Today in History

• First English settlers arrive at Jamestown (1607)
• The United Irishman Rebellion begins (1798)
• First regularly scheduled commercial railway service begins in the US (1830)
• “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (based on a true story) is published (1830)
• Samuel F. B. Morse sends “What hath God wrought?” on the telegraph (1844)
• The Brooklyn Bridge opens (1883)
• The first MLB night game is played (1935)
• Scott Carpenter flies Aurora 7 into orbit (1962)
• Operation Solomon evacuates over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 36 hours.

Birthdays

• Tracy McGrady, basketball player (1979)
• Marc Gagnon, speed skater (1975)
• Kris Draper, hockey player (1971)
• John C. Reilly, actor (1965)
• Pat Verbeek, hockey player (1964)
• Michael Chabon, author (1963)
• Joe Dumars III, basketball player (1963)
• Héctor Camacho, boxer (1962)
• Kristin Scott Thomas, actress (1960)
• Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter (1955)
• Alfred Molina, actor (1953)
• “Little” Nell Campbell, Rocky Horror actress (1953)
• Sybill Danning, B-movie star (1952)
• Priscilla Presley, Elvis spouse and acress (1945)
• Patti LaBelle, disco queen (1944)
• Gary Burghoff, M*A*S*H actor (1943)
• Bob Dylan, singer-songwriter (1941)
• Joseph Brodsky, poet laureate (1940)
• Tommy Chong, Cheech partner (1938)
• Carmine Infantino, comic book artist and editor (1925)
• Peter Ellenshaw, special effects creator (1913)
• Wilbur Mills, Ways and Means chair (1909)
• Mikhail Sholokhov (Михаи́л Шо́лохов), wrote And Quiet Flows the Don (1905)
• Lionel Conacher, Canadian athlete (1902)
• S. I. Newhouse Sr., publisher (1895)
• H. B. Reese, peanut butter cup inventor (1878)
• Benjamin Cardozo, Supreme Court justice (1870)
• Charlie Taylor, Wright brothers mechanic (1868)
• Queen Victoria, monarch (1819)
• Emanuel Leutze, painted Washington Crossing the Delaware (1816)
• Jean-Paul Marat, killed in his bathtub (1743)
• Daniel Fahrenheit, thermometer builder (1686)
• Germanicus, Roman general and father of Caligula (15 BCE)

Deaths

• Dick Martin, Laugh-In host (2008)
• Harold Wilson, prime minister (1995)
• Duke Ellington, bandleader and composer (1974)
• John Foster Dulles, diplomat (1959)
• Archibald Wavell, British field marshal (1950)
• Old Tom Morris, golfer (1908)
• William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist (1897)
• Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer (1543)

Holidays and Celebrations