Born this Day

1829 Geronimo - Apache leader and warrior who was born in No-doyohn Canyon, Arizona. As a child he was called Goyahkla, and as an adult, he adopted the name Geronimo, the Spanish equivalent of the patron saint Jerome. The fourth of eight children, Geronimo toiled in a two-acre field between rows of corn, melon, and pumpkins. By the age of ten, he chased deer, antelope, elk, and buffalo. When he was 17, he was admitted to the council of warriors and took his first bride, Alope, with whom he had three children. During the summer of 1858, Geronimo's Apache tribe went on a trading expedition to Kaskiyeh in Old Mexico. During the day, the women and children were camped just outside of town, under the protection of a small guard, while the warriors rode into town to trade. Late one afternoon, the men received word that the camp had come under attack by Mexican troops. Geronimo’s mother, wife, and three children had been among the massacred, and he vowed revenge against the Mexicans. The following year, the Apache tribes prepared for war and travelled towards the Mexican border to avenge their dead. Geronimo, acting as guide, led the first charge against the Mexicans and, as the only Indian to return from the bloody encounter, was soon surrounded by Apache braves proclaiming him chief. The massacre of Kaskiyeh avenged, he returned home and took a new wife Chee-hash-kish with whom he had a son and a daughter. Later he took another wife Nana-tha-thtith, who also gave him a child. Geronimo's hatred for the Mexicans endured and his strikes against them continued. In the summer of 1860, he and 25 warriors ambushed Mexican troops in a mountain pass, and within minutes, all the Mexican soldiers were slain. The Mexicans retaliated, and this time Geronimo’s wife Nana-tha-thtith and her child were among the dead. The Mexicans were not the only threat to the Apaches. Geronimo was also engaged in a continuous struggle to maintain freedom and independence during the white man's consolidation of the West. For many years Geronimo’s name became synonymous with fierce Indian resistance. In 1886, Geronimo surrendered in a canyon near Fronteras in Sonora, Mexico. Over the years Geronimo had suffered seven injuries: bullet wounds above the right knee, through the left forearm, below the outer corner of the left eye, to the left side, and to the back, as well as a sabre slice to the right leg below the knee and a wound on top of the head with a rifle butt. All these injuries reinforced his notion that no bullet could kill him. Then, in February 1909 Geronimo climbed on his horse and slipped off, spending the night sprawled in damp weeds. He contracted pneumonia and died. At the time of his death, Geronimo was still listed as a prisoner of war
1874 Arthur Meighen – Ninth Prime Minister of Canada. While Minister of the Interior, he introduced legislation that would create the Canadian National Railways, and was prominent in ending the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
1890 Stan Laurel – British born actor and comedian (Babes in Toyland, Duck Soup, The Music Box, Utopia) He was the son of an actress and director, and made his theatrical debut at age 16, spending years performing in British music halls before touring the vaudeville circuit in the US. He made numerous Laurel & Hardy films with his partner, Oliver Hardy
1896 Jean Peugeot - French automobile manufacturer
1907 Jack Albertson - Actor (Chico & The Man, The Thin Man, Mister Ed, The Flim Flam Man, The Poseidon Adventure, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory)
1917 Katherine Graham – Publisher of The Washington Post
1934 Bill Cobbs – Actor (I’ll Fly Away, The Cotton Club, The Color of Money, The Slap Maxwell Story, The Bodyguard, Demolition Man, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Gregory Hines Show, Sunshine State, The Drew Carey Show, Night at the Museum)
1934 Eileen Atkins – British actress (Doc Martin, Upstairs Downstairs, Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express, Robin Hood, Cranford, Marple: Towards Zero, Vanity Fair, Cold Mountain, What A Girl Wants, Gosford Park, Smiley’s People)
1935 James Bolam – British actor (New Tricks, Grandpa in My Pocket, Shipman, Second Thoughts, Andy Capp, Only When I Laugh, O Lucky Man!, Crucible of Terror)
1937 Erich Segal – Author (Love Story, Acts of Faith, Man Woman and Child, Oliver's Story)
1938 Joyce Carol Oates - Author (The Time Traveller, Triumph of the Spider Monkey)
1939 Billy "Crash" Craddock - Country singer (Don't Destroy Me, Ruby, Baby, Rub It In, Sea Cruise)
1942 Eddie Levert – Singer with the group The O'Jays (Love Train, Back Stabbers)
1943 Joan Van Ark - Actress (Knots Landing, Dallas, Tainted Blood, Frogs)
1952 Gino Vannelli – Canadian singer, songwriter (I Just Wanna Stop, Living Inside Myself, Black Cars) In 1975, he became the first white artist to appear on the US TV show Soul Train
1953 Valerie Mahaffey – Indonesian-born actress (Desperate Housewives, United States of Tara, Northern Exposure)
1955 Laurie Metcalf - Actress (Roseanne, A Dangerous Woman, JFK, Pacific Heights, Uncle Buck, Desperately Seeking Susan)
1962 Arnold Vosloo – South African actor (The Mummy, Odysseus & the Isle of Mists, 24, Hard Target, Fire & Ice)
1970 Clifton Collins Jr. – Actor (Brothers, The Perfect Game, Horsemen, The Event, Traffic, Star Trek, Capote, American Girl, The Last Castle)
1972 John Cho – Actor (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Star Trek, Flash Forward, American Wedding, Off Centre)
1973 Eddie Cibrian – Actor (CSI: Miami, Third Watch, Invasion, Sunset Beach, The Young & the Restless)
1975 Frederick Koehler - Actor (Kate and Allie, Mr. Mom, A Kiss Before Dying, Oz, Torchwood: Miracle Day, Lost, Domino)
1978 Lyndsey Marshal – British actress (Rome, Being Human, Garrow’s Law, Marple: Murder is Easy, The Shadow in the North, Poirot: Cards on the Table, The Hours)
1982 Missy Peregrym – Canadian actress (Rookie Blue, Heroes, Reaper, Stick It, Life As We Know It, Black Sash)


Died this Day

1869 Charles Stuart – British explorer, soldier and public servant. He arrived in Australia in 1827, and explored the interior. His first expedition in 1828 followed the Macquarie River through the Macquarie Marshes to the Darling River traversing the region of the Macquarie, Bogan and Castlereagh Rivers. He later traced the Murrumbidgee River to its junction with the Murray River and on to the mouth of the Murray at Lake Alexandrina
1930 Elmer Ambrose Sperry, age 69 – US inventor and founder of the Sperry-Rand Corporation. He perfected the use of gyroscopes and invented gyroscopic devices such as the marine autopilot and the gyroscopic compass
1959 George Reeves, age 45 – US actor (Jungle Jim, Border Patrol, Westward Ho the Wagons, Gone With the Wind) He is best known for his role as Superman. He died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Hollywood


On this Day

1483 Edward V and his brother, the Duke of York, were imprisoned in the Tower of London by their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. They had been declared illegitimate and Richard took the throne
1567 Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland
1755 Robert Monckton led 2,000 British troops in capture of Fort Beauséjour on the Isthmus of Chignecto. Fort Gaspereau, the last French fort in what was then called Acadia, surrendered the next day, giving the British full control of what is now New Brunswick
1794 The first stone was laid of the world’s biggest grain windmill in Holland. Known as De Walvisch (the whale), it is still in existence
1858 In a speech in Springfield, Illinois, Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”
1880 The distinctive Salvation Army ladies bonnets were worn for the first time when they marched in procession in Hackney, in London’s East End
1897 The US government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii
1897 The Alaska gold rush began
1894 The Edmonton Bulletin reported the presence of oil in what is now Alberta
1903 The Ford Motor Company was incorporated in Michigan and sold its first car
1903 The one year old Pepsi-Cola company registered its trade name
1904 Irish author James Joyce met his future wife, Nora, a lively, uneducated woman with little interest in literature. Joyce would immortalise this day in his masterpiece Ulysses, whose narrative unfolds entirely on June 16, 1904. The couple settled in Trieste, where they had two children, and then moved to Zurich
1932 Mae West, then a controversial stage actress, departed New York for California to make her first film, Night After Night. West had become a hit stage actress, famous for her racy roles in scandalous productions. In 1927, she spent 10 days in jail for obscenity, after the court condemned the content of Sex, a Broadway play about a gigolo that she wrote, produced, and directed. West became one of the most highly paid women in Hollywood
1948 Chinese bandits hijacked a Cathay Airways Catalina flying boat, in the first hijacking of an aircraft ever. The captain refused to take their orders, and there was gunfire, resulting in the plane crashing. All but the bandit leader were killed
1956 The BBC aired the first live TV broadcast from a submarine at sea
1961 Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West while his troupe was in Paris
1963 The first female space traveller, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6. After 48 orbits and 71 hours, she returned to earth. After her historic space flight, Valentina Tereshkova received the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union awards. In November 1963, she married fellow cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev, reportedly under pressure from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who saw a propaganda advantage in the pairing of the two single cosmonauts. The couple made several goodwill trips abroad, had a daughter, and later separated. In 1962, Tereshkova became a member of the Supreme Soviet, the USSR's national parliament, and she served as the Soviet representative to numerous international women's organisations and events. She never entered space again, and hers was the last space flight by a female cosmonaut until the 1980s
1972 Clifford Irving, author of a bogus biography of elusive billionaire Howard Hughes, was sentenced in New York to two-and-a-half years for grand larceny
1978 The electronic game, Space Invaders, was demonstrated by Taito Corporation of Tokyo
1981 US President Ronald Reagan awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada's former ambassador to Iran. Taylor became the first non-American to be awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal. He received the honour for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979-80
1983 Pope John Paul II began an eight-day visit to his native Poland
1993 Canada's peacekeeping mission on the island of Cyprus ended. The soldiers had handed control of the Canadian sector to British and Australian troops the previous day. The 29-year mission had seen 35,000 Canadian soldiers serve on the island. Twenty-eight died, most of them accidentally