1858 Rudolf Diesel - German thermal engineer who invented the internal-combustion engine
1886 Edward Everett Horton - Actor (It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Lost Horizon, Sex and the Single Girl, Arsenic and Old Lace) He was also the narrator of the Fractured Fairy Tales on the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show
1905 Robert Donat – British actor (The 39 Steps, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Citadel, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The Winslow Boy, The Count of Monte Cristo)
1911 Smiley Burnette - Actor (Dick Tracy: The Original Serial, King of the Cowboys, Springtime in the Rockies, Silver Spurs, Petticoat Junction)
1926 Peter Graves - Actor (Mission Impossible, The Winds of War, Airplane!, Stalag 17, The President's Plane is Missing, The Night of the Hunter) He was the brother of actor James Arness
1927 George Plimpton - Author (Paper Lion, Shadow Box) actor (Rio Lobo, Reds, Little Man Tate, Just Cause)
1932 John Updike - Author (The Magic Flute, The Centaur, Rabbit Run, The Poorhouse Fair, Couples)
1938 Charley Pride - Country singer (Kiss an Angel Good Mornin', Why Baby Why)
1941 Wilson Pickett - Singer (In the Midnight Hour, Land of 1000 Dances, Funky Broadway, Mustang Sally, It's Too Late, Don't Knock My Love)
1950 Brad Dourif - Actor (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Eye's of Laura Mars, Ragtime, Fatal Beauty)
1959 Irene Cara - Singer and actress (Fame, Ain't Misbehavin', Caged in Paradiso, City Heat, For Us the Living, Killing 'Em Softly)
1963 Vanessa Williams – Actress (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives, Shaft, Eraser, Boomtown, A Diva’s Christmas Carol)
1970 Queen Latifah – Actress (Bringing Down the House, Chicago, Living Out Loud, Jungle Fever, The Equalizer) and hip-hop singer (Wrath of My Madness, All Hail the Queen)
1972 Dane Cook – Comedian and actor (My Best Friend’s Girl, Dan in Real Life, Good Luck Chuck, Mr. Brooks, London, Employee of the Month)
1980 Sophia Myles – British actress (Marple: Sleeping Murder, Spooks/MI-5, Outlander, Moonlight, Underworld, Foyle’s War: A Lesson in Murder)
Died this Day
1584 Ivan IV, age 53 - The Tsar of Russia known as Ivan the Terrible. He is said to have died in sorrow for his son, whom he killed in a fit of rage three years earlier
1745 Robert Walpole - The First Earl of Oxford, and Britain's first Prime Minister
1768 Laurence Sterne - Irish clergyman and author (Tristam Shandy, A Sentimental Journey, Letters From Yorick to Eliza) He died at his home in Old Bond Street, from pleurisy
1845 John Chapman, age 70 - Nurseryman better known as Johnny Appleseed, died in Allen County, Indiana after more than 50 years of travel. He started his westward journey about 1797, and was not a scatter of seeds as many people believe. He was a practical nurseryman, and realised that there was a real need and an opportunity for service in supplying seeds and seedlings. For the most part, moving ahead of the pioneers, Johnny started many nurseries throughout the Midwest by planting seeds which he bought from cider mills in Pennsylvania. In order to assure stability of the newly established homesteads, the law required each settler to plant fifty apple trees the first year. Because of the poor transportation that existed in the interior in those days, apples were a practical necessity in the early settler's diets. Chapman owned many tracts of land throughout Ohio and Indiana. He used this land to plant apple seeds, transplant seedlings and set out orchards. He sold and gave trees to the pioneer settlers. A deeply religious man, Chapman spread religion as well as apples, sharing his religious tracts and his Bible with the settlers who listened to him. His love for his neighbour made him accepted as a peacemaker between the Indians and the settlers. His path through the East and Midwest is today dotted with many monuments to the memory of this man who fulfilled the Biblical requirements "To Do Justly, To Love Mercy and To Walk Humbly With His God"
1947 William C. Durant, age 85 - Founder of General Motors, died in New York City
On this Day
1662 The first public buses ran in Paris. Louis XIV intended them for the use of the poor who could not afford carriages, but they were instead used by the rich, who thought they were "fashionable". The poor, who were crowded out, decided the buses were not for them, so when the rich got bored with public transit, the buses were discontinued
1718 The first inoculation against disease took place in England, when Mary Wortley Montagu inoculated her son against smallpox. The injection was successful
1766 Britain passed the Declaratory Act, giving the Crown authority to make laws binding in the colonies
1834 The "Tolpuddle Martyrs", six Dorset farm labourers, were sentenced to be transported to a penal colony in Australia for forming a trade union
1836 The Hudson's Bay Company steamer, Beaver, the first on the Pacific Coast, arrived at Fort Vancouver
1849 William Lyon Mackenzie visited Toronto, where an attempt was made to lynch the former Mayor and rebel
1850 The American Express Company was set up in Buffalo, NY
1886 At Lachine, Quebec, the Canadian Pacific Railway started building the Lachine Bridge over the St. Lawrence River
1852 Businessmen in New York established Wells, Fargo and Company, destined to become the leading freight and banking company of the West. The California economy boomed after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1849, spurring a huge demand for shipping. Henry Wells and William Fargo joined with several other New York investors to create Wells, Fargo and Company to serve and profit from this demand. In July 1852, the company began transporting its first loads of freight between the East Coast and the isolated mining camps of California. They also engaged in banking, making good profits in the traffic of gold dust and providing loans that helped sustain the growth of the California economy. The company usually used stagecoaches to move gold dust, critical business papers, and other express freight quickly. The stages could carry nine paying passengers, and if the interior seats were full, a few more hardy travellers could ride on top with the driver. The travelling conditions were far from luxurious, and passengers had to tolerate crowding, dust, cold, heat, and the occasional hold-up or Indian attack. The company operated several small "pony express" routes around California, which were particularly valuable to the business community during winter, when snow often blocked stage and rail routes in the Sierra Nevada. With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the company's dominant position was undermined, especially in the transcontinental mail and freight business. However, Wells, Fargo and Company continued to provide essential local transportation for decades, and still exists today as a banking institution
1892 Former Canadian Governor General Frederick Arthur, Baron Stanley of Preston announced that he would donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada. The Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America. Originally presented to the amateur hockey champions of Canada, it has been awarded to the top professional team since 1910. Since 1926, it has been competed for only by National Hockey League teams
1895 The first petrol driven motor bus, a five horsepower Benz, went into service in North Rhineland. It was capable of carrying between six and eight passengers
1902 Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso recorded 10 songs on "wax" to become the world's first recording star
1907 In Ottawa, the Railroad Commission ordered the CPR and Grand Trunk railways to cut passenger fares to 3¢ a mile
1909 Einar Dessau of Denmark used a short-wave transmitter to converse with a government radio post about six miles away in what's believed to have been the first broadcast by a "ham" operator
1918 The first session of Canada's 13th Parliament met until May 24, in a session that would put a 10% wartime luxury tax on cars, gramophones, records, player pianos and jewels
1925 Two floors of Madame Tussaud's Waxworks in London (near Baker Street), were destroyed by fire
1925 The worst tornado in US history passed through eastern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana, killing 695 people, injuring some 13,000 people, and causing seventeen million dollars in property damage. Known as the "Tri-State Tornado", the deadly twister began its northeast track in Ellington, Missouri, but southern Illinois was the hardest hit. Over 500 of the total 695 people who perished were killed in southern Illinois, including 234 in Murphrysboro and 127 in West Frankfort. The Tri-State Tornado, which travelled 219 miles, spent over three hours on the ground, devastated 164 square miles, had a diameter of over a mile, and travelled at speeds in excess of 70 mph, is unsurpassed in US history
1929 Ground was broken for the Windsor-Detroit tunnel under the Detroit River
1931 Schick Incorporated marketed the first electric razor
1935 The 30 mph speed limit for built up areas was introduced in Britain
1949 The Queen's husband, Prince Philip, became a naturalised Briton
1958 Young English ladies of class and/or money were presented to the Queen for the last time at Buckingham Palace, but despite official lack of recognition, debutantes continued to survive and gather annually for a season of parties and balls
1959 President Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill into law, approving the entrance of Hawaii into the US, pending approval by the electorate of the Pacific Ocean island chain
1965 Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov became the first man to walk in space, as he left his Voskhod II capsule and remained outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes, secured by a tether
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