^{Buster Keaton in The General, a fictionalized version of the Great Locomotive Chase}

Today in History

• The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople (1204)
• Britain adopts the Union Jack as its flag (1606)
• Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter, starting the American Civil War (1861)
• The Great Locomotive Chase begins (1862)
• Confederate troops kill surrendered black Union soldiers in the Fort Pillow Massacre (1864)
• Frank Whittle tests the first jet engine (1937)
• FDR dies; Truman becomes President (1945)
• The first polio vaccine is announced (1955)
• Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human being to go into outer space (1961)
• Cancer patient Terry Fox begins his Marathon of Hope (1980)
• Samuel Doe leads a military coup to take over Liberia (1980)
• The first commercial spam hits the Internet (1994)

Birthdays

• Ted Ginn, Jr., football player (1985)
• Claire Danes, actress (1979)
• Brad Miller, basketball player (1976)
• Shannen Doherty, actress (1971)
• Nicholas Brendon, Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1971)
• Adam Graves, hockey player (1968)
• Charles Mann, football player (1961)
• Vince Gill, country singer-songwriter (1957)
• Andy García, actor (1956)
• John Krakauer, author (1954)
• David Cassidy, teen idol (1950)
• Scott Turow, author (1949)
• Tom Clancy, author (1947)
• David Letterman, late night host (1947)
• Ed O’Neill, actor (1946)
• Herbie Hancock, musician (1940)
• John Hagee, televangelist (1940)
• Tiny Tim, singer (1932)
• Ann Miller, dancer and actress (1923)
• Beverly Cleary, author (1916)
• Hound Dog Taylor, blues musician (1915)
• Lily Pons, soprano (1898)
• Henri Désiré Landru, serial killer (1869)
• Henry Clay, senator (1777)
• Edward de Vere, suspected by “anti-Stratfordians” as having written the works of William Shakespeare (1550)

Deaths

• Marilyn Chambers, Ivory Snow girl (2009)
• William Sloane Coffin, peace pastor and Doonesbury character model (2006)
• Sugar Ray Robinson, boxer (1989)
• Abbie Hoffman, yippie (1989)
• Alan Paton, anti-apartheid author (1988)
• Joe Louis, boxer (1981)
• Josephine Baker, dancer, movie star, resistance fighter and civil rights leader (1975)
• Arthur Freed, producer and lyricist (1973)
• Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross (1912)
• Boss Tweed, Tammany Hall leader (1878)
• Charles Messier, astronomer (1817)

Holidays and Celebrations