Born this Day

1454 Amerigo Vespucci - Italian explorer who made numerous voyages to the New World, which now bears his name. He also discovered the Amazon and Plate Rivers
1564 David Fabricius - German astronomer who discovered variable stars
1824 Leland Stanford - Governor of California, Senator, and founder of Stanford University
1856 Eddie Foy, Sr. - Actor, comic, and dancer who entertained on the musical stage and in vaudeville for four decades. His children were part of his vaudeville act, and were known as The Seven Little Foys
1858 Gustav Stickley - US designer and maker of Mission furniture
1892 Vita (Victoria Mary) Sackville-West - British novelist and poet (The Edwardians, All Passion Spent, The Land, Orchard and Vineyard, The Eagle and the Dove)
1902 Will Geer - Actor (The Waltons, Jeremiah Johnson, Napoleon and Samantha)
1918 Mickey Spillane - US author of the Mike Hammer mysteries (I the Jury, My Gun Is Quick, Kiss Me Deadly, Vengeance Is Mine)
1921 Carl Betz - Actor (Deadly Encounter, The Meal, Spinout, The Donna Reed Show) He played Dr. Chandler in the Perry Mason episode The Case of the Sunbather's Diary
1923 André Courrèges - French fashion designer who introduced the miniskirt
1932 Keely Smith - Singer (That Old Black Magic, How Are Ya' Fixed for Love?)
1933 Lloyd Price - Songwriter (Lawdy Miss Clawdy) pianist and singer (Stagger Lee, Personality, I'm Gonna Get Married, Misty Come to Me)
1934 Yuri Gagarin - Russian cosmonaut who was the first man to travel in space
1934 Joyce Van Patten - Actress (Monkey Shines, The Goodbye Guys, Bad News Bears, Breathing Lessons, Don Rickles Show) She is the sister of Dick Van Patten
1937 Mickey Gilley - Country singer (Urban Cowboy, Bring It on Home to Me, Stand By Me, You Don't Know Me) He's the owner of the bar, Gilley's Club, and the cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis
1940 Raul Julia - Puerto Rican stage and screen actor (The Addams Family, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Eyes of Laura Mars, Proteus, Mack the Knife) He had received four Tony award nominations
1942 Mark Lindsay - Saxophonist, singer and songwriter with the group Paul Revere & the Raiders (The Great Airplane Strike, Good Thing, Him or Me - What's It Gonna be, Indian Reservation) He also had a solo career (Arizona, Silver Bird)
1943 Bobby Fischer - US championship chess player
1943 Trish Van Devere - Actress (Hollywood Vice Squad, All God's Children, The Day of the Dolphin, Deadly Currents)
1946 Alexandra Bastedo – British actress (The Champions, Casino Royale, The Aphrodite Inheritance, Codename)
1948 Jimmie Fadden - Singer and musician with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Mr. Bojangles, An American Dream, Make a Little Magic, Modern Day Romance, Long Hard Road)
1950 Danny Sullivan - Race car driver who dominated Indy Car racing in the 1980s driving Penske cars. Danny Sullivan won the 1985 Indy 500 after a full-circle spin on the track
1959 Rodney A. Grant – Actor (Dances With Wolves, Son of the Morning Star, Gengis Khan, Geronimo: An American Legend, Hawkeye, Wild Wild West, Ghosts of Mars
1959 Tom Amandes – Actor (Everwood, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Brokedown Palace, The Untouchables, Eli Stone, Bonneville)
1960 Linda Fiorentino - Actress (Men in Black, Unforgettable, Bodily Harm, The Last Seduction, Vision Quest)
1964 Juliette Binoche - French actress (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Wuthering Heights, The English Patient, Chocolat)
1971 Emmanuel Lewis - Actor (Webster, Lost in London, Kickin it Old Skool)


Died this Day

1888 Wilhelm I - Emperor of Germany
1992 Menachem Begin, age 78 - Former Israeli Prime Minister, died in Tel Aviv
1996 George Burns - Legendary comedian and actor, he died in Beverly Hills, California, just weeks after turning 100


On this Day

1074 Pope Gregory VII excommunicated all Roman Catholic priests who were married
1497 Nicolaus Copernicus made the first recorded astronomical observation
1541 Jean-Francois de La Roque de Roberval obtained authorisation to take the first boatload of convicts to Canada to found a colony. Jacques Cartier broke away from Roberval and went to Canada on his own
1562 Kissing in public was banned in Naples, contravention being punishable by death
1745 Bells for the first colonial carillon arrived in Boston from England
1796 The future emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, married Josephine de Beauharnais. The couple divorced in 1809
1812 The letters of British spy John Henry were read to the US Congress and triggered the War of 1812
1822 A patent for artificial teeth was granted to Charles Graham of New York City
1824 Lower Canada gave priests authority to provide a school for every 100 families
1824 Canada adopted the patent system
1831 French King Louis Philippe founded the French Foreign Legion, with headquarters in Algeria
1841 The US Supreme Court ruled on the Amistad Mutiny, ruling, with only one dissent, that the African slaves who seized control of the Amistad slave ship had been illegally forced into slavery, and thus were free under US law. In 1807, the US Congress joined with Great Britain in abolishing the African slave trade, although the trading of slaves within the US was not prohibited. Despite the international ban on the import of African slaves, Spain and Portugal continued to transport and accept captive Africans to their American colonies until the 1860s
1858 In the US, Albert Potts of Philadelphia patented the street mailbox
1858 In Lowell, Massachusetts, Gustavus Dows opened the first soda fountain
1862 The first ever battle between iron-fortified naval vessels took place during the US Civil War. The CSS Virginia, which had been launched just the previous day, engaged the USS Monitor. Both the Monitor and the Virginia suffered direct hits which failed to penetrate their iron shells. Finally after four hours, a cannon blast from the Virginia hit the Monitor's pilothouse, temporarily blinding ship's captain, Union Lieutenant John L. Worden. The Virginia was thus allowed to escape to Norfolk, Virginia, and the Battle of the Ironclads ended in a draw
1891 Four days of storms began off England's south coast, sinking fourteen ships
1907 A Hamilton, Ontario news dealer was fined 30 dollars for selling US papers on a Sunday
1916 Mexican raiders led by Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, NM, killing more than a dozen people
1918 The Russian capital was changed from Petrograd to Moscow
1961 The Soviet Union sent the first dog into space aboard the Sputnik Nine
1975 Work began on the Alaskan oil pipeline
1977 The US and Canadian governments announced a ban on saccharine as a food and drug sweetener. Tests showed the sugar substitute caused cancer in laboratory rats
1987 Chrysler agreed to buy American Motors for 1.5-billion dollars
1995 A dispute between Canada and the European Union over turbot quotas in waters off Newfoundland escalated when Canadian patrol vessels seized a Spanish trawler. The Estai was accused of fishing illegally in water just outside Canada's 200-mile limit