Today in History, 10/9

768: Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks.
1003: Leif Erikson lands in L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada, becoming the first European to reach America.
1604: Supernova 1604, the most recent supernova to occur in the Milky Way (at least as far as anyone can tell) occours.1635: Founder of Rhode Island Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he speaks out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.1701: The Collegiate School of Connecticut (later renamed Yale University) is chartered in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
1776: A group of Spanish missionaries settle in present-day San Francisco.
1812: During the War of 1812, in a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships: HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.
1888: The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public.
1899: Bruce Catton is born. He was (and still is) the pre-eminent historian of the Civil War. I found his book on Gettysburg indispensable on a recent trip.1900: Alistair Sim is born. He is best known (to me, at least) for playing Scrooge in the 1951 movie version of A Christmas Carol. Here's the scene where he gets visited by Marley.

1918: Howard Hunt, Watergate conspirator is born.1919: Black Sox scandal: The Cincinnati Reds "win" the World Series.
1923: Fyvush Finkel is born.

1925: Johnny Stompanato is born. He was the bodyguard/enforcer for Mickey Cohen and also Lana Turner's boy toy. While filming Another Time, Another Place, Lana Turner was rumored to be having an affair with her costar, actor Sean Connery. In actuality, there was no evidence of an affair. Nevertheless, one day an enraged Stompanato stormed onto the set and started arguing forcefully with Connery. Finally, Stompanato waved a gun in Connery's face. Connery took away the gun, beat up Stompanato, and kicked him off the set. After Stompanato wound up getting stabbed to death, rumors flew that the mob held Connery responsible; the actor allegedly laid low until it blew over. Come on, Sean Connery knows not to bring a knife to a gun fight.1936: Generators at Boulder Dam (later renamed to Hoover Dam) begin to generate electricity from the Colorado River and transmit it 266 miles to Los Angeles, California.
1936: Brian Blessed is born. He played Prince Vultan the birdman in the 80's version of Flash Gordon.

"Dive!"

1940: During a nighttime air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral in London is hit by a bomb. The bomb was on a time delay and was successfully defused by technicians, saving the structure.1940: John Lennon is born.

1940: Joe Pepitone is born. With 219 taters he is #244 in the top 500 Major Leage Baseball home run hitters.1941: Brian Lamb, founder of C-Span, is born. Wow, Brian Lamb is younger than John Lennon. Anyway, I always liked the way he dealt with crazy people.

1944: John Entwistle, bassist for The Who, is born.

1953: Tony Shalhoub is born. These days he's playing the obsessive-compulsive detective Monk, but he was also great as Ben Geisler in Barton Fink.
1954: Scott Bakula is born.

1954: John O'Hurley is born. He played J. Peterman on Seinfeld.

1964: Guillermo del Toro is born. He directed Hellboy and is working on The Hobbit.
1999: The last flight of the SR-71 Blackbird. The thing first flew in 1964 and it still looks, even today, like it came from 100 years in the future.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.