This Day in History
1847: The U.S. Mormon Battalion arrives in San Diego, CA, having marched 2,000 miles from Iowa to fight in the war against Mexico.
1861: Kansas is admitted to the Union as the 34th state.
1936: The Baseball Hall of Fame is founded in Cooperstown, NY.
1993: Pres. Bill Clinton announces an easing of the ban against homosexuals in the military, a policy of "don't ask, don't tell."
2002: Pres. George W. Bush focuses on terrorism in his first State of the Union speech, and includes Iran , Iraq , and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil."
Today's Birthdays
1688: Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian (Stockholm, Sweden; died 1772)
1700: Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born Swiss scientist (Groningen, Netherlands; died 1782)
1737: Thomas Paine, Revolutionary War leader and author (Thetford, England; died 1809)
1843: William McKinley, 25th president of the United States (Niles, OH; died 1901)
1860: Anton Chekhov, playwright and short-story writer (Tapanrog, Ukraine; died 1904)
1880: W. C. Fields, comedian/actor (Philadelphia, PA; died 1946)
1916: Victor Mature, actor (Louisville, KY; died 1999)
1918: John Forsythe, actor (Penns Grove, NJ)
1923: Paddy Chayefsky, playwright/screenwriter (New York, NY; died 1981)
1927: Edward Abbey, author and environmentalist (Home, PA; died 1989)
1934: Bill Bixby, television actor (San Francisco, CA; died 1993)
1939: Paul Coverdell, Republican GA senator (Des Moines, IA; died 2000). Germaine Greer, feminist writer (Melbourne, Australia)
1945: Tom Selleck, actor (Detroit, MI)
1950: Ann Jillian, actress (Cambridge, MA)
1954: Oprah Winfrey, TV personality (Kosciusko, MS)
1960: Greg Louganis, Olympic champion diver (San Diego, CA)
1968: Edward Burns, actor/director (New York, NY)
1970: Heather Graham, actress (Milwaukee, WI)
1974: Sharif Atkins, actor (Pittsburgh, PA)
1975: Sara Gilbert, actress (Santa Monica, CA)
