Born this Day

1813 David Livingstone - Scottish missionary and explorer who opened Africa to the west and was the first European to discover the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi. While at Ujiji, on an unsuccessful expedition to find the source of the Nile, he became ill. It was here that newspaperman Henry M. Stanley found him, and spoke the famous words, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume"
1821 Sir Richard Burton - British scholar, explorer, writer and translator of "The Arabian Nights". He discovered the source of the Nile, which Livingstone had searched for in vain
1848 Wyatt Earp - US frontiersman, lawman and gunfighter who, with his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday, fought the Clanton Gang at the O.K. Corral
1864 Charlie Russell - Artist who specialised in the US West. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. At 16 years of age, his parents sent him to Montana under the care of a sheepherder. The independent young man struck out on his own soon after, finding work as a cowboy in the booming Montana ranching industry. During long, often tedious days watching over cattle on the open range, Russell sketched the scenes around him. In the winter, when many cowboys were unemployed, Russell lived in various frontier towns and painted pictures to pay for his food and lodging. Russell also began carrying modelling clay with him during this time, making small sculptures during his spare moments. In 1896 he married Mary Cooper, and Russell's new wife began to guide him toward a serious career in art. He found there was a growing market, especially among wealthy East Coast residents, for images of the disappearing US frontier. By 1920, he was making frequent trips to New York to paint western pictures for an increasing number of supportive patrons. Russell rarely painted or sculpted from models or from life, relying on memory to recreate scenes from the life he had experienced. He had no real art training and little interest in the formal aesthetics of art. Though critics often ignored or derided his work, the public loved it. Initially, Russell's paintings and sculptures documented his early life as a cowboy, but later in his career, he also began to depict scenes from the lives of US Indians and historical figures. Many of his later paintings express Russell's melancholy attachment to the unspoiled West and his dislike of the "progress" that had ploughed under the Great Plains and fenced in the open range. He spent his final years in Great Falls, Montana, where he continued to paint until his death in 1926
1894 Jackie 'Moms' Mabley - Comedienne (Boarding House Blues, Emperor Jones, Amazing Grace, Killer Diller)
1914 Fred Clark - Actor (Sunset Boulevard, Bells Are Ringing, The Caddy)
1915 Patricia Morison – Actress (Kiss Me Kate, Persons in Hiding, Song Without End, The Fallen Sparrow, Song of the Thin Man) She was in the Sherlock Holmes film Dressed to Kill
1916 Irving Wallace - Author (The Fan Club, The Word, The Man)
1916 Eric Christmas – British-born Canadian actor (The Philadelphia Experiment, , Porky’s, Mousehunt, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!, Wayne & Schuster, War and Rememberance, All of Me, The Changeling, The Last Tycoon)
1920 Tige Andrews - Actor (The Detectives, The Mod Squad, The Phil Silvers Show, Raid on Entebbe)
1928 Patrick McGoohan - US born Irish actor (The Prisoner, Danger Man, Secret Agent, Braveheart, Escape from Alcatraz, The Silver Streak, Ice Station Zebra)
1933 Phillip Roth - Author (Goodbye Columbus, A.P.E.X., Ghostwriter)
1935 Nancy Malone - Actress (The Long Hot Summer, Naked City, Capricorn One, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing)
1935 Phyllis Newman - Actress (Coming of Age, That was the Week That was, Picnic, A Secret Space)
1936 Ursula Andress - Swiss actress (Dr. No, Casino Royale, Fun in Acapulco, What's New Pussycat, Clash of the Titans)
1946 Ruth Pointer - Singer with her family group The Pointer Sisters (Fire, He's So Shy, Jump for My Love, Automatic, Neutron Dance, I'm So Excited, Dare Me)
1947 Glenn Close - Actress (Fatal Attraction, The Big Chill, Air Force One, 101 Dalmations, Mars Attacks!, Sarah Plain and Tall, The World According to Garp)
1952 Chris Brubeck - Composer, trombone player. He is the son of jazz great Dave Brubeck
1955 Bruce (Walter) Willis - German born actor (Moonlighting, Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, Hudson Hawk, The Last Boy Scout, Billy Bathgate, Armageddon, The Fifth Element)


Died this Day

1687 Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle, age 44 - French explorer and fur trader. He was murdered in Texas by his men who were on a mutiny. In 1864 La Salle was given the command of an expedition to invade Mexico via the Rio Grande. The following February he and his party landed at Matagorda Bay in Texas after losing most of their supply ships. In April 1686 La Salle set off for Fort St-Louis-des-Illinois with 20 of his men to seek help, but was killed en route
1950 Edgar Rice Burroughs, age 74 - US author (A Princess of Mars, Tarzan of the Apes stories)
1982 Alan Badel, age 58 - British actor (Shogun, Agatha, The Woman in White, Force 10 from Navarone)
1997 Willem de Kooning, age 92 - Artist, who is considered one of the 20th century's greatest painters, died in East Hampton, NY


On this Day

721BC The first eclipse ever recorded was observed by the Babylonians, according to Ptolomy
1825 George Simpson chose the new Fort Vancouver as headquarters of the Columbia district for the Hudson's Bay Company. Fort Vancouver was located on the Columbia River, near the present Portland, Oregon
1831 The City Bank in downtown New York City was robbed, marking the first recorded bank robbery in US history. The bank, located on New York's newly booming Wall Street, lost $245,000 in the heist, which was considered to be a tremendous amount of money at the time. The thief, English immigrant Edward Smith (aka Edward Jones and James Honeyman), was quickly caught and some $185,000 of the money was eventually recovered. Smith was convicted and sentenced to five years of hard labour at Sing Sing Prison
1859 The opera Faust, by Charles Gounod, premiered in Paris
1885 The North West Rebellion took place at Batoche, Saskatchewan, as Louis Riel seized hostages and set up the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan, with himself as President, and Gabriel Dumont the Adjutant-General of the Army
1917 The US Supreme Court upheld the eight-hour workday for railroads
1918 US Congress approved daylight-saving time for use in the summer
1931 Nevada legalised gambling in an attempt to lift the state from the hard times of the Great Depression. Set in the Great Basin desert, Nevada was one of the most barren states in the US and relied heavily on the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode precious metal reserves for settlement. At the beginning of the Great Depression, Nevada's mines were in decline and its economy was in shambles, so the Nevada state legislature responded to the population flight by taking the drastic measure of legalising gambling, and, later in the year, divorce. Today, state gambling taxes account for over 40 percent of Nevada's overall tax revenues
1931 Alka-Seltzer was first marketed in the US
1937 The House of Commons passed a bill banning Canadians from fighting in the Spanish Civil War. The External Affairs Department arranged for all passports issued after the outbreak of the war to be stamped "Not valid for travel to Spain." This was an attempt by the government to discourage young Canadians from travelling to Madrid to join the International Brigade in its fight against fascism. Many Canadians went despite the ban
1941 The US and Canada signed a pact to develop the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway, later known as the St. Lawrence Seaway
1945 About 800 people were killed as Kamikaze planes attacked the US carrier Franklin off Japan. The ship, however, was saved
1951 Herman Wouk's war novel, The Caine Mutiny, was published
1953 The Academy Awards ceremony was televised for the first time, with comedian Bob Hope serving as host. The Greatest Show on Earth was named best picture of 1952
1958 Britain's first planetarium opened at Madame Tussaud's, near Baker Street, in London
1964 Canadian Sergeant Major Walter Leja was awarded the George Medal for heroic conduct while dismantling FLQ bombs in Montreal in May,1963. He was severely wounded after a mailbox bomb went off in his hands in a Westmount street
1976 Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, after 16 years of marriage
1979 The US House of Representatives began televising its day-to-day business
1986 Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, known affectionately as Fergie. Their marriage started off like a fairy tale and the couple had two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie. However, in 1992, six years to the day after their engagement was announced, the Palace announced Andrew and Sarah had formally agreed to separate
1987 Televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as chairman of his PTL ministry amid a sex and money scandal involving a former church secretary. Bakker was later sent to prison for bilking his followers
1995 After giving up an attempt to become a major league baseball player, Michael Jordan returned to pro basketball with his former team, the Chicago Bulls