1851 Asa Griggs Candler - He is known for purchasing the formula for Coca-Cola in 1887
1865 Rudyard Kipling – Indian born British author and poet (Mandalay, If, Gunga Din, Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories, Captains Courageous, The Jungle Book)
1869 Stephen Leacock – British born Canadian author and humorist (Elements of Political Science, Literary Lapses, Nonsense Novels, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, Moonbeams From the Larger Lunacy)
1884 Hideki Tojo - Prime minister of Japan during World War II
1906 Sir Carol Reed – British film director (Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Third Man, Oliver!, The Agony and the Ecstasy)
1914 Bert Parks – Radio and TV host (Miss America Pageant, Break the Bank, Stop the Music)
1920 Jack Lord – Actor (Hawaii Five-O, Stoney Burke, Dr. No, The Doomsday Flight)
1927 Stan Tracey – British jazz pianist and composer (Under the Milk Wood)
1928 Bo Diddley – US singer, songwriter and guitarist (Bo Diddley, I'm a Man, Diddey Wah Diddey) He was a major influence on groups such as The Rolling Stones and The Who
1934 Russ Tamblyn – Actor (West Side Story, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Peyton Place, The Haunting, Twin Peaks, Cimarron) He is the father of actress Amber Tamblyn
1934 Del Shannon - Singer (Runaway, Keep Searchin', We'll Follow the Sun)
1937 Paul Stookey - Singer with the group Peter, Paul and Mary (Blowin' in the Wind, Puff the Magic Dragon)
1939 Fred Lorenzen - Auto racer who won the Daytona 500 in 1965
1942 Michael Nesmith - Singer and guitarist with The Monkees (I’m Not Your Stepping Stone, Pleasant Valley Sunday, A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You), songwriter (Different Drum) pioneer in music videos (Elephant Parts, Rio, All Night Long) and movie producer (Repo Man, Tapeheads) His mother, an ex-secretary, invented Liquid Paper
1942 Fred Ward - Actor (Tremors, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Short Cuts, Miami Blues, Henry and June, Swing Shift, Silkwood, The Right Stuff, Thunderheart)
1945 Davy Jones – British singer with The Monkees (Last Train to Clarksville, I'm a Believer, Daydream Believer)
1957 Patricia Kalember – Actress (Sisters, Signs, thirtysomething, Kay O’Brien, Fletch Lives)
1959 Tracey Ullman – British actress/comedienne (The Tracy Ullman Show, Love & War, I Love You to Death, Girls on Top, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Robin Hood: Men in Tights)
1971 C.S. Lee – Korean-born actor (Dexter, Chuck, The Unborn)
1975 Tiger Woods – US golf champion
1980 Eliza Dushku – Actress (True Lies, Doll House, Tru Calling, The Alphabet Killer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel)
1982 Kristin Kreuk – Canadian actress (Smallville, Chuck, Edgemont, Beauty and the Beast)
Died this Day
1691 Robert Boyle – Irish born chemist and natural philosopher who formulated Boyle’s Law on gasses
1894 Amelia Jenks Bloomer – US social reformer who gave the world the garment “bloomers”
1905 Frank Steunenberg - Former Idaho governor who was assassinated for his role in quelling a miners' strike in 1899. He was wounded by a powerful bomb that was triggered when he opened the gate to his home in Caldwell, Idaho, and died shortly afterwards in his own bed. A former newspaper editor, Steunenberg entered Idaho politics in 1890, when he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1896, he won the Idaho Governor's seat as the head of a coalition of Democrats, Populists, and Republicans who supported the use of silver to back currency. Generally perceived as a friend to labour and the "little man," Steunenberg won a second term as governor in 1896. During this term, he was confronted with one of the most divisive and violent western battles between labour and management of the 19th century. Miners in the rich silver districts near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, had been struggling to unionise and gain better pay and working conditions since 1892. Radicalised by their initial defeats, an increasing number of miners began supporting the violence-prone Western Federation of Miners (WFM), which advocated aggressive tactics and worker control of industry. Alarmed by the growing influence of the WFM, Coeur d'Alene mine owners attempted to bust the union in 1899, and the WFM responded by blowing up one mining company's huge and costly concentrators with dynamite. Disturbed by the miners' violent tactics, Steunenberg, who until then had been pro-labour, turned against the WFM, requesting that the federal government send in troops. The soldiers placed the region under martial law and herded hundreds of miners into makeshift prisons, ignoring their constitutional rights to know the charges and evidence against them. Steunenberg's actions restored order in the Idaho silver mines, but also earned him the lasting enmity of many radical WFM members. Six years later, the radicals took their revenge by sending a professional assassin named Harry Orchard to Caldwell. The professional hitman was responsible for planting the bomb that killed the former governor. Orchard was captured, tried, and sentenced to life in prison, and his guilt has never been seriously disputed. However, many were convinced that the plot to kill Steunenberg was supported not just by a radical minority within the WFM, but also by its top leadership. WFM secretary-treasurer William "Big Bill" Haywood was brought up on charges of criminal conspiracy but was found not guilty largely as a result of famous Chicago lawyer Clarence Darrow's brilliant defence. Haywood went on to found the even more radical Industrial Workers of the World
1916 Gregory Rasputin - Self-fashioned Russian holy man and illiterate mystic who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian court and was murdered by Russian nobles eager to end his sway over the royal family. He was a favourite of Nicholas II and Alexandra, but feared and detested by others. Nicknamed The Debauched One and The Mad Monk, Rasputin was alleged to work magic. His scandalous behaviour forced the Tsar to expel him, but Alexandra allowed him to return to help her haemophiliac son. Although the Siberian-born peasant was widely criticised for his lechery and drunkenness, he exerted a powerful influence on the ruling family of Russia. He particularly influenced the Tsarina, and when Nicholas departed to lead Russian forces in World War I, Rasputin effectively ruled Russia through her. A group of concerned conservatives, led by Prince Yusupov decided to save the monarch from further embarrassment and gave Rasputin cakes laced with poison, but he seemed to withstand the effects of the cyanide. Yusupov then shot Rasputin while in the basement of the Moika Palace. Rasputin appeared to be dead, but again recovered, and attacked Yusupov. The other conspirators then battered him into a state of unconsciousness and dumped his body into the icy river Neva, where he was later found drowned and frozen. A few months later, the imperial regime was overthrown by the Russian Revolution
1967 Vincent Massey, age 80 – Canadian statesman who was the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada, and was Canada's first ambassador to the US, from 1926 to 1930. He was the brother of actor Raymond Massey
1979 Richard Rogers – US composer (The Sound of Music)
On this Day
1672 The first public concert was held in London. The musicians performed behind a curtain while patrons ate cakes and drank ale
1816 Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly wed. The pair had eloped in July 1814, but because Shelley was already married they were unable to marry for two years, until the death of Shelley's wife
1824 The Upper Canada legislature in York, Ontario was destroyed by fire
1853 The Southern US border was established as James Gadsden, the US minister to Mexico, and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, the president of Mexico, signed the Gadsden Purchase in Mexico City. The treaty settled the dispute over the exact location of the Mexican border west of El Paso, Texas, and established the final boundaries of the southern US. For the price of $15 million, later reduced to $10 million, the US acquired approximately 30,000 square miles of land in what is now southern New Mexico and Arizona. Jefferson Davis, the US secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce, had sent Gadsden to negotiate with Santa Ana for the land, which was deemed by a group of political and industrial leaders to be a highly strategic location for the construction of the southern transcontinental railroad. In 1861, the "big four" leaders of western railroad construction - Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker - established the Southern Pacific branch of the Central Pacific Railroad
1870 The Canadian province of Manitoba held its first provincial election
1879 The first performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance took place in Devon
1887 A petition addressed to Queen Victoria with over one million names of women appealing for public houses to be closed on Sundays, was handed to the Home Secretary
1903 About 600 people died when fire broke out at the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago
1922 Russia officially became the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
1936 The United Auto Workers union staged its first sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, Michigan
1940 California's first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened
1941 The famous photo of Winston Churchill without his ubiquitous cigar was taken by Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh
1944 King George II of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne
1948 The Cole Porter musical, Kiss Me Kate, opened on Broadway
1978 Ohio State University fired Woody Hayes as its football coach, one day after Hayes punched Clemson University player Charlie Bauman during the Gator Bowl after Bauman intercepted an Ohio pass
1981 Wayne Gretzky became the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in fewer than 50 games
1993 Israel and the Vatican agreed to recognise one another
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