1561 Santorio Santorio - Italian physician. He introduced the use of precision instruments in medicine
1790 John Tyler - 10th US President, born in Charles City County, Virginia. He was the first president to marry while in office
1853 Elihu Thomson - British born US engineer and inventor who made major contributions in electrodynamics and invented the high frequency dynamo and transformer. He joined with Edison to form the General Electric Company
1869 Sir Edward Landseer Luytens - British architect who designed the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Liverpool, the Cenotaph, and Whitehall
1902 Sir William Walton - British composer (Façade, Belshazzar's Feast)
1912 Frederick Mackenzie - Scottish printer who, with K.J. Reed, invented Letraset dry printing in the 1950's
1914 Phil Foster - Comedian and actor (Bang the Drum Slowly, Conquest of Space, Hail)
1918 Samuel Moore Walton - US retail magnate who founded Wal-Mart in 1962
1918 Pearl Mae Bailey - Jazz singer (Takes Two to Tango, A Little Learnin' is a Dangerous Thing-with Sinatra) actress (St. Louis Woman, Variety Girl, Porgy and Bess)
1919 Eileen Heckart - Actress (The Bad Seed, Bus Stop, Butterflies are Free, Heartbreak Ridge, Up the Down Staircase)
1925 Frederick Treves – British actor (The Inspector Lynley Mysteries: Well Schooled in Murder, The Cazalets, The Politician's Wife, To Play the King, Lipstick on Your Collar, Game Set and Match, Miss Marple: Sleeping Murder, The Jewel in the Crown, Sweeney 2, Devices and Desires) He played Dr. Alexander Beck in the Kavanagh QC episode Ancient History He also played the Dean of Lonsdale College in the Inspector Morse episode The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
1942 Julie Goodyear - British actress (Coronation Street)
1942 Scott Wilson – Actor (In Cold Blood, The Walking Dead, The Last Samurai, Monster, Pearl Harbor, G.I. Jane, Dead Man Walking, Geronimo: An American Legend, The Right Stuff, In the Heat of the Night)
1943 Vangelis - Greek born musician and composer of movie scores (Blade Runner, Missing, The Bounty, Chariots of Fire)
1943 Eric Idle - British comedian and actor (Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Rutles, Nuns on the Run, Casper, Splitting Heirs, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
1944 Terry Jacks - Canadian singer and songwriter (Seasons in the Sun, If You Go Away, Concrete Sea)
1947 Bobby Kimball - Singer with the group Toto (Africa, Rosanna)
1948 Bud Cort - Actor (Harold and Maude, Brewster McCloud, M*A*S*H)
1957 Christopher Lambert - Actor (Highlander, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Mortal Kombat, Beowulf, Resurrection)
1960 Annabella Sciorra – Actress (The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Sopranos, What Dreams May Come, Cop Land, Romeo is Bleeding, Cadillac Man)
1960 Marina Sirtis – British actress (Star Trek: Next Generation, Walking on Water, Net Games, Paradise Lost, Gadgetman, Death Wish 3, Grendel, Crash) She played Lucrezia in the Sherlock Holmes episode The Six Napoleons
1963 Elle MacPherson - Model
1968 Lucy Lawless - New Zealand actress (Xena: Warrior Princess, The Rainbow Warrior, Peach, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Battlestar Galactica)
Died this Day
1788 Charles Wesley - British evangelist and writer of over 5,500 hymns. He was the brother of John Wesley who founded Methodism
1792 Gustav the Third - King of Sweden. He died, nearly two weeks after he was mortally wounded during a masquerade party
1891 George-Pierre Seurat - French painter
1891 Robert Falcon Scott - Antarctic explorer who died while returning from the South Pole. His final entry in the journal, on this date, read "For God's sake, look after our people." He and his party were not found until November of that year
1999 Joe Williams, age 80 - Legendary jazz singer, died in Las Vegas
On this Day
1461 Edward VI secured the crown of England by a victory over the Lancastrians in the War of the Roses at Totown, North Yorkshire. It is believed to be the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil , with the loss of over 28,000 men
1632 France recovered Canada from England through the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye
1638 Swedish colonists settled in present-day Delaware
1778 James Cook landed at Nootka (Friendly Cove) on the west coast of Vancouver Island, after an 8 month voyage from England en route to search for a western entrance to the North West Passage. Cook's ship, the Resolution, was the first British ship on the North West coast
1797 Social critic Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the earliest and most eloquent proponents of women's rights, married William Godwin, the most famous radical reformer of his time. Wollstonecraft, who had been raised by a tyrannical, abusive, and alcoholic father, was philosophically opposed to marriage, as was Godwin. However, the two decided to marry after Wollstonecraft became pregnant with his child. The couple lived happily for six months, until Wollstonecraft died after giving birth to a daughter. The baby girl become Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein and wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
1806 The US Congress authorised surveying to begin for the construction of the Cumberland Road, which sped the way for thousands heading west. It was the first highway funded by the national treasury. Four years earlier, Congress had recognised the importance of building a network of national roads to facilitate western immigration. The task of surveying the route for the new national road went to the Army's Corps of Engineers, setting an important precedent for the military's involvement in building transportation routes that would be used for non-military purposes. The Corps of Engineers also built the road once construction began in 1811. Progress was slow, and the Corps did not complete the 130-mile road until 1818. Its value, though, became apparent well before it was completed. Stagecoaches, heavy freight wagons, and droves of stock animals soon crowded the route in numbers far surpassing those expected. The Corps even had to maintain and repair older sections of the road before the entire route was completed. The Cumberland Road proved such a success that Congress agreed to continue extending it westward. By 1850, this National Road, as it came to be called, reached all the way to Indianapolis. By that time, mid-western excitement over the National Road was fading in favour of a fever for canal building
1808 In Williamstown, Ontario, John Johnson gave grants of 12 acres of land for the Williamstown Fair. It is the oldest continuously operating farm fair in Ontario
1845 In London, Ontario, the London & Gore Railroad was incorporated as the Great Western Railway of Canada
1847 Victorious forces led by General Winfield Scott occupied the city of Veracruz after Mexican defenders capitulated
1848 Niagara Falls ran dry for 24 hours due to an ice jam on Lake Erie
1871 The Royal Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria
1886 Atlanta chemist John Pemberton brewed up the first batch of his new "Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage" over a backyard fire. He called it Coca-Cola, after its main ingredient, coca leaves
1895 In Ottawa, the Royal Commission on selling of liquor concluded that restrictive laws do not decrease sale of liquor
1922 Fire destroyed the great basilica of Ste. Anne de Beaupre, a shrine in Quebec originally built in 1658 by sailors who were saved from shipwreck
1927 Government control of liquor sales replaced prohibition in Ontario
1932 Comedian Jack Benny made his radio debut
1939 Actress Carole Lombard married actor Clark Gable. The marriage was considered one of Hollywood's happiest but ended in tragedy when Lombard was killed in a plane crash in 1942, en route from a War Bond drive. Gable joined the air force shortly after her death, rose to the rank of major, and won several medals
1943 Rationing of meat, butter and cheese began in the US during World War II
1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of espionage charges in the US. They were executed in June, 1953
1965 The House of Commons approved the Canada Pension Plan. The plan was compulsory throughout Canada, except in Quebec, where a comparable pension plan was established
1966 Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, outpointed Canadian heavyweight boxing champion George Chuvalo in a 15-round bout in Toronto
1971 US Army Lieutenant William L. Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering at least 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre in March 1968. Calley spent three years under house arrest until he received a presidential pardon from President Nixon
1971 A jury in Los Angeles recommended the death penalty for Charles Manson and three female followers for the 1969 Tate-La Bianca murders. The sentences were later commuted
1974 Eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University. The guardsmen were later acquitted
1976 Comedian George Burns became the oldest actor to win an Academy Award. At 81, he picked up the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in The Sunshine Boys
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