Today in History

Today in History

1812 – 'Old Ironsides' (the USS Constitution) won a battle against the British frigate Guerriere east of Nova Scotia.

1848 – The discovery of gold in California was reported by the New York Herald.

1856 – Gail Borden received a patent for his process of condensing milk by vacuum.

1909 – The first car race to be run on brick occurred at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1917 – Team managers John McGraw and Christy Matthewson were arrested for breaking New York City's blue laws. The crime was their teams were playing baseball on Sunday.

1919 – Afghanistan gained independence from Britain.

1929 – 'Amos and Andy,' the radio comedy program, made its debut on NBC starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll.

1934 – Adolf Hitler was approved for sole executive power in Germany as Fuehrer.

1940 – The new Civil Aeronautics Administration awarded honorary license #1 to Orville Wright.

1942 – About 6,000 Canadian and British soldiers launched a raid against the Germans at Dieppe, France. They suffered about 50 percent casualties.

1960 – Francis Gary Powers, an American U-2 pilot, was convicted of espionage in Moscow.

1960 – Two dogs were launched in a satellite into Earth's orbit by the Soviet Union.

1962 – Homero Blancas shot a 55 at the Premier Invitational Golf Tournament held in Longview, TX. It was the lowest score in U.S. competitive golf history.

1974 – During an anti-American protest in Nicosia, Cyprus, U.S. Ambassador Rodger P. Davies was fatally wounded by a bullet while in the American embassy.

1981 – Two Libyan SU-22s were shot down by two U.S. Navy F-14 fighters in the Gulf of Sidra.

1991 – Soviet hard-liners announced that President Mikhail Gorbachev had been removed from power. Gorbachev returned to power two days later.

1998 – The first piece of the 351 foot bronze statue of Christopher Columbus arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

1999 – Lorne Michaels received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 – In Belgrade, thousands of Serbs attended a rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic.

2004 – Google Inc. stock began selling on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The initial price was set at $85 and ended the day at $100.34 with more than 22 million shares traded.

Born

1870 Bernard Baruch, U.S. representative to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission.

1871 Orville Wright, aviation pioneer.

1883 Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, fashion designer.

1902 Ogden Nash, humorist.

1919 Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine.

1921 Gene Roddenberry, television writer and producer, best known for the series Star Trek.

1931 Willie Shoemaker, record-setting jockey (won

8,833 of 40,350 starts); received Mike Venezia Memorial Award for “extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship” in 1990.

1940 Jill St John, (Jill Arlyn Oppenheim), Los Angeles California, actress (Diamonds are Forever).

1942 Fred Thompson, US Senator (R-Tenn); minority counsel on Senate Watergate Committee, lobbyist; actor (Law and Order)).

1945 William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton, 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001); first president from the Baby Boomer generation.

1948 Tipper Gore, wife of US Vice President Al Gore

(1993-2001); co-founder, Parents Music Resource Center, which lobbied to have parental advisory labels placed on the packaging of music containing violent, sexual or drug-use lyrics.

1952 Jonathan Frakes, actor (Commander William T Riker, Star Trek: The Next Generation); character given same birth-date but in 2335.

1966 Lee Ann Womack, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter (“I Hope You Dance”).

History