1823 Charles Keene British artist and illustrator for Punch magazine
1841 Peter Martin Canadian doctor who was the first aboriginal Canadian to earn a degree from a Canadian university. He was born on the Six Nations Reserve, Brantford, Ontario, and given the name Oronhyatekha, or Burning Cloud. He paid for his early medical training in the US, but he received support from the Prince of Wales and others to go to Oxford, before receiving his medical degree from the University of Toronto. He practised in Ontario, and in 1881 became the head, or Chief Ranger, of the Independent Order of Foresters, a fraternal association that provided its members with insurance. In 26 years, he helped the IOF grow to 250,000 members, with a fund of over $11 million
1874 Herbert Hoover - 31st US President. He was the first president born west of the Mississippi River and the first to have a telephone at his desk
1898 Jack Haley - Actor (The Wizard of Oz, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Alexander's Ragtime Band) He was the father of Jack Haley, Jr
1902 Norma Shearer Canadian actress (The Divorcee, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Private Lives) She was married to producer Irving Thalberg at the time of his death in 1936
1909 Leo Fender US inventor and manufacturer of musical instruments. His contribution to modern music cannot be underestimated. His guitars have been used by everyone from Keith Richards, Buddy Merrill, Buck Owens, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton
Fender studied to be an accountant, but did radio repair work out of his home. He lost his accounting job, and set up the Fender Radio Service, which led him into his vocation of guitars and amplifiers
1913 Noah Beery, Jr. - Actor (The Rockford Files, Walking Tall, Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, Fastest Gun Alive, The Best Little #####house in Texas, Hondo, The Yellow Rose) He was the son of Noah Beery, Sr, and the nephew of Wallace Beery
1914 Jeff Corey - Actor (Colour of Night, Conan the Destroyer, Sinatra, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Boston Strangler)
1923 Rhonda Fleming - Actress (Stage Door, The Best of Broadway, Inferno)
1928 Jimmy Dean - Singer (Big Bad John, PT 109, IOU), TV host (The Jimmy Dean Show), actor (Diamonds are Forever) and sausage mogul
1928 Eddie Fisher Singer (Oh! My Pa-Pa, Anytime, Dungaree Doll, A Man Chases a Girl, On the Street Where You Live, Cindy Oh Cindy) and actor (All About Eve, Bundle of Joy, Butterfield 8) He is the father of Carrie Fisher
1940 Bobby Hatfield Singer with The Righteous Brothers (You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin', Unchained Melody, You're My Soul and Inspiration)
1943 Ronnie Spector - Singer with the group The Ronettes (Be My Baby, Baby I Love You) and solo (Try Some Buy Some, Say Goodbye to Hollywood)
1947 Ian Anderson Singer and flautist with the group Jethro Tull (Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, Cross-eyed Mary)
1952 Daniel Hugh Kelly - Actor (Hardcastle and McCormick, Chicago Story, Cujo, Star Trek: Insurrection)
1959 Rosanna Arquette Actress (Pulp Fiction, Silverado, Desperately Seeking Susan, The Executioner's Song)
1960 Antonio Banderas Spanish actor (Desperado,The Mambo Kings, Philadelphia, Interview With the Vampire, The Mask of Zorro, Spy Kids)
1972 Angie Harmon - Actress (Law and Order, Rizzoli & Isles, Womens Murder Club, Baywatch Nights, Agent Cody Banks)
Died this Day
AD258 St. Lawrence Catholic saint. He was martyred in Rome, when he was slowly roasted on a gridiron
1896 Otto Lillenthal German aviation pioneer, died as a result of a glider crash the previous day. His work influenced the Wright brothers
On this Day
1535 The St. Lawrence River and Gulf of St. Lawrence were named by Jacques Cartier
1675 The foundation stone of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was laid by King Charles II
1787 Mozart completed his popular Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music)
1821 Missouri entered the Union as the 24th state, and the first to be located entirely west of the Mississippi River. Named for one of the Native American groups that once lived in the territory, Missouri became a US possession as part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In 1817, Missouri Territory applied for statehood, but the question of whether it would be slave or free delayed approval by Congress. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was reached, admitting Missouri as a slave state but excluding slavery from the other Louisiana Purchase lands north of Missouri's southern border. Missouri's August 1821 entrance into the Union as a slave state was met with disapproval by many of its citizens. In 1861, when other slave states seceded from the Union, Missouri chose to remain, although a provincial government was established in the next year by Confederate sympathisers. During the war, Missourians were split in their allegiances, supplying both Union and Confederate forces with troops. Lawlessness persisted during this period, and Missouri-born Confederate guerrillas such as Jesse James continued this lawlessness after the South's defeat. With the ratification of Missouri's new constitution by the citizens of the state in 1875, the old divisions were finally put to rest
1840 At Saint John, New Brunswick, the Star of the East was the first known hot-air balloon to fly in Canada
1846 After a decade of debate about how best to spend a bequest left to the US from English scientist James Smithson, President James K. Polk signed the Smithsonian Institution Act into law. Smithson died in Italy in 1829, leaving behind a will with a peculiar footnote. In the event that his only nephew died without any heirs, Smithson decreed that the whole of his estate would go to "the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." Smithson's curious bequest to a country that he had never visited aroused significant attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Smithson had been a fellow of the venerable Royal Society of London from the age of 22, publishing numerous scientific papers on mineral composition, geology, and chemistry. In 1802, he overturned popular scientific opinion by proving that zinc carbonates were true carbonate minerals, and one type of zinc carbonate was later named smithsonite in his honour. Six years after his death, his nephew, Henry James Hungerford, indeed died without children, and on July 1, 1836, the US Congress authorised acceptance of Smithson's gift. President Andrew Jackson sent diplomat Richard Rush to England to negotiate for transfer of the funds, and two years later Rush set sail for home with 11 boxes containing a total of 104,960 gold sovereigns, 8 shillings, and 7 pence, as well as Smithson's mineral collection, library, scientific notes, and personal effects. After the gold was melted down, it amounted to a fortune worth well over $500,000. After considering a series of recommendations, including the creation of a national university, a public library, or an astronomical observatory, Congress agreed that the bequest would support the creation of a museum, a library, and a program of research, publication, and collection in the sciences, arts, and history. John Smithson, the Smithsonian Institution's great benefactor, is interred in a tomb in the Smithsonian Building
1885 Leo Daft opened the US's first commercially operated electric streetcar, in Baltimore
1889 The screw bottle top was patented by Dan Rylands of Hope Glass Works, Barnsley, Yorkshire
1897 The Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, later known as the Royal Automobile Club, was founded on this day by C. Harrington Moore and Frederick R. Simms. Automobile clubs began as social clubs for people with an interest in motoring and motor racing, born in a time when cars were mainly for the rich
1907 The greatest automobile race in history was won by Prince Borghese of Italy. Stretching 8,000 miles, this Peking-to-Paris race lasted for sixty-two days. Driving like a madman across Asia and Europe, the prince encountered brush fire, got stuck in a swamp, and was pulled over by a policeman in Belgium. The policeman refused to believe that the prince was racing, rather than merely speeding
1921 Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello
1944 During World War II, US forces overcame Japanese resistance on Guam
1960 The Canadian Bill of Rights became law. The document applies only to federal law because provincial consent was not obtained. It recognises the rights of individuals to life, liberty, personal security and enjoyment of property. It also protects rights to equality before the law and freedoms of speech, religion, assembly and association and the press. The Bill of Rights remains in effect to the extent it is not superseded by the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
1966 A rare daylight meteor streaked across the sky from Utah to Canada. It was the only known meteor to skip through the Earth's atmosphere and leave again
1977 The biggest manhunt in the history of New York City ended with the arrest of postal employee David Berkowitz in Yonkers, NY. Accused of being the Son of Sam gunman responsible for six random slayings and seven woundings, Berkowitz is serving six consecutive terms of 25 years to life in state prison
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