Japan Founder's Day Celebrating Emperor Jimmu taking the throne in 660 B.C.

2006 Dick Cheney The Vice-President accidentally shoots his hunting partner while on a quail hunting trip in Texas.

1993 First woman U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno is nominated by Pres. Bill Clinton. She was confirmed in March.

1990 Nelson Mandela The civil-rights leader is released from a South African prison after serving 27½ years.

1990 First Soviet commercial satellite mission is launched. Its purpose was to use zero-gravity to produce industrial crystals for a profit.

1970 First satellite launched by Japan

1960 Jack Paar  The Tonight Show host bid farewell to his audience. He was upset after a water closet joke, told the night before, had been censored. He returned a month later.

1929 Vatican City becomes the world's smallest country, with the signing of the Lateran Treaty. This 108.7 acres of land in Rome would be ruled by the Pope.

1836 First U.S. women's college Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, South Hadley, Massachusetts, is chartered. It admitted its first class in 1838.

1976 Brice Beckham American actor. TV: Mr. Belvedere (Wesley).

1969 Jennifer Aniston American Emmy-winning actress who popularized the hairstyle, "The Jennifer."  Her salary on Friends reached  $1,000,000 per episode.  TV: Friends (1994-2004, Rachel the waitress).  Film: Office Space (1999, Joanna the waitress), Bruce Almighty (2003), and Along Came Polly (2004, Polly the waitress).

1961 Carey Lowell actress. Film: License to Kill (CIA agent Pam Bouvier).

1941 Sergio Mendes Brazilian bossa nova musician.

1940 Bobby "Boris" Pickett singer. Music: Monster Mash (1962, #1).

1936 Burt Reynolds American actor. Film: The Longest Yard (1974) and Smokey and the Bandit (1977). TV: Evening Shade (Wood Newton). He was featured as a nude male centerfold in the April, 1972 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine.

1934 Tina Louise (Tina Blacker), American actress. TV: Gilligan's Island (Ginger).

1926 Leslie Nielsen d. 2010 Canadian-born actor. Film: Forbidden Planet (1956), Airplane! (1980), and The Naked Gun (1988, Lt. Frank Drebin).

1925 Virginia Eshelman Johnson American psychologist, author of Human Sexual Response (1966).

1919 Eva Gabor d. 1995 Hungarian actress. TV: Green Acres (Lisa Douglas). Married five times, she once stated, "Marriage is too interesting an experiment to be tried only once."

1917 Sidney Sheldon American Oscar-Tony-winning author, screenwriter. Film: The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (1947, Oscar). TV: The Patty Duke Show (creator) and I Dream of Jeannie (creator).

1909 Joseph L. Mankiewicz d. 1993 American Oscar-winning screenwriter, director. Film: A Letter to Three Wives (1949, Oscar) and All About Eve (1950, Oscar). He coined the phrases "my little chickadee" for W.C. Fields and "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night!" for Bette Davis.

1900 Thomas Hitchcock Jr d. 1944 American polo player, the greatest in the history of the sport. He received a 10-goal rating (the highest possible) for 18 of the 19 seasons he played (1922-40). He was killed in an air crash during World War II.

1889 John Mills d. 1935 American guitarist, with the Mills Brothers, the most popular vocal group of all time.

1863 Jimmy Ryan d. 1923 (James Edward Ryan), American baseball player. He was the first major-league baseball player to punch a sports writer (George Bechel, 1892).

1847 Thomas Alva Edison d. 1931 American inventor of the microphone (1876), the first practical phonograph (1877), the incandescent light (1879) and motion pictures (1891).

1847 Albert Woolson d. 1956 American Civil War soldier, last surviving member of the Union Army. He served as a drummer (1865-66).

1802 Lydia Maria Francis Child d. 1880 American abolitionist, published the National Anti-Slavery Standard (1840-44).

2006 Peter Bradford Benchley b. 1940 American author, journalist, Jaws (1974).

1994 William Conrad b. 1920 American actor. Radio: Gunsmoke (Matt Dillon). TV: The Fugitive (narrator), The Bullwinkle Show (narrator), Cannon (title role), and Jake and the Fatman (the Fatman).

1994 Sorrell Booke b. 1930 American actor. TV: Dukes of Hazzard (Boss Hogg).

1986 Frank Patrick Herbert b. 1920 American science-fiction author, Dune (1965).

1976 Lee J. Cobb b. 1911 American actor. TV: The Virginian (Judge Garth). He is famous for his portrayal of Willy Loman in stage and TV productions of  Death of a Salesman.

1931 Sir Charles Parsons b. 1854 British engineer, invented the modern steam turbine (1884), making turbines practical. In 1897, he built a turbine-powered ship capable 34½ knots.

1868 Jean Bernard Léon Foucault b. 1819 French physicist, one of the first to measure the speed of light (1850), demonstrated the rotation of the Earth with a pendulum (1851), and invented the gyroscope (1852).

1650 Rene Descartes b. 1596 French scientist, philosopher, "Father of Modern Philosophy." He is remembered for his famous proposition "I think, therefore I am."

824 Saint Paschal I b. ???? Italian religious leader, 98th Pope (817-824).

731 Saint Gregory II b. ???? Italian religious leader, 89th Pope (715-731).

<< Previous | Today | Pick a Day | My Birthday | Surprise Me | Next >>

Celebritize Yourself
Add YOURSELF
or Someone You Love
to THIS Trivia List

Amaze Your Friends with
Your/Their Celebrity Status

Add Trivia to Your Website