Born this Day

1475 Michelangelo de Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni - Renaissance artist, sculptor and architect (Sistine Chapel ceiling, David, St. Peter's in Rome)
1619 Cyrano De Bergerac Savinien - French soldier and author (The States and Empires of the Sun, A Voyage to the Moon) He was also the subject of the famous play by Rostand, whose title bears his name. He is said to have fought more than 1,000 duels because of insults about his large nose
1806 Elizabeth Barrett Browning - British poet (Sonnets from the Portuguese, Aurora Leigh, The Seraphim and Other Poems) She was the wife of poet Robert Browning
1834 George du Maurier - British caricaturist for Punch and author (Trilby, Peter Ibbeston, The Martian) He was the grandfather of author Daphne du Maurier
1844 Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov - Russian composer (Scheherazade, Song of India, The Flight of the Bumblebee) His career began as a sailor, and he taught himself music in secret before becoming an inspector of naval bands
1885 Ring Lardner - Sports reporter, humorist and writer (Alibi Ike, You Know Me Al, Elmer the Great, June Moon)
1906 - Lou Costello - Comedian and actor who was half of the Abbott & Costello comedy team (Who's on First?)
1917 Frankie Howerd - British comedian/actor (The Lady Killers, Up Pompeii, Carry On Doctor)
1923 Ed McMahon - Radio and TV announcer (The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, TV's Most Hilarious Bloopers, Star Search, Snap Judgement)
1925 Wes Montgomery - Jazz guitarist (Windy, Goin' Out of My Head, Wes' Tune, Sunny)
1937 Doug Dillard - Country singer and banjo player with The Dillards (Deulin' Banjos) The Dillards made numerous guest appearances on The Andy Griffith Show as the bluegrass playing Darling Family. Doug Dillard also played banjo in the movie Popeye
1937 Valentina Nikolakyeva-Tereshkova - Russian cosmonaut who, at age 26, became the first woman in space when she circled the world in June, 1963
1942 Ben Murphy - Actor (The Winds of War, The Chisholms, Time Walker)
1944 Dame Kiri Te Kanawa - New Zealand opera singer who played to her biggest audience when she was invited to sing at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer
1946 Martin Kove – Actor (Cagney & Lacey, Rambo: First Blood Part II, The Karate Kid, Baby Face Nelson, Wyatt Earp, The White Buffalo)
1947 Rob Reiner - Actor (All In the Family, Postcards from the Edge, Sleepless in Seattle) and director (When Harry Met Sally, Misery, This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, A Few Good Men) He is the son of Carl Reiner. He named his production company "Castle Rock" after a fictional town created by Stephen King
1947 Kiki Dee - Singer (Don't Go Breaking My Heart, Amoureuse, You Don't Know How Glad I Am, Star)
1947 Dick Fosbury - Olympic Gold Medallist and high jumper who invented the "Fosbury Flop" high jump technique
1955 Albert Watson – Canadian actress (Nikita, The Sweet Hereafter, The Border, 24, Gotti)
1955 James Saito – Actor (The Thomas Crown Affair, Eli Stone, I Think I Love My Wife, Die Hard: With a Vengance)
1959 Tom Arnold - Actor (True Lies, Roseanne, The Jackie Thomas Show, Tom)
1963 Suzanne Crough – Actress (The Partridge Family, Mulligan's Stew)
1968 Moira Kelly - Actress (One Tree Hill, The West Wing, Chaplin, Dangerous Beauty)
1981 Ellen Muth – Actress (Dead Like Me, Dolores Claiborne, The Truth About Jane)


Died this Day

1888 Louisa May Alcott, age 55 - US author (Little Women, Little Men, A Whisper in the Dark, Hospital Sketches, An Old-Fashioned Girl, Eight Cousins, Jo's Boys) Alcott was the second of four daughters. She was born in Pennsylvania but spent most of her life in Concord, Massachusetts, where her father, Bronson, associated with Transcendentalist thinkers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. The liberal attitudes of the Transcendentalists left a strong mark on Alcott. Her father started a school based on Transcendentalist teachings, but after six years it failed, and he was left unable to support the family. Louisa dedicated most of her life and writing to supporting her family. In 1852, her first story, the Rival Painters: A Tale of Rome, was published in a periodical, and she made a living off sentimental and melodramatic stories over the next two decades. In 1862, she worked as a nurse for Union troops in the Civil War until typhoid fever broke her health. She became a strong supporter of women's issues and spent most of her life caring for her family's financial, emotional, and physical needs. Alcott's father had died just two days before her death, and she died on the day of her father's funeral
1900 Gottlieb Daimler - German motor engineer and motorcycle inventor. He died two weeks before his 66th birthday
1932 John Philip Sousa, age 77 - US bandmaster and composer, whose compositions earned him the title of the "March King"
1961 George Formby, age 58 - British comedian and singer (When I'm Cleaning Windows, Swimmin' With the Wimmen, Fanlight Fanny, Come Hither With Your Zither)
1967 Nelson Eddy, age 66 - US singer and actor who partnered with Jeanette MacDonald in many Hollywood musical operettas. He collapsed on stage during a performance in Australia and died of a stroke
1970 William Hopper, age 55 – Actor (Rebel Without a Cause, Sitting Bull, The First Texan, The Deadly Mantis, The Bad Seed) He was the son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and he portrayed Paul Drake in the Perry Mason TV series
1973 Pearl S. Buck, age 80 – US author (The Good Earth, A House Divided, This Proud Heart, The Exile) She was taken to China as a child by her missionary parents, and spent much of her life there
1986 Georgia O'Keefe, age 98 - US artist who gained world-wide fame for her austere minimalist paintings of the US south-west. She died in Santa Fe, New Mexico
2000 John Colicos, age 71 - Canadian stage and screen actor (Battlestar Galactica, The Last Don, I'll Take Manhattan, Anne of a Thousand Days)


On this Day

1521 While travelling in the Pacific Ocean on his voyage around the world, Magellan discovered the island of Guam
1617 Louis Hébert signed an agreement to become the first colonist of New France. He was a farmer and apothecary, and would provide herbal medicines to the inhabitants
1834 The city of York was officially named Toronto. By this time, there were 10,000 people in the city. The first municipal election was held on March 27th and William Lyon Mackenzie was elected mayor. His first act was to order wooden sidewalks built and drains dug. When it was learned the work would mean a tax increase, there was a riot in which six people were killed
1836 The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces during the Texas War for Independence. Almost two weeks earlier, the Mexican army under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana arrived in the city unexpectedly. Colonel William B. Travis and his troops retreated to the Alamo, an old Spanish mission and fortress, where they were soon joined by James Bowie's volunteer force. The Mexican army badly outnumbered the defenders of the Alamo, but their determination was fierce, and when Santa Ana asked for their surrender the following day, Travis answered with a cannon shot. Furious, Santa Ana began a siege. Recognising he was doomed to defeat without assistance, Travis, who had been promised reinforcements, dispatched several messages via couriers asking for help. The most famous was addressed to "The People of Texas and All Americans in the World" and was signed "Victory or Death." The expected help was not forthcoming, as only 32 men from nearby Gonzales responded to Travis' pleas. On March 6, the Mexicans stormed the Alamo and Travis, Bowie, and the rest of the men defending the fort, including Davy Crockett, were killed. The women and children who had sought shelter in the chapel were spared, however, and Santa Ana gave each of them a blanket, some money and guaranteed them safe passage through his lines. Later that month, Santa Ana's troops massacred over 400 soldiers that were being held prisoner at Goliad. The unarmed men were marched from town and shot, and their bodies then burned. Six weeks later, with these incidents fresh in their minds, a large Texan army under Sam Houston surprised Santa Ana's army at San Jacinto. Over 600 Mexican soldiers were killed while more than 700 were allowed to surrender. Only nine Texians were killed or mortally wounded. The "brave" Santa Anna was found hiding in the brush the next day dressed as a common soldier. Houston’s army defeated the Mexicans and captured Santa Ana, winning Texas' independence
1853 Verdi's opera, La Traviata, premiered in Venice, Italy
1866 William Frederick Cody (Buffalo Bill) marred Louisa Frederici. They were married almost 51 years, until his death in January 1917
1896 Charles B. King tested his automobile on the streets of Detroit, Michigan, becoming the first man to drive a car in what would become the Motor City
1899 Felix Hoffman discovered the pharmacological properties of acetylsalicylic acid and formulated the aspirin, which he patented this day
1912 Thuesen's Grocery in Hoboken, New Jersey became the first store to stock Oreo cookies
1913 A San Francisco newspaper used the word "jazz" for the first time in print
1930 Birdseye frozen foods, developed by Clarence Birdseye, went on sale for the first time in a US store, in Springfield, Massachusetts. He learned the technique of flash freezing from the Labrador Inuit
1933 A nation-wide bank holiday declared by President Roosevelt went into effect
1950 Silly Putty was invented
1957 The former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana
1965 The US announced it was sending the first contingent of combat troops to South Vietnam to fight Communist guerrillas
1981 Walter Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening News for the last time
1997 Queen Elizabeth II launched the first official royal Web site and took her maiden cyber-walkabout in which she exchanged e-mail with students at Nakina Public School, 250 miles north-east of Thunder Bay, Ontario