1894 Harold Gray - Orphan Annie cartoonist
1896 George Burns - Entertainer deemed "Entertainer of the Century", who with his wife Gracie Allen, had a successful career on radio, TV, and in films (The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, The Sunshine Boys, Oh God, The Big Broadcast)
1910 Joy Adamson - German born Australian conservationist, naturalist and author (Born Free) As well as a legacy of water-colour paintings of indigenous plants painted by Adamson during her early years in Kenya, she collected many botanical specimens. Her records include information concerning local uses of plant parts in ritual and medicinal practices, and for insecticides, dyes, fibres and food. In February 1956, a completely new period in her life began with the arrival of an orphan lioness cub. With this cub, named Elsa, and later with a cheetah and a leopard, she proved that by skilful and considered action wild animals raised up by man can be taught to manage in nature independently. Her books about Elsa the lioness became world best sellers and films
1920 DeForest Kelley - Actor (Star Trek, Malaya, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) He is mainly known for his role as Dr. McCoy (Bones) on Star Trek. He also played Peter Thorpe in the Perry Mason episode The Case of the Unwelcome Bride
1920 Federico Fellini - Italian director, screenwriter (LaStrada, La Dolce Vita, The Nights of Cabiria, 8 1/2, Amarcord)
1922 Ray Anthony - Bandleader (Bunny Hop, Dancing in the Dark, Melody of Love, themes from Dragnet, Peter Gunn)
1924 Slim Whitman - US country singer (Rose Marie)
1926 Patricia Neal - Actress (Hud, All Quiet on the Western Front, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Heidi, In Harm's Way, The Day the Earth Stood Still) She married author Roald Dahl. Her traumatic life included a series of severe strokes, and one of their children had eight brain operations after being hit by a cab, and a daughter died from measles
1928 Peter Donat Canadian actor (The Game, The War of the Roses, Flamingo Road, The China Syndrome, Rich Man Poor Man: Book II, The Godfather: Part II
1929 Arte Johnson - Comedian and actor (Laugh-In, Love at First Bite, Evil Toons)
1930 Edwin Eugene (Buzz) Aldrin Jr. - US astronaut on Apollo 11 who was the second man to set foot on the Moon
1934 Tom Baker - British stage and screen actor (Doctor Who, The Curse of King Tut's Tomb, Medics, Cluedo) He portrayed Sherlock Holmes in the 1982 mini-series The Hound of the Baskervilles
1946 David Lynch - Director (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Dune, The Elephant Man)
1952 Paul Stanley - Singer with the group Kiss (Rock and Roll All Nite)
1956 Bill Maher TV host and actor (Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, Rags to Riches, DC Cab, Real Time with Bill Maher, Politically Incorrect)
1958 Lorenzo Lamas Actor (Falcon Crest, Renegade, SnakeEater, The Bold and the Beautiful, The Immortal, Grease) Hes the son of Arlene Dahl and Fernando Lamas
1963 James Denton Actor (Desperate Housewives, Face/Off, The Pretender, Philly)
1970 Skeet Ulrich Actor (Jericho, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Into the West, Miracles, As Good as It Gets)
Died this Day
1907 Dmitri Mendeleyev - Russian chemist who formulated the periodic classification of the elements. In his final version of the periodic table in 1871, he left gaps, foretelling that they would be filled by elements not then known and predicting the properties of three of those elements. He died three weeks before his 73rd birthday
1936 George V - King of England, he was succeeded by Edward VIII
1965 Alan Freed, age 42 - US deejay who coined the phrase "Rock'n'Roll"
1984 Johnny Weissmuller, age 79 - Actor and swimmer who won five Olympic gold medals in swimming and starred as Tarzan in the movies
1989 Beatrice Lillie, Lady Peel, age 94 - Canadian born British comedienne and stage and screen actress (On Approval, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Around the World in Eighty Days)
1990 Barbara Stanwyck, age 82 - US actress (Stella Dallas, The Big Valley, The Thornbirds)
1993 Audrey Hepburn, age 63 - Belgian born actress (My Fair Lady, Charade, Breakfast at Tiffany's, War and Peace, Sabrina, Funny Face) She died in Switzerland, of cancer
On this Day
1265 England's Parliament, representing English districts, cities and boroughs, met for the first time, at Westminster Hall
1633 Galileo, then age 68, left his home in Florence, Italy, to face the Inquisition in Rome. By that June he buckled under the threats and interrogation by the Inquisition, and renounced his belief that the Earth revolved around the Sun
1783 Britain and the US signed an armistice, and fighting in the Revolutionary War ceased on February 4th
1841 The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain by China, during the First Opium War. China ceded Hong Kong with the signing of the Chuenpi Convention, an agreement seeking an end to the first Anglo-Chinese conflict. In 1842 the Treaty of Nanking was signed, formally ending the First Opium War
1850 Captain McClure sailed from Britain to search for survivors of the Franklin Expedition in the Canadian Arctic. He eventually discovered the Northwest Passage
1882 A draper's shop, Coxon & Company in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, became the first shop in the world to be lit by incandescent electric light. They used Swan Lamps
1885 Marcus Thompson of Coney Island, NY was issued the first US patent for a roller coasting structure. Coney Island, at the terminus of New York City's extensive trolley line, was already a popular amusement park in 1884, when Thompson opened a new attraction - the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway. For a 5’ ticket, passengers sat sideways in cars that by gravity descended the gentle waves of the 600-foot wooden mini-railway, reaching a top speed of six miles per hour. The enormously popular ride earned back Thompson's original $1,600 investment within three weeks. Within four years, he had built about 50 more across the US and in Europe
1887 The US Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbour in Hawaii as a naval base
1923 The Canadian Government Railways became the Canadian National Railways (CN)
1929 The first full-length motion picture in the US to be taken outdoors was released. It was titled Old Arizona
1937 Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US president sworn into office in January. It was his second of four inaugurations. His first had been held fours years earlier on March 4, 1933. The Constitution of the United States had established March 4 as Inauguration Day in order to allow enough time after Election Day for officials to gather election returns and for newly-elected candidates to travel to the capital. With modern advances in communication and transportation, the lengthy transition period proved unnecessary and legislators pressed for change. The date was moved to January 20 with the passage of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933. Inaugural celebrations have run the gamut from Andrew Jackson's raucous White House reception in 1829 to FDR's sombre wartime affair in 1945, but a basic pattern of activities has been established over the years. Around noon, the president is sworn in at the Capitol by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. After taking the brief, 35-word oath of office, the new chief executive delivers an inaugural address, followed by a parade through the city, and an evening of gala festivities
1953 AT&T linked its lines to the Bell Telephone Company of Canada and a television show was transmitted from the United States to Canada for the first time. The CBS Television production of Studio One was transmitted to CBLT-TV in Canada
1969 Astronomers at the University of Arizona established the first optical identification of a pulsar. Pulsars were first detected in November, 1967, at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, England, using a special radio telescope
1981 Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan. Radical Iranian students seized the US embassy on November 4th, 1979, demanding the US extradite the deposed Shah to stand trial in Iran
1986 Britain and France announced plans to build rail tunnels underneath the English Channel, the Chunnel
1987 Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut, Lebanon, while attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages. He was freed in November, 1991
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