This Day in History
1788: Connecticut enters the Union
as the fifth of the original 13 states.
1793: French
aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard makes the first balloon ascent in America at Philadelphia.
1861: Mississippi secedes from the Union.
1909: British
explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, commanding the first announced attempt to
reach the South Pole, comes within a record-breaking 156 km (97 mi) of his
goal.
1945: In World War II, U.S.
troops invade Luzon to begin their final push to retake the Philippines.
1964: Following
anti-U.S. riots in the Canal Zone, Panama
suspends relations with the United
States.
1968: The
Surveyor 7 space probe makes a successful soft landing on the moon.
1987: The White
House releases a 1986 memo showing a link between the U.S. sale of arms to Iran
and the release of Americans taken hostage in Lebanon.
2005: Palestinian
voters elect Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as
president of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Today's Birthdays
1859: Carrie Chapman
Catt, women's rights leader (Ripion, WI; died 1947)
1878: John B.
Watson, behavioral psychologist (Greenville, SC; died 1958)
1898: Gracie
Fields, music-hall comedienne (Rochdale, Lancashire, England; died 1979)
1901: Chic Young,
cartoonist and creator of Blondie (Chicago, IL; died 1973)
1902: Sir Rudolph
Bing, impresario (Vienna, Austria; died 1997)
1908: Simone de
Beauvoir, novelist/essayist (France; died 1986)
1913: Richard
Nixon, 37th president of the United
States (Yorba Linda, CA; died 1994)
1920: Joao Cabral
de Melo Neto, poet (Recife, Brazil; died 1999)
1928: Judith
Krantz, novelist (New York,
NY)
1934: Bart Starr,
football quarterback (Montgomery,
AL)
1935: Bob Denver,
actor (New Rochelle, NY; died 2005)
1941: Joan Baez,
singer and political activist (Staten
Island, NY)
1942: Susannah
York, actress (London, England)
1951: Crystal
Gayle, country singer (Paintsville,
KY)
1967: Steve
Harwell, singer for Smash Mouth (Santa Clara, CA); Dave Matthews, rock singer-musician (Johannesburg, South Africa)
1978: A.J.
McLean, Back Street Boys singer (West
Palm Beach, FL)
