This Day in History
1776: In the Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington loses the Battle of Long Island.
1859: The first commercially productive oil well is drilled near Titusville, PA.
1950: Under Pres. Harry Truman's order, the Army seizes all the railroads to prevent a general strike.
1999: The Russian space station Mir is vacated by its last crew. Scientists report finding the first liquid water in an object from space, a meteorite that fell to earth in Monahans, TX, in 1998.
2003: China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Russia and the U.S. begin three days of talks in Beijing over North Korea's nuclear activities.
Today's Birthdays
1770: Georg W. F. Hegel, philosopher (Germany; died 1831)
1871: Theodore Dreiser, novelist (Terre Haute, IN; died 1945)
1890: Man Ray, artist (Philadelphia, PA; died 1976)
1908: Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th president of the United States (near Stonewall, TX; died 1973)
1910: Mother Teresa, nun and founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity (Skopje, Macedonia; died 1997)
1916: Martha Raye, actress/ comedian/singer (Butte, MT; died 1994)
1929: Ira Levin, novelist/playwright (New York, NY)
1942: Daryl Dragon, musician/singer and member of the Captain & Tennille (Studio City, CA)
1943: J. Robert Kerrey, former NE senator and governor (Lincoln, NE). Tuesday Weld, actress (New York, NY)
1952: Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens), actor (Peekskill, NY)
1970: Jim Thome, baseball player (Peoria, IL)
1976: Sarah Chalke, actress (Ottawa, Canada)
