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:
1760 – The French surrendered Michigan to the British.
1847 – Michigan’s first telegraph line was completed along the Michigan Central railroad tracks between Detroit and Ypsilanti.
1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph for the first time.
1892 – Almon Brown Strowger was issued a patent for the rotary dial.
1929 – The first airplane flight over the South Pole was made by U.S. Navy Lt. Comdr. Richard E. Byrd.
1959 – The Grammy Awards aired on NBC TV for the first time.
1961 – The Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft was launched by the United States with Enos the chimp on board. The craft orbited the earth twice before landing off Puerto Rico.
1963 – President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
1967 – U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was leaving the Johnson administration to become President of the World Bank.
1969 – John Lennon was convicted of possession of cannabis and fined $360 in London. Yoko Ono, who was arrested with Lennon on October 18, was cleared of charges.
1971 – The Professional Golf Championship was held at Walt Disney World for the first time.
1972 – Atari announced the release of Pong, the first commercially successful video game.
1975 – Bill Gates adopted the name “Microsoft” for the company he and Paul Allen had formed to write the BASIC computer language for the Altair.
1976 – Jerry Lee Lewis shot his bass player, Norman “Butch” Owens, twice in the chest while trying to hit a soda bottle. Lewis was charged with shooting a firearm within the city limits.
1979 – The original four members of KISS performed their last show together until 1996 when they reunited for a makeup tour.
1988 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the rights of criminal defendants are not violated when police unintentionally fail to preserve potentially vital evidence.
1991 – 17 people were killed in a 164-vehicle wreck during a dust storm near Coalinga, CA, on Interstate 5.
1994 – The U.S. House passed the revised General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
2004 – Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
BIRTHDAYS:
Mildred Rebstock – 106 years old (1919) – Medicinal chemist
Bill Jenkins – 89 years old (1936) – Politician
Henry T. Yang – 85 years old (1940) – Taiwanese/Chinese-American engineer and academic
Sue Miller – 82 years old (1943) – Novelist and short story writer
Felix Cavaliere – 81 years old (1944) – Singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
Suzy Chaffee – 79 years old (1946) – Skier
Jerry Lawler – 76 years old (1949) – Wrestler and sportscaster
Barry Goudreau – 74 years old (1951) – Guitarist and songwriter
Jeff Fahey – 73 years old (1952) – Actor and producer
Alex Grey – 72 years old (1953) – Visual artist and author
Joel Coen – 71 years old (1954) – Director, producer, and screenwriter
Chirlane McCray – 71 years old (1954) – Writer, editor, and activist
Janet Napolitano – 68 years old (1957) – Politician, lawyer, and university administrator
Neal Broten – 66 years old (1959) – Ice hockey player
Rahm Emanuel – 66 years old (1959) – Businessman and politician, 55th Mayor of Chicago
Cathy Moriarty – 65 years old (1960) – Actress
Kim Delaney – 64 years old (1961) – Actress
Andrew McCarthy – 63 years old (1962) – Actor and director
Will Downing – 62 years old (1963) – Singer-songwriter and producer
Don Cheadle – 61 years old (1964) – Actor and producer
Ellen Cleghorne – 60 years old (1965) – Comedian and actress
John Layfield – 59 years old (1966) – Wrestler, football player, and news commentator
Dru Pagliassotti – 59 years old (1966) – Author
Sophia Rosenfeld – 59 years old (1966) – Author
Charles Smith – 58 years old (1967) – Basketball player
Rebecca Wolff – 58 years old (1967) – Author and poet
Dee Brown – 57 years old (1968) – Basketball player and executive
Jonathan Knight – 57 years old (1968) – Singer
Mariano Rivera – 56 years old (1969) – Panamanian-American baseball player
Larry Joe Campbell – 55 years old (1970) – Actor and director
Steve May – 54 years old (1971) – Soldier and politician
Gena Lee Nolin – 54 years old (1971) – Actress and model
Brian Baumgartner – 53 years old (1972) – Actor and producer
Jamal Mashburn – 53 years old (1972) – Basketball player and sportscaster
Sarah Jones – 51 years old (1974) – Actress and playwright
Jedediah Purdy – 51 years old (1974) – Legal scholar and cultural commentator
Anna Faris – 49 years old (1976) – Actress
Andy Beshear – 48 years old (1977) – Attorney and politician, 63rd Governor of Kentucky
Lauren German – 47 years old (1978) – Actress
The Game – 46 years old (1979) – Rapper
Janina Gavankar – 45 years old (1980) – Actress and singer
Lucas Black – 43 years old (1982) – Actor
Franchesca Ramsey – 42 years old (1983) – Comedian
Tanisha Wright – 42 years old (1983) – Basketball player and coach
Shannon Brown – 40 years old (1985) – Basketball player
Wayne Ellington – 38 years old (1987) – Basketball player and coach
Dana Brooke – 37 years old (1988) – Wrestler and bodybuilder
Damon Harrison – 37 years old (1988) – Football player
Russell Wilson – 37 years old (1988) – Football player
Sheldon Richardson – 35 years old (1990) – Football player
Stefon Diggs – 32 years old (1993) – Football player
Julius Randle – 31 years old (1994) – Basketball player
Laura Marano – 30 years old (1995) – Actress and singer
MJ Melendez – 27 years old (1998) – Baseball player
Lovie Simone – 27 years old (1998) – Actress
Yunus Musah – 23 years old (2002) – Soccer 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.
