Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include German composer Robert Schumann in 1810; architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1867; science fiction publisher John W. Campbell in 1910; British geneticist Francis Crick, who helped determine the "double helix" structure of DNA, in 1916; College Football Hall of Fame member and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White in 1917; actor Robert Preston in 1918; painter LeRoy Neiman in 1921; former first lady Barbara Bush in 1925 (age 89); actor Jerry Stiller in 1927 (age 87); comedian Joan Rivers in 1933 (age 81); actor/singer James Darren in 1936 (age 78); singer Nancy Sinatra in 1940 (age 74); singer/songwriter Boz Scaggs in 1944 (age 70); actors Kathy Baker in 1950 (age 64) and Griffin Dunne in 1955 (age 59); "Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams in 1957 (age 57); comedian Keenen Ivory Wayans in 1958 (age 56); rock musician Nick Rhodes in 1962 (age 52); actor Julianna Margulies in 1966 (age 48); and rapper Kanye West in 1977 (age 37).
On this date in history:
In 1789, James Madison proposed the Bill of Rights, which led to the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
In 1861, Tennessee seceded from the Union to join the Confederacy.
In 1869, Ives McGaffney of Chicago obtained a patent for a "sweeping machine," the first vacuum cleaner.
In 1967, the USS Liberty, an intelligence ship sailing in international waters off Egypt, was attacked by Israeli jet planes and torpedo boats. Thirty-four Americans were killed in the attack, which Israel said was a case of mistaken identity.
In 1968, James Earl Ray, an escaped convict, was arrested in London and charged with the April 4 assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (Ray died in prison in 1998.)
In 1994, two of the major warring factions in Bosnia, the Muslim-Croat federation and the Bosnian Serbs, signed a cease-fire agreement.
In 1995, U.S. Marines rescued downed American pilot Scott O'Grady in Bosnia.
In 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he stood by his testimony before the United Nations that Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction before the war.
In 2004, police in Milan, Italy, arrested an Egyptian man suspected of masterminding Madrid commuter train bombings that killed 191 people and injured more than 2,000 in March.
In 2006, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and seven others were confirmed killed in an airstrike on a house north of Baquba.
In 2008, the AAA reported the average cost of gasoline in the United States had reached $4 a gallon for the first time.
In 2009, North Korea sentenced American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling to 12 years in prison each for "illegal entry." (They were released after a visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.)
In 2011, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi vowed to fight on to the death as NATO bombed his Tripoli compound and his forces counterattacked in Misurata. (Gadhafi was killed 4 ½ months later.)
In 2012, U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, apologized to the Afghan people for the deaths of 18 civilians, including children, in an airstrike. In 2013, Swedish Princess Madeleine married British-American businessman Christopher O'Neill
A thought for the day: "It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract." -- Astronaut Alan Shepard
