This Day in History
1594: Dutch navigator Willem Barents sails from the Netherlands in search of a northeast passage to Asia.
1900: In the Boer War , the British capture Pretoria.
1933: Congress ratifies the dropping of the gold standard.
1947: Sec. of State George Marshall makes the proposals that come to be known as the Marshall Plan, to extend U.S. aid to war-torn European countries.
1967: Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan begin fighting the so-called Six-Day War.
1968: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D, NY), celebrating presidential primary victories, is fatally shot in a Los Angeles hotel by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
1993: 24 Pakistani UN peacekeepers are killed by Somali rebels.
2004: Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, dies at 93.
Today's Birthdays
1723: Adam Smith, economist/philosopher (Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, Scotland; died 1790)
1878: Francisco Pancho Villa, Mexican guerrilla leader/revolutionary (Hacienda de Rio Grande, San Juan del Rio, Mexico; died 1923)
1883: John Maynard Keynes, economist (Cambridge, England; died 1946)
1887: Ruth Benedict, anthropologist (New York, NY; died 1948)
1895: William Boyd, actor (Hendrysburg, OH; died 1972)
1898: Federico García Lorca, poet and dramatist (Fuente Vaqueros, Spain; died 1936)
1919: Richard Scarry, children's author/illustrator (Boston, MA; died 1994)
1920: Marion Motley, football player (Leesburg, GA; died 1999)
1934: Bill Moyers, TV journalist/author (Hugo, OK)
1939: Margaret Drabble, novelist (Sheffield, Yorkshire, England)
1941: Spalding Gray, performance artist/actor/writer (Barrington, RI; died 2004)
1949: Ken Follett, novelist (Cardiff, Wales)
1956: Kenny G, musician (Seattle, WA)
