2003 Tom Cruise Couch Incident Tom Cruise jumps on Oprah's couch and professes his love for girlfriend Katie Holmes.  The incident spawned the phrase "jumping the couch" to describe someone going off the deep end in public.

1988 Gun Control Maryland becomes the first U.S. state to ban the sale of cheap hand guns, commonly called "Saturday night specials."

1986 Cobra premiers.

1985 Mother Teresa and Frank Sinatra receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Pres. Reagan.

1962 First successful reimplantation of a human limb The right arm of a 12-year-old boy is reattached by doctors in Boston.

1955 Ordination of women ministers is approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.

1934 Nylon is invented, by the du Pont Company. Its first commercial use was bristles for toothbrushes.

1934 Bonnie and Clyde The Barrow gang is ambushed and killed while headed to their Bienville Parish, Louisiana, hideout.

1924 Rayon is officially adopted as the name for artificial silk, by the National Retail Dry Goods Association.

1900 First African-American to Receive the U.S. Medal of Honor Sergeant William Harvey Carney for bravery in 1863.

1876 First National League no-hitter Pitched by Joe Borden of Boston. Source: Famous First Facts

1788 South Carolina becomes the 8th state.

1785 Bifocals are invented Ben Franklin makes a pair of glasses in which the lenses consist of an upper and lower part, each with a different focusing power.

1954 "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler American boxer, middleweight champion (1980-87).

1934 Robert Arthur Moog American inventor, the first music synthesizer (1964).

1933 Joan Collins British actress. TV: Batman (Siren) and Dynasty (Alexis).

1931 Barbara Barrie American actress. TV: Barney Miller (Barney Miller's wife).

1928 Rosemary Clooney d. 2002 American singer, actress. The 1978 TV movie Escape From Madness dramatized her confinement in a California mental hospital.

1920 Sid Melton American actor. TV: Green Acres ("handyman" Alf Monroe).

1920 Helen O'Connell d. 1993 American big band singer, popularized the songs Green Eyes, Tangerine, and I Remember You. She hosted the Miss Universe pageant for nine years.

1919 Betty Garrett American actress. TV: All in the Family (Irene Lorenzo) and Laverne & Shirley (Edna Babish).

1910 Artie Shaw d. 2004 (Arthur Arshawsky), American band leader, Jazz clarinetist. Music: Begin the Beguine (1938, #1). Quote: "I could never understand why people wanted to dance to my music. I made it good enough to listen to."

1908 John Bardeen d. 1991 American Nobel-winning physicist, co-inventor of the transistor.

1883 Douglas Fairbanks d. 1939 (Douglas Elton Ullman), American actor, first of the Hollywood swashbucklers. He co-founded United Artists (1919).

1875 Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr d. 1966 American industrialist. As president (1923-37) and chairman (1937-56) of General Motors, he made it one of the greatest industrial enterprises in history.

1848 Otto Lilienthal d. 1896 German aviation pioneer, inventor of the first successful gliders. He died in a gliding accident.

1828 Edward Hitchcock d. 1911 American physician, the first U.S. professor of physical education and hygiene (1861). He was appointed by Amherst College of Massachusetts.

1810 Sarah Margaret Fuller d. 1850 American writer, critic.  She wrote Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), the first American book on feminism. She was the first American woman foreign correspondent for the New York Tribune (1846).

1733 Franz Mesmer d. 1815 German physician, created the theory of mesmerism, a form of hypnotism.

1975 Jackie "Moms" Mabley b. 1894 (Loretta Mary Aiken), American comedienne.  She was one the most successful entertainers of the black vaudeville stage and was billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World."

1960 Georges Claude b. 1870 French physicist, inventor of the neon light (1910).

1945 Heinrich Himmler b. 1900 German Nazi official, Hitler's second in command. He organized and led the S.S. (1929), headed the Gestapo (1936), and was German interior minister (1943). He committed suicide after he was captured by the Allies.

1941 Lord Herbert Austin b. 1866 English automaker. He founded the Austin Motor Co. (1905), which became one of Britain's largest automakers.

1938 Buddy b. circa 1927 Swiss-born German shepherd, first seeing-eye dog in the U.S. (1928). He was brought from Switzerland by blind owner Morris Frank who co-founded The Seeing Eye, the first dog guide school in the U.S.

1934 Clyde Barrow b. 1909 American bank robber, of Bonnie and Clyde fame. He and Bonnie Parker were killed by a Texas ranger and his posse, who riddled their car with hundreds of bullets.

1934 Bonnie Parker b. 1911 American bank robber, killed with Clyde Barrow.

1868 Kit Carson b. 1809 (Christopher Carson), American frontiersman.

1752 William Bradford b. 1663 American colonial printer, founder of the New York Gazette (1725), the first New York newspaper.

1701 Capt. William Kidd b. 1645 Scottish pirate, was commissioned by the King to hunt pirates, but instead became one, for which he was hanged in London.

1125 Henry V b. 1081 King of Germany and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (1106-25).

230 Saint Urban I b. ???? Italian religious leader, 17th Pope (222-230).

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