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1945–Actress, Goldie (Jeanne) Hawn, is born in Washington, D.C. She got her start on the 1960s TV variety series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In. She appeared in the films The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band, Cactus Flower, There’s a Girl in My Soup, Butterflies Are Free, The Sugarland Express, Shampoo, Foul Play, Private Benjamin, Best Friends, Swing Shift, Wildcats, Overboard, Deceived, CrissCross, The First Wives Club, and The Banger Sisters. She was married to musician, Bill Hudson, and their daughter is actress, Kate Hudson.


BC 164–Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.

235–Pope Anterus succeeds Pontian as the 19th pope. During the persecutions of Emperor Maximinus Thrax he is martyred.

1386–Timur of Samarkand captures and sacks the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, taking King Bagrat V of Georgia captive.

1620–Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact.

1676–Danish astronomer, Ole Rømer, presents the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.

1694–Writer, Voltaire, is born François-Marie Arouet in Paris, France. He abandoned the study of the law to become a writer, first of classical tragedies, then of epic poetry and satire. After being imprisoned in the Bastille for his liberal opinions on religion, he ended up settling in Switzerland, where he wrote his best known work, Candide.

1695–Composer, Henry Purcell, dies of tuberculosis in Westminster, England, at age 36. One of the greatest Baroque composers, he is known for his opera Dido and Aeneas and his semi-operas The Fairy Queen and The Tempest.

1766–The first permanent theater building in America, the Southwerk Theater, opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1783–Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes make the first untethered hot air balloon flight in Paris, France.

1787–Shipping magnate, Samuel Cunard, is born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He founded the Cunard Line.

1789–North Carolina ratifies the U.S. Constitution and is admitted as the 12th state in the United States of America.

1832–Wabash College is founded in Crawfordsville, Indiana.

1834–Businesswoman and financier, Henrietta Green, known as the Witch of Wall Street, is born Henrietta Howland Robinson in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She was considered "the richest woman in America" during the Gilded Age. Known for both her wealth and her miserliness, she was the lone woman to amass a fortune when other major financiers were men. Estimates of her net worth ranged from $100 million to $200 million ($2.17 billion to $4.35 billion in 2016).

1860–Old West scout, Pinkerton agent, bounty hunter, cowboy, and soldier, Tom Horn, is born Thomas Horn, Jr., in Scotland County, Missouri. Horn was hired by the U.S. Cavalry during the Apache Wars as a civilian scoutand interpreter at age 16. He quickly rose through the ranks, gaining recognition for his covert support of troops in battle. Horn worked as a prospector, ranch hand, and in rodeo, but he is best known for his work as a cowboy and hired gun, protecting herds from rustling in the Johnson County War and the Colorado Range War.

1877–Thomas A. Edison announces the invention of his phonograph.

1888–Comedian-actor, Harpo Marx, is born Adolph Marx in New York, New York City. His signature costume was a trench coat and a horn, which he acquired when he and his brothers worked on the vaudeville circuit. He was a central figure in the Algonquin Circle, which included Dorothy Parker and Harold Ross.

1894–Port Arthur, China, falls to the Japanese, a decisive victory of the First Sino-Japanese War, after which Japanese troops are accused of the massacre of the remaining inhabitants of the city.

1898–Surrealist artist, René Magritte, is born in Belgium.

1902–The Philadelphia Football Athletics defeated the Kanaweola Athletic Club of Elmira, New York, 39-0, in the first ever professional American football game held at a night.

1904–Tenor sax player, Coleman Hawkins, is born. He would pioneer the use of tenor sax in jazz, and provide a seminal influence in the style of John Coltrane.

1905–Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?" is published in the journal Annalen der Physik. This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass.

1910–Sailors on board Brazil's most powerful military units, including the brand-new warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo, and Bahia, violently rebel in what is now known as the Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Lash).

1910–Writer, Leo Tolstoy, dies of pneumonia at age 82.

1916–Mines from SM U-73 sink the HMHS Britannic, the largest ship lost in World War I.

1918–The Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence activists, is formally adopted as the national flag of the Republic of Estonia.

1918–A pogrom takes place in Lwów (present-day Lviv) over three days, At least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians are killed by Poles.

1920–The Irish Republican Army shoots 14 British agents dead, in what becomes known as the country’s first “Bloody Sunday.”

1922–Rebecca Latimer Felton, of Georgia, takes the oath of office, becoming the first female U.S. Senator.

1924–Politician, Milka Planinc, is born Milka Malada in Drnis, Yugoslavia (present-day Croatia). She was the seventh Prime Minister of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

1927–In the Columbine Mine massacre, striking coal miners are allegedly attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police dressed in civilian clothes.

1929–Surrealist artist, Salvador Dali, has his first art exhibit.

1933–Country singer, Jean Shepard, is born Ollie Imogene Shepard in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. She is known as a honky-tonk singer-songwriter who was a pioneer for women in country music. Shepard released a total of 73 singles to the Hot Country Songs chart.

1938–Pianist and composer, Leopold Godowsky, dies of stomach cancer in New York, New York, at age 68. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing.

1940–Musician, Dr. John, is born Malcolm John Rebennack in New Orleans, Louisiana.

1942–The Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is completed, but the highway is not usable by general vehicles until 1943.

1943–American Rodeo Champion, Larry Mahon, is born in Salem, Oregon. Mahan started his professional rodeo career at age 14. He held the title of World All-Around Rodeo Champion for five consecutive years from 1966 to 1970, winning again in 1973. He was also the World Bull Riding Champion in 1965 and 1967. His comeback and competition with Phil Lyne in 1973, inspired the documentary The Great American Cowboy, which won the Academy Award.

1944–A chart topper: The Trolley Song by Judy Garland.

1945–The United Auto Workers strike 92 General Motors plants in 50 cities to back up worker demands for a 30% pay hike.

1945–Humorist, newspaper columnist, and actor, Robert Benchley, dies of cirrhosis of the liver in New York, New York, at age 56. He is best known for his often humorous, even absurd, articles in The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. His film, How to Sleep, won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject in 1935. He appeared in the films Foreign Correspondent, Hired Wife, The Relunctant Dragon, Nice Girl?, You’ll Never Get Rich, The Major and the Minor, and The Sky’s the Limit.

1945–Actress, Goldie (Jeanne) Hawn, is born in Washington, D.C. She got her start on the 1960s TV variety series Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In. She appeared in the films The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band, Cactus Flower, There’s a Girl in My Soup, Butterflies Are Free, The Sugarland Express, Shampoo, Foul Play, Private Benjamin, Best Friends, Swing Shift, Wildcats, Overboard, Deceived, CrissCross, The First Wives Club, and The Banger Sisters. She was married to musician, Bill Hudson, and their daughter is actress, Kate Hudson.

1948–Lonnie Jordan, founding member of War, is born in San Diego, California.

1950–Two Canadian National Railway trains collide in northeastern British Columbia in the Canoe River train crash: 21 people are killed (17 of them Canadian troops bound for Korea).

1953–The Natural History Museum in London, England, announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax.

1956–Actress, Cherry Jones, is born in Paris, Tennessee. She is best known for the role of President Allison Taylor on the TV series 24. She appeared in the films include Light of Day, The Big Town, The Horse Whisperer, Erin Brockovich, The Perfect Storm, Signs, The Village, Ocean's Twelve, and Amelia.

1959–Disc jockey, Alan Freed, who had popularized the term "rock and roll" and music of that style, is fired from WABC-AM radio in New York City for refusing to deny allegations that he had participated in the payola scandal.

1960–Beatle, George Harrison, is deported from Hamburg, Germany, for being underage and ineligible to work in a nightclub after midnight. Kaiserkeller owner, Bruno Koschmider, may have alerted the police to George’s status as a means of retaliating against The Beatles for defecting to the new Top Ten Club. George has to return home alone, spending all the money he has to make it back to Liverpool, England. The Beatles carry on, and perform at the Kaiserkeller Club, without George.

1961–The "La Ronde," the first revolving restaurant in America, opens in Honolulu, Hawaii.

1962–The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War.

1963–President John F. Kennedy flies to Texas.

1963–Questions come up in the House of Commons about The Beatles. A conservative MP asks the home secretary whether the popular group should still be allowed police protection from their screaming fans.

1964–The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opens to traffic in New York. It connects the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. The bridge spans the Narrows, a body of water connecting the relatively protected upper bay with the larger, wide open lower bay.

1964–The third session of the Roman Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.

1964–B.B. King records Everyday I Have the Blues.

1967–In regard to the Vietnam War, American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."

1968–Yoko Ono has a miscarriage and John Lennon stays with her at Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital in Hammersmith, London, England. John has a Nagra tape recorder sent to the hospital so he can record the last heartbeats of his son, who is named John Ono Lennon II. John sleeps in a spare hospital bed, but when the bed is needed for a patient, he sleeps on the floor. A photograph of John and Yoko in the hospital will later be used for the front album cover of their second album, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions.

1969–The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.

1969–In Washinton, D.C., President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.

1970–In Operation Ivory Coast, a joint U.S. Air Force and Army team raids the So’n Tay prisoner-of-war camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.

1971–Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.

1972–Voters in South Korea overwhelmingly approve a new constitution, giving legitimacy to Park Chung-hee and the Fourth Republic.

1974–The Birmingham pub bombings kill 21 people in England. The Birmingham Six are sentenced to life in prison for the crime, but subsequently are acquitted.

1977–Minister of Internal Affairs, Allan Highet, announces that the national anthems of New Zealand will be the traditional anthem God Save the Queen and God Defend New Zealand, by Thomas Bracken (lyrics) and John Joseph Woods (music), both being of equal status as appropriate to the occasion.

1979–The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four people.

1980–A deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise, Nevada, (now Bally's Las Vegas). Eighty-seven people are killed and more than 650 are injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history.

1980–The TV series, Dallas, airs its “Who Shot JR?” episode. An estimated 82 million people, 80% of all viewers, watched the show.

1985–U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, Jonathan Pollard, is arrested for spying, after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

1986–National Security Council member, Oliver North (and his secretary), start to shred documents allegedly implicating them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1986–Stuntman and actor, Dar Robinson, dies during a motorcycle stunt in in Page, Arizona, at age 39. Robinson's stunts were always well planned, and he never broke a bone in his 19-year Hollywood career. He appeared in the films Papillon, The Towering Inferno, Rollerball, Logan’s Run, Firstborn, Turk 182!, and Lethal Weapon.

1992–A major tornado strikes the Houston, Texas, area during the afternoon. Over the next two days, over 100 other tornadoes are spawned.

1993–Actor, Bill Bixby, dies of prostate cancer in Century City, California, at age 59. He is best known for his starring roles in the TV shows My Favorite Martian, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and The Incredible Hulk. He appeared in the films Irma la Douce, Ride Beyond Vengeance, Under the Yum Yum Tree, Doctor, You’ve Got to Be Kidding, Clambake, Speedway, and The Apple Dumpling Gang.

1995–The Dayton Agreement is initialed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1996–Thirty-three people are killed when a shoe shop esplodes in Humberto Vidal, in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico.

1998–Ocarina of Time, one of the most successful and influential video games of all time, is released in Japan.

1999–Writer and raconteur, Quentin Crisp, dies of a heart attack in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England, at age 90. From a conventional suburban background, Crisp grew up with feminine tendencies exemplified by his make-up and painted nails. He then spent 30 years as a professional model for life classes in art colleges. He wrote the book The Naked Civil Servant.

2001–Actor, Gardner McKay, dies of prostate cancer in Hawaii Kai, Hawaii, at age 69. He was cast in two TV series: Boots and Saddles and Adventures in Paradise. He appeared in the films Raintree County, Holiday for Lovers, the Right Approach, and The Pleasure Seekers. McKay left Hollywood to pursue his interest in photography, sculpture, and writing. He exhibited his sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, besides holding individual exhibitions. He taught writing classes at the University of California at Los Angeles, University of Southern California, University of Alaska, and the University of Hawaii.

2002–Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia are invited to become members of NATO.

2004–The island of Dominica is hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island sustains the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. It is also felt in neighboring Guadeloupe, where one person is killed.

2004–The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq's external debt.

2006–Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP, Pierre Gemayel, is assassinated in suburban Beirut.

2009–A mine explosion in Heilongjiang province, northeastern China, kills 108 people.

2012–At least 28 people are wounded after a bomb is thrown onto a bus in Tel Aviv.

2012–Actress, Deborah Raffin, dies of leukemia in Los Angeles, California, at age 59. She appeared in the films 40 Carats, Once Is Not Enough, Nightmare in Badham County, The Sentinel, Claudia, Death Wish III, and Night of the Fox.

2013–Massive protests begin in Ukraine, after President Viktor Yanukovych suspends signing the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement.

2013–A supermarket roof collapse in Riga, Zolitude, Latvia, killing 54 people.

2014–A stampede in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe, caused by the police firing tear gas, kills at least 11 people and injures 40 others.

2015–The government of Belgium imposes a security lockdown on Brussels, Belgium. It includes the closure of shops, schools, and public transportation, due to information about potential terrorist attacks.

2016–President Evo Morales of Bolivia declares a national emergency due to water shortages caused by a drought.

2016–Concern is raised by the United Nations and human rights groups after Rodrigo Duterte proposes a law in the Philippines that allows jailing children as young as nine years old for certain crimes.

2016–Novelist, playwright, and short story writer, William Trevor, dies in Devon, England.


PHOTOS TOP TO BOTTOM: Voltaire; Harpo Marx; Salvador Dali; Goldie Hawn; George Harrison; the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge; fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada; Dar Robinson; Gardner McKay; and Deborah Raffin.
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