1992 Michelangelo Virus One of the first wide-spread computer virus begins affecting computers.

1990 Lockheed Sr-71 A/B Blackbird sets transcontinental speed records by flying 2,124.51 mph.

1983 A woman in Newbedford, Mass. is gang-raped on a pool table while a crowd watches.

1981 "And that's the way it is," Walter Cronkite anchors his last evening newscast.

1970 Charles Manson releases the album Lie: The Love and Terror Cult to help finance his defense.

1943 First atomic bomb The residents of Hanford, Washington are given 30 days notice to vacate. The U.S. government was buying the land to build a production facility for the first atomic bomb.

1933 The closing of all U.S. banks is ordered by Pres. F.D. Roosevelt.

1857 Dred Scott decision It stated that slaves and descendants of slaves could not become citizens, and slaves did not become free when taken into a free State.

1836 Fall of the Alamo Mexican forces led by Santa Anna defeat the 187 Texans - including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie - who had declared their independence from Mexico in an effort to establish their own country.

1972 Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal American basketball player.

1965 Suzanne Crough American actress. TV: The Partridge Family (Tracy).

1959 Tom Arnold American actor.  TV: Roseanne (Arnie), Best Damn Sports Show Period,  and Arby's commercials (voice of the oven mitt). Film: True Lies (1994).

1946 David Gilmour English singer, guitarist, with Pink Floyd. Music: Dark Side of the Moon (1972, #1), Wish You Were Here (1975, #1), and The Wall (1979, #1).

1945 Rob Reiner American Emmy-winning actor, director. TV: All In the Family (Meathead).

1944 Mary Wilson American singer, with the Supremes.

1939 Adam Osborne d. 2003 personal computer pioneer.  He created the first commercially available portable computer, the Osborne 1 (1981). He is also credited with the "Osborne Effect," after announcing the development of his company's new advanced computers. This killed sales of the Osborne 1, bankrupting the company.

1937 Ivan F. Boesky American Wall Street investor. He agreed to return profits and pay a $100 million fine for insider trading (1987).

1936 Marion Barry (Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr.) American politician, mayor of Washington, D.C. (1979-91).  He was arrested in 1990 for crack cocaine use and possession.

1927 Leroy Gordon Cooper d. 2004 American astronaut, one of the seven original Project Mercury astronauts.  He was portrayed by Dennis Quaid in the movie The Right Stuff (1983).

1926 Alan Greenspan American economist, chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (1987-2006).

1923 Ed McMahon American TV personality. TV: Johnny Carson's sidekick, and a circus clown for the 1950s show Big Top.

1918 Roger Price d. 1990 American humorist, creator of Droodles (simplified abstract drawings), which launched a TV show in 1954. See Droodles

1917 Will Eisner d. 2005 American cartoonist, creator of The Spirit (1940).

1915 Pete Gray d. 2002 (Peter Wyshner), American one-armed pro baseball player. He batted a .218 as an outfielder for St. Louis (1945) and was the Southern Association's 1944 MVP. Having lost his right arm as child - he was a right-hander - he learned to bat and field with his left arm.

1908 Lou Costello d. 1959 (Louis Francis Cristillo), American Comedian, Abbott's partner.

1899 Richard Leo Simon d. 1960 American publisher, co-founder of the publishing house of Simon and Schuster (1924). Their first book was the world's first crossword puzzle book.

1812 Aaron Lufkin Dennison d. 1895 father of American watchmaking. He designed the world's first factory-made watches.

1806 Elizabeth Barrett Browning d. 1861 English poet.  She's famous for the line, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."

1724 Henry Laurens d. 1792 5th president of the Continental Congress (1777-78), signer of the Treaty of Paris (ending the Revolutionary War).  He was the first person formally cremated in America.

1619 Cyrano de Bergerac d. 1655 French dramatist. The French poet Edmond Rostand published a fictionalized play (1897) in which Cyrano woos Roxane on behalf of his less articulate friend.

1475 Michelangelo Buonarroti d. 1564 Italian Renaissance artist. His works include his marble sculpture of David (1504) and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican (1512).

1994 Melina Mercouri b. 1923 Greek actress. Film: Never on Sunday (1960, Cannes Best Actress). In 1977 she gained a seat on the Greek parliament, becoming the Minister of Culture.

1982 Ayn Rand b. 1905 Russian-born American author. Writings: Anthem (1938), The Fountainhead (1943), and Atlas Shrugged (1957).

1973 Pearl Sydenstricker Buck b. 1892 American author, won 1938 Nobel prize for literature, and the 1932 Pulitzer prize for The Good Earth.

1971 Herbert McLean Evans b. 1882 American biologist. He co-discovered vitamin E (1922) and proved that iodine is used by the thyroid gland (1940).

1941 Gutzon Borglum b. 1871 American sculpture. Works: Mt. Rushmore (1927-41), the colossal head of Lincoln in Washington D.C., and the twelve apostles for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

1900 Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler b. 1834 German inventor. He developed the first high speed internal combustion engine (1883) and invented the motorboat (1883) and the motorcycle (1885).

1888 Louisa May Alcott b. 1832 American author. Writings: Little Women (1868) and Little Men (1871).

1885 Timothy Shay Arthur b. 1809 American playwright. His play Ten Nights in a Bar-room (1854) is probably the most popular play in U.S. history. It has been made into four movies and is still produced regularly across the country.

1836 Davy Crockett b. 1786 American frontiersman, died at the Alamo.

1809 Thomas Heyward, Jr b. 1746 American patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

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