Born this Day

1738 King George III – Ruler of England during the time of the American Revolutionary War against the British
1833 Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley – Irish-born British field marshal who saw service in battles throughout the world and was instrumental in modernising the British army. At 25 he became the youngest lieutenant colonel in the British army. In 1870 he led the Red River expedition through 600 miles of wilderness to suppress the rebellion of Louis Riel, who had proclaimed a republic in Manitoba
1887 Tom Longboat – Canadian marathon runner who set a course record winning the 1907 Boston Marathon, running the last mile in 4 minutes and 46 seconds. As a professional distance runner, he beat Italian marathon champion Dorando Pietri at Madison Square Garden in 1908. Lonboat retired in 1912 and served Canada in World War I as a despatch runner in France
1907 Rosalind Russell – US stage and screen actress (My Sister Eileen, Sister Kenny, Auntie Mame, Mourning Becomes Electra, China Seas, Picnic, Gypsy, Mrs. Pollifax)
1910 Sir Christopher Cockerell – British inventor of the hovercraft
1924 Dennis Weaver - Actor (Gunsmoke, McCloud, Gentle Ben, Amber Waves, Emerald Point NAS)
1927 Geoffrey Palmer – British actor (As Time Goes By, Butterflies, Hot Metal, Colditz, O Lucky Man!, Executive Stress, A Fish Called Wanda, The Madness of King George, Mrs. Brown, Tomorrow Never Dies, Poirot: The Clocks, He Knew He Was Right) He played Commander Watson in The Sweeney episode Feet of Clay He also played Matthew Copley-Barnes in the Inspector Morse episode The Infernal Serpent
1928 Dr. Ruth Westheimer – Sex therapist
1930 Bill Treacher – British actor (EastEnders, George and the Dragon, The Musketeer) He played Tom in The Sweeney episode Selected Target
1930 Morgana King – Jazz singer, actress (The Godfather, A Time to Remember)
1936 Bruce Dern – Actor (Silent Running, Coming Home, The 'Burbs, They Shoot Horses Don't They?, Black Sunday, Middle Age Crazy, The Great Gatsby, Big Love, Monster, The Haunting) He is the father of actress Laura Dern
1937 Robert Fulghum – Author (It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten)
1937 Freddy Fender – Country singer (Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, Before the Next Teardrop Falls)
1944 Michelle Phillips - Singer with The Mamas and the Papas (California Dreamin', Monday Monday, Words of Love, Dedicated To The One I Love, Creeque Alley) and actress (The Last Movie, Dillinger, Knot's Landing, Beverley Hills 90210, Malibu Shores)
1945 Gordon Waller – Singer with the group Peter and Gordon (World Without Love, Nobody I Know, I Don't Want to See You Again, I Go to Pieces, Lady Godiva) and actor (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)
1952 Parker Stevenson - Actor (The Hardy Boys Mysteries, Baywatch, Melrose Place, Falcon Crest, Stroker Ace, Not of this Earth)
1956 Keith David - Actor (Platoon, The Cape, Pastor Brown, Agent Cody Banks, Armageddon, Crash, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Replacements, Spawn, Murder She Wrote: South by Southwest, The Quick and the Dead)
1960 Bradley Walsh – British actor (Law & Order: UK, The Old Curiosity Shop, Coronation Street, Mike Bassett: England Manager, Doctor Who)
1960 Sheila Tousey – Actress (Skinwalkers, Coyote Waits, A Thief of Time, Johnny Tootall, Thunderheart, Into the West, Law & Order: SVU, Bearwalker, Lord of Illusions)
1962 Lindsay Frost – Actress (The Ring, Crossing Jordan, The Unit, Collateral Damage, My Father’s Shadow: The Sam Sheppard Story, Smoke Jumpers, High Incident, Mancuso FBI)
1964 Sean Pertwee – British actor (Gotham, Marple: The Moving Finger, The Tudors, Cold Feet, Cadfael, Doomsday, Goal!, The Last Drop, Bodyguards, Poirot: The King of Clubs) He is the son of actor Jon Pertwee who played the third Doctor Who
1967 Michael Greyeyes – Canadian actor (Passchendale, Skinwalkers, The New World, Sunshine State, Smoke Signals, Dance Me Outside, Crazy Horse, ZigZag, Rutherford Falls)
1971 James Callis – British actor (Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, FlashForward, One Night with the King, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Victoria & Albert, Soldier Soldier)
1971 Noah Wyle - Actor (ER, A Few Good Men, Can’t Stop Dancing, Falling Skies, Donnie Darko)
1975 Theo Rossi – Actor (Sons of Anarchy, Alcatraz, Cloverfield, The Challenge, The Informers, Kill Theory, Red Sands)
1975 Angelina Jolie – Actress (Alexander, Beyond Borders, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, Girl Interrupted) She is the daughter of actor Jon Voight
1975 Russell Brand – British comedian/actor (Rock of Ages, The Tempest, Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Mud, Arthur)


Died this Day

1798 Giovanni Casanova, age 73 – Italian romantic, author, soldier and adventurer. He died at the castle of Waldstein in Bohemia, where he was also buried
1941 Wilhelm II – Former German Emperor, died in exile in the Netherlands


On this Day

1534 Jacques Cartier discovered Prince Edward Island
1647 The English army seized King Charles I as a hostage
1763 The Chippewas captured Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, and then chasing a ball into the fort
1805 The first Trooping the Colour ceremony took place at the Horse Guards Parade, London
1812 The US Congress voted for war against Britain. The War of 1812 would begin twelve days later, when President James Madison officially proclaimed the US to be at war
1812 The Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory
1843 Victoria, British Columbia, was founded
1876 The Transcontinental Express train arrived in San Francisco, 83 hours after leaving New York City. That travel across the entire nation could happen so quickly was inconceivable to previous generations. During the early 19th century, the 100-mile journey from New York to Philadelphia demanded two days hard travel in a light stagecoach, making the coasts months apart. By 1869 the first transcontinental line linking the coasts was completed, and a journey that had previously taken months using horses could be made in less than a week. The arrival of the Transcontinental Express train in San Francisco was widely celebrated in the newspapers and magazines of the day, as it meant that a businessman could leave New York City on Monday morning, travel in relaxing comfort, and arrive refreshed and ready for work in San Francisco by Thursday evening
1878 Turkey turned Cyprus over to the British
1896 Henry Ford made a successful pre-dawn test run of his horseless carriage, called a quadricycle, through the streets of Detroit. It was the first automobile he ever designed or drove
1919 The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The women's suffrage movement was founded in the mid-19th century by women who had become politically active through their work in the abolitionist and temperance movements. In 1869, the National Woman Suffrage Association, led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was formed to push for an amendment to the US Constitution. Another organisation, the American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone, was organised in the same year to work through the state legislatures. In 1890, these two societies were united as the National American Woman Suffrage Association. That year, Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote
1937 The first supermarket trolleys were wheeled in an Oklahoma supermarket, one of the Standard Supermarket chain owned by Sylvan Goldman
1940 The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast ended as German forces captured the beach port. The nine-day evacuation, the largest of its kind in history and an unexpected success, saved 338,000 Allied troops from capture by the Nazis. As there were not enough ships to transport the huge masses of men stranded at Dunkirk, the British Admiralty called on all British citizens in possession of sea-worthy vessels to lend their ships to the effort. Fishing boats, pleasure yachts, lifeboats, and other civilian ships raced to Dunkirk, braving mines, bombs, and torpedoes. The harbour at Dunkirk was bombed out of use, and small civilian vessels had to ferry the soldiers from the beaches to the warships waiting at sea. But for nine days, the evacuation continued, a miracle to the Allied commanders who had expected disaster. By June 4, when the Germans closed in and the operation came to an end, 198,000 British and Commonwealth, as well as 140,000 French troops were saved. These experienced soldiers would play a crucial role in future resistance against Nazi Germany. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons, "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing ground, we shall fight on the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender"
1942 The Battle of Midway began during World War II, when Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbour, launched a raid on Midway Island with a sizeable portion of the Japanese navy. After the bombing at Pearl Harbour, the US naval forces were depleted. The damaged carrier Yorktown had to be repaired in a mere three days, to be used along with the Enterprise and Hornet, all that was available in the way of aircraft carriers. Admiral Nagumo launched his first strike that morning with 108 aircraft, inflicting significant damage upon US installations at Midway. The US struck back time and again at Japanese ships, but accomplished little real damage, losing 65 of their own aircraft in their initial attempts. But Nagumo underestimated the tenacity of both Admiral Chester Nimitz and Admiral Raymond Spruance, commanders of the US forces. Nagumo also miscalculated tactically by ordering a second wave of bombers to finish off what he thought was only a remnant of US resistance before his first wave had sufficient opportunity to re-arm. However, the US forces had been able to conceal their position because of reconnaissance that anticipated the Midway strike. A fifth major engagement by 55 US dive-bombers took full advantage of Nagumo's confused strategy, and sunk three of the four Japanese carriers, all cluttered with aircraft and fuel trying to launch another attack against what they now realised, too late, was a much larger US naval force than expected. A fourth Japanese carrier, the Hiryu was crippled, but not before its aircraft took the Yorktown out of commission. The attack on Midway was an unmitigated disaster for the Japanese, resulting in the loss of 322 aircraft and 3,500 men. They were forced to withdraw from the area before attempting even a landing on the island they sought to conquer
1963 Teamsters union president James Hoffa and seven others were indicted for a 20-million-dollar fraud
1980 Hockey great Gordie Howe announced his retirement, at age 52
1985 The US Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing for a daily minute of silence in public schools
1989 Tanks rolled in as Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square in Beijing to crush the three week pro-democracy movement. Soldiers fired on the thousands of unarmed students and workers who had been peacefully protesting for democratic reforms. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people died
1992 The US Postal Service announced the results of a nation-wide vote on the Elvis Presley stamp, saying more people preferred the “younger Elvis” design