Born this Day

1473 Nicolaus Copernicus - Polish astronomer who formulated the Copernican theory that states the sun is the centre of our planetary system
1717 David Garrick - British actor, producer, dramatist who introduced a naturalistic style to acting. He later co-managed the Drury Lane Theatre where his many innovations advanced theatrical style and production
1843 Adelina Patti - Italian operatic coloratura (Lucia) She was the highest-paid soprano of her day, and made her first recordings when she was over 60
1893 Sir Cedric Hardwicke - British actor, who after a distinguished career on the British stage, went to Hollywood (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Stanley and Livingstone, Richard III, The Ten Commandments, I Remember Mama, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Rope) He was the father of Edward Hardwicke - one of the best John H. Watsons ever!
1895 Louis Calhern - Actor (The Count of Monte Cristo, Duck Soup, Blackboard Jungle, Prisoner of Zenda, The Student Prince)
1902 Nydia Westman - Actress (One Night of Love, Velvet Touch, Bulldog Drummond's Peril, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken) She played Ivy Stanton in the Perry Mason episode The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor
1911 Merle Oberon - Indian born actress (Wuthering Heights, Stage Door Canteen, Deep in My Heart, Hotel, The Oscar, Interval)
1912 Stan Kenton - US bandleader, composer and pianist (No Longer a Prisoner, West Side Story, Adventures in Jazz, Artistry In Rhythm, How High the Moon, September Song, Laura) He was an innovator in the progressive jazz style of the 1950's
1916 Eddie Arcaro - Jockey. He is the only jockey to win two Triple Crowns, in 1941 and in 1948
1917 Carson McCullers - Author (The Member of the Wedding, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Reflections in a Golden Eye)
1924 Lee Marvin - Actor (Cat Ballou, The Caine Mutiny, The Dirty Dozen, Delta Force, Ship of Fools, Paint Your Wagon)
1930 John Frankenheimer - Director (Days of Wine and Roses, Birdman of Alcatraz, The French Connection, The Manchurian Candidate, Ronin, All Fall Down)
1936 Bob Engemann - Singer with The Lettermen (When I Fall In Love, Goin' Out of My Head, Can't Take My Eyes Off You)
1940 Smokey Robinson - Lead vocalist with his group The Miracles (Shop Around, I Second That Emotion, Tears of a Clown)
1940 Bobby Rogers - Tenor vocalist with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, who shares a birthday with the band's namesake
1943 Lou Christie - Singer (The Gypsy Cried, Two Faces Have I, Lightnin' Strikes)
1952 Amy Tan - US author (The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses) She also played in a band called the Rock Bottom Remainders with fellow writers Dave Barry and Stephen King
1955 Jeff Daniels - Actor (Arachnaphobia, Dumb & Dumber, The Crossing, Terms of Endearment, Speed, Good Night and Good Luck, The Hours, Pleasantville)
1956 Kathleen Beller – Actress (Dynasty, The Bronx Zoo, The Blue and the Gray, Fort Apache the Bronx, The Betsy, Mary White)
1957 Ray Winstone – British actor (The Departed, Great Expectations, Hugo, London Boulevard, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Beowulf, Vincent, Cold Mountain) He played CPO Evans in the Kavanagh QC episode The Burning Deck
1963 Jessica Tuck – Actress (Judging Amy, Super 8, One Life to Live, True Blood, Sunset Beach, Murder One)
1966 Justine Bateman - Actress (Family Ties, Satisfaction, Deadbolt, Men in Trees)
1967 Benicio Del Toro – Puerto Rican actor (The Usual Suspects, Traffic, Snatch, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, China Moon, Licence to Kill, Guardians of the Galaxy)


Died this Day

1897 Charles Blondin – Legendary French tight rope walker who died just over a week before his 73rd birthday
1972 John Grierson - Scottish filmmaker who is known as the Father of the Documentary
2001 Stanley Kramer, age 87 - Director (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Inherit the Wind, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Judgement at Nuremberg, Ship of Fools, On the Beach, The Defiant Ones)


On this Day

AD 607 In Italy, Boniface III began his reign as the Catholic Pope
1408 Henry IV defeated Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, at the Battle of Bramham Moor, ending the Northumberland Rebellion
1732 Religious houses in New France were forbidden to shelter fugitives from justice
1800 Napoleon established himself as First Consul after overthrowing the French government. It made him a dictator
1807 Former US Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama on charges of plotting to annex Spanish territory in Louisiana and Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic. He was subsequently tried for treason and acquitted
1846 The Texas state government was formally installed in Austin
1847 The first rescuers from Sutter's Fort reached the surviving remnants of the Donner Party at their snowbound camp in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains. Almost half of the original eighty-nine pioneers died in one of the most infamous ordeals in the history of Western expansionism. In 1846, a group of California-bound families, mostly from Illinois and Iowa, set out on the long journey west. Most prominent among them were the Reed family, and two Donner families, led by George and Jacob Donner. After passing Fort Bridger in Wyoming, George Donner suggested that the group use a lesser-travelled shortcut recently blazed by the California promoter Lansford Hastings. The so-called Hastings Cutoff, through the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, proved to be anything but a shortcut, and the Donner party lost valuable time and supplies on the trip. Their covered wagons were severely delayed in the salt flats of Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert, and didn't reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains in eastern California until October of 1846. They camped near a high mountain lake with plans to begin the final push over the pass the next day. Unfortunately, an early winter storm arrived in the mountains. By morning, a thick mantle of snow covered the ground and the pass was blocked. The Donner party was trapped. The panicked emigrants constructed makeshift tents out of the canvas from their wagons, hoping a thaw might still save them. A small party led by Charles T. Stanton and his Indian guides set out for help, while the rest of the group set up the camp at Alder Creek, at what is now known as Donner Lake. Stanton's party returned, having failed to breach the snow-choked passes and within weeks the pioneers' limited food gave out and the cold and snow became worse. The surviving pioneers were driven to cannibalism and Stanton died attempting to break through the pass again. Finally, in early 1847, James Reed, who had reached California in a separate party, succeeded in organising a relief party to save his family and the rest of the Donner Party. On this day in 1847, a snowshoed group of settlers from the Johnson's Ranch and Sutter's Fort area of California broke through the mountain snowdrifts to the hunger-maddened pioneers. Twenty-one of the strongest survivors were led back over the mountains while the rest were left with supplies. It would take two more months and three more relief parties before the last surviving Donner Party members were safely led out of the death encampment. The last survivors would not reach safety until late April. Of the 89 emigrants who had departed Fort Bridger the year before, only 45 survived to reach their destination in sunny California
1856 In Gambier, Ohio, Hamilton Smith obtained a US patent on the tin-type camera
1878 Thomas Edison received a US patent for his phonograph. He accidentally invented the phonograph while attempting to improve the telegraph
1881 Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages
1906 William Kellogg formed the Battle Creek Cornflake Company to make a breakfast cereal he had created for patients suffering from mental disorders
1909 President Theodore Roosevelt called for a world conference on conservation
1914 Pittsburgh movie theatres were now required to establish a seating section for unaccompanied women. Some women attending movies alone had complained of harassment
1915 In Turkey, the British launched a naval attack on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the Dardanelles during World War I. Bad weather caused delays and the attack was abandoned after three battleships had been sunk and three others damaged. Military assistance was required, but by the time troops began to land in April, the Turks had had ample time to prepare adequate fortifications and the defending armies were now six times larger than when the campaign began. Through the attack, the British had hoped to capture Constantinople, and to link up with the Russians, knocking Turkey out of the war and possibly persuade the Balkan states to join the Allies
1930 The Québec legislature rejected a bill to admit women to the practice of law
1934 Bob and Dolores Hope were married. Their marriage lasted for 69 years, until his death in 2003
1954 The Ford Thunderbird was born in prototype form. It wouldn't be released to the market on a wide scale until the fall of that year, which was the beginning of the 1955 model year
1970 Canada claimed jurisdiction over all waters of the Northwest Passage, and between the islands of the Arctic Archipelago
1985 The first episode of the BBC soap opera EastEnders aired in Britain
1993 Two British explorers became the first to cross the Antarctic on foot without outside support. Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr. Michael Stroud dragged their supplies on sledges weighing 480 pounds across more than 1,300 miles. Sir Ranulph is the cousin of acting brothers Joseph and Ralph Fiennes