1792 Percy Bysshe Shelley – British romantic poet and writer (Prometheus Unbound, Julian and Maddalo, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty, Mont Blanc, The Witch of Atlas, Ode to the West Wind) His wife was Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein
1870 Sir Harry Lauder – Scottish music-hall comedian/singer (Roamin’ in the Gloamin’, I Love a Lassie)
1877 Tom Thomson – Canadian artist and painter, who was one of the most brilliant painters in Canadian art history. His oils and scenes of desolate northern landscape are among the best known works in Canada
1900 Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother – She was born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, and never expected to be Queen when she married. Her husband, King George VI, only became king when his older brother abdicated the throne. During World War II, when London was being bombed, she refused to leave, choosing to stay with her subjects. It was this inspiring example of courage that caused Hitler to call her the most dangerous woman in Europe
1901 Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong – Legendary US virtuoso jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and inventor of scat singing (It's a Wonderful World, Mack the Knife, Heebie Jeebies, Blueberry Hill) He was born in New Orleans. He appeared in many films (The Glenn Miller Story, Pennies from Heaven, Cabin in the Sky, New Orleans, High Society, Hello Dolly) Armstrong always said his birthday was July 4, 1900, which is why many Armstrong festivals occur on that date, however, a New Orleans researcher discovered baptismal records that showed Satchmo was born August 4, 1901, to teenage parents who separated after his birth. Armstrong's innovative music established the instrumental solo as the backbone of jazz. His joyous voice, both coarse and exuberant, was one of the most distinctive in popular music
1912 Raoul Wallenberg – Swedish businessman and diplomat who saved 100,000 Jews from Nazis in World War II
1913 Wesley Addy – Actor (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Kiss Me Deadly)
1921 Herb Ellis – Guitarist and singer with the group Soft Winds (I Told You I Love You, Now Get Out) He also played with the Oscar Peterson Trio
1921 Maurice (The Rocket) Richard - Hockey Hall of Famer who played with the Montréal Canadiens. He was the first to score more than 50 goals in a season, and in 1957, he became the first player to score 500 career goals
1939 Frank Vincent – Actor (Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Casino, The Sopranos, Cop Land, Do the Right Thing)
1944 Richard Belzer – Comedian and actor (Mad Dog and Glory, Homicide: Life on the Street, The Big Picture, The Groove Tube, Law & Order: SVU)
1947 Rick Derringer – Musician with the group The McCoys (Hang On Sloopy, Come On, Let's Go)
1952 Kristoffer Tabori - Actor (Chicago Story, Seventh Avenue, QB VII) He also played Sir Henry Baskerville in the Hound of the Baskervilles
1961 Lauren Tom – Actress (The Replacements, King of the Hill, Futurama, Bad Santa, Men in Trees, The Division, Grace Under Fire)
1961 Barack Hussein Obama II – the 44th President of the United States of America
1964 Sebastian Roché – French actor (Supernatural, General Hospital, Fringe, Beowulf, Odyssey 5, The Last of the Mohicans)
1968 Daniel Dae Kim – Actor (Lost, Hawaii Five-0, Crash, Spiderman 2, The Cave, 24, Angel, Crusade, Murder She Wrote: A Story to Die For)
1970 Michael DeLuise - Actor (NYPD Blue, Brooklyn South, Wayne’s World, Encino Man) He is the son of Dom DeLuise
1981 Abigail Spencer – Actress (Cowboys & Aliens, All My Children, Angela’s Eyes, Hawthorne, Mad Men, Jekyll)
Died this Day
1875 Hans Christian Andersen, age 70 – Danish fairy-tale writer (The Princess and the Pea, The Tinder-Box, Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling)
1892 Andrew and Abby Borden – Father and step-mother of Lizzie Borden who were found bludgeoned to death in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts. The wealthy couple lived with their two unmarried daughters, Emma and Lizzie. Since Lizzie was the only other person besides the housekeeper who was present when the bodies were found, suspicion soon fell upon her. The trial attracted attention from around the nation due to the sensational nature of the murders. Fingerprint testing was in its infancy, and the police were wary of its reliability. They refused to test for prints on the murder weapon, a hatchet, found in the Borden's basement. During the 13 day trial, the prosecution tried to prove that Lizzie had burned a dress similar to the one she was wearing on the day of the murders and had purchased a small axe the day before. But Lizzie was a sweet-looking Christian woman and the jury took only 90 minutes to decide that she could never commit such a heinous crime. The case remains unsolved. Although she was acquitted of the crime, the media continued to portray Lizzie as the perpetrator. Ignoring the taunts, Lizzie lived the high life until her death in 1927. She was buried in the family plot next to her parents
1976 Roy Thomson, Lord Thomson of Fleet, age 82 - Canadian-born barber's son who became a millionaire owner of many broadcast stations and newspapers, as well as North Sea oil holdings
On this Day
1637 In Ontario, the Huron council blamed the smallpox epidemic on the “sorcery” of the Black Robes, or Jesuits
1753 George Washington, then a young Virginia planter, became a Master Mason, the highest basic rank in the secret fraternity of Freemasonry. The ceremony was held at the Masonic Lodge No. 4 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington was 21 years old and would soon command his first military operation as a major in the Virginia colonial militia. For George Washington, joining the Masons was a rite of passage and an expression of his civic responsibility. After becoming a Master Mason, Washington had the option of passing through a series of additional rites that would take him to higher "degrees." In 1788, shortly before becoming the first president of the United States, Washington was elected the first Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22. Freemasonry evolved from the practices and rituals of the stonemasons' guilds in the Middle Ages. With the decline of European cathedral building, "lodges" decided to admit non-stonemasons to maintain membership, and the secret fraternal order grew in popularity in Europe. In 1717, the first Grand Lodge, an association of lodges, was founded in England, and Freemasonry was soon disseminated throughout the British Empire. The first American Mason lodge was established in Philadelphia in 1730, and future revolutionary leader Benjamin Franklin was a founding member
1769 Prince Edward Island came into being as the British Crown separated Ile St-Jean from Nova Scotia. The new colony, population 250, was given a governor, lieutenant-governor, executive and legislative councils, a Supreme Court and civil service
1790 The US Coast Guard had its beginnings as the Revenue Cutter Service
1814 A force of 900 Americans, sent to capture the island of Michilimackinac, was repulsed by the British garrison
1821 The weekly magazine, Saturday Evening Post, was founded
1830 Plans for the city of Chicago were laid out
1870 The Red Cross Society was founded in Britain
1873 While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, Custer and his 7th Cavalry clashed for the first time with the Sioux Indians who would defeat them three years later at Little Big Horn. The Indians were led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, but the young braves seemed to have attacked impetuously and with little planning. Custer, who had been taking an afternoon nap, reacted quickly and mounted an effective defence. After a brief skirmish, the Indians withdrew, with only one soldier and one Indian killed in the skirmish. Custer's easy escape in this first encounter may have caused him to dangerously underestimate the fighting abilities of his future opponents, enabling the carnage at the Little Big Horn River three years later
1914 Britain officially declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary when Germany invaded Belgium. Britain’s declaration of war automatically included Canada as part of the British Empire. World War I was known as the "war to end all wars" because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict, the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilised Europe and laid the groundwork for World War II
1916 The United States purchased the Danish Virgin Islands for $25 million
1942 Tea and coffee rationing went into effect in Canada during World War II
1944 Acting on tip from a Dutch informer, the Nazi Gestapo captured 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family in a sealed-off area of an Amsterdam warehouse. The Franks had taken shelter there in 1942 out of fear of deportation to a Nazi concentration camp. They occupied the small space with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man, and were aided by Christian friends, who brought them food and supplies. Anne spent much of her time in the secret annex working on her diary. The diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo that discovered the hiding place, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps
1964 The remains of three civil rights workers, whose disappearance on June 21st garnered national attention, were found buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, both white New Yorkers, had travelled to heavily segregated Mississippi in 1964 to help organise civil rights efforts on behalf of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). The third man, James Chaney, was a local African American man who had joined CORE in 1963. The disappearance of the three young men led to a massive FBI investigation that was code-named MIBURN, for "Mississippi Burning." On December 4, nineteen men were indicted by the US Justice Department for violating the civil rights of Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney. Charging the suspects with civil rights violations was the only way to give the federal government jurisdiction in the case. After nearly three years of legal wrangling, the men went on trial in Jackson, Mississippi, and in October 1967 an all-white jury found seven of the men guilty, acquitted nine, and deadlocked on three others. The mixed verdict was hailed as a major civil rights victory, as no one in Mississippi had ever before been convicted for actions taken against a civil rights worker
1966 John Lennon announced that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus"
1983 In the Fowl Ball incident, New York Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield was charged by Toronto police after killing a seagull with a thrown baseball. The charge of unnecessary cruelty to an animal was later dropped, after Winfield convinced police the killing was accidental
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