1536: The authority of the Pope is declared void in England.
1863: During the Civil War, the first African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts assaults a Confederate battery. The charge in ultimately unsuccessful, but it does prove the fighting mettle of African Americans.
1887: Vidkun Quisling is born.
1895: Machine Gun Kelly is born.
1870: The First Vatican Council decrees the doctrine of Papal Infallibility.1909: Harriet Nelson is born.
1911: Hume Cronyn is born.
1913: Red Skelton is born.1914: The US Congress forms the Aviation Section, US Signal Corps, giving a definite status to aircraft within the Army for the first time.
1918: Nelson Mandela is born.
1921: John Glenn is born.
1925: Adolph Hitler publishes his manifesto Mein Kampf. Like most manifestos, it's an unreadable mess.1929: Screamin' Jay Hawkins is born.
1933: Syd Mead is born. He did vehicle designs for Bladerunner, Tron, Aliens and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (he did the V'Ger design). Here's the flying cop car from Bladerunner.
1937: Hunter S. Thompson is born.
1938: Paul Verhoeven is born. I was going to post a clip from his masterpiece Robocop, but I can't find the DVD anywhere. So just picture Ronny Cox and Miguel Ferrer screaming at each other in a men's room. I wonder if I did something stupid like throw it away. It's maddening!1940: Former Yankees manager Joe Torre is born.
1940: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is nominated for an unprecedented third term in office.1941: Bluesman Lonnie Mack is born.
1941: Martha Reeves of Martha and the Vandellas is born.
1942: The Messerschmitt 262 flies for the first time using only its jets.
1950: Glenn Hughes is born. He was the Leather Man in The Village People.1967: Vin Diesel is born.
1969: After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy drives his car off a bridge into a tidal pond where, some hours later, his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne dies.
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.
