On this day in history —

• Caligula becomes Emperor of Rome (44 BCE)
• Barnum and Bailey merge their circuses to form “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1881 CE) — cover
• Constantinople becomes Istanbul (1930 CE)
• Madrid falls to the Nationalists (1939 CE)
• Royal Navy and British commandos launch “Operation Chariot,” better known as the St. Nazaire Raid (1942 CE)
• A partial meltdown of nuclear reactor TMI-2 occurs at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania (1979 CE)

It’s the birthday of —

• Julia Stiles, actress (1981)
• Kate Gosselin, reality TV star (1975)
• Vince Vaughn, actor (1970)
• Lady Gaga, singer and performance artist (1966)
• Cheryl “Salt” James, rapper (1966)
• Bart Conner, Olympic gymnast (1958)
• Reba McEntire, country singer (1955)
• Diane Wiest, actress (1948)
• Ken Howard, actor (1944)
• Rick Barry, basketball player (1944)
• Conchata Ferrell, actress (1943)
• Mario Vargas Llosa, won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1936)
• Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor (1928)
• Alexander Grothendieck, developed modern algebraic geometry (1928)
• Freddie Barthlomew, child star (1924)
• Thad Jones, trumpeter (1923)
• Joey Maxim, boxer (1922)
• Dirk Bogarde, actor (1921)
• Herschel Grynszpan, used as a pretext for Kristallnacht (1921)
• Edmund Muskie, presidential candidate (1914)
• A. Bertram Chandler, merchant marine captain and science fiction author (1912)
• Jimmie Dodd, leader of the Mickey Mouse Club (1910)
• Swifty Lazar, superagent (1907)
• Marlin Perkins, host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom (1905)
• Pandro S. Berman, producer (1905)
• Rudolf Serkin, pianist (1903)
• Jaromír Vejvoda, wrote “The Beer Barrel Polka” (1902)
• Buck Shaw, football player (1899)
• Paul Whiteman, bandleader (1890)
• Martin Sheridan, Olympic medalist (1881)
• Maxim Gorky, author (1868)
• Frederick Pabst, brewer (1836)
• John Neumann, American saint (1811)
• Thomas Clarkson, English abolitionist (1760)
• Samuel Sewall, Salem Witch Trials judge (1652)
• Teresa of Ávila, mystic and nun (1515)

Deaths —

• Earl Scruggs, banjo player (2012)
• June Havoc, actress (2010)
• Maurice Jarre, composer (2009)
• Caspar Weinberger, secretary of defense (2006)
• Peter Ustinov, actor and writer (2004)
• Anthony Powell, writer (2000)
• Eugène Ionesco, playwright (1994)
• Maria von Trapp, inspiration for The Sound of Music (1987)
• Patrick Troughton, second Doctor (1987)
• Marc Chagall, painter (1985)
• Emmett Kelly, clown (1979)
• Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, blues singer (1974)
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, general and President (1969)
• W. C. Handy, composer (1958)
• Jim Thorpe, athlete (1953)
• Серге́й Рахма́нинов (Sergei Rachmaninoff), composer (1943)
• Virginia Woolf, author (1941)
• Модéст Мýсоргский (Modest Mussorgsky), composer (1881)
• Ива́н Васи́льевич (Ivan the Terrible), Russian tsar (1584)

Holidays —