1650 William III King of England, Scotland and Ireland, born in Holland
1740 Augustus Montague Toplady British Vicar of Hembury, Devon. He was a staunch defender of Calvinism and writer of the popular hymn, Rock of Ages
1879 Will Rogers US humorist and actor (The Wall Street Girl, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court) He was born on a ranch in Cherokee Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma. The son of a mixed-blood Cherokee couple, Rogers grew up riding and roping on the plains. An indifferent student, he earned only average grades in school, but he was highly literate and well read. In 1898, he left his family ranch to work as a Texas cowboy, and then travelled to Argentina where he spent a few months as a gaucho. Rogers discovered his real talent when he joined Texas Jack's Wild West show in 1902 as a trick roper and rider under the stage name The Cherokee Kid. For all his skill with ropes and horses, Rogers soon realised that audiences most enjoyed his impromptu jokes and witty remarks. Eventually, Rogers created a popular vaudeville act with which he travelled the country. In the 1920s, he achieved national fame with a series of movie appearances, lecture tours, magazine articles, and regular newspaper columns. In 1930, William S. Paley persuaded Rogers to try radio. Although Rogers was sceptical of the medium and disliked the microphone, he was a hit. Rogers' warm, folksy manner and penetrating wit were hugely popular during the Depression, and his concern for the welfare of average folks was genuine, and he made many charitable performances in support of the victims of floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes world-wide. Rogers declined a nomination as governor of Oklahoma but later served as mayor of Beverly Hills. In 1935, Rogers died in a plane crash while flying in Alaska with aviation pioneer Wiley Post
1913 Gig Young Actor (They Shoot Horses Don't They?, Teacher's Pet, Young at Heart, Desperate Hours, The Rogues)
1916 Walter Cronkite US journalist and television news anchor (CBS Evening News, The 20th Century, The Facts We Face, Man of the Week, It's News to Me, Air Power)
1918 Art Carney Actor (The Jackie Gleason Show: The Honeymooners, Harry and Tonto, Last Action Hero, Izzy and Moe, House Calls, Roadie, Take this Job and Shove It, The Art Carney Special, Terrible Joe Moran, Firestarter) He played The Archer on the Batman TV series
1918 Cameron Mitchell - Actor (Trapped Ali, Hollywood Cop, Swift Justice, How to Marry a Millionaire, Desiree, The Tall Men, Carousel, Homecoming, The High Chaparral, Swiss Family Robinson)
1917 Virginia Field - Actress (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Dance Girl Dance, Waterloo Bridge)
1919 Martin Balsam - Actor (All the President's Men, Murder on the Orient Express, A Thousand Clowns, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Carpetbaggers, Delta Force, The Goodbye People, Harlow, Little Big Man, Marjorie Morningstar, Psycho, Twelve Angry Men, All in the Family)
1923 Alfred Heineken - Beer mogul (Heineken Brewery)
1930 Doris Roberts - Actress (Everybody Loves Raymond, Remington Steele, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, St. Elsewhere, Used People)
1930 Kate Reid British-born Canadian stage and screen actress (Death of a Salesman, The Andromeda Strain, Atlantic City, Death Ship, Gavilan, Dallas, The Whiteoaks of Jalna, Equus) She was awarded the Order of Canada
1937 Loretta Swit Actress (M*A*S*H, Freebie and the Bean, S.O.B.)
1940 Delbert McClinton - Songwriter, singer (I Received a Letter, Sandy Beaches, Giving It Up for Your Love)
1950 Markie Post Actress (Night Court, Hearts Afire, Fall Guy)
1961 Ralph Macchio - Actor (Karate Kid, My Cousin Vinnie, The Outsiders, Ugly Betty)
1969 Matthew McConaughey Actor (The Wedding Planner, Edtv, Contact, A Time to Kill, True Detective, Dazed and Confused)
Died this Day
1847 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, age 38 German composer and pianist
1918 Wilfred Owen, age 25 British poet (Strange Meeting, Anthem for Doomed Youth, Futility) Many of his poems were written while he was convalescing for shell-shock, before returning to the trenches in the Great War. He was killed in action on the Sambre Canal, one week before the armistice
1995 Yitzhak Rabin, age 73 - Israeli Prime Minister, was shot minutes after attending a peace rally held in Tel Aviv's Kings Square in Israel. Rabin later died in surgery at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv
1995 Paul Eddington, age 68 British actor (Yes Minister, The Good Neighbours, Miss Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage)
On this Day
1842 After a stormy three-year courtship marked by a broken engagement, Abraham Lincoln married Lexington-born Mary Todd in Springfield, Illinois. The couple first met in 1839 when Mary moved from Kentucky to Springfield, Illinois, to live with her oldest sister, Elizabeth. There she met Abraham Lincoln, nine years her senior, a lawyer and state legislator. Standing just five-feet, two-inches-tall to Lincoln's towering six-feet, four-inch-height, Mary possessed clear blue eyes, a wily character, and a polished Southern grace. However, the course of their marriage is not always smooth, perhaps owing largely to their differences in character, as Lincoln was introspective and deficient in social graces, while his wife was lively, volatile, and self-indulgent. Temperaments clashed, but their love endured, even as the Civil War raged less than thirty miles from their home in Washington, DC. Four sons were born of this marriage, but only the oldest, Robert Todd Lincoln, lived to maturity
1852 The British House of Commons Press Gallery was opened
1862 US inventor Richard Gatling received a patent for his rapid fire gun, the forerunner of the modern machine gun
1879 The first cash register was patented by James Ritty. It was intended to combat stealing by bartenders in the Pony House Restaurant, his Dayton, Ohio saloon. His idea came on a cruise, when he saw a device that counted the revolutions of the ship's propeller. The first model looked like a clock, but instead of the hands indicating hours and minutes, they indicated dollars and cents. Behind the dial two adding discs accumulated the total of the amounts recorded. Known as "the incorruptible cashier," with no cash drawer, it would show anyone within sight how much had been recorded. However, Ritty failed to sell the cash registers in large quantities, largely because shop staff distrusted this "thief trap"
1890 The Prince of Wales travelled on Londons Underground electric railway from King William Street to the Oval to mark the opening of what is now the City Branch of the Northern Line. This was the first electrified underground railway system, and the carriages were illuminated by electric lights
1914 The first fashion show was held at the Ritz-Carleton Hotel in New York City. It was organised by Edna Woodman Chase of Vogue magazine
1922 British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen discovered the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Tombs of Kings near Luxor, in Egypt. It had been undisturbed since 1337 BC. When Carter first arrived in Egypt in 1891, the majority of the Ancient Egyptian tombs had been discovered, although the little-known Pharaoh Tutankhamen, who had died when he was only nineteen, was still unaccounted for. After World War I, Carter began an intensive search for King Tut's Tomb, finally finding steps to the burial room hidden in the debris near the entrance of the nearby tomb of King Ramses VI. They wouldnt enter the tomb until the end of the month
1939 The first air-conditioned car was unveiled at the 40th National Automobile Show in Chicago, Illinois. A Packard prototype featured the expensive device, allowing the vehicle's occupants to travel in the comfort of a controlled environment even on the most hot and humid summer day. After the driver chose a desired temperature, the Packard air-conditioning system would cool or heat the air in the car to the designated level, and then dehumidify, filter, and circulate the cooled air to create a comfortable environment. The main air-conditioning unit was located behind the rear seat of the Packard, where a special air duct accommodated two compartments, one for the refrigerating coils and one for the heating coils. The huge evaporator left little room for luggage in the trunk, and the only way to shut it off was to stop, raise the hood, and remove the compressor belt
1939 Congress revised US neutrality two months after England and France declared war on Nazi Germany by passing the Neutrality Act of 1939, repealing the prohibition of arms exports to belligerent powers as specified in the Neutrality Act of 1937. The 1939 act authorised the "cash and carry" sale of arms, requiring that warring nations immediately pay for arms upon purchase, and convey the purchases on their own ships. Despite these regulations, the isolationist US of the 1930s found itself increasingly drawn into World War II under the guidance of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1940, the US gave fifty destroyers to England in exchange for naval and air bases, and in 1941, the Lend-Lease Bill was passed, authorising the US to lend arms and supplies to democratic nations
1946 The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was established
1979 Iranians seized US hostages, as student followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini sent shock waves across the US when they stormed the US Embassy in Tehran. The radical Islamic fundamentalists took some ninety hostages, fifty-two of whom were held for 444 days. Enraged that the deposed Shah had been allowed to enter the US for medical treatment, the students threatened to murder the hostages if any rescue was attempted. Days later, the Iranian government fell, and the Ayatollah took full control of the country, and the fate of the hostages
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