Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include John Paul Jones, founder of the U.S. Navy, in 1747; Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in 1907; singer LaVerne Andrews, of the Andrews Sisters, in 1911; British actor Sebastian Cabot in 1918; former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan in 1921 (age 93); TV entertainer-producer Merv Griffin and rock 'n' roll pioneer Bill Haley ("Rock Around The Clock"), both in 1925; actor Janet Leigh in 1927; singer/actor Della Reese in 1931 (age 83); the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, in 1935 (age 79); actors Ned Beatty in 1937 (age 77), Burt Ward in 1945 (age 69) and Sylvester Stallone in 1946 (age 68); former U.S. President George W. Bush, also in 1946 (age 68); actors Shelley Hack in 1947 (age 67), Geoffrey Rush in 1951 (age 63) and Allyce Beasley in 1954 (age 60); singer Nanci Griffith in 1953 (age 61); and rapper 50 Cent, born Curtis James Jackson III, in 1975, (age 39).
On this date in history:
In 1854, the Republican Party was formally established at a meeting in New York City.
In 1885, French bacteriologist Louis Pasteur inoculated the first human being, a boy, who had been bitten by a rabid dog. (The youngster didn't develop rabies.)
In 1919, a British dirigible landed at New York's Roosevelt Field to complete the first airship crossing of the Atlantic.
In 1923, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.
In 1933, the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The American League beat the National League 4-2.
In 1942, diarist Anne Frank and her family took refuge in a secret section of an Amsterdam warehouse where they hid from the Nazis for two years. (Finally discovered, they were sent to concentration camps. Anne died in a camp.)
In 1944, fire in the big top of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus in Hartford, Conn., killed 167 people, two-thirds of them children, and injured 682 others.
In 1957, Althea Gibson became the first African-American competitor to win a Wimbledon championship.
In 1958, Alaska became the 49th U.S. state.
In 1971, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, one of the 20th century's most influential American musicians, died at age 69.
In 1976, women were first admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy. (The other military academies soon followed suit.)
In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in a TV interview, said it was a "probability" that many young people now paying into Social Security "will never be able to receive as much as they're paying."
In 1997, the Mars Pathfinder deployed the remote-controlled Sojourner to explore the surface of Mars.
In 2005, London was chosen as the site of the 2012 Olympic Games in a close decision over Paris.
In 2006, Felipe Calderon of Mexico's ruling National Action Party won a tight race for president over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama met in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Dmitri Medvedev, and announced an agreement to reduce nuclear arsenals.
In 2011, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2018 Winter Olympic Games to PyeongChang, set in the mountains of South Korea, 110 miles east of Seoul, and host to the 2013 Special Olympics.
In 2012, Hong Kong customs officials who had been tipped by U.S. drug agents announced a record seizure of more than 1,400 pounds of cocaine, with a street value of $98 million. The cocaine was in a shipment from Ecuador.
In 2013, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 carrying more than 300 people hit a sea wall in front of a runway on approach at San Francisco International Airport -- a crash that resulted in three fatalities and scores of injuries..
A thought for the day: "If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace." -- John Lennon
