This Day in History
1811: Venezuela 's independence is formally proclaimed.
1935: The National Labor Relations Act is passed, guaranteeing workers the right to organize and bargain collectively and creating an enforcement agency, the National Labor Relations Board.
1975: Cape Verde becomes independent. Arthur Ashe upsets Jimmy Connors in 4 sets at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, becoming the first African-American man ever to win the tournament.
1988: Pres. Ronald Reagan's attorney general, Edwin Meese, resigns hours after an independent prosecutor's report says he may have violated the law.
Today's Birthdays
1755: Sarah Siddons, actress (Brecon, Brecknockshire, Wales; died 1831)
1781: Sir Stamford Raffles, colonial official and founder of Singapore (Jamaica; died 1826)
1801: David Farragut, Civil War admiral (near Knoxville, TN; died 1870)
1810: P. T. Barnum, showman/entertainment promoter/circus founder (Bethel, CT; died 1891)
1853: Cecil Rhodes, millionaire financier and politician (Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England; died 1902)
1872: Édouard Herriot, statesman and man of letters (Troyes, France; died 1957)
1889: Jean Cocteau, poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, and filmmaker (Maisons-Laffitte, France; died 1963)
1902: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., senator/UN ambassador/diplomat (Nahant, MA; died 1985)
1904: Ernst Mayr, German-trained biologist who extended Darwin's theory of evolution (Kempten, Germany; died 2005)
1911: Georges Pompidou, second president of the Fifth French Republic (Montboudif, France; died 1974)
1934: Katherine Helmond, actress (Galveston, TX)
1936: Shirley Knight, actress (Goessel, KS)
1942: Eliot Feld, dancer (Brooklyn, NY)
1944: Robbie Robertson, guitarist/songwriter and member of The Band (Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
1951: Goose Gossage, baseball pitcher (Colorado Springs, CO). Huey Lewis, singer (New York, NY)
1963: Edie Falco, actor (Brooklyn, NY)
