Born this Day

1888 Raymond Chandler – US author of detective fiction and creator of Philip Marlowe (The Long Goodbye, The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely) and screenwriter (Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train) Chandler was born in Chicago and raised in England, where he went to college and worked as a freelance journalist for several newspapers. During World War I, he served in the Royal Flying Corps. After the war, he moved to California, where he eventually became the director of several independent oil companies. He lost his job during the Depression, reportedly for his alcoholic excesses. He was in his mid-40s, and turned to writing to support himself. He published his first stories in the early 1930s in the pulp magazine Black Mask and published his first novel, The Big Sleep, in 1939
1894 Vincent Sardi – Restaurateur and founder of New York City's famous Sardi's Restaurant
1894 Arthur Treacher – British actor (National Velvet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Little Princess, Heidi, David Copperfield, Magnificent Obsession, Mary Poppins) He was the founder of the fast-food chain, Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips
1908 Karl Swenson - Actor (Little House on the Prairie, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, The Gallant Hours, The Hanging Tree, Cimarron Strip, The Cincinnati Kid, The Sons of Katie Elder) He was a guest star on several Perry Mason episodes
1912 Michael Wilding – British actor (Waterloo, The World of Suzie Wong, The Glass Slipper, Under Capricorn, The Courtney Affair, Lady Caroline Lamb) He was the second husband of Elizabeth Taylor
1913 Coral Browne – Australian-born actress (Auntie Mame, The Killing of Sister George, Eleanor, First Lady of the World, Theatre of Blood) She was married to Vincent Price
1925 Gloria De Haven - Actress (Two Girls and a Sailor, Three Little Words, Summer Stock, Broadway Rhythm, Nakia, The Thin Man Goes Home)
1933 Bert Convey - TV host (Win, Lose or Draw, Tattletales, People Do the Craziest Things) and actor (Love of Life, The Snoop Sisters, The Cannonball Run)
1938 Ronny Cox – Actor (Beverley Hills Cop, The Agency, Murder at 1600, Total Recall, St. Elsewhere, RoboCop, Taps, Deliverance, Stargate SG-1) He played Max Parrish in the Perry Mason movie The Case of the Heartbroken Bride
1944 Pepe Serna – Actor (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, The Rookie, Scarface, Hot Summer Winds, Postcards from the Edge, Silverado)
1947 Larry Manetti - Actor (Magnum PI, Starsky and Hutch, Two Minute Warning, Baa Baa Black Sheep)
1950 Belinda Montgomery – Canadian actress (Doogie Howser MD, The Man From Atlantis, Miami Vice, Aaron’s Way, Tron: Legacy)
1951 Edie McGlurge - Actress (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, WKRP in Cincinnati, The Hogan Family, Natural Born Killers, Airborne)
1961 Woody Harrelson – Actor (Cheers, White Men Can’t Jump, Indecent Proposal, The Hunger Games, No Country for Old Men)
1962 Eriq La Salle – Actor (ER, One Hour Photo, Jacob's Ladder, Coming to America, A Gifted Man)
1964 Matilda Ziegler – British actress (Mr. Bean, Lark Rise to Candleford, Doctors, Swiss Toni, Lewis: The Soul of Genius)
1967 Philip Seymour Hoffman – Actor (Doubt, Charlie Wilson’s War, Mission: Impossible III, Capote, Cold Mountain, Owning Mahowny, Red Dragon, The Big Lebowski)
1970 Charisma Carpenter – Actress (Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Lying Game, Veronica Mars, The Groomsmen, The Expendables, Miss Match, Malibu Shores)
1974 Kathryn Hahn – Actress (Crossing Jordan, Revolutionary Road, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days)
1974 Stephanie March – Actress (Law & Order: SVU, Conviction, Jesse Stone: Night Passage, The Treatment, The Invention of Lying)
1982 Paul Wesley – Actor (Wolf Lake, The Vampire Diaries, 24, Killer Movie, Fallen, Everwood)
1989 Daniel Radcliffe – British actor (Harry Potter movies, My Boy Jack, December Boys, David Copperfield, The Tailor of Panama)


Died this Day

1875 Isaac Merritt Singer, age 63 – US sewing machine inventor, who retired to Torquay, Devon
1885 Ulysses S. Grant, age 63 - The 18th president of the US, died in Mount McGregor, NY
1916 Sir William Ramsay – Scottish chemist and Nobel Prize winner who discovered helium, argon and other inert gasses
1973 Edward V. Rickenbacker, age 83 - US World War I flying ace and race car driver
1982 Vic Morrow, age 63 – Actor (Combat!, The Blackboard Jungle, The Bad News Bears) He was the father of actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. He died along with two child actors when they were struck by a helicopter during the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie
2002 Leo McKern, age 82 – Australian-born British actor (Rumpole of the Bailey, Help!, Candleshoe, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Reilly Ace of Spies, Ladyhawke, Murder with Mirrors) He also played Moriarty in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother


On this Day

1767 The Prince Edward Island land lottery was held in London, England. The Earl of Egmont had asked King George III to grant him full feudal title, but the land was divided up for colonisation by those with military or other public service. The lots were chosen at random, all in one day
1829 William Austin Burt of Mount Vernon, Michigan received a patent for his typographer, a forerunner of the typewriter
1886 New York saloonkeeper Steve Brodie claimed to have made a daredevil plunge from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River
1900 The Canadian government banned the immigration of criminals or paupers to Canada
1903 The first two-cylinder Ford Model A was delivered to its owner, Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago
1904 By some accounts, the ice cream cone was invented by Charles E. Menches during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis
1914 Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin. The dispute led to World War I
1942 Conscription began in Canada during the Second World War
1943 Trans-Canada Air Lines inaugurated transatlantic service
1952 Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk I
1967 In the early morning hours, one of the worst riots in US history broke out on 12th Street in the heart of Detroit's predominantly black inner city. By the time it was quelled four days later by 7,000 National Guard and US Army troops, 43 people were dead, 342 injured, and nearly 1,400 buildings had been burned
1983 Air Canada Flight 143 ran out of fuel in mid-air and made an emergency glide landing at Gimli, Manitoba. The flight originated in Montréal, with a stop in Ottawa, before flying through to Edmonton. The Boeing 767 aircraft, nicknamed The Gimli Glider, landed at an abandoned airstrip, which had been converted to a drag strip. It was later determined that the plane ran out of fuel due to metric confusion and fuel meter problems. At 8:09 PM, 41,000 feet Over Red Lake Ontario, the crew and passengers had just finished dinner when the first indication of trouble sounded, warning that the left forward fuel pump had failed. Five minutes later, 128 miles NNE of Winnipeg, Captain Pearson initiated a descent to 6,000 feet, and requested an emergency clearance, intending to divert to Winnipeg. The left engine failed, and while the plane was still at 28,000 feet, and more than 100 miles from Winnipeg, the second engine failed as the last of the fuel was depleted, and the plane became a 132 ton glider. With a total loss of both engines, things got quiet. Real quiet. Starved of fuel, both engines had flamed out. Pearson’s response, recorded on the cockpit voice recorder was "Oh F___." Auxiliary power provided only back-up electrical, marginal hydraulic pressure, and pneumatic support. The pilot was left with a radio and standby instruments, noticeably lacking a vertical speed indicator - the glider pilot’s instrument of choice. The 767’s radar transponder had gone dark as well, leaving controllers in Winnipeg using a cardboard ruler on the radar screen to try and determine the 767’s location and rate of descent. Controllers in Winnipeg began suggesting alternate landing spots, but none of the airports suggested had the emergency equipment Flight 143 would need for a crash landing. Co-pilot Quintal began making glide-slope calculations to see if they’d make Winnipeg. But the 767 was sinking too fast. "We’re not going to make Winnipeg" he told Pearson. Pearson trusted Quintal, and immediately turned north. Only Gimli, the site of an abandoned Royal Canadian Air Force Base, twelve miles away, remained as a possible landing spot. Quintal was familiar with it because he’d been stationed there in the service. Unknown to him and the controllers in Winnipeg, the runways had become inactive and were now used for auto racing. A steel guard rail had been installed down most of the south-eastern portion of Runway 32L, dividing it into a two lane drag strip. This was the runway Pearson would ultimately try and land on, courting tragedy of epic proportions. It was Family Day for the Winnipeg Sports Car Club, with go-cart races being held on the runway, and around the edges were cars, campers, kids, and families in abundance. To land an airplane in the midst of all of this activity was certain disaster. Approaching Gimli Pearson and Quintal made their next discovery: The back up power didn’t supply hydraulic power to the 767’s landing gear, flaps, or slats. Pearson ordered a "gravity drop" and Quintal hit the button to release the gear door pins. They heard the main gear fall and lock in place. But Quintal only got two green lights, not three. The nose gear, which fell forward against the wind, hadn’t locked in place. Six miles out Pearson began his final approach and realised he was too high and too fast. The only option to slow the plane was a vicious sideslip. Slips are normally avoided on commercial flights because of the buffeting it creates, unnerving many passengers. As he put the plane into a slip some of Flight 143’s passengers ended up looking at nothing but blue sky, the others straight down at a golf course. Trees and golfers were visible out the starboard side passengers’ windows, and a passenger reportedly said "I can almost see what clubs they are using." Quintal suspected Pearson hadn’t seen the guard-rail and the multitude of people and cars down the runway, but by this point it was too late to do anything about them. A glider only gets one chance at a landing. Quintal bit his lip and stayed silent, realising the colossal tragedy about to unfold. The 767 silently levelled off and the main gear touched down as spectators, racers, and even kids on bicycles fled the runway. The gigantic Boeing 767 was about to become a 132 ton silver bulldozer. Pearson stood on the brakes the instant the main gear touched down. An explosion rocked through the 767’s cabin as two tires blew out. The nose gear, which hadn’t locked down, collapsed. The nose of the 767 slammed against the tarmac, bounced, and then began throwing a three hundred foot shower of sparks. The 767 came to a stop a hundred feet from spectators, barbecues and campers. The fuselage was intact. Inside, for an instant, there was silence. Then cheers and applause broke out among the passengers. But, a fire had broken out in the nose of the aircraft, and oily black smoke began to pour into the cockpit and front of the cabin and an emergency evacuation was ordered. The unusual nose-down angle the plane was resting at made the angle of some of the rear emergency slides nearly vertical and descending them was going to be treacherous. The only injuries on Flight 143 came from passengers coming down the rear emergency slide too fast and hitting the asphalt. None of the injuries were life-threatening. All of the race fans had managed to flee the path of the silver bulldozer. The fire in the aircraft’s nose area was battled by members of the Winnipeg Sports Car Club who converged on the plane with dozens of hand-held fire extinguishers. Pearson had touched down 800 feet from the threshold and used a mere 3000 feet of runway to stop. The 767 was relatively undamaged. The avoidance of disaster was credited to Pearson’s knowledge of gliding and extensive glider experience. Pearson credits Quintal strongly for his cockpit management of "Everything but the actual flight controls," including his recommendation of Gimli as an alternate landing spot. This incident was depicted in the 1995 TV movie Falling From the Sky: Flight 174, starring William Devane
1986 Prince Andrew, second son of Queen Elizabeth, married commoner Sarah Ferguson. Andrew received the title of 14th Duke of York from his mother on his wedding day
1987 In Porcupine Hills, Alberta, the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre was officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of York. First excavated in 1938, it was designated a provincial historic site in 1979 and a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981. It was named for a young Peigan boy who was crushed by the buffalo because he wanted to watch the animals as they plunged over the cliff