This Day in History
1620: The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact.
1783: In Paris, Frenchmen Jean François Pilâtre de Rozier and Marquis François Laurent d'Arlandes make the first successful balloon ascent.
1789: North Carolina entered the Union as the 12th of the 13 original states.
1964: The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, at the time the world's longest suspension bridge, opens in New York.
1995: After talks outside Dayton, OH, the warring parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina reach agreement to end their conflict. The Dow Jones industrial average passes 5,000 for the first time.
2001: An elderly Connecticut woman mysteriously dies of inhalation anthrax, the fifth fatality in an outbreak that began in early October.
2005: Israeli Prime Min. Ariel Sharon quits the Likud Party and forms a new political party, National Responsibility.
Today's Birthdays
1694: Voltaire, philosopher/author (Paris, France; died 1778)
1768: Friedrich Schleiermacher, preacher and philosopher (Breslau, Lower Silesia—now Wroclaw, Poland; died 1834)
1893: Harpo Marx, comedian/actor (New York, NY; died 1964)
1920: Stan Musial, baseball player (Donora, PA)
1927: Joseph Campanella, actor (New York, NY)
1943: Marlo Thomas, actress (Detroit, MI)
1944: Earl Monroe, basketball player (Philadelphia, PA)
1945: Goldie Hawn, actress (Washington, D.C.)
1961: Mariel Hemingway, actress (Mill Valley, CA)
1963: Nicollette Sheridan, actress (Northington, England)
1966: Troy Aikman, football quarterback (West Covina, CA)
1969: Ken Griffey Jr., baseball player (Donora, PA)
1984: Jena Malone, actress (Lake Tahoe, NV)
