1676 Sir Robert Walpole, First Earl of Orford – British Whig politician who is regarded as the first Prime Minister, the first Lord of the Treasury, and the first Chancellor of the Exchequer
1728 Johann Heinrich Lambert - Swiss mathematician, scientist and philosopher
1740 Joseph-Michel Montgolfier - French hot air balloon inventor and pioneer, who along with his brother Jacques, made the first successful flight in a hot air balloon. They both inherited the family papermaking firm where their inventive minds made many improvements. Joseph invented an air pump for removing paper from moulds, and a hydraulic ram
1743 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier - French scientist who is considered the father of modern chemistry. He was also a member of the commission which recommended the introduction of the metric system into France
1819 Prince Albert, Consort to Queen Victoria – Husband of Queen Victoria, who was born in Bavaria as Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He played a valuable role behind the throne, not only by changing some of the Queen’s less progressive views, but also through his interest in the arts and the organising of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace
1838 John Wilkes Booth – US actor and the assassin who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC
1873 Lee De Forest – US radio and television pioneer and inventor known as the "father of radio and the grandfather of television." In 1907, he patented the Audion vacuum tube, which made broadcasting possible and was a key component in electronic equipment until the invention of the transistor. DeForest also developed techniques for amplifying and receiving sound, and devised methods for reproducing sound on film
1875 John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir – Canada's 15th Governor-General, who instituted the Governor-General's literary awards, and author (The Blanket of the Dark, Midwinter, Huntingtower, Sick Heart River, Greenmantle, Nelson’s History of War) His book, The Thirty-nine Steps, was adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock
1886 Jerome Hunsaker – US aeronautical engineer
1904 Christopher Isherwood – British-born author (Mr. Norris Changes Trains, Prater Violet, The Condor and the Cows, Exhumations) His book, Goodbye to Berlin, inspired the musical Cabaret
1906 Albert Sabin - Polish-born US microbiologist who developed the Sabin oral polio vaccine
1909 Jim Davis – Missouri-born actor (Dallas, The Big Sky, Inferno in Paradise, Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy "Satchel" Page, Little Big Horn, The Outcast) He was in the Perry Mason episodes The Case of a Place Called Midnight and The Case of the Fickle Filly
1917 Jan Clayton - Actress (Lassie, Pantomime Quiz)
1919 Ronny Graham – Singer and actor (Chico and the Man, The New Bill Cosby Show, The Hudson Brothers Show, The Bob Crane Show)
1920 Georgia Gibbs – Singer known as Her Nibs (Tweedle Dee, Dance With Me Henry, Kiss of Fire, Seven Lonely Days)
1937 Don Bowman – Comedian and entertainer (Still Fighting Mental Health, Poor Old Ugly Gladys Jones, Giddyup Do-nut, Chit Atkins Make Me a Star)
1942 Vic Dana - Singer (Red Roses for a Blue Lady)
1949 Bob Cowsill – Singer with his family group The Cowsills (The Rain the Park and Other Things, Hair)
1952 Michael Jeter - Actor (Evening Shade, The Money Pit, Tango & Cash, Waterworld, Patch Adams, The Green Mile)
1956 Brett Cullen - Actor (Apollo 13, The Thornbirds, Falcon Crest, Orleans)
1957 Rick Hansen – Canadian wheelchair athlete who is known for his Man in Motion round the world wheelchair tour, which raised $20 million for spinal chord research and wheelchair sports
1960 Branford Marsalis – Jazz musician, saxophonist and bandleader (The Tonight Show) He is the brother of Wynton Marsalis
1965 Chris Burke - Actor (Life Goes On, Jonathan: The Boy Nobody Wanted, Mona Lisa Smile)
1970 Melissa McCarthy – Actress (Mike & Molly, Samantha Who?, Gilmore Girls, The Nines, Charlie’s Angels)
1980 Macaulay Culkin - Actor (Home Alone series, Getting Even with Dad, George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, The Good Son, My Girl, Uncle Buck, Only the Lonely, The Pagemaster, Richie Rich)
1980 Chris Pine – Actor (Star Trek, Unstoppable, Just My Luck)
Died this Day
1930 Lon Chaney, age 47 – US actor known as “the man with a thousand faces” (The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Treasure Island) He died in Hollywood, of throat cancer
1957 Joseph Burr Tyrrell – Canadian geologist, explorer and historian. In 1884, Tyrrell discovered the rich dinosaur beds of the Badlands of southern Alberta, as well as coal beds at Drumheller, Alberta, and Fernie, BC. The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology near Drumheller, Alberta, founded in 1985, is named in his memory
1974 Charles Lindbergh, age 72 - The first man to accomplish a solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1927. He died in Maui
1978 Charles Boyer – French actor (Around the World in 80 Days, Barefoot in the Park, Gaslight, Is Paris Burning?, Casino Royale, The Mad Woman of Chaillot) He died of an overdose of barbiturates two days before his 81st birthday, and two days after the death of his wife of 44 years
On this Day
55 BC Roman forces led by Julius Caesar made their first invasion of Britain
1346 The Battle of Crécy, in Normandy, took place between Edward III of England, aided by his son Edward the Black Prince, and King Philip VI of France. The battle, which saw an early use of the deadly longbow by the English, is regarded as one of the most decisive in history. The French king had hired 4,000 Genoese crossbowmen, who led the assault. They were soon overwhelmed by Edward's 10,000 longbowmen, who could reload faster and fire much farther. The crossbowmen then retreated and the French mounted knights attempted to penetrate the English infantry lines. In charge after charge, the horses and riders were cut down in the merciless shower of arrows. At nightfall, the French finally withdrew, with nearly a third of their army lying slain on the field. King Philip himself escaped with a wound. English losses were less than a hundred. The battle marked the decline of the mounted knight in European warfare and the rise of England as a world power. This was a victory for the English in the first decade of the Hundred Years War, and it was here that the infamous two-fingered insult was first used by the British
1784 Cape Breton Island separated from Nova Scotia, becoming its own colony, with a separate Lieutenant-Governor and council
1789 The French Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man
1833 Captain John Ross and his shipwrecked crew of 19 were rescued from Baffin Island after four winters. They survived with the aid of northern natives, the Inuit
1838 Ralph Waldo Emerson first met influential British writer Thomas Carlyle, with whom he would correspond for 38 years. Carlyle and the English romantic poets would have an important effect on Emerson's work
1847 Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic
1858 The first news dispatch sent by commercial telegraph was received by the New York Sun. The dispatch, which announced that Britain and France had signed a peace treaty with China, was printed in the Sun the following day
1920 The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was formally adopted into the US Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. The amendment was the culmination of more than 70 years of struggle by woman suffragists. Its two sections read simply: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex" and "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation"
1925 In Toronto, Ontario, Ted Rogers Sr. invented the alternating-current tube, allowing plug-in batteryless radios. The last two call letters of his new radio station, CFRB, stand for Rogers Batteryless
1939 The first televised major league baseball games were shown on experimental station W2XBS, a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field
1940 The RAF bombed Berlin for the first time in retaliation for attacks on London, during World War II
1957 The Ford Motor Company rolled out the first Edsel automobile on this day. The car was named after Henry Ford’s son, Edsel Bryant Ford. 110,847 Edsels were built before the company pulled the plug after three years due to lack of sales and negative press. Ironically, market research conducted just a few years earlier had pointed to the Edsel’s success; consumers had said they wanted more horsepower, tailfins, three-tone paint jobs, and wrap-around windshields. However, by 1957, fickle consumers had changed their mind, and despite a relatively low price, Edsel sales lagged
1961 Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker opened the International Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario
1977 The Québec government adopted Bill 101 making French the official language of Québec. This new bill was less stringent than the previous bill, as it allowed children whose mother or father went to English school eligible for English schooling, rather than the compulsory French schooling
1978 Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice, Italy was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church following the death of Paul VI. The new pontiff took the name John Paul I, but died 34 days after his election
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