General Tom Thumb(circus performer and little person)–
Thornton W. Burgess(author)–
Sterling Holloway(actor)–
Barbara Rush(actress)–
Don Schula(football coach)–
Floyd Patterson(boxer)–
David Bradley(Control-Alt-Delete computer code author)–
Dave Foley(actor)–
Died
Commodore Vanderbilt(entrepreneur)–
Gary Calkins(scientist)–
T.S. Eliot(author)–
Mae Questel(actress and voice of Betty Boop, Olive Oyl, and Casper the Friendly Ghost)–
Tsutomu Yamaguchi(only person certified by Japan as having survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Second World War atomic bombings)–
Events
Utah admitted to the Union as the 45th state –
Mahatma Gandhi arrested and began a fast unto death to win suffrage for the untouchables –
Seoul captured by Chinese Communists and North Koreans (Korean War) –
The first man-made satellite, Sputnik I, disintegrated on re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere –
Countries outside the Common Market formed the European Free Trade Association –
The Orphan Drug Bill was signed into law. It encouraged pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs for unusual illnesses with limited markets –
Doctors at the University of Miami and the Centers for Disease Control published information on one of the first cases of heterosexual transmission of AIDS in the U.S. –
The worst Amtrak accident in history occured when a freight train collided with a passenger train in Chase, MD –
U.S. Navy F-14s shot down two Libyan MiGs over Mediterranean –
The first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, was sworn in –
Minnesota representative Keith Ellison was sworn in as the first Muslim elected to Congress –
A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska –
Weather
Twenty inches of snow fell in upstate New York –
A temperature of -40F was recorded in Canton, New York. –
Eight inches of rain fell in 12 hours in Marin County, California –
