This Day In History
1896: Utah is admitted to the Union
as the 45th state.
1964: Pope Paul
VI becomes the first pope to leave Italy
since 1809 when he flies to Jordan
and Israel.
1965: In his
State of the Union message, Pres. Lyndon Johnson outlines the Great Society
program.
1974: Pres.
Richard Nixon rejects subpoenas issued by the Senate Watergate Committee for
White House tapes and documents.
1980: Pres. Jimmy
Carter announces economic sanctions against the Soviet Union in retaliation for
the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
1995: When the
104th Congress opens, Bob Dole (R, KS) becomes Senate majority leader and Newt
Gingrich (R, GA) becomes House speaker.
2004: An Afghan
grand council, or loyal jirga, approves a new constitution.
2006: Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffers a major stroke; Deputy PM Ehud Olmert
assumes powers.
Today's Birthdays
1643: Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and
physicist who was the central figure in the scientific revolution of the 17th
century. (Woolsthorpe, near Grantham,
England; died
1727)
1785: Jacob
Grimm, folklorist and coauthor of Grimm's Fairy Tales (Hanau, Germany; died 1863)
1809: Louis
Braille, inventor of touch system of reading/writing for the blind (Coupvray,
France; died 1852)
1838: Gen. Tom
Thumb (Charles Stratton), midget entertainer (Bridgeport, CT; died 1883)
1914: Jane Wyman,
actress (St. Joseph, MO)
1920: William
Colby, director of U.S.
central intelligence (St. Paul, MN; died 1996)
1930: Barbara
Rush, actress (Denver, CO);
Don Shula, football player and coach (Paineville,
OH)
1935: Floyd
Patterson, champion boxer (Waco,
NC; died 2006)
1937: Dyan
Cannon, actress (Tacoma, WA)
1940: Gao
Xingjian, Chinese-born French novelist, playwright, painter, and Nobel laureate
(Ganzhou, China)
1943: Doris
Kearns Goodwin, historian and TV commentator (Rockville Centre, NY)
1957: Patty
Loveless, actress (Pikeville,
KY)
1960: Michael
Stipe, singer (Decatur, GA)
1963: Dave Foley,
actor (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
1965: Julia
Ormond, actress (Epsom, England)
