1537 Edward VI King of England. He was the son of Henry VIII and his third wife, Jane Seymour
1860 Elmer Ambrose Sperry US inventor and founder of the Sperry-Rand Corporation. He perfected the use of gyroscopes and invented gyroscopic devices such as the marine autopilot and the gyroscopic compass
1912 Alice Childress - US author (A Hero Ain't Nothing but a Sandwich, A Short Walk), playwright (Trouble in Mind, Wedding Band) and stage actress (Anna Lucasta)
1923 Jean Nidetch - Diet mogul who founded Weight Watchers
1929 Magnus Magnusson Icelandic-born British writer and quizmaster (Mastermind)
1932 Dick Gregory Comedian and civil rights activist (Prologue, The Great Standups)
1935 Samuel Moore Singer with the group Sam & Dave (Hold On! I'm a Comin', Soul Man, I Thank You, Soul Sister Brown Sugar)
1935 Luciano Pavarotti Italian tenor (Rigoletto, La Boheme) and actor (Yes Giorgio)
1950 Susan Anton - Singer (Killin' Time) and actress (Cannonball Run 2, Goldengirl, Baywatch, Stop Susan Williams)
1950 Ronald E. McNair Physicist and astronaut. He was a mission specialist aboard the ill-fated Challenger Space Shuttle
1955 Jane Siberry Canadian singer (Calling All Angels, It Cant Rain All the Time, Shes Like the Swallow, See the Child)
1968 Hugh Jackman Australian actor (X-Men, Swordfish, Van Helsing, Kate & Leopold, Oklahoma!, Snowy River: The McGregor Saga, Correlli)
1968 Adam Rich - Actor (Eight is Enough, The Devil & Max Devlin, Zertigo Diamond Caper, Code Red)
1969 Martie Seidel - Fiddler with the group Dixie Chicks (Goodbye Earl, Ready to Run, Wide Open Spaces)
1970 Kirk Cameron - Actor (Growing Pains, Listen to Me, The Best of Times, Like Father Like Son, Two Marriages)
Died this Day
1845 Elizabeth Fry, aged 65 British social and prison reformer
1859 Robert Stephenson British rail and civil engineer
1870 Robert E. Lee, aged 63 Confederate General, died in Lexington, Virginia
1915 Edith Cavell, age 50 - British nurse who was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels for helping Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium during World War I. Cavell first entered the nursing profession in 1885, and in 1907 became the matron of the Berkendael Institute in Brussels. Following the German invasion of neutral Belgium, Cavell sheltered British, French, and Belgian soldiers at the Institute, before helping them to escape to Holland. In August 1915, Cavell and several others were arrested and tried by a court-martial. Cavell made a full confession and was sentenced to death five days before her execution. Despite the efforts of representatives from neutral governments such as the US and Spain, German authorities carried out the sentences. Cavell subsequently became an idealised hero of the Allied press, and was honoured with a statue in St. Martin's Place, just off London's Trafalgar Square
1940 Tom Mix, age 60 Silent movie actor. He was killed in a freak car accident near his ranch in Florence, Arizona. Driving his single-seat roadster along a straight desert road at about 80 mph, Mix apparently ignored warnings that a bridge was out on a shallow gully and was fatally crushed by a heavy suitcase that flew off the rear shelf of his car. Mix had been one of the biggest silent movies stars in Hollywood during the 1920s, appearing in more than 300 westerns and making as much as $10,000 a week. Unlike most of the actors appearing in westerns, Mix had actually worked as a cowboy, served as a soldier during the Spanish-American War, and been a Texas Ranger, and brought a wealth of real experience to his fictional cowboy characters. Mix helped define the classic image of the western movie cowboy as a rough riding, quick-shooting defender of right and justice. Most of his films have been lost because they were released on highly combustible nitrate film stock. With the coming of talking pictures, Mix's movie career stalled, and in 1933, he organised Tom Mix's Circus and Wild West Show and helped create The Tom Mix Show on radio. A black iron silhouette of a riderless bronco marks the site of Mix's death on the highway about 17 miles south of Florence, Arizona. The so-called "suitcase of death" is preserved at the Tom Mix Museum in Dewey, Oklahoma
1965 Paul Muller Swiss chemist and Nobel prize winner for his formulation of the insecticide DDT
1987 Kenneth Uston US card player who gave up his job as senior vice-president of the San Francisco Stock Exchange to concentrate on his technique of card-counting. It made him a fortune at Blackjack, and he was eventually banned from many casino tables
1997 John Denver, aged 53 US singer/songwriter (Take Me Home Country Roads, Sunshine on my Shoulders, Annie's Song, Rocky Mountain High, Fly Away, Calypso, Thank God I'm a Country Boy) He was killed in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, California
1999 Wilt Chamberlain, age 63 - NBA Hall-of-Famer, died at his Los Angeles home
On this Day
1492 Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived to the New World as he sighted Watling Island in the Bahamas, initially believing that he had found Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the island for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, the sponsors of Columbus's attempt to find a Western ocean route to the Far East. On August 3rd, Columbus set sail from the Spanish port of Palos, commanding three ships - the Pinta, the Nina, and the flagship Santa Maria - and 120 men. After leaving Watling, Columbus visited Cuba and Hispaniola, where he traded with natives whom he incorrectly called "Indians." During these travels, the Santa Maria was wrecked, and Columbus left thirty-eight men on Hispaniola with munitions and supplies before sailing back to Spain aboard the two smaller ships. The expedition returned to Palos in March of 1493, and Columbus was received with the highest honours by the Spanish court. During his lifetime he led three more expeditions to the New World, discovering various Caribbean islands, the Gulf of Mexico, and the South American mainland, but never accomplished his original goal - a Western ocean route to India
1609 Three Blind Mice was published in London. It is believed to be the earliest printed secular song
1768 The Empress of Russia was inoculated with a new smallpox vaccine to set an example for her subjects
1810 Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, later King Ludwig I of Bavaria, married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The Bavarian royalty invited the citizens of Munich to attend the festivities, held on the fields in front of the city gates. Horse races in the presence of the Royal Family concluded the popular event, celebrated in varying forms all across Bavaria. The decision to repeat the festivities and the horse races in the subsequent year give rise to the tradition of the annual Oktoberfest, which is still celebrated today. It now begins in late September and lasts until the first Sunday in October
1849 British inventor Charles Rowley patented the safety pin, unaware of an earlier US patent the same year
1856 Coal was first used for street lighting in Quebec City
1861 The Confederate ironclad Manassas attacked the northern ship Richmond on the Mississippi River
1871 US President Ulysses S. Grant condemned the Klu Klux Klan and ordered the arrest of several hundred people believed involved in Klan activities
1928 The first iron lung was used at Boston Childrens Hospital
1928 The Graf Zeppelin, the first commercial dirigible to cross the Atlantic, embarked on its maiden voyage. The Zeppelin, named after its inventor, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, made more than five hundred transatlantic passenger flights before it was retired in favour of the Hindenburg. In May 1937, the hydrogen-inflated Hindenburg caught fire as it landed in Lakehurst, New Jersey, and was consumed in minutes. Lighter-than-air passenger travel rapidly fell out of favour after the Hindenberg disaster, and no existing rigid airship survived World War II
1933 Bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff
1957 Future Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts during the Suez Crisis
1964 The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod space capsule with a three-man crew on the first manned mission involving more than one crew member
1970 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau ordered Canadian Army troops to leave Camp Petawawa and mobilise in Ottawa. They were there to guard government buildings and officials, and protect the diplomatic community from the terrorist threats of the FLQ
1971 Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway
1975 Archbishop Oliver Plunkett became the first Irish-born saint to be canonised in seven centuries
1984 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped unhurt when a bomb exploded in the upper floors of her hotel in Brighton during a Conservative party convention. Four people were killed
1997 Three earthquakes in central Italy damaged the famed St. Francis Basilica and 15th-century bell tower above Foligno city hall
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