TODAY IN HISTORY:
1803 – The U.S. Senate approved the Louisiana Purchase.
1818 – The boundary between the United States and Canada was defined as the 49th parallel.
1873 – A Hippodrome was opened in New York, NY by showman Phineus T. (P.T.) Barnum.
1879 – Thomas A. Edison invented a workable electric light in his laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ.
1910 – For the first time in a World Series game, a baseball with a cork center was used.
1913 – Camel cigarettes were introduced for the first time.
1917 – American troops saw action in World War I for the first time.
1918 – Margaret Owen set the manual typing record at 170 words per minute.
1947 – Hollywood came under scrutiny as the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence within the motion picture industry.
1948 – Facsimile high-seed radio transmissions were demonstrated.
1959 – The Guggenheim Museum, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York, NY.
1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.
1973 – The television show “The Six Million Dollar Man” premiered on ABC.
1977 – Three members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed when their chartered plane crashed near McComb, MS.
1979 – The John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, MA was dedicated.
1993 – Attorney General Janet Reno warned the TV industry to limit the violence in their programs.
1994 – The website WhiteHouse.gov was launched.
1997 – President Bill Clinton’s administration endorsed a revised Republican bill to restructure the Internal Revenue Services and shifted the burden of proof from the taxpayer to the government in contested court cases.
1998 – A Florida judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Bobby Brown after the singer violated his probation by showing up drunk and high to begin serving a five-day sentence for drunk driving.
2001 – Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Who, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Bon Jovi, Goo Goo Dolls, Elton John, Five for Fighting, John Mellencamp and others performed at the six-hour Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden. More than five-thousand police officers and firemen attended the benefit for the families of police and firemen killed on September 11th.
2003 – A 40-year-old man went over Niagara Falls without safety devices and survived. He was charged with illegally performing a stunt.
2003 – The D.C. sniper trial opened in Virginia. John A. Muhammad served as his own defense.
BIRTHDAYS:
Wanda Jackson 1937 – Singer
Dolores Hart 1938 – Actress, Nun (Co-starred with Elvis Presley in “Loving You and King Creole”, “Where the Boys Are))
Al Greenwood 1951 – Keyboard player (Foreigner)
Melanie Mayron 1952 – Actress (Played Melissa on TV’s “thirtysomething”)
Danny Boyle 1956 – Director (“Slumdog Millionaire”, “Steve Jobs”, “127 Hours”, “28 Days Later”, “Sunshine”, “Trainspotting”, “Trance”)
Viggo Mortensen 1958 – Actor (“Eastern Promises”, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Appaloosa”, “A History of Violence”, “A Perfect Murder”, “GI Jane”)
Eric Scott 1958 – Actor (Played Ben Walton on TV’s “The Waltons”)
James G. Sonefeld 1964 – Musician (Hootie & the Blowfish)
Fred Coury 1967 – Drummer (Cinderella)
Snoop Dogg 1971 – Rapper, actor (“Starsky and Hutch”)
John Krasinski 1979 – Actor (TV’s “The Office”, movies “It’s Complicated”, “Something Borrowed”, “License to Wed”)
TODAY IS:
Brandied Fruit Day
Information Overload Day
International Sloth Day
Suspender’s Day
Waiters Day
For additional information check out websites like: www.on-this-day.com, www.born-today.com, www.famousbirthdays.com, and www.daysoftheyear.com.
