Those born on this date are under the sign of Taurus. They include Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli in 1469; British explorer John Speke, who discovered the source of the Nile, in 1827; journalist Jacob August Riis in 1849; French perfume-maker Francois Coty in 1874; Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1898; singer/actor Bing Crosby in 1903; actor Mary Astor in 1906; Broadway gossip columnist Earl Wilson in 1907; playwright William Inge in 1913; folk singer Pete Seeger in 1919; boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, born Walker Smith Jr., in 1921; actor Ann B. Davis in 1926 (age 88); singers James Brown in 1933 and Frankie Valli in 1934 (age 80); TV personality Greg Gumbel in 1946 (age 68); magician Doug Henning in 1947; singer/songwriter Christopher Cross in 1951 (age 63); actor Dule Hill in 1975 (age 39).
On this date in history:
In 1802, Washington, D.C., was incorporated.
In 1919, U.S. airplane passenger service began when pilot Robert Hewitt flew two women from New York to Atlantic City, N.J.
In 1937, Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
In 1946, the International Military Tribunals for the Far East began hearing the case in Tokyo against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II.
In 1948, the "CBS Evening News" premiered, with Douglas Edwards as anchor.
In 1952, a ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lt. Col. Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lt. Col. William P. Benedict of California became the first aircraft to land at the North Pole.
In 1968, the United States and North Vietnam agreed to open peace talks in Paris.
In 1979, Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party won the British general election, making her the first woman prime minister of a major European nation.
In 1989, former U.S. national security aide Oliver North was found guilty on three charges but innocent of nine others in the Iran-Contra scandal.
In 1994, a U.S. district judge in Seattle struck down Washington state's assisted-suicide law.
In 1999, 76 tornadoes tore across the U.S. Plains states, killing about 50 people and injuring hundreds.
In 2003, the noted New Hampshire landmark "Old Man of the Mountain" collapsed.
In 2006, an Armenian A-320 aircraft plunged into the Black Sea off Russia's southern coast, killing all 113 people aboard. Officials said bad weather was the probable cause.
In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II began her first visit to the United States in 16 years.
In 2009, Jack Kemp, whose career ranged from pro football quarterback to nine-term U.S. congressman from New York, housing secretary and Republican nominee for vice president in 1996, died of cancer. He was 65.
In 2010, New York City police arrested Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-American who had boarded a plane scheduled to fly to Dubai after an attempted Times Square bombing. (He later pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to life in prison.)
In 2011, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives won a parliamentary majority.
In 2013, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ordered border agents to verify the validity of visas for all foreign students entering the country.
A thought for the day: " Fifty percent of people won't vote and 50 percent don't read newspapers. I hope it's the same 50 percent." -- Gore Vidal
