This Day in History
1770: Captain James Cook discovers Australia.
1792: In France, the Legislative Assembly declares war on the Austrian part of the Holy Roman Empire, beginning the series of conflicts known as the French revolutionary wars.
1912: Boston's Fenway Park baseball stadium opens with a Red Sox victory.
1916: Chicago's Wrigley Field baseball stadium opens with a Cubs victory.
1968: Pierre Trudeau is sworn in as prime minister of Canada.
1983: Pres. Ronald Reagan signs a compromise bipartisan bill designed to save Social Security from bankruptcy.
1999: Two teenagers--Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold--kill 12 fellow students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, then kill themselves.
2003: The Chinese goverment admits it has drastically underreported the number of cases of sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), increasing fears of a worldwide epidemic.
Today's Birthdays
121-180: Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (Rome, Italy; died 180)
1808: Napoleon III, French emperor (Paris, France; died 1873)
1889: Adolf Hitler, Nazi dictator who launched World War II and the Holocaust (Braunau am Inn, Austria; died 1945)
1893: Harold Lloyd, film comedian (Burchard, NE; died 1971). Joan Miró, painter (Spain; died 1983)
1908: Lionel Hampton, bandleader/musician (Louisville, KY; died 2002)
1920: John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court justice (Chicago, IL)
1923: Tito Puente, musician (New York, NY; died 2000)
1924: Nina Foch, actress (Leyden, Netherlands)
1931: Lee Hamilton, 9-11 Commission vice-chair; former U.S. rep. from Indiana (Daytona Beach, FL)
1939: George Takei, actor (Los Angeles, CA)
1941: Ryan O'Neal, actor (Los Angeles, CA)
1943: John Eliot Gardiner, orchestra conductor (Fontmell, Dorset, England)
1949: Jessica Lange, actress (Cloquet, MN)
1951: Luther Vandross, singer/songwriter (New York, NY; died 2005)
1964: Andy Serkis, actor (London, England)
1973: Carmen Electra, actress (Cincinnati, OH)
1976: Joey Lawrence, actor (Montgomery, PA)
