1994 First woman president of the American Bar Association Roberta Cooper Ramo is elected to the 375,000-member male-dominated organization.

1985 A Soviet nuclear-powered submarine's reactor explodes in a Russian shipyard. Ten crewmen were killed and radioactive material was spewed over several square miles.

1981 Pete Rose Gets Hit Number 3,631 breaking Stan Musial's NL record.

1977 Son of Sam David Berkowitz is arrested in New York. He had killed at least six people and wounded seven others, claiming he was acting under orders of his neighbor's dog.

1966 First U.S. Moon Satellite Lunar Orbiter I is launched. It successfully orbited the Moon 526 times before intentionally striking the Moon's surface.

1966 Famous Last Words James French upon being executed by electric chair for murdering his cell mate, asks "How's this for tomorrow's headline? 'French Fries.'"

1966 $2 bill The U.S. Treasury Department discontinues printing the bill due to lack of demand.

1960 First object successfully recovered from orbit The U.S. Earth satellite Discoverer XIII is launched. The following day its 350-pound payload was ejected and recovered.

1949 We Are Not the Enemy The name of the U.S. National Military Establishment (NME) is changed to Department of Defense (DOD) since NME's pronunciation sounded too much like "Enemy."

1948 Candid Camera debuts on ABC.

1927 Mt. Rushmore The memorial is dedicated. It was completed in 1941.

1846 Smithsonian Institution Congressional Act establishing the "nation's attic" is signed into law by Pres. James Polk as per the will of James Smithson. Smithson never visited the U.S.

1825 Osage Indians cede their land in Kansas the U.S.

1821 Missouri becomes the 24th state.

A.D. 70 Second Temple of Jerusalem The temple is destroyed by Roman legions during the siege of Jerusalem.

1959 Rosanna Arquette American actress. Film: Desperately Seeking Susan (1985).

1947 Ian Anderson British singer, with Jethro Tull.  Music: Aqualung (1971) and Thick as a Brick (1972).

1928 Jimmy Dean d. 2010 (Seth Ward), American Grammy-winning country singer, sausage maker. Music: Big Bad John (1961, #1).

1920 Clifford Byron Hicks American children's author. Writings: Alvin Fernald, Mayor for a Day (1970) and Peter Potts (1971).

1913 Noah Beery Jr d. 1994 American actor. TV: The Rockford Files (1974-1980, Jim's father).

1899 Jack Haley d. 1979 American comedian, actor. Film: The Wizard of Oz (1939, Tin Man).

1889 Charles B. Darrow d. 1967 American inventor, creator of the game Monopoly (1933). He created his game by copying the rules of a game played by Quakers at the time. Parker Brothers originally rejected the game, citing 52 fundamental errors. Now published in 23 languages and a Braille version, more than 200,000,000 games have been sold.

1887 Ed Leedskalnin d. 1951 Latvian sculptor. He built Coral Castle (in Homestead, Florida), using what he claimed was the lost secrets of the Egyptian pyramid builders.  Billy Idol filmed the video Sweet Sixteen in Coral Castle. The song was inspired by Ed's unrequited love for 16-year-old Agnes Scuffs, for whom Ed built the castle.

1882 William Van Allen d. 1954 American architect, skyscraper pioneer, designed the Chrysler building of New York. At the time of its completion in 1929 it was the world's tallest building.

1874 James Forman Sloan d. 1933 American jockey, the leading race horse jockey of the late 1800s. He introduced the practices of riding high on the horse and hunching down to reduce wind resistance.

1874 Herbert Clark Hoover d. 1964 31st U.S. President (1929-33). He was the first president who was a Quaker and the first president born west of the Mississippi.

1849 Horace Fletcher d. 1919 American dietician. He founded "Fletcherism," the belief that each bite of food must be chewed 32 times.

1821 Jay Cooke d. 1905 American banker, "Financier of the Civil War." He sold over $2.5 billion in Union bonds during the war. The collapse of his bank led to the Panic of 1873.

1945 Robert Hutchings Goddard b. 1882 American physicist, rocket pioneer, "father of the space age." He launched the first liquid fuel rocket (1926).

1885 James Wilson Marshall b. 1810 American pioneer. He started the California Gold Rush when he discovered gold at Sutter's Mill (1848).

1759 Ferdinand VI b. 1712 King of Spain (1746-59).

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