Born this Day

1818 Pietro Angelo Secchi - Italian Jesuit and astrophysicist
1858 George Goethals – US army engineer who directed the construction of the Panama Canal and who became the first Governor of the Canal Zone
1861 William James Mayo – US surgeon and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, with his brothers, all distinguished surgeons
1868 George Ellery Hale – US astronomer who developed the Hale telescope
1900 Antoine Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry – French aviator and author (The Little Prince, Flight to Arras) He became a pilot in 1922 flying airmail routes over northern Africa, and flew reconnaissance flights during the Second World War
1901 Nelson Eddy – Actor and singer (Rose Marie, Naughty Marietta, Girl of the Golden West) He worked with Jeannette MacDonald, and they were known as The Singing Sweethearts
1910 Frank Loesser – US composer and lyricist (Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition, Baby It's Cold Outside, On a Slow Boat to China, Once in Love with Amy, Luck Be a Lady, Thumbelina) His Broadway hits include Guys and Dolls, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
1911 Katherine DeMille – Canadian born actress (The Californian, Charlie Chan at the Olympics, The Crusades) She was born Katherine Lester in Vancouver, but was orphaned at age 9. She was adopted by Director Cecil B. DeMille, and was married to actor Anthony Quinn
1912 John Toland - Author (The Rising Sun, Gods of War, The Last 100 Days, The Dillinger Days)
1919 Slim Pickens - Actor (Dr. Strangelove, The Howling, The Apple Dumpling Gang, In Harms Way, One-Eyed Jacks, The Outlaws, Hee Haw) He is a Cowboy Hall of Famer
1925 Cara Williams - Actress (The Defiant Ones, The Girl Next Door, Pete and Gladys)
1928 Ian Bannen – Scottish stage and screen actor (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Flight of the Phoenix, Eye of the Needle, Gorky Park, Hope and Glory, Ghost Dad, Doctor Finlay, Braveheart, The Politician’s Wife, Waking Ned) He was in the Perry Mason TV movie, The Case of the Desperate Deception. He was also in the movie Sweeney!, with John Thaw
1929 Pat Crawford Brown – Actress (Desperate Housewives, Sister Act, Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington, Labor Pains, Norbit, You Me and Dupree, These Old Broads, Playing Mona Lisa, Coach, The Rocketeer, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark)
1930 Robert Evans - Actor (The Man of a Thousand Faces, The Best of Everything)
1944 Gary Busey - Actor (The Buddy Holly Story, Breaking Point, The Texas Wheelers, Warriors, Lethal Weapon, The Firm, Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Under Siege, Point Break, D.C. Cab)
1945 'Little' Eva Boyd - Singer (The Loco-motion)
1948 Fred Grandy - Actor (The Love Boat) and former Republican congressman from Iowa
1948 Ian Paice - Rock musician with Deep Purple (Smoke On The Water, Lazy, Hush, Highway Star)
1957 Maria Conchita Alonso – Cuban-born actress (The Running Man, Predator 2, Blind Heat, Saints & Sinners, Blind Heat, Colors)
1961 Sharon Lawrence - Actress (NYPD Blue, The Heidi Chronicles, Wolf Lake, Drop Dead Diva, One Tree Hill, Rizzoli and Isles)
1962 Amanda Donohoe – British actress (The Substitute, Double Cross, LA Law, The Lair of the White Worm, The Madness of King George, Liar Liar, Emmerdale Farm, Murder City)
1972 Samantha Smith - The US schoolgirl whose letter to Yuri V. Andropov resulted in her famous peace tour of the Soviet Union
1977 Zuleikha Robinson – British actress (Rome, Lost, New Amsterdam, Hildago, The Merchant of Venice, The Lone Gunmen)


Died this Day

1829 Constable William Grantham - The first policeman to be murdered in Britain. In Sommers Town, London, he went to the aid of a woman involved in a fight between drunken Irishmen. When he fell, all three proceeded to kick him to death
1861 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, age 55 – British poet (Sonnets from the Portuguese - How do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways) Poet Robert Browning was her husband. She died in Italy, and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery, in Florence
1882 Joseph Aloysuis Hansom, age 78 – British architect and designer of the Hansom Cab, in 1834. Where would Sherlock and Dr. Watson be without them?
1921 Lady Randolph (Jennie) Churchill, age 67 – US born mother of Winston Churchill
1933 Fatty Arbuckle, age 46 – US silent film actor and comedian (The Lizzies of Mack Sennett, Mabel and Fatty, Keystone Comedies with Charlie Chaplin) In 1921 he was accused in a sex scandal, and although he was acquitted by the courts, it ruined his career
1967 Jayne Mansfield, age 34 – Actress (Too Hot to Handle, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?) She and her two male companions died when their car struck a trailer truck in the pre-dawn darkness east of New Orleans. She was the mother of actress Mariska Hargitay
2003 Katharine Hepburn, age 96 - Actress (On Golden Pond, Rooster Cogburn, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Lion in Winter, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Desk Set, The African Queen, The Philadelphia Story)


On this Day

48 BC Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at Pharsalus to become the absolute ruler of Rome
1613 The Globe Theatre, where most of William Shakespeare's plays debuted, burned down. It was during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, when a cannon was set off to mark the entrance of King James I, accidentally setting fire to the thatched gallery roof. The theatre was totally destroyed, but rose again in June 1614, this time with a tiled roof. The Globe was built by Shakespeare's acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, in 1599 from the timbers of London's very first permanent theatre, Burbage's Theatre, built in 1576. Before James Burbage built his theatre, plays and dramatic performances were ad hoc affairs, performed on street corners and in the yards of inns. However, the Common Council of London, in 1574, started licensing theatrical pieces performed in inn yards within the city limits. To escape the restriction, actor James Burbage built his own theatre on land he leased outside the city limits. When Burbage's lease ran out, the Lord Chamberlain's men moved the timbers to a new location and created the Globe. Like other theatres of its time, the Globe was a round wooden structure with a stage at one end, and covered balconies for the gentry. The galleries could seat about 1,000 people, with room for another 2,000 "groundlings," who could stand on the ground around the stage. The Lord Chamberlain's men built Blackfriars theatre in 1608, a smaller theatre that seated about 700 people, to use in winter when the open-air Globe wasn't practical
1767 The British Parliament passed the Townshend Revenue Acts, which imposed import duties on glass, lead, paint, paper and tea shipped to America. The extra import duties were to pay for the salaries of colonial governors and judges. Colonists bitterly protested the Acts, which were all repealed in 1770, except for the duty on tea
1776 The Virginia constitution was adopted and Patrick Henry was made governor
1789 Alexander Mackenzie entered a river flowing northwest from Great Slave Lake after hearing about salt water from the Yellowknife Indians. The river, later named the Mackenzie River after him, took him to the Arctic Delta on July 10. The North West Company partner was trying to find a way to ship furs to the west coast, and would become the first European to cross North America using a route north of Mexico
1801 The first census in Britain was carried out, revealing a population totalling 8,872,000
1855 The first edition of London’s Daily Telegraph was published
1871 Canada was granted the right to create new provinces
1871 An act of Parliament made British unions legal
1887 A lady called Miss Cass was wrongfully charged by British PC Endacott at Marlborough Police Station. The magistrate said she had done nothing wrong – and warned her not to do it again!
1905 The Automobile Association was formed in Britain to counter police harassment, and to warn of speed traps
1922 France formally transferred ownership of 100 hectares of land at Vimy to Canada. The land was the scene of one of the most celebrated battles by Canadian soldiers during the First World War. The German bastion along Vimy Ridge was successfully assaulted by all four divisions of the Canadian Corps on Easter 1917. The Vimy memorial consists of the Canadian land, now a park, and a monument dedicated by King Edward VIII in 1936. This land is not strictly speaking part of Canada, but France granted "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes," and it is operated by Parks Canada. Unlike an embassy, it is subject to the laws of France
1927 New Brunswick aeronautical engineer Wallace Turnbull first tested his new invention, the variable-pitch propeller, on an Avro 504 trainer
1930 Pope Pius XI canonised Jean de Brébeuf and 7 other Jesuits martyred in the 1600s, making them the first North American saints
1934 The first of the Thin Man movies debuted, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as detective couple Nick and Nora Charles. The low-budget film became an unexpected box office success and won Powell a nomination for the Best Actor Oscar
1951 The radio sitcom, Life of Riley, aired its last episode. The show, which ran for a decade, starred William Bendix as Chester Riley, a bullheaded family man
1954 The Atomic Energy Commission voted against reinstating Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's access to classified information
1956 US playwright Arthur Miller married Marilyn Monroe, in London
1967 Jerusalem was reunified as Israel removed barricades separating the Old City from the Israeli sector
1967 Queen Elizabeth II started a week-long visit to Canada with the Duke of Edinburgh to celebrate the Canadian Centennial
1972 The US Supreme Court ruled the death penalty could constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.” However, the Supreme Court suggested new legislation that could make death sentences constitutional again, prompting states to revise their capital punishment laws. In 1976 the Supreme Court acknowledged progress made in jury guidelines and reinstated the death penalty under a "model of guided discretion"
1985 Canadian businessman Jim Pattison paid 2.2-million dollars for a yellow Rolls-Royce formerly owned by the Beatles