Born this Day

1804 Johann Strauss, the elder - Austrian composer of Viennese waltzes
1854 Paul Ehrlich - German medical scientist who founded chemotherapy, discovered a remedy for syphilis, and developed an antitoxin for diphtheria
1864 John "Casey" Jones - Legendary engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad who was immortalised in the song, The Ballad of Casey Jones. He died in a wreck near Vaughan, Mississippi, as his train, the Cannonball Express, was making its run between Chicago and New Orleans. There was a stalled freight train ahead on the tracks, but Jones stayed at the controls in an effort to save the passengers, who all managed to jump to safety before the train crashed
1868 Emily Murphy - Canadian jurist who was the British Empire's first female judge. In 1916, Murphy was appointed police magistrate for Edmonton, and later Alberta. She took part in the battle to have women declared legal "persons" under the British North America Act, and in 1929, Britain's Privy Council ruled women were indeed persons. She was also a prolific writer under the pen name Janey Canuck (Janey Canuck in the West, The Black Candle, Impressions of Janey Canuck Abroad)
1879 Albert Einstein - German born Swiss physicist and mathematician who developed the Theory of Relativity. He worked originally as an examiner at the Swiss Patents Office, and studied for his PhD, writing scientific papers in his spare time. He published his special theory of relativity, which described the relationship of the universe to time, in 1905, and his general theory in 1916. In 1921 he won the Nobel Prize for Science. Einstein's revolutionary theories introduced entirely new ways of thinking about time, space, and gravity, and he profoundly affected the way scientific inquiry occurred. He emigrated to the US to avoid persecution in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. An avid pacifist, he nevertheless put into motion the invention of the hydrogen and atomic bombs with a letter to President Roosevelt, urging him to beware the possibility of Germany's building an atom bomb
1912 Les Brown - Bandleader for Les Brown and His Band of Renown (Sentimental Journey, My Dreams are Getting Better All the Time, Leap Frog, I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm)
1914 Lee Arnold Petty - Stock car racer, born near Randleman, North Carolina. Now famous as the father of NASCAR racer Richard Petty, and the grandfather of Kyle Petty, Lee Petty was no slouch in his own day. In 1959, Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500 at the brand new Daytona International Speedway driving a new hardtop Olds 88 to a photo finish with Johnny Beauchamp
1918 Dennis Patrick - Actor (The Time Travellers, Choices, The Air Up There, Dark Shadows, Joe, Dallas) He also appeared in numerous Perry Mason episodes
1920 Hank Ketcham - Cartoonist (Dennis the Menace)
1933 Sir Michael Caine - British actor (Zulu, Hannah and Her Sisters, Sleuth, The Ipcress File, Alfie, Educating Rita, California Suite, Jack the Ripper, On Deadly Ground, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Wilby Conspiracy, Deathtrap, Little Voice, The Man Who Would Be King, The Italian Job, Secondhand Lions) He portrayed Sherlock Holmes in the movie, Without A Clue He also played Alfred in Batman Begins and Dark Knight Rises
1933 Quincy Jones - Composer, bandleader, record producer, movie scorer, arranger (Fly Me To The Moon, I Can't Stop Loving You, The Pawnbroker, We Are the World) He has won numerous Grammys and awards throughout his career
1934 Shirley Scott - Swinging, blues-oriented organist who recorded mostly with her ex-husband, Stanley Turrentine
1938 Eleanor Bron - British actress (Vanity Fair, Deadly Advice, Little Dorrit, Alfie, Help!, Absolutely Fabulous) She played Mrs. Barrymore in the 1983 version of the Hound of the Baskervilles, which starred Ian Richardson as Sherlock Holmes
1940 Rita Tushingham - Actress (Dr. Zhivago, A Taste of Honey, The Trap)
1943 Anita Morris – Stage and screen actress (Radioland Murders, A Smoky Mountain Christmas, Jesus Christ Superstar, Nine, Seesaw, The Best Little #####house in Texas)
1945 Walter Parazaider - Musician with the group Chicago (If You Leave Me Now, 25 Or 6 To 4, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, You're the Inspiration, Hard to Say I'm Sorry)
1946 Steve Kanaly - Actor (Dallas, The Wind and the Lion, Dillinger)
1947 Billy Crystal - Comedian, writer, actor (City Slickers, Throw Mama From The Train, Soap, When Harry Met Sally)
1950 Rick Dees – Singer (Disco Duck) and actor (Jetsons: The Movie, La Bamba, Solid Gold)
1958 Prince Albert of Monaco - Son of Prince Ranier, and Princess Grace Kelly
1959 Tamara Tunie – Stage and screen actress (Law & Order: SVU, 24, Snake Eyes, The Peacemaker, NYPD Blue, Rising Sun, As the World Turns, Wall Street, Troilus and Cressida, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Oh Kay!, Antony and Cleopatra)
1961 Penny Johnson – Actress (Castle, 24, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Larry Sanders Show)
1968 Megan Follows - Canadian actress (Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Matt and Jenny, What Katy Did, The Stork Derby, Robson Arms)
1968 James Frain – British actor (The Tudors, TRON: Legacy, True Blood, Invasion, 24, The Count of Monte Cristo, Elizabeth, The Mill on the Floss, The Buccaneers)
1974 Grace Park – Actress (Battlestar Galactica, Hawaii Five-0, The Cleaner, The Border, Edgemont)
1982 Kate Maberly - British actress (Finding Neverland, Victoria & Albert, The Langoliers, The Secret Garden) She has appeared in Midsommer Murders and A Touch of Frost


Died this Day

1757 John Byng - British admiral who bungled the relief of Minorca. He was shot for neglecting his duty, on board the Monarque, at Portsmouth
1883 Karl Marx, age 64 - German philosopher, died in London
1932 George Eastman - US inventor who founded the Kodak Photographic Company
1973 Chic Young, age 72 – Creator of the comic strip Blondie
1975 Susan Hayward, age 57 - Actress (David and Bathsheba, Rawhide, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Ada)
1976 Busby Berkeley, age 80 - US Broadway and film choreographer and director (For Me and My Gal, A Connecticut Yankee, 42nd Street, The Gold Diggers of 1933, Babes in Arms) He devised a new style of choreography and photography which revolutionised Hollywood musicals


On this Day

1743 The first recorded town meeting in the colonies was held, at Faneuil Hall in Boston
1794 US inventor Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionised the US's cotton industry
1843 James Douglas founded Victoria, British Columbia
1885 Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado debuted at the Savoy Theatre in London
1891 Telephone cable was laid along the English Channel bed by the submarine Monarch
1900 US Congress ratified the Gold Standard Act
1916 Saskatchewan women were granted the right to vote
1923 US President Warren G. Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax report
1943 Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man premiered in New York City, with George Szell conducting
1950 The Federal Bureau of Investigation instituted its 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list in an effort to publicise particularly dangerous criminals. The decision arose out of a wire-service news story in 1949 about the "toughest guys" the FBI wanted to capture. The story drew so much public attention that J. Edgar Hoover agreed to the 10 Most Wanted list the following year. The FBI's Criminal Investigative Division (CID) requested that all 56 field offices submit candidates for inclusion on the list. The CID, in association with the Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, then proposed finalists for approval by the FBI's Deputy Director. The criteria for selection are that the criminal must have a lengthy record and current pending charges that make him or her particularly dangerous. The FBI must also believe that the publicity that accompanies placement on the list will assist in the apprehension of the fugitive. Generally, the only way to get off the list is to die or to be captured. There have only been a handful of cases where fugitives have been removed from the list because they no longer were a menace to society
1962 Gordie Howe, the Detroit Red Wings # 9, became the second NHLer to score 500 goals. Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens was the first
1964 A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy, the previous November. Ruby was sentenced to death, but died of cancer in prison
1976 In her debut as the first woman in Indy-car racing, Arlene Hiss was lapped 22 times by Bobby Unser, in a 150-mile race in Phoenix
1980 Eighty-seven people, including 23 members of the US amateur boxing team, died when their plane crashed in Warsaw