This Day in History
1783: Gen. George Washington bids farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York City.
1961: Floyd Patterson retains the world heavyweight boxing title by knocking out Tom McNeeley.
1991: Journalist Terry Anderson becomes the last U.S. hostage freed in Lebanon.
1997: Representatives of 121 nations conclude a meeting in Ottawa, Canada at which they sign a treaty banning the use and manufacture of land mines.
2001: The Israeli military advances to within 200 yards of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat's Ramallah headquarters two days after a suicide bomber killed himself and 15 others in Haifa.
Today's Birthdays
1795: Thomas Carlyle, essayist/historian (Ecclefechan, Scotland; died 1881)
1835: Samuel Butler, writer (Nottinghamshire, England; died 1902)
1861: Lillian Russell, singer/actress (Clinton, IA; died 1922)
1865: Edith Cavell, nurse (Norfolk, England; died 1915)
1866: Wassily Kandinsky, painter (Moscow, Russia; died 1944)
1875: Rainer Maria Rilke, poet and novelist (Prague—now in the Czech Republic; died 1926)
1892: Francisco Franco, dictator of Spain (El Ferrol, Spain; died 1975)
1921: Deanna Durbin, actress (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
1933: Horst Buchholz, actor (Berlin, Germany; died 2003)
1935: Paul O'Neill, treasury secretary (Pittsburgh, PA)
1939: Stew Albert, 1960s countercultural figure (New York, NY; died 2006)
1942: Chris Hillman, musician (Los Angeles, CA)
1946: Michael Ovitz, entertainment executive (Encino, CA)
1949: Jeff Bridges, actor (Los Angeles, CA)
1951: Patricia Wettig, actress (Cincinnati, OH)
1964: Marisa Tomei, actress (New York, NY)
1970: Jay-Z, musician (Brooklyn, NY)
1973: Tyra Banks, model/actress (Los Angeles, CA)
