This Day in History
1014: In the Battle of Clontarf, an Irish army wins a decisive victory over the Vikings, permanently destroying their power in Ireland.
1908: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt creates the U.S. Army Reserve.
1910: Sicily's Mount Etna erupts.
1956: Elvis Presley made his first appearance in Las Vegas, NV. U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules against racial segregation on intrastate buses.
1964: When the Cincinnati Reds beat the Houston Colt .45s, 1-0, on 2 9th-inning errors, Ken Johnson becomes the first major league baseball pitcher to hurl a complete game no-hitter and lose.
1985: Coca-Cola announces a change in formula to produce New Coke.
1994: Physicists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory announce evidence of the top quark, the last such undiscovered subatomic particle.
1996: Sotheby's begins an auction of some 5,900 items owned by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
2002: Pope John Paul II and U.S. cardinals begin a meeting to discuss the unfolding sex scandals involving Catholic priests in the United States.
Today's Birthdays
1564: William Shakespeare, playwright/poet (Stratford-on-Avon, England; died 1616)
1775: J. M. W. Turner, painter (London, England; died 1851)
1791: James Buchanan, 15th president of the United States (near Mercersburg, PA; died 1868)
1813: Stephen Arnold Douglas, American politician (Brandon, VT; died 1861)
1858: Max Planck, physicist (Kiel, Germany; died 1947)
1891: Serge Prokofiev, composer (Russia; died 1953)
1897: Lester Pearson, Canadian prime minister/diplomat (Toronto, Ontario, Canada; died 1972)
1899: Dame Ngaio Marsh, mystery writer (New Zealand; died 1982). Vladimir Nabokov, novelist (Saint Petersburg, Russia; died 1977)
1921: Janet Blair, actress (Altoona, PA). Warren Spahn, baseball pitcher (Buffalo, NY; died 2003)
1928: Shirley Temple Black, child actress and diplomat (Santa Monica, CA)
1939: David Birney, actor (Washington, D.C.)
1940: Lee Majors, actor (Wyandotte, MI)
1942: Sandra Dee, actress (Bayonne, NJ; died 2005)
1946: Blair Brown, actress (Washington, D.C.)
1949: Joyce DeWitt, actress (Wheeling, WV)
1954: Michael Moore, documentary filmmaker; author (Davison, MI)
1955: Judy Davis, actress (Perth, Australia)
1957: Jan Hooks, actress/comedian (Decatur, GA)
1960: Valerie Bertinelli, actress (Wilmington, DE)
1961: George Lopez, actor/comedian (Mission Hills, CA)
1967: Melina Kanakaredes, actress (Akron, OH)
