This Day in History
1500: The Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first known European to reach Brazil , landing near the site of present-day Recife.
1788: The first settlers, mostly a shipload of convicts, arrive in Australia from Britain .
1837: Michigan is admitted to the Union as the 26th state.
1939: At the end of the Spanish Civil War, Barcelona falls to the Nationalist forces of Gen. Francisco Franco .
1950: The Indian republic is formally proclaimed.
1957: India declares the state of Kashmir to be an integral part of the Indian Republic.
1971: Charles Manson and 3 of his followers are found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1969 slaying of actress Sharon Tate and 6 others.
1996: The Senate approves START II, ratifying the disarmament treaty signed 3 years earlier. Responding to a subpoena, Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury investigating Whitewater, the first time a first lady has ever done so.
2001: An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale strikes the Indian state of Gujurat, killing more than 20,000 people.
2003: In football , the Tampa Bay Buccaneers trounce the Oakland Raiders 48-21 to win Super Bowl XXXVII, their first championship.
Today's Birthdays
1880: Douglas MacArthur, World War II general (Little Rock, AR; died 1964)
1905: Baroness Maria Von Trapp, guiding force behind the Trapp Family Singers (Vienna, Austria; died 1987)
1908: Stephane Grappelli, violinist known for his masterful jazz improvisations (Paris, France; died 1997)
1913: Jimmy Van Heusen, songwriter (Syracuse, NY; died 1990)
1918: Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian political leader (Oltenia, Romania; died 1989)
1921: Akio Morita, cofounder of Sony Corp. (Nagoya, Japan; died 1999)
1925: Paul Newman, actor/director (Cleveland, OH)
1927: Jose Simon Azcona del Hoyo, president of Honduras instrumental in negotiating peace accords in neighboring Central American countries (La Ceiba, Honduras; died 2005)
1928: Roger Vadim, filmmaker (Paris, France; died 2000)
1929: Jules Feiffer, cartoonist (New York, NY)
1935: Bob Uecker, baseball player and sportscaster (Milwaukee, WI)
1942: Scott Glenn, actor (Pittsburgh, PA)
1944: Angela Davis, political activist (Birmingham, AL)
1946: Gene Siskel, film critic (Chicago, IL; died 1999)
1950: David Strathairn, actor (San Francisco, CA)
1957: Eddie Van Halen, musician (Nijmegan, Netherlands)
1958: Anita Baker, singer (Toledo, OH). Ellen DeGeneres, actress (Metairie, LA)
1961: Wayne Gretzky, hockey player (Brantford, Ontario, Canada)
1977: Vince Carter, basketball player (Daytona Beach, CA)
