This Day in History
800: Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III.
1776: Gen. George Washington and his troops, in Pennsylvania, begin to recross the Delaware River.
1868: Pres. Andrew Johnson grants an unconditional pardon to everyone involved in the South's rebellion against the Union.
1926: Hirohito becomes Japanese emperor.
1989: Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, ousted in an uprising, are executed after being tried and found guilty of genocide.
1991: In a nationally televised address, Soviet Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev announces his immediate resignation; shortly after his speech, the Soviet flag above the Kremlin is replaced by the flag of pre-revolutionary Russia.
2003: Pakistani Pres. Pervez Musharraf survives his second assassination attempt in two weeks when suicide bombers slam into his motorcade in Rawalpindi, killing 13 and injuring 40.
Today's Birthdays
1821: Clara Barton, nurse and founder of the American Red Cross (Oxford, MA; died 1912)
1876: Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan and its first governor-general (Karachi, Pakistan; died 1948)
1887: Conrad N. Hilton, founder and chairman of Hilton Hotels Corp. (San Antonio, NM; died 1979)
1892: Dame Rebecca West, author/critic/journalist (London, England; died 1983)
1899: Humphrey Bogart, actor (New York, NY; died 1957)
1906: Clark Clifford, lawyer, government official and presidential adviser (Fort Scott, Kansas; died 1998)
1907: Cab Calloway, singer/bandleader (Rochester, NY; died 1994)
1908: Quentin Crisp, author (Sutton, England; died 1999)
1918: Anwar al-Sadat, Egyptian president (Egypt; assassinated 1981)
1924: Rod Serling, creator of the ""Twilight Zone"" TV series (Syracuse, NY; died 1975)
1940: Phil Spector, music producer (Bronx, NY)
1946: Jimmy Buffett, singer/songwriter (Pascagoula, MS)
Larry Csonka, football player (Stow, OH):
1947: Barbara Mandrell, singer (Houston, TX)
1949: Sissy Spacek, actress (Quitman, TX)
1954: Annie Lennox, singer (Aberdeen, Scotland)
1958: Rickey Henderson, baseball player (Chicago, IL)
1960: Amy Grant, singer (Augusta, GA)
1962: Norm McDonald, actor/comedian (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada)
