1783 Alexander Ross – Scottish-born fur trader and author (The Fur Hunters of the Far West, Adventures on the Columbia River, The Red River Settlement) He came to Canada to teach school, but in 1810 decided to join the Pacific Fur Company, serving as a trader at Fort Astoria, before joining the North West Company and later the Hudson’s Bay Company. He retired to the Red River area in 1825, where he was a magistrate and Sheriff of Assiniboia
1800 John Brown - US abolitionist who led the attack on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859
1844 Belle Boyd - US actress and Confederate spy during the Civil War
1860 Sir James M. Barrie - Scottish author and dramatist (Peter Pan, The Little Minister, The Admirable Crichton, What Every Woman Knows, Dear Brutus, Quality Street)
1873 Howard Carter - British archaeologist who discovered the Egyptian tomb of King Tutankhamen
1874 Lilian Baylis - British founder of the Old Vic Shakespeare Company in 1914. Decades later it evolved into the National Theatre
1909 Don Messer – Legendary Canadian fiddler and "old-time" bandleader, born in Tweedside, New Brunswick. He hosted a weekly TV show, Don Messer's Jubilee, which was an institution on Canadian TV for many years, featuring his group Don Messer and the Islanders
1910 Barbara Woodhouse - Irish born dog trainer who became a national celebrity in Britain for her television programme on dog training. She was known for her bossy commands to both animals and human students - "Walkies!"
1914 Hank Snow - Country Music Hall of Famer, singer and songwriter (I'm Moving On, Golden Rocket, I Don't Hurt Anymore, Rhumba Boogie, Hello Love, I've been Everywhere) He was born Clarence Eugene Hank Snow in Nova Scotia, and left home at age 12. He worked as a fisherman, stevedore, packer and fish peddler, saving his money to buy a guitar. His first radio job was in Halifax in 1933, where he was billed as Clarence Snow and his Guitar. In 1936, he made his first recordings for Canadian RCA Victor in Montreal as Hank, The Yodelling Ranger, becoming Canada's #1 best-selling artist. Hank was also featured on the Canadian Broadcasting System where he gained coast-to-coast exposure. In 1944, he made his first appearances in the US and, in 1950, he made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry. In the career that followed, he placed over 85 singles on the Billboard best seller list and sold nearly 90 million records
1918 Mike Wallace - US reporter and interviewer (60 Minutes, Mike Wallace at Large)
1919 Arthur English – British actor (Are You Being Served?, In Sickness and in Health, Never Say Die, Follyfoot, The Ghosts of Motley Hall) He portrayed Tug Wilson in The Sweeney episode Taste of Fear
1920 Richard Adams - British author (Watership Down, The Plague Dogs, The Girl in a Swing)
1928 Barbara Ann Scott – Canadian figure skater. She became the first non-European woman to win an Olympic figure skating gold medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
1930 Joan Sims – British actress (As Time Goes By, The Canterville Ghost, Martin Chuzzlewit, Before the Fringe) She starred in many of the Carry On movies, and was known as the First Lady of Carry On
1932 Geraldine McEwan – British actress (Marple: A Murder Is Announced, Vanity Fair, Carrie's War, Mulberry, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Henry V, The Barchester Chronicles) She plays Miss Jane Marple in many TV adaptations of the stories
1936 Glenda Jackson - British actress and politician (Elizabeth R, Hedda, Hopscotch, Touch of Class) She is the only member of the British Parliament to win an Oscar
1936 Albert Finney - British actor (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Tom Jones, Shoot the Moon, Annie, The Dresser, Murder on the Orient Express, Scrooge, My Uncle Silas, The Bourne Ultimatum) He’s the son of a Salford bookie
1940 James L. Brooks - Producer (As Good As It Gets, Jerry Maguire, Taxi, Lou Grant, Rhoda, The Mary Tyler Moore Show)
1946 Candice Bergen - Actress (Boston Legal, Murphy Brown, Starting Over, The Group) She’s the daughter of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen
1947 Jessi Colter - Country singer (I'm Not Lisa)
1949 Billy Joel - Singer and pianist (It's Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me, Allentown, Goodnight Saigon, Tell Her about It, Uptown Girl, Piano Man, She's Always a Woman to Me)
1955 Kevin Peter Hall – Actor (Harry and the Hendersons, Predator, 227, Misfits of Science) He was 7’ 2-1/2” tall
1956 Wendy Crewson – Canadian actress (Air Force One, ReGenesis, The Robber Bride, 24, Verdict in Blood, The Wandering Soul Murders, What Lies Beneath, The Santa Clause, Corrina Corrina, Spenser: A Savage Place) She portrayed Michelle Benti in the Perry Mason TV movie The Case of the Shooting Star
1961 John Corbett – Actor (Northern Exposure, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Volcano, Serendipity, Raising Helen, United States of Tara)
Died this Day
1657 William Bradford - US Pilgrim Father who was the Governor of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts
1880 George Brown, age 61 – Canadian Father of Confederation and editor of the Globe newspaper in Toronto. While at work in his office, he was shot in the leg by a disgruntled ex-employee, George Bennett, who was later hanged for murder. The injury to Brown’s leg seemed minor enough at first, but an infection developed and he subsequently died
1903 Paul Gauguin - French Post Impressionist painter. He died after a long illness, alone, in his small house on the tiny Polynesian island of Hive Oa, where he was buried
1985 Edmond O'Brien, age 69 – Actor (The Wild Bunch, Fantastic Voyage, The Longest Day, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Greatest Show on Earth, D.O.A.)
On this Day
1502 Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere
1671 In London, Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer better known as "Captain Blood," was captured while attempting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Blood, a Parliamentarian during the English Civil War, was deprived of his estate in Ireland with the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. In 1663, he put himself at the head of a plot to seize Dublin Castle from supporters of King Charles II, but the plot was discovered and his accomplices executed. He escaped capture. In 1671, he hatched a bizarre plan to steal the new Crown Jewels, which had been refashioned by Charles II because most of the original jewels were melted down after Charles I's execution in 1649. On May 9th, Blood, disguised as a priest, managed to convince the Jewel House keeper to hand over his pistols. Blood's three accomplices then emerged from the shadows, and together they forced their way into the Jewel House. However, they were caught in the act when the keeper's son showed up unexpectedly, and an alarm went out to the Tower guard. One man shoved the Royal Orb down his breeches while Blood flattened the Crown with a mallet and tried to run off with it. The Tower guards apprehended and arrested all four of the perpetrators, and Blood was brought before the king. Charles was so impressed with Blood's audacity that, far from punishing him, he restored his estates in Ireland and made him a member of his court with an annual pension. Captain Blood became a colourful celebrity all across the kingdom, and when he died in 1680 his body had to be exhumed in order to persuade the public that he was actually dead
1754 Benjamin Franklin published the first US cartoon. Titled "Join or Die", it showed a snake cut into pieces, each representing a state
1785 Joseph Bramah patented the beer pump handle
1793 Alexander Mackenzie departed Fort York at the forks of the Peace and Smoky rivers, in what is now Alberta. He headed west towards the Pacific Ocean with a party of nine, eventually reaching the Pacific via the Bella Coola River, becoming the first European to cross North America using a route north of Mexico
1887 Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opened at West Brompton, London, as part of the America Exhibition. Having effectively defined the popular image of the West for many in the US, Cody took his show across the Atlantic to show Europeans, staging his first international performance at the Earls Court show ground in London on this day in 1887 to a wildly appreciative audience. Queen Victoria herself attended two command showings. After London, Cody and his performers amazed audiences throughout Europe and then became a truly international success. One bronco rider, who stayed with the show until 1907, travelled around the world more than three times and recalled giving a performance in Outer Mongolia
1904 The “City of Truro” became the first steam locomotive to break the 100 m.p.h. barrier when it was unofficially clocked at 102.3 m.p.h. on Wellington Bank in Somerset as it raced from Plymouth to Bristol with an Ocean Mail special
1926 According to their claims, polar explorer Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett flew over the North Pole on this day in the Josephine Ford, a triple-engine Fokker monoplane. It would have been the first time an aircraft flew over the top of the world. The pair had taken off from Spitsbergen, Norway, and reportedly covered the 1,545-mile trip to the pole and back in 15 hours and 30 minutes. For the achievement, both men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and acclaimed as national heroes. The discovery in 1996 of the diary that Byrd had kept on his famous flight seemed to suggest that he and Bennett may have turned back 150 miles short of the pole because of an oil leak. If so, Italian adventurer Umberto Nobile, American Lincoln Ellsworth, and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (who was in 1911 the first person to reach the South Pole by land) would receive the credit for their airship flight over the North Pole three days later, on May 12, 1926. Nevertheless, Byrd's place in polar exploration is firmly set - in 1929, he established a US base in Antarctica and late in the same year, accompanied by aviator Bernt Balchen, he made the undisputed first aircraft flight over the South Pole
1936 Italy annexed Ethiopia
1937 The Canadian Coronation Contingent became the first Dominion of Canada troops to stand sentry duty at the St. James and Buckingham Palaces in London
1945 Following the end of World War II, US officials announced that the midnight entertainment curfew was being lifted immediately
1980 A Liberian freighter rammed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay in Florida, killing 35 motorists and causing a 1,400-foot section of the bridge to collapse
1992 A methane gas explosion roared through the Westray coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia killing 26 miners. The bodies of 11 men were recovered almost immediately, while a desperate but unsuccessful search for survivors continued for six days, at which time rescue workers said the danger of a cave-in was too great to continue
1994 South Africa's newly elected parliament chose Nelson Mandela to be the country's first black president
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