2006 Mad to the Max Mel Gibson, star of the Mad Max films and director of The Passion of the Christ is stopped for drunk driving. He then threatened the arresting officer and spewed out a string of anti-Semitic statements, stating that "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

1996 Kennewick Man The remains of a prehistoric man, who lived between 5,000 to 9,500 years ago, are found on a bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington.

1982 Gun Control San Francisco becomes the first major U.S. city to ban the sale and possession of hand guns.

1977 Trans-Alaska Pipeline The 799-mile pipeline becomes fully operational when the first oil from Prudhoe Bay arrives in Valdez.

1976 Lockheed Sr-71 A/B Blackbird sets speed record of 2,193.16 mph.

1976 Earthquake in Tangshan, China kills 242,000 people.

1964 First close-up photos of the Moon taken by a US spacecraft Ranger 7 is launched. On July 31 it sent back a series of pictures as it impacted into the moon's surface.

1945 US B-25 Bomber Crashes Into the Empire State Building It struck the 79th floor. 14 people were killed, including the pilot and his two crew members. An elevator operator survived a 75-story elevator plunge, which still stands as the Guinness Record for the longest survived elevator fall.

1943 Coffee rationing Pres. Roosevelt announces the end of coffee rationing, which had been restricted since 1941 because of the war.

1933 First Singing Telegram A fan sends Rudy Vallee a musical birthday greeting. Source: Famous First Facts

1914 World War I The war begins when Austria declares war on Serbia in retaliation for the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Serbian nationalist a month earlier. Soon other countries joined the conflict and the great war was on.

1868 14th Amendment is adopted by Congress Defined U.S. citizenship and granted it to those born or naturalized in the U.S. It also stated that the rights of a citizen could not be removed without due process of the Law.

1866 Congress makes it lawful to use the metric system

1958 Terry Fox d. 1981 Canadian cancer victim. After losing a leg to cancer he ran halfway across Canada (1980) helping to raise $23,000,000 for cancer research. He died of lung cancer.

1954 Hugo Chávez President of Venezuela (1999-).

1948 Vida Rochelle Blue American baseball pitcher, MVP (1971). He was the only pitcher to start in an All Star game in both the National League (1971) and the American League (1978).

1948 Sally Struthers American Emmy-winning actress. TV: All in the Family (Gloria).

1948 Georgia Engel American actress. TV: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Ted's wife Georgette).

1946 Linda Kelsey American actress. TV: Lou Grant (Billie Newman).

1945 Rick Wright English keyboardist, with Pink Floyd. Music: Dark Side of the Moon (1972, #1), Wish You Were Here (1975, #1), and The Wall (1979, #1).

1945 Jim Davis American cartoonist, creator of Garfield.

1943 Bill Bradley U.S. Senator (1979-97, D-New Jersey), Hall of Fame basketball player (1967-77 NY Nicks).

1929 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis d. 1994 (Jacqueline Lee Bouvier), American first lady, widow of John F. Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis.

1907 Earl Silas Tupper d. 1983 American businessman, invented Tupperware (1942) and used the neighborhood party method to sell it.

1901 Rudy Vallee d. 1986 (Hubert Prior Vallee), American singer, actor, "The Vagabond Lover." He learned the saxophone through a mail-order course.

1866 Beatrix Potter d. 1943 English author, illustrator. Writings: The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902).

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

2004 Francis Crick b. 1916 British biochemist, co-winner of the 1962 Nobel prize, for discovering the structure of DNA (1953). He also contributed to the development of radar.

1968 Otto Hahn b. 1879 German chemist, co-discovered, with Fritz Strassman, nuclear fission (1938) for which he won the Nobel Prize. He also discovered the element protactinium and is credited with being the first person to split an atom.

1939 William James Mayo b. 1861 American surgeon. He and his brother, Charles Horace Mayo, co-founded the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (1915).

1750 Johann Sebastian Bach b. 1685 German composer and organist, one of the greatest composers in music history.

1746 John Peter Zenger b. 1697 American printer, publisher, his arrest in 1734 and later acquittal on the charge of libel established freedom of the press in America.

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

1057 Victor II b. ???? religious leader, 153rd Pope (1055-57).

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