Today In History

[minidog]

1848 - James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of '49.

1888 - The typewriter ribbon was patented by Jacob L. Wortman.

1899 - Humphrey O’Sullivan patented the rubber heel.

1908 - In England, the first Boy Scout troop was organized by Robert Baden-Powell.

1916 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that income tax was unconstitutional.

1916 - Conscription was introduced in Britain.

1922 - Christian K. Nelson patented the Eskimo Pie.

1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg.

1930 - Primo Carnera made his American boxing debut by knocking out Big Boy Patterson in one minute, ten seconds of the opening round.

1935 - Krueger Brewing Company placed the first canned beer on sale in Richmond, VA.

1942 - "Abie’s Irish Rose" was first heard on NBC radio.

1943 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1952 - Vincent Massey was the first Canadian to be appointed governor-general of Canada.

1955 - The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound.

1964 - CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League’s 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years.

1965 - Winston Churchill died at the age of 90.

1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.

1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated. The radioactive debris was scattered over parts of Canada's Northwest Territory.

1985 - Penny Harrington became the first woman police chief of a major city. She assumed the duties as head of the Portland, Oregon, force of 940 officers and staff.

1986 - The Voyager 2 space probe flew past Uranus. The probe came within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.

1987 - In Lebanon, gunmen kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. They were all later released.

1989 - Ted Bundy, the confessed serial killer, was put to death in Florida's electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.

1990 - Japan launched the first probe to be sent to the Moon since 1976. A small satellite was placed in lunar orbit.

1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigned due to allegations that he had spied for Moscow.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Missouri law that limited the contributions that individuals could donate to a candidate during a single election.

2001 - In Colorado Springs, CO, Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody after a 5-minute phone interview was granted with a TV station. They were the remaining fugitives of the "Texas 7."

2002 - The U.S. Congress began a hearing on the collapse of Enron Corp.

2002 - John Walker Lindh appeared in court for the first time concerning the charges that he conspired to kill Americans abroad and aided terrorist groups. Lindh had been taken into custody by U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.

2003 - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began operations under Tom Ridge.

Current Birthdays


Neil Diamond turns 68 years old today.

92 Ernest Borgnine
Actor


91 Oral Roberts
Evangelist


90 Jerry Maren
Actor ("Wizard of Oz")


82 Marvin Kaplan
Actor


73 Doug Kershaw
Cajun musician


70 Ray Stevens
Country singer


68 Aaron Neville
Singer


63 Michael Ontkean
Actor


59 Daniel Auteuil
Actor


59 Becky Hobbs
Country singer, songwriter


58 Yakov Smirnoff
Comedian


51 Jools Holland
Rock musician (Squeeze)


50 Nastassja Kinski
Actress


46 Keech Rainwater
Country musician (Lonestar)


42 Phil LaMarr
Comedian


41 Mary Lou Retton
Olympic gold-medal gymnast


39 Sleepy Brown
R&B singer (Society of Soul)


39 Matthew Lillard
Actor


38 Merrilee McCommas
Actress


35 Ed Helms
Actor ("The Office," "The Daily Show")


30 Tatyana Ali
Actress, singer


23 Mischa Barton
Actress ("The O.C.")

Historic Birthdays


Edith Wharton

1/24/1862 - 8/11/1937
American author

58 William Congreve
1/24/1670 - 1/19/1729
English dramatist


75 Christian Wolff
1/24/1679 - 4/9/1754
German philosopher


77 Farinelli
1/24/1705 - 7/15/1782
Italian castrato singer


67 Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais
1/24/1732 - 5/18/1799
French author


89 Henry Barnard
1/24/1811 - 7/5/1900
American education commissioner


49 Henry Jarvis Raymond
1/24/1820 - 6/18/1869
American journalist/politician


86 Harold Babcock
1/24/1882 - 4/8/1968
American astronomer


70 Ernst Heinkel
1/24/1888 - 1/30/1958
German rocket designer


67 Cassandre
1/24/1901 - 6/19/1968
French graphic artist


77 Mark Goodson
1/24/1915 - 12/18/1992
American radio/TV producer


76 Robert Motherwell
1/24/1915 - 7/16/1991
American abstract painter

 

[minidog]

1504 - The English Parliament passed statutes against retainers and liveries, to curb private warfare.

1533 - England's King Henry VIII secretly married his second wife Anne Boleyn. Boleyn later gave birth to Elizabeth I.

1579 - The Treaty of Utrecht was signed marking the beginning of the Dutch Republic.

1799 - Eliakim Spooner patented the seeding machine.

1858 - Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" was presented for the first time, as the daughter of Queen Victoria married the Crown Prince of Prussia.

1870 - G.D. Dows patented the ornamental soda fountain.

1881 - Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others signed an agreement to organize the Oriental Telephone Company.

1890 - The United Mine Workers of America was founded.

1915 - In New York, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant in San Francisco, inaugurating the first transcontinental telephone service.

1924 - The 1st Winter Olympic Games were inaugurated in Chamonix in the French Alps.

1927 - Jack Benny married Sadye Marks on this day. Sadye changed her name to Mary Livingstone.

1937 - NBC radio presented the first broadcast of "The Guiding Light." The show remained on radio until 1956 and began on CBS-TV in 1952.

1945 - Richard Tucker debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in the production of "La Gioconda".

1946 - The United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor.

1949 - The first Emmys were presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

1950 - A federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury.

1959 - In the U.S., American Airlines had the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.

1961 - John F. Kennedy presented the first live presidential news conference from Washington, DC. The event was carried on radio and television.

1971 - Charles Manson and three female members of his "family" were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit murder and seven counts of murder in the first degree. They were all sentenced to death for the 1969 killings. The sentences were later commuted to life sentences.

1971 - Maj. Gen. Idi Amin led a coup that deposed Milton Obote and became president of Uganda.

1981 - Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, was tried for treason and received a death sentence, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.

1981 - The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States and were reunited with their families.

1987 - The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos, 39-20, in Super Bowl XXI on NBC. The game featured TV commercials cost $550,000 for 30 seconds.

1993 - A gunman shot and killed two CIA employees outside the agencies headquarters in Virginia. Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani national, was later convicted of the shootings.

1995 - The defense gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson trial.

1998 - The Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers 31-24 in Super Bowl XXXII. The Broncos had lost 3 previous Super Bowl appearances with quarterback John Elway.

1999 - At least 1,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit western Columbia. The quake registered 6.0 on the Richter Scale.

1999 - In Louisville, KY, man received the first hand transplant in the United States.

2001 - A minor earthquake hit northeastern Ohio. The quake measured only 4.2 on the Richter Scale.

Current Birthdays


Alicia Keys turns 28 years old today.


90 Edwin Newman
Journalist


81 Eduard Shevardnadze
Former president of Georgia


78 Dean Jones
Actor


77 Claude Gray
Country singer


76 Corazon Aquino
Former Philippine president


74 Conrad Burns
Former U.S. senator, R-Mont.


71 Etta James
Blues singer


66 Tobe Hooper
Director


64 Leigh Taylor-Young
Actress


52 Jenifer Lewis
Actress


51 Dinah Manoff
Actress ("Empty Nest," "Soap")


43 Mike Burch
Country musician (River Road)


43 Chet Culver
Governor of Iowa


40 Kina
R&B singer


38 China Kantner
Actress


38 Ana Ortiz
Actress ("Ugly Betty")


34 Mia Kirshner
Actress


30 Christine Lakin
Actress

Historic Birthdays


Virginia Woolf

1/25/1882 - 3/28/1941
British author

71 Giovanni Morone
1/25/1509 - 12/1/1580
Italian cardinal and diplomat


64 Robert Boyle
1/25/1627 - 12/30/1691
Anglo-Irish chemist


77 Joseph-Louis Lagrange
1/25/1736 - 4/10/1813
Italian-French mathematician


37 Robert Burns
1/25/1759 - 7/21/1796
Scottish national poet


60 Benjamin Robert Haydon
1/25/1786 - 6/22/1846
English historical painter/writer


77 Dan Rice
1/25/1823 - 2/22/1900
American clown


50 George Edward Pickett
1/25/1825 - 7/30/1875
American Confederate Army officer


76 Charles Curtis
1/25/1860 - 2/8/1936
American 31st vice president


85 Rufus Matthew Jones
1/25/1863 - 6/16/1948
American Quaker and author


91 W. Somerset Maugham
1/25/1874 - 12/16/1965
English novelist/playwright


76 William C. Bullitt
1/25/1891 - 2/15/1967
U.S. diplomat


73 Paul-Henri Spaak
1/25/1899 - 7/31/1972
Post-World War II statesmen from Belgium


54 Viljo Revell
1/25/1910 - 11/8/1964
Finnish architect

 

[minidog]

1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón discovered Brazil.

1736 - Stanislaus I formally abdicated as King of Poland.

1784 - In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the symbol to be the turkey.

1788 - The first European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in what became known as Sydney. The group had first settled at Botany Bay eight days before. This day is celebrated as Australia Day.

1802 - The U.S. Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.

1827 - Peru seceded from Colombia in protest against Simón Bolívar's alleged tyranny.

1837 - Michigan became the 26th state to join the United States.

1841 - Britain formally occupied Hong Kong, which the Chinese had ceded to the British.

1861 - In the U.S., Louisiana seceded from the Union.

1870 - The state of Virgina rejoined the Union.

1875 - George F. Green patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth.

1905 - The Cullinan diamond, weighing 114 lbs, was found by Captain Wells at the Premier Mine, near Pretoria, South Africa.

1911 - Inventor Glenn H. Curtiss flew the first successful seaplane.

1934 - The Apollo Theatre opened in New York City.

1939 - In the Spanish Civil War, Franco's forces, with Italian aid, took Barcelona.

1942 - The first American expeditionary force to go to Europe during World War II went ashore in Northern Ireland.

1947 - "The Greatest Story Ever Told" was first heard on ABC radio.

1950 - India officially proclaimed itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad took the oath of office as president.

1950 - The American Associated Insurance Companies, of St. Louis, MO, issued the first baby sitter’s insurance policy.

1959 - "Alcoa Presents" debuted on ABC-TV. The show would later be renamed "One Step Beyond".

1961 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Janet G. Travell as the first woman to be the "personal physician to the President".

1962 - The U.S. launched Ranger 3 to land scientific instruments on the moon. The probe missed its target by about 22,000 miles.

1965 - Hindi was made the official language of India.

1972 - In Hermsdorf, Czechoslovakia, a JAT Yugoslav Airlines flight crashed after the detonation of a bomb in the forward cargo hold killing 27 people. The bomb was believed to have been placed on the plane by a Croatian extremist group. Vesna Vulovic, a stewardess, survived after falling 33,000 feet in the tail section. She broke both legs and became paralyzed from the waist down.

1979 - The ‘Gizmo’ guitar synthesizer was first demonstrated.

1984 - CBS television debuted Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer."

1992 - Russian president Boris Yeltsin announced that his country would stop targeting U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.

1993 - Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.

1994 - In Sydney, Australia, a young man lunged at and fired two blank shots at Britain's Prince Charles.

1996 - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury concerning the Whitewater probe.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern, saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

1999 - Saddam Hussein vowed revenge against the U.S. in response to air-strikes that reportedly killed civilians. The strikes were U.S. planes defending themselves against anti-aircraft fire.

1999 - Gary Busey was released from jail after being arrested the night before for investigation of misdemeanor spousal abuse. Tiana Busey had no visible injuries.

2001 - Near Ciudad Boliva, Venezuela, twenty four people were killed when a 50-year-old DC-3 crashed.

Current Birthdays


Ellen DeGeneres turns 51 years old today


86 Anne Jeffreys
Actress


84 Joan Leslie
Actress


74 Bob Uecker
Sportscaster-actor


70 Scott Glenn
Actor


66 Jean Knight
R&B singer


61 Corky Laing
Rock musician (Mountain)


60 David Strathairn
Actor ("Good Night, and Good Luck")


59 Jack Youngblood
Football Hall of Famer


56 Lucinda Williams
Country singer


54 Eddie Van Halen
Rock musician (Van Halen)


51 Anita Baker
R&B singer


51 Norman Hassan
Reggae musician (UB40)


48 Wayne Gretzky
Hockey Hall of Famer


46 Jazzie B.
R&B singer (Soul II Soul)


46 Andrew Ridgeley
Rock musician (Wham!)


45 Paul Johansson
Actor ("One Tree Hill")


39 Kirk Franklin
Gospel singer


36 Jennifer Crystal
Actress


35 Chris Hesse
Rock musician (Hoobastank)


32 Vince Carter
Basketball player


31 Sara Rue
Actress


26 Michael Martin
Country musician (Marshall Dyllon)


20 Emily Hughes
Figure skater

Historic Birthdays


Douglas MacArthur

1/26/1880 - 4/5/1964
American general

71 Jean-Baptiste Pigalle
1/26/1714 - 8/21/1785
French sculptor


56 Claude-Adrien Helvatius
1/26/1715 - 12/26/1771
French philosopher


81 Charles XIV John
1/26/1763 - 3/8/1844
French general and later king of Sweden and Norway


68 Benjamin Franklin Keith
1/26/1846 - 3/26/1914
American impresario


87 Samuel Hopkins Adams
1/26/1871 - 11/15/1958
American journalist and author


85 Julia Morgan
1/26/1872 - 2/2/1957
American architect


82 Frank Costello
1/26/1891 - 2/18/1973
American syndicate gangster


33 Bessie Coleman
1/26/1892 - 4/30/1926
American aviator


83 Sean MacBride
1/26/1904 - 1/15/1988
Irish statesman and winner of 1974 Nobel Peace Prize


77 Jimmy Van Heusen
1/26/1913 - 2/7/1990
American songwriter


71 Nicolae Ceausescu
1/26/1918 - 12/25/1989
Romanian dictator

 

[minidog]

1606 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were executed on January 31.

1870 - Kappa Alpha Theta, the first women’s sorority, was founded at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, IN.

1880 - Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp.

1888 - The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC.

1900 - In China, foreign diplomats in Peking, fearing a revolt, demanded that the imperial government discipline the Boxer rebels.

1926 - John Baird, a Scottish inventor, demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine called television.

1927 - United Independent Broadcasters Inc. started a radio network with contracts with 16 stations. The company later became Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

1931 - NBC radio debuted "Clara, Lu ’n’ Em" on its Blue network (later, ABC radio).

1943 - During World War II, the first all American air raid against Germany took place when about 50 bombers attacked Wilhlemshaven.

1944 - The Soviet Union announced that the two year German siege of Leningrad had come to an end.

1945 - Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

1948 - Wire Recording Corporation of America announced the first magnetic tape recorder. The ‘Wireway’ machine with a built-in oscillator sold for $149.50.

1951 - In the U.S., atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.

1957 - The "CBS Radio Workshop" was heard for the first time.

1967 - At Cape Kennedy, FL, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.

1967 - More than 60 nations signed the Outer Space Treaty which banned the orbiting of nuclear weapons and placing weapons on celestial bodies or space stations.

1973 - The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.

1977 - The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.

1981 - U.S. President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.

1984 - Carl Lewis beat his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4 inches when he set a new indoor world record with a long-jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches.

1984 - Wayne Gretzky set a National Hockey League (NHL) record for consecutive game scoring. He ended the streak at 51 games.

1985 - The Coca-Cola Company, of Atlanta, GA, announced a plan to sell its soft drinks in the Soviet Union.

1992 - Former world boxing champion Mike Tyson went on trial for allegedly raping an 18-year-old contestant in the 1991 Miss Black America Contest.

1996 - Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of Niger, was overthrown by a military coup. Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara declared himself head of state.

1997 - It was revealed that French national museums were holding nearly 2,000 works of art stolen from Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

1998 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on NBC's "Today" show. She charged that the allegations against her husband were the work of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

1999 - The U.S. Senate blocked dismissal of the impeachment case against President Clinton and voted for new testimony from Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses.

2002 - A series of explosions occurred at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria. More than 1,000 people were killed in the blast and in the attempt to escape.

2003 - Altria Group, Inc. became the name of the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris Capital Corporation.

Current Birthdays


John Roberts turns 54 years old today

79 Bobby "Blue" Bland
Singer


69 James Cromwell
Actor


67 John Witherspoon
Actor


64 Nick Mason
Rock musician (Pink Floyd)


63 Nedra Talley
R&B singer (The Ronettes)


61 Mikhail Baryshnikov
Ballet dancer


54 Cheryl White
Country singer (The Whites)


54 Richard Young
Country musician (The Kentucky Headhunters)


53 Mimi Rogers
Actress


52 Janick Gers
Rock musician (Iron Maiden)


50 Keith Olbermann
TV host


48 Gillian Gilbert
Rock musician (New Order)


48 Margo Timmois
Rock singer (Cowboy Junkies)


45 Bridget Fonda
Actress


44 Alan Cumming
Actor


41 Tracy Lawrence
Country singer


41 Mike Patton
Rock singer (Faith No More)


41 Tricky
Rapper


40 Michael Kulas
Rock musician (James)


37 Josh Randall
Actor ("Ed")


33 Kevin Denney
Country singer


33 Fred Taylor
Football player


29 Marat Safin
Tennis player

Historic Birthdays


Jerome (David) Kern

1/27/1885 - 11/11/1945
American musical comedy composer

35 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1/27/1756 - 12/5/1791
Austrian composer


66 David Friedrich Strauss
1/27/1808 - 2/8/1874
German-Protestant philosopher, theologian


69 Édouard Lalo
1/27/1823 - 4/22/1892
French composer


87 Jozef Israëls
1/27/1824 - 8/12/1911
Dutch painter and etcher


65 Lewis Carroll
1/27/1832 - 1/14/1898
English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist


89 Learned Hand
1/27/1872 - 8/18/1961
American jurist


59 Victor Moritz Goldschmidt
1/27/1888 - 3/20/1947
Swiss-born Norwegian mineralogist and petrologist


89 Ch'ing-ling Soong
1/27/1892 - 5/29/1981
Chinese political figure


86 Hyman G. Rickover
1/27/1900 - 7/8/1986
American naval officer and nuclear engineer

 

[minidog]

1521 - The Diet of Worms began, at which Protestant reformer Luther was declared an outlaw by the Roman Catholic church.

1547 - England's King Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his 9 year-old son, Edward VI.

1788 - The first British penal settlement was founded at Botany Bay.

1807 - London's Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight.

1871 - France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War.

1878 - The first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT.

1878 - "The Yale News" was published for the first time. It was the first, daily, collegiate newspaper in the U.S.

1902 - The Carnegie Institution was established in Washington, DC. It began with a gift of $10 million from Andrew Carnegie.

1909 - The United States ended direct control over Cuba.

1915 - The Coast Guard was created by an act of the U.S. Congress.

1916 - Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by President Wilson to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.

1918 - The Bolsheviks occupied Helsinki, Finland.

1922 - The National Football League (NFL) franchise in Decatur, IL, transferred to Chicago. The team took the name Chicago Bears.

1935 - Iceland became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.

1938 - The first ski tow started operation in Vermont.

1945 - During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.

1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that circus clown Emmett Kelly had been hired to entertain fans at baseball games.

1958 - Roy Campanella (Brooklyn Dodgers) was seriously injured in an auto accident in New York. He would never return to play again.

1958 - Construction began on first private thorium-uranium nuclear reactor.

1965 - General Motors reported the biggest profit of any U.S. company in history.

1973 - CBS-TV debuted "Barnaby Jones."

1980 - Six Americans who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, left Iran using false Canadian diplomatic passports. The Americans had been hidden at the Canadian embassy in Tehran.

1982 - Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier. 42 days before he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.

1986 - The U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. All seven of its crewmembers were killed.

1994 - In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez in the murder of his parents. Lyle, and his brother Erik, were both retried later and were found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

1997 - Clive Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - In Manilla, Philippines, gunmen held at least 400 children and teachers for several hours at an elementary school.

1999 - Ford Motor company announced the purchase of Sweden's Volvo AB for $6.45 billion.

2002 - Toys R Us Inc. announced that it would be closing 27 Toys R Us stores and 37 Kids R Us stores in order to cut costs and boost operating profits.

Current Birthdays


Jeanne Shaheen turns 62 years old today

80 Acker Bilk
Musician, composer


74 Nicholas Pryor
Actor


73 Alan Alda
Actor ("M*A*S*H*")


67 Susan Howard
Actress


64 Marthe Keller
Actress


59 Barbi Benton
Actress


54 Nicolas Sarkozy
President of France


52 Harley Jane Kozak
Actress


52 Nick Price
Golfer


50 Frank Darabont
Director ("The Shawshank Redemption")


50 Dave Sharp
Rock musician (The Alarm)


47 Sam Phillips
Rock singer


46 Dan Spitz
Rock musician (Anthrax)


44 Greg Cook
Country musician (Ricochet)


42 Marvin Sapp
Gospel singer


41 Sarah McLachlan
Rock singer


41 DJ Muggs
DJ (Cypress Hill)


41 Rakim
Rapper


40 Kathryn Morris
Actress ("Cold Case")


38 Anthony Hamilton
R&B singer


36 Brandon Bush
Rock musician (Train)


35 Magglio Ordonez
Baseball player


32 Daunte Culpepper
Football player


32 Joey Fatone Jr.
Singer ('N Sync)


32 Rick Ross
Rapper


30 Rosamund Pike
Actress


29 Nick Carter
Singer (Backstreet Boys)


28 Elijah Wood
Actor ("Lord of the Rings" movies)

Historic Birthdays


Arthur Rubinstein

1/28/1887 - 12/20/1982
Polish-American virtuoso pianist

52 Henry VII
1/28/1457 - 4/21/1509
English King


63 Sir Henry Morton Stanley
1/28/1841 - 5/10/1904
English/American explorer


43 William Seward Burroughs
1/28/1855 - 9/15/1898
American inventor


78 Franklin Hooper
1/28/1862 - 8/14/1940
American editor in chief of Encyclopedia Britiannica.


81 (Sidonie-Gabrielle) Colette
1/28/1873 - 8/3/1954
French writer


78 Auguste Piccard
1/28/1884 - 3/24/1962
Swiss-bn. Belgian physicist, balloonist, deep sea diver


55 Ernst Lubitsch
1/28/1892 - 11/30/1947
German/American film director


68 Dame Kathleen Lonsdale
1/28/1903 - 4/1/1971
British crystallographer


44 Jackson Pollock
1/28/1912 - 8/11/1956
American painter


80 Virgilio Ferreira
1/28/1916 - 3/1/1996
Portuguese teacher and novelist

 

[minidog]

1728 - John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was first performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London.

1802 - John Beckley became the first Librarian of Congress.

1820 - Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle.

1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" was published for the first time in the "New York Evening Mirror."

1848 - Greenwich Mean Time was adopted by Scotland.

1850 - Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.

1856 - Britain's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria.

1861 - In America, Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.

1886 - The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.

1900 - The American Baseball League was organized in Philadelphia, PA. It consisted of 8 teams.

1916 - In World War I, Paris was bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.

1924 - R. Taylor patented the ice cream cone rolling machine.

1936 - The first members of major league baseball's Hall of Fame were named in Cooperstown, NY.

1940 - The W. Atlee Burpee Seed Company displayed the first tetraploid flowers at the New York City Flower Show.

1949 - "The Newport News" was commissioned as the first air-conditioned naval ship in Virginia.

1956 - "Indictment" debuted on CBS radio and stayed on the air for three years.

1958 - Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.

1958 - Charles Starkweather was captured by police in Wyoming.

1963 - The first members to the NFL's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, OH.

1963 - Britain was refused entry into the EEC.

1966 - "Sweet Charity" opened at the Palace Theatre in New York City. It ran for 608 performances.

1979 - U.S. President Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House. The visit followed the establishment of diplomatic relations.

1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average peaked at 1,292.62.

1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."

1990 - Joseph Hazelwood, the former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, went on trial in Anchorage, AK, on charges that stemmed from America's worst oil spill. Hazelwood was later acquitted of all the major charges and was convicted of a misdemeanor.

1995 - The San Francisco 49ers became the first team in National Football League (NFL) history to win five Super Bowl titles. The 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers 49-26.

1996 - French President Jacques Chirac announced the "definitive end" to nuclear testing.

1996 - La Fenice, the 204 year old opera house in Venice, was destroyed by fire. Arson was suspected.

1997 - America Online agreed to give refunds to frustrated customers under threat of lawsuits across the country. Customers were unable to log on after AOL offered a flat $19.95-a-month rate.

1998 - A bomb exploded at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL, killing an off-duty policeman and severely wounding a nurse. Eric Rudolph was charged with this bombing and three other attacks in Atlanta.

1999 - Paris prosecutors announced the end of the investigation into the accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana.

1999 - The U.S. Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two presidential advisers for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial.

2001 - In Indonesia, thousands of student protesters stormed the parliament property and demanded that President Abdurrahman Wahid quit due to his alleged involvement in two corruption scandals. Wahid announced that he would not resign.

Current Birthdays


Oprah Winfrey turns 55 years old today


91 John Forsythe
Actor ("Dynasty")


75 Noel Harrison
Actor


69 Katharine Ross
Actress


64 Tom Selleck
Actor ("Magnum P.I.")


63 Bettye LaVette
R&B singer


61 Marc Singer
Actor


59 Ann Jillian
Actress


57 Tommy Ramone
Rock musician (The Ramones)


56 Louie Perez
Rock musician (Los Lobos)


53 Irlene Mandrell
Country singer


52 Diane Delano
Actress


51 Judy Norton Taylor
Actress ("The Waltons")


50 Johnny Spampinato
Rock musician (NRBQ)


49 Greg Louganis
Olympic gold-medal diver


48 David Baynton-Power
Rock musician (James)


48 Eddie Jackson
Rock musician (Queensryche)


47 Nicholas Turturro
Actor ("NYPD Blue")


45 Roddy Frame
Rock musician (Aztec Camera)


44 Dominik Hasek
Hockey player


41 Edward Burns
Actor-director


39 Heather Graham
Actress


34 Sharif Atkins
Actor


34 Sara Gilbert
Actress ("Roseanne," "The Big Bang Theory")


30 Andrew Keegan
Actor


29 Jason James Richter
Actor


28 Jonny Lang
Blues musician


Historic Birthdays


William McKinley

1/29/1843 - 9/14/1901
America's 25th President

84 Emanuel Swedenborg
1/29/1688 - 3/29/1772
Swedish scientist/Christian mystic


80 Jeffery Amherst
1/29/1717 - 8/3/1797
English/American army commander


72 Thomas Paine
1/29/1737 - 6/8/1809
English/American political pamphleteer


62 Henry Lee
1/29/1756 - 3/25/1818
American Revolutionary War officer


44 Anton Chekhov
1/29/1860 - 7/15/1904
Russian playwright


72 Frederick Delius
1/29/1862 - 6/10/1934
English/French composer


78 Romain Rolland
1/29/1866 - 12/30/1944
French novelist/dramatist


86 John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
1/29/1874 - 5/11/1960
American philanthropist


68 Barney Oldfield
1/29/1878 - 10/4/1946
American race car driver


66 W.C. Fields
1/29/1880 - 12/25/1946
American comedian


58 Paddy Chayefsky
1/29/1923 - 8/1/1981
American playwright/screenwriter

 

[minidog]

1649 - England's King Charles I was beheaded.

1790 - The first purpose-built lifeboat was launched on the River Tyne.

1798 - The first brawl in the U.S. House of Representatives took place. Congressmen Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold fought on the House floor.

1847 - The town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.

1862 - The U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship, the "Monitor", was launched.

1889 - Rudolph, crown prince of Austria, and his 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Marie Vetsera, were found shot in his hunting lodge at Mayerling, near Vienna.

1894 - C.B. King received a patent for the pneumatic hammer.

1900 - The British fighting the Boers in South Africa ask for a larger army.

1910 - Work began on the first board-track automobile speedway. The track was built in Playa del Ray, CA.

1911 - The first airplane rescue at sea was made by the destroyer "Terry." Pilot James McCurdy was forced to land in the ocean about 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.

1933 - "The Lone Ranger" was heard on radio for the first time. The program ran for 2,956 episodes and ended in 1955.

1933 - Adolf Hitler was named the German Chancellor.

1948 - Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.

1950 - NBC-TV debuted "Robert Montgomery Presents." The show lasted for seven seasons.

1958 - Yves Saint Laurent, at age 22, held his first major fashion show in Paris.

1958 - The first two-way moving sidewalk was put in service at Love Field in Dallas, TX. The length of the walkway through the airport was 1,435 feet.

1960 - The women’s singles U.S. figure skating championship was won by Carol Heiss.

1962 - Two members of the "Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, MI.

1964 - January 30 - The U.S. launched Ranger 6. The unmanned spacecraft carried television cameras and was intentionally crash-landed on the moon. The cameras did not return any pictures to Earth.

1968 - The Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

1972 - In Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot and killed thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers. The day is known as "Bloody Sunday."

1979 - The civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to return. He had been living in exile in France.

1989 - The U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan was closed.

1994 - Peter Leko became the world's youngest-ever grand master in chess.

1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized the deployment of a 6,000-member U.N. peace-keeping contingent to assume security responsibilities in Haiti from U.S. forces.

1995 - Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced that clinical trials had demonstrated the effectiveness of the first preventative treatment for sickle cell anaemia.

1996 - Gino Gallagher, the reputed leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, was shot and killed as he queued for his unemployment benefit.

1997 - A New Jersey judge ruled that the unborn child of a female prisoner must have legal representation. He denied the prisoner bail reduction to enable her to leave the jail and obtain an abortion.

2002 - Slobodan Milosevic accused the U.N. war crimes tribunal of an "evil and hostile attack" against him. Milosevic was defending his actions during the Balkan wars.

2002 - Japan's last coal mine was closed. The closures were due to high production costs and cheap imports.

2002 - In Los Angeles, 15 students and 3 adults were injured when they were hit by a car.

Current Birthdays


Christian Bale turns 35 years old today.

84 Dorothy Malone
Actress


81 Harold Prince
Producer, director


79 Gene Hackman
Actor


75 Tammy Grimes
Actress


72 Vanessa Redgrave
Actress


72 Jeanne Pruett
Country singer


71 Norma Jean
Country singer


68 Dick Cheney
Former vice president


67 Marty Balin
Rock singer (Jefferson Airplane/Starship)


60 William King
R&B musician (The Commodores)


58 Phil Collins
Rock singer, musician (Genesis)


58 Charles S. Dutton
Actor


54 John Baldacci
Governor of Maine


51 Brett Butler
Actress, comedian ("Grace Under Fire")


50 Jody Watley
R&B singer


47 King Abdullah II
King of Jordan


42 Norbert Leo Butz
Actor


37 Tammy Cochran
Country singer


29 Josh Kelley
Rock singer, songwriter


29 Wilmer Valderrama
Actor ("That '70s Show")


19 Jake Thomas
Actor ("Lizzie McGuire")

Historic Birthdays


Franklin Roosevelt

1/30/1882 - 4/12/1945
America's 32nd President


59 George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
1/30/1628 - 4/16/1687
English politician


60 Bernardo Bellotto
1/30/1720 - 10/17/1780
Italian "Vedute" painter


70 Philip Henry Stanhope
1/30/1805 - 12/24/1875
English politician/historian


54 Samuel Armstrong
1/30/1839 - 5/11/1893
American founder of Hampton Institute


58 Felix Faure
1/30/1841 - 2/16/1899
6th President of French Republic


64 Edward Martyn
1/30/1859 - 12/5/1923
Irish dramatist


88 Walter Damrosch
1/30/1862 - 12/22/1950
Prussian-bn.American conductor


78 Roy Eldridge
1/30/1911 - 2/26/1989
American musician


77 Barbara Tuchman
1/30/1912 - 2/6/1989
American author/historian


87 Livia Drusilla
1/30/58BC - //AD 29
Political wife of Emperor Augustus

 

[minidog]

1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the steamboat.

1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York City.

1793 - France declared war on Britain and Holland.

1793 - Ralph Hodgson patented oiled silk.

1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union.

1862 - "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe was first published in the "Atlantic Monthly."

1867 - In the U.S., bricklayers start working 8-hour days.

1884 - The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.

1893 - Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world's first motion picture studio in West Orange, NJ.

1896 - Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered in Turin.

1898 - The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, CT, issued the first automobile insurance policy. Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, NY, paid $11.25 for the policy, which gave him $5,000 in liability coverage.

1900 - Eastman Kodak Co. introduced the $1 Brownie box camera.

1913 - Grand Central Terminal (also known as Grand Central Station) opened in New York City, NY. It was the largest train station in the world.

1919 - The first Miss America was crowned in New York City.

1920 - The first armored car was introduced.

1920 - Canada's Royal North West Mounted Police changed their name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The organization was commissioned in 1873.

1921 - Carmen Fasanella registered as a taxicab owner and driver in Princeton, New Jersey. Fasanella retired November 2, 1989 after 68 years and 243 days of service.

1929 - Weightlifter, Charles Rigoulet of France, achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he lifted 402-1/2 pounds.

1930 - The Times published its first crossword puzzle.

1946 - Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations.

1951 - The first telecast of an atomic explosion took place.

1951 - The first X-ray moving picture process was demonstrated.

1953 - CBS-TV debuted "Private Secretary."

1954 - CBS-TV showed "The Secret Storm" for the first time.

1957 - P.H. Young became the first black pilot on a scheduled passenger airline.

1958 - The United Arab Republic was formed by a union of Egypt and Syria. It was broken 1961.

1960 - Four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They had been refused service.

1968 - During the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. The scene was captured in a news photograph.

1976 - "Sonny and Cher" resumed on TV despite a real life divorce.

1979 - Patty Hearst was released from prison after serving 22 months of a seven-year sentence for bank robbery. Her sentence had been commuted by U.S. President Carter.

1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was welcomed in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.

1987 - Terry Williams won the largest slot machine payoff, at the time, when won $4.9 million after getting four lucky 7s on a machine in Reno, NV.

1991 - A USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane at Los Angeles International Airport. 35 people were killed.

1994 - Jeff Gillooly plead guilty in Portland, OR, for his role in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Gillooly, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, struck a plea bargain under which he confessed to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony implicating Harding.

1996 - Visa and Mastercard announced security measures that would make it safe to shop on the Internet.

1998 - Stuart Whitman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a deposition that was videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against U.S. President Clinton.

2001 - Three Scottish judges found Abdel Basset al-Mergrahi guilty of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people. The court said that Megrahi was a member of the Libyan intelligence service. Al-Amin Khalifa, who had been co-accused, was acquitted and freed.

2003 - NASA's space shuttle Columbia exploded while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

Current Birthdays


Princess Stephanie turns 44 years old today

81 Stuart Whitman
Actor


72 Don Everly
Singer


72 Garrett Morris
Actor, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")


72 Ray Sawyer
Singer


71 Sherman Hemsley
Actor ("The Jeffersons")


70 Del McCoury
Bluegrass singer


70 Joe Sample
Jazz pianist


67 Terry Jones
Actor, writer (Monty Python)


65 Mike Enzi
U.S. senator, R-Wyo.


59 Mike Campbell
Rock musician (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers)


58 Sonny Landreth
Blues singer, musician


55 Bill Mumy
Actor, writer ("Lost in Space")


53 Exene Cervenka
Rock singer (X)


45 Linus Roache
Actor ("Law and Order")


44 Dwayne Dupuy
Country musician (Ricochet)


44 Sherilyn Fenn
Actress


41 Lisa Marie Presley
Rock singer, daughter of Elvis Presley


41 Pauly Shore
Actor, comedian


40 Brian Krause
Actor


40 Joshua Redman
Jazz saxophonist


40 Patrick Wilson
Rock musician (Weezer)


38 Michael C. Hall
Actor


38 Ron Welty
Rock musician


34 Big Boi
Rapper (Outkast)


30 Julie Roberts
Country singer


27 Jarrett Lennon
Actor


23 Lauren Conrad
Reality TV personality ("The Hills")


Historic Birthdays


Langston Hughes

2/1/1902 - 5/22/1967
American poet and writer

82 Sir Edward Coke
2/1/1552 - 9/3/1634
English jurist and politician


66 John Philip Kemble
2/1/1757 - 2/26/1823
English Shakespearean actor and theater manager


47 Thomas Cole
2/1/1801 - 2/11/1848
American painter


56 Joseph Keppler
2/1/1838 - 2/19/1894
Austria bn. American caricaturist and magazine founder


80 Stanley Granville Hall
2/1/1844 - 4/24/1924
American psychologist


65 Victor Herbert
2/1/1859 - 5/26/1924
American composer


72 Hattie O. Caraway
2/1/1878 - 12/21/1950
First female U.S. senator


78 John Ford
2/1/1895 - 8/31/1973
American motion picture director


59 Clark Gable
2/1/1901 - 11/16/1960
American film actor


75 S.J. Perelman
2/1/1904 - 10/17/1979
American humorist


84 Emilio Segre
2/1/1905 - 4/22/1989
Italian-bn. American physicist

 

[minidog]

1536 - The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

1653 - New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated.

1802 - The first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown by Othello Pollard in Boston, MA.

1848 - The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845.

1848 - The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco, CA.

1863 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain.

1870 - The "Cardiff Giant" was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, NY, was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human.

1876 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed in New York.

1878 - Greece declared war on Turkey.

1880 - The S.S. Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia.

1887 - The beginning of groundhog day in Punxsutawney, PA.

1892 - William Painter patented the crown-cork bottle cap.

1893 - The Edison Studio in West Orange, NJ, made history when they filmed the first motion picture close-up. The studio was owned and operated by Thomas Edison.

1897 - The Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated nine years later on the same site.

1900 - Six U.S. cities, Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Chicago, and St. Louis, agreed to form baseball's American League. (MLB)

1913 - Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Even though construction was not entirely complete more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day.

1935 - Leonard Keeler conducted the first test of the polygraph machine, in Portage, WI.

1943 - During World War II, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. Stalingrad has since been renamed Volgograd.

1945 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill left for a summit in Yalta with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

1946 - The first Buck Rogers automatic pistol was made.

1946 - The Mutual Broadcasting System aired "Twenty Questions" for the first time on radio. The show moved to television 3 years later.

1949 - Golfer Ben Hogan was seriously injured in an auto accident in Van Horn, TX.

1950 - "What's My Line" debuted on CBS television.

1962 - The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.

1967 - The American Basketball Association was formed by representatives of the NBA.

1971 - Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.

1980 - The situation known as "Abscam" began when reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation that targeted members of the U.S. Congress. A phony Arab businessmen were used in the operation.

1989 - The final Russian armored column left Kabul, Afghanistan, after nine years of military occupation.

1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.

1999 - 19 people were killed at Luanda international airport when a cargo plane crashed just after takeoff.

1999 - Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.

2004 - It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.

Current Birthdays


Shakira turns 32 years old today.


84 Elaine Stritch
Actress


77 Robert Mandan
Actor


72 Tom Smothers
Comedian


67 Barry Diller
TV-film executive


67 Bo Hopkins
Actor


67 Graham Nash
Rock singer, musician (Crosby, Stills and Nash)


63 Howard Bellamy
Country singer (The Bellamy Brothers)


62 Farrah Fawcett
Actress ("Charlie's Angels")


60 Jack McGee
Actor


60 Brent Spiner
Actor


60 Ross Valory
Rock musician (Journey)


57 John Cornyn
U.S. senator, R-Texas


55 Christie Brinkley
Model


54 Michael Talbott
Actor ("Miami Vice")


54 Kim Zimmer
Actress ("Guiding Light")


43 Robert DeLeo
Rock musician (Stone Temple Pilots)


39 Jennifer Westfeldt
Actress


38 Ben Mize
Rock musician (Counting Crows)


37 T-Mo
Rapper


36 Marissa Jaret Winokur
Actress


33 Lori Beth Denberg
Actress


23 Blaine Larsen
Country singer

Historic Birthdays


James Joyce

2/2/1882 - 1/13/1941
Irish novelist

43 Lodovico Ferrari
2/2/1522 - 10/5/1565
Italian mathematician


37 Nell Gwyn
2/2/1650 - 11/14/1687
English actress


84 Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand
2/2/1754 - 5/17/1838
French statesman/diplomat


59 Albert Sidney Johnston
2/2/1803 - 4/6/1862
American Confederate general in Civil War


80 Havelock Ellis
2/2/1859 - 7/8/1939
English essayist/physician


86 Fritz Kreisler
2/2/1875 - 1/29/1962
Austrian-born violinist


62 Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
2/2/1889 - 1/11/1952
French army officer


88 George Stanley Halas
2/2/1895 - 10/31/1983
American founder/owner of Chicago Bears


86 Jascha Heifetz
2/2/1901 - 12/10/1987
Russian-born American violinist


77 Ayn Rand
2/2/1905 - 3/6/1982
Russian-born American writer/philosopher


49 Jussi Bjorling
2/2/1911 - 9/9/1960
Swedish tenor


73 James Dickey
2/2/1923 - 1/19/1997
American author

 

[minidog]

1488 - The Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Diaz landed at Mossal Bay in the Cape, the first European known to have landed on the southern extremity of Africa.

1690 - The first paper money in America was issued by the Massachusetts colony. The currency was used to pay soldiers that were fighting in the war against Quebec.

1783 - Spain recognized the independence of the United States.

1809 - The territory of Illinois was created.

1815 - The world's first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland.

1862 - Thomas Edison printed the "Weekly Herald" and distributed it to train passengers traveling between Port Huron and Detroit, MI. It was the first time a newspaper had been printed on a train.

1869 - Edwin Booth opened his new theatre in New York City. The first production was "Romeo and Juliet".

1900 - In Frankfort, KY, gubernatorial candidate William Goebels died from an assasin's bullet wounds. On August 18, 1900, Ex-Sec. of State Caleb Powers was found guilt of conspiracy to murder Gov. Goebels.

1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized the power to impose and collect income tax.

1916 - In Ottawa, Canada's original parliament buildings burned down.

1917 - The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel began service. It is the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet.

1919 - The League of Nations held its first meeting in Paris.

1927 - The Federal Radio Commission was created when U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill.

1941 - In Vichy, France, the Nazis used force to restore Pierre Laval to office.

1945 - Russia agreed to enter World War II against Japan.

1946 - The first issue of "Holiday" magazine appeared.

1947 - Percival Prattisbecame the first black news correspondent admitted to the House and Senate press gallery in Washington, DC. He worked for "Our World" in New York City.

1951 - Dick Button won the U.S. figure skating title for the sixth time.

1951 - The Tennessee Williams play, "The Rose Tattoo", opened on Broadway in New York.

1966 - The first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet space vehicle Luna IX.

1969 - At the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed leader of the PLO.

1972 - The first Winter Olympics in Asia were held at Sapporo, Japan.

1984 - Challenger 4 was launched as the tenth space shuttle mission.

1988 - The U.S. House of Representatives handed rejected U.S. President Reagan's request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.

1989 - South African politician P.W. Botha unwillingly resigned both party leadership and the presidency after suffering a stroke.

1998 - Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker. She was the first woman executed in the U.S. since 1984.

1998 - In Italy, a U.S. Military plane hit a cable causing the death of 20 skiers on a lift.

Current Birthdays


Blythe Danner turns 66 years old today.

83 Shelley Berman
Comedian


76 Paul Sarbanes
Former U.S. senator, D-Md.


69 Fran Tarkenton
Football Hall of Famer


68 Bridget Hanley
Actress


66 Dennis Edwards
R&B singer


64 Bob Griese
Football Hall of Famer


62 Dave Davies
Rock musician (The Kinks)


62 Melanie
Folk singer


59 Morgan Fairchild
Actress


53 Nathan Lane
Actor ("The Producers")


53 Lee Ranaldo
Rock musician (Sonic Youth)


50 Thomas Calabro
Actor ("Melrose Place")


48 Keith Gordon
Actor, director


47 Michele Greene
Actress ("L.A. Law")


45 Matraca Berg
Country singer


41 Vlade Divac
Basketball player


39 Warwick Davis
Actor


33 Daddy Yankee
Reggaeton singer


32 Grant Barry
Musician


27 Jessica Harp
Singer, songwriter


19 Sean Kingston
Rapper

Historic Birthdays


Gertrude Stein

2/3/1874 - 7/27/1946
American writer

38 Felix Mendelssohn
2/3/1809 - 11/4/1847
German composer/pianist/teacher


61 Horace Greeley
2/3/1811 - 11/29/1872
American newspaper editor


72 Sir William C. Van Horne
2/3/1843 - 9/11/1915
American-bn. Canadian railway official


102 Naruhiko Higashikuni
2/3/1887 - 1/20/1990
Japanese imperial prince/prime minister


84 Norman Rockwell
2/3/1894 - 11/8/1978
American illustrator


62 Juan Negrin
2/3/1894 - 11/14/1956
Spanish Republican prime minister during Spanish Civil War


78 Alvar Aalto
2/3/1898 - 5/11/1976
Finnish architect/city planner


90 James Michener
2/3/1907 - 10/16/1997
American novelist/short story writer


34 Simone Weil
2/3/1909 - 8/24/1943
French mystic and Resistance activist


75 Helen Stephens
2/3/1918 - 1/17/1994
American Olympic gold medal runner

 

[minidog]

1783 - Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

1789 - Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

1824 - J.W. Goodrich introduced rubber galoshes to the public.

1847 - In Maryland, the first U.S. Telegraph Company was established.

1861 - Delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, AL, to form the Confederate States of America.

1865 - The Hawaiian Board of Education was formed.

1895 - The Van Buren Street Bridge opened in Chicago, IL.

1901 - "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" opened in New York City.

1904 - The Russo-Japanese War began after Japan laid seige to Port Arthur.

1913 - Louis Perlman received a patent for his demountable tire-carrying rims.

1932 - The first Winter Olympics were held in the United States at Lake Placid, NY.

1935 - CBS radio presented "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" for the first time.

1936 - Radium E. became the first radioactive substance to be produced synthetically.

1938 - The play "Our Town", by Thornton Wilder, opened in New York City.

1941 - The United Service Organizations (USO) was created.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a conference at Yalta to outline plans for Germany's defeat.

1948 - Ceylon gained independence within the British Commonwealth. The country later became known as Sri Lanka.

1952 - Jackie Robinson was named Director of Communication for NBC. He was the first black executive of a major radio-TV network.

1953 - "The Stooge" premiered at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.

1957 - Smith-Corona Manufacturing Inc., of New York, began selling portable electric typewriters. The first machine weighed 19 pounds.

1964 - The Admistrator of General Services announced that the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been ratified. The amendment banned the poll tax.

1968 - The world's largest hovercraft was launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.

1973 - The Reshef was unveiled as Israel's missile boat.

1974 - Patricia (Patty) Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, CA, by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1976 - An earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras killed more than 22,000 people.

1985 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan's defense budget called for a tripling of the expenditure on the "Star Wars" research program.

1993 - Russian scientists unfurled a giant mirror in orbit and flashed a beam of sunlight across Europe during the night. Observers saw it only as an momentary flash.

1997 - A civil jury in California found O.J. Simpson liable in the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Goldman's parents were awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages.

1997 - Two Israeli troop-carrying helicopters collided on their way to Lebanon, all 73 soldiers and airmen aboard were killed.

1997 - President Milosevic of Serbia apparently surrendered to the will of his people, ordering his government to recognize opposition victories in local elections held in November 1996.

1997 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) scored his 600th National Hockey League (NHL) goal during his 719th game. Lemieux reached the milestone second fastest in history. Gretzky had reached the plateau during his 718th game.

1998 - In northeast Afghanistan, at least 5,000 people were killed in an earthquake that measured 6.1 on the Richter Scale.

1999 - Warplanes from Israel attacked south Lebanon just after rockets were fired toward Israel. No casualies were claimed on either side.

1999 - Gary Coleman was sentenced to a $400 fine, a suspended 90-day jail sentence, and ordered to attend 52 anger-management classes. The sentence stemmed from Coleman assaulting an autograph seeker on July 30, 1998.

1999 - Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was shot and killed in front of his Bronx home by four plainclothes New York City police officers. The officers had been conducting a nighttime search for a rape suspect.

2000 - Austrian President Thomas Klestil swore in a coalition government that included Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party. European Union sanctions were a result of the action.

2003 - Yugoslavia was formally dissolved by lawmakers. The country was replaced with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro.

Current Birthdays


Clint Black turns 47 years old today.

87 William Phipps
Actor


86 Conrad Bain
Actor ("Diff'rent Strokes")


73 Gary Conway
Actor


69 George A. Romero
Director


68 John Steel
Rock musician (The Animals)


65 Florence LaRue
Singer (The Fifth Dimension)


62 Dan Quayle
Former vice president


61 Alice Cooper
Rock singer


60 Michael Beck
Actor


57 Lisa Eichhorn
Actress


50 Lawrence Taylor
Football Hall of Famer


49 Tim Booth
Rock singer (James)


48 Henry Bogdan
Rock musician


43 Dave Buchanan
Country musician (Yankee Grey)


39 Gabrielle Anwar
Actress


38 Rob Corddry
Actor


38 David Garza
Rock singer


38 Michael Goorjian
Actor


34 Rick Burch
Rock musician (Jimmy Eat World)


34 Natalie Imbruglia
Rock singer


33 Cam'ron
Rapper


32 Gavin DeGraw
Rock singer


21 Carly Patterson
Gymnast


Historic Birthdays


Charles A. Lindbergh

2/4/1902 - 8/26/1974
American aviator

85 Mark Hopkins
2/4/1802 - 6/17/1887
American educator and theologian


85 Clement Ader
2/4/1841 - 3/5/1926
French engineer and pioneer of flight


78 Ludwig Prandtl
2/4/1875 - 8/15/1953
German physicist, "father of aerodynamics"


70 Jacques Copeau
2/4/1879 - 10/20/1949
French actor/critic/director


74 Fernand Leger
2/4/1881 - 8/17/1955
French painter


75 George Kennedy Bell
2/4/1883 - 10/3/1958
English Anglican bishop of Chichester


95 Raymond Dart
2/4/1893 - 11/22/1988
Australian-bn. South African physical anthropologist


73 MacKinlay Kantor
2/4/1904 - 10/11/1977
American author/newspaperman


39 Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2/4/1906 - 4/9/1945
German Protestant theologian


90 Clyde W. Tombaugh
2/4/1906 - 1/17/1997
American astronomer who discovered Pluto

 

[minidog]

1782 - The Spanish captured Minorca from the British.

1783 - Sweden recognized the independence of the United States.

1846 - "The Oregon Spectator", based in Oregon City, became the first newspaper published on the Pacific coast.

1861 - Samuel Goodale patented the moving picture peep show machine.

1885 - Congo State was established under Leopold II of Belgium, as a personal possession.

1881 - Phoenix, AZ, was incorporated.

1900 - The U.S. and Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which gave the U.S. the right to build a canal in Nicaragua but not the right fortify it.

1917 - Mexico's constitution was adopted.

1924 - The BBC time signals, or "pips", from Greenwich Observatory were heard for the first time. They are broadcast every hour.

1931 - Maxine Dunlap became the first woman licensed as a glider pilot.

1937 - U.S. President Roosevelt proposed enlarging the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan failed.

1940 - "Amanda of Honeymoon Hill" debuted on radio.

1953 - The Walt Disney’s film "Peter Pan" opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.

1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser was formally nominated to become the first president of the United Arab Republic.

1961 - The first issue of the "Sunday Telegraph" was published.

1962 - French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria's independence.

1972 - Bob Douglas became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.

1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 2,200-point for the first time. The market closed at 2201.49.

1988 - A pair of indictments were unsealed in Florida, accusing Panama's military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, of bribery and drug trafficking.

1994 - White separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, MS, of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

1997 - Switzerland's "Big Three" banks announced they would create a $71 million fund for Holocaust victims and their families.

1997 - Investment bank Morgan Stanley announced a $10 billion merger with Dean Witter.

1999 - Mike Tyson was sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting two people after a car accident on August 31, 1998. Tyson was also fined $5,000, had to serve 2 years of probation, and had to perform 200 hours of community service upon release.

2001 - It was announced the Kelly Ripa would be Regis Philbin's cohost. The show was renamed to "Live! With Regis and Kelly."

2001 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced their separation.

2003 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the U.N. concerning Iraq's material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441.

Current Birthdays


Laura Linney turns 45 years old today.


86 Claude King
Country singer


81 Rev. Andrew M. Greeley
Professor, author


75 Hank Aaron
Baseball Hall of Famer


72 Stuart Damon
Actor ("General Hospital")


68 Stephen J. Cannell
TV writer, producer


68 David Selby
Actor


68 Barrett Strong
Singer, songwriter


67 Roger Staubach
Football Hall of Famer


67 Cory Wells
Singer (Three Dog Night)


66 Michael Mann
Director


65 Al Kooper
Rock musician, singer (Blood, Sweat and Tears)


63 Charlotte Rampling
Actress


61 Christopher Guest
Actor, screenwriter ("This is Spinal Tap")


61 Barbara Hershey
Actress


61 Tom Wilkinson
Actor


50 Jennifer Granholm
Governor of Michigan


48 Tim Meadows
Actor, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")


47 Jennifer Jason Leigh
Actress


45 Duff McKagan
Rock musician (Guns N' Roses)


41 Roberto Alomar
Baseball player


41 Chris Barron
Rock singer (Spin Doctors)


40 Bobby Brown
R&B singer


38 Sara Evans
Country singer


20 Jeremy Sumpter
Actor ("Peter Pan")

Historic Birthdays


Adlai Ewing Stevenson

2/5/1900 - 7/14/1965
American politician/diplomat

70 Marie Sevigne
2/5/1626 - 4/17/1696
French writer, mostly of letters to her daughter


41 Belle Starr
2/5/1848 - 2/3/1889
American outlaw in Texas and Oklahoma territory


57 Andre-Gustave Citroen
2/5/1878 - 7/3/1935
French engineer/industrialist


71 Ralph E. McGill
2/5/1898 - 2/3/1969
American journalist


82 John Carradine
2/5/1906 - 11/27/1988
American actor


83 William S. Burroughs
2/5/1914 - 8/2/1997
American writer


75 Robert Hofstadter
2/5/1915 - 11/17/1990
American physicist, winner of Nobel prize


77 Andreas Papandreou
2/5/1919 - 6/23/1996
Greek prime minister

 

[minidog]

1795 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

1818 - "Academician" began publication in New York City.

1877 - The first Guernsey Cattle Club was organized in New York City.

1882 - The last bareknuckle fight for the heavyweight boxing championship took place in Mississippi City.

1893 - Elisha Gray patented a machine called the telautograph. It automatically signed autographs to documents.

1904 - In Baltimore, a fire raged for about 30 hours and destroyed over 1,500 buildings.

1922 - DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace offered 5,000 copies of "Reader's Digest" magazine for the first time.

1931 - The American opera, "Peter Ibbetson", by Deems Taylor premiered in New York City.

1936 - The U.S. Vice President’s flag was established by executive order.

1940 - "Pinocchio" world premiered at the Center Theatre in Manhattan.

1941 - The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Frank Sinatra recorded "Everything Happens to Me".

1943 - The U.S. government announced that shoe rationing would go into effect in two days.

1944 - During World War II, the Germans launched a counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy.

1959 - The play, "The Rivalry," opened in New York City.

1962 - The U.S. government banned all Cuban imports and re-export of U.S. products to Cuba from other countries.

1966 - "Crawdaddy" magazine was published by Paul Williams for the first time.

1974 - The nation of Grenada gained independence from Britain.

1976 - Darryl Sittler (Toronto Maple Leafs) set a National Hockey League (NHL) record when he scored 10 points in a game against the Boston Bruins. He scored six goals and four assists.

1977 - Russia launched Soyuz 24.

1984 - Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart made the first untethered space walk.

1985 - "Sports Illustrated" released its annual swimsuit edition. It was the largest regular edition in the magazine’s history at 218 pages.

1985 - "New York, New York" became the official anthem of the Big Apple.

1986 - Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country. 28 years of family rule ended.

1991 - The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president.

1999 - King Hussein of Jordan died. His son was sworn in as king four hours after the announcement that his father had died.

2000 - California's legislature declared that February 13 would be "Charels M. Schulz Day."

2001 - Robert Pickett, 47, fired several shots at the White House near the South Lawn. He was subdued after being shot in the knee. No one else was hurt in the incident.

2003 - Nootka Sound, Sandra Bohn was cited for petting a killer whale under the federal Fisheries Act. She was later fined $74.

Current Birthdays


Eddie Izzard turns 47 years old today.

88 Wilma Lee Cooper
Country singer


77 Gay Talese
Author


74 Herb Kohl
U.S. senator, D-Wis.


54 Miguel Ferrer
Actor


50 Brian Travers
Reggae musician (UB40)


49 James Spader
Actor ("Boston Legal")


47 Garth Brooks
Country singer


47 David Bryan
Rock musician (Bon Jovi)


44 Chris Rock
Comedian


42 Jason Gedrick
Actor


37 Essence Atkins
Actress


34 Wes Borland
Rock singer, musician


31 Ashton Kutcher
Actor ("That '70s Show")


24 Tina Majorino
Actress Big Love

Historic Birthdays


Frederick Douglass

2/7/1817 - 2/20/1895
American black abolitionist

58 St. Thomas More
2/7/1478 - 7/6/1535
English humanist/chancellor


82 John Deere
2/7/1804 - 5/17/1886
American inventor of agricultural implements


58 Charles Dickens
2/7/1812 - 6/9/1870
English novelist


84 Gardner Quincy Colton
2/7/1814 - 8/9/1898
American anesthetist/inventor


78 Sir James Murray
2/7/1837 - 7/26/1915
Scottish lexicographer/editor


90 Laura Ingalls Wilder
2/7/1867 - 2/10/1957
American author of children's fiction


67 Alfred Adler
2/7/1870 - 5/28/1937
Austrian physician/psychologist


100 Eubie Blake
2/7/1883 - 2/12/1983
American pianist/composer


65 Sinclair Lewis
2/7/1885 - 1/10/1951
American novelist/social critic


73 Buster Crabbe
2/7/1908 - 4/23/1983
American swimmer/actor


79 Ruth Sager
2/7/1918 - 3/29/1997
American geneticist

 

[minidog]

1587 - Mary, the Queen of Scots, was executed.

1693 - A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

1802 - Simon Willard patented the banjo clock.

1861 - The Confederate States of America was formed.

1861 - A Cheyenne delegation and some Arapohoe leaders accepted a new settlement (Treaty of Fort Wise) with the U.S. Federal government. The deal ceded most of their land but secured a 600-square mile reservation and annuity payments.

1896 - The Western Conference was formed by representatives of Midwestern universities. The group changed its name to the Big 10 Conference.

1900 - In South Africa, British troops under Gen. Buller were beaten at Ladysmith. The British fled over the Tugela River.

1904 - The Russo-Japanese War began with Japan attacking Russian forces in Manchuria.

1910 - William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America.

1918 - "The Stars and Stripes" newspaper was published for the first time.

1922 - The White House began using radio after U.S. President Harding had it installed.

1924 - The first U.S. execution to make use of gas took place in Nevada State Prison.

1927 - The original version of "Getting Gertie’s Garter" opened at the Hippodrome Theatre in New York City.

1936 - The first National Football League draft was held. Jay Berwanger was the first to be selected. He went to the Philadelphia Eagles. (NFL)

1952 - Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the British throne. Her father, George VI, had died on February 6.

1963 - The Kennedy administration prohibited travel to Cuba and made financial and commercial transactions with Cuba illegal for U.S. citizens.

1963 - Lamar Hunt, owner of the American Football League franchise in Dallas, TX, moved the operation to Kansas City. The new team was named the Chiefs. (NFL)

1968 - In Orangeburg, SC, three college students died during a civil rights protest against a whites-only bowling alley after a confrontation with highway patrolmen.

1969 - The last issue of the "Saturday Evening Post" was published.

1971 - The Nasdaq stock-market index debuted.

1973 - U.S. Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate scandal.

1974 - The three-man crew of the Skylab space station returned to Earth after 84 days.

1978 - The U.S. Senate deliberations were broadcast on radio for the first time. The subject was the Panama Canal treaties.

1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced a plan to re-introduce draft registration.

1985 - "The Dukes of Hazzard" ended its 6-1/2 year run on CBS television.

1993 - General Motors sued NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" had rigged two car-truck crashes to show that some GM pickups were prone to fires after certain types of crashes. The suit was settled the following day by NBC.

1999 - In Sri Lanka, 23 rebels were killed in fighting with Sri Lankan forces.

2002 - The exhibit "Places of Their Own" opened at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The works displayed were by Geogia O'Keeffe, Frida Kahlo and Emily Carr.

Current Birthdays


Mary Steenburgen turns 56 years old today.

77 John Williams
Composer, conductor


69 Ted Koppel
Broadcast journalist


68 Nick Nolte
Actor


67 Robert Klein
Comedian


66 Creed Bratton
Actor ("The Office")


61 Dan Seals
Country singer


60 Brooke Adams
Actress


54 John Fox
Football coach


54 John Grisham
Author


50 Henry Czerny
Actor


48 Sammy Llanas
Rock musician (The BoDeans)


48 Vince Neil
Rock singer (Motley Crue)


47 Lisa Jackson
EPA administrator


41 Gary Coleman
Actor ("Diff'rent Strokes")


40 Mary McCormack
Actress


39 Alonzo Mourning
Basketball player


35 Seth Green
Actor ("Austin Powers" movies)


35 Josh Morrow
Actor ("The Young and the Restless")


32 Phoenix
Rock musician (Linkin Park)


24 Jeremy Davis
Rock musician (Paramore)


21 Ryan Pinkston
Actor


17 Karle Warren
Actress ("Judging Amy")


Historic Birthdays


Martin Buber

2/8/1878 - 6/13/1965
German -Jewish religious philosopher

75 Il Guercino
2/8/1591 - 12/22/1666
Italian fresco painter


79 Jacques Cassini
2/8/1677 - 4/18/1756
French astronomer


82 Daniel Bernoulli
2/8/1700 - 3/17/1782
Swiss mathematician


80 John Ruskin
2/8/1819 - 1/20/1900
English writer/critic/artist


71 William Tecumseh Sherman
2/8/1820 - 2/14/1891
American Civil War general


77 Jules Verne
2/8/1828 - 3/24/1905
French author


88 Dame Edith Evans
2/8/1888 - 10/14/1976
English stage actress


88 King Vidor
2/8/1894 - 11/1/1982
American film director


62 Chester Carlson
2/8/1906 - 9/19/1968
American physicist and inventor of xerography


68 Elizabeth Bishop
2/8/1911 - 10/6/1979
American poet/short story writer


74 Lana Turner
2/8/1921 - 6/29/1995
American film actress


24 James Dean
2/8/1931 - 9/30/1955
American film actor

 

[minidog]

1825 - The U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. No candidate had received a majority of electoral votes.

1861 - The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis as its president.

1870 - The United States Weather Bureau was authorized by Congress. The bureau is officially known as the National Weather Service (NWS).

1884 - Thomas Edison and Patrick Kenny executed a patent application for a chemical recording stock quotation telegraph (U.S. Pat. 314,115).

1885 - The first Japanese arrived in Hawaii.

1895 - Volley Ball was invented by W.G. Morgan.

1895 - The first college basketball game was played as Minnesota State School of Agriculture defeated the Porkers of Hamline College, 9-3.

1900 - Dwight F. Davis put up a new tennis trophy to go to the winner in matches against England. The trophy was a silver cup that weighed 36 pounds.

1909 - The first forestry school was incorporated in Kent, Ohio.

1932 - America entered the 2-man bobsled competition for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games held at Lake Placid, NY.

1942 - The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II.

1942 - Daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the U.S.

1943 - During World War II, the battle of Guadalcanal ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.

1950 - U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. This was the beginning of "McCarthyism."

1953 - The movie "Superman" premiered.

1958 - CBS radio debuted "Frontier Gentleman".

1960 - A verbal agreement was reached between representatives of the American and National Football Leagues. Both agreed not to tamper with player contracts.

1960 - The first star was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was for Joanne Woodward.

1969 - The Boeing 747 flew its inaugural flight.

1971 - The San Fernando Valley experienced the Sylmar earthquake that registered 6.4 on the Richter Scale.

1971 - The Apollo 14 spacecraft returned to Earth after mankind's third landing on the moon.

1975 - The Russian Soyuz 17 returned to Earth.

1984 - NBC Entertainment president, Brandon Tartikoff, gave an interviewer the "10 Commandments for TV Programmers."

1989 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. completed the $25 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco, Inc.

1997 - "The Simpsons" became the longest-running prime-time animated series. "The Flintstones" held the record previously.

2001 - "Hannibal," the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs", opened in theaters.

Current Birthdays


Judith Light turns 60 years old today

87 Kathryn Grayson
Actress ("Show Boat," "Kiss Me Kate")


81 Roger Mudd
Broadcast journalist


70 Janet Suzman
Actress


69 J.M. Coetzee
Nobel Prize-winning author


67 Carole King
Singer, songwriter


66 Barbara Lewis
R&B singer


66 Joe Pesci
Actor


65 Alice Walker
Author ("The Color Purple")


64 Mia Farrow
Actress


63 Jim Webb
U.S. senator, D-Va.


62 Joe Ely
Country singer


58 Dennis "DT"' Thomas
R&B musician (Kool & the Gang)


54 Charles Shaughnessy
Actor


46 Travis Tritt
Country singer


44 Julie Warner
Actress


39 Danni Leigh
Country singer


37 Jason George
Actor


33 Charlie Day
Actor


33 Vladimir Guerrero
Baseball player


32 A.J. Buckley
Actress ("CSI: NY")


30 Richard On
Rock musician (O.A.R.)


30 Ziyi Zhang
Actress ("Memoirs of a Geisha")


24 David Gallagher
Actor ("7th Heaven")


21 Marina Malota
Actress


19 Camille Winbush
Actress ("The Bernie Mac Show")

Historic Birthdays


Jacques Monod

2/9/1910 - 5/31/1976
French Nobel Prize-winning biologist

71 Gasparo Angiolini
2/9/1731 - 2/6/1803
Italian choreographer/composer


78 Luther Martin
2/9/1748 - 7/10/1826
American lawyer


68 William Henry Harrison
2/9/1773 - 4/4/1841
9th President of the United States


72 Samuel Tilden
2/9/1814 - 8/4/1886
American lawyer and governor of New York


75 Mrs. Patrick Campbell
2/9/1865 - 4/9/1940
English actress


51 Amy Lowell
2/9/1874 - 5/12/1925
American critic/lecturer/and poet


67 Ronald Colman
2/9/1891 - 5/19/1958
English-bn. American stage and film actor


85 Dean Rusk
2/9/1909 - 12/20/1994
American secretary of state under Kennedy and Johnson


71 Bill Veeck
2/9/1914 - 1/2/1986
American baseball club owner


41 Brendan Behan
2/9/1923 - 3/20/1964
Irish author/political commentator

 

[minidog]

1763 - The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War. In the treaty France ceded Canada to England.

1840 - Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.

1846 - Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began their exodus to the west from Illinois.

1863 - In New York City, two of the world’s most famous midgets, General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren were married.

1863 - The fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane.

1870 - The city of Anaheim was incorporated for the first time.

1870 - The YWCA was founded in New York City.

1879 - The electric arc light was used for the first time.

1897 - "The New York Times" began printing "All the news that's fit to print" on their front page.

1920 - Major league baseball representatives outlawed pitches that involve tampering with the ball.

1923 - Ink paste was manufactured for the first time by the Standard Ink Company.

1925 - The first waterless gas storage tank was placed in service in Michigan City, IN.

1933 - The singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegraph Company of New York City.

1933 - Primo Carnera knocked out Ernie Schaaf in round 13 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Schaaf died as a result of the knockout punch.

1934 - The first imperforated, ungummed sheets of postage stamps were issued by the U.S. Postal Service in New York City.

1935 - The Pennsylvania Railroad began passenger service with its electric locomotive. The engine was 79-1/2 feet long and weighed 230 tons.

1942 - The Normandie, the former French liner, capsized in New York Harbor. The day before the ship had caught fire while it was being fitted for the U.S. Navy.

1949 - "Death of a Salesman" opened at the Morocco Theatre in New York City.

1962 - The Soviet Union exchanged capture American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for the Soviet spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel being held by the U.S.

1967 - The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment required the appointment of a vice-president when that office became vacant and instituted new measures in the event of presidential disability.

1981 - The Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino caught fire. Eight people were killed and 198 were injured.

1989 - Ron Brown became the first African American to head a major U.S. political party when he was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk announced that black activist Nelson Mandela would be released the next day after 27 years in captivity.

1992 - Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Washington, Miss Black American contestant.

1997 - The U.S. Army suspended its top-ranking enlisted soldier, Army Sgt. Major Gene McKinney following allegations of sexual misconduct. McKinney was convicted of obstruction of justice and acquitted of 18 counts alleging sexual harassment of six military women.

1998 - A man became the first to be convicted of committing a hate crime in cyberspace. The college dropout had e-mailed threats to Asian students.

1998 - Voters in Maine repealed a 1997 gay rights law. Maine was the first state to abandone such legislation.

1999 - Avalanches killed at least 10 people when they roared down the French Alps 30 miles from Geneva.

2005 - North Korea publicly announced for the first time that it had nuclear arms. The country also rejected attempts to restart disarmament talks in the near future saying that it needed the weapons as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.

Current Birthdays


Laura Dern turns 42 years old today.


82 Leontyne Price
Opera singer


79 Robert Wagner
Actor ("Hart to Hart")


76 Don Wilson
Rock musician (The Ventures)


70 Roberta Flack
Singer


69 Jimmy Merchant
Singer (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers)


69 Kenny Rankin
Jazz singer


62 Bob Spalding
Rock musician (The Ventures)


59 Mark Spitz
Olympic gold-medal swimmer


58 Robert Iger
Walt Disney Co. president and CEO


49 Lionel Cartwright
Country singer


48 Alexander Payne
Director ("Sideways")


48 George Stephanopoulos
Broadcast journalist ("This Week")


37 Dude Mowrey
Country singer


35 Elizabeth Banks
Actress


35 Ty Law
Football player


33 Lance Berkman
Baseball player


29 Jeremy Baxter
Country musician (Carolina Rain)


27 Eric Dill
Rock singer


27 Ben Romans
Rock musician (The Click Five)


18 Emma Roberts
Actress ("Nancy Drew")


15 Makenzie Vega
Actress


12 Chloe Moretz
Actress ("Dirty Sexy Money")


Historic Birthdays


Boris Pasternak

2/10/1890 - 5/30/1960
Russian Nobel Prize-winning novelist/poet


64 Aaron Hill
2/10/1685 - 2/8/1750
English poet/dramatist/essayist


72 Andre-Ernest Gretry
2/10/1741 - 9/24/1813
French operatic composer


59 Charles Lamb
2/10/1775 - 12/27/1834
English essayist/critic


80 Harrison Gray Otis
2/10/1837 - 7/30/1917
American newspaper publisher-Los Angeles Times


75 William Allen White
2/10/1868 - 1/29/1944
American journalist/writer


86 Jimmy Durante
2/10/1893 - 1/29/1980
American comedian/entertainer


92 Harold Macmillan
2/10/1894 - 12/29/1986
English politician/prime minister


93 Dame Judith Anderson
2/10/1898 - 1/3/1992
Australian-bn. American stage and film actress


58 Bertolt Brecht
2/10/1898 - 8/14/1956
German poet/playwright


91 Stella Adler
2/10/1901 - 12/21/1992
American actress/teacher

 

[minidog]

1752 - The Pennsylvania Hospital opened as the very first hospital in America.

1808 - Judge Jesse Fell experimented by burning anthracite coal to keep his house warm. He successfully showed how clean the coal burned and how cheaply it could be used as a heating fuel.

1812 - The term "gerrymandering" had its beginning when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a redistricting law that favored his party.

1858 - A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.

1878 - The first U.S. bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, was formed.

1929 - The Lateran Treaty was signed. Italy now recognized the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.

1936 - Pumping began the process to build San Francisco's Treasure Island.

1937 - General Motors agreed to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union, thereby ending the current sit-down strike against them.

1940 - NBC radio presented "The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street" for the first time.

1943 - General Dwight David Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe.

1945 - During World War II, the Yalta Agreement was signed by U.S. President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

1957 - The NHL Players Association was formed in New York City.

1958 - Ruth Carol Taylor was the first black woman to become a stewardess by making her initial flight.

1960 - Jack Paar walked off while live on the air on the "Tonight Show" with four minutes left. He did this in response to censors cutting out a joke from the show the night before.

1968 - The new 20,000 seat Madison Square Garden officially opened in New York. This was the fourth Garden.

1972 - McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and Life magazine canceled plans to publish an autobiography of Howard Hughes. The work turned out to be fake.

1979 - Nine days after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran (after 15 years in exile) power was seized by his followers.

1982 - ABC-TV’s presentation of "The Winds of War" concluded. The 18-hour miniseries cost $40 million to produce and was the most-watched television program in history at the time.

1984 - The tenth Space Shuttle mission returned to Earth safely.

1989 - Rev. Barbara C. Harris became the first woman to be consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church.

1990 - Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.

1990 - In Tokyo, Japan, James "Buster" Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in the tenth round to win the heavyweight championship.

1993 - Janet Reno was appointed to the position of attorney general by U.S. President Clinton. She was the first female to hold the position.

2000 - The space shuttle Endeavor took off. The mission was to gather information for the most detailed map of the earth ever made.

2000 - Great Britain suspended self-rule in Northern Ireland after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) failed to begin decommissioning (disarming) by a February deadline.

2002 - The six stars on NBC's "Friends" signed a deal for $24 million each for the ninth and final season of the series

Current Birthdays


Jennifer Aniston turns 40 years old today

83 Leslie Nielsen
Actor


81 Conrad Janis
Actor ("Mork and Mindy")


75 Tina Louise
Actress ("Gilligan's Island")


73 Burt Reynolds
Actor


70 Gerry Goffin
Songwriter


68 Sonny Landham
Actor


68 Sergio Mendes
Bandleader


67 Otis Clay
R&B singer


57 Philip Anglim
Actor


56 Jeb Bush
Former governor of Florida, brother of former President George W. Bush


53 Catherine Hickland
Actress ("One Life to Live")


53 David Uosikkinen
Rock musician (The Hooters)


48 Carey Lowell
Actress ("Law and Order")


47 Sheryl Crow
Rock singer, musician


45 Sarah Palin
Governor of Alaska


38 Damian Lewis
Actor ("Band of Brothers")


37 Marisa Petroro
Actress


35 D'Angelo
R&B singer


33 Brice Beckham
Actor


32 Mike Shinoda
Rock musician (Linkin Park)


30 Brandy
R&B singer, actress


29 Matthew Lawrence
Actor


28 Kelly Rowland
R&B singer (Destiny's Child)


19 Q'orianka Kilcher
Actress ("The New World")


17 Taylor Lautner
Actor


Historic Birthdays


Thomas Alva Edison

2/11/1847 - 10/18/1931
American inventor holding 1,093 patents

99 Bernard Le Bovier Fontenelle
2/11/1657 - 1/9/1757
French scientist and man of letters


73 Hans Jarta
2/11/1774 - 4/6/1847
Swedish political activist/administrator/publicist


77 William Henry Fox Talbot
2/11/1800 - 9/17/1877
English chemist/pioneer photographer


52 Otto Ludwig
2/11/1813 - 2/25/1865
German novelist/playwright/critic


44 Thomas, Jr. Hitchcock
2/11/1900 - 4/19/1944
American polo player


69 Arne Jacobsen
2/11/1902 - 3/24/1971
Danish architect/designer


50 Max Baer
2/11/1909 - 11/21/1959
American boxer


45 Farouk I
2/11/1920 - 3/18/1965
King of Egypt,1936-1952


76 Eva Gabor
2/11/1919 - 7/4/1995
Hungarian actress/pianist

 

[minidog]

1541 - The city of Santiago, Chile was founded.

1554 - Lady Jane Grey was beheaded after being charged with treason. She had claimed the throne of England for only nine days.

1733 - Savannah, GA, was founded by English colonist James Oglethorpe.

1870 - In the Utah Territory, women gained the right to vote.

1878 - Frederick W. Thayer patented the baseball catcher’s mask.

1879 - The first artificial ice rink opened in North America. It was at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY.

1880 - The National Croquet League was organized in Philadelphia, PA.

1892 - In the U.S., President Lincoln's birthday was declared to be a national holiday.

1907 - A collision of the steamer Larchmont and a schooler resulted in the death of more than 300 people. The incident occurred off New England's Block Island.

1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

1912 - China's boy emperor Hsuan T'ung announced that he was abdicating, ending the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty. Subsequently, the Republic of China was established.

1915 - The cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, DC.

1918 - All theatres in New York City were shut down in an effort to conserve coal.

1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential political speech on radio.

1924 - "The Eveready Hour" became radio’s first sponsored network program. The National Carbon Company was the first sponsor of a network show.

1934 - The Export-Import Bank was incoporated.

1940 - Mutual Radio presented the first broadcast of the radio play "The Adventures of Superman."

1968 - "Soul on Ice" by Eldridge Cleaver was published for the first time.

1971 - James Cash (J.C.) Penney died at the age of 95. The company closed for business for one-half day as a memorial to the company's founder.

1973 - The State of Ohio went metric, becoming the first in the U.S. to post metric distance signs.

1973 - American prisoners of war were released for the first time during the Vietnam conflict.

1985 - Johnny Carson surprised his audience by shaving the beard he had been wearing on "The Tonight Show."

1993 - In Liverpool, England, a 2-year-old boy, James Bulger, was lured away from his mother at a shopping mall and beaten to death. Two ten-year-old boys were responsible.

1998 - A U.S. federal judge declared that the presidential line-item veto was unconstitutional.

1999 - U.S. President Clinton was acquitted by the U.S. Senate on two impeachment articles. The charges were perjury and obstruction of justice.

2001 - The space probe NEAR landed on the asteroid Eros. It was the first time that any craft had landed on a small space rock.

2002 - Kenneth Lay, former Enron CEO, exercised his constitutional rights and refused to testify to the U.S. Congress about the collapse of Enron.

2002 - The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic began at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. Milosevic was accused of war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

2002 - Pakistan charged three men in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.

2002 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco and Franco Knie won a defamation-of-character lawsuit against the Swiss magazine "Facts." The case involved a photomontage created by the magazine.

2003 - The U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation of international treaties. The complaint was sent to the Security Council.

2004 - Mattel announced that "Barbie" and "Ken" were breaking up. The dolls had met on the set of their first television commercial together in 1961.

Current Birthdays


Josh Brolin turns 41 years old today.

86 Franco Zeffirelli
Director


85 Louis Zorich
Actor


83 Joe Garagiola
Sportscaster


79 Arlen Specter
U.S. senator, R-Pa.


75 Bill Russell
Basketball Hall of Famer


73 Joe Don Baker
Actor


71 Judy Blume
Author


70 Ray Manzarek
Rock musician (The Doors)


65 Moe Bandy
Country singer


64 Maud Adams
Actress


63 Cliff DeYoung
Actor


59 Steve Hackett
Rock musician (Genesis)


59 Michael Ironside
Actor


57 Michael McDonald
Singer (The Doobie Brothers)


56 Joanna Kerns
Actress ("Growing Pains")


54 Arsenio Hall
Actor


46 John Michael Higgins
Actor


44 Christine Elise
Actress


41 Chynna Phillips
Singer (Wilson Philips)


39 Jim Creeggan
Rock musician (Barenaked Ladies)


38 Keri Lewis
R&B musician


30 Jesse Spencer
Actor ("House")


29 Sarah Lancaster
Actress ("Chuck," "Everwood")


29 Christina Ricci
Actress

Historic Birthdays


Charles Darwin


53 Thomas Campion
2/12/1567 - 3/1/1620
English poet,composer and musical theorist


44 Caspar Bartholin
2/12/1585 - 7/13/1629
Danish physician/theologian


65 Cotton Mather
2/12/1663 - 2/13/1728
American Congregational minister/author


92 Peter Cooper
2/12/1791 - 4/4/1883
American inventor,manufacturer and philanthropist


56 Abraham Lincoln
2/12/1809 - 4/15/1865
16th President of the United States


40 John Graham Chambers
2/12/1843 - 3/4/1883
English sportsman and journalist


89 John L. Lewis
2/12/1880 - 6/11/1969
American labor leader and founder of the C.I.O.


96 Alice Roosevelt Longworth
2/12/1884 - 2/20/1980
American politically influential daughter of Theodore Roosevelt


66 Max Beckmann
2/12/1884 - 12/27/1950
German expressionist painter/printmaker


88 Omar Bradley
2/12/1893 - 4/8/1981
American general, 1st chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff


47 Louis Buchalter
2/12/1897 - 3/4/1944
American crime boss


81 Roy Harris
2/12/1898 - 10/1/1979
American composer/teacher


81 Joseph Alioto
2/12/1916 - 1/29/1998
Mayor of San Francisco

 

[minidog]

1542 - Catherine Howard was executed for adultery. She was the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII.

1633 - Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition.

1635 - The Boston Public Latin School was established. It was the first public school building in the United States.

1741 - "The American Magazine," the first magazine in the U.S., was published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1875 - Mrs. Edna Kanouse gave birth to America’s first quintuplets. All five of the baby boys died within two weeks.

1880 - Thomas Edison observed what became known as the Edison Effect for the first time.

1889 - Norman Coleman became the first U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

1900 - The Anglo-German accord of 1899 was ratified by Reichstag, in which Britain renounced rights in Samoa in favor of Germany and the U.S.

1914 - The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (known as ASCAP) was formed in New York City. The society was founded to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

1920 - The League of Nations recognized the continued neutrality of Switzerland.

1920 - The National Negro Baseball League was organized.

1935 - In Flemington, New Jersey, a jury found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of the kidnapping and death of the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann was later executed for the crimes.

1937 - The comic strip "Prince Valiant" appeared for the first time.

1939 - Virginia Payne became a new character in NBC’s soap opera, "The Carter’s of Elm Street". She played the part of Mrs. Carter.

1945 - During World War II, the Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the German army.

1945 - During World War II, Allied aircraft began bombing the German city of Dresden.

1947 - "Family Theatre" was heard for the first time on Mutual radio.

1955 - Israel acquired 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.

1960 - France detonated its first atomic bomb.

1965 - Sixteen-year-old Peggy Fleming won the ladies senior figure skating title at Lake Placid, NY.

1971 - South Vietnamese troops invaded Laos. They were backed by U.S. air and artillery support.

1984 - Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.

1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high of 1297.92 after it topped the 1300 mark earlier in the trading session.

1990 - In Ottawa, the United States and its European allies forged an agreement with the Soviet Union and East Germany on a two-stage formula to reunite Germany.

1991 - Hundreds of Iraqis were killed by two laser-guided bombs that destroyed an underground facility in Baghdad. U.S. officials identified the facility as a military installation, but Iraqi officials said it was a bomb shelter.

1997 - Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery brought the Hubble Space Telescope aboard for a tune up. The tune up allowed the telescope to see further into the universe.

1997 - The Dow Jones industrial average passed the 7,000 mark for the first time. The day ended at 7,022.44.

1999 - A bomb exploded just outside a government-owned bank in southern Kosovo. Nine people were killed.

2000 - Charles M. Schulz's last original Sunday "Peanuts" comic strip appeared in newspapers. Schulz had died the day before.

2001 - El Savador was hit with an earthquake that measured 6.6 on the Richter Scale. At least 400 people were killed.

2002 - In Alexandria, VA, John Walker Lindh plead innocent to a 10-count federal indictment. He was charged with conspiring to kill Americans and aiding Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

2002 - Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.

Current Birthdays


Stockard Channing turns 65 years old today

86 Chuck Yeager
Test pilot


76 Kim Novak
Actress


75 George Segal
Actor


68 Bo Svenson
Actor


67 Carol Lynley
Actress


67 Peter Tork
Singer, musician (The Monkees)


65 Jerry Springer
Talk show host


65 Bo Svenson
Actor


62 Stephen Hadley
Former national security adviser


62 Mike Krzyzewski
Men's basketball coach, Duke University


59 Peter Gabriel
Rock singer


58 David Naughton
Actor


53 Peter Hook
Rock musician


53 Jay Nixon
Governor of Missouri


49 Matt Salinger
Actor, producer


48 Henry Rollins
Rock singer


43 Neal McDonough
Actor


43 Freedom Williams
Rock singer (C&C Music Factory)


41 Kelly Hu
Actress


37 Todd Harrell
Rock musician (3 Doors Down)


35 Robbie Williams
Rock singer


30 Natalie Stewart
Emcee (Floetry)


32 Randy Moss
Football player


30 Mena Suvari
Actress

Historic Birthdays


William Shockley

2/13/1910 - 8/12/1989
American engineer, teacher and Nobel Prize-winner

72 Giovanni Battista Piazzetta
2/13/1682 - 4/28/1754
Italian painter, illustrator and designer


65 John Hunter
2/13/1728 - 10/16/1793
English surgeon and founder of pathological anatomy


45 Lord Randolph Churchill
2/13/1849 - 1/24/1895
English politician and father of Winston Churchill


68 Leopold Godowsky
2/13/1870 - 11/21/1938
Russian-bn. American pianist and composer


65 Feodor Chaliapin
2/13/1873 - 4/12/1938
Russian operatic bass


80 Georgios Papandreou
2/13/1888 - 11/1/1968
Greek Prime Minister three times


50 Grant Wood
2/13/1891 - 2/12/1942
American painter


86 Georges Simenon
2/13/1903 - 9/4/1989
Belgian novelist


84 Pauline Frederick
2/13/1906 - 5/9/1990
American television news correspondent

 

[Baill Inneraora]

1541 - The city of Santiago, Chile was founded.

1554 - Lady Jane Grey was beheaded after being charged with treason. She had claimed the throne of England for only nine days.

1733 - Savannah, GA, was founded by English colonist James Oglethorpe.

1870 - In the Utah Territory, women gained the right to vote.

1878 - Frederick W. Thayer patented the baseball catcher’s mask.

1879 - The first artificial ice rink opened in North America. It was at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY.

1880 - The National Croquet League was organized in Philadelphia, PA.

1892 - In the U.S., President Lincoln's birthday was declared to be a national holiday.

1907 - A collision of the steamer Larchmont and a schooler resulted in the death of more than 300 people. The incident occurred off New England's Block Island.

1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

1912 - China's boy emperor Hsuan T'ung announced that he was abdicating, ending the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty. Subsequently, the Republic of China was established.

1915 - The cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, DC.

1918 - All theatres in New York City were shut down in an effort to conserve coal.

1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential political speech on radio.

1924 - "The Eveready Hour" became radio’s first sponsored network program. The National Carbon Company was the first sponsor of a network show.

1934 - The Export-Import Bank was incoporated.

1940 - Mutual Radio presented the first broadcast of the radio play "The Adventures of Superman."

1968 - "Soul on Ice" by Eldridge Cleaver was published for the first time.

1971 - James Cash (J.C.) Penney died at the age of 95. The company closed for business for one-half day as a memorial to the company's founder.

1973 - The State of Ohio went metric, becoming the first in the U.S. to post metric distance signs.

1973 - American prisoners of war were released for the first time during the Vietnam conflict.

1985 - Johnny Carson surprised his audience by shaving the beard he had been wearing on "The Tonight Show."

1993 - In Liverpool, England, a 2-year-old boy, James Bulger, was lured away from his mother at a shopping mall and beaten to death. Two ten-year-old boys were responsible.

1998 - A U.S. federal judge declared that the presidential line-item veto was unconstitutional.

1999 - U.S. President Clinton was acquitted by the U.S. Senate on two impeachment articles. The charges were perjury and obstruction of justice.

2001 - The space probe NEAR landed on the asteroid Eros. It was the first time that any craft had landed on a small space rock.

2002 - Kenneth Lay, former Enron CEO, exercised his constitutional rights and refused to testify to the U.S. Congress about the collapse of Enron.

2002 - The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic began at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. Milosevic was accused of war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

2002 - Pakistan charged three men in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.

2002 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco and Franco Knie won a defamation-of-character lawsuit against the Swiss magazine "Facts." The case involved a photomontage created by the magazine.

2003 - The U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation of international treaties. The complaint was sent to the Security Council.

2004 - Mattel announced that "Barbie" and "Ken" were breaking up. The dolls had met on the set of their first television commercial together in 1961.

Current Birthdays


Josh Brolin turns 41 years old today.

86 Franco Zeffirelli
Director


85 Louis Zorich
Actor


83 Joe Garagiola
Sportscaster


79 Arlen Specter
U.S. senator, R-Pa.


75 Bill Russell
Basketball Hall of Famer


73 Joe Don Baker
Actor


71 Judy Blume
Author


70 Ray Manzarek
Rock musician (The Doors)


65 Moe Bandy
Country singer


64 Maud Adams
Actress


63 Cliff DeYoung
Actor


59 Steve Hackett
Rock musician (Genesis)


59 Michael Ironside
Actor


57 Michael McDonald
Singer (The Doobie Brothers)


56 Joanna Kerns
Actress ("Growing Pains")


54 Arsenio Hall
Actor


46 John Michael Higgins
Actor


44 Christine Elise
Actress


41 Chynna Phillips
Singer (Wilson Philips)


39 Jim Creeggan
Rock musician (Barenaked Ladies)


38 Keri Lewis
R&B musician


30 Jesse Spencer
Actor ("House")


29 Sarah Lancaster
Actress ("Chuck," "Everwood")


29 Christina Ricci
Actress

Historic Birthdays


Charles Darwin


53 Thomas Campion
2/12/1567 - 3/1/1620
English poet,composer and musical theorist


44 Caspar Bartholin
2/12/1585 - 7/13/1629
Danish physician/theologian


65 Cotton Mather
2/12/1663 - 2/13/1728
American Congregational minister/author


92 Peter Cooper
2/12/1791 - 4/4/1883
American inventor,manufacturer and philanthropist


56 Abraham Lincoln
2/12/1809 - 4/15/1865
16th President of the United States


40 John Graham Chambers
2/12/1843 - 3/4/1883
English sportsman and journalist


89 John L. Lewis
2/12/1880 - 6/11/1969
American labor leader and founder of the C.I.O.


96 Alice Roosevelt Longworth
2/12/1884 - 2/20/1980
American politically influential daughter of Theodore Roosevelt


66 Max Beckmann
2/12/1884 - 12/27/1950
German expressionist painter/printmaker


88 Omar Bradley
2/12/1893 - 4/8/1981
American general, 1st chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff


47 Louis Buchalter
2/12/1897 - 3/4/1944
American crime boss


81 Roy Harris
2/12/1898 - 10/1/1979
American composer/teacher


81 Joseph Alioto
2/12/1916 - 1/29/1998
Mayor of San Francisco

1812: Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentucky and Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England.

They were so important, I wanted to mention them twice.