551BC Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu) – Chinese philosopher, whose sayings are still universally quoted
1796 Sophia Smith – US philanthropist who founded Smith College
1859 Adrien Gabriel Morice – French born Canadian priest and historian. He wrote a history and compiled a map of the northern interior of BC, and wrote a book on the Language of the Carrier people
1865 Charles Dawes - 30th US Vice President, from 1925 to 1929, and songwriter (Melody in A Major aka It's All in the Game) He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925
1868 Patrick Lally – Canadian lacrosse player, referee and promoter known as the Father of Lacrosse in Canada. Lally and his brother operated a lacrosse stick manufacturing company in Cornwall, Ontario, and helped found the Canadian Lacrosse Association in 1925. They donated the Lally Perpetual Trophy for the amateur lacrosse champions of the world in 1930
1871 Theodore Dreiser – US author (An American Tragedy, The Bulwark, The Stoic, Jennie Gerhardt, The Financier, The Titan) His novel, Sister Carrie, helped change the direction of US literature. Sister Carrie, published in 1900, was a major break from the Victorian propriety of the time, and the printer refused to promote the book. Fewer than 500 copies were sold. The book gradually increased in popularity when it was reissued in 1907, prompting Dreiser to write full time
1877 The Honourable Charles Stewart Rolls – British aviator and motor manufacturer who formed a partnership with Henry Royce to make luxury cars
1899 C.S. Forester - Cairo born British journalist and novelist (Horatio Hornblower stories, The General, The African Queen)
1908 Lyndon Baines Johnson - 36th US President, who succeeded assassinated President John F. Kennedy
1910 Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) - Albanian-born nun who founded the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, which was dedicated to the poor and the sick, particularly in India. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979
1916 Martha Raye – Comedienne and actress (All Star Revue, The Martha Raye Show, The Concorde, Airport '79, Rhythm on the Range) In 1942 she joined the USO. She did many tours entertaining the troops and was given the nickname “Colonel Maggie”
1927 Jimmy 'Cajun' Newman - Singer (Cry Cry Darling, A Fallen Star, You're Making a Fool Out of Me, Alligator Man, Bayou Talk, DJ for a Day, Artificial Rose)
1937 Tommy Sands - Singer (Teen-Age Crush, Goin' Steady) and actor (None but the Brave, Babes in Toyland, The Longest Day)
1942 Daryl Dragon – Musician and songwriter with the duo The Captain & Tennille (Love Will Keep Us Together, Muskrat Love, Shop Around, Do That To Me One More Time, The Way I Want To Touch You) His father was the American conductor, composer, and arranger Carmen Dragon (Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 Soundtrack, conductor of the Hollywood Bowl, the Standard School Broadcast in 1949)
1943 Tuesday Weld - Actress (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Falling Down)
1944 G.W. Bailey – Actor (The Closer, Police Academy, Short Circuit, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, War and Rememberance, St. Elsewhere, M*A*S*H, Major Crimes)
1947 Barbara Bach - Actress (Caveman, Princess Daisy, Give My Regards to Broadstreet, The Spy Who Loved Me)
1949 Jeff Cook – Singer and guitarist with the group Alabama (Love in the First Degree, Feels So Right)
1952 Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) – Comedian and actor (Pee Wee's Playhouse, Batman Returns, Pee Wee's Big Top, The Blues Brothers, Matilda, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
1955 Diana Scarwid – Actress (Mommie Dearest, What Lies Beneath, Rumble Fish, Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls, Heat)
1969 Chandra Wilson – Actress (Grey’s Anatomy, Philadelphia, Lone Star)
1976 Sarah Chalke – Canadian Actress (Scrubs, Mad Love, Roseanne, Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy, Chaos Theory)
Died this Day
1875 William Ralston – US tycoon. He was found drowned in San Francisco Bay just hours after being asked to resign as president of the Bank of California. Ralston had gambled on several silver mines that proved busts. The previous day, news of the failed mining investments sparked a run on the bank, forcing the bank to close its doors. Whether Ralston had accidentally drowned after his usual morning swim, or had deliberately killed himself, remains a mystery
1879 Sir Rowland Hill – British postal service pioneer
1964 Gracie Allen, age 58 - Vaudeville, radio, TV and stage actress (The Burns and Allen Show, College Swing, Honolulu, Two Girls and a Sailor) She worked with her husband, George Burns. They had been married since 1926
1965 Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret), age 77 – Swiss-born architect who was one of the most influential figures in modern architecture and furniture design
1975 Haile Selassie, age 83 - The last emperor of Ethiopia's three-thousand-year-old monarchy. He died in Addis Ababa, almost a year after he was overthrown in a military coup
1979 Lord Louis Mountbatten, age 70 – British naval leader, elder statesman, and second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. He was killed when Irish Republican Army terrorists detonated a 50-pound bomb hidden on his fishing vessel Shadow V, while he was spending the day with his family in Donegal Bay off Ireland's northwest coast. Three others were killed in the attack, including Mountbatten's 14-year-old grandson, Nicholas, 15-year-old boat hand Paul Maxwell and the Dowager Lady Brabourne, Nicholas' grandmother. Mountbatten's grandson Timothy, Nicholas' twin, was injured, as was Mountbatten’s daughter, Lady Brabourne, and the twins' father, Lord Brabourne. The IRA immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it detonated the bomb by remote control from the coast. Louis Mountbatten, the son of Prince Louis of Battenberg and a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, entered the Royal Navy in 1913, when he was in his early teens. He saw service during World War I and at the outbreak of World War II was commander of the 5th destroyer flotilla. In 1941, he commanded an aircraft carrier, and in 1942 he was named chief of combined operations. From this position, he was appointed supreme Allied commander for Southeast Asia in 1943 and successfully conducted the campaign against Japan that led to the recapture of Burma. In 1947, he was appointed the last viceroy of India, and he conducted the negotiations that led to independence for India and Pakistan later that year. He was the uncle of Philip Mountbatten and introduced Philip to the future Queen Elizabeth. He later encouraged the marriage of the two distant cousins and became godfather and mentor to their first born, Charles, Prince of Wales
1990 Stevie Ray Vaughan, age 35 – Blues guitarist (Pride and Joy, Cold Shot, Couldn’t Stand the Weather, Crossfire) He died in a helicopter crash near East Troy, Wisconsin after giving a concert with Eric Clapton and Robert Cray the previous night. He was one of the leading blues and rock guitarists of all time
On this Day
1612 Captain Thomas Button landed in his ship, The Discovery, and became the first European to winter in Manitoba
1679 René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle left Cayuga Creek, Ontario, on his newly built trading ship the Griffon headed for Michilimackinac and Green Bay. It was the first ship to sail the Upper Great Lakes. He returned east the following month, bound for Niagara, laden with furs. The ship was never seen again
1793 The city of York, now Toronto, was founded
1859 Edwin Drake struck oil at sixty-nine feet near Titusville, Pennsylvania. It would become the world’s first successful oil well. This source of crude oil, or petroleum, opened up a new inexpensive source of power and quickly replaced whale oil in lamps. Within a few decades of Drake’s discovery, oil drilling was widespread in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and the East Indies. However, it was the development of the automobile that catapulted petroleum into a position of paramount importance
1883 The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurred on Krakatoa, a small, uninhabited island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Volcanic activity began on Krakatoa on May 20, and on August 26 the eruptions turned violent. On the 27th, four giant explosions occurred, the third of which blew away the northern two-thirds of the island and caused 120-foot tidal waves that killed 36,000 people on the nearby islands of Java and Sumatra, and which travelled as far as Hawaii. The explosions could be heard more than 2,000 miles away in Australia, and ash was propelled to a height of 50 miles. Fine dust from the explosion drifted around the earth, causing spectacular sunsets and forming an atmospheric veil that lowered world temperatures by a degree. In addition to Krakatoa, which is still active, Indonesia has another 130 active volcanoes, the most of any country in the world
1892 Fire seriously damaged New York City's original Metropolitan Opera House, located at Broadway and 39th Street
1904 Newport, Rhode Island, imposed the first jail sentence for a speeding violation. This was a harsh sentence in 1904 because traffic laws were still relatively new, as the first traffic code wasn’t implemented until 1903, when New York introduced a two-page book of regulations. Early traffic regulations varied drastically from state to state, some having no speed limits at all
1912 Thomas Wilby and Jack Haney set out on the first cross-Canada motor trip. It took them 52 days to travel to Victoria, BC, in an REO Special. Wilby was a British journalist, and Haney an REO Motor Car Company mechanic and driver
1913 Russian Lieutenant Peter Nesterov became the first pilot to perform the loop-the-loop
1945 Allied troops began landing in Japan following the surrender of the Japanese government
1962 The US launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which flew past Venus the following December
1973 The largest hailstone documented in Canada fell at Cedoux, Saskatchewan. It weighed over half a pound at 10.2 ounces, and measured 4 ½ inches in diameter. It was almost three times the size of a golf ball
1980 The Ottawa Journal and the Winnipeg Tribune stopped publishing, prompting a royal commission into the ownership of Canadian newspapers by large chains
1990 The Canadian Army was told to use whatever force necessary to quell a stand-off between Kanasetake Mohawks and Québec police at Oka, Québec. The dispute was over a proposed golf course expansion and condominium development which was to have been built on a traditional Kanasetake burial ground. A stand down was eventually negoatiated. The golf course expansion and condominium development never happened and the federal government eventually purchased the land.
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