1842 Calixa Lavalle - Canadian pianist, teacher and composer who is best known for composing the Canadian national anthem, O Canada. He was also a band Lieutenant for the Northern Army during the US Civil War
1856 Woodrow Wilson - 28th US President, who asked Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917
1903 Earl 'Fatha' Hines – Musician, pianist and songwriter (Blues in Thirds, A Monday Date) He did the classic duet with Louis Armstrong, Weather Bird
1905 Cliff Arquette (Charley Weaver) – Entertainer, TV panellist (Hollywood Squares, The Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Show) He was the father of Lewis Arquette, and the grandfather of Rosanna, Patricia and David Arquette
1908 Lew Ayres - Actor (All Quiet on the Western Front, Johnny Belinda, Advice and Consent, Of Mice and Men, Young Doctor Kildare)
1913 Lou Jacobi - Actor (Irma La Douce, Arthur, Avalon, The Diary of Anne Frank)
1921 Johnny Otis - Composer, song writer, musician on drums and vibes with the group The Johnny Otis Show (Willie and the Hand Jive, Every Beat of My Heart, Roll with Me Henry) He is known as The Inventor of R&B
1922 Stan Lee – Comic book creator and writer (Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Silver Surfer, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Mighty Thor)
1923 Andrew Duggan – Actor (The Winds of War, A Return to Salem's Lot, Doctor Detroit, Backstairs at the White House, The Streets of San Francisco, In Like Flint, The Incredible Mr. Limpet)
1931 Martin Milner - Actor (Route 66, Adam 12, The Halls of Montezuma, The Seekers, Swiss Family Robinson, The Valley of the Dolls, Gidget)
1932 Manuel Puig – Argentine novelist (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Heartbreak Tango)
1933 Nichelle Nichols – Actress (Star Trek, Are We There Yet?, Snow Dogs, Tarzan's Jungle Rebellion)
1934 Dame Maggie Smith – British stage and screen actress (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, A Room with a View, Sister Act, Travels With My Aunt, Murder by Death, Death on the Nile, The Missionary, Hook, Gosford Park, My House in Umbria, Downton Abbey, Harry Potter movies)
1954 Denzel Washington - Actor (Crimson Tide, Glory, Malcolm X, St. Elsewhere, Much Ado About Nothing, Courage Under Fire, American Gangster, The Book of Eli)
1980 Vanessa Ferlito – Actress (Julie & Julia, Spider-man 2, Madea Goes to Jail, CSI: NY, 24, Grindhouse)
Died this Day
1694 Queen Mary II of England – Of smallpox, after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III
1734 Rob Roy (Robert Macgregor) – Legendary Scottish Robin Hood who was immortalised by Sir Walter Scott in his 1818 novel Rob Roy. However, it appears that he was really an opportunistic cattle rustler and blackmailer, who ended up in London’s Newgate Prison before being pardoned
1923 Gustave Eiffel – French designer and builder of the famous tower which bears his name
1937 Maurice Ravel – French composer (Bolero)
1947 Victor Emmanuel III - The last ruling monarch of Italy, died in exile in Egypt
1984 Sam Peckinpah, age 59 – US film director (Straw Dogs, The Osterman Weekend, The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid)
1999 Clayton Moore, age 85 - Actor (The Lone Ranger, Jesse James Rides Again, Down Laredo Way)
2004 Jerry Orbach, age 69 – US stage and screen actor (Law & Order, Mr. Saturday Night, Dirty Dancing, Straight Talk, Brewster's Millions, Murder She Wrote, Prince of the City, The Law and Harry McGraw) He was in the Perry Mason movies The Case of the Musical Murder and The Case of the Ruthless Reporter
On this Day
1065 Westminster Abbey was founded in London
1793 Thomas Paine was arrested in France for treason. Before moving to France, Paine was an instrumental figure in the American Revolution as the author of Common Sense, writings used by George Washington to inspire his troops. Paine moved to Paris to become involved with the French Revolution, and at first, was heartily welcomed and granted honorary citizenship by leaders of the revolution. However, before long, he ran afoul of his new hosts, as the chaotic political climate turned against him. Paine was strictly opposed to the death penalty under all circumstances and he vocally opposed the French revolutionaries who were sending hundreds to the guillotine. As well, his new book, The Age of Reason, promoted the controversial notion that God did not influence the actions of people and that science and rationality would prevail over religion and superstition. He was arrested and jailed for crimes against the country. Paine was taken to Luxembourg Prison, a former palace, where he was treated to a large room with two windows and was locked inside only at night. His meals were catered from outside, and servants were permitted, as was a small sword. Paine's imprisonment in France caused a general uproar in the US and future President James Monroe used all of his diplomatic connections to get Paine released in November 1794. It wasn't long before Paine came to be despised in the US, as well. After The Age of Reason was published, he was called an anti-Christ, and his reputation was ruined. Thomas Paine died a poor man in 1809 in New York
1795 Plans for building Yonge Street, in Toronto, were first proposed. The road, from Toronto to Lake Simcoe, was one of the earliest highways in Canada and is still one of the most important roads in Ontario. It was named for Sir George Yonge, then secretary of state for war in the British government
1846 Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union
1863 Spain recognised the independence of Mexico
1869 The US’s first Labor Day was celebrated, as the Knights of Labor, a labour union of tailors in Philadelphia, held the first Labor Day ceremonies in US history. The Knights of Labor were established as a secret society of Pennsylvanian tailors earlier in the year and later grew into a national body that played an important role in the labour movement of the late 19th century. The first annual observance of Labor Day was organised by the American Federation of Labor in 1884, which resolved in a convention in Chicago that "the first Monday in September be set aside as a laborer’s national holiday." In 1887, Oregon became the first state to designate Labor Day a holiday, and in 1894 Congress designated the first Monday in September a legal holiday for all federal employees and the residents of the District of Columbia
1869 William Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio was granted the first patent for chewing gum
1879 The Tay railway bridge collapsed when the Edinburgh to Dundee train was crossing. The engine and carriages plummeted into the icy river below, killing 90 people
1895 The first public showing of a movie took place at the Hotel Scribe in Paris, as French film pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière unveiled their Cinématographe at the Grand Café on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. About 30 people paid to see short films showing scenes from ordinary French life, including the feeding of a baby, a game of cards, street activity, a working blacksmith, and soldiers marching. One of the films, which showed the head-on arrival of a train, caused many patrons to flee in terror. As early as 1885, hazy motion pictures had been produced, but not until the developments of the Lumière brothers did the first real cinema get made. Their film, Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, is considered the first motion picture of importance, and their screening at the Grand Café marked the birth of the film industry
1897 The play Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris
1900 US temperance crusader Carrie Nation attacked a Wichita, Kansas saloon, shattering a large mirror behind the bar and throwing rocks at a titillating painting of Cleopatra bathing. At six feet tall and 175 pounds, the hatchet-wielding Nation was an intimidating sight
1904 The first weather reports relayed by wireless telegraphy were published in London
1908 At dawn, the most destructive earthquake in recorded European history struck the Straits of Messina in southern Italy, levelling the cities of Messina in Sicily and Reggio di Calabria on the Italian mainland. The earthquake and tsunami it caused killed an estimated 100,000 people. It was particularly costly in terms of human life because it struck at 5:20 a.m. without warning, catching most people at home in bed rather than in the relative safety of the streets or fields. The main shock, registering an estimated 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, caused a devastating tsunami with 40-foot waves that washed over coastal towns and cities. The two major cities on either side of the Messina Straits, Messina and Reggio di Calabria, had some 90% of their buildings destroyed. Telegraph lines were cut and railway lines were damaged, hampering relief efforts. To make matters worse, the major quake was followed by hundreds of smaller tremors over subsequent days, bringing down many of the remaining buildings and injuring or killing rescuers. Meanwhile, a steady rain fell on the ruined cities, forcing the dazed and injured survivors, clad only in their night-clothes, to take shelter in caves, grottoes, and impromptu shacks built out of materials salvaged from the collapsed buildings. Veteran sailors could barely recognise the shoreline because long stretches of the coast had sunk several feet into the Messina Strait
1945 Congress officially recognised the Pledge of Allegiance and urged its frequent recitation in all US schools. The original pledge was composed in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister who was influenced by the ideas of his first cousin, Edward Bellamy, an author who had written the US socialist utopian novel, Looking Backward. Bellamy's Pledge of Allegiance read as follows: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." At the time, Bellamy was chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education, and several public schools adopted his Pledge of Allegiance as part of the Columbus Day quadricentennial celebration that year. Over the next few decades, recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance rapidly increased in practice, and in 1924, against Bellamy's objections, the National Flag Conference changed the words, "my Flag," to "the Flag of the United States of America." In 1955, a decade after its official adoption by Congress, Bellamy's original pledge was altered again after the Knights of Columbus religious organisation successfully persuaded Congress to add the words, "under God," to the official Pledge of Allegiance
1977 Pierre Trudeau became the first Canadian prime minister to tour the headquarters of NORAD, the North American Air Defence Command, in Colorado
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