On this day in history —

• The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians sign a treaty (1621)
• The Jamestown Massacre takes place (1622)
• The Stamp Act, a triggering event of the American Revolution, is passed by Parliament (1765)
• The world’s oldest professional football (soccer) league is established (1888)
• The League of Arab States (جامعة الدول العربية‎) is founded (1945)
• The laser gets a patent (1960) — cover
• The Supreme Court establishes a right for unmarried Americans to possess contraception and by implication legalizes sex between unmarried people in Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972)
• The Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, near Decatur, Alabama, catches fire (1975)
• High-wire artist Karl Wallenda dies while performing (1978)
• The McMartin Preschool Trial, the longest and most expensive trial in American history, begins. No one was convicted and all charges were eventually dropped (1984)
• The first Pentium chip is released by Intel (1993)
• The longest stay in space ends when Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov (Валерий Поляков) returns to earth after 437 days and 18 hours in space (1995)
• Tara Lipinski, age 14, becomes the youngest individual gold medalist in Olympic history (1997)
• Comet Hale-Bopp makes its closest approach to Earth (1997)

It’s the birthday of —

• Reese Witherspoon, actress (1976)
• Elvis Stojko, skater (1972)
• Matthew Modine, actor (1959)
• Bob Costas, sportscaster (1952)
• Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer and impressario (1948)
• Wolf Blitzer, television journalist (1948)
• James Patterson, author (1947)
• Rudy Rucker, mathematician and science fiction writer (1946)
• Don Chaney, basketball player and coach (1946)
• Jeremy Clyde, Chad’s partner (1941)
• Haing S. Ngor (吳漢潤), The Killing Fields star (1940)
• David Keon, hockey player (1940)
• Orrin Hatch, senator (1934)
• William Shatner, Priceline spokesmodel (1931)
• Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist (1930)
• Pat Robertson, televangelist (1930)
• “Easy Ed” Macauley, basketball player (1928)
• Marcel Marceau, mime (1923)
• Ross Martin, actor (1920)
• Werner Klemperer, Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes (1920)
• Lew Wasserman, Hollywood superagent (1913)
• Karl Malden, American Express spokemodel (1912)
• Nicholas Monsarrat, author (1910)
• Louis L’Amour, Western author (1908)
• Jack Crawford, tennis player (1908)
• Chico Marx, brother (1887)
• Robert Millikan, physicist (1868)
• Braxton Bragg, Confederate commander (1817)
• Randolph Caldecott, medal namesake (1846)
• Kaiser Wilhelm I, monarch (1797)
• Anthony van Dyke, painter (1599)

Deaths —

• Cachao López, inventor of the mambo (2008)
• Jumbo Elliott, track and field coach (1981)
• Mike Todd, film producer and Liz Taylor husband (1958)
• Uncle Dave Macon, “Dixie Dewdrop,” Grand Ole Opry star (1952)
• William Hanna, animator, Barbera partner (1910)
• Thomas Hughes, author (1896)
• Walter Lantz, Woody Woodpecker creator (1889)
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, dramatist and philosopher (1832)
• Stephen Decatur, naval officer (1820)
• Jonathan Edwards, theologian (1758)

Holidays —

• Día de la Abolición de la Esclavitud (Day of the Abolition of Slavery, or Emancipation Day) (Puerto Rico)