This Day in History
1775: Paul Revere and William Dawes make their historic rides to alert American patriots that the British are coming to Concord, MA.
1949: Éire becomes the Republic of Ireland , formally free of allegiance to the British crown and no longer a member of the Commonwealth of Nations .
1906: A huge earthquake and subsequent fires begin in San Francisco , with 500 dying in the earthquake and another 200 in the fires.
1923: New York's venerable Yankee Stadium opens in the Bronx with a Yankee victory.
1942: U.S. planes, led by Gen. James Doolittle, bomb Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
1949: Éire becomes the Republic of Ireland , formally free of allegiance to the British crown and no longer a member of the Commonwealth of Nations .
1949: The republic of India is formally proclaimed.
1983: Much of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon , is destroyed by a bomb, killing at least 60.
Today's Birthdays
1797: Adolphe Thiers, French statesman and historian (Marseille; died 1877)
1819: Franz von Suppé, composer (Split, Dalmatia; died 1995)
1857: Clarence Darrow, attorney (Kinsman, OH; died 1938)
1882: Leopold Stokowski, conductor (London, England; died 1977)
1912: Wendy Barrie, actress (Hong Kong; died 1978)
1922: Barbara Hale, actress (DeKalb, IL)
1924: Henry J. Hyde, U.S. representative (Chicago, IL)
1937: Robert Hooks, actor/director/producer (Washington, D.C.)
1946: Jim ""Catfish"" Hunter, baseball pitcher (Hertford, NC; died 1999). Hayley Mills, actress (London, England)
1947: Dorothy Lyman, actress (Minneapolis, MN). James Woods, actor (Vernal, NJ)
1953: Rick Moranis, actor (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
1956: John James, actor (Minneapolis, MN). Eric Roberts, actor (Biloxi, MS)
1959: Susan Faludi, feminist writer (New York, NY)
1962: Jane Leeves, actress (London, England)
1963: Eric McCormack, actor (Toronto, Canada). Conan O'Brien, TV personality (Brookline, MA)
1967: Maria Bello, actress (Norristown, PA)
1976: Melissa Joan Hart, actress (Smithtown, NY)
1989: Alia Shawkat, actress (Riverside, CA)
