1744 John Jeffries - Physician and one of the US's first weather forecasters. He kept detailed records of weather conditions from 1774 to 1816
1788 Robert Peel - British MP who was the first commoner to become a British Prime Minister. Concerned about public safety while he was Home Secretary, Peel established London's first police force, the Metropolitan Police, in 1829. The officers were first dubbed "Peelers", and later "Bobbies" in Peel's honour
1840 John Boyd Dunlop - Scottish veterinary surgeon and inventor of the pneumatic bicycle tire
1848 Belle Starr - US outlaw in Texas and in the Oklahoma territory. Born Myra Belle Shirley on a small farm near Carthage, Missouri, she received an education in the classics and became a competent pianist. Seemingly headed for an unexciting but respectable middle-class life, her fate was changed by the outbreak of the Civil War, which ruined her father's business as a Carthage innkeeper and claimed the life of her brother Edwin. Devastated, the Shirley family abandoned Missouri to try to make a fresh start in Texas, where Belle began her life-long pattern of associating with men of questionable character. In 1866, after a brief affair with Cole Younger, of the James-Younger gang, Belle married another outlaw, Jim Reed, becoming his partner in crime by 1869. She joined him in stealing cattle, horses, and money in the Dallas area. Riding her mare, Venus, and sporting velvet skirts and plumed hats, Belle played the role of a "bandit queen" for several years. After Reed's death in 1874, she drifted into Oklahoma Indian Territory, where she met Sam Starr, who eventually became her common-law husband and new criminal partner. The Starrs managed to elude capture for nearly a decade, but in 1883 they were arrested for horse theft and both served five months in the Detroit federal prison. Freed from prison, the couple immediately resumed their criminal careers. In 1886, Belle again lost a husband, but wasted no time in finding a new companion, Jim July, an outlaw who was 15 years her junior. In 1889, July was arrested for robbery and summoned to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to face charges. Belle accompanied her young lover for part of the journey but turned back before reaching Fort Smith. On her way home, someone ambushed and fatally wounded her with two shotgun blasts to her back. Jim July believed the murderer was a neighbour with whom the couple had been feuding, but no one was ever convicted of the crime. As with the lives of other famous outlaws, fanciful accounts printed in newspapers and dime novels made Belle Starr's harsh and violent life appear far more romantic than it actually was
1878 Andre Gustave Citroen - French engineer and industrialist who became one of France's leading carmakers
1906 John Carradine - US character actor (The Invisible Man, The Last Tycoon, Peggy Sue Got Married) He was the father of David, Keith and Robert Carradine
1914 William S. Burroughs - US author (The Naked Lunch, The Wild Boys, The Third Mind)
1919 Red Buttons - Comedian, actor (The Red Buttons Show, The Longest Day, The Poseidon Adventure, Sayonara, They Shoot Horses Don't They, Hatari!)
1928 Andrew Greeley - Catholic priest and novelist (The Cardinal Sins, Thy Brother's Wife, Angels of September, Wages of Sin, Irish Gold) He donated much of the wealth brought by his books to charity
1933 Claude King - Singer (Wolverton Mountain, All for the Love of a Girl) he also acted (The Blue & The Gray)
1934 Henry (Hank) Aaron - Baseball Hall of Famer who played for Milwaukee & the Atlanta Braves. He was a home run champ who eclipsed Babe Ruth's record of 714
1941 David Selby - Actor (Dark Shadows, Falcon Crest, Flamingo Road)
1941 Barrett Strong - Singer (Money-That's What I Want) and songwriter (Just My Imagination, Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Smiling Faces Sometimes, War, Ball of Confusion)
1942 Cory Wells - Singer with the group Three Dog Night (Mama Told Me Not To Come, Pieces of April, Celebrate, Joy To The World, Shambalaya)
1943 Charles Winfield - Musician with the group Blood, Sweat &Tears (Spinning Wheel, When I Die, Lucretia MacEvil, Hi De Ho)
1945 Charlotte Rampling - British actress (Georgy Girl, The Verdict, Great Expectations, Zardoz, Orca, Signs & Wonders, Dexter, Broadchurch) She portrayed Irene Adler in the 1976 movie, Sherlock Holmes in New York
1947 Darrel Waltrip - NASCAR racing champion, was born in Owensboro, Kentucky. He got his start in the business racing go-carts at the age of twelve
1948 Christopher Guest - Actor (This is Spinal Tap, Saturday Night Live, The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men) He is married to Jamie Lee Curtis, and is the Fifth Baron Haden-Guest of Saling, in the County of Essex, England
1948 Barbara Hershey - Actress (Hannah and Her Sisters, With Six You Get Eggroll, Beaches, The Right Stuff, The Natural, From Here to Eternity, Chicago Hope)
1962 Jennifer Jason Leigh - Actress (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Hitcher, Backdraft, Single White Female, Dolores Claiborne) Her father was actor Vic Morrow
1964 Laura Linney - Actress (The Truman Show, Congo, Tales of the City, Dave, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Ozark, The Mothman Prophecies, The Big C, Mr. Holmes, Love Actually)
Died this Day
1881 Thomas Carlyle, age 85 - Scottish historian, essayist and writer (The French Revolution, Chartism)
1972 Marianna Craig Moore - US poet (The Pangolin and Other Verse, O To Be a Dragon, The Fables of La Fontaine)
On this Day
1631 The founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, and his wife arrived in Boston from England
1667 The first large scale mining of iron ore in Canada began at Trois Rivières, Quebec
1783 Sweden recognised the independence of the US
1816 Rossini's The Barber of Seville was first performed, in Rome
1850 The first adding machine with keys was patented by Du Bois Parmelee of New Paltz, New York. He called his adding machine a calculator. This adding machine, the first to use depressible keys, proved impractical and did not catch on. The first practical adding machine, invented by William Burroughs, would not be patented until more than forty years later
1857 In London, Britain's House of Commons appointed a committee to investigate the business affairs and governing powers of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada
1881 Phoenix, Arizona, was incorporated
1883 The Southern Pacific Railroad completed its transcontinental Sunset Route from New Orleans to California, consolidating its dominance over rail traffic to the Pacific. The Southern Pacific had a near monopoly over rail service to California, and the company took advantage of the situation by charging high shipping rates. Termed The Octopus for its tentacled stranglehold on much of the California economy, the Southern Pacific inspired Californians to create some of the first strong public regulations over railroads in US history
1887 Verdi's opera Otello premiered at La Scala
1897 The Indiana House of Representatives unanimously passed a measure redefining the area of a circle and the value of pi. The bill died in the state Senate
1917 Mexico's constitution was adopted
1919 Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and director D.W. Griffith launched the United Artists Corporation, agreeing to share full financial and artistic control. The leading film artists of their era, the partners established the company seeking complete creative freedom in their work. United Artists was the first studio to be controlled by artists, not businessmen
1920 King's College at Windsor, Nova Scotia was destroyed by fire and its governors agreed to affiliation with Dalhousie University in Halifax
1921 Loew's State Theatre opened in Chicago. The enormous movie house boasted 4,000 seats
1935 In New York, boxing authorities ruled that no championship bout should exceed 15 rounds
1936 Modern Times debuted at the Rivoli Theatre on Broadway. A riot squad was called out for crowd control at the premiere of the Charlie Chaplin film, which co-starred Paulette Goddard, whom he secretly married the same year. Enormous crowds gathered outside the theatre to see Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, George Burns, Ginger Rogers, and other stars arrive for the film's debut
1952 The first "Don't Walk" sign was installed in New York City. The city erected the signs in response to the growing awareness of pedestrian fatalities in the increasingly crowded Manhattan streets
1954 The most northerly group of islands in Canada was named the Queen Elizabeth Islands. William Baffin is credited with the 1616 discovery of the islands, which were not revisited until 1818. The islands are part of the Franklin District in the Nunavut territory of Canada's Arctic
1974 The unmanned Mariner 10 spacecraft, on its way to Mercury, sent back the first pictures ever taken from space of the planet Venus
1980 Before more than 21,000 fans the legendary Gordie Howe played in his 23rd and final NHL all-star game. The 51-year-old Howe retired at the end of the season
1983 Amongst old papers in Odense, Denmark, an unknown symphony by Mozart was discovered. He wrote it when he was nine
28
Responses