This Day in History
1861: Pres. Abraham Lincoln signs a measure creating the first federal income tax, as an emergency wartime measure.
1864: In the Civil War's Battle of Mobile Bay, Union Admiral David Farragut defeats Confederate troops, proclaiming "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!"
1962: Actress Marilyn Monroe dies in Los Angeles from an overdose of sleeping pills.
1974: Tapes are released implicating Pres. Richard Nixon in the Watergate cover-up.
1981: Pres. Ronald Reagan dismisses federal air traffic controllers, who defied a back-to-work order after going on strike days earlier.
Today's Birthdays
1850: Guy de Maupassant, short-story writer/novelist (France; died 1893)
1876: Mary Beard, historian (Indianapolis, IN; died 1958)
1889: Conrad Aiken, poet/critic/short-story writer (Savannah, GA; died 1973)
1906: John Huston, director/actor (Nevada, MO; died 1987)
1911: Robert Taylor, actor (Filley, NE; died 1969)
1912: Raoul Wallenberg, architect who saved Jews during the Holocaust (Stockholm, Sweden; reportedly died 1947)
1930: Neil Armstrong, astronaut and first man to walk on the Moon (Wapakoneta, OH)
1935: John Saxon, actor (Brooklyn, NY)
1946: Loni Anderson, actress (St. Paul, MN). Erika Slezak, actress (Hollywood, CA)
1962: Patrick Ewing, basketball player (Kingston, Jamaica)
1966: Jonathan Silverman, actor (Los Angeles, CA)
