This Day in History
1768: The first Chamber of Commerce in the United States is founded in New York City .
1792: George Washington casts the first presidential veto, concerning representative apportionment among the states.
1794: Georges Jacques Danton, a leader of the French Revolution , is sent to the guillotine by more radical leaders.
1795: Prussia and a number of allied Germanic states conclude the Treaty of Basel with the revolutionary French government.
1799: During the Napoleonic Wars , Austrians defeat the French in the battle of Magnano in Italy .
1818: With the defeat of a Spanish army at Maipú, Chilean independence is assured.
1862: During the American Civil War , the month-long seige of Yorktown, Virginia by Union forces under Gen. George B. McClellan begins.
1915: Boxer Jess Willard defeats the Jack Johnson, world heavyweight champion, in Havana, in a fight that lasts 26 rounds (1 hr 44 min).
1917: In World War I , the Germans complete their strategic retreat along the Western Front to the Hindenburg Line.
1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death for espionage.
1955: Winston Churchill resigns as prime minister of Great Britain .
1972: The 11-week trial of the "Harrisburg 7," activists against the Vietnam War , ends in a mistrial.
1999: Russell Henderson pleads guilty in the 1998 beating death of gay student Matthew Shepard.
Today's Birthdays
1588: Thomas Hobbes, philosopher/political theorist (England; died 1679)
1732: Jean-Honoré Fragonard, painter (France; died 1806)
1827: Joseph Lister, physician who founded aseptic surgery (Upton, Essex, England; died 1912)
1837: Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (London, England; died 1909)
1856: Booker T. Washington, black educator/social reformer and author (Franklin County, VA; died 1915)
1900: Spencer Tracy, actor (Milwaukee, WI; died 1967)
1908: Bette Davis, actress (Lowell, MA; died 1989)
1916: Gregory Peck, actor (La Jolla, CA; died 2003)
1920: Arthur Hailey, author (Luton, England; died 2004)
1922: Gale Storm, actress (Bloomington, TX)
1926: Roger Corman, filmmaker (Detroit, MI)
1929: Nigel Hawthorne, actor (Coventry, England; died 2002)
1934: Frank Gorshin, actor/comedian (Pittsburgh, PA; died 2005)
1937: Colin Powell, secretary of state (New York, NY)
1941: Michael Moriarty, actor (Detroit, MI)
1949: Judith Resnick, astronaut who died in the Challenger explosion (Akron, OH; died 1986)
1968: Paula Cole, musician (Manchester, CT)
1973: Pharrell Williams, musician (Virginia Beach, VA)
