Feast Day of the Conversion of St. Paul

1993 Kung Fu: The Legend Continues The TV show debuts, starring David Carradine as the grandson of the character he played in the original Kung Fu.

1985 Subway Vigilante Bernhard Goetz is acquitted by a grand jury for his 1984 shooting of four black youths in a New York subway. However, he did stand trial for carrying an unlicensed concealed weapon, for which he was fined $5,000 and sentenced to six months in jail.

1984 Jesse Jackson The political leader refers to Jews as "Hymies" and New York City as "Hymietown." At first he denied making the statements, but later admitted to them.

1980 Paul McCartney Japan orders the deportation of the ex-Beatle. He had spent nine days in prison following the discovery of marijuana in his luggage.

1980 Black Entertainment Television BET begins broadcasting. It has become one the most successful cable networks and was the first black-controlled company on the New York Stock Exchange (1991).

1971 Charles Manson The cult leader and three of his female followers are found guilty of the 1969 murders of Sharon Tate and six others.

1964 First joint Soviet-American space effort Echo II, a passive communications satellite, is launched.

1961 First televised presidential news conference It was held by Pres. John F. Kennedy.

1959 First commercial transcontinental jet flight An American Airlines Boeing 707 begins service between Los Angeles and New York.

1949 First Emmy Awards Pantomime Quiz Time wins the Most Popular TV Program award; it was a local show in Los Angeles.

1945 First U.S. city to fluoridate its water Grand Rapids, Michigan.

1944 First woman Anglican priest Miss Florence Tim-Oi Lee is ordained in China; the war had brought on a shortage of male priests.

1934 John Dillinger The bank robber, along with Pierpont, Makley, and Clark, is captured in Tuscon, Arizona.

1924 First winter Olympics The games begin in Chamonix, France. Some of the new categories included speed skating, cross-country skiing, and ski jumping.

1917 The Virgin Islands The islands are purchased by the U.S. from Denmark for $25,000,000.

1915 First transcontinental telephone call Alexander Bell in New York calls Thomas Watson in San Francisco and repeats his famous request "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you."

1890 Around the World in 80 Days New York World reporter Nellie Bly - in an effort to beat Philéas Fogg's (from Jules Verne's novel) time for a trip around the world - arrives back in New York City. She had made it with eight days to spare.

1878 First ship sunk by a torpedo in a war A Russian boat sinks a Turkish steamer.

1787 Shays's Rebellion Protesting harsh conditions, Daniel Shays leads 1100 farmers in an attempt to seize a Massachusetts arsenal. They were stopped by the state militia.

1935 Dean Jones American singer, actor. Film: That Darn Cat (1965), The Love Bug (1969) and The Shaggy D.A. (1976).

1934 Elizabeth Allen American singer, actress. TV: The Jackie Gleason Show (the woman who proclaimed "And away we go!"), C.P.O. Sharkey (Capt. Quinlan), and Texas (Victoria Bellman).

1933 Corazon "Cory" Aquino former Philippine president.

1928 Eduard Shevardnadze Russian minister of foreign affairs.

1901 Mildred Dunnock d. 1991 American actress. Stage: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1956, originated the role of Big Mama). Film: Death of a Salesman (1951, Willy Loman's wife) and Baby Doll (1956).

1899 Paul-Henri Spaak d. 1972 Belgian statesman, prime minister (1938-39, 1946-49), secretary general of NATO (1957-61), and the first president of the United Nations General Assembly (1946).

1882 Virginia Woolf d. 1941 English author, women's rights activist. Writings: Jacob's Room (1922).

1878 Ernst Frederik Werner Alexanderson d. 1975 Swedish-born American engineer. A pioneer in transoceanic radio communication, he developed tuned-frequency receivers. In 1927 he developed a TV with a seven-foot screen.

1874 William Somerset Maugham d. 1965 English author. Writings: Of Human Bondage.

1860 Charles Curtis d. 1936 31st U.S. Vice-President (1929-33).

1823 Dan Rice d. 1900 (Daniel McLaren), American clown. He worked for P.T. Barnum and later started his own circus. He ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. president and was the model for the early Uncle Sam portraits.

1813 James Marion Sims d. 1883 American physician, gynecologist. He invented the silver suture.

1783 William Colgate d. 1857 English-born American soap and toiletries maker, philanthropist, founder of what became the Colgate toothpaste company.  He also helped found the American Bible Society (1816).

1759 Robert Burns d. 1796 Scottish poet. He penned the words to Auld Lang Syne (c1789).

1627 Robert Boyle d. 1691 British physicist, creator of Boyle's Law (1662, "The pressure of gas is proportional to the number of molecules in a given space and their temperature").

1997 Dan Barry b. 1923 American cartoonist. He drew the Tarzan comic strip (1947-48) and Flash Gordon (1951-90). He also wrote and drew for the Indiana Jones comic books.

1990 Ava Gardner b. 1922 American actress, Hollywood's leading lady of the 1940s and '50s.

1969 Irene Castle b. 1893 American dancer. She and her husband Vernon popularized the Fox-trot dance (c1912).

1947 "Scarface" Al Capone b. 1899 Italian-born American gangster. The FBI estimates that he made $105 million in 1927 alone. He was convicted of tax evasion and served time in Alcatraz (1931-39). Terminally ill with syphilis, he died penniless of a brain hemorrhage at home in Miami, Florida.

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