Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini. They include Jacques Marquette, Jesuit priest and French explorer of the Mississippi, in 1637; Mormon leader Brigham Young in 1801; actor Frank Morgan in 1890; bandleader Nelson Riddle in 1921; actors Marilyn Monroe and Andy Griffith in 1926 and Edward Woodward in 1930; singer Pat Boone in 1934 (age 80); novelist Colleen McCullough in 1937; mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade in 1945 (age 69); actors Morgan Freeman in 1937 (age 77), Cleavon Little in 1939, Rene Auberjonois in 1940 (age 74) and Jonathan Pryce in 1947 (age 67); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Ron Wood of the Faces and the Rolling Stones, also in 1947 (age 67); actors Diana Canova in 1953 (age 61) and Lisa Hartman Black in 1956 (age 58); comedian/actor Mark Curry in 1961 (age 53); singers Ronnie Dunn in 1953 (age 61) and Alanis Morissette in 1974 (age 40); supermodel Heidi Klum in 1973 (age 41); and actor Willow Shields in 2000 (age 14).
On this date in history:
In 1779, Continental Army Gen. Benedict Arnold was court-martialed.
In 1792, Kentucky joined the United States as the 15th state.
In 1796, Tennessee joined the United States as the 16th state.
In 1812, U.S. President James Madison warned Congress that war with Britain was imminent. (The War of 1812 started 17 days later.)
In 1880, the first public pay telephone began operation in New Haven, Conn.
In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court banned prayers and Bible teaching in public schools on the constitutional grounds of separation of church and state.
In 1968, Helen Keller, a world-renowned author and lecturer despite being blind and deaf from infancy, died in Westport, Conn., at the age of 87.
In 1973, Prime Minister George Papadopoulos abolished the Greek monarchy and proclaimed Greece a republic with himself as president.
In 1980, the Cable News Network -- CNN -- TV's first all-news service, went on the air.
In 1993, President Jorge Serrano Elias of Guatemala was ousted by the military and President Dobrica Cosic of Yugoslavia was voted out of office by Parliament.
In 1997, French parliamentary elections brought parties of the left into power for the first time since 1986.
In 2005, Dutch voters joined France in overwhelmingly rejecting the proposed European Union constitution.
In 2009, Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board.
In 2010, Yukio Hatoyama became Japan's fourth prime minister to step down in less than four years after polls indicated low public support. He was succeeded by Naoto Kan, the former finance minister.
In 2011, U.S. government officials said Indiana's new Iaw denying Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood was illegal.
In 2013, hundreds of demonstrators threw stones and set fires and riot police used tear gas and pepper spray in Ankara and Istanbul on the third day of Turkey's worst anti-government protests in years.
A thought for the day: "We should never permit ourselves to do anything that we are not willing to see our children do." -- Brigham Young
