Born this Day

1800 Henry Fox Talbot - British photographic pioneer who published the first book with photographic illustrations in 1846 (The Pencil of Nature)
1805 Jean Baptiste Charbonneau - Son of Shoshone Indian interpreter and guide Sacagawea, and her French-Canadian fur trapper husband, Toussaint Charbonneau. That winter, Lewis and Clark hired Toussaint Charbonneau as an interpreter for their projected expedition to the Pacific and back, provided he agreed to bring along his young wife. Lewis and Clark knew they would have to obtain horses from the Shoshone to cross the Continental Divide, and Sacagawea's services as an interpreter could prove invaluable. Charbonneau agreed, and Sacagawea became the only woman to join the Corps of Discovery. Two months before the expedition was to depart, Sacagawea went into labour, and Lewis, who would often act as the expedition's doctor in the months to come, was called on for the first and only time during the journey to assist in a delivery. The cries of the healthy young boy announced the arrival of a new member of the Corps of Discovery. Nicknamed 'Pompey' by Clark, who developed a strong attachment to the boy, Jean Baptiste accompanied his mother on every step of her epic journey to the Pacific and back. The baby's presence proved unexpectedly useful by helping to convince the Indians they encountered that their intentions were peaceful. No war party, the Indians reasoned, would bring along a mother and infant. When the Corps of Discovery returned east, Toussaint, Sacagawea, and Jean Baptiste resumed their fur-trading life. True to a promise he had made to Sacagawea during the expedition, Clark later paid for Jean Baptiste's education at a St. Louis Catholic academy and became something of an adoptive father to the boy. A bright and charismatic young man, Jean Baptiste also learned German, and Spanish, hunted with noblemen in the Black Forest of Germany, travelled in Africa, and returned to further explore the US West. He died in 1866 en route to the newly discovered gold fields of Montana
1821 Auguste Édouard Mariette - French Egyptologist who excavated the Sphinx
1847 Thomas Alva Edison - US inventor. The partially deaf son of a poor family, Edison had little formal education. At age sixteen, he took a job as a telegraph operator, where his hearing problems led him to experiment with ways to improve telegraph equipment. His successful innovations eventually led him to New York City, where he consulted with various telegraph companies and eventually started his own research lab. He held a record number of patents, including more than 300 for electric light and power, nearly 200 for the phonograph, 150 for the telegraph, 141 for storage batteries, and several dozen for the telephone. He also developed key components of motion picture technology. He was quoted as saying, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"
1889 John Mills - Musician with the group The Mills Brothers (Dinah, Tiger Rag, Nobody's Sweetheart, St. Louis Blues, Bugle Call Rag, Swing It Sister, Sleepy Head)
1908 Josh White - Blues and folk singer and guitarist who was known as "The Singing Christian"
1909 Max Baer - Boxer. He was the father of Max Baer Jr. who played Jethro Bodine in The Beverly Hillbillies TV series
1919 Eva Gabor - Hungarian actress and pianist (Green Acres, Gigi, The Last Time I Saw Paris) She was the sister of Zsa Zsa Gabor
1925 Kim Stanley – Actress (The Right Stuff, The Goddess, Frances, The Three Sisters) She narrated To Kill a Mockingbird in Scout’s adult voice
1926 Leslie Nielsen - Canadian actor (Forbidden Planet, Tammy and the Bachelor, The Plainsman, Beau Geste, Police Squad, Airplane!, Naked Gun, Dracula Dead and Loving It, The Bold Ones, The Poseidon Adventure, Riel) He played General Francis Marion in The Swamp Fox. He was born in Regina, Saskatchewan and raised in Fort Norman in the Yukon, where his father ran the RCMP detachment. His brother Eric was a prominent Canadian politician
1928 Conrad Janis - Actor (Mork & Mindy, Roseland, The Buddy Holly Story, The Cable Guy) He is also a renowned jazz trombone player
1934 Mary Quant - British fashion designer who played a major role in defining the look of the 60's
1935 Gene Vincent - Singer (Be-Bop-A-Lula, Lotta Lovin', Dance to the Bop)
1935 Tina Louise - Actress (Gilligan's Island, How to Commit a Marriage, The Stepford Wives, Dallas)
1936 Burt Reynolds - Actor (Evening Shade, Gunsmoke, Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run, The Longest Yard, The Best Little #####house in Texas, Dan August)
1940 Bobby 'Boris' Pickett - Singer (The Monster Mash)
1941 Sergio Mendes - Musician (Brasil '66, Brasil '77, Brasil '88, Fool on the Hill, Mas Que Nada, The Look of Love)
1961 Carey Lowell - Actress (Law & Order, Licence to Kill, Sleepless in Seattle, Leaving Las Vegas, Fierce Creatures)
1962 Sheryl Crow - Singer (Leaving Las Vegas, All I Wanna Do)
1969 Jennifer Aniston - Actress (Friends, Leprechaun, Picture Perfect, The Good Girl, Along Came Polly)
1971 Damian Lewis – British actor (Band of Brothers, Life, Homeland, Your Highness, Colditz, Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, The Forsythe Saga, Poirot: Hickory Dickory Dock, A Touch of Frost: Deep Waters)
1982 Natalie Dormer – British actress (The Tudors, Casanova, Captain America: The First Avenger, Silk, W.E., Marple: Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?)
1992 Taylor Lautner – Actor (Twilight, New Moon, My Own Worst Enemy, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D, Abduction)


Died this Day

1650 Rene Descartes, age 53 - French mathematician, scientist and philosopher. He is known as the Father of Modern Philosophy
1868 Jean Foucault, age 48 - French physicist and inventor of the gyroscope
1869 Patrick James Whalen – Murderer of Canadian Member of Parliament and Father of Confederation Thomas D'Arcy McGee. McGee was shot and killed by Whalen, a Fenian assassin, outside his Ottawa lodging house, as he was turning the key in his lock after returning late from making a speech in Parliament. McGee had denounced the Fenians, a militant Irish-American group dedicated to securing Irish independence. Whalen was hanged in Ottawa, during a snowstorm, before a crowd of 5,000 people
1943 Wilhelmina Beatrice Houdini, age 68 – Widow of Harry Houdini, who had worked as his stage assistant. She was nicknamed Bess, by her husband
1963 Sylvia Plath, age 30 - US poet and novelist (The Bell Jar, Ariel, Crossing the Water, Winter Trees) She killed herself by putting her head in a gas oven
1976 Lee J. Cobb, age 64 - Actor (The Three Faces of Eve, The Trap, The Virginian, Death of a Salesman, In Like Flint, Lawman)
1986 Frank Herbert, age 65 – US writer (Dune, Children of Dune, Dune Messiah)
1994 William Conrad, age 73 - Actor (Cannon, Jake and the Fatman, Nero Wolf, O'Hara US Treasury) He also narrated The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and The Fugitive TV series


On this Day

1531 King Henry VIII was recognised as the supreme head of the Church in England
1765 London wig-makers petitioned King George III, seeking financial relief as the male fashion of wearing wigs came to an end
1808 In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Judge Jesse Fell experimented by burning anthracite coal to keep his house warm. He successfully showed how clean the coal burned and how cheaply it could be used as a heating fuel. As a result, that area of northeast Pennsylvania became an important coal mining area for generations
1812 Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a re-districting law that favoured his party, giving rise to the term "gerrymandering"
1826 London University was granted a charter
1858 Bernadette Soubirous, a young asthmatic French farm girl, claimed for the first time to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes
1861 President-elect Lincoln departed Springfield, Illinois, for Washington, DC
1878 Britain's first weekly weather report was published by the meteorological office
1922 The discovery of insulin, for use in treating diabetes, by Frederick Banting and Charles Best was announced at the University of Toronto
1927 The casket of Egypt's King Tutankhamen was opened
1937 For the first time, all three major US radio networks simultaneously broadcast a program. At the time, the three networks were CBS, NBC, and Mutual. All three broadcast a benefit concert from Radio City Music Hall in New York, benefiting the Red Cross
1971 Montréal Canadien captain Jean Béliveau scored his 500th National Hockey League goal
1975 Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to head a British political party when she won the Tory party leadership. In March 1979, her party won the election and Thatcher became Prime Minister. She was dubbed the "Iron Lady"
1977 A fisherman caught a 44-1/2 pound lobster off the coast of Nova Scotia. It was the world's heaviest known crustacean
1985 Police recovered most of the 68.5-million dollars in stocks and bonds taken in a December 1984 robbery in Montréal. Seven people were arrested
1989 Reverend Barbara C. Harris became the first woman consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church, in a ceremony held in Boston
1990 South African black activist Nelson Mandela was freed by the South African government at the age of 71 after having spent 27 years in jail on charges of treason. Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel peace prize for their work to scrap apartheid