 Tyne Daly
Actress ("Cagney and Lacey")
63 Anthony Daniels
Actor (C-3PO in the "Star Wars" films)
63 Alan Rickman
Actor
63 Tricia Nixon Cox
Daughter of President Nixon
62 Olympia Snowe
U.S. senator, R-Maine
60 Jerry Harrison
Rock musician (Talking Heads)
56 Christine Ebersole
Actress
56 William Petersen
Actor ("C.S.I.")
54 Kelsey Grammer
Actor ("Frasier")
51 Mary Chapin Carpenter
Country singer
48 Christopher Atkins
Actor
48 Ranking Roger
Rock singer (General Public, English Beat)
46 William Baldwin
Actor
42 Michael Ward
Rock musician
40 Aunjanue Ellis
Actress ("Ray")
40 Corey Harris
Blues guitarist
39 Eric Heatherly
Country singer
39 Eric Wilson
Rock musician
36 Tad Kinchla
Rock musician (Blues Traveler)
30 Jennifer Love Hewitt
Actress ("Ghost Whisperer")
23 Charlotte Church
Singer
22 Ellen Page
Actress ("Juno")
20 Corbin Bleu
Actor ("High School Musical")
Historic Birthdays
Andres Segovia
2/21/1893 - 6/2/1987
Spanish guitarist
82 Friedrich Karl von Savigny
2/21/1779 - 10/25/1861
German jurist and legal scholar
82 Antonio Lopez Santa Anna
2/21/1794 - 6/21/1876
Mexican army officer, statesman and politician
89 John Henry Newman
2/21/1801 - 8/11/1890
Eng. Churchman
79 Pierre Laffitte
2/21/1823 - 1/4/1903
French philosopher
54 Leo Delibes
2/21/1836 - 1/16/1891
French opera and ballet composer
81 Constantin Brancusi
2/21/1876 - 3/16/1957
Romanian abstract sculptor
56 Harry Stack Sullivan
2/21/1892 - 1/14/1949
American psychiatrist and teacher
73 Anais Nin
2/21/1903 - 1/14/1977
French-bn. American author
73 Tom Yawkey
2/21/1903 - 7/9/1976
American sportsman and owner of the Boston Red Sox (1933-76)
66 W. H. Auden
2/21/1907 - 9/29/1973
English-bn. American poet and writer
1630 - Quadequine introduced popcorn to English colonists at their first Thanksgiving dinner.
1784 - "Empress of China", a U.S. merchant ship, left New York City for the Far East.
1819 - Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
1855 - The U.S. Congress voted to appropriate $200,000 for continuance of the work on the Washington Monument. The next morning the resolution was tabled and it would be 21 years before the Congress would vote on funds again. Work was continued by the Know-Nothing Party in charge of the project.
1859 - U.S. President Buchanan approved the Act of February 22, 1859, which incorporated the Washington National Monument Society "for the purpose of completing the erection now in progress of a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government."
1860 - Organized baseball’s first game was played in San Francisco, CA.
1865 - In the U.S., Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery.
1879 - In Utica, NY, Frank W. Woolworth opened his first 5 and 10-cent store.
1885 - The Washington Monument was officially dedicated in Washington, DC. It opened to the public in 1889.
1892 - "Lady Windermere's Fan", by Oscar Wilde, was first performed.
1920 - The first dog race track to use an imitation rabbit opened in Emeryville, CA.
1923 - The first successful chinchilla farm opened in Los Angeles, CA. It was the first farm of its kind in the U.S.
1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.
1954 - ABC radio’s popular "Breakfast Club" program was simulcast on TV for the first time.
1969 - Barbara Jo Rubin became the first woman to win a U.S. thoroughbred horse race.
1973 - The U.S. and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices.
1984 - The U.S. Census Bureau statistics showed that the state of Alaska was the fastest growing state of the decade with an increase in population of 19.2 percent.
1994 - The U.S. Justice Department charged Aldrich Ames and his wife with selling national secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames was later convicted to life in prison. Ames' wife received a 5-year prison term.
1997 - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut and colleagues announced that an adult sheep had been successfully cloned. Dolly, the first cloned sheep to be born was born in July 1996.
2002 - In the Philippines, An MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashed into the ocean. All 10 men aboard were killed.
Current Birthdays
Edward M. Kennedy turns 77 years old today
91 Don Pardo
TV announcer ("Saturday Night Live")
81 Paul Dooley
Actor
79 Marni Nixon
Singer
75 Sparky Anderson
Hall of Fame baseball manager
65 Jonathan Demme
Director
61 John Ashton
Actor
59 Julius Erving
Basketball Hall of Famer
59 Miou-Miou
Actress
59 Julie Walters
Actress
58 Ellen Greene
Actress ("Pushing Daisies")
57 Bill Frist
Former Senate majority leader
54 David Axelrod
Senior White House adviser
50 Kyle MacLachlan
Actor ("Twin Peaks")
46 Vijay Singh
Golfer
44 Pat Lafontaine
Hockey Hall of Famer
43 Rachel Dratch
Actress, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
41 Jeri Ryan
Actress ("Boston Public")
40 Thomas Jane
Actor
39 Tamara Mello
Actress ("She's All That")
38 Lea Salonga
Actress, singer
38 Jose Solano
Actor
37 Michael Chang
Tennis Hall of Famer
34 Drew Barrymore
Actress
34 Liza Huber
Actress ("Passions")
32 James Blunt
Singer
30 Tom Higgenson
Rock singer (Plain White T's)
19 Daniel E. Smith
Actor ("John Q.")
Historic Birthdays
Edna St. Vincent Millay
2/22/1892 - 10/19/1950
American poet and dramatist
58 Charles VII
2/22/1403 - 7/22/1461
King of France from 1422 to 1461
67 George Washington
2/22/1732 - 12/14/1799
American general and first president of U.S.
82 Rembrandt Peale
2/22/1778 - 10/3/1860
American painter, writer and portraitist
72 Arthur Schopenhauer
2/22/1788 - 9/21/1860
German philosopher
72 James Russell Lowell
2/22/1819 - 8/12/1891
American poet, critic, essayist and diplomat
73 August Bebel
2/22/1840 - 8/13/1913
German co-founder of the Social Democratic Party
77 Bill Klem
2/22/1874 - 9/16/1951
American National League baseball umpire
90 David Dubinsky
2/22/1892 - 9/17/1982
Russian-bn. American labor leader
83 Luis Bunuel
2/22/1900 - 7/29/1983
Spanish director and filmmaker
91 Sean O'Faolain
2/22/1900 - 4/20/1991
Irish short-story writer and teacher
80 Peter Hurd
2/22/1904 - 7/9/1984
American painter, printmaker and illustrator
73 Giulietta Masina
2/22/1921 - 3/23/1994
Italian motion-picture actress
maildude
2009-02-22, 16:42
Interesting stuff!!!:thumbsup:
1574 - France began the 5th holy war against the Huguenots.
1660 - Charles XI became the king of Sweden.
1792 - The Humane Society of Massachusetts was incorporated.
1813 - The first U.S. raw cotton-to-cloth mill was founded in Waltham, MA.
1820 - The Cato Street conspiracy was uncovered.
1821 - The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries established the first pharmacy college.
1822 - Boston was incorporated as a city.
1836 - In San Antonio, TX, the siege of the Alamo began.
1839 - In Boston, MA, William F. Harnden organized the first express service between Boston and New York City. It was the first express service in the U.S.
1847 - Santa Anna was defeated at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico by U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary.
1861 - U.S. President-elect Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take his office after an assassination attempt in Baltimore.
1861 - Texas became the 7th state to secede from the Union.
1870 - The state of Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.
1874 - Walter Winfield patented a game called "sphairistike." More widely known as lawn tennis.
1875 - J. Palisa discovered asteroid #143 (aka Adria).
1883 - Alabama became the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
1886 - Charles M. Hall completed his invention of aluminum.
1887 - The French/Italian Riviera was hit by an earthquake that killed about 2,000.
1896 - The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.
1898 - In France, Emile Zola was imprisoned for his letter, "J'accuse," which accused the government of anti-Semitism and wrongly jailing Alfred Dreyfus.
1900 - The Battle of Hart's Hill took place in South Africa between the Boers and the British army.
1904 - The U.S. acquired control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.
1905 - The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago, IL, by Attorney Paul Harris and three others.
1910 - In Philadelphia, PA, the first radio contest was held.
1915 - Nevada began enforcing convenient divorce law.
1916 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the McKinley Memorial $1 gold coin.
1919 - The Fascist Party was formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini.
1927 - The Federal Radio Commission began assigning frequencies, hours of operation and power allocations for radio broadcasters. On July 1, 1934 the name was changed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
1940 - Russian troops conquered Lasi Island.
1940 - Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio" was released.
1945 - The 28th Regiment of the Fifth Marine Division of the U.S. Marines reached the top of Mount Surabachi. A photograph of these Marines raising the American flag was taken.
1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio began in Pittsburgh, PA.
1955 - The French government was formed by Edgar Faure.
1957 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NFL operations did fall within coverage of antitrust laws.
1958 - Juan Fangio, 5-time world diving champion, was kidnapped by Cuban rebels.
1963 - The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It prohibited poll taxes in federal elections.
1966 - The Bitar government in Syria was ended with a military coup.
1967 - Jim Ryun set a record in the half-mile run when ran it in 1:48.3.
1968 - Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers) became the first player to score 25,000 career points in the NBA.
1970 - Guyana became a republic.
1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demanded $4 million more for the release of Patty Hearst. Hearst had been kidnapped on February 4th.
1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared that Iran's new parliament would have to decide the fate of the hostages taken on November 4, 1979, at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
1985 - The TV show "Gimme a Break" was broadcast live before a studio audience. It was the first TV sitcom to be seen live since the 1950s.
1991 - During the Persian Gulf War, ground forces crossed the border of Saudi Arabia into the country of Iraq. Less than four days later the war was over due to the surrender or withdraw of Iraqi forces.
1993 - Gary Coleman won a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.
1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial closed about 4,000 for the first time at 4,003.33.
1997 - It was announced by scientists in Scotland that they had succeeded in cloning an adult mammal. The animal was a lamb named "Dolly."
1997 - NBC-TV aired "Schindler's List." It was completely uncensored.
1997 - Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building. He killed one person and wounded six more before killing himself.
1998 - In central Florida, tornadoes killed 42 people and damaged and/or destroyed about 2,600 homes and businesses.
1999 - In Ankara, Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan was charged with treason. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for the Kurdish rebel leader.
1999 - White supremacict John William King was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering James Byrd Jr. Byrd was dragged behind a truck for two miles on a country road in Texas.
2000 - Robby Knieval made a successful motorcycle jump of 200 feet over an oncoming train.
2005 - The New York, NY, city medical examiner's office annouced that it had exhausted all efforts to identify the remains of the people killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, due to the limits of DNA technology. About 1,600 people had been identified leaving more than 1,100 unidentified.
Current Birthdays
75 Bob Willis
Country, gospel songwriter
69 Peter Fonda
Actor, director
66 Fred Biletnikoff
Football Hall of Famer
65 John Sandford
Author
65 Johnny Winter
Rock singer
64 Allan Boesak
South African activist
63 Rusty Young
Country musician (Poco)
58 Patricia Richardson
Actress ("Home Improvement")
57 Brad Whitford
Rock musician (Aerosmith)
55 Viktor Yushchenko
Ukrainian prime minister
55 Howard Jones
Rock singer
47 Michael Wilton
Rock musician (Queensryche)
45 Dusty Drake
Country singer
44 Kristin Davis
Actress ("Sex and the City")
41 Marc Price
Actor
39 Niecy Nash
Actress
38 Jeff Beres
Rock musician (Sister Hazel)
37 Steve Holy
Country singer
36 Lasse Johansson
Rock musician (The Cardigans)
26 Emily Blunt
Actress ("The Devil Wears Prada")
Historic Birthdays
W.E.B. DuBois
2/23/1868 - 8/27/1963
American sociologist who helped found the N.A.A.C.P.
70 Samuel Pepys
2/23/1633 - 5/26/1703
English diarist and naval administrator
74 George Frideric Handel
2/23/1685 - 4/14/1759
German-bn. English composer
87 George Frederick Watts
2/23/1817 - 7/1/1904
English painter and sculptor
68 Cesar Ritz
2/23/1850 - 10/26/1918
French founder of the Ritz hotel in Paris
90 Norman Lindsay
2/23/1879 - 11/29/1969
Australian artist and novelist
88 Karl Jaspers
2/23/1881 - 2/26/1969
German Existentialist philosopher
65 Victor Fleming
2/23/1883 - 1/6/1949
American motion-picture director
89 William Shirer
2/23/1904 - 12/28/1993
American journalist, historian and novelist
74 Allan MacLeod Cormack
2/23/1924 - 5/7/1998
South African-bn. Am. Nobel Prize-winning physicist
Skyraider22
2009-02-23, 17:41
History is always great.
Facetious
2009-02-23, 22:31
http://img19.picoodle.com/img/img19/3/2/23/corrado/f_FlagRaisingm_2841738.jpg
Feb. 23, 1945 - The Flag Raising at Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima resulted in :
6,821 dead
19,189 wounded
21,703 dead
1,083 captured
27 Congressional Medals of Honor
:hatsoff:
Thanks for the daily reminders, Mini D. :hatsoff:
1803 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled itself to be the final interpreter of all constitutional issues.
1821 - Mexico declared independence from Spain.
1835 - "Siwinowe Kesibwi" (The Shawnee Sun) was issued as the first Indian language monthly publication in the U.S.
1839 - Mr. William S. Otis received a patent for the steam shovel.
1848 - The Communist Manifesto was published.
1857 - The Los Angeles Vinyard Society was organized.
1857 - The first shipment of perforated postage stamps was received by the U.S. Government.
1863 - Arizona was organized as a territory.
1866 - In Washington, DC, an American flag made entirely of American bunting was displayed for the first time.
1868 - The first parade to use floats occurred in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.
1868 - The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson due to his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The U.S. Senate later acquitted Johnson.
1886 - Thomas Edison and Mina Miller were married.
1900 - New York City Mayor Van Wyck signed the contract to begin work on New York's first rapid transit tunnel. The tunnel would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. The ground breaking ceremony was on March 24, 1900.
1903 - In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an area was leased to the U.S. for a naval base.
1924 - Johnny ‘Tarzan’ Weissmuller broke the world’s record in the 100-meter swimming event. He did it in 57 2/5 seconds.
1925 - A thermit was used for the first time. It was used to break up a 250,000-ton ice jam that had clogged the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, NY.
1938 - The first nylon bristle toothbrush was made. It was the first time that nylon yarn had been used commercially.
1942 - The U.S. Government stopped shipments of all 12-gauge shotguns for sporting use for the wartime effort.
1942 - The Voice of America (VOA) aired for the first time.
1945 - During World War II, the Philippine capital of Manilla, was liberated by U.S. soldiers.
1946 - Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.
1956 - The city of Cleveland invoked a 1931 law that barred people under the age of 18 from dancing in public without an adult guardian.
1980 - NBC premiered the TV movie "Harper Valley P.T.A."
1981 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.
1983 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 1100 mark for the first time.
1983 - A U.S.congressional commission released a report that condemned the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
1987 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, of the Los Angeles Lakers, got his first three-point shot in the NBA.
1987 - An exploding supernova was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy.
1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $200,000 award to Rev. Jerry Falwell that had been won against "Hustler" magazine. The ruling expanded legal protections for parody and satire.
1989 - Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for his novel "The Satanic Verses". A bounty of one to three-million-dollars was also put on Rushidie's head.
1989 - A United Airlines 747 jet rips open in flight killing 9 people. The flight was from Honolulu to New Zealand.
1992 - "Wayne's World" opened in U.S. theaters.
1992 - Tracy Gold began working on the set of "Growing Pains" again. She had left the show due to anorexia.
1994 - In Los Angeles, Garrett Morris was shot during a robbery attempt. He eventually recovered from his injury.
1997 - The U.S. The Food and Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective "morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy.
1997 - Dick Enberg received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 - In southeast China, a domestic airliner crashed killing all 64 passengers.
Current Birthdays
Edward James Olmos turns 62 years old today
88 Abe Vigoda
Actor ("Fish," "Barney Miller")
87 Steven Hill
Actor ("Law and Order")
78 Dominic Chianese
Actor, singer ("The Sopranos")
77 Michel Legrand
Composer
77 Zell Miller
Former Georgia governor and senator
71 James Farentino
Actor
67 Joseph Lieberman
U.S. senator, I-Conn.
64 Barry Bostwick
Actor ("Spin City")
62 Rupert Holmes
Singer, songwriter
59 George Thorogood
Rock singer, musician
58 Debra Jo Rupp
Actress ("That '70s Show")
58 Helen Shaver
Actress
57 Fred Dean
Fooball Hall of Famer
53 Eddie Murray
Baseball Hall of Famer
53 Paula Zahn
Broadcast journalist
51 Sammy Kershaw
Country singer
47 Michelle Shocked
Rock singer
45 Todd Field
Director ("In the Bedroom")
43 Billy Zane
Actor
39 Jeff Garcia
Football player
35 Mike Lowell
Baseball player
35 Simeon Rice
Football player
35 Bonnie Somerville
Actress
28 Lleyton Hewitt
Tennis player
26 Brandon Brown
R&B singer (Mista)
26 Matt McGinley
Rock musician (Gym Class Heroes)
Historic Birthdays
Chester W. Nimitz
2/24/1885 - 2/20/1966
American commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet-W.W.II
31 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
2/24/1463 - 11/17/1494
Italian scholar and philosopher
70 Charles Le Brun
2/24/1619 - 2/12/1690
French painter, designer and decorator
42 Johann Clauberg
2/24/1622 - 1/31/1665
French philosopher and theologian
68 George Curtis
2/24/1824 - 8/31/1892
American author and editor
74 Winslow Homer
2/24/1836 - 9/29/1910
American painter
76 Arrigo Boito
2/24/1842 - 6/10/1918
Italian poet, composer, and librettist
82 John Henry Comstock
2/24/1849 - 3/20/1931
American educator and researcher
81 Honus Wagner
2/24/1874 - 12/6/1955
American professional baseball player
86 Mary Ellen Chase
2/24/1887 - 7/28/1973
American scholar and writer
57 Henri Frankfort
2/24/1897 - 7/16/1954
American archaeologist
84 Bennie Oosterbaan
2/24/1906 - 10/25/1990
American college football player and coach
1570 - England's Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V.
1751 - Edward Willet displayed the first trained monkey act in the U.S.
1793 - The department heads of the U.S. government met with U.S. President Washington for the first Cabinet meeting on U.S. record.
1836 - Samuel Colt received a patent for a "revolving gun".
1901 - The United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.
1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized a graduated income tax.
1919 - The state of Oregon became the first state to place a tax on gasoline. The tax was 1 cent per gallon.
1928 - The Federal Radio Commission issued the first U.S. television license to Charles Jenkins Laboratories in Washington, DC.
1930 - The bank check photographing device was patented.
1933 - The first aircraft carrier, Ranger, was launched.
1940 - The New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens played in the first hockey game to be televised in the U.S. The game was aired on W2WBS in New York with one camera in a fixed position. The Rangers beat the Canadiens 6-2.
1948 - Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.
1950 - "Your Show of Shows" debuted on NBC.
1956 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before a Communist Party congress in Moscow.
1972 - Germany gave a $5 million ransom to Arab terrorist who had hijacked a jumbo jet.
1986 - Phillippino President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule after a tainted election.
1999 - William King was sentenced to death for the racial murder of James Byrd Jr in Jasper, TX. Two other men charged were later convicted for thier involvement.
1999 - In Moscow, China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and Russia's President Boris Yeltsin discussed trade and other issues.
2000 - In Albany, NY, a jury acquitted four New York City police officers of second-degree murder and lesser charges in the February 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo.
Current Birthdays
Rashida Jones turns 33 years old today.
90 Monte Irvin
Baseball Hall of Famer
82 Ralph Stanley
Country singer
81 Larry Gelbart
TV writer, producer ("M*A*S*H")
72 Tom Courtenay
Actor
72 Bob Schieffer
Broadcast journalist
71 Diane Baker
Actress
65 Karen Grassle
Actress ("Little House on the Prairie")
60 Jack Handey
Author, former TV writer ("Saturday Night Live")
59 Neil Jordan
Director
52 Dennis Diken
Rock musician (The Smithereens)
51 Jeff Fisher
Football coach
50 Mike Peters
Rock musician (The Alarm)
44 Carrot Top
Comedian
44 Veronica Webb
Actress
43 Alexis Denisof
Actor ("Angel")
43 Tea Leoni
Actress
41 Lesley Boone
Actress ("Ed")
38 Sean Astin
Actor ("Lord of the Rings" movies)
38 Daniel Powter
Singer
36 Julio Iglesias Jr.
Singer
36 Justin Jeffre
Singer
36 Richard Liles
Rock musician
36 Anson Mount
Actor
35 Shannon Stewart
Baseball player
34 Chelsea Handler
Comedian
23 Justin Berfield
Actor ("Malcolm in the Middle")
23 James Phelps
Actor ("Harry Potter" movies)
23 Oliver Phelps
Actor ("Harry Potter" movies)
22 Erik Haager
Rock musician (Carolina Liar)
Historic Birthdays
John Foster Dulles
2/25/1888 - 5/24/1959
American Secretary Of State (1953-59)
75 Johann Philipp Krieger
2/25/1649 - 2/7/1725
German composer
85 Carlo Goldoni
2/25/1707 - 2/6/1793
Italian dramatist
78 Pierre-Auguste Renoir
2/25/1841 - 12/3/1919
French painter
86 Benedetto Croce
2/25/1866 - 11/20/1952
Italian historian, humanist, and philosopher
48 Enrico Caruso
2/25/1873 - 8/2/1921
Italian operatic tenor
96 Vyacheslav M. Molotov
2/25/1890 - 11/8/1986
Russian statesman and foreign minister
75 Dame Myra Hess
2/25/1890 - 11/25/1965
English pianist
79 Marcel Paul Pagnol
2/25/1895 - 4/18/1974
French writer and film producer/director
76 Anthony Burgess
2/25/1917 - 11/22/1993
English novelist and critic
78 Barney Ewell
2/25/1918 - 4/4/1996
American Olympic sprinter
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Island of Elba. He then began his second conquest of France.
1848 - The second French Republic was proclaimed.
1863 - U.S. President Lincoln signed the National Currency Act.
1870 - In New York City, the first pneumatic-powered subway line was opened to the public.
1881 - S.S. Ceylon began his world-wide cruise, beginning in Liverpool, England.
1907 - The U.S. Congress raised their own pay to $7500.
1916 - Mutual signed Charlie Chaplin to a film contract.
1919 - In Arizona, the Grand Canyon was established as a National Park with an act of the U.S. Congress.
1929 - U.S. President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Grand Teton National Park.
1930 - New York City installed traffic lights.
1933 - A ground-breaking ceremony was held at Crissy Field for the Golden Gate Bridge.
1945 - In the U.S., a nationwide midnight curfew went into effect.
1952 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed an atomic bomb.
1957 - The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1979 - "Flatbush" debuted on CBS-TV.
1986 - Corazon Aquino was inaugurated president of the Phillipines. Long time President Ferdinand Marcos went into exile.
1987 - The Tower Commission rebuked U.S. President Reagan for failing to control his national security staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.
1987 - The U.S.S.R. conducted its first nuclear weapons test after a 19-month moratorium period.
1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that Iraqi troops were being withdrawn from Kuwait.
1993 - Six people were killed and more than a thousand injured when a van exploded in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. The bomb had been built by Islamic extremists.
1995 - Barings PLC collapsed after a securities dealer lost more than $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices. The company was Britain's oldest investment banking firm.
1998 - A Texas jury rejected an $11 million lawsuit by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey for price drop after on-air comment about mad-cow disease.
1998 - In Oregon, a health panel rules that taxpayers must help to pay for doctor-assisted suicides.
2002 - In Rome, Italy, a bomb exploded near the Interior Ministry. No injuries were reported.
Current Birthdays
Mark DeRosa turns 34 years old today.
81 Fats Domino
R&B singer
78 Robert Novak
Political columnist
66 Paul Cotton
Country musician (Poco)
66 Bill Duke
Actor, director
64 Mitch Ryder
Rock singer
59 Jonathan Cain
Rock musician (Journey)
56 Michael Bolton
Singer
51 Greg Germann
Actor ("Ally McBeal")
51 Tim Kaine
Governor of Virginia
48 John McDaniel
Bandleader
43 Jennifer Grant
Actress
41 Tim Commerford
Rock musician (Audioslave)
38 Erykah Badu
R&B singer
37 Rico Wade
R&B singer (Society of Soul)
36 Marshall Faulk
Football player
34 Kyle Norman
R&B singer (Jagged Edge)
30 Corinne Bailey Rae
R&B singer
29 Rodney Hayden
Country singer
16 Taylor Dooley
Actress
Historic Birthdays
John Harvey Kellogg
2/26/1852 - 12/14/1943
American physician who developed dry cereal
58 Wenceslas
2/26/1361 - 8/16/1419
German king (as Wenceslas IV, King of Bohemia)
56 Archibald Argyll
2/26/1629 - 6/30/1685
Scottish Protestant leader
83 Victor Hugo
2/26/1802 - 5/22/1885
French poet, novelist and dramatist
70 William F. Cody
2/26/1846 - 1/10/1917
American buffalo hunter and Indian scout
71 Honore Daumier
2/26/1808-2/10/1879
French caricaturist, painter and sculptor
64 Herbert H. Dow
2/26/1866 - 10/15/1930
American founder of Dow Chemical Co.
91 Rudolph Dirks
2/26/1877 - 4/20/1968
American cartoonist of "Katzenjammer Kids"
70 Francesco Borgongini-Duca
2/26/1884 - 10/4/1954
Italian Vatican cardinal
66 Sir Benegal Narsing Rau
2/26/1887 - 11/29/1953
Indian jurist
63 Grover Cleveland Alexander
2/26/1887 - 11/4/1950
American professional baseball player
89 Vercors (b. Jean Marcel Bruller)
2/26/1902 - 6/10/1991
French novelist and artist
53 Margaret Leighton
2/26/1922 - 1/13/1976
English stage and film actres
1700 - The Pacific Island of New Britain was discovered.
1801 - The city of Washington, DC. was placed under congressioal jurisdiction.
1827 - New Orleans held its first Mardi Gras celebration.
1861 - In Warsaw, Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland. Five protesting marchers were killed in the incident.
1867 - Dr. William G. Bonwill invented the dental mallet.
1883 - Oscar Hammerstein patented the first cigar-rolling machine.
1896 - The "Charlotte Observer" published a picture of an X-ray photograph made by Dr. H.L. Smith. The photograph showed a perfect picture of all the bones of a hand and a bullet that Smith had placed between the third and fourth fingers in the palm.
1900 - In South Africa, the British recieved an unconditional surrender from Boer Gen. Piet Cronje at Paardeberg.
1922 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 19th Amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote.
1933 - The Reichstag, Germany's parliament building in Berlin, was set afire. The Nazis accused Communist for the fire.
1939 - The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.
1949 - Chaim Weizmann became the first Israeli president.
1951 - The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, limiting U.S. Presidents to two terms.
1972 - The Shanghai Communique was issued by U.S. President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai.
1973 - The American Indian Movement occupied Wouned Knee in South Dakota.
1974 - "People" magazine was first issued by Time-Life (later known as Time-Warner).
1982 - Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of murdering two young black people. 28 bodies had been found in the Atlanta area over a period of 22 months.
1986 - The U.S. Senate approved the telecast of its debates on a trial basis.
1990 - The Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping were indicted on five criminal counts in reference to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
1991 - U.S. President George Bush announced live on television that "Kuwait is liberated."
1997 - In Ireland, divorce became legal.
1997 - Don Cornelius received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - Britain's House of Lords agreed to give a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son. This was the end to 1,000 years of male preference.
1999 - Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new hot air balloon endurance record when they had been aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes. The two were in the process of trying to circumnavigate the Earth.
1999 - Nigeria returned to civilian rule when Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo became the country's first elected president since August of 1983.
2002 - In Boston, twenty people working at Logan International Airport were charged with lying to get their jobs or security badges.
Current Birthdays
Josh Groban turns 28 years old today.
79 Joanne Woodward
Actress
77 Elizabeth Taylor
Actress
75 Ralph Nader
Consumer advocate
72 Barbara Babcock
Actress
69 Howard Hesseman
Actor ("Head of the Class," "WKRP in Cincinnati")
60 Debra Monk
Actress
55 Neal Schon
Rock musician (Journey)
52 Adrian Smith
Rock musician (Iron Maiden)
52 Timothy Spall
Actor
49 Paul Humphreys
Rock musician
49 Johnny Van Zant
Country singer
48 Leon Mobley
Rock musician
48 James Worthy
Basketball Hall of Famer
47 Adam Baldwin
Actor
47 Grant Show
Actor ("Melrose Place")
44 Mike Cross
Rock musician (Sponge)
43 Donal Logue
Actor
38 Chilli
R&B singer (TLC)
37 Jeremy Dean
Rock musician (Nine Days)
36 Roderick Clark
R&B singer
33 Tony Gonzalez
Kansas City Chiefs tight end
31 Shonna Tucker
Country musician (Drive-By Truckers)
29 Chelsea Clinton
Daughter of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton
29 Bobby Valentino
R&B singer
26 Kate Mara
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Hugo Black
2/27/1886 - 9/25/1971
American politician and Supreme Court associate justice
75 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
2/27/1807 - 3/24/1882
American poet
81 Ellen Terry
2/27/1847 - 7/21/1928
English actress
101 Alice Hamilton
2/27/1869 - 9/22/1970
American pathologist who worked on industrial diseases
88 Lotte Lehmann
2/27/1888 - 8/26/1976
German lyric-dramatic soprano
80 David Sarnoff
2/27/1891 - 12/12/1971
Russian-bn. American C.E.O. of R.C.A. and N.B.C.
79 Marino Marini
2/27/1901 - 8/6/1980
Italian artist
66 John Steinbeck
2/27/1902 - 12/20/1968
American Nobel Prize-winning novelist
83 Peter De Vries
2/27/1910 - 9/28/1993
American editor and novelist
78 Lawrence Durrell
2/27/1912 - 11/7/1990
English novelist and poet
71 Irwin Shaw
2/27/1913 - 5/16/1984
American playwright, novelist and screenwriter
1807 - The U.S. Congress passed an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."
1836 - Texas declared its independence from Mexico and an ad interim government was formed.
1861 - The U.S. Congress created the Territory of Nevada.
1866 - Excelsior Needle Company began making sewing machine needles.
1877 - In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
1887 - The American Trotting Association was organized in Detroit, MI.
1897 - U.S. President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants entering the country.
1899 - Mount Rainier National Park in Washington was established by the U.S. Congress.
1899 - U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.
1900 - The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.
1901 - The first telegraph company in Hawaii opened.
1901 - The U.S. Congress passed the Platt amendment, which limited Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.
1903 - The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel had 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.
1906 - A tornado in Missouri killed 33 and did $5 million in damage.
1907 - In Hamburg, Germany, dock workers went on strike after the end of the night shift. British strike breakers were brought in. The issue was settled on April 22, 1907.
1908 - In New York, the Committee of the Russian Republican Administration was founded.
1908 - In Paris, Gabriel Lippmann introduced three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Bluebird" opened in Paris.
1917 - The Russian Revolution began with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.
1917 - Citizens of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act.
1925 - State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route-numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker.
1929 - The U.S. Court of Customs & Patent Appeals was created by the U.S. Congress.
1933 - The motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.
1939 - The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. These first ten amendments had gone into effect 147 years before.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh was elected President of Vietnam.
1949 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, TX. The American plane had completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight.
1962 - Wilt 'The Stilt' Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks 169-147. Chamberlain broke several NBA records in the game.
1969 - In Toulouse, France, the supersonic transport Concorde made its first test flight.
1974 - Postage stamps jumped from 8 to 10 cents for first-class mail.
1984 - The first McDonald's franchise was closed. A new location was opened across the street from the old location in Des Plaines, IL.
1985 - The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus that allowed possibly contaminated blood to be kept out of the blood supply.
1986 - Corazon Aquino was sworn into office as president of the Philippines. Her first public declaration was to restore the civil rights of the citizens of her country.
1989 - Representatives from the 12 European Community nations all agreed to ban all production of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) by the end of the 20th century.
1995 - Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev was killed by a gunman in Moscow.
1995 - Nick Leeson was arrested for his role in the collapse of Britain's Barings Bank.
1998 - The U.N. Security Council endorses U.N. chief Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.
1998 - Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.
2000 - In Great Britain, Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was freed from house arrest and allowed to return to Chile. Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw had concluded that Pinochet was mentally and physically unable to stand trial. Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland had sought the former Chilean leader on human-rights violations.
2003 - Over the Sea of Japan, there was a confrontation between four armed North Korean fighter jets and a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball. No shots were fired in the encounted in international airspace about 150 miles off North Korea's coast. The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights on March 12.
2004 - NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.
Current Birthdays
Ben Roethlisberger turns 27 years old today
90 Jennifer Jones
Actress
86 Doc Watson
Bluegrass singer, musician
79 John Cullum
Actor ("Northern Exposure")
79 Tom Wolfe
Author
78 Mikhail Gorbachev
Former Soviet president
70 Barbara Luna
Actress
68 Jon Finch
Actor
67 John Irving
Author
67 Lou Reed
Rock musician
58 Cassie Yates
Actress
57 Laraine Newman
Actress, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
56 Russ Feingold
U.S. senator, D-Wis.
54 Jay Osmond
Singer
54 Ken Salazar
Secretary of the interior
53 John Cowsill
Pop musician (The Cowsills)
50 Larry Stewart
Country singer (Restless Heart)
47 Jon Bon Jovi
Rock musician
46 Alvin Youngblood Hart
Blues singer, musician
41 Daniel Craig
Actor
33 Casey
Rock musician (Jimmie's Chicken Shack)
32 Chris Martin
Rock singer (Coldplay)
32 Heather McComb
Actress ("Party of Five")
28 Bryce Dallas Howard
Actress
24 Reggie Bush
Football player
24 Robert Iler
Actor ("The Sopranos")
Historic Birthdays
Theodor Seuss Geisel
3/2/1904 - 9/24/1991
American author and illustrator (Dr. Seuss)
64 Adrian VI
3/2/1459 - 9/14/1523
Dutch - Elected Pope in 1522
58 DeWitt Clinton
3/2/1769 - 2/11/1828
American who presided over construction of the Erie Canal
70 Sam Houston
3/2/1793 - 7/26/1863
American lawyer and politician
60 Bedrich Smetana
3/2/1824 - 5/12/1884
Bohemian composer of operas and symphonic poems
71 John Jay Chapman
3/2/1862 - 11/4/1933
American poet, dramatist, and critic
82 Pius XII
3/2/1876 - 10/9/1958
Italian Pope (1939-58)
50 Kurt Weill
3/2/1900 - 4/3/1950
German-bn. American composer
72 Edward Condon
3/2/1902 - 3/26/1974
American physicist
80 Geoffrey Grigson
3/2/1905 - 11/25/1985
English poet, editor, and literary critic
65 Ernst Haas
3/2/1921 - 9/12/1986
Austrian-bn. photojournalist
1791 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution that created the U.S. Mint.
1803 - The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, began.
1812 - The U.S. Congress passed the first foreign aid bill.
1817 - The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans was opened.
1845 - Florida became the 27th U.S. state.
1845 - The U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.
1849 - The U.S. Department of the Interior was established.
1849 - The Gold Coinage Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. It allowed the minting of gold coins.
1849 - The U.S. Congress created the territory of Minnesota.
1851 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest U.S. silver coin.
1857 - Britain and France declared war on China.
1863 - Free city delivery of mail was authorized by the U.S. Postal Service.
1875 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 20-cent piece. It was only used for 3 years.
1878 - Russia and the Ottomans signed the treaty of Stenafano. The treaty granted independence to Serbia.
1885 - The American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) was incorporated in New York as a subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company.
1885 - The U.S. Post Office began offering special delivery for first-class mail.
1894 - The "Atlantis" was first published. It was the first Greek newspaper in America.
1900 - Striking miners in Germany returned to work.
1903 - In St. Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting.
1903 - The U.S. imposed a $2 head tax on immigrants.
1904 - Wilhelm II of Germany made the first recording of a political document with Thomas Edison's cylinder.
1905 - The Russian Czar agreed to create an elected assembly.
1906 - A Frenchman tried the first flight in an airplane with tires.
1908 - The U.S. government declared open war on on U.S. anarchists.
1909 - Aviators Herring, Curtiss and Bishop announced that airplanes would be made commercially in the U.S.
1910 - J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announced his withdrawal from business to administer his father's fortune for an "uplift in humanity". He also appealed to the U.S. Congress for the creation of the Rockefeller Foundation.
1910 - In New York, Robert Forest founded the National Housing Association to fight deteriorating urban living conditions.
1910 - Nicaraguan rebels admitted defeat in open war and resorted to guerrilla tactics in the hope of U.S. intervention.
1915 - The motion picture "Birth of a Nation" debuted in New York City.
1918 - The Treaty of Brest Litovsky was signed by Germany, Austria and Russia. The treaty ended Russia's participation in World War I.
1923 - The first issue of Time magazine was published.
1930 - "Flying High" opened at the Apollo Theatre in New York City.
1931 - The "Star Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key, was adopted as the American national anthem. The song was originally a poem known as "Defense of Fort McHenry."
1938 - A world record for the indoor mile run was set by Glenn Cunningham. He ran the distance in 4 minutes, 4.4 seconds.
1939 - In Bombay, Ghandi began a fast to protest the state's autocratic rule.
1941 - Moscow denounced the Axis rule in Bulgaria.
1945 - Superman encountered Batman and Robin for the first time on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
1945 - During World War II, Finland declared war on the Axis.
1952 - "Whispering Streets" debuted on ABC Radio.
1952 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld New York's Feinberg Law that banned Communist teachers in the U.S.
1956 - Morocco gained its independence.
1959 - The San Francisco Giants had their new stadium officially named Candlestick Park.
1969 - Apollo 9 was launched by NASA to test a lunar module.
1969 - Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy.
1973 - Japan disclosed its first defense plan since World War II.
1974 - About 350 people died when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris.
1978 - The remains of Charles Chaplin were stolen from his grave in Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. The body was recovered 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva.
1980 - The submarine Nautilus was decommissioned. The vessels final voyage had ended on May 26, 1979.
1985 - Women Against Pornography awarded its ‘Pig Award’ to Huggies Diapers. The activists claimed that the TV ads for diapers had "crossed the line between eye-catching and porn."
1985 - The TV show "Moonlighting" premiered.
1991 - 25 people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while on approach to the Colorado Springs airport.
1991 - Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers. The scene was captured on amateur video.
1994 - The Mexican government reached a peace agreement with the Chiapas rebels.
1995 - A U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia ended. Several gunmen were killed by U.S. Marines in Mogadishu while overseeing the pull out of peacekeepers.
1999 - In Egypt, 19 people were killed when a bus plunged into a Nile canal.
1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones began their attempt to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon non-stop. They succeeded on March 20, 1999.
Current Birthdays
Santonio Holmes turns 25 years old today
64 George Miller
Director, producer ("Mad Max" films)
64 Hattie Winston
Actress
62 Jennifer Warnes
Singer
59 Tim Kazurinsky
Actor, director ("Saturday Night Live")
56 Robyn Hitchcock
Rock musician
55 John Lilley
Rock musician (The Hooters)
51 Miranda Richardson
Actress
48 Mary Page Keller
Actress
47 Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Olympic track and field gold medalist
43 Tone-Loc
Rapper, actor
41 Brian Leetch
Hockey player
40 John Bigham
Rock musician
39 Julie Bowen
Actress ("Ed," "Boston Legal")
38 Brett Warren
Country singer (The Warren Brothers)
35 David Faustino
Actor ("Married... With Children")
32 Ronan Keating
Singer (Boyzone)
28 Lil' Flip
Rapper
27 Jessica Biel
Actress ("7th Heaven")
Historic Birthdays
Alexander Graham Bell
3/3/1847 - 8/2/1922
Scottish-born American inventor of the telephone
33 Thomas Otway
3/3/1652 - 4/14/1685
English dramatist and poet
80 William Macready
3/3/1793 - 4/27/1873
English actor, manager and diarist
66 George Pullman
3/3/1831 - 10/19/1897
American industrialist and inventor
73 Sir John Murray
3/3/1841 - 3/16/1914
Scottish naturalist
79 William Green
3/3/1873 - 11/21/1952
American labor leader who headed the A.F.L.
67 Leopold Jessner
3/3/1878 - 10/30/1945
German Expressionist theatrical producer and director
58 Damaskinos
3/3/1891 - 5/20/1949
Greek archbishop of Athens
98 Matthew Ridgway
3/3/1895 - 7/26/1993
American army general
26 Jean Harlow
3/3/1911 - 6/7/1937
American movie actress
68 James Merrill
3/3/1926 - 2/6/1995
American poet
1634 - Samuel Cole opened the first tavern in Boston, MA.
1681 - England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for an area that later became the state of Pennsylvania.
1766 - The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, which had caused bitter and violent opposition in the U.S. colonies.
1778 - The Continental Congress voted to ratify the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance. The two treaties were the first entered into by the U.S. government.
1789 - The first Congress of the United States met in New York and declared that the U.S. Constitution was in effect.
1791 - Vermont was admitted as the 14th U.S. state. It was the first addition to the original 13 American colonies.
1794 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. The Amendment limited the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state. Later interpretations expanded this to include citizens of the state being sued, as well.
1813 - The Russians fighting against Napoleon reached Berlin. The French garrison evacuated the city without a fight.
1826 - The first railroad in the U.S. was chartered. It was the Granite Railway in Quincy, MA.
1837 - The state of Illinois granted a city charter to Chicago.
1861 - The Confederate States of America adopted the "Stars and Bars" flag.
1877 - Emile Berliner invented the microphone.
1880 - Halftone engraving was used for the first time when the "Daily Graphic" was published in New York City.
1881 - Eliza Ballou Garfield became the first mother of a U.S. President to live in the executive mansion.
1902 - The American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago.
1904 - In Korea, Russian troops retreated toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese troops advanced.
1908 - The New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.
1908 - France notified signatories of Algeciras that it would send troops to Chaouia, Morocco.
1914 - Doctor Fillatre successfully separated Siamese twins.
1917 - Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.
1925 - Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office in Washington, DC. The presidential inauguration was broadcast on radio for the first time.
1930 - Emma Fahning became the first woman bowler to bowl a perfect game in competition run by the Women’s International Bowling Congress in Buffalo, NY.
1933 - U.S. President Roosevelt gave his inauguration speech in which he said "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."
1933 - Labor Secretary Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in a Presidential administrative cabinet.
1942 - "Junior Miss" starring Shirley Temple aired on CBS radio for the first time.
1942 - The Stage Door Canteen opened on West 44th Street in New York City.
1944 - Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the head of Murder, Inc., was executed for murder at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY. He was the leader of U.S. organized crime during the 1930's.
1946 - Canada reported that it had uncovered a spy ring that had been organized by the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa. All four people accused admitted to being involved.
1947 - France and Britain signed an alliance treaty.
1950 - Walt Disney’s "Cinderella" was released.
1952 - U.S. President Harry Truman dedicated the "Courier," the first seagoing radio broadcasting station.
1952 - Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married.
1954 - In Boston, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital reported the first successful kidney transplant.
1963 - Six people received a death sentence in Paris for plotting to kill French President Charles de Gaulle.
1975 - Queen Elizabeth knighted Charlie Chaplin.
1977 - More than 1,500 people were killed in an earthquake that affected southern and eastern Europe.
1986 - "Today" debuted in London as England’s newest, national, daily newspaper.
1989 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. announced a plan to merge.
1991 - Sheik Saad al-Jaber al-Sabah, the prime minister of Kuwait, returned to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion.
1993 - Authorities announced the arrest of Mohammad Salameh. He was later convicted for his role in the World Trade Center Bombing in New York City.
1994 - Bosnia's Croats and Moslems signed an agreement to form a federation in a loose economic union with Croatia.
1994 - Four extremists were convicted in the World Trade Center bombing in which six people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.
1997 - U.S. President Clinton barred federal spending on human cloning.
1998 - Microsoft repaired software that apparently allowed hackers to shut down computers in government and university offices nationwide.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court said that federal law banned on-the-job sexual harassment even when both parties are the same sex.
1999 - Monica Lewinsky's book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton went on sale in the U.S.
1999 - U.S. Marine Captain Richard Ashby was acquitted in a military court of the charge of recklessly flying his jet. 20 people were killed in Italy when his jet hit a gondola cable.
2002 - Canada banned human embryo cloning but permitted government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.
2003 - In the southern Philippines, a bomb hidden in a backpack exploded and killed at least 19 people at an airport.
2003 - In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, at least 9 people were killed and 52 were injured when a bus fell into a deep gorge.
Current Birthdays
Rick Perry turns 59 years old today.
71 Paula Prentiss
Actress
68 Adrian Lyne
Director
65 Bobby Womack
R&B singer
61 Chris Squire
Rock musician (Yes)
61 Shakin' Stevens
Rockabilly singer
58 Chris Rea
Singer
57 Ronn Moss
Actor ("The Bold and the Beautiful")
56 Emilio Estefan
Musician (Miami Sound Machine)
56 Scott Hicks
Director
56 Kay Lenz
Actress
55 Catherine O'Hara
Actress
51 Patricia Heaton
Actress ("Everybody Loves Raymond")
49 Mykelti Williamson
Actor
48 Steven Weber
Actor ("Wings")
46 Jason Newsted
Rock musician (Metallica)
44 Stacy Edwards
Actress ("Chicago Hope")
43 Patrick Hannan
Rock musician (The Sundays)
43 Grand Puba
Rapper
42 Evan Dando
Rock singer (Lemonheads)
41 Patsy Kensit
Actress
40 Chastity Bono
Daughter of Sonny and Cher
39 Nick Stabile
Actor
38 Fergal Lawler
Rock musician (The Cranberries)
38 Jason Sellers
Country singer
32 Jason Marsalis
Jazz musician
24 Whitney Port
TV personality ("The Hills")
19 Andrea Bowen
Actress ("Desperate Housewives")
16 Jenna Boyd
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Knute Rockne
3/4/1888 - 3/31/1931
American football coach at Notre Dame
66 Henry the Navigator
3/4/1394 - 11/13/1460
Portuguese sponsor of voyages of exploration
63 Antonio Vivaldi
3/4/1678 - 7/28/1741
Italian composer and violinist
67 Sir Henry Raeburn
3/4/1756 - 7/8/1823
Scottish portrait painter
46 Aleksandr Popov
3/4/1859 - 12/31/1905
Russian physicist and electrical engineer
76 David Watson Taylor
3/4/1864 - 7/28/1940
American marine architect
86 Enrique Larreta
3/4/1875 - 7/7/1961
Argentine novelist
67 Richard Tolman
3/4/1881 - 9/5/1948
American physical chemist and physicist
49 Pearl Fay White
3/4/1889 - 8/4/1938
American film star
90 Charles Goren
3/4/1901 - 4/3/1991
American contract bridge authority
64 George Gamow
3/4/1904 - 8/19/1968
Russian-bn. American nuclear physicist and cosmologist
1623 - The first alcohol temperance law in the colonies was enacted in Virginia.
1624 - In the American colony of Virginia, the upper class was exempted from whipping by legislation.
1750 - "King Richard III" was performed in New York City. It was the first Shakespearean play to be presented in America.
1766 - The first Spanish governor of Louisiana, Antonio de Ulloa, arrived in New Orleans.
1770 - "The Boston Massacre" took place when British troops fired on a crowd in Boston killing five people. Two British troops were later convicted of manslaughter.
1793 - Austrian troops defeated the French and recaptured Liege.
1836 - Samuel Colt manufactured the first pistol (.34-caliber).
1842 - A Mexican force of over 500 men under Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They briefly occupied San Antonio, but soon headed back to the Rio Grande.
1845 - The U.S. Congress appropriated $30,000 to ship camels to the western U.S.
1864 - For the first time, Oxford met Cambridge in track and field competition in England.
1867 - An abortive Fenian uprising against English rule took place in Ireland.
1868 - The U.S. Senate was organized into a court of impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson.
1872 - George Westinghouse patented the air brake.
1900 - The American Hall of Fame was founded.
1900 - Two U.S. battleships leave for Nicaragua to halt revolutionary disturbances.
1901 - Germany and Britain began negotiations with hopes of creating an alliance.
1902 - In France, the National Congress of Miners decided to call for a general strike for an 8-hour day.
1905 - Russian troops began their retreat from Mukden in Manchuria, China. Over 100,000 had been killed in 3 days of fighting.
1907 - In St. Petersburg, Russia, the new Duma opened. 40,000 demonstrators were dispersed by troops.
1910 - In Philadelphia, PA, 60,000 people left their jobs to show support for striking transit workers.
1910 - The Moroccan envoy signed the 1909 agreement with France.
1912 - The Italians became the first to use dirigibles for military purposes. They used them for reconnaissance flights behind Turkish lines west of Tripoli.
1918 - The Soviets moved the capital of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.
1922 - Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She hit 98 out of 100 targets.
1923 - Old-age pension laws were enacted in the states of Montana and Nevada.
1924 - Frank Caruana of Buffalo, NY, became the first bowler to roll two perfect games in a row.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a four-day bank holiday in order to stop large amounts of money from being withdrawn from banks.
1933 - The Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote in German parliamentary elections.
1934 - In Amarillo, TX, the first Mother's-In-Law Day was celebrated.
1943 - Germany called fifteen and sixteen year olds for military service due to war losses.
1946 - Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech".
1946 - The U.S. sent protests to the U.S.S.R. on incursions into Manchuria and Iran.
1953 - Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died. He had been in power for 29 years.
1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ban on segregation in public schools.
1969 - Gustav Heinemann was elected West German President.
1970 - A nuclear non-proliferation treaty went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.
1976 - The British pound fell below the equivalent of $2 for the first time in history.
1977 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter appeared on CBS News with Walter Cronkite for the first "Dial-a-President" radio talk show.
1982 - John Belushi died in Los Angeles of a drug overdose at the age of 33.
1984 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities had the right to display the Nativity scene as part of their Christmas display.
1985 - Mike Bossy, of the New York Islanders, became the first National Hockey League player to score 50 goals in eight consecutive seasons.
1993 - Cuban President Fidel Castro said that Hillary Clinton is "a beautiful woman."
1993 - Sprinter Ben Johnson was banned from racing for life by the Amateur Athletic Association after testing positive for banned performance-enhancing substances for a second time.
1997 - North Korea and South Korea met for first time in 25 years for peace talks.
1997 - Chuck Niles received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - NASA announced that an orbiting craft had found enough water on the moon to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.
1998 - It was announced that Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins would lead crew of Columbia on a mission to launch a large X-ray telescope. She was the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.
2004 - Martha Stewart was found guilty of lying about the reason for selling 3,298 shares of ImClone Systems stock, conspiracy, making false statement and obstruction of justice.
Current Birthdays
Kevin Connolly turns 35 years old today
87 James Noble
Actor
75 James B. Sikking
Actor
73 Dean Stockwell
Actor
72 Denny Crum
Hall of Fame basketball coach
71 Fred Williamson
Actor
63 Michael Warren
Actor
62 Eddie Hodges
Actor, singer
61 Eddy Grant
Rock singer
57 Alan Clark
Rock musician (Dire Straits)
55 Marsha Warfield
Actress, comedian
54 Penn Jillette
Magician, comedian (Penn and Teller)
53 Adriana Barraza
Actress
53 Teena Marie
Singer
47 Charlie Reid
Rock singer (The Proclaimers)
47 Craig Reid
Rock singer (The Proclaimers)
39 John Frusciante
Rock musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
39 Rome
R&B singer
35 Jill Ritchie
Actress
34 Jolene Blalock
Actress ("Enterprise")
34 Eva Mendes
Actress
34 Niki Taylor
Model
33 Paul Konerko
Baseball player
20 Jake Lloyd
Actor ("Star Wars" films )
Historic Birthdays
Sir Rex Harrison
3/5/1908 - 6/2/1990
English stage and film actor
82 Gerardus Mercator
3/5/1512 - 12/2/1594
Flemish cartographer
75 Jan van der Heyden
3/5/1637 - 3/28/1712
Dutch painter of cityscapes
74 Giovanni Tiepolo
3/5/1696 - 3/27/1770
Italian painter
80 Lady Augusta Gregory
3/5/1852 - 5/22/1932
Irish writer and playwright
58 Howard Pyle
3/5/1853 - 11/9/1911
American illustrator, painter, and author
83 Michael von Faulhaber
3/5/1869 - 6/12/1952
German cardinal and archbishop of Munich
47 Rosa Luxemburg
3/5/1871 - 1/15/1919
German revolutionary and agitator
72 Arthur Schendel
3/5/1874 - 9/11/1946
Dutch novelist and short-story writer
86 Edouard Belin
3/5/1876 - 3/4/1963
French engineer and inventor
72 Heitor Villa-Lobos
3/5/1887 - 11/17/1959
Brazilian musician and composer
0322 BC - Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, died.
1774 - The British closed the port of Boston to all commerce.
1799 - In Palestine, Napoleon captured Jaffa and his men massacred more than 2,000 Albanian prisoners.
1848 - In Hawaii, the Great Mahele was signed.
1849 - The Austrian Reichstag was dissolved.
1850 - U.S. Senator Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a method of preserving the Union.
1854 - Charles Miller received a patent for the sewing machine.
1876 - Alexander Graham Bell received a patent (U.S. Patent No. 174,465) for his telephone.
1901 - It was announced that blacks had been found enslaved in parts of South Carolina.
1904 - The Japanese bombed the Russian town of Vladivostok.
1904 - In Springfield, OH, a mob broke into a jail and shot a black man accused of murder.
1906 - Finland granted women the right to vote.
1908 - Cincinnati's mayor, Mark Breith announced before the city council that, "Women are not physically fit to operate automobiles."
1911 - Willis Farnworth patented the coin-operated locker.
1911 - In the wake of the Mexican Revolution, the U.S. sent 20,000 troops to the border of Mexico.
1918 - Finland signed an alliance treaty with Germany.
1925 - The Soviet Red Army occupied Outer Mongolia.
1927 - A Texas law that banned Negroes from voting was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1933 - CBS radio debuted "Marie The Little French Princess." It was the first daytime radio serial.
1933 - The board game Monopoly was invented.
1935 - Malcolm Campbell set an auto speed record of 276.8 mph in Florida.
1936 - Hitler sent German troops into the Rhineland in violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles.
1942 - Japanese troops landed on New Guinea.
1945 - During World War II, U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany.
1947 - John L. Lewis declared that only a totalitarian regime could prevent strikes.
1951 - U.N. forces in Korea under General Matthew Ridgeway launched Operation Ripper against the Chinese.
1954 - Russia appeared for the first time in ice-hockey competition. Russia defeated Canada 7-2 to win the world ice-hockey title in Stockholm, Sweden.
1955 - "Peter Pan" was presented as a television special for the first time.
1955 - Baseball commissioner Ford Frick said that he was in favor of legalizing the spitball.
1955 - Phyllis Diller made her debut at the Purple Onion in San Francisco, CA.
1959 - Melvin C. Garlow became the first pilot to fly over a million miles in jet airplanes.
1965 - State troopers and a sheriff's posse broke up a march by civil rights demonstrators in Selma, AL.
1968 - The Battle of Saigon came to an end.
1971 - A thousand U.S. planes bombed Cambodia and Laos.
1975 - The U.S. Senate revised the filibuster rule. The new rule allowed 60 senators to limit debate instead of the previous two-thirds.
1981 - Anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed the kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman. The guerrillas accused Bitterman of being a CIA agent.
1983 - TNN (The Nashville Network) began broadcasting.
1985 - "Commonwealth" magazine ceased publication after five decades.
1985 - The first AIDS antibody test, an ELISA-type test, was released.
1987 - Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight titleholder when he beat James Smith in a decision during a 12-round fight in Las Vegas, NV.
1989 - Poland accused the Soviet Union of a World War II massacre in Katyn.
1994 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parodies that poke fun at an original work can be considered "fair use" that does not require permission from the copyright holder.
1994 - In Moldova, a referendum was rejected by 90% of voters to form a union with Rumania.
1999 - In El Salvador, Francisco Flores Pérez of the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) was elected president.
2002 - A federal judge awarded Anna Nicole Smith more than $88 million in damages. The ruling was the latest in a legal battle over the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard Marshall II.
2003 - Scientists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center announced that they had transferred 6.7 gigabytes of uncompressed data from Sunnvale, CA, to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 58 seconds. The data was sent via fiber-optic cables and traveled 6,800 miles.
Current Birthdays
Jenna Fischer turns 35 years old today.
79 Lord Snowdon
Photographer, ex-husband of Princess Margaret
75 Willard Scott
TV personality ("Today")
71 Janet Guthrie
Auto racer
69 Daniel J. Travanti
Actor ("Hill Street Blues")
67 Michael Eisner
Former Walt Disney Co. CEO
66 Chris White
Rock musician (The Zombies)
63 Matthew Fisher
Rock musician (Procol Harum)
63 John Heard
Actor
63 Peter Wolf
Rock singer (J. Geils Band)
59 Franco Harris
Football Hall of Famer
57 Ernie Isley
R&B singer, musician (The Isley Brothers)
57 Lynn Swann
Football Hall of Famer
53 Bryan Cranston
Actor ("Malcolm in the Middle")
50 Donna Murphy
Actress
50 Nick Searcy
Actor
49 Ivan Lendl
Tennis Hall of Famer
48 Mary Beth Evans
Actress ("Days of Our Lives")
46 Bill Brochtrup
Actor
45 Denyce Graves
Opera singer
45 Wandy Sykes
Actress-comedian
44 Taylor Dayne
Rock singer
42 Randy Guss
Rock musician (Toad the Wet Sprocket)
41 Jeff Kent
Baseball player
38 Peter Sarsgaard
Actor
38 Rachel Weisz
Actress
35 Hugo Ferreira
Rock singer (Tantric)
34 Audrey Marie Anderson
Actress ("The Unit")
29 Laura Prepon
Actress ("That 70s Show")
Historic Birthdays
Maurice Ravel
3/7/1875 - 12/28/1937
French composer
88 Alessandro Manzoni
3/7/1785 - 5/22/1873
Italian poet and novelist
79 Sir John Herschel
3/7/1792 - 5/11/1871
English astronomer
65 Giuseppe Ferrari
3/7/1811 - 6/2/1876
Italian historian and political philosopher
45 Henry Draper
3/7/1837 - 11/20/1882
American physician and amateur astronomer
87 Tomas Masaryk
3/7/1850 - 9/14/1937
Czechoslovakian founder and president
83 Julius Wagner-Jauregg
3/7/1857 - 9/27/1940
Austrian Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist and neurologist
71 Piet Mondrian
3/7/1872 - 2/1/1944
Dutch abstract art painter
86 Helen Parkhurst
3/7/1887 - 6/1/1973
American educator, author, and lecturer
65 Anna Magnani
3/7/1908 - 9/26/1973
Italian actress
537 - The Goths began their siege on Rome.
1302 - The characters Romeo and Juliet were married this day according to William Shakespeare.
1649 - The peace of Rueil was signed between the Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government.
1665 - A new legal code was approved for the Dutch and English towns, guaranteeing religious observances unhindered.
1702 - The Daily Courant, the first regular English newspaper was published.
1791 - Samuel Mulliken became the first person to receive more than one patent from the U.S. Patent Office.
1810 - The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.
1824 - The U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Seneca Indian Ely Parker became the first Indian to lead the Bureau.
1845 - Seven hundred Maoris led by their chief, Hone-Heke, burned the small town of Kororareka. The act was in protest to the settlement of Maoriland by Europeans, which was a breach of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
1847 - John Chapman 'Johnny Appleseed' died in Allen County, Indiana. This day became known as Johnny Appleseed Day.
1861 - A Confederate Convention was held in Montgomery, Alabama, where a new constitution was adopted.
1865 - Union General William Sherman and his forces occupied Fayetteville, NC.
1867 - In Hawaii, the volcano Great Mauna Loa erupted.
1882 - The Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association was formed in Princeton, NJ.
1888 - The "Blizzard of '88" began along the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard shutting down communication and transportation lines. More than 400 people died.(March 11-14)
1900 - British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury rejected the peace overtures offered from the Boer leader Paul Kruger.
1901 - Britain rejected an amended treaty to the canal agreement with Nicaragua.
1901 - U.S. Steel was formed when industrialist J.P. Morgan purchased Carnegie Steep Corp. The event made Andrew Carnegie the world's richest man.
1905 - The Parisian subway was officially inaugurated.
1907 - U.S. President Roosevelt induced California to revoke its anti-Japanese legislation.
1907 - In Bulgaria, Premier Nicolas Petkov was killed by an anarchist.
1909 - The first gold medal to a perfect-score bowler was awarded to A.C. Jellison by the American Bowling Congress.
1927 - Samuel Roxy Rothafel opened the famous Roxy Theatre in New York City.
1927 - The Flatheads Gang stole $104,250 in the first armored-car robbery near Pittsburgh, PA.
1930 - Babe Ruth signed a two-year contract with the New York Yankees for the sum of $80,000.
1930 - U.S. President Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to be buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
1935 - The German Air Force became an official organ of the Reich.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the act of providing war supplies to the Allies.
1946 - Communists and Nationalists began fighting as the Soviets pulled out of Mukden, Manchuria.
1946 - Pravda denounced Winston Churchill as anti-Soviet and a warmonger.
1947 - The DuMont network aired "Movies For Small Fry." It was network television's first successful children's program.
1948 - Reginald Weir became the first black tennis player to participate in a U.S. Indoor Lawn Tennis Association tournament.
1959 - The Lorraine Hansberry drama A Raisin in the Sun opened at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater.
1964 - U.S. Senator Carl Hayden broke the record for continuous service in the U.S. Senate. He had worked 37 years and seven days.
1965 - The American navy began inspecting Vietnamese junks in an effort to end arms smuggling to the South.
1965 - The Rev. James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, died after being beaten by whites during a civil rights disturbances in Selma, Alabama.
1966 - Three men were convicted of the murder of Malcolm X.
1969 - Levi-Strauss started selling bell-bottomed jeans.
1977 - More than 130 hostages held in Washington, DC, by Hanafi Muslims were freed after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined the negotiations.
1978 - Bobby Hull (Winnipeg Jets) joined Gordie Howe by getting his 1,000th career goal.
1978 - Palestinian guerrillas on the Tel Aviv Haifa highway killed 34 Israelis.
1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev was named the new chairman of the Soviet Communist Party.
1986 - Popsicle announced its plan to end the traditional twin-stick frozen treat for a one-stick model.
1988 - A cease-fire was declared in the war between Iran and Iraq.
1990 - Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. It was the first Soviet republic to break away from Communist control.
1990 - In Chile, Patricio Aylwin was sworn in as the first democratically elected president since 1973.
1991 - In South Africa a curfew was imposed on black townships after fighting between political gangs had left 49 dead.
1992 - Former U.S. President Nixon said that the Bush administration was not giving enough economic aid to Russia.
1993 - Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become the first female attorney general.
1993 - North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty refusing to open sites for inspection.
1994 - In Chile, Eduardo Frei was sworn in as President. It was the first peaceful transfer of power in Chile since 1970.
1997 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant caused 35 workers to be exposed to low levels of radioactivity. The incident was the worst in Japan's history.
1998 - The International Astronomical Union issued an alert that said that a mile-wide asteroid could come very close to, and possibly hit, Earth on Oct. 26, 2028. The next day NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that there was no chance the asteroid would hit Earth.
2002 - Two columns of light were pointed skyward from ground zero in New York as a temporary memorial to the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
2003 - Fort Drum, NY, 11 troops were killed and two were injured during a training mission when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed.
2004 - In Madrid, Spain, several coordinated bombing attacks on commuter trains killed at least 190 people and injured more than 2,000.
Current Birthdays
Terrence Howard turns 40 years old today
86 Terence Alexander
Actor
78 Rupert Murdoch
Media mogul
75 Sam Donaldson
Broadcast journalist
73 Antonin Scalia
Supreme Court justice
70 Flaco Jimenez
Musician (Texas Tornados)
64 Tricia O'Neil
Actress
63 Mark Metcalf
Actor ("Animal House")
62 Mark Stein
Rock musician (Vanilla Fudge)
59 Bobby McFerrin
Singer
59 Jerry Zucker
Director
57 Susan Richardson
Actress ("Eight is Enough")
56 Jimmy Iovine
Head of Interscope Records
55 Gale Norton
Former secretary of the interior
54 Jimmy Fortune
Country singer (The Statler Brothers)
54 Nina Hagen
Singer
52 Cheryl Lynn
R&B singer
47 Jeffrey Nordling
Actor
46 Alex Kingston
Actress ("ER")
46 David Talbot
Country musician
44 Wallace Langham
Actor ("CSI")
44 Jesse Jackson Jr.
U.S. congressman, D-Ill.
42 John Barrowman
Actor
41 Lisa Loeb
Rock singer
40 Pete Droge
Rock singer
40 Rami Jaffee
Rock musician
38 Johnny Knoxville
Actor ("Jackass")
30 Benji Madden
Rock musician (Good Charlotte)
30 Joel Madden
Rock musician (Good Charlotte)
29 Dan Uggla
Baseball player
28 David Anders
Actor ("Alias")
28 LeToya
R&B singer
27 Thora Birch
Actress
25 Rob Brown
Actor
20 Anton Yelchin
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Ralph Abernathy
3/11/1926 - 4/17/1990
American pastor and civil rights leader
51 Torquato Tasso
3/11/1544 - 4/25/1595
Italian poet of the late Renaissance
76 John McLean
3/11/1785 - 4/4/1861
United States Supreme Court justice; dissented in the Dred Scott decision (1857)
78 Joseph Bertrand
3/11/1822 - 4/5/1900
French mathematician and educator
70 Charles Eastlake
3/11/1836 - 11/20/1906
English museologist and art writer
63 Sir Malcolm Campbell
3/11/1885 - 12/31/1948
English car racer
84 Vannevar Bush
3/11/1890 - 6/28/1974
American electrical engineer and goverment administrator in World War II
70 Dorothy Gish
3/11/1898 - 6/4/1968
American film and stage actress
72 Frederick IX
3/11/1899 - 1/14/1972
Danish king; encouraged resistance against Germans in World War II
89 Lawrence Welk
3/11/1903 - 5/17/1992
American bandleader and showman
79 Harold Wilson
3/11/1916 - 5/24/1995
English Labor Party politician; twice prime minister
1496 - Jews were expelled from Syria.
1507 - Cesare Borgia died while fighting alongside his brother, the king of Navarre in Spain.
1609 - The Bermuda Islands became an English colony.
1664 - New Jersey became a British colony. King Charles II granted land in the New World to his brother James (The Duke of York).
1755 - In North Arlington, NJ, the steam engine was used for the first time.
1789 - The U.S. Post Office was established.
1809 - Britain signed a treaty with Persia forcing the French to leave the country.
1857 - "Simon Boccanegra" by Verdi debuted in Venice.
1884 - The State of Mississippi authorized the first state-supported college for women. It was called the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College.
1863 - President Jefferson Davis delivered his State of the Confederacy address.
1879 - The British Zulu War began.
1889 - Almon B. Stowger applied for a patent for his automatic telephone system.
1894 - Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time.
1903 - The Czar of Russia issued a decree providing for nominal freedom of religion throughout his territory.
1904 - After 30 years of drilling, the tunnel under the Hudson River was completed. The link was between Jersey City, NJ, and New York, NY.
1905 - In Rome, Premier Giovanni Giolliwas forced out of office by continued civil strife.
1906 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations must yield incriminating evidence in anti-trust suits.
1909 - The British Parliament increased naval appropriations for Britain.
1909 - Three U.S. warships were ordered to Nicaragua to stem the conflict with El Salvador.
1911 - Dr. Fletcher of Rockefeller Institute discovered the cause of infantile paralysis.
1912 - The Girl Scout organization was founded. The original name was Girl Guides.
1923 - Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated phonofilm. It was his technique for putting sound on motion picture film.
1930 - Ghandi began his 200-mile march to the sea that symbolized his defiance of British rule over India.
1933 - President Paul von Hindenburg dropped the flag of the German Republic and ordered that the swastika and empire banner be flown side by side.
1933 - U.S. President Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the "Fireside Chats."
1935 - Parimutuel betting became legal in the State of Nebraska.
1938 - The "Anschluss" took place as German troops entered Austria.
1940 - Finland surrendered to Russia ending the Russo-Finnish War.
1944 - Britain barred all travel to Ireland.
1947 - U.S. President Truman established the "Truman Doctrine" to help Greece and Turkey resist Communism.
1959 - The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in approving the statehood of Hawaii.
1966 - Bobby Hull, of the Chicago Blackhawks, became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 51 points in a single season.
1974 - "Wonder Woman" debuted on ABC-TV. The show later went to CBS-TV.
1980 - In Chicago, IL, a jury found John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of the murders of 33 men and boys.
1984 - Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war.
1985 - The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. began arms control talks in Geneva.
1985 - Larry Bird, of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, scored a club-record 60 points against the Atlanta Hawks.
1985 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announced that he planned to drop Secret Service protection and hire his own bodyguards in an effort to lower the deficit by $3 million.
1987 - "Les Miserables" opened on Broadway.
1989 - Prime Minister Sadiq al Mahdi of Sudan formed a new cabinet to end civil war.
1989 - About 2,500 veterans and supporters marched at the Art Institute of Chicago to demand that officials remove an American flag placed on the floor as part of an exhibit.
1992 - Mauritius became a republic but remained a member of the British Commonwealth.
1993 - In the U.S., the Pentagon called for the closure of 31 major military bases.
1993 - Several bombs were set of in Bombay, India. About 300 were killed and hundreds more were injured.
1993 - Janet Reno was sworn in as the first female U.S. attorney general.
1994 - A photo by Marmaduke Wetherell of the Loch Ness monster was confirmed to be a hoax. The photo was taken of a toy submarine with a head and neck attached.
1994 - The Church of England ordained its first women priests.
1997 - Police in Los Angeles arrested Mikail Markhasev for the shooting of Bill Cosby's 27-year-old son, Ennis. Markhasev was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1998 - Astronomers cancelled a warning that a mile-wide asteroid might collide with Earth saying that calculations had been off by 600,000 miles.
1999 - Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic became members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). All three countries were members of the former Warsaw Pact.
2002 - In Houston, Andrea Yates was convicted of murdering her five children in the family bathtub.
2002 - U.S. homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveiled a color-coded system for terror warnings.
2002 - Conoco and Phillips Petroleum stockholders approved a proposed merger worth $15.6 billion.
2003 - In Utah, Elizabeth Smart was reunited with her family nine months after she was abducted from her home. She had been taken on June 5, 2002, by a drifter that had previously worked at the Smart home.
2003 - In Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro, Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated as he walked into government headquarters. Djindjic had helped to topple Slobodan Milosevic and had declared war on organized crime.
2003 - The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights off the coast of North Korea. The flights had stopped on March 2 after an encounter with four armed North Korean jets.
2004 - In Spain, millions of people marched to protest train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people the day before.
Current Birthdays
Aaron Eckhart turns 41 years old today
81 Edward Albee
Playwright ("Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf")
77 Andrew Young
Civil rights leader, politician
76 Barbara Feldon
Actress ("Get Smart")
69 Al Jarreau
R&B, jazz singer
63 Liza Minnelli
Singer-actress
62 Mitt Romney
Former Massachusetts governor
61 Kent Conrad
U.S. senator, D-N.D.
61 James Taylor
Singer, songwriter
60 Bill Payne
Rock musician (Little Feat)
59 Jon Provost
Actor ("Lassie")
56 Carl Hiaasen
Author
52 Steve Harris
Rock musician (Iron Maiden)
52 Marlon Jackson
Singer (The Jackson Five)
52 Jerry Levine
Actor
49 Courtney B. Vance
Actor
48 Titus Welliver
Actor
47 Darryl Strawberry
Baseball player
46 Julia Campbell
Actress
40 Graham Coxon
Rock musician (Blur)
36 Tommy Bales
Country musician (Flynnville Train)
27 Samm Levine
Actor
15 Tyler Patrick Jones
Actor ("Ghost Whisperer")
10 Kendall Applegate
Actress ("Desperate Housewives")
Historic Birthdays
Adolph Simon Ochs
3/12/1858 - 4/8/1935
American newspaper publisher; owned The New York Times
87 Andre Le Notre
3/12/1613 - 9/15/1700
French landscape architect; designed the Versailles gardens
67 George Berkeley
3/12/1685 - 1/14/1753
Anglo-Irish Anglican bishop, philosopher and scientist
72 Sir John Abbott
3/12/1821 - 10/30/1893
Canadian lawyer, statesman and prime minister (1891-92)
70 Clement Studebaker
3/12/1831 - 11/27/1901
American manufacturer; leader in the auto industry
74 Gabriele D'Annunzio
3/12/1863 - 3/1/1938
Italian novelist, dramatist, journalist and political leader
69 Wilhelm Frick
3/12/1877 - 10/16/1946
German statesman; Hitler's minister of the interior
60 Vaslav Nijinsky
3/12/1889 - 4/8/1950
Russian ballet dancer
68 Elaine de Kooning
3/12/1920 - 2/1/1989
American painter, teacher and art critic
47 Jack Kerouac
3/12/1922 - 10/21/1969
American poet, novelist and spokesman for the Beat movement
0483 - St. Felix III began his reign as Pope.
0607 - The 12th recorded passage of Halley's Comet occurred.
1519 - Cortez landed in Mexico.
1639 - Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard.
1660 - A statute was passed limiting the sale of slaves in the colony of Virginia.
1777 - The U.S. Congress ordered its European envoys to appeal to high-ranking foreign officers to send troops to reinforce the American army.
1781 - Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.
1852 - The New York "Lantern" newspaper published the first "Uncle Sam cartoon". It was drawn by Frank Henry Bellew.
1861 - Jefferson Davis signed a bill authorizing slaves to be used as soldiers for the Confederacy.
1868 - The U.S. Senate began the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.
1877 - Chester Greenwood patented the earmuff.
1878 - The first collegiate golf match was played between Oxford and Cambridge.
1881 - Tsar Alexander II was assassinated when a bomb was thrown at him near his palace.
1884 - Standard time was adopted throughout the U.S.
1900 - In South Africa, British Gen. Roberts took Bloemfontein.
1901 - Andrew Carnegie announced that he was retiring from business and that he would spend the rest of his days giving away his fortune. His net worth was estimated at $300 million.
1902 - In Poland, schools were shut down across the country when students refused to sing the Russian hymn "God Protect the Czar."
1902 - Andrew Carnegie approved 40 applications from libraries for donations.
1908 - The people of Jerusalem saw an automobile for the first time. The owner was Charles Glidden of Boston.
1911 - The U.S. Supreme Court approved corporate tax law.
1915 - The Germans repelled a British expeditionary force attack in France.
1918 - Women were scheduled to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York due to a shortage of men due to wartime.
1925 - A law in Tennessee prohibited the teaching of evolution.
1928 - The St. Francis Dam in California burst and killing 400 people.
1930 - It was announced that the planet Pluto had been discovered by scientist Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.
1933 - U.S. banks began to re-open after a "holiday" that had been declared by President Roosevelt.
1935 - Three-thousand-year-old archives were found in Jerusalem confirming some biblical history.
1940 - The war between Russia and Finland ended with the signing of a treaty in Moscow.
1941 - Adolf Hitler issued an edict calling for an invasion of the U.S.S.R.
1942 - Julia Flikke of the Nurse Corps became the first woman colonel in the U.S. Army.
1943 - Japanese forces ended their attack on the American troops on Hill 700 in Bougainville.
1946 - Reports from Iran indicated that Soviet tanks units were stationed 20 miles from Tehran.
1946 - Premier Tito seized wartime collaborator General Draja Mikhailovich in a cave in Yugoslavia.
1951 - Israel demanded $1.5 billion in German reparations for the cost of caring for war refugees.
1951 - The comic strip "Dennis the Menace" appeared for the first time in newspapers across the country.
1957 - Jimmy Hoffa was arrested by the FBI on bribery charges.
1963 - China invited Soviet President Khrushchev to visit Peking.
1964 - 38 residents of a New York City neighborhood failed to respond to the screams of Kitty Genovese, 28 years old, as she was stabbed to death.
1969 - The Apollo 9 astronauts returned to Earth after the conclusion of a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.
1970 - A group calling itself "Revolutionary Force 9" took credit for 3 bombs that exploded in New York City.
1970 - Cambodia ordered Hanoi and Viet Cong troops to leave.
1970 - Digital Equipment Corp. introduced the PDP-11 minicomputer.
1972 - "The Merv Griffin Show" debuted in syndication for Metromedia Television.
1974 - The U.S. Senate voted 54-33 to restore the death penalty.
1974 - An embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries was lifted.
1980 - A jury in Winamac, IN, found Ford Motor Company innocent of reckless homicide in the deaths of three young women that had been riding in a Ford Pinto.
1988 - The board of trustees off Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, chose I. King Jordan to be its first deaf president. The college is a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired.
1990 - The U.S. lifted economic sanctions against Nicaragua.
1991 - Exxon paid $1 billion in fines and for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill.
1992 - An earthquake in eastern Turkey killed more than 1,000.
1995 - The first United Nations World Summit on Social Development concluded in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1997 - Sister Nirmala was chosen by India's Missionaries of Charity to succeed Mother Teresa as leader of the Catholic order.
1998 - Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, at one time the U.S. Army's top enlisted man, was acquitted of pressuring military women for sex. He was convicted of trying to persuade the chief accuser to lie. He was reprimanded and had his rank reduced.
2002 - Fox aired "Celebrity Boxing." Tonya Harding beat Paula Jones, Danny Banaduce beat Barry Williams and Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice.
2003 - Japan sent a destroyer to the Sea of Japan amid reports that North Korea was planning to test an intermediate-range ballistic missile.
2003 - A report in the journal "Nature" reported that scientists had found 350,000-year-old human footprints in Italy. The 56 prints were made by three early, upright-walking humans that were descending the side of a volcano.
Current Birthdays
Dana Delany turns 53 years old today
84 Roy Haynes
Jazz drummer
79 Jan Howard
Country singer
79 Rosalind Elias
Opera singer
76 Mike Stoller
Songwriter
70 Neil Sedaka
Singer, songwriter
59 William H. Macy
Actor
56 Deborah Raffin
Actress
55 Robin Duke
Comedian
54 Glenne Headly
Actress
52 John Hoeven
Governor of North Dakota
49 Adam Clayton
Rock musician (U2)
47 Terrence Blanchard
Jazz trumpeter
41 Christopher Collet
Actor
40 Matt McDonough
Rock musician (Mudvayne)
38 Annabeth Gish
Actress
38 Tracy Wells
Actress
37 Common
Rapper, actor
37 Khujo
Rapper
34 Glenn Lewis
R&B singer
33 Danny Masterson
Actor ("That 70s Show")
30 Johan Santana
Baseball player
24 Emile Hirsch
Actor
23 Natalie Albino
Singer (Nina Sky)
23 Nicole Albino
Singer (Nina Sky)
Historic Birthdays
Percival Lowell
3/13/1855 - 11/12/1916
American astronomer; helped discover Pluto
59 Montdory
3/13/1594 - 11/10/1653
French actor
73 Charles Bonnet
3/13/1720 - 5/20/1793
Swiss naturalist and philosophical writer
81 Charles Grey
3/13/1764 - 7/17/1845
English Whig party leader and prime minister (1830-34)
60 Karl Schinkel
3/13/1781 - 10/9/1841
German architect and painter
68 William Glackens
3/13/1870 - 5/22/1938
American artist
63 Albert Stevens
3/13/1886 - 3/26/1949
American army officer, balloonist and aerial photographer
86 Janet Flanner
3/13/1892 - 11/7/1978
American writer and Paris correspondent for The New Yorker
71 George Seferis
3/13/1900 - 9/20/1971
Greek Nobel Prize-winning poet, essayist and diplomat
74 William J. Casey
3/13/1913 - 5/6/1987
American director of the C.I.A. (1981-87)
Facetious
2009-03-15, 15:15
15 March, 1964
Elizabeth Taylor Weds Richard Burton (http://www.squidoo.com/Taylorburton):hatsoff:
for the first time :)
Wainkerr99
2009-03-15, 17:58
I was born 13 March. :)
assholebythedoor
2009-03-15, 17:59
Happy Birthday I was born March 19th
Wainkerr99
2009-03-15, 18:06
Caesar was assassinated in the Roman Senate on the ides of March. (His wife warned him).
Johnson appears before Congress to demand voting rights for all.
In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to urge the passage of legislation guaranteeing voting rights for all. It was signed into law in August.
In 1937 the world's first blood bank was established in Chicago.
assholebythedoor
2009-03-15, 18:07
Freeones has become boring as ever.
1190 - The Crusaders began the massacre of Jews in York, England.
1521 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines. He was killed the next month by natives.
1527 - The Emperor Babur defeated the Rajputs at the Battle of Kanvaha in India.
1621 - Samoset walked into the settlement of Plymouth Colony, later Plymouth, MA. Samoset was a native from the Monhegan tribe in Maine who spoke English. He greeted the Pilgrims by saying, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."
1802 - The U.S. Congress established the West Point Military Academy in New York.
1836 - The Republic of Texas approved a constitution.
1850 - The novel "The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published for the first time.
1871 - The State of Delaware enacted the first fertilizer law.
1882 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty allowing the United States to join the Red Cross.
1883 - Susan Hayhurst graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. She was the first woman pharmacy graduate.
1907 - The world's largest cruiser, the British Invincible was completed at Glasgow.
1908 - China released the Japanese steamship Tatsu Maru.
1909 - Cuba suffered its first revolt only six weeks after the inauguration of Gomez.
1913 - The 15,000-ton battleship Pennsylvania was launched at Newport News, VA.
1915 - The Federal Trade Commission began operation.
1917 - Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne.
1918 - Tallulah Bankhead made her New York acting debut with a role in "The Squab Farm."
1926 - Physicist Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket.
1928 - The U.S. planned to send 1,000 more Marines to Nicaragua.
1935 - Adolf Hitler ordered a German rearmament and violated the Versailles Treaty.
1939 - Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.
1945 - Iwo Jima was declared secure by the Allies. However, small pockets of Japanese resistance still existed.
1946 - Algerian nationalist leader Ferhat Abbas was freed after spending a year in jail.
1946 - India called British Premier Attlee's independence off contradictory and a propaganda move.
1947 - Martial law was withdrawn in Tel Aviv.
1950 - Congress voted to remove federal taxes on oleomargarine.
1964 - Paul Hornung and Alex Karras were reinstated to the NFL after an 11-month suspension for betting on football games.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson submitted a $1 billion war on poverty program to Congress.
1968 - U.S. troops in Vietnam destroyed a village consisting mostly of women and children. The event is known as the My-Lai massacre.
1978 - Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas. Moro was later murdered by the group.
1984 - Mozambique and South Africa signed a pact banning the support for one another's internal enemies.
1984 - William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen. He died while in captivity.
1985 - "A Chorus Line" played its 4,000 performance.
1985 - Terry Anderson, an Associated Press newsman, was taken hostage in Beirut. He was released in December 4, 1991.
1987 - "Bostonia" magazine printed an English translation of Albert Einstein’s last high school report card.
1988 - Indictments were issued for Lt. Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter of the National Security Council for their involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
1988 - Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were shot to death in their driveway. Thompson, known as the "Speed King," set nearly 500 auto speed endurance records including being the first person to travel more than 400 mph on land.
1989 - In the U.S.S.R., the Central Committee approved Gorbachev's agrarian reform plan.
1989 - The Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee approved large-scale agricultural reforms and elected the party's 100 members to the Congress of People's Deputies.
1993 - In France, ostrich meat was officially declared fit for human consumption.
1994 - Tonya Harding plead guilty in Portland, OR, to conspiracy to hinder prosecution for covering up the attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. She was fined $100,000. She was also banned from amateur figure skating.
1994 - Russia agreed to phase out production of weapons-grade plutonium.
1995 - NASA astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.
1998 - Rwanda began mass trials for 1994 genocide with 125,000 suspects for 500,000 murders.
1999 - The 20 members of the European Union's European Commission announced their resignations amid allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.
Current Birthdays
Lauren Graham turns 42 years old today.
83 Jerry Lewis
Actor, comedian
68 Bernardo Bertolucci
Director
68 Chuck Woolery
Game show host
67 Jerry Jeff Walker
Country singer
62 Robin Williams
Country singer
60 Erik Estrada
Actor ("CHiPS")
60 Victor Garber
Actor ("Alias")
58 Ray Benson
Country singer (Asleep at the Wheel)
58 Kate Nelligan
Actress
55 Nancy Wilson
Rock singer (Heart)
54 Isabelle Huppert
Actress
53 Ozzie Newsome
Football Hall of Famer
53 Clifton Powell
Actor
50 Flavor Flav
Rapper (Public Enemy)
46 Jimmy DeGrasso
Rock musician (Megadeth)
45 Patty Griffin
Folk singer
40 Judah Friedlander
Actor ("30 Rock")
38 Alan Tudyk
Actor ("Firefly")
36 Tim Kang
Actor ("The Mentalist")
33 Blu Cantrell
R&B singer
31 Brooke Burns
Actress
18 Wolfgang Van Halen
Rock musician (Van Halen )
Historic Birthdays
Maxim Gorky
3/16/1868 (O.S.) - 6/14/1936
Russian novelist and short-story writer
49 Hieronymus Emser
3/16/1478 - 11/8/1527
German theologian, lecturer, editor and essayist
82 Giuseppe Crespi
3/16/1665 - 7/16/1747
Italian Baroque painter
97 Caroline Herschel
3/16/1750 - 1/9/1848
German-born English astronomer
85 James Madison
3/16/1751 - 6/28/1836
4th president of the United States (1809-17)
64 Antoine-Jean Gros
3/16/1771 - 6/26/1835
French Romantic painter
82 Francis Chesney
3/16/1789 - 1/30/1872
English soldier, explorer and Middle East traveler
74 Francois-Emile Matthes
3/16/1874 - 6/21/1948
Dutch-born American geologist and topographer
66 Reza Khan Pahlavi
3/16/1878 - 7/26/1944
Iranian Shah (1925-41)
92 James Petrillo
3/16/1892 - 10/23/1984
American labor leader
78 Alberto Gainza Paz
3/16/1899 - 12/26/1977
Argentine newspaper editor of La Prensa
67 Josef Mengele
3/16/1911 - 2/7/1979
German Nazi doctor at Auschwitz extermination camp
40 Vladimir Komarov
3/16/1927 - 4/24/1967
Russian cosmonaut
0461 - Bishop Patrick, St. Patrick, died in Saul. Ireland celebrates this day in his honor.
1756 - St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time. The event took place at the Crown and Thistle Tavern.
1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act that had caused resentment in the North American colonies.
1776 - British forces evacuated Boston to Nova Scotia during the Revolutionary War.
1868 - Postage stamp canceling machine patent was issued.
1870 - Wellesley College was incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature under its first name, Wellesley Female Seminary.
1884 - John Joseph Montgomery made the first glider flight in Otay, California.
1886 - 20 Blacks were killed in the Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi.
1891 - The British steamer Utopia sank off the coast of Gibraltar.
1901 - In Paris, Vincent Van Gogh's paintings were shown at the Bernheim Gallery.
1909 - In France, the communications industry was paralyzed by strikes.
1910 - The Camp Fire Girls organization was founded by Luther and Charlotte Gulick. It was formally presented to the public exactly 2 years later.
1914 - Russia increased the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000.
1917 - America’s first bowling tournament for ladies began in St. Louis, MO. Almost 100 women participated in the event.
1930 - Al Capone was released from jail.
1941 - The National Gallery of Art was officially opened by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington, DC.
1942 - Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the United Nations forces in the Southwestern Pacific.
1944 - During World War II, the U.S. bombed Vienna.
1950 - Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced that they had created a new radioactive element. They named it "californium". It is also known as element 98.
1958 - The Vanguard 1 satellite was launched by the U.S.
1959 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) fled Tibet and went to India.
1961 - The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.
1962 - Moscow asked the U.S. to pull out of South Vietnam.
1966 - A U.S. submarine found a missing H-bomb in the Mediterranean off of Spain.
1967 - Snoopy and Charlie Brown of "Peanuts" were on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.
1969 - Golda Meir was sworn in as the fourth premier of Israel.
1970 - The U.S. Army charged 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.
1972 - U.S. President Nixon asked Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.
1973 - Twenty were killed in Cambodia when a bomb went off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol.
1973 - The first American prisoners of war (POWs) were released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
1982 - Four Dutch television crewmembers were killed in El Salvador.
1985 - U.S. President Reagan agreed to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.
1989 - A series of solar flares caused a violent magnetic storm that brought power outages over large regions of Canada.
1992 - In Buenos Aires, 10 people were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack against the Israeli embassy.
1992 - White South Africans approved constitutional reforms to give legal equality to blacks.
1995 - Gerry Adams became the first leader of Sinn Fein to be received at the White House.
1998 - Washington Mutual announced it had agreed to buy H.F. Ahmanson and Co. for $9.9 billion dollars. The deal created the nation's seventh-largest banking company.
1999 - A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana had medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.
1999 - The International Olympic Committee expelled six of its members in the wake of a bribery scandal.
2000 - In Norway, Jens Stotenberg and the Labour Party took office as Prime Minister. The coalition government of Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned on March 9 as a result of an environmental dispute.
2000 - In Kanungu, Uganda, a fire at a church linked to the cult known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments killed more than 530. On March 31, officials set the number of deaths linked to the cult at more than 900 after authorities subsequently found mass graves at various sites linked to the cult.
2007 - Mike Modano (Dallas Stars) scored his 502nd and 503rd career goals making him the all-time U.S. leader in goal-scoring
Current Birthdays
Rob Lowe turns 45 years old today.
76 Myrlie Evers-Williams
Former NAACP chairwoman
68 Paul Kantner
Rock musician (Jefferson Airplane/Starship)
66 Jim Weatherly
Singer, songwriter
65 John Sebastian
Rock musician (Lovin' Spoonful)
64 Michael Hayden
Former CIA director
63 Harold Brown
Rock musician (War)
60 Patrick Duffy
Actor
58 Kurt Russell
Actor
57 Susie Allanson
Country singer
55 Lesley-Anne Down
Actress
54 Paul Overstreet
Country singer
54 Gary Sinise
Actor ("CSI: NY")
49 Vicki Lewis
Actress
48 Casey Siemaszko
Actor
47 Rob Sitch
Writer, director
42 Van Conner
Rock musician (Screaming Trees)
42 Billy Corgan
Rock musician (Smashing Pumpkins)
41 Mathew St. Patrick
Actor ("Six Feet Under")
40 Yanic Truesdale
Actor ("Gilmore Girls")
37 Melissa Auf der Maur
Rock musician
37 Mia Hamm
Soccer player
36 Caroline Corr
Rock musician (The Corrs)
35 Marisa Coughlan
Actress
34 Swifty
Rapper (D12)
34 Natalie Zea
Actress ("Dirty Sexy Money")
33 Brittany Daniel
Actress
33 Stephen Gately
Singer
Historic Birthdays
Bobby Jones
3/17/1902 - 12/18/1971
American golfer; first to win the Grand Slam
69 Jean-Baptiste Oudry
3/17/1686 - 4/30/1755
French Rococo painter, designer and illustrator
87 Roger Brooke Taney
3/17/1777 - 10/12/1864
5th chief justice of the United States; noted for the Dred Scott decision (1857)
55 Kate Greenaway
3/17/1846 - 11/6/1901
English artist and book illustrator
80 Charles Brush
3/17/1849 - 6/15/1929
American inventor and industrialist
92 Walter Rudolf Hess
3/17/1881 - 8/12/1973
Swiss Nobel Prize-winning physiologist
75 Bayard Rustin
3/17/1912 - 8/24/1987
American civil rights activist
45 Nat King Cole
3/17/1919 - 2/15/1965
American musician
54 Rudolf Nureyev
3/17/1938 - 1/6/1993
Russian ballet dancer
0037 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’ will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
1123 - The first Latern Council (9th ecumenical council) opened in Rome.
1190 - Crusaders killed 57 Jews in Bury St. Edmonds England.
1532 - The English parliament banned payments by English church to Rome.
1541 - Hernando de Soto observed the first recorded flood of the Mississippi River.
1583 - Dutch States General & Anjou signed a treaty.
1673 - Lord Berkley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers.
1692 - William Penn was deprived of his governing powers.
1766 - Britain repealed the Stamp Act.
1813 - David Melville patented the gas streetlight.
1818 - The U.S. Congress approved the first pensions for government service.
1834 - The first railroad tunnel in the U.S. was completed. The work was in Pennsylvania.
1835 - Charles Darwin left Santiago Chile on his way to Portillo Pass.
1850 - Henry Wells & William Fargo founded American Express.
1865 - The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourned for the last time.
1874 - Hawaii signed a treaty giving exclusive trading rights with the islands to the U.S.
1881 - Barnum and Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens.
1891 - Britain became linked to the continent of Europe by telephone.
1899 - Phoebe, a moon of the planet Saturn, was discovered.
1900 - Ajax (Amsterdam Football Club) was formed.
1902 - In Turkey, the Sultan granted a German syndicate the first concession to access Baghdad by rail.
1903 - France dissolved the Catholic religious orders.
1905 - Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were married.
1906 - In Morocco, it was reported that France and Germany were in a deadlock at the Algeciras Conference.
1909 - Einar Dessau of Denmark used a short wave transmitter to become the first person to broadcast as a "ham" operator.
1910 - The first opera by a U.S. composer performed at the Met in New York City.
1911 - Theodore Roosevelt opened the Roosevelt Dam in Phoenix, AZ. It was the largest dam in the U.S. at the time.
1911 - North Dakota enacted a hail insurance law.
1913 - Greek King George I was killed by an assassin. Constantine I succeeded him.
1916 - Russia countered the Verdun assault with an attack at Lake Naroch. The Russians lost 100,000 men and the Germans lost 20,000.
1917 - The Germans sank the U.S. ships, City of Memphis, Vigilante and the Illinois, without any warning.
1919 - The Order of DeMolay was established in Kansas City.
1920 - Greece adopted the Gregorian calendar.
1921 - Poland was enlarged with the second Peace of Riga.
1921 - The steamer "Hong Koh" ran aground off of Swatow China. Over 1,000 people were killed.
1922 - Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience in India. He served only 2 years of the sentence.
1922 - Princeton and Yale played the first intercollegiate indoor polo championship.
1931 - Schick Inc. displayed the first electric shaver.
1937 - More than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, TX.
1938 - Mexico took control of all foreign-owned oil properties on its soil.
1938 - New York first required serological blood tests of pregnant women.
1939 - Georgia ratified the Bill of Rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
1940 - The soap opera "Light of the World" was first heard on NBC radio.
1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini held a meeting at the Brenner Pass. The Italian dictator agreed to join in Germany's war against France and Britain during the meeting.
1942 - The third military draft began in the U.S. because of World War II.
1943 - The Reich called off its offensive in Caucasus.
1943 - American forces took Gafsa in Tunisia.
1944 - The Russians reached the Rumanian border in the Balkans during World War II.
1945 - 1,250 U.S. bombers attacked Berlin.
1945 - Maurice "Rocket" Richard became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 50 goals.
1948 - France, Great Britain, and Benelux signed the Treaty of Brussels.
1949 - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was ratified.
1950 - Nationalist troops landed on the mainland of China and capture Communist held Sungmen.
1952 - In Philadelphia, PA, the first plastic lenses were fitted for a cataract patient.
1953 - An earthquake hit West Turkey killing 250 people.
1954 - RKO Pictures was sold for $23,489,478. It became the first motion picture studio to be owned by an individual. The person was Howard Hughes.
1959 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill.
1961 - The Poppin' Fresh Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.
1962 - French and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce.
1963 - "Tovarich" opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City for 264 performances.
1963 - France performed an underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria.
1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Miranda decision concerning legal council for defendants.
1965 - Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to spacewalk when he left the Voskhod II space capsule while in orbit around the Earth. He was outside the spacecraft for about 20 minutes.
1966 - The government of Indonesia was formed by General Suharto.
1966 - Scott Paper began selling paper dresses for $1.
1968 - The U.S. Congress repealed the requirement for a gold reserve.
1969 - U.S. President Nixon authorizes Operation Menue. It was the ‘secret’ bombing of Cambodia.
1970 - The U.S. Postal Service experienced the first postal strike.
1970 - The NFL selected Wilson to be the official football and scoreboard as official time.
1971 - U.S. helicopters airlifted 1,000 South Vietnamese soldiers out of Laos.
1971 - A landslide in Lake Yanahuani, Chungar Peru, killed 200.
1974 - Most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their five-month embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
1975 - Saigon abandoned most of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to Hanoi.
1975 - The Kurds ended their fight against Iraq.
1977 - Vietnam turned over an MIA to a U.S. delegation.
1979 - Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett. The next day she was deported.
1980 - The Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad killing 50.
1981 - The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.
1981 - The Buffalo Sabres set an NHL record when they scored 9 goals in one period against Toronto.
1986 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson.
1986 - The U.S. Treasury Department announced that a clear, polyester thread was to be woven into bills in an effort to thwart counterfeiters.
1987 - The U.S. performed nuclear tests at a Nevada test site.
1989 - 12 paintings were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The value was $100 million making it the largest art robbery in history.
1989 - A 4,400-year-old mummy was discovered at the Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.
1990 - The first free elections took place in East Germany.
1990 - The 32-day lockout of baseball players ended.
1990 - In Tampa, FL, a little league player was killed after being hit with a pitch.
1992 - Leona Hemsly was sentenced to 4 years in prison for tax evasion.
1992 - White South Africans voted for constitutional reforms that would give legal equality to blacks.
1994 - Zsa Zsa Gabor filed for bankruptcy.
1997 - A Russian AN-24 crashed killing 50 people.
2003 - China's new president, Hu Jintao, announced that his country must deepen reforms and raise living standards of workers and farmers
Current Birthdays
Queen Latifah turns 39 years old today
83 Peter Graves
Actor ("Mission: Impossible")
82 John Kander
Composer ("Chicago")
73 F.W. de Klerk
Former South African president
71 Charley Pride
Country singer
66 Kevin Dobson
Actor ("Knots Landing")
59 Brad Dourif
Actor ("Deadwood")
58 Bill Frisell
Jazz guitarist
50 Irene Cara
Singer
47 Thomas Ian Griffith
Actor
47 James McMurtry
Rock singer, songwriter
46 Vanessa L. Williams
Singer, actress
45 Bonnie Blair
Olympic gold medal speed skater
45 Scott Saunders
Country musician (Sons of the Desert)
43 Jerry Cantrell
Rock musician (Alice in Chains)
42 Miki Berenyi
Rock musician
37 Dane Cook
Actor, comedian
35 Stuart Zender
Rock musician (Jamiroquai)
34 Brian Griese
Football player
32 Devin Lima
Pop singer (LFO)
30 Adam Levine
Rock singer (Maroon Five)
Historic Birthdays
Grover Cleveland
3/18/1837 - 6/24/1908
22nd and 24th president of the United States
77 Friedrich Nicolai
3/18/1733 - 1/8/1811
German writer; a leader of the German Enlightenment
68 John C. Calhoun
3/18/1782 - 3/31/1850
American statesman
74 Francis Lieber
3/18/1798 - 10/2/1872
German-born American political philosopher and jurist
73 Antonio Salviati
3/18/1816 - 1/25/1890
Italian glass manufacturer
90 Nathanael Herreshoff
3/18/1848 - 6/2/1938
American naval architect and yacht designer
55 Rudolf Diesel
3/18/1858 - 9/29/1913
German thermal engineer; invented the internal-combustion engine
78 William Sulzer
3/18/1863 - 11/6/1941
New York governor (1913); impeached and removed from office
71 Neville Chamberlain
3/18/1869 - 11/9/1940
English prime minister
77 Chiang Ching-kuo
3/18/1910 - 1/13/1988
Chinese son of Chiang Kai-shek and his successor as leader of China
1571 - Spanish troops occupied Manila.
1628 - The Massachusetts colony was founded by Englishmen.
1644 - 200 members of the Peking imperial family/court committed suicide.
1687 - French explorer La Salle was murdered by his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, in the Gulf of Mexico.
1702 - Upon the death of William III of Orange, Anne Stuart, the sister of Mary, succeeds to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1748 - The English Naturalization Act passed granting Jews right to colonize in the U.S.
1775 - Poland & Prussia signed a trade agreement.
1822 - The city of Boston, MA, was incorporated.
1831 - The first bank robbery in America was reported. The City Bank of New York City lost $245,000 in the robbery.
1865 - The Battle of Bentonville took place. The Confederates retreated from Greenville, NC.
1866 - The immigrant ship Monarch of the Seas sank in Liverpool killing 738.
1879 - Jim Currie opened fire on the actors Maurice Barrymore and Ben Porter near Marshall, TX. The shots wounded Barrymore and killed Porter.
1895 - The Los Angeles Railway was established to provide streetcar service.
1900 - U.S. President McKinley asserted that there was a need for free trade with Puerto Rico.
1900 - Archeologist Arthur John Evans began the excavation of Knossos Palace in Greece.
1903 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Cuban treaty, gaining naval bases in Guantanamo and Bahia Honda.
1905 - French explorer S. de Segonzac was taken prisoner by Moroccans.
1906 - Reports from Berlin estimated the cost of the German war in S.W. Africa at $150 million.
1908 - The state of Maryland barred Christian Scientists from practicing without medical diplomas.
1915 - Pluto was photographed for the first time. However, it was not known at the time.
1917 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Adamson Act that made the eight-hour workday for railroads constitutional.
1918 - The U.S. Congress approved Daylight-Saving Time.
1918 - A German seaplane was shot down for the first time by an American pilot.
1920 - The U.S. Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty for the second time maintaining an isolation policy.
1924 - U.S. troops were rushed to Tegucigalpa as rebel forces took the Honduran capital.
1931 - The state of Nevada legalized gambling.
1940 - The French government of Daladier fell.
1942 - The Thoroughbred Racing Association was formed in Chicago.
1944 - Tippett's oratorium "Child of Our Time," premiered in London.
1945 - About 800 people were killed as Japanese kamikaze planes attacked the U.S. carrier Franklin off Japan.
1945 - Adolf Hitler issued his "Nero Decree" which ordered the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands as German forces were retreating.
1947 - Chiang Kai-Shek's government forces took control of Yenan, the former headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party.
1948 - Lee Savold knocked out Gino Buonvino in 54 seconds of the first round of their prize fight at Madison Square Gardens.
1949 - The Soviet People's Council signed the constitution of the German Democratic Republic, and declared that the North Atlantic Treaty was merely a war weapon.
1953 - The Academy Awards aired on television for the first time.
1953 - Tennessee Williams' "Camino Real" premiered in New York City.
1954 - Viewers saw the first televised prize fight was shown in color when Joey Giardello knocked out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
1954 - The first rocket-driven sled that ran on rails was tested in Alamogordo, NM.
1963 - In Costa Rica, U.S. President John F. Kennedy and six Latin American presidents pledged to fight Communism.
1964 - Sean Connery began shooting his role in "Goldfinger."
1965 - Indonesia nationalized all foreign oil companies.
1965 - Rembrandt's "Titus" sold for $7,770,000.
1968 - Students at Howard University students seized an administration building.
1969 - British invaded Anguilla.
1972 - India and Bangladesh signed a friendship treaty.
1976 - Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage.
1977 - Congo President Marien Ngouabi was killed by a suicide commando.
1977 - France performed a nuclear test at Muruora Island.
1977 - The last episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" aired.
1979 - The U.S. House of Representatives began broadcasting its daily business on TV.
1981 - During a test of the space shuttle Columbia two workers were injured and one was killed.
1984 - The TV show "Kate and Allie" premiered.
1985 - IBM announced that it was planning to stop making the PCjr consumer-oriented computer.
1985 - The U.S. Senate voted to authorize production of the MX missile.
1987 - Televangelist Jim Bakker resigned from the PTL due to a scandal involving Jessica Hahn.
1988 - Two British soldiers were killed by mourners at a funeral in Belfast, North Ireland. The soldiers were shot to death after being dragged from a car and beaten.
1990 - Latvia's political opposition claimed victory in the republic's first free elections in 50 years.
1990 - The first world ice hockey tournament for women was held in Ottawa.
1991 - Brett Hull, of the St. Louis Blues, became the third National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 80 goals in a season.
1994 - The largest omelet in history was made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan.
1998 - The World Health Organization warned of tuberculosis epidemic that could kill 70 million people in next two decades.
1999 - 53 people were killed and dozens were injured when a bomb exploded in a market place in southern Russia.
2000 - Vector Data Systems conducted a simulation of the 1993 Branch Davidian siege in Waco, TX. The simulation showed that the government had not fired first.
2001 - California officials declared a power alert and ordered the first of two days of rolling blackouts.
2002 - Operation Anaconda, the largest U.S.-led ground offensive since the Gulf War, ended in eastern Afghanistan. During the operation, which began on March 2, it was reported that at least 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters were killed. Eleven allied troops were killed during the same operation.
2002 - Actor Ben Kingsley was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
2003 - U.S. President George W. Bush announced that U.S. forces had launched a strike against "targets of military opportunity" in Iraq. The attack, using cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs, were aimed at Iraqi leaders thought to be near Baghdad.
Current Birthdays
Glenn Close turns 62 years old today.
84 Brent Scowcroft
Former national security adviser
79 Ornette Coleman
Jazz saxophonist
76 Phyllis Newman
Actress, singer
76 Philip Roth
Author
76 Renee Taylor
Actress
73 Ursula Andress
Actress
72 Clarence "Frogman" Henry
R&B singer
63 Ruth Pointer
Singer (The Pointer Sisters)
57 Harvey Weinstein
Movie producer
54 Bruce Willis
Actor
51 Andy Reid
Football coach
39 Gert Bettens
Rock musician (K's Choice)
36 Bun B
Rapper
33 Zach Lind
Rock musician (Jimmy Eat World)
30 Abby Brammell
Actress ("The Unit")
20 Craig Lamar Traylor
Actor ("Malcolm in the Middle")
Historic Birthdays
Earl Warren
3/19/1891 - 7/9/1974
14th chief justice of the United States (1953-69)
56 Johannes Magnus
3/19/1488 - 3/22/1544
Swedish Roman Catholic archbishop and historian
66 Alonso Cano
3/19/1601 - 9/3/1667
Spanish painter, sculptor and architect
81 Elias Hicks
3/19/1748 - 2/27/1830
American Quaker minister; advocated the abolition of slavery
42 Nikolay Gogol
3/19/1809 (OS) - 2/21/1852 (OS)
Ukrainian-born Russian humorist, dramatist and novelist
60 David Livingstone
3/19/1813 - 5/1/1873
Scottish missionary and explorer; opened Africa to the West
69 Sir Richard Burton
3/19/1821 - 10/20/1890
English scholar, explorer, writer and translator
80 Wyatt Earp
3/19/1848 - 1/13/1929
American frontiersman; became lawman and gambler
80 Alfred von Tirpitz
3/19/1849 - 3/6/1930
German admiral and chief builder of German navy before World War I
65 William Jennings Bryan
3/19/1860 - 7/26/1925
American Democratic and Populist leader
100 James Van Fleet
3/19/1892 - 9/23/1992
American commander who led troops in Normandy on D-Day in World War II
58 Frederic Joliot-Curie
3/19/1900 - 8/14/1958
French Nobel Prize-winning physicist; shared prize with his wife, Irene
74 Jo Mielziner
3/19/1901 - 3/15/1976
American stage designer
88 John Sirica
3/19/1904 - 8/14/1992
United States district court judge; presided at trial of Watergate burglars (1973)
76 Albert Speer
3/19/1905 - 9/1/1981
German Nazi minister for war production
56 Adolf Eichmann
3/19/1906 - 5/31/1962
German Nazi war criminal hanged by Israel
assholebythedoor
2009-03-19, 16:36
Today is my birthday.
0141 - The 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet took place.
1413 - Henry V took the throne of England upon the death of his father Henry IV.
1525 - Paris' parliament began its pursuit of Protestants.
1602 - The United Dutch East Indian Company (VOC) was formed.
1616 - Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guyana.
1627 - France & Spain signed an accord for fighting Protestantism.
1739 - In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupied Delhi and took possession of the Peacock thrown.
1760 - The great fire of Boston destroyed 349 buildings.
1792 - In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
1800 - French army defeated the Turks at Helipolis, Turkey, and advanced into Cairo.
1814 - Prince Willem Frederik became the monarch of Netherlands.
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris after his escape from Elba and began his "Hundred Days" rule.
1816 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions.
1833 - The U.S. and Siam signed a commercial treaty.
1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book "Uncle Tom’s Cabin," subtitled "Life Among the Lowly," was first published.
1865 - A plan by John Wilkes Booth to abduct U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was ruined when Lincoln changed his plans and did not appear at the Soldier’s Home near Washington, DC.
1868 - Jesse James Gang robbed a bank in Russelville, KY, of $14,000.
1883 - The Unity treaty of Paris was signed to protect industrial property.
1885 - John Matzeliger of Suriname patented the shoe lacing machine.
1886 - The first AC power plant in the U.S. began commercial operation.
1888 - The Sherlock Holmes Adventure, "A Scandal in Bohemia," began.
1890 - The General Federation of Womans' Clubs was founded.
1891 - The first computing scale company was incorporated in Dayton, OH.
1896 - U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect U.S. citizens in the wake of a revolution.
1897 - The first U.S. orthodox Jewish Rabbinical seminary was incorporated in New York.
1897 - The first intercollegiate basketball game that used five players per team was held. The contest was Yale versus Pennsylvania. Yale won by a score of 32-10.
1899 - At Sing Sing prison, Martha M. Place became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair. She was put to death for the murder of her stepdaughter.
1900 - It was announced that European powers had agreed to keep China's doors open to trade.
1902 - France and Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Japanese alliance. They also asserted their right to protect their interests in China and Korea.
1903 - In Paris, paintings by Henri Matisse were shown at the "Salon des Independants".
1906 - In Russia, army officers mutiny at Sevastopol.
1911 - The National Squash Tennis Association was formed in New York City.
1914 - The first international figure skating championship was held in New Haven, CT.
1915 - The French called off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
1918 - The Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union asked for American aid to rebuild their army.
1922 - U.S. President Warren G. Harding ordered U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
1922 - The USS Langley was commissioned. It was the first aircraft carrier for the U.S. Navy.
1932 - The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, made the first flight to South America on regular schedule.
1933 - The first German concentration camp was completed at Dachau.
1934 - Rudolf Kuhnold gave a demonstration of radar in Kiel Germany.
1940 - The British Royal Air Force conducted an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.
1943 - The Allies attacked Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
1947 - A blue whale weighing 180-metric tons was caught in the South Atlantic.
1952 - The U.S. Senate ratified a peace treaty with Japan.
1956 - Mount Bezymianny on Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) exploded.
1956 - Tunisia gained independence from France.
1963 - The first "Pop Art" exhibit began in New York City.
1964 - The ESRO (European Space Research Organization) was established.
1965 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
1967 - Twiggy arrived in the U.S. for a one-week stay.
1969 - U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy called on the U.S. to close all bases in Taiwan.
1972 - 19 mountain climbers were killed on Japan's Mount Fuji during an avalanche.
1976 - Patricia Hearst was convicted of armed robbery for her role in the hold up of a San Francisco Bank.
1980 - The U.S. made an appeal to the International Court concerning the American Hostages in Iran.
1982 - U.S. scientists' return from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.
1984 - The U.S. Senate rejected an amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools.
1985 - For the first time in its 99-year history, Avon representatives received a salary. Up to that time they had been paid solely on commissions.
1985 - CBS-TV presented "The Romance of Betty Boop."
1985 - Libby Riddles won the 1,135-mile Anchorage-to-Nome dog race becoming the first woman to win the Iditarod.
1986 - Fallon Carrington and Jeff Colby were wed on the TV drama "The Colby’s". "The Colby’s" was an offshoot of "Dynasty".
1987 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved AZT. The drug was proven to slow the progress of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).
1989 - A Washington, DC, district court judge blocked a curfew imposed by Mayor Barry and the City Council.
1989 - In Belfast, two policemen were killed. The IRA claimed responsibility.
1989 - It was announced that Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose was under investigation.
1990 - The Los Angeles Lakers retired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's #33.
1990 - Namibia became an independent nation ending 75 years of South African rule.
1990 - Imelda Marcos, widow of ex-Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, went on trial for racketeering, embezzlement and bribery.
1990 - In Rumania, tanks were sent to the town of Tirgu Mures to quell ethnic riots.
1991 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that employers could not exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage a fetus.
1991 - The U.S. forgave $2 billion in loans to Poland.
1992 - Janice Pennington was awarded $1.3 million for accident on the set of the "Price is Right" TV show.
1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule. He set a referendum on whether the people trusted him or the hard-line Congress to govern.
1993 - An Irish Republican Army bomb was detonated in Warrington, England. A 3-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy were killed.
1995 - About 35,000 Turkish troops crossed the northern border of Iraq in pursuit of the separatist rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
1995 - In Tokyo, 12 people were killed and more than 5,500 others were sickened when packages containing the nerve gas Sarin was released on five separate subway trains. The terrorists belonged to a doomsday cult in Japan.
1996 - In Los Angeles, Erik and Lyle Menendez were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of their parents.
1996 - The U.K. announced that humans could catch CJD (Mad Cow Disease).
1997 - Brian Grazer received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1997 - Liggett Group, the maker of Chesterfield cigarettes, settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry marketed cigarettes to teenagers and agreed to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.
1998 - India's new Hindu nationalist-led government pledges to "exercise the option to induct nuclear weapons."
1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first men to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon. The non-stop trip began on March 3 and covered 26,500 miles.
2000 - Former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, was captured following a shootout that left a sherriff's deputy dead.
2002 - Actress Pamela Anderson disclosed that she had hepatitis C.
2002 - Arthur Andersen plead innocent to charges that it had shredded documents and deleted computer files related to the energy company Enron.
2003 - Cisco Systems Inc. announced it was buying The Linksys Group INc. for $500 million in stock.
2003 - U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq from Kuwait.
Current Birthdays
William Hurt turns 59 years old today.
87 Carl Reiner
Director, producer, writer, actor
78 Hal Linden
Actor ("Barney Miller")
70 Don Edwards
Country singer
70 Brian Mulroney
Former Canadian prime minister
66 Paul Junger Witt
TV producer
63 Ranger Doug
Country musician (Riders in the Sky)
61 Marva Wright
Blues singer
61 Bobby Orr
Hockey Hall of Famer
60 Marcia Ball
Blues singer, pianist
59 Carl Palmer
Rock musician (Emerson, Lake and Palmer)
58 Jimmie Vaughan
Rock musician (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)
55 Jimmy Seales
Country musician (Shenandoah)
52 Amy Aquino
Actress
52 Vanessa Bell Calloway
Actress
52 Spike Lee
Director
52 Theresa Russell
Actress
51 Holly Hunter
Actress
48 Slim Jim Phantom
Rock musician (The Stray Cats)
46 Kathy Ireland
Model
46 David Thewlis
Actor
44 Adrian Oxaal
Rock musician (James)
41 Liza Snyder
Actress ("Yes, Dear")
39 Michael Rapaport
Actor
38 Alexander Chaplin
Actor
33 Chester Bennington
Rock singer (Linkin Park)
31 Michael Genadry
Actor
30 Bianca Lawson
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Frederick W. Taylor
3/20/1856 - 3/21/1915
American efficiency expert
(Go to obit.)
60 Ovid
3/20/43BC - //AD 17
Roman poet known for his "Metamorphoses"
49 Torbern Olof Bergman
3/20/1735 - 7/8/1784
Swedish chemist and naturalist
87 Jean-Antoine Houdon
3/20/1741 - 7/15/1828
French sculptor in the 18th century Rococo style
68 George Caleb Bingham
3/20/1811 - 7/7/1879
American frontier politician and painter
63 E.Z.C. Judson
3/20/1823 - 7/16/1886
American adventurer and writer of 19th century "dime novels"
78 Henrik Ibsen
3/20/1828 - 5/23/1906
Norwegian playwright
92 Charles William Eliot
3/20/1834 - 8/22/1926
American educator
86 B. F. Skinner
3/20/1904 - 8/18/1990
American psychologist and exponent of behaviorism
77 Sir Michael Redgrave
3/20/1908 - 3/21/1985
English stage and screen actor
80 Alfonso Garcia Robles
3/20/1911 - 9/2/1991
Mexican Nobel Peace Prize-winning diplomat and advocate of nuclear disarmament
73 John Ehrlichman
3/20/1925 - 2/14/1999
American presidential assistant during Nixon administration
1349 - 3,000 Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany.
1556 - Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake at Oxford after retracting the last of seven recantations that same day.
1788 - Almost the entire city of New Orleans, LA, was destroyed by fire. 856 buildings were destroyed.
1790 - Thomas Jefferson reported to U.S. President George Washington as the new secretary of state.
1804 - The French civil code, the Code Napoleon, was adopted.
1824 - A fire at a Cairo ammunitions dump killed 4,000 horses.
1826 - The Rensselaer School in Troy, NY, was incorporated. The school became known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was the first engineering college in the U.S.
1835 - Charles Darwin & Mariano Gonzales met at Portillo Pass.
1851 - Emperor Tu Duc ordered that Christian priests be put to death.
1851 - Yosemite Valley was discovered in California.
1857 - An earthquake hit Tokyo killing about 107,000.
1858 - British forces in India lift the siege of Lucknow, ending the Indian Mutiny.
1859 - In Philadelphia, the first Zoological Society was incorporated.
1868 - The Sorosos club for professional women was formed in New York City by Jennie June. It was the first of its kind.
1871 - Journalist Henry M Stanley began his famous expedition to Africa.
1902 - Romain Roland's play "The 4th of July" premiered in Paris.
1902 - In New York, three Park Avenue mansions were destroyed when a subway tunnel roof caved in.
1904 - The British Parliament vetoed a proposal to send Chinese workers to Transvaal.
1905 - Sterilization legislation was passed in the State of Pennsylvania. The governor vetoed the measure.
1906 - Ohio passed a law that prohibited hazing by fraternities after two fatalities.
1907 - The U.S. Marines landed in Honduras to protect American interests in the war with Nicaragua.
1907 - The first Parliament of Transvaal met in Pretoria.
1908 - A passenger was carried in a bi-plane for the first time by Henri Farman of France.
1909 - Russia withdrew its support for Serbia and recognized the Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Serbia accepted Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina on March 31, 1909.
1910 - The U.S. Senate granted ex-President Teddy Roosevelt a yearly pension of $10,000.
1918 - During World War I, the Germans launched the Somme Offensive.
1928 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge gave the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
1934 - A fire destroyed Hakodate, Japan, killing about 1,500.
1935 - Incubator ambulance service began in Chicago, IL.
1941 - The last Italian post in East Libya, North Africa, fell to the British.
1945 - During World War II, Allied bombers began four days of raids over Germany.
1946 - The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington. Washington was the first black player to join a National Football League team since 1933.
1946 - The United Nations set up a temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York City.
1953 - The Boston Celtics beat Syracuse Nationals (111-105) in four overtimes to eliminate them from the Eastern Division Semifinals. A total of seven players (both teams combined) fouled out of the game.
1955 - NBC-TV presented the first "Colgate Comedy Hour".
1957 - Shirley Booth made her TV acting debut in "The Hostess with the Mostest" on CBS.
1960 - About 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired upon demonstrators.
1963 - Alcatraz Island, the federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, CA, closed.
1965 - The U.S. launched Ranger 9. It was the last in a series of unmanned lunar explorations.
1965 - More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL.
1971 - Two U.S. platoons in Vietnam refused their orders to advance.
1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not require one year of residency for voting eligibility.
1974 - An attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne in London's Pall Mall.
1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced to the U.S. Olympic Team that they would not participate in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
1980 - On the TV show Dallas, J.R. Ewing was shot.
1982 - The movie "Annie" premiered.
1984 - A Soviet submarine crashed into the USS Kitty Hawk off the coast of Japan.
1985 - In Langa, South Africa, at least 21 demonstrators were killed at a march to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings.
1985 - Larry Flynt offered to sell his pornography empire for $26 million or "Hustler" magazine alone for $18 million.
1985 - Police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville shootings. At least 21 demonstrators were killed.
1989 - Randall Dale Adams was released from a Texas prison after his conviction was overturned. The documentary "The Thin Blue Line" had challenged evidence of Adams' conviction for killing a police officer.
1990 - "Normal Life" with Moon Unit & Dweezil Zappa premiered on CBS-TV.
1990 - Australian businessman Alan Bond sold Van Gogh's "Irises" to the Gerry Museum. Bond had purchased the painting for $53.9 million in 1987.
1990 - "Sydney" starring Valerie Bertinelli premiered on CBS-TV.
1990 - Namibia became independent of South Africa.
1991 - 27 people were lost at sea when two U.S. Navy anti-submarine planes collided.
1991 - The U.N. Security Council lifted the food embargo against Iraq.
1994 - Dudley Moore was arrested for hitting his girlfriend.
1994 - Steven Spielberg won his first Oscars. They were for best picture and best director for "Schindler's List."
1994 - Wayne Gretzky tied Gordie Howe's NHL record of 801 goals.
1994 - Bill Gates of Microsoft and Craig McCaw of McCaw Cellular Communications announced a $9 billion plan that would send 840 satellites into orbit to relay information around the globe.
1995 - New Jersey officially dedicated the Howard Stern Rest Area along Route 295.
1995 - Tokyo police raided the headquarters of Aum Shinrikyo in search of evidence to link the cult to the Sarin gas released on five Tokyo subway trains.
1999 - Israel's Supreme Court rejected the final effort to have American Samuel Sheinbein returned to the U.S. to face murder charges for killing Alfred Tello, Jr. Under a plea bargain Sheinbein was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had overstepped its regulatory authority when it attempted to restrict the marketing of cigarettes to youngsters.
2001 - Nintendo released Game Boy Advance.
2002 - In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was charged with murder for his role in the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pear. Three other Islamic militants that were in custody were also charged along with seven more accomplices that were still at large.
2002 - In Paris, an 1825 print by French inventor Joseph Nicephore Niepce was sold for $443,220. The print, of a man leading a horse, was the earliest recorded image taken by photographic means.
2003 - It was reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 235.27 (2.8%) at 8,521.97. It was the strongest weekly gain in more than 20 years.
Current Birthdays
Matthew Broderick turns 47 years old today.
78 Al Freeman Jr.
Actor
77 Joseph Silverstein
Violinist, conductor
70 Kathleen Widdoes
Actress ("As the World Turns")
69 Solomon Burke
Singer
65 Marie-Christine Barrault
Actress
64 Rose Stone
Rock musician (Sly and the Family Stone)
63 Timothy Dalton
Actor
60 Eddie Money
Rock singer
59 Roger Hodgson
Rock musician (Supertramp)
58 Conrad Lozano
Rock musician (Los Lobos)
58 Russell Thompkins Jr.
R&B singer (The Stylistics)
51 Sabrina LeBeauf
Actress ("The Cosby Show")
51 Gary Oldman
Actor
47 Rosie O'Donnell
Actress, comedian
42 Jonas "Joker" Berggren
Rock musician (Ace of Base)
42 Maxim
MC (Prodigy)
41 Andrew Copeland
Rock musician (Sister Hazel)
40 DJ Premier
DJ (Gang Starr)
35 Laura Allen
Actress
29 Ronaldinho
Soccer player
24 Adrian Peterson
Minnesota Vikings running back
Historic Birthdays
Florenz Ziegfeld
3/21/1867 - 7/22/1932
American theatrical producer of spectacular revues
70 Nicholas of Flue, Saint
3/21/1417 - 3/21/1487
Swiss hermit and folk hero
65 Johann S. Bach
3/21/1685 - 7/28/1750
German composer of the Baroque era
66 Benito Juarez
3/21/1806 - 7/18/1872
Mexican national hero and president (1861-72)
85 Alice Henry
3/21/1857 - 2/14/1943
Australian journalist; promoted women's suffrage and social reform
86 Maurice Farman
3/21/1877 - 2/25/1964
French aircraft designer and manufacturer
90 John Walter Tewksbury
3/21/1878 - 4/24/1968
American sprinter; Olympic gold medalist
59 Jock Sutherland
3/21/1889 - 4/11/1948
Scottish-born American collegiate and professional football coach
72 Phyllis McGinley
3/21/1905 - 2/22/1978
American poet, writer and author of juvenile books
72 John D. III Rockefeller
3/21/1906 - 7/10/1978
American philanthropist
75 Nizar Qabbani
3/21/1923 - 4/30/1998
Syrian diplomat and poet
1457 - Gutenberg Bible became the first printed book.
1622 - Indians attacked a group of colonist in the James River area of Virginia. 347 residents were killed.
1630 - The first legislation to prohibited gambling was enacted. It was in Boston, MA.
1638 - Anne Hutchinsoon, a religious dissident, was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1719 - Frederick William abolished serfdom on crown property in Prussia.
1733 - Joseph Priestly invented carbonated water (seltzer).
1765 - The Stamp Act was passed. It was the first direct British tax on the American colonists. It was repealed on March 17, 1766.
1775 - Edmund Burke presented his 13 articles to the English parliament.
1790 - Thomas Jefferson became the first U.S. Secretary of State.
1794 - The U.S. Congress banned U.S. vessels from supplying slaves to other countries.
1822 - New York Horticultural Society was founded.
1841 - Englishman Orlando Jones patented cornstarch.
1871 - William Holden of North Carolina became the first governor to be removed by impeachment.
1872 - Illinois became the first state to require sexual equality in employment.
1873 - Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico.
1874 - The Young Men's Hebrew Association was organized in New York City.
1882 - The U.S. Congress outlawed polygamy.
1888 - The English Football League was established.
1894 - The first playoff competition for the Stanley Cup began. Montreal played Ottawa.
1895 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere showed their first movie to an invited audience in Paris.
1901 - Japan proclaimed that it was determined to keep Russia from encroaching on Korea.
1902 - Great Britain and Persia agreed to link Europe and India by telegraph.
1903 - Niagara Falls ran out of water due to a drought.
1903 - In Columbia, the region near Galera De Zamba was devastated by a volcanic eruption.
1904 - The first color photograph was published in the London Daily Illustrated Mirror.
1905 - Child miners in Britain received a maximum 8-hour workday.
1906 - France lost the first ever rugby game ever played against Britain.
1907 - Russians troops completed the evacuation of Manchuria in the face of advancing Japanese forces.
1907 - In Paris, it was reported that male cab drivers dressed as women to attract riders.
1910 - In Liberia, a telegraph cable linked Tenerife and Monrovia.
1911 - Herman Jadlowker became the first opera singer to perform two major roles in the same day at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
1915 - A German zeppelin made a night raid on Paris railway stations.
1919 - The first international airline service was inaugurated on a weekly schedule between Paris and Brussels.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill legalizing the sale and possession of beer and wine containing up to 3.2% alcohol.
1934 - The first Masters golf championship began in Augusta, GA.
1935 - In New York, blood tests were authorized as evidence in court cases.
1935 - Persia was renamed Iran.
1941 - The Grand Coulee Dam in Washington began operations.
1943 - The Dutch workweek was extended to 54 hours.
1943 - Obligatory work for woman ends in Belgium.
1945 - The Arab League was formed with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
1946 - The British granted Transjordan independence.
1946 - The first U.S. built rocket to leave the earth's atmosphere reached a height of 50-miles.
1947 - The Greek government imposed martial law in Laconia and southern Greece.
1948 - The United States announced a land reform plan for Korea.
1948 - "The Voice of Firestone" became the first commercial radio program to be carried simultaneously on both AM and FM radio stations.
1954 - The first shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan.
1954 - The London gold market reopened for the first time since 1939.
1956 - Perry Como became the first major TV variety-show host to book a rock and roll act on his program. The act was Carl Perkins.
1960 - A.L. Schawlow & C.H. Townes obtained a patent for the laser. It was the first patent for any laser.
1965 - U.S. confirmed that its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong.
1972 - The U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment. It was not ratified by the states.
1974 - The Viet Cong proposed a new truce with the U.S. and South Vietnam. The truce included general elections.
1975 - Walt Disney World Shopping Village opened.
1977 - The Dutch Den Uyl government fell.
1977 - Comedienne Lily Tomlin made her debut on Broadway in "Lily Tomlin on Stage" in New York.
1977 - Indira Ghandi resigned as the prime minister of India.
1978 - Karl Wallenda, of the Flying Wallendas, fell to his death while walking a cable strung between to hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1979 - The National Hockey League (NHL) voted to accept 4 WHA teams, the Oilers, Jets, Nordiques & Whalers.
1980 - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was founded by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco.
1981 - U.S. Postage rates went from 15-cents to 18-cents an ounce.
1981 - RCA put its Selectra Vision laser disc players on the market.
1981 - The first Mongolian entered space aboard the Russian Soyuz 39.
1987 - A barge loaded with 32,000 tons of refuse left Islip, NY, to find a place to unload. After being refused by several states and three countries space was found back in Islip.
1988 - The Congress overrode U.S. President Reagan's veto of a sweeping civil rights bill.
1989 - Oliver North began two days of testimony at his Iran-Contra trial in Washington, DC.
1989 - The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee reported the class gap was widening.
1990 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found Captain Hazelwood not guilty in the Valdez oil spill.
1991 - Pamela Smart, a high school teacher, was found guilty in New Hampshire of manipulating her student-lover to kill her husband.
1992 - A Fokker F-28 veered off a runway at New York's LaGuardia airport and into Flushing Bay, killing 27 people.
1993 - Cleveland Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed in a boating accident in Florida. Bob Ojeda was seriously injured in the accident.
1993 - Intel introduced the Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS.
1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returned to Earth after setting a record for 438 days in space.
1997 - Tara Lipinski, at 14 years and 10 months, became the youngest women's world figure skating champion.
2002 - The U.S. Postal Rate Commission approved a request for a postal rate increase of first-class stamps from 34 cents to 37 cents by June 30. It was the first time a postal rate case was resolved through a settlement between various groups. The groups included the U.S. Postal Service, postal employees, mailer groups and competitors.
2002 - A collection of letters and cards sent by Princess Diana of Wales sold for $33,000. The letters and cards were written to a former housekeeper at Diana's teenage home
Current Birthdays
Reese Witherspoon turns 33 years old today
97 Karl Malden
Actor
79 Stephen Sondheim
Composer, lyricist
78 William Shatner
Actor ("Star Trek," "Boston Legal")
75 Orrin Hatch
U.S. senator, R-Utah
74 M. Emmet Walsh
Actor
68 Jeremy Clyde
Singer (Chad and Jeremy)
66 George Benson
Jazz guitarist, singer
62 James Patterson
Author
61 Wolf Blitzer
Broadcast journalist
61 Andrew Lloyd Webber
Composer
60 Fanny Ardant
Actress
57 Bob Costas
Sportscaster
54 James House
Country singer
54 Lena Olin
Actress
52 Stephanie Mills
R&B singer, actress
50 Matthew Modine
Actor
41 Tim Beeler
Country musician (Flynnville Train)
35 Marcus Camby
Basketball player
34 Anne Dudek
Actress
34 Cole Hauser
Actor
33 Kellie Williams
Actress
32 John Otto
Rock musician (Limp Bizkit)
28 Mims
Rapper
Historic Birthdays
Louis L'Amour
3/22/1908 - 6/10/1988
American best-selling author of more than100 books
59 Maximilian I
3/22/1459 - 1/12/1519
Austrian archduke, German king and Holy Roman emporer- (1493-1519)
42 Sir Anthony Van Dyck
3/22/1599 - 12/9/1641
Flemish painter, etcher and draftsman
80 Wm. Pulteney Bath
3/22/1684 - 7/7/1764
English Whig politician; opposed Sir Robert Walpole
51 Anton Raphael Mengs
3/22/1728 - 6/29/1779
German painter; leading Neoclassicist
43 Thomas Crawford
3/22/1814 - 10/10/1857
American sculptor of "Freedom" figure on top of the Capitol dome
85 Robert Millikan
3/22/1868 - 12/19/1953
American Nobel Prize-winning physicist
67 Arthur Vandenberg
3/22/1884 - 4/18/1951
American Republican senator
67 Joseph Schildkraut
3/22/1896 - 1/21/1964
Austrian-born American stage, television and film star
92 Ruth Page
3/22/1899 - 4/7/1991
American dancer and choreographer
47 Johannes Brinkman
3/22/1902 - 5/6/1949
Dutch architect
82 James Gavin
3/22/1907 - 2/23/1990
American army commander in World War II
1379 - The Gelderse war ended.
1545 - German Parliament opened in Worms.
1550 - France and England signed the Peace of Boulogne.
1629 - The first game law was passed in the American colonies, by Virginia.
1664 - A charter to colonize Rhode Island was granted to Roger Williams in London.
1720 - In Paris, banking houses closed due to financial crisis.
1765 - Britain passed the Quartering Act that required the American colonies to house 10,000 British troops in public and private buildings.
1792 - Benjamin West became the first American artist to be selected president of the Royal Academy of London.
1828 - The Philadelphia & Columbia Railway was authorized as the first state owned railway.
1832 - Mormon Joseph Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered in Ohio.
1837 - Canada gave blacks the right to vote
1848 - A state of siege was proclaimed in Amsterdam.
1868 - Metropolitan Life Insurance Company was formed.
1878 - The British frigate Eurydice sank killing 300.
1880 - The first "hail insurance company" was incorporated in Connecticut. It was known as Tobacco Growers’ Mutual Insurance Company.
1882 - In Berlin, German scientist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis germ (bacillus).
1883 - The first telephone call between New York and Chicago took place.
1898 - The first automobile was sold.
1900 - Mayor Van Wyck of New York broke the ground for the New York subway tunnel that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1900 - In New Jersey, the Carnegie Steel Corporation was formed.
1904 - Vice Adm. Tojo sank seven Russian ships as the Japanese strengthened their blockade of Port Arthur.
1905 - In Crete, a group led by Eleutherios Venizelos claimed independence from Turkey.
1906 - In Mexico, the Tehuantepec Istmian Railroad opened as a rival to the Panama Canal.
1906 - The "Census of the British Empire" revealed that England ruled 1/5 of the world.
1911 - In Denmark, penal code reform abolished corporal punishment.
1920 - The first U.S. coast guard air station was established at Morehead City, NC.
1924 - Greece became a republic.
1927 - Chinese Communists seized Nanking and break with Chiang Kai-shek over the Nationalist goals.
1932 - Belle Baker hosted a radio variety show from a moving train. It was the first radio broadcast from a train.
1934 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed a bill granting future independence to the Philippines.
1938 - The U.S. asked that all powers help refugees fleeing from the Nazis.
1944 - In Rome, The Gestapo rounded up innocent Italians and shot them to death in response to a bomb attack that killed 32 German policemen. Over 300 civilians were executed.
1946 - The Soviet Union announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iran.
1947 - The U.S. Congress proposed the limitation of the presidency to two terms.
1954 - Britain opened trade talks with Hungary.
1955 - Tennessee Williams' play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" debuted on Broadway.
1955 - The first oil drill seagoing rig was put into service.
1960 - A U.S. appeals court ruled that the novel, "Lady Chatterly’s Lover", was not obscene and could be sent through the mail.
1972 - Great Britain imposed direct rule over Northern Ireland.
1976 - The president of Argentina, Isabel Peron, was deposed by her country's military.
1980 - In San Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was shot to death by gunmen as he celebrated Mass.
1981 - "Nightline" with Ted Koppel premiered.
1985 - Thousands demonstrated in Madrid against the NATO presence in Spain.
1988 - Former national security aides Oliver L. North and John M. Poindexter and businessmen Richard V. Secord and Albert Hakim pleaded innocent to Iran-Contra charges.
1989 - The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of oil in Alaska's Prince William Sound after it ran aground.
1989 - The U.S. decided to send humanitarian aid to the Contras.
1990 - Indian troops left Sri Lanka.
1991 - The African nation of Benin held its first presidential elections in about 30 years.
1993 - In Israel, Ezer Weizman, an advocate of peace with neighboring Arab nations, was elected President.
1995 - Russian forces surrounded Achkoi-Martan. It was one of the few remaining strongholds of rebels in Chechenia.
1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a welfare reform package that made the most changes in social programs since the New Deal.
1997 - The Australian parliament overturned the world's first and only euthanasia law.
1998 - In Jonesboro, AR, two young boys open fire at students from woods near a school. Four students and a teacher were killed and 10 others were injured. The two boys were 11 and 13 years old cousins.
1998 - A former FBI agent said papers found in James Earl Ray's car supports a conspiracy theory in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
1999 - In Kenya, at least 31 people were killed when a passenger train derailed. Hundreds were injured.
1999 - NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Vojvodina). The attacks marked the first time in its 50-year history that NATO attacked a sovereign country. The bombings were in response to Serbia's refusal to sign a peace treaty with ethnic Albanians who were seeking independence for the province of Kosovo.
1999 - The 7-mile tunnel under Mont Blanc in France was an inferno after a truck carrying flour and margarine caught on fire. At least 30 people were killed.
2002 - Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the Frans Hals Museum in the Dutch city of Haarlem. The paintings were worth about $2.6 million. The paintings were works by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart.
2005 - The government of Kyrgyzstan collapsed after opposition protesters took over President Askar Akayev's presidential compound and government offices.
2005 - Sandra Bullock received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2006 - In Spain, the Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent cease-fire.
Current Birthdays
Peyton Manning turns 33 years old today
83 Dario Fo
Nobel Prize-winning playwright
70 Bob Mackie
Fashion designer
65 R. Lee Ermey
Actor
64 Curtis Hanson
Director
62 Christine Gregoire
Governor of Washington
61 Lee Oskar
Rock musician (War)
60 Nick Lowe
Rock singer
58 Dougie Thomson
Rock musician (Supertramp)
56 Louie Anderson
Comedian
55 Robert Carradine
Actor
55 Donna Pescow
Actress
49 Kelly LeBrock
Actress
48 Rodney "Kool Kollie" Terry
R&B DJ (Ghostown DJs)
47 Star Jones
TV personality
39 Sharon Corr
Rock singer, musician (The Corrs)
39 Lara Flynn Boyle
Actress
39 Maceo (aka P.A. Pasemaster Mase)
Rapper (De La Soul)
36 Jim Parsons
Actor ("The Big Bang Theory")
35 Alyson Hannigan
Actress ("How I Met Your Mother", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer")
29 Benj Gershman
Rock musician (O.A.R.)
19 Keisha Castle-Hughes
Actress ("The Whale Rider")
Historic Birthdays
Harry Houdini
3/24/1874 - 10/31/1926
American magician and escape artist
61 Georgius Agricola
3/24/1494 - 11/21/1555
German scholar and scientist known as the "father of mineralogy"
72 Rufus King
3/24/1755 - 4/29/1827
American founding father; helped frame the Constitution
64 Thos.Spencer Baynes
3/24/1823 - 5/31/1887
English editor of 9th edition of Encyclopedia Britannica
62 William Morris
3/24/1834 - 10/3/1896
English designer, craftsman and poet
82 Andrew Mellon
3/24/1855 - 8/26/1937
American financier, philanthropist and secretary of the treasury
86 Emile Fabre
3/24/1869 - 9/25/1955
French playwright and administrator of the Comedie-Francaise
71 Edward Weston
3/24/1886 - 1/1/1958
American photographer
46 Fatty Arbuckle
3/24/1887 - 6/29/1933
American silent film actor
60 Wilhelm Reich
3/24/1897 - 11/3/1957
Austrian psychologist
68 Thomas E. Dewey
3/24/1902 - 3/16/1971
Governor of New York (1943-55); and unsuccessful presidential contender (1944,48)
25 Clyde Barrow
3/24/1909 - 5/23/1934
American small-time robber
0421 - The city of Venice was founded.
0708 - Constantine began his reign as Catholic Pope.
1306 - Robert the Bruce was crowned king of Scotland.
1409 - The Council of Pisa opened.
1609 - Henry Hudson left on an exploration for Dutch East India Co.
1634 - Lord Baltimore founded the Catholic colony of Maryland.
1655 - Puritans jailed Governor Stone after a military victory over Catholic forces in the colony of Maryland.
1655 - Christian Huygens discovered Titan. Titan is Saturn's largest satellite.
1668 - The first horse race in America took place.
1669 - Mount Etna in Sicily erupted destroying Nicolosi. 20,000 people were killed.
1700 - England, France and Netherlands ratify the 2nd Extermination Treaty.
1753 - Voltaire left the court of Frederik II of Prussia.
1774 - English Parliament passed the Boston Port Bill.
1776 - The Continental Congress authorized a medal for General George Washington.
1802 - France, Netherlands, Spain and England signed the Peace of Amiens.
1807 - The first railway passenger service began in England.
1807 - British Parliament abolished the slave trade.
1813 - The frigate USS Essex flew the first U.S. flag in battle in the Pacific.
1814 - The Netherlands Bank was established.
1820 - Greece freedom revolt against anti Ottoman attack
1821 - Greece gained independence from Turkey.
1856 - A. E. Burnside patented Burnside carbine.
1857 - Frederick Laggenheim took the first photo of a solar eclipse.
1865 - The SS General Lyon at Cape Hatteras caught fire and sank. 400 people were killed.
1865 - During the American Civil War, Confederate forces captured Fort Stedman in Virginia.
1879 - Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands, formerly a vassal of China.
1895 - Italian troops invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia).
1898 - The Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association was formed in New York City.
1900 - The U.S. Socialist Party was formed in Indianapolis.
1901 - 55 people died when a Rock Island train derailed near Marshalltown, IA.
1901 - The Mercedes was introduced by Daimler at the five-day "Week of Nice" in Nice, France.
1901 - It was reported in Washington, DC, that Cubans were beginning to fear annexation.
1902 - Irving W. Colburn patented the sheet glass drawing machine.
1902 - In Russia, 567 students were found guilty of "political disaffection." 95 students were exiled to Siberia.
1904 - E.D. Morel and Roger Casement formed the Congo Reform Association in Liverpool.
1905 - Rebel battle flags that were captured during the American Civil War were returned to the South.
1905 - Russia received Japan's terms for peace.
1907 - Nicaraguan troops took Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
1908 - Wilhelm II paid an official visit to Italy's king in Venice.
1909 - In Russia, revolutionary Popova was arrested on 300 murder charges.
1911 - In New York City, 146 women were killed in fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. The owners of the company were indicted on manslaughter charges because some of the employees had been behind locked doors in the factory. The owners were later acquitted and in 1914 they were ordered to pay damages to each of the twenty-three families that had sued.
1913 - The Palace Theatre opened in New York City.
1915 - 21 people died when a U.S. F-4 submarine sank off the Hawaiian coast.
1919 - The Paris Peace Commission adopted a plan to protect nations from the influx of foreign labor.
1923 - The British government granted Trans-Jordan autonomy.
1931 - Fifty people were killed in riots that broke out in India. Gandhi was one of many people assaulted.
1931 - The Scottsboro Boys were arrested in Alabama.
1936 - The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Montreal Maroons in the longest hockey game to date. The game lasted for 2 hours and 56 minutes.
1940 - The U.S. agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes.
1941 - Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.
1941 - The first paprika mill was incorporated in Dollon, SC.
1947 - A coalmine explosion in Centralia, IL, killed 111 people.
1947 - John D. Rockefeller III presented a check for $8.5 million to the United Nations for the purchase of land for the site of the U.N. center.
1953 - The USS Missouri fired on targets at Kojo, North Korea.
1954 - RCA manufactured its first color TV set and began mass production.
1957 - The European Economic Community was established with the signing of the Treaty of Rome.
1960 - A guided missile was launched from a nuclear powered submarine for the first time.
1965 - Martin Luther King Jr. led a group of 25,000 to the state capital in Montgomery, AL.
1966 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the "poll tax" was unconstitutional.
1970 - The Concorde made its first supersonic flight.
1971 - The Boston Patriots became the New England Patriots.
1972 - Bobby Hull joined Gordie Howe to become only the second National Hockey League player to score 600 career goals.
1975 - King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot to death by a nephew. The nephew, with a history of mental illness, was beheaded the following June.
1981 - The U.S. Embassy in San Salvador was damaged when gunmen attacked using rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.
1982 - Wayne Gretzky became the first player in the NHL to score 200 points in a season.
1986 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered emergency aid for the Honduran army. U.S. helicopters took Honduran troops to the Nicaraguan border.
1988 - Robert E. Chambers Jr. pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin. The case was known as New York City's "preppie murder case."
1989 - In Paris, the Louvre reopened with I.M. Pei's new courtyard pyramid.
1990 - A fire in Happy Land, an illegal New York City social club, killed 87 people.
1990 - Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.
1992 - Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth after spending 10 months aboard the orbiting Mir space station.
1993 - President de Klerk admitted that South Africa had built six nuclear bombs, but said that they had since been dismantled.
1994 - United States troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.
1995 - Boxer Mike Tyson was released from jail after serving 3 years.
1996 - An 81-day standoff by the antigovernment Freemen began at a ranch near Jordan, MT.
1996 - The U.S. issued a newly redesigned $100 bill for circulation.
1998 - A cancer patient was the first known to die under Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.
1998 - The FCC nets $578.6 million at auction for licenses for new wireless technology.
1998 - Quinn Pletcher was found guilty on charges of extortion. He had threatened to kill Bill Gates unless he was paid $5 million.
2002 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) dismissed complaints against Walt Disney Co.'s ABC network broadcast of a Victoria's Secret fashion show in November 2001.
2004 - The U.S. Senate voted (61-38) on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (H.R. 1997) to make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during the commission of a violent federal crime.
Current Birthdays
Sarah Jessica Parker turns 44 years old today
81 Jim Lovell
Astronaut
75 Gloria Steinem
Feminist author
69 Anita Bryant
Singer
67 Aretha Franklin
R&B singer
66 Paul Michael Glaser
Actor ("Starsky and Hutch")
62 Elton John
Rock singer-musician
61 Bonnie Bedelia
Actress
56 Mary Gross
Actress, comedian
51 John Ensign
U.S. senator, R-Nev.
51 James McDaniel
Actor
49 Steve Norman
Rock musician (Spandau Ballet)
49 Brenda Strong
Actress ("Desperate Housewives")
48 Fred Goss
Actor
48 John Stockwell
Actor, writer, director
47 Marcia Cross
Actress ("Desperate Housewives")
45 Kate DiCamillo
Author ("Because of Winn-Dixie")
45 Lisa Gay Hamilton
Actress
43 Tom Glavine
Baseball player
38 Sheryl Swoopes
Basketball player
34 Melanie Blatt
Singer (All Saints)
30 Lee Pace
Actor ("Pushing Daisies")
27 Sean Faris
Actor
27 Danica Patrick
Auto racer
25 Katherine McPhee
Singer ("American Idol")
22 Jason Castro
Singer ("American Idol")
20 Aly Michalka
Actress, singer ("Aly and AJ")
Historic Birthdays
Bela Bartok
3/25/1881 - 9/26/1945
Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and teacher
33 Saint Catherine of Siena
3/25/1347 - 4/29/1380
Italian Dominican tertiary, mystic and patron Saint of Italy
71 Matilda Gage
3/25/1826 - 3/18/1898
American women's rights advocate
90 Stephen Luce
3/25/1827 - 7/28/1917
American founder and first president of the Naval War College
89 Arturo Toscanini
3/25/1867 - 1/16/1957
Italian conductor
69 William Knudsen
3/25/1879 - 4/27/1948
Danish-born American industrialist; president of General Motors (1937-1940)
76 Gerald Murphy
3/25/1888 - 10/17/1964
American expatriate; befriended, with wife, writers and artists in Paris in the 1920's
83 Sir David Lean
3/25/1908 - 4/16/1991
English film director
64 Simone Signoret
3/25/1921 - 9/30/1985
French stage and motion picture actress
39 Flannery O'Connor
3/25/1925 - 8/3/1964
American writer
61 Penelope Gilliatt
3/25/1932 - 5/9/1993
English writer of essays, short stories, screenplays and novels
1026 - Conrad II was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XIX.
1799 - Napoleon captured Jaffa Palestine.
1780 - The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor was published for the first time. It was the first Sunday newspaper in Britain.
1793 - The Holy Roman Emperor formally declared war on France.
1804 - The U.S. Congress ordered the removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to Louisiana.
1804 - The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the District of Louisiana and the Territory of Orleans.
1854 - Charles III, duke of Parma, was attacked by an assassin. He died the next day.
1871 - The Paris Commune was formally set up.
1878 - Hastings College of Law was founded.
1885 - Eastman Kodak (Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co.) produced the first commercial motion picture film in Rochester, NY.
1898 - In South Africa, the world's first game reserve, the Sabi Game reserve, was designated.
1909 - Russian troops invaded Persia to support Muhammad Ali as shah in place of the constitutional government.
1910 - The U.S. Congress passed an amendment to the 1907 Immigration Act that barred criminals, paupers, anarchists and carriers of disease from settling in the U.S.
1913 - During the Balkan War, the Bulgarians took Adrianople.
1917 - At the start of the battle of Gaza, the British cavalry withdrew when 17,000 Turks blocked their advance.
1937 - Spinach growers in Crystal City, TX, erected a statue of Popeye.
1938 - Herman Goering warned all Jews to leave Austria.
1942 - The Germans began sending Jews to Auschwitz in Poland.
1945 - The battle of Iwo Jima ended.
1945 - In the Aleutians, the battle of Komandorski began when the Japanese attempted to reinforce a garrison at Kiska and were intercepted by a U.S. naval force.
1951 - The U.S. Air Force flag was approved. The flag included the coat of arms, 13 white stars and the Air Force seal on a blue background.
1953 - Dr. Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine that would prevent poliomyelitis.
1956 - Red Buttons made his debut as a television actor in "Studio One" on CBS television.
1958 - The U.S. Army launched America's third successful satellite, Explorer III.
1962 - The U.S. Supreme Court supported the 1-man-1-vote apportionment of seats in the State Legislature.
1969 - The TV movie "Marcus Welby" was seen on ABC-TV. It was later turned into a series.
1971 - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared East Pakistan to be the independent republic of Bangladesh.
1971 - "Cannon" premiered on CBS-TV as a movie. It was turned into a series later in the year.
1972 - The Los Angeles Lakers broke a National Basketball Association (NBA) record by winning 69 of their 82 games.
1973 - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat took over the premiership and said "the stage of total confrontation (with Israel) has become inevitable."
1973 - Women were allowed on the floor of the London Stock Exchange for the first time.
1979 - The Camp David treaty was signed by Israel and Egypt that ended the 31-year state of war between the countries.
1982 - Ground breaking ceremonies were held in Washington, DC, for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1989 - The first free elections took place in the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin was elected.
1991 - The presidents of Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay signed an agreement that established the Southern Cone Common Market, a free-trade zone, by January 1, 1995.
1992 - In Indianapolis, heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was found guilty of rape. He was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He only served three.
1995 - Seven of the 15 European Union states abolished border controls.
1996 - The International Monetary Fund approved a $10.2 billion loan for Russia to help the country transform its economy.
1997 - The 39 bodies of Heaven's Gate members are found in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. The group had committed suicide thinking that they would be picked up by a spaceship following behind the comet Hale-Bopp.
1998 - In the U.S., the Federal government endorses new HIV test that yields instant results.
1998 - Unisys Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp. pay a $3.15 million fine for selling spare parts at inflated prices to the U.S. federal government.
1999 - The macro virus "Melissa" was reported for the first.
1999 - In Michigan, Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder for giving a terminally ill man a lethal injection and putting it all on videotape on September 17, 1998 for "60 Minutes."
2000 - The Seattle Kingdome was imploded to make room for a new football arena.
2000 - In Russia, acting President Vladimir Putin was elected president outright. He won a sufficient number of votes to avoid a runoff election.
2007 - The design for the "Forever Stamp" was unveiled by the U.S. Postal Service.
Current Birthdays
Nancy Pelosi turns 69 years old today
84 Pierre Boulez
Conductor, composer
84 James Moody
Jazz saxophonist
79 Sandra Day O'Connor
Former Supreme Court justice
78 Leonard Nimoy
Actor ("Star Trek")
75 Alan Arkin
Actor
69 James Caan
Actor
67 Erica Jong
Author
66 Bob Woodward
Journalist
65 Diana Ross
Singer
63 Johnny Crawford
Actor
61 Steven Tyler
Rock singer (Aerosmith)
60 Vicki Lawrence
Singer, actress
60 Ernest Thomas
Actor
59 Ronnie McDowell
Country singer
59 Teddy Pendergrass
R&B singer
59 Martin Short
Actor, comedian
59 Alan Silvestri
Film composer
57 Monte Yoho
Rock musician (Outlaws)
56 Lincoln Chafee
Former U.S. senator, R-R.I.
56 Elaine Chao
Former secretary of labor
54 Dean Dillon
Country singer
53 Charly McClain
Country singer
52 Leeza Gibbons
TV personality
49 Marcus Allen
Football Hall of Famer
49 Jennifer Grey
Actress ("Dirty Dancing")
49 Jon Huntsman Jr.
Governor of Utah
47 John Stockton
Basketball player
43 Michael Imperioli
Actor ("The Sopranos", "Life on Mars")
41 Kenny Chesney
Country singer
41 James Iha
Rock musician (Smashing Pumpkins)
36 T.R. Knight
Actor ("Grey's Anatomy")
34 Juvenile
Rapper
33 Amy Smart
Actress
32 Bianca Kajlich
Actress
24 Keira Knightley
Actress
23 J-Kwon
Rapper
Historic Birthdays
Robert Frost
3/26/1874 - 1/29/1963
American poet known for his depictions of New England rural life
88 Herman Haupt
3/26/1817 - 12/14/1905
American civil engineer and inventor
48 Edward Bellamy
3/26/1850 - 5/22/1898
American writer
77 A. E. Housman
3/26/1859 - 4/30/1936
English scholar and poet
90 Syngman Rhee
3/26/1875 - 7/19/1965
First president of the Republic of Korea (South Korea)
86 Othmar Ammann
3/26/1879 - 9/22/1965
Swiss-born American engineer and designer of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
71 Palmiro Togliatti
3/26/1893 - 8/21/1964
Italian politician who led the Italian Communist Party for nearly40 years
84 James Conant
3/26/1893 - 2/11/1978
American educator and scientist
83 Joseph Campbell
3/26/1904 - 10/31/1987
American editor and author of many works on mythology
71 Tennessee Williams
3/26/1911 - 2/25/1983
American dramatist and author
LeftysPorn
2009-03-27, 15:35
It is a little known fact that Arbuckle E. Byrd, second cousin twice removed by marriage to the famed American explorer, was assigned to walk the family terrier on the unseasonably warm afternoon of March 27, 1901. A task he only agreed to do after realizing that the occasion might present him with the opportunity of catching a glimpse of a bare female ankle as some some careless young lady, eager to cool her feet in the large pond at the west end of the park, might not notice him in her haste to find comfort.
He further theorized that the late day sun could even give him a suitable opportunity to put to use his new camera, a recently released Browning which actually made an exposure in a fraction of a second. Although he would not have admitted it even to himself, the thought of capturing a bare ankle on film... well, the very idea was scandalous!
He leashed the terrier, much to the dog's irritation, picked up his camera and tripod and quickly made his way to the park. It is unclear whether the dog or the master tugged his respective end of the leash with greater purpose. What was clear is that neither was particularly fond of the animal at the other end of the tether.
Upon reaching the pond, Mr. Byrd was disappointed to find no gaggle of of giggling women. An old man sat alone at the edge of the water, enjoying the solace of a spring afternoon, feeding the ducks who passed his way.
Byrd yanked the leash and proceeded to look for a vista that might, at least, provide a suitable landscape photograph. The dog was more interested in a suitable location for other purposes, but his human companion seemed unaware of his needs.
As Byrd calculated exposure, aperture and composition he was also unaware of two graceful young ladies who were approaching him from the pond. At first they were simply going to pass by on their way to the pond, but the energetic little terrier caught the attention of the younger of the pair.
"My what an adorable little thing you are!"
The voice startled Byrd who spun around to receive the compliment. He quickly realized that he was not the intended recipient of the remark as he saw a very-well developed young woman leaning over to pet the dog. He would have warned her of the animal's ill temperament, but at the moment he was completely distracted by the perfect complexion and fullness of herample cleavage.
The dog was rarely fond of strangers but now, desperate for relief, he was unusually surly and snapped at the poor girl's fingers. She retreated quickly, unharmed. Byrd, aggravated that the view had been stolen from him, cursed and kicked the dog, causing the animal to dart behind him, under a leg of the wooden tripod and in the general direction of the second woman. As she cried out in fear of the small beast, the dog made an aggressive move in her direction, upsetting the tripod and causing the camera to fall towards her. She leaped gracefully to avoid the falling instrument, nearly landing on top of it. In fact, a bit of lace on the hem of her suitably modest dress was actually caught up in its mechanism.
Byrd cursed a second time, not only out of concern for his expensive camera, but the dog had run off to find a place to relieve itself. Byrd knew that he would not be getting home soon.
Later that night, in his makeshift darkroom, he removed the film from the broken camera. He hoped perhaps he could save the landscape photos that he had taken. He did indeed. He also discovered an additional exposure, taken after the landscape pictures. It took him a moment to work it out, but once he did he could hardly believe his good fortune.
Apparently, as the camera fell to the ground, the impact caused the shutter to open at the precise instant that the woman jumped to avoid being hit. She must have gotten dressed in a rush that morning. As fate would have it, the lens was pointed precisely at her uncovered womanly parts. Yes. Uncovered. Not a stitch to hide her hair covered slit from the probing eye of the lense.
Hence, March 27 will forever be known as the day upon which two significant concepts entered our consciousness. The upskirt picture, and the phrase "A Byrd's Eye View"
Bet you never learned THAT in history class!
1350 - While besieging Gibraltar, Alfonso XI of Castile died of the Black Death.
1794 - The U.S. Congress and President Washington authorized the creation of the U.S. Navy.
1802 - The Treaty of Amiens was signed ending the French Revolutionary War.
1814 - U.S. troops under Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians at Horshoe Bend in Northern Alabama.
1836 - The Mexican army massacred about 400 Texan rebels at Goliad, TX, under the order of Santa Anna.
1836 - The first Mormon temple was dedicated in Kirtland, OH.
1841 - The first steam fire engine was tested in New York City.
1860 - The corkscrew was patented by M.L. Byrn.
1866 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the civil rights bill, which later became the 14th amendment.
1884 - The first long-distance telephone call was made from Boston to New York.
1899 - The first international radio transmission between England and France was achieved by the Italian inventor G. Marconi.
1900 - The London Parliament passed the War Loan Act that gave 35 million pounds to the Boer War cause in South Africa.
1900 - The Russian army mobilized 250,000 troops for active duty.
1901 - Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo was captured by the U.S.
1904 - Mary Jarris "Mother" Jones was ordered by Colorado state authorities to leave the state. She was accused of stirring up striking coal miners.
1907 - French troops occupied Oudja, Morocco, as a punitive action for the murder of French Dr. Muchamp.
1912 - The first cherry blossom trees were planted in Washington, DC. The trees were a gift from Japan.
1917 - The Seattle Metropolitans, of the Pacific Coast League of Canada, defeated the Montreal Canadiens and became the first U.S. hockey team to win the Stanley Cup.
1931 - Actor Charlie Chaplin received France’s Legion of Honor decoration.
1933 - About 55,000 people staged a protest against Hitler in New York City.
1933 - In the U.S., the Farm Credit Administration was authorized.
1941 - Tokeo Yoshikawa arrived in Oahu, HI, and began spying for Japan on the U.S. Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
1942 - The British raided the Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.
1944 - One-thousand Jews left Drancy, France, for the Auschwitz concentration camp.
1944 - Thousands of Jews were murdered in Kaunas, Lithuania.
1946 - Four-month long strikes at both General Electric and General Motors ended with a wage increase.
1952 - The U.S. Eighth Army reached the 38th parallel in Korea, the original dividing line between the two Koreas.
1955 - Steve McQueen made his network TV debut on "Goodyear Playhouse."
1958 - Nikita Khrushchev became the chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party.
1958 - The U.S. announced a plan to explore space near the moon.
1964 - An earthquake in Alaska killed 114 people and registered 8.4 on the Richter Scale.
1968 - Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the earth, died in a plane crash.
1976 - Washington, DC, opened its subway system.
1977 - About 570 people died when a KLM 747 and a Pan Am 747 collided with each other on a foggy runway on the Canary Island of Tenerife.
1985 - Billy Dee Williams received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1988 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
1989 - The U.S. anti-missile satellite failed the first test in space.
1992 - Police in Philadelphia, PA, arrested a man with AIDS on charges that he may have infected several hundred teenage boys with HIV through sexual relations.
1993 - In China, Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin was appointed President.
1995 - Maurizo Gucci was shot to death outside his office in Milan.
1997 - Russian workers, nearly 2 million, held a nationwide strike to protest unpaid wages.
1997 - In Australia, Governor-General William Deane signed a bill to overturn a 1996 Northern Territory act to legalize assisted suicides. The 1996 act was the first in the world to permit assisted suicides.
1997 - Dexter King met with James Earl Ray. Ray was in prison for the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Dexter King believes that Ray had nothing to do with the assassination.
1998 - In the U.S., the FDA approved the prescription drug Viagra. It was the first pill for male impotence.
1998 - Top civilian aircraft makers in France, Spain, Germany and Britain agreed to create single European aerospace and defense company.
1998 - Ax-wielders killed at least 52 people in southern Algeria, most of which were toddlers.
2002 - Rodney Dangerfield received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2004 - NASA successfully launched an unpiloted X-43A jet that hit Mach 7 (about 5,000 mph).
Current Birthdays
Mariah Carey turns 39 years old today
Mariah you on fire
82 Anthony Lewis
Newspaper columnist
74 Julian Glover
Actor
73 Jerry Lacy
Actor
69 Austin Pendleton
Actor
67 Michael York
Actor
59 Tony Banks
Rock musician (Genesis)
57 Maria Schneider
Actress
50 Andrew Farriss
Rock musician (INXS)
46 Dave Koz
Jazz saxophonist
46 Quentin Tarantino
Director
45 Derrick McKenzie
Rock musician (Jamiroquai)
42 Talisa Soto
Actress
40 Pauley Perrette
Actress
39 Brendan Hill
Rock musician (Blues Traveler)
39 Elizabeth Mitchell
Actress
38 Nathan Fillion
Actor ("Firefly")
34 Fergie
Singer (Black Eyed Peas)
25 Emily Ann Lloyd
Actress
21 Brenda Song
Actress
14 Taylor Atelian
Actress ("According to Jim")
Historic Birthdays
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
3/27/1886 - 8/17/1969
German-born American architect
78 Andrew Bell
3/27/1753 - 1/27/1832
Scottish clergyman who developed popular education
66 Alfred-Victor Vigny
3/27/1797 - 9/17/1863
French poet, dramatist and novelist
84 Gloria Swanson
3/27/1899 - 4/4/1983
American film, stage and television actress
83 Otto Wallach
3/27/1847 - 2/26/1931
German Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1910)
70 Sir Henry Royce
3/27/1863 - 4/22/1933
English industrialist; a founder of Rolls-Royce Ltd.
78 Patty Smith Hill
3/27/1868 - 5/25/1946
American educator
93 Edward Steichen
3/27/1879 - 3/25/1973
American photographer; a leader of the Photo-Secession Group
74 Sato Eisaku
3/27/1901 - 6/3/1975
Japanese prime minister (1964-72); awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1974)
62 Pee Wee Russell
3/27/1906 - 2/15/1969
American jazz clarinetist
64 Ben Webster
3/27/1909 - 9/20/1973
American jazz musician
33 Denton Welch
3/27/1915 - 12/30/1948
English painter and novelist
66 Sarah Vaughan
3/27/1924 - 4/3/1990
American jazz vocalist and pianist
1774 - Britain passed the Coercive Act against Massachusetts.
1797 - Nathaniel Briggs patented a washing machine.
1834 - The U.S. Senate voted to censure President Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States.
1854 - The Crimean War began with Britain and France declaring war on Russia.
1864 - A group of Copperheads attack Federal soldiers in Charleston, IL. Five were killed and twenty were wounded.
1865 - Outdoor advertising legislation was enacted in New York. The law banned "painting on stones, rocks and trees."
1885 - The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.
1898 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen. This meant that they could not be deported under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
1903 - Anatole France's "Crainquebille" premiered in Paris.
1905 - The U.S. took full control over Dominican revenues.
1908 - Automobile owners lobbied the U.S. Congress, supporting a bill that called for vehicle licensing and federal registration.
1910 - The first seaplane took off from water at Martinques, France. The pilot was Henri Fabre.
1911 - In New York, suffragists performed the political play "Pageant of Protest."
1917 - During World War I the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded.
1921 - U.S. President Warren Harding named William Howard Taft as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.
1922 - Bradley A. Fiske patented a microfilm reading device.
1930 - Constantinople and Angora changed their names to Istanbul and Ankara respectively.
1933 - In Germany, the Nazis ordered a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.
1938 - In Italy, psychiatrists demonstrated the use of electric-shock therapy for treatment of certain mental illnesses.
1939 - The Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to Francisco Franco.
1941 - The Italian fleet was defeated by the British at the Battle of Matapan.
1942 - British naval forces raided the Nazi occupied French port of St. Nazaire.
1945 - Germany launched the last of the V-2 rockets against England.
1947 - The American Helicopter Society revealed a flying device that could be strapped to a person's body.
1962 - The U.S. Air Force announced research into the use of lasers to intercept missiles and satellites.
1963 - Sonny Werblin announced that the New York Titans of the American Football League was changing its name to the New York Jets. (NFL)
1967 - Raymond Burr starred in a TV movie titled "Ironside." The movie was later turned into a television series.
1968 - The U.S. lost its first F-111 aircraft in Vietnam when it vanished while on a combat mission. North Vietnam claimed that they had shot it down.
1974 - A streaker ran onto the set of "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson."
1979 - A major accident occurred at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. A nuclear power reactor overheated and suffered a partial meltdown.
1986 - The U.S. Senate passed $100 million aid package for the Nicaraguan contras.
1986 - More than 6,000 radio stations of all format varieties played "We are the World" simultaneously at 10:15 a.m. EST.
1990 - Jesse Owens received the Congressional Gold Medal from U.S. President George Bush.
1990 - In Britain, a joint Anglo-U.S. "sting" operation ended with the seizure of 40 capacitors, which can be used in the trigger mechanism of a nuclear weapon.
1991 - The U.S. embassy in Moscow was severely damaged by fire.
1994 - Violence between Zulus and African National Congress supporters took the lives of 18 in Johannesburg.
1999 - Paraguay's President Raúl Cubas Grau resigned after protests inspired by the assassination of Vice-President Luis María Argaña on March 23. The nation's Congress had accused Cubas and his political associate, Gen. Lino César Oviedo, for Cubas' murder. Senate President Luis González Macchi took office as Paraguay's new chief executive.
2002 - The exhibit "The Italians: Three Centuries of Italian Art" opened at the National Gallery of Australia.
1461 - Edward IV secured his claim to the English thrown by defeating Henry VI’s Lancastrians at the battle of Towdon.
1638 - First permanent European settlement in Delaware was established.
1847 - U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott took possession of the Mexican stronghold at Vera Cruz.
1848 - Niagara Falls stopped flowing for one day due to an ice jam.
1867 - The British Parliament passed the North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada.
1882 - The Knights of Columbus organization was granted a charter by the State of Connecticut.
1901 - The first federal elections were held in Australia.
1903 - A regular news service began between New York and London on Marconi's wireless.
1906 - In the U.S., 500,000 coal miners walked off the job seeking higher wages.
1913 - The Reichstag announced a raise in taxes in order to finance the new military budget.
1916 - The Italians call off the fifth attack on Isonzo.
1932 - Jack Benny made his radio debut.
1936 - Italy firebombed the Ethiopian city of Harar.
1941 - The British sank five Italian warships off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean.
1943 - In the U.S. rationing of meat, butter and cheese began during World War II.
1946 - Fiorella LaGuardia became the director general of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Organization.
1946 - Gold Coast became the first British colony to hold an African parliamentary majority.
1951 - The Chinese reject MacArthur's offer for a truce in Korea.
1951 - In the United States, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were executed in June 19, 1953.
1961 - The 23rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment allowed residents of Washington, DC, to vote for president.
1962 - Cuba opened the trial of the Bay of Pigs invaders.
1962 - Jack Paar made his final appearance on the "Tonight" show.
1966 - Leonid Brezhnev became the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He denounced the American policy in Vietnam and called it one of aggression.
1967 - France launched its first nuclear submarine.
1971 - Lt. William Calley Jr., of the U.S. Army, was found guilty of the premeditated murder of at least 22 Vietnamese civilians. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial was the result of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam on March 16, 1968.
1971 - A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. The death sentences were later commuted to live in prison.
1973 - "Hommy," the Puerto Rican version of the rock opera "Tommy," opened in New York City.
1973 - The last U.S. troops left South Vietnam.
1974 - Mariner 10, the U.S. space probe became the first spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury. It had been launched on November 3, 1973.
1974 - Eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. All the guardsmen were later acquitted.
1975 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat declared that he would reopen the Suez Canal on June 5, 1975.
1979 - The Committee on Assassinations Report issued by U.S. House of Representatives stated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the result of a conspiracy.
1982 - The soap opera "Search for Tomorrow" changed from CBS to NBC.
1986 - A court in Rome acquitted six men in a plot to kill the Pope.
1987 - Hulk Hogan took 11 minutes, 43 seconds to pin Andre the Giant in front of 93,136 at Wrestlemania III fans at the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI.
1992 - Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton said "I didn't inhale and I didn't try it again" in reference to when he had experimented with marijuana.
1993 - The South Korean government agreed to pay financial support to women who had been forced to have sex with Japanese troops during World War II.
1993 - Clint Eastwood won his first Oscars. He won them for best film and best director for the film "Unforgiven."
1995 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a constitutional amendment that would have limited terms to 12 years in the U.S. House and Senate.
1998 - Tennessee won the woman's college basketball championship over Louisiana. Tennessee had set a NCAA record with regular season record or 39-0.
1999 - At least 87 people died in an earthquake in India's Himalayan foothills.
1999 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time.
2004 - Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia became members of NATO.
Current Birthdays
Elle Macpherson turns 46 years old today
82 John McLaughlin
TV host ("The McLaughlin Group")
73 Judith Guest
Author
66 Eric Idle
Comedian ("Monty Python")
66 John Major
Former British prime minister
66 Vangelis
Composer ("Chariots of Fire")
64 Walt Frazier
Basketball Hall of Famer
62 Bobby Kimball
Singer (Toto)
54 Earl Campbell
Football Hall of Famer
54 Christopher Lawford
Actor
52 Christopher Lambert
Actor
50 Perry Farrell
Rock singer (Jane's Addiction)
48 Amy Sedaris
Comedian, actress ("Strangers With Candy")
42 John Popper
Rock musician (Blues Traveler)
41 Regina Leigh
Country singer (Regina Regina)
40 Brady Seals
Country singer
33 Jennifer Capriati
Tennis player
21 Kelly Sweet
Singer
Historic Birthdays
Cy Young
3/29/1867 - 11/4/1955
American professional baseball player
74 Santorio Santorio
3/29/1561 - 2/22/1636
Italian physician; introduced use of precision instruments in medicine
71 John Tyler
3/29/1790 - 1/18/1862
10th president of the United States
80 Isaac Mayer Wise
3/29/1819 - 3/26/1900
Bohemian-born American rabbi; organized Reform Jewish institutions in U.S.
83 Elihu Thomson
3/29/1853 - 3/13/1937
American engineer and inventor; founder of U.S. electrical industry
78 Howard Lindsay
3/29/1889 - 2/11/1968
American playwright, producer and partner of Russel Crouse
83 Jozsef Mindszenty
3/29/1892 - 5/6/1975
Hungarian Roman Catholic priest; opposed totalitarianism
54 Lavrenty Beria
3/29/1899 - 12/23/1953
Russian director of the Soviet secret police
80 Sir William Walton
3/29/1902 - 3/8/1983
English composer
70 E. Power Biggs
3/29/1906 - 3/10/1977
English-born American organist
72 Pearl Bailey
3/29/1918 - 8/17/1990
American singer and entertainer
74 Samuel Moore Walton
3/29/1918 - 4/5/1992
American retail magnate; founded Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
1533 - Henry VIII divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
1814 - The allied European nations against Napoleon marched into Paris.
1822 - Florida became a U.S. territory.
1842 - Dr. Crawford W. Long performed the first operation while his patient was anesthetized by ether.
1855 - About 5,000 "Border Ruffians" from western Missouri invaded the territory of Kansas and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature. It was the first election in Kansas.
1858 - Hyman L. Lipman of Philadelphia patented the pencil.
1867 - The U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars.
1870 - The 15th amendment, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race, was passed by the U.S. Congress.
1870 - Texas was readmitted to the Union.
1903 - Revolutionary activity in the Dominican Republic brought U.S. troops to Santo Domingo to protect American interests.
1905 - U.S. President Roosevelt was chosen to mediate in the Russo-Japanese peace talks.
1909 - The Queensboro bridge in New York opened linking Manhattan and Queens. It was the first double decker bridge.
1909 - In Oklahoma, Seminole Indians revolted against meager pay for government jobs.
1916 - Pancho Villa killed 172 at the Guerrero garrison in Mexico.
1936 - Britain announced a naval construction program of 38 warships.
1940 - The Japanese set up a puppet government called Manchuko in Nanking, China.
1941 - The German Afrika Korps under General Erwin Rommel began its first offensive against British forces in Libya.
1944 - The U.S. fleet attacked Palau, near the Philippines.
1945 - The U.S.S.R. invaded Austria during World War II.
1946 - The Allies seized 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt.
1947 - Lord Mountbatten arrived in India as the new Viceroy.
1950 - The invention of the phototransistor was announced.
1950 - U.S. President Truman denounced Senator Joe McCarthy as a saboteur of U.S. foreign policy.
1957 - Tunisia and Morocco signed a friendship treaty in Rabat.
1958 - The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater gave its initial performance.
1964 - "Jeopardy" debuted on NBC-TV.
1964 - John Glenn withdrew from the Ohio race for U.S. Senate because of injuries suffered in a fall.
1970 - "Applause" opened on Broadway.
1970 - "Another World - Somerset" debuted on NBC-TV.
1972 - The British government assumed direct rule over Northern Ireland.
1972 - The Eastertide Offensive began when North Vietnamese troops crossed into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the northern portion of South Vietnam.
1975 - As the North Vietnamese forces moved toward Saigon South Vietnamese soldiers mob rescue jets in desperation.
1981 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded in Washington, DC, by John W. Hinckley Jr. Two police officers and Press Secretary James Brady were also wounded.
1984 - The U.S. ended its participation in the multinational peace force in Lebanon.
1987 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" was bought for $39.85 million.
1993 - In Sarajevo, two Serb militiamen were sentenced to death for war crimes committed in Bosnia.
1993 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown hit his first home run.
1994 - Serbs and Croats signed a cease-fire to end their war in Croatia while Bosnian Muslims and Serbs continued to fight each other.
1998 - Rolls-Royce was purchased by BMW in a $570 million deal.
2002 - An unmanned U.S. spy plan crashed at sea in the Southern Philippines.
2002 - Suspected Islamic militants set off several grenades at a temple in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Four civilians, four policemen and two attackers were killed and 20 people were injured.
Current Birthdays
Warren Beatty turns 72 years old today
83 Peter Marshall
Game show host ("Hollywood Squares")
80 Richard Dysart
Actor
79 John Astin
Actor ("Addams Family")
69 Jerry Lucas
Basketball Hall of Famer
68 Graeme Edge
Rock musician (The Moody Blues)
64 Eric Clapton
Rock musician
61 Justin Deas
Actor ("Guiding Light")
59 Robbie Coltrane
Actor
52 Paul Reiser
Actor, comedian ("Mad About You")
47 Mark Begich
U.S. senator, D-Alaska
46 MC Hammer
Rapper
45 Tracy Chapman
Rock singer
45 Ian Ziering
Actor
41 Celine Dion
Singer
38 Mark Consuelos
Actor
30 Norah Jones
Rock singer, musician
Historic Birthdays
Sean O'Casey
3/30/1880 - 9/18/1964
Irish playwright; contributed to Irish Literary Renaissance
69 Moses Maimonides
3/30/1135 - 12/13/1204
Spanish-born Jewish philosopher, jurist and physician
82 Francisco de Goya
3/30/1746 - 4/16/1828
Spanish painter; depicted political tyranny in his works
83 Juan Manuel de Rosas
3/30/1793 - 3/14/1877
Argentine military and political leader and governor of Buenos Aires (1835-52)
58 Anna Sewell
3/30/1820 - 4/25/1878
English author ("Black Beauty")
76 Charles Booth
3/30/1840 - 11/23/1916
English shipowner and sociologist
37 Vincent van Gogh
3/30/1853 - 7/29/1890
Dutch Post-Impressionist painter
78 Melanie Klein
3/30/1882 - 9/22/1960
Austrian-born English psychoanalyst
79 Arthur Herrington
3/30/1891 - 9/6/1970
American engineer and manufacturer; developed the World War II jeep
77 McGeorge Bundy
3/30/1919 - 9/16/1996
American educator and presidential advisor on foreign policy
1492 - King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued the Alhambra edict expelling Jews who were unwilling to convert to Christianity.
1776 - Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John that women were "determined to foment a rebellion" if the new Declaration of Independence failed to guarantee their rights.
1779 - Russia and Turkey signed a treaty concerning military action in Crimea.
1831 - Quebec and Montreal were incorporated as cities.
1854 - The U.S. government signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan. The act opened the ports of Shimoda and Hakotade to American trade.
1862 - Skirmishing between Rebels and Union forces took place at Island 10 on the Mississippi River.
1870 - In Perth Amboy, NJ, Thomas P. Munday became the first black to vote in the U.S.
1880 - Wabash, IN, became the first town to be completely illuminated with electric light.
1889 - In Paris, the Eiffel Tower officially opened.
1900 - The W.E. Roach Company was the first automobile company to put an advertisement in a national magazine. The magazine was the "Saturday Evening Post".
1900 - In France, the National Assembly passed a law reducing the workday for women and children to 11 hours.
1901 - In Russia, the Czar lashed out at Socialist-Revolutionaries with the arrests of 72 people and the seizing of two printing presses.
1902 - In Tennessee, 22 coal miners were killed by an explosion.
1904 - In India, hundreds of Tibetans were slaughtered by the British.
1905 - Kaiser Wilhelm arrived in Tangier proclaiming to support for an independent state of Morocco.
1906 - The Conference on Moroccan Reforms in Algerciras ended after two months with France and Germany in agreement.
1906 - The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States was founded to set rules in amateur sports. The organization became the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 1910.
1908 - 250,000 coal miners in Indianapolis, IN, went on strike to await a wage adjustment.
1909 - Serbia accepted Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
1917 - The U.S. purchased and took possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.
1918 - For the first time in the U.S., Daylight Saving Time went into effect.
1921 - Great Britain declared a state of emergency because of the thousands of coal miners on strike.
1923 - In New York City, the first U.S. dance marathon was held. Alma Cummings set a new world record of 27 hours.
1932 - The Ford Motor Co. debuted its V-8 engine.
1933 - The U.S. Congress authorized the Civilian Conservation Corps to relieve rampant unemployment.
1933 - The "Soperton News" in Georgia became the first newspaper to publish using a pine pulp paper.
1939 - Britain and France agreed to support Poland if Germany threatened invasion.
1940 - La Guardia airport in New York officially opened to the public.
1941 - Germany began a counter offensive in North Africa.
1945 - "The Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.
1946 - Monarchists won the elections in Greece.
1947 - John L. Lewis called a strike in sympathy for the miners killed in an explosion in Centralia, IL, on March 25, 1947.
1948 - The Soviets in Germany began controlling the Western trains headed toward Berlin.
1949 - Winston Churchill declared that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the U.S.S.R. from taking over Europe.
1949 - Newfoundland entered the Canadian confederation as its 10th province.
1958 - The U.S. Navy formed the atomic submarine division.
1959 - The Dalai Lama (Lhama Dhondrub, Tenzin Gyatso) began exile by crossing the border into India where he was granted political asylum. Gyatso was the 14th Daila Lama.
1960 - The South African government declared a state of emergency after demonstrations lead to the death of more than 50 Africans.
1966 - An estimated 200,000 anti-war demonstrators march in New York City.
1966 - The Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which became the first spacecraft to enter a lunar orbit.
1967 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Consular Treaty, the first bi-lateral pact with the Soviet Union since the Bolshevik Revolution.
1970 - The U.S. forces in Vietnam down a MIG-21, it was the first since September 1968.
1976 - The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from a respirator. Quinlan remained comatose until 1985 when she died.
1980 - U.S. President Carter deregulated the banking industry.
1985 - ABC-TV aired the 200th episode of "The Love Boat."
1986 - 167 people died when a Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashed in Los Angeles.
1987 - HBO (Home Box Office) earned its first Oscar for "Down and Out in America".
1989 - Canada and France signed a fishing rights pact.
1991 - Albania offered a multi-party election for the first time in 50 years. Incumbent President Ramiz Alia won.
1991 - Iraqi forces recaptured the northern city of Kirkuk from Kurdish guerillas.
1993 - Brandon Lee was killed accidentally while filming a movie.
1994 - "Nature" magazine announced that a complete skull of Australppithecus afarensis had been found in Ethiopia. The finding is of humankind's earliest ancestor.
1998 - U.N. Security Council imposed arms embargo on Yugoslavia.
1998 - Buddy Hackett received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - For the first time in U.S. history the federal government's detailed financial statement was released. This occurred under the Clinton administration.
1999 - Three U.S. soldiers were captured by Yugoslav soldiers three miles from the Yugoslav border in Macedonia.
1999 - Fabio was hit in the face by a bird during a promotional ride of a new roller coaster at the Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, VA. Fabio received a one-inch cut across his nose.
2000 - In Uganda, officials set the number of deaths linked to a doomsday religious cult, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, at more than 900. In Kanungu, a March 17 fire at the cult's church killed more than 530 and authorities subsequently found mass graves at various sites linked to the cult.
2004 - Air America Radio launched five stations around the U.S.
2004 - Google Inc. announced that it would be introducing a free e-mail service called Gmail.
Current Birthdays
Al Gore turns 61 years old today.
88 Peggy Rea
Actress
82 William Daniels
Actor
81 Gordie Howe
Hockey Hall of Famer
75 Richard Chamberlain
Actor
75 Shirley Jones
Actress ("The Partridge Family")
75 John D. Loudermilk
Country singer, songwriter
74 Herb Alpert
Musician
69 Barney Frank
U.S. congressman, D-Mass.
69 Patrick Leahy
U.S. senator, D-Vt.
66 Christopher Walken
Actor
64 Gabe Kaplan
Actor, comedian ("Welcome Back Kotter")
61 Rhea Perlman
Actress ("Cheers")
59 Ed Marinaro
Actor ("Hill Street Blues")
52 Marc McClure
Actor
44 William McNamara
Actor
38 Bob Crawford
Country musician
38 Ewan McGregor
Actor
31 Tony Yayo
Rapper
26 Christian Scott
Jazz trumpeter
Historic Birthdays
Cesar Chavez
3/31/1927 - 4/23/1993
American organizer and leader of migrant American farm workers
53 Rene Descartes
3/31/1596 - 2/11/1650
French mathematician, scientist and philosopher
77 Franz Joseph Haydn
3/31/1732 - 5/31/1809
Austrian composer of the Classical period
74 Edward Fitzgerald
3/31/1809 - 6/14/1883
English writer and translator ("Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam")
87 James M. Cox
3/31/1870 - 7/15/1957
American newspaper publisher and governor of Ohio (1913-15, 1917-21)
50 Arthur Griffith
3/31/1872 - 8/12/1922
Irish journalist and principal founder of Sinn Fein movement
57 Serge Diaghilev
3/31/1872 - 8/19/1929
Russian impresario; created Ballets Russes in 1909
68 Jack Johnson
3/31/1878 - 6/10/1946
American boxer; heavyweight champion
81 Sir Lawrence Bragg
3/31/1890 - 7/1/1971
Australian-born English Nobel Prize-winning physicist
93 John McCloy
3/31/1895 - 3/11/1989
American diplomat, lawyer, and presidential adviser
84 Octavio Paz
3/31/1914 - 4/19/1998
Mexican Nobel Prize-winning poet, writer and diplomat
0527 - Justinianus became the emperor of Byzantium.
1572 - The Sea Beggars under Guillaume de la Marck landed in Holland and captured the small town of Briel.
1578 - William Harvey of England discovered blood circulation.
1621 - The Plymouth, MA, colonists created the first treaty with Native Americans.
1724 - Jonathan Swift published Drapier's letters.
1748 - The ruins of Pompeii were found.
1778 - Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans businessman, created the "$" symbol.
1789 - The U.S. House of Representatives held its first full meeting in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was elected the first House Speaker.
1793 - In Japan, the volcano Unsen erupted killing about 53,000.
1826 - Samuel Mory patented the internal combustion engine.
1853 - Cincinnati became the first U.S. city to pay fire fighters a regular salary.
1863 - The first wartime conscription law goes into effect in the U.S.
1864 - The first travel accident policy was issued to James Batterson by the Travelers Insurance Company.
1865 - At the Battle of Five Forks in Petersburg, VA, Gen. Robert E. Lee began his final offensive.
1867 - Blacks voted in the municipal election in Tuscumbia, AL.
1867 - The International Exhibition opened in Paris.
1867 - Singapore, Penang & Malakka became British crown colonies.
1868 - The Hampton Institute opened.
1872 - The first edition of "The Standard" was published.
1873 - The British White Star steamship Atlantic sank off Nova Scotia killing 547.
1873 - Mehmed Kemals play "Vatan" premiered in Constantinople.
1876 - The first official National League (NL) baseball game took place. Boston beat Philadelphia 6-5.
1881 - Anti-Jewish riots took place in Jerusalem.
1881 - Kingdom post office in Netherlands opened.
1889 - The first dishwashing machine was marketed (in Chicago).
1891 - The London-Paris telephone connection opened.
1905 - The British East African Protectorate became the colony of Kenya.
1905 - Paris and Berlin were linked by telephone.
1916 - The first U.S. national women's swimming championships were held.
1918 - England's Royal Flying Corps was replaced by the Royal Air Force.
1924 - Adolf Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for high treason in relation to the "Beer Hall Putsch."
1924 - Imperial Airways was formed in Britain.
1927 - The first automatic record changer was introduced by His Master's Voice.
1928 - China's Chiang Kai-shek began attacking communists.
1929 - Louie Marx introduced the Yo-Yo.
1930 - Leo Hartnett of the Chicago Cubs broke the altitude record for a catch by catching a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles, CA.
1931 - An Earthquake devastated Managua Nicaragua killing 2,000.
1931 - Jackie Mitchell became the first female in professional baseball when she signed with the Chattanooga Baseball Club.
1933 - Nazi Germany began the persecution of Jews by boycotting Jewish businesses.
1934 - Bonnie & Clyde killed 2 police officers.
1935 - The first radio tube to be made of metal was announced.
1937 - Aden became a British colony.
1938 - The first commercially successful fluorescent lamps were introduced.
1938 - The Baseball Hall of Fame opened in Cooperstown, NY.
1939 - The U.S. recognized the Franco government in Spain at end of Spanish civil war.
1941 - The first contract for advertising on a commercial FM radio station began on W71NY in New York City.
1945 - U.S. forces invaded Okinawa during World War II. It was the last campaign of World War II.
1946 - Weight Watchers was formed.
1946 - A tidal wave (tsunami) struck the Hawaiian Islands killing more than 170 people.
1948 - The Berlin Airlift began.
1949 - "Happy Pappy" premiered. It was the first all-black-cast variety show.
1950 - Italian Somalia became a United Nations trust territory under Italian administration.
1952 - The Big Bang theory was proposed in "Physical Review" by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow.
1953 - The U.S. Congress created the Department of Health Education and Welfare.
1954 - The U.S. Air Force Academy was formed in Colorado.
1955 - "One Man's Family" was seen on TV for the final time after a six-year run on NBC-TV.
1960 - France exploded 2 atom bombs in the Sahara Desert.
1960 - The U.S. launched TIROS-1. It was the first weather satellite.
1963 - Workers of the International Typographical Union ended their strike that had closed nine New York City newspapers. The strike ended 114 days after it began on December 8, 1962.
1963 - The Soap operas "General Hospital" and "Doctors" premiered on television.
1970 - The U.S. Army charged Captain Ernest Medina in the My Lai massacre.
1970 - U.S. President Nixon signed the bill, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, that banned cigarette advertisements to be effective on January 1, 1971.
1971 - The United Kingdom lifted all restrictions on gold ownership.
1972 - North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops renewed their offensive in South Vietnam.
1973 - Japan allowed its citizens to own gold.
1976 - Apple Computer began operations.
1979 - Iran was proclaimed to be an Islamic Republic by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the fall of the Shah.
1980 - A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi vice-premier Tariq Aziz occurred.
1982 - The U.S. transferred the Canal Zone to Panama.
1983 - New York Islander Mike Bossy became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to score 60 goals in 3 consecutive seasons.
1986 - The U.S. submarine Nathaniel Green ran aground in the Irish Sea.
1987 - Steve Newman became the first man to walk around the world. The walk was 22,000 miles and took 4 years.
1987 - U.S. President Reagan told doctors in Philadelphia, "We've declared AIDS public health enemy No. 1."
1991 - Iran released British hostage Roger Cooper after 5 years.
1991 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that jurors could not be barred from serving due to their race.
1991 - The Warsaw Pact was officially dissolved.
1992 - Players began the first strike in the 75-year history of the National Hockey League (NHL).
1996 - U.S. President Bill Clinton threw out the first ball preceding a game between the Kansas City Royals and the Baltimore Orioles.
1997 - David Carradine received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - A federal judge dismissed the Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against U.S. President Clinton saying that the claims fell "far short" of being worthy of a trial.
1999 - In Zhytomyr, Ukraine, Anatoliy Onoprienko was sentenced to death for the deaths of 52 men, women and children. 43 of the killings occurred in a 6-month period.
1999 - The Canadian territory of Nunavut was created. It was carved from the eastern part of the Northwest Territories and covered about 772,000 square miles.
2001 - China began holding 24 crewmembers of a U.S. surveillance plane. The EP-3E U.S. Navy crew had made an emergency landing after an in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The Chinese pilot was missing and presumed dead. The U.S. crew was released on April 11, 2001.
2001 - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was arrested on corruption charges after a 26-hour standoff with the police at his Belgrade villa.
2003 - North Korea test-fired an anti-ship missile off its west coast.
2003 - Jason Mewes was ordered to complete drug rehabilitation or face five years in jail stemming from a drug conviction in 1999.
2004 - U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The bill made it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman.
2004 - Gateway Inc. announced that it would be closing all of its 188 stores on April 9.
Current Birthdays
Debbie Reynolds turns 77 years old today.
81 Jane Powell
Actress
79 Grace Lee Whitney
Actress, singer
75 Jim Ed Brown
Country singer
75 Don Hastings
Actor ("As The World Turns")
71 Eddie King
Blues singer
71 Ali MacGraw
Actress
70 Rudolph Isley
R&B singer (The Isley Brothers)
70 Phil Niekro
Baseball Hall of Famer
62 David Eisenhower
Grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower
61 Jimmy Cliff
Reggae singer
60 Gil Scott-Heron
Jazz keyboardist
59 Samuel Alito
Supreme Court justice
59 Billy Currie
Rock musician (Ultravox)
57 Annette O'Toole
Actress
56 Barry Sonnenfeld
Director
41 Woody Lee
Country singer
38 Method Man
Rapper
37 Albert Hughes
Movie producer
37 Allen Hughes
Movie producer
36 Rachel Maddow
Broadcast journalist
33 David Oyelowo
Actor
29 Bijou Phillips
Singer, actress
27 Sam Huntington
Actor
25 Hillary Scott
Country singer (Lady Antebellum)
24 Josh Zuckerman
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Florence Blanchfield
4/1/1884 - 5/12/1971
American nurse and army officer
79 William Harvey
4/1/1578 - 6/3/1657
English physician; developed theory of blood circulation
61 Jean-Etienne Portalis
4/1/1746 - 8/25/1807
French lawyer; helped draft Napoleonic Code
83 Otto von Bismarck
4/1/1815 - 7/30/1898
German statesman; first chancellor of German Empire (1871-90)
58 Jorge Isaacs
4/1/1837 - 4/17/1895
Colombian poet and novelist
59 Edwin Austin Abbey
4/1/1852 - 8/1/1911
American-English painter and illustrator
50 Edmond Rostand
4/1/1868 - 12/2/1918
French dramatist; wrote "Cyrano de Bergerac"
69 Sergey Rachmaninoff
4/1/1873 - 3/28/1943
Russian composer and piano virtuoso
56 Edgar Wallace
4/1/1875 - 2/10/1932
English novelist, playwright, and journalist
47 Lon Chaney
4/1/1883 - 8/26/1930
American silent film actor
60 Whittaker Chambers
4/1/1901 - 7/9/1961
American journalist; accuser in the Alger Hiss case
marquis2
2009-04-01, 14:58
1945 - U.S. forces invaded Okinawa during World War II. It was the last campaign of World War II.
Wrong. The Soviet Union invaded Manchuria in August 1945.
1513 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida. The next day he went ashore.
1792 - The U.S. Congress passed the Coinage Act to regulate the coins of the United States. The act authorized $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar, dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime to be minted.
1801 - During the Napoleonic Wars, the Danish fleet was destroyed by the British at the Battle of Copenhagen.
1860 - The first Italian Parliament met in Turin.
1865 - Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, VA.
1872 - G.B. Brayton received a patent for the gas-powered streetcar.
1877 - The first Egg Roll was held on the grounds of the White House in Washington, DC.
1889 - Charles Hall patented aluminum.
1902 - The first motion picture theatre opened in Los Angeles with the name Electric Theatre.
1905 - The Simplon rail tunnel officially opened. The tunnel went under the Alps and linked Switzerland and Italy.
1910 - Karl Harris perfected the process for the artificial synthesis of rubber.
1914 - The U.S. Federal Reserve Board announced plans to divide the country into 12 districts.
1917 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson presented a declaration of war against Germany to the U.S. Congress.
1932 - A $50,000 ransom was paid for the infant son of Charles and Anna Lindbergh. He child was not returned and was found dead the next month.
1935 - Sir Watson-Watt was granted a patent for RADAR.
1944 - The Soviet Union announced that its troops had crossed the Prut River and entered Romania.
1947 - "The Big Story" debuted on NBC radio. It was on the air for eight years.
1947 - The U.N. Security Council voted to appoint the U.S. as trustee for former Japanese-held Pacific Islands.
1951 - U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower assumed command of all allied forces in the Western Mediterranean area and Europe.
1956 - "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" debuted on CBS-TV.
1958 - The National Advisory Council on Aeronautics was renamed NASA.
1960 - France signed an agreement with Madagascar that proclaimed the country an independent state within the French community.
1963 - Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King began the first non-violent campaign in Birmingham, AL.
1966 - South Vietnamese troops joined in demonstrations at Hue and Da Nang for an end to military rule.
1967 - In Peking, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against Mao foe Liu Shao-chi.
1972 - Burt Reynolds appeared nude in "Cosmopolitan" magazine.
1978 - The first episode of "Dallas" aired on CBS.
1982 - Argentina invaded the British-owned Falkland Islands. The following June Britain took the islands back.
1984 - John Thompson became the first black coach to lead his team to the NCAA college basketball championship.
1984 - In Jerusalem, three Arab gunmen wounded 48 people when they opened fire into a crowd of shoppers.
1985 - The NCAA Rules Committee adopted the 45-second shot clock for men’s basketball to begin in the 1986 season.
1986 - On a TWA airliner flying from Rome to Athens a bomb exploded under a seat killing four Americans.
1987 - The speed limit on U.S. interstate highways was increased to 65 miles per hour in limited areas.
1988 - U.S. Special Prosecutor James McKay declined to indict Attorney General Edwin Meese for criminal wrongdoing.
1989 - An editorial in the "New York Times" declared that the Cold War was over.
1989 - General Prosper Avril, Haiti's military leader, survived a coup attempt. The attempt was apparently provoked by Avril's U.S.-backed efforts to fight drug trafficking.
1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened to incinerate half of Israel with chemical weapons if Israel joined a conspiracy against Iraq.
1992 - Mob boss John Gotti was convicted in New York of murder and racketeering. He was later sentenced to life in prison.
1995 - The costliest strike in professional sports history ended when baseball owners agreed to let players play without a contract.
1996 - Russia and Belarus signed a treaty that created a political and economic alliance in an effort to reunite the two former Soviet republics.
1996 - Lech Walesa resumed his old job as an electrician at the Gdansk shipyard. He was the former Solidarity union leader who became Poland's first post-war democratic president.
2002 - Israeli troops surrounded the Church of the Nativity. More than 200 Palestinians had taken refuge at the church when Israel invaded Bethlehem.
Current Birthdays
Chris Meloni turns 48 years old today
81 Rita Gam
Actress
74 Sharon Acker
Actress
67 Leon Russell
Singer
66 Larry Coryell
Jazz guitarist
64 Linda Hunt
Actress
64 Don Sutton
Baseball Hall of Famer
62 Emmylou Harris
Country singer
60 Pamela Reed
Actress
56 David Robinson
Rock musician (The Cars)
48 Buddy Jewell
Country singer ("Nashville Star")
48 Keren Woodward
Singer (Bananarama)
47 Billy Dean
Country singer
47 Clark Gregg
Actor
45 Jana Marie Hupp
Actress
43 Bill Romanowski
Football player
42 Greg Camp
Rock musician (Smash Mouth)
40 Tony Fredianelli
Rock musician (Third Eye Blind)
36 Roselyn Sanchez
Actress ("Without a Trace")
34 Jill King
Country singer
34 Adam Rodriguez
Actor ("CSI: Miami")
33 Jeremy Garrett
Actor
30 Jesse Carmichael
Rock musician (Maroon 5)
28 Bethany Joy Galeotti
Actress ("One Tree Hill")
21 Jesse Plemons
Actor ("Friday Night Lights")
Historic Birthdays
Max Ernst
4/2/1891 - 4/1/1976
German painter and sculptor
71 Charlemagne
4/2/742 - 1/28/814
King of the Franks, King of the Lombards and Charles I of the Holy Roman Empire
73 Giovanni Casanova
4/2/1725 - 6/4/1798
Italian writer, soldier and adventurer
60 Catharine Macaulay
4/2/1731 - 6/22/1791
English historian and radical political writer
75 August Hoffmann von Fallersleben
4/2/1798 - 1/19/1874
German patriotic poet, philologist and literary historian
65 Erastus B. Bigelow
4/2/1814 - 12/6/1879
American industrialist; founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
70 Frederic Auguste Bartholdi
4/2/1834 - 10/4/1904
French sculptor of Statue of Liberty
85 Nicholas Butler
4/2/1862 - 12/7/1947
American educator and reformer; won Nobel Prize for Peace in 1931
65 Walter Chrysler
4/2/1875 - 8/18/1940
American businessman; founder of Chrysler Corporation
82 Kurt Adler
4/2/1905 - 2/9/1988
Austrian-born American conductor and administrator of the San Francisco Opera
marquis2
2009-04-02, 15:25
Charles Hall patented aluminum
What he patented was a method of extracting aluminium from its ore.The metal itself had been in use for decades.
Charles Hall patented aluminum
What he patented was a method of extracting aluminium from its ore.The metal itself had been in use for decades.
want me to "EDIT"??????????????????
1513 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida. He had sighted the land the day before.
1776 - Harvard College conferred the first honorary Doctor of Laws degree to George Washington.
1829 - James Carrington patented the coffee mill.
1860 - The Pony Express connected St. Joseph, MO and Sacramento, CA. The Pony Express only lasted about a year and a half.
1862 - Slavery was abolished in Washington, DC.
1865 - Union forces occupy Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
1866 - Rudolph Eickemeyer and G. Osterheld patented a blocking and shaping machine for hats.
1882 - The American outlaw Jesse James was shot in the back and killed by Robert Ford for a $5,000 reward. There was later controversy over whether it was actually Jesse James that had been killed.
1910 - Alaska's Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America was climbed.
1933 - First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt informed newspaper reporters that beer would be served at the White House. This followed the March 22 legislation that legalized "3.2" beer.
1936 - Richard Bruno Hauptmann was executed for the kidnapping and death of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh.
1942 - The Japanese began their all-out assault on the U.S. and Filipino troops at Bataan.
1946 - Lt. General Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the Bataan Death March, was executed in the Philippines.
1948 - Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan to revive war-torn Europe. It was $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
1949 - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis debuted on radio on the "Martin and Lewis Show". The NBC program ran until 1952.
1953 - "TV Guide" was published for the first time.
1967 - The U.S. State Department said that Hanoi might be brainwashing American prisoners.
1968 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "mountaintop" speech just 24 hours before he was assassinated.
1968 - North Vietnam agreed to meet with U.S. representatives to set up preliminary peace talks.
1972 - Charlie Chaplin returned to the U.S. after a twenty-year absence.
1979 - Jane Byrne became the first female mayor in Chicago.
1982 - John Chancellor stepped down as anchor of the "The NBC Nightly News." Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw became the co-anchors of the show.
1984 - Sikh terrorists killed a member of the Indian Parliament in his home.
1984 - Col. Lansana Konte became the new president of Guinea when the armed forces seized power after the death of Sekou Toure.
1985 - The U.S. charged that Israel violated the Geneva Convention by deporting Shiite prisoners.
1987 - Riots disrupted mass during the Pope's visit to Santiago, Chili.
1993 - The Norman Rockwell Museum opened in Stockbridge, MA.
1996 - An Air Force jetliner carrying Commerce Secretary Ron Brown crashed in Croatia, killing all 35 people aboard.
1996 - Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski was arrested. He pled guilty in January 1998 to five Unabomber attacks in exchange for a life sentence without chance for parole.
1998 - The Dow Jones industrial average climbed above 9,000 for the first time.
2000 - A U.S. federal judge ruled that Microsoft had violated U.S. antitrust laws by keeping "an oppressive thumb" on its competitors. Microsoft said that they would appeal the ruling.
2000 - The Nasdaq set a one-day record when it lost 349.15 points to close at 4,233.68.
Current Birthdays
Jane Goodall turns 75 years old today
86 Doris Day
Actress, singer
79 Helmut Kohl
Former German chancellor
72 William Gaunt
Actor
68 Eric Braeden
Actor ("The Young and the Restless")
67 Marsha Mason
Actress
67 Wayne Newton
Singer
67 Billy Joe Royal
Rock singer
65 Tony Orlando
Singer
62 Pat Proft
Screenwriter
61 Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
NATO secretary-general
60 Richard Thompson
Rock musician
59 Curtis Stone
Country musician (Highway 101)
54 John Mooney
Blues guitarist
53 Mick Mars
Rock musician (Motley Crue)
51 Alec Baldwin
Actor ("30 Rock")
50 David Hyde Pierce
Actor ("Frasier")
48 Eddie Murphy
Actor, comedian
47 Mike Ness
Rock musician (Social Distortion)
41 Sebastian Bach
Rock singer (Skid Row)
39 James MacDonough
Rock musician (Megadeth)
37 Jennie Garth
Actress ("Beverly Hills, 90210")
34 Aries Spears
Comedian ("MadTV")
27 Cobie Smulders
Actress ("How I Met Your Mother")
24 Leona Lewis
Rock singer
23 Amanda Bynes
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Henry R. Luce
4/3/1898 - 2/28/1967
American publisher of Time, Fortune and Life magazines
83 Pierre-Fidele Bretonneau
4/3/1778 - 2/18/1862
French epidemiologist; performed the first successful tracheotomy
76 Washington Irving
4/3/1783 - 11/28/1859
American author; wrote "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
70 Mary Carpenter
4/3/1807 - 6/14/1877
American philanthropist and social reformer
87 Edward Everett Hale
4/3/1822 - 6/10/1909
American clergyman and author
55 William Marcy Tweed
4/3/1823 - 4/12/1878
American politician; leader of corrupt Tammany Hall organization in New York City
73 Alcide De Gasperi
4/3/1881 - 8/19/1954
Italian prime minister (1945-53)
69 Bud Fisher
4/3/1885 - 9/7/1954
American cartoonist; created "Mutt and Jeff"
75 H. St. John Philby
4/3/1885 - 9/30/1960
English explorer of Arabian peninsula
50 Leslie Howard
4/3/1893 - 6/1/1943
English actor, producer and film director
69 Stanislawa Walasiewicz
4/3/1911 - 12/4/1980
Polish-American Olympic gold medalist in track and field
40 Virgil I. Grissom
4/3/1926 - 1/27/1967
American astronaut; one of three who died in Apollo I fire
1242 - Russian troops repelled an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
1614 - American Indian Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.
1621 - The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, MA, on a return trip to England.
1792 - U.S. President George Washington cast the first presidential veto. The measure was for apportioning representatives among the states.
1806 - Isaac Quintard patented the cider mill.
1827 - James H. Hackett became the first American actor to appear abroad as he performed at Covent Garden in London, England.
1843 - Queen Victoria proclaimed Hong Kong to be a British crown colony.
1869 - Daniel Bakeman, the last surviving soldier of the U.S. Revolutionary War, died at the age of 109.
1887 - Anne Sullivan taught Helen Keller the meaning of the word "water" as spelled out in the manual alphabet.
1892 - Walter H. Coe patented gold leaf in rolls.
1895 - Playwright Oscar Wilde lost his criminal libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde had been accused of homosexual practices.
1908 - The Japanese Army reached the Yalu River as the Russians retreated.
1919 - Eamon de Valera became president of Ireland.
1923 - Firestone Tire and Rubber Company began the first regular production of balloon tires.
1930 - Mahatma Ghandi defied British law by making salt in India.
1933 - The first operation to remove a lung was performed at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO.
1941 - German commandos secured docks along the Danube River in preparation for Germany’s invasion of the Balkans.
1951 - Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for committing espionage for the Soviet Union.
1953 - Jomo Kenyatta was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison for orchestrating the Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya.
1955 - Winston Churchill resigned as British prime minister.
1984 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Los Angeles Lakers) became the all-time NBA regular season scoring leader when he broke Wilt Chamberlain's record of 31,419 career points.
1985 - John McEnroe said "any man can beat any woman at any sport, especially tennis."
1986 - A discotheque in Berlin was bombed by Libyans. The U.S. attacked Libya with warplanes on April 15, 1986.
1987 - FOX Broadcasting Company launched "Married....With Children" and "The Tracey Ullman Show". The two shows were the beginning of the FOX lineup.
1989 - In Poland, accords were signed between Solidarity and the government that set free elections for June 1989. The eight-year ban on Solidarity was also set to be lifted.
1998 - The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan opened becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world. It links Shikoku and Honshu. The bridge cost about $3.8 billion.
1999 - Two Libyans suspected of bombing a Pan Am jet in 1988 were handed over so they could be flown to the Netherlands for trial. 270 people were killed in the bombing.
1999 - In Laramie, WY, Russell Henderson plead guilty to kidnapping and felony murder in the death of Matthew Shepard.
2004 - Near Mexico City's international airport, lightning struck the jet Mexican President Vicente Fox was on.
Current Birthdays
Colin Powell turns 72 years old today
87 Gale Storm
Actress
83 Roger Corman
Filmmaker
78 Cowboy Jack Clement
Country music producer
69 Tommy Cash
Country singer
68 Michael Moriarty
Actor
67 Allan Clarke
Rock singer (The Hollies)
67 Peter Greenaway
Director, writer
66 Max Gail
Actor ("Barney Miller")
63 Jane Asher
Actress
59 Agnetha Faltskog
Singer (ABBA)
57 Mitch Pileggi
Actor
43 Mike McCready
Rock musician (Pearl Jam)
42 Troy Gentry
Country singer (Montgomery-Gentry)
41 Paula Cole
Rock singer
38 Krista Allen
Actress
37 Pat Green
Country singer
36 Pharrell Williams
Rapper, producer
Historic Birthdays
Booker T. Washington
4/5/1856 - 11/14/1915
American educator and spokesman for black Americans
91 Thomas Hobbes
4/5/1588 - 12/4/1679
English philosopher and political theorist
72 Elihu Yale
4/5/1649 - 7/8/1721
American-born English merchant and benefactor of Yale University
74 Jean-Honore Fragonard
4/5/1732 - 8/22/1806
French rococo painter
51 Vincenzo Gioberti
4/5/1801 - 11/26/1852
Italian philosopher, politician and cleric
85 Baron Joseph Lister
4/5/1827 - 2/10/1912
English surgeon and scientist
72 Algernon Chas. Swinburne
4/5/1837 - 4/10/1909
English poet and critic
92 Lincoln Filene
4/5/1865 - 8/27/1957
American business executive and philanthropist; chairman of Federated Department Stores (1929-57)
85 Chester Bowles
4/5/1901 - 5/25/1986
American politician and advertising entrepreneur
81 Bette Davis
4/5/1908 - 10/6/1989
American motion-picture dramatic actress
78 Jagjivan Ram
4/5/1908 - 7/6/1986
Indian politician and spokesman for the untouchables
81 Herbert von Karajan
4/5/1908 - 7/16/1989
Austrian-born conductor
72 Chaim Grade
4/5/1910 - 6/26/1982
Russian-born Yiddish poet, short-story writer and novelist
1199 - English King Richard I was killed by an arrow at the siege of the castle of Chaluz in France.
1789 - The first U.S. Congress began regular sessions at the Federal Hall in New York City.
1814 - Granted sovereignty in the island of Elba and a pension from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates at Fountainebleau. He was allowed to keep the title of emperor.
1830 - Joseph Smith and five others organized the Mormon Church in Seneca, NY.
1830 - Relations between the Texans and Mexico reached a new low when Mexico would not allow further emigration into Texas by settlers from the U.S.
1862 - The American Civil War Battle of Shiloh began in Tennessee.
1865 - At the Battle of Sayler's Creek, a third of Lee's army was cut off by Union troops pursuing him to Appomattox.
1875 - Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the multiple telegraph, which sent two signals at the same time.
1896 - The first modern Olympic Games began in Athens, Greece.
1903 - French Army Nationalists were revealed for forging documents to guarantee a conviction for Alfred Dryfus.
1909 - Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson claimed to be the first men to reach the North Pole.
1916 - Charlie Chaplin became the highest-paid film star in the world when he signed a contract with Mutual Film Corporation for $675,000 a year. He was 26 years old.
1917 - The U.S. Congress approved a declaration of war on Germany and entered World War I on the Allied side.
1924 - Four planes leave Seattle on the first successful flight around the world.
1927 - William P. MacCracken, Jr. earned license number ‘1’ when the Department of Commerce issued the first aviator’s license.
1931 - "Little Orphan Annie" debuted on the NBC Blue network.
1938 - The United States recognized the German conquest of Austria.
1941 - German forces invaded Greece and Yugoslavia.
1945 - "This is Your FBI" debuted on ABC radio.
1953 - Iranian Premier Mossadegh demanded that the shah's power be reduced.
1957 - Trolley cars in New York City completed their final runs.
1959 - Hal Holbrook opened in the off-Broadway presentation of "Mark Twain Tonight."
1965 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized the use of ground troops in combat operations in Vietnam.
1967 - In South Vietnam, 1,500 Viet Cong attacked Quangtri and freed 200 prisoners.
1985 - William J. Schroeder became the first artificial heart recipient to be discharged from the hospital.
1987 - Dennis Levine began a two-year jail term for insider trading.
1987 - Sugar Ray Leonard took the middleweight title from Marvin Hagler.
1988 - Mathew Henson was awarded honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Henson had discovered the North Pole with Robert Peary.
1997 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) announced that he would retire from the National Hockey League (NHL) following the playoffs of the current season.
1998 - Citicorp and Travelers Group announced that they would be merging. The new creation was the largest financial-services conglomerate in the world. The name would become Citigroup.
1998 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 9,000 points for the first time.
1998 - Federal researchers in the U.S. announced that daily tamoxifen pills could cut breast cancer risk among high-risk women.
1998 - Pakistan successfully tested medium-range missiles capable of attacking neighboring India.
1999 - Carmen Electra filed for a divorce from Dennis Rodman. They had only been married six months
Minidog is winding down..................
Current Birthdays
Paul Rudd turns 40 years old today.
80 Andre Previn
Pianist, conductor
72 Merle Haggard
Country musician
72 Billy Dee Williams
Actor
71 Roy Thinnes
Actor
67 Barry Levinson
Director ("Rain Man," "The Natural")
62 John Ratzenberger
Actor ("Cheers")
57 Marilu Henner
Actress ("Taxi," "Evening Shade")
56 Janet Lynn
Figure skater
54 Michael Rooker
Actor
49 Warren Haynes
Rock musician (Gov't Mule)
44 Frank Black
Rock musician (The Pixies)
43 Vince Flynn
Author
40 Ari Meyers
Actress
37 Jason Hervey
Actor ("The Wonder Years")
36 Markku Lappalainen
Rock musician (Hoobastank)
33 Candace Cameron Bure
Actress ("Full House")
27 Bret Harrison
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Clarence E. McClung
4/6/1870 - 1/17/1946
American zoologist
37 Raphael
4/6/1483 - 4/6/1520
Italian painter and architect of the Italian High Renaissance
70 Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
4/6/1671 - 3/17/1741
French dramatist and poet
63 James Mill
4/6/1773 - 6/23/1836
Scottish philosopher, historian and economist
76 Joseph Medill
4/6/1823 - 3/16/1899
Canadian-born American editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune
85 Rene Lalique
4/6/1860 - 5/5/1945
French jeweler and important figure in the Art Nouveau movement
87 Louis Raemaekers
4/6/1869 - 7/26/1956
Dutch cartoonist famous for his anti-German cartoons in W. W. II
66 Walter Huston
4/6/1884 - 4/7/1950
Canadian-born American character actor in films and stage
49 Anthony Fokker
4/6/1890 - 12/23/1939
Dutch airman and pioneer aircraft manufacturer
89 Lowell Thomas
4/6/1892 - 8/29/1981
American radio commentator, explorer, lecturer and journalist
89 Donald Douglas
4/6/1892 - 2/1/1981
American aircraft designer; founded Douglas Aircraft Company
87 Harold Edgerton
4/6/1903 - 1/4/1990
American electrical engineer and photographer
69 Gerry Mulligan
4/6/1927 - 1/20/1996
American baritone saxophonist, arranger and composer
1652 - The Dutch established a settlement at Cape Town, South Africa.
1712 - A slave revolt broke out in New York City.
1798 - The territory of Mississippi was organized.
1862 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant defeated Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh, TN.
1864 - The first camel race in America was held in Sacramento, California.
1888 - P.F. Collier published a weekly periodical for the first time under the name "Collier’s."
1922 - U.S. Secretary of Interior leased Teapot Dome naval oil reserves in Wyoming.
1927 - The first long-distance TV transmission was sent from Washington, DC, to New York City. The audience saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover.
1930 - The first steel columns were set for the Empire State Building.
1933 - Prohibition ended in the United States.
1940 - Booker T. Washington became the first black to be pictured on a U.S. postage stamp.
1943 - British and American armies linked up between Wadi Akarit and El Guettar in North Africa to form a solid line against the German army.
1945 - The Japanese battleship Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, was sunk during the battle for Okinawa. The fleet was headed for a suicide mission.
1948 - The musical "South Pacific" by Rogers and Hammerstein debuted on Broadway.
1948 - The United Nations' World Health Organization began operations.
1953 - The Big Four met for the first time in 2 years to seek an end to their air conflicts.
1953 - IBM unveiled the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine. It was IBM's first commercially available scientific computer.
1957 - The last of New York City's electric trolleys completed its final run from Queens to Manhattan.
1963 - At the age of 23, Jack Nicklaus became the youngest golfer to win the Green Jacket at the Masters Tournament.
1963 - Yugoslavia proclaimed itself a Socialist republic.
1963 - Josip Broz Tito was proclaimed to be the leader of Yugoslavia for life.
1966 - The U.S. recovered a hydrogen bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.
1967 - Israel reported that they had shot down six Syrian MIGs.
1969 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.
1970 - John Wayne won his first and only Oscar for his role in "True Grit." He had been in over 200 films.
1971 - U.S. President Nixon pledged to withdraw 100,000 more men from Vietnam by December.
1980 - The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Iran and imposed economic sanctions in response to the taking of hostages on November 4, 1979.
1983 - Specialist Story Musgrave and Don Peterson made the first Space Shuttle spacewalk.
1985 - In Goteborg, Sweden, China swept all of the world table tennis titles except for men's doubles.
1985 - In Sudan, Gen. Swar el-Dahab took over the Presidency while President Gaafar el-Nimeiry was visiting the U.S. and Egypt.
1985 - The Soviet Union announced a unilateral freeze on medium-range nuclear missiles.
1987 - In Oklahoma a 16-month-old baby was killed by a pit bull. On the same day a 67-year-old man was killed by another pit bull in Dayton, OH.
1988 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to final terms of a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet troops began leaving on May 16, 1988.
1988 - In Fort Smith, AR, 13 white supremacists were acquitted on charges for plotting to overthrow the U.S. federal government.
1989 - A Soviet submarine carrying nuclear weapons sank in the Norwegian Sea.
1990 - In the U.S., John Poindexter was found guilty of five counts at his Iran-Contra trial. The convictions were later reversed on appeal.
1990 - At Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center a display of Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs went on display. On the same day the center and its director were indicted on obscenity charges. The charges resulted in acquittal.
1994 - Civil war erupted in Rwanda between the Patriotic Front rebel group and government soldiers. Hundreds of thousands were slaughtered in the months that followed.
1998 - Mary Bono, the widow of Sonny Bono, won a special election to serve out the remainder of her husband's congressional term.
1999 - Yugoslav authorities sealed off Kosovo's main border crossings to prevent ethnic Albanians from leaving.
2000 - U.S. President Clinton signed the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act of 2000. The bill reversed a Depression-era law and allows senior citizens to earn money without losing Social Security retirement benefits.
2002 - The Roman Catholic archdiocese announced that six priests from the Archdiocese of New York were suspended over allegations of sexual misconduct.
Current Birthdays
Jackie Chan turns 55 years old today.
92 R.G. Armstrong
Actor
89 Ravi Shankar
Musician
81 James Garner
Actor
77 Cal Smith
Country singer
76 Wayne Rogers
Actor ("MASH")
74 Bobby Bare
Country singer
72 Charlie Thomas
R&B singer (The Drifters)
71 Jerry Brown
Oakland mayor, former California governor
70 Francis Ford Coppola
Director
70 David Frost
TV journalist
65 Gerhard Schroeder
Former chancellor of Germany
62 Patricia Bennett
R&B singer (The Chiffons)
60 Mitch Daniels
Governor of Indiana
60 John Oates
Rock singer (Hall and Oates)
58 John Dittrich
Country musician (Restless Heart)
58 Janis Ian
Singer
55 Tony Dorsett
Football Hall of Famer
45 Mark Kibble
R&B singer (Take 6)
44 Bill Bellamy
Actor
44 Dave "Yorkie" Palmer
Rock musician (Space)
34 Ronde Barber
Football player
34 Tiki Barber
Football player, sportscaster
34 Heather Burns
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Billie Holiday
4/7/1915 - 7/17/1959
American jazz singer from the 1930's to the 1950's
46 St. Francis Xavier
4/7/1506 - 12/3/1552
Spanish Roman Catholic missionary
80 William Wordsworth
4/7/1770 - 4/23/1850
English Romantic poet; poet laureate of England (1843-50)
38 Jens Peter Jacobsen
4/7/1847 - 4/30/1885
Danish novelist
82 Randall Davidson
4/7/1848 - 5/25/1930
English religious leader
91 W. K. Kellogg
4/7/1860 - 10/6/1951
American industrialist and founder of the W.K. Kellogg Company
61 John McGraw
4/7/1873 - 2/25/1934
American baseball player and manager of the New York Giants (1902-1932)
72 Sir David Low
4/7/1891 - 9/19/1963
New Zealand-born English journalist, political cartoonist and caricaturist
76 Allen Dulles
4/7/1893 - 1/29/1969
American diplomat and director of the C.I.A. (1953-61)
51 Benny Leonard
4/7/1896 - 4/18/1947
American lightweight boxing champion (1917-1925)
75 Walter Winchell
4/7/1897 - 2/20/1972
American journalist and broadcaster
Skyraider22
2009-04-07, 14:28
Jackie Chan is 55:eek:Didn't know that:thumbsup:Good stuff as usual
1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.
1525 - Albert von Brandenburg, the leader of the Teutonic Order, assumes the title "Duke of Prussia" and passed the first laws of the Protestant church, making Prussia a Protestant state.
1789 - The U.S. House of Representatives held its first meeting.
1832 - About 300 American troops of the 6th Infantry left Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, to confront the Sauk Indians in the Black Hawk War.
1834 - In New York City, Cornelius Lawrence became the first mayor to be elected by popular vote in a city election.
1839 - The first Intercollegiate Rodeo was held at the Godshall Ranch, Apple Valley, CA.
1873 - Alfred Paraf patented the first successful oleomargarine.
1911 - The first squash tournament was played at the Harvard Club in New York City.
1913 - The Seventeenth amendment was ratified, requiring direct election of senators.
1935 - The Works Progress Administration was approved by the U.S. Congress.
1939 - Italy invaded Albania.
1942 - The Soviets opened a rail link to the besieged city of Leningrad.
1943 - Wendell Wilkie’s "One World" was published for the first time.
1946 - The League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last time.
1947 - The first illustrated insurance policy was issued by the Allstate Insurance Company.
1952 - U.S. President Truman seized steel mills to prevent a nationwide strike.
1953 - The bones of Sitting Bull were moved from North Dakota to South Dakota.
1962 - Bay of Pigs invaders got thirty years imprisonment in Cuba.
1974 - Hank Aaron hits 715th home run breaking Babe Ruth's record.
1975 - Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians became first black manager of a major league baseball team.
1985 - India filed suit against Union Carbide for the Bhopal disaster.
1985 - Phyllis Diller underwent a surgical procedure for permanent eyeliner to eliminate the need for eyelid makeup.
1986 - Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Carmel, CA.
1987 - Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigned over remarks he had made. While on ABC's "Nightline" Campanis said that blacks "may not have some of the necessities" to hold managerial jobs in major-league baseball.
1988 - Former U.S. President Reagan aid Lyn Nofzinger was sentenced to prison for illegal lobbying for Wedtech Corp.
1998 - The widow of Martin Luther King Jr. presented new evidence in an appeal for new federal investigation of the assassination of her husband.
2000 - 19 U.S. troops were killed when a Marine V22 Osprey crashed during a training mission in Arizona.
2002 - Ed McMahon filed a $20 million lawsuit against his insurance company, two insurance adjusters, and several environmental cleanup contractors. The suit alleged breach of contract, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress concerning a toxic mold that had spread through McMahon's Beverly Hills home.
Current Birthdays
Robin Wright Penn turns 43 years old today.
91 Betty Ford
Former first lady
83 Shecky Greene
Comedian
78 John Gavin
Actor
72 Seymour Hersh
Investigative reporter
71 Kofi Annan
Former United Nations secretary-general
69 John Havlicek
Basketball Hall of Famer
68 Darlene Gillespie
TV personality ("The Mickey Mouse Club")
68 J.J. Jackson
R&B singer
68 Peggy Lennon
Singer (The Lennon Sisters)
67 Leon Huff
Songwriter, producer
65 Hywel Bennett
Actor
63 Stuart Pankin
Actor
62 Steve Howe
Rock musician (Yes)
60 John Madden
Director ("Shakespeare in Love")
58 Mel Schacher
Rock musician (Grand Funk Railroad)
55 Gary Carter
Baseball Hall of Famer
49 John Schneider
Actor, singer ("The Dukes of Hazzard")
47 Izzy Stradlin
Rock musician (Guns n' Roses)
46 Julian Lennon
Rock musician
46 Donita Sparks
Rock musician (L7)
45 Biz Markie
Rapper
41 Patricia Arquette
Actress ("Medium")
39 Craig Honeycutt
Rock singer (Everything)
38 Darren Jessee
Rock musician (Ben Folds Five)
36 Emma Caulfield
Actress ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Beverly Hills, 90210")
29 Katee Sackhoff
Actress ("Battlestar Galactica")
28 Taylor Kitsch
Actor ("Friday Night Lights")
25 Ezra Koenig
Rock musician (Vampire Weekend)
25 Taran Noah Smith
Actor ("Home Improvement")
25 Kirsten Storms
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Sonja Henie
4/8/1912 - 10/12/1969
Norwegian-born American skater; Olympic gold medalist and popular entertainer.
78 Giuseppe Tartini
4/8/1692 - 2/26/1770
Italian violinist, composer and theorist
64 David Rittenhouse
4/8/1732 - 6/26/1796
American astronomer and inventor
60 John Loudon
4/8/1783 - 12/14/1843
Scottish landscape architect and horticultural journalist
84 William Welch
4/8/1850 - 4/30/1934
American pathologist; modernized medical practices in the United States
70 Harvey Cushing
4/8/1869 - 10/7/1939
American surgeon; pioneered important neurosurgery techniques
59 Albert I
4/8/1875 - 2/17/1934
King of the Belgiams (1909-1934) and leader of Belgiam army during World War I
94 Sir Adrian Boult
4/8/1889 - 2/23/1983
English conductor; led the B.B.C. Symphony
87 Mary Pickford
4/8/1892 - 5/28/1979
Canadian-born American motion-picture actress
85 Sir John Hicks
4/8/1904 - 5/20/1989
English Nobel Prize-winning economist (1972)
74 Carmen McRae
4/8/1920 - 11/10/1994
American jazz vocalist and pianist
44 Michael Bennett
4/8/1943 - 7/2/1987
American dancer, choreographer, and stage director
0193 - In the Balkans, the distinguished soldier Septimius Seversus was proclaimed emperor by the army in Illyricum.
0715 - Constantine ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
1241 - In the Battle of Liegnitz, Mongol armies defeated the Poles and the Germans.
1454 - The city states of Venice, Milan and Florence signed a peace agreement at Lodi, Italy.
1667 - In Paris, The first public art exhibition was held at the Palais-Royale.
1682 - Robert La Salle claimed the lower Mississippi River and all lands that touch it for France.
1770 - Captain James Cook discovered Botany Bay on the Australian continent.
1831 - Robert Jenkins lost an ear. The event started a war between Britain and Spain.
1833 - Peterborough, NH, opened the first municipally supported public library in the United States.
1838 - The National Galley opened in London.
1865 - At Appomattox Court House, Virginia, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor of William McClean's home. Grant allowed Rebel officers to keep their sidearms and permitted soldiers to keep their horses and mules. Though there were still Confederate armies in the field, the war was officially over. The four years of fighting had killed 360,000 Union troops and 260,000 Confederate troops.
1866 - The Civil Rights Bill passed over U.S. President Andrew Johnson's veto.
1867 - The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty with Russia that purchased the territory of Alaska by one vote.
1869 - The Hudson Bay Company ceded its territory to Canada.
1870 - The American Anti-Slavery Society was dissolved.
1872 - S.R. Percy received a patent for dried milk.
1900 - British forces routed the Boers at Kroonstadt, South Africa.
1905 - The first aerial ferry bridge went into operation in Duluth, MN.
1912 - The first exhibition baseball game was held at Fenway Park in Boston. The game was between Red Sox and Havard.
1913 - The Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field opened.
1914 - In London, the first full-color film, "The World, The Flesh & the Devil," was shown.
1916 - The German army launched it’s third offensive during the Battle of Verdun.
1917 - The Battle of Arras began as Canadian troops began a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
1918 - Latvia proclaimed its independence.
1921 - The Russo-Polish conflict ended with signing of Riga Treaty.
1928 - Mae West made her debut on Broadway in the production of "Diamond Lil."
1940 - Germany invaded Norway and Denmark.
1942 - In the Battle of Bataan, American and Filipino forces were overwhelmed by the Japanese Army.
1945 - National Football League officials decreed that it was mandatory for football players to wear socks in all league games.
1945 - At Bari, Italy, the Liberty exploded and killed 360 people. The ship was carrying aerial bombs.
1947 - 169 people were killed and 1,300 were injured by a series of tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
1950 - Bob Hope made his first television appearance on "Star-Spangled Review" on NBC-TV.
1953 - TV Guide was published for the first time.
1957 - The Suez Canal was cleared for all shipping.
1959 - NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts.
1963 - Winston Churchill became the first honorary U.S. citizen.
1965 - "TIME" magazine featured a cover with the entire "Peanuts" comic gang.
1965 - The Houston Astrodome held its first baseball game.
1967 - The first Boeing 737 was rolled out for use.
1968 - Murdered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was buried.
1976 - The U.S. and Russia agreed on the size of nuclear tests for peaceful use.
1984 - Nicaragua asked the World Court to declare U.S. support for guerilla raids illegal.
1985 - Japanese Premier Nakasone urged Japanese people to buy foreign products.
1986 - It was announced that Patrick Duffy's character on the TV show Dallas would be returning after being killed off.
1987 - Dikye Baggett became the first person to undergo corrective surgery for Parkinson’s disease.
1988 - The U.S. imposed economic sanctions on Panama.
1989 - 16 civilians were killed during rioting in Soviet Georgia.
1989 - Hundreds of thousands marched past the White House in support of the right to abortion.
1991 - Georgia voted to secede from the U.S.S.R.
1992 - Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted in Miami, FL, of eight drug and racketeering charges.
1998 - The National Prisoner of War Museum opened in Andersonville, GA, at the site of an infamous Civil War camp.
1998 - More than 150 Muslims died in stampede in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on last day of the haj pilgrimage.
1999 - In Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh of the ruling Popular Rally for Progress and the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy was elected president.
1999 - In Niger, President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara was assassinated. Daouda Malam Wanke was designated president two days later.
2000 - CBS-TV aired "Failsafe." It was the first live full-length show to by aired by CBS in 39 years.
Current Birthdays
Kristen Stewart turns 19 years old today
83 Hugh Hefner
Playboy magazine founder
77 Jim Fowler
Naturalist
76 Jean-Paul Belmondo
Actor
70 Michael Learned
Actress ("The Waltons")
67 Margo Smith
Country singer
56 Hal Ketchum
Country singer
55 Dennis Quaid
Actor
54 Jimmy Tingle
Comedian
50 Dave Innis
Country musician (Restless Heart)
45 Lisa Guerrero
TV personality ("Inside Edition")
44 Mark Pellegrino
Actor ("Dexter")
44 Paulina Porizkova
Actress, model
43 Cynthia Nixon
Actress ("Sex and the City")
40 Kevin Martin
Rock singer (Candlebox)
32 Gerard Way
Rock singer (My Chemical Romance)
30 Keshia Knight Pulliam
Actress ("The Cosby Show")
29 Albert Hammond Jr.
Rock musician (The Strokes)
29 Ryan Northcott
Actor
27 Jay Baruchel
Actor
22 Jesse McCartney
Actor, singer
22 Jazmine Sullivan
R&B singer
11 Elle Fanning
Actress ("Because of Winn-Dixie")
Historic Birthdays
Gregory Pincus
4/9/1903 - 8/22/1967
American endocrinologist; helped develop the birth control bill
82 John Bacon
4/9/1738 - 10/25/1820
American clergyman, legislator and judge; advocate of civil and religious liberty
53 Isambard Brunel
4/9/1806 - 9/15/1859
English civil and mechanical engineer; designed the first transatlantic steamer
46 Charles Baudelaire
4/9/1821 - 8/31/1867
French poet, translator and literary critic
66 Emily Hobhouse
4/9/1860 - 6/8/1926
English reformer and social worker
78 Leon Blum
4/9/1872 - 3/30/1950
French politician; first Socialist and Jewish premier of France (1936-37)
86 Frank King
4/9/1883 - 6/24/1969
American comic-strip artist; created "Gasoline Alley"
86 Sol Hurok
4/9/1888 - 3/5/1974
Russian-born impresario; popularized classical ballet and music in America
78 Paul Robeson
4/9/1898 - 1/23/1976
American singer, actor and black activist
67 Curly Lambeau
4/9/1898 - 6/1/1965
American football coach and founder of the Green Bay Packers
90 J. William Fulbright
4/9/1905 - 2/9/1995
American senator
82 Antal Dorati
4/9/1906 - 11/13/1988
Hungarian-born American conductor
1741 - Frederick II of Prussia defeated Maria Theresa's forces at Mollwitz and conquered Silesia.
1790 - The U.S. patent system was established.
1809 - Austria declared war on France and its forces entered Bavaria.
1814 - Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Toulouse by the British and the Spanish. The defeat led to his abdication and exile to Elba.
1825 - The first hotel opened in Hawaii.
1849 - Walter Hunt patented the safety pin. He sold the rights for $100.
1854 - The constitution of the Orange Free State in south Africa was proclaimed.
1862 - Union forces began the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia along the Tybee River.
1865 - During the American Civil War, at Appomattox, General Robert E. Lee issued his last order.
1866 - The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was incorporated.
1902 - South African Boers accepted British terms of surrender.
1912 - The Titanic set sail from Southampton, England.
1916 - The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) held its first championship tournament.
1919 - In Mexico, revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata was killed by government troops.
1922 - The Genoa Conference opened. The meeting was used to discuss the reconstruction of Europe after World War I.
1925 - F. Scott Fitzgerald published "The Great Gatsby" for the first time.
1930 - The first synthetic rubber was produced.
1932 - Paul von Hindenburg was elected president of Germany with 19 million votes. Adolf Hitler came in second with 13 million votes.
1938 - Germany annexed Austria. 99.75 percent of Austrians had voted in a referundum to merge with Germany.
1941 - In World War II, U.S. troops occupied Greenland to prevent Nazi infiltration.
1941 - Ford Motor Co. became the last major automaker to recognize the United Auto Workers as the representative for its workers.
1944 - Russian troops recaptured Odessa from the Germans.
1945 - German Me 262 jet fighters shot down ten U.S. bombers near Berlin.
1953 - Warner Bros. released "House of Wax." It was the first 3-D movie to be released by a major Hollywood studio.
1953 - Actress Hedy Lamarr became a U.S. citizen.
1959 - Japan's Crown Prince Akihito married commoner Michiko Shoda.
1960 - The U.S. Senate passed the Civil Rights Bill.
1961 - Gary Player of South Africa became the first foreign golfer to win the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
1963 - 129 people died when the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher failed to surface off Cape Cod, MA.
1967 - The 13-day strike by the American Federation of Radio-TV Artists (AFTRA) came to an end less than two hours before the 39th Academy Awards presentation went on the air.
1968 - U.S. President Johnson replaced General Westmoreland with General Creighton Abrams in Vietnam.
1971 - The American table tennis team arrived in China. They were the first group of Americans officially allowed into China since the founding of the People Republic in 1949. The team had recieved the surprise invitation while in Japan for the 31st World Table Tennis Championship.
1972 - An earthquake in southern Iran killed more than 5,000 people.
1972 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union joined with 70 other nations in signing an agreement banning biological warfare.
1973 - In Switzerland, 108 people died when a plane crashed while attempting to land at Basel.
1974 - Yitzhak Rabin replaced resigning Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir. Meir resigned over differences within her Labor Party.
1980 - Spain and Britain agreed to reopen the border between Gibraltar and Spain. It had been closed since 1969.
1981 - Imprisoned IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands was elected to the British Parliament.
1988 - On Wall Street, 48 million shares of Navistar International stock changed hands in a single-block trade. It was the largest transaction ever executed on the New York Stock Exchange.
1990 - Three European hostages kidnapped at sea in 1987 by Palestinian extremists were released in Beirut.
1992 - A bomb exploded in London's financial district. The bomb, set off by the Irish Republican Army, killed three people and injured 91.
1992 - Outside Needles, CA, comedian Sam Kinison was killed when a pickup truck slammed into his car on a desert road between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
1992 - In Los Angeles, financier Charles Keating Jr. was sentenced to nine years in prison for swindling investors when his Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed. The convictions were later overturned.
1993 - South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani was assassinated.
1994 - NATO warplanes launched air strikes for the first time on Serb forces that were advancing on the Bosnian Muslim town of Gordazde. The area had been declared a U.N. safe area.
1996 - U.S. President Clinton vetoed a bill that would have outlawed a technique used to end pregnancies in their late stages.
1997 - Rod Steiger received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - Negotiators reached a peace accord on governing British ruled Northern Ireland. Britain's direct rule was ended.
1999 - The www.June4.org web site was launched by Chinese dissidents and human rights activists to promote their campaign for democracy in China.
2000 - Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported irregularities in the voting in Georgia's presidential election on April 9. President Eduard Shevardnadze was reelected to a new five-year term.
2000 - Ken Griffey Jr. became the youngest player in baseball history to reach 400 home runs. He was 30 years, 141 days old.
2001 - Jane Swift took office as the first female governor of Massachusetts. She succeeded Paul Cellucci, who had resigned to become the U.S. ambassador to Canada.
2001 - The Netherlands legalized mercy killings and assisted suicide for patients with unbearable, terminal illness.
2002 - Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the U.S. Senate as a representative of the Israeli government. He warned that suicide bombers would spread to the U.S. if Israel was not allowed to finish its military offensive in the West Bank. Netanyaho also cited the goals of dismantling the terror regime and expelling Arafat from the region, ridding the Palestinian territories of terrorist weapons and establishing "physical barriers" to protect Israelis from future Palestinian attacks.
Current Birthdays
Mandy Moore turns 25 years old today.
94 Harry Morgan
Actor ("Dragnet," "MASH")
80 Liz Sheridan
Actress ("Seinfeld")
80 Max von Sydow
Actor
77 Omar Sharif
Actor ("Doctor Zhivago," "Lawrence of Arabia")
73 John Madden
Sportscaster
73 Bobbie Smith
R&B singer (The Spinners)
71 Don Meredith
Sportscaster
62 Bunny Wailer
Reggae musician
61 Mel Blount
Football Hall of Famer
58 Steven Seagal
Actor
56 Terre Roche
Folk singer (The Roches)
55 Peter MacNicol
Actor ("24," "Ally McBeal")
52 Steven Gustafson
Rock musician (10,000 Maniacs)
51 Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds
R&B singer, producer
50 Brian Setzer
Rock musician (Stray Cats)
49 Afrika Bambaataa
Rapper
49 Katrina Leskanich
Rock singer (Katrina and the Waves)
48 Jeb Adams
Actor
44 Tim "Herb" Alexander
Rock musician (Primus)
41 Orlando Jones
Actor, comedian
40 Mike Mushok
Rock musician (Staind)
39 Q-Tip (aka Kamaal)
Rapper
39 Kenny Lattimore
R&B singer
30 Shemekia Copeland
Blues singer
28 Laura Bell Bundy
Actress, singer
27 Chyler Leigh
Actress ("Grey's Anatomy")
26 Ryan Merriman
Actor
21 Haley Joel Osment
Actor ("The Sixth Sense")
18 Amanda Michalka
Actress, singer
Historic Birthdays
Joseph Pulitzer
4/10/1847 - 10/29/1911
American editor and journalist
62 Hugo Grotius
4/10/1583 - 8/28/1645
Dutch jurist and scholar; wrote "On the Law of War and Peace"
79 Benjamin H. Day
4/10/1810 - 12/21/1889
American printer and journalist; founded The New York Sun
78 Lewis Wallace
4/10/1827 - 2/15/1905
American soldier, lawyer and author; wrote "Ben-Hur"
83 William Booth
4/10/1829 - 8/20/1912
English minister and founder of the Salvation Army
87 Frank Baldwin
4/10/1838 - 4/8/1925
American inventor; known for the Monroe calculator
78 George Arliss
4/10/1868 - 2/5/1946
English actor
54 Vladimir Lenin
4/10/1870 (OS) - 1/21/1924
Russian Communist leader of the Bolshevik Revolution (1917)
85 Frances Perkins
4/10/1880 - 5/14/1965
American secretary of labor (1933-45)
62 Robert Burns Woodward
4/10/1917 - 7/8/1979
American Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1965)
Skyraider22
2009-04-10, 15:58
Dandy Don turns 71 wow
1096 - Peter the Hermit gathered his army in Cologne.
1204 - The Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople.
1606 - England adopted the original Union Jack as its flag.
1770 - The British Parliament repealed the Townsend Acts.
1782 - The British navy won its only naval engagement against the colonists in the American Revolution at the Battle of Saints, off Dominica.
1799 - Phineas Pratt patented the comb cutting machine.
1811 - The first colonists arrived at Cape Disappointment, Washington.
1833 - Charles Gaylor patented the fireproof safe.
1861 - Fort Sumter was shelled by Confederacy, starting America's Civil War.
1864 - Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest captured Fort Pillow, in Tennessee and slaughters the black Union troops there.
1877 - A catcher's mask was used in a baseball game for the first time by James Alexander Tyng.
1892 - Voters in Lockport, New York, became the first in the U.S. to use voting machines.
1905 - The Hippodrome opened in New York City.
1911 - Pierre Prier completed the first non-stop London-Paris flight in three hours and 56 minutes.
1916 - American cavalrymen and Mexican bandit troops clashed at Parrel, Mexico.
1927 - The British Cabinet came out in favor of women voting rights.
1934 - F. Scott Fitzgerald novel "Tender Is the Night" was first published.
1938 - The first U.S. law requiring a medical test for a marriage license was enacted in New York.
1944 - The U.S. Twentieth Air Force was activated to begin the strategic bombing of Japan.
1945 - In New York, the organization of the first eye bank, the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration, was announced.
1945 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm Spring, GA. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63. Harry S Truman became president.
1955 - The University of Michigan Polio Vaccine Evaluation Center announced that the polio vaccine of Dr. Jonas Salk was "safe, effective and potent."
1961 - Soviet Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin became first man to orbit the Earth.
1963 - Police used dogs and cattle prods on peaceful civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, AL.
1966 - Emmett Ashford became the first African-American major league umpire.
1967 - Jim Brown made his TV acting debut on the NBC show "I Spy."
1969 - Lucy and Snoopy of the comic strip "Peanuts" made the cover of "Saturday Review."
1981 - The space shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL, on its first test flight.
1983 - Harold Washington was elected the first black mayor of Chicago.
1984 - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger made the first satellite repair in orbit by returning the Solar Max satellite to space.
1984 - Israeli troops stormed a bus that had been hijacked the previous evening by four Arab terrorists. All the passengers were rescued and 2 of the hijackers were killed.
1985 - U.S. Senator Jake Garn of Utah became the first senator to fly in space as the shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral, FL.
1985 - In Spain, an explosion in a restaurant near a U.S. base killed 17 people.
1985 - Federal inspectors declared that four animals of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus were not unicorns. They were goats with horns that had been surgically implanted.
1987 - Texaco filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it failed to settle a legal dispute with Pennzoil Co.
1988 - Harvard University won a patent for a genetically altered mouse. It was the first patent for a life form.
1988 - The Chinese government named a new array of younger leaders to ensure economic reform.
1989 - In the U.S.S.R, ration cards were issued for the first time since World War II. The ration was prompted by a sugar shortage.
1992 - Disneyland Paris opened in Marne-La-Vallee, France.
1993 - NATO began enforcing a no-fly zone over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2000 - More than 1,500 anti-drug agents raided four cities in Colombia and arrested 46 members of the "most powerful" heroin ring.
2000 - Robert Cleaves, 71, was convicted of second degree murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Cleaves had repeatedly run over Arnold Guerreiro on September 30, 1998 with his car after the two had an argument.
2000 - Israel's High Court ordered the release of eight Lebanese detainees that had been held for years without a trial.
2002 - A first edition version of Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit" sold for $64,780 at Sotheby's. A signed first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" sold for $66,630. A copy of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," signed by J.K. Rowling sold for $16,660. A 250-piece collection of rare works by Charles Dickens sold for $512,650.
2002 - It was announced that the South African version of "Sesame Street" would be introducing a character that was HIV-positive.
2002 - JCPenney Chairman Allen Questrom rang the opening bell to start the business day at the New York Stock Exchange as part of the company's centennial celebrations. James Cash (J.C.) Penney opened his first retail store on April 14, 1902.
Current Birthdays
Herbie Hancock turns 69 years old today
84 Ned Miller
Country singer
83 Jane Withers
Actress
76 Montserrat Caballe
Opera singer
73 Charles Napier
Actor
67 Frank Bank
Actor ("Leave it to Beaver")
65 John Kay
Rock singer (Steppenwolf)
63 Ed O'Neill
Actor ("Married ... With Children")
62 Tom Clancy
Author
62 Dan Lauria
Actor ("The Wonder Years")
62 David Letterman
Talk show host
60 Scott Turow
Author
59 David Cassidy
Actor, singer ("The Partridge Family")
58 Tom Noonan
Actor, playwright
55 Pat Travers
Rock singer
53 Andy Garcia
Actor
53 Walter Salles
Director
52 Suzzanne Douglas
Actress
52 Vince Gill
Country musician
51 Will Sergeant
Rock musician (Echo & the Bunnymen)
47 Art Alexakis
Rock singer (Everclear)
45 Deryl Dodd
Country singer
45 Amy Ray
Folk singer, musician (Indigo Girls)
41 Alicia Coppola
Actress
39 Nicholas Hexum
Rock singer (311)
38 Nicholas Brendon
Actor ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer")
38 Shannen Doherty
Actress
35 Marley Shelton
Actress
32 Jordana Spiro
Actress
31 Guy Berryman
Rock musician (Coldplay)
30 Claire Danes
Actress
30 Jennifer Morrison
Actress ("House M.D.")
22 Brendon Urie
Rock musician (Panic at the Disco)
Historic Birthdays
Jan Tinbergen
4/12/1903 - 6/9/1994
Dutch Nobel Prize-winning economist (1969)
74 Joachim Camerarius
4/12/1500 - 4/17/1574
German Lutheran theologian
54 Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford
4/12/1550 - 6/24/1604
English poet and patron of the Oxford's Men acting company
75 Henry Clay
4/12/1777 - 6/29/1852
American politician; U.S. congressman and senator (1806-52)
89 John Strachan
4/12/1778 - 11/1/1867
Scottish-born Canadian educator and first Anglican bishop of Toronto
85 Grenville Dodge
4/12/1831 - 1/3/1916
American engineer; chief engineer of Union Pacific Railroad (1866-70)
72 Sir James Mackenzie
4/12/1853 - 1/26/1925
Scottish cardiologist; pioneer in the study of cardiac arrhythmia
93 Imogen Cunningham
4/12/1883 - 6/24/1976
American photographer of plants and portraits
78 Lily Pons
4/12/1898 - 2/13/1976
French coloratura soprano
78 Pete Desjardins
4/12/1907 - 5/6/1985
American diver; 1928 Olympic medallist
marquis2
2009-04-13, 02:28
1606 - England adopted the original Union Jack as its flag.
Wrong on all counts.It was called the Union Flag and only when flown from naval jackstaff was it called the Union Jack.
But it wasn't an English flag , that's the St.George's Cross.It was the British flag newly adopted to combine the flags of England and Scotland.Technically Scotland took over England in 1601 not the other way round.England and Scotland kept their respective flags for certain occasions and do so to this day.
Wales was legally a part of England until 1993 so wasn't considered separately.
1598 - King Henry IV of France signed the Edict of Nantes which granted political rights to French Protestant Huguenots.
1759 - The French defeated the European allies in Battle of Bergen.
1775 - Lord North extended the New England Restraining Act to South, Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. The act prohibited trade with any country other than Britain and Ireland.
1782 - Washington, NC, was incorporated as the first town to be named for George Washington.
1796 - The first known elephant to arrive in the United States from Bengal, India.
1808 - William "Juda" Henry Lane perfected the tap dance.
1829 - The English Parliament granted freedom of religion to Catholics.
1849 - The Hungarian Republic was proclaimed.
1861 - After 34 hours of bombardment, the Union-held Fort Sumter surrenders to Confederates.
1870 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York City.
1916 - The first hybrid, seed corn was purchased for 15-cents a bushel by Samuel Ramsay.
1919 - British forces killed hundreds of Indian nationalists in the Amritsar Massacre.
1933 - The first flight over Mount Everest was completed by Lord Clydesdale.
1941 - German troops captured Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.
1945 - Vienna fell to Soviet troops.
1949 - Philip S. Hench and associates announced that cortizone was an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
1954 - Hank Aaron debuted with the Milwaukee Braves.
1959 - A Vatican edict prohibited Roman Catholics from voting for Communists.
1960 - The first navigational satellite was launched into Earth's orbit.
1961 - The U.N. General Assembly condemned South Africa due to apartheid.
1962 - In the U.S., major steel companies rescinded announced price increases. The John F. Kennedy administration had been applying pressure against the price increases.
1963 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds got his first hit in the major leagues.
1964 - Sidney Poitier became the first black to win an Oscar for best actor. It was for his role in the movie "Lilies of the Field."
1970 - An oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13, preventing a planned moon landing.
1972 - The first strike in the history of major league baseball ended. Players had walked off the field 13 days earlier.
1976 - The U.S. Federal Reserve introduced $2 bicentennial notes.
1979 - The world's longest doubles ping-pong match ended after 101 hours.
1981 - Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an 8-year-old heroin addict named "Jimmy." Cooke relinquished the prize two days later after admitting she had fabricated the story.
1984 - U.S. President Reagan sent emergency military aid to El Salvador without congressional approval.
1984 - Christopher Walker was killed in a fight with police in New Hampshire. Walker was wanted as a suspect in the kidnappings of 11 young women in several states.
1990 - The Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the World War II murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The Soviets had previously blamed the massacre on the Nazis.
1997 - Tiger Woods became the youngest person to win the Masters Tournament at the age of 21. He also set a record when he finished at 18 under par.
1998 - NationsBank and BankAmerica announced a $62.5 billion merger, creating the country's first coast-to-coast bank.
1998 - Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, gave natural birth to a healthy baby lamb.
1999 - Jack Kervorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, MI, to 10 to 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk. Youk's assisted suicide was videotaped and shown on "60 Minutes" in 1998.
2000 - Richard Gordon was charged with trying to extort $250,000 from Louie Anderson in exchange for not telling the tabloid media about Anderson once asking him for sex. Gordon was held without bail pending a court hearing.
2000 - It was announced that 69 people had died when the Arlahada, a Philippine ferry, capsized. 70 people were rescued.
2002 - Twenty-five Hindus were killed and about 30 were wounded when grenades were thrown by suspected Islamic guerrillas near Jammu-Kashir.
2002 - Venezuela's interim president, Pedro Carmona, resigned a day after taking office. Thousands of protesters had supported over the ousting of president Hugo Chavez.
Current Birthdays
Al Green turns 63 years old today.
85 Stanley Donen
Director
76 Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Former U.S. senator, R-Colo.
74 Lyle Waggoner
Actor
70 Seamus Heaney
Nobel Prize-winning poet
72 Edward Fox
Actor
72 Lanford Wilson
Playwright
70 Paul Sorvino
Actor
67 Bill Conti
Composer
65 Jack Casady
Rock musician (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
64 Tony Dow
Actor, director
59 Ron Perlman
Actor
59 William Sadler
Actor
58 Peabo Bryson
R&B singer
58 Max Weinberg
Rock musician (E Street Band)
57 Sam Bush
Bluegrass musician
55 Jimmy Destri
Rock musician (Blondie)
52 Gary Kroeger
Actor, comedian
52 Saundra Santiago
Actress
49 Bob Casey
U.S. senator, D-Pa.
48 Joey Mazzola
Rock musician (Sponge)
46 Garry Kasparov
Chess champion
45 Page Hannah
Actress
45 Davis Love III
Golfer
45 Caroline Rhea
Actress, comedian
44 Lisa Umbarger
Rock musician
43 Marc Ford
Rock musician (The Black Crowes)
42 Capleton
Reggae singer
39 Ricky Schroder
Actor
37 Aaron Lewis
Rock singer (Staind)
36 Bokeem Woodbine
Actor
34 Lou Bega
Singer
33 Glenn Howerton
Actor, producer
28 Courtney Peldon
Actress ("Boston Public")
27 Nellie McKay
Singer
http://board.freeones.com/member.php?u=63480
jibbijib turns 22 today
Historic Birthdays
Samuel Beckett
4/13/1906 - 12/22/1989
Irish-born author, critic, and playwright; won the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature
40 Peter Faber
4/13/1506 - 8/1/1546
French Jesuit theologian and co-founder of the Society of Jesus
83 Thomas Jefferson
4/13/1743 - 7/4/1826
President of the United States (1801-1809) and author of the Declaration of Independence
61 Sir Thomas Lawrence
4/13/1769 - 1/7/1830
English portrait painter and draftsman
80 Eli Terry
4/13/1772 - 2/26/1852
American clockmaker and an innovator in mass production
59 Sir William Benett
4/13/1816 - 2/1/1875
English pianist, conductor and composer
81 Martinez Gonzalez
4/13/1871 - 2/19/1952
Mexican poet, physician and diplomat
86 Gyorgy Lukacs
4/13/1885 - 6/4/1971
Hungarian Marxist philosopher, writer and literary critic
77 John Hays Hammond Jr.
4/13/1888 - 2/12/1965
American inventor; developed radio remote control
81 Sir Robert Watson-Watt
4/13/1892 - 12/5/1973
Scottish physicist; knighted for his role in the development of radar
65 John Braine
4/13/1922 - 10/28/1987
English novelist; one of the "Angry Young Men"
thebear247
2009-04-13, 14:20
wow minidog you really know your history good stuff and did mention great sig lol :D
1543 - Bartoleme Ferrelo returned to Spain after discovering San Francisco Bay in the New World.
1775 - The first abolitionist society in U.S. was organized in Philadelphia with Ben Franklin as president.
1793 - A royalist rebellion in Santo Domingo was crushed by French republican troops.
1828 - The first edition of Noah Webster's dictionary was published under the name "American Dictionary of the English Language."
1860 - The first Pony Express rider arrived in San Francisco with mail originating in St. Joseph, MO.
1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth. He actually died early the next morning.
1894 - First public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope took place.
1902 - James Cash (J.C.) Penney opened his first retail store in Kemmerer, WY. It was called the Golden Rule Store.
1910 - U.S. President William Howard Taft threw out the first ball for the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics.
1912 - The Atlantic passenger liner Titanic, on its maiden voyage hit an iceberg and began to sink. 1,517 people lost their lives and more than 700 survived.
1918 - The U.S. First Aero Squadron engaged in America's first aerial dogfight with enemy aircraft over Toul, France.
1925 - WGN became the first radio station to broadcast a regular season major league baseball game. The Cubs beat the Pirates 8-2.
1931 - King Alfonso XIII of Spain went into exile and the Spanish Republic was proclaimed.
1939 - The John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" was first published.
1946 - The civil war between Communists and nationalist resumed in China.
1953 - Viet Minh invaded Laos with 40,00 troops.
1956 - Ampex Corporation of Redwood City, CA, demonstrated the first commercial magnetic tape recorder for sound and picture.
1959 - The Taft Memorial Bell Tower was dedicated in Washington, DC.
1969 - For the first time, a major league baseball game was played in Montreal, Canada.
1981 - America's first space shuttle, Columbia, returned to Earth after a three-day test flight. The shuttle orbited the Earth 36 times during the mission.
1984 - The Texas Board of Education began requiring that the state's public school textbooks describe the evolution of human beings as "theory rather than fact".
1985 - The Russian paper "Pravda" called U.S. President Reagan's planned visit to Bitburg to visit the Nazi cemetery an "act of blasphemy".
1986 - U.S. President Reagan announced the U.S. air raid on military and terrorist related targets in Libya.
1987 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed banning all missiles from Europe.
1988 - Representatives from the U.S.S.R., Pakistan, Afghanistan and the U.S. signed an agreement that called for the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. The last Soviet troop left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989.
1988 - In New York, real estate tycoons Harry and Leona Helmsley were indicted for income tax evasion.
1990 - Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles began a streak of 95 errorless games and 431 total chances by a shortstop.
1994 - Two American F-15 warplanes inadvertently shot down two U.S. helicopters over northern Iraq. 26 people were killed including 15 Americans.
1998 - The state of Virginia ignored the requests from the World Court and executed a Paraguayan for the murder of a U.S. woman.
1999 - Pakistan test-fired a ballistic missile that was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching its rival neighbor India.
2000 - After five years of deadlock, Russia approved the START II treaty that calls for the scrapping of U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads. The Russian government warned it would abandon all arms-control pacts if Washington continued with an anti-missile system.
2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush sent a letter of congratulations to JCPenny's associates for being in business for 100 years. James Cash (J.C.) Penney had opened his first retail store on April 14, 1902.
Current Birthdays
Adrien Brody turns 36 years old today
79 Bradford Dillman
Actor
79 Jay Robinson
Actor
74 Loretta Lynn
Country singer
69 Julie Christie
Actress
68 Pete Rose
Baseball player
64 Ritchie Blackmore
Rock musician (Deep Purple)
60 John Shea
Actor
49 Brian Forster
Actor, race car driver
49 Brad Garrett
Actor ("'til Death," "Everybody Loves Raymond")
48 Robert Carlyle
Actor
47 John Bell
Rock musician (Widespread Panic)
45 Robert Clendenin
Actor
43 Greg Maddux
Baseball player
43 Lloyd Owen
Actor
42 Barrett Martin
Rock musician
41 Anthony Michael Hall
Actor
40 Brad Ausmus
Baseball player
36 David Miller
Singer (Il Divo)
35 DaBrat
Rapper
34 Antwon Tanner
Actor
32 Rob McElhenney
Actor, producer
16 Vivien Cardone
Actress ("Everwood")
13 Abigail Breslin
Actress ("Little Miss Sunshine")
Historic Birthdays
Anne Sullivan Macy
4/14/1866 - 10/20/1936
American teacher of Helen Keller
64 Francois Duvalier
4/14/1907 - 4/21/1971
Haitian president (1957-1971)
70 Juan Belmonte
4/14/1892 - 4/8/1962
Spanish bullfighter
86 Arnold Toynbee
4/14/1889 - 10/22/1975
English historian; wrote 12-volume "Study of History"
79 James Branch Cabell
4/14/1879 - 5/5/1958
American novelist; wrote "Jurgen"
72 Adna R. Chaffee
4/14/1842 - 11/1/1914
American army officer; chief of staff (1904-06)
65 Gerhard Rohlfs
4/14/1831 - 6/2/1896
German explorer; journeyed across deserts of North Africa
73 Augustus Pitt-Rivers
4/14/1827 - 5/4/1900
English archaeologist called the "father of British archaeology"
74 Horace Bushnell
4/14/1802 - 2/17/1876
American Congregational minister and controversial theologian
66 Christiaan Huygens
4/14/1629 - 7/8/1695
Dutch mathematician, astronomer and physicist
1784 - The first balloon was flown in Ireland.
1794 - "Courrier Francais" became the first French daily newspaper to be published in the U.S.
1813 - U.S. troops under James Wilkinson attacked the Spanish-held city of Mobile that would be in the future state of Alabama.
1817 - The first American school for the deaf was opened in Hartford, CT.
1850 - The city of San Francisco was incorporated.
1858 - At the Battle of Azimghur, the Mexicans defeated Spanish loyalists.
1861 - U.S. President Lincoln mobilized the Federal army.
1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died from injuries inflicted by John Wilkes Booth.
1871 - "Wild Bill" Hickok became the marshal of Abilene, Kansas.
1880 - William Gladstone became Prime Minister of England.
1892 - The General Electric Company was organized.
1899 - Thomas Edison organized the Edison Portland Cement Company.
1912 - The ocean liner Titanic sank at 2:27 a.m. in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg the evening before. 1,517 people died and more than 700 people survived.
1917 - The British defeated the Germans at the battle of Arras.
1919 - British troops killed 400 Indians at Amritsar, India.
1923 - Insulin became generally available for people suffering with diabetes.
1934 - In the comic strip "Blondie," Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead welcomed a baby boy, Alexander. The child would be nicknamed, Baby Dumpling.
1940 - French and British troops landed at Narvik, Norway.
1945 - During World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.
1947 - Jackie Robinson played his first major league baseball game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Previously he had only appeared in exhibition games.
1948 - The Arabs were defeated in the first Jewish-Arab battle.
1952 - U.S. President Harry Truman signed the official Japanese peace treaty.
1952 - The first B-52 prototype was tested in the air.
1953 - In Buenos Aires, six people were killed by a bomb at a rally addressed by President Peron.
1953 - Pope Pius XII gave his approval of psychoanalysis but warned of possible abuses.
1953 - Charlie Chaplin surrendered his U.S. re-entry permit rather than face proceedings by the U.S. Justice Department. Chaplin was accused of sympathizing with Communist groups.
1955 - Ray Kroc started the McDonald's restaurant chain.
1956 - The worlds’ first, all-color TV station was dedicated. It was WNBQ-TV in Chicago and is now WMAQ-TV.
1956 - General Motors announced that the first free piston automobile had been developed.
1959 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro began a U.S. goodwill tour.
1960 - The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was organized at Shaw University.
1967 - Richard Speck was found guilty of murdering eight student nurses.
1983 - Tokyo Disneyland opened.
1984 - Ten members of a family were found murdered in their home in New York City. An infant was found crawling among the corpses.
1986 - U.S. F-111 warplanes attacked Libya in response to the bombing of a discotheque in Berlin on April 5, 1986.
1987 - In Northhampton, MA, Amy Carter, Abbie Hoffman and 13 others were acquitted on civil disobedience charges related with a CIA protest.
1987 - In New York City, Mbongeni Ngema's "Asinamali!" opened as the first South African play on Broadway.
1989 - Students in Beijing launched a series of pro democracy protests upon the death of former Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang. The protests led to the Tienanmen Square massacre.
1989 - In Sheffield, England, 93 people were killed and 180 were injured at a soccer game at Hillsborough Stadium when a crowd surged into an overcrowded standing area.
1994 - The World Trade Organization was established.
1997 - Christopher Reeve received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - Pol Pot died at the age of 73. The leader of the Khmer Rouge regime thereby evaded prosecution for the deaths of 2 million Cambodians.
1999 - In Algeria, former Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president. All of the opposition candidates claimed that the vote was fraudulent and withdrew from the election.
1999 - In Rawalpindi, Pakistan, a panel of two Lahore High Court judges convicted former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, of corruption.
2000 - 600 anti-IMF (International Monetary Fund) protesters were arrested in Washington, DC, for demonstrating without a permit.
Current Birthdays
Seth Rogen turns 27 years old today.
87 Michael Ansara
Actor
76 Roy Clark
Country musician
65 Dave Edmunds
Rock musician
62 Linda Bloodworth- Thomason
TV writer, producer ("Designing Women")
62 Lois Chiles
Actress
59 Amy Wright
Actress
58 Heloise
Columnist (Hints from Heloise)
48 Jeff Parker
Bluegrass musician
43 Samantha Fox
Singer
41 Ed O'Brien
Rock musician (Radiohead)
39 Flex Alexander
Actor
35 Danny Pino
Actor ("Cold Case")
26 Alice Braga
Actress
25 De'Mar Hamilton
Rock musician (Plain White T's)
19 Emma Watson
Actress ("Harry Potter" movies)
Historic Birthdays
A. Philip Randolph
4/15/1889 - 5/16/1979
American civil rights leader and trade unionist
76 Leonhard Euler
4/15/1707 - 9/18/1783
Swiss mathematician and physicist
86 Charles Willson Peale
4/15/1741 - 2/22/1827
American portrait painter of leading American Revolution figures
90 Walter Channing
4/15/1786 - 7/27/1876
American physician; helped found Boston Lying-In Hospital (1832)
73 Henry James
4/15/1843 - 2/28/1916
American-English novelist
83 Johannes Stark
4/15/1874 - 6/21/1957
German Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1919)
67 Leonardo da Vinci
4/15/1452 - 5/2/1519
Italian artist, architect, scientist, inventor and engineer
63 Max Wertheimer
4/15/1880 - 10/12/1943
Czech-born American psychologist; founder of Gestalt psychology
84 Stanley Bruce
4/15/1883 - 8/25/1967
Australian statesman and diplomat; prime minister (1923-29)
86 Thomas Hart Benton
4/15/1889 - 1/19/1975
American painter associated with the American Regionalists of the 1930's
44 Arshile Gorky
4/15/1904 - 7/21/1948
Turkish-born American postsurrealist abstract painter
81 Nikolaas Tinbergen
4/15/1907 - 12/21/1988
Dutch-born English zoologist and ethologist; won Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1973)
65 Harold Washington
4/15/1922 - 11/25/1987
American politician; first African-American mayor of Chicago
42 Bessie Smith
4/15/1895 - 9/26/1937
American blues singer
0069 - Otho committed suicide after being defeated by Vitellius' troops at Bedriacum.
0556 - Pelagius I began his reign as Catholic Pope.
1065 - The Norman Robert Guiscard took Bari. Five centuries of Byzantine rule in southern Italy ended.
1175 - Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, signed the Treaty of Montebello with the Lombard League.
1705 - Queen Anne of England knighted Isaac Newton.
1746 - The Duke of Cumberland defeated Bonnie Prince Charlie (and his Jacobites) at the battle of Culloden.
1818 - The U.S. Senate ratified Rush-Bagot amendment to form an unarmed U.S.-Canada border.
1851 - A lighthouse was swept away in a gale at Minot’s Ledge, MA.
1854 - San Salvador was destroyed by an earthquake.
1862 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved conscription act for white males between 18 and 35.
1862 - In the U.S., slavery was abolished by law in the District of Columbia.
1883 - Paul Kruger became president of the South African Republic.
1900 - The first book of postage stamps was issued. The two-cent stamps were available in books of 12, 24 and 48 stamps.
1905 - Andrew Carnegie donated $10,000,000 of personal money to set up the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
1912 - Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
1917 - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returned to Russia to start Bolshevik Revolution after years of exile.
1922 - Annie Oakley shot 100 clay targets in a row, to set a women's record.
1922 - The Soviet Union and Germany signed the Treaty of Rapallo under which Germany recognized the Soviet Union and diplomatic and trade relations were restored.
1935 - "Fibber McGee and Molly" premiered.
1940 - The first no-hit, no-run game to be thrown on an opening day of the major league baseball season was earned by Bob Feller. The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox 1-0.
1942 - The Island of Malta was awarded the George Cross in recognition for heroism under constant German air attack.
1944 - The destroyer USS Laffey survived immense damage from attacks by 22 Japanese aircraft off Okinawa.
1945 - American troops entered Nuremberg, Germany.
1947 - The Zoomar lens, invented by Dr. Frank Back, was demonstrated in New York City. It was the first lens to exhibit zooming effects.
1947 - In Texas City, TX, the French ship Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer, caught fire and blew up. The explosions and resulting fires killed 576 people.
1948 - In Paris, the Organization for European Economic Co-operation was set up.
1951 - 75 people were killed when the British submarine Affray sank in the English Channel.
1953 - The British royal yacht Britannia was launched.
1962 - Walter Cronkite began anchoring "The CBS Evening News".
1968 - The Pentagon announced that troops would begin coming home from Vietnam.
1968 - Major league baseball’s longest night game was played. The 24 innings took six hours, six minutes to play.
1972 - Apollo 16 blasted off on a voyage to the moon. It was the fifth manned moon landing.
1972 - Two giants pandas arrived in the U.S. from China.
1975 - The Khmer Rouge Rebels won control of Cambodia after a five years of civil war. They renamed the country Kampuchea and began a reign of terror.
1977 - The ban on women attending West Point was lifted.
1978 - In Orissa, India, 180 people died when a tornado hit.
1982 - Queen Elizabeth proclaimed Canada's new constitution in effect. The act severed the last colonial links with Britain.
1985 - Mickey Mantle was reinstated after being banned from baseball for several years.
1987 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sternly warned U.S. radio stations to watch the use of indecent language on the airwaves.
1987 - The U.S. Patent Office began allowing the patenting of new animals created by genetic engineering.
1992 - Italian financier Carlo de Benedetti and 32 others were convicted of fraud in connection with the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano.
1992 - The House ethics committee listed 303 current and former lawmakers who had overdrawn their House bank accounts.
1995 - The European Union and Canada agreed to protect threatened fish stocks in the north Atlantic.
1996 - Britain's Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, the Duchess of York, announced that they were in the process of getting a divorce.
1996 - An Italian court found former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi guilty on charges of corruption. He was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison.
1999 - Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the National Hockey League (NHL).
2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned major parts of a 1996 child pornography law based on rights to free speech.
Current Birthdays
Pope Benedict XVI turns 82 years old today
82 Peter Mark Richman
Actor
74 Bobby Vinton
Singer
69 Queen Margrethe II
Queen of Denmark
62 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Basketball Hall of Famer
62 Gerry Rafferty
Rock singer
56 Peter Garrett
Rock singer (Midnight Oil), Australia's environment minister
55 Ellen Barkin
Actress
47 Jason Scheff
Rock musician (Chicago)
46 Jimmy Osmond
Singer
45 David Pirner
Rock singer (Soul Asylum)
44 Jon Cryer
Actor ("Two and a Half Men")
44 Martin Lawrence
Actor, comedian
43 Dan Rieser
Rock musician
37 Peter Billingsley
Actor ("A Christmas Story")
33 Lukas Haas
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Sir Charlie Chaplin
4/16/1889 - 12/25/1977
English-born American motion- picture actor and director
70 Henry Mancini
4/16/1924 - 6/14/1994
American composer
73 Sir Kingsley Amis
4/16/1922 - 10/22/1995
English novelist, poet and critic
67 Nikolay P. Akimov
4/16/1901 - 9/6/1968
Russian scenic designer and producer
38 John M. Synge
4/16/1871 - 3/24/1909
Irish poetic dramatist
45 Wilbur Wright
4/16/1867 - 5/30/1912
American inventor and aviation pioneer
80 Anatole France
4/16/1844 - 10/12/1924
French writer; won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1921)
72 Ford Madox Brown
4/16/1821 - 10/6/1893
English painter
61 Sir John Franklin
4/16/1786 - 6/11/1847
English rear admiral and explorer
87 Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun
4/16/1755 - 3/30/1842
French painter
93 Sir Hans Sloane
4/16/1660 - 1/11/1753
English physician and naturalist
1492 - Christopher Columbus signed a contract with Spain to find a passage to Asia and the Indies.
1521 - Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
1524 - New York Harbor was discovered by Giovanni Verrazano.
1535 - Antonio Mendoza was appointed first viceroy of New Spain.
1629 - Horses were first imported into the colonies by the American Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1704 - John Campbell published what would eventually become the first successful American newspaper. It was known as the Boston "News-Letter."
1758 - Frances Williams published a collection of Latin poems. He was the first African-American to graduate from a college in the western hemisphere.
1808 - Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France ordered the seizure of U.S. ships.
1810 - Pineapple cheese was patented by Lewis M. Norton.
1824 - Russia abandoned all North American claims south of 54' 40'.
1860 - New Yorkers learned of a new law that required fire escapes to be provided for tenement houses.
1861 - Virginia became the eighth state to secede from the Union.
1864 - U.S. Civil War General Grant banned the trading of prisoners.
1865 - Mary Surratt was arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.
1875 - The game "snooker" was invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain.
1895 - China and Japan signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki. It was the end of the first Sino-Japanese War. In the treaty China ceded Taiwan to Japan.
1916 - The American Academy of Arts and Letters obtained a charter from the U.S. Congress.
1917 - A bill in Congress to establish Daylight Saving Time was defeated. It was passed a couple of months later.
1935 - "Lights Out" debuted on NBC Radio. It ran until 1952.
1941 - Igor Sikorsky accomplished the first successful helicopter lift-off from water near Stratford, CT.
1941 - The office of Price Administration was established in the U.S. to handle rationing.
1946 - The last French troops left Syria.
1947 - Jackie Robinson (Brooklyn Dodgers) performed a bunt for his first major league hit.
1961 - About 1,400 U.S.-supported Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. It was an unsuccessful attack.
1964 - Jerrie Mock became first woman to fly an airplane solo around the world.
1964 - The Ford Motor Company unveiled its new Mustang model.
1967 - "The Joey Bishop Show" debuted on ABC-TV.
1967 - The U.S. Supreme Court barred Muhammad Ali's request to be blocked from induction into the U.S. Army.
1969 - In Los Angeles, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of assassinating U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
1969 - Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek was deposed.
1970 - Apollo 13 returned to Earth safely after an on-board accident with an oxygen tank.
1975 - Khmer Rouge forces capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. It was the end of the five-year war.
1983 - In Warsaw, police routed 1,000 Solidarity supporters.
1984 - In London, gunmen from the Libyan Embassy fired into an anti-Libya protest. One policewoman was killed and 10 others were wounded.
1985 - The U.S. Postal Service unveiled its new 22-cent, "LOVE" stamp.
1985 - In Lebanon, the cabinet resigned as Shiites took W. Beirut.
1987 - In Sri Lanka, Tamil guerrillas killed 122 people in a road ambush.
1989 - In Poland, courts gave Solidarity legal status.
1993 - A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King. Two other officers were acquitted.
1996 - Erik and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing their parents.
1999 - In India, the government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee collapsed after losing a vote of confidence.
2002 - At the National Maritime Museum in London, the exhibit "Skin Deep - A History of Tattooing" opened.
Current Birthdays
Jennifer Garner turns 37 years old today.
75 Don Kirshner
Rock promoter
61 Jan Hammer
Composer, musician
58 Olivia Hussey
Actress
57 Clarke Peters
Actor
54 Pete Shelley
Rock musician (Buzzcocks)
50 Sean Bean
Actor
45 Maynard James Keenan
Rock singer
45 Lela Rochon
Actress
44 William Mapother
Actor ("Lost")
42 Leslie Bega
Actor
42 Kimberly Elise
Actress
42 Marquis Grissom
Baseball player
42 Liz Phair
Rock singer
39 Redman
Rapper, actor
36 Craig Anderson
Country musician (Heartland)
31 Lindsay Korman
Actress, singer
14 Paulie Litt
Actor ("Hope and Faith")
13 Dee Dee Davis
Actress ("The Bernie Mac Show")
Historic Birthdays
Nikita S. Khrushchev
4/17/1894 - 9/11/1971
Russian statesman; premier of the Soviet Union (1958-64)
70 Samuel Chase
4/17/1741 - 6/19/1811
American jurist and signer of the Declaration of Independence
64 William Simms
4/17/1806 - 6/11/1870
American journalist and novelist
76 J. P. Morgan
4/17/1837 - 3/31/1913
American financier; formed U. S. Steel
80 Sir Leonard Woolley
4/17/1880 - 2/20/1960
English archaeologist; excavated the Sumerian city of Ur
69 Artur Schnabel
4/17/1882 - 8/15/1951
Austrian pianist and teacher
77 Isak Dinesen
4/17/1885 - 9/7/1962
Danish writer
78 Thornton Wilder
4/17/1897 - 12/7/1975
American novelist and playwright
95 Sir Vincent Wigglesworth
4/17/1899 - 2/11/1994
English entomologist
68 Harry Reasoner
4/17/1923 - 8/6/1991
American newscaster, correspondent and journalist
wow
Jennifer Garner turns 37 years old today.
thought she was younger
thebear247
2009-04-17, 13:53
1492 -
wow
Jennifer Garner turns 37 years old today.
thought she was younger
wow me too she looks damn good for 37
1521 - Martin Luther confronted the emperor Charles V in the Diet of Worms and refused to retract his views that led to his excommunication.
1676 - Sudbury, Massachusetts, was attacked by Indians.
1775 - American revolutionaries Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode though the towns of Massachusetts giving the warning that "the British are coming."
1791 - National Guardsmen prevented Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
1818 - A regiment of Indians and blacks were defeated at the Battle of Suwann, in Florida, ending the first Seminole War.
1834 - William Lamb became prime minister of England.
1838 - The Wilkes' expedition to the South Pole set sail.
1846 - The telegraph ticker was patented by R.E. House
1847 - U.S. forces defeated the Mexicans at Cerro Gordo.
1853 - The first train in Asia began running from Bombay to Tanna.
1861 - Colonel Robert E. Lee turned down an offer to command the Union armies during the U.S. Civil War.
1877 - Charles Cros wrote a paper that described the process of recording and reproducing sound. In France, Cros is regarded as the inventor of the phonograph. In the U.S., Thomas Edison gets the credit.
1895 - New York State passed an act that established free public baths.
1906 - San Francisco, CA, was hit with an earthquake. The orginal death toll was cited at about 700. Later information indicated that the death toll may have been 3 to 4 times the original estimate.
1910 - Walter R. Brookins made the first airplane flight at night.
1923 - Yankee Stadium opened in the Bronx, NY. The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1. John Phillip Sousa's band played the National Anthem.
1924 - Simon and Schuster, Inc. published the first "Crossword Puzzle Book."
1934 - The first Laundromat opened in Fort Worth, TX.
1937 - Leon Trotsky called for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1938 - U.S. President Roosevelt threw out the first ball preceding the season opener between the Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics.
1942 - James H. Doolittle and his squadron, from the USS Hornet, raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
1942 - The Vichy government capitulated to Adolf Hitler and invited Pierre Laval to form a new government in France.
1943 - Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, was shot down by American P-38 fighters.
1945 - American war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa. He was 44 years old.
1946 - The League of Nations was dissolved.
1949 - The Republic of Ireland was established.
1950 - The first transatlantic jet passenger trip was completed.
1954 - Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power in Egypt.
1955 - Albert Einstein died.
1956 - Actress Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco were married. The religious ceremony took place April 19.
1960 - The Mutual Broadcasting System was sold to the 3M Company of Minnesota for $1.25 million.
1978 - The U.S. Senate approved the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999.
1979 - The TV show "Real People" premiered.
1980 - Rhodesia became in independent nation of Zimbabwe.
1983 - The U.S. Embassy in Beirut was blown up by a suicide car-bomber. 63 people were killed including 17 Americans.
1984 - Daredevils Mike MacCarthy and Amanda Tucker made a sky dive from the Eiffel Tower. The jump ended safely.
1985 - Ted Turner filed for a hostile takeover of CBS.
1985 - Tulane University abolished its 72-year-old basketball program. The reason was charges of fixed games, drug abuse, and payments to players.
1989 - Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.
1999 - Wayne Gretzky (New York Rangers) played his final game in the NHL. He retired as the NHL's all-time leading scorer and holder of 61 individual records.
2000 - The Nasdaq had the biggest one-day point gain in its history.
2000 - Joan Lunden and Jeff Konigsberg were married.
2002 - Actor Robert Blake and his bodyguard were arrested in connection with the shooting death of Blake's wife about a year before.
2002 - The Amtrack Auto Train derailed in a remote area of north Florida. Four people were killed and 133 were injured.
2002 - The city legislature of Berlin decided to make Marlene Dietrich an honorary citizen. Dietrich had gone to the United States in 1930. She refused to return to Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power.
Current Birthdays
America Ferrera turns 25 years old today.
88 Barbara Hale
Actress
79 Clive Revill
Actor
75 James Drury
Actor ("The Virginian")
72 Robert Hooks
Actor
63 Hayley Mills
Actress
62 Dorothy Lyman
Actor, director
62 Cindy Pickett
Actress
62 Walt Richmond
Country musician (The Tractors)
62 James Woods
Actor
57 Jim Scholten
Country musician (Sawyer Brown)
56 Rick Moranis
Actor
53 John James
Actor
53 Eric Roberts
Actor
53 Melody Thomas Scott
Actress ("The Young and the Restless")
51 Les Pattinson
Rock musician (Echo and the Bunnymen)
48 Jane Leeves
Actress ("Frasier")
46 Terry Eldredge
Bluegrass musician (The Grascals)
46 Conan O'Brien
Talk show host
42 Maria Bello
Actress
41 Mary Birdsong
Actress ("Reno 911!")
39 Greg Eklund
Rock musician
38 David Tennant
Actor
35 Marvin Evatt
Country musician (Carolina Rain)
35 Trina
R&B singer (Trina and Tamara)
33 Melissa Joan Hart
Actress ("Sabrina the Teenage Witch")
33 Sean Maguire
Actor
20 Alia Shawkat
Actress ("Arrested Development')
15 Moises Arias
Actor ("Hannah Montana")
Historic Birthdays
Clarence Darrow
4/18/1857 - 3/13/1938
American defense lawyer; represented Eugene V. Debs and John T. Scopes
39 Lucrezia Borgia
4/18/1480 - 6/24/1519
Italian Renaissance noblewoman of the Borgia family
79 Gaetano Vestris
4/18/1729 - 9/23/1808
French ballet dancer
61 George Henry Lewes
4/18/1817 - 11/28/1878
English philosopher, critic, actor, scientist and editor
55 Carlos Cespedes
4/18/1819 - 3/22/1874
Cuban revolutionary; early fighter for independence from Spain
104 Dhondo Keshav Karve
4/18/1858 - 11/9/1962
Indian social reformer; supported the education of women
80 Max Weber
4/18/1881 - 10/4/1961
Russian-born American painter, printmaker and sculptor
95 Leopold Stokowski
4/18/1882 - 9/13/1977
English-born American conductor
93 George H. Hitchings
4/18/1905 - 2/27/1998
American Nobel Prize-winning pharmacologist (1988)
79 Little Brother Montgomery
4/18/1906 - 9/6/1985
American jazz pianist and vocalist
1012 - Aelfheah was murdered by Danes who had been ravaging the south of England. Aelfhear became the 29th Archbishop of Canterbury in 1005.
1539 - Emperor Charles V reached a truce with German Protestants at Frankfurt, Germany.
1587 - English admiral Sir Francis Drake entered Cadiz harbor and sank the Spanish fleet.
1689 - Residents of Boston ousted their governor, Edmond Andros.
1713 - Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction, which gave women the rights of succession to Hapsburg possessions.
1764 - The English Parliament banned the American colonies from printing paper money.
1770 - Captain James Cook discovered New South Wales, Australia. Cook originally named the land Point Hicks.
1775 - The American Revolution began as fighting broke out at Lexington, MA.
1782 - The Netherlands recognized the new United States.
1794 - Tadeusz Kosciuszko forced the Russians out of Warsaw.
1802 - The Spanish reopened the New Orleans port to American merchants.
1839 - The Kingdom of Belgium was recognized by all the states of Europe when the Treaty of London was signed.
1852 - The California Historical Society was founded.
1861 - Thaddeus S. C. Lowe sailed 900 miles in nine hours in a hot air balloon.
1861 - The Baltimore riots resulted in four Union soldiers and nine civilians killed.
1861 - U.S. President Lincoln ordered a blockade of Confederate ports.
1892 - The Duryea gasoline buggy was introduced in the U.S. by Charles and Frank Duryea.
1897 - The first annual Boston Marathon was held. It was the first of its type in the U.S.
1927 - In China, Hankow communists declared war on Chaing Kai-shek.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation that removed the U.S. went off of the gold standard.
1938 - General Francisco Franco declared victory in the Spanish Civil War.
1939 - Connecticut approved the Bill of Rights for the U.S. Constitution after 148 years.
1943 - The Warsaw Ghetto uprising against Nazi rule began. The Jews were able to fight off the Germans for 28 days.
1951 - General Douglas MacArthur gave his "Old Soldiers" speech before the U.S. Congress. In the address General MacArthur said that "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."
1951 - Shigeki Tanaka won the Boston Marathon. Tanaka had survived the atomic blast at Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.
1956 - Actress Grace Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco. The civil ceremony took place on April 18.
1958 - The San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers played the first major league baseball game on the West Coast.
1960 - Baseball uniforms began displaying player's names on their backs.
1967 - Surveyor 3 landed on the moon and began sending photos back to the U.S.
1971 - Russia launched the Salyut into orbit around Earth. It was the first space station.
1975 - India launched its first satellite with aid from the USSR.
1977 - Alex Haley received a special Pulitzer Prize for his book "Roots."
1982 - NASA named Sally Ride to be first woman astronaut.
1987 - In Phoenix, AZ, skydiver Gregory Robertson went into a 200-mph free-fall to save an unconscious colleague 3,500 feet from the ground.
1987 - The last California condor known to be in the wild was captured and placed in a breeding program at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
1989 - A gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa. 47 sailors were killed.
1989 - A giant asteroid passed within 500,000 miles of Earth.
1989 - In El Salvador, Attorney General Alvadora was killed by a car bomb.
1993 - The Branch-Davidian’s compound in Waco, TX, burned to the ground. It was the end of a 51-day standoff between the cult and U.S. federal agents. 86 people were killed including 17 children. Nine of the Branch Davidians escaped the fire.
1994 - A Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to Rodney King for violation of his civil rights.
1995 - The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, was destroyed by a bomb. It was the worst bombing on U.S. territory. 168 people were killed including 19 children, and 500 were injured. Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of the bombing on June 2, 1997.
1998 - Wang Dan, a leader of 1989 Tienanmen Square pro democracy protests, was freed by the Chinese government.
2000 - The Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the fifth anniversary of the bombing in Oklahoma that killed 168 people.
2000 - Letters written by Greta Garbo were put on exhibit. The letters were made public ten years after Garbo's death.
2000 - In the Philippines, Air Philippines GAP 541 crashed while preparing to land. 131 people were killed.
2002 - The USS Cole was relaunched. In Yemen, 17 sailors were killed when the ship was attacked by terrorists on October 12, 2000. The attack was blamed on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
Current Birthdays
James Franco turns 31 years old today.
84 Hugh O'Brian
Actor
72 Elinor Donahue
Actress ("Father Knows Best")
67 Alan Price
Rock musician (The Animals)
63 Tim Curry
Actor
62 Mark "Flo" Volman
Singer (The Turtles, Flo and Eddie)
57 Tony Plana
Actor ("Ugly Betty")
44 Suge Knight
Record company executive (Tha Row)
42 Dar Williams
Singer, songwriter
41 Bekka Bramlett
Rock singer
41 Ashley Judd
Actress
39 Luis Miguel
Singer
35 Madeleine Peyroux
Jazz singer
30 Kate Hudson
Actress
28 Hayden Christensen
Actor
28 Catalina Sandino Moreno
Actress
28 Troy Polamalu
Football player
22 Courtland Mead
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Getulio Vargas
4/19/1883 - 8/24/1954
Brazilian president (1930-45, 1951-54)
72 Roger Sherman
4/19/1721 - 7/23/1793
American statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence
84 Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre
4/19/1832 - 9/4/1916
Spanish mathematician, statesman, and Nobel Prize-winning dramatist (1904)
86 Lucretia Garfield
4/19/1832 - 3/14/1918
American first lady (1881)
57 Ole Evinrude
4/19/1877 - 7/12/1934
Norwegian-American inventor
70 Richard von Mises
4/19/1883 - 7/14/1953
Austrian-born American mathematician and aerodynamicist
54 Eliot Ness
4/19/1903 - 5/16/1957
American crime fighter; headed the "Untouchables" in Chicago
85 Sir Thomas Hopkinson
4/19/1905 - 6/20/1990
English editor and pioneering photojournalist
87 Glenn T. Seaborg
4/19/1912 - 2/25/1999
American Nobel Prize-winning nuclear chemist (1951)
34 Jayne Mansfield
4/19/1933 - 6/29/1967
American motion picture actress
coleman_stoops
2009-04-19, 21:39
Getting a jump on tomorrow: 20 April 1889 was the day on which Adolf Hitler was born. Perhaps one of the sorriest days in mankind's history.
1519 - Envoys of Montezuma II attended the first Easter mass in Central America.
1547 - Charles V's troops defeated the Protestant League of Schmalkalden at the battle of Muhlburg.
1558 - Mary, Queen of Scotland, married the French dauphin, Francis.
1800 - The Library of Congress was established with a $5,000 allocation.
1805 - The U.S. Marines attacked and captured the town of Derna in Tripoli.
1833 - A patent was granted for first soda fountain.
1877 - Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
1877 - In the U.S., federal troops were ordered out of New Orleans. This was the end to the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.
1884 - Otto von Bismarck cabled Cape Town that South Africa was now a German colony.
1889 - The Edison General Electric Company was organized.
1897 - William Price became the first to be named White House news reporter.
1898 - Spain declared war on the U.S., rejecting America's ultimatum for Spain to withdraw from Cuba.
1915 - During World War I, the Ottoman Turkish Empire began the mass deportation of Armenians.
1916 - Irish nationalist launched the Easter Rebellion against British occupation forces. They were overtaken several days later.
1944 - The first B-29 arrived in China, over the Hump of the Himalayas.
1948 - The Berlin airlift began to relieve the surrounded city.
1952 - Raymond Burr made his TV acting debut on the "Gruen Guild Playhouse" in an episode titled, "The Tiger."
1953 - Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1955 - "X-Minus One," a science fiction show, was first heard for the first time on NBC radio.
1961 - Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers struck out 18 batters becoming the first major-league pitcher to do so on two different occasions.
1961 - U.S. President Kennedy accepted "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
1962 - MIT sent a TV signal by satellite for the first time.
1967 - Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov died when his craft crashed with a tangled parachute.
1967 - The newest Greek regime banned miniskirts.
1968 - Leftist students took over several campus buildings at Columbia University.
1970 - The People's Republic of China launched its first satellite.
1973 - Albert Sabin reported that herpesviruses were factors in nine kinds of cancer.
1974 - David Bowie released "Diamond Dogs."
1981 - The IBM Personal Computer was introduced.
1987 - In Palm Bay, FL, a gunman opened fire in a mall. He killed six and wounded 10.
1989 - Thousands of students began striking in Beijing.
1990 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL. It was carrying the $1.5 billion Hubble Space Telescope.
1990 - Michael Milken plead guilty to six felonies and agreed to pay a $600 million penalty. He was later sentenced to ten years in prison. Milken had sold junk-bond in the 1980s.
1994 - Madonna visited the San Antonio Spurs locker room to congratulate David Robinson on his 71-point performance.
1997 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. The global treaty banned the development, production, storage and use of chemical weapons.
1998 - ABC confirmed that it was canceling the TV series "Ellen." The show was the first series to feature an openly gay lead character.
2000 - ABC-TV aired the TV movie "The Three Stooges."
2003 - A U.S. official reported the North Korea had claimed to have nuclear weapons.
Current Birthdays
Shirley MacLaine turns 75 years old today.
69 Sue Grafton
Author
69 Michael Parks
Actor
67 Richard M. Daley
Mayor of Chicago
67 Barbra Streisand
Singer, actress
66 Richard Sterban
Country singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)
64 Doug Clifford
Rock musician (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
59 Rob Hyman
Rock musician (The Hooters)
56 Eric Bogosian
Actor
54 Michael O'Keefe
Actor
52 David J
Rock musician (Bauhaus)
50 Glenn Morshower
Actor ("24")
46 Billy Gould
Rock musician (Faith No More)
45 Djimon Hounsou
Actor
45 Cedric the Entertainer
Actor, comedian
42 Patty Schemel
Rock musician (Hole)
42 Omar Vizquel
Baseball player
41 Aaron Comess
Rock musician (Spin Doctors)
40 Melinda Clarke
Actress
38 Alejandro Fernandez
Singer
37 Chipper Jones
Baseball player
35 Derek Luke
Actor
32 Eric Balfour
Actor ("24")
32 Carlos Beltran
Baseball player
30 Rebecca Lynn Howard
Country singer
27 Kelly Clarkson
Singer ("American Idol")
25 Tyson Ritter
Rock musician (The All-American Rejects)
Historic Birthdays
Robert Penn Warren
4/24/1905 - 9/15/1989
American novelist, poet, critic and teacher
79 St. Vincent De Paul
4/24/1581 - 9/27/1660
French founder of the Congregation of the Mission
78 Giovanni Battista Martini
4/24/1706 - 10/4/1784
Italian composer, music theorist and teacher
80 Robert Bailey Thomas
4/24/1766 - 5/19/1846
American publisher of "Old Farmer's Almanac"
67 Anthony Trollope
4/24/1815 - 12/6/1882
English novelist
95 Henri-Philippe Petain
4/24/1856 - 7/23/1951
French general; World War I hero and head of French Vichy government (1940-44)
63 John R. Pope
4/24/1874 - 8/27/1937
American architect; designed the National Gallery of Art
63 Sir Stafford Cripps
4/24/1889 - 4/21/1952
English chancellor of the exchequer (1947-50)
93 Willem de Kooning
4/24/1904 - 3/19/1997
Dutch-born American painter
40 William Joyce
4/24/1906 - 1/3/1946
English propagandist for Germany during World War II (aka Lord Haw Haw)
1478 - Pazzi conspirators attacked Lorenzo and kill Giuliano de'Medici.
1514 - Copernicus made his first observations of Saturn.
1607 - The British established an American colony at Cape Henry, Virginia. It was the first permanent English establishment in the Western Hemisphere.
1819 - The first Odd Fellows lodge in the U.S. was established in Baltimore, MD.
1865 - Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee to Sherman during the American Civil War.
1865 - John Wilkes Booth was killed by the U.S. Federal Cavalry.
1906 - In Hawaii, motion pictures were shown for the first time.
1921 - Weather broadcasts were heard for the first time on radio in St. Louis, MO.
1929 - First non-stop flight from England to India was completed.
1931 - New York Yankee Lou Gehrig hit a home run but was called out for passing a runner.
1931 - NBC premiered "Lum and Abner." It was on the air for 24 years.
1937 - German planes attacked Guernica, Spain, during the Spanish Civil War.
1937 - "LIFE" magazine was printed without the word "LIFE" on the cover.
1937 - "Lorenzo Jones" premiered on NBC radio.
1941 - An organ was played at a baseball stadium for the first time in Chicago, IL.
1945 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, the head of France's Vichy government during World War II, was arrested.
1952 - Patty Berg set a new record for major women’s golf competition when she shot a 64 over 18 holes in a tournament in Richmond, CA.
1954 - Grace Kelly was on the cover of "LIFE" magazine.
1964 - The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.
1964 - The Boston Celtics won their sixth consecutive NBA title. They won two more before the streak came to an end.
1968 - Students seized the administration building at Ohio State University.
1982 - Argentina surrendered to Britain over Falkland Island crisis.
1983 - Dow Jones Industrial Average broke 1,200 for first time.
1985 - In Argentina, a fire at a mental hospital killed 79 people and injured 247.
1986 - The world’s worst nuclear disaster to date occurred at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine. 31 died in the incident and thousands more were exposed to radioactive material.
1998 - Auxiliary Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera was bludgeoned to death two days after a report he'd compiled on atrocities during Guatemala's 36-year civil war was made public.
2000 - Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar purchased the NHL's New York Islanders.
2002 - In Erfurt, Germany, an expelled student killed 17 people at his former school. The student then killed himself.
miniD is hungover!
1296 - The Scots were defeated by Edward I at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509 - Pope Julius II excommunicated the Italian state of Venice.
1521 - Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
1565 - The first Spanish settlement in Philippines was established in Cebu City.
1805 - A force led by U.S. Marines captured the city of Derna, on the shores of Tripoli.
1813 - Americans under Gen. Pike capture York (present day Toronto) the seat of government in Ontario.
1861 - U.S. President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
1861 - West Virginia seceded from Virginia after Virginia seceded from the Union during the American Civil War.
1863 - The Army of the Potomac began marching on Chancellorsville.
1865 - In the U.S. the Sultana exploded while carrying 2,300 Union POWs. Between 1,400 - 2,000 were killed.
1880 - Francis Clarke and M.G. Foster patented the electrical hearing aid.
1897 - Grant's Tomb was dedicated.
1899 - The Western Golf Association was founded in Chicago, IL.
1903 - Jamaica Race Track opened in Long Island, NY.
1909 - The sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, was overthrown.
1937 - German bombers devastated Guernica, Spain.
1938 - Geraldine Apponyi married King Zog of Albania. She was the first American woman to become a queen.
1938 - A colored baseball was used for the first time in any baseball game. The ball was yellow and was used between Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York City.
1945 - The Second Republic was founded in Austria.
1946 - The SS African Star was placed in service. It was the first commercial ship to be equipped with radar.
1947 - "Babe Ruth Day" was celebrated at Yankee Stadium.
1950 - South Africa passed the Group Areas Act, which formally segregated races.
1953 - The U.S. offered $50,000 and political asylum to any Communist pilot that delivered a MIG jet.
1953 - Five people were killed and 60 injured when Mt. Aso erupted on the island of Kyushu.
1960 - The submarine Tullibee was launched from Groton, CT. It was the first sub to be equipped with closed-circuit television.
1961 - The United Kingdom granted Sierra Leone independence.
1965 - "Pampers" were patented by R.C. Duncan.
1967 - In Montreal, Prime Minister Lester Pearson lighted a flame to open Expo 67.
1975 - Saigon was encircled by North Vietnamese troops.
1978 - Pro-Soviet Marxists seized control of Afghanistan.
1982 - The trial of John W. Hinckley Jr. began in Washington. Hinckley was later acquitted by reason of insanity for the shooting of U.S. President Reagan and three others.
1983 - Nolan Ryan (Houston Astros) broke a 55-year-old major league baseball record when he struck out his 3,509th batter of his career.
1984 - In London, Libyan gunmen left the Libyan Embassy 11 days after killing a policewoman and wounding 10 others.
1986 - Captain Midnight (John R. MacDougall) interrupted HBO.
1989 - Student protestors took over Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
1987 - The U.S. Justice Department barred Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the U.S. He claimed that he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1992 - The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its ally Montenegro.
1992 - Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics won entry into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
2005 - The A380, the world's largest jetliner, completed its maiden flight. The passenger capability was 840.
2005 - Russian President Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel.
2006 - In New York, NY, construction began on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower on the site of former World Trade Center.
miniD is sober
Current Birthdays
Herm Edwards turns 55 years old today.
87 Jack Klugman
Actor ("The Odd Couple," "Quincy")
77 Anouk Aimee
Actress
77 Casey Kasem
Radio announcer, voice actor
70 Judy Carne
Actress
68 Judith Blegen
Opera singer
65 Cuba Gooding
R&B singer
62 Ann Peebles
R&B singer
61 Kate Pierson
Rock singer (B-52s)
60 Herbie Murrell
R&B singer (The Stylistics)
60 Douglas Sheehan
Actor
58 Ace Frehley
Rock musician (Kiss)
50 Sheena Easton
Singer, actress
47 James Le Gros
Actor
44 Rob Squires
Rock musician (Big Head Todd and the Monsters)
40 Mica Paris
R&B singer
34 Chris Carpenter
Baseball player
33 Sally Hawkins
Actress
30 Travis Meeks
Rock musician (Days of the New)
26 Ari Graynor
Actress
25 Patrick Stump
Rock musician (Fall Out Boy)
22 William Moseley
Actor ("The Chronicles of Narnia" films)
Historic Birthdays
Ulysses S. Grant
4/27/1822 - 7/23/1885
18th president of the United States (1869-77) and Civil War general
49 Claude Gillot
4/27/1673 - 5/4/1722
French painter, engraver and theatrical designer
74 Nikolay Novikov
4/27/1744 - 7/31/1818
Russian writer, philanthropist and social critic
38 Mary Wollstonecraft
4/27/1759 - 9/10/1797
English writer and women's rights advocate
81 Samuel Morse
4/27/1791 - 4/2/1872
American painter and developer of the telegraph
83 Herbert Spencer
4/27/1820 - 12/8/1903
English sociologist and philosopher
71 Edward Whymper
4/27/1840 - 9/16/1911
English artist and mountaineer; first man to climb the Matterhorn
67 Rogers Hornsby
4/27/1896 - 1/5/1963
American professional baseball player
41 Wallace Hume Carothers
4/27/1896 - 4/29/1937
American chemist; developed nylon
95 Walter Lantz
4/27/1899 - 3/22/1994
American film animator; creator of "Woody Woodpecker"
0357 - Constantius II visited Rome for the first time.
1282 - Villagers in Palermo led a revolt against French rule in Sicily.
1635 - Virginia Governor John Harvey was accused of treason and removed from office.
1686 - The first volume of Isaac Newton's "Principia Mathamatic" was published.
1788 - Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the U.S. constitution.
1789 - A mutiny on the British ship Bounty took place when a rebel crew took the ship and set sail to Pitcairn Island. The mutineers left Captain W. Bligh and 18 sailors adrift.
1818 - U.S. President James Monroe proclaimed naval disarmament on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.
1896 - The Addressograph was patented by J.S. Duncan.
1902 - A revolution broke out in the Dominican Republic.
1910 - First night air flight was performed by Claude Grahame-White in England.
1914 - W.H. Carrier patented the design of his air conditioner.
1916 - The British declared martial law throughout Ireland.
1919 - The League of Nations was founded.
1920 - Azerbaijan joined the USSR.
1930 - The first organized night baseball game was played in Independence, Kansas.
1932 - The yellow fever vaccine for humans was announced.
1937 - The first animated-cartoon electric sign was displayed on a building on Broadway in New York City. It was created by Douglas Leight.
1945 - Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.
1946 - The Allies indicted Tojo with 55 counts of war crimes.
1947 - Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia. The trip began in Peru and took 101 days to complete the crossing of the Pacific Ocean.
1952 - The U.S. occupation of Japan officially ended when a treaty with the U.S. and 47 other countries went into effect.
1953 - French troops evacuated northern Laos.
1957 - Mike Wallace was seen on TV for the first time. He was the host of "Mike Wallace Interviews."
1959 - Arthur Godfrey was seen for the last time in the final broadcast of "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" on CBS-TV.
1965 - The U.S. Army and Marines invaded the Dominican Republic to evacuate Americans.
1967 - Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army and was stripped of boxing title. He sited religious grounds for his refusal.
1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France.
1969 - In Santa Rosa, CA, Charles M. Schulz's Redwood Empire Ice Arena opened.
1974 - The last Americans were evacuated from Saigon.
1977 - Christopher Boyce was convicted of selling U.S. secrets.
1985 - The largest sand castle in the world was completed near St. Petersburg, FL. It was four stories tall.
1988 - In Maui, HI, one flight attendant was killed when the fuselage of a Boeing 737 ripped open in mid-flight.
1989 - Mobil announced that they were divesting from South Africa because congressional restrictions were too costly.
1992 - The U.S. Agriculture Department unveiled a pyramid-shaped recommended-diet chart.
1994 - Former CIA official Aldrich Ames, who had given U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and then Russia, plead guilty to espionage and tax evasion. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
1996 - U.S. President Clinton gave a 4 1/2 hour videotaped testimony as a defense witness in the criminal trial of his former Whitewater business partners.
1997 - A worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons took effect. Russia and other countries such as Iraq and North Korea did not sign.
1999 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected (on a tie vote of 213-213) a measure expressing supprot for NATO's five-week-old air campaign in Yugoslavia. The House also voted to limit the president's authority to use ground forces in Yugoslavia.
2000 - Jay Leno received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2001 - A Russian rocket launched from Central Asia with the first space tourist aboard. The crew consisted of California businessman Dennis Tito and two cosmonauts. The destination was the international space station.
Current Birthdays
Penelope Cruz turns 35 years old today.
83 Harper Lee
Author ("To Kill a Mockingbird")
79 James A. Baker III
Former secretary of state
68 Ann-Margret
Singer, actress
61 Marcia Strassman
Actress ("Welcome Back, Kotter")
60 Paul Guilfoyle
Actor ("CSI")
59 Jay Leno
Talk show host ("The Tonight Show")
57 Chuck Leavell
Rock musician
56 Kim Gordon
Rock musician (Sonic Youth)
56 Mary McDonnell
Actress
45 Barry Larkin
Baseball player
43 John Daly
Golfer
43 Too Short
Rapper
38 Simbi Khali
Actress ("3rd Rock from the Sun")
38 Bridget Moynahan
Actress
38 Chris Young
Actor
36 Jorge Garcia
Actor ("Lost")
36 Big Gipp
Rapper
36 Elisabeth Rohm
Actress ("Law and Order")
31 Nate Richert
Actor ("Sabrina the Teenage Witch")
28 Jessica Alba
Actress ("Dark Angel")
18 Aleisha Allen
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Lionel Barrymore
4/28/1878 - 11/15/1954
American stage and screen character actor
73 James Monroe
4/28/1758 - 7/4/1831
5th president of the United States (1817-25)
47 Marie-Joseph Chenier
4/28/1764 - 1/10/1811
French poet, dramatist, politician and revolutionary
75 Tobias Asser
4/28/1838 - 7/29/1913
Dutch jurist; won Nobel Prize for Peace (1911) for his role in The Hague treaties
58 Erich Salomon
4/28/1886 - 7/7/1944
German photographer; a founder of photojournalism
77 Johan Borgen
4/28/1902 - 10/16/1979
Norwegian novelist, dramatist, essayist and short-story writer
77 Bart Jan Bok
4/28/1906 - 8/7/1983
Dutch-born American astronomer; expert on the Milky Way
72 Kurt Godel
4/28/1906 - 1/14/1978
Austrian-born American mathematician and logician
77 Ferruccio Lamborghini
4/28/1916 - 2/20/1993
Italian car manufacturer
53 Carolyn Jones
4/28/1930 - 8/3/1983
American motion-picture, television and stage actress
1289 - Qala'un, the Sultan of Egypt, captured Tripoli.
1429 - Joan of Arc lead Orleans, France, to victory over Britain.
1661 - The Chinese Ming dynasty occupied Taiwan.
1672 - King Louis XIV of France invaded the Netherlands.
1813 - Rubber was patented by J.F. Hummel.
1852 - The first edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus was published.
1856 - A peace treaty was signed between England and Russia.
1858 - Austrian troops invaded Piedmont.
1861 - The Maryland House of Delegates voted against seceding from Union.
1862 - New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War.
1864 - Theta Xi was founded in Troy, New York.
1879 - In Cleveland, OH, electric arc lights were used for the first time.
1913 - Gideon Sundback patented an all-purpose zipper.
1916 - Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities in Dublin.
1918 - Germany's Western Front offensive ended in World War I.
1924 - An open revolt broke out in Santa Clara, Cuba.
1927 - Construction of the Spirit of St. Louis was completed for Lindbergh.
1941 - The Boston Bees agreed to change their name to the Braves.
1945 - The German Army in Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.
1945 - In a bunker in Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were married. Hitler designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor.
1945 - The Nazi death camp, Dachau, was liberated.
1946 - Twenty-eight former Japanese leaders were indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.
1952 - IBM President Thomas J. Watson, Jr., informed his company's stockholders that IBM was building "the most advanced, most flexible high-speed computer in the world." The computer was unveiled April 7, 1953, as the IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machine.
1954 - Ernest Borgnine made his network television debut in "Night Visitor" on NBC-TV.
1961 - ABC’s "Wide World of Sports" premiered.
1974 - Phil Donahue’s TV show, "Donahue" moved to Chicago, IL.
1974 - U.S. President Nixon announced he was releasing edited transcripts of secretly made White House tape recordings related to the Watergate scandal.
1975 - The U.S. embassy in Vietnam was evacuated as North Vietnamese forces fought their way into Saigon.
1981 - Steve Carlton, of the Philadelphia Phillies, became the first left-handed pitcher in the major leagues to get 3,000 career strikeouts.
1984 - In California, the Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor went online after a long delay due to protests.
1985 - Billy Martin was brought back, for the fourth time, to the position of manager for the New York Yankees.
1986 - Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox set a major-league baseball record by striking out 20 Seattle Mariner batters.
1988 - The Baltimore Orioles set a new major league baseball record by losing their first 21 games of the season.
1988 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised more religious freedom.
1990 - The destruction of the Berlin Wall began.
1992 - Exxon executive Sidney Reso was kidnapped outside his Morris Township, NJ, home by Arthur Seale. Seale was a former Exxon security official. Reso died while in captivity.
1992 - Rioting began after a jury decision to acquit four Los Angeles policemen in the Rodney King beating trial. 54 people were killed in 3 days.
1994 - Israel and the PLO signed an agreement in Paris which granted Palestinians broad authority to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
1996 - Former CIA Director William Colby was missing and presumed drowned after an apparent boating accident in Maryland. Colby's body was later recovered.
1997 - Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, a drill instructor at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, was convicted of raping six female trainees. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and was dishonorably discharged.
1997 - Astronaut Jerry Linenger and cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev went on the first U.S.-Russian space walk.
1998 - The U.S., Canada and Mexico end tariffs on $1 billion in NAFTA trade.
1998 - Brazil announced a plan to protect a large area of Amazon forest. The area was about the size of Colorado.
2002 - Kelsey Grammer and his production company, Grammnet Inc., were ordered to pay more than $2 million in unpaid commissions to his former talent agency.
2003 - Mr. T (Laurence Tureaud) filed a lawsuit against Best Buy Co. Inc., that claimed the store did not have permission to use his likeness in a print ad.
Current Birthdays
Uma Thurman turns 39 years old today.
92 Celeste Holm
Actress
81 Carl Gardner
R&B singer (The Coasters)
76 Keith Baxter
Actor
76 Rod McKuen
Poet
75 Luis Aparicio
Baseball Hall of Famer
75 Otis Rush
Blues musician
73 Zubin Mehta
Conductor
66 Duane Allen
Country singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)
62 Tommy James
Singer (The Shondells)
59 Phillip Noyce
Director
59 Debbie Stabenow
U.S. senator, D-Mich.
59 Wayne Secrest
Country musician (Confederate Railroad)
55 Jerry Seinfeld
Actor, comedian ("Seinfeld")
54 Leslie Jordan
Actor
54 Kate Mulgrew
Actress ("Star Trek: Voyager")
52 Daniel Day-Lewis
Actor
51 Michelle Pfeiffer
Actress
51 Eve Plumb
Actress ("The Brady Bunch")
49 Phil King
Rock musician
46 Stephanie Bentley
Country singer
45 Melody Barnes
Head of White House Domestic Policy Council
41 Carnie Wilson
Singer (Wilson Phillips)
39 Andre Agassi
Tennis player
39 Master P
Rapper
37 James Bonamy
Country singer
37 Erica Campbell
Gospel singer
36 Mike Hogan
Rock musician (The Cranberries)
31 Tyler Labine
Actor ("Reaper")
26 Tommie Harris
Football player
24 Zane Carney
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Hirohito
4/29/1901 - 1/7/1989
Japanese emperor ( 1926-89 )
62 Oliver Ellsworth
4/29/1745 - 11/26/1807
American senator, jurist and chief author of the Judiciary Act of 1789
63 Alexander II
4/29/1818 - 3/13/1881
Russian emperor (1855-81); emancipated the serfs in 1861
58 Henri Poincare
4/29/1854 - 7/17/1912
French mathematician, theoretical astronomer and scientific philosopher
88 William Randolph Hearst
4/29/1863 - 8/14/1951
American newspaper publisher
82 Sir Thomas Beecham
4/29/1879 - 3/8/1961
English conductor and impresario
88 Harold Urey
4/29/1893 - 1/5/1981
American Nobel-Prize winning chemist (1934); helped develop the atom bomb
72 Sir Malcolm Sargent
4/29/1895 - 10/3/1967
English orchestra conductor
75 Duke Ellington
4/29/1899 - 5/24/1974
American composer, bandleader and pianist; a founder of big-band jazz
90 Fred Zinnemann
4/29/1907 - 3/14/1997
Austrian-born American motion-picture director
72 George Allen
4/29/1918 - 12/31/1990
American professional football coach
marquis2
2009-04-29, 14:05
Sir Thomas Beecham once said to a lady cello player "Madam, you have God's gift between your legs and all you do is scratch it"
0030 - Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.
0313 - Licinius unified the whole of the eastern empire under his own rule.
1250 - King Louis IX of France was ransomed for one million dollars.
1527 - Henry VIII and King Francis of France signed the treaty of Westminster.
1563 - All Jews were expelled from France by order of Charles VI.
1725 - Spain withdrew from Quadruple Alliance.
1789 - George Washington took office as first elected U.S. president.
1803 - The U.S. purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million.
1812 - Louisiana admitted as the 18th U.S. state.
1849 - The republican patriot and guerrilla leader Giuseppe Garabaldi repulsed a French attack on Rome.
1864 - Work began on the Dams along the Red River. The work would allow Union General Nathaniel Banks' troops to sail over the rapids above Alexandria, Louisiana.
1889 - George Washington's inauguration became the first U.S. national holiday.
1900 - Hawaii was organized as an official U.S. territory.
1900 - Casey Jones was killed while trying to save the runaway train "Cannonball Express."
1930 - The Soviet Union proposed a military alliance with France and Great Britain.
1939 - The first railroad car equipped with fluorescent lights was put into service. The train car was known as the "General Pershing Zephyr."
1939 - Lou Gehrig played his last game with the New York Yankees.
1940 - Belle Martell was licensed in California by state boxing officials. She was the first American woman, prizefight referee.
1943 - The British submarine HMS Seraph dropped 'the man who never was,' a dead man the British planted with false invasion plans, into the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain.
1945 - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. They had been married for one day. One week later Germany surrendered unconditionally.
1945 - Arthur Godfrey began his CBS radio morning show "Arthur Godfrey Time." It ran until this day in 1972.
1947 - The name of Boulder Dam, in Nevada, was changed back to Hoover Dam.
1948 - The Organization of American States held its first meeting in Bogota, Colombia.
1953 - The British West Indian colonies agreed on the formation of the British Caribbean Federation that would eventually become a self-governing unit in the British Commonwealth.
1964 - The FCC ruled that all TV receivers should be equipped to receive both VHF and UHF channels.
1968 - U.S. Marines attacked a division of North Vietnamese in the village of Dai Do.
1970 - U.S. troops invaded Cambodia to disrupt North Vietnamese Army base areas. The announcement by U.S. President Nixon led to widespread protests.
1972 - The North Vietnamese launched an invasion of the South.
1973 - U.S. President Nixon announced resignation of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and other top aides.
1975 - Communists North Vietnamese troops entered the Independence Palace of South Vietnam in Saigon. 11 Marines lifted off of the U.S. Embassy were the last soldiers to evacuate.
1980 - Terrorists seized the Iranian Embassy in London.
1984 - U.S. President Reagan signed cultural and scientific agreements with China. He also signed a tax accord that would make it easier for American companies to operate in China.
1991 - An estimated 125,000 people were killed in a cyclone that hit Bangladesh.
1993 - Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a tennis match in Hamburg, Germany. The man called himself a fan of second- ranked Steffi Graf. He was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and received a suspended sentence.
1997 - ABC aired the "coming out" episode of the sitcom "Ellen." The title character, played by Ellen DeGeneres, admitted she was a lesbian.
1998 - NATO was expanded to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The three nations were formally admitted the following April at NATO's 50th anniversary summit.
1998 - United and Delta airlines announced their alliance that would give them control of 1/3 of all U.S. passenger seats.
1998 - In the U.S., Federal regulators fined a contractor $2.25 million for improper handling of oxygen canisters on ValuJet that crashed in the Florida Everglades in 1996.
2001 - Chandra Levy was last seen in Washington, DC. Her remains were found in Rock Creek Park on May 22, 2002. California Congressman Gary Condit was questioned in the case due to his relationship with Levy.
2002 - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was overwhelmingly approved for another five years as president.
Current Birthdays
Kirsten Dunst turns 27 years old today.
83 Cloris Leachman
Actress ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Phyllis")
76 Willie Nelson
Country singer
71 Gary Collins
Talk show host
69 Burt Young
Actor
66 Bobby Vee
Singer
65 Jill Clayburgh
Actress
61 Allan Arkush
Director
61 Perry King
Actor
56 Merrill Osmond
Singer (The Osmonds)
55 Jane Campion
Director ("The Piano")
50 Paul Gross
Actor
50 Stephen Harper
Prime minister of Canada
48 Isiah Thomas
Basketball Hall of Famer, New York Knicks coach
47 Robert Reynolds
Country musician (The Mavericks)
44 Adrian Pasdar
Actor ("Heroes")
42 Turbo B
Rapper (Snap)
40 Clark Vogeler
Rock musician
38 Chris "Choc" Dalyrimple
R&B singer (Soul for Real)
38 Chris Henderson
Rock musician (3 Doors Down)
38 Carolyn Dawn Johnson
Country singer
37 Lisa Dean Ryan
Actress
36 Akon
R&B singer
36 Jeff Timmons
R&B singer (98 Degrees)
34 Johnny Galecki
Actor ("The Big Bang Theory")
33 Cole Deggs
Country musician
27 Lloyd Banks
Rapper
25 Tyler Wilkinson
Country singer (The Wilkinsons)
Historic Birthdays
Theodore Schultz
4/30/1902 - 2/26/1998
American economist, Nobel Prize 1979
68 St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle
4/30/1651 - 4/7/1719
French philanthropist and founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools
87 David Thompson
4/30/1770 - 2/10/1857
English explorer and fur trader in western Canada and the United States
82 Eugen Bleuler
4/30/1857 - 7/15/1939
Swiss psychiatrist; pioneered study of schizophrenics
86 John Crowe Ransom
4/30/1888 - 7/4/1974
American poet and critic
53 Joachim von Ribbentrop
4/30/1893 - 10/16/1946
German foreign minister under the Nazi regime (1933-45)
84 Simon Kuznets
4/30/1901 - 7/8/1985
Russian-born American Nobel Prize-winning economist and statistician
82 Eve Arden
4/30/1908 - 11/12/1990
American radio and television actress
82 Vermont Royster
4/30/1914 - 7/22/1996
American journalist and editor of The Wall Street Journal
83 Robert Shaw
4/30/1916 - 1/25/1999
American choral and orchestra conductor
78 Franz Lehar
4/30/1870 - 10/24/1948
Hungarian composer; wrote "The Merry Widow"
0408 - Theodosius II succeeded to the throne of Constantinople.
1308 - King Albert was murdered by his nephew John, because he refused his share of the Habsburg lands.
1486 - Christopher Columbus convinced Queen Isabella to fund an expedition to the West Indies.
1707 - England, Wales and Scotland were united to form Great Britain.
1751 - America’s first cricket tournament was held in New York City.
1805 - The state of Virginia passed a law requiring all freed slaves to leave the state, or risk either imprisonment or deportation.
1863 - In Virginia, the Battle of Chancellorsville began. General Robert E. Lee's forces began fighting with Union troops under General Joseph Hooker. Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by his own soldiers in this battle. (May 1-4)
1867 - Reconstruction in the South began with black voter registration.
1877 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew all Federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.
1883 - William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) had his first Wild West Show.
1884 - The construction of the firt American 10-story building began in Chicago, IL.
1898 - The U.S. Navy under Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines.
1905 - In New York, radium was tested as a cure for cancer.
1912 - In London's Kensington Gardens, a statue of Peter Pan was erected.
1915 - A German submarine sank the U.S. ship Gulflight.
1922 - Charlie Robertson of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect no-hit, no-run game against the Detroit Tigers. The Sox won 3-0. Another perfect game did not come along until 46 years later.
1927 - Adolf Hitler held his first Nazi meeting in Berlin.
1931 - The Empire State Building in New York was dedicated and opened. It was 102 stories tall and was the tallest building in the world at the time.
1934 - The Philippine legislature accepted a U.S. proposal for independence.
1937 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an act of neutrality, keeping the United States out of World War II.
1941 - "Citizen Kane," directed and starring Orson Welles, premiered in New York.
1944 - The Messerschmitt Me 262, the first combat jet, made its first flight.
1945 - Martin Bormann, private secretary to Adolf Hitler, escaped from the Fuehrerbunker as the Red Army advanced on Berlin.
1945 - Admiral Karl Doenitz succeeded Hitler as leader of the Third Reich. This was one day after Hitler committed suicide.
1948 - The People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was proclaimed.
1950 - Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for her book of poetry called Annie Allen.
1958 - James Van Allen reported that two radiation belts encircled Earth.
1960 - Francis Gary Powers' U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Powers was taken prisoner.
1961 - Fidel Castro announced there would be no more elections in Cuba.
1967 - Anastasio Somoza Debayle became president of Nicaragua.
1968 - In the second day of battle, U.S. Marines, with the support of naval fire, continue their attack on a North Vietnamese Division at Dai Do.
1969 - Leonard Tose bought the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles for $16,155,000.
1970 - Students at Kent State University riot in downtown Kent, OH, in protest of the American invasion of Cambodia.
1971 - The National Railroad Passenger Copr. (Amtrak) went into service. It was established by the U.S. Congress to run the nation's intercity railroads.
1986 - The Tass News Agency reported the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident.
1986 - Bill Elliott set a stock car speed record with his Ford Thunderbird in Talladega, AL. Elliott reached a speed of 212.229 mph.
1989 - Disney-MGM Studios opened.
1992 - On the third day of the Los Angeles riots resulting from the Rodney King beating trial. King appeared in public to appeal for calm, he asked, "Can we all get along?"
1998 - Arrow Air was fined $5 million for using spare parts that lacked federal approval in the U.S.
1999 - On Mount Everest, a group of U.S. mountain climbers discovered the body of George Mallory. Mallory had died in June of 1924 while trying to become the first person to reach the summit of Everest. At the time of the discovery it was unclear whether or not Mallory had actually reached the summit.
2000 - ABC aired the first celebrity "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
2000 - The "Barbie for President" doll was released in stores.
2001 - In Washington, DC, Chandra Levy disappeared. She was an intern at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. California Representative Gary Condit was named in the investigation. Her body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.
Current Birthdays
Judy Collins turns 70 years old today.
84 Chuck Bednarik
Football Hall of Famer
84 Scott Carpenter
Former astronaut
80 Sonny James
Country singer
67 Stephen Macht
Actor
64 Rita Coolidge
Singer
63 Nick Fortuna
Rock musician (The Buckinghams)
60 Douglas Barr
Actor, director
58 Dann Florek
Actor ("Law and Order: SVU")
55 Ray Parker Jr.
R&B singer
47 Maia Morgenstern
Actress
44 Wayne Hancock
Country singer
43 Charlie Schlatter
Actor
42 Tim McGraw
Country singer
41 Johnny Colt
Rock musician (Train)
41 D'Arcy
Rock musician (Smashing Pumpkins)
40 Wes Anderson
Director
37 Julie Benz
Actress ("Dexter," "Angel")
37 Cory Morrow
Country singer
36 Curtis Martin
Football player
35 Tina Campbell
R&B singer (Mary Mary)
33 Darius McCrary
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Kate Smith
5/1/1907 - 6/17/1986
American radio and television singer
47 Joseph Addison
5/1/1672 - 6/17/1719
English essayist, poet and dramatist
56 Benjamin Latrobe
5/1/1764 - 9/3/1820
British-born American architect and civil engineer
83 Arthur Wellesley
5/1/1769 - 9/14/1852
English general; defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (1815)
48 Jose Alencar
5/1/1829 - 12/12/1877
Brazilian journalist, novelist and playwright
100 Mary Harris Jones
5/1/1830 - 11/30/1930
American labor organizer known as "Mother Jones"
87 Cecilia Beaux
5/1/1855 - 9/17/1942
American portrait painter
73 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
5/1/1881 - 4/10/1955
French philosopher and paleontologist
87 Mark Clark
5/1/1896 - 4/17/1984
American army general during World War II and the Korean War
93 Eugene Black
5/1/1898 - 2/20/1992
American financier; president of the World Bank (1949-62)
60 Winthrop Rockefeller
5/1/1912 - 2/22/1973
American philanthropist and governor of Arkansas (1967-71)
71 Terry Southern
5/1/1924 - 10/29/1995
American novelist and screenwriter
1519 - Leonardo da Vinci died.
1670 - The Hudson Bay Company was founded by England's King Charles II.
1776 - France and Spain agreed to donate arms to American rebels fighting the British.
1797 - A mutiny in the British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.
1798 - The black General Toussaint L’ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacuate the port of Santo Domingo.
1808 - The citizens of Madrid rose up against Napoleon.
1813 - Napoleon defeated a Russian and Prussian army at Grossgorschen.
1853 - Franconi’s Hippodrome opened at Broadway and 23rd Street in New York City.
1863 - Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was wounded by his own men in the battle of Chancellorsville, VA. He died 8 days later.
1865 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson offered $100,000 reward for the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
1885 - The Congo Free State was established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
1885 - "Good Housekeeping" was first published.
1887 - Hannibal W. Goodwin applied for a patent on celluloid photographic film. This is the film from which movies are shown.
1890 - The Oklahoma Territory was organized.
1902 - "A Trip To The Moon," the first science fiction film was released. It was created by magician George Melies.
1919 - The first U.S. air passenger service started.
1922 - WBAP-AM bean broadcasting in north Texas.
1926 - In India, Hindu women gained the right to seek elected office.
1926 - U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua to put down a revolt and to protect U.S. interests. They did not depart until 1933.
1932 - Jack Benny's first radio show debuted on NBC Radio.
1933 - Hitler banned trade unions in Germany.
1939 - Lou Gehrig set a new major league baseball record when he played in his 2,130th game. The streak began on June 1, 1925.
1941 - Hostilities broke out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s pro-German faction.
1941 - The Federal Communications Commission agreed to let regular scheduling of TV broadcasts by commercial TV stations begin on July 1, 1941. This was the start of network television.
1945 - Russians took Berlin after 12 days of fierce house-to-house fighting. The Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria.
1946 - Prisoners revolted at California's Alcatraz prison.
1954 - Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals set a new major league record when he hit 5 home runs against the New York Giants.
1960 - Caryl Chessman was executed. He was a convicted sex offender and had become a best selling author while on death row.
1965 - The "Early Bird" satellite was used to transmit television pictures across the Atlantic.
1970 - Student anti-war protesters at Ohio's Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard took control of the campus.
1974 - Former U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
1974 - The filming of "Jaws" began in Martha's Vineyard, MA.
1982 - The British submarine HMS Conqueror sank Argentina's only cruiser, the General Belgrano during the Falkland Islands War. More than 350 people died.
1993 - At Washington's National Gallery of Art, an exhibit of 80 paintings from the collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes opened.
1993 - Authorities said that they had recovered the remains of David Koresh from the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, TX.
1994 - Nelson Mandela claimed victory after South Africa's first democratic elections.
1999 - In Panama, Mireya Moscoso de Grubar, of the Armulfista Party, was elected president.
2002 - It was reported that Phyllis Diller had retired from touring.
Current Birthdays
Christine Baranski turns 57 years old today
85 Theodore Bikel
Actor
73 Engelbert Humperdinck
Singer
64 R.C. Bannon
Country singer
64 Bianca Jagger
Actress
63 Lesley Gore
Singer
63 David Suchet
Actor
61 Larry Gatlin
Country singer
59 Lou Gramm
Rock singer (Foreigner)
55 Angela Bofill
R&B singer
49 Steven Daldry
Director ("The Reader," "The Hours")
47 Elizabeth Berridge
Actress
47 Ty Herndon
Country singer
40 Todd Sucherman
Rock musician (Styx)
37 Dwayne Johnson
Actor, wrestler
34 David Beckham
Soccer player
32 Jenna Von Oy
Actress
26 Gaius Charles
Actor ("Friday Night Lights")
24 Lily Allen
Singer
24 Sarah Hughes
Figure skater
23 Jim Almgren
Rock musician (Carolina Liar)
19 Kay Panabaker
Actress
Benjamin Spock
5/2/1903 - 3/15/1998
American pediatrician; wrote influential child-rearing books
65 Alessandro Scarlatti
5/2/1660 - 10/24/1725
Italian composer
67 Catherine II
5/2/1729 - 11/17/1796
German-born empress of Russia (1762-96)
86 Henry Martyn Robert
5/2/1837 - 5/11/1923
American army officer; author of "Robert's Rules of Order"
72 Antonio Maura
5/2/1853 - 12/13/1925
Spanish statesman; prime minister five times between 1903 and 1922
44 Theodor Herzl
5/2/1860 - 7/3/1904
Hungarian journalist; first president of the World Zionist Organization
92 James F. Byrnes
5/2/1879 - 4/9/1972
American politician; secretary of state (1945-7)
30 Vernon Castle
5/2/1887 - 2/15/1918
English-born American dancer
25 Manfred Richthofen
5/2/1892 - 4/21/1918
German fighter pilot in World War I; known as the "Red Baron"
48 Lorenz Hart
5/2/1895 - 11/22/1943
American lyricist
73 Axel Springer
5/2/1912 - 9/22/1985
German publisher; Alex Springer Verlag AG publishing house
70 Satyajit Ray
5/2/1921 - 4/23/1992
Bengali motion-picture director, writer and illustrator
1568 - French forces in Florida slaughtered hundreds of Spanish.
1802 - Washington, DC, was incorporated as a city.
1855 - Macon B. Allen became the first African American to be admitted to the Bar in Massachusetts.
1859 - France declared war on Austria.
1888 - Thomas Edison organized the Edison Phonograph Works.
1916 - Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others were executed by the British for their roles in the Easter Rising.
1921 - West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.
1926 - The revival of Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" opened in New York.
1926 - U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua and stayed until 1933.
1926 - In Britain, trade unions began a general strike.
1927 - Francis E.J. Wilde of Meadowmere Park, NY, patented the electric sign flasher.
1933 - The U.S. Mint was under the direction of a woman for the first time when Nellie Ross took the position.
1937 - Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer Prize for "Gone With The Wind."
1944 - Wartime rationing of most grades of meats ended in the U.S.
1944 - Dr. Robert Woodward and Dr. William Doering produced the first synthetic quinine at Harvard University.
1945 - Indian forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.
1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities were legally unenforceable.
1952 - The first airplane landed at the geographic North Pole.
1966 - The game "Twister" was featured on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.
1968 - After three days of battle, the U.S. Marines retook Dai Do complex in Vietnam. They found that the North Vietnamese had evacuated the area.
1971 - Anti-war protesters began four days of demonstrations in Washington, DC.
1971 - National Public Radio broadcast for the first time.
1971 - James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King's assassin, was caught in a jailbreak attempt.
1986 - In NASA's first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket lost power in its main engine shortly after liftoff. Safety officers destroyed it by remote control.
1988 - The White House acknowledged that first lady Nancy Reagan had used astrological advice to help schedule her husband's activities.
1992 - Five days of rioting and looting ended in Los Angeles, CA. The riots, that killed 53 people, began after the acquittal of police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
1997 - The "Republic of Texas" surrendered to authorities ending an armed standoff where two people were held hostage. The group asserts the independence of Texas from the U.S.
1998 - "The Sevres Road," by 18-century landscape painter Camille Corot, stolen from the Louvre in France.
1999 - Mark Manes, at age 22, was arrested for supplying a gun to Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold, who later killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado.
1999 - Hasbro released the first collection of toys for the Star Wars movie "Episode I: The Phantom Menace."
1999 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 11,000 for the first time.
2000 - The trial of two Libyans accused of killing 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 (over Lockerbie) opened.
2006 - In Alexandria, VA, Al-Quaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was given a sentence of life in prison for his role in the terrorist attack on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.
Current Birthdays
Joseph Addai turns 26 years old today.
90 Pete Seeger
Folk singer
83 Ann B. Davis
Actress ("The Brady Bunch")
75 Frankie Valli
Singer (The Four Seasons)
67 C.L. "Butch" Otter
Governor of Idaho
66 Jim Risch
U.S. senator, R-Idaho
63 Greg Gumbel
Sports announcer
60 Ron Wyden
U.S. senator, D-Ore.
59 Mary Hopkin
Singer
58 Christopher Cross
Singer
52 Cactus Moser
Country musician (Highway 101)
50 David Ball
Rock musician (Soft Cell)
48 David Vitter
U.S. senator, R-La.
41 Shane Minor
Country singer
39 Bobby Cannavale
Actor ("Cupid," "Third Watch")
38 Damon Dash
Actor, producer
38 John Hopkins
Country musician (Zac Brown Band)
38 John Neff
Country musician (Drive-By Truckers)
36 Brad Martin
Country singer
34 Dule' Hill
Actor ("The West Wing")
32 Eric Church
Country singer
25 Cheryl Burke
Dancer ("Dancing with the Stars")
19 Jill Berard
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Golda Meir
5/3/1898 - 12/8/1978
Russian-born Zionist; fourth prime minister of Israel
58 Niccolo Machiavelli
5/3/1469 - 6/21/1527
Italian writer, statesman and political theorist
56 Richard D'Oyly Carte
5/3/1844 - 4/3/1901
English impresario; founded the Savoy Theatre
84 E. W. Howe
5/3/1853 - 10/3/1937
American editor, essayist and novelist
80 Vito Volterra
5/3/1860 - 10/11/1940
Italian mathematician
85 Marcel Dupre
5/3/1886 - 5/30/1971
French organ virtuoso and influential teacher
83 Sir George Paget Thomson
5/3/1892 - 9/10/1975
English Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1937)
89 Septima P. Clark
5/3/1898 - 12/15/1987
American educator and civil rights activist
74 Bing Crosby
5/3/1903 - 10/14/1977
American singer, actor and songwriter
83 May Sarton
5/3/1912 - 7/16/1995
American poet, novelist and essayist
60 William Inge
5/3/1913 - 6/10/1973
American playwright; awarded Pulitzer Prize for "Picnic" in 1953
67 Sugar Ray Robinson
5/3/1921 - 4/12/1989
American boxer; world champion six times between 1946 and 1960
thebear247
2009-05-03, 14:29
you must of really paid attention in history class
1471 - In England, the Yorkists defeated the Landcastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury in the War of the Roses.
1493 - Alexander VI divided non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal.
1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on Manhattan Island. Native Americans later sold the island (20,000 acres) for $24 in cloth and buttons.
1715 - A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella.
1776 - Rhode Island declared its freedom from England two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
1795 - Thousands of rioters entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacre 99 Jacobin prisoners.
1814 - Napoleon Bonaparte disembarked at Portoferraio on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1863 - The Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated.
1886 - Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter patented the gramophone. It was the first practical phonograph.
1905 - Belmont Park opened in suburban Long Island. It opened as the largest race track in the world.
1916 - Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare after a demand from U.S. President Wilson.
1930 - Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by the British.
1932 - Al Capone entered the Atlanta Penitentiary federal prison for income-tax evasion.
1942 - The Battle of the Coral Sea commenced as American and Japanese carriers launched their attacks at each other.
1942 - The United States began food rationing.
1946 - A two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended. Five people were killed.
1954 - The first intercollegiate court tennis match was played in the U.S. It was between Yale and Princeton.
1961 - Thirteen civil rights activists, dubbed "Freedom Riders," began a bus trip through the South.
1964 - "Another World" premiered on NBC-TV.
1970 - The Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students during an anti-Vietnam war protest at Kent State University. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded.
1979 - Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first woman prime minister.
1987 - Live models were used for the first time in Playtex bra ads.
1989 - Oliver North, a former White House aide was convicted of shredding documents and two other crimes. He was acquitted of nine other charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair. The three convictions were later overturned on appeal.
1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
1998 - Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, CA. The sentence was under a plea agreement that spared Kaczynski the death penalty.
1999 - Several severe tornadoes hit the Midwest U.S. overnight. At least 45 people were killed.
1999 - Manuel Babbitt was executed for killing Leah Schendel in 1980. Babbitt had received a purple heart for his injuries in Vietnam while on death row.
2000 - Londoners elected their mayor for the first time.
2003 - Idaho Gem was born. He was the first member of the horse family to be cloned.
Current Birthdays
Richard Jenkins turns 62 years old today.
81 Hosni Mubarak
President of Egypt
79 Roberta Peters
Opera singer
72 Ron Carter
Jazz bassist
72 Dick Dale
Rock musician
68 George F. Will
Columnist
67 Nick Ashford
Singer, songwriter (Ashford and Simpson)
65 Peggy Santiglia
Singer
60 Stella Parton
Country singer
59 Hilly Hicks
Actor, minister
59 Darryl Hunt
Rock musician (The Pogues)
58 Jackie Jackson
Singer
56 Oleta Adams
R&B singer
50 Randy Travis
Country singer
48 Mary McDonough
Actress ("The Waltons")
42 Ana Gasteyer
Comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
39 Will Arnett
Actor
39 Dawn Staley
College basketball coach
37 Mike Dirnt
Rock musician (Green Day)
37 Chris Tomlin
Singer
34 Kimora Lee Simmons
TV personality, fashion designer
32 Jose Castellanos
Trumpeter
30 Lance Bass
Singer ('N Sync)
15 Alexander Gould
Actor ("Weeds," "Finding Nemo")
Historic Birthdays
Frank Conrad
5/4/1874 - 12/11/1941
American engineer; helped establish the first commercial radio station
75 Bartolomeo Cristofori
5/4/1655 - 1/27/1731
Italian harpsichord maker; credited with the invention of the piano
63 Horace Mann
5/4/1796 - 8/2/1859
American educator and philanthropist
73 Sir William Cooke
5/4/1806 - 6/25/1879
English inventor; helped develop electric telegraphy
69 Julia Tyler
5/4/1820 - 7/10/1889
American wife of President John Tyler
70 T. H. Huxley
5/4/1825 - 6/29/1895
English biologist and educator
64 A. Mitchell Palmer
5/4/1872 - 5/11/1936
American attorney general (1919-21); helped touch off the "Red Scare" of 1919-20
71 Fritz von Opel
5/4/1899 - 4/8/1971
German automotive industrialist
88 Lincoln Kirstein
5/4/1907 - 1/5/1996
American dance impresario; director of the New York City Ballet (1948-89)
80 Emmanuel Robles
5/4/1914 - 2/22/1995
Algerian-French novelist and playwright
63 Audrey Hepburn
5/4/1929 - 1/20/1993
Belgian-born motion-picture and stage actress
Skyraider22
2009-05-04, 22:20
1471 - In England, the Yorkists defeated the Landcastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury in the War of the Roses.
1493 - Alexander VI divided non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal.
1626 - Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on Manhattan Island. Native Americans later sold the island (20,000 acres) for $24 in cloth and buttons.
1715 - A French manufacturer debuted the first folding umbrella.
1776 - Rhode Island declared its freedom from England two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
1795 - Thousands of rioters entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacre 99 Jacobin prisoners.
1814 - Napoleon Bonaparte disembarked at Portoferraio on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1863 - The Battle of Chancellorsville ended when the Union Army retreated.
1886 - Chichester Bell and Charles S. Tainter patented the gramophone. It was the first practical phonograph.
1905 - Belmont Park opened in suburban Long Island. It opened as the largest race track in the world.
1916 - Germany agreed to limit its submarine warfare after a demand from U.S. President Wilson.
1930 - Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by the British.
1932 - Al Capone entered the Atlanta Penitentiary federal prison for income-tax evasion.
1942 - The Battle of the Coral Sea commenced as American and Japanese carriers launched their attacks at each other.
1942 - The United States began food rationing.
1946 - A two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay ended. Five people were killed.
1954 - The first intercollegiate court tennis match was played in the U.S. It was between Yale and Princeton.
1961 - Thirteen civil rights activists, dubbed "Freedom Riders," began a bus trip through the South.
1964 - "Another World" premiered on NBC-TV.
1970 - The Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students during an anti-Vietnam war protest at Kent State University. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded.
1979 - Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first woman prime minister.
1987 - Live models were used for the first time in Playtex bra ads.
1989 - Oliver North, a former White House aide was convicted of shredding documents and two other crimes. He was acquitted of nine other charges stemming from the Iran-Contra affair. The three convictions were later overturned on appeal.
1994 - Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
1998 - Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was given four life sentences plus 30 years by a federal judge in Sacramento, CA. The sentence was under a plea agreement that spared Kaczynski the death penalty.
1999 - Several severe tornadoes hit the Midwest U.S. overnight. At least 45 people were killed.
1999 - Manuel Babbitt was executed for killing Leah Schendel in 1980. Babbitt had received a purple heart for his injuries in Vietnam while on death row.
2000 - Londoners elected their mayor for the first time.
2003 - Idaho Gem was born. He was the first member of the horse family to be cloned.
Current Birthdays
Richard Jenkins turns 62 years old today.
81 Hosni Mubarak
President of Egypt
79 Roberta Peters
Opera singer
72 Ron Carter
Jazz bassist
72 Dick Dale
Rock musician
68 George F. Will
Columnist
67 Nick Ashford
Singer, songwriter (Ashford and Simpson)
65 Peggy Santiglia
Singer
60 Stella Parton
Country singer
59 Hilly Hicks
Actor, minister
59 Darryl Hunt
Rock musician (The Pogues)
58 Jackie Jackson
Singer
56 Oleta Adams
R&B singer
50 Randy Travis
Country singer
48 Mary McDonough
Actress ("The Waltons")
42 Ana Gasteyer
Comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
39 Will Arnett
Actor
39 Dawn Staley
College basketball coach
37 Mike Dirnt
Rock musician (Green Day)
37 Chris Tomlin
Singer
34 Kimora Lee Simmons
TV personality, fashion designer
32 Jose Castellanos
Trumpeter
30 Lance Bass
Singer ('N Sync)
15 Alexander Gould
Actor ("Weeds," "Finding Nemo")
Historic Birthdays
Frank Conrad
5/4/1874 - 12/11/1941
American engineer; helped establish the first commercial radio station
75 Bartolomeo Cristofori
5/4/1655 - 1/27/1731
Italian harpsichord maker; credited with the invention of the piano
63 Horace Mann
5/4/1796 - 8/2/1859
American educator and philanthropist
73 Sir William Cooke
5/4/1806 - 6/25/1879
English inventor; helped develop electric telegraphy
69 Julia Tyler
5/4/1820 - 7/10/1889
American wife of President John Tyler
70 T. H. Huxley
5/4/1825 - 6/29/1895
English biologist and educator
64 A. Mitchell Palmer
5/4/1872 - 5/11/1936
American attorney general (1919-21); helped touch off the "Red Scare" of 1919-20
71 Fritz von Opel
5/4/1899 - 4/8/1971
German automotive industrialist
88 Lincoln Kirstein
5/4/1907 - 1/5/1996
American dance impresario; director of the New York City Ballet (1948-89)
80 Emmanuel Robles
5/4/1914 - 2/22/1995
Algerian-French novelist and playwright
63 Audrey Hepburn
5/4/1929 - 1/20/1993
Belgian-born motion-picture and stage actress
Alright Minidog The battle of the Coral Sea would ld to one of my favorite battle stories The Battle of Midway.:thumbsup:
1494 - Christopher Columbus sighted Jamaica on his second trip to the Western Hemisphere. He named the island Santa Gloria.
1798 - U.S. Secretary of War William McHenry ordered that the USS Constitution be made ready for sea. The frigate was launched on October 21, 1797, but had never been put to sea.
1809 - Mary Kies was awarded the first patent to go to a woman. It was for technique for weaving straw with silk and thread.
1814 - The British attack the American forces at Ft. Ontario, Oswego, NY.
1821 - Napoleon Bonaparte died on the island of St. Helena, where he had been in exile.
1834 - The first mainland railway line opened in Belgium.
1847 - The AMA (American Medical Association) was organized in Philadelphia, PA.
1862 - The Battle of Puebla took place. It is celebrated as Cinco de Mayo Day.
1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery in the U.S.
1886 - A bomb exploded on the fourth day of a workers' strike in Chicago, IL.
1891 - Music Hall was dedicated in New York City. It was later renamed Carnegie Hall.
1892 - The U.S. Congress extended the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act for 10 more years. The act required Chinese in the U.S. to be registered or face deportation.
1901 - The first Catholic mass for night workers was held at the Church of St. Andrew in New York City.
1904 - The third perfect game of the major leagues was thrown by Cy Young (Boston Red Sox) against the Philadelphia Athletics. It was the first perfect game under modern rules.
1912 - Soviet Communist Party newspaper Pravda began publishing.
1916 - U.S. Marines invaded the Dominican Republic.
1917 - Eugene Jacques Bullard becomes the first African-American aviator when he earned his flying certificate with the French Air Service.
1920 - Anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested for murder.
1925 - John T. Scopes, a biology teacher in Dayton, TN, was arrested for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
1926 - Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was shown in Germany for the first time.
1926 - Sinclair Lewis refused a 1925 Pulitzer for "Arrowsmith."
1936 - Edward Ravenscroft received a patent for the screw-on bottle cap with a pour lip.
1942 - General Joseph Stilwell learned that the Japanese had cut his railway out of China and was forced to lead his troops into India.
1945 - The Netherlands and Denmark were liberated from Nazi control.
1945 - A Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon. A pregnant woman was killed in the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II.
1955 - "Damn Yankees" opened on Broadway.
1955 - The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) became a sovereign state.
1956 - Jim Bailey became the first runner to break the four-minute mile in the U.S. He was clocked at 3:58.5.
1961 - Alan Shepard became the first American in space when he made a 15 minute suborbital flight.
1966 - Willie Mays broke the National League record for home runs when he hit his 512th.
1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds registered his 3,000th major league hit.
1981 - Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands died at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. It was his 66th day without food.
1987 - The U.S. congressional Iran-Contra hearings opened.
1991 - In New York, Carnegie Hall marked its 100th anniversary.
1994 - Michael Fay was caned in Singapore for vandalism. He received four lashes.
1997 - Dolores Hope received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1997 - Ivan Reitman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2000 - The final episode of "Boy Meets World" aired on ABC.
Current Birthdays
Brian Williams turns 50 years old today.
82 Pat Carroll
Actress
75 Ace Cannon
Rock musician
75 John Sweeney
AFL-CIO president
71 Michael Murphy
Actor
71 Roni Stoneman
Country singer
69 Lance Henriksen
Actor
66 Michael Palin
Actor, comedian (Monty Python)
65 Roger Rees
Actor, director
65 John Rhys-Davies
Actor
64 Kurt Loder
Music journalist (MTV)
61 Bill Ward
Rock musician (Black Sabbath)
52 Richard E. Grant
Actor
51 John Miller
Assistant FBI director, former journalist
50 Ian McCulloch
Rock singer (Echo and the Bunnymen)
43 Shawn Drover
Rock musician (Megadeth)
39 Kyan Douglas
TV personality ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy")
36 Tina Yothers
Actress ("Family Ties")
30 Vincent Kartheiser
Actor ("Mad Men")
28 Craig David
Rock singer
28 Danielle Fishel
Actress ("Boys Meet World")
26 Henry Cavill
Actor ("The Tudors")
21 Adele
Soul singer
21 Skye Sweetnam
Rock singer
20 Chris Brown
R&B singer
Historic Birthdays
Nellie Bly
5/5/1864 - 1/27/1922
American journalist and adventurer
77 Arthur L. Schawlow
5/5/1921 - 4/28/1999
American Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1981)
44 Leopold II
5/5/1747 - 3/1/1792
Holy Roman emperor (1790-92)
79 Frederick Barnard
5/5/1809 - 4/27/1889
American president of Columbia College (1864-1889)
42 Soren Kierkegaard
5/5/1813 - 11/11/1855
Danish religious philosopher
64 Karl Marx
5/5/1818 - 3/14/1883
German political philosopher and economist; wrote "The Communist Manifesto"
85 Hubert Howe Bancroft
5/5/1832 - 3/2/1918
American historian of the American West
60 Peter Cooper Hewitt
5/5/1861 - 8/25/1921
American electrical engineer; invented the mercury-vapor lamp
66 Christopher Morley
5/5/1890 - 3/28/1957
American novelist and columnist for the Saturday Review (1924-41)
76 Dorothy Garrod
5/5/1892 - 12/18/1968
English archaeologist
82 Sir Gordon Richards
5/5/1904 - 11/10/1986
English jockey and racehorse trainer
44 Tyrone Power
5/5/1914 - 11/15/1958
American motion-picture and stage actor
1527 - German troops began sacking Rome, bringing about the end of the Renaissance.
1529 - Babur defeated the Afghan Chiefs in the Battle of Ghagra, India.
1576 - The peace treaty of Chastenoy ended the fifth war of religion.
1682 - King Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, France.
1835 - James Gordon Bennett published the "New York Herald" for the first time.
1840 - The first adhesive postage stamps went on sale in Great Britain.
1851 - The mechanical refrigerator was patented by Dr. John Gorrie.
1851 - Linus Yale patented the clock-type lock.
1861 - Arkansas became the ninth state to secede from the Union.
1877 - Chief Crazy Horse surrendered to U.S. troops in Nebraska.
1882 - The U.S. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act barred Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for 10 years.
1889 - The Universal Exposition opened in Paris, France, marking the dedication of the Eiffel Tower. Also at the exposition was the first automobile in Paris, the Mercedes-Benz.
1910 - Kind Edward VII of England died. He was succeeded by his second son, George V.
1915 - Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run while playing for the Boston Red Sox.
1937 - The German airship Hindenburg crashed and burned in Lakehurst, NJ. Thirty-six people (of the 97 on board) were killed.
1941 - Joseph Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership.
1941 - Bob Hope gave his first USO show at California's March Field.
1942 - During World War II, the Japanese seized control of the Philippines. About 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese.
1945 - Axis Sally made her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
1946 - The New York Yankees became the first major league baseball team to travel by plane.
1954 - British runner Roger Banister broke the four minute mile.
1957 - U.S. Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Profiles in Courage".
1959 - The Pablo Picasso painting of a Dutch girl was sold for $154,000 in London. It was the highest price paid (at the time) for a painting by a living artist.
1960 - Britain's Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong Jones. They were divorced in 1978.
1960 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
1962 - The first nuclear warhead was fired from the Polaris submarine.
1981 - A jury of international architects and sculptors unanimously selected Maya Ying Lin's entry for the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1994 - The Chunnel officially opened. The tunnel under the English Channel links England and France.
1994 - Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against U.S. President Clinton. The case alleged that he had sexually harassed her in 1991.
1997 - Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson was sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping six trainees at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
1997 - Four health-care companies agreed to a settlement of $600 million to hemophiliacs who had contracted AIDS from tainted blood between 1978-1985.
1999 - Britain's Labour Party won the largest number of seats in the first elections for Scotland's new Parliament and Wales' new Assembly.
1999 - A parole board in New York voted to release Amy Fisher. She had been in jail for 7 years for shooting her lover's wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face.
2001 - Chandra Levy's parents reported her missing to police in Washington, DC. Levy's body was found on May 22, 2002 in Rock Creek Park.
Current Birthdays
George Clooney turns 48 years old today.
78 Willie Mays
Baseball Hall of Famer
75 Richard Shelby
U.S. senator, R-Ala.
64 Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Singer
64 Bob Seger
Rock musician
62 Alan Dale
Actor
62 Ben Masters
Actor
57 Gregg Henry
Actor
56 Tony Blair
Former British prime minister
54 Tom Bergeron
TV host ("Dancing with the Stars")
49 Roma Downey
Actress ("Touched by an Angel")
49 John Flansburgh
Rock singer (They Might Be Giants)
45 Tony Scalzo
Rock musician (Fastball)
44 Leslie Hope
Actress
42 Mark Bryan
Rock musician (Hootie and the Blowfish)
38 Chris Shiflett
Rock musician (Foo Fighters)
37 Martin Brodeur
Hockey player
26 Adrianne Palicki
Actress ("Friday Night Lights")
Historic Birthdays
Orson Welles
5/6/1915 - 10/10/1985
American movie actor, director, producer and writer
36 Maximilien Robespierre
5/6/1758 - 7/28/1794
French Jacobin leader and a principal figure in the French Revolution
89 Abraham Jacobi
5/6/1830 - 7/10/1919
German-born physician and pioneer in the field of pediatric medicine
83 Sigmund Freud
5/6/1856 - 9/23/1939
Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis
63 Robert Peary
5/6/1856 - 2/20/1920
American arctic explorer; led the first expedition to the North Pole
79 John McCutcheon
5/6/1870 - 6/10/1949
American newspaper cartoonist and writer
84 William Leahy
5/6/1875 - 7/20/1959
American admiral; chief of staff during World War II
58 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
5/6/1880 - 6/15/1938
German Expressionist painter and printmaker
78 Stanley Morison
5/6/1889 - 10/11/1967
English typographer and scholar
31 Rudolph Valentino
5/6/1895 - 8/23/1926
Italian-born American silent screen actor
75 Lew Christensen
5/6/1909 - 10/9/1984
American dancer, teacher and choreographer
71 Theodore H. White
5/6/1915 - 5/15/1986
American journalist, historian and novelist
0558 - The dome of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople collapsed. It was immediately rebuilt as ordered by Justinian.
1274 - The Second Council of Lyons opened in France to regulate the election of the pope.
1429 - The English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc.
1525 - The German peasants' revolt was crushed by the ruling class and church.
1663 - The first Theatre Royal was opened in London.
1763 - Indian chief Pontiac began all out war on the British in New York.
1789 - The first U.S. Presidential Inaugural Ball was held in New York City.
1800 - The U.S. Congress divided the Northwest Territory into two parts. The western part became the Indiana Territory and the eastern section remained the Northwest Territory.
1847 - The AMA (American Medical Association) was founded in Philadelphia.
1898 - The first Intercollegiate Trapshooting Association meet was held in New Haven, CT.
1912 - Columbia University approved final plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories.
1912 - The first airplane equipped with a machine gun flew over College Park, MD.
1915 - The Lusitania, a civilian ship, was sunk by a German submarine. 1,198 people were killed.
1926 - A U.S. report showed that one-third of the nation's exports were motors.
1937 - The German Condor Legion arrived in Spain to assist Franco’s forces.
1939 - Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1940 - Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.
1942 - In the Battle of the Coral Sea, Japanese and American navies attacked each other with carrier planes. It was the first time in the history of naval warfare where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other.
1943 - The last major German strongholds in North Africa, Tunis and Bizerte, fell to Allied forces.
1945 - Baseball owner Branch Rickey announced the organization of the United States Negro Baseball League. There were 6 teams.
1945 - Germany signed unconditional surrender ending World War II. It would take effect the next day.
1946 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp. was founded. The company was later renamed Sony.
1951 - Russia was admitted to participate in the 1952 Olympic Games by the International Olympic Committee.
1954 - French Colonial Forces surrendered to the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu after 55 days of fighting.
1954 - The United States and the United Kingdom rejected the Soviet Union's bid to join NATO.
1958 - Howard Johnson set an aircraft altitude record in F-104.
1960 - Leonid Brezhnev became president of the Soviet Union.
1975 - U.S. President Ford declared an end to the Vietnam War.
1977 - Rookie Janet Guthrie set the fastest time on opening day of practice for the Indianapolis 500. Her time was 185.607.
1984 - A $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans who claimed they had suffered injury from exposure to the defoliant while serving in the armed forces.
1987 - Shelly Long, as Diane Chambers, made her last appearance as a regular on the TV show "Cheers."
1992 - A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring the U.S. Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified as the 27th Amendment.
1994 - The Edvard Munch painting "The Scream" was recovered after being stolen 3 months earlier from an Oslo Museum. This version of "The Scream", one of four different versions, was painted on paper.
1996 - The trial of Serbian police officer Dusan Tadic opened in the Netherlands. He was later convicted on murder-torture charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
1997 - A report released by the U.S. government said that Switzerland provided Nazi Germany with equipment and credit during World War II. Germany exchanged for gold what had been plundered or stolen. Switzerland did not comply with postwar agreements to return the gold.
1998 - Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler Corp. for close to $40 billion. It was the largest industrial merger on record.
1998 - Residents of London voted to elect their own mayor for the first time in history. The vote would take place in May 2000.
1998 - Leeza Gibbons received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 - A jury ruled that "The Jenny Jones Show" and Warner Bros. were liable in the shooting death of Scott Amedure. He was killed by another guest on the show. The jury's award was $25 million.
1999 - Jerry Moss received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 - In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens were killed and 20 were wounded when a NATO plane mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy.
1999 - In Guinea-Bissau, the government of President João Bernardo Vieira was ousted in a military coup.
2000 - Russian President Vladimir V. Putin named First Deputy Premier Mikhail Kasyanov as premier.
2003 - In Washington, DC, General Motors Corp. delivered six fuel cell vehicles to Capitol Hill for lawmakers and others to test drive during the next two years.
2003 - Roger Moore collapsed during a matinee performance of the Broadway comedy "The Play What I Wrote." He finished the show after a 10-minute break. He was fitted with a pacemaker the following day.
Current Birthdays
Dick Williams turns 80 years old today.
77 Pete Domenici
Former U.S. senator, R-N.M.
70 Johnny Maestro
Singer
70 Jimmy Ruffin
R&B singer
64 Robin Strasser
Actress
63 Bill Danoff
Singer, songwriter (The Starland Vocal Band)
63 Thelma Houston
R&B singer
63 Bill Kreutzmann
Rock musician (Grateful Dead)
59 Prairie Prince
Rock musician
58 Robert Hegyes
Actor ("Welcome Back, Kotter")
55 Amy Heckerling
Writer, director ("Clueless," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High")
50 Michael E. Knight
Actor ("All My Children")
48 Phil Campbell
Rock singer, musician (Motorhead)
46 Rick Schell
Country musician
44 Chris O'Connor
Rock musician (Primitive Radio Gods)
40 Traci Lords
Actress
38 Eagle-Eye Cherry
Rock singer
35 Breckin Meyer
Actor
25 Alex Smith
Football player
23 Matt Helders
Rock musician (Arctic Monkeys)
18 Taylor Abrahamse
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Eva Peron
5/7/1919 - 7/26/1952
Argentine wife of Juan Peron; developed independent political power base
86 Germain Boffrand
5/7/1667 - 3/18/1754
French architect; worked in the Baroque and Rococo styles
65 David Hume
5/7/1711 - 8/25/1776
Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist
77 Robert Browning
5/7/1812 - 12/12/1889
English poet and writer
63 Johannes Brahms
5/7/1833 - 4/3/1897
German composer
78 Oskar von Miller
5/7/1855 - 4/9/1934
German engineer; founded the Munich Museum of Science and Technology
57 Marcus Loew
5/7/1870 - 9/5/1927
American film executive and movie theatre chain owner
89 Archibald MacLeish
5/7/1892 - 4/20/1982
American poet, playwright and government official
96 Kitty Godfree
5/7/1896 - 6/19/1992
English tennis player; won Olympic gold medal in 1920
60 Gary Cooper
5/7/1901 - 5/13/1961
American motion-picture actor
81 Edwin Herbert Land
5/7/1909 - 3/1/1991
American inventor and physicist; developed the Polaroid Land Camera
1096 - Peter the Hermit and his army reached Hungary. They passed through without incident.
1450 - Jack Cade's Rebellion-Kentishmen revolted against King Henry VI.
1541 - Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. He called it Rio de Espiritu Santo.
1794 - Antoine Lavoisier was executed by guillotine. He was the French chemist that discovered oxygen.
1794 - The United States Post Office was established.
1846 - The first major battle of the Mexican War was fought. The battle occurred in Palo Alto, TX.
1847 - The rubber tire was patented by Robert W. Thompson.
1879 - George Selden applied for the first automobile patent.
1886 - Pharmacist Dr. John Styth Pemberton invented what would later be called "Coca-Cola."
1902 - Mount Pelee on Martinique erupted and killed over 30,000 people and destroyed the town of St. Pierre.
1904 - U.S. Marines landed in Tangier to protect the Belgian legation.
1914 - The U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution that designated the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.
1915 - H.P. Whitney's Regret became the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby.
1919 - The first transatlantic flight took-off by a navy seaplane.
1921 - Sweden abolished capital punishment.
1933 - Gandhi began a hunger strike to protest British oppression in India.
1939 - Clay Puett's electric starting gate was used for the first time.
1943 - The Germans suppressed a revolt by Polish Jews and destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto.
1945 - U.S. President Harry Truman announced that World War II had ended in Europe.
1954 - Parry O'Brien became the first to toss a shot put over 60 feet. O'Brien achieved a distance of 60 feet 5 1/4 inches.
1956 - Alfred E. Neuman appeared on the cover of "Mad Magazine" for the first time.
1958 - U.S. President Eisenhower ordered the National Guard out of Little Rock as Ernest Green became the first black to graduate from an Arkansas public school.
1960 - Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union resumed.
1961 - New Yorkers selected a new name for their new National League baseball franchise. They chose the Mets.
1967 - Muhammad Ali was indicted for refusing induction in U.S. Army.
1970 - Construction workers broke up an anti-war protest on New York City's Wall Street.
1973 - Militant American Indians who had held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.
1978 - David R. Berkowitz, known as the "Son of Sam," pled guilty to six murder charges.
1984 - The Soviet Union announced that they would not participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics Games in Los Angeles.
1984 - Joanie (Erin Moran) and Chachi (Scott Baio) got married on ABC-TV's "Happy Days."
1985 - "New Coke" was released to the public on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola.
1986 - Reporters were told that 84,000 people had been evacuated from areas near the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Soviet Ukraine.
1997 - Larry King received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1998 - A pipe burst leaving a million residents without water in Malaysia's capital area. This added to four days of shortages that 2 million already faced.
1999 - The first female cadet graduated from The Citadel military college
Current Birthdays
Lovie Smith turns 51 years old today.
83 David Attenborough
Environmentalist
83 Don Rickles
Comedian
81 Ted Sorensen
Presidential adviser
72 Dennis DeConcini
Former U.S. senator, D-Ariz.
69 Toni Tennille
Singer (The Captain and Tennille)
67 Jack Blanchard
Country singer
65 Gary Glitter
Rock singer
64 Keith Jarrett
Jazz pianist
58 Philip Bailey
R&B singer (Earth, Wind and Fire)
58 Chris Frantz
Rock musician (Talking Heads)
56 Billy Burnette
Country musician
56 Alex Van Halen
Rock musician (Van Halen)
55 Stephen Furst
Actor
55 David Keith
Actor
52 Bill Cowher
Football coach, sportscaster
50 Ronnie Lott
Football Hall of Famer
45 Melissa Gilbert
Actress ("Little House on the Prairie")
45 Dave Rowntree
Rock musician (Blur)
41 Del Gray
Country musician (Little Texas)
37 Darren Hayes
Rock singer
34 Enrique Iglesias
Singer
24 Julia Whelan
Actress ("Once and Again")
Historic Birthdays
Harry Truman
5/8/1884 - 12/26/1972
American 33rd president of the United States
56 Edward Gibbon
5/8/1737 - 1/16/1794
English historian; wrote "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
78 Thomas Hancock
5/8/1786 - 3/26/1865
English inventor; helped start the British rubber industry
82 Henri Dunant
5/8/1828 - 10/30/1910
Swiss humanitarian and founder the Red Cross; awarded Nobel Prize for Peace (1901)
79 James Rowland Angell
5/8/1869 - 3/4/1949
American psychologist and president of Yale University
80 Thomas Costain
5/8/1885 - 10/8/1965
Canadian-born American historical novelist
25 Joselito
5/8/1895 - 5/16/1920
Spanish bullfighter
77 Edmund Wilson
5/8/1895 - 6/12/1972
American essayist and literary critic
92 Friedrich von Hayek
5/8/1899 - 3/23/1992
Austrian-born English economist; awarded Nobel Prize in 1974
67 Fernandel
5/8/1903 - 2/26/1971
French comedian
71 Roberto Rossellini
5/8/1906 - 6/3/1977
Italian film director
66 Romain Gary
5/8/1914 - 12/2/1980
French novelist, war hero and diplomat
38 Sonny Liston
5/8/1932 - 12/30/1970
American world champion boxer from 1961 to 1964
1429 - Joan of Arc defeated the besieging English at Orleans.
1502 - Christopher Columbus left Spain for his final trip to the Western Hemisphere.
1671 - Thomas "Captain" Blood stole the crown jewels from the Tower of London.
1754 - The first newspaper cartoon in America showed a divided snake "Join or die" in "The Pennsylvania Gazette."
1785 - Joseph Bramah patented the beer-pump handle.
1825 - The Chatham Theatre opened in New York City. It was the first gas-lit theater in America.
1901 - In Australia, the Duke of Cornwall and York declared the First Commonwealth Parliament open.
1915 - German and French forces fought the Battle of Artois.
1926 - Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett became the first men to fly an airplane over the North Pole.
1930 - A starting gate was used to start a Triple Crown race for the first time.
1936 - Fascist Italy took Addis Abba and annexed Ethiopia.
1936 - The first sheet of postage stamps of more than one variety went on sale in New York City.
1940 - Vivien Leigh debuted in America on stage in "Romeo and Juliet" with Lawrence Olivier.
1941 - The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by Britain's Royal navy.
1945 - U.S. officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately.
1946 - King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy abdicated and was replaced by Umberto.
1955 - West Germany joined NATO.
1958 - Richard Burton made his network television debut in the presentation of "Wuthering Heights" on CBS-TV.
1960 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for sale an oral birth-control pill for the first time.
1961 - Jim Gentile (Baltimore Orioles) set a major league baseball record when he hit a grand slam home run in two consecutive innings. The game was against the Minnesota Twins.
1962 - A laser beam was successfully bounced off Moon for the first time.
1974 - The House Judiciary Committee began formal hearings on the Nixon impeachment.
1978 - The bullet-riddled body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro was found in an automobile in the center of Rome. The Red Brigades had abducted him.
1980 - A Liberian freighter hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida. 35 motorists were killed and a 1,400-foot section of the bridge collapsed.
1987 - Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers were married.
1994 - Nelson Mandela was chosen to be South Africa's first black president.
1996 - In video testimony to a courtroom in Little Rock, AR, U.S. President Clinton insisted that he had nothing to do with a $300,000 loan in the criminal case against his former Whitewater partners.
2002 - In Bethlehem, West Bank, a deal was reached that would end the 38-day standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Thirteen suspected militants were to be deported to several different countries. The standoff had begun on April 2, 2002.
2002 - In Kaspiisk, Russia, 39 people were killed and at least 130 were injurde when a remote-controlled bomb exploded during a holiday parade.
2002 - In Bahrain, people were allowed to vote for representatives for the first time in nearly 30 years. Women were allowed to vote for the first time in the country's history.
Current Birthdays
Billy Joel turns 60 years old today.
91 Mike Wallace
Broadcast journalist ("60 Minutes")
77 Geraldine McEwan
Actor
75 Alan Bennett
Actor, screenwriter
74 Nokie Edwards
Rock musician (The Ventures)
73 Albert Finney
Actor
73 Glenda Jackson
Actress
72 Sonny Curtis
Rock musician (Buddy Holly and the Crickets)
69 James L. Brooks
Director
67 John Aschroft
Former attorney general
67 Tommy Roe
Singer
65 Richie Furay
Rock musician (Buffalo Springfield, Poco)
63 Candice Bergen
Actress ("Murphy Brown")
63 Clint Holmes
Singer
62 Anthony Higgins
Actor
61 Calvin Murphy
Basketball Hall of Famer
60 Bob Margolin
Blues guitarist
59 Tom Petersson
Rock singer, musician (Cheap Trick)
58 Mike D'Antoni
Basketball coach
58 Alley Mills
Actress ("The Wonder Years")
53 Wendy Crewson
Actress
49 Tony Gwynn
Baseball Hall of Famer
48 John Corbett
Actor
47 Dave Gahan
Rock singer (Depeche Mode)
39 Ghostface Killah
Rapper (Wu-Tang Clan)
38 Mike Myerson
Country musician (Heartland)
34 Tamia
R&B singer
32 Dan Regan
Rock musician (Reel Big Fish)
30 Pierre Bouvier
Rock singer (Simple Plan)
30 Rosario Dawson
Actress
30 Brandon Webb
Baseball player
27 Rachel Boston
Actress ("American Dreams")
25 Prince Fielder
Baseball player
24 Audrina Patridge
TV personality ("The Hills")
Historic Birthdays
Howard Carter
5/9/1874 - 3/2/1939
English archaeologist
59 John Brown
5/9/1800 - 12/2/1859
American abolitionist; led raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859
56 Belle Boyd
5/9/1844 - 6/11/1900
American actress and Confederate spy during the Civil War
67 Carl Gustaf Laval
5/9/1845 - 2/2/1913
Swedish scientist, engineer and inventor
77 Sir James Barrie
5/9/1860 - 6/19/1937
Scottish dramatist and novelist; wrote "Peter Pan"
63 Lilian Mary Baylis
5/9/1874 - 11/25/1937
English theatrical manager
85 Henry J. Kaiser
5/9/1882 - 8/24/1967
American industrialist; built dams, bridges and ships
72 Jose Ortega y Gasset
5/9/1883 - 10/18/1955
Spanish philosopher and humanist
76 William du Bois
5/9/1916 - 2/5/1993
American author and illustrator of children's books
67 Pancho Gonzales
5/9/1928 - 7/3/1995
American tennis player; U.S. Open single's champion 8 times between 1953 and 1961
1503 - Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands.
1676 - Bacon's Rebellion, which pits frontiersmen against the government, began.
1768 - The imprisonment of the journalist John Wilkes as an outlaw provoked violence in London. Wilkes was returned to parliament as a member for Middlesex.
1773 - The English Parliament passed the Tea Act, which taxed all tea in the U.S. colonies.
1774 - Louis XVI ascended the throne of France.
1775 - Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold led an attack on the British Fort Ticonderoga and captured it from the British.
1794 - Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis XVI, was beheaded.
1796 - Napoleon Bonaparte won a brilliant victory against the Austrians at Lodi bridge in Italy.
1840 - Mormon leader Joseph Smith moved his band of followers to Illinois to escape the hostilities they had experienced in Missouri.
1857 - The Seepoys of India revolted against the British Army.
1865 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops near Irvinville, GA.
1869 - Central Pacific and Union Pacific Rail Roads meet in Promontory, UT. A golden spike was driven in at the celebration of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S.
1872 - Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for the U.S. presidency.
1876 - Richard Wagner’s "Centennial Inaugural March" was heard for the first time at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, PA.
1898 - A vending machine law was enacted in Omaha, NE. It cost $5,000 for a permit.
1908 - The first Mother's Day observance took place during a church service in Grafton, West Virginia.
1924 - J. Edgar Hoover was appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
1927 - The Hotel Statler in Boston, MA. became the first hotel to install radio headsets in each of its 1,300 rooms.
1928 - WGY-TV in Schenectady, NY, began regular television programming.
1930 - The Adler Planetarium opened to the public in Chicago, IL.
1933 - The Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany.
1940 - Germany invaded Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
1941 - England's House of Commons was destroyed by a German air raid.
1941 - Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy, parachuted into Scotland on what he claimed was a peace mission.
1942 - U.S. forces in the Philippines began to surrender to the Japanese.
1943 - U.S. troops invaded Attu in the Aleutian Islands to expel the Japanese.
1960 - The U.S.S. Triton completed the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip started on February 16.
1968 - Preliminary Vietnam peace talks began in Paris.
1969 - The National and American Football Leagues announced their plans to merge for the 1970-71 season.
1978 - Britain's Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced they were divorcing after 18 years of marriage.
1982 - Elliott Gould made his dramatic television debut after 30 movies in 17 years. He starred in "The Rules of Marriage" on CBS-TV.
1986 - Navy Lt. Commander Donnie Cochran became the first black pilot to fly with the Blue Angels team.
1994 - The state of Illinois executed convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy for the murders of 33 young men and boys.
1994 - Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president.
1997 - An earthquake in northeastern Iran killed at least 2,400 people.
1999 - China broke off talks on human rights with the U.S. in response to NATO's accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.
1999 - The Cezanne painting "Still Life With Curtain, Pitcher and Bowl of Fruit" sold for 60.5 million.
2000 - 11,000 residents were evacuated in Los Alamos, NM, due to a fire that was blown into a canyon. The fire had been deliberately set to clear brush.
2001 - Boeing Co. announced that it would be moving its headquarters to Chicago, IL.
2001 - In Ghana, 121 people were killed in a stampede at a soccer game.
2002 - Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. Hanssen, an FBI agent, had sold U.S. secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
2002 - Taiwan test fired a locally made Sky Bow II surface-to-air missile for the first time. They also fired three U.S.-made Hawk missiles.
2002 - Dr. Pepper announced that it would be introducing a new flavor, Red Fusion, for the first time in 117 years.
Current Birthdays
Bono turns 49 years old today.
79 Pat Summerall
Sportscaster
76 Barbara Taylor Bradford
Author
71 Henry Fambrough
R&B singer (The Spinners)
70 Gary Owens
College basketball coach
67 Jim Calhoun
Announcer ("Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In")
66 David Clennon
Actor
65 Jim Abrahams
Writer, director ("Airplane!")
63 Donovan
Folk, rock singer
63 Dave Mason
Rock singer (Traffic)
62 Andrew Card
Former White House chief of staff
58 Ron Banks
R&B singer (The Dramatics)
52 Bruce Penhall
Actor ("CHiPs")
51 Rick Santorum
Former U.S. senator, R-Pa.
50 Victoria Rowell
Actress
48 Danny Carey
Rock musician (Tool)
46 Suzan-Lori Parks
Playwright
44 Linda Evangelista
Model
42 Young MC
Rapper
41 Erik Palladino
Actor
41 Richard Patrick
Rock singer (Filter)
37 David Wallace
Country musician
32 Jesse Vest
Rock musician
31 Kenan Thompson
Actor ("Saturday Night Live")
29 Jason Dalyrimple
R&B singer (Soul for Real)
26 Joey Zehr
Rock musician (The Click Five)
24 Ashley Poole
Singer (Dream)
24 Odette Yustman
Actress
Historic Birthdays
David O. Selznick
5/10/1902 - 6/22/1965
American film producer
71 William Grace
5/10/1832 - 3/21/1904
Irish-born American shipowner; founder of W. R. Grace & Company
26 John Wilkes Booth
5/10/1838 - 4/26/1865
American actor; assassinated President Abraham Lincoln
81 Sir Thomas Lipton
5/10/1850 - 10/2/1931
Scottish-born English merchant; built Lipton tea empire
82 Karl Barth
5/10/1886 - 12/9/1968
Swiss theologian
90 Einar Gerhardsen
5/10/1897 - 9/19/1987
Norwegian politician; prime minister four times between 1945 and 1965
83 Ariel Durant
5/10/1898 - 10/25/1981
Russian-born American writer; co-wrote "The Story of Civilization"
88 Fred Astaire
5/10/1899 - 6/22/1987
American dancer and actor
69 Maybelle Carter
5/10/1909 - 10/23/1978
American singer, songwriter and guitarist
61 Ella Grasso
5/10/1919 - 2/5/1981
American politician; governor of Connecticut (1975-80)
69 Nancy Walker
5/10/1922 - 3/25/1992
American movie and television actress
0330 - Constantinople, previously the town of Byzantium, was founded.
1573 - Henry of Anjou became the first elected king of Poland.
1647 - Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor.
1689 - French and English naval battle takes place at Bantry Bay.
1745 - French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
1792 - The Columbia River was discovered by Captain Robert Gray.
1812 - British prime Minster Spencer Perceval was shot by a bankrupt banker in the lobby of the House of Commons.
1816 - The American Bible Society was formed in New York City.
1857 - Indian mutineers seized Delhi from the British.
1858 - Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.
1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi landed at Marsala, Sicily.
1889 - Major Joseph Washington Wham takes charge of $28,000 in gold and silver to pay troops at various points in the Arizona Territory. The money was stolen in a train robbery.
1894 - Workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in Illinois went on strike.
1910 - Glacier National Park in Montana was established.
1927 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded.
1934 - A severe two-day dust storm stripped the topsoil from the great plains of the U.S. and created a "Dust Bowl." The storm was one of many.
1944 - A major offensive was launched by the allied forces in central Italy.
1947 - The creation of the tubeless tire was announced by the B.F. Goodrich Company.
1949 - Siam changed its name to Thailand.
1960 - Israeli soldiers captured Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.
1967 - The siege of Khe Sanh ended.
1985 - More than 50 people died when a flash fire swept a soccer stadium in Bradford, England.
1995 - The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was extended indefinitely. The treaty limited the spread of nuclear material for military purposes.
1996 - An Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades. All 110 people on board were killed.
1997 - Garry Kasparov, world chess champion, lost his first ever multi-game match. He lost to IBM's chess computer Deep Blue. It was the first time a computer had beat a world-champion player.
1998 - India conducted its first underground nuclear tests, three of them, in 24 years. The tests were in violation of a global ban on nuclear testing.
1998 - A French mint produced the first coins of Europe's single currency. The coin is known as the euro.
2001 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his decision to approve a 30-day delay of the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh had been scheduled to be executed on May 16, 2001. The delay was because the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had failed to disclose thousands of documents to McVeigh's defense team.
Current Birthdays
Matt Leinart turns 26 years old today.
82 Mort Sahl
Comedian
75 James Jeffords
Former U.S. senator, I-Vt.
68 Eric Burdon
Rock singer (The Animals)
57 Shohreh Aghdashloo
Actress
57 Frances Fisher
Actress
56 Boyd Gaines
Actor
54 Mark Herndon
Country musician (Alabama)
50 Martha Quinn
Former MTV VJ
46 Tim Raybon
Country musician (The Raybon Brothers)
41 Jeffrey Donovan
Actor
41 Keith West
Country musician (Heartland)
34 Coby Bell
Actor ("Third Watch")
31 Perttu Kivilaakso
Rock musician (Apocalyptica)
27 Jonathan Jackson
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Martha Graham
5/11/1894 - 4/1/1991
American dancer, teacher and choreographer
76 Baron Munchhausen
5/11/1720 - 2/22/1797
German story-teller; his tales became "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"
91 Fanny Cerrito
5/11/1817 - 5/6/1909
Russian-born American composer for stage and screen musicals
66 Charles Warren Fairbanks
5/11/1852 - 6/4/1918
American politician; vice-president under Theodore Roosevelt (1905-09)
72 Frank Schlesinger
5/11/1871 - 7/10/1943
American astronomer
101 Irving Berlin
5/11/1888 - 9/22/1989
Russian-born American composer for stage and screen musicals
75 Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
5/11/1891 - 2/6/1967
American secretary of the treasury (1934-45)
80 Dame Margaret Rutherford
5/11/1892 - 5/22/1972
English stage and screen actress
83 William Grant Still
5/11/1895 - 12/3/1978
American composer and conductor
84 Salvador Dali
5/11/1904 - 1/23/1989
Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker
78 Herbert Philbrick
5/11/1915 - 8/16/1993
American counterintelligence agent for the F.B.I.
1588 - King Henry III fled Paris after Henry of Guise triumphantly entered the city.
1780 - Charleston, South Carolina fell to British forces.
1831 - Edward Smith became the first indicted bank robber in the U.S.
1847 - William Clayton invented the odometer.
1870 - Manitoba entered the Confederation as a Canadian province.
1881 - Tunisia, in North Africa became a French protectorate.
1885 - In the Battle of Batoche, French Canadians rebelled against the Canadian government.
1888 - Charles Sherrill of the Yale track team became the first runner to use the crouching start for a fast break in a foot race.
1926 - The airship Norge became the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.
1926 - In Britain, a general strike by trade unions ended. The strike began on May 3, 1926.
1932 - The infant body of Charles and Anna Lindbergh's son was found just a few miles from the Lindbergh home near Hopewell, NJ.
1937 - Britain's King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
1940 - The Nazi conquest of France began with the German army crossing Muese River.
1942 - The Soviet Army launched its first major offensive of World War II and took Kharkov in the eastern Ukraine from the German army.
1943 - The Axis forces in North Africa surrendered during World War II.
1948 - The state of Israel and its provisional government was established.
1949 - The Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin Blockade.
1950 - The American Bowling Congress abolished its white males-only membership restriction after 34 years.
1957 - A.J. Foyt won his first auto racing victory in Kansas City, MO.
1965 - West Germany and Israel exchanged letters establishing diplomatic relations.
1970 - Ernie Banks, of the Chicago Cubs, hit his 500th home run.
1975 - U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez was seized by Cambodian forces in international waters.
1978 - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they would no longer exclusively name hurricanes after women.
1982 - In Fatima, Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish priest armed with a bayonet who was trying to reach Pope John Paul II.
1992 - Four suspects were arrested in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny at the start of the Los Angeles riots.
1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin dismissed Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and named Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin as his successor.
2002 - Former U.S. President Carter arrived in Cuba for a visit with Fidel Castro. It was the first time a U.S. head of state, in or out of office, had gone to the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
2003 - In Texas, fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers went into hiding over a dispute with Republican's over a congressional redistricting plan
Current Birthdays
Gabriel Byrne turns 59 years old today.
84 Yogi Berra
Baseball Hall of Famer
84 John Simon
Critic
81 Burt Bacharach
Singer, songwriter
71 Millie Perkins
Actress
68 Jayotis Washington
R&B singer (The Persuasions)
67 Billy Swan
Country singer
66 Linda Dano
Actress
64 Ian McLagan
Rock musician (Small Faces, The Faces)
61 Lindsay Crouse
Actress
61 Dave Heineman
Governor of Nebraska
61 Steve Winwood
Rock musician (Traffic)
59 Bruce Boxleitner
Actor
59 Billy Squier
Rock musician
54 Kix Brooks
Country singer (Brooks and Dunn)
51 Kim Greist
Actress
50 Ving Rhames
Actor
48 Billy Duffy
Rock musician (The Cult)
47 Emilio Estevez
Actor
47 April Grace
Actress
46 Vanessa Williams
Actress
44 Eddie Kilgallon
Country musician
43 Stephen Baldwin
Actor
41 Tony Hawk
Skateboarder
41 Scott Schwartz
Actor
40 Kim Fields
Actress ("The Facts of Life")
39 Samantha Mathis
Actress
38 Jamie Luner
Actress
37 Christian Campbell
Actor
36 Mackenzie Astin
Actor
31 Malin Akerman
Actress
31 Jason Biggs
Actor ("American Pie" movies)
30 Steve Smith
Football player (Carolina Panthers)
23 Emily VanCamp
Actress
17 Malcolm David Kelley
Actor ("Lost")
14 Sawyer Sweeten
Actor ("Everybody Loves Raymond")
14 Sullivan Sweeten
Actor ("Everybody Loves Raymond")
Historic Birthdays
Florence Nightingale
5/12/1820 - 8/13/1910
English nurse; reformed nursing profession and medical care for soldiers
75 Edward Lear
5/12/1812 - 1/29/1888
English landscape painter and poet
53 Dante Gabriel Rossetti
5/12/1828 - 4/9/1882
English painter and poet
70 Jules Massenet
5/12/1842 - 8/13/1912
French composer; best remembered for his operas
79 Gabriel Faure
5/12/1845 - 11/4/1924
French composer
74 Henry Cabot Lodge
5/12/1850 - 11/9/1924
American statesman; Massachusetts senator from 1893 to 1924
54 Baron Clemens von Pirquet
5/12/1874 - 2/28/1929
Austrian physician; devised a skin test for tuberculosis
71 Lincoln Ellsworth
5/12/1880 - 5/26/1951
American explorer, engineer and scientist
85 Leslie Charteris
5/12/1907 - 4/15/1993
English novelist
84 Dorothy Hodgkin
5/12/1910 - 7/29/1994
English Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1964)
35 Julius Rosenberg
5/12/1918 - 6/19/1953
American engineer;executed with his wife for espionage in 1953
1607 - Jamestown, Virginia, was settled as a colony of England.
1648 - Margaret Jones of Plymouth was found guilty of witchcraft and was sentenced to be hanged by the neck.
1779 - The War of Bavarian Succession ended.
1787 - Captain Arthur Phillip left Britain for Australia. He successfully landed eleven ships full of convicts on January 18, 1788, at Botany Bay. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.
1821 - The first practical printing press was patented in the U.S. by Samuel Rust.
1846 - The U.S. declared that war already existed with Mexico.
1854 - The first big American billiards match was held at Malcolm Hall in Syracuse, NY.
1861 - Britain declared its neutrality in the American Civil War.
1864 - The Battle of Resaca commenced as Union General Sherman fought towards Atlanta during the American Civil War.
1865 - The last land engagement of the American Civil War was fought at the Battle of Palmito Ranch in far south Texas, more than a month after Gen. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, VA.
1867 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis became a free man after spending two years in prison for his role in the American Civil War.
1873 - Ludwig M. Wolf patented the sewing machine lamp holder.
1880 - Thomas Edison tested his experimental electric railway in Menlo Park.
1888 - Slavery was abolished in Brazil.
1911 - The New York Giants set a major league baseball record. Ten runners crossed home plate before the first out of the game against St. Louis.
1912 - Royal Flying Corps was established in England.
1913 - Igor Sikorsky flew the first four engine aircraft.
1917 - Three peasant children near Fatima, Portugal, reported seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary.
1918 - The first airmail postage stamps were issued with airplanes on them. The denominations were 6, 16, and 24 cents.
1926 - In Warsaw, Joseph Pilsudski had President Wojciechowski arrested.
1927 - "Black Friday" occurred in Germany.
1940 - Winston Churchill made his first speech as the prime minister of Britain.
1949 - The first gas turbine to pump natural gas was installed in Wilmar, AR.
1954 - U.S. President Eisenhower signed into law the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Act.
1958 - French troops took control of Algiers.
1958 - U.S. Vice President Nixon's limousine was battered by rocks thrown by anti-U.S. demonstrators in Caracas, Venezuela.
1967 - Mickey Mantle hit his 500th homerun.
1968 - Peace talks between the U.S. and North Vietnam began in Paris.
1975 - Hailstones the size of tennis balls hit Wenerville, TN.
1981 - Pope John Paul II was shot and seriously wounded in St. Peter's Square by Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca.
1982 - The Chicago Cubs became the first major league baseball team to win 8,000 games.
1985 - Tony Perez became the oldest major league baseball player to hit a grand slam home run at the age of 42 and 11 months.
1985 - A confrontation between Philadelphia authorities and the radical group MOVE ended as police dropped an explosive onto the group's headquarters. 11 people died in the fire that resulted.
1996 - In Bangladesh 600 people were killed by a tornado.
1998 - India did a second round of nuclear tests. The first round had been done 2 days earlier. Within hours the U.S. and Japan imposed tough economic sanctions. India claimed that the tests were necessary to maintain India's national security.
1999 - In Moscow, the impeachment of Russian President Boris Yeltsin began.
Current Birthdays
Harvey Keitel turns 70 years old today.
71 Buck Taylor
Actor
62 Charles Baxter
Author
60 Franklyn Ajaye
Actor
60 Zoe Wanamaker
Actress
59 Stevie Wonder
Singer, musician
45 Stephen Colbert
TV host ("The Colbert Report")
45 Tom Verica
Actor ("American Dreams")
44 Lari White
Country singer
43 Darius Rucker
Rock singer (Hootie and the Blowfish)
41 Susan Floyd
Actress
32 Samantha Morton
Actress
31 Barry Zito
Baseball player
30 Mickey Madden
Rock musician (Maroon 5)
22 Hunter Parrish
Actor ("Weeds")
Historic Birthdays
Joe Louis
5/13/1914 - 4/12/1981
American boxer; world champion from 1937 to 1949
55 Henry William Stiegel
5/13/1729 - 1/10/1785
German-born American ironmaster and glassmaker
67 William Petty-Fitzmaurice, 1st marquess of Lansdowne
5/13/1737 - 5/7/1805
British statesman and prime minister (July 1782 - April 1783)
85 Pius IX
5/13/1792 - 2/7/1878
Italian pope (1846-78)
58 Sir Arthur Sullivan
5/13/1842 - 11/22/1900
English composer; wrote operettas with W. S. Gilbert
75 Sir Ronald Ross
5/13/1857 - 9/16/1932
British bacteriologist; won the Nobel prize in 1902
81 Georges Braque
5/13/1882 - 8/31/1963
French Cubist painter
74 Charles Pahud de Mortanges
5/13/1896 - 4/7/1971
Dutch equestrian; won Olympic medals in 1924, 1928 and1932
81 Dame Daphne du Maurier
5/13/1907 - 4/19/1989
English novelist and playwright; wrote "Rebecca"
75 Gil Evans
5/13/1912 - 3/20/1988
Canadian-born composer and arranger
47 Jim Jones
5/13/1931 - 11/18/1978
American cult leader responsible for the Jonestown Massacre in 1978
1264 - King Henry III was captured by his brother in law Simon deMontfort at the Battle of Lewes in France.
1509 - In the Battle of Agnadello, French defeated Venitians in Northern Italy.
1610 - French King Henri IV (Henri de Navarre) was assassinated by a fanatical monk, François Ravillac.
1643 - Louis XIV became King of France at age 4 upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.
1727 - Thomas Gainsborough was born. He was an English painter.
1787 - Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution.
1796 - The first smallpox vaccination was given by Edward Jenner.
1804 - William Clark set off the famous expedition from Camp Dubois. A few days later, in St. Louis, Meriwether Lewis joined the group. The group was known as the "Corps of Discovery."
1811 - Paraguay gained independence from Spain.
1853 - Gail Borden applied for a patent for condensed milk.
1862 - The chronograph was patented by Adolphe Nicole.
1874 - McGill University and Harvard met at Cambridge, MA, for the first college football game to charge admission.
1878 - The name Vaseline was registered by Robert A. Chesebrough.
1879 - Thomas Edison incorporated the Edison Telephone Company of Europe.
1897 - "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Phillip Sousa was performed for the first time. It was at a ceremony where a statue of George Washington was unveiled.
1897 - Guglielmo Marconi made the first communication by wireless telegraph.
1904 - In St. Louis, the Olympic games were held. It was the first time for the games to be played in the U.S.
1913 - The Rockefeller Foundation was created by John D. Rockefeller with a gift of $100,000,000.
1935 - The Philippines ratified an independence agreement.
1940 - The Netherlands surrendered to Nazi Germany.
1942 - The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) was established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
1942 - "Lincoln Portrait" by Aaron Copland was performed for the first time by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
1942 - The British, while retreating from Burma, reached India.
1948 - Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the independent State of Israel as British rule in Palestine came to an end.
1955 - The Warsaw Pact, a Easter European mutual-defense treaty, was signed in Poland by eight communist bloc countries including the Soviet Union.
1961 - A bus carrying Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama.
1969 - Jacqueline Susann’s second novel, "The Love Machine," was published by Simon and Schuster.
1973 - Skylab One was launched into orbit around Earth as the first U.S. manned space station.
1975 - U.S. forces raided the Cambodian island of Koh Tang and recaptured the American merchant ship Mayaguez. All 40 crew members were released safely by Cambodia. About 40 U.S. servicemen were killed in the military operation.
1980 - U.S. President Carter inaugurated the Department of Health and Human Services.
1985 - The first McDonald's restaurant became the first fast-food business museum. It is located in Des Plaines, Illinois.
1989 - The final episode of "Family Ties" aired.
1992 - Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev addressed members of the U.S. Congress, appealing to them to pass a bill to aid the people of the former Soviet Union.
1996 - A tornado hit 80 villages in nothern Bangladesh. More than 440 people were killed.
1998 - The Associated Press marked its 150th anniversary.
1998 - The final episode of the TV series "Seinfeld" aired after nine years on NBC.
1999 - North Korea returned the remains of six U.S. soldiers that had been killed during the Korean War.
1999 - Jess Marlow received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2005 - The art exhibit "Gumby and Friends: The First 50 Years" opened at the Lynn House Gallery in Antioch, CA
Current Birthdays
Cate Blanchett turns 40 years old today
84 Patrice Munsel
Opera singer
67 Byron Dorgan
U.S. senator, D-N.D.
67 Tony Perez
Baseball Hall of Famer
66 Jack Bruce
Rock musician (Cream)
65 George Lucas
Director, producer ("Star Wars" movies)
61 Meg Foster
Actress
57 David Byrne
Rock singer (Talking Heads)
57 Robert Zemeckis
Director
48 Tim Roth
Actor
47 Ian Astbury
Rock singer (The Cult)
47 C.C. DeVille
Rock musician (Poison)
47 Danny Huston
Actor
43 Mike Inez
Rock musician (Alice In Chains)
43 Raphael Saadiq
R&B singer (Tony Toni Tone)
40 Danny Wood
Singer (New Kids on the Block)
38 Sofia Coppola
Director ("Lost in Translation")
36 Natalie Appleton
Singer (All Saints)
36 Shanice
R&B singer
32 Roy Halladay
Baseball player
31 Henry Garza
Rock musician (Los Lonely Boys)
26 Frank Gore
Football player
26 Amber Tamblyn
Actress
28 Mike Retondo
Rock musician (Plain White T's)
16 Miranda Cosgrove
Actress ("iCarly," "Drake and Josh")
Historic Birthdays
Otto Klemperer
5/14/1885 - 7/6/1973
German conductor
61 Margaret of Valois
5/14/1553 - 3/27/1615
Queen consort of Navarre known mainly for her "Memoires"
71 Francois de Callieres
5/14/1645 - 3/5/1717
French author and diplomat
87 Robert Owen
5/14/1771 - 11/17/1858
Welsh manufacturer and social reformer
69 Sir Frederick Borden
5/14/1847 - 1/6/1917
Canadian statesman; helped create Canadian navy
73 Alton Parker
5/14/1852 - 5/10/1926
American politician; opposed Theodore Roosevelt in 1904
51 Kurt Eisner
5/14/1867 - 2/21/1919
German Socialist journalist and statesman
57 Julian Eltinge
5/14/1883 - 3/7/1941
American vaudeville star and famous female impersonator
87 Al White
5/14/1895 - 7/8/1982
American diver and Olympic gold medalist (1924)
66 Mohammad Ayub
5/14/1907 - 4/19/1974
President of Pakistan (1958-1969)
gunslingingbird
2009-05-14, 16:13
2005 - The art exhibit "Gumby and Friends: The First 50 Years" opened at the Lynn House Gallery in Antioch, CA
That's where I live! :)
:hatsoff:
GSB thanks for reading
:bowdown:
Skyraider22
2009-05-14, 21:20
Al White was a lead ringer for diving:thumbsup:
1602 - Cape Cod was discovered by Bartholomew Gosnold.
1614 - An aristocratic uprising in France ended with the treaty of St.Menehould.
1618 - Johannes Kepler discovered his harmonics law.
1702 - The War of Spanish Succession began.
1768 - Under the Treaty of Versailles, France purchased Corsica from Genoa.
1795 - Napoleon entered the Lombardian capital of Milan.
1849 - Neapolitan troops entered Palermo, and were in possession of Sicily.
1856 - Lyman Frank Baum, author of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," was born.
1862 - The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
1911 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1916 - U.S. Marines landed in Santo Domingo to quell civil disorder.
1918 - Regular airmail service between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, began under the direction of the Post Office Department, which later became the U.S. Postal Service.
1926 - Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth were forced down in Alaska after a four-day flight over an icecap. Ice had begun to form on the dirigible Norge.
1926 - The New York Rangers were officially granted a franchise in the NHL. The NHL also announced that Chicago and Detroit would be joining the league in November.
1930 - Ellen Church became the first airline stewardess.
1940 - Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time in the U.S.
1941 - Joe DiMaggio began his historic major league baseball hitting streak of 56 games.
1942 - Gasoline rationing began in the U.S. The limit was 3 gallons a week for nonessential vehicles.
1948 - Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon only hours after declaring its independence.
1951 - AT&T became the first corporation to have one million stockholders.
1957 - Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean.
1958 - Sputnik III, the first space laboratory, was launched in the Soviet Union.
1963 - The last Project Mercury space flight was launched.
1964 - The Smothers Brothers, Dick and Tom, gave their first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City.
1970 - U.S. President Nixon appointed America's first two female generals.
1970 - Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, two black students at Jackson State University in Mississippi, were killed when police opened fire during student protests.
1972 - Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace was shot by Arthur Bremer in Laurel, MD while campaigning for the U.S. presidency. Wallace was paralyzed by the shot.
1975 - The merchant ship U.S. Mayaguez was recaptured from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge.
1980 - The first transcontinental balloon crossing of the United States took place.
1988 - Soviet forces began their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Soviet forces had been there for more than eight years.
1990 - Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" was sold for $82.5 million. The sale set a new world record.
1997 - The Space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to deliver urgently needed repair equipment and a fresh American astronaut to Russia's orbiting Mir station.
1999 - The Russian parliament was unable a attain enough votes to impeach President Boris Yeltsin
Current Birthdays
Kathleen Sebelius turns 61 years old today.
91 Joseph Wiseman
Actor
83 Peter Shaffer
Playwright
73 Anna Maria Alberghetti
Actress
73 Wavy Gravy
Counterculture icon
72 Madeleine Albright
Former secretary of state
72 Trini Lopez
Singer
71 Lenny Welch
Singer
69 Roger Ailes
Chairman and CEO of Fox News
69 Lainie Kazan
Actress, singer ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding")
67 K.T. Oslin
Country singer
61 Brian Eno
Music producer, songwriter
59 Nicholas Hammond
Actor ("The Sound of Music")
57 Chazz Palminteri
Actor
56 George Brett
Baseball Hall of Famer
56 Michael Oldfield
Composer ("Tubular Bells")
54 Lee Horsley
Actor
48 Giselle Fernandez
TV personality ("Dancing With the Stars")
42 John Smoltz
Baseball player
40 Emmitt Smith
Football player
39 Prince Be
Singer, rapper (PM Dawn)
39 Brad Rowe
Actor
37 David Charvet
Actor
35 Ahmet Zappa
TV personality
34 Ray Lewis
Football player
31 David Krumholtz
Actor ("Numb3rs")
29 Josh Beckett
Baseball player
28 Justin Morneau
Baseball player
25 Nick Perri
Rock musician
Historic Birthdays
Richard Daley
5/15/1902 - 12/20/1976
American politician; powerful mayor of Chicago from 1955 to 1976
86 Klemens Metternich
5/15/1773 - 6/11/1859
Austrian statesman; minister of foreign affairs (1809-48)
62 Michael Balfe
5/15/1808 - 10/20/1870
Irish singer and composer; wrote "The Bohemian Girl"
87 Debendranath Tagore
5/15/1817 - 1/19/1905
Indian Hindu philosopher and religious reformer
71 Elie Metchnikoff
5/15/1845 - 7/16/1916
Russian zoologist and microbiologist; won Nobel Prize in 1908
62 Frank L. Baum
5/15/1856 - 5/6/1919
American writer; wrote " Wonderful Wizard of Oz" series
46 Pierre Curie
5/15/1859 - 4/19/1906
French chemist; won Nobel Prize for physics in 1903
69 Arthur Schnitzler
5/15/1862 - 10/21/1931
Austrian playwright and novelist
71 Edwin Muir
5/15/1887 - 1/3/1959
Scottish poet, literary critic and translator
69 William Hume-Rothery
5/15/1899 - 9/27/1968
English founder of scientific metallurgy
95 Clifton Fadiman
5/15/1904 - 6/20/1999
American editor, anthologist and writer
75 James Mason
5/15/1909 - 7/27/1984
English stage and screen actor
71 Tenzing Norgay
5/15/1914 - 5/9/1986
Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer; ascended Mt. Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953
80 Catherine East
5/15/1916 - 8/17/1996
American feminist
1770 - Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15.
1866 - The U.S. Congress authorized the first 5-cent piece to be minted.
1868 - U.S. President Andrew Johnson was acquitted during the Senate impeachment, by one vote.
1879 - The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England set up the Afghan state.
1881 - In Germany the first electric tram for the public started service.
1888 - The first demonstration of recording on a flat disc was demonstrated by Emile Berliner.
1888 - The capitol of Texas was dedicated in Austin.
1910 - The U.S. Bureau of Mines was authorized by the U.S. Congress.
1914 - The American Horseshoe Pitchers Association (AHPA) was formed in Kansas City, Kansas.
1920 - Joan of Arc was canonized in Rome.
1929 - The first Academy Awards were held in Hollywood.
1939 - The Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians met at Shibe Park in Philadelphia for the first baseball game to be played under the lights in the American League.
1946 - "Annie Get Your Gun" opened on Broadway.
1946 - Jack Mullin showed the world the first magnetic tape recorder.
1948 - The body of CBS News correspondent George Polk was found in Solonika Bay in Greece. It had been a week after he'd disappeared.
1960 - A Big Four summit in Paris collapsed due to the American U-2 spy plane incident.
1960 - Theodore Maiman, at Hughes Research Laboratory in California, demonstrated the first working laser.
1963 - After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth, ending Project Mercury.
1965 - Spaghetti-O's went on sale.
1969 - Venus 5, a Russian spacecraft, landed on the planet Venus.
1971 - U.S. postage for a one-ounce first class stamp was increased from 6 to 8 cents.
1975 - Japanese climber Junko Tabei became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
1977 - Five people were killed when a New York Airways helicopter, idling on top of the Pan Am Building in Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.
1985 - Michael Jordan was named Rookie of the Year in the NBA.
1987 - The Bobro 400 set sail from New York Harbor with 3,200 tons of garbage. The barge travelled 6,000 miles in search of a place to dump its load. It returned to New York Harbor after 8 weeks with the same load.
1988 - A report released by Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that nicotine was addictive in similar was as heroin and cocaine.
1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police do not have to have a search warrant to search discarded garbage.
1991 - Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.
1992 - The Endeavour space shuttle landed safely after its maiden voyage.
1996 - Admiral Jeremy "Mike" Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after some of his military awards were called into question.
1997 - In Zaire, President Mobutu Sese Seko gave control of the country to rebel forces ending 32 years of autocratic rule.
2000 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was nominated to run for U.S. Senator in New York. She was the first U.S. first lady to run for public office.
2003 - Adam Rich was placed on three years probation after he plead no contest to misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and being under the influence of a controlled substance. He was also ordered to take part ina 60-day treatment program and pay about $1,200 in fines.
2005 - Sony Corp. unveiled three styles of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine.
Current Birthdays
John Conyers turns 80 years old today.
92 George Gaynes
Actor
88 Harry Carey Jr.
Actor
78 Lowell Weicker
Former Connecticut governor and U.S. senator
66 Dan Coats
Former U.S. senator, R-Ind.
65 Billy Cobham
Jazz drummer
62 Bill Smitrovich
Actor
56 Pierce Brosnan
Actor
54 Olga Korbut
Gymnast
54 Debra Winger
Actress
50 Mare Winningham
Actress
45 Boyd Tinsley
Rock musician (The Dave Matthews Band)
44 Krist Novoselic
Rock musician (Nirvana)
43 Janet Jackson
Singer
43 Scott Reeves
Actor, country singer
42 Brian F. O'Byrne
Actor
41 Ralph Tresvant
Singer (New Edition)
40 David Boreanaz
Actor
40 Tucker Carlson
Political correspondent
40 Tracey Gold
Actress ("Growing Pains")
39 Gabriela Sabatini
Tennis Hall of Famer
38 Simon Katz
Musician (Jamiroquai)
38 Rick Trevino
Country singer
36 Tori Spelling
Actress ("Beverly Hills 90210")
23 Megan Fox
Actress
32 Melanie Lynskey
Actress ("Two and a Half Men")
19 Marc John Jefferies
Actor ("The Tracy Morgan Show")
Historic Birthdays
Anne O'Hare McCormick
5/16/1882 - 5/29/1954
English-born American journalist; member of the New York Times editorial board
50 Sir Dudley North
5/16/1641 - 12/31/1691
English economist and merchant
71 William Henry Seward
5/16/1801 - 10/10/1872
American politician; secretary of state (1861-69)
89 Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
5/16/1804 - 1/3/1894
American educator; opened the first kindergarten in the United States
68 Philip Armour
5/16/1832 - 1/6/1901
American entrepreneur; headed the Armour meatpacking enterprises
65 Walter Yust
5/16/1894 - 2/29/1960
American editor in chief of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1938-1960)
77 Henry Fonda
5/16/1905 - 8/12/1982
American stage and film actor
68 H. E. Bates
5/16/1905 - 1/29/1974
English novelist and short-story writer
74 Woody Herman
5/16/1913 - 10/29/1987
American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader
61 Billy Martin
5/16/1928 - 12/25/1989
American professional baseball player and manager
68 Betty Carter
5/16/1930 - 9/26/1998
American jazz singer
1540 - Afghan chief Sher Khan defeated Mongul Emperor Humayun at Kanauj.
1630 - Italian Jesuit Niccolo Zucchi saw the belts on Jupiter's surface.
1681 - Louis XIV sent an expedition to aid James II in Ireland. As a result, England declares war on France.
1756 - Britain declared war on France, beginning the French and Indian War.
1792 - The New York Stock Exchange was founded at 70 Wall Street by 24 brokers.
1814 - Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden. Norway's constitution, which provided a limited monarchy, was signed.
1875 - The first Kentucky Derby was run at Louisville, KY.
1877 - The first telephone switchboard burglar alarm was installed by Edwin T. Holmes.
1881 - Frederick Douglass was appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, DC.
1926 - The U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires was damaged by bombs that were believed set by sympathizers of Sacco and Vanzetti.
1932 - The U.S. Congress changed the name "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico."
1939 - The first fashion to be shown on television was broadcast in New York from the Ritz-Carleton Hotel.
1940 - Germany occupied Brussels, Belgium and began the invasion of France.
1946 - U.S. President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
1948 - The Soviet Union recognized the new state of Israel.
1954 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled for school integration in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. The ruling declared that racially segregated schools were inherently unequal.
1956 - The first synthetic mica (synthamica) was offered for sale in Caldwell Township, NJ.
1973 - The U.S. Senate Watergate Committee began its hearings.
1975 - NBC TV bought the rights to show "Gone With the Wind." The one time rights cost NBC $5,000,000.
1980 - Rioting erupted in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood after an all-white jury in Tampa acquitted four former Miami police officers of fatally beating black insurance executive Arthur McDuffie. Eight people were killed in the rioting.
1985 - Bobby Ewing died on the season finale of "Dallas" on CBS-TV. He returned the following season.
1987 - Eric ‘Sleepy’ Floyd of the Golden State Warriors set a playoff record for points in a single quarter with 29.
1987 - An Iraqi warplane attacked the U.S. Navy frigate Stark in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 American sailors. Iraq and the United States called the attack a mistake.
1990 - Kelsey Grammer was sentenced to 30 days in jail for DWI.
1996 - U.S. President Clinton signed a measure requiring neighborhood notification when sex offenders move in. Megan's Law was named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and killed in 1994.
1997 - Rebel leader Kabila declared himself president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire.
1997 - Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin were married in London.
1998 - New York Yankees pitcher David Wells became the 13th player in modern major league baseball history to throw a perfect game.
1999 - Eric Ford, a tabloid photographer, was sentenced to 6 months at a halfway house, 3 years probation and 150 hours of community service. The sentence stemmed from a charge that Ford had eavesdropped on a call between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and then sold a recording of the conversation.
1999 - Alex Trebek received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2000 - Thomas E. Blanton Jr. and David Luker surrendered to police in Birmingham, AL. The two former Ku Klux Klan members were arrested on charges from the bombing of a church in 1963 that killed four young black girls.
2000 - Austria, the U.S. and six other countries agreed on the broad outline of a plan that would compensate Nazi-Era forced labor.
2000 - It was announced that Terra Networks SA and Lycos would be merging with the new name to be Terra Lycos. Terra made the deal happen with the purchase of $12.5 billion in stock.
2001 - The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp based on Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip.
2006 - The U.S. aircraft carrier Oriskany was sunk about 24 miles off Pensacola Beach. It was the first vessel sunk under a Navy program to dispose of old warships by turning them into diving attractions. It was the largest man-made reef at the time of the sinking.
Current Birthdays
Sendhil Ramamurthy turns 35 years old today
73 Dennis Hopper
Actor
69 Peter Gerety
Actor
68 Ben Nelson
U.S. senator, D-Neb.
67 Taj Mahal
Blues singer
65 Jesse Winchester
Singer, songwriter
60 Bill Bruford
Rock musician (Yes, King Crimson)
56 Kathleen Sullivan
TV personality
54 Bill Paxton
Actor
53 Sugar Ray Leonard
Boxing Hall of Famer
53 Bob Saget
Actor, comedian ("Full House")
50 Jim Nantz
Sports announcer
48 Enya
Singer
47 Craig Ferguson
TV host ("The Late Late Show")
46 Page McConnell
Rock musician (Phish)
44 O'Dell
R&B musician (Mint Condition)
44 Trent Reznor
Rock singer, musician Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails)
44 Paige Turco
Actress ("The Agency")
43 Hill Harper
Actor ("CSI:NY")
40 Thom Filicia
TV personality ("Queer Eye for the Straight Guy")
39 Jordan Knight
Singer (New Kids on the Block)
39 Darnell Van Rensalier
R&B singer (Shai)
36 Sasha Alexander
Actress
36 Josh Homme
Rock singer, musician (Queens of the Stone Age)
35 Andrea Corr
Rock singer (The Corrs)
33 Rochelle Aytes
Actress
33 Kandi Burruss
R&B singer
31 Kat Foster
Actress (" 'Til Death")
27 Matt Cassel
Football player
23 Tahj Mowry
Actor
21 Nikki Reed
Actress ("The O.C.")
19 Leven Rambin
Actress
18 Samantha Browne-Walters
Actress
15 Justin Martin
Actor ("High School Musical 3")
Historic Birthdays
Maureen O'Sullivan
5/17/1911 - 6/22/1998
American movie actress
77 Albert
5/17/1490 - 3/20/1568
Prussian duke (1525-68) and last grand master of the Teutonic Knights (1510-1525)
73 Edward Jenner
5/17/1749 - 1/26/1823
English surgeon; helped develop smallpox vaccination
59 Erik Satie
5/17/1866 - 7/1/1925
French composer
52 Horace E. Dodge
5/17/1868 - 12/10/1920
American automobile manufacturer
84 Dorothy Richardson
5/17/1873 - 6/17/1957
English novelist
72 Jean Gabin
5/17/1904 - 11/15/1976
French film actor
66 Karl Schafer
5/17/1909 - 4/26/1976
Austrian ice skater; won Olympic gold medal winner in 1932 and 1936
60 Stewart Alsop
5/17/1914 - 5/26/1974
American journalist
64 Robin Maugham
5/17/1916 - 3/13/1981
English novelist, playwright and travel writer
65 Robin Howard
5/17/1924 - 6/12/1989
English balletomane; promoted modern dance in Britain
1302 - The weaver Peter de Coningk led a massacre of the Flemish oligarchs.
1642 - Montreal, Canada, was founded.
1643 - Queen Anne, the widow of Louis XIII, was granted sole and absolute power as regent by the Paris parliament, overriding the late king's will.
1652 - In Rhode Island, a law was passed that made slavery illegal in North America. It was the first law of its kind.
1792 - Russian troops invaded Poland.
1798 - The first Secretary of the U.S. Navy was appointed. He was Benjamin Stoddert.
1802 - Great Britain declared war on Napoleon's France.
1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed emperor by the French Senate.
1828 - Battle of Las Piedras ended the conflict between Uruguay and Brazil.
1896 - The U.S. Supreme court upheld the "separate but equal" policy in the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision. The ruling was overturned 58 years later with Brown vs. Board of Education.
1897 - A public reading of Bram Stoker's new novel, "Dracula, or, The Un-dead," was performed in London.
1904 - Brigand Raizuli kidnapped American Ion H. Perdicaris in Morocco.
1917 - The U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service act, which called up soldiers to fight in World War I.
1926 - Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, CA. She reappeared a month later with the claim that she had been kidnapped.
1931 - Japanese pilot Seiji Yoshihara crashed his plane in the Pacific Ocean while trying to be the first to cross the ocean nonstop. He was picked up seven hours later by a passing ship.
1933 - The Tennessee Valley Authority was created.
1934 - The U.S. Congress approved an act, known as the "Lindberg Act," that called for the death penalty in interstate kidnapping cases.
1942 - New York ended night baseball games for the duration of World War II.
1944 - Monte Cassino, Europe's oldest Monastic house, was finally captured by the Allies in Italy.
1949 - Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America was incorporated
1951 - The United Nations moved its headquarters to New York City.
1953 - The first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound, Jacqueline Cochran, piloted an F-86 Sabrejet over California at an average speed of 652.337 miles-per-hour.
1974 - India became the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.
1980 - Mt. Saint Helens erupted in Washington state. 57 people were killed and 3 billion in damage was done.
1994 - Israel's three decades of occupation in the Gaza Strip ended as Israeli troops completed their withdrawal and Palestinian authorities took over.
1998 - The U.S. federal government and 20 states filed a sweeping antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., saying the computer software company had a "choke hold" on competitors which denied consumer choices by controlling 90% of the software market.
1998 - U.S. federal officials arrested more than 130 people and seized $35 million. This was the end to an investigation of money laundering being done by a dozen Mexican banks and two drug-smuggling cartels.
Current Birthdays
Tina Fey turns 39 years old today.
87 Bill Macy
Actor
81 Pernell Roberts
Actor ("Bonanza," "Trapper John, M.D.")
79 Warren Rudman
Former U.S. senator, R-N.H.
78 Robert Morse
Actor ("Mad Men," "How to Succeed in Business ...")
75 Dwayne Hickman
Actor
72 Brooks Robinson
Baseball Hall of Famer
67 Rodney Dillard
Bluegrass musician (The Dillards)
63 Reggie Jackson
Baseball Hall of Famer
62 Candice Azzara
Actress
61 Joe Bonsall
Country singer (The Oak Ridge Boys)
61 Tom Udall
U.S. senator, D-N.M.
60 Rick Wakeman
Rock musician (Yes)
57 George Strait
Country singer
56 Butch Tavares
R&B singer
54 Chow Yun-Fat
Actor
49 Page Hamilton
Rock singer, musician (Helmet)
49 Jari Kurri
Hockey Hall of Famer
49 Yannick Noah
Tennis Hall of Famer
40 Martika
Singer, actress
35 Special Ed
Rapper
34 Jack Johnson
Rock singer
29 Darryl Allen
R&B singer (Mista)
29 Matt Long
Actor
17 Spencer Breslin
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Frank Capra
5/18/1897 - 9/3/1991
Italian-born American film director
83 Omar Khayyam
5/18/1048 - 12/4/1131
Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer
50 Johann Froberger
5/18/1616 - 5/7/1667
German composer, organist and harpsichordist
74 Peter Carl Faberge
5/18/1846(O.S.)- 9/24/1920
Russian goldsmith, designer and jeweler
69 Elisabeth Cary
5/18/1867 - 7/13/1936
American art critic for the New York Times
97 Bertrand Russell
5/18/1872 - 2/2/1970
English philosopher and logician; awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950
86 Walter Gropius
5/18/1883 - 7/5/1969
German architect; helped found the Bauhaus school
89 Eurico Dutra
5/18/1885 - 6/11/1974
Brazilian soldier and president; helped restore constitutional democracy
64 Ezio Pinza
5/18/1892 - 5/9/1957
Italian-born operatic bass and actor
77 Vincent du Vigneaud
5/18/1901 - 12/11/1978
American biochemist; won Nobel Prize in 1955
79 Richard Brooks
5/18/1912 - 3/11/1992
American screenwriter, film director and producer
68 Pierre Balmain
5/18/1914 - 6/29/1982
French couturier
71 Dame Margot Fonteyn
5/18/1919 - 2/21/1991
English ballerina
84 Pope John Paul II
5/18/1920 - 4/2/2005
264th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church
Skyraider22
2009-05-18, 14:54
Good stuff minidog 1942 ended those night games becaues of the east coast blackouts:thumbsup:
melanielikestwo
2009-05-20, 08:39
6 years ago the first mad cow in Canada.
1098 - Christian Crusaders of the First Crusade seized Antioch, Turkey.
1539 - Hernando De Soto claimed Florida for Spain.
1621 - The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands (now known as New York).
1784 - The United States Congress created the United States Army.
1800 - John Adams moved to Washington, DC. He was the first President to live in what later became the capital of the United States.
1805 - A peace treaty between the U.S. and Tripoli was completed in the captain's cabin on board the USS Constitution.
1851 - The New York Knickerbockers became the first baseball team to wear uniforms.
1856 - Cullen Whipple patented the screw machine.
1864 - About 7,000 Union troops were killed within 30 minutes during the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia during the U.S. Civil War.
1871 - Jesse James, then 24, and his gang robbed the Obocock bank in Corydon, Iowa. They stole $15,000.
1888 - "Casey at the Bat" the poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published.
1918 - The Finnish Parliament ratified its treaty with Germany.
1923 - In Italy, Benito Mussolini granted women the right to vote.
1928 - Manchurian warlord Chian Tso-Lin died as a result of a bomb blast set off by the Japanese.
1932 - Lou Gehrig set a major league baseball record when he hit four consecutive home runs.
1937 - The Duke of Windsor, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Warfield Simpson.
1938 - The German Reich voted to confiscate so-called "degenerate art."
1940 - German bombed Paris, killing 254 people. Most of the people killed were civilians and school children.
1952 - A rebellion by North Korean prisoners in the Koje prison camp in South Korea was put down by American troops.
1959 - The first class graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.
1965 - Edward White became the first American astronaut to do a "space walk" when he left the Gemini 4 capsule.
1968 - Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his New York film studio by Valerie Solanas.
1970 - Har Gobind Khorana and colleagues announced the first synthesis of a gene from chemical components.
1974 - Charles Colson, an aide to U.S. President Richard Nixon, pled guilty to obstruction of justice.
1983 - Gordon Kahl was killed in a gun battle with law enforcement officials near Smithville, AR. Kahl was wanted for the slayings of two U.S. marshals in North Dakota.
1985 - After five years, the characters of Nancy and Chris Hughes returned to CBS-TV's "As the World Turns."
1989 - Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died.
1989 - Chinese army troops positioned themselves to began a sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
1991 - Mount Unzen in southern Japan erupted killing 40 people.
1998 - In Germany, a train veered off its tracks and hit a road bridge. 101 people were killed and 80 were injured.
1999 - Slobodan Milosevic's government accepted an international peace plan concerning Kosovo. NATO announced that airstrikes would continue until 40,000 Serb forces were withdrawn from Kosovo.
1999 - Dennis Muren received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2003 - Sammy Sosa (Chicago Cubs) broke a bat when he grounded out against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The bat he was using was a corked bat.
2003 - Toys "R" Us, Inc. announced that it had signed a multi-year agreement with Albertson to become the exclusive toy provider for all of all of Albertson's food and drug stores.
Current Birthdays
Anderson Cooper turns 42 years old today
84 Tony Curtis
Actor
80 Chuck Barris
Game show host ("The Gong Show")
74 Irma P. Hall
Actress
73 Larry McMurtry
Author
70 Ian Hunter
Rock musician (Mott the Hoople)
66 Billy Cunningham
Basketball Hall of Famer
66 Emmitt Thomas
Football Hall of Famer
63 Eddie Holman
Singer
61 Too Slim
Country musician (Riders in the Sky)
60 Richard Moore
Rock musician (The Troggs)
59 Suzi Quatro
Singer
58 Deniece Williams
R&B singer
55 Dan Hill
Singer
51 Scott Valentine
Actor
45 Kerry King
Rock musician (Slayer)
44 Mike Gordon
Rock musician (Phish)
41 Jamie O'Neal
Country singer
38 Ariel Hernandez
Singer (No Mercy)
38 Gabriel Hernandez
Singer (No Mercy)
32 Travis Hafner
Baseball player
23 Rafael Nadal
Tennis player
22 Lalaine
Actress ("Lizzie McGuire")
Historic Birthdays
Allen Ginsberg
6/3/1926 - 4/5/1997
American poet
71 James Hutton
6/3/1726 - 3/26/1797
Scottish geologist, chemist and naturalist
62 William Hone
6/3/1780 - 11/6/1842
English radical journalist and publisher
81 Jefferson Davis
6/3/1808 - 12/6/1889
American; president of the Confederate States of America (1861-5)
71 Henry James
6/3/1811 - 12/18/1882
American philosophical theologian
86 Charles Lecocq
6/3/1832 - 10/24/1918
French composer of operettas
86 Ransom Eli Olds
6/3/1864 - 8/26/1950
American inventor and automobile manufacturer
76 Raoul Dufy
6/3/1877 - 3/23/1953
French painter and designer
88 Maurice Evans
6/3/1901 - 3/12/1989
English-born American stage actor
69 Josephine Baker
6/3/1906 - 4/12/1975
American-born French dancer and singer
80 William Douglas-Home
6/3/1912 - 9/28/1992
English playwright
67 Colleen Dewhurst
6/3/1924 - 8/22/1991
American stage and film actress
1595 - Henry IV's army defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Fontaine-Francaise.
1637 - American settlers in New England massacred a Pequot Indian village.
1752 - Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity.
1783 - A hot-air balloon was demonstrated by Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier. It reached a height of 1,500 feet.
1794 - The U.S. Congress prohibited citizens from serving in any foreign armed forces.
1827 - Athens fell to the Ottomans.
1851 - Harriet Beecher Stow published the first installment of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in "The National Era."
1865 - The first safe deposit vault was opened in New York. The charge was $1.50 a year for every $1,000 that was stored.
1884 - U.S. Civil War General William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."
1917 - American men began registering for the World War I draft.
1924 - Ernst F. W. Alexanderson transmitted the first facsimile message across the Atlantic Ocean.
1927 - Johnny Weissmuller set two world records in swimming events. Weissmuller set marks in the 100-yard, and 200-yard, free-style swimming competition.
1933 - President Roosevelt signed the bill that took the U.S. off of the gold standard.
1940 - During World War II, the Battle of France began when Germany began an offensive in Southern France.
1942 - In France, Pierre Laval congratulated French volunteers that were fighting in the U.S.S.R. with Germans.
1944 - The first B-29 bombing raid hit the Japanese rail line in Bangkok, Thailand.
1946 - The first medical sponges were first offered for sale in Detroit, MI.
1947 - U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined the Marshall Plan.
1956 - Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Josef Stalin to the Soviet Communist Party Congress.
1967 - The National Hockey League (NHL) awarded three new franchises. The Minnesota North Stars (later the Dallas Stars), the California Golden Seals (no longer in existence) and the Los Angeles Kings.
1967 - The Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan began.
1968 - U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was mortally shot in Los Angeles by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy died early the next morning.
1973 - The first hole-in-one in the British Amateur golf championship was made by Jim Crowford.
1975 - Egypt reopened the Suez Canal to international shipping, eight years after it was closed because of the 1967 war with Israel.
1981 - In the U.S., the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five men in Los Angeles were suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with weakened immune systems. They were the first recognized cases of what came to be known as AIDS.
1986 - A federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus 10 years.
1987 - Ted Koppel and guests discussed the topic of AIDS for four hours on ABC-TV’s "Nightline".
1994 - An earthquake in East Java killed 264 people.
1998 - A strike began at a General Motors Corp. parts factory near Detroit, MI, that closed five assembly plants and idled workers across the U.S. for seven weeks.
1998 - Volkswagen AG won approval to buy Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for $700 million, outbidding BMW's $554 million offer.
1998 - C-Span reported that Bob Hope had died. The report was false and had begun with an inaccurate obituary on the Associated Press Web site.
1998 - A strike at a General Motors parts factory began. It lasted for seven weeks.
2001 - Amazon.com announced that it would begin selling personal computers later in the year.
2004 - The U.S.S. Jimmy Carter was christened in the U.S. Navy in Groton, CT.
Current Birthdays
Kenny G turns 53 years old today.
84 Bill Hayes
Actor, singer ("Days of Our Lives")
75 Bill Moyers
Broadcast journalist
68 Floyd Butler
R&B singer
64 Don Reid
Country singer (The Statler Brothers)
63 Fred Stone
Rock musician (Sly and the Family Stone)
62 Laurie Anderson
Rock musician and performance artist
61 Gail Davies
Country singer
60 Ken Follett
Author
57 Nicko McBrain
Rock musician (Iron Maiden)
53 Richard Butler
Rock singer (Psychedelic Furs)
47 Jeff Garlin
Actor
46 Karen Sillas
Actress
42 Ron Livingston
Actor
40 Brian McKnight
R&B singer
39 Claus Norreen
Rock musician (Aqua)
38 Mark Wahlberg
Actor
35 Chad Allen
Actor
35 P-Nut
Rock musician (311)
33 Torry Holt
Football player
32 Navi Rawat
Actress ("Numb3rs")
32 Liza Weil
Actress ("The Gilmore Girls")
30 Pete Wentz
Rock musician (Fall Out Boy)
28 Seb Lefebvre
Rock musician (Simple Plan)
23 Amanda Crew
Actress
Historic Birthdays
John Maynard Keynes
6/5/1883 - 4/21/1946
English economist, journalist and financier
67 Adam Smith
6/5/1723 - 7/17/1790
Scottish social philosopher and political economist
73 John Couch Adams
6/5/1819 - 1/21/1892
English mathematician and astronomer
58 Pat Garrett
6/5/1850 - 2/29/1908
American sheriff; shot Billy the Kid
64 Jan Thorn-Prikker
6/5/1868 - 3/5/1932
Dutch painter, designer and decorator
45 Pancho Villa
6/5/1878 - 6/20/1923
Mexican revolutionary guerrilla leader
61 Ruth Benedict
6/5/1887 - 9/17/1948
American anthropologist
38 Federico Garcia Lorca
6/5/1898 - 8/19/1936
Spanish poet and dramatist
77 William Boyd
6/5/1895 - 9/12/1972
American motion-picture and television actor
63 Tony Richardson
6/5/1928 - 11/14/1991
English stage and screen director
1674 - Sivaji crowned himself King of India.
1813 - The U.S. invasion of Canada was halted at Stony Creek, Ontario.
1833 - Andrew Jackson became the first U.S. president to ride in a train. It was a B&O passenger train.
1844 - The Young Men's Christian Association was founded in London.
1865 - Confederate raider Wiliam Quantrill died from shot in the back that he received while escaping from a Union patrol near Taylorsville, KY.
1882 - The first electric iron was patented by H.W. Seely.
1890 - The United States Polo Association was formed in New York City, NY.
1904 - The National Tuberculosis Association was formed in Atlantic City, NJ.
1924 - The German Reichtag accepted the Dawes Plan. It was an American plan to help Germany pay off its war debts.
1925 - Chrysler Corporation was founded by Walter Percy Chrysler.
1932 - In the U.S., the first federal tax on gasoline went into effect. It was a penny per gallon.
1933 - In Camden, NJ, the first drive-in movie theater opened.
1934 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Securities Exchange Act, which established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
1936 - The first helicopter was tested in a building in Berlin, Germany.
1941 - The U.S. government authorized the seizure of foreign ships in U.S. ports.
1942 - The first nylon parachute jump was made by Adeline Gray in Hartford, CT.
1942 - Japanese forces retreated in the World War II Battle of Midway. The battle had begun on June 4.
1944 - The D-Day invasion of Europe took place on the beaches of Normandy, France. 400,000 Allied American, British and Canadian troops were involved.
1946 - The Basketball Association of America was formed in New York City, NY.
1966 - James Meridith was shot and wounded while on a solo march in Mississippi to promote voter registration among blacks.
1968 - U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy died at 1:44am in Los Angeles after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy was was shot the evening before while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1971 - "The Ed Sullivan Show" aired for the last time. It was canceled after 23 years on the air. Gladys Knight and the Pips were the musical guests on show.
1978 - "20/20" debuted on ABC.
1982 - Israel invaded southern Lebanon in an effort to drive PLO guerrillas out of Beirut.
1985 - The body of Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele was located and exhumed near Sao Paolo, Brazil. Mengele was known as the "Angel of Death."
1993 - Mongolia held its first direct presidential elections.
2001 - U.S. District Court Judge Matsch rejected a request to delay the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. The date was left at June 11.
2005 - The United States Supreme Court ruled that federal authorities could prosecute sick people who smoke marijuana on doctor's orders. The ruling concluded that state medical marijuana laws did not protect uses from the federal ban on the drug.
Current Birthdays
Paul Giamatti turns 42 years old today.
77 Billie Whitelaw
Actress
75 Roy Innis
Civil rights leader
70 Gary "U.S." Bonds
Rock singer
66 Joe Stampley
Country singer
60 Robert Englund
Actor
60 Holly Near
Folk singer
58 Dwight Twilley
Singer
55 Harvey Fierstein
Actor
54 Sandra Bernhard
Actress, comedian
53 Bjorn Borg
Tennis Hall of Famer
50 Jimmy Jam
Record producer
50 Amanda Pays
Actress
50 Colin Quinn
Comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
49 Steve Vai
Rock musician
48 Tom Araya
Rock musicican (Slayer)
46 Jason Isaacs
Actor
43 Sean Yseult
Rock musicican (White Zombie)
42 Max Casella
Actor
41 Damion Hall
R&B singer (Guy)
40 Bardi Martin
Rock musician
39 James "Munky" Shaffer
Rock musician (Korn)
37 Natalie Morales
Broadcast journalist
36 Lisa Brokop
Country singer
35 Uncle Kracker
Rapper, rocker
35 Sonya Walger
Actress ("Lost")
34 Staci Keanan
Actress
26 Amber Borycki
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Thomas Mann
6/6/1875 - 8/12/1955
German novelist and essayist
61 Diego Velazquez
6/6/1599 - 8/6/1660
Spanish 17th-century painter
21 Nathan Hale
6/6/1755 - 9/22/1776
American Revolutionary patriot
87 John Trumbull
6/6/1756 - 11/10/1843
American painter, architect and author
51 Steele MacKaye
6/6/1842 - 2/25/1894
American playwright, actor and inventor
46 Alexandra
6/6/1872 - 7/16/1918
Russian consort of emperor Nicholas II
77 Sir Patrick Abercrombie
6/6/1879 - 3/23/1957
English architect and town planner
85 William Cosgrave
6/6/1880 - 11/16/1965
Irish statesman and first president
79 R. C. Sherriff
6/6/1896 - 11/13/1975
English playwright and screenwriter
69 Sukarno
6/6/1901 - 6/21/1970
Indonesian statesman; leader of independence movement and first president (1949-67)
45 Jimmie Lunceford
6/6/1902 - 7/12/1947
American jazz band leader
74 Aram Khachaturian
6/6/1903 - 5/1/1978
Russian composer
86 Bill Dickey
6/6/1907 - 11/12/1993
American athlete; catcher for the New York Yankees
68 A.D. - Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide.
1064 - Coimbra, Portugal fell to Ferdinand, the King of Castile.
1534 - Jacques Cartier became the first to sail into the river he named Saint Lawrence.
1790 - John Barry copyrighted "Philadelphia Spelling Book." It was the first American book to be copyrighted.
1790 - Civil war broke out in Martinique.
1860 - The book, "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter" by Mrs. Ann Stevens, was offered for sale for a dime. It was the first published "dime novel."
1861 - Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke began working in Union hospitals.
1923 - Bulgaria’s government was overthrown by the military.
1931 - Robert H. Goddard patented a rocket-fueled aircraft design.
1934 - Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphonies cartoon "The Wise Little Hen."
1940 - Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.
1943 - The withholding tax on payrolls was authorized by the U.S. Congress.
1945 - Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
1946 - Mel Ott (with the New York Giants) became the first manager to be ejected from a doubleheader (both games).
1953 - A tornado struck Worcester, Massachusetts, killing about 100 people.
1959 - The first ballistic missile carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, was launched.
1965 - Michel Jazy ran the mile in 3 minutes, 53.6 seconds. He broke the record set by Peter Snell in 1964.
1972 - American advisor John Paul Vann was killed in a helicopter accident in Vietnam.
1978 - Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.
1980 - Richard Pryor was severely burned by a "free-base" mixture that exploded. He was hospitalized more than two months.
1985 - Thomas Sutherland, an American educator, was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was not released until November 1991.
1985 - The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA title by defeating the Boston Celtics.
1986 - The Rogers Commission released a report on the Challenger disaster. The report explained that the spacecraft blew up as a result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.
1998 - In Jasper, TX, three white men were charged in the dragging death of African-American James Byrd Jr.
1999 - NATO and Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement over Kosovo.
2000 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it had not uncovered reliable evidence of conspiracy behind 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
2000 - Canada and the United States signed a border security agreement. The agreement called for the establishment of a border-enforcement team.
2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal gift and estate taxes. The bill called for the taxes to be phased out over 10 years.
2001 - Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to win three Conn Smythe Trophies. The award is given to the playoff's Most Valuable Player.
Current Birthdays
Natalie Portman turns 28 years old today
94 Les Paul
Guitarist
93 Robert S. McNamara
Former defense secretary
83 Mona Freeman
Actress
79 Marvin Kalb
Broadcast journalist
70 Dick Vitale
Sportscaster
68 Jon Lord
Rock musician (Whitesnake, Deep Purple)
53 Patricia Cornwell
Mystery author
48 Michael J. Fox
Actor
48 Aaron Sorkin
Writer, producer ("The West Wing")
46 Johnny Depp
Actor ("Pirates of the Caribbean" movies)
45 Gloria Reuben
Actress ("E.R.", "Raising the Bar")
42 Dean Dinning
Rock musician
42 Dean Felber
Rock musician (Hootie & the Blowfish)
39 Ed Simons
Rock musician (Chemical Brothers)
36 Tedy Bruschi
Football player
35 Shade Deggs
Country musician
34 Jamie Dailey
Bluegrass musician
31 Michaela Conlin
Actress ("Bones")
21 Mae Whitman
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Cole Porter
6/9/1891 - 10/15/1964
American composer and lyricist
52 Peter I (the Great)
6/9/1672 - 2/8/1725
Russian emperor (1682-1725)
66 Samuel Slater
6/9/1768 - 4/21/1835
English-born industrialist; helped start American cotton industry
38 Otto Nicolai
6/9/1810 - 5/11/1849
German opera composer
71 Bertha Suttner
6/9/1843 - 6/21/1914
Austrian novelist and pacifist
67 James Stillman
6/9/1850 - 3/15/1918
American financier and banker
70 Charles Bonaparte
6/9/1851 - 6/28/1921
American politician; U.S. attorney general (1906-09)
66 Carl Nielsen
6/9/1865 - 10/3/1931
Danish violinist, conductor and composer
80 S. N. Behrman
6/9/1893 - 9/9/1973
American short-story writer and playwright
74 Patrick Steptoe
6/9/1913 - 3/21/1988
English physician and medical researcher
68 A.D. - Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide.
1064 - Coimbra, Portugal fell to Ferdinand, the King of Castile.
1534 - Jacques Cartier became the first to sail into the river he named Saint Lawrence.
1790 - John Barry copyrighted "Philadelphia Spelling Book." It was the first American book to be copyrighted.
1790 - Civil war broke out in Martinique.
1860 - The book, "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter" by Mrs. Ann Stevens, was offered for sale for a dime. It was the first published "dime novel."
1861 - Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke began working in Union hospitals.
1923 - Bulgaria’s government was overthrown by the military.
1931 - Robert H. Goddard patented a rocket-fueled aircraft design.
1934 - Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphonies cartoon "The Wise Little Hen."
1940 - Norway surrendered to the Nazis during World War II.
1943 - The withholding tax on payrolls was authorized by the U.S. Congress.
1945 - Japanese Premier Kantaro Suzuki declared that Japan would fight to the last rather than accept unconditional surrender.
1946 - Mel Ott (with the New York Giants) became the first manager to be ejected from a doubleheader (both games).
1953 - A tornado struck Worcester, Massachusetts, killing about 100 people.
1959 - The first ballistic missile carrying submarine, the USS George Washington, was launched.
1965 - Michel Jazy ran the mile in 3 minutes, 53.6 seconds. He broke the record set by Peter Snell in 1964.
1972 - American advisor John Paul Vann was killed in a helicopter accident in Vietnam.
1978 - Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.
1980 - Richard Pryor was severely burned by a "free-base" mixture that exploded. He was hospitalized more than two months.
1985 - Thomas Sutherland, an American educator, was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was not released until November 1991.
1985 - The Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA title by defeating the Boston Celtics.
1986 - The Rogers Commission released a report on the Challenger disaster. The report explained that the spacecraft blew up as a result of a failure in a solid rocket booster joint.
1998 - In Jasper, TX, three white men were charged in the dragging death of African-American James Byrd Jr.
1999 - NATO and Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement over Kosovo.
2000 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it had not uncovered reliable evidence of conspiracy behind 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
2000 - Canada and the United States signed a border security agreement. The agreement called for the establishment of a border-enforcement team.
2000 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal gift and estate taxes. The bill called for the taxes to be phased out over 10 years.
2001 - Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche) became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to win three Conn Smythe Trophies. The award is given to the playoff's Most Valuable Player.
Current Birthdays
Natalie Portman turns 28 years old today
94 Les Paul
Guitarist
93 Robert S. McNamara
Former defense secretary
83 Mona Freeman
Actress
79 Marvin Kalb
Broadcast journalist
70 Dick Vitale
Sportscaster
68 Jon Lord
Rock musician (Whitesnake, Deep Purple)
53 Patricia Cornwell
Mystery author
48 Michael J. Fox
Actor
48 Aaron Sorkin
Writer, producer ("The West Wing")
46 Johnny Depp
Actor ("Pirates of the Caribbean" movies)
45 Gloria Reuben
Actress ("E.R.", "Raising the Bar")
42 Dean Dinning
Rock musician
42 Dean Felber
Rock musician (Hootie & the Blowfish)
39 Ed Simons
Rock musician (Chemical Brothers)
36 Tedy Bruschi
Football player
35 Shade Deggs
Country musician
34 Jamie Dailey
Bluegrass musician
31 Michaela Conlin
Actress ("Bones")
21 Mae Whitman
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Cole Porter
6/9/1891 - 10/15/1964
American composer and lyricist
52 Peter I (the Great)
6/9/1672 - 2/8/1725
Russian emperor (1682-1725)
66 Samuel Slater
6/9/1768 - 4/21/1835
English-born industrialist; helped start American cotton industry
38 Otto Nicolai
6/9/1810 - 5/11/1849
German opera composer
71 Bertha Suttner
6/9/1843 - 6/21/1914
Austrian novelist and pacifist
67 James Stillman
6/9/1850 - 3/15/1918
American financier and banker
70 Charles Bonaparte
6/9/1851 - 6/28/1921
American politician; U.S. attorney general (1906-09)
66 Carl Nielsen
6/9/1865 - 10/3/1931
Danish violinist, conductor and composer
80 S. N. Behrman
6/9/1893 - 9/9/1973
American short-story writer and playwright
74 Patrick Steptoe
6/9/1913 - 3/21/1988
English physician and medical researcher
1190 - Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa drowned in the Saleph River while leading an army of the Third Crusade to free Jerusalem.
1776 - The Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a Declaration of Independence.
1793 - The Jardin des Plantes zoo opened in Paris. It was the first public zoo.
1801 - The North African State of Tripoli declared war on the U.S. The dispute was over merchant vessels being able to travel safely through the Mediterranean.
1806 - New York's "Commercial Advertiser" became the first U.S. newspaper to cover the sport of harness racing.
1854 - The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, held its first graduation.
1889 - Hattie McDaniel was born. She, for her role in "Gone With the Wind," was the first African-American to win an Academy Award.
1898 - U.S. Marines landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
1902 - The "outlook" or "see-through" envelope was patented by Americus F. Callahan.
1909 - The SOS distress signal was used for the first time. The Cunard liner SS Slavonia used the signal when it wrecked off the Azores.
1916 - Mecca, under control of the Turks, fell to the Arabs during the Great Arab Revolt.
1920 - The Republican convention in Chicago endorsed woman suffrage.
1924 - The Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti was kidnapped and murdered by Fascists in Rome.
1924 - The Republican National Convention was broadcast by NBC radio. It was the first political convention to be on radio.
1925 - The state of Tennessee adopted a new biology text book that denied the theory of evolution.
1935 - Alcoholic Anonymous was founded by William G. Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith.
1940 - Italy declared war on France and Britain. In addition, Canada declared war on Italy.
1942 - The Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi official.
1943 - Laszlo Biro patented his ballpoint pen. Biro was a Hungarian journalist.
1943 - The Allies began bombing Germany around the clock.
1944 - The youngest pitcher in major league baseball pitched his first game. Joe Nuxhall was 15 years old (and 10 months and 11 days).
1946 - Italy established a republic replacing its monarchy.
1948 - Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in the Bell XS-1.
1954 - General Motors announced the gas turbine bus had been produced successfully.
1967 - Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire that ended the Six-Day War.
1970 - A fifteen-man group of special forces troops began training for Operation Kingpin. The operation was a POW rescue mission in North Vietnam.
1971 - The U.S. ended a 21-year trade embargo of China.
1977 - James Earl Ray escaped with 6 others from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Tennessee. Ray was recaptured June 13, 1977.
1983 - Johnny Bench announced his plans to retire. He was a catcher in the major leagues for 16 years.
1984 - The U.S. Army successfully tested an antiballistic missile.
1985 - Frank Sinatra was portrayed as a friend of organized crime in a "Doonesbury" comic strip. Over 800 newspapers carried the panel.
1985 - The Israeli army pulled out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation.
1987 - An earthquake hit 15 states from Iowa to South Carolina.
1988 - Author Louis L'Amour died at age 80.
1990 - The Civic Forum movement won Czechoslovakia's first free elections since 1946. The movement was founded by President Vaclav Havel.
1990 - Bulgaria's former Communist Party won the country's first free elections in more than four decades.
1993 - It was announced by scientists that genetic material was extracted from an insect that lived when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
1994 - U.S. President Clinton intensified sanctions against Haiti's military leaders. U.S. commercial air travel was suspended along with most financial transactions between Haiti and the U.S.
1995 - 26 people were killed in Medellin, Columbia, by a bomb blast that was blamed on drug traffickers.
1996 - The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Florida Panthers in a 1-0 triple overtime game. The win ended a four-game sweep for the Stanley Cup.
1996 - Britain and Ireland opened Northern Ireland peace talks. The IRA's political arm Sinn Fein was excluded.
1997 - Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot killed his defense chief Son Sen and 11 members of his family. He then fled his northern stronghold. The news did not emerge for three days.
1998 - The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that poor children in Milwaukee could attend religious schools at taxpayer expense.
1999 - NATO suspended air strikes in Yugoslavia after Slobodan Milosevic agreed to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.
Current Birthdays
Elizabeth Hurley turns 44 years old today
88 Prince Philip
Husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth
84 Nat Hentoff
Columnist
83 Lionel Jeffries
Actor, director
76 F. Lee Bailey
Attorney
70 Alexandra Stewart
Actress
68 Shirley Alston Reeves
R&B singer (The Shirelles)
68 Jurgen Prochnow
Actor
66 Jeff Greenfield
TV commentator
58 Dan Fouts
Football Hall of Famer
57 Thom Schuyler
Country singer
56 John Edwards
Former U.S. senator, D-N.C.
54 Andrew Stevens
Actor
50 Eliot Spitzer
Former governor of New York
48 Kim Deal
Rock musician (Pixies)
48 Maxi Priest
Reggae singer
47 Gina Gershon
Actress, singer
46 Brad Henry
Governor of Oklahoma
46 Jeanne Tripplehorn
Actress
45 Jimmy Chamberlin
Rock musician (Smashing Pumpkins)
45 Kate Flannery
Actress ("The Office")
44 Joey Santiago
Rock musician (Pixies)
43 Doug McKeon
Actor
42 Emma Anderson
Rock musician
42 Brian Hofeldt
Country musician (The Derailers)
41 The D.O.C.
Rapper
39 Mike Doughty
Rock singer (Soul Coughing)
38 Bobby Jindal
Governor of Louisiana
38 JoJo
R&B singer
36 Faith Evans
R&B singer
34 Hugh Dancy
Actor
31 Lemisha Grinstead
R&B singer (702)
31 DJ Qualls
Actor
31 Shane West
Actor
28 Hoku
Singer
27 Tara Lipinski
Figure skater
27 Leelee Sobieski
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Judy Garland
6/10/1922 - 6/22/1969
American motion-picture actress
58 James Short
6/10/1710 - 6/14/1768
English optician and astronomer
58 Gustave Courbet
6/10/1819 - 12/31/1877
French painter
60 Louis Marie Anne Couperus
6/10/1863 - 7/16/1923
Dutch novelist
74 Andre Derain
6/10/1880 - 9/8/1954
French painter and theatrical designer
57 Hattie McDaniel
6/10/1895 - 10/26/1952
American actress and singer
63 Clyde Beatty
6/10/1902 - 7/19/1965
American trainer of wild animals
86 Frederick Loewe
6/10/1901 - 2/14/1988
Austrian-born American composer
66 Sir Terence Rattigan
6/10/1911 - 11/30/1977
English playwright
72 Ralph Kirkpatrick
6/10/1911 - 4/13/1984
American musicologist and harpsichordist
68 Robert Maxwell
6/10/1923 - 11/5/1991
Czechoslovak-born English publisher
1346 - Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany.
1488 - James III of Scotland was murdered after his defeat at the Battle of Sauchieburn, Stirling. He was succeeded by his son James IV.
1509 - King Henry VIII married his first of six wives, Catherine of Aragon.
1770 - Captain James Cook discovered the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia when he ran aground.
1776 - In America, the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence from Britain.
1793 - Robert Haeterick was issued the first patent for a stove.
1798 - Napoleon Bonaparte took the island of Malta.
1847 - Sir John Franklin died in Canada while attempting to discover the Northwest Passage. Franklin was an English naval officer and an Arctic explorer.
1880 - Jeanette Rankin was born. She became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
1889 - The Washington Business High School opened in Washington, DC. It was the first school devoted to business in the U.S.
1895 - Charles E. Duryea received the first U.S. patent granted to an American inventor for a gasoline-driven automobile.
1903 - King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia were murdered in a coup by members of the Serbian army.
1910 - Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born. He was the French underwater explorer that invented the Aqua-Lung diving apparatus.
1912 - Silas Christoferson became the first pilot to take off from the roof of a hotel.
1915 - British troops took Cameroon in Africa.
1919 - Sir Barton became the first horse to capture the Triple Crown when he won the Belmont Stakes in New York City.
1927 - Charles A. Lindberg was presented the first Distinguished Flying Cross.
1930 - William Beebe dove to a record-setting depth of 1,426 feet off the coast of Bermuda. He used a diving chamber called a bathysphere.
1934 - The Disarmament Conference in Geneva ended in failure.
1936 - The Presbyterian Church of America was formed in Philadelphia, PA.
1937 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a purge of Red Army generals.
1940 - The Italian Air Force bombed the British fortress at Malta in the Mediterranean.
1942 - The U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a lend lease agreement to aid the Soviets in their effort in World War II.
1943 - During World War II, the Italian island of Pantelleria surrendered after a heavy air bombardment.
1947 - The U.S. government announced an end sugar rationing.
1950 - Ben Hogan returned to tournament play after a near fatal car accident. He won the U.S. Open.
1955 - In France, 80 people were killed and more than 100 were injured when three cars crashed on the Le Mans racetrack. The cars had ploughed into the spectator's grandstand.
1963 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Florida for trying to integrate restaurants.
1963 - Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.
1963 - Alabama Gov. George Wallace allowed two black students to enroll at the University of Alabama.
1967 - Israel and Syria accepted a U.N. cease-fire.
1972 - Hank Aaron tied the National League record for 14 grand-slam home runs in a career.
1973 - After a ruling by the Justice Department of the State of Pennsylvania, women were licensed to box or wrestle.
1977 - In the Netherlands, a 19-day hostage situation came to an end when Dutch marines stormed a train and a school being held by South Moluccan extremist. Two hostages and the six terrorists were killed.
1981 - The first major league baseball player's strike began. It would last for two months.
1981 - In Iran, more than 1,000 people were killed in an earthquake that measured 6.8 on the Richter ScaleRichter Scale. The town of Golbaf in the Kermin province was destroyed.
1982 - Steven Spielberg's movie "E.T." opened.
1985 - Karen Ann Quinlan died at age 31. Quinlan was a comatose patient whose case prompted a historic right-to-die court decision.
1987 - Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office.
1990 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that would prohibit the desecration of the American Flag.
1991 - Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted. The eruption of ash and gas could be seen for more than 60 miles.
1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people who commit "hate crimes" could be sentenced to extra punishment. The court also ruled in favor of religious groups saying that they indeed had a constitutional right to sacrifice animals during worship services.
1993 - Steven Spielberg's movie "Jurassic Park" opened.
1994 - A car bomb blew up in Guadalajara, Mexico killing five people. The bombing was believed to be drug related.
1998 - Mitsubishi of America agreed to pay $34 million to end the largest sexual harassment case filed by the U.S. government. The federal lawsuit claimed that hundreds of women at a plant in Normal, IL, had endured groping and crude jokes from male workers.
1998 - Pakistan announced moratorium on nuclear testing and offered to talk with India over disputed Kashmir.
2001 - Timothy McVeigh was executed by the U.S. federal government for his role in the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City
Hugh Laurie turns 50 years old today.
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello Actor Hugh Laurie ("House M.D.") turns 50 years old today.
96 Rise Stevens
Opera singer
90 Richard Todd
Actor-producer
79 Charles Rangel
U.S. congressman, D-N.Y.
76 Gene Wilder
Actor
72 Johnny Brown
Comedian
72 Chad Everett
Actor
70 Jackie Stewart
Auto racer
69 Joey Dee
Rock singer
64 Adrienne Barbeau
Actress
60 Frank Beard
Rock musician (ZZ Top)
57 Donnie Van Zant
Rock singer (.38 Special)
56 Peter Bergman
Actor ("The Young and the Restless")
53 Joe Montana
Football Hall of Famer
46 Gioia Bruno
Singer (Expose)
43 Bruce Robison
Country singer, songwriter
40 Peter Dinklage
Actor
40 Dan Lavery
Rock musician (Tonic)
40 Smilin' Jay McDowell
Country musician (BR5-49)
33 Tai Anderson
Rock musician (Third Day)
31 Joshua Jackson
Actor ("Fringe," "Dawson's Creek")
27 Diana Taurasi
Basketball player
26 Jose Reyes
Baseball player
23 Shia LaBeouf
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Jeannette Rankin
6/11/1880 - 5/18/1973
First female member of the Congress of the United States
78 George Wither
6/11/1588 - 5/2/1667
English poet and Puritan pamphleteer
60 John Constable
6/11/1776 - 3/31/1837
English landscape painter
63 Julia Cameron
6/11/1815 - 1/26/1879
English portrait photographer
82 Dame Millicent Fawcett
6/11/1847 - 8/5/1929
English women's suffrage leader
85 Richard Strauss
6/11/1864 - 9/8/1949
German Romantic composer
72 Yasunari Kawabata
6/11/1899 - 4/16/1972
Japanese Nobel-Prize winning novelist (1968)
72 Ernie Nevers
6/11/1903 - 5/3/1976
American football and baseball player
87 Jacques-Yves Cousteau
6/11/1910 - 6/25/1997
French naval officer and oceanographer
57 Vince Lombardi
6/11/1913 - 9/3/1970
American professional football coach
72 Irving Howe
6/11/1920 - 5/5/1993
American literary and social critic
1099 - Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.
1442 - Alfonso V of Aragon was crowned King of Naples.
1665 - England installed a municipal government in New York. It was the former Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam.
1667 - The first human blood transfusion was administered by Dr. Jean Baptiste. He successfully transfused the blood of a sheep to a 15-year old boy.
1812 - Napoleon's invasion of Russia began.
1838 - The Iowa Territory was organized.
1839 - Abner Doubleday created the game of baseball, according to the legend. However, evidence has surfaced that indicates that the game of baseball was played before 1800.
1849 - The gas mask was patented by L.P. Haslett.
1897 - Carl Elsener patented his penknife. The object later became known as the Swiss army knife.
1898 - Philippine nationalists declared their independence from Spain.
1900 - The Reichstag approved a second law that would allow the expansion of the German navy.
1901 - Cuba agreed to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.
1912 - Lillian Russel retired from the stage and was married for the fourth time.
1918 - The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurred on World War I's Western Front in France.
1921 - U.S. President Warren Harding urged every young man to attend military training camp.
1923 - Harry Houdini, while suspended upside down 40 feet above the ground, escaped from a strait jacket.
1926 - Brazil quit the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.
1929 - Anne Frank was born in Germany. She wrote in her diary about growing up in occupied Amsterdam during World War II. She died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945.
1931 - Al Capone and 68 of his henchmen were indicted for violating U.S. Prohibition laws.
1935 - U.S. Senator Huey Long of Louisiana made the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15 1/2 hours and was filled by 150,000 words.
1935 - The Chaco War was ended with a truce. Bolivia and Paraguay had been fighting since 1932.
1937 - The Soviet Union executed eight army leaders under Joseph Stalin.
1939 - The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York. This was exactly one hundred years to the day on which the game was invented by Abner Doubleday.
1941 - In London, the Inter-Allied Declaration was signed. It was the first step towards the establishment of the United Nations.
1944 - Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung announced that he would support Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in the war against Japan.
1948 - Ben Hogan won his first U.S. Open golf classic.
1963 - "Cleopatra" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.
1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS.
1967 - State laws which prohibited interracial marriages were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
1971 - Tricia Nixon and Edward F. Cox were married in the White House Rose Garden.
1975 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was found guilty of corrupt election practices in 1971.
1978 - David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer in New York, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for each of six killings.
1979 - Bryan Allen flew the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.
1981 - Major league baseball players began a 49 day strike. The issue was free-agent compensation.
1982 - 75,000 people rallied against nuclear weapons in New York City's Central Park. Jackson Browne, James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, and Linda Ronstadt were in attendance.
1985 - Wayne "The Great One" Gretsky was named winner of the NHL's Hart Trophy. The award is given to the the league Most Valuable Player.
1985 - The U.S. House of Representatives approved $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan contras.
1986 - South Africa declared a national state of emergency. Virtually unlimited power was given to security forces and restrictions were put on news coverage of the unrest.
1987 - Central African Republic's former emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa was sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.
1987 - U.S. President Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
1990 - The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declared its sovereignty.
1991 - Russians went to the election polls and elected Boris N. Yeltsin as the president of their republic.
1991 - The Chicago Bulls won their first NBA championship. The Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one.
1992 - In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Russian Boris Yeltsin stated that in the early 1950's the Soviet Union had shot down nine U.S. planes and held 12 American survivors.
1994 - Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered outside her home in Los Angeles. O.J. Simpson was later acquitted of the killings, but he was held liable in a civil suit.
1996 - In Philadelphia a panel of federal judges blocked a law against indecency on the internet. The panel said that the 1996 Communications Decency Act would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults.
1997 - Interleague play began in baseball, ending a 126-year tradition of separating the major leagues until the World Series.
1997 - The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled a new $50 bill meant to be more counterfeit-resistant.
1998 - Compaq Computer paid $9 billion for Digital Equipment Corp. in largest high-tech acquisition.
1998 - A jury in Hattiesburg, MS, convicted 17-year-old Luke Woodham of killing two students and wounding seven others at Pearl High School.
1999 - NATO peacekeeping forces entered the province of Kosovo in Yugoslavia.
2003 - In Arkansas, Terry Wallis spoke for the first time in nearly 19 years. Wallis had been in a coma since July 13, 1984, after being injured in a car accident.
Current Birthdays
George H.W. Bush turns 85 years old today.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong Former President George H.W. Bush turns 85 years old today.
94 David Rockefeller
Banker
81 Vic Damone
Singer
81 Richard Sherman
Composer
79 Jim Nabors
Actor-singer ("Gomer Pyle, USMC")
68 Marv Albert
Sportscaster
68 Chick Corea
Jazz musician
68 Roy Harper
Singer
68 Reg Presley
Rock singer (The Troggs)
67 Len Barry
Singer
60 John Wetton
Rock musician (King Crimson, Asia)
58 Bun E. Carlos
Rock musician (Cheap Trick)
57 Spencer Abraham
Former secretary of energy
57 Junior Brown
Country singer, musician
56 Rocky Burnette
Singer, songwriter
52 Timothy Busfield
Actor ("The West Wing," "thirtysomething")
51 Meredith Brooks
Singer
51 Jenilee Harrison
Actress
50 John Linnell
Rock musician (They Might Be Giants)
47 Grandmaster Dee
Rapper (Whodini)
45 Paula Marshall
Actress
42 Frances O'Connor
Actress
35 Hideki Matsui
New York Yankees left fielder
32 Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Blues guitarist
30 Dallas Clark
Football player
30 Wil Horneff
Actor
30 Robyn
Singer
24 Chris Young
Country singer
Historic Birthdays
Anthony Eden
6/12/1897 - 1/14/1977
British foreign secretary (1935-8, 1940-5 and 1951-5) and prime minister (1955-7)
54 Cosimo I
6/12/1519 - 4/21/1574
Italian duke of Florence and Tuscany
74 Harriet Martineau
6/12/1802 - 6/27/1876
English essayist and novelist
55 Charles Kingsley
6/12/1819 - 1/23/1875
English Anglican clergyman, teacher and writer
89 Sir Oliver Lodge
6/12/1851 - 8/22/1940
English physicist and parapsychologist
73 Thomas Walsh
6/12/1859 - 3/2/1933
American politician; U.S. senator from Montana (1913-33)
87 Fritz Lipmann
6/12/1899 - 7/24/1986
German-born American biochemist
81 Bill Naughton
6/12/1910 - 1/9/1992
Irish-born English playwright
83 Milovan Djilas
6/12/1911 - 4/20/1995
Yugoslav political writer
15 Anne Frank
6/12/1929 - 3/?/1945
German Jewish girl killed in Holocaust; famous diarist
marquis2
2009-06-13, 02:56
Baseball was invented by Doubleday? It goes back much further than that :-)
Quote;
The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery. It contains a rhymed description of "base-ball" and a woodcut that shows a field set-up somewhat similar to the modern game—though in a triangular rather than diamond configuration, and with posts instead of ground-level bases.[5] English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey; Bray's diary was verified as authentic in September 2008.[6] This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by English immigrants; rounders was also brought to the continent by both British and Irish immigrants. The first known American reference to baseball appears in a 1791 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, town bylaw prohibiting the playing of the game near the town's new meeting house.[7] By 1796, a version of the game was well-known enough to earn a mention in a German scholar's book on popular pastimes. As described by Johann Gutsmuths, "englische Base-ball" involved a contest between two teams, in which "the batter has three attempts to hit the ball while at the home plate"; only one out was required to retire a side.[8
Skyraider22
2009-06-13, 09:23
Keep it coming great stuff:thumbsup:
1415 - Henry the Navigator, the prince of Portugal, embarked on an expedition to Africa.
1777 - The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in the American colonies to help with their rebellion against the British.
1789 - Ice cream was served to General George Washington by Mrs. Alexander Hamilton.
1825 - Walter Hunt patented the safety pin. Hunt then then sold the rights for $400.
1866 - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. It was ratified on July 9, 1868. The amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It did this by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, depriving any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
1886 - King Ludwig II of Bavaria drowned in Lake Starnberg.
1888 - The U.S. Congress created the Department of Labor.
1898 - The Canadian Yukon Territory was organized.
1900 - China's Boxer Rebellion against foreigners and Chinese Christians erupted into violence.
1912 - Captain Albert Berry made the first successful parachute jump from an airplane in Jefferson, Mississippi.
1913 - Ralph Edwards, the host of "This is Your Life" and "Truth or Consequences" was born. Ronald Reagan was the only person to ever substitute for him.
1920 - The U.S. Post Office Department ruled that children may not be sent by parcel post.
1922 - Charlie Osborne started the longest attack on hiccups. He hiccuped over 435 million times before stopping. He died in 1991, 11 months after his hiccups ended.
1923 - The French set a trade barrier between the occupied Ruhr and the rest of Germany.
1927 - Charles Lindbergh was honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
1927 - For the first time an American Flag was displayed from the right hand of the Statue of Liberty.
1940 - Paris was evacuated before the German advance on the city.
1943 - German spies landed on Long Island, New York. They were soon captured.
1944 - Germany launched 10 of its new V1 rockets against Britain from a position near the Channel coast. Of the 10 rockets only 5 landed in Britain and only one managed to kill (6 people in London).
1944 - Marvin Camras patented the wire recorder.
1949 - Bao Dai entered Saigon to rule Vietnam. He had been installed by the French.
1951 - U.N. troops seized Pyongyang, North Korea.
1966 - The landmark "Miranda vs. Arizona" decision was issued by the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision ruled that criminal suspects had to be informed of their constitutional rights before being questioned by police.
1967 - Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1971 - The New York Times began publishing the "Pentagon Papers". The articles were a secret study of America's involvement in Vietnam.
1977 - James Earl Ray was recaptured after his escape from prison 3 days earlier.
1978 - Israelis withdrew the last of their invading forces from Lebanon.
1979 - Sioux Indians were awarded $105 million in compensation for the U.S. seizure in 1877 of their Black Hills in South Dakota.
1981 - At a parade in London a teen-ager fired six-blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
1983 - The unmanned U.S. space probe Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system. It was launched in March 1972. The first up-close images of the planet Jupiter were provided by Pioneer 10.
1988 - The Liggett Group, a cigarette manufacturer, was found liable for a lung-cancer death. They were, however, found innocent by the federal jury of misrepresenting the risks of smoking.
1989 - The Detroit Pistons won their first National Basketball Association title. They beat the L.A. Lakers in four games.
1989 - U.S. President George Bush exercised his first Presidential veto on a bill dealing with minimum wage.
1991 - In the first round of the U.S. Open golf tournament a spectator was killed when lightning struck.
1992 - Future U.S. President Bill Clinton criticized rap singer Sister Souljah for making remarks "filled with hatred" towards whites.
1994 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found Exxon Corp. and Captain Joseph Hazelwood to be reckless in the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
1994 - O.J. Simpson was questioned by Los Angeles police concerning the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman.
1995 - France announced that they would conduct eight more nuclear tests in the South Pacific.
1996 - In Montana, the 81-day standoff between the Freemen and the FBI ended when the anti-government group surrendered.
1997 - The same Denver jury that convicted Timothy McVeigh of the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahama City recommended the death penalty for his crime.
2000 - Julius "Dr. J." Erving issued a public appeal for help finding his 19-year-old son, Cory. Cory had been missing since May 28, 2000. His body was found July 6, 2000.
2000 - In Pyongyang, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il welcomed South Korea's President Kim Dae for a three-day summit. It was the first such meeting between the leaders of North and South Korea.
Current Birthdays
Ban Ki-Moon turns 65 years old today.
AP Photo/Michel Euler United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon turn years old today.
77 Bob McGrath
Actor ("Sesame Street")
70 Siegfried
Magician (Siegfried & Roy)
69 Bobby Freeman
R&B singer
66 Malcolm McDowell
Actor
62 Jerrold Nadler
U.S. representative, D-N.Y.
60 Dennis Locorriere
Singer (Dr. Hook)
58 Jonathan Hogan
Actor
58 Stellan Skarsgard
Actor
58 Richard Thomas
Actor ("The Waltons")
56 Tim Allen
Actor, comedian ("Home Improvement")
50 Mike Smith
Football coach
47 Ally Sheedy
Actress
47 Hannah Storm
TV host
46 Paul deLisle
Rock musician (Smash Mouth)
41 David Gray
Singer
41 Deniece Pearson
R&B singer (Five Star)
40 Soren Rasted
Rock musician (Aqua)
40 Jamie Walters
Actor
39 Rivers Cuomo
Rock musician (Weezer)
37 Susan Haynes
Country singer
35 Steve-O
Actor ("Jackass")
31 Jason Michael Carroll
Country singer
31 Ethan Embry
Actor
28 Chris Evans
Actor
26 Sarah Schaub
Actress
24 Raz B
Singer
23 Kat Dennings
Actress
23 Ashley Olsen
Actress
23 Mary-Kate Olsen
Actress
Historic Birthdays
William Butler Yeats
6/13/1865 - 1/28/1939
Irish poet, dramatist and writer
80 Winfield Scott
6/13/1786 - 5/29/1866
American army general
82 Jose Antonio Paez
6/13/1790 - 5/7/1873
Venezuelan soldier and politician
48 James Clerk Maxwell
6/13/1831 - 11/5/1879
Scottish physicist
90 Robert Wood
6/13/1879 - 11/6/1969
American business executive
94 Etienne Gilson
6/13/1884 - 9/19/1978
French Canadian philosopher and historian
66 Elizabeth Schumann
6/13/1885 - 4/23/1952
German-born American soprano
78 Mark Van Doren
6/13/1894 - 12/10/1972
American poet, writer and teacher
84 Tage Erlander
6/13/1901 - 6/21/1985
Swedish prime minister (1946-69)
87 Red Grange
6/13/1903 - 1/28/1991
American football player
77 Luis Alvarez
6/13/1911 - 9/1/1988
American experimental physicist
0362 - Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.
1579 - Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England.
1775 - The British took Bunker Hill outside of Boston.
1789 - The Third Estate in France declared itself a national assembly, and began to frame a constitution.
1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte incorporated Italy into his empire.
1837 - Charles Goodyear received his first patent. The patent was for a process that made rubber easier to work with.
1848 - Austrian General Alfred Windischgratz crushed a Czech uprising in Prague.
1854 - The Red Turban revolt broke out in Guangdong, China.
1856 - The Republican Party opened its first national convention in Philadelphia.
1861 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln witnessed Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hydrogen balloon.
1872 - George M. Hoover began selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas. The town had been dry up until this point.
1876 - General George Crook’s command was attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.
1879 - Thomas Edison received an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the trustees of Rutgers College in New Brunswick, NJ.
1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere.
1912 - The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burned in its hanger in Friedrichshafen.
1913 - U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.
1917 - The Russian Duma met in a secret session in Petrograd and voted for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.
1924 - The Fascist militia marched into Rome.
1926 - Spain threatened to quit the League of Nations if Germany was allowed to join.
1928 - Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean.
1930 - The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill became law. It placed the highest tariff on imports to the U.S.
1931 - British authorities in China arrested Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
1932 - The U.S. Senate defeated the bonus bill as 10,000 veterans massed around the Capitol.
1940 - The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
1940 - France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II.
1941 - WNBT-TV in New York City, NY, was granted the first construction permit to operate a commercial TV station in the U.S.
1942 - Yank, a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, began publication. The term "G.I. Joe" was first used in a comic strip by Dave Breger.
1942 - "Suspense" debuted on CBS Radio.
1944 - French troops landed on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.
1944 - The republic of Iceland was established.
1950 - Dr. Richard H. Lawler performed the first kidney transplant in a 45-minute operation in Chicago, IL.
1953 - Soviet tanks fought thousands of Berlin workers that were rioting against the East German government.
1963 - The U.S. Supreme Court banned the required reading of the Lord's prayer and Bible in public schools.
1965 - Twenty-seven B-52’s hit Viet Cong outposts but lost two planes in South Vietnam.
1969 - Boris Spasky became chess champion of the world after checkmating former champion Tigran Petrosian in Moscow.
1970 - North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.
1972 - Five men were arrested for burglarizing the Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. The men all worked for the reelection of President Nixon. The event was the beginning of the Watergate affair.
1982 - Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon was interviewed by Diane Sawyer on "The CBS Morning News."
1985 - Judy Norton-Taylor was photographed for "Playboy" magazine.
1987 - American journalist Charles Glass was kidnapped. He was held captive for 62 days until he escaped on August 18, 1987.
1991 - The Parliament of South Africa repealed the Population Registration Act. The act had required that all South Africans for classified by race at birth.
1994 - O.J. Simpson drove his Ford Bronco across Los Angeles with police in pursuit and millions of people watching live on television. After the slow speed chase ended Simpson was arrested and charged with the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman
Current Birthdays
Newt Gingrich turns 66 years old today.
80 Bud Collins
Tennis journalist
77 Peter Lupus
Actor
77 John Murtha
U.S. representative, D-Pa.
76 Rod Paige
Former secretary of education
63 Barry Manilow
Singer
58 Joe Piscopo
Comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
55 Mark Linn-Baker
Actor
52 Philip Chevron
Rock musician (The Pogues)
52 Jon Gries
Actor
51 Bobby Farrelly
Writer, director
48 Thomas Haden Church
Actor
46 Greg Kinnear
Actor
44 Dan Jansen
Olympic gold-medal speed skater
44 Kami Cotler
Actress ("The Waltons")
43 Jason Patric
Actor
40 Kevin Thornton
R&B singer
39 Will Forte
Actor, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
38 Paulina Rubio
Singer
29 Venus Williams
Tennis player
26 Herculeez
Rapper
Historic Birthdays
Igor Stravinsky
6/17/1882 - 4/6/1971
Russian-born American composer
87 John Wesley
6/17/1703 (O.S.) - 3/2/1791
English Anglican clergyman and evangelist
75 Charles Gounod
6/17/1818 - 10/18/1893
French composer
66 E. G. Squier
6/17/1821 - 4/17/1888
American newspaper editor, diplomat and archaeologist
80 John Robert Greeg
6/17/1867 - 2/23/1948
Irish-born American inventor of short-hand
67 James Weldon Johnson
6/17/1871 - 6/26/1938
American poet, diplomat and anthologist of black culture
37 Aleksandr Friedmann
6/17/1888 - 9/16/1925
Russian mathematician and physical scientist
73 M. C. Escher
6/17/1898 - 3/27/1972
Dutch graphic artist
44 Martin Bormann
6/17/1900 - 5/2/1945
German Nazi party leader
87 Sammy Fain
6/17/1902 - 12/6/1989
American composer of popular songs
87 Ralph Bellamy
6/17/1904 - 11/29/1991
American motion-picture and stage actor
71 Charles Eames
6/17/1907 - 8/21/1978
American designer and architect
78 John Hersey
6/17/1914 - 3/24/1993
American novelist and journalist
69 Kingman Brewster, Jr.
6/17/1919 - 11/8/1988
American educator, diplomat; president of Yale University (1963-77)
26 Herculeez
Rapper
was he not Greek??? lol
1155 - Frederick I Barbarossa was crowned emperor of Rome.
1429 - French forces defeated the English at the battle of Patay. The English had been retreating after the siege of Orleans.
1621 - The first duel in America took place in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
1667 - The Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames toward London.
1778 - Britain evacuated Philadelphia during the U.S. Revolutionary War.
1812 - The War of 1812 began as the U.S. declared war against Great Britain. The conflict began over trade restrictions.
1815 - At the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon was defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon abdicated on June 22.
1817 - London's Waterloo Bridge opened. The bridge, designed by John Rennie, was built over the River Thames.
1861 - The first American fly-casting tournament was held in Utica, NY.
1873 - Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote for a U.S. President.
1898 - Atlantic City, NJ, opened its Steel Pier.
1915 - During World War I, the second battle of Artois ended.
1918 - Allied forces on the Western Front began their largest counter-attack against the German army.
1925 - The first degree in landscape architecture was granted by Harvard University.
1927 - The U.S. Post Office offered a special 10-cent postage stamp for sale. The stamp was of Charles Lindbergh’s "Spirit of St. Louis."
1928 - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales.
1936 - Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano was found guilty on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution.
1936 - The first bicycle traffic court was established in Racine, WI.
1939 - The CBS radio network aired "Ellery Queen" for the first time.
1942 - The U.S. Navy commissioned its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson.
1948 - The United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights.
1951 - General Vo Nguyen Giap ended his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina.
1953 - Seventeen major league baseball records were tied or broken in a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers.
1953 - Egypt was proclaimed to be a republic with General Neguib as its first president.
1959 - A Federal Court annulled the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration.
1959 - The first telecast received from England was broadcast in the U.S. over NBC-TV.
1961 - "Gunsmoke" was broadcast for the last time on CBS radio.
1966 - Samuel Nabrit became the first African American to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.
1972 - A BEA Trident crashed just after takeoff from London Airport. All 118 people on board were killed.
1975 - Fred Lynn of the Boston Red Sox hit three home runs, a triple and a single in a game against the Detroit Tigers.
1979 - In Vienna, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) 2.
1983 - Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
1984 - Alan Berg was shot to death outside his home. Two white supremacists were convicted of civil rights violations in the murder.
1996 - Richard Allen Davis was convicted in San Jose, CA, of the 1993 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas.
1997 - Sirhan Sirhan was denied parole for the 10th time. He had assissinated presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in 1968.
1998 - The Walt Disney Co. purchased a 43% stake in the Web search engine company Infoseek Corp.
1998 - Nine commemorative U.S. postage stamps were reissued. The stamps were considered to be classically beautiful examples of stamp engraving.
1998 - "The Boston Globe" asked Patricia Smith to resign after she admitted to inventing people and quotes in four of her recent columns.
1999 - Walt Disney's "Tarzan" opened.
2000 - In Algiers, Algeria, the foreign ministers of Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a preliminary cease-fire accord and agreed to work toward a permanent settlement of their two-year border war.
2002 - In Jerusalem, a suicide bomber killed 19 people and injured at least 50 more on a city bus. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
Current Birthdays
Jay Rockefeller turns 72 years old today.
89 Ian Carmichael
Actor
83 Tom Wicker
Journalist
70 Lou Brock
Baseball Hall of Famer
67 Roger Ebert
Movie critic
67 Paul McCartney
Rock musician
62 Constance McCashin
Actress
62 Linda Thorson
Actress
59 Mike Johanns
U.S. senator, R-Neb.
57 Carol Kane
Actress
57 Isabella Rossellini
Actress
48 Alison Moyet
Rock singer
46 Bruce Smith
Football Hall of Famer
42 Tim Hunt
Country musician
40 Sice
Rock musician (The Boo Radleys)
38 Mara Hobel
Actress
38 Nathan Morris
R&B singer (Boyz II Men)
34 Silkk the Shocker
Rapper
33 Alana de la Garza
Actress ("Law and Order")
33 Blake Shelton
Country singer
29 Antonio Gates
Football player
20 Renee Olstead
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Edouard Daladier
6/18/1884 - 10/10/1970
French premier; signed the Munich Pact in 1938
80 Bartolommeo Ammannati
6/18/1511 - 4/22/1592
Italian sculptor and architect
55 Feofan Prokopovich
6/18/1681 - 9/19/1736
Russian Orthodox archbishop; important ally of Peter the Great
81 William Lassell
6/18/1799 - 10/5/1880
English astronomer
71 Edward Wyllis Scripps
6/18/1854 - 3/12/1926
American newspaper publisher
72 Henry Clay Folger
6/18/1857 - 6/11/1930
American industrialist and philanthropist
69 Nicolae Iorga
6/18/1871 - 11/28/1940
Romanian scholar, statesman and historian
82 James Montgomery Flagg
6/18/1877 - 5/27/1960
American illustrator and poster artist
53 Philip Barry
6/18/1896 - 12/3/1949
American dramatist
17 Anastasia
6/18/1901 - 7/17/1918
Russian daughter of Tsar Nicholas II
0240 BC - Eratosthenes estimated the circumference of the Earth using two sticks.
1586 - English colonists sailed away from Roanoke Island, NC, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in America.
1778 - U.S. General George Washington's troops finally left Valley Forge after a winter of training.
1821 - The Ottomans defeated the Greeks at the Battle of Dragasani.
1846 - The New York Knickerbocker Club played the New York Club in the first baseball game at the Elysian Field, Hoboken, NJ. It was the first organized baseball game.
1862 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln outlined his Emancipation Proclamation, which outlawed slavery in U.S. territories.
1864 - The USS Kearsarge sank the CSS Alabama off of Cherbourg, France.
1865 - The emancipation of slaves was proclaimed in Texas.
1867 - Mexican Emperor Maximillian was executed.
1867 - In New York, the Belmont Stakes was run for the first time.
1903 - The young school teacher, Benito Mussolini, was placed under investigation by police in Bern, Switzerland.
1910 - Father's Day was celebrated for the first time, in Spokane, WA.
1911 - In Pennsylvania, the first motion-picture censorship board was established.
1912 - The U.S. government established the 8-hour work day.
1917 - During World War I, King George V ordered the British royal family to dispense with German titles and surnames. On July 17, 1917, the family took the name "Windsor".
1933 - France granted Leon Trotsky political asylum.
1934 - The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration was established.
1934 - The U.S. Congress established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The commission was to regulate radio and TV broadcasting (later).
1937 - The town of Bilbao, Spain, fell to the Nationalist forces.
1939 - In Atlanta, GA, legislation was enacted that disallowed pinball machines in the city.
1942 - Norma Jeane Mortenson (Marilyn Monroe) and her 21-year-old neighbor Jimmy Dougherty were married. They were divorced in June of 1946.
1942 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington, DC, to discuss the invasion of North Africa with U.S. President Roosevelt.
1943 - Henry Kissinger became a naturalized United States citizen.
1943 - The National Football League approved the merger of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
1944 - The U.S. won the battle of the Philippine Sea against the Imperial Japanese fleet.
1951 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the Universal Military Training and Service Act, which extended Selective Service until July 1, 1955 and lowered the draft age to 18.
1952 - "I’ve Got a Secret" debuted on CBS-TV.
1953 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY. They had been convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
1958 - In Washington, DC, nine entertainers refused to answer a congressional committee's questions on communism.
1961 - Kuwait regained complete independence from Britain.
1961 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland's constitution that required state officeholders to profess a belief in God.
1964 - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
1965 - Air Marshall Nguyen Cao Ky became South Vietnam's youngest premier at age 34.
1968 - 50,000 people marched on Washington, DC. to support the Poor People's Campaign.
1973 - The Case-Church Amendment prevented further U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
1973 - Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) got his 2,000th career hit.
1973 - The stage production of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" opened in London.
1973 - Gordie Howe left the NHL to join his sons Mark and Marty in the WHA (World Hockey League).
1976 - During three days of violence, black student protestors were massacred in Soweto, South Africa.
1978 - Garfield was in newspapers around the U.S. for the first time.
1981 - "Superman II" set the all-time, one-day record for theater box-office receipts when it took in $5.5 million.
1981 - The European Space Agency sent two satellites into orbit from Kourou, French Guiana.
1983 - Lixian-nian was chosen to be China's first president since 1969.
1986 - University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias died of a cocaine-induced seizure.
1987 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Louisiana law that required that schools teach creationism.
1989 - The movie "Batman" premiered.
1997 - William Hague became the youngest leader of Britain's Conservative party in nearly 200 years.
1998 - Gateway was fined more than $400,000 for illegally shipping personal computers to 16 countries subject to U.S. export controls.
1998 - A study released said that smoking more than doubles risks of developing dementia and Alzheimer's.
1998 - Switzerland's three largest banks offered $600 million to settle claims they'd stolen the assets of Holocaust victims during World War II. Jewish leaders called the offer insultingly low.
1999 - Stephen King was struck from behind by a mini-van while walking along a road in Maine.
1999 - The Dallas Stars won their first NHL Stanley Cup by defeating the Buffalo Sabres in the third overtime of game six.
2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a group prayer led by students at public-school football games violated the 1st Amendment's principle that called for the separation of church and state.
Current Birthdays
Lauren Lee Smith turns 29 years old today.
79 Gena Rowlands
Actress
67 Spanky McFarlane
Pop singer (Spanky and Our Gang)
64 Aung San Suu Kyi
Nobel Peace Prize winner
62 Salman Rushdie
Author
61 Phylicia Rashad
Actress ("The Cosby Show")
59 Ann Wilson
Rock singer (Heart)
56 Larry Dunn
Rock musician
55 Kathleen Turner
Actress
54 Mary Schapiro
SEC chairwoman
53 Doug Stone
Country singer
50 Mark DeBarge
R&B singer
47 Paula Abdul
Singer, TV personality ("American Idol")
46 Andy Lauer
Actor
45 Brian Vander Ark
Rock singer, musician
39 Brian "Head" Welch
Rock musician (Korn)
37 Robin Tunney
Actress
35 Bumper Robinson
Actor
34 Poppy Montgomery
Actress ("Without a Trace")
33 Scott Avett
Country musician
31 Zoe Saldana
Actress
25 Paul Dano
Actor
Historic Birthdays
Lou Gehrig
6/19/1903 - 6/2/1941
American professional baseball player
39 Blaise Pascal
6/19/1623 - 8/19/1662
French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher
89 Thomas Sully
6/19/1783 - 11/5/1872
American portrait painter
83 William Henry Webb
6/19/1816 - 10/30/1899
American naval architect and shipbuilder
58 Elbert Hubbard
6/19/1856 - 5/7/1915
American editor, publisher and author
85 Laura Hobson
6/19/1900 - 2/28/1986
American novelist and short story writer
65 James J. Walker
6/19/1881 - 11/18/1946
American politician; mayor of New York City (1925-32)
89 Wallis Warfield Windsor
6/19/1896 - 4/24/1986
American who married the Duke of Windsor
75 Guy Lombardo
6/19/1902 - 11/5/1977
Canadian-born American dance-band leader
75 Paul Flory
6/19/1910 - 9/9/1985
American Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1974)
71 Abe Fortas
6/19/1910 - 4/5/1982
American lawyer and associate justice of the Supreme Court (1965-69)
38 Viktor Patsayev
6/19/1933 - 6/29/1971
Russian cosmonaut; died in space
0451 - Roman and Barbarian warriors brought Attila's army to a halt at the Catalaunian Plains in eastern France.
1397 - The Union of Kalmar united Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under one monarch.
1756 - In India, 150 British soldiers were imprisoned in a cell that became known as the "Black Hole of Calcutta."
1782 - The U.S. Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States.
1791 - King Louis XVI of France was captured while attempting to flee the country in the so-called Flight to Varennes.
1793 - Eli Whitney applied for a cotton gin patent. He received the patent on March 14. The cotton gin initiated the American mass-production concept.
1837 - Queen Victoria ascended the British throne following the death of her uncle, King William IV.
1863 - West Virginia became the 35th state to join the U.S.
1863 - The National Bank of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA, became the first bank to receive a charter from the U.S. Congress.
1893 - A jury in New Bedford, MA, found Lizzie Borden innocent of the ax murders of her father and stepmother.
1898 - The U.S. Navy seized the island of Guam enroute to the Phillipines to fight the Spanish.
1910 - Mexican President Porfirio Diaz proclaimed martial law and arrested hundreds.
1910 - Fanny Brice debuted in the New York production of the "Ziegfeld Follies".
1923 - France announced it would seize the Rhineland to assist Germany in paying its war debts.
1941 - The U.S. Army Air Force was established, replacing the Army Air Corps.
1943 - Race-related rioting erupted in Detroit. Federal troops were sent in two days later to end the violence that left more than 30 dead.
1947 - Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was murdered in Beverly Hills, CA, at the order of mob associates angered over the soaring costs of his project, the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas, NV.
1948 - "Toast of the Town" debuted on CBS-TV. The show was hosted by Ed Sullivan.
1950 - Willie Mays graduated from high school and immediately signed with the New York Giants.
1955 - The AFL and CIO agreed to combine names and a merge into a single group.
1963 - The United States and Soviet Union signed an agreement to set up a hot line communication link between the two countries.
1966 - The U.S. Open golf tournament was broadcast in color for the first time.
1967 - Muhammad Ali was convicted in Houston of violating Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the conviction.
1977 - The Trans-Alaska Pipeline began operation.
1979 - ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot to death in Managua, Nicaragua, by a member of President Anastasio Somoza's national guard.
1994 - In Los Angeles, O.J. Simpson pled innocent to the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
1997 - The tobacco industry agreed to a massive settlement in exchange for major relief from mounting lawsuits and legal bills.
2001 - Barry Bonds, of the San Francisco Giants, hit his 38th home run of the season. The home run broke the major league baseball record for homers before the midseason All-Star break.
2001 - In Texas, Andrea Yates was arrested for drowning her five children in a bathtub.
2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the execution of mentally retarded murderers was unconstitutionally cruel. The vote was 6 in favor and 3 against.
Current Birthdays
Nicole Kidman turns 42 years old today.
78 Olympia Dukakis
Actress
78 Martin Landau
Actor
78 James Tolkan
Actor
76 Danny Aiello
Actor
69 John Mahoney
Actor ("Frasier")
68 Stephen Frears
Director
67 Brian Wilson
Rock singer, songwriter (The Beach Boys)
64 John McCook
Actor ("The Bold and the Beautiful")
64 Anne Murray
Singer
63 Bob Vila
TV host ("This Old House")
63 Andre Watts
Musician
62 Candy Clark
Actress
61 Tina Sinatra
Producer
60 Lionel Richie
R&B singer
57 John Goodman
Actor
55 Michael Anthony
Rock musician (Van Halen)
49 John Taylor
Rock musician (Duran Duran)
47 Mark DeGliantoni
Rock musician
42 Murphy Karges
Rock musician (Sugar Ray)
42 Dan Tyminski
Country, bluegrass musician (Union Station)
41 Robert Rodriguez
Director ("Spy Kids")
40 Peter Paige
Actor ("Queer as Folk")
38 Josh Lucas
Actor
36 Chino Moreno
Rock singer
32 Amos Lee
Folk singer, songwriter
30 Chuck Wicks
Country singer
24 Mark Saul
Actor ("Grey's Anatomy")
20 Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Actor ("Superbad")
12 Maria Lark
Actress ("Medium")
Historic Birthdays
Lillian Hellman
6/20/1905 - 6/30/1984
American playwright and screenwriter
57 Salvator Rosa
6/20/1615 - 3/15/1673
Italian Baroque painter and etcher
92 Adam Ferguson
6/20/1723 - 2/22/1816
Scottish historian and philosopher
32 Thomas Edward Bowdich
6/20/1791 - 1/10/1824
English traveler and scientific writer
61 Jacques Offenbach
6/20/1819 - 10/5/1880
French composer
72 Alexander Winton
6/20/1860 - 6/21/1932
Scottish-born American automobile manufacturer
85 Sir Frederick Hopkins
6/20/1861 - 5/16/1947
English Nobel Prize-winning biochemist (1929)
44 Jean Moulin
6/20/1899 - 7/8/1943
French World War II Resistance hero
50 Errol Flynn
6/20/1909 - 10/14/1959
American motion-picture actor
65 Chester Arthur Burnett
6/20/1910 - 1/10/1976
American blues singer and composer
1683 - William Penn signed a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.
1700 - Russia gave up its Black Sea fleet as part of a truce with the Ottoman Empire.
1758 - British and Hanoverian armies defeated the French at Krefeld in Germany.
1760 - The Austrians defeated the Prussians at Landshut, Germany.
1757 - Robert Clive defeated the Indians at Plassey and won control of Bengal.
1836 - The U.S. Congress approved the Deposit Act, which contained a provision for turning over surplus federal revenue to the states.
1848 - A bloody insurrection of workers in Paris erupted.
1860 - The U.S. Secret Service was created to arrest counterfeiters.
1865 - Confederate General Stand Watie, who was also a Cherokee chief, surrendered the last sizable Confederate army at Fort Towson, in the Oklahoma Territory.
1868 - Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention that he called a "Type-Writer."
1884 - A Chinese Army defeated the French at Bacle, Indochina.
1902 - Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy renewed the Triple Alliance for a 12 year duration.
1904 - The first American motorboat race got underway on the Hudson River in New York.
1926 - The first lip reading tournament in America was held in Philadelphia, PA.
1931 - Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane.
1934 - Italy gained the right to colonize Albania after defeating the country.
1938 - The Civil Aeronautics Authority was established.
1938 - Marineland opened near St. Augustine, Florida.
1947 - The U.S. Senate joined the House in overriding President Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.
1951 - Soviet U.N. delegate Jacob Malik proposed cease-fire discussions in the Korean War.
1952 - The U.S. Air Force bombed power plants on Yalu River, Korea.
1956 - Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.
1964 - Henry Cabot Lodge resigned as the U.S. envoy to Vietnam and was succeeded by Maxwell Taylor.
1964 - The burned car of three civil rights workers was found prompting the FBI to begin a search. The men had been missing since June 21, 1964. Their bodies were found on August 4, 1964.
1966 - Civil Rights marchers in Mississippi were dispersed by tear gas.
1972 - U.S. President Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI's Watergate investigation.
1985 - All 329 people aboard an Air-India Boeing 747 were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland. The cause was thought to be a bomb.
1989 - The movie "Batman" was released nationwide.
1992 - John Gotti was sentenced in New York to life in prison after being convicted of racketeering charges.
1993 - Lorena Bobbitt of Prince William County, VA, sexually mutilated her husband, John, after he allegedly raped her.
1997 - Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, died in New York of burns suffered in a fire set by her 12-year old grandson. She was 61.
2003 - Apple Computer Inc. unveiled the new Power Mac desktop computer.
2004 - The U.S. proposed that North Korea agree to a series of nuclear disarmament measures over a three-month period in exchange for economic benefits.
2005 - Roger Ebert received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Current Birthdays
Randy Jackson turns 53 years old today.
69 Diana Trask
Country singer
66 James Levine
Conductor
65 Rosetta Hightower
R&B singer
63 Ted Shackelford
Actor
62 Bryan Brown
Actor
61 Clarence Thomas
Supreme Court justice
52 Frances McDormand
Actress
47 Paul La Greca
Actor
47 Steve Shelley
Rock musician (Sonic Youth)
39 Chico DeBarge
R&B singer
37 Selma Blair
Actress
34 KT Tunstall
Rock singer
34 Virgo Williams
R&B singer (Ghostowns DJs)
32 Jason Mraz
Singer, songwriter
30 LaDainian Tomlinson
Football player
18 Katie Armiger
Country singer
Historic Birthdays
Edward VIII
6/23/1894 - 5/28/1972
King of England (1936); abdicated his throne
61 John Fell
6/23/1625 - 7/10/1686
English Anglican priest, author and typographer
75 Giambattista Vico
6/23/1668 - 1/23/1744
Italian philosopher
50 Josephine
6/23/1763 - 5/29/1814
French consort of Napoleon and empress of France (1804-10)
85 Carl Reinecke
6/23/1824 - 3/10/1910
German pianist, composer, conductor and teacher
67 Irvin S. Cobb
6/23/1876 - 3/10/1944
American journalist and humorist
62 Alfred Charles Kinsey
6/23/1894 - 8/25/1956
American zoologist; headed Indiana University's Institute for Sexual Research
89 Paul Joseph Martin
6/23/1903 - 9/14/1992
Canadian politician and diplomat
88 James Edward Meade
6/23/1907 - 12/22/1995
English Nobel Prize-winning economist (1977)
77 Jean Anouilh
6/23/1910 - 10/3/1987
French playwright
60 Bob Fosse
6/23/1927 - 9/23/1987
American theatre and film choreographer
TITS KING
2009-06-24, 00:20
Vow mD that is tremendous sort of work........:thumbsup::thumbsup:
1314 - Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce won over Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn in Scotland.
1340 - The English fleet defeated the French fleet at Sluys, off the Flemish coast.
1497 - Italian explorer John Cabot, sailing in the service of England, landed in North America on what is now Newfoundland.
1509 - Henry VIII was crowned King of England.
1664 - New Jersey, named after the Isle of Jersey, was founded.
1675 - King Philip's War began when Indians massacre colonists at Swansee, Plymouth colony.
1793 - The first republican constitution in France was adopted.
1812 - Napoleon crossed the Nieman River and invaded Russia.
1844 - Charles Goodyear was granted U.S. patent #3,633 for vulcanized rubber.
1859 - At the Battle of Solferino, also known as the Battle of the Three Sovereigns, the French army led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrian army under Franz Joseph I in northern Italy.
1861 - Federal gunboats attacked Confederate batteries at Mathias Point, Virginia.
1862 - U.S. intervention saved the British and French at the Dagu forts in China.
1869 - Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant officially became the Vodoo Queen in San Francisco, CA.
1896 - Booker T. Washington became the first African American to receive an honorary MA degree from Howard University.
1910 - The Japanese army invaded Korea.
1913 - Greece and Serbia annulled their alliance with Bulgaria following border disputes over Macedonia and Thrace.
1922 - The American Professional Football Association took the name of The National Football League.
1931 - The Soviet Union and Afghanistan signed a treaty of neutrality.
1940 - France signed an armistice with Italy.
1940 - TV cameras were used for the first time in a political convention as the Republicans convened in Philadelphia, PA.
1941 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt pledged all possible support to the Soviet Union.
1947 - Kenneth Arnold reported seeing flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, Washington.
1948 - The Soviet Union began the Berlin Blockade.
1953 - John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier announced their engagement.
1955 - Soviet MIG's down a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Bering Strait.
1962 - The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-7, after 22 innings.
1964 - The Federal Trade Commission announced that starting in 1965, cigarette manufactures would be required to include warnings on their packaging about the harmful effects of smoking.
1968 - "Resurrection City," a shantytown constructed as part of the Poor People's March on Washington D.C., was closed down by authorities.
1970 - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
1970 - The movie "Myra Breckinridge" premiered.
1971 - The National Basketball Association modified its four-year eligibility rule to allow for collegiate hardship cases.
1975 - 113 people were killed when an Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashed while attempting to land during a thunderstorm at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
1985 - Natalia Solzhenitsyn the wife of exiled, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, became a U.S. citizen.
1997 - 18-year-old Melissa Drexler was charged with murder in the death of her baby. Drexler had given birth during her prom.
1997 - The U.S. Air Force released a report on the "Roswell Incident," suggesting the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies.
1998 - AT&T Corp. struck a deal to buy cable TV giant Tele-Communications Inc. for $31.7 billion.
1998 - Walt Disney World Resort admitted its 600-millionth guest.
2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juries, not judges, must make the decision to give a convicted killer the death penalty.
2002 - A painting from Monet's Waterlilies series sold for $20.2 million.
2003 - In Paris, France, manuscripts by novelist Georges Simenon brought in $325,579. The original manuscript of "La Mort de Belle" raised $81,705.
Current Birthdays
Minka Kelly turns 29 years old today.
90 Al Molinaro
Actor ("Happy Days")
86 Jack Carter
Comedian
67 Michele Lee
Actress ("Knot's Landing")
66 Georg Stanford Brown
Actor, director
65 Arthur Brown
Rock singer
64 Colin Blunstone
Rock singer (The Zombies)
64 George Pataki
Former governor of New York
62 Mick Fleetwood
Rock musician (Fleetwood Mac)
62 Peter Weller
Actor
60 John Illsley
Rock musician (Dire Straits)
59 Nancy Allen
Actress
59 Derrick Simpson
Reggae singer (Black Uhuru)
53 Joe Penny
Actor
52 Astro
Reggae singer (UB40)
50 Andy McCluskey
Rock musician (Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark)
49 Juli Inkster
Golfer
48 Curt Smith
Rock singer, musician (Tears for Fears)
44 Danielle Spencer
Actress
42 Sherry Stringfield
Actress ("ER")
39 Glenn Medeiros
Singer
30 Mindy Kaling
Actress, producer ("The Office")
23 Solange Knowles
R&B singer
Historic Birthdays
Jack Dempsey
6/24/1895 - 5/31/1983
American world heavyweight boxing champion
86 Theodore Beza
6/24/1519 - 10/13/1605
French author, translator, educator and theologian
56 Robert Dudley Leicester
6/24/1532 - 9/4/1588
English favorite of Queen Elizabeth I
49 Saint John of the Cross
6/24/1542 - 12/14/1591
Spanish mystic and poet
66 John Hughes
6/24/1797 - 1/3/1864
Irish-born American religious leader; first Roman Catholic archbishop of New York
73 Henry Ward Beecher
6/24/1813 - 3/8/1887
American Congregational minister
63 Gustavus Swift
6/24/1839 - 3/29/1903
American business leader; founded Swift & Co.
81 Victor Francis Hess
6/24/1883 - 12/17/1964
Austrian-born Nobel Prize-winning physicist (1936)
81 Irving Kaufman
6/24/1910 - 2/1/1992
American judge; presided over the Rosenberg case
75 Norman Cousins
6/24/1915 - 11/30/1990
American essayist and editor of The Saturday Review
69 John Ciardi
6/24/1916 - 3/30/1986
American poet, critic and translator
0841 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeated Lothar at Fontenay.
1080 - At Brixen, a council of bishops declared Pope Gregory to be deposed and Archbishop Guibert as antipope Clement III.
1580 - The Book of Concord was first published. The book is a collection of doctrinal standards of the Lutheran Church.
1658 - Aurangzeb proclaimed himself emperor of the Moghuls in India.
1767 - Mexican Indians rioted as Jesuit priests were ordered home.
1788 - Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution and became the 10th state of the United States.
1864 - Union troops surrounding Petersburg, VA, began building a mine tunnel underneath the Confederate lines.
1867 - Lucien B. Smith patented the first barbed wire.
1868 - The U.S. Congress enacted legislation granting an eight-hour day to workers employed by the Federal government.
1868 - Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union.
1870 - In Spain, Queen Isabella abdicated in favor of Alfonso XII.
1876 - Lt. Col. Custer and the 210 men of U.S. 7th Cavalry were killed by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Big Horn in Montana. The event is known as "Custer's Last Stand."
1877 - In Philadelphia, PA, Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for Sir William Thomson (Baron Kelvin) and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil at the Centennial Exhibition.
1906 - Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw, the son of coal and railroad baron William Thaw, shot and killed Stanford White. White, a prominent architect, had a tryst with Florence Evelyn Nesbit before she married Thaw. The shooting took place at the premeire of Mamzelle Champagne in New York.
1910 - The U.S. Congress authorized the use of postal savings stamps.
1917 - The first American fighting troops landed in France.
1920 - The Greeks took 8,000 Turkish prisoners in Smyrna.
1921 - Samuel Gompers was elected head of the AFL for the 40th time.
1938 - Gaelic scholar Douglas Hyde was inaugurated as the first president of the Irish Republic.
1941 - Finland declared war on the Soviet Union.
1946 - Ho Chi Minh traveled to France for talks on Vietnamese independence.
1948 - The Soviet Union tightened its blockade of Berlin by intercepting river barges heading for the city.
1950 - North Korea invaded South Korea initiating the Korean War.
1951 - In New York, the first regular commercial color TV transmissions were presented on CBS using the FCC-approved CBS Color System. The public did not own color TV's at the time.
1952 - John Christie, the British murderer of 10 Rillington Place, was sentenced to death for killing six women.
1959 - The Cuban government seized 2.35 million acres under a new agrarian reform law.
1959 - Eamon De Valera became president of Ireland at the age of 76.
1962 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of unofficial non-denominational prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson ordered 200 naval personnel to Mississippi to assist in finding three missing civil rights workers.
1966 - "Dark Shadows" began running on ABC-TV.
1968 - Bobby Bonds (San Francisco Giants) hit a grand-slam home run in his first game with the Giants. He was the first player to debut with a grand-slam.
1970 - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission handed down a ruling (35 FR 7732), making it illegal for radio stations to put telephone calls on the air without the permission of the person being called.
1973 - Erskine Childers Jr. became president of Ireland after the retirement of Eamon De Valera.
1973 - White House Counsel John Dean admitted that U.S. President Nixon took part in the Watergate cover-up.
1975 - Mozambique became independent. Samora Machel was sworn in as president after 477 years of Portuguese rule.
1981 - The U.S. Supreme Court decided that male-only draft registration was constitutional.
1985 - ABC’s "Monday Night Football" began with a new line-up. The trio was Frank Gifford, Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson.
1985 - New York Yankees officials enacted the rule that mandated that the team’s bat boys were to wear protective helmets during all games.
1986 - The U.S. Congress approved $100 million in aid to the Contras fighting in Nicaragua.
1987 - Austrian President Kurt Waldheim visited Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The meeting was controversial due to allegations that Waldheim had hidden his Nazi past.
1990 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual, whose wishes are clearly made, to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. "The right to die" decision was made in the Curzan vs. Missouri case.
1991 - The last Soviet troops left Czechoslovakia 23 years after the Warsaw Pact invasion.
1991 - The Yugoslav republics of Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from Yugoslavia.
1993 - Kim Campbell took office as Canada's first woman prime minister. She assumed power upon the resignation of Brian Mulroney.
1996 - Outside the Khobar Towers near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia a truck bomb exploded. The bomb killed 19 Americans and injured over 500 Saudis and Americans.
1997 - The Russian space station Mir was hit by an unmanned cargo vessel. Much of the power supply was knocked out and the station's Spektr module was severely damaged.
1997 - U.S. air pollution standards were significantly tightened by U.S. President Clinton.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the line-item veto thereby striking down presidential power to cancel specific items in tax and spending legislation.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those infected with HIV are protected by the Americans With Disabilities Act.
1998 - Microsoft's "Windows 98" was released to the public.
1999 - Germany's parliament approved a national Holocaust memorial to be built in Berlin.
2000 - U.S. and British researchers announced that they had completed a rough draft of a map of the genetic makeup of human beings. The project was 10 years old at the time of the announcement.
2000 - A Florida judge approved a class-action lawsuit to be filed against American Online (AOL) on behalf of hourly subscribers who were forced to view "pop-up" advertisements
Current Birthdays
Ricky Gervais(twat) turns 48 years old today.
85 Sidney Lumet
Director
84 June Lockhart
Actress ("Lassie," "Lost in Space")
74 Eddie Floyd
R&B singer
70 Barbara Montgomery
Actress
67 Willis Reed
Basketball hall of famer
65 Gary David Goldberg
Writer, producer ("Family Ties," "Spin City")
64 Carly Simon
Singer
63 Allen Lanier
Rock musician (Blue Oyster Cult)
63 Ian McDonald
Rock musician (Foreigner, King Crimson)
62 Jimmie Walker
Actor, comedian ("Good Times")
61 Michael Lembeck
Actor, director
60 Phyllis George
TV personality
57 Tim Finn
Rock singer (Crowded House)
55 David Paich
Rock musician (Toto)
54 Michael Sabatino
Actor
46 John Benjamin Hickey
Actor
46 George Michael
Singer
45 Erica Gimpel
Actress
43 Dikembe Mutombo
Basketball player
42 Richie Rich
Rapper, producer
41 Candyman
Rapper
38 Sean Kelly
Rock musician (Six Pence None the Richer)
38 Angela Kinsey
Actress ("The Office")
37 Mike Kroeger
Rock musician (Nickelback)
35 Mario Calire
Rock musician
34 Linda Cardellini
Actress ("ER")
31 Aramis Ramirez
Baseball player
30 Busy Philipps
Actress ("ER")
Historic Birthdays
George Abbott
6/25/1887 - 1/31/1995
American theatrical director, producer, playwright and actor
79 Edward Holyoke
6/25/1689 - 1/1/1769
American educator; president of Harvard University (1737-69)
73 Antonio Gaudi
6/25/1852 - 6/10/1926
Spanish (Catalan) architect
64 Robert Henri
6/25/1865 - 7/12/1929
American painter
47 Crystal Eastman
6/25/1881 - 7/8/1928
American lawyer, suffragist and writer
66 Benito Lynch
6/25/1885 - 12/23/1951
Argentine novelist and short story writer
63 Henry Harley Arnold
6/25/1886 - 1/15/1950
American military strategist
95 Hermann Oberth
6/25/1894 - 12/29/1989
Austrian-born German scientist
79 Lord Louis Mountbatten
6/25/1900 - 8/27/1979
English statesman, naval leader and last viceroy of India
68 William H. Stein
6/25/1911 - 2/2/1980
American Nobel Prize-winning biochemist (1972)
1096 - Peter the Hermit's crusaders forced their way across Sava, Hungary.
1243 - The Seljuk Turkish army in Asia Minor was wiped out by the Mongols.
1483 - Richard III usurped himself to the English throne.
1541 - Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish Conqueror of Peru, was murdered by his former followers.
1794 - The French defeated an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus.
1804 - The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the mouth of the Kansas River after completing a westward trek of nearly 400 river miles.
1819 - The bicycle was patented by W.K. Clarkson, Jr.
1844 - John Tyler took Julia Gardiner as his bride, thus becoming the first U.S. President to marry while in office.
1870 - The first section of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, NJ, was opened to the public.
1894 - The American Railway Union called a general strike in sympathy with Pullman workers.
1900 - The United States announced that it would send troops to fight against the Boxer rebellion in China.
1900 - A commission that included Dr. Walter Reed began the fight against the deadly disease yellow fever.
1907 - Russia's nobility demanded drastic measures to be taken against revolutionaries.
1908 - Shah Muhammad Ali's forces squelched the reform elements of Parliament in Persia.
1917 - General John "Black Jack" Pershing arrived in France with the American Expeditionary Force.
1925 - Charlie Chaplin's comedy, "The Gold Rush," premiered in Hollywood.
1926 - A memorial to the first U.S. troops in France was unveiled at St. Nazaire.
1924 - After eight years of occupation, American troops left the Dominican Republic.
1942 - The Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter was flown for the first time.
1945 - The U.N. Charter was signed by 50 nations in San Francisco, CA.
1948 - The Berlin Airlift began as the U.S., Britain and France started ferrying supplies to the isolated western sector of Berlin.
1951 - The Soviet Union proposed a cease-fire in the Korean War.
1959 - CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow interviewed Lee Remick. It was his 500th and final guest on "Person to Person."
1959 - U.S. President Eisenhower joined Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in ceremonies officially opening the St. Lawrence Seaway.
1961 - A Kuwaiti vote opposed Iraq's annexation plans.
1963 - U.S. President John Kennedy announced "Ich bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner) at the Berlin Wall.
1971 - The U.S. Justice Department issued a warrant for Daniel Ellsberg, accusing him of giving away the Pentagon Papers.
1975 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency due to "deep and widespread conspiracy."
1976 - The CN (Canadian National) Tower in Toronto, Canada, opened.
1979 - Muhammad Ali, at 37 years old, announced that he was retiring as world heavyweight boxing champion.
1981 - In Mountain Home, Idaho, Virginia Campbell took her coupons and rebates and bought $26,460 worth of groceries. She only paid 67 cents after all the discounts.
1985 - Wilbur Snapp was ejected after playing "Three Blind Mice" during a baseball game. The incident followed a call made by umpire Keith O'Connor.
1987 - The movie "Dragnet" opened in the U.S.
1996 - The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Virginia Military Institute to admit women or forgo state support.
1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that made it illegal to distribute indecent material on the Internet.
1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld state laws that allow for a ban on doctor-assisted suicides.
1998 - The U.S. and Peru open school to train commandos to patrol Peru's rivers for drug traffickers.
1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers are always potentially liable for supervisor's sexual misconduct toward an employee.
2000 - The Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics Corp. jointly announced that they had created a working draft of the human genome.
2000 - Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid declared a state of emergency in the Moluccas due to the escalation of fighting between Christians and Muslims.
2001 - Ray Bourque (Colorado Avalanche) announced his retirement just 17 days after winning his first Stanley Cup. Bouque retired after 22 years and held the NHL record for highest-scoring defenseman and playing in 19 consecutive All-Star games.
2002 - David Hasseloff checked into The Betty Ford Center for treatment of alcoholism.
2002 - WorldCom Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Current Birthdays
Derek Jeter turns 35 years old today.
87 Eleanor Parker
Actress
75 Dave Grusin
Jazz pianist, film composer
75 Josef Sommer
Actor
70 Charles Robb
Former Virginia governor and U.S. senator
69 Billy Davis Jr.
Singer (The Fifth Dimension)
66 Georgie Fame
Rock singer
63 Clive Francis
Actor
63 Brenda Holloway
R&B singer
59 Michael Paul Chan
Actor ("The Closer")
56 Robert Davi
Actor
54 Mick Jones
Rock singer, musician (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite)
54 Gedde Watanabe
Actor ("ER")
53 Chris Isaak
Rock singer, musician
52 Patty Smyth
Rock singer, musician
48 Terri Nunn
Pop singer (Berlin)
46 Harriet Wheeler
Rock singer (The Sundays)
41 Shannon Sharpe
Football player
40 Colin Greenwood
Rock musician (Radiohead)
39 Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer, director
39 Sean Hayes
Actor ("Will and Grace")
39 Matt Letscher
Actor
36 Rebecca Budig
Actress
35 Gretchen Wilson
Country singer
33 Chad Pennington
Football player
30 Nathan Followill
Rock musician (Kings of Leon)
30 Ryan Tedder
Rock musician (OneRepublic)
29 Jason Schwartzman
Actor
29 Michael Vick
Football player
23 Kaitlin Cullum
Actress
17 Jennette McCurdy
Actress, singer ("iCarly"
Historic Birthdays
Babe Zaharias
6/26/1911 - 9/27/1956
American athlete
44 Arthur Middleton
6/26/1742 - 1/1/1787
American; signed the Declaration of Independence
94 Bernard Berenson
6/26/1865 - 10/6/1959
American art critic
63 Albert Siklos
6/26/1878 - 4/3/1942
Hungarian cellist, composer and musicologist
80 Pearl Buck
6/26/1892 - 3/6/1973
American Nobel Prize-winning author (1938)
80 Willy Messerschmitt
6/26/1898 - 9/17/1978
German aircraft engineer and designer
87 Stuart Symington
6/26/1901 - 12/14/1988
American politician; U.S. senator from Missouri (1953-76)
75 William Lear
6/26/1902 - 5/14/1978
American industrialist and electrical engineer
87 Antonia Brico
6/26/1902 - 8/3/1989
Dutch-born American conductor and pianist
59 Peter Lorre
6/26/1904 - 3/23/1964
Hungarian-born American film actor
1806 - A Spanish army repelled the British during their attempt to retake Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1811 - Venezuela became the first South American country to declare independence from Spain.
1814 - U.S. troops under Jacob Brown defeated a superior British force at Chippewa, Canada.
1830 - France occupied the North African city of Algiers.
1832 - The German government began curtailing freedom of the press after German Democrats advocate a revolt against Austrian rule.
1839 - British naval forces bombarded Dingai on Zhoushan Island in China and then occupied it.
1863 - U.S. Federal troops occupied Vicksburg, MS, and distributed supplies to the citizens.
1865 - William Booth founded the Salvation Army in London.
1892 - Andrew Beard was issued a patent for the rotary engine.
1916 - Adelina and August Van Buren started on the first successful transcontinental motorcycle tour to be attempted by two women. They started in New York City and arrived in San Diego, CA, on September 12, 1916.
1935 - "Hawaii Call" was broadcast for the first time.
1935 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act into law. The act authorized labor to organize for the purpose of collective bargaining.
1940 - During World War II, Britain and the Vichy government in France broke diplomatic relations.
1941 - German troops reached the Dnieper River in the Soviet Union.
1943 - The battle of Kursk began as German tanks attack the Soviet salient. It was the largest tank battle in history.
1946 - The bikini bathing suit, created by Louis Reard, made its debut during a fashion show at the Molitor Pool in Paris. Micheline Bernardini wore the two-piece outfit.
1947 - Larry Doby signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first black player in the American League.
1948 - Britain's National Health Service Act went into effect, providing government-financed medical and dental care.
1950 - U.S. forces engaged the North Koreans for the first time at Osan, South Korea.
1951 - Dr. William Shockley announced that he had invented the junction transistor.
1962 - Algeria became independent after 132 years of French rule.
1975 - Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title when he defeated Jimmy Connors.
1984 - The U.S. Supreme Court weakened the 70-year-old "exclusionary rule," deciding that evidence seized with defective court warrants could be used against defendants in criminal trials.
1989 - Former U.S. National Security Council aide Oliver North received a $150,000 fine and a suspended prison term for his part in the Iran-Contra affair. The convictions were later overturned.
1991 - Regulators shut down the Pakistani-managed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in eight countries. The charge was fraud, drug money laundering and illegal infiltration into the U.S. banking system.
1995 - The U.S. Justice Department decided not to take antitrust action against Ticketmaster.
1998 - Japan joined U.S. and Russia in space exploration with the launching of the Planet-B probe to Mars.
2000 - Jordanian security agents shot and killed a Syrian hijacker after he threw a grenade that exploded and wounded 15 passengers aboard a Royal Jordanian airliner.
2000 - 10 Bengal tigers, including 7 rare white tigers, died at the Nandankanan Zoo in India. The tigers died of trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness).
2000 - Euan Blair, the oldest son of British prime minister Tony Blair, was arrested after police found him drunk and lying on the ground in London's Leicester Square.
2002 - In Algeria, 35 people were killed in violent attacks on the day that the country celebrated its 40 years of independence from France.
2002 - Former Nazi SS officer Friedrich Engel was convicted of 59 counts of murder stemming from massacre of Italian resistance fighters on May 19, 1944.
Current Birthdays
Edie Falco turns 46 years old today.
80 Katherine Helmond
Actress ("Soap," "Who's the Boss")
73 Shirley Knight
Actress
66 Robbie Robertson
Rock singer, musician (The Band)
61 Julie Nixon Eisenhower
Daughter of President Richard Nixon
59 Huey Lewis
Rock singer
58 Rich "Goose" Gossage
Baseball Hall of Famer
58 Roger Wicker
U.S. senator, R-Miss.
57 Charles Ventre
Country musician
53 James Lofton
Football Hall of Famer
50 Marc Cohn
Rock singer, songwriter
44 Kathryn Erbe
Actress ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent")
40 Brent Flynn
Country musician (Flynnville Train)
40 RZA
Rapper (Wu-Tang Clan)
36 Joe
R&B Singer
36 Bengt Lagerberg
Rock musician (The Cardigans)
34 Dale Godboldo
Actor
33 Bizarre
Rapper
30 Amelie Mauresmo
Tennis player
29 Jason Wade
Rock singer (Lifehouse)
28 Ryan Hansen
Actor
27 Dave Haywood
Country musician (Lady Antebellum)
24 Nick O'Malley
Rock musician (Arctic Monkeys)
18 Jason Dolley
Actor
Historic Birthdays
P. T. Barnum
7/5/1810 - 4/7/1891
American showman
69 David Farragut
7/5/1801 - 8/14/1870
American Civil War admiral
59 Robert Fitzroy
7/5/1805 - 4/30/1865
English naval officer; commanded the H.M.S. Beagle
48 Cecil Rhodes
7/5/1853 - 3/26/1902
English financier and empire builder of South Africa
84 Edouard Herriot
7/5/1872 - 3/26/1957
French premier (1924-5, 1926, 1932)
71 Judah Leon Magnes
7/5/1877 - 10/27/1948
American founder of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
66 Dwight Davis
7/5/1879 - 11/28/1945
American tennis player
80 Wanda Landowska
7/5/1879 - 8/16/1959
Polish-born harpsichordist
101 Willem Drees
7/5/1886 - 5/14/1988
Dutch prime minister (1948-58)
95 John Howard Northrop
7/5/1891 - 5/27/1987
American Nobel Prize-winning biochemist (1946)
82 Henry Cabot Lodge
7/5/1902 - 2/27/1985
American diplomat and U.S. senator from Massachusetts (1937-44, 1947-52)
62 Georges Pompidou
7/5/1911 - 4/2/1974
French premier (1962-8) and president (1969-74)
30 Manolete
7/5/1917 - 8/29/1947
Spanish bullfighter
1483 - King Richard III of England was crowned.
1535 - Sir Thomas More was executed in England for treason.
1699 - Captain William Kidd, the pirate, was captured in Boston, MA, and deported back to England.
1777 - British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga during the American Revolution.
1854 - In Jackson, MI, the Republican Party held its first convention.
1858 - Lyman Blake patented the shoe manufacturing machine.
1885 - Louis Pasteur successfully tested his anti-rabies vaccine. The child used in the test later became the director of the Pasteur Institute.
1893 - In northwest Iowa 71 people were killed by a tornado.
1905 - Fingerprints were exchanged for the first time between officials in Europe and the U.S. The person in question was John Walker.
1917 - During World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence captured the port of Aqaba from the Turks.
1919 - A British dirigible landed in New York at Roosevelt Field. It completed the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship.
1923 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established.
1928 - "The Lights of New York" was previewed in New York's Strand Theatre. It was the first all-talking movie.
1932 - The postage rate for first class mail in the U.S. went from 2-cents to 3-cents.
1933 - The first All-Star baseball game was held in Chicago. The American League beat the National League 4-2.
1942 - Diarist Anne Frank and her family took refuge from the Nazis in Amsterdam.
1944 - A fire broke out in the main tent of the Ringling Brother, Barnum and Bailey Circus. 169 people died.
1945 - U.S. President Truman signed an order creating the Medal of Freedom.
1945 - Nicaragua became the first nation to formally accept the United Nations Charter.
1947 - "Candid Microphone" began airing on ABC radio.
1948 - Frieda Hennok became the first woman to serve as the commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.
1957 - Althea Gibson won the Wimbledon women’s singles tennis title. She was the first black athlete to win the event.
1966 - Malawi became a republic within the Commonwealth with Dr. Hastings Banda as its first president.
1967 - The Biafran War erupted. The war lasted two-and-a-half years. About 600,000 people died.
1981 - The Dupont Company announced an agreement to purchase Conoco, Inc. (Continental Oil Co.) for $7 billion. At the time it was the largest merger in corporate history.
1983 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that retirement plans could not pay women smaller monthly payments solely because of their gender.
1983 - Fred Lynn of the California Angels hit the first grand slam in an All-Star game. The American League defeated the National League 13-3.
1985 - Martina Navratilova won her 4th consecutive Wimbledon singles title.
1985 - The submarine Nautilus arrived in Groton, Connecticut. The vessel had been towed from Mare Island Naval Shipyard.
1987 - Sikh extremists made their first of three attacks over a two day period. The gunmen attacked a bus loaded with Hindu passengers. Over the two day period a total of 72 people were killed by the extremists.
1988 - 167 North Sea oil workers were killed by explosions and fires that destroyed the Piper Alpha drilling platform.
1988 - Several popular beaches were closed in New York City due to medical waste and other debris began washing up on the seashores.
1989 - The U.S. Army destroyed its last Pershing 1-A missiles at an ammunition plant in Karnack, TX. The dismantling was under the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
1994 - On Storm King Mountain, in Colorado, 14 firefighters were killed while fighting a several-day-old fire.
1995 - In Los Angeles, the prosecution rested at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
1996 - Steffi Graf won her seventh Wimbledon title.
1997 - The Mars Pathfinder released Sojourner, a robot rover on the surface of Mars. The spacecraft landed on the red planet on July 4th.
1997 - In Cambodia, Second Prime Minister Hun Sen ousted First Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh and claimed to have the capital under his control.
1998 - Protestants rioted in many parts of Northern Ireland after British authorities blocked an Orange Order march in Portadown.
2000 - In Orlando, FL, the body of Cory Erving was found in his vehicle in a pond near his families home. Julius "Dr. J" Erving had reported his son missing on June 4, 2000.
2000 - A jury awarded former NHL player Tony Twist $24 million for the unauthorized use of his name in the comic book Spawn and the HBO cartoon series. Co-defendant HBO settled with Twist out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Current Birthdays
Nancy Reagan turns 88 years old today.
87 William Schallert
Actor ("The Patty Duke Show")
78 Donal Donnelly
Actor
78 Della Reese
Singer, actress ("Touched by an Angel")
72 Ned Beatty
Actor
72 Gene Chandler
Singer
69 Jeannie Seely
Country singer
64 Burt Ward
Actor ("Batman")
63 George W. Bush
Former president of the United States
63 Fred Dryer
Actor
63 Sylvester Stallone
Actor
61 Nathalie Baye
Actress
58 Geoffrey Rush
Actor
57 John Bazz
Rock musician (The Blasters)
57 Grant Goodeve
Actor ("Eight is Enough")
56 Nanci Griffith
Country singer
55 Allyce Beasley
Actress
55 Willie Randolph
Baseball player, manager
54 Rick Braun
Jazz trumpeter
53 John Jorgenson
Country musician
50 John Keeble
Rock musician (Spandau Ballet)
43 Brian Posehn
Actor
39 Inspectah Deck
Rapper (Wu-Tang Clan)
31 Tamera Mowry
Actress
31 Tia Mowry
Actress
27 Brandon Jacobs
Football player
26 Gregory Smith
Actor ("Everwood")
22 Kate Nash
Rock singer
19 Jeremy Suarez
Actor ("The Bernie Mac Show")
Historic Birthdays
Frida Kahlo
7/6/1907 - 7/13/1954
Mexican painter
45 John Paul Jones
7/6/1747 - 7/18/1792
American Revolutionary War naval hero
80 Sir William Hooker
7/6/1785 - 8/12/1865
English botanist
34 Maximilian
7/6/1832 - 6/19/1867
Austrian archduke and emperor of Mexico (1864-7)
80 Vernor von Heidenstam
7/6/1859 - 5/20/1940
Swedish author; awarded Nobel Prize (1916)
87 Godfrey Malvern
7/6/1883 - 5/8/1971
English-born prime minister of Southern Rhodesia (1933-53)
57 Marc Bloch
7/6/1886 - 6/16/1944
French historian and educator; leader in Resistance
79 Axel Theorell
7/6/1903 - 8/15/1982
Swedish biochemist; awarded Nobel Prize (1955)
82 Dorothy Kirsten
7/6/1910 - 11/18/1992
American opera singer
55 Bill Haley
7/6/1925 - 2/9/1981
American singer and songwriter
1754 - Kings College opened in New York City. It was renamed Columbia College 30 years later.
1846 - U.S. annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison.
1862 - The first railroad post office was tested on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad in Missouri.
1865 - Four people were hanged in Washington, DC, after being convicted of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate U.S. President Lincoln.
1885 - G. Moore Peters patented the cartridge-loading machine.
1898 - The United States annexed Hawaii.
1917 - Aleksandr Kerensky formed a provisional government in Russia.
1920 - A device known as the radio compass was used for the first time on a U.S. Navy airplane near Norfolk, VA.
1930 - Construction began on Boulder Dam, later Hoover Dam, on the Colorado River.
1937 - Japanese forces invaded China.
1946 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized as the first American saint.
1949 - "Dragnet" was first heard on NBC radio.
1950 - The UN Security Council authorized military aid for South Korea.
1969 - Canada's House of Commons gave final approval to a measure that made the French language equal to English throughout the national government.
1981 - U.S. President Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1983 - Eleven-year-old Samantha Smith of Manchester, Maine, left for a visit to the Soviet Union at the personal invitation of Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov.
1987 - Public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing began.
1998 - A jury in Santa Monica, CA, convicted Mikail Markhasev of murdering Ennis Cosby, Bill Cosby's only son, during a roadside robbery.
1999 - In Sierra Leone, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and rebel leader Foday Sankoh signed a pact to end the nation's civil war.
2000 - Cisco Systems Inc. announced that it would buy Netiverse Inc. for $210 million in stock. It was the 13th time Cisco had purchased a company in 2000.
2000 - Amazon.com announced that they had sold almost 400,000 copies of "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire," making it the biggest selling book in e-tailing history.
2003 - In Liberia, a team of U.S. military experts arrived at the U.S. embassy compound to assess whether to deploy troops as part of a peacekeeping force in the country.
2005 - In London, at least 66 people were killed and at least 700 were injured when several bombs were set off in subway cars and double-decker buses.
Current Birthdays
Pinetop Perkins turns 96 years old today.
82 Charlie Louvin
Country singer
82 Doc Severinsen
Bandleader
76 David McCullough
Author
69 Ringo Starr
Rock musician (The Beatles)
65 Warren Entner
Singer-musician (The Grass Roots)
64 Jim Rodford
Rock musician
63 Joe Spano
Actor
62 David Hodo
Singer (The Village People)
62 Linda Williams
Country singer
60 Shelley Duvall
Actress
58 Roz Ryan
Actress
50 Billy Campbell
Actor
47 Mark White
Rock musician (Spin Doctors)
46 Vonda Shepard
Singer, songwriter ("Ally McBeal")
43 Jim Gaffigan
Actor, comedian
43 Ricky Kinchen
R&B musician (Mint Condition)
41 Jorja Fox
Actress ("C.S.I.")
40 Cree Summer
Actress
37 Lisa Leslie
Basketball player
37 Kirsten Vangsness
Actress ("Criminal Minds")
36 Troy Garity
Actor
33 Hamish Linklater
Actor
29 Michelle Kwan
Figure skater
27 Cassidy
Rapper
27 Gabbie Nolen
Country singer
Historic Birthdays
Satchel Paige
7/7/1906 - 6/8/1982
American professional baseball pitcher
82 Joseph-Marie Jacquard
7/7/1752 - 8/7/1834
French inventor of the Jacquard loom
91 Abraham Cahan
7/7/1860 - 8/31/1951
Russian-born American editor of the Jewish Daily Forward (1903-51)
50 Gustav Mahler
7/7/1860 - 5/18/1911
Austrian composer and conductor
97 Marc Chagall
7/7/1887 - 3/28/1985
Belorussian-born French painter, printmaker and designer
83 George Cukor
7/7/1899 - 1/24/1983
American motion-picture director
73 Vittorio De Sica
7/7/1901 - 11/13/1974
Italian motion-picture director
80 Robert Heinlein
7/7/1907 - 5/8/1988
American science-fiction writer
73 Lawrence O'Brien
7/7/1917 - 9/28/1990
American politician and N.B.A. commissioner (1975-84)
53 Ezzard Charles
7/7/1921 - 5/28/1975
American world heavyweight boxing champion (1950-1)
1099 - Christian soldiers on the First Crusade march around Jerusalem.
1608 - The first French settlement at Quebec was established by Samuel de Champlain.
1663 - King Charles II of England granted a charter to Rhode Island.
1693 - Uniforms for police in New York City were authorized.
1709 - Peter the Great defeated Charles XII at Poltava, in the Ukraine, The Swedish empire was effectively ended.
1755 - Britain broke off diplomatic relations with France as their disputes in the New World intensified.
1776 - Col. John Nixon gave the first public reading of the U.S. Declaration of Independence to a crowd at Independence Square in Philadelphia.
1794 - French troops captured Brussels, Belgium.
1795 - Kent County Free School changed its name to Washington College. It was the first college to be named after U.S. President George Washington. The school was established by an act of the Maryland Assembly in 1723.
1815 - Louis XVIII returned to Paris after the defeat of Napoleon.
1865 - C.E. Barnes patented the machine gun.
1879 - The first ship to use electric lights departed from San Francisco, CA.
1881 - Edward Berner, druggist in Two Rivers, WI, poured chocolate syrup on ice cream in a dish. To this time chocolate syrup had only been used for making ice-cream sodas.
1889 - The Wall Street Journal was first published.
1889 - John L. Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain, in the last championship bare-knuckle fight. The fight lasted 75 rounds.
1907 - Florenz Ziegfeld staged his first "Follies" on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
1919 - U.S. President Wilson returned from the Versailles Peace Conference in France.
1947 - Demolition work began in New York City for the new permanent headquarters of the United Nations.
1950 - General Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea.
1953 - Notre Dame announced that the next five years of its football games would be shown in theatres over closed circuit TV.
1960 - The Soviet Union charged Gary Powers with espionage. He was shot down in a U-2 spy plane.
1963 - All Cuban-owned assets in the United States were frozen.
1969 - The U.S. Patent Office issued a patent for the game "Twister."
1970 - The San Francisco Giant’s Jim Ray Hart became the first National League player in 59 seasons to collect six runs batted (RBI) during a single inning.
1986 - Kurt Waldheim was inaugurated as president of Austria despite controversy over his alleged ties to Nazi war crimes.
1993 - Charles Keating, chief of Lincoln Savings & Loan Association, was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison for violating California security and fraud laws.
1997 - The Mayo Clinic and the U.S. government warned that the diet-drug combination known as "fen-phen" could cause serious heart and lung damage.
1997 - NATO invited Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to join the alliance in 1999.
2000 - J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was released in the U.S. It was the fourth Harry Potter book.
Current Birthdays
Kevin Bacon turns 51 years old today.
83 John Dingell
U S. representative, D-Mich.
77 Jerry Vale
Singer
74 Steve Lawrence
Singer
67 Phil Gramm
Former U.S. senator, R-Texas
65 Jeffrey Tambor
Actor ("Arrested Development")
62 Kim Darby
Actress
61 Raffi
Children's performer
58 Anjelica Huston
Actress
57 Jack Lambert
Football Hall of Famer
57 Anna Quindlen
Writer
48 Andy Fletcher
Rock musician (Depeche Mode)
48 Graham Jones
Rock musician (Haircut 100)
48 Toby Keith
Country singer
47 Rob Burnett
Writer, producer
47 Joan Osborne
Rock singer
44 Corey Parker
Actor
41 Billy Crudup
Actor
41 Michael Weatherly
Actor
39 Beck
Rock musician
39 Drew Womack
Country singer (Sons of the Desert)
34 Stephen Mason
Rock musician (Jars of Clay)
32 Milo Ventimiglia
Actor ("Heroes")
32 Tavis Werts
Rock musician
30 Ben Jelen
Rock singer
28 Lance Gross
Actor
27 Sophia Bush
Actress ("One Tree Hill")
24 Jamie Cook
Rock musician (Arctic Monkeys)
23 Jake McDorman
Actor ("Greek")
11 Jaden Smith
Actor ("The Pursuit of Happyness")
Historic Birthdays
John D. Rockefeller
7/8/1839 - 5/23/1937
American industrialist and philanthropist
78 Samuel Gross
7/8/1805 - 5/6/1884
American surgeon, teacher and author
54 Alfred Binet
7/8/1857 - 10/18/1911
French psychologist; developed measures of intelligence
77 Kathe Kollwitz
7/8/1867 - 4/22/1945
German graphic artist and sculptor
78 Percy Grainger
7/8/1882 - 2/28/1961
Australian-born American composer, pianist and conductor
92 Ernst Bloch
7/8/1885 - 8/4/1977
German Marxist philosopher
83 Alec Waugh
7/8/1898 - 9/3/1981
English novelist and travel writer
81 David Lilienthal
7/8/1899 - 1/15/1981
American businessman and government official
70 Nelson Rockefeller
7/8/1908 - 1/26/1979
American politician; New York governor (1959-73) and U.S. vice president (1974-7)
66 Louis Jordan
7/8/1908 - 2/4/1975
American singer, saxophonist and bandleader
78 Billy Eckstine
7/8/1914 - 3/8/1993
American singer and bandleader
0118 - Hadrian, Rome's new emperor, made his entry into the city.
0455 - Avitus, the Roman military commander in Gaul, became Emperor of the West.
1540 - England's King Henry VIII had his 6-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled.
1553 - Maurice of Saxony was mortally wounded at Sievershausen, Germany, while defeating Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.
1609 - In a letter to the crown, the emperor Rudolf II granted Bohemia freedom of worship.
1755 - General Edward Braddock was killed when French and Indian troops ambushed his force of British regulars and colonial militia.
1776 - The American Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George Washington's troops in New York.
1789 - In Versailles, the French National Assembly declared itself the Constituent Assembly and began to prepare a French constitution.
1790 - The Swedish navy captured one third of the Russian fleet at the naval battle of Svensksund in the Baltic Sea.
1792 - S.L. Mitchell of Columbia College in New York City became the first Professor of Agriculture.
1808 - The leather-splitting machine was patented by Samuel Parker.
1816 - Argentina declared independence from Spain.
1847 - A 10-hour work day was established for workers in the state of New Hampshire.
1850 - U.S. President Zachary Taylor died in office at the age of 55. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore. Taylor had only served 16 months.
1868 - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment was designed to grant citizenship to and protect the civil liberties of recently freed slaves. It did this by prohibiting states from denying or abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, depriving any person of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or denying to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
1872 - The doughnut cutter was patented by John F. Blondel.
1877 - Alexander Graham Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Thomas Sanders and Thomas Watson formed the Bell Telephone Company.
1878 - The corncob pipe was patented by Henry Tibbe.
1900 - The Commonwealth of Australia was established by an act of the British Parliament, uniting the separate colonies under a federal government.
1910 - W.R. Brookins became the first to fly an airplane a mile in the air.
1918 - 101 people were killed when an inbound local train collided with an outbound express in Nashville, TN.
1922 - Johnny Weissmuller became the first person to swim the 100 meters freestyle in less than a minute.
1935 - Norman Bright ran the two mile event in the record time of 9 minutes, 13.2 seconds at a meet in New York City.
1943 - American and British forces made an amphibious landing on Sicily.
1947 - The engagement of Britain's Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten was announced.
1951 - U.S. President Truman asked Congress to formally end the state of war between the United States and Germany.
1953 - New York Airways began the first commuter passenger service by helicopter.
1968 - The first All-Star baseball game to be played indoors took place at the Astrodome in Houston, TX.
1971 - The United States turned over complete responsibility of the Demilitarized Zone to South Vietnamese units.
1982 - A Pan Am Boeing 727 crashed in Kenner, LA, all 146 people aboard and eight people on the ground were killed.
1985 - Herschel Walker of the New Jersey Generals was named the Most Valuable Player in the United States Football League (USFL).
1985 - Joe Namath signed a five-year pact with ABC-TV to provide commentary for "Monday Night Football".
1997 - Mike Tyson was banned from the boxing ring and fined $3 million for biting the ear of opponent Evander Holyfield.
2005 - Danny Way, a daredevil skateboarder, rolled down a large ramp and jumped across the Great Wall of China. He was the first person to clear the wall without motorized aid.
Current Birthdays
Tom Hanks turns 53 years old today.
82 Ed Ames
Actor, singer
77 Donald Rumsfeld
Former defense secretary
73 James Hampton
Actor
71 Brian Dennehy
Actor
67 Richard Roundtree
Actor
64 Dean Koontz
Author
62 O.J. Simpson
Football Hall of Famer
58 Chris Cooper
Actor
57 John Tesh
Musician, TV personality
56 David Ball
Country singer
55 Debbie Sledge
R&B singer (Sister Sledge)
54 Lisa Banes
Actress
54 Jimmy Smits
Actor
54 Lindsey Graham
U.S. senator, R-S.C.
52 Marc Almond
Rock singer (Soft Cell)
52 Kelly McGillis
Actress
50 Jim Kerr
Rock singer (Simple Minds)
45 Courtney Love
Rock singer
44 Frank Bello
Rock musician (Anthrax)
44 David O'Hara
Actor
41 Xavier Muriel
Rock musician (Buckcherry)
38 Scott Grimes
Actor
36 Enrique Murciano
Actor ("Without a Trace")
33 Dan Estrin
Rock musician (Hoobastank)
33 Fred Savage
Actor ("The Wonder Years")
31 Pat Allingham
Country musician
29 Megan Parlen
Actress
23 Kiely Williams
Actress, R&B singer (3lw)
18 Mitchel Musso
Actor ("Hannah Montana")
14 Georgie Henley
Actress ("The Chronicles of Narnia")
Historic Birthdays
Hassan II
7/9/1929 - 7/23/1999
Moroccan king (1961-99)
40 Thomas De La Warr
7/9/1577 - 6/7/1618
English official; one of the founders of the Virginia colony
48 Thomas Davenport
7/9/1802 - 7/6/1851
American inventor; developed successful electric motor
48 Elias Howe
7/9/1819 - 10/3/1867
American inventor of the sewing machine
56 Ottorino Respighi
7/9/1879 - 4/18/1936
Italian composer
66 Mikhail Borodin
7/9/1884 - 5/29/1951
Russian Comintern agent
88 Samuel Eliot Morison
7/9/1887 - 5/15/1976
American biographer and historian
67 Dorothy Thompson
7/9/1893 - 1/30/1961
American journalist and writer
92 Albert Wedemeyer
7/9/1897 - 12/17/1989
American military leader during W. W. II
87 Carmen Franco
7/9/1900 - 2/6/1988
Spanish consort of Francisco Franco
57 Mervyn Peake
7/9/1911 - 11/17/1968
English novelist, poet, playwright and illustrator
89 Edward Heath
7/9/1916 - 7/17/2005
British prime minister (1970-1974)
1223 - In France, Louis VIII succeeded his father, Philip Augustus.
1430 - Joan of Arc, taken prisoner by the Burgundians in May, was handed over to Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais.
1456 - Hungarians defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Belgrade.
1536 - France and Portugal signed the naval treaty of Lyons, which aligned them against Spain.
1789 - French Revolution began with Parisians stormed the Bastille prison and released the seven prisoners inside.
1798 - The U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act. The act made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.
1868 - Alvin J. Fellows patented the tape measure.
1891 - The primacy of Thomas Edison's lamp patents was upheld in the court decision Electric Light Company vs. U.S. Electric Lighting Company.
1900 - European Allies retook Tientsin, China, from the rebelling Boxers.
1908 - "The Adventures of Dolly" opened at the Union Square Theatre in New York City.
1911 - Harry N. Atwood landed an airplane on the lawn of the White House to accept an award from U.S. President William Taft.
1914 - Robert H. Goddard patented liquid rocket-fuel.
1933 - All German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.
1940 - A force of German Ju-88 bombers attacked Suez, Egypt, from bases in Crete.
1941 - Vichy French Foreign Legionaries signed an armistice in Damascus, which allowed them to join the Free French Foreign Legion.
1945 - American battleships and cruisers bombarded the Japanese home islands for the first time.
1946 - Dr. Benjamin Spock’s "The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" was first published.
1951 - The first sports event to be shown in color, on CBS-TV, was the Molly Pitcher Handicap at Oceanport, NJ.
1951 - The George Washington Carver National Monument in Joplin, MO, became the first national park to honor an African American.
1958 - The army of Iraq overthrew the monarchy.
1965 - The American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, and sent back photographs of the planet.
1966 - In a Chicago dormitory, Richard Speck murdered eight student nurses.
1967 - Eddie Mathews of the Houston Astros hit his 500th career home run.
1968 - Hank Aaron, while with the Atlanta Braves, hit his 500th career home run.
1981 - The All-Star Game was postponed because of a 33-day-old baseball players strike. The game was held on August 9.
1998 - Los Angeles sued 15 tobacco companies for $2.5 billion over the dangers of secondhand smoke.
2001 - Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics. It was the first time that the China had been awarded the games.
2003 - Jerry Springer officially filed papers to run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio.
Current Birthdays
Jackie Earle Haley turns 48 years old today
92 Arthur Laurents
Playwright ("West Side Story," "Gypsy")
86 Dale Robertson
Actor
83 Harry Dean Stanton
Actor
81 Nancy Olson
Actress
79 Polly Bergen
Actress, singer
77 Rosey Grier
Football player
63 Vincent Pastore
Actor ("The Sopranos")
60 Tommy Mottola
Music company executive
57 Jerry Houser
Actor
57 Stan Shaw
Actor
57 Eric Laneuville
Actor, director
51 Scott Rudin
Movie producer
49 Kyle Gass
Rock musician (Tenacious D)
49 Ray Herndon
Country musician
49 Jane Lynch
Actress
43 Tanya Donelly
Rock singer, musician
43 Matthew Fox
Actor ("Lost")
43 Ellen Reid
Rock musician (Crash Test Dummies)
42 Patrick Kennedy
U.S. representative, D-R.I.
39 Missy Gold
Actress
34 Tameka Cottle
R&B singer (Xscape)
34 Tim Hudson
Baseball player
34 Jamey Johnson
Country singer
34 taboo
Hip-hop musician (Black-Eyed Peas)
30 Scott Porter
Actor ("Friday Night Lights")
Historic Birthdays
James McNeill Whistler
7/14/1834 - 7/17/1903
American painter and designer
58 Cardinal Jules Mazarin
7/14/1602 - 3/9/1661
Italian-born French cardinal and statesman
60 John Gibson Lockhart
7/14/1794 - 11/25/1854
Scottish critic, novelist and biographer
69 Emmeline Pankhurst
7/14/1858 - 6/14/1928
English leader of women's suffrage movement
55 Gustav Klimt
7/14/1862 - 2/6/1918
Austrian painter
92 Happy Chandler
7/14/1898 - 6/15/1991
American politician and baseball commissioner (1945-51)
73 Pancho Barnes
7/14/1901 - 3/?/1975
American aviator and movie stunt pilot
86 Irving Stone
7/14/1903 - 8/26/1989
American author
55 Woody Guthrie
7/14/1912 - 10/3/1967
American folk singer and songwriter
75 Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson
7/14/1921 - 9/26/1996
English Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1973)
historylover
2009-07-14, 21:34
1223 - In France, Louis VIII succeeded his father, Philip Augustus.
Thus ended one of the biggest expansionist period in French history, for Louis VIII lived only three more years and Louis IX was too interested in Crusading.
marquis2
2009-07-15, 03:34
Interesting to see about Edison's light bulb patents-he certainly didn't invent the light bulb , it had already been demonstrated and patented in England in 1841.
1099 - Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders.
1410 - Poles and Lithuanians defeated the Teutonic knights at Tannenburg, Prussia.
1685 - The Duke of Monmouth was executed in Tower Hill in England, after his army was defeated at Sedgemore.
1788 - Louis XVI jailed 12 deputies who protested new judicial reforms.
1789 - The electors of Paris set up a "Commune" to live without the authority of the government.
1806 - Lieutenant Zebulon Pike began his western expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine, near St. Louis, MS.
1813 - Napoleon Bonaparte's representatives met with the Allies in Prague to discuss peace terms.
1834 - Lord Napier of England arrived in Macao, China as the first chief superintendent of trade.
1857 - British women and children were murdered in the second Cawnpore Massacre during the Indian Mutiny.
1863 - Confederate raider Bill Anderson and his Bushwhackers attacked Huntsville, MO, where they stole $45,000 from the local bank.
1870 - Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.
1876 - George Washington Bradley of St. Louis pitched the first no-hitter in baseball in a 2-0 win over Hartford.
1888 - "Printers’ Ink" was first sold.
1895 - Ex-prime minister of Bulgaria, Stephen Stambulov, was murdered by Macedonian rebels.
1901 - Over 74,000 Pittsburgh steel workers went on strike.
1904 - The first Buddhist temple in the U.S. was established in Los Angeles, CA.
1916 - In Seattle, WA, Pacific Aero Products was incorporated by William Boeing. The company was later renamed Boeing Co.
1918 - The Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I.
1922 - The duck-billed platypus arrived in America, direct from Australia. It was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.
1940 - Robert Wadlow died at the age of 22. At that time he was 8 feet, 11-1/10 inches tall and weighed 439 pounds.
1942 - The first supply flight from India to China over the 'Hump' was carried to help China's war effort.
1958 - Five thousand U.S. Marines landed in Beirut, Lebanon, to protect the pro-Western government. The troops withdrew October 25, 1958.
1965 - The spacecraft Mariner IV sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Mars.
1965 - Joan Rivers and Edgar Rosenberg were married.
1968 - ABC-TV premiered "One Life to Live".
1968 - Commercial air travel began between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., when the first plane, a Soviet Aeroflot jet, landed at Kennedy International Airport in New York.
1971 - U.S. President Nixon announced he would visit the People's Republic of China to seek a "normalization of relations."
1973 - Nolan Ryan of the California Angels became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season.
1976 - A 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver when they were abducted by three gunmen near Chowchilla, CA. All of the captives escaped unharmed.
1981 - Steven Ford, son of former President Gerald R. Ford, appeared in a seduction scene of "The Young and the Restless" on CBS-TV. Ford played the part of Andy.
1985 - Baseball players voted to strike on August 6th if no contract was reached with baseball owners. The strike turned out to be just a one-day interruption.
1997 - Gianni Versace was shot to death by Andrew Phillip Cunanan outside his home in Miami, FL. Cunanan was found dead eight days later.
1999 - Harold Greene received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2002 - John Walker Lindh plead guilty to two felonies. The crimes were supplying services to Afghanistan's former Taliban government and for carrying explosives during the commission of a felony. Lindh agreed to spend 10 years in prison for each of the charges.
Current Birthdays
Arianna Huffington turns 59 years old today
78 Clive Cussler
Author
74 Alex Karras
Actor
74 Ken Kercheval
Actor
73 George Voinovich
U.S. senator, R-Ohio
70 Patrick Wayne
Actor
65 Millie Jackson
R&B singer
65 Jan-Michael Vincent
Actor
64 Peter Lewis
Rock singer, musician (Moby Grape)
63 Linda Ronstadt
Singer
61 Artimus Pyle
Rock musician (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
57 Terry O'Quinn
Actor ("Lost")
57 John Stallworth
Football Hall of Famer
53 Marky Ramone
Rock musician (The Ramones)
53 Joe Satriani
Rock musician
52 Mac McAnally
Country singer, songwriter
49 Kim Alexis
Model
49 Willie Aames
Actor ("Eight is Enough")
48 Lolita Davidovich
Actress
48 Forest Whitaker
Actor ("The Last King of Scotland")
46 Brigitte Nielsen
Actress
43 Jason Bonham
Rock musician (Led Zeppelin)
43 Kristoff St. John
Actor ("The Young and the Restless")
42 Phillip Fisher
Rock musician
41 Eddie Griffin
Actor, comedian
41 Stan Kirsch
Actor
40 Reggie Hayes
Actor
37 John Dolmayan
Rock musician
37 Scott Foley
Actor ("The Unit," "Felicity")
36 Brian Austin Green
Actor ("Beverly Hills 90210")
33 Jim Jones
Rapper
33 Diane Kruger
Actress
32 Lana Parrilla
Actress ("Swingtown")
36 Ray Toro
Rock musician (My Chemical Romance)
30 Travis Fimmel
Actor
28 Kia Thornton
R&B singer (Divine)
Historic Birthdays
Dame Iris Murdoch
7/15/1919 - 2/8/1999
British novelist and philosopher
78 Inigo Jones
7/15/1573 - 6/21/1652
English architect, painter and designer
63 Rembrandt Van Rijn
7/15/1606 - 10/4/1669
Dutch painter, draftsman and etcher
83 Clement Moore
7/15/1779 - 7/10/1863
American scholar; wrote "The Night Before Christmas"
73 Sir Henry Cole
7/15/1808 - 4/18/1882
English art patron and educator
67 Mother Cabrini
7/15/1850 - 12/22/1917
Italian-born American founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart; canonized in 1946
57 Alfred Northcliffe
7/15/1865 - 8/14/1922
English newspaper publisher
38 Jacques Riviere
7/15/1886 - 2/14/1925
French writer, critic and editor
69 Thomas Francis, Jr.
7/15/1900 - 10/1/1969
American microbiologist and epidemiologist
62 Philly Joe Jones
7/15/1923 - 8/30/1985
American jazz percussionist
historylover
2009-07-15, 19:32
1099 - Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders.
It's always been fascinating to me that of the two most famous Crusades - the First and Third - the only one to do real military work was the First. King Richard I could have re-taken Jerusalem, but couldn't - or wouldn't unite the Crusaders again during the Third Crusade.
marquis2
2009-07-16, 03:37
It's always been fascinating to me that of the two most famous Crusades - the First and Third - the only one to do real military work was the First. King Richard I could have re-taken Jerusalem, but couldn't - or wouldn't unite the Crusaders again during the Third Crusade.
And King Richard nearly bankrupted the country with the Crusades and left his brother John to clear up the mess.Yet Richard is well regarded and John is seen as the villain of the piece.
1212 - The Moslems were crushed in the Spanish crusade.
1453 - France defeated England at Castillon, France, which ended the 100 Years' War.
1762 - Peter III of Russia was murdered. Catherine II the Great took the throne.
1785 - France limited the importation of goods from Britain.
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to the British at Rochefort, France.
1821 - Spain ceded Florida to the U.S.
1862 - National cemeteries were authorized by the U.S. government.
1866 - Authorization was given to build a tunnel beneath the Chicago River. The three-year project cost $512,709.
1867 - Harvard School of Dental Medicine was established in Boston, MA. It was the first dental school in the U.S.
1898 - U.S. troops under General William R. Shafter took Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
1917 - The British royal family adopted the Windsor name.
1920 - Sinclair Lewis finished his novel "Main Street".
1941 - The longest hitting streak in baseball history ended when the Cleveland Indians pitchers held New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio hitless for the first time in 57 games.
1941 - Brigadier General Soervell directed Architect G. Edwin Bergstrom to have basic plans and architectural perspectives for an office building that could house 40,000 War Department employees on his desk by the following Monday morning. The building became known as the Pentagon.
1944 - 232 people were killed when 2 ammunition ships exploded in Port Chicago, CA.
1945 - U.S. President Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill began meeting at Potsdam in the final Allied summit of World War II. During the meeting Stalin made the comment that "Hitler had escaped."
1946 - Chinese communists opened a drive against the Nationalist army on the Yangtze River.
1950 - The television show "The Colgate Comedy Hour" debuted featuring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
1954 - The Brooklyn Dodgers made history as the first team with a majority of black players.
1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA.
1960 - Francis Gary Powers pled guilty to spying charges in a Moscow court after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union.
1966 - Ho Chi Minh ordered a partial mobilization of North Vietnam forces to defend against American air strikes.
1975 - An Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit. It was the first link up between the U.S. and Soviet Union.
1979 - Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled to Miami in exile.
1981 - Two skywalks suspended from the ceiling over the atrium lobby at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, MO, collapsed. 114 people were killed. Five years later two design engineers were convicted for their negligence.
1986 - The largest bankruptcy filing in U.S. history took place when LTV Corporation asked for court protection from more than 20,000 creditors. LTV Corp. had debts in excess of $4 billion.
1987 - Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and rear Admiral John Poindexter begin testifying to Congress at the "Iran-Contra" hearings.
1995 - The Nasdaq composite stock index rose above 1,000 for the first time.
1996 - 230 people were killed when TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed off Long Island, NY.
1997 - After 117 years, the Woolworth Corp. closed its last 400 stores.
1998 - Nicholas II, the last of Romanov czars, was buried in Russia 80 years after he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
1998 - An entire village was swept away in Papua New Guinea by a 23-foot wave that was triggered by an undersea earthquake. Eight days later the government reported that 1,500 people were dead, 2,000 were missing and thousands were homeless.
1998 - Biologists reported that they had deciphered the genome (genetic map) of the syphilis bacterium
Current Birthdays
Angela Merkel turns 55 years old today.
97 Art Linkletter
TV personality
92 Phyllis Diller
Comedian
84 Jimmy Scott
Jazz singer
74 Diahann Carroll
Actress, singer
74 Donald Sutherland
Actor
67 Spencer Davis
Rock singer, musician
67 Connie Hawkins
Basketball Hall of Famer
62 Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
Wife of Britain's Prince Charles
60 Terry "Geezer" Butler
Rock musician (Black Sabbath)
58 Lucie Arnaz
Actress
57 David Hasselhoff
Actor ("Baywatch," "America's Got Talent")
57 Fran Smith Jr.
Rock musician (The Hooters)
57 Phoebe Snow
R&B singer
53 Bryan Trottier
Hockey Hall of Famer
49 Mark Burnett
TV producer ("Survivor," "The Apprentice")
49 Nancy Giles
Actress
46 Regina Belle
R&B singer
45 Craig Morgan
Country singer
43 Lou Barlow
Rock musician
43 Guru
Hip-hop singer (Gang Starr)
42 Susan Ashton
Contemporary Christian singer
41 Andre Royo
Actor ("The Wire")
41 Bitty Schram
Actress
40 Jason Clarke
Actor
38 JC
R&B singer (PM Dawn)
36 Sole
Rapper
33 Luke Bryan
Country singer
33 Eric Winter
Actor
21 Summer Bishil
Actress
Historic Birthdays
James Cagney
7/17/1899 - 3/30/1986
American motion-picture actor
73 William Gargan
7/17/1905 - 2/16/1979
American motion-picture and television actor
71 Georges Lemaitre
7/17/1894 - 6/20/1966
Belgian astronomer and cosmologist
80 Erle Stanley Gardner
7/17/1889 - 3/11/1970
American mystery novelist and lawyer
81 S. Y. Agnon
7/17/1888 - 2/17/1970
Israeli novelist and short-story writer
86 Ernest Rhys
7/17/1859 - 5/25/1946
English editor
90 Sir Erskine Holland
7/17/1835 - 5/24/1926
English legal scholar
84 John Jacob Astor
7/17/1763 - 3/29/1848
German-born American founder of the Astor dynasty
70 Elbridge Gerry
7/17/1744 - 11/23/1814
American Revolutionary leader and U.S. vice president (1813-14)
47 Alexander Baumgarten
7/17/1714 - 5/26/1762
German philosopher and educator
1801 - A 1,235 pound cheese ball was pressed at the farm of Elisha Brown, Jr. The ball of cheese was later loaded on a horse-driven wagon and presented to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson at the White House.
1810 - Colombia declared independence from Spain.
1859 - Brooklyn and New York played baseball at Fashion Park Race Course on Long Island, NY. The game marked the first time that admission had been charged for to see a ball game. It cost $.50 to get in and the players on the field did not receive a salary (until 1863).
1861 - The Congress of the Confederate States began holding sessions in Richmond, VA.
1868 - Legislation that ordered U.S. tax stamps to be placed on all cigarette packs was passed.
1871 - British Columbia joined Confederation as a Canadian province.
1881 - Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive since the Battle of the Little Big Horn, surrendered to federal troops.
1917 - The draft lottery in World War I went into operation.
1935 - NBC radio debuted "G-men." The show was later renamed "Gangbusters."
1942 - The first detachment of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, (WACS) began basic training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.
1944 - An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed. The bomb exploded at Hitler's Rastenburg headquarters. Hitler was only wounded.
1944 - U.S. President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
1947 - The National Football League (NFL) ruled that no professional team could sign a player who had college eligibility remaining.
1951 - Jordan's King Abdullah Ibn Hussein was assassinated in Jerusalem.
1961 - "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off" opened in London.
1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon.
1974 - Turkish forces invaded Cyprus.
1976 - America's Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful landing on Mars.
1977 - A flash flood hit Johnstown, PA, killing 80 people and causing $350 million worth of damage.
1982 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan pulled the U.S. out of comprehensive test ban negotiations indefinitely.
1985 - Treasure hunters began raising $400 million in coins and silver from the Spanish galleon "Nuestra Senora de Atocha." The ship sank in 1622 40 miles of the coast of Key West, FL.
1992 - Vaclav Havel, the playwright who led the Velvet Revolution against communism, stepped down as president of Czechoslovakia.
1993 - White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster Jr. was found shot to death, a suicide, in a park near Washington, DC.
1997 - Seven people were arrested after New York City police found scores of deaf Mexicans kept in slave-like conditions and forced to peddle trinkets for the smugglers who had brought them to the U.S.
1998 - Russia won a $11.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help avert the devaluation of its currency.
2003 - In India, elephants used for commercial work began wearing reflectors to avoid being hit by cars during night work.
Current Birthdays
Julianne Hough turns 21 years old today.
79 Sally Ann Howes
Actress, singer
74 Sleepy LaBeef
Rockabilly singer
73 Barbara Mikulski
U.S. senator, D-Md.
71 Diana Rigg
Actress ("The Avengers")
66 John Lodge
Rock musician (The Moody Blues)
65 T.G. Sheppard
Country singer
64 Kim Carnes
Rock singer
64 Larry Craig
Former U.S. senator, R-Idaho
62 Carlos Santana
Rock musician
53 Paul Cook
Rock musician (The Sex Pistols)
52 Donna Dixon
Actress
51 Mick McNeil
Rock musician (Simple Minds)
50 Radney Foster
Country singer
46 Frank Whaley
Actor
45 Chris Cornell
Rock singer
43 Stone Gossard
Rock musician (Pearl Jam)
42 Reed Diamond
Actor
40 Josh Holloway
Actor ("Lost")
40 Vitamin C
Singer
36 Peter Forsberg
Hockey player
35 Simon Rex
Actor
34 Judy Greer
Actress
31 Charlie Korsmo
Actor
31 Elliott Yamin
Singer ("American Idol")
29 Gisele Bundchen
Supermodel
29 Mike Kennerty
Rock musician (The All-American Rejects)
27 Percy Daggs III
Actor ("Veronica Mars")
24 John Francis Daley
Actor
13 Billi Bruno
Actress ("According to Jim")
Historic Birthdays
Elliot Richardson
7/20/1920 - 12/31/1999
American politician; attorney general during the Watergate scandal (1973)
69 Petrarch
7/20/1304 - 7/19/1374
Italian scholar and poet
48 Giuseppe La Farina
7/20/1815 - 9/5/1863
Italian writer and leader of the Risorgimento
60 Augustin Daly
7/20/1838 - 6/7/1899
American playwright and theatrical manager
90 Sir George Otto Trevelyan
7/20/1838 - 8/17/1928
English historian, statesman and biographer
87 Max Liebermann
7/20/1847 - 2/8/1935
German painter and etcher
70 Miron Cristea
7/20/1868 - 3/6/1939
Romanian; first patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
59 Santos-Dumont Alberto
7/20/1873 - 7/23/1932
Brazilian aviation pioneer
56 George II
7/20/1890 - 4/1/1947
Greek king (1922-4; 1935-47)
79 Errett Lobban Cord
7/20/1894 - 1/2/1974
American automobile manufacturer
1715 - The first lighthouse in America was authorized for construction at Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts.
1827 - The first swimming school in the U.S. opened in Boston, MA.
1829 - William Burt patented the typographer, which was the first typewriter.
1877 - The first municipal railroad passenger service began in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1886 - Steve Brodie, a New York saloonkeeper, claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.
1904 - The ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, MO.
1914 - Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin. The dispute led to World War I.
1938 - The first federal game preserve was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The area was 2,000 acres in Utah.
1945 - The first passenger train observation car was placed in service by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
1952 - Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I.
1954 - A law is passed that states that "The Secretary of the Navy is authorized to repair, equip, and restore the United States Ship Constitution, as far as may be practicable, to her original appearance, but not for active service, and thereafter to maintain the United States Ship Constitution at Boston, Massachusetts."
1958 - The submarine Nautilus departed from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, under orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine." The mission was to be the first vessel to cross the north pole by ship. The Nautils achieved the goal on August 3, 1958.
1962 - The "Telstar" communications satellite sent the first live TV broadcast to Europe.
1967 - In Detroit, MI, rioting that claimed some 43 lives.
1972 - Eddie Merckx of Belgium won his fourth consecutive Tour de France bicycling competition.
1972 - The U.S. launched Landsat 1 (ERTS-1). It was the first Earth-resources satellite.
1977 - A jury in Washington, DC, convicted 12 Hanafi Muslims of charges stemming from the hostage siege at three buildings the previous March.
1984 - Miss America, Vanessa Williams, turned in her crown after it had been discovered that nude photos of her had appeared in "Penthouse" magazine. She was the first to resign the title.
1986 - Britain's Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in London. They divorced in 1996.
1997 - Police in Miami Beach, FL, found the body of Andrew Cunanan. He was the suspected killer of Gianni Versace.
1998 - U.S. scientists at the University of Hawaii turned out more than 50 "carbon-copy" mice, with a cloning technique.
2000 - Lance Armstrong won his second Tour de France.
Current Birthdays
Philip Seymour Hoffman turns 42 years old today.
84 Gloria DeHaven
Actress
73 Anthony Kennedy
Supreme Court justice
71 Ronny Cox
Actor
69 Don Imus
Radio personality
66 Tony Joe White
Country singer
62 David Essex
Rock singer
62 Larry Manetti
Actor
61 John Hall
Singer (Orleans), U.S. congressman
59 Belinda Montgomery
Actress
59 Blair Thornton
Rock musician (Bachman Turner Overdrive)
48 Martin Gore
Rock musician (Depeche Mode)
48 Woody Harrelson
Actor
47 Eriq La Salle
Actor ("ER")
46 Yuval Gabay
Rock musician
44 Slash
Rock musician (Guns 'n' Roses)
41 Nick Menza
Rock musician (Megadeth)
41 Stephanie Seymour
Model
39 Charisma Carpenter
Actress ("Angel," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer")
39 Sam Watters
R&B singer
38 Dalvin DeGrate
R&B singer
38 Chad Gracey
Rock musician (Live)
37 Marlon Wayans
Actor, comedian
36 Shannon Brown
Country singer
36 Omar Epps
Actor ("House M.D.")
36 Nomar Garciaparra
Baseball player
35 Stephanie March
Actress
33 Alison Krauss
Country singer-musician
32 David Pichette
Country musician (Emerson Drive)
29 Michelle Williams
R&B singer (Destiny's Child)
20 Daniel Radcliffe
Actor ("Harry Potter" movies)
Historic Birthdays
Haile Selassie I
7/23/1892 - 8/26/1975
Ethiopian emperor from 1930 to 1974
64 Francesco Sforza
7/23/1401 - 3/8/1466
Italian condottiere and duke of Milan
86 Sir Thomas Brisbane
7/23/1773 - 1/27/1860
English soldier and astronomical observer
84 Sir Jonathan Hutchinson
7/23/1828 - 6/26/1913
English medical researcher
92 S. H. Kress
7/23/1863 - 9/22/1955
American retail businessman and art collector
91 Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons
7/23/1874 - 3/11/1966
American racehorse trainer
65 Emil Jannings
7/23/1884 - 1/2/1950
Swiss-born German stage and screen actor
62 Sir Arthur Whitten Brown
7/23/1886 - 10/4/1948
English aviator; co-captained the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic
70 Raymond Chandler
7/23/1888 - 3/26/1959
American author of detective stories
66 Harry Cohn
7/23/1891 - 2/27/1958
American co-founder of Columbia Pictures
57 Elio Vittorini
7/23/1908 - 2/13/1966
Italian novelist, translator and literary critic
79 Pimen
7/23/1910 - 5/3/1990
Russian Orthodox patriarch of Moscow and Russia
1847 - Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah.
1847 - Richard M. Hoe patented the rotary-type printing press.
1849 - Georgetown University in Washington, DC, presented its first Doctor of Music Degree. It was given to Professor Henry Dielman.
1866 - Tennessee became the first state to be readmitted to the Union after the U.S. Civil War.
1923 - The Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Turkey, was concluded in Switzerland.
1929 - U.S. President Hoover proclaimed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which renounced war as an instrument of foreign policy.
1933 - The first broadcast of "The Romance of Helen Trent" was heard on radio. 7,222 episodes were aired.
1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his fourth "Fireside Chat."
1948 - Soviet occupation forces in Germany blockaded West Berlin. The U.S.-British airlift began the following day.
1956 - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ended their team. They ended the partnership a decade after it began on July 25, 1946.
1969 - The Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon had to turn over subpoenaed White House tape recordings to the Watergate special prosecutor.
1978 - Billy Martin was fired for the first of three times as the manager of the New York Yankees baseball team.
1984 - Terry Bradshaw retired from the National Football League.
1985 - Walt Disney released their 25th full-length cartoon. The work was "The Black Cauldron."
1987 - Hulda Crooks, at 91 years of age, climbed Mt. Fuji. Hulda became the oldest person to climb Japan’s highest peak.
1998 - A gunman burst into U.S. Capitol and opened fire killing two police officers. Russel Weston Jr., was later ruled incompetent to stand trial.
1998 - Roy O. Disney received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2003 - The U.S. released pictures of the bodies of Odai and Qusai Hussein. The two died during a battle with U.S. forces near Mosul, Iraq.
Current Birthdays
Anna Paquin turns 27 years old today.
88 Billy Taylor
Jazz pianist
80 Peter Yates
Director
79 Jacqueline Brookes
Actress
76 John Aniston
Actor ("Days of Our Lives")
74 Pat Oliphant
Political cartoonist
73 Ruth Buzzi
Comedian ("Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In")
73 Mark Goddard
Actor
69 Dan Hedaya
Actor
67 Chris Sarandon
Actor
63 Gallagher
Comedian
62 Robert Hays
Actor ("Airplane!" movies)
60 Michael Richards
Actor ("Seinfeld")
58 Lynda Carter
Actress ("Wonder Woman")
57 Gus Van Sant
Director
56 Claire McCaskill
U.S. senator, D-Mo.
53 Charlie Crist
Governor of Florida
52 Pam Tillis
Country singer
46 Karl Malone
Basketball player
45 Barry Bonds
Baseball player
44 Kadeem Hardison
Actor
41 Kristin Chenoweth
Actress, singer
41 Laura Leighton
Actress
41 John P. Navin Jr.
Actor
40 Rick Fox
Actor
40 Jennifer Lopez
Actress, singer
34 Eric Szmanda
Actor ("CSI")
30 Rose Byrne
Actress ("Damages")
28 Summer Glau
Actress ("Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles")
27 Elisabeth Moss
Actress ("Mad Men")
22 Mara Wilson
Actress
Historic Birthdays
Bella Abzug
7/24/1920 - 3/31/1998
American politician, lawyer and activist
53 Benedetto Marcello
7/24/1686 - 7/24/1739
Italian composer, writer and poet
47 Simon Bolivar
7/24/1783 - 12/17/1830
South American soldier and statesman
68 Alexander Dumas
7/24/1802 - 12/5/1870
French author and dramatist; wrote "The Three Musketeers"
89 Alexander Davis
7/24/1803 - 1/14/1892
American architect, designer and illustrator
84 William Gillette
7/24/1853 - 4/29/1937
American playwright and actor; portrayed Sherlock Holmes
90 Robert Graves
7/24/1895 - 12/7/1985
English poet, novelist, critic and classical scholar
40 Amelia Earhart
7/24/1897 - 7/2/1937
American aviator; the first woman to fly alone over the Atlantic
84 James Rhyne Killian
7/24/1904 - 1/29/1988
American president of M.I.T. (1948-59); helped create NASA
70 John D. MacDonald
7/24/1916 - 12/28/1986
American mystery and science fiction writer
77 Cootie Williams
7/24/c 1908 - 9/15/1985
American jazz musician
0326 - Constantine refused to carry out the traditional pagan sacrifices.
1394 - Charles VI of France issued a decree for the general expulsion of Jews from France.
1564 - Maximillian II became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
1587 - Japanese strong-man Hideyoshi banned Christianity in Japan and ordered all Christians to leave.
1593 - France's King Henry IV converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
1759 - British forces defeated a French army at Fort Niagara in Canada.
1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt.
1805 - Aaron Burr visited New Orleans with plans to establish a new country, with New Orleans as the capital city.
1845 - China granted Belgium equal trading rights with Britain, France and the United States.
1850 - In Worcester, MA, Harvard and Yale University freshmen met in the first intercollegiate billiards match.
1850 - Gold was discovered in the Rogue River in Oregon.
1854 - The paper collar was patented by Walter Hunt.
1861 - The Crittenden Resolution, which called for the American Civil War to be fought to preserve the Union and not for slavery, was passed by the U.S. Congress.
1866 - Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army. He was the first American officer to hold the rank.
1868 - The U.S. Congress passed an act creating the Wyoming Territory.
1871 - Seth Wheeler patented perforated wrapping paper.
1907 - Korea became a protectorate of Japan.
1909 - French aviator Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel in a monoplane. He traveled from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes. He was the first man to fly across the channel.
1914 - Russia declared that it would act to protect Serbian sovereignty.
1924 - Greece announced the deportation of 50,000 Armenians.
1934 - Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was shot and killed by Nazis.
1939 - W2XBS TV in New York City presented the first musical comedy seen on TV. The show was "Topsy and Eva".
1941 - The U.S. government froze all Japanese and Chinese assets.
1943 - Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in a coup.
1946 - The U.S. detonated an atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. It was the first underwater test of the device.
1946 - Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis staged their first show as a team at Club 500 in Atlantic City, NJ.
1947 - Fortune Gordien of Oslo, Norway set a world record discus throw of 178.47 feet.
1952 - Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S.
1956 - The Italian liner Andrea Doria sank after colliding with the Swedish ship Stockholm off the New England coast. 51 people were killed.
1978 - Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born in Oldham, England. She had been conceived through in-vitro fertilization.
1978 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Red's broke the National League record for consecutive base hits as he got a hit in 38 straight games.
1984 - Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space. She was aboard the orbiting space station Salyut 7.
1987 - The Salt Lake City Trappers set a professional baseball record as the team won its 29th game in a row.
1994 - Israel and Jordan formally ended the state of war that had existed between them since 1948.
1997 - K.R. Narayanan became India's president. He was the first member of the Dalits caste to do so.
1998 - The USS Harry S. Truman was commissioned and put into service by the U.S. Navy.
1998 - U.S. President Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury regarding the Monica Lewinsky case. The subpoena was withdrawn when Clinton agreed to give videotaped testimony with his lawyers present.
1999 - Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France. He was only the second American to win the race. He won the race again in 2000.
2000 - A supersonic Concorde crashed outside Paris, France, killing all 109 people aboard and 5 on the ground.
Current Birthdays
Robert Zoellick turns 56 years old today.
74 Barbara Harris
Actress
68 Nate Thurmond
Basketball Hall of Famer
66 Jim McCarty
Rock musician (The Yardbirds)
58 Verdine White
Rock musician (Earth, Wind and Fire)
54 Jem Finer
Rock musician (The Pogues)
54 Iman
Model, actress
52 Ray Billingsley
Cartoonist
51 Thurston Moore
Rock musician (Sonic Youth)
48 Bobbie Eakes
Actress, singer ("All My Children")
48 Katherine Kelly Lang
Actress ("The Bold and the Beautiful")
44 Marty Brown
Country singer
44 Illeana Douglas
Actress
42 Matt LeBlanc
Actor ("Friends")
41 Paavo Lotjonen
Rock musician (Apocalyptica)
40 D.B. Woodside
Actor
38 Miriam Shor
Actress
38 Billy Wagner
Baseball player
24 James Lafferty
Actor ("One Tree Hill")
14 Faryl Smith
Singer
Historic Birthdays
Arthur James Balfour
7/25/1848 - 3/19/1930
British statesman
56 Henry Knox
7/25/1750 - 10/25/1806
American Revolutionary war general and first U.S. secretary of war
78 Maria Weston Chapman
7/25/1806 - 7/12/1885
American abolitionist
74 Richard Oglesby
7/25/1824 - 4/24/1899
American governor of Illinois (1865-69, 1873, 1885-89) and U.S. senator (1873-79)
71 Thomas Eakins
7/25/1844 - 6/25/1916
American painter
77 David Belasco
7/25/1853 - 5/14/1931
American theatrical producer and playwright
95 Maxfield Parrish
7/25/1870 - 3/10/1966
American illustrator and painter
49 Davidson Black
7/25/1884 - 3/15/1934
Canadian physician and physical anthropologist
80 Eric Hoffer
7/25/1902 - 5/21/1983
American longshoreman, philosopher and writer
89 Elias Canetti
7/25/1905 - 8/14/1994
Bulgarian Nobel Prize-winning novelist and playwright (1981)
63 Johnny Hodges
7/25/1906 - 5/11/1970
American jazz saxophonist; soloist in Duke Ellington's orchestra
historylover
2009-07-25, 15:55
0326 - Constantine refused to carry out the traditional pagan sacrifices.
Without such events, could Europe have been unified again post-476 AD?
1775 - A postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress of the United States. The first Postmaster General was Benjamin Franklin.
1788 - New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1881 - Thomas Edison and Patrick Kenny execute a patent application for a facsimile telegraph (U.S. Pat. 479,184).
1893 - Commercial production of the Addressograph started in Chicago, IL.
1907 - The Chester was launched. It was the first turbine-propelled ship.
1908 - U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order that created an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.
1945 - Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister.
1947 - U.S. President Truman signed The National Security Act. The act created the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
1948 - Babe Ruth was seen by the public for the last time, when he attended the New York City premiere of the motion picture, "The Babe Ruth Story".
1948 - U.S. President Truman signed executive orders that prohibited discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.
1952 - King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
1953 - Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. Castro eventually ousted Batista six years later.
1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.
1964 - Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and six others were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the handling of a union pension fund.
1971 - Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy, FL.
1998 - AT&T and British Telecommunications PLC announced they were forming a joint venture to combine international operations and develop a new Internet system.
1999 - 1,500 pieces of Marilyn Monroe's personal items went on display at Christie's in New York, NY. The items went on sale later in 1999.
Current Birthdays
Mick Jagger turns 66 years old today.
91 Marjorie Lord
Actress ("Make Room for Daddy")
87 Blake Edwards
Director, producer
83 James Best
Actor
71 Bobby Hebb
R&B singer, songwriter
70 Bob Lilly
Football Hall of Famer
69 Dobie Gray
R&B singer
68 Darlene Love
R&B singer, actress
68 Brenton Wood
R&Binger
66 Peter Hyams
Director
66 Mike McConnell
Former director of national intelligence
64 Helen Mirren
Actress
60 Roger Taylor
Rock musician (Queen)
59 Susan George
Actress
53 Dorothy Hamill
Figure skater
50 Kevin Spacey
Actor
48 Gary Cherone
Rock singer
45 Sandra Bullock
Actress
44 Jim Lindberg
Rock singer (Pennywise)
44 Jeremy Piven
Actor ("Entourage")
43 Wayne Wonder
Rapper, reggae singer
42 Jason Statham
Actor
39 Cress Williams
Actor
38 Chris Harrison
TV host ("The Bachelor")
36 Kate Beckinsale
Actress
35 Dan Konopka
Rock musician (OK Go)
32 Rebecca St. James
Gospel singer
Historic Birthdays
Carl (Gustav) Jung
7/26/1875 - 6/6/1961
Swiss founder of analytic psychology
94 George Bernard Shaw
7/26/1856 - 11/2/1950
Playwright
69 Aldous Huxley
7/26/1894 - 11/22/1963
Philosopher, satirist and author
62 Gracie Allen
7/26/1902 - 8/27/1964
Vaudeville, radio, television and stage actress
70 Vivian Vance
7/26/1909 - 8/17/1979
Actress (''I Love Lucy'')
79 Erskine Hawkins
7/26/1914 - 11/11/1993
Jazz trumpeter
78 Jason Robards
7/26/1922 - 12/26/2000
Actor
70 Stanley Kubrick
7/26/1928 - 3/7/1999
Film director
1214 - At the Battle of Bouvines in France, Philip Augustus of France defeated John of England.
1245 - Frederick II of France was deposed by a council at Lyons, which found him guilty of sacrilege.
1663 - The British Parliament passed a second Navigation Act, which required all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports.
1689 - Government forces defeated the Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of Killiecrankie.
1694 - The Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution.
1775 - Benjamin Rush began his service as the first Surgeon General of the Continental Army.
1784 - "Courier De L’Amerique" became the first French newspaper to be published in the United States. It was printed in Philadelphia, PA.
1777 - The marquis of Lafayette arrived in New England to help the rebellious American colonists fight the British.
1778 - The British and French fleets fought to a standoff in the first Battle of Ushant.
1789 - The Department of Foreign Affairs was established by the U.S. Congress. The agency was later known as the Department of State.
1804 - The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President.
1866 - Cyrus Field successfully completed the Atlantic Cable. It was an underwater telegraph from North America to Europe.
1909 - Orville Wright set a record for the longest airplane flight. He was testing the first Army airplane and kept it in the air for 1 hour 12 minutes and 40 seconds.
1914 - British troops invaded the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and began to disarm Irish rebels.
1918 - The Socony 200 was launched. It was the first concrete barge and was used to carry oil.
1921 - Canadian biochemist Frederick Banting and associates announced the discovery of the hormone insulin.
1940 - Bugs Bunny made his official debut in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon "A Wild Hare."
1944 - U.S. troops completed the liberation of Guam.
1947 - The World Water Ski Organization was founded in Geneva, Switzerland.
1953 - The armistice agreement that ended the Korean War was signed at Panmunjon, Korea.
1955 - The Allied occupation of Austria ended.
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson sent an additional 5,000 advisers to South Vietnam.
1965 - In the U.S., the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act was signed into law. The law required health warnings on all cigarette packages.
1967 - U.S. President Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of the violence in the wake of urban rioting.
1974 - NBC-TV took "Dinah's Place" off of its daytime programming roster.
1974 - The U.S. Congress asked for impeachment procedures against President Richard Nixon.
1980 - The deposed shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, died in a hospital near Cairo, Egypt.
1984 - Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb’s record for most singles in a career when he got his 3,503rd base hit.
1992 - Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis died after collapsing on a Brandeis University basketball court during practice. He was 27 years old.
1993 - IBM's new chairman, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., announced an $8.9 billion plan to cut the company's costs.
1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC, by U.S. President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Young-sam.
1996 - At the Atlanta Olympics a pipe bomb exploded at the public Centennial Olympic Park. One person was killed and more than 100 were injured.
1998 - Robert Vaughn received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 - The U.S. space shuttle Discovery completed a five-day mission commanded by Air Force Col. Eileen Collins. It was the first shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman.
2001 - The ribbon cutting ceremony was held for American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX. The event set two new world records, one for the 3 mile long ribbon and one for the 2,000 people that cut it.
2003 - It was reported by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) that there was no monster in Loch Ness. The investigation used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to trawl the loch. Reports of sightings of the "Loch Ness Monster" began in the 6th century.
2006 - Intel Corp introduced its Core 2 Duo microprocessors
Current Birthdays
Alex Rodriguez turns 34 years old today.
87 Norman Lear
TV producer
80 Harvey Fuqua
R&B singer (The Moonglows)
78 Jerry Van Dyke
Actor
67 John Pleshette
Actor
65 Bobbie Gentry
Country singer
61 Betty Thomas
Actress, director
61 Peggy Fleming
Figure skater
60 Maury Chaykin
Actor
60 Maureen McGovern
Singer
58 Janet Eilber
Dancer
57 Roxanne Hart
Actress
53 Duncan Cameron
Country musician (Sawyer Brown)
53 Carol Leifer
Comedian
52 Bill Engvall
Comedian ("Blue Collar TV")
47 Karrin Allyson
Jazz singer
42 Stacy Dean Campbell
Country singer
42 Juliana Hatfield
Rock singer
41 Julian McMahon
Actor ("Nip/Tuck")
37 Maya Rudolph
Actress, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")
35 Pete Yorn
Rock singer, songwriter
32 Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Actor ("The Tudors")
19 Cheyenne Kimball
Country singer
Historic Birthdays
Leo Durocher
7/27/1905 - 10/7/1991
American baseball manager
24 Charlotte Corday
7/27/1768 - 7/17/1793
French revolutionary assassin of Jean-Paul Marat
82 Hilaire Belloc
7/27/1870 - 7/16/1953
French-born English historian, biographer, poet and novelist
82 Geoffrey De Havilland
7/27/1882 - 5/21/1965
English manufacturer and aircraft designer
58 Charles Vidor
7/27/1900 - 6/4/1959
Hungarian-born motion-picture director
gunslingingbird
2009-07-28, 15:58
1953 - The armistice agreement that ended the Korean War was signed at Panmunjon, Korea.
I wonder how much longer it'll hold for... :dunno:
historylover
2009-07-28, 17:21
1214 - At the Battle of Bouvines in France, Philip Augustus of France defeated John of England.
1245 - Frederick II of France was deposed by a council at Lyons, which found him guilty of sacrilege.
Ah, Bouvines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bouvines)....according to Wikipedia, it seems France won't be France without it.
Ah...whatever site lists a Frederick as French monarch when Louis IX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IX_of_France) reigned has inaccuracies.
historylover
2009-08-13, 15:11
August 13
Events
3114 BC – According to the Lounsbury correlation, the start of the Maya calendar.
1516 – The Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain is signed. Francis recognises Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognises Francis's claim to Milan.
1521 – Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés.
1536 – Buddhist monks from Kyōto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536).
1553 – Michael Servetus is arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic.
1704 – War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim – English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.
1792 – Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people.
1814 – The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London.
1831 – Nat Turner sees a solar eclipse, which he believes is a sign from God. Eight days later he and 70 other slaves kill approximately 55 whites in Southampton County, Virginia.
1889 – German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "Navigable Balloon"
1913 – Otto Witte, an acrobat, is purportedly crowned King of Albania.
1913 – Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
1918 – Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
1918 – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.
1920 – Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw begins, lasts till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
1937 – Battle of Shanghai begins.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Britain begins – the Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.
1954 – Radio Pakistan broadcasts the National Anthem of Pakistan for the first time.
1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
1961 – The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.
1968 – Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel G. Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
1978 – Terrorist attack killed 150 Palestinians in Beirut.
1979 – The roof of the uncompleted Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, Illinois collapses, killing 5 workers and injuring 16.
2004 – Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, strikes Punta Gorda, Florida and devastates the surrounding area.
2004 – 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.
2008 – Michael Phelps sets the Olympic record for most the gold medals won by an individual in Olympic history with his win in the men's 200m butterfly.
Births
582 – Arnulf of Metz, French bishop and saint (d. 640)
1311 – King Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon (d. 1350)
1584 – Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, English politician (d. 1640)
1625 – Rasmus Bartholin, Danish physician, mathematician, and physicist (d. 1698)
1662 – Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, English politician (d. 1748)
1666 – William Wotton, English scholar (d. 1727)
1700 – Heinrich, count von Brühl, German statesman (d. 1763)
1717 – Louis François I, Prince of Conti, French military leader (d. 1776)
1752 – Marie Caroline of Austria, queen of the Two Sicilies (d. 1814)
1764 – Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, French general (d. 1816)
1790 – William Wentworth, Australian explorer and politician (d. 1872)
1792 – Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen consort of William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1849)
1803 – Vladimir Odoevsky, Russian philosopher and writer (d. 1869)
1814 – Anders Jonas Ångström, Swedish physicist (d. 1874)
1818 – Lucy Stone, American suffragette (d. 1893)
1819 – George Gabriel Stokes, Irish physicist (d. 1903)
1820 – Sir George Grove, English music historian (d. 1900)
1823 – Goldwin Smith, English-born historian and journalist (d. 1910)
1841 – Johnny Mullagh, Australian First Class cricketer (d. 1891)
1851 – Felix Adler, German-born educator (d. 1933)
1860 – Annie Oakley, American sharpshooter (d. 1926)
1866 – Giovanni Agnelli, Italian industrialist (d. 1945)
1872 – Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1942)
1879 – John Ireland, English composer (d. 1962)
1884 – Harry Dean, England cricketer (d. 1957)
1887 – Julius Freed, American inventor and banker (d. 1952)
1888 – John Logie Baird, Scottish television pioneer (d. 1946)
1888 – Gleb W. Derujinsky, Russian-American sculptor (d. 1975)
1889 – Camillien Houde, Quebec politician, mayor of Montreal (d. 1958)
1890 – Ellen Osiier, Danish Olympic champion fencer (d. 1962)
1895 – Bert Lahr, American actor (d. 1967)
1899 – Alfred Hitchcock, English film director (d. 1980)
1902 – Felix Wankel, German engineer and inventor (d. 1988)
1904 – Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, American actor (d. 1999)
1907 – Sir Basil Spence, Scottish architect (d. 1976)
1908 – Gene Raymond, American actor (d. 1998)
1911 – William Bernbach, Famous Advertiser (d. 1982)
1912 – Ben Hogan, American golfer (d. 1997)
1912 – Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1991)
1913 – Fred Davis, English snooker player (d. 1998)
1913 – Makarios III, Archbishop and first President of Cyprus (d. 1977)
1914 – Luis Mariano, Basque operetta singer (d. 1970)
1917 – Sid Gordon, American baseball player (d. 1975)
1918 – Frederick Sanger, English chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate
1919 – Rex Humbard, American television evangelist (d. 2007)
1919 – Sir George Shearing, British jazz pianist
1920 – Neville Brand, American actor (d. 1992)
1926 – Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary and politician
1930 – Don Ho, American musician (d. 2007)
1930 – Bernard Manning, English comedian (d. 2007)
1930 – Wilmer David Mizell, American baseball player (d. 1999)
1933 – Joycelyn Elders, American physician, 15th Surgeon General of the United States
1935 – Mudcat Grant, American baseball player
1935 – Rod Hull, British television entertainer (d. 1999)
1938 – Dave "Baby" Cortez, American pop keyboardist
1940 – Bill Musselman, American basketball head coach (d. 2000)
1941 – Erin Fleming, Canadian actress (d. 2003)
1943 – Michael Willetts, English George Cross recipient (d. 1971)
1944 – Divina Galica, British athlete and racing driver
1944 – Kevin Tighe, American actor
1945 – Lars Engqvist, Swedish politician
1945 – Robin Jackman, England cricketer
1947 – John Stocker, Canadian actor
1947 – Margareta Winberg, Swedish politician
1948 – Kathleen Battle, American soprano
1949 – Bobby Clarke, Canadian ice hockey player
1949 – Philippe Petit, French high wire artist
1951 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer/songwriter (d. 2007)
1952 – Herb Ritts, American photographer (d. 2004)
1952 – Hughie Thomasson, American musician (d. 2007)
1954 – Nico Assumpção, Brazilian musician (d. 2001)
1955 – Keith Ahlers, British racing driver
1955 – Hideo Fukuyama, Japanese racing driver
1955 – Paul Greengrass, English film director
1958 – Fergal Sharkey, musician
1958 – Randall Shughart, American Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1993)
1959 – Danny Bonaduce, American actor
1959 – Tom Niedenfuer, American baseball player
1959 – Bruce French, England cricketer
1960 – Phil Taylor, English darts player
1960 – Kōji Kondō, Japanese composer
1961 – Dawnn Lewis, American actress
1961 – Stuart Maconie, English music writer and broadcaster
1961 – Tom Perrotta, American novelist
1961 – Sunil Shetty, Indian Actor, Producer
1961 – Neil Mallender, England cricketer
1962 – John Slattery, American actor
1963 – Sridevi, Indian actress
1964 – Jay Buhner, American baseball player
1964 – Hank Cheyne, American actor
1965 – Mark Lemke, American baseball player
1965 – Hayato Matsuo, Japanese composer
1966 – Shayne Corson, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 – Amélie Nothomb, Belgian writer
1967 – Quinn Cummings, American actress
1969 – Midori Ito, Japanese figure skater
1970 – Will Clarke, American novelist
1970 – Elvis Grbac, American football player
1970 – Matt Hyson, American professional wrestler
1970 – Alan Shearer, English footballer
1971 – Moritz Bleibtreu, German actor
1971 – Patrick Carpentier, Quebec racing driver
1971 – Rolando Molina, Salvadoran-born actor
1972 – Kevin Plank, American entrepreneur (Under Armour)
1972 – John Safran, Australian television presenter.
1973 – Brittany Andrews, American pornographic actress
1973 – Molly Henneberg, American journalist
1973 – Eric Medlen, American drag racer and rodeo star (d. 2007)
1974 – Jarrod Washburn, American baseball player
1974 – Sam Endicott, American singer (The Bravery)
1975 – Shoaib Akhtar, Pakistani cricketer
1975 – James Carpinello, American actor
1975 – Joe Perry, English snooker player
1975 – Marty Turco, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Michael Klim, Australian swimmer
1978 – Benjani Mwaruwari, Zimbabwean footballer
1979 – Román Colón, Dominican baseball player
1979 – Corey Patterson, American baseball player
1979 – Taizō Sugimura, Japanese politician
1982 – Shani Davis, American speed skater
1982 – Gary McSheffrey, English footballer
1983 – Ales Hemsky, Czech ice hockey player
1983 – Ľubomír Michalík, Slovakian footballer
1983 – Sebastian Stan, Romanian/American actor
1984 – Niko Kranjčar, Croatian footballer
1984 – Boone Logan, American baseball player
1984 – Heath Pearce, American footballer
1986 – Joseph Lapira, American footballer
Deaths
586 – Radegund, consort of Clotaire I
900 – King Zwentibold of Lotharingia (b. 870)
1134 – Piroska of Hungary, consort of John II Comnenus (b. 1088)
1382 – Eleanor of Aragon, consort of John I of Castile (b. 1358)
1523 – Gerard David, Flemish painter
1617 – Johann Jakob Grynaeus, Swiss Protestant clergyman (b. 1540)
1667 – Jeremy Taylor, Irish author and bishop (b. 1613)
1686 – Louis Maimbourg, French historian (b. 1610)
1721 – Jacques Lelong, French bibliographer (b. 1665)
1744 – John Cruger, Dutch-born American politician and mayor of New York City (b. 1678)
1749 – Johann Elias Schlegel, German critic and poet (b. 1719)
1755 – Francesco Durante, Italian composer (b. 1684)
1826 – René Laënnec, French physician (b. 1781)
1863 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter (b. 1798)
1865 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Austro-Hungarian physician (b. 1818)
1910 – Florence Nightingale, English nurse (b. 1820)
1912 – Jules Massenet, French composer (b. 1842)
1917 – Eduard Buchner, German chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1860)
1937 – Arthur Plunkett, Australian civil engineer (b. unknown)
1946 – H. G. Wells, English writer (b. 1866)
1948 – Elaine Hammerstein, American actress (b. 1897)
1958 – Otto Witte, German acrobat who claimed to have been crowned King of Albania (b. 1868)
1965 – Ikeda Hayato, Japanese politician and the 58th, 59th and 60th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1899)
1982 – Joe Tex, American singer and songwriter (b. 1933)
1984 – Tigran Petrosian, Soviet-Armenian chess player (b. 1929)
1986 – Way Bandy, American make-up artist (b. 1941)
1989 – Tim Richmond, American race car driver (b. 1955)
1989 – Larkin Smith, American politician and U.S. Representative from Mississippi (b. 1944)
1991 – Jack Ryan, American designer (Barbie) (b. 1926)
1995 – Jan Křesadlo, Czech writer (b. 1926)
1995 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (b. 1931)
1995 – Rob Slater mountain climber (1960)
1996 – António de Spínola, Portuguese general and politician (b. 1910)
1996 – David Tudor, American pianist and composer (b. 1926)
1998 – Nino Ferrer, French-Italian singer and composer (b. 1934)
1998 – Julien Green, American novelist (b. 1900)
1999 – Jaime Garzón, Colombian journalist and comedian (b. 1960)
2000 – Nazia Hassan, Pakistani pop singer (b. 1965)
2001 – Otto Stuppacher, Austrian race car driver (b. 1947)
2003 – Ed Townsend, American songwriter and producer (b. 1929)
2004 – Julia Child, American chef and television personality (b. 1912)
2005 – David Lange, 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1942)
2006 – Tony Jay, English actor (b. 1933)
2006 – Jon Nödtveidt, Swedish vocalist for Death Metal band Dissection (band) (b. 1975)
2006 – Payao Poontarat, Thai Olympic boxer (b. 1957)
2007 – Brian Adams, aka Demolition Crush, American professional wrestler (b. 1964)
2007 – Brooke Astor, American philanthropist (b. 1902)
2007 – Yone Minagawa, Japanese supercentenarian aged 114 years and 221 days (b. 1893)
2007 – Phil Rizzuto, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1917)
2008 – Bill Gwatney, American political figure (b. 1959)
2008 – Dino Toso, American Formula-1 engineer (b. 1969)
2008 – Jack Weil, American businessman (b. 1901)
2008 – Sandy Allen, American tallest woman in the world (b. 1955)
2008 – Henri Cartan, French mathematician (b. 1904)
2009 – Les Paul, virtuoso guitarist (b. 1915)
Holidays and observances
International Lefthanders Day.
Laos – Lao Issara, Day of the Free Laos.
Roman Catholic Church
Saint Cassian (Cassianus of Imola), bishop of Brescia, martyr [Brixen, Magdeburg, Ratzeburg, Regensburg, Trent], patron saint of shorthand-writers, and of Mexico City
Saints Pontianus, pope, and Hippolytus, priest, martyrs
Hippolytus and companions, martyrs [common]
Saint John Berchmans
Saint Radegunde, Radegundis, help against the pox, virgin (sometimes also queen) [France; Paris]
historylover
2009-08-14, 11:54
August 14
Events
1183 – Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan. (Traditional Japanese date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Seventh Month of the Second Year of Juei).
1385 – Portuguese Crisis of 1383–1385: Battle of Aljubarrota – Portuguese forces commanded by King João I and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira defeat the Castilian army of King Juan I.
1598 – Nine Years War: Battle of the Yellow Ford – Irish forces under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, defeat an English expeditionary force under Henry Bagenal.
1842 – Indian Wars: Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma.
1846 – The Cape Girardeau meteorite, a 2.3 kg chondrite-type meteorite strikes near the town of Cape Girardeau in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri.
1848 – Oregon Territory is organized by Act of U.S. Congress.
1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed.
1885 – Japan's first patent is issued to the inventor of a rust-proof paint.
1893 – France introduces motor vehicle registration.
1897 – The town of Anosimena is captured by French troops from Menabe defenders in Madagascar.
1900 – A joint European-Japanese-United States force (Eight-Nation Alliance) occupies Beijing, in a campaign to end the bloody Boxer Rebellion in China.
1901 – The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21.
1908 – The first beauty contest is held in Folkestone, England.
1911 – United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.
1912 – United States Marines invade Nicaragua to support the U.S.-backed government installed there after José Santos Zelaya had resigned three years earlier.
1921 – Tannu Tuva, later Tuvinian People's Republic is established as a completely independent country (which is supported by Russia).
1925 – The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is completed and goes on line.
1933 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres (970 km²).
1935 – United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired.
1936 – Rainey Bethea is hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky in the last public execution in the United States.
1937 – Chinese Air Force Day: The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers are shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force while raiding Chinese air bases.
1941 – World War II – Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).
1947 – Pakistan gains Independence from the British Indian Empire under the administration of United Kingdom and joins the British Commonwealth.
1967 – UK Marine Broadcasting Offences Act declares participation in offshore pirate radio illegal.
1969 – British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland.
1972 – An East German Ilyushin Il-62 crashes during takeoff from East Berlin, killing 156.
1973 – The constitution of 1973 comes into effect in Pakistan
1976 – The Senegalese political party PAI-Rénovation is legally recognized. PAI-Rénovation thus becomes the third legal party in the country.
1979 – 15 sailors are killed when a severe storm strikes during the Fastnet Yacht Race.
1980 – Lech Wałęsa leads strikes at the Gdańsk, Poland shipyards.
1987 – All the children held at Kia Lama, a rural property on Lake Eildon, Australia, run by the Santiniketan Park Association, are released after a police raid.
1994 – Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured.
2003 – Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada.
2006 – Chencholai bombing in which 61 Tamil girls are killed in Sri Lankan Airforce bombing.
2007 – The 2007 Kahtaniya bombings kills at least 400 people.
Births
1297 – Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Japan (d. 1348)
1473 – Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence (d. 1541)
1479 – Princess Catherine of York (d. 1527)
1575 – Robert Hayman, English-born poet (d. 1629)
1586 – William Hutchinson, Rhode Island colonist (d. 1642)
1599 – Méric Casaubon, English classical scholar (d. 1671)
1625 – François de Harlay de Champvallon, Archbishop of Paris (d. 1695)
1642 – Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1723)
1653 – Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, English statesman (d. 1688)
1688 – Frederick William I of Prussia (d. 1740)
1714 – Claude Joseph Vernet, French painter (d. 1789)
1727 – Henriette-Anne of France, daughter of king Louis XV (d. 1752)
1727 – Louise-Elisabeth of France, daughter of king Louis XV (d. 1759)
1740 – Pope Pius VII (d. 1823)
1758 – Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, French painter (d. 1835)
1777 – Francis I of the Two Sicilies (d. 1830)
1777 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist (d. 1851)
1817 – Alexander H. Bailey, American politician (d. 1874)
1840 – Richard von Krafft-Ebing, German psychologist (d. 1902)
1847 – Robert Comtesse, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1922)
1851 – Doc Holliday, American gambler and dentist (d. 1887)
1857 – Max Wagenknecht, German composer (d. 1922)
1863 – Ernest Thayer, American poet (d. 1940)
1865 – Guido Castelnuovo, Italian mathematician (d. 1952)
1866 – Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin, Belgian mathematician (d. 1962)
1867 – John Galsworthy, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1933)
1867 – Cupid Childs, American baseball player (d. 1912)
1876 – Aleksandar Obrenović, King of Serbia (d. 1903)
1881 – Francis Ford, American actor (d. 1953)
1882 – Gisela Richter, British-born art historian (d. 1972)
1887 – Marija Leiko, Latvian film actress (d. 1937)
1895 – Jack Gregory, Australian cricketer (d. 1973)
1908 – Manos Katrakis, Greek actor (d. 1984)
1910 – Pierre Schaeffer, French composer (d. 1995)
1913 – Paul Dean, American baseball player (d. 1981)
1915 – B.A. Santamaria, Australian political activist and journalist (d. 1998)
1916 – Fumio Fujimura, Japanese baseball player (d. 1992)
1916 – Wellington Mara, Co-Owner of the New York Giants (d. 2005)
1924 – Georges Prêtre, French conductor
1924 – Holger Juul Hansen, Danish actor
1925 – Russell Baker, American columnist
1926 – Alice Ghostley, American actress (d. 2007)
1926 – René Goscinny, French comic-strip author (d. 1977)
1926 – Lina Wertmüller, Italian film director
1929 – Dick Tiger, Nigerian boxer (d. 1971)
1930 – Earl Weaver, American baseball manager
1932 – Lee Hoffman, American author (d. 2007)
1933 – Richard R. Ernst, Swiss chemist and Nobel Prize Laureate
1935 – John Brodie, American football player
1936 – Trevor Bannister, British actor
1940 – Dash Crofts, American musician
1940 – Galen Hall, American football coach
1941 – David Crosby, American musician
1941 – Connie Smith, American singer
1942 – Jackie Oliver, British Formula One driver
1943 – Jimmy Johnson, American football coach
1945 – Steve Martin, American actor and comedian
1945 – Wim Wenders, German-born film director
1946 – Antonio Fargas, American actor
1946 – Susan Saint James, American actress
1946 – Larry Graham, American musician
1947 – Peter Christian, British actor
1947 – Bruce Nash, American television producer
1947 – Maddy Prior, British folk singer
1947 – Danielle Steel, American novelist
1947 – Jiro Taniguchi, Japanese manga artist
1948 – Terry Adams, American musician (NRBQ)
1949 – Bob Backlund, American wrestler
1950 – Gary Larson, American cartoonist (The Far Side)
1951 – Peter Blegvad, American musician (Slapp Happy)
1952 – Carl Lumbly, American actor
1952 – Debbie Meyer, American swimmer
1953 – James Horner, American composer
1953 – Cliff Johnson, American computer game author
1954 – Mark Fidrych, American baseball player (d. 2009)
1956 – Jackée Harry, American actress
1956 – Andy King, English footballer
1956 – Johnny Lever, Indian actor
1956 – Rusty Wallace, American race car driver
1957 – Peter Costello, Australian politician
1957 – Gino Hernandez, American professional wrestler (d. 1986)
1958 – Bobby Eaton, American professional wrestler
1958 – Marcia Gay Harden, American actress
1959 – Magic Johnson, American basketball player
1960 – Sarah Brightman, British soprano
1960 – Cecilia Gasdia, Italian soprano
1961 – Susan Olsen, American actress
1961 – "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert, American wrestler (d. 1995)
1962 – Rameez Raja, Pakistani cricketer
1964 – Brannon Braga, American scriptwriter
1965 – Emmanuelle Béart, French actress
1966 – Halle Berry, American actress
1966 – Karl Petter Løken, Norwegian footballer
1968 – Catherine Bell, American actress
1968 – Darren Clarke, Northern Irish golfer
1968 – Adrian Lester, British actor
1968 – Billy Mavreas, Greek-Canadian cartoonist
1968 – Pravin Amre, Indian cricketer
1969 – Tracy Caldwell, American astronaut
1969 – DJ Uncle Al, American hip-hop DJ (d. 2001)
1969 – Stig Tøfting, Danish footballer
1971 – Raoul Bova, Italian actor
1971 – Pramodya Wickramasinghe, Sri Lankan cricketer
1972 – Jay Manuel, Canadian make-up artist
1972 – Yu Jae-seok, South Korean entertainer
1973 – Jared Borgetti, Mexican footballer
1973 – Daisuke Ishiwatari, Japanese game developer and composer
1973 – Jay-Jay Okocha, Nigerian footballer
1973 – Kieren Perkins, Australian swimmer
1974 – Chucky Atkins, American basketball player
1974 – Martin Bulloch, Scottish musician (Mogwai)
1974 – Christopher Gorham, American actor
1974 – Ana Matronic, American singer (Scissor Sisters)
1975 – Mike Vrabel, American football player
1976 – Alex Albrecht, American actor
1976 – Maya Nasri, Lebanese actress and singer
1976 – Steve Braun, Canadian actor
1977 – Juan Pierre, American baseball player
1978 – Anastasios Kyriakos, Greek footballer
1978 – Kate Ritchie, Australian actress
1979 – Paul Burgess, Australian athlete
1979 – Yoichiro Morikawa, Japanese film director
1980 – Estrella Morente, Spanish flamenco singer
1980 – Roy Williams, American football player
1981 – Matthew Etherington, English footballer
1981 – Julius Jones, American football player
1983 – Elena Baltacha, Ukrainian/British tennis player
1983 – Mila Kunis, Ukrainian/American actress
1983 – Leo Núñez, Dominican baseball player
1984 – Clay Buchholz, American baseball player
1984 – Josh Gorges, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Nick Grimshaw, British radio DJ and television presenter
1984 – Robin Söderling, Swedish tennis player
1985 – Christian Gentner, German footballer
1985 – Ashlynn Brooke, American Pornographic Actress
1986 – Terin Humphrey, American gymnast
1987 – Tim Tebow, American football player
1987 – Chrystina Sayers, American singer and dancer (Girlicious)
1988 – Shahd Barmada, Syrian singer
1989 – Kyle Turris, Canadian ice hockey player
1990 – Jaydee Bixby, Canadian singer
Deaths
582 – Tiberius II Constantine, Byzantine Emperor
1167 – Rainald of Dassel, Archbishop of Cologne
1204 – Minamoto no Yoriie, Japanese shogun (b. 1182)
1390 – John FitzAlan, 2nd Baron Arundel, English soldier (b. 1364)
1430 – Philip I, Duke of Brabant (b. 1404)
1433 – King John I of Portugal (b. 1357)
1464 – Pope Pius II (b. 1405)
1573 – Saitō Tatsuoki, Japanese warlord (b. 1548)
1691 – Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, Irish rebel (b. 1630)
1704 – Roland Laporte, French Protestant leader (b. 1675)
1727 – William Croft, English composer (b. 1678)
1774 – Johann Jakob Reiske, German physician (b. 1716)
1784 – Nathaniel Hone, Irish-born painter (b. 1718)
1856 – Constant Prévost, French geologist (b. 1787)
1860 – André Marie Constant Duméril, French zoologist (b. 1774)
1870 – David Farragut, American officer of the United States Navy (b. 1801)
1874 – Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, American politician (b. 1821)
1905 – Simeon Solomon, British artist (b. 1840)
1928 – Alfred Henschke, ps. Klabund, German writer, poet (b. 1890)
1926 – John H. Moffitt, American politician (b. 1843)
1938 – Hugh Trumble, Australian cricketer (b. 1876)
1941 – Paul Sabatier, French chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1854)
1941 – Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Polish martyr (b. 1894)
1943 – Joe Kelley, American baseball player (b. 1871)
1951 – William Randolph Hearst, American newspaper magnate (b. 1863)
1955 – Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress (b. 1861)
1956 – Bertolt Brecht, German writer (b. 1898)
1958 – Frédéric Joliot, French physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1900)
1958 – Konstantin von Neurath, German diplomat (b. 1873)
1964 – Johnny Burnette, American Rockabilly singer (b. 1934)
1966 – Tip Snooke, South African cricketer (b. 1881)
1967 – Bob Anderson, British racing driver (b. 1931)
1972 – Pierre Brasseur, French actor (b. 1905)
1972 – Oscar Levant, American actor (b. 1906)
1972 – Jules Romains, French author (b. 1885)
1978 – Nicolas Bentley, British writer (b. 1907)
1980 – Dorothy Stratten, Canadian actress and model (b. 1960)
1981 – Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (b. 1894)
1981 – Dudley Nourse, South African cricketer (b. 1910)
1982 – Patrick Magee, Irish actor (b. 1922)
1984 – Spud Davis, American baseball player (b. 1904)
1984 – J. B. Priestley, British playwright (b. 1894)
1985 – Gale Sondergaard, American actress (b. 1899)
1988 – Roy Buchanan, American guitarist (b. 1939)
1988 – Robert Calvert, South African singer (Hawkwind) (b. 1945)
1988 – Enzo Ferrari, Italian car maker (b. 1898)
1989 – Ricky Berry, American basketball player (b. 1964)
1991 – Alberto Crespo, Argentine racing driver (b. 1920)
1992 – John Sirica, American judge (b. 1904)
1992 – Tony Williams, American singer (The Platters) (b. 1928)
1994 – Elias Canetti, British-Austrian novelist (b. 1905)
1996 – Tom Mees, American sportscaster (b. 1949)
1999 – Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player (b. 1918)
2000 – Alain Fournier, French-born computer graphics researcher (b. 1943)
2000 – Cuan McCarthy, South African cricketer (b. 1929)
2002 – Dave Williams, American singer (Drowning Pool) (b. 1972)
2003 – Helmut Rahn, German footballer (b. 1929)
2004 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish-born writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1911)
2004 – Trevor Skeet, New Zealand-born British politician (b. 1918)
2005 – Coo Coo Marlin, American race car driver (b. 1932)
2006 – Bruno Kirby, American actor (b. 1949)
2007 – Tikhon Khrennikov, Russian composer (b. 1913)
Holidays and observances
Pakistan – Independence Day (From United Kingom, 1947) Was part of India before that.
Roman Catholic Church
Assumption of Mary
Saint Maximilian Kolbe
historylover
2009-08-15, 09:28
August 15
Events
778 – The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, at which Roland is killed.
927 – The Saracens conquer and destroy Taranto.
982 – Holy Roman Emperor Otto II is defeated by the Saracens in the battle of Capo Colonna, in Calabria
1018 – Byzantine general Eustathios Daphnomeles blinds and captures Ibatzes of Bulgaria by a ruse, thereby ending Bulgarian resistance against Emperor Basil II's conquest of Bulgaria.
1040 – King Duncan I is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth. The latter succeeds him as King of Scotland.
1057 – King Macbeth is killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada.
1185 – The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia.
1248 – The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid. (Construction is eventually completed in 1880.)
1261 – Michael VIII Palaeologus is crowned Byzantine emperor in Constantinople.
1309 – The city of Rhodes surrenders to the forces of the Knights of St. John, completing their conquest of Rhodes. The knights establish their headquarters on the island and rename themselves the Knights of Rhodes.
1430 – Francesco Sforza, lord of Milan, conquers Lucca.
1461 – The Empire of Trebizond surrenders to the forces of Sultan Mehmet II. This is regarded by some historians as the real end of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor David is exiled and later murdered.
1483 – Pope Sixtus IV consecrates the Sistine Chapel.
1517 – Seven Portuguese armed vessels led by Fernão Pires de Andrade meet Chinese officials at the Pearl River estuary.
1519 – Panama City, Panama, is founded.
1534 – Saint Ignatius of Loyola and six classmates take initial vows, leading to the creation of the Society of Jesus in September 1540.
1537 – Asunción, Paraguay, is founded.
1540 – Arequipa, Peru, is founded.
1549 – Jesuit priest Saint Francis Xavier comes ashore at Kagoshima (Traditional Japanese date: July 22, 1549).
1599 – Nine Years War: Battle of Curlew Pass – Irish forces led by Hugh Roe O'Donnell successfully ambush English forces, led by Sir Conyers Clifford, sent to relieve Collooney Castle.
1760 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Liegnitz – Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst von Laudon.
1824 – Freed American slaves found Liberia.
1843 – The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawaii is dedicated. Now the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, it is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral in continuous use in the United States.
1843 – Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1863 – The Anglo-Satsuma War begins between the Satsuma Domain of Japan and the United Kingdom (Traditional Japanese date: July 2, 1863).
1869 – The Meiji government in Japan establishes six new ministries, including one for Shinto.
1891 – San Sebastian Church in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed.
1909 – A group of mid-level Greek Army officers launches the Goudi coup, seeking wide-ranging reforms.
1914 – A male servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright sets fire to the living quarters of the architect's Wisconsin home, Taliesin, murders seven people and burns the living quarters to the ground.
1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship Ancon.
1914 – The First Russian Army, led by Pavel Rennenkampf, enters Eastern Prussia.
1920 – Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw – Poles defeat the Red Army.
1935 – Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed after their aircraft develops engine problems during takeoff in Barrow, Alaska.
1939 – 13 Stukas dive into the ground during a disastrous air-practice at Neuhammer. No survivors.
1940 – An Italian submarine torpedoes and sinks the Greek cruiser Elli at Tinos harbour during peacetime, marking the most serious Italian provocation prior to the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in October.
1942 – World War II: Operation Pedestal – The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island's defenses.
1944 – World War II: Operation Dragoon – Allied forces land in southern France.
1945 – World War II: Victory over Japan Day – Japan surrenders.
1945 – World War II: Korean Liberation Day.
1947 – India gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes an independent nation within the Commonwealth.
1947 – Founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is sworn in as first Governor General of Pakistan at Karachi.
1948 – The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th parallel north.
1954 – Alfredo Stroessner begins his dictatorship in Paraguay.
1950 – Srikakulam district is formed in Andhra Pradesh, India.
1952 – Devon, United Kingdom A flashflood drenches the town of Lynmouth, killing 34 people.
1960 – Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France.
1961 – Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall.
1961 – Keiyo Road is specified as the first driveway in Japan.
1962 – James Joseph Dresnok defects to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea after running across the Korean DMZ. Dresnok still resides in the capital, Pyongyang.
1965 – The Beatles play to nearly 60,000 fans at Shea Stadium in New York City, in an event later seen as marking the birth of stadium rock.
1968 – 40,000 people protest in Mexico City against the repression in the country.
1969 – The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens.
1971 – President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard by ending convertibility of the United States dollar into gold by foreign investors.
1973 – Vietnam War: The United States bombing of Cambodia ends.
1974 – Yuk Young-soo, First Lady of South Korea, is killed during an apparent assassination attempt upon President of South Korea, Park Chung-hee.
1975 – Military coup in Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman is killed along with all the members of his family except Haseena Wajid.
1975 – Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
1977 – The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space; the event is named the "Wow! signal" from the notation made by a volunteer on the project.
1984 – The PKK in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish military
1995 – In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet matriculated at The Citadel (she drops out less than a week later).
1998 – Omagh bomb in Northern Ireland, the worst terrorist incident of The Troubles
1999 – Beni Ounif massacre in Algeria; some 29 people are killed at a false roadblock near the Moroccan border, leading to temporary tensions with Morocco.
2003 – Nicanor Duarte Furos is elected President of Paraguay, succeeding to Luis Ángel González Macchi.
2007 – An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090.
Births
1171 – King Alfonso IX of Leon (d. 1230)
1195 – Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (d. 1231)
1432 – Luigi Pulci, Italian poet (d. 1484)
1575 – Bartol Kašić, Croatian writer and linguist (d. 1650)
1613 – Gilles Ménage, French scholar (d. 1692)
1717 – Blind Jack, English roadbuilder (d. 1810)
1740 – Matthias Claudius, German poet (d. 1815)
1769 – Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France (d. 1821)
1771 – Sir Walter Scott, Scottish novelist and poet (d. 1832)
1785 – Thomas De Quincey, English author (d. 1859)
1813 – Jules Grévy, 2nd President of the French Third Republic (d. 1891)
1844 – Thomas-Alfred Bernier, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1908)
1856 – Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer (d. 1916)
1857 – Albert Ballin, German shipping tycoon (d. 1918)
1858 – E. Nesbit, English author (d. 1924)
1859 – Charles Comiskey, American baseball owner (d. 1931)
1860 – Henrietta Vinton Davis, American elocutionist (d. 1941)
1860 – Florence Harding, American First Lady (d. 1924)
1863 – Alexei Krylov, Russian engineer and mathematician (d. 1945)
1865 – Usui Mikao, Japanese founder of Reiki (d. 1926)
1872 – Sri Aurobindo, Indian writer and philosopher (d. 1950)
1875 – Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer (d. 1912)
1876 – Stylianos Gonatas, Greek military officer and Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1966)
1878 – Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel, Russian counter-revolutionary (d. 1928)
1879 – Ethel Barrymore, American actress (d. 1959)
1881 – Alfred Wagenknecht, German-born American activist (d. 1956)
1883 – Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor (d. 1962)
1885 – Edna Ferber, American novelist (d. 1968)
1886 – Bill Whitty, Australian cricketer (d. 1974)
1890 – Elizabeth Bolden, American Supercentenarian (d. 2006)
1890 – Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)
1892 – Louis, 7th duc de Broglie, French physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1987)
1893 – Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer (d. 1950)
1896 – Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1957)
1896 – Catherine Doherty, Russian-born Canadian activist (d. 1985)
1896 – Paul Outerbridge, American photographer (d. 1958)
1896 – Leon Theremin, Russian inventor (d. 1993)
1898 – Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet (d. 1966)
1901 – Pyotr Sergeyevich Novikov, Russian mathematician (d. 1975)
1904 – George Klein, Canadian inventor (d. 1992)
1909 – Hugo Winterhalter, American composer and bandleader (d. 1973)
1910 – Signe Hasso, Swedish actress (d. 2002)
1912 – Julia Child, American cook (d. 2004)
1912 – Dame Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)
1914 – Paul Rand, American graphic designer (d. 1996)
1916 – Aleks Çaçi, Albanian writer (d. 1989)
1917 – Jack Lynch, Irish politician (d. 1999)
1917 – Oscar Romero, El Salvador Roman Catholic priest (d. 1980)
1919 – Huntz Hall, American actor (d. 1999)
1919 – Benedict Kiely, Irish author (d. 2007)
1922 – Lukas Foss, German-born composer (d. 2009)
1923 – Rose Marie, American actress
1924 – Robert Bolt, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1925 – Mike Connors, American actor
1925 – Oscar Peterson, Canadian jazz pianist (d. 2007)
1925 – Bill Pinkney, American baritone singer (d. 2007)
1926 – Costis Stephanopoulos, Greek politician
1927 – Eddie Leadbeater, England cricketer
1928 – Nicolas Roeg, English film director
1930 – Ageeda Paavel, Estonian freedom fighter
1933 – Bobby Helms, American pop singer (d. 1997)
1933 – Jim Lange, American game show host
1934 – Bobby Byrd, American soul/funk singer (d. 2007)
1934 – Nino Ferrer, French-Italian singer (d. 1998)
1934 – Reginald Scarlett, West Indian cricketer
1935 – Jim Dale, English actor
1935 – Vernon Jordan Jr., American presidential advisor
1935 – Lionel Taylor, American football player
1938 – Maxine Waters, American politician
1938 – Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
1940 – Gudrun Ensslin, German terrorist
1940 – Rita Shane, American soprano
1942 – Larry Hartsell, American martial arts instructor (d. 2007)
1943 – María Rojo, Mexican actress and politician
1944 – Linda Ellerbee, American journalist
1944 – Tom Murphy, American politician
1944 – Dimitris Sioufas, Greek lawyer and politician
1944 – Sylvie Vartan, Bulgarian pop singer
1945 – Gene Upshaw, American football player and union leader (d. 2008)
1945 – Begum Khaleda Zia, Bangladeshi politician
1946 – Tony Robinson, English actor and television presenter
1946 – Jimmy Webb, American musician and composer
1947 – Raakhee Gulzar, Indian actress
1947 – Jenny Hanley, British TV presenter
1948 – Uschi Digard, American pornographic actress and model
1948 – Patsy Gallant, Canadian pop singer
1948 – George Ryton, British engineer
1949 – Beverly Lynn Burns, American pilot
1949 – Richard Deacon, Welsh sculptor
1949 – Garry Disher, Australian author
1950 – Tommy Aldridge, American musician
1950 – The Princess Anne, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom
1950 – Tom Kelly, American baseball manager
1951 – Ann Biderman, American film and television writer
1951 – Bobby Caldwell, American singer and musician
1951 – John Childs, England cricketer
1951 – Daba Diawara, Malian politician
1951 – Ranjan Gunatilleke, Sri Lankan cricketer
1954 – Mary Jo Salter, American poet
1956 – Lorraine Desmarais, French-Canadian jazz pianist and composer
1957 – Željko Ivanek, Slovenian-American actor
1958 – Craig MacTavish, Canadian ice hockey player/coach
1958 – Victor Shenderovich, Russian satirist
1958 – Rondell Sheridan, American actor and comedian
1961 – Ed Gillespie, American White House counsel to George W. Bush
1961 – Gary Kubiak, American football coach
1962 – Tom Colicchio, American chef
1963 – Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexican film director
1963 – Jack Russell, England cricketer
1964 – Melinda French Gates, American wife of Bill Gates
1964 – Debi Mazar, American actress
1965 – Rob Thomas, American writer
1966 – Scott Brosius, American baseball player
1966 – Shirley Kwan, Hong Kong singer
1967 – Peter Hermann American actor
1968 – Debra Messing, American actress
1969 – Kevin Cheng, Hong Kong actor and singer
1969 – Cris Judd, American actor/choreographer
1970 – Anthony Anderson, American comedian and actor
1970 – Maddie Corman, American actress
1970 – Ben Silverman, American TV executive
1972 – Ben Affleck, American actor
1972 – Chris Morrissey, American film director/actor
1972 – Matthew Wood, American actor and sound editor
1972 – Jennifer Alexander, Canadian ballet dancer (d. 2007)
1973 – Adnan Sami, music composer, singer
1974 – Natasha Henstridge, Canadian actress
1975 – Bertrand Berry, American football player
1975 – Vijay Bharadwaj, Indian cricketer
1975 – Brendan Morrison, Canadian hockey player
1975 – Kara Wolters, American basketball player
1976 – Boudewijn Zenden, Dutch football player
1977 – Martin Biron, Canadian ice hockey goaltender
1977 – Igor Cassina, Italian gymnast
1977 – Nicole Paggi, American actress
1978 – Tim Foreman, American bassist (Switchfoot)
1978 – Lilia Podkopayeva, Ukrainian gymnast
1978 – Stavros Tziortziopoulos, Greek footballer
1978 – Kerri Walsh, American beach volleyball player
1979 – Carl Edwards, American NASCAR driver
1980 – Nathalie Press, English actress
1981 – Brendan Hansen, American swimmer
1981 – Song Ji-hyo, South Korean actress
1981 – Oliver Perez, American baseball player
1982 – Casey Burgener, American weightlifter
1989 – Belinda, Mexican singer
1989 – Tiffanie Anderson, American performer (Girlicious)
1989 – Joseph Jonas, American singer (Jonas Brothers)
Deaths
423 – Flavius Honorius, Western Roman Emperor (b. 384)
778 – Roland, Frankish commander
1038 – King Stephen I of Hungary
1040 – King Duncan I of Scotland
1057 – King Macbeth of Scotland
1118 – Alexius I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1048)
1196 – Conrad II, Duke of Swabia (b. 1173)
1274 – Robert de Sorbon, French theologian and founder of the Sorbonne (b. 1201)
1369 – Philippa of Hainault, Queen consort of Edward III of England
1528 – Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, French military leader (b. 1485)
1552 – Hermann of Wied, German Catholic archbishop (b. 1477)
1621 – John Barclay, Scottish writer (b. 1582)
1666 – Johann Adam Schall von Bell, German Jesuit missionary (b. 1591)
1714 – Constantin Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia (b. 1654)
1728 – Marin Marais, French composer and viol player (b. 1656)
1758 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician (b. 1698)
1799 – Giuseppe Parini, Italian poet (b. 1729)
1852 – Johan Gadolin, Finnish scientist (b. 1760)
1859 – Nathaniel Claiborne, U.S. politician (b. 1777)
1880 – Adelaide Neilson, English Actress (b. 1848)
1907 – Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist (b. 1831)
1909 – Euclides da Cunha, Brazilian writer and sociologist (b. 1866)
1917 – Thomas J. Higgins, decorated Union Army soldier (b. 1831)
1925 – Konrad Mägi, Estonian artist (b. 1878)
1931 – Nigar Shikhlinskaya, Azerbaijani WWI nurse (b. ca. 1878)
1935 – Wiley Post, American pilot (airplane crash) (b. 1898)
1935 – Will Rogers, American humorist and actor (airplane crash) (b. 1879)
1936 – Grazia Deledda, Italian writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1871)
1945 – Korechika Anami, Japanese War Minister (b. 1887)
1951 – Artur Schnabel, Polish pianist (b. 1882)
1953 – Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist (b. 1875)
1959 – Blind Willie McTell, American singer (b. 1901)
1962 – Lei Feng, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1940)
1967 – René Magritte, Belgian painter (b. 1898)
1971 – Paul Lukas, Hungarian-born actor (b. 1887)
1975 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (b. 1920)
1975 – Clay Shaw, alleged John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracist & businessman (b. 1913)
1982 – Hugo Theorell, Swedish scientist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1903)
1989 – Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, Greek Army officer who served in World War I, the Minor Asia Campaign and World War II (b. 1897)
1990 – Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician (b. 1962)
1995 – John Cameron Swayze, American journalist (b. 1906)
1999 – Sir Hugh Casson, British architect and artist (b. 1910)
2001 – Richard Chelimo, Kenyan athlete (b. 1972)
2003 – Gösta Sundqvist, Finnish songwriter and singer (heart attack) (b. 1957)
2004 – Semiha Berksoy, first Turkish opera singer (b. 1910)
2004 – Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1916)
2004 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician (b. 1941)
2005 – Bendapudi Venkata Satyanarayana, Indian dermatologist (b. 1927)
2006 – Te Atairangi Kaahu, Māori queen (b. 1931)
2006 – Rick Bourke, Australian rugby league player (b. c. 1955)
2006 – Coenraad Bron, Dutch computer scientist (b. 1937)
2006 – Faas Wilkes, Dutch international footballer (b. 1923)
2007 – Richard Bradshaw, British opera conductor, (b. 1944)
2007 – John Gofman, American Manhattan Project scientist and advocate (b. 1918)
2007 – Geoffrey Orbell, New Zealand bush walker (b. 1908)
2007 – Sam Pollock, Canadian sports executive (b. 1925)
2008 – Jerry Wexler, music producer and coiner of the term "Rhythm & Blues" (b. 1917)
2008 – James Orthwein, American businessman (b. 1924)
2008 – Leroy Sievers, American journalist (b. 1955)
2008 – Vic Toweel, South African boxer, bantamweight world champion (b. 1929)
Holidays and observances
Christianity. Feast day of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Holy Day of Obligation. Public Holiday in: Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia, Burundi, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, East Timor, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Mauritius, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Seychelles, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Togo, and Vanuatu.
VJ Day / VP Day
India – Independence Day (from the United Kingdom, 1947).
Egypt – Flooding of the Nile Day, a commemoration of the belief that the star Sirius would appear when the Nile River flooded
Italy, Ferragosto, Assumption Day and remembrance of an ancient Roman holiday in honor of Augustus.
Korea – Gwangbokjeol (Liberation Day).
Costa Rica– Mother's Day.
Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism – Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, the commemoration of the death of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
National Acadian Day
RC Saints
Arnulph, bishop of Soissons
Saint Tarcisius
Stanislaus Kostka
historylover
2009-08-16, 11:11
August 16
Events
1513 – Battle of Guinegate (Battle of the Spurs) – King Henry VIII of England defeats French Forces who are forced to retreat.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Americans led by General John Stark routed British and Brunswick troops under Friedrich Baum at the Battle of Bennington in Walloomsac, New York.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden – The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
1792 – Maximilien Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal.
1812 – War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
1819 – Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured by cavalry charges at the Peterloo Massacre at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.
1841 – U.S. President John Tyler vetoes a bill which called for the re-establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Enraged Whig Party members riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.
1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
1865 – Restoration Day in the Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic regains its independence after 4 years of fighting against the Spanish Annexation.
1868 – Arica, Peru (now Chile) is devastated by a tsunami which followed a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in the Peru-Chile Trench off the coast. The earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 25,000 people in Arica and perhaps 70,000 people in all.
1869 – Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguay battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the War of the Triple Alliance.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-La-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.
1913 – Tōhoku Imperial University of Japan (modern day Tōhoku University) admits its first female students.
1914 – World War I: Battle of Cer begins.
1915 – World War I: Should victory be achieved over the Central Powers, the Triple Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia: the Austro-Hungarian territories of Baranja, Srem, Slavonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the eastern ⅔ of Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to the city of Bar).
1920 – Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit in the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. To date, Chapman is the second player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game, the first being Doc Powers in 1909.
1920 – The congress of the Communist Party of Bukhara opens. The congress would call for armed revolution.
1929 – The 1929 Palestine riots break out in the British Mandate of Palestine between Arabs and Jews and continue until the end of the month. In total, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are killed.
1930 – The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks.
1940 – World War II: The Communist Party is banned in German-occupied Norway.
1941 – HMS Mercury, Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School opens at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
1942 – World War II: The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California.
1944 – First flight of the Junkers Ju 287.
1945 – An assassination attempt is made on Japan's prime minister, Kantaro Suzuki.
1945 – Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, is captured by Soviet troops.
1954 – The first edition of Sports Illustrated is published.
1960 – Cyprus gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,330 m), setting three records that still stand today: High-altitude jump, free-fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.
1962 – Pete Best replaced by Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) as drummer for The Beatles.
1964 – Vietnam War: A coup d'état replaces Duong Van Minh with General Nguyen Khanh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy.
1966 – Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.
1972 – The Royal Moroccan Air Force fires upon, in an unsuccessful coup d'état attempt, Hassan II of Morocco's plane while he is traveling back to Rabat.
1977 – Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll dies from a drug overdose in his home in Graceland at age 42.
1987 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes on take-off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Michigan (Detroit), killing 155 passengers and crew. The sole survivor is four-year-old Cecelia Cichan.
1989 – A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.
1992 – In response to an appeal by President Fernando Collor de Mello to wear green and yellow as a way to show support for him, thousands of Brazilians take to the streets dressed in black.
2003 – U.S. Representative from South Dakota Bill Janklow hits and kills a motorcyclist with his car at a rural intersection near Trent, South Dakota; he will eventually be convicted of manslaughter and will resign from Congress.
2005 – West Caribbean Airways Flight 708 crashes near Machiques, Venezuela, killing the 160 aboard.
Births
1355 – Philippa Plantagenet, Countess of Ulster
1378 – Hongxi Emperor of China (d. 1425)
1401 – Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, dauphine of France (d. 1436)
1557 – Agostino Carracci, Italian artist (d. 1602)
1573 – Anna of Austria, queen of Poland (d. 1598)
1596 – Frederick V, Elector Palatine (d. 1632)
1637 – Emilie Juliane of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, German countess and poet (d. 1706)
1645 – Jean de La Bruyère, French writer (d. 1696)
1650 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encylopedist (d. 1718)
1682 – Louis, duc de Bourgogne, heir-apparent to the French throne (d. 1712)
1761 – Yevstigney Fomin, Russian composer (d. 1800)
1815 – John Bosco, Italian priest and educator (d. 1888)
1820 – Andrew Rainsford Wetmore, Canadian politician (d. 1892)
1831 – John Jones Ross, Quebec politician (d. 1901)
1832 – Wilhelm Wundt, German psychologist (d. 1920)
1842 – Jakob Rosanes, German mathematician (d. 1922)
1845 – Gabriel Lippmann, French physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1921)
1858 – Arthur Achleitner, German writer (d. 1927)
1860 – Jules Laforgue, French poet (d. 1887)
1860 – Martin Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke, England cricketer (d. 1938)
1862 – Amos Alonzo Stagg, American coach (d. 1965)
1868 – Bernarr McFadden, American publisher (d. 1955)
1876 – Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator (d. 1942)
1876 – Julian Ashby Burruss, American academic (d. 1947)
1882 – Christian Mortensen, Danish-American supercentenarian (d. 1998)
1884 – Hugo Gernsback, Luxembourg-born editor and publisher (d. 1967)
1884 – Walther von Reichenau, German field marshal (d. 1942)
1888 – T. E. Lawrence, English writer and soldier (d. 1935)
1888 – Armand J. Piron, American musician (d. 1943)
1892 – Otto Messmer, American cartoonist (d. 1983)
1894 – George Meany, American labor union leader (d. 1980)
1895 – Albert Cohen, Swiss novelist (d. 1981)
1895 – Liane Haid, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
1902 – Georgette Heyer, English novelist (d. 1974)
1904 – Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1971)
1908 – William Maxwell, American novelist and editor (d. 2000)
1911 – E. F. Schumacher, German economist and statistician (d. 1977)
1912 – Ted Drake, English footballer (d. 1995)
1913 – Menachem Begin, 6th Prime Minister of Israel, Nobel laureate (d. 1992)
1915 – Al Hibbler, American singer (d. 2001)
1916 – Iggy Katona, American race car driver (d. 2003)
1920 – Charles Bukowski, American poet (d. 1994)
1922 – Ernie Freeman, American pianist and arranger (d. 2001)
1923 – Millôr Fernandes, Brazilian playwright
1924 – Fess Parker, American actor
1925 – Willie Jones, American baseball player (d. 1983)
1928 – Ann Blyth, American actress
1929 – Bill Evans, American jazz pianist (d. 1980)
1929 – Helmut Rahn, German footballer (d. 2003)
1929 – Wyatt Tee Walker, American civil rights activist
1929 – Fritz Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1997)
1930 – Robert Culp, American actor
1930 – Frank Gifford, American football player and announcer
1930 – Tony Trabert, American former tennis player
1931 – Eydie Gormé, American singer
1933 – Julie Newmar, American actress
1933 – Stuart Roosa, American astronaut (d. 1994)
1934 – Diana Wynne Jones, British author
1934 – Ketty Lester, American singer
1934 – Pierre Richard, French actor
1935 – Andreas Stamatiadis, Greek footballer and coach
1935 – Cliff Fletcher, Canadian National Hockey League executive
1937 – David Anderson, Canadian politician
1939 – Sir Trevor Mcdonald, Trinidadian-born British television newsreader
1939 – Seán Brady, Cardinal-Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
1940 – Bruce Beresford, Australian film director
1942 – Barbara George, American singer and songwriter (d. 2006)
1943 – Sharon Baird, American actress and tap dancer
1945 – Suzanne Farrell, ballet dancer
1946 – Massoud Barzani, Iraqi Kurdish politician
1946 – Lesley Ann Warren, American actress
1946 – Dick Murdoch, American professional wrestler (d. 1996)
1947 – Carol Moseley Braun, American politician and lawyer
1947 – Katharine Hamnett, English fashion designer
1947 – Marc Messier, Canadian actor
1948 – Mike Jorgensen, American baseball player
1948 – Pierre Reid, Canadian politician and teacher
1948 – Barry Hay, Indian-born Dutch singer (Golden Earring)
1949 – Scott Asheton, American musician (The Stooges)
1950 – Hasely Crawford, Trinidadian athlete
1950 – Marshall Manesh, Iranian-born American actor
1950 – Stockwell Day, Canadian politician
1950 – Jeff Thomson, Australian cricketer
1951 – Richard Hunt, American puppeteer (d. 1992)
1951 – Umaru Yar'Adua, Nigerian politician
1952 – Reginald VelJohnson, American actor
1952 – Mahes Goonatilleke, Sri Lankan cricketer
1953 – Kathie Lee Gifford, American singer and actress
1953 – James "J.T." Taylor, American singer (Kool & The Gang)
1954 – George Galloway, British politician
1954 – James Cameron, Canadian film director
1956 – Daniel Willems, Belgian cyclist
1957 – Tim Farriss, Australian musician (INXS)
1957 – Randhir Singh, Indian cricketer
1958 – Angela Bassett, American actress
1958 – Madonna, American singer and actress
1958 – José Luis Clerc, Argentine tennis player
1958 – Michael Harkin, American anthropologist
1959 – Laura Innes, American actress
1959 – Marc Sergeant, Belgian cyclist
1960 – Timothy Hutton, American actor
1961 – Christian Okoye, American football player
1961 – Michaela Dornonville de la Cour, Swedish singer (Army of Lovers)
1962 – Steve Carell, American actor and comedian
1964 – Jimmy Arias, American tennis player
1966 – Barry Lather, American choreographer, musician and actor
1967 – Ulrika Jonsson, Swedish television personality
1967 – Pamela Smart, American convicted murderess
1968 – Mateja Svet, Slovenian alpine skier
1969 – Andy Milder, American voice actor
1970 – Bonnie Bernstein, American sportscaster
1970 – Fabio Casartelli, Italian cyclist (d. 1995)
1970 – Killah Priest, American rapper
1970 – Manisha Koirala, Nepalese Bollywood actress
1970 – Saif Ali Khan, Indian actor
1971 – Rulon Gardner, American Greco-Roman wrestler
1971 – Stefan Klos, German footballer
1972 – Stan Lazaridis, Australian footballer
1972 – Emily Robison, American country singer (Dixie Chicks)
1972 – Frankie Boyle, Scottish comedian
1973 – Damian Jackson, American baseball player
1974 – Roger Cedeño, Venezuelan baseball player
1974 – Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Guyanese cricketer
1974 – Krisztina Egerszegi, Hungarian swimmer
1974 – Iván Hurtado, Ecuadorian footballer
1975 – Didier Agathe, French footballer
1975 – George Stults, American actor
1976 – Jonatan Johansson, Finnish footballer
1976 – Dave Ockun, American concert producer
1977 – Tamer Hosny, Egyptian singer/actor
1978 – Fu Mingxia, Chinese female diver
1978 – Eddie Gill, American basketball player
1979 – Monder Rizki, Belgian athlete
1979 – Michael Stahlman, American rower and coach
1980 – Vanessa Carlton, American singer/songwriter
1980 – Robert Hardy, English musician (Franz Ferdinand)
1981 – Roque Santa Cruz, Paraguayan footballer
1981 – Taylor Rain, American pornographic actress
1982 – Cam Gigandet, American actor
1982 – Joleon Lescott, English footballer
1983 – Colin Griffiths, English TV presenter and DJ
1983 – Nikos Zisis, Greek basketball player
1983 – Colt Brennan, American football player
1984 – Candice Dupree, American basketball player
1985 – Agnes Bruckner, American actress
1986 – Yu Darvish, Japanese baseball player
1986 – Shawn Pyfrom, American actor
1987 – Evan Berger, Australian footballer
1987 – Kyal Marsh, Australian actor
1988 – Kevin Schmidt, American actor
1988 – Rumer Willis, American actress
1991 – Evanna Lynch, Irish actress
1991 – Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Canadian actress
Deaths
1027 – Giorgi I, King of Georgia (b. 998)
1297 – John II of Trebizond (b. 1262)
1327 – Roch, French saint (b. 1295)
1358 – Duke Albert II of Austria (b. 1298)
1419 – Wenceslaus, King of the Romans, King of Bohemia (b. 1361)
1443 – Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, Japanese shogun (b. 1434)
1445 – Margaret of Scotland, consort of Louis XI (b. 1424)
1518 – Loyset Compère, French composer (b. circa 1445)
1532 – John, Elector of Saxony (b. 1468)
1661 – Thomas Fuller, English churchman and historian (b. 1608)
1678 – Andrew Marvell, English poet (b. 1621)
1705 – Jakob Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and scientist (b. 1654)
1733 – Matthew Tindal, English deist (b. 1657)
1791 – Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (b. 1719)
1836 – Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician (b. 1755)
1855 – Henry Colburn, British publisher (b. ?)
1886 – Sri Ramakrishna, Bengali saint, guru of Swami Vivekananda (b. 1836)
1888 – John Pemberton, American druggist and inventor of Coca-Cola (b. 1831)
1893 – Jean-Martin Charcot, French neurologist (b. 1825)
1899 – Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, German chemist (b. 1811)
1900 – Eça de Queiroz, Portuguese writer (b. 1845)
1907 – James Hector, Scottish geologist (b. 1834)
1921 – King Peter I of Serbia (b. 1844)
1938 – Robert Johnson, American blues singer and guitarist (b. 1911)
1938 – Andrej Hlinka, Slovak politician and priest (b. 1864)
1948 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player (b. 1895)
1949 – Margaret Mitchell, American novelist (b. 1900)
1951 – Louis Jouvet, French actor and producer (b. 1887)
1952 – Lydia Field Emmet, American painter (b. 1866)
1956 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian actor (b. 1882)
1957 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1881)
1959 – William Halsey Jr., American Navy Admiral (b. 1882)
1959 – Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (b. 1879)
1961 – Maulvi Abdul Haq, Indian educator and linguist, Father of Modern Urdu (b. 1870)
1971 – Spyros Skouras, Greek-born American movie executive, chairman of the Twentieth Century Fox (b. 1893)
1972 – Pierre Brasseur, French actor (b. 1905)
1973 – Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-born American biochemist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1888)
1975 – Vladimir Kuts, Ukrainian-born Soviet distance runner (b. 1927)
1977 – Elvis Presley, American singer, actor, and guitarist (b.1935)
1978 – Alidius Stachouwer, Dutch lawyer and politician (b. 1888)
1979 – John Diefenbaker, Canadian politician and 13th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1895)
1983 – Earl Averill, American baseball player (b. 1902)
1986 – Jaime Saenz, Bolivian poet and novelist, and short story writer (b. 1921)
1989 – Amanda Blake, American actress (b. 1929)
1990 – Pat O'Connor, New Zealand professional wrestler (b. 1925)
1991 – Shamu, killer whale and SeaWorld attraction (b. 1975)
1991 – Luigi Zampa, Italian film director (b. 1905)
1993 – Stewart Granger, British film actor (b. 1913)
1995 – J.P. McCarthy, American radio personality (b. 1933)
1997 – Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani musician & singer (b. 1948)
1997 – Gerard McLarnon, Irish playwright and actor (b. 1915)
1999 – Pee Wee King, American country musician and songwriter (b. 1914)
2002 – Jeff Corey, American actor (b. 1914)
2002 – Abu Nidal, Palestinian political leader (b. 1937)
2002 – John Roseboro, American baseball player and coach (b. 1933)
2003 – Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator (b. 1928)
2004 – Ivan Hlinka, Czech ice hockey coach (b. 1950)
2004 – Carl Mydans, American photographer (b. 1907)
2004 – Robert Quiroga, American boxer (b. 1969)
2005 – Joe Ranft, American animator (b. 1960)
2005 – Frère Roger, Swiss monk and mystic (b. 1915)
2005 – Vassar Clements, American musician (b. 1928)
2005 – William Corlett, English children's author (b. 1938)
2005 – Vicky Moscholiou, Greek singer (b. 1943)
2005 – Tonino Delli Colli, Italian cinematography (b. 1922)
2006 – Alex Buzo, Australian playwright and author (b. 1944)
2006 – Herschel Green, American pilot (b. 1920)
2006 – Jon Nödtveidt, Swedish musician (b. 1975)
2006 – Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguayan politician and President of Paraguay (b. 1912)
2007 – Max Roach, American percussionist, drummer, and composer (b. 1924)
2007 – Bahaedin Adab, Iranian politician (b. 1945)
2007 – Dewey Robertson, Canadian professional wrestler (b. 1939)
2008 – Ronnie Drew, Irish singer (The Dubliners) (b. 1934)
2008 – Dorival Caymmi, Brazilian singer and songwriter (b. 1914)
2008 – Elena Leuṣtean, Romanian gymnast and Olympic medalist (b. 1935)
2008 – Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese sustainable farmer and author (b. 1913)
Holidays and observances
Xicolatada is celebrated in Palau-de-Cerdagne
Eastern Orthodox: commemoration of the translation of the Acheiropoietos icon which means "Not made by hands", (also known as the Mandelion) from Edessa to Constantinople on 16 August 944 This "Shroud of Constantinople" is believed to be the Shroud of Turin today by many scholars.
RC saints:
Feast of Saint Stephen of Hungary in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, but of St. Joachim in the General Roman Calendar as in 1954
Saint Roch, confessor (helps against plague and skin diseases), patron saint of pilgrims, plague victims, and dogs
Saint Simplician, bishop
historylover
2009-08-17, 09:25
August 17
Events
986 – A Byzantine army is destroyed in the pass of Trajan's Gate by the Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Samuel and Aron. The Byzantine emperor Basil II narrowly escaped.
1807 – Robert Fulton's first American steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
1862 – Indian Wars: The Lakota (Sioux) Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Lakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.
1862 – American Civil War: Major General JEB Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
1863 – American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.
1883 – The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.
1907 – Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers market in the US, opened in Seattle.
1908 – Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, realized by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris.
1914 – World War I: Battle of Stalluponen – The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Pavel Rennenkampf near modern-day Nesterov, Russia.
1915 – Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia.
1918 – Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.
1942 – U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin (Butaritari).
1942 – World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force begins regular combat operations in Europe with an attack on the marshalling yards at Rouen-Sotteville.
1943 – The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission.
1943 – World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrive in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
1943 – World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
1945 – Indonesian Declaration of Independence.
1947 – The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed.
1953 – Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
1959 – Quake Lake: Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.
1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.
1960 – Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France.
1962 – East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall.
1969 – Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.
1970 – Venera Program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).
1978 – Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
1979 – Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156
1980 – Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history.
1982 – The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.
1988 – Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
1998 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about his relationship.
1999 – A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
2004 – MD5 collision found by Chinese researchers.
2004 – The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Boze Pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.
2005 – The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
2005 – Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh
2008 – By winning the Men's 4x100m medley relay, Michael Phelps becomes the first Olympian to win eight gold medals in the same Olympics.
Births
1473 – Richard, Duke of York
1562 – Hans Leo Hassler (baptized), German composer (d. 1612)
1578 – Francesco Albani, Italian painter (d. 1660)
1601 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)
1629 – King John III of Poland (d. 1696)
1686 – Nicola Porpora, Italian composer (d. 1768)
1753 – Josef Dobrovský, Czech linguist (d. 1828)
1768 – Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French general (d. 1800)
1786 – Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and soldier (d. 1836)
1786 – Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, mother of Queen Victoria (d. 1861)
1794 – Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest (d. 1849)
1828 – Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)
1844 – Menelek II of Ethio