Born this Day

1757 George Vancouver – British explorer and naval surveyor who carried out surveys of North America, and after whom Vancouver Island and Vancouver, BC are named
1856 Sir Henry Rider Haggard – British writer (King Solomon’s Mines, Alan Quatermain, Nada the Lily, Marie, Child of the Storm, Finished, Montezuma’s Daughter)
1898 Erich Maria Remarque - German-born author (All Quiet on the Western Front) His pacifist views were not to the liking of the Nazis. Stripped of his German citizenship, he became a US citizen
1906 Anne Morrow Lindbergh – US pilot and author (North to the Orient, Gift from the Sea) At age 23, she married celebrated aviator Charles Lindbergh. The couple flew frequently, and she became the first woman to receive a glider pilot's license. Their son, Charles Lindbergh Jr, was born on her 24th birthday
1906 Billy Wilder – Polish born US director (The Apartment, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Witness for the Prosecution, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like it Hot, The Front Page) He also directed the 1970 movie The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
1922 Bill Blass - Fashion designer
1928 Ralph Waite - Actor (The Waltons, Roots, Cliffhanger, The Bodyguard, Cool Hand Luke, Five Easy Pieces)
1930 Roy Drusky - Songwriter (Alone with You, Country Girl, Anymore) and singer (Three Hearts in a Tangle, Peel Me a Nanner, Another, Yes Mr. Peters)
1932 Prunella Scales – British actress (Fawlty Towers, After Henry, Hobson’s Choice, The Boys From Brazil, Howards End, Wolf, Emma, Stiff Upper Lips, An Ideal Husband, Marple: A Pocketful of Rye) She was also in the 1978 comedy version of The Hound of the Baskervilles
1936 Kris Kristofferson - Songwriter (Me & Bobby McGee, For the Good Times, Help Me Make It Through the Night), singer (Loving Her was Easier, Why Me) and actor (A Star is Born, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Millennium) He is a former Rhodes Scholar
1941 Ed Bradley - News correspondent (Sixty Minutes)
1944 Klaus Maria Brandauer – Austrian actor (Never Say Never Again, Out of Africa, The Russia House, White Fang)
1944 Peter Asher – Singer with the group Peter and Gordon (A World Without Love, I Go To Pieces, True Love Ways, Lady Godiva, Sunday for Tea)
1947 David L. Lander - Actor (Laverne & Shirley, 1941, The Man With One Red Shoe, Twin Peaks, Scary Movie) and author (Fall Down Laughing) He was diagnosed with MS in the mid 1980s
1947 Howard Kaylan - Singer with The Turtles (Happy Together, She'd Rather Be with Me, Elenore, You Showed Me)
1948 Todd Rundgren - Singer (We Gotta Get You a Woman, I Saw the Light, Hello It's Me, Can We Still Be Friends)
1949 Meryl Streep - Actress (Sophie's Choice, Kramer vs. Kramer, Bridges of Madison County, Silkwood, Postcards from the Edge, The River Wild, The Deer Hunter, Out of Africa, Adaptation, The Iron Lady, Julie & Julia, Mamma Mia!, Doubt)
1949 Lindsay Wagner - Actress (The Bionic Woman, The Paper Chase, Fire in the Dark, Nurses on the Line, The Second Wind)
1950 Sharon Maughan – British actress (Holby City, By the Sword Divided, The Flame Trees of Thika, She’s Out of My League) She portrayed Kate Donn in the Inspector Morse episode Deceived by Flight
1952 Graham Greene - Canadian-born Onieda Indian actor (Dances With Wolves, The Red Green Show, Northern Exposure, Lonesome Dove: The Series, Thunderheart, Clearcut, The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon, Die Hard: With a Vengance, Grey Owl, The Green Mile, Christmas in the Clouds, Wolf Lake, A Thief of Time, Coyote Waits, The New Beachcombers, Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion, Being Erica, Casino Jack)
1953 Cyndi Lauper - Singer (Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Time After Time, True Colours)
1954 Chris Lemmon - Actor (Fantasy, Dad, Thunder in Paradise, Corporate Affairs) His father was Jack Lemmon
1954 Freddie Prinze – Comedian and actor (Chico and the Man) He was the father of actor Freddie Prinze Jr
1956 Tim Russ – Actor (Star Trek: Voyager, Samantha Who?, Live Free or Die Hard, Spaceballs)
1958 Bruce Campbell – Actor (Burn Notice, Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The Hudsucker Proxy, Darkman)
1960 Tracy Pollan - Actress (Family Ties, A Stranger Among Us) She is married to Michael J. Fox
1962 Nicholas Lea – Canadian actor (Jake and the Kid, Taking the Falls, John Woo's Once a Thief, The X-Files, Men in Trees, Whistler, The Commish, Continuum)
1964 Amy Brenneman – Actress (Judging Amy, Heat, Nine Lives, Fear, Private Practice)
1971 Mary Lynn Rajskub – Actress (24, Julie & Julia, Legally Blonde: Red, White & Blue, Sweet Home Alabama, The Larry Sanders Show)


Died this Day

1954 Honora Mary Parker, age 45 – New Zealand mother who was murdered by her daughter, and her daughter’s friend. Pauline Parker and her friend Juliette Hulme conspired to murder her mother because they felt Mrs. Parker was a threat to their friendship. Juliette Hulme now writes mystery novels under the name Anne Perry. The movie Heavenly Creatures tells the story of the crime
1969 Judy Garland – Singer and actress (The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St. Louis, A Star is Born, Easter Parade, The Harvey Girls, Judgement at Nuremberg) She died in London less than two weeks after her 47th birthday
1987 Fred Astaire, age 88 - Actor-dancer-singer (Funny Face, Silk Stockings, Finian's Rainbow, Daddy Long Legs, Easter Parade, Let's Dance, That's Entertainment, The Towering Inferno, It Takes a Thief)
1993 Pat Nixon, age 81 - Former first lady, died in Park Ridge, NJ


On this Day

1377 Richard II ascended the English throne following the death of his grandfather, Edward III the previous day
1603 Samuel de Champlain landed in Canada for the first time
1611 British navigator Henry Hudson was set adrift by mutineers. After spending a winter trapped by ice in present-day Hudson Bay, the starving crew of the Discovery mutinied against its captain, Hudson, and set him, his teenage son, and seven supporters adrift in a small, open boat. Hudson and the eight others were never seen again. They had set out from London in April of 1610, to find the northwest passage. They sailed between Greenland and Labrador, entered the present-day Hudson Strait and by it reached Hudson Bay. After three months of exploration, the Discovery was caught too far from open sea when winter set in, and in November Hudson's men were forced to haul it ashore and set up a winter camp. Lacking food or supplies, the expedition greatly suffered in the extreme cold. Many of the crew held Hudson responsible for their misfortune, and with the coming of summer, they mutinied against him. The Discovery later returned to England, and its crew was arrested for the mutiny. Although Henry Hudson was never seen again, his discoveries gave England its claim to the rich Hudson Bay region
1633 Physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei was convicted of heresy for his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The Church had decided the idea that the Sun moved around the Earth was an absolute fact of scripture that could not be disputed, despite the fact that scientists had known for centuries that the Earth was not the centre of the universe. The Church handed down the following order: "We say, pronounce, sentence, and declare, that thou, the said Galileo, by the things deduced during this trial, and by thee confessed as above, hast rendered thyself vehemently suspected of heresy by this Holy Office, that is, of having believed and held a doctrine which is false, and contrary to the Holy Scriptures, to wit: that the Sun is the centre of the universe, and that it does not move from east to west, and that the Earth moves and is not the centre of the universe." Along with the order came the following penalty: "We order that by a public edict the book of Dialogues of Galileo Galilei be prohibited, and We condemn thee to the prison of this Holy Office during Our will and pleasure; and as a salutary penance We enjoin on thee that for the space of three years thou shalt recite once a week the Seven Penitential Psalms." Galileo agreed not to teach the heresy anymore and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It took more than 300 years for the Church to admit that Galileo was right and to clear his name of heresy, when, in 1992, the Vatican acknowledged that the ex-communicated astronomer had been right in saying the Earth revolves around the Sun, not vice versa
1774 The Québec Act was passed in the British parliament, establishing French civil law and the British system of criminal law in Québec. As well, Catholics were to have religious freedom
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte ordered his army to attack Russia. On the same date three years later, Napoleon abdicated a second time
1825 In London, the British Parliament passed the Canada Trades and Tenures Act, abolishing feudal and seigniorial rights in British North America
1868 Arkansas was re-admitted to the Union
1869 An act was passed providing for the government of the Northwest Territories, which then included much of the Canadian Prairies
1870 The US Congress created the Department of Justice
1923 The Province of Manitoba adopted government control of the sale of liquor. They did this instead of adopting prohibition
1937 Joe Louis, The Brown Bomber, became world heavyweight champion when he knocked out James J. Braddock in the eighth round in Chicago's Comiskey Park. Exactly one year later, he avenged a previous defeat before becoming champion, by knocking out Germany’s Max Schmeling in the first round
1944 President Roosevelt signed the GI Bill of Rights, authorising a broad package of benefits for World War II veterans
1945 The World War II battle for Okinawa officially ended, with 12,520 US and 110,000 Japanese killed in the 81-day campaign
1955 The laying of a transatlantic telephone cable began at Clarenville, Newfoundland
1960 The Liberals won their first election in 16 years in Québec, defeating the Union Nationale and ushering in what became known as "The Quiet Revolution"
1970 President Nixon signed a measure lowering the voting age to 18
1976 Members of the Canadian Parliament voted to abolish the death penalty. The motion carried with just a six-vote majority. The last execution in Canada was in 1962