1786 Davy Crockett US frontiersman, soldier, and defender of the Alamo
1882 Samuel Goldwyn Polish-born movie pioneer who was the "G" in MGM. He was born Schmuel Gelbfisz, in Warsaw. His name was first anglicised to Samuel Goldfish, before he changed it to Goldwyn
1888 Monty Woolley - Actor (As Young As You Feel, Since You Went Away, The Man Who Came to Dinner)
1890 Ralph R. Teetor US mechanical engineer and inventor of the cruise control. With a degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Teetor began working at the Light Inspection Car Company. This family business eventually evolved into the Perfect Circle Company, of which Teetor became president. Teetor had a knack for invention and continued to work on new ideas after his retirement. His accomplishments are even more remarkable because he was blinded at the age of six, but he never let this keep him from his dream of becoming an inventor
1893 Mae West Playwright, stage and screen actress (Sextette, Go West, Young Man, I'm No Angel, Every Day's a Holiday, Diamond Lil, Sex, She Done Him Wrong, My Little Chickadee, Myra Breckinridge) Her autobiography was titled Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It. She began performing in vaudeville shows in early childhood and soon graduated to Broadway shows. She began writing her own material and in 1926 produced her own play, Sex, about a gigolo, which resulted in her arrest. She spent 10 days in jail for obscenity. Undaunted, she continued writing plays and battling censors. West went on to become a Hollywood star and one of the most highly paid women in the US
1909 Larry Clinton - Bandleader (Deep Purple, My Reverie, On a Slow Boat to China) and composer (The Dipsy Doodle, Tap Dancer's Nightmare, Dusk in Upper Sandusky)
1920 Maureen O'Hara Irish-born US actress (The Parent Trap, Miracle on 34th Street, How Green was My Valley, The Quiet Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Sinbad the Sailor, Mrs. Miniver, Cab to Canada, McLintock!, Rio Grande)
1929 Francis Gary Powers US pilot of the U-2 plane which was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960
1930 Glenn Corbett - Actor (Shadow Force, The Stranger, All the Young Men, Shenandoah, The Violent Years, Route 66, The Road West, It's a Man's World, Dallas)
1930 Ted Hughes British poet and childrens author (Hawk in the Rain, Crow, Cave Birds, Moortown, Meet My Folks, Earth Owl) He was married to US poet Sylvia Plath
1939 Anthony Valentine British actor (Body & Soul, Robin of Sherwood, Agatha Christie's Murder Is Easy, Masada, Raffles, Colditz) He played Baron Gruner in the Sherlock Holmes episode The Illustrious Client
1943 Robert DeNiro - Actor (Raging Bull, The Godfather II, Brazil, The Deer Hunter, The Untouchables, We're No Angels, Taxi Driver, Awakenings, Cape Fear, Frankenstein, Back Draft, 1900, The King of Comedy, The Mission, Goodfellas, Wag the Dog, The Fan, Cop Land, Hide and Seek)
1949 Julian Fellowes British playwright (Downton Abbey, Gosford Park, Separate Lies, A Most Mysterious Murder, Piccadilly Jim) and actor (Monarch of the Glen, Aristocrats, Jane Eyre, The Final Cut, Martin Chuzzlewit, Shadowlands, Sharpe's Rifles, Peter and Paul) He played Clive Crebbin in the Kavanagh QC episode Dead Reckoning
1951 Robert Joy Canadian actor (CSI: New York, Ragtime, Atlantic City, Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper, The Equalizer, Joshua Then and Now, Radio Days, Millennium)
1958 Belinda Carlisle Guitarist and singer with The Go-Go's (We Got the Beat, Head Over Heels, Turn to You, Heaven on Earth)
1960 Sean Penn - Actor (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Casualties of War, Shanghai Surprise, We're No Angels, Carlito's Way, Colors, Dead Man Walking, Mystic River, I Am Sam, The Game)
1963 Don McKellar Canadian actor (The Red Violin, Slings and Arrows, Twitch City, Trudeau, Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story, Odd Job Jack, The Englishmans Boy)
1968 Helen McCrory British actress (Anna Karenina, The James Gang, North Square, Charlotte Gray, The Count of Monte Cristo, Dickens, The Queen, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)
1969 Donnie Wahlberg Actor (Blue Bloods, Boomtown, Dreamcatcher, Band of Brothers, The Sixth Sense, Ransom) He is the brother of Mark Wahlberg and was in the singing group New Kids On The Block
Died this Day
1896 Bridget Driscoll The first pedestrian to be knocked down and killed by a motor vehicle in Britain. The car that hit Mrs. Driscoll, of Croydon, Surrey, was travelling at 4 miles per hour. Apparently she froze in panic at the oncoming vehicle
1979 Vivian Vance - Actress (I Love Lucy, The Lucille Ball Show, The Blue Veil, The Great Race, The Secret Fury, The Great Houdini) She died of cancer three weeks after her 70th birthday
1983 Ira Gershwin, age 86 - US lyricist who wrote with his brother George. (Lady Be Good, Someone to Watch Over Me, Ive Got Rhythm)
1990 Pearl Mae Bailey, age 72 - Jazz singer (Takes Two to Tango, A Little Learnin' is a Dangerous Thing-with Sinatra) and actress (Isn't It Romantic, Porgy and Bess, St. Louis Blues, The Pearl Bailey Show, The Member of the Wedding, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale, Peter Gunn) She died in Philadelphia after collapsing at a local hotel
On this Day
1706 Qu้bec law required taverns to close at 9:00 pm
1862 The Dakota uprising began and Minnesota erupted in violence as desperate Dakota Indians attacked white settlements along the Minnesota River. The Dakota were eventually overwhelmed by the US military six weeks later. The Dakota Indians were more commonly referred to as the Sioux, a derogatory name derived from part of a French word meaning "little snake." They were composed of four bands, and lived on temporary reservations in south-western Minnesota. For two decades, the Dakota were poorly treated by the Federal government, local traders, and settlers. They saw their hunting lands whittled down as a wave of white settlers surrounded them, and provisions promised by the government rarely arrived. The summer of 1862 was particularly hard on the Dakota. Cutworms destroyed much of their corn crops, and many families faced starvation. Dakota leaders were frustrated by attempts to convince traders to extend credit to tribal members and alleviate the suffering. On August 17, four young Dakota warriors were returning from an unsuccessful hunt when they stopped to steal some eggs from a white settlement. The youths soon picked a quarrel with the hen's owner, and the encounter turned tragic when the Dakotas killed five members of the family. Sensing that they would be attacked, Dakota leaders determined that war was at hand and seized the initiative. Led by Taoyateduta (also known as Little Crow), the Dakota attacked local agencies and the settlement of New Ulm. Over 500 white settlers lost their lives along with about 150 Dakota warriors. President Lincoln dispatched General John Pope to organise the Military Department of the Northwest. Some Dakota fled to North Dakota, but more than 2,000 were rounded up and over 300 warriors were sentenced to death. President Lincoln commuted most of their sentences, but on December 26, 1862, 38 Dakota men were executed at Mankato, Minnesota. It was the largest mass execution in US history
1896 The discovery that led to the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 was made in the Rabbit Creek tributary of the Klondike River in the Yukon by George Cormack, his wife Kate, and his two Indian brothers-in-law, Tagish Charlie and Skookum Jim. They were acting on a tip from Canadian prospector Robert Henderson. According to Cormack, the gold veins were "thick between the flaky slabs, like cheese sandwiches." He ripped some bark off a tree, and wrote on it, "I name this creek Bonanza. George Cormack." When news of the rich new strike reached the outside world, a rush began. Within two years, the Klondike Gold Rush turned nearby Dawson from a few houses into a city of some 25,000, the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Winnipeg. Within three years of the discovery, all important creeks in the Klondike valley had been staked out by the gold-seekers. Total value of gold production in the eight years after the find exceeded $100 million
1903 Henry Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company of Canada, and started building cars in a converted wagon works in Walkerville, Ontario, near Windsor. The first car built by the Company in early 1904 was the 2-cylinder Model C. A total of 117 cars were manufactured in the first year
1915 Charles F. Kettering of Detroit, Michigan, patented the electric automobile self-starter. Kettering, along with Edward A. Deeds, founded the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, commonly known as Delco. Kettering and his company invented countless improvements for the automobile, including lighting and ignition systems, lacquer finishes and leaded gasoline. The Cadillac was the first car to use the electric starter, and Delco would later become a subsidiary of General Motors. Incidentally, before he started working on cars, Kettering also invented the first electric cash register
1951 The American Telephone and Telegraph Company inaugurated its microwave radio relay system for transmitting telephone calls and television programs between New York City and San Francisco
1969 Hurricane Camille slammed into the Gulf Coast, killing 248 people
1978 The Double Eagle II completed the first transatlantic balloon flight when it landed in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours after lifting off from Preque Isle, Maine. The helium-filled balloon was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman and flew 3,233 miles in the six-day odyssey. The 11-story, helium-filled balloon made good progress during the first four days, and the three pilots survived on hot dogs and canned sardines. The only real trouble of the trip occurred the previous day, when atmospheric conditions forced the Double Eagle II to drop from 20,000 feet to a dangerous 4,000 feet. They jettisoned ballast material and soon rose to a safe height again. Over southern England, their wives flew close enough to the balloon in a private plane to blow kisses at their husbands
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