This Day in History
1912: New Mexico is admitted to the Union as the 47th state.
1941: In a speech to Congress, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt promulgates the Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and religion and freedom from want and fear.
1967: In the Vietnam War, U.S. and South Vietnamese troops launch a major offensive against the Viet Cong in the Mekong River delta.
1998: The unmanned Lunar Prospector space probe is launched to search for frozen water on the moon.
Today's Birthdays
1367: Richard II, king of England (Bordeaux, France; died 1400)
1412: Joan of Arc, patron saint of France and heroine of the Hundred Years' War (Domrémy, France; died 1431)
1878: Carl Sandburg, poet/biographer (Galesburg, IL; died 1967)
1880: Tom Mix, cowboy actor (Driftwood, PA; died 1940)
1882: Sam Rayburn, American politician (Roane Co., TN; died 1961)
1883: Kahlil Gibran, writer/artist (Bsherri, Lebanon; died 1931)
1896: A. N. Pritzker, billionaire Chicago entrepreneur (Chicago, IL; died 1986)
1911: Joey Adams, comedian (New York, NY; died 1999)
1912: Danny Thomas, actor/comedian and philanthropist (Deerfield, MI; died 1991)
1913: Edward Gierek, Polish Communist leader (Porabka, Poland; died 2001); Loretta Young, actress (Salt Lake City, UT; died 2000)
1915: John Lilly, neurophysiologist who invented the isolation tank (St. Paul, MN; died 2001)
1920: Sun Myung Moon, Korean religious leader and entrepreneur (Sangsa Ri, now in North Korea)
1923: Jacobo Timerman, journalist and critic of the Argentinian military regime in the late 1970s (Bar, Ukraine; died 1999)
1925: John DeLorean, former General Motors engineer who founded his own business to manufacture gull-winged stainless steel sports cars in Northern Ireland (Detroit, MI; died 2005)
1926: Kid Gavilan, professional boxer (Camaguey, Cuba; died 2003)
1931: E. L. Doctorow, novelist (New York, NY)
1937: Lou Holtz, football coach (Follansbee, WV)
1944: Bonnie Franklin, actress (Santa Monica, CA)
1950: Louis Freeh, former FBI director (Jersey City, NJ)
1955: Rowan Atkinson, comedian/actor (Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England)
1956: Anthony Minghella, director (Isle of Wight, England)
1957: Nancy Lopez, golfer (Torrance, CA)
1958: George Jackson, president and chief executive of Motown Records (New York, NY; died 2000)
1968: John Singleton, director/screenwriter (Los Angeles, CA)
