This Day in History
1835: The first issue of the New York Herald newspaper is published by James Bennett.
1915: Babe Ruth hits his first major league homer for the Boston Red Sox baseball team in a game against the NY Yankees.
1935: The New Deal's Works Progress Administration is instituted.
1937: The dirigible Hindenburg explodes while landing in New Jersey after a transatlantic flight, killing 36 people.
1942: In World War II, the Japanese take Corregidor in the Philippines.
1954: Roger Bannister runs the first sub-4 minute mile.
1994: The Channel Tunnel , linking England and France, is inaugurated.
2003: Retired diplomat L. Paul Bremer 3rd is named civilian administrator in Iraq.
Today's Birthdays
1758: Maximilien Robespierre, a leader during the French Revolution and Reign of Terror (France; died 1794)
1856: Sigmund Freud, psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis (Freiburg, Moravia; died 1939). Robert E. Peary, Arctic explorer and discoverer of the North Pole (Cresson, PA; died 1920)
1895: Rudolph Valentino, actor (Castellaneta, Italy; died 1926)
1904: Harry Edmund Martinson, Swedish author and Nobel laureate (Jämshög, Sweden; died 1978)
1913: Stewart Granger, actor (London, England; died 1993)
1914: Randall Jarrell, poet/novelist/critic (Nashville, TN; died 1965)
1915: Orson Welles, actor/director (Kenosha, WI; died 1985). Theodore H. White, journalist/author (Boston, MA; died 1986)
1931: Willie Mays, baseball player (Westfield, AL)
1945: Bob Seger, singer/songwriter (Ann Arbor, MI)
1953: Tony Blair, British prime minister (Edinburgh, Scotland)
1959: Mare Winningham, actress (Phoenix, AZ)
1960: Roma Downey, actress (Derry, Northern Ireland)
1961: George Clooney, actor (Lexington, KY)
