1766 Charles MacIntosh – Scottish chemist who experimented with rubber and invented waterproof clothing
1800 Charles Goodyear – US inventor of a process for vulcanising rubber. Goodyear's process made millions of dollars, but not for him. Widespread infringements on his patents, together with poor luck in business, left him deep in debt at his death in 1860. In its natural form, rubber is sticky, and gets runny when hot, and stiff when cold. Goodyear accidentally discovered that when rubber is mixed with sulphur and heat-treated, it loses its adhesiveness but keeps its elasticity, even at extreme temperatures. He called his process vulcanisation
1808 Andrew Johnson - 17th US President who succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Abraham Lincoln. His unpopular policies led to impeachment proceedings being brought against him, but he was acquitted
1809 William Gladstone – Four times British Prime Minister
1813 Alexander Parkes – British chemist and inventor of another process to vulcanise rubber, that was different from Goodyear’s. Parkes is better known as the inventor of an electroplating method, and as the inventor of xylonite (celluloid), which he patented in 1855
1876 Pablo Casals – Spanish virtuoso cellist and composer (Hymn to the United Nations) He went into exile during Franco’s rule
1922 Rose Lee Maphis – Entertainer and Hee Haw regular, who was half of the team Mr. and Mrs. Country Music with her husband Joe
1928 Bernard Cribbins – British actor (The Railway Children, Carry On Spying, Casino Royale, Frenzy, Cuffy, Jackanory) He played Wilfred Mott, Donna’s grandfather, in the David Tennant episodes of Doctor Who
1932 Inga Swenson - Actress (The Miracle Worker, North and South Book 1)
1934 Ed Flanders - Actor (St. Elsewhere, A Moon for the Misgotten, True Confessions, Eleanor and Franklin, The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper)
1936 Mary Tyler Moore - Actress (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Ordinary People, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Change of Habit)
1938 Jon Voight - Actor (Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, The Odessa File, The Tin Soldier, Ray Donovan, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Lone Star, 24, National Treasure, Zoolander, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Enemy of the State) He is the father of Angelina Jolie
1941 Ray Thomas - Flutist with the group The Moody Blues (Go Now, Nights In White Satin, Tuesday Afternoon, I’m Just A Singer In A Rock and Roll Band, Your Wildest Dreams)
1946 Marianne Faithfull - Singer (As Tears Go By, Summer Nights)
1947 Ted Danson - Actor (Cheers, Three Men and a Baby, The Onion Field, Gulliver's Travels, CSI)
1951 Yvonne Elliman - Actress, singer (Jesus Christ Superstar: I Don't Know How to Love Him, If I Can't Have You)
1969 Jennifer Ehle – Actress (Pride and Prejudice, The King’s Speech, Pride and Glory, A Gifted Man, Zero Dark Thirty, Little Men) She is the daughter of actress Rosemary Harris
1972 Jude Law – British actor (The Aviator, Road to Perdition, The Talented Mr Ripley, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gattaca, Wilde) He played Joe Barnes in the Sherlock Holmes episode Shoscombe Old Place He also portrays Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes movies
1989 Jane Levy – Actress (Suburgatory, Shameless)
Died this Day
1170 St Thomas à Becket - Archbishop of Canterbury and English martyr. He was brutally murdered on the altar of Canterbury Cathedral by four knights of King Henry II, apparently on orders of the King, with whom he was in conflict. In 1155, Henry II appointed Becket to the high post of chancellor in the English government. Becket proved a skilled diplomat and won the trust of Henry, who nominated him as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. The king hoped his friend would help in his efforts to curb the growing power of the church. However, soon after his consecration, the new archbishop emerged a zealous defender of the jurisdiction of the church over its own affairs. In 1164, Becket was forced to flee to France under fear of retaliation by the king. He was later reconciled with Henry and in 1170 returned to Canterbury amid great public rejoicing. Soon afterward, against the objections of the pope, Henry had his son crowned co-king by the archbishop of York, and tensions again came to a head between Becket and Henry. At this time, perhaps merely in a moment of frustration, the king issued to his court the following public plea: "What a parcel of fools and dastards have I nourished in my house, and not one of them will avenge me of this one upstart clerk." A group of Henry's knights took the statement very seriously, and Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. The Christian world was shocked by Becket's death, and in 1173 he was canonised a Catholic saint. In 1174, Henry was forced to do penance at his tomb, and his efforts to end the separation between church and state ceased. In 1220, Becket's bones were transferred to Trinity Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral, which later became a popular site of English religious pilgrimage
1919 Sir William Osler, age 70 – Canadian physician, professor of medicine, and author (The Principles and Practice of Medicine) He taught medicine and pathology at McGill University in Montréal, and was the first professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, in 1889. Osler also assisted in the creation of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York and held the Regius Chair of Medicine at Oxford. He combined physiological and psychological treatment of patients and emphasised the patient's state of mind in achieving a cure. Osler is known as The Father of Clinical Medicine, and has been called “the most influential physician in history”
1952 James Fletcher Henderson, age 55 – US jazz pianist, composer and bandleader. He died of a stroke
1986 Harold Macmillan, age 92 - Former British Prime Minister. He died at his home in Sussex, England
On this Day
1845 Texas was admitted as the 28th state of the Union, six months after the congress of the Republic of Texas accepted US annexation of the territory. After gaining independence from Spain in the 1820s, Mexico welcomed foreign settlers to sparsely populated Texas, and a large group of Americans led by Stephen F. Austin settled along the Brazos River. The Americans soon outnumbered the resident Mexicans, and by the 1830s attempts by the Mexican government to regulate these semi-autonomous communities led to rebellion. In March 1836, in the midst of armed conflict with the Mexican government, Texas declared its independence from Mexico. The Texas volunteers initially suffered defeat against the forces of Mexican General Santa Ana as the Alamo fell and Sam Houston's troops were forced into an eastward retreat. However, in late April, Houston's troops surprised a Mexican force at San Jacinto, and Santa Ana was captured, bringing an end to Mexico's efforts to subdue Texas. The citizens of the independent Republic of Texas elected Sam Houston president but also endorsed the entrance of Texas into the Union. The likelihood of Texas joining the Union as a slave state delayed any formal action by the US Congress for more than a decade. In 1844, Congress finally agreed to annex the territory of Texas, and in December 1845, Texas entered the US as a slave state, broadening the irrepressible differences in the US over the issue of slavery and setting off the Mexican-American War
1848 Gas lamps were installed in the White House on President Polk's instructions
1851 The first US Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was organised, in Boston
1860 The first iron-clad, screw-driven British warship, the HMS Warrior, was launched. It rendered all other warships of its time obsolete
1890 A massacre took place at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, as up to 400 Sioux Indians under Chief Big Foot were killed by US troops sent to disarm them. It was the last major conflict between Indians and US troops
1908 Cars began stopping faster as Otto Zachow and William Besserdich of Clintonville, Wisconsin, received a patent for their four-wheel braking system, the prototype of all modern braking systems
1934 Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930
1940 London suffered its most devastating air raid as German bombers dropped 10,000 bombs on London. Hundreds of fires caused by the exploding bombs engulfed areas of London and threatened to destroy the ancient city. London was largely evacuated, but the few that remained fought hard to contain the fires, and fire-fighters showed a valiant indifference to the bombs falling around them and saved much of the city from destruction. The next day, a newspaper photo of St. Paul's Cathedral standing undamaged amid the smoke and flames seemed to symbolise the capital's unconquerable spirit. The ability of Londoners to maintain their composure had much to do with Britain's survival during the hard first two years of the war. As US journalist Edward R. Murrow reported, "Not once have I heard a man, woman or child suggest that Britain should throw her hand"
1952 The Coelacanth, a prehistoric fish believed to be extinct, was caught off the coast of South Africa
1952 The first hearing aid using a transistor went on sale. The three-inch-long device weighed about 3.5 ounces. The first hearing aid (other than an ear trumpet) was the Audiophone, a device held against the teeth, which was patented in 1879. An electric hearing aid was produced in 1901
1952 A kidney stone weighing just over 13 pounds, was removed from an 80-year old woman by Dr. Humphrey Arthure in London, England. At the time, it was the largest recorded in medical history
1957 Singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were married in Las Vegas
1967 The Canadian Parliament dropped the death penalty for a five-year trial period. The only exceptions were for the murder of policemen or prison guards
1972 The 16 survivors from the crashed Uruguayan Fairchild F227, which had been chartered by an amateur rugby team enroute to Montevideo, were rescued on the Andes. The crash had taken place on the 13th of October, and it was only later that the survivors revealed their survival had only been possible because they ate the flesh of their dead companions. Their story was chronicled in the 1993 movie, Alive
1989 Canada became the first country in the world to ban smoking on domestic airlines
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