1501 Leonard Fuchs - German botanist and physician. The fuschia is named after him
1706 Benjamin Franklin - US statesman, scientist, inventor, printer and author. He was born in Boston and was apprenticed to his brother, a printer, at age 12. In 1729, Franklin became the official printer of currency for the colony of Pennsylvania. He began publishing Poor Richard's Almanack, under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders, as well as the Pennsylvania Gazette, one of the colonies' first and best newspapers. By 1748, Franklin had become more interested in inventions and science than publishing. He spent time in London representing Pennsylvania in its dispute with England and later spent time in France. He returned in March 1775, with war on the horizon. He served on the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. He was also instrumental in persuading the French to lend military assistance to the colonies. Among his inventions are the Franklin stove, bifocals, and lightening rods
1761 Sir James Hall - Scottish scientist who was the founder of experimental geology
1763 John Jacob Astor - US entrepreneur who was born in the small German village of Waldorf. He sailed for the US in 1793, and quickly learned all he could about the growing fur trade. Astor made numerous trips to the western frontier, and by the end of the century, he had become the leading fur merchant in the US. After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Astor moved aggressively to exploit this huge new territory for its furs. In 1810, he created the Pacific Fur Company, establishing a trading post named Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River with the intent of selling furs to the huge China market. The outbreak of the War of 1812 forced Astor to abandon Astoria to the British, effectively destroying his Pacific Fur Company, but he eventually achieved much the same end by gradually expanding his New York-based American Fur Company westward. By 1823, Astor's firm dominated the US fur trade east of the Rockies, although the British Hudson Bay Company maintained its hold in Oregon Territory until 1845. In the 1830s, Astor had begun diversifying his business interests by purchasing huge amounts of New York real estate. Building on the profits he had made in the fur trade, Astor abandoned his interest in the western frontier altogether in 1834 and concentrated on his East Coast investments. When he died in New York City in 1848, He was the wealthiest man in the US. His estate was conservatively estimated at $20 million
1806 James Madison Randolph - The first child to be born in the White House. Martha Randolph, one of President Thomas Jefferson's two daughters, gave birth to her eighth child. Martha and her husband Thomas Mann Randolph named their new child in honour of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson's secretary of state, political ally, and personal friend
1820 Anne Brontë - British novelist (Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) She was the youngest sister of Charlotte and Emily
1867 Carl Laemmle - German born US film producer who was a founder of Universal Pictures. He was the first to realise the full potential of publicity and the star system
1880 Mack Sennett - Canadian born silent movie director (Tillie's Punctured Romance, Kid's Auto Race, Mabel's Married Life, Cannonball) He formed Keystone, which made slapstick comedies. The advent of sound put an end to his reign as The King of Comedy, but he received a special Academy Award in 1937
1882 Noah Beery - Actor (Mark of Zorro, Vanishing American, The Drifter)
1899 Nevil Shute - British novelist (A Town Like Alice, On the Beach)
1899 Al Capone - Brooklyn born gangster and head of a crime empire during Prohibition. In the 1920s, while Capone made millions from bootlegging, protection and other rackets, 227 of his rivals or challengers were murdered. He was eventually indicted for tax evasion and sent to Atlanta's Federal Jail, and later to Alcatraz
1922 Betty White - Actress (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls)
1927 Eartha Kitt - Actress, singer (Harriet the Spy, St. Louis Blues, Batman) But of course, her Catwoman was no match for Julie!
1929 Jacques Plante - Hockey goalie Hall of Famer who played with the Montréal Canadiens. He was the first goalie to wear a mask during games
1930 Dick Contino – Accordion player and actor (The Big Night, Girls Town, The Beat Generation, Daddy-O)
1931 James Earl Jones - Actor (Star Wars, The Hunt for Red October, The Lion King, Sneakers, Roots)
1932 Sheree North – Actress (The Best Things in Life Are Free, Madigan, Charley Varrick, The Shootist, The Trouble With Girls)
1933 Shari Lewis - Ventriloquist and puppeteer who created Lamb Chop (The Shari Lewis Show)
1942 Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) - Boxer and former US Olympic and heavyweight champ. Stripped of his title for refusing military service, he later won it back on two more occasions, the first boxer ever to achieve this
1947 Joanna David – British actress (Bleak House, The Way We Live Now, The Mill on the Floss, Bramwell II, Miss Marple: 4:50 from Paddington) She was in the series The Glass with John Thaw She played Susan Fallon in the Inspector Morse episode Dead on Time She also played Susan Cushing in the Sherlock Holmes episode The Cardboard Box
1949 Andy Kaufman – Comedian and actor (Taxi, In God We Tru$t)
1955 Steve Earle – Country singer (Copperhead Road, Texas Eagle, The Mountain, Nowhere Road, Continental Trailways Blues)
1962 Jim Carrey - Canadian-born actor, comedian (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, Batman Forever, The Duck Factory)
1969 Naveen Andrews – British actor (Lost, Mighty Joe Young, The English Patient, The Peacock Spring)
1980 Zooey Deschanel – Actress (Yes Man, New Girl, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Live Free or Die, Failure to Launch, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Elf) She is the sister of Emily Deshchanel
Died this Day
1964 T.H. White - British author (The Sword in the Stone, The Witch in the Wood, The Candle in the Wind)
1977 Gary Gilmore, age 36 - US career criminal who had murdered an elderly couple because they would not lend him their car. He chose his own method of execution. Defiantly facing a firing squad, Gilmore's last words to his executioners before they shot him through the heart were "Let's do it." He was the first person to be executed in the US since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, after it had been ruled against by the Supreme Court in 1972
On this Day
1562 French Protestants, also known as Huguenots, were recognised under the Edict of St. Germain
1871 Andrew S. Hallidie received a patent for a cable-car system that began service in San Francisco in 1873
1893 Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown as a group of US sugar planters, under Sanford Ballard Dole, forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate her throne. A new provincial government was established with Dole as president. The coup occurred with the foreknowledge of John L. Stevens, the US minister to Hawaii, and 300 US Marines from the cruiser Boston, who were called to Hawaii. In the 1830s, the sugar industry was introduced to Hawaii and by the mid-19th century had become well established. US missionaries and planters brought about great changes in Hawaiian political, cultural, economic, and religious life, and in 1840 a constitutional monarchy was established, stripping the Hawaiian monarch of much of his authority. During the next four decades, Hawaii entered into a number of political and economic treaties with the US, and in 1887 a US naval base was established at Pearl Harbour as part of a new Hawaiian constitution. Sugar exports to the US expanded greatly, and US investors and sugar planters on the islands broadened their domination over Hawaiian affairs. However, in 1891 Liliuokalani, the sister of the late King Kalakaua, ascended to the throne, refusing to recognise the constitution of 1887 and replacing it with a constitution increasing her personal authority. In January 1893, a revolutionary Committee of Safety, organised by Sanford B. Dole, staged a coup against Queen Liliuokalani with the tacit support of the US. At the beginning of February, Minister John Stevens recognised Dole's new government on his own authority and proclaimed Hawaii a US protectorate. Dole submitted a treaty of annexation to the US Senate, but most Democrats opposed it. President Grover Cleveland sent a new US minister to Hawaii to restore Queen Liliuokalani to the throne under the 1887 constitution, but Dole refused to step aside and instead proclaimed the independent Republic of Hawaii. Cleveland was unwilling to overthrow the government by force, and his successor, President William McKinley, negotiated a treaty with the Republic of Hawaii in 1897. In 1898, the Spanish-American War broke out, and the strategic use of the naval base at Pearl Harbour during the war convinced Congress to approve formal annexation. Two years later, Hawaii was organised into a formal US territory and in 1959 entered the US as the 50th state
1917 The US paid Denmark 25-million dollars for the Virgin Islands
1929 Popeye made his first public appearance. It was in Elzie Segar's comic strip, Thimble Theatre, which originally revolved around Olive Oyl's family. He was introduced as a minor character, but quickly eclipsed the older characters to become the star
1945 Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II
1945 Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody
1949 The first Volkswagen Beetle in the US arrived from Germany. The little Volkswagen, or "people's car," was a sturdy vehicle designed by Ferdinand Porsche and was meant to be a durable workhorse car for the common German
1950 The Great Brinks Robbery took place in Boston, Massachusetts. A team of 11 thieves, in a precisely timed and choreographed strike, stole more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot. The Great Brinks Robbery, as it quickly became known, was the almost perfect crime. Only days before the statute of limitations was set to expire on the crime, the culprits were finally caught, though most of the money remains unaccounted for
1984 The US Supreme Court ruled the private use of VCR's to tape television programs did not violate copyright laws
1994 An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale rocked the Los Angeles area, buckling highways, flattening buildings, rupturing gas lines and sparking fires. At least 61 people were killed. Damage was estimated at 30-billion dollars
1995 More than five-thousand people died when an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale devastated Kobe, Japan. More than 88-thousand buildings were damaged or destroyed
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