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:
1738 – The Methodist Church was established.
1749 -To attract settlers to Detroit, the governor general of New France (Canada) offered each man who settle there a spade, an axe, a cow, a sow, a ploughshare, one large and one small wagon and seed. More than one hundred people accepted the offer over the first two years.
1764 – Bostonian lawyer James Otis denounced “taxation without representation” and called for the colonies to unite in demonstrating their opposition to Britain’s new tax measures.
1830 – The first passenger railroad service in the U.S. began service.
1830 – The poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, by Sarah Hale, was published.
1844 – Samuel F.B. Morse formally opened America’s first telegraph line. The first message was sent from Washington, DC, to Baltimore, MD. The message was “What hath God wrought?”
1878 – The first American bicycle race was held in Boston, MA.
1883 – After 14 years of construction the Brooklyn Bridge was opened to traffic.
1899 – The first public garage was opened by W.T. McCullough.
1913 – The U.S. Department of Labor entered into its first strike mediation. The dispute was between the Railroad Clerks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
1930 – Amy Johnson became the first woman to fly from England to Australia.
1931 – B&O Railroad began service with the first passenger train to have air conditioning throughout. The run was between New York, NY and Washington, DC.
1935 – The Cincinnati Reds played the Philadelphia Phillies in the first major league baseball game at night. Over 20,000 fans watched as the switch for the floodlights was thrown by President Franklin Roosevelt.
1950 – Nate “Sweetwater” Clifton of The Harlem Globetrotters became the first African American player in the NBA when the New York Knicks purchase his contract.
1954 – The first moving sidewalk in a railroad station was opened in Jersey City, NJ.
1958 – United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.
1962 – American astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American astronaut to orbit the Earth. He orbited the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
1962 – The officials of the National Football League ruled that halftime of regular season games would be cut to 15 minutes.
1967 – California Governor Ronald Reagan greeted Charles M. Schulz at the state capitol in observance of the legislature-proclaimed “Charles Schulz Day.”
1974 – Muhammad Ali scored a TKO over Richard Dunn in Munich to retain his heavyweight title.
1974 – After nine seasons on TV, NBC aired the final “Dean Martin Show”.
1976 – Supersonic Concorde service began between Paris and London and Washington, DC.
1980 – The International Court of Justice issued a final decision calling for the release of the hostages taken at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.
1984 – The Detroit Tigers won a record 17th consecutive road games.
1989 – The movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” opened in theaters.
1991 – The movie “Thelma and Louise” opened in theaters with Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon in the title roles and directed by Ridley Scott.
1999 – Mike Tyson was released from a Maryland jail, having served 3-1/2 months for assaulting two motorists after a collision.
2000 – A Democratic Party event for Al Gore in Washington brought in $26.5 million. The amount set a new record, which had just been set the previous month by Republicans for Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
2001 – Temba Tsheri, 16, became the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
2006 – Taylor Hicks won TV’s “American Idol” Season 4.
2007 – Congress approved the first minimum wage hike in nearly a decade. The measure upped the $5.15 per hour minimum wage by 70 cents before the end of the summer. Wages were boosted another 70 cents the next year, and the minimum wage would be $7.25 by the summer of 2009.
2011 – NASA announced the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) spacecraft. It is intended to facilitate exploration of the Moon, asteroids and Mars.
BIRTHDAYS:
Tommy Chong – 85 years old (1938) – Comedian, actor (Cheech and Chong, “Up in Smoke”, “Nice Dreams”, “Half Baked”, TV’s “That ’70s Show”)
Bob Dylan – 82 years old (1941) – Musician, singer (Traveling Wilburys)
Gary Burghoff – 80 years old (1943) – Actor (Played Radar O’Reilly on TV’s “”M*A*S*H””)
Patti LaBelle – 79 years old (1944) – Singer (“Lady Marmalade”)
Priscilla Presley – 78 years old (1945) – Elvis Presley’s ex-wife, actress (TV’s “Dallas”, “Naked Gun” movies)
Waddy Wachtel – 76 years old (1947) – Musician, composer, record producer
Jim Broadbent – 74 years old (1949) – Actor (“Iris”, “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince”, “The Young Victoria”, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”, “Gangs of New York”, “Moulin Rouge”)
Alfred Molina – 70 years old (1953) – Actor (“Spider Man 2”)
Rosanne Cash – 68 years old (1955) – Singer
Kristin Scott Thomas – 63 years old (1960) – Actress (“Under the Cherry Moon”, “The English Patient”)
Joe Dumars – 60 years old (1963) – Basketball player (Detroit Pistons 1985-1999, President of Basketball Operations for the Detroit Pistons 2000-2014)
Vivian Trimble – 60 years old (1963) – Keyboardist (Luscious Jackson)
John C. Reilly – 58 years old (1965) – Actor (“Chicago”, “Gangs of New York”, “The Hours”, “Walk Hard”, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”, “The Aviator”, “Magnolia”, “Boogie Nights”, “Carnage”, “Step Brothers”)
Erin Close – 56 years old (1967) – Actor (TV’s “Nashville”, “Without a Trace”)
Rich Robinson – 54 years old (1969) – Musician (The Black Crowes)
Brad Penny – 45 years old (1978) – Baseball player (Detroit Tigers 2011)
TODAY IS:
Aviation Maintenance Technician Day
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.
