Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include Roman leader Julius Caesar in 100 B.C.; American writer Henry David Thoreau in 1817; photography pioneer George Eastman in 1854; scientist George Washington Carver in 1864; Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani in 1884; composer Oscar Hammerstein II and author-architect R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, both in 1895; Chilean writer Pablo Neruda in 1904; comedians Milton Berle in 1908 and Curly Joe DeRita in 1909; bandleader Will Bradley in 1912; painter Andrew Wyeth in 1917; pianist Van Cliburn in 1934; comedian/actor Bill Cosby in 1937 (age 77); musician Christine McVie in 1943 (age 71); exercise and diet guru Richard Simmons in 1948 (age 66); movie producer Brian Grazer in 1951 (age 63); actors Denise Nicholas in 1944 (age 70), Cheryl Ladd in 1951 (age 63), Mel Harris in 1956 (age 58) and Rolonda Watts in 1959 (age 55); and Olympic gold medal figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi in 1971 (age 43).
On this date in history:
In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized a new award, the Medal of Honor, highest military decoration for valor against an enemy.
In 1933, a U.S. industrial code was established to fix a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour.
In 1962, the Rolling Stones gave their first public performance, at the Marquee Club in London.
In 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, D-N.Y., as his running mate. She was the first woman to share a major U.S. political party's presidential ticket. (They lost in November to incumbent Ronald Reagan.)
In 1990, Boris Yeltsin quit the Soviet Communist Party, saying he wanted to concentrate on his duties as president of the Russian republic.
In 2000, the United States and Vietnam reached a trade agreement that would allow unfettered commerce between the two nations for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War.
In 2011, Ahmed Wali Karzai, 48, a half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a powerful figure in Kandahar, was killed at his home by a bodyguard.
In 2013, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in a Kirkuk, Iraq, coffee shop, killing at least 33 people and injuring more than two-dozen others. It was the latest in a wave of random attacks that killed more than 2,000 people in the country since April.
A thought for the day: "Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth." -- Henry David Thoreau
- Topics
- Ahmed Wali
- Ahmed Wali Karzai
- Amedeo Modigliani
- Andrew Wyeth
- Bill Cosby
- Brian Grazer
- Cheryl Ladd
- Denise Nicholas
- George Eastman
- Geraldine Ferraro
- Henry David
- Kristi Yamaguchi
- Mel Harris
- Milton Berle
- Oscar Hammerstein
- Oscar Hammerstein II
- R. Buckminster Fuller
- Richard Simmons
- Rolling Stones
- Ronald Reagan
- Van Cliburn
- Walter Mondale
