1753 Andrew Bell - Scottish clergyman who developed popular education
1785 Louis XVII - King of France, second son of Louis XVI. He would only live ten yers, and was poisoned
1809 Baron Georges Eugène Haussmann - French financier and town planner who made sweeping changes to Paris, widening streets and laying out boulevards and parks
1813 Nathaniel Currier - Lithographer (Currier & Ives hand-coloured lithograph prints of 19th century daily life)
1845 Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen - German physicist who discovered electric magnetic rays (X-rays). In 1901, he won the first Nobel Prize for physics
1886 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - German-born architect who helped introduce the International Style to the US
1897 Gloria Swanson - US actress (Sunset Boulevard, Airport '75, Sadie Thompson, Teddy at the Throttle) She landed her first film roles because her actor husband, Wallace Beery, would only be contracted to Mack Sennett if his wife was given parts, too. She soon became an audience favourite
1910 John Pierce - Electrical engineer who was the father of the communication satellite. He was influential in the development of microwaves and radar during World War II, and began working on the theory of satellite communication in 1954. His writings, which detailed the use of satellites in beaming radio signals around the world, were largely ignored. However, he managed to convince NASA to convert the Echo balloon satellite into a radio wave reflector. His successful experiments with Echo in 1960 led to the development of Telstar, which initiated modern television and radio communications by amplifying signals from one station on Earth and beaming them to another
1914 Richard Denning - Actor (Mr. & Mrs. North, Hawaii Five-O, Alice Through the Looking Glass, An Affair to Remember, Black Beauty, Creature from the Black Lagoon)
1921 Richard Marner – Russian-born British actor (‘Allo ‘Allo, The Boys from Brazil, The Sum of All Fears, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The African Queen)
1923 Louis Simpson - Jamaica-born US poet born (The Arrivistes: Poems, At The End of the Open Road) His early work followed conventional poetic forms, relying on traditional rhyme and meter. However, in the late 1950s and early 1960s he began experimenting with free verse. Influenced by the works of Walt Whitman, Simpson embraced the belief that poetry should reflect the poet's inner life and should be expressed in a natural and spontaneous format instead of adhering to conventional structure. His 1963 collection, Poems, reflected his new aesthetic, and won him the Pulitzer Prize for poetry that year
1924 Sarah Vaughan - US jazz vocalist and pianist known as The Divine One (Misty, Broken-Hearted Melody, Make Yourself Comfortable, Whatever Lola Wants, Passing Strangers, Mr Wonderful, Bring in the Clowns, Tenderly, Broken Hearted Melody, The Man I Love)
1931 David Janssen - Actor (The Fugitive, Richard Diamond Private Detective, The Green Berets, Two Minute Warning, Francis Goes to West Point, Centennial, Harry O, O'Hara U.S. Treasury, Once is Not Enough)
1939 Cale Yarborough - Auto racer. He was the first racer ever to win three consecutive Winston Cup Championships, in 1976, 1977, and 1978. He is a member of the Motor Sports Hall of Fame
1935 Julian Glover - British actor (King Ralph, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Game of Thrones, The Young Victorial, The Empire Strikes Back, Cry Freedom) He has appeared in Midsomer Murders, Cadfael, Lovejoy, Inspector Alleyn, Rumpole of the Bailey, Bergerac and The Sweeney
1936 Jerry Lacy - Actor (Play it Again Sam, Dark Shadows, The Young and the Restless, Chiller) He is married to actress Julia Duffy, and is known for his imitation of Humphrey Bogart
1940 Austin Pendleton – Actor (My Cousin Vinny, Christmas With the Kranks, Oz, A Beautiful Mind, Homicide: Life on the Street, Guarding Tess, Short Circuit, The Front Page, What’s Up Doc?, Catch-22)
1942 Michael York - British actor (The Heat of the Day, Lost Horizon, The Forsyte Saga, Cabaret, The Three Musketeers, Logan's Run, Murder on the Orient Express, Midnight Cop, Austin Powers movies)
1962 Jann Arden - Canadian singer and songwriter (I Would Die For You, Could I Be Your Girl, Insensitive)
1963 Quentin Tarantino - Director (Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Inglourious Basterds)
1969 Pauley Perrette – Actress (NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, The Ring, Time of Your Life, Almost Famous, Murder One)
1970 Mariah Carey - Singer (Vision of Love, Can't Let Go, Hero)
1971 Nathan Fillion – Canadian actor (Firefly, Serenity, Castle, The Rookie, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Desperate Housewives, Slither, Two Guys a Girl and a Pizza Place, Blast from the Past, Saving Private Ryan)
Died this Day
1878 Sir George Albert Scott - British architect who designed the Albert Memorial in London's Hyde Park
1923 Sir James Dewar - Scottish inventor of the thermos flask
1968 Yuri Gagarin, age 34 - Russian cosmonaut who was the first man to travel in space and orbit earth. He died in a plane crash during a training flight
1983 Anthony Blount - Former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, and Russian spy who was the Fourth Man with Burgess, MacLean and Philby. He died in London of a heart attack
1993 Kate Reid, age 62 - Canadian stage and screen actress (The Andromeda Strain, A Delicate Balance, Atlantic City)
2002 Billy Wilder, age 95 - Austria-Hungarian born US producer, director and writer (The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes , Irma la Douce, Some Like It Hot, Witness for the Prosecution, The Seven Year Itch, Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina)
He was the only person to win three Oscars for the same film: as director, producer, and co-writer of The Apartment
2002 Milton Berle, age 93 - US entertainer known as Mr. Television (The Milton Berle Show, Two Heads Are Better Than None, Storybook, The Muppet Movie, Evil Roy Slade, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World) He played Louie the Lilac in the Batman episodes Louie's Lethal Lilac Time and Louie the Lilac. He also appeared as himself in the Batman episode Ma Parker
2002 Dudley Moore, age 66 - British actor, comedian and musician (Beyond the Fringe, 10, Arthur, Unfaithfully Yours) He co-wrote and appeared in the 1978 comedy version of The Hound of the Baskervilles
On this Day
1512 Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida
1625 Charles I ascended the English throne upon the death of James I, becoming the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It was Charles I's crown that was referred to in the Sherlock Holmes story The Musgrave Ritual
1794 President Washington and Congress authorised the creation of the US Navy
1855 Halifax, Nova Scotia inventor Abraham Gesner received US patents for his kerosene distillation process. He and a group of investors set up the highly successful North American Kerosene Gas Light Company, which marketed the new lamp fuel that eventually completely replaced whale oil
1836 The Mexican army defeated and executed 417 Texas revolutionaries at Goliad. In mid-February Antonio López de Santa Ana had crushed the rebels at the Alamo, in San Antonio. Meanwhile, to the south, Santa Ana's chief lieutenant, General Urrea, moved to destroy another faction of the rebel army attempting to defend the town of Goliad. James W. Fannin had only slightly more than 300 Texans to protect Goliad, a position the rebels needed in order to maintain their supply routes to the Gulf Coast. As Urrea's much larger 1400-man army approached, Fannin was indecisive, wondering if he should go to the aid of the besieged men at the Alamo. Belatedly, Fannin attempted to fall back from the approaching Mexican army, but his retreat order came too late. On March 19th, Urrea surrounded the small column of rebel soldiers on an open prairie, where they were trapped without food, water, or cover. After repulsing one Mexican assault, Fannin realised there was no chance of escape. Rather than see his force annihilated, Fannin surrendered. Some among the Texans who surrendered believed they would be treated as prisoners of war, however, Santa Ana had clearly stated several months before that he considered the rebels to be traitors who would be given no quarter. In obedience to those orders of Santa Ana's, Urrea ordered his men to open fire on Fannin and his soldiers, along with about 100 other captured Texans. More than 400 men were executed that day at Goliad. Ironically, rather than serving to crush the Texas rebellion, the Goliad Massacre helped inspire and unify the Texans. Now determined to break completely from Mexico, the Texas revolutionaries began to yell "Remember Goliad!" along with the more famous battle cry, "Remember the Alamo!" Less than a month later, Texan forces under General Sam Houston dealt a stunning blow to Santa Ana's army in the Battle of San Jacinto, and Texas won its independence
1880 The Salvation Army uniform was authorised, but the distinctive bonnets for women did not appear until June of that year
1883 Pile-O'-Bones was made capital of the Northwest Territories, which then included Alberta, Saskatchewan and the present-day Northwest Territories. The capital was later renamed Regina, and is now the capital of the province of Saskatchewan
1884 The first long-distance telephone call was made between Boston and New York City, by branch managers of the American Bell Telephone Company. Although they reported the call was perfectly clear, maintaining clarity on long-distance phone calls proved problematic until the early 1900s, when Michael Pupin devised a method to transmit telephone signals over long distances
1885 The US Congress approved spending 30-thousand dollars to buy camels for use by the US Army in Texas
1914 The first successful blood transfusion took place in a Brussels hospital
1925 Cecil Kimber registered his first modified Morris, the prototype of the MG
1935 John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, was appointed governor-general of Canada. He instituted the Governor-General's literary awards in 1937. One of the many books that he authored was The Thirty-nine Steps, which was adapted for the screen by Hitchcock in 1935
1953 Canada presented the United Nations with a gift of seven main doors for the UN building in New York
1964 The strongest earthquake in US history, measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale, slammed into southern Alaska, killing 125 people and injuring thousands. The massive earthquake had its epicentre in Prince William Sound, about eight miles north-east of Anchorage. Approximately 300,000 square miles of US, Canadian, and international territory were affected. Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, sustained the most property damage and initial loss of life, with about thirty blocks of dwellings and commercial buildings damaged or destroyed in the downtown area. Although only 15 people died or were fatally injured during the duration of the three-minute quake, the ensuing tsunami killed another 110 people. The tidal wave, which measured over a hundred feet at certain points, devastated towns along the Gulf of Alaska, and caused serious damage in British Columbia, Hawaii, and along the West Coast of the US, where 15 people died. Property damage was estimated in excess of four hundred million dollars. The next day, US President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Alaska an official disaster area
1964 Six months after Britain's Great Train Robbery in Buckinhamshire, twenty of the gang were still at large, but the ten who were arrested, including Ronnie Biggs, were found guilty of stealing more than £2.6million from mailbags. Sentences totalled 307 years in jail
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