1457 BC: The Battle of Mediddo. The Egyptian Thutmose III clashes with the Caananite King of Kadesh. It is the first battle to have been recorded in reliable detail. (The Egyptians won). The valley was destined to become one of the most fought over scraps of land in history and, if you believe Revelations, is where the final battle between Good and Evil will take place.1671: Disguised as a clergyman, Thomas Blood attempts to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London. The theft was a failure but astonishingly, King Charles II pardoned him and sent him to Ireland.
1800: John Brown, American abolitionist, is born.
1871: Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London.1874: Howard Carter is born. He's the archaeologist who discovered King Tut's tomb.
1913: The 17th Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified, allowing for the popular election of Senators.1918: Mike Wallace is born.
1935: Nokie Edwards, guitarist for The Ventures, is born.1936: Albert Finney is born. Here he is in one of my favorite movies, Miller's Crossing, showing that "the Old Man's still an artist with a Thompson." Kick-ass version of Danny Boy, too.
1936: Glenda Jackson is born. I highly recommend the old BBC miniseries Elizabeth R, which she was just great in.
1941: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which the boffins at Bletchley Park used to break coded German messages.
1942: Belgrade becomes the first Axis-conquered city to murder or eliminate its Jewish population.1945: Hermann Goering is captured by the US Army.
1945: Vidkun Quisling is arrested in Norway.
1946: Candace Bergen is born.
1949: Billy Joel is born.1955: Sam and Friends debuts on a local US TV station marking the first appearance of Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog.
1960: The FDA approves the birth control pill.
1961: FCC chairman Newton Minnow condemns television as a "vast wasteland" in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters.
1961: John Corbett is born. He is most famous for playing the town DJ Chris on Northern Exposure.
1974: Impeachment hearings are opened against Richard Nixon.1979: Rosario Dawson is born. She was extremely easy on the eyes in the underrated Josie and the Pussycats movie. I think it's the kitty-kat ears.
1980: The Liberian freighter SS Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay, FL sending 35 people to a watery grave as a 1,400 foot section of the bridge collapses.
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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