1504: Christopher Columbus uses his knowledge of a lunar eclipse that night to convince Native Americans to provide him with supplies. Doctor Who used this trick 100 years previously on the Aztecs.
1704: During Queen Anne's War, French forces and Native Americans raid Deerfield, MA, killing 100 men, women and children.
1904: Jimmy Dorsey, bandleader, is born.
1916: In South Carolina, the minimum working age for for factory, mill and mine workers is raised from 12 to 14 years old.
1916: Dinah Shore is born.
1920: Michele Morgan, French actress, is born. She's done nothing that I've ever seen, but the house that she had built in 1944 at 10050 Cielo Drive, Los Angeles, CA later became the site of the gruesome Manson Family murders of Sharon Tate and her guests.
1928: Joss Ackland is born. He's played slickly evil guys in a number of movies. For example, he was the evil diplomat in Lethal Weapon 2 who says, "Diplomatic immunity!" to Sgt. Murtaugh after gunning down Riggs.1936: Alex Rocco is born. He played Moe Greene in The Godfather and has made a pretty good living playing various mobbed-up guys. He allegedly has real mob connections.
1940: For her role in Gone With the Wind, Hattie McDaniels becomes the first African-American to win the Academy Award.
1944: Speaking of mobbed-up guys, it's also Dennis Farina's birthday. He usually plays either cops or mafiosos (as in, Ray Barboni in Get Shorty) but he also provided the voice of an all-but washed up Wildcat in Justice League Unlimited. Don't get him mixed up with Frank Vincent (Billy Batts in Goodfellas) or they'll both kick your ass.
1972: Hank Aaron becomes the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to sign a $200,000 contract.
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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