1787 Karl Ferdinand von Graefe - German pioneer plastic surgeon. He employed skin grafts to carry out elementary plastic surgery at military hospitals during the Napoleonic Wars
1823 Thomas Fuller - British-born architect. A Gothic revival specialist, Fuller designed Canada's Parliament Buildings, as well as the New York State Capital in Albany. He was Dominion Chief Architect for Canada from 1881 to 1896
1856 William B. Booth - US general of the Salvation Army from 1912 to 1929
1859 Kenneth Grahame - Scottish author (The Wind in the Willows, The Golden Age, Dream Days)
1902 Louise Beavers - Actress (Tammy and the Bachelor, The Jackie Robinson Story, Holiday Inn)
1918 Alan Hale, Jr. - Actor (Gilligan's Island, Casey Jones, Johnny Dangerously, Destry, Hang ‘em High) He was in the Perry Mason episodes The Case of the Unwelcome Bride and The Case of the Bouncing Boomerang He also portrayed Gilligan in the Batman episode The Ogg and I
1921 Cyd Charisse - Dancer/actress (Singin' in the Rain, Grand Hotel, Silk Stockings, Party Girl, Deep in My Heart, Brigadoon, The Bandwagon)
1924 Sean McClory - Irish actor (Charade, Fools of Fortune, Them!, Captains and Kings)
1936 Sue Ann Langdon - Actress (Frankie and Johnny, A Guide for the Married Man, Roustabout, Zapped!) She appeared in three Perry Mason episodes: The Case of the Avenging Angel, The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor, and The Case of the Crying Comedian
1940 Susan Clark - Canadian actress (Night Moves, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Coogan's Bluff, Webster, Butterbox Babies, Emily of New Moon) She played Mary Kelly in the Sherlock Holmes movie, Murder by Decree She also played Madge Larrabee in the 1981 TV move, Sherlock Holmes
1943 Lynn Redgrave - British actress (Georgy Girl, House Calls, Chicken Soup, Centennial, Rehearsal for Murder, Shine, Charlie’s War, Peter Pan, Gods and Monsters) She was the daughter of Michael Redgrave, and the sister of Corin and Vanessa Redgrave
1944 Mary Wilson - Singer and founding member, with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, of The Supremes (Where Did Our Love Go, Baby Love, You Can't Hurry Love, Stop! In the Name of Love)
1945 Mickey Dolenz - Singer and drummer with The Monkees (I'm a Believer, Last Train to Clarksville) and actor (Circus Boy)
1946 Randy Meisner - Musician with The Eagles (Take it Easy, Best of My Love, Take it to the Limit)
1948 Little Peggy March - Singer (I Will Follow Him)
1959 Aidan Quinn - Actor (Elementary, Stakeout, Frankenstein, Legends of the Fall, Haunted, Avalon, Desperately Seeking Susan)
1961 Camryn Manheim - Actress (The Practice, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, The 10th Kingdom, Major Crimes, Person of Interest, Extant, Harry’s Law, Ghost Whisperer, Jesse Stone: Thin Ice)
1963 Kathy Ireland - Model and actress (Once Upon a Christmas, Gridlock, Loaded Weapon I) She also played Dee Morrison in the Perry Mason movie The Case of the Wicked Wives
1969 Andrea Parker - Actress (The Pretender, ER, JAG, Less Than Perfect)
1976 Freddie Prinze Jr. - Actor (Scooby-Doo, Wing Commander, I Know What You Did Last Summer, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday) He was the son of comedian/actor Freddie Prinze
Died this Day
1702 William III, age 51 - King of England from 1689 to 1702. Queen Anne ascended to throne upon his death
1717 Abraham Darby - British ironmaster who was the first to successfully use coke for iron smelting. He had first used coke in smelting copper, and by 1709, at Coalbrookdale, he had extended this method to produce satisfactory iron using a coke-fired furnace, with cost savings over charcoal. Improved efficiency was also possible with coke as fuel, which could support heavier charges than the weaker charcoal was able to support. The iron quality permitted thin castings able to compete with brass in making pots. His son and grandson followed after him, in their turn providing iron for the Newcomen steam engines, the world's first cast iron bridge, Ironbridge, and Trevithic's first railway locomotive with its high-pressure boiler in 1802
1869 Hector Berlioz, age 66 - French composer (Symphonie Fantastique, Les Nuits d'Été, Te Deum, Requiem)
1874 Millard Fillmore - The 13th president of the US. He died in Buffalo, NY
1862 Nathaniel Gordon - The last US pirate to be hanged, he was executed in New York City. Gordon had been smuggling slaves into the US
1887 James B. Eads, age 66 - US engineer best known for his triple-arch steel bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri in 1874. Another of his projects, in 1879, provided a year-round navigation channel for New Orleans by means of jetties
1889 John Ericsson, age 85 - Swedish-born US naval engineer and ship designer. He built the first armoured turret warship, but his most enduring invention was the screw propeller, which is still the main form of marine propulsion. Ericcson designed and built the Monitor for the Union Navy with both of these features and iron construction
1917 Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, age 78 - German soldier, engineer and airship pioneer. He was the first notable builder of rigid dirigible airships, known then and now by his name. After retiring from a military career in 1890, he devoted ten years to the designing and building of his first successful lighter-than-air craft, the LZ-1. Its initial flight on the 2nd of July, 1900 stimulated funding from the community. Eventually, he produced more than 100 zeppelins for military uses in WW I
1930 William Howard Taft, age 72 - The 27th President of the US, and Yale University law professor. He was the only person to serve as both president and chief justice of the US Supreme Court. He died in Washington
1971 Harold Lloyd, age 77 - US silent film star and comedian (For Heaven's Sake, Feet First)
1999 'Joltin' Joe Dimaggio, age 84 - New York Yankees Baseball Hall of Famer. He died in Hollywood, Florida
2003 Adam Faith, age 62 – British singer (Somebody Else's Baby, Poor Me, The Time Has Come, You Make My Life Worthwhile) and actor (Beat Girl, Never Let Go, Budgie, Stardust, McVicar, Love Hurts, Mix Me a Person)
2004 Robert Pastorelli, age 49 – Actor (Murphy Brown, Dances with Wolves, Sister Act 2, Cracker – the US version, Outrageous Fortune)
2007 John Inman, age 71 – British actor (Are You Being Served?, Grace & Favour, The Mumbo Jumbo, Odd Man Out) He was the cousin of actress Josephine Tewson
On this Day
1765 The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, creating a tax collected by requiring stamps on documents, pamphlets, newspapers and almanacs
1765 One-quarter of Montréal was destroyed by fire
1775 An unidentified person in Billericay, England became the first known victim of a tar-and-feathering
1782 The Gnadenhutten massacre took place as some 90 Indians were slain by militiamen in Ohio in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians
1854 US Commodore Matthew C. Perry made his second landing in Japan. Within a month, he concluded a treaty with the Japanese
1855 The Niagara Suspension Bridge opened, linking Canada and the US. This was the world's first wire cable suspension bridge, and was built from 1851 to 1855 by engineer John Roebling, who later built the Brooklyn Bridge. It was the first suspension bridge built to carry trains, the first of which crossed the following day. The Great Western Railway locomotive crossed the bridge from Canada to the USA, giving Ontario direct rail connection to New York
1862 At Newport Virginia, the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia was launched. It was a captured Union vessel, formerly named the Merrimack, which was converted to an ironclad for Confederate use
1867 The British parliament gave final reading to, and passed, the British North America Act. Many MP's were not in the Chamber for final reading, but they rushed in immediately after to vote on a bill to place a tax on dogs. The BNA Act was proclaimed later in the month, and Queen Victoria set July 1st as the date for Canadian Confederation
1873 The Northwest Territories Council prohibited the sale of liquor
1887 In Connecticut, Everett Horton patented the telescopic fishing rod. It was made of steel tubes inside one another
1893 Emmet Dalton, the only survivor of the Dalton Gang's disastrous attempt to rob two Kansas banks, began serving a life sentence in the Kansas State Penitentiary. After 14 years in prison, Emmet won parole and returned to society a reformed man. He married and began a successful career as a real estate agent. When he and his wife later moved to the booming Los Angeles area, Emmet even found work in Hollywood as an authenticity consultant for western movies. He died in 1937
1894 New York dog owners became the first in the US to license their pets, for a $2 annual fee
1907 The Supreme Court of Saskatchewan was established
1911 Fingerprint evidence was first introduced in New York City as a crime detection tool, in a case against a suspected burglar who was convicted. Scotland Yard had first used fingerprints to convict a killer in 1902
1917 Russia's February Revolution began with rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg. It was called the February Revolution because of the Old Style Julian calendar used by Russians at the time
1949 France granted Vietnam independence within the French Union
1966 Ronnie Kray, London's notorious East End gangster, flanked by two Glaswegian "hard men", waked into the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel Road. Kray, brandishing a 9mm Mauser automatic, shot a rival gangster through the head. This crime was to lead to the eventual imprisonment of the Kray twins
1971 'Smokin' Joe Frazier of Philadelphia won a decision in Madison Square Gardens over Muhammad Ali for Heavyweight Boxing Championship
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