1779 Peter Mark Roget - British doctor and lexicographer. He was the man behind the Thesaurus and also invented the log-log slide rule
1782 Daniel Webster - US statesman and lawyer who said, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." He was the subject of Benet's The Devil and Daniel Webster
1801 James Evans - The man who created the Cree alphabet
1813 Joseph Farwell Glidden - US farmer who's barbed wire design changed the face of the US West. His was by no means the first barbed wire, but his improved, two stranded design proved to be well suited to mass production techniques, and by 1880 more than 80 million pounds of inexpensive Glidden-style barbed wire was sold, making it the most popular wire in the nation
1854 Thomas Watson - Telephone pioneer who was the assistant to Alexander Graham Bell. Bell's first words on the telephone were, "Watson, come here. I want you". Watson also answered the first long-distance call in 1915, when Alexander Graham Bell in New York called Watson in San Francisco. Watson left Bell in 1881 to found a shipbuilding company, which constructed battleships, destroyers, and other ships for the government
1882 A.A. Milne - British playwright and author (Wurzel-Flummery, Mr. Pim Passes By, The Dover Road, When We Were Very Young, The Fourth Wall, Chloe Marr, Two People) He is best known as the creator of the Winnie the Pooh stories. Milne was born in London, the youngest of three sons, and his father was headmaster at a school where H.G. Wells taught. Milne was also a life-long Sherlock Holmes fan, and in 1920 he composed an essay about Dr. Watson. Three years later he wrote his own Sherlock Holmes story titled "The Red House Mystery"
1888 Sir Thomas Sopwith - British air pioneer and WWI aircraft designer who designed the Sopwith Camel airplane. It was a Sopwith Camel that shot down the Red Baron
1892 Oliver Hardy - US comedian who was half of the vaudeville team with Stan Laurel. There are an uncountable number of Laurel and Hardy feature films, most of them from the early 1930s
1904 Cary Grant - British born actor and Hollywood heartthrob for over 30 years (She Done Him Wrong, Bringing Up Baby, Charade, The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, To Catch a Thief, North by Northwest)
1913 Danny Kaye - Comedian, dancer, singer, actor (The Court Jester, Hans Christian Anderson, White Christmas, The Danny Kaye Show, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
1933 John Boorman - Film director (Hope and Glory, Excalibur, Deliverance)
1933 Ray Dolby - Inventor who invented Dolby Sound. In 1956, while working with Charles Ginsbury, he created the first practical videotape recorder, which transformed the television industry. Videotaped shows quickly replaced most live programming, except for sporting events
1941 Bobby Goldsboro - Singer (Honey, See the Funny Little Clown, Watching Scotty Grow)
1955 Kevin Costner - Actor (Field of Dreams, JFK, The Bodyguard, The Untouchables, Waterworld, Dances with Wolves, Open Range)
1964 Jane Horrocks - British actress (Absolutely Fabulous, Deadly Advice, Alive and Kicking, Little Voice, The Street)
1969 Jesse L. Martin - Actor (Law & Order, Ally McBeal, Rent, A Christmas Carol, The Flash)
Died this Day
1936 Rudyard Kipling - Indian born British author and poet (Mandalay, If, Gunga Din, Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories, Captains Courageous, The Jungle Book) His writing reflected a romantic view of English imperialism. He died three weeks after his 70th birthday
1954 Sydney Greenstreet, age 74 - British actor (Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, They Died With Their Boots On, The Woman in White)
On this Day
1485 The Houses of Lancaster and York were united by the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV
1778 English explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to sight the Hawaiian Islands when he sailed past the island of Oahu. Two days later, he landed at Waimea on the island of Kauai and named the island group the Sandwich Islands, in honour of one his patrons John Montague, the Earl of Sandwich. Cook and his crew were welcomed by the Hawaiians, who were fascinated by the Europeans' ships and their use of iron. Cook provisioned his ships by trading the metal
1788 The first English settlers arrived in Australia's Botany Bay to establish a penal colony for the 736 convicts banished from England to Australia. Over the next 60 years, approximately 50,000 criminals were transported from Great Britain to Australia. The accepted wisdom of the upper and ruling classes in 18th century England was that criminals were inherently defective and could not be rehabilitated and therefore required separation from law-abiding citizens. Although not confined behind bars, most convicts in Australia had an extremely tough life
1803 In secret communication to Congress, President Thomas Jefferson requested money to fund the first official exploration of unknown spaces undertaken by the US government. Jefferson had been trying to mount a western expedition of exploration since the 1790s, and his determination to do so had only grown since he became president in 1801. As early as 1797, Jefferson was aware of Alexander Mackenzie's success in reaching the Pacific Ocean in 1793, although he did not read the detailed account of Mackenzie's voyage until the summer of 1802. Jefferson's attention doubtlessly would have been drawn to Mackenzie's description of an easy crossing of the Continental Divide. Mackenzie's claim that he travelled on a path that was only "eight hundred and seventeen paces in length over a ridge of 3000 ft. elevation" and his report that the mountains to the south were of even lower elevation, convinced Jefferson of the feasibility of a US expedition across the continent. Moreover, Mackenzie's urgent recommendations that the British government secure control of the Pacific Northwest probably also hastened Jefferson's desire of an expedition to the Northwest. In summer 1802, Jefferson began actively preparing for the mission, recruiting his young personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to be its leader. Jefferson and Lewis told no one of the proposed mission, not even Congress, which would have to approve the funds, of what they were contemplating. Jefferson directed Lewis to draw up an estimate of expenses. Basing his calculations on a party of one officer and 10 enlisted men, Lewis carefully added up the costs for provisions, weapons, gunpowder, scientific instruments, and a large boat. The final tally came to $2,500. The largest item was $696, earmarked for gifts to Indians. Jefferson decided not to include the request in his general proposed annual budget, since it involved exploration outside of the nation's own territory. Instead, on January 18, 1803, he sent a special secret message to Congress asking for the money, taking pains to stress that the proposed exploration would be an aid to US commerce. Jefferson noted that the Indians along the proposed route of exploration up the Missouri River "furnish a great supply of furs & pelts to the trade of another nation carried on in a high latitude." Though carefully couched in diplomatic language, Jefferson's message to Congress was clear: a US expedition might be able to steal the fur trade from the British. Despite some mild resistance from Federalists who never saw any point in spending money on the West, Jefferson's carefully worded request prevailed, and Congress approved the $2,500 appropriation by a sizeable margin. With financing now assured, Lewis immediately began preparing for the expedition. Recruiting his old military friend, William Clark, to be his co-captain, the Corps of Discovery departed on their exploration in spring 1804
1871 In the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, Wilhelm of Prussia was proclaimed the first German Emperor
1879 The first edition of Boy's Own Paper was published and edited by S.O. Beeton. The paper closed 88 years later, during which time it published stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, G.A. Henty and R.M. Ballantyne. Beeton also published a Christmas Annual, which in 1887, introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world in A Study in Scarlet
1896 The X-ray was demonstrated to the US public for the first time in New York City's Casino Chambers. Viewers paid 25¢ apiece to see the exhibit
1911 The first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbour. He was flying a Curtis pusher-bi-plane and landed on a special 120ft platform
1912 British naval officer and explorer Robert F. Scott reached the South Pole with his expedition. Delayed by sickness and bad weather, he and four companions arrived to learn they had been beaten to the Pole by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who had arrived a month earlier. On their retreat back to base, Scott's expedition was beset by lack of food, illness, frostbite, and blizzards. Two members perished, and Scott and the other two survivors were trapped in their tent by a storm only 11 miles from their base camp. Scott wrote a final entry in his diary in late March. The frozen bodies of he and his two compatriots were recovered eight months later
1919 The World War I Peace Congress opened in Versailles, France
1919 Bentley Motors was established in London, England. A manufacturer of sports cars and luxury automobiles, Bentley was acquired by Rolls-Royce in November, 1931. From that point forward, the Bentley line acquired more and more features of the Rolls-Royce, until the two makes became nearly indistinguishable
1943 A wartime ban on the sale of pre-sliced bread in the US, which was aimed at reducing bakeries' demand for metal replacement parts, went into effect
1967 Yellowknife was named capital of the Northwest Territories
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