Born this Day

1672 Peter the Great - Russian Emperor from 1689, who visited Holland and England before reorganising Russia along Western lines
1768 Samuel Slater – British born industrialist who helped start the US cotton industry
1781 George Stephenson – British locomotive designer. He learned mathematics from his son, Robert, whom he managed to send to school in Newcastle. Stephenson’s locomotive, Blucher, hauled coals for the first time, and he won the contract for the first locomotive for the Stockton to Darlington run, while his locomotive, Rocket, was chosen as the first locomotive on the Liverpool-Manchester railway
1836 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson – British physician who was refused admission to medical schools, so studied privately and was licensed to practise in 1865. She created a medical school for women, which became the New Hospital for Women, later named the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital
1882 Captain Angus Walters - Skipper of the Canadian schooner, Bluenose. He was born in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. Walters took the helm of the newly launched Bluenose fishing schooner in 1921. That year they beat Captain Marty Welch and the Elsie in the International Fisherman's Trophy Race, and never lost a race, competing with her until 1938. The Bluenose is depicted on the Canadian dime
1891 Cole Porter - Composer & lyricist of Broadway shows (Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, Can Can, Silk Stockings) and songs (I'm in Love Again, Let's Do It, You Do Something to Me, It's De-Lovely, Night and Day, Don't Fence Me In, What is This Thing Called Love, Love for Sale, I Get a Kick Out of You, Just One of Those Things, Begin the Beguine, I Love Paris, In the Still of the Night, True Love) Porter came from a privileged background, attended Harvard, and lived in Paris in the 1920s. Both of Porter's legs were crushed in a horseback riding accident in 1937, and he became a semi-invalid thereafter
1900 Fred Waring - Choirmaster & bandleader with the group The Pennsylvanians (The Whiffenpoof Song) He also invented the Waring blender
1915 Les Paul – Legendary guitarist (Chester & Lester, Vaya Con Dios, How High the Moon, Hummingbird, Sittin' on Top of the World) He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988
1922 George Axelrod - Playwright (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bus Stop, The Seven Year Itch, The Manchurian Candidate)
1926 Mona Freeman - Actress (National Velvet, Black Beauty, Dear Ruth, Battle Cry)
1931 Jackie Mason - Comedian (Chicken Soup, The World According to Me, The Jerk, Caddyshack 2, History of the World: Part 1) He is also an ordained rabbi
1934 Jackie Wilson - Singer (Lonely Teardrops, Night, Alone at Last, Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher, Baby Workout, For Your Precious Love, Chain Gang)
1956 Patricia Cornwall – US mystery novelist who is the creator of crime-solving medical examiner Kay Scarpetta (Postmortem, Cruel and Unusual, Cause of Death) Hoping to become a crime novelist, Cornwall spent six years studying forensic science and working at a morgue
1961 Michael J. Fox – Canadian born actor (Back to the Future movies, The Secret of My Success, Bright Lights Big City, Doc Hollywood, Greedy, For Love or Money, Family Ties, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Leo and Me, The Good Wife, Spin City, Mars Attacks!)
1963 Johnny Depp - Actor (Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Finding Neverland, Secret Window, Chocolat, 21 Jump Street, Edward Scissorhands, Platoon, Ed Wood, Arizona Dreams, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Sleepy Hollow, Dark Shadows)
1964 Gloria Reuben – Canadian singer and actress (Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt, Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost, The Agency, ER, Pilgrim, MacBeth in Manhattan, Indiscreet, Timecop, Polka Dot Door, Nick of Time, Raising the Bar)
1981 Natalie Portman – Actress (Star Wars: Episodes I, II & III, Garden State, Cold Mountain, Mars Attacks!, Black Swan, Thor, V for Vendetta, Heat)
1988 Mae Whitman - Actress (Parenthood, In Treatment, Jesse Stone: No Remorse, Chicago Hope, Independence Day)
1990 Lauren Socha – British actress (Misfits, Five Daughters, The Unloved) She is the sister of actor Michael Socha


Died this Day

AD 68 Nero, age 30 – 5th Roman Emperor, who became ruler at age 17. He put his mother to death in AD 59, his wife Octavia 3 years after that. He who saw Rome destroyed by fire in AD 64. His brutality was exhibited through the persecution of early Christians, as some were torn to death by dogs while others were used as torches to light Nero's gardens and parties. His behaviour inspired a revolt which eventually led to his suicide. Nero is said to have muttered before his death, "What an artist the world loses in me."
1870 Charles Dickens, age 58 – British author (A Christmas Carol, Little Dorritt, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist….) He was born in 1812 and attended school in Portsmouth. His father, a clerk in the navy pay office, was thrown in debtors' prison in 1824, and 12-year-old Charles was sent to work in a factory. The miserable treatment of children and the institution of the debtors' jail became the subject matter of several Dickens novels. In his late teens, Dickens became a reporter and started publishing humorous short stories when he was 21. In 1836, a collection of his stories, Sketches by Boz, was published. The same year, he married Catherine Hogarth, with whom he would have nine children. Dickens never lost momentum as a writer, churning out major novels every year or two, often in serial form. He died in Godshill, England, of a brain haemorrhage, with his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, still unfinished
1911 Carrie Nation, age 64 – US crusader who helped to form the Wormen's Christian Temperance Union. She was known attacking saloons with her hatchet, and smashing them to pieces
1993 Alexis Smith – Canadian actress (Gentleman Jim, San Antonio, Night and Day, Any Number Can Play, The Age of Innocence, The Young Philadelphians, Rhapsody in Blue, Of Human Bondage, Dallas) She died in Los Angeles, one day after her 72nd birthday
2017 Adam West, age 88 - Actor (The Detectives, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Tammy and the Doctor, The Last Precinct, Danger Theatre, Hooper, The New Age, Family Guy, ) He was in the Perry Mason episodes The Case of the Barefaced Witness and The Case of the Bogus Books. And, of course, he was Batman


On this Day

1534 French navigator Jacques Cartier became the first European explorer to discover the St. Lawrence River in present-day Québec, Canada. Cartier was commissioned by King Francis I of France to explore the northern American lands in search of riches and the rumoured Northwest Passage to Asia. That year, Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Strait of Belle Isle, explored its barren north coast for a distance, and then travelled down the west shore of Newfoundland to Cape Anguille. From there, he discovered Magdalen and Prince Edwards islands, explored Chaleur Bay, and claimed Québec's Gaspé Peninsula for France. He then discovered the inlet of the St. Lawrence River, sailed north to Anticosti Island, and then returned to Europe
1549 The Church of England adopted The Book of Common Prayer compiled by Thomas Cranmer
1793 The Upper Canada Assembly passed an act prohibiting the importation of slaves into the colony. It was the first such law in the British empire
1829 Thirty Montrealers 'took the pledge' to abstain from alcohol at the first temperance meeting held in Canada
1866 At Sherbrooke, Quebec, British Army soldier Timothy O'Hea entered a burning Grand Trunk Railway boxcar loaded with 95 barrels of gunpowder. He ripped the lids from munition boxes and doused the flames with buckets of water, saving passengers and troops. The Irish Private would become the only person to earn the Victoria Cross for an incident that took place in Canada
1898 Britain took a 99-year lease on Hong Kong from China
1902 The first automat opened in the US, in Philadelphia
1934 Donald Duck made his debut in the cartoon, The Wise Little Hen
1947 Wartime control and rationing of all dairy products in Canada ended
1973 With a spectacular victory at the Belmont Stakes, Secretariat became the first horse since Citation in 1948 to win the coveted Triple Crown: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. On May 5, at the Churchill Downs track in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, Secretariat, a 3-to-2 favourite, broke from near the back of the pack to win the 2 1/4-mile race in a record 1 minute and 59 seconds. He was the first to run the Derby in less than two minutes. Two weeks later, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, Secretariat won the second event of the Triple Crown: the Preakness Stakes. The official clock malfunctioned, but hand-recorded timers had him running the 1 1/16-mile race in record time. On June 9th, almost 100,000 people came to Belmont Park near New York City to see if "Big Red" would become the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown. Secretariat gave the finest performance of his career in the Belmont Stakes, completing the 1 1/2-mile race in a record 2 minutes and 24 seconds, knocking nearly three seconds off the track record set in 1957. He also won by a record 31 lengths. Canadian jockey Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat in all but three of his many races, claimed that at Belmont he lost control of Secretariat and that the horse sprinted into history on his own accord
1980 Comedian Richard Pryor suffered near-fatal third-degree burns at his San Fernando Valley, California home when a mixture of free-base cocaine exploded
1986 A US Presidential Commission found failure of a rocket joint was the single physical cause of the Challenger shuttle disaster
1989 At Cold Lake, Alberta, Jane Foster and Deanna Brasseur became Canada's first two female fighter pilots to pass the course, and become available for combat roles
1991 Mount Pinatubo, which lay dormant for six centuries, exploded in a tower of ash and smoke. The eruption forced the evacuation of 20 villages within a 12 mile radius. Ash blanketed the Clark Air Base, housing thousands of US military personnel. Three days later, more than 200 people died when the volcano exploded in a burst that could be seen 60 miles away in Manila