1735 Oliver Evans – US inventor of high pressure steam engines in 1790. In 1806, he pioneered automatic production and assembly lines to make his machines
1775 Laura Secord – Loyalist and heroine of Upper Canada. She was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In June, 1813, Secord heard two US officers billeted in her house talking about a surprise attack on the British post at Beaver Dams. She walked 20 miles through US lines to warn Lieutenant Fitzgibbon, sometimes leading her cow as a decoy
1813 Daniel Macmillan – Scottish bookseller who co-founded Macmillan Publishing Company
1851 Dr. Walter Reed - Army doctor and medical pioneer in yellow fever research. The Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, is named in his honour
1857 Milton Snaveley Hershey – US chocolate manufacturer who founded the Hershey Chocolate Company
1860 John J. Pershing - US General, and commander of the US Expeditionary Force in World War I. He was a rigid disciplinarian, and was nicknamed Black Jack. The Pershing tank is named for him
1903 Claudette Colbert – French-born actress (It Happened One Night, I Met Him in Paris, Drums Along the Mohawk, Egg and I, Three Came Home, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles)
1911 Bill Monroe – Country singer with The Bluegrass Band (Blue Moon of Kentucky) and songwriter (Kentucky Waltz, A Letter from My Darling) He was known as The Father of Bluegrass Music
1916 Roald Dahl – Welsh born author (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Gremlins, James and the Giant Peach, Revolting Rhymes, Dirty Beasts, Matilda) Dahl’s childhood was filled with tragedy. His father and sister died when Dahl was three, and he was later brutally abused at his boarding school. In World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force and became a fighter pilot, and was shot down in the Libyan desert, suffering serious injuries. He saved a piece of his femur, removed in an operation after the accident, and later used it as a paperweight in his office
1925 Mel Tormé - Singer nicknamed The Velvet Fog (The Christmas Song, Careless Love, Comin' Home Baby, Careless Hands, Bewitched)
1931 Barbara Bain - Actress (Mission Impossible, Space 1999, Richard Diamond, Private Detective)
1939 Richard Kiel - Actor (The Longest Yard, Barbary Coast, Silver Streak, Force 10 From Navarone, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, The Wild Wild West, Pale Rider, Happy Gilmore, Tangled)
1941 David Clayton-Thomas - Singer with the group Blood Sweat and Tears (You Made Me So Very Happy, Spinning Wheel, Lucretia MacEvil)
1944 Peter Cetera – Musician and singer with the group Chicago (Feeling Stronger Every Day, Saturday in the Park) and solo (Glory of Love, One Good Woman)
1944 Jacqueline Bisset – British actress (Rich and Famous, The Deep, Airport, Bullitt, Wild Orchid, Murder on the Orient Express, Choices, Casino Royale)
1948 Nell Carter – US stage and screen actress (Ain't Misbehavin', Gimme a Break, Lobo, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper)
1952 Randy Jones - Singer with The Village People (YMCA, In the Navy)
1959 Jean Smart - Actress (Designing Women, Scarlett, The Odd Couple II, Guinevere)
Died this Day
1759 James Wolfe, age 32 – The British general who captured Quebec, but died in on the battlefield at the Plains of Abraham, after being shot three times
1803 John Barry – US Commodore who is considered by many to be the father of the US Navy, died in Philadelphia
1806 Charles James Fox – British statesman who was about to introduce a bill abolishing slavery when he was taken ill and died at this home in Chiswick, London. He is buried in Westminster Abbey
1899 Henry Bliss, age 68 – Victim of the US’s first recorded fatality from an automobile accident. Bliss, a real estate broker, was debarking from a southbound streetcar at the corner of Central Park West and 74th Street in New York City, when an oncoming vehicle driven by Arthur Smith ran him over. Smith was arrested and held on $1,000 bail while Henry Bliss was taken to Roosevelt hospital, where he died
1977 Leopold Stokowski, age 95 – Conductor, died in Hampshire, England
1998 George Wallace, age 79 - One of the most controversial politicians in US history, died in Montgomery, Alabama. He was elected governor of Alabama in 1962 under an ultra-segregationist platform, promising his white followers, "Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!" In 1972, he was shot while campaigning during an outdoor rally in Laurel, Maryland. Three others were wounded, and Wallace was permanently paralysed from the waist down. During the 1980s, Wallace's politics shifted dramatically, especially in regard to race. In 1983, he was elected Alabama governor for the last time with the overwhelming support of African-American voters. Over the next four years, the man who had promised segregation forever made more African-American political appointments than any other figure in Alabama history
On this Day
1759 Britain won the battle of the Plains of Abraham, as the British under General James Wolfe achieved a dramatic victory when they scaled the cliffs to the city of Québec, and defeated the Marquis de Montcalm's French forces. Wolfe himself was fatally wounded during the battle, but his victory ensured British supremacy in Canada. Montcalm also suffered a mortal wound during the battle, and died the following day. That morning at 2am, Wolfe drifted downstream on the ebb tide with Captain William Delaune, riding in a lead whaleboat with muffled oars. After keeping his plans secret from even his trusted lieutenants, Wolfe ordered a first team of 24 soldiers to land at l'Anse au Foulon, a cove 2 miles west of Quebec. The men quickly climbed an overgrown path up the cliff face, with muskets strapped to their backs and surprised a company of French-Canadian militia under Captain Duchambon de Vergor. Most of de Vergor’s men had been sent home to gather in the crops. Down below, the Highlanders and light infantry secured the beachhead, helping the remaining transports land with a first wave of troops, artillery, and supplies. A second wave came across from Lévis, while British frigates from Quebec to Beauport started firing with every gun to direct all French attention to the city. At 5am, Wolfe reached the top of the cliff with the remaining light infantry. Before him stretched the Plains of Abraham. They were named for, Abraham Martin, who had first cleared the land, a broad, flat field leading to the walls of Quebec. At 6:30am, the French leader, Montcalm, was told that patrols spotted the English on the Plains of Abraham. He ordered the regular troops to form up outside the walls, militia on the wings, regiments of the line in the centre, the Royal Roussillon near the river. At 9:30, Wolfe walked along the ranks, talking to his 4,500 troops, and giving his final orders. French-Canadian and Indian sharpshooters started firing from the woods to the north, and a musket ball shattered Wolfe's wrist. As the French began to advance, Wolfe was hit by a shell fragment in the abdomen, but still kept to his feet. The French held their fire until they were within 80 feet of the British lines. At 40 feet, Wolfe gave the order to fire, and one great volley ripped through the French ranks, mortally wounding the commanders of two regiments. The last volleys were fired with the two armies only feet apart, then Wolfe gave the order to charge with bayonets, and the French turned to flee. Wolfe was leading the grenadiers when a bullet hit him in the chest, puncturing both lungs. Someone yelled "see how they run". Wolfe opened his eyes and asked "who runs?", and a soldier replied, " The French run sir". Wolfe then said, "Now God be praised, I die in peace." Montcalm was then wounded outside the walls, with a fatal bullet in the groin, and one in the thigh. He asked two soldiers to hold him up in the saddle as he went in the St. Louis Gate, so as not to cause more panic for his men. When the surgeon told him he had only hours to live, Montcalm replied, “So much the better, I shall not see the surrender of Quebec.” He died early the next morning
1788 New York City became the federal capital of the US
1884 Canada's first official participants in an overseas war, the Nile Voyageurs, set sail for Egypt
1886 The Canadian Pacific Telegraph began operation across Canada
1940 The luxury liner S.S. City of Benares left Liverpool, England with British children aboard. They were being evacuated to Canada to escape World War II. The ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat during the night about 600 miles out to sea. Only 13 of the over 90 children would survive
1971 A four-day inmates' rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York ended as police and guards stormed the prison. The ordeal and final assault claimed 43 lives
1981 More than 800 Canadian communities participated in the first Terry Fox run. The annual 10-k event, held to raise funds for cancer research, now draws thousands of participants around the world. One year earlier, the 23 year old Fox was forced to end his Marathon of Hope run across Canada in Thunder Bay, when the cancer that took his leg spread to his lungs
1989 The biggest ever British banking computer error gave an extra £2 billion to customers in a period of just 30 minutes. A Citibank subsidiary stated that customers had returned 99.3% of the money
1991 Montréal's Olympic Stadium was closed after 16 reinforcing rods broke and a mammoth 39 ton concrete beam fell on a public walkway. No one was injured but the Expos baseball team was forced to move all their home games for the rest of the season
1997 Funeral services were held in Calcutta, India, for Nobel peace laureate Mother Teresa
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