Not Steve! Johannes!1648: Arabella Churchill, mistress of King James II of England is born. Not that I'm going to tell James II his business, but I don't think devout Roman Catholicism and having a mistress are compatible with each other. I couldn't find a picture of her, so here's one of Catherine Zeta Jones.
1778: During the American Revolution, Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge to help train the Continental Army.
1836: The Siege of the Alamo begins.1848: John Quincy Adams dies.
1861: President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, DC after an assassination attempt in Baltimore.
1868: W.E.B. DuBois, early civil rights leader, is born
1870: Mississippi is readmitted to the Union.1903: Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the US "in perpetuity."
1904: The US gains control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.
1915: Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay is born.
1917: Demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia kick off the February Revolution which leads, later that year, to the Russian Revolution.1919: Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
1927: The Federal Radio Commission (later renamed the Federal Communications Commission) begins to regulate the use of radio frequencies.
1930: Horst Wessel, Nazi ideologue, is murdered.
1932: Majel Barrett is born. She is best known for playing the long-suffering Nurse Christine Chapel on Star Trek: TOS.
1940: Peter Fonda is born.1941: Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
1942: The first shelling of the US mainland occurs as a Japanese submarine fires on an oil refinery in Ellwood, CA.
1944: Johnny Winter, guitar virtuoso, is born.
1945: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of US Marines (and one often forgotten US Navy Corpsman) reach the top of Mount Suribachi and plant the US flag.
1947: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded. Who could have predicted that, through their ISO 9000/9001 standards, they would become the primary producer of pure, unrefined evil in the world?1951: Patricia Richardson is born. She played the smokin' hot Mom on Home Improvement. She also, apparently, had a small role in the classic C.H.U.D. so I'm going to have break out the DVD of that this afternoon.
1952: Brad Whitford, guitarist for Aerosmith, is born.1954: The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
1955: The first meeting of SEATO (the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) is held. It's always been NATO's plain sister.
1955: Tom Bodett, shill for the Motel 6 chain, is born. He looks a lot more badass than I had pictured him.
1955: Howard Jones is born. He did a slew of dreadful pop songs in the '80's, including "I'd Like to Get to Know You Well" which was used in the soundtrack to Better off Dead. 1964: John Norum, guitarist for Europe, is born.
1965: Kristin Davis is born. She plays that lady who is really easy on Sex and the City.
1965: Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computers is born.1970: Marie-Josee Croze is born. She was in the Quebecois classic The Barbarian Invasions.
1974: The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million to release Patty Hearst.
1991: The ground phase of the Persian Gulf War begins as US troops cross the Saudi Arabia/Iraq border.1994: Dakota Fanning is born. She was just about the only good thing in that War of the Worlds remake.
Today in History elements mostly cribbed from The History Channel, Wikipedia, The New York Times, The Jewish World Review, The Writer's Almanac and anything else I can dig up.
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