1712 Marquis de Montcalm Gezan de Saint Véran - Commander in Chief of the French forces in Canada during the Seven Years' War. He was the unsuccessful defender of Québec against General Wolfe in 1759 at the Plains of Abraham
1820 Sir John Tenniel - British satirical artist and illustrator (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, Punch, Aesop's Fables)
1824 Charles Blondin - Legendary French tight rope walker and acrobat who was the first daredevil to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope, in 1859. He went on to make several high-wire crossings over the Falls, some while blindfolded, having a man on his back, on stilts and with a wheel barrow. Sherlock Holmes referred to Blondin in The Sign of Four
1901 Linus Pauling - US chemist and physicist who twice won the Nobel Prize, one for Chemistry, and one for Peace
1903 Vincente Minnelli - Italian born US director (Gigi, An American in Paris, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Meet Me in St. Louis) He was Judy Garland's husband and Liza Minnelli's father
1906 Bugsy Siegel - US gangster who started Las Vegas gambling
1908 Billie Bird - Actress (It Takes Two, Benson, Ernest Saves Christmas, Home Alone, The End of Innocence, Dennis the Menace)
1909 Sir Stephen Spender - British poet and critic (Edge of Darkness, The Still Centre, The Generous Days)
1915 Lee Castle - Trumpeter and bandleader who led Jimmy Dorsey's band during time of his smash hit, So Rare
1915 Zero Mostel - Actor (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Journey into Fear, Fiddler on the Roof, The Producers)
1924 Christopher Kraft - NASA spokesman who was the voice of Mission Control during the Mercury and Gemini space missions
1925 Charles Durning – Actor (The Sting, The Choirboys, The Final Countdown, The Best Little #####house in Texas, Evening Shade, Tootsie, O Brother Where Art Thou?)
1930 Gavin MacLeod - Actor (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Love Boat, McHale's Navy, The Party) He was also in the Perry Mason episodes The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather, and The Case of the Runaway Racer
1932 Don Francks - Vancouver born actor (Terminal Choice, Finian's Rainbow, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Riel, Harriet the Spy, Nikita) He is the father of actress Cree Summer
1939 Tommy Tune - Actor, director, dancer (My One and Only, Hello Dolly!, The Boyfriend) He mainly works on the stage, and for a year he was the featured dancer in the Sherlock Holmes musical, Baker Street, on Broadway
1940 Mario Andretti - Auto racer and Indianapolis 500 Hall of Famer
1942 Brian Jones - Singer and rhythm guitarist with The Rolling Stones until he quit in 1969 (Satisfaction)
1942 Frank Bonner - Actor (WKRP in Cincinnati, The Colony, You Can't Hurry Love, No Man's Land)
1947 Stephanie Beacham – Moroccan-born British actress (Dynasty, The Colbys, Tenko, Troupe Beverly Hills)
1948 Bernadette Peters - Actress (The Jerk, Annie, All's Fair, Silent Movie, Holiday in Your Heart, What the Deaf Man Heard)
1948 Mercedes Ruehl - Actress (84 Charing Cross Road, Radio Days, Big, Married to the Mob, The Fisher King, Frasier)
1955 Gilbert Gottfried – Comedian & actor (Beverly Hills Cop II, Problem Child, Look Who’s Talking Too, Cyberchase)
1957 John Turturro - Actor (Barton Fink, Being Human, Quiz Show, The Color of Money, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Jungle Fever, Mo' Better Blues) He is the brother of Nicholas Turturro
1957 Cindy Wilson - Rock singer with the B-52s (Rock Lobster, Love Shack)
1961 Rae Dawn Chong - Canadian actress (Quest for Fire, Commando, The Alibi, The Color Purple) She is the daughter of Tommy Chong, of the Cheech and Chong comedy duo
1969 Robert Sean Leonard – Actor (House, Dead Poets Society, Much Ado About Nothing, The Age of Innocence, The Manhattan Project)
1976 Ali Larter – Actress (Heros, Legally Blonde, Resident Evil: Afterlife, American Outlaws, Final Destination, House on Haunted Hill, Varsity Blues)
Died this Day
1789 Big Heart Eclipse - The most successful race horse of its day, who won a fortune for his owner, Dennis O'Kelley. When the horse was autopsied, it was found to have a heart weighing 13 pounds - the reason given for its success
1916 Henry James, age 72 - US novelist (Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians, The Turn of the Screw, Transatlantic Sketches) He was born in New York City. His father was a wealthy and eccentric philosopher, and his older brother William became the country's first distinguished psychologist and a well-known philosopher. During their teens, the brothers and their younger siblings were taken abroad by their parents to study European culture. The family roamed England, Switzerland, and France, visiting galleries, museum, theatres, and libraries for four years. A back injury exempted James from serving in the Civil War, and he briefly attended Harvard Law School. He began writing fiction in his teens, publishing his first story when he was 21. He soon became a regular contributor of essays, reviews, and stories to Atlantic Monthly and other important periodicals. In 1873, James moved to England and continued writing
1967 Henry R. Luce - The founder of Time and Life magazines
1986 Olaf Palme - Swedish Prime Minister. He was assassinated by a gunman in central Stockholm
1993 Ruby Keeler, age 82 - Canadian born stage and screen actress (No No Nanette, Colleen, Sweetheart of the Campus, Gold Diggers of 1933, Footlight Parade, Ready Willing and Able)
On this Day
1066 London's Westminster Abbey opened
1784 John Wesley signed the Deed of Declaration, formalising the establishment of the Wesleyan faith, or Methodism
1810 The first US fire insurance joint-stock company was organised in Philadelphia
1849 The ship California arrived at San Francisco, carrying the first of the prospectors from the East Coast via South America's Cape Horn. The prospectors joined the thousands of gold-seekers who had already travelled to California by land to reap the rewards of California's newly found riches
1854 Some 50 people opposed to slavery met at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin to call for a new political organisation. The group would later take the name of the Republican Party
1861 The US Congress created the Territory of Colorado, as the region's population boomed because of the Pike's Peak gold rush. When the US acquired it after the Mexican War ended in 1848, Colorado was nearly unpopulated by Anglo settlers. Ute, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and other Indians had occupied the land for centuries, but the Europeans had only made sporadic appearances there since the 17th century. Permanent Euro-American settlement began in 1851, when New Mexican farmers moved up into the region. The first major Anglo invasion began July 1858, when a band of prospectors working streambeds in the foothills not far from Pike's Peak found tiny flecks of gold in their pans. By the spring of 1859, an estimated 50,000 gold seekers had reached the area and the Pike's Peak Gold Rush had begun. As the first gold-bearing streams to be discovered played out, prospectors moved westward into the rugged slopes of the Rocky Mountains in search of new finds. Wherever sizeable deposits were discovered, ramshackle mining camps like Central City, Nevadaville, and Black Hawk appeared, sometimes almost overnight. Out on the flat plains at the edge of the mountains, Denver became the central supply town for the miners. Far from the seats of eastern government, the miners and townspeople cobbled together their own simple governments, usually revolving around a miners' court that regulated claims, and maintained the minimal order needed for the mineral exploitation of the territory to continue. The unreliable mining operations soon gave way to larger, highly capitalised, and relatively permanent lode mining operations. The pioneers recognised that the vast mineral resources of the Rockies could form the foundation of a thriving new state, but the people settling there needed a more formal system of laws and government, and on this day in 1861, Congress combined pieces of Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico to make a large rectangle of land it designated Colorado Territory
1876 The Parliamentary Library in Ottawa opened. The gothic-style building was saved from a devastating fire that destroyed Canada's Parliament buildings in 1916, by the huge iron doors that had been shut
1932 The last Ford Model A was produced, ending an era for the Ford Motor Company. The successor to the Model T, the Model A was an attempt to escape the image of bare bones transportation that had driven both the Model T's success and its ultimate failure in the market. The vastly improved Model A boasted elegant Lincoln-like styling, a then peppy 40 horsepower four-cylinder engine, and a self-starting mechanism. The Model A was as affordable as its predecessor, however, and with a base price at $460, five million Model A's would roll onto US highways between 1927 and 1932
1940 The US population reached 131,669,275
1960 Richard Petty, the king of stock car racing, recorded his first Grand National victory at the old Charlotte, North Carolina, fairgrounds. Eight months earlier Richard had edged out his father, Lee, at the Grand National race in Lakewood, Georgia, only to watch his victory reviewed on the grounds of his own father's protest. The protest was upheld and Lee Petty was awarded the win. It's not hard to tell how Richard developed the competitive instinct that would make him the winningest NASCAR racer of all time
1966 Liverpool's Cavern Club, an early Beatles stomping ground, closed when its owners went bankrupt
1972 The French police seized 937 pounds of pure heroin at Marseilles. The operation was later immortalised in the movie The French Connection
1992 The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, opened an exhibit honouring the original Star Trek television series. The exhibit featured more than 80 costumes, props, and models from the show, including Mr. Spock's pointy ears and a replica of the deck of the Starship Enterprise. Although Star Trek ran for only three years (starting in 1966) and never placed better than No. 52 in the ratings, Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi series became a cult classic and spawned numerous television series, movies and books
29
Responses