1986 Ivan Boesky The Wall Street investor pleads guilty to illegal insider trading. He agreed to return profits and pay a $100 million fine.

1976 Jimmy Carter's church The Plains Baptist Church of Georgia drops its 11-year-old ban on attendance by blacks. Carter had been opposed to the ban.

1972 First Dow-Jones Index closing above 1000 Closing at 1003.16.

1967 Vietnam War - First U.S. general killed during the war by enemy fire Major General Bruno Arthur Hochmuth is killed when the helicopter he was riding in is gunned down over Hué, Vietnam.

1943 USS William D. Porter   With Pres. Roosevelt aboard, the USS Iowa narrowly avoids a torpedo launched by the Porter.  The Porter accidentally launched the torpedo during a simulation drill.  The previous day, the Porter had accidentally dropped a depth charge near the Iowa, making the crew think they were under attack.

1943 Leonard Bernstein The 25-year-old gets his first big break when his asked to fill in as conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

1942 World War II U.S. Navy pilot Rickenbacker and two of his crew are rescued after their plane went down in the South Pacific. They had been drifting on a raft for three weeks.

1940 World War II The Luftwaffe raids Coventry, England, killing over 500 people and destroying the historic medieval cathedral.

1910 First airplane take-off from the deck of a ship Eugene Ely takes off from the USS Birmingham.

1889 Around the World in 80 Days New York World reporter Nellie Bly sets sail from New York in an effort to beat Philéas Fogg's (from Jules Verne's novel) time for a trip around the world. She made it with eight days to spare.

1832 First U.S. streetcar The New York and Harlem Railroad's horse-drawn vehicle makes its debut, giving a ride to public officials. It road on rails laid in the center of the road. It was opened to the public two weeks later.

1789 First American bishop Father John Carroll is chosen. He was ordained in 1790, and placed in charge of the Diocese of Baltimore.

1952 Ray Sharkey d. 1993 (Red Hook), American actor. TV: Wiseguy (Sonny Steelgrave). He died of AIDS.

1948 Charles Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne.

1948 James Young American guitarist, with Styx. Music: Lady (1973), Grand Illusion (1977), and Babe (1979, #1).

1935 Hussein I King of Jordan.

1930 Edward Higgins White II d. 1967 American astronaut. He died with two other astronauts when Apollo 1 caught fire on the launch pad during a simulation.

1929 McLean Stevenson American actor. TV: M*A*S*H (Col. Blake).

1924 Phyllis Avery American actress. TV: George Gobel/Eddie Fisher Show (George Gobel's wife Alice).

1921 Brian Keith American actor. TV: Family Affair (Uncle Bill).

1919 Veronica Lake d. 1973 (Constance Ockelman), American actress, known for her trademark long blonde hair covering one eye. Film: This Gun for Hire (1942) and Hold That Blonde (1945).

1908 Joseph McCarthy d. 1957 U.S. Senator (Wisconsin). He led the Senate inquiry into the alleged communist activities during the 1950s.

1908 Harrison Evans Salisbury d. 1993 American Pulitzer-winning reporter, Soviet expert, and editor of the New York Times. He was the first American reporter in Hanoi during the Vietnam War.

1904 Dick Powell d. 1963 American actor, singer. His death was attributed to radiation exposure received from an A-bomb test near the filming of a movie in 1953.

1900 Aaron Copland d. 1990 American composer, Billy the Kid and Appalachian Spring.

1891 Sir Frederick Grant Banting d. 1941 Canadian Nobel-winning scientist. He and Charles Best discovered insulin (1921) for which he shared the Nobel Prize with Dr. J.J.R. MacLeod.

1889 Jawaharlal Nehru d. 1964 Indian statesman, first prime minister of the Republic of India (1947-64).

1881 Nicholas M. Schenck d. 1969 American film executive, co-founder (1924) and president (1927-55) of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

1842 Walter Williams d. 1959 American soldier, the last surviving Civil War veteran. He served in the Confederate Army (1864).

1840 Claude Monet d. 1926 French impressionist painter, known of his landscapes using bright unmixed colors. In 1923 his eyesight was surgically restored after having been blind for several years.

1765 Robert Fulton d. 1815 American inventor, steamboat pioneer.

1933 Edward Nash Hurley b. 1864 American tool maker, founder of Standard Pneumatic Tool Co. of Chicago (1896). He developed the American and European pneumatic tool industry.

1915 Booker T. Washington b. 1856 (Booker Taliaferro Washington), American educator, founder of the Tuskegee Institute (1881) for the training of Negroes.

1832 Charles Carroll b. 1737 American Revolutionary leader. He was the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the richest U.S. citizen at the time of his death.

1716 Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz b. 1646 German mathematician for whom the Leibniz series is named. He created the notation "dy/dx", the integral sign "∫", designed a machine that could multiply and divide (1671), introduced binary numbers (1679), and created differential (1684) and integral calculus (1686).

<< 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