1991 Oakland fire Thousands of homes in Oakland Hills, California are destroyed by fire.

1982 World's Worst Soccer Tragedy 340 fans are crushed to death in a staircase at a game in Moscow.

1976 Part of Jill's right breast and nipple are shown on the Angels in Chains episode of Charlie's Angels.

1973 Watergate Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigns and Pres. Nixon fires Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus. The public and government outcry called for Nixon's impeachment.

1967 Bigfoot The legendary creature is reportedly filmed by hunters Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, creating what is know as the "Patterson footage."

1964 Ku Klux Klan Seven members are convicted for the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi.

1962 Monster Mash The graveyard smash, by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, reaches #1.

1960 First automated U.S. Post Office Project Turnkey opens in Providence, Rhode Island. It was designed to handle 2,000,000 pieces of mail a day.

1954 Peter Pan musical opens, starring Mary Martin.

1947 The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigating Communist activity in the entertainment industry.

1944 World War II General MacArthur fulfills his promise by returning to the Philippines.

1928 A chicken in every pot The slogan is first used by the Republican Party.

1922 First life saved by a parachute Lt. Harold Harris.

1910 Baseball First use of a cork-centered baseball in a World Series game.

1708 St. Paul's Cathedral The construction of Christopher Wren's building in London is completed.

1953 Tom Petty American singer, Refugee (1980) and You Got Lucky (1982).

1935 Jerry Orbach American Tony-winning actor. Film: Beauty and the Beast (1991, voice of Lumiere the candelabra). TV: Law & Order (Det. Lenny Briscoe).

1934 Michael Dunn d. 1973 American dwarf (3 ft. 10 in.) actor. Film: Ship of Fools (1964). TV: The Wild Wild West (the evil Dr. Loveless).

1931 Mickey Mantle American Baseball Hall-of-Famer. With 536 career home runs, he led the American League four times, and is a three-time MVP (1956-57, 1962).

1928 Dr. Joyce Brothers American psychologist, radio and TV host. In 1955 she became the first woman to win the top prize on the TV show The $64,000 Question.

1925 Art Buchwald American newspaper columnist.

1922 John Anderson d. 1992 American actor. TV: Wyatt Earp (Virgil Earp).

1922 Edward J. Daly president of World Airways.

1913 Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall Jones), American Country Music Hall of Famer (1978). TV: Hee Haw.

1911 Will Rogers Jr American actor, son of the famous humorist.

1908 Arlene Francis (Arlene Francis Kazanjian), American radio talk-show host, actress. TV: What's My Line (panelist 1950-67).

1898 Hugo Zacchini d. 1975 Italian-born circus performer, the Human Cannonball for the Ringling Brothers Circus. He was shot 75 feet into the air travelling a distance of 200 feet.

1891 Sir James Chadwick d. 1974 English Nobel-winning physicist. He discovered the neutron (1932), for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

1859 John Dewey d. 1952 American philosopher, education reformer. He promoted the idea of learning by doing.

1856 James Robert Mann d. 1922 American politician. He authored the Mann Act (1910), also known as the White Slave Act. It prohibited the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes.

1812 Austin Flint d. 1886 American physician, pioneer in heart research. He co-founded Buffalo Medical College.

1632 Sir Christopher Wren d. 1723 English architect, designed and built St. Paul's Cathedral in London (1675-1710) and designed the towers of Westminster Abbey (1713).

1994 Burt Lancaster b. 1913 American Oscar-winning actor. Film: From Here to Eternity (1953), Elmer Gantry (1960, Oscar) and The Leopard (1963). He started his career as a circus performer.

1990 Joel McCrea b. 1905 American western actor.

1981 Mary Coyle Chase b. 1907 American Pulitzer-winning playwright. Plays: Harvey (1944, about an oversized imaginary rabbit).

1975 Hugo Zacchini b. 1898 Italian-born circus performer, the Human Cannonball for the Ringling Brothers Circus. He was shot 75 feet into the air travelling a distance of 200 feet.

1973 Norman Chandler b. 1899 American newspaper publisher. As publisher of the Los Angeles Times (1945-60), he built it into the nation's second largest daily newspaper.

1972 Harlow Shapley b. 1885 American astronomer. He made the first accurate estimate of the size of the Milky Way galaxy (1918).

1966 Harry Flood Byrd Sr b. 1887 American politician, Virginian senator.  He received 15 electoral votes in the 1960 U.S. presidential election even though he wasn't a candidate.

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

1936 Anne Sullivan b. 1866 American educator, "The Miracle Worker."  In 1887, she became Helen Keller's teacher and companion.  Anne was partially blind as a child, becoming completely blind in 1935.

1926 Eugene Victor Debs b. 1855 American labor organizer, first president of the American Railway Union (1893) and founder of the Social Democrat Party of America (1897).

1900 Charles Dudley Warner b. 1829 American newspaperman, made the famous quote "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

1890 Sir Richard Francis Burton b. 1821 English explorer. He discovered Lake Tanganyika and translated The Arabian Nights into English.

1880 Lydia Maria Francis Child b. 1802 American abolitionist, published the National Anti-Slavery Standard (1840-44).

1187 Urban III b. ???? Italian-born religious leader, 172nd Pope (1185-87).

<< 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