AD 742 Charlemagne - King of the Franks, King of the Lombards and Charles I of the Holy Roman Empire
1725 Giovanni Casanova - Italian writer, soldier and adventurer
1805 Hans Christian Andersen - Danish author (The Snow Queen, The Tinder Box, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Princess and the Pea, The Little Mermaid)
1814 Erastus B. Bigelow - US industrialist and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1834 Frederic Auguste Bartholdi - French sculptor who created the Statue of Liberty. He was born in Colmar, France
1840 Emile Zola - French writer who used realism to highlight human and social problems (Nana, Thérèse Raquin, J'Accuse)
1875 Walter Chrysler - Auto manufacturer and founder of the Chrysler Corporation
1891 Max Ernst - German painter and sculptor who was influential in the Surrealist movement
1908 Buddy Ebsen - Actor (The Beverly Hillbillies, Barnaby Jones, The President's Plane is Missing, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Red Garters, Stone Fox, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
1912 Herbert Mills - Singer with The Mills Brothers (Paper Doll, You Always Hurt the One You Love, Glow-Worm)
1914 Sir Alec Guinness - British actor (The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Star Wars Trilogy, The Lavender Hill Mob, A Passage to India, The Quiller Memorandum, Dr. Zhivago, Murder by Death, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley's People, Little Dorrit)
1917 Lou Monte - Singer (Pepino The Italian Mouse, Lazy Mary)
1917 Dabbs Greer - Actor (The Green Mile, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Pacific Heights, Gunsmoke, Little House on the Prairie) He has been a frequent guest star on Perry Mason
1920 Jack Webb - Actor (Dragnet, Sunset Boulevard, The Halls of Montezuma)
1928 Rita Gam - Actress (The Thief, Klute, Midnight)
1934 Brian Glover – British actor (Anna Lee, Stiff Upper Lips, Rumble, Alien³, Kafka, Campion, The Great Train Robbery, Jabberwocky) He played Moose in The Sweeny episode Thin Ice, and he appeared as Mac in the movie Sweeny!
1934 Shirley Douglas – Canadian actress (Wind at My Back, Robson Arms, Nellie McClung, Lolita, Dead Ringers, Mesmer) She was the mother of actor Kiefer Sutherland
1939 Marvin Gaye - Singer (Pride & Joy, How Sweet It Is, I'll Be Doggone, Ain't That Peculiar, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, What's Going On, Let's Get It On)
1940 Penelope Keith - British actress (To the Manor Born, The Good Neighbours, Executive Stress, No Job for a Lady, Next of Kin, Margery and Gladys) She appeared in the Peter Cook/Dudley Moore spoof of The Hound of the Baskervilles She also starred in the British TV movie, On Approval, with Jeremy Brett
1942 Leon Russell - Singer (Tight Rope, Lady Blue)
1945 Linda Hunt - Actress (The Year of Living Dangerously, Silverado, Dune, Popeye, Kindergarten Cop, The Practice, NCIS: Los Angeles, Carnivàle)
1946 Kurt Winter – Canadian rock guitarist with The Guess Who (These Eyes, American Woman, Bus Rider, Life in the Bloodstream, Laughing)
1947 Emmylou Harris - Singer (Mr. Sandman, The Last Waltz, Pledging My Love, In My Dreams)
1949 Pamela Reed - Actress (Kindergarten Cop, Cadillac Man, Junior, Bean, Jericho, Carriers, Bob Roberts, Melvin and Howard)
1949 Ron Palillo - Actor (Welcome Back Kotter, Committed, The Invisible Woman)
1955 Dana Carvey - Actor, comedian, impersonator (Saturday Night Live, Clean Slate, It Happened in Paradise, Wayne's World, Blue Thunder, This is Spinal Tap, Moving)
1961 Christopher Meloni - Actor (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NYPD Blue, The Last Don, Runaway Bride, Carriers, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Oz, Happy!)
1973 Roselyn Sanchez – Puerto Rican actress (Without a Trace, The Game Plan, Rush Hour 2, Fame L.A.)
1975 Adam Rodriguez – Actor (CSI: Miami, Ugly Betty, Roswell, Brooklyn South)
Died this Day
1872 Samuel F.B. Morse - US inventor who invented Morse code, developed an electric telegraph, and established the first telegraphy line in the US. In addition, he was an accomplished artist whose portraits are still exhibited in major art museums today
1966 C.S. Forrester, age 66 - Cairo born British novelist (Horatio Hornblower stories, The General, The African Queen)
2003 Edwin Starr, age 61 - Singer/songwriter (War, Agent Double-O Soul, Stop Her On Sight SOS, Contact, H.A.P.P.Y. Radio)
2005 Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla), age 84 – The 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the first non-Italian Pope in 450 years, and the first Polish Pope. He was the third longest-serving pontiff, at over 26 years
On this Day
1513 Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida and claimed the territory for the Spanish crown. Although other European navigators may have sighted the Florida peninsula before, Ponce de Leon is credited with the first recorded landing and the first detailed exploration of the Florida coast. According to legend, the Spanish explorer was searching for a fabled water source, the Fountain of Youth. Ponce de Leon subsequently named what he believed to be an island, La Florida, likely because his discovery came during the time of the Easter feast, or Pascua Florida
1792 Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorised establishment of the US Mint, in Philadelphia
1800 The trial of Levi Weeks in New York City ended with his acquittal for the murder of Gulielma Sands. The decision marked a large victory for Weeks and his attorneys, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. The case, known as the Manhattan Well Mystery, had captivated the New York City public. It began on January 2, 1800, when Gulielma Sands was found dead at the bottom of a well. Sands lived in a boarding-house in lower Manhattan and had been engaged to marry Levi Weeks, who also lived in the building. Not much is known about what really happened to Sands, but the case sheds light on early court procedure and provides insight into how trials were conducted 200 years ago. The court had very different rules with regard to the clock, as trials didn't stop in the late afternoon, or even the early evening, and were known to continue on into the wee hours of the morning. Requests for breaks from lawyers claiming fatigue were denied. In addition, the finer points of evidence and objections were barely developed. In the two-day trial, 75 witnesses appeared and testified. They were generally allowed to tell what they knew without interruption from questions or objections. The trial wrapped up at 3 a.m., and the jury, either persuaded by the defence or extremely tired, returned with their verdict of aquittal after only five minutes. Less than five years after defence attorneys Hamilton and Burr teamed up to save Levi Weeks, they fought each other in a duel that had then Vice President Burr shooting Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton dead
1840 Toronto, Ontario held a public street ox roast to celebrate Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert earlier that year
1860 The first Italian Parliament met at Turin
1865 Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia
1871 The first Dominion census put Canada's population at 3,689,257, including 2,110,000 of British origin and 1,083,000 of French origin
1873 British trains were fitted with toilets, but only for sleeping cars. Day carriages were fitted in 1881, and third-class passengers wouldn't have them in their coaches until 1886
1884 The London debtor's prison, the notorious Fleet Prison, by then in an appalling state, was finally closed
1902 The first US theatre devoted solely to movies opened in Los Angeles. Housed in a circus tent, the venue was dubbed The Electric Theatre
1905 The Simplon Tunnel under the Alps, linking Switzerland and Italy, was officially opened
1906 The first session of the Saskatchewan legislature opened
1917 President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy"
1932 Aviator Charles Lindbergh paid $50,000 ransom in a New York cemetery to a man who promised to return his kidnapped son. The infant was found dead the following month
1942 Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded American Patrol at the RCA Victor studios in Hollywood
1947 Cocktail bars first opened in Toronto
1955 The Angus L. Macdonald Bridge was officially opened. The bridge spanned Halifax Harbour, linking Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
1972 Charlie Chaplin returned to the US for the first time since 1952. Chaplin had been labelled a communist in the early 1950s. While on tour in Europe, he learned that the attorney general had issued instructions to deny Chaplin's re-entry. He vowed never to return to the States, but relented in 1972 when he came back to accept a special Academy Award
1975 In Toronto, Ontario, the CN Tower was completed after forty months of construction. It became the world's tallest free-standing structure, at 1,815 feet and 5 inches, costing $44 million, and using 145,000 tonnes of concrete and steel. The giant communications mast would not be opened to the public until June the following year. Its record would stand for over thirty years, when it was surpassed by a skyscraper in the United Arab Emirates
1968 Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau created Canada's first modern lottery, to help pay the $250 million deficit from Expo '67. It was the first such lottery in Canada
1982 Several thousand troops from Argentina seized the Falkland Islands, held by Britain since 1833. The British responded by sending troops to the Islands, forcing Argentina to surrender on June 14th at Port Stanley
1992 The worst racetrack fire in Canadian history killed 69 horses at the Mohawk Raceway near Guelph, Ontario
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