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:
1492 – Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships: the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria. The voyage led him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.
1678 – Robert LaSalle built the Le Griffon, the first known ship built on the Great Lakes.
1900 – The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. was founded.
1921 – Army pilot John Macready took off from McCook Field in Dayton, OH for the very first crop dusting.
1922 – WGY radio in Schenectady, NY, presented the first full-length drama on the radio. It was “The Wolf”, written by Eugene Walter.
1923 – Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th President of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding.
1933 – The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced. The cost: $2.75.
1936 – Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.
1946 – Santa Claus Land opened in Santa Claus, IN. It was the world’s first themed amusement park.
1949 – The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.
1956 – Bedloe’s Island became known as Liberty Island.
1958 – The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as “Operation Sunshine.”
1977 – Tandy Corporation announced the TRS-80. It was one of the world’s first mass-produced home computers. Read more about it here.
1979 – The movie “More American Graffiti” was released.
1981 – U.S. air traffic controllers went on strike. They were fired by President Ronald Reagan, just as he had warned them they would be.
1984 – Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
1985 – Mail service returned to a nudist colony in Paradise Lake, FL. Residents promised that they’d wear clothes, or stay out of sight, when the mail carrier came to deliver their mail.
1993 – The Senate voted 96-3 to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
1996 – The #1 song was “Macarena“, a Spanish dance song by Los del Río.
1999 – Patsy Cline received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1999 – Arbitrators ruled that the U.S. government must pay the heirs of Abraham Zapruder $16 million for his footage of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, TX.
2004 – In New York City, The Statue of Liberty opened to the public for the first time since the September 11th attacks. Because of security concerns, tourists are not allowed to climb to the crown.
2004 – NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6-1/2 year journey was to begin orbiting the planet Mercury in March 2011. However, on April 30, 2015, Messenger crashed into the surface of Mercury. Before it crashed it had been able to send back more than 270,000 pictures.
BIRTHDAYS:
Steven Berkoff – 87 years old (1937) – Actor (Lt. Col Podovsky in “Rambo: First Blood Part II”, played General Orlov in the James Bond film “Octopussy”, played Victor Maitland in “Beverly Hills Cop”, and Adolf Hitler in the TV mini-series “War and Remembrance”)
Martin Sheen – 84 years old (1940) – Actor (“Badlands”, “Apocalypse Now”, “Catch Me If You Can”, TV’s “West Wing)
Beverly Lee – 83 years old (1941) – Singer (The Shirelles)
Martha Stewart – 83 years old (1941) – Television Personality (TV’s “Martha Stewart Living”)
John Landis – 74 years old (1950) – Director (“Animal House”, “The Blues Brothers”, “Three Amigos!”, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video)
Jo Marie Payton – 74 years old (1950) – Actress (Played Harriette Winslow on TV’s “Family Matters”, “Will & Grace”)
Jay North – 73 years old (1951) – Actor (TV’s “Dennis the Menace”)
John C. McGinley – 65 years old (1959) – Actor (TV’s “Ground Floor”, “Scrubs”, movies “Office Space”, “Platoon”, “Wall Street”)
James Hetfield – 61 years old (1963) – Lead singer, guitarist (Metallica)
Ed Roland – 61 years old (1963) – Lead singer (Collective Soul)
Isaiah Washington – 61 years old (1963) – Actor (TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy”, movies “Exit Wounds”, “Romeo Must Die”, “Clockers”)
Evangeline Lilly – 45 years old (1979) – Actress (TV’s “Lost”, movies “Ant-man”, “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies/The Desolation of Smaug”)
TODAY IS:
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.
