This Day in History
1587: Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, is beheaded in England on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I.
1904: The Russo-Japanese War begins with a surprise attack by the Japanese navy on the Russian fleet in Port Arthur, Manchuria.
1910: The Boy Scouts of America is founded.
1955: Soviet premier Georgy Malenkov, who succeeded Joseph Stalin , is forced out of office.
1963: Iraqi president Karim Kassem is overthrown in a Baathist coup and assassinated the next day.
1974: The final Skylab space mission ends after its 3-man crew returns to earth.
1986: A woman in New York dies after taking Tylenol capsules found to be laced with cyanide.
2001: Final results from the 2000 presidential election show that President George W. Bush captured 47.87% of the popular vote to Democratic nominee Al Gore's 48.38%.
Today's Birthdays
1820: William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War general (Lancaster, OH; died 1891)
1828: Jules Verne, science fiction writer (Nantes, France; died 1905)
1851: Kate Chopin, novelist/short-story writer (St. Louis, MO; died 1904)
1925: Jack Lemmon, actor (Boston, MA; died 2001)
1931: James Dean, actor (Fairmont, IN; died 1955)
1932: John Williams, composer/conductor/pianist (New York, NY)
1940: Ted Koppel, TV journalist (Lancashire, England). Nick Nolte, actor (Omaha, NE):
1942: Robert Klein, comedian/actor (New York, NY)
1953: Mary Steenburgen, actress (Newport, AR)
1955: John Grisham, novelist (Jonesboro, AR)
1968: Gary Coleman, actor (Zion, IL)
1970: Alonzo Mourning, basketball player (Chesapeake, VA)
