Today in History, 6/8

632: The Prophet Mohammed dies in Medina.
1191: Richard "The Lionheart" I arrives in Acre, Israel to begin his crusade.1783: In Iceland, the volcano Laki begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine.1789: James Madison introduces a Bill of Rights to the US House of Representatives.1861: Tennessee secedes from the Union.
1867: Frank Lloyd Wright is born.1906: President Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of land because of historical or conservation value.
1910: John W. Campbell is born. He was the editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine from 1937 till his death in 1971. He was to modern science fiction what J. Edgar Hoover was to the FBI but marginally less crazy. I devoured reprints of Astounding for about 10 years of my youth.1912: Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures.1927: Jerry Stiller is born. He can be briefly spotted in this trailer for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

1933: Joan Rivers is born. Here she is back before she became a lich.1936: James Darren is born. He was a teen idol back in the 50's and played Moondoggie in the early Gidget movies.

1942: Chuck Negron, singer for Three Dog Night, is born.

1943: Colin Baker is born. He played the sixth doctor on Doctor Who. His Doctor really took the whole "smug douchebag" thing and ran with it.

"Quiet, Peri! I'm being smug!"

1944: Boz Scaggs is born.

1948: Milton Berle hosts the premiere of Texaco Star Theater.1950: Sonia Braga is born.1951: Bonnie Tyler is born. She did all those big rock ballads that were written by the guy who wrote all of Meatloaf's big rock ballads.

1955: Tim Berners-Lee is born. He is credited with inventing the World Wide Web.1955: Griffin Dunne is born. He plays the guy who gets killed by a werewolf in An American Werewolf in London and the virtuous Tommy Kelly in Johnny Dangerously.1957: Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, is born.1959: The submarine USS Barbero and the US Postal Service attempt delivery of mail via Missile Mail. It actually worked quite well, but was still pretty impractical.1962: Nick Rhodes, keyboardist for Duran Duran, is born.

1966: Julianna Margulies is born. She was on ER forever but she was also in the suprisingly-good Ghost Ship.1967: During the Six-Day War, Israel accidentally attacks the USS Liberty, killing 34.1969: The Yankees retire Mickey Mantle's uniform number 7 during Mickey Mantle Day at Yankee Stadium.1979: Derek Trucks is born.

1982: In a speech before a joint session of the British Parliament, President Reagan predicts that Marxism-Leninism will rest on the "ash heap of history."


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.