Born this Day

1728 Robert Adam - Scottish architect and designer who created the elegant Adam style both for buildings and for interiors, with features such as the Adam Staircase
1870 Richard Bedford (R.B.) Bennett - The 11th prime minister of Canada, born in Hopewell Hill, New Brunswick
1878 George M. Cohan - Actor, singer, composer (Over There, The Yankee Doodle Boy, Give My Regards to Broadway, Mary's a Grand Old Name, You're a Grand Old Flag, Harrigan) He was the subject of the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy, and of the Broadway show George M!
1883 Franz Kafka - Czech-born German author (The Trial, Metamorphosis, Amerika)
1906 George Sanders - Actor (All About Eve, The Quiller Memorandum, Picture of Dorian Gray, Village of the Damned, A Shot in the Dark, Samson and Delilah, A Date With the Falcon, The Jungle Book) He was the brother of actor Tom Conway. The two acted together in the movie The Falcon’s Brother. He also played Mr. Freeze in Batman
1908 Mary Frances Kennedy (M.F.K.) Fisher – US author (Serve It Forth, How to Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomic Me)
1927 Ken Russell – British director (Women in Love, The Music Lovers, Altered States, Tommy, The Boy Friend, Prisoner of Honour)
1943 Kurtwood Smith - Actor (That 70s Show, RoboCop, Dead Poet’s Society, Oscar, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Broken Arrow, Girl Interrupted, Chaos, 24, Cedar Rapids, A Time to Kill)
1945 Michael Cole - Actor (Mod Squad, Chuka, Nickel Mountain, Mr. Brooks, Grave Misconduct)
1947 Betty Buckley – US stage and screen actress (Cats, Eight is Enough, Carrie, Wyatt Earp, The Happening, Oz, Tender Mercies)
1949 Jan Smithers - Actress (WKRP in Cincinnati, Mr. Nice Guy, Where the Lilies Bloom, Our Winning Season)
1955 Bruce Altman – Actor (It’s Complicated, Solitary Man, Girl Interrupted, Blue Bloods, Nothing Sacred, Matchstick Men, Cop Land, Glengarry Glen Ross, Regarding Henry)
1956 Rick Duccomun – Canadian comedian and actor (Groundhog Day, The ‘Burbs, Spaceballs, Little Monsters, Encino Man, Loaded Weapon 1, Last Action Hero, Scary Movie)
1956 Montel Williams – Talk show host and actor (The Montel Williams Show, The Peacekeeper, Matt Waters) He served in the US Marine Corps. He played Boomer Kelly in the Perry Mason movie The Case of the Telltale Talk Show Host
1957 Laura Branigan - Singer (How am I Supposed to Live Without You, Gloria, Theme Song from Octopussy, Hot Night)
1962 Tom Cruise - Actor (Mission: Impossible, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Days of Thunder, Born on the Fourth of July, Cocktail, Top Gun, Rain Man, Color of Money, Taps, Interview with a Vampire)
1962 Thomas Gibson – Actor (Criminal Minds, Dharma & Greg, Far & Away, Chicago Hope, Eyes Wide Shut, Far and Away)
1964 Yeardley Smith – Actress (The Simpsons, As Good as It Gets, Toys, City Slickers)
1965 Connie Nielsen – Danish actress (Gladiator, Law & Order: SVU, Lost in Africa, One Hour Photo, Brothers)
1965 Tommy Flanagan – Scottish actor (Sons of Anarchy, Gladiator, Braveheart, Smokin’ Aces)
1970 Audra McDonald – German-born actress (Private Practice, A Raisin in the Sun, Annie, Mr. Sterling, It Runs in the Family, The Good Fight, Beauty and the Beast)
1974 Corey Reynolds – Actor (The Closer, The Terminal, Partners)
1975 Ryan McPartlin – Actor (Chuck, Super Capers, Everything She Ever Wanted, Living with Fran, J. Edgar)
1980 Olivia Munn – Actress (Perfect Couples, Iron Man 2, Greek, The Newsroom, Magic Mike)
1984 Cory Sevier – Canadian actor (North Shore, Zoe Busiek: Wild Card, Immortals, Conduct Unbecoming, Decoys, Black Sash, Little Men)


Died this Day

1908 Joel Chandler Harris – US writer who created Brer Rabbit
1965 Trigger, age 33 – The famous horse of cowboy movie star Roy Rogers
1969 Brian Jones – Guitarist with the Rolling Stones (Satisfaction, Midnight Rambler) He drowned in his swimming pool at his Essex home. Drugs and alcohol were found in his blood
1971 Jim Morrison, age 27 - The Doors lead singer (Light My Fire, Roadhouse Blues, Riders on the Storm) He was found dead of heart failure in a bathtub in Paris
1986 Rudy Vallee – US singer and actor (Campus Sweethearts, Gold Diggers in Paris, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) He died less than a month before his 85th birthday. He played Lord Phogg in the Batman TV series


On this Day

1608 The city of Québec was founded by French explorer Samuel de Champlain. It was the first settlement in New France and for a number of years, was no more than a trading post reached only by a perilous route. Twenty years after its founding, Québec had about 100 inhabitants and an economy based on farming
1770 The first ordination of a Presbyterian minister in Canada took place in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Bruin Romkes Comingo was ordained as a minister of the Dutch Calvinist Church
1775 On Cambridge common in Massachusetts, George Washington rode out in front of the patriot troops gathered there, drew his sword, and formally took command of the Continental Army. Washington, a prominent Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, was appointed commander in chief by the Continental Congress two weeks before. He declined to accept payment for his services beyond reimbursement of future expenses. With this inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers, Washington led an effective war of harassment against British forces in the colonies, while employing his diplomatic skills to encourage the intervention of the French into the conflict on behalf of the colonists
1863 On the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's last attempt at breaking the Union line ended in disastrous failure, and the most decisive battle of the Civil War ended in defeat for southern forces. Two days earlier, a Confederate division under General Henry Heth marched into Gettysburg hoping to seize supplies but finding instead three brigades of Union cavalry. Thus began the Battle of Gettysburg, and Lee and Union General George Meade ordered their armies to converge on the impromptu battle site. The Union cavalrymen defiantly held the field against overwhelming numbers until the arrival of Federal reinforcements. Later, the Confederates were reinforced, and by mid-afternoon some 19,000 Federals faced 24,000 Confederates. Lee arrived to the battlefield soon afterward and ordered a general advance that forced the Union line back to Cemetery Hill, just south of the town. During the night, the rest of Meade's force arrived, and by the morning Union General Winfield Hancock had formed a strong Union line. On July 2, against the Union left, General James Longstreet led the main Confederate attack, but it was not carried out until about 4 p.m., and the Federals had time to consolidate their positions. Thus began some of the heaviest fighting of the battle, and Union forces retained control of their strategic positions at heavy cost. After three hours, the battle ended, and the total number of dead at Gettysburg stood at 35,000. On July 3, Lee, having failed on the right and the left, planned an assault on Meade's centre. A 15,000-man strong column under General George Pickett was organised, and Lee ordered a massive bombardment of the Union positions. The 10,000 Federals answered the Confederate artillery onslaught, and for more than an hour the guns raged in the heaviest cannonade of the Civil War. At 3 p.m., Pickett led his force into no-man's-land and found that Lee's bombardment had failed. As Pickett's force attempted to cross the mile distance to Cemetery Ridge, Union artillery blew great holes in their lines. Meanwhile, Yankee infantry flanked the main body of "Pickett's charge" and began cutting down the Confederates. Only a few hundred Virginians reached the Union line, and within minutes they all were dead, dying, or captured. In less than an hour, more than 7,000 Confederate troops had been killed or wounded. Both armies, exhausted, held their positions until the night of July 4, when Lee withdrew. The Army of the Potomac was too weak to pursue the Confederates, and Lee led his army out of the North, never to invade it again. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War, costing the Union 23,000 killed, wounded, or missing in action. The Confederates suffered some 25,000 casualties. On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address during the dedication of a new national cemetery at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg. The Civil War effectively ended with the surrender of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865
1890 Idaho became the 43rd state of the Union
1898 Nova Scotia born Joshua Slocum became the first person to complete a solo circumnavigation of the earth. He made the journey in his sloop, the Spray, which he built at the shipyards in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. His historic voyage began in Boston, on April 24th, 1895, and ended 46,000 miles later. Although he landed at Newport, Rhode Island on June 27th, he did not consider his voyage over until he had returned to Fairhaven, the home of his sloop, on July 3rd
1901 Billy Cochrane drove the first automobile in Calgary, Alberta. The vehicle was a steam-powered “Locomobile,” steered by a tiller rather than a wheel
1909 A fire at Cobalt, Ontario left one-third of the community's six-thousand residents homeless
1930 Congress created the US Veterans Administration
1940 King George VI declined to send his two princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, to Canada for protection during World War II
1954 Food rationing ended in Britain after more than 14 years, and nearly 9 years after the end of WWII
1971 Gamma surgery, a revolutionary bloodless method of destroying tumours and cancers, was first performed, in Sweden. X-rays determined the exact position of the tumour while a model of the brain showed the area to be destroyed. A hemispherical steel canopy surrounded the area of the tumour, and the gamma knife, composed of 179 beams of cobalt radiation, was fired deep into the skull. The rays burned away the diseased area while the patient remained conscious
1976 In a daring night raid, Israeli commandos rescued 103 hostages held in Entebbe Airport, Uganda, after their Air France airliner had been diverted there by Palestinian hijackers expecting, and getting, help from Idi Amin. The commandos flew 2,400 miles and landed in three large transport planes in the dark. In just 35 minutes, they killed all the hijackers, and 20 Ugandan troops helping them guard the hostages. Three hostages and one commando were killed in the cross fire. The Israelis also destroyed 11 Russian Mig aircraft on the ground before taking off for Nairobi, where they refuelled before the flight to Tel Aviv
1986 Four days of celebrating the Statue of Liberty's 100th birthday began in New York City with a gala ceremony in New York Harbor that saw the relighting of the renovated statue
1987 British millionaire Richard Branson and Swedish-born designer Per Lindstrand became the first hot-air balloon travellers to cross the Atlantic. They were forced to jump into the sea as their craft went down off the coast of Scotland