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:
1775 – The U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress. (The Marines went out of existence after the end of the Revolutionary War in April, 1783. The Marine Corps were formally re-established on July 11, 1798.) This day is observed as the birth date of the United States Marine Corps.
1801 – The state of Tennessee outlawed the practice of dueling.
1871 – Henry M. Stanley, journalist and explorer, found David Livingstone. Livingstone was a missing Scottish missionary in central Africa. Stanley delivered his famous greeting: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
1879 – Western Union and the National Bell Telephone Company reached a settlement over various telephone patents.
1903 – Mary Anderson patented the windshield wiper.
1919 – The American Legion held its first national convention, in Minneapolis, MN.
1951 – With the roll out of the North American Numbering Plan, the direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began when Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, NJ, called his counterpart in Alameda, CA.
1954 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the USMC War Memorial (the Iwo Jima Memorial) at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.
1957 – 102,368 people attended the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams game. The crowd was the largest regular-season crowd in NFL history.
1958 – The Hope Diamond was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by New York diamond merchant Harry Winston. It was sent wrapped in paper as standard registered mail.
1969 – The television show “Sesame Street” aired for the first time on National Education Television (which would become PBS).
1970 – The Great Wall of China opened for tourism.
1975 – The Edmund Fitzgerald, a 729 foot long ore-hauling freighter, sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board.
1980 – CBS News anchor Dan Rather claimed he had been kidnapped in a cab. It turned out that Rather had refused to pay the cab fare.
1982 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was opened to visitors in Washington, DC.
1983 – Bill Gates introduced Windows 1.0.
1984 – Michael Jackson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1984 – The U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1988 – The U.S. Department of Energy announced that Texas would be the home of the atom-smashing super-collider. (The project was cancelled by a vote of Congress in October 1993.)
1989 – Germans began to tear down the Berlin Wall.
1993 – John Wayne Bobbitt was acquitted on the charge of marital sexual assault against his wife who sexually mutilated him.
1993 – The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Brady Bill, which called for a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases.
1995 – The movie “Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls” debuted in theaters.
1996 – Dan Marino, of the Miami Dolphins, became the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for more than 50,000 yards.
1997 – WorldCom and MCI Communications announced a $37 billion merger that was the largest merger in U.S. history at the time.
1999 – Ted Danson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
2006 – The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, VA was opened and dedicated by President George W. Bush.
2008 – Over five months after landing on Mars, NASA declared the Phoenix mission concluded after communication with the lander was lost.
BIRTHDAYS:
Albert Hall – 88 years old (1937) – Actor
Robert F. Engle – 83 years old (1942) – Economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
Saxby Chambliss – 82 years old (1943) – Lawyer and politician
Mark E. Neely – 81 years old (1944) – Jr. , American historian, author, and academic
Silvestre Reyes – 81 years old (1944) – Sergeant and politician
Donna Fargo – 80 years old (1945) – Singer-songwriter and guitarist
Jack Scalia – 75 years old (1950) – Actor
Les Miles – 72 years old (1953) – Football player and coach
Bob Stanley – 71 years old (1954) – Baseball player and coach
Jack Clark – 70 years old (1955) – Baseball player, coach, and manager
Sinbad – 69 years old (1956) – Comedian and actor
Stephen Herek – 67 years old (1958) – Director and producer
Omar Minaya – 67 years old (1958) – Baseball player and manager
Brooks Williams – 67 years old (1958) – Singer-songwriter and guitarist
Mackenzie Phillips – 66 years old (1959) – Actress
Dan Hawkins – 65 years old (1960) – Football player, coach, and sportscaster
Daniel Waters – 63 years old (1962) – Director and screenwriter
Tommy Davidson – 62 years old (1963) – Actor and comedian
Mike McCarthy – 62 years old (1963) – Football player and coach
Mike Powell – 62 years old (1963) – Long jumper
Kenny Rogers – 61 years old (1964) – Baseball player and coach
Jamie Dixon – 60 years old (1965) – Basketball player and coach
Tracy Morgan – 57 years old (1968) – Comedian and actor
Tom Papa – 57 years old (1968) – Comedian, actor, television host
Ellen Pompeo – 56 years old (1969) – Actress
Warren G – 55 years old (1970) – Rapper and producer
U-God – 55 years old (1970) – Rapper
Walton Goggins – 54 years old (1971) – Actor and producer
Shawn Green – 53 years old (1972) – Baseball player
Jim Adkins – 50 years old (1975) – Singer-songwriter and guitarist
Josh Barnett – 48 years old (1977) – Mixed martial artist and wrestler
Diplo – 47 years old (1978) – DJ, songwriter, and producer
Eve – 47 years old (1978) – Rapper and producer
Troy Bell – 45 years old (1980) – Basketball player
Ryback – 44 years old (1981) – Wrestler
Heather Matarazzo – 43 years old (1982) – Actress
Miranda Lambert – 42 years old (1983) – Singer-songwriter and guitarist
Kendrick Perkins – 41 years old (1984) – Basketball player
Aaron Crow – 39 years old (1986) – Baseball player
Josh Peck – 39 years old (1986) – Actor
Eric Thames – 39 years old (1986) – Baseball player
D. J. Augustin – 38 years old (1987) – Basketball player
Charles Hamilton – 38 years old (1987) – Rapper
Jacob Pullen – 36 years old (1989) – Basketball player
Marcus Browne – 35 years old (1990) – Boxer
Zach Ertz – 35 years old (1990) – Football player
Tony Snell – 34 years old (1991) – Basketball player
Teddy Bridgewater – 33 years old (1992) – Football player
Zoey Deutch – 31 years old (1994) – Actress
Drew Lock – 29 years old (1996) – Football player
Armand Duplantis – 26 years old (1999) – Swedish-American pole vaulter
Michael Cimino – 26 years old (1999) – Actor
Kiernan Shipka – 26 years old (1999) – Actress
Mackenzie Foy – 25 years old (2000) – Actress and model
Scotty Pippen Jr. – 25 years old (2000) – Basketball player
TODAY IS:
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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.
