1988 Presidential Astrologer Excerpts from Pres. Reagan's former chief of staff, describing astrologer Joan Quigley's role in White House decisions, are printed in Time magazine.  See For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington

1973 The Sears Tower becomes the tallest building in the world, at 1,454-feet-high.

1937 Gone With The Wind Margaret Mitchell's Civil War novel is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It sold a million copies in its first six months.

1845 First black lawyer admitted the bar Macon B. Allen of Massachusetts.

1833 Mormons adopt the name "Latter Day Saints."

1820 Slavery Missouri Compromise, banning slavery west of the Mississippi above the lower Missouri border, except in Missouri.

1798 U.S. Department of the Navy is established.

1765 First U.S. medical school College of Philadelphia Department of Medicine (now the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) is established.

1654 First American Toll Bridge Richard Thurlow opens his bridge over the Newbury River at Rowley, Massachusetts. The toll was for animals, people passed for free.  Source Famous First Facts

1494 Jamaica Columbus discovers the island, naming it St. Jago.

1951 Christopher Cross (Christopher Geppert), American Grammy-winning singer. Music: Sailing (1980, #1) and Arthur's Theme (1981, #1 and Best Original Song Oscar).

1947 Doug Henning d. 2000 Canadian magician.  He helped to revive the art of magic in the 1970s. He later quit what he now called "fake magic" in order to pursue Transcendental Meditation (TM) in the attempt to learn to levitate.  When diagnosed with liver cancer, he chose to forego traditional medicine in favor of TM. He died five weeks later.

1944 Peter Staples British guitarist, with the Troggs. Music: Wild Thing (1966, #1).

1937 Frankie Valli (Frank Castelluccio), American singer.

1933 James Brown d. 2006 American soul singer, "The Godfather of Soul." Music: I Feel Good (1965) and Living in America (1986).

1927 Mell Lazarus American cartoonist, creator of Miss Peach (1957) and Momma (1970).

1921 Sugar Ray Robinson d. 1989 (Walker Smith Jr.), American welterweight boxing champion and five-time world middleweight champion.

1920 Dan Bankhead d. 1976 American baseball player, first black pitcher in major league baseball (1947), with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1919 Pete Seeger American folk singer. Music: If I Had a Hammer (1949, co-writer) and Turn! Turn! Turn!

1906 Mary Astor d. 1987 (Lucille Vasconcellos Langhanke), Oscar-winning actress, The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The Great Lie (1941, Oscar).

1898 Golda Meir d. 1978 (Golda Mabovitch), Israel's first female Prime Minister (1969-74) and signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence (1948).

1883 Beulah Bondi d. 1981 American actress. Film: It's a Wonderful Life (George Bailey's mother).

2007 Walter M. Schirra Jr b. 1923 American astronaut, one of the seven original Project Mercury astronauts.   He was the only person to fly in all of America's first three space programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo).

1989 Christine Jorgensen b. 1926 (George Jorgensen), American sex change recipient (1952). The first to go public.

1758 Benedict XIV b. 1675 Italian religious leader, 247th Pope (1740-58).

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