A quick look at Today in History, check out some Celebrity Birthdays, and find out what Days of the Year to celebrate.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
1773 – The first public museum in the United States was established in Charleston, SC.
1835 – Michigan’s acting Governor, Stephens T. Mason, addressed the Territory Legislative Council and said that Michigan had the “right” to become a State.
1854 – Anthony Faas patented the accordion.
1875 – Rix Robinson, first white permanent settler in Kent County, died. He is buried in Ada, MI. After his trader days, he went on to be a U.S. Senator for Michigan.
1896 – At Davidson College, several students took x-ray photographs. They created the first X-ray photographs to be made in the United States.
1904 – Henry Ford drove a Ford 999 Racer 91.37 miles per hour on the frozen surface of Lake St. Clair to set a new land speed record.
1908 – A wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1915 – The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.
1915 – The U.S. Congress established the Rocky Mountain National Park.
1932 – Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
1942 – President Theodore Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board.
1949 – “Kukla, Fran and Ollie”, the Chicago-based children’s television show, made its national debut on NBC.
1959 – Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown.
1966 – The television show “Batman” debuted on ABC. It ran until March 14, 1968.
1967 – Dr. James Bedford became the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
1967 – The television show “Dragnet” returned to NBC after being off the network schedule for eight years.
1971 – The controversial television sitcom “All in the Family” premiered on CBS.
1986 – Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-61-C) blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz. Also on board was Congressman Bill Nelson.
1991 – The U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing President George Bush to use military power to force Iraq out of Kuwait.
1997 – The animated television show “King of the Hill” debuted on FOX.
1998 – 19 European nations agreed to prohibit human cloning.
1998 – Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
1999 – Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball was sold at auction in New York for $3 million to an anonymous bidder.
1999 – President Bill Clinton paid $850,000 to end a legal action by a former Arkansas employee, Paula Jones, who had accused him of sexual misconduct.
2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.
2001 – National Geographic gets its own TV channel. It’s a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and the National Geographic Society.
2003 – AOL chairman and founder Steve Case resigned amid falling stock prices and shareholder dissatisfaction.
2004 – The world’s largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, made its maiden voyage.
2005 – NASA launched “Deep Impact”. The spacecraft was planned to impact on Comet Tempel 1 after a six-month, 268 million-mile journey.
2006 – The U.S. Mint released new nickels with an image of Thomas Jefferson taken from a 1800 Rembrandt Peale portrait. Jefferson is looking forward…since 1909, when Presidents were first depicted on circulating coins, they all had been shown in profile.
2007 – Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) reached perihelion to become the brightest comet in more than 40 years.
2010 – An estimated 316,000 die after a huge earthquake in Haiti near its capital city, Port-au-Prince. The quake destroyed most of the city, and according to The Red Cross about three million people were affected by the catastrophe.
BIRTHDAYS:
Bernardine Dohrn – 84 years old (1942) – Domestic terrorist, political activist and academic
Randy Jones – 76 years old (1950) – Baseball player
Bob McEwen – 76 years old (1950) – Businessman and politician
Drew Pearson – 75 years old (1951) – Football player and sportscaster
Walter Mosley – 74 years old (1952) – Novelist
Phil Perry – 74 years old (1952) – Singer-songwriter and producer
Campy Russell – 74 years old (1952) – Basketball player
Ricky Van Shelton – 74 years old (1952) – Country singer-songwriter and guitarist
Howard Stern – 72 years old (1954) – Radio host, actor, and author
John Lasseter – 69 years old (1957) – Animator, director, and producer
Curt Fraser – 68 years old (1958) – American-Canadian ice hockey player and coach
B. Brian Blair – 67 years old (1959) – Wrestler and politician
Oliver Platt – 66 years old (1960) – Canadian-American actor
Dominique Wilkins – 66 years old (1960) – French-American basketball player
Joe Quesada – 64 years old (1962) – Author and illustrator
Jeff Bezos – 62 years old (1964) – Computer scientist and businessman
Rob Zombie – 61 years old (1965) – Singer-songwriter, producer, actor, and director
Rachael Harris – 58 years old (1968) – Actress and comedian
Margaret Nagle – 57 years old (1969) – Screenwriter and producer
Zack de la Rocha – 56 years old (1970) – Singer-songwriter
Raekwon – 56 years old (1970) – Rapper
Scott Burrell – 55 years old (1971) – Basketball player and coach
Zabryna Guevara – 54 years old (1972) – Actress
Brian Culbertson – 53 years old (1973) – Pianist and producer
Jason Freese – 51 years old (1975) – Saxophonist, songwriter, and producer
Jeremy Camp – 48 years old (1978) – Singer-songwriter and musician
David Zabriskie – 47 years old (1979) – Cyclist
Amerie – 46 years old (1980) – Singer-songwriter, producer, and writer
Bobby Crosby – 46 years old (1980) – Baseball player
Chris Ray – 44 years old (1982) – Baseball player
Dontrelle Willis – 44 years old (1982) – Baseball player
Cynthia Addai-Robinson – 41 years old (1985) – English-American actress
Issa Rae – 41 years old (1985) – Actress, writer, director, producer and web series creator
Raquel Rodriguez – 35 years old (1991) – Wrestler
Alex Wood – 35 years old (1991) – Baseball player
Jamel Artis – 33 years old (1993) – Basketball player
Allisha Gray – 31 years old (1995) – Basketball player
Mike McGlinchey – 31 years old (1995) – Football player
Darius Slayton – 29 years old (1997) – Football player
Xavier Tillman – 27 years old (1999) – Basketball player
Sam LaPorta – 25 years old (2001) – Football player
TODAY IS:
No events found for this date.
For additional information check out websites like: www.on-this-day.com, www.born-today.com, www.famousbirthdays.com, www.daysoftheyear.com, and www.nationaldaycalendar.com.
