1576: The cornerstone for Tycho Brahe's Uraniborg observatory is laid on Hven.
1585: John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in a quest for the Northwest Passage.1588: At the Battle of Gravelines, the Spanish Armada is defeated, ending Spain's hopes for the conquest of England.
1786: Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border is climbed for the first time by Jacques Balmat and Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard.
1794: Joseph Whidbey and George Vancouver lead an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska.1863: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt).
1863: Tennessee's "military" Gov. Andrew Johnson frees his personal slaves. During the early 20th century, the day was celebrated by blacks in Tennessee as a holiday.
1876: Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.
1908: Wilbur Wright makes his first flight at a racecourse at Le Mans, France. It's the Wright Brothers' first public flight and the French public goes wild.
1910: The US Army installs the first tricycle landing gear on the Army's Wright Flyer.
1910: Silvia Sidney is born. She played Juno in Beetle Juice and the old lady who accidentally discovers the Martians' weakness in Mars Attacks!
1919: Dino De Laurentiis is born. He's spent more money making bad movies than Roger Corman and Ted V. Mikels combined, but he's also done some good movies like Conan the Barbarian and Serpico. His trick is to buy the rights to books and then sit on the rights until he's ready to make a movie.
1920: Jimmy Witherspoon, bluesman, is born.1921: Another bad movie titan, William Asher is born. His contribution to the bad movie genre is smaller than Dino's but no less important: with the exception of 1987's Back to the Beach, he directed every Frankie & Annette beach movie ever made. That is, for those keeping score at home, Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Beach Blanket Bingo, and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. God help me, I knew that from memory.
1921: Rory Calhoun is born.
1929: Ronnie Biggs is born. He was one of the few criminals to get away from The Great Train Robbery in 1963.
1911: The millionth patent is filed in the United States Patent Office by Francis Holton for a tubeless vehicle tire.1929: The German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight.
1937: Dustin Hoffman is born.1938: Connie Stevens is born. Hey, speaking of the Beach Movies, she played the blonde femme fatale who tries to seduce Frankie away from Annette in Back to the Beach. Needless to say, she was unsuccessful.
1942: Six convicted Nazi saboteurs who had landed in the United States were executed in Washington, D.C.1945: The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and commenced the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.
1947: Larry Wilcox is born. He played Jon on CHiPs.
1949: Another B-movie stalwart, Keith Carradine is born. He's been in lots of things, but one of his best roles was as Frankenstein in Death Race 2000.
1953: Donny Most is born. He played Ralph Mouth on Happy Days. The last thing I saw him in was this oddball video on how to change your oil that was on at 4 am back when I was working nights.
1956: Chris Norman, guitarist for Madness, is born.
1961: The Edge, guitarist for U2, is born.
1961: Rikki Rocket, guitarist for Poison, is born.
1963: The Great Train Robbery takes place. In England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal 2.6 million pounds in bank notes.
1973: Vice President Spiro Agnew goes on television to denounce accusations he had taken kickbacks while governor of Maryland.
1974: President Richard Nixon announces his resignation, effective the next day.
1988: The lights are turned on at Wrigley Field for the first time, making it the last major league stadium to host night games. (The game, against the Philadelphia Phillies, is rained out after three-and-a-half innings.)1990: Iraq occupies Kuwait and the state is annexed to Iraq. This would lead to the Gulf War shortly afterward.
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.
