2001 Gomer Pyle The fictional TV character (portrayed by Jim Nabors) is made an honorary U.S. Marine and promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal by the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. "Well, Gol-ly!"

1988 First night game at Wrigley Field The Chicago Cubs defeat the New York Mets 6-4 at Chicago's 74-year-old ballpark.

1974 Watergate U.S. Pres. Richard Nixon resigns. He had admitted his complicity in the Watergate cover-up four days earlier. Vice President Gerald Ford is then appointed President. This is the first and only time in U.S. history that someone became President without having been elected either President or Vice President.

1969 Charles Manson Several of the cult leader's followers murder actress Sharon Tate and four others.

1965 Missile explosion A Titan II missile explodes near Searcy, Arkansas, killing 53.

1945 World War II - Atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki The bomb, named "Fat Man," killed 70,000 people.

1936 Jesse Owens The black American track star upsets Hitler's theory of Aryan superiority by winning his fourth gold medal, for the 4 x 100-meter relay race.

1930 Betty Boop debuts as a curvaceous cabaret singer in the Max Fleischer cartoon Dizzy Dishes. (Download Free Cartoons)

1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty settling the U.S.-Canada border in Maine and Minnesota.

1963 Whitney Houston American singer. Music: I Wanna Dance With Somebody (1987) and Where Do Broken Hearts Go (1988, her 7th consecutive #1 American hit).

1957 Melanie Griffith American actress. Film: The Drowning Pool (1976), Working Girl (1988) and Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).

1945 Ken Norton American boxing Hall of Famer. He is the only heavyweight boxing champion who never won a heavyweight championship fight.

1944 Sam Elliott American actor. TV: Mission Impossible (Doug).

1938 Rod Laver Australian tennis player, the only player to win the Grand Slam twice (1962, 69), four-time Wimbledon champ, and the first to win a $1,000,000 in prize money.

1929 Fred Fredericks (Harold Fredericks Jr.), cartoonist, artist for Mandrake the Magician (1964-).

1927 Robert Shaw d. 1978 British actor, author. Film: From Russia with Love (1963, SPECTRE agent Red Grant). He wrote The Man in the Glass Booth (1967), which described the trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

1920 Allen Clayton Hoskins Jr d. 1980 American actor, Farina of The Little Rascals. He appeared in 105 Our Gang films - more than any one else in the series.

1918 Robert Aldrich d. 1983 American film director. Film: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), The Dirty Dozen (1967), and The Longest Yard (1974).

1819 Dr. William T. G. Morton d. 1868 (William Thomas Green Morton), American dentist. He performed the first tooth extraction under anesthesia; using ether (Sep 30, 1846).

1631 John Dryden d. 1700 English poet, essayist. He instigated the rule of not ending a sentence with a preposition.

1593 Izaak Walton d. 1683 English author, called the "Father of Angling." His book The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation (1653) is one of the monuments of English literature.

2003 Gregory Hines b. 1946 American actor, dancer. Film: History of the World Part I (1981), The Cotton Club (1984), White Nights (1985), and Tap (1989). He made his Broadway debut at age 8.

1995 Jerry Garcia b. 1942 (Jerome John Garcia), American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist, singer, songwriter, with the Grateful Dead.

1980 Jacqueline Cochran b. 1906 (Bessie Lee Pittman), American aviator. She was the first civilian awarded the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal, the first woman to break the sound barrier (1953), and the first woman to break Mach 2 (1960), the first woman to pilot a bomber across the North Atlantic (1941), the first woman inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame, the first pilot to make an instrument landing, the first woman President of the Federation Aeronautique lnt'l (58-61), and the first pilot to fly above 20,000 feet with an oxygen mask. She was the first woman to compete in the famous Bendix Trophy Transcontinental Race across the U.S. (1934) and was the first woman to win it (1938). The Associated Press named her "Woman of the Year in Business" for her cosmetics business (1953, 1954).  Source Jackie Cochran: An Autobiography

1969 Sharon Tate b. 1943 American actress. She was murdered by followers of Charles Manson.

1964 Fontaine Fox Jr b. 1884 cartoonist, creator of Toonerville Folks.

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

1048 Damasus II b. ???? Bavarian-born religious leader, 151st Pope (July - Aug. 1048).

<< 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