This Day in History
1807: England's Parliament abolishes the slave trade.
1911: A New York City building containing the Triangle Shirtwaist Co. factory catches fire, killing 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women.
1933: The German Reichstag gives Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers.
1957: Signing a treaty in Rome, six European nations form the European Economic Community, a precursor organization to the European Union.
1975: Saudi Arabia's King Faisal is assassinated by his nephew, Prince Faisal ibn Musad.
1982: Wayne Gretzky becomes the first ice hockey player in the NHL to score 200 points in a season.
2001: The Macedonian military launches a ground offensive against ethnic Albanian rebels.
2003: British forces participating in the invasion of Iraq report the capture of the Gulf port city of Umm Qasr.
Today's Birthdays
1867: Arturo Toscanini, conductor (Parma, Italy; died 1957)
1871: Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mt. Rushmore (Bear Lake, ID; died 1941)
1881: Bela Bartok, composer (Nagyszentmiklos, Hungary; died 1945)
1908: David Lean, director (London, England; died 1991)
1918: Howard Cosell, sportscaster (Winston-Salem, NC; died 1995)
1921: Simone Signoret, actress (France; died 1985)
1928: James Lovell Jr., astronaut, commander of troubled Apollo 13 mission (Cleveland, OH)
1934: Gloria Steinem, author/feminist (Toledo, OH)
1938: Hoyt Axton, country singer/songwriter and actor (Duncan, OK; died 1999)
1942: Aretha Franklin, singer (Memphis, TN). Paul Michael Glaser, actor/director (Cambridge, MA):
1947: Elton John, singer/songwriter/musician (Middlesex, England)
1953: Mary Gross, actress/comedian (Chicago, IL)
1961: John Stockwell, actor/writer/director (Galveston, TX)
1965: Sarah Jessica Parker, actress (Nelsonville, OH)
1966: Tom Glavine, baseball player (Concord, MA)
