1798 Joseph Reddeford Walker – US mountain man who was born in Tennessee. He was the first Anglo-American to see Yosemite. Although he had little formal education, Walker was an exceptionally intelligent explorer and leader, possessing an extraordinary ability to read and remember the geography and topography of uncharted regions. When he was 20 years old, Walker joined an illegal hunting and trapping expedition into the Mexican-controlled territory in the southern Rocky Mountains. Arrested by the Mexican authorities, Walker served a brief prison term in Santa Fe, but then turned the situation to his favour by helping the Mexicans in their war against Pawnee raiders, earning rare trading privileges as a reward. Walker's journeys into the relatively unexplored far western regions of the continent began in 1832 when he met Captain Benjamin Bonneville, who asked him to join his trapping and trading expedition into the West. The following year he embarked on a daring journey west into the Mexican province of Alta California, a feat that had only been accomplished by two other Anglo-Americans, Jedediah Smith and Peter Ogden. Ignoring the trails blazed by his predecessors, Walker led a small group of men on a new route through the Sierras that proved far more challenging than expected, and at several points the explorers were reduced to eating their horses to stay alive. But after crossing the Continental Divide in November, 1833, Walker and his men were rewarded with an amazing sight that no Anglo-American had ever before seen: the mighty redwoods and majestic waterfalls of the Yosemite Valley. In subsequent years, Walker continued to use his voluminous knowledge of western geography as an employee of the American Fur Company and as a guide for other explorers. His wide-ranging travels took him all the way north to the headwaters of the Missouri in Montana and led to memorable partnerships and adventures with other famous trailblazers like Kit Carson. When he finally settled down on his California ranch in 1867, nearly blind and approaching 70 years old, the intrepid mountain man remembered a single day as the best of his life, and asked that a remembrance of it be carved on his tombstone: "Camped at Yosemite, Nov. 13, 1833"
1818 Mary Todd Lincoln - First Lady. She was the wife of the 16th US President, Abraham Lincoln
1871 Emily Carr – Canadian painter and writer (Klee Wyck, The Book of Small, The House of All Sorts, Growing Pains) Born in Victoria, BC, Carr was orphaned in her teens, and in 1891 studied art at the California School of Design in San Francisco. In 1911, she returned to Victoria to paint, supporting herself by teaching art and running a boarding house. Much of her artwork focused on Aboriginal culture
1910 Van Heflin - Actor (Johnny Eager, Airport, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Shane)
1915 Ross Macdonald – Mystery writer (The Moving Target, The Galton Case, The Underground Man) Macdonald, whose real name is Kenneth Millar, created the detective Lew Archer. He was born in California, but moved to Kitchener, Ontario as a young boy after his parents' divorce. He taught school in Toronto and took a Ph.D. in American literature at the University of Michigan in 1951. He served in the US Navy during World War II, and settled in Santa Barbara, California after the war
1925 Dick Van Dyke – Actor and comedian (The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Diagnosis Murder)
1929 Christopher Plummer – Canadian actor (The Moneychangers, The Sound of Music, The Battle of Britain, Madeline, The Thorn Birds, Dragnet, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) He portrayed Sherlock Holmes in the movies Silver Blaze and Murder by Decree
1930 Robert Prosky – Actor (Hill Street Blues, Veronica's Closet, Dead Man Walking, Mrs Doubtfire, Hoffa, Outrageous Fortune, Christine)
1934 Richard Darryl Zanuck - Producer (Jaws, Driving Miss Daisy, Cocoon)
1941 John Davidson – Actor (Shell Game, Airport ‘79), and TV host (Hollywood Squares, That’s Incredible)
1948 Ted Nugent - Musician (Cat Scratch Fever)
1949 Paula Wilcox – British actress (Man About the House, The Queen’s Nose, The Bright Side)
1949 Robert Lindsay – British actor (GBH, Horatio Hornblower, Jake’s Progress, Oliver Twist, My Family)
1950 Wendie Malick – Actress (Just Shoot Me!, The American President, Dream On, Scrooged, Young Sheldon, Hot in Cleveland, Frasier)
1957 Steve Buscemi - Actor (Barton Fink, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Con Air, The Sopranos)
1959 Johnny Whitaker – Child actor (Family Affair)
1967 Jamie Foxx – Actor (Ray, Collateral, Ali, Any Given Sunday, In Living Color)
Died this Day
1784 Dr. Samuel Johnson, age 75 – British writer and dictionary compiler, whose life was chronicled by his biographer James Boswell. Holmes to Watson in A Scandal in Bohemia, “I am lost without my Boswell”
1934 Thomas Watson, age 80 - 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
1961 Anna Mary Robertson, age 101 – US folk artist who was known as Grandma Moses (The Old Oaken Bucket, Christmas at Home, The Quilting Bee) She began her painting career at the age of 78. I guess it’s never too late!
1983 Mary Renault – British author (The Last of the Wine, The Mask of Apollo, The Lion in the Gateway) Many of her historical novels are set in Greece
On this Day
1577 Sir Francis Drake of England set out from Plymouth, England with five ships and 164 men, on a journey that took nearly three years, and would take him around the world. He was the first Briton to circumnavigate the globe. After crossing the Atlantic, Drake abandoned two of his ships in South America and then sailed into the Straits of Magellan with the remaining three. A series of devastating storms besieged his expedition in the treacherous straits, wrecking one ship and forcing another to return to England. Only The Golden Hind reached the Pacific Ocean, but Drake continued undaunted up the western coast of South America, raiding Spanish settlements and capturing a rich Spanish treasure ship. Drake then continued up the western coast of North America, searching for a possible northeast passage back to the Atlantic. Reaching as far north as present-day Washington before turning back, Drake paused near San Francisco Bay in June 1579 to repair his ship and prepare for a journey across the Pacific. Calling the land "Nova Albion," Drake claimed the territory for Queen Elizabeth I. In July, the expedition set off across the Pacific, visiting several islands before rounding Africa's Cape of Good Hope and returning to the Atlantic Ocean. In September 1580, The Golden Hind returned to Plymouth, England, bearing treasure, spice, and valuable information about the world's great oceans. Drake was the first captain to sail his own ship all the way around the world. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan had sailed three-fourths of the way around the globe earlier in the century but had been killed in the Philippines, leaving the Basque navigator Juan Sebastián de Elcano to complete the journey. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake, the son of a tenant farmer, during a visit to his ship. The most renowned of the Elizabethan seamen, Sir Francis Drake later played a crucial role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada
1642 Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand. In his sole attempt to land, several of Tasman's crew were killed by warriors from a South Island tribe, who interpreted the Europeans' exchange of trumpet signals as a prelude to battle. A few weeks earlier, Tasman had discovered Tasmania, off the southeast coast of Australia. Tasman had named the island Van Diemen's Land, but, like the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, it was later renamed Tasmania in the explorer's honour. New Zealand, named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, did not attract much additional European attention until the late 18th century, when English explorer Captain James Cook travelled through the area and wrote detailed accounts of the islands. Whalers, missionaries, and traders followed, and in 1840 Britain formally annexed the islands and established New Zealand's first permanent European settlement at Wellington
1769 Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, received its charter
1779 The first Smithfield Show organised by the Smithfield Cattle and Sheep Society was held at Wooton’s Dolphin Yard in London
1884 A coin-operated weighing machine was patented by Percy Everitt
1893 Prince Edward Island voted for prohibition
1903 Ice cream moulds (or cones) were patented by Italo Marcione of New York
1904 The Metropolitan Underground Railway of London went electric
1922 An early convertible top was patented by William Kissel and Friedrich Werner eight years after they began offering their removable car-top on their KisselKar and Kissel automobiles. Their Convertible Automobile Body had a removable hard top that could turn a closed car into an open touring car, making it one of the earliest convertibles
1928 George Gershwin's musical work, An American in Paris, had its premičre, at Carnegie Hall in New York
1947 The New York Rangers hockey team GM Frank Boucher said face masks for goaltenders would become standard equipment in the NHL, after one of his goalies fractured a cheekbone. Detractors said dressing rooms would become salons for sissies. The first face mask wouldn’t be worn in the NHL until 1959 when Montreal Canadiens Jacques Plante became the first pro goalie to wear one
1979 The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down Quebec and Manitoba laws which created unconstitutional unilingual courts and legislatures
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