1346: Charles IV of Luxembourg is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
1616: Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.
1735: Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit to become the eighth planet for the last time until 1979.
1767: John Quincy Adams is born.
1796: The US takes possession of Detroit from Britain.1798: The US Marine Corps is re-established after being disbanded after the American Revolution.
1804: Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounds Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
1859: Charles Dickens publishes A Tale of Two Cities.1864: Confederate forces attempt an invasion of Washington, DC.
1889: Tiajuana, Mexico is founded.
1892: Thomas Mitchell is born. He played Uncle Billy in It's A Wonderful Life and Pat Garrett in The Outlaw. He's also one of the few people to have won the triple crown of performing awards - Oscar, Emmy and Tony.
1897: Bull Connor is born. He was a police official in Birmingham, AL and a member of the KKK. He rose to national notoriety when images of his use of fire hoses and attack dogs on civil rights protesters were broadcast nationwide.
1897: Salomon August Andree leaves Spitsbergen, Norway in an attempt to reach the North Pole via hydrogen balloon. The attempt was unsuccessful and would result in his death - his body wouldn't be found until 1930, though.
1899: E.B. White, author of Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web is born.
1913: Titan of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Cordwainer Smith is born. I love his stories because they just toss you into the universe and expect you to figure it out on your own from context. No dreary crawl or turgid chunks of exposition. Two of his short stories, Scanners Live in Vain and Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons, are available online. Upon rereading them, I just noticed that Scanners Live in Vain contains early examples of SMS language and Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons has early examples of LOLspeak.
1914: Babe Ruth makes his Major League debut as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.1921: Former President William Howard Taft is sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, becoming the only person to have served in both positions.
1920: Yul Brynner is born.1921: Outer Mongolia becomes independent of China
1922: The Hollywood Bowl opens.
1931: Tab Hunter is born. He was a B-list screen idol of the 50's and 60's, but he was also gay. I remember him best as the wicked fake priest who kidnaps a secretary in order to steal $2 million in the MST3K episode San Francisco International.
1936: The Triborough Bridge opens in New York City.
1940: The Nazi puppet state of Vichy France is formally established.1944: FDR announces that he is running for a fourth term.
1950: Bruce McGill is born. He's played bad guys and ne'er-do-wells in countless movies, including two separate turns as timehopping corrupt military types in Timecop and Star Trek: Voyager.
1953: Mindy Sterling is born. She is most famous for playing Frau Farbissina in the Austin Powers movies, but she's been working steadily since the 1970's. 
1955: The phrase In God We Trust is added to all US currency.1956: Sela Ward is born. She played the doomed wife of Dr. Richard Kimble in the movie version of The Fugitive.
1959: Richie Sambora, guitarist for Bon Jovi, is born.1960: Harper Lee publishes To Kill A Mockingbird.
1964: Craig Charles is born. He played the slovenly Dave Lister on Red Dwarf.1979: Skylab breaks up in the Earth's atmosphere and crashes in the Indian Ocean and Australia.
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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