This Day in History
1944: In World War II, Paris is liberated, and Charles de Gaulle leads a parade down the Champs Elysées.
1981: The Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in August 1977, encounters the planet Saturn.
1985: NY Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden, at 20 years, 9 months, becomes the youngest baseball player ever to win 20 games in a season.
1989: Voyager 2 encounters the planet Neptune.
2000: The fledging Somali assembly elects Abdikassim Salad Hassan president, giving the war-torn country its first functioning government in a decade.
Today's Birthdays
1836: Bret Harte, journalist/poet/novelist/short-story writer (Albany, NY; died 1902)
1912: Erich Honecker, East German leader (Neunkirchen, Germany; died 1994)
1913: Walt Kelly, cartoonist and creator of Pogo (Philadelphia, PA; died 1973)
1916: Van Johnson, actor (Newport, RI)
1917: Mel Ferrer, actor (Elberon, NJ)
1918: Leonard Bernstein, composer/conductor (Lawrence, MA; died 1990)
1919: George Wallace, AL governor and presidential candidate (Clio, AL; died 1998)
1930: Sean Connery, actor (Edinburgh, Scotland)
1933: Tom Skerritt, actor (Detroit, MI)
1934: Regis Philbin, TV personality (New York, NY)
1938: Frederick Forsyth, author (Ashford, England)
1946: Rollie Fingers, baseball pitcher (Steubensville, OH)
1949: Gene Simmons, actor-producer (Haifa, Israel)
1949: Martin Amis, writer (Oxford, England)
1954: Elvis Costello, singer/songwriter/musician (London, England)
1958: Tim Burton, director (Burbank, CA)
1961: Billy Ray Cyrus, country singer (Flatwoods, KY)
1962: Yolanda Adams, Gospel singer (Houston, TX)
1964: Blair Underwood, actor (Tacoma, WA)
1966: Albert Belle, baseball player (Shreveport, LA)
1970: Claudia Schiffer, model (Rheinbach, Germany)
1972: Marvin Harrison, football player (Philadelphia, PA)
