1774 John Chapman - Planter of apple orchards and medicine man to the North American Indian, who was known as Johnny Appleseed. He was born in Leominster, Massachusetts. His father, Nathaniel Chapman, was one of the Minutemen who fought at Concord in April, 1775, and later in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Johnny started his westward journey about 1797. He was not a scatter of seeds as many people believe, but a practical nurseryman. He realised that there was a real need and an opportunity for service in supplying seeds and seedlings. Because of the poor transportation that existed in the interior in those days, apples were a practical necessity in the early settlers diets. Johnny owned many tracts of land throughout Ohio and Indiana, using it to plant apple seeds, transplant seedlings and set out orchards. He sold and gave trees to the pioneer settlers. A deeply religious man, Johnny became a self-appointed missionary for the Church of the New Jerusalem, a Christian Church based on the Biblical interpretations of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist and theologian. John shared his religious tracts and his Bible with the settlers who listened to him. His love for his neighbour also made him accepted as a peacemaker between the Indians and the settlers. He travelled for more than 50 years, and his path through the East and Midwest is today dotted with many monuments to his memory
1877 Edmund Gwenn – British actor (Miracle on 34th Street, Them, The Trouble with Harry, Foreign Correspondent, Of Human Bondage)
1888 T.S. Eliot – US-born British poet (The Waste Land, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, McAvity the Mystery Cat) He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a well-established family. His grandfather had founded Washington University in St. Louis, his father was a businessman, and his mother was involved in local charities. Eliot took an undergraduate degree at Harvard, and studied at the Sorbonne, before returning to Harvard to study Sanskrit. He then studied at Oxford. After meeting poet and lifelong friend Ezra Pound, Eliot moved permanently to England. In 1915, he married Vivian Haigh-Wood, and in 1917, began working at Lloyd's Bank in London. He wrote reviews and essays on the side, and founded a critical quarterly, Criterion, quietly developing a new brand of poetry. His first major work, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, was published in 1917. His long, fragmented images and use of blank verse influenced nearly all future poets. While Eliot is best known for revolutionising modern poetry, his literary criticism and plays were also successful. In 1925 he accepted a position as editor at Faber and Faber publishers, allowing him to quit his job as a bank clerk at Lloyd's Bank. He lectured in the US frequently in the 1930s and '40s, a time when his own worldview was undergoing rapid change as he converted to Christianity. In 1957, after being a widower for 10 years, he married his assistant Valerie Fletcher. The couple lived happily until his death, in 1965
1895 George Raft - Actor (Scarface, Eighty Days, Some Like It Hot, Casino Royale)
1898 George Gershwin - Composer (Rhapsody in Blue, Swanee, Porgy & Bess, The Man I Love, Strike Up the Band, Funny Face, I Got Rhythm, Summertime, An American in Paris, They Can't Take That Away from Me, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off, A Foggy Day In London Town, Fascinating Rhythm, Embraceable You, Our Love is Here to Stay) He collaborated with his brother, Ira
1914 Jack LaLanne - Fitness expert. He had a small cameo in the 1966 Adam West Batman movie
1919 Barbara Britton - Actress (Mr. & Mrs. North, Dragonfly Squadron, Bandit Queen, Captain Kidd, I Shot Jesse James, Wake Island)
1925 Marty Robbins - Country Music Hall of Famer (El Paso, My Woman My Woman My Wife, A White Sport Coat, Don't Worry, Devil Woman) and actor (Road to Nashville, Ballad of a Gunfighter, Hell on Wheels, The Drifter) He was the last Grand Ole Opry singer to perform in Ryman Auditorium, and the first to perform in the new Opryland
1926 Julie London - Singer (Cry Me A River, Man of the West) and actress (Emergency) Her first husband was Jack Webb. She was also married to Bobby Troup, who was also in Emergency
1927 Patrick O'Neal – Actor (In Harm's Way, Under Siege, The Way We Were, Diagnosis: Unknown, Dick and the Duchess, Emerald Point N.A.S., Kaz)
1933 Donna Douglas - Actress (Beverly Hillbillies, Frankie and Johnny)
1942 Kent McCord - Actor (Adam 12, Unsub, Galactica 1980, Accidental Meeting, Return of the Living Dead)
1945 Bryan Ferry – British musician with the group Roxy Music (Avalon, Love is the Drug, More Than This)
1947 Lynn Anderson – Country singer (Rose Garden, Ride Ride Ride, If I Kiss You, Promises Promises)
1948 Mary Beth Hurt – Actress (The World According to Garp, Six Degrees of Separation, The Age of Innocence, D.A.R.Y.L.)
1948 Olivia Newton-John - Singer (You're the One that I Want, If Not for You, Let Me be There, I Honestly Love You, Have You Never Been Mellow, Please Mr. Please, Physical, Magic) and actress (Grease, Xanadu, Two of a Kind)
1949 Minette Walters – British author (The Sculptress, The Ice House, The Scold’s Bridle, The Dark Room)
1955 Carlene Carter - Singer (I Fell in Love, Every Little Thing, Do It in a Heartache) She’s June Carter's daughter
1956 Linda Hamilton - Actress (Terminator series, Beauty and the Beast, Chuck, Children of the Corn, Resident Alien)
1962 Melissa Sue Anderson - Actress (Little House on the Prairie, The Loneliest Runner)
1963 Lysette Anthony – British actress (Poirot: The Hollow, Night & Day, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, The Lady and the Highwayman, Three Up Two Down, Krull, Ivanhoe) She played the imposter of Leslie Giles in the Sherlock Holmes comedy, Without a Clue She also played Lucy in the Home to Roost episode The Real Thing
1968 James Caviezel – Actor (The Passion of the Christ, Person of Interest, Outlander, Pay it Forward, The Thin Red Line, The Count of Monte Cristo)
Died this Day
1820 Daniel Boone, age 85 – Legendary US frontiersman. He died quietly in his sleep at his son's home near present-day Defiance, Missouri. He was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and grew up in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina. There he began his life-long love for wilderness, spending long days exploring the still relatively unspoiled forests and mountains of the region. An indifferent student who never learned to write more than a crude sentence or two, Boone's passion was for the outdoors, and he quickly became a superb marksman, hunter, and woodsman
1937 Bessie Smith, age 43 – US blues singer known as the Empress of the Blues. Smith, an African-American, bled to death when she was denied admission to a segregated white hospital following a car accident in Mississippi
1947 Hugh Lofting, age 61 - British author (The Story of Dr. Dolittle)
On this Day
1580 British seaman Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to circumnavigate the globe. In December 1577, Drake set out from England with five ships on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World. After crossing the Atlantic, Drake abandoned two of his ships in South America and then sailed into the Straits of Magellan with the remaining three. A series of devastating storms besieged his expedition in the treacherous straits, wrecking one ship and forcing another to return to England. Only the Golden Hind reached the Pacific Ocean, but Drake continued undaunted up the western coasts of South America and North America, searching for a possible northeast passage back to the Atlantic. Reaching as far north as present-day Washington before turning back, Drake paused near San Francisco Bay in June 1579 to repair his ship and prepare for a journey across the Pacific. Calling the land Nova Albion, Drake claimed the territory for Queen Elizabeth I. In July, the expedition set off across the Pacific, visiting several islands before rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope and returning to the Atlantic Ocean. On September 26, 1580, the Golden Hind returned to Plymouth, England, bearing its rich treasure and valuable information about the world's great oceans. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake during a visit to his ship. The most renowned of the Elizabethan seamen, he is reported to have played a crucial role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada
1769 The body of Honoretta Pratt was burned in an open grave at St. George’s Burial Ground, Hanover Square, London. This was the first recorded cremation in Britain
1777 British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution
1815 Austria, Prussia and Russia formed the Holy Alliance
1819 Edward Parry anchored off Melville Island, Northwest Territories, and became the first explorer to winter in the Arctic by choice
1887 Emile Berlinger was granted a patent for his Gramophone
1892 John Philip Sousa and his band gave their first public concert
1907 New Zealand became a Dominion
1934 The Queen Mary was launched at Clydebank, Scotland, by Queen Mary
1950 A blurry, blue sun shone over parts of the United Kingdom. It was caused by sulphur particles from forest fires in Northern Alberta and British Columbia
1957 The musical, West Side Story, opened on Broadway
1960 For the first time in US history, a debate between major party presidential candidates was shown on television. The presidential hopefuls, John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator of Massachusetts, and Richard M. Nixon, the vice president of the United States, met in a Chicago studio to discuss US domestic matters. Kennedy emerged the apparent winner from this first of four televised debates, partly owing to his greater ease before the camera than Nixon, who, unlike Kennedy, seemed nervous and declined to wear makeup. Those who listened to the debate on radio felt that Nixon had the advantage over Kennedy, based solely on hearing, and not seeing the debate
1993 Fifty-three-year-old diesel mechanic Dave Munday of Caistor Centre, Ontario completed his second plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. It was believed to be the first time anyone had survived two trips over the Falls. He first completed the stunt in 1985
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