William Pierce(white supremacist whose book, The Turner Diaries, is believed to have inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh)–
Chaim Potok(author)–
Ron Miller(songwriter; hits include Touch Me in the Morning and For Once in My Life)–
Amy Winehouse(singer)–
Sally Ride(astronaut; first American woman in space)–
Born
Raymond Thornton Chandler(author)–
Don Drysdale(baseball player)–
Philip Seymour Hoffman(actor)–
Nomar Garciaparra(baseball player)–
Daniel Radcliffe(actor)–
Events
America’s first swimming school opened by Francis Lieber in Boston, MA –
The first practical typographer (typewriter) was patented by William Burt –
Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper and Lower Canada into one government –
Copyright for “America the Beautiful” by Katharine Lee Bates registered –
Boeing 767 turned into glider after fuel ran out due to metric conversion error, Gimli, Manitoba –
Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign when she relinquished her crown –
Disney’s Tarzan became the first all-digital film –
George Lee “Sparky” Anderson inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame –
Weather
In his weather diary, George Washington described a big storm that passed over his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Historians often refer to this storm as George Washington’s Hurricane. –
Sheridan, Wyoming, got drenched by 4.41 inches of rain, which washed away some railroad tracks –
Rain delayed Giants/Mets baseball game 3 hours 39 minutes –
A hailstone broke through a deck in Vivian, South Dakota, during a severe thunderstorm. The hailstone weighed 1 pound 15 ounces and measured 8 inches in diameter, 18.6 inches in circumference. It was the heaviest and largest hailstone in diameter ever recovered in the U.S. –
Several counties in Kansas reported baseball size hail –
