1853 Lillie Langtry – British actress who was a vicar’s daughter from the island of Jersey, and nicknamed The Jersey Lily because of her complexion. Rumoured to have had an affair with Queen Victoria’s oldest son Edward VII when he was still the Prince of Wales, she was much admired in society for her beauty. She was also admired in the US, where Judge Roy Bean, the self-proclaimed "law west of the Pecos," had developed an abiding affection for the beautiful actress after seeing a drawing of her in an illustrated magazine. He named his famous saloon, the Jersey Lily, after her and founded the hamlet of Langtry, Texas, which he also named in her honour. Bean had never met Langtry, but he avidly followed Langtry's career in theatre magazines. Lillie Langtry, the object of Bean's devoted adoration, visited the village he named for her only 10 months after Bean died
1915 Cornel Wilde - Actor (A Song to Remember, Lancelot and Guinevere, Omar Khayyam, The Greatest Show on Earth, Forever Amber) He was a member of the US Olympic fencing team before dropping out to concentrate on his acting career
1917 Burr Tillstrom - Puppeteer (Berlin Wall hand ballet, That was the Week that Was, Kukla Fran & Ollie)
1921 Yves Montand – Italian-born French actor (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Lovers like Us, Grand Prix, The Crucible)
1924 Nipsey Russell – Actor and comedian (Car 54 Where are You?, ABC's Nightlife, Barefoot in the Park, The Dean Martin Show)
1924 Lenny Bruce – US comedian and social satirist of the Beat Generation (Dance Hall Racket, Dynamite Chicken)
1925 Margaret Thatcher – Former British Prime Minister known as The Iron Lady
1939 Melinda Dillon – Actress (A Christmas Story, Harry and the Hendersons)
1941 Paul Simon – US singer and songwriter with Simon and Garfunkel and solo (Bridge Over Troubled Water, Homeward Bound, I Am a Rock, Mrs. Robinson, Scarborough Fair, The Sounds of Silence, Graceland, You Can Call Me Al)
1944 Robert Lamm – Singer and musician with Chicago (Feelin' Stronger Every Day, Saturday in the Park, If You Leave Me Now)
1946 Demond Wilson - Actor and preacher (Sanford and Son, The Odd Couple, Baby I'm Back)
1947 Sammy Hagar – Singer and musician with Van Halen and solo (Keep on Rockin', Your Love is Driving Me Crazy, I Can't Drive 55)
1948 Lacy J. Dalton – Songwriter and singer (Dream Baby, 16th Avenue, Takin' It Easy, Hard Times, Crazy Blue Eyes)
1956 Chris Carter – Writer/producer (The X-Files, Millennium, The Lone Gunmen)
1959 Marie Osmond – US singer and member of the singing Osmond family (Paper Roses, Who's Sorry Now, This is the Way that I Feel)
1962 Kelly Preston - Actress (For Love and Honour, Cheyenne Warrior, What a Girl Wants, Amazon Women on the Moon, Jerry Maguire) She is married to John Travolta
1967 Kate Walsh – Actress (Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Kicking & Screaming, Legion, The Drew Carey Show)
1971 Sacha Baron Cohen – British actor/comedian (Borat, Da Ali G Show, Brüno, Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Comedy Nation)
1977 Kiele Sanchez – Actress (The Glades, A Perfect Getaway, Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, Lost, Married to the Kellys)
Died this Day
AD 54 Claudius I, age 64 – Roman emperor from AD 41 to AD 54
1812 Sir Isaac Brock – British General, died a week after his 43rd birthday in the battle at Queenston Heights, during the War of 1812. Brock was 7 miles away at Fort George when he learned that US General Stephen Van Rensselaer and his invading army of 1,200 troops and militia had crossed from Lewiston and gained heights at Queenston. Brock and the British and Indian forces under his command stormed the Queenston Heights to dislodge Van Rensselaer and his troops from the Niagara frontier in Ontario. Brock’s victory is credited with saving Canada during the War of 1812 by effectively ending any further US invasion of Canada. Brock was awarded a knighthood in England just three days before his death, and a monument to him stands at Queenston Heights, Ontario
1905 Sir Henry Irving, age 67 – British actor who was the first actor to be knighted, in 1895
1945 Milton S. Hershey – US chocolate manufacturer who founded the Hershey Chocolate Company. He died exactly one month after his 88th birthday
1966 Clifton Webb – Actor (Laura, The Razor’s Edge, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College, Three Coins in the Fountain) He died a month before his 77th birthday, of a heart attack in Los Angeles
1974 Ed Sullivan - TV host (The Ed Sullivan Show) He became a newspaper reporter and later a gossip columnist. Starting in 1942, he hosted his own radio show. He died in New York City, two weeks after his 73rd birthday
On this Day
1710 England gained control of Nova Scotia when the French surrendered Port Royal. It was renamed Annapolis Royal in honour of Queen Anne
1792 Construction of the neo-classical Executive Mansion began with the laying of its cornerstone by President George Washington, who chose the site at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It soon became informally known as the White House because its white-grey Virginia freestone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings. The newly designated capital city of Washington was created to replace Philadelphia as the nation's capital because of its geographical position in the centre of the existing new republic. Maryland and Virginia ceded land around the Potomac River to form the District of Columbia, and work began on Washington in 1791. French architect Charles L'Enfant designed the area's radical layout, full of dozens of circles, criss-cross avenues, and plentiful parks. Irish-American architect James Hoban's design was influenced by Leinster House in Dublin and by a building sketch in James Gibbs' Book of Architecture. In 1800, John Adams moved in, becoming the first president to occupy the Executive Mansion. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the building was burned to the ground by British soldiers in retaliation for the burning of government buildings in Canada by US troops. The burned-out building was subsequently rebuilt and enlarged under the direction of Hoban, who added east and west terraces to the main building, along with a semicircular south portico and a colonnaded north portico. The smoke-stained stone walls were painted white, and the work was completed in the 1820s. However, by the early 1940s, rotting beams and crumbling plaster caused the stately structure to be declared uninhabitable, and there was even talk of scrapping it. Major restoration occurred during the administration of President Harry S Truman, during which time he lived across the street in Blair House. After more than three years of renovations, President Truman celebrated its reopening
1775 The US Navy had its origins as the Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet. From the outbreak of open hostilities with the British in April, little consideration was given to protection by sea until Congress received news that a British naval fleet was on its way. In November, the Continental Navy was formally organised, and in December Esek Hopkins was appointed the first commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy. His first fleet consisted of seven ships: two twenty-four-gun frigates, the Alfred and the Columbus; two fourteen-gun brigs, the Andrea Doria and the Cabot; and three schooners, the Hornet, the Wasp, and the Fly
1843 B'nai B'rith, the oldest secular Jewish organisation in the US, was founded in New York City by Henry Jones and eleven others. B'nai B'rith, meaning "Sons of the Covenant," organised its first lodge in November. The fraternal organisation went on to become a national leader in charity work and disaster relief, and in 1913 formed the Anti-Defamation League to combat anti-Semitism
1845 A majority of the citizens of the independent Republic of Texas approved a proposed constitution, that when accepted by the Congress, would make Texas the 28th US state. Under the leadership of the Republic's first president, Sam Houston, Texas had proclaimed its independence from Mexico in 1836, while simultaneously indicating a desire to be annexed to the US. Congress at first refused, but the political climate shifted in the favour of Texas with the presidential election of 1844, when the victory of James K. Polk was widely seen as a mandate from the people to bring Texas into the US fold. Before Polk could take office, President John Tyler beat him to the punch by securing a congressional resolution calling for annexation. With the strong approval of most Texans, Polk signed the legislation which would make Texas a US state that December
1860 J.B. Black took what was probably the first aerial photograph from a balloon over Boston
1884 Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian (Greenwich Mean Time)
1904 Sigmund Freud’s, The Interpretation of Dreams, was published
1916 General Motors was incorporated
1943 Just one month after the unconditional surrender of the Italian army to invading Allied forces, Italy declared war on its former Axis partner Germany. Since the beginning of the war, the Italian Resistance visibly opposed Italy's Fascist regime and its co-operation with Nazi Germany, organising mountain guerrilla units, workers' strikes, and industrial sabotages. The Resistance gained momentum after a government coup toppled Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, and during the Allied liberation, soldiers of the Resistance provided invaluable aid to Allied troops
1975 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced what came to be known as the "6-and-5" program. The federal Anti-Inflation Act established three years of wage and price controls. It was Canada's only peacetime experience with such controls, instituted to limit the money supply in order to rein in rampant inflation
1982 The International Olympic Committee agreed to restore the Olympic medals US athlete Jim Thorpe had won in 1912. He had been stripped of his medals because he had played semi-pro baseball in 1911
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