On This Day in History

Today is just like any other day, except for some notable occasions. The following people were born:

• 1756 - John MacAdam, road builder (d. 1836)
• 1840 - Murad V, Ottoman sultan (d. 1904)
• 1842 - Abd-ul-Hamid II, Ottoman sultan (d. 1918)
• 1866 - H. G. Wells, science fiction author (d. 1946)
• 1873 - Papa Jack Laine, jazz musician (d. 1966)
• 1874 - Gustav Holst, composer (d. 1934)
• 1906 - Aristotle Onassis, shipping tycoon (d. 1975)
• 1912 - Chuck Jones, animator (d. 2002)
• 1919 - Fazlur Rahman, scholar (d. 1988)
• 1920 - Jay Ward, animator (d. 1988)
• 1931 - Larry Hagman, actor
• 1934 - Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter
• 1935 - Henry Gibson, actor
• 1944 - Fannie Flagg, actress, novelist
• 1945 - Jerry Bruckheimer, film and television producer
• 1946 - Moritz Leuenberger, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• 1947 - Stephen King, author
• 1947 - Marsha Norman, playwright
• 1947 - Donald Felder, musician
• 1949 - Artis Gilmore, basketball star
• 1950 - Bill Murray, actor
• 1950 - Charles Clarke, British politician
• 1953 - Arie Luyendyk, Indianapolis 500 winner
• 1957 - Ethan Coen, film director
• 1959 - Dave Coulier, actor
• 1960 - David James Elliott, actor
• 1961 - Nancy Travis, actress
• 1962 - Rob Morrow, actor
• 1963 - Cecil Fielder, baseball player
• 1966 - Kiefer Sutherland, actor
• 1967 - Faith Hill, country singer
• 1968 - Ricki Lake, actress, talk show hostess
• 1971 - Luke Wilson, actor
• 1975 - Doug Davis, baseball player
• 1980 - Kareena Kapoor, Bollywood actress

And the following events occured:

• 19 BC: The Roman poet Virgil, best known for his national epic the Aeneid, died.
• 1435: In the French kingdom, the Treaty of Arras was signed, ending the long quarrel between Duke Philip of Burgundy and King Charles VII.
• 1792: French Revolution: The National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy and the First Republic was proclaimed.
• 1823: According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith received plates of gold from an angel. On these plates were written history and teachings about ancient prophets and peoples; Smith recorded this knowledge in the Book of Mormon, which became accepted as a holy scripture by the Mormon church.
• 1840: While experimenting with gallic acid, a chemical he was informed would increase the sensitivity of his prepared paper, William Henry Fox Talbot discovered that the acid can be used to develop a latent image on paper, leading to a revolution in photography.
• 1897: In response to a child's letter, the New York Sun publishes an editorial that begins, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
• 1898: The Hundred Days' Reform in China was abruptly terminated when Empress Dowager Cixi forced the reform-minded Guangxu Emperor into seclusion and took over the government as regent.
• 1904: Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce Native American chief who led his people on a 1,600 km (1,000 mi) journey to escape the U.S. Army, dies on the Colville Reservation in Washington at about the age of 64.
• 1931:The Bank of England dropped the gold standard, and the pound sterling promptly lost 28 percent of its value, undermining the solvency of countries in eastern Europe and South America.
• 1937: The Hobbit, Oxford University professor J. R. R. Tolkien's tale of Middle Earth, is published.
• 1976: In an assassination widely credited to the secret police of Chile, Chilean opposition leader Orlando Letelier and his American secretary are killed by a car bomb in Washington, D.C.
• 1989: The U.S. Senate confirms President George Bush's appointment of General Colin Powell as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• 2003: After 14 years of flight time and 8 years of service in the Jovian system, Galileo spacecraft's mission was terminated by sending the probe into Jupiter's atmosphere.

Pretty neat stuff to happen on one's birthday, don't you think? Much credit to Wikipedia, Encarta, and Britannica.