This Day in History
1707: England and Scotland unite to form Great Britain.
1739: John Wesley and a group of his followers, meeting in London, England, form the first Methodist society.
1840: Great Britain releases the world's first officially issued adhesive postage stamp , a one-penny denomination universally referred to as the Penny Black.
1862: In the Civil War, Union forces take New Orleans, LA.
1898: During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. naval fleet under George Dewey destroys the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the Philippines.
1931: The Empire State Building opens in New York City.
1960: A U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane is shot down over the Soviet Union, and pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured.
1971: Amtrak, established by Congress the previous year, takes over operation of most intercity passenger trains.
1986: Proceedings of the U.S. Senate are televised for the first time.
1991: Baseball player Rickey Henderson breaks the all-time record of 938 career steals set by Lou Brock.
2003: Speaking from the deck of an aircraft carrier, Pres. George W. Bush declares major combat operations in Iraq over.
Today's Birthdays
1218: Rudolf I, German king and Holy Roman emperor (Limburg, Germany; died 1291)
1672: Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet, and statesman (Milston, Wiltshire, England; died 1719)
1769: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, general, statesman, and prime minister (Dublin, Ireland; died 1852)
1830: Mary Harris Jones (Mother Jones), labor leader (Cork, Ireland; died 1930)
1852: Martha Jane Burke (Calamity Jane), frontier adventuress/Indian fighter (Princeton, MO; died 1903)
1881: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Roman Catholic priest, geologist, paleontologist, and philosopher-theologian (Clermont-Ferrand, France; died 1955)
1909: Kate Smith, singer (Greenville, VA; died 1986)
1916: Glenn Ford, actor (Quebec, Canada)
1918: Jack Paar, TV personality (Canton, OH; died 2004)
1923: Joseph Heller, novelist (Brooklyn, NY; died 1999)
1925: Scott Carpenter, astronaut (Boulder, CO)
1939: Judy Collins, singer (Seattle, WA)
1940: Bobbie Ann Mason, writer (near Mayfield, KY)
1945: Rita Coolidge, singer (Nashville, TN)
1946: John Woo, director (Guangzhau, China)
1960: Steve Cauthen, jockey (Walton, KY)
1962: Bobcat Goldthwait, comedian/actor (Syracuse, NY)
