Thomas Hastings(co-architect of N.Y. Public Library)–
Vannevar Bush(electrical engineer)–
Henry Dixon Cowell(composer)–
Dorothy Gish(actress)–
Lawrence Welk(bandleader)–
Mercer Ellington(musician)–
Ralph Abernathy(civil rights leader)–
Sam Donaldson(broadcast journalist)–
Antonin Scalia(Supreme Court justice)–
Douglas Noel Adams(author)–
Lisa Loeb(musician)–
Terrence Howard(actor)–
Joel & Benji Madden(musicians)–
Thora Birch(actress)–
Died
Oscar Mayer(manufacturer)–
Philo T. Farnsworth(inventor)–
James Tobin(Yale economist and Nobel Prize winner)–
Frank Neuhauser(in 1925 won the first U.S. national spelling bee with the word gladiolus”“)–
Events
A deadly Mt. Etna eruption began in Italy –
The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created in the U.S. War Department –
Jennie Kidd Trout became the first Canadian woman to become licensed to practice medicine, earning her degree on this day from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. Later in 1875, she passed the exams of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Ontario, thereby becoming the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada. –
First public game of basketball played, Springfield, Massachusetts –
The Bank of Canada opened as a privately owned and government-controlled corporation –
Congress maintained U.S. neutrality in the war in Europe but passed the Lend-Lease Act, which enabled England to borrow aircraft, weapons, and merchant ships –
Naval Unit Commendation awarded to light cruiser U.S.S. Helena –
Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, opened in New York. It was the first play by an African American woman to appear on Broadway –
Space probe Pioneer 5 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida –
Florida panther was added to the endangered species list –
Levi Strauss began selling bell-bottom jeans –
U.S. Senator Harrison Williams resigned his Senate seat as a result of being charged with misconduct –
Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen to succeed Chernenko as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party –
Former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane pleaded guilty to withholding information from Congress during Iran-Contra affair –
Andrew Rotz made 11,123 consecutive Texas skips in 3 hours, 10 minutes in Las Vegas, Nevada –
A magnitude-9.0 earthquake devastated Japan and spawned a 23-foot tsunami. The quake moved Honshu, Japan, 8 feet to the east. –
Great white shark circled fisherman’s kayak for over one hour near Maui, Hawaii –
After a stray cow in Pembroke Pines, Florida, could not be caught by police or assisting cow herders for weeks, police put up a notice on Twitter asking the public for help in locating the animal. The cow was described as Faster than it looks; talented fence jumper; enjoys pools. (The animal was eventually found.) –
Weather
Great Blizzard of ‘88 started, East Coast — 400 died, 200 ships sank or were heavily damaged, and up to 40 inches of snow fell –
Record U.S. snowdepth at Tamarack, California, 451 inches –
