Born this Day

1819 Elias Howe – US inventor of the sewing machine
1901 Dame Barbara Cartland – British author who wrote over 700 romance novels. She was the step-grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales
1927 Ed Ames – Singer with The Ames Brothers, and solo (The Man with the Banjo, The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane, Tammy, Melody d'Amour, My Cup Runneth Over) and actor (Daniel Boone)
1928 Vince Edwards – Actor (Ben Casey, The Victors, Space Raiders, Dillinger, Matt Lincoln, Laramie, The Devil’s Birgade)
1929 Lee Hazlewood – Singer/songwriter (Summer Wine, These Boots Are Made For Walkin', Sand, Trouble Is A Lonesome Town, Rebel Rouser, Sugar Town)
1935 Michael Williams – British actor (Love in a Cold Climate, My Son My Son, A Fine Romance, September Song, Elizabeth R, Educating Rita) He was married to Dame Judi Dench. He portrayed Dr Watson in the BBC Radio series of the Sherlock Holmes stories
1936 James Hampton - Actor (F Troop, Love American Style, Evening Shade, Doris Day Show, The China Syndrome)
1938 Brian Dennehy - Actor (Cocoon, Presumed Innocent, First Blood, Semi-Tough, Silverado, Gorky Park, Marco Polo, Assault on Precinct 13, Category 6: Day of Destruction, The Blacklist, F/X, Ratatouille, Dynasty)
1942 Richard Roundtree - Actor (Shaft, Roots, Outlaws, George of the Jungle, Diary of a Single Man, The Confidant, Speed Racer, Heroes, Se7en, Bonanza: The Return)
1947 O.J. Simpson - Pro football player for the Buffalo Bills and actor (Naked Gun series, The Towering Inferno, Roots, Capricorn One)
1951 Chris Cooper – Actor (Adaptation, Lonesome Dove, Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life, A Time to Kill, Great Expectations, The Horse Whisperer, The Patriot, The Bourne Identity, Seabiscuit, The Company Men, Syriana, Jarhead)
1952 John Tesh - TV host (Entertainment Tonight) and musician
1955 Jimmy Smits - Actor (L.A. Law, N.Y.P.D. Blue, Birdland, Glitz, Gross Misconduct, Star Wars: Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, Outlaw, Dexter, Cane, The West Wing, The Tommyknockers)
1956 Tom Hanks - Actor (Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Apollo 13, Sleepless in Seattle, Big, Joe Versus the Volcano, Splash, The Money Pit, Bosom Buddies, The ’Burbs, Dragnet, The Pacific, The Da Vinci Code, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Terminal)
1957 Kelly McGillis - Actress (Witness, The Accused, Top Gun, Ground Control, Storm Chasers: The Revenge of the Twister, We the Jury, The Babe)
1961 Raymond Cruz – Actor (The Closer, Clear and Present Danger, Brothers in Arms, Day Break, Training Day, The Eddie Files, Alien: Resurrection, Under Siege, Dead Again, Maid to Order, Major Crimes)
1965 David O’Hara – Scottish actor (The Tudors, The District, Cowboys & Aliens, Darfur, Hotel Rawanda, Oliver Twist, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, The Devil’s Own, Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement, Braveheart)
1971 Scott Grimes – Actor (ER, Band of Brothers, Robin Hood, Party of Five, Crimson Tide)
1973 Enrique Murciano – Actor (Without a Trace, , Black Hawk Down, Traffic, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, The Lost City)
1976 Fred Savage – Actor (The Wonder Years, The Princess Bride, Little Monsters, The Boy Who Could Fly, Working, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Welcome to Mooseport, Generator Rex)
1978 Linda Park – Korean actress (Star Trek: Enterprise, Women’s Murder Club, Raines, Jurassic Park III, Honor, Infestation)
1981 Jamie Thomas King – British actor (The Tudors, Marchlands, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Bad Girls, Vampire Diary, Tristan + Isolde, Like Crazy)


Died this Day

1797 Edmund Burke – British statesman and orator
1850 Zachary Taylor - The 12th president of the US. He died suddenly from an attack of cholera morbus, after serving only 16 months in office. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore. Raised in Kentucky with little formal schooling, Taylor received a US Army commission in 1808. In 1832, he became a colonel and earned the nickname of "Old Rough and Ready" for his informal attire and indifference to physical adversity. Sent to the Southwest to command the US Army at the Texas border, he achieved his crowning military victory in February 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista, where his force triumphed despite being outnumbered three to one


On this Day

1540 England's King Henry VIII had his 6-month-old marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, annulled, alleging that the marriage was unconsummated. Anne remained in England until her death in 1557
1793 Slavery was abolished in Canada as Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe passed the Act Against Slavery, which banned the further import of slaves into Upper Canada, and limited the contract of those remaining. The Act also declared that slaves' children should be free at age 25, and that all slaves entering the province from this date were henceforth automatically free. Even in other parts of Canada, where slavery had not been abolished by law, the courts refused to uphold it as an institution
1811 North West Company trader David Thompson raised the Union Jack at the junction of the Snake River and the Columbia in what is now Washington State, claiming the area for Britain. The territory stayed under British rule until the Oregon Treaty of 1846 awarded it to the US
1816 Argentina declared its independence from Spain
1874 A North West Mounted Police force of 318 men headed west from Fort Dufferin to the US whisky post called Fort Whoop Up, at the junction of the Oldman and St. Mary rivers near present-day Lethbridge, Alberta. The fort was abandoned with the arrival of the police. Fort Whoop-Up would serve as an outpost for the force, who were the forerunners of RCMP
1877 The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club began its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon, then an outer-suburb of London. Twenty-one amateurs showed up to compete in the Gentlemen's Singles tournament, the only event at the first Wimbledon. The winner was to take home a 25-guinea trophy. Tennis has its origins in a 13th-century French handball game, which grew into lawn tennis and enjoyed a surge of popularity in the late 19th century. In 1868, the All England Club was established on four acres of meadowland outside London. The club was originally founded to promote croquet, but the growing popularity of tennis led it to incorporate tennis lawns into its facilities. In 1877, the All England Club published an announcement in the weekly sporting magazine The Field that read: "The All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon, propose to hold a lawn tennis meeting open to all amateurs, on Monday, July 9, and following days. Entrance fee pounds 1 1s 0d." Twenty-two men registered for the tournament, but only 21 showed up for its first day. The final was scheduled for Monday, July 16, but, in what would become a common occurrence in future Wimbledon tournaments, the match was rained out. It was rescheduled for July 19, and on that day some 200 spectators paid a shilling each to see William Marshall, a Cambridge tennis "Blue," battle W. Spencer Gore, an Old Harrovian racket player. In a final that lasted only 48 minutes, the 27-year-old Gore dominated with his strong volleying game, crushing Marshall, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4
1887 The first paper napkins were introduced by stationery manufacturers John Dickenson at their annual dinner at the Castle Hotel, Hastings
1900 Queen Victoria gave Royal Assent to the Constitution Act, creating a federal Commonwealth of Australia
1938 Gas masks were first issued to the civilian population of Britain in anticipation of the Second World War
1940 The Duke of Windsor was named Governor General of the Bahamas
1947 In a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the US Army, making her the first woman in US history to hold permanent military rank. A member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1917, Blanchfield had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II, and secured her commission following the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 by Congress. In 1978, a US Army hospital in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was named in her honour
1947 Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Princess Elizabeth to Royal Navy Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, a member of the Greek royal family
1960 Seven-year-old Roger Woodward became the first person to go over Niagara Falls by accident and live. He survived the 162 foot plunge over the Horseshoe Falls because he was wearing a lifejacket. His first word when rescued was “Gosh!”
1982 An intruder, Michael Fagan, asked the Queen for a cigarette while sitting on the end of her bed in Buckingham Palace. The incident revealed a serious flaw in Palace security
1984 A bolt of lightening set fire to York Minster. The 700-year old building suffered serious damage to the south transept, but the famous Rose Window survived
1991 South Africa was invited back into the Olympic fold after being barred for decades because of apartheid. South Africa fielded its first multi-racial team at the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona
1993 British forensic scientists announced that they had positively identified the remains of Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and three of their daughters. The scientists used mitochondria DNA fingerprinting to identify the bones, which had been excavated from a mass grave near Yekaterinburg in 1991. On the night of July 16, 1918, three centuries of the Romanov dynasty came to an end when Bolshevik troops executed Nicholas and his family. The details of the execution and the location of their final resting place remained a Soviet secret for more than six decades, and rumours spread through Europe telling of a Romanov child, usually the youngest daughter, Anastasia, who had survived the carnage. In the 1920s, there were several claimants to the title of Grand Duchess Anastasia. The most convincing was Anna Anderson, who turned up in Berlin in 1922 claiming to be Anastasia. Anderson emigrated to Charlottesville, Virginia. To prove the identity of Alexandra and her children, the scientists took blood from Prince Philip, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II and the grand nephew of Alexandra. Because they all share a common maternal ancestor, they would all share mtDNA, which is passed almost unchanged from mother to children. The comparison between the mtDNA in Philip's blood and in the remains was positive, proving them to be the Romanovs. To prove the tsar's identity, who did not share this mtDNA, the remains of Grand Duke George, the brother of Nicholas, was exhumed. A comparison of their mtDNA proved their relationship. The Crown Prince Alexei and one Romanov daughter were not accounted for, adding fuel to the persistent legend that Anastasia had survived execution. In 1994, US and English scientists attempted to answer the question of Anna Anderson/Anastasia once and for all. Using a tissue sample of Anderson's recovered from a Virginia hospital, the English team compared her mtDNA with that of the Romanovs. Simultaneously, a US team compared the mtDNA found in a strand of her hair. Both teams came to the same decisive conclusion: Anna Anderson was not a Romanov. In 1995, a Russian government commission studying the remains presented what it claimed was proof that one of the skeletons was in fact Anastasia's, and that the missing Romanov daughter was, in fact, Maria