Today in History

• Yuknoom Yich’aak K’ahk’ becomes king of Calakmul (686)
• Edward the Confessor becomes king of England (1043)
• The first successful Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, begins (1860)
• Union forces capture Richmond (1865)
• The first of the Whitechapel murders, attributed to “Jack the Ripper,” takes place (1888)
• The Oscar Wilde libel trial begins (1895)
• Joseph Stalin becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922)
• The first airplane flight over Mount Everest takes place (1933)
• Japanese forces begin an assault on US and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula (1942)
• The Marshall Plan is signed into law (1948)
• Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech (1968)
• The first handheld mobile telephone call takes place (1973)
• Bobby Fisher refuses to play Anatoly Karpov, giving Karpov the World Chess championship title by default (1975)
• The first successful portable computer, the Osborne 1, premiers (1981)
• The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, is captured in Montana (1996)
• Microsoft is ruled in violation of antitrust laws (2000)

Birthdays

• George Herbert, devotional lyricist (1593)
• George Edwards, “father of British ornithology” (1694)
• स्वामिनारायण (Swaminarayan), guru (1781)
• Alexander Macomb, US general (1782)
• Charles Wilkes, US naval officer and explorer (1798)
• Washington Irving, author (1783)
• Edward Everett Hale, clergyman and author (1822)
• William M. “Boss” Tweed, Tammany leader (1823)
• Cyrus Holliday, president of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe (1826)
• John Burroughs, naturalist and author (1837)
• Ulric Dahlgren, Union Army colonel (1842)
• 北 一輝  (Ikki Kita), Japanese political philosopher (1883)
• Bud Fisher, creator of Mutt and Jeff (1885)
• Dooley Wilson, Casablanca pianist (1886)
• Thomas C. Kinkaid, US Navy admiral (1888)
• Leslie Howard, actor (1893)
• George Jessel, “Toastmaster General” (1898)
• Henry Luce, publisher (1898)
• Sally Rand, ecdysiast (1904)
• Russel Wright, industrial designer (1904)
• Iron Eyes Cody, actor (1904)
• Robert Sink, commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Band of Brothers) (1905)
• Herb Caen, journalist (1916)
• Louis Guglielmi, composer (1916)
• Louis Applebaum, composer (1918)
• Іван Дем’янюк (John Demjanjuk), accused concentration camp guard (1920)
• Stan Freeman, musician (1920)
• Jan Sterling, actress (1921)
• Doris Day, actress and singer (1922)
• Daniel Hoffman, US poet laureate (1923)
• Marlon Brando, actor (1924)
• Gus Grissom, astronaut (1926)
• Don Gibson, country musician (1928)
• Lawton Chiles, Florida governor (1930)
• Helmut Kohl, German chancellor (1930)
• Jane Goodall, primatologist (1934)
• Jim Parker, football player (1934)
• Jimmy McGrifff, organist (1936)
• Paul Craig Roberts, economist (1939)
• Jan Berry, half of Jan and Dean (1941)
• Marsha Mason, actress (1942)
• Wayne Newton, singer (1942)
• Billy Joe Royal, singer (1942)
• Tony Orlando, singer (1944)
• Sandra Boynton, illustrator (1953)
• Ray Combs, game show host (1956)
• Alec Baldwin, actor (1958)
• David Hyde Pierce, actor (1959)
• Eddie Murphy, comedian, actor, director (1961)
• Pervis Ellison, basketball player (1967)
• Jamie Hewlett, comic book artist (1968)
• Rodney Hampton, football player (1969)
• Picabo Street, skier (1971)
• Jennie Garth, actress (1972)
• Catherine McCormack, actress (1972)
• Kelly Price, singer-songwriter (1973)
• Tommy Haas, tennis player (1978)
• Amanda Bynes, actress (1986)

Deaths

• Jesse James, outlaw (1882)
• Johannes Brahms, composer (1897)
• Richard D’Oyly Carte, impressario (1901)
• Richard Hauptmann, convicted of the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby (1936)
• Conrad Veidt, actor (1943)
• Kurt Weill, composer (1950)
• Joseph Valachi, gangster (1971)
• Ferde Grofé, composer (1972)
• Juan Trippe, airline executive (1981)
• Warren Oates, actor (1982)
• Tom Sestak, football player (1987)
• Milton Caniff, cartoonist (1988)
• Sarah Vaughan, singer (1990)
• Charles Goren, bridge player (1991)
• Graham Greene, author (1991)
• Pinky Lee, burlesque comedian (1993)
• Frank Wells, Walt Disney president (1994)
• Ron Brown, US Secretary of Commerce (1996)
• Carl Stokes, Cleveland mayor (1996)
• Eddie Robinson, football coach (2007)
• Mingote, cartoonist (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations