1741 Benedict Arnold - US General and spy in the Revolutionary War who provided British forces with information. In the US his name is synonymous with treason
1875 Albert Schweitzer - French philosopher, musician, physician, humanitarian and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. His hospital at Lambaréné in Gabon was founded in 1913, financed by his organ recitals in Europe
1886 Hugh Lofting - British born US author and illustrator of the Dr. Doolittle books about a man who talked to animals
1892 Hal Roach - Producer, writer, director (One Million BC, Road Show) He worked with Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, and Will Rodgers, among others
1904 Sir Cecil Beaton - British photographer and stage designer who was involved in both stage and film design. He won Oscars for his work in Gigi (1958) and My Fair Lady (1964)
1906 William Bendix - Actor (Babe Ruth Story, Blackbeard the Pirate, The Detective Story, The Life of Riley)
1908 Russ Columbo - Singer, bandleader, songwriter (You Call It Madness, Let's Pretend There's A Moon, Prisoner of Love)
1911 J. Skelly Wright - US judge and former hard-line racist who was instrumental in enforcing the desegregation of New Orleans schools. His change of heart began when he saw blind black and white people segregated at a party
1917 Billy Butterfield - Musician, trumpeter. He was a founding member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band
1919 Andy Rooney - Writer, syndicated columnist and TV commentator (Pieces of My Mind, 60 Minutes)
1926 Tom Tryon - Actor (Texas John Slaughter, The Cardinal, In Harm's Way, The Longest Day) and author (Harvest Home, The Wings of the Morning, Crowned Heads, All That Glitters, The Night of the Moonbow, In the Fire of Spring)
1929 Billy Walker - Singer (Thank You for Calling, Charlie's Shoes, Word Games)
1931 Caterina Valente - Singer (The Breeze and I, Malaguena)
1934 Richard Briers - British actor (The Good Neighbours aka The Good Life, Ever Decreasing Circles, Much Ado About Nothing, All In Good Faith, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, A Respectable Trade, Victoria & Albert, Henry V) He was a cousin of the late Terry-Thomas. He played Sir Clixby Bream in the Inspector Morse episode Death is Now My Neighbour
1938 Jack Jones - Singer (Lollipops and Roses, Wives and Lovers, The Impossible Dream, Lady, The Race is On, the Love Boat theme)
1940 John Castle – British actor (Lord Edgware Dies, The Cater Street Hangman, The Vanishing Man, Miss Marple: The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side, Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced, Reilly: The Ace of Spies, I Claudius, The Lion in Winter) He played Tony Doyle in the Inspector Morse episode Who Killed Harry Field? He also played Carruthers in the Sherlock Holmes episode The Solitary Cyclist
1941 Faye Dunaway - Actress (Network, The Arrangement, Chinatown, The Deadly Trap, Little Big Man, Mommie Dearest, Three Days of the Condor, Bonnie and Clyde, The Eyes of Laura Mars, The Wicked Lady, Little Big Man, The Three Muskateers) She was in both the original and the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair
1943 Holland Taylor - Actress (The Practice, The Truman Show, George of the Jungle, Romancing the Stone, Two and A Half Men)
1948 Carl Weathers - Actor (Happy Gilmore, Action Jackson, Predator, Rocky)
1964 Mark Addy – British actor (The Full Monty, The Thin Blue Line, Around the World in 80 Days, A Knight's Tale, Jack Frost, Sunnyside Farm)
1965 Jemma Redgrave – British actress (Bramwell, The Grid, Cry Wolf, Howards End) She is the cousin of Natasha and Joely Richardson, the niece of Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave, the daughter of Corin Redgrave, and the grand daughter of Sir Michael Redgrave
1967 Emily Watson – British actress (Gosford Park, Red Dragon, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Angela's Ashes, The Mill on the Floss)
1969 Jason Bateman – Actor (Arrested Development, The Hogan Family, Valerie, Silver Spoons) He is the brother of Justine Bateman
Died this Day
1742 Edmond Halley, age 85 - British astronomer who discovered the cycle of the famous comet that now bears his name
1898 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, age 65 - British author better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) He died in Guildford, England
1957 Humphrey Bogart - US actor (Casablanca, Key Largo, The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon)
1965 Jeanette MacDonald - US actress and singer who was teamed with Nelson Eddy in Hollywood movies
1977 Peter Finch, age 60 - British actor (Network, Lost Horizon, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Father Brown, A Town Like Alice)
1984 Ray Kroc, age 81 - US business man who built the McDonald's fast food empire
On this Day
1604 King James the First of England instructed his bishops to prepare what later became known as the Authorised, or King James Version, of the Bible
1639 Connecticut's first constitution, the Fundamental Orders, was adopted. It was the first constitution in the colonies. Composed primarily by Roger Ludlow, a lawyer, the Fundamental Orders presented a binding and compact frame of government that put the welfare of the community above that of individuals. It was also the first written constitution in the world to declare that "the foundation of authority is in the free consent of the people." In 1662, the Charter of Connecticut superseded the Fundamental Orders, although the majority of the document's laws and statutes remained in force until 1818
1784 The US ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War
1814 The last London Frost Fair was held. Crowds flocked on to the frozen River Thames to enjoy all manner of entertainments, such as Punch and Judy shows, piemen, oyster-wenches and spit roasts
1814 The King of Denmark ceded Norway to the King of Sweden, sparking off a rebellion in Norway
1878 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone to Queen Victoria, who placed England's first private telephone call to her friend Thomas Biddulph on the Isle of Wight
1896 Carlo Ponzi emigrated to the US from Italy on this day. The small-time con man would later stumble into one of the largest scams of all time and have an entire type of crime named after him: the "Ponzi scheme." For 20 years, Ponzi bounced from job to job, always dreaming up a way to make millions but never coming close. But in 1919, he came up with a new plan. Ponzi told friends and potential investors that they would get a 50 percent return on their money within three months if they invested with him. The hapless investors were never told much about what Ponzi planned on doing with their money, but, when pressed, he told them that it had to do with international postal exchange coupons, an obscure field that virtually no one knew much about. Ponzi told his marks that they could cash out at the end of three months or roll over their investments. Ponzi promptly paid off his initial investors and soon the investment dollars were pouring in. Thousands of people came to his offices, where money was stuffed in every desk drawer and filing cabinet. Ponzi was taking in an estimated $200,000 a day at the frenzy's peak. When a local writer questioned Ponzi's financial record, he threatened to sue and scared off further inquiry. Ponzi took $3 million in cash to the Hanover Trust Company and bought a controlling interest in the reputable firm. However, when state investigators finally began examining his books and interviewing his workers they found that there was no real investment going on. Of course, only the very early investors actually got any money back, and these funds came from later investors. Such a scam, also known as a pyramid scheme, inevitably explodes, as it did on August 13, 1920, when thousands of investors demanded their money back. Ponzi, anticipating the collapse, had already taken $2 million to the Saratoga casinos in a vain attempt to make up the lost money. Ponzi went to jail and was deported to Italy in 1934. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini gave Ponzi a high position in the government's financial sector. However, Ponzi eventually embezzled funds from the country's treasury and escaped to Brazil, where he died in 1949
1900 The Puccini opera Tosca received a mixed reception at its Rome world premiere
1914 The Ford Motor Company improved efficiency by employing an endless chain to transport each chassis along the assembly line
1949 The first non-stop trans-Canada flight, from Vancouver to Halifax, was completed
1954 Baseball great Joe DiMaggio married actress Marilyn Monroe
1970 Diana Ross and the Supremes performed their last concert together, at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas
1982 Clifford Robert Olson was sentenced to life in prison after he pleaded guilty in Vancouver to 11 counts of first-degree murder. The victims, three boys and eight girls, were aged between nine and 18 and died between November, 1980 and August, 1981. It was one of the worst crimes in Canadian history. Olson demanded 100-thousand dollars to be paid to his family by the RCMP in exchange for information on the location of the victims. The agreement caused outrage, especially from the families of the victims. Olson died in prison in September 2011
30
Responses