Those born on this date are under the sign of Libra. They include clergyman Mason Locke Weems, who invented the story of George Washington and the cherry tree, in 1759; Englishman George Williams, founder of the YMCA, in 1821; food industry pioneer Henry John Heinz in 1844; former first lady and author Eleanor Roosevelt in 1884; choreographer Jerome Robbins in 1918; writer Elmore Leonard in 1925; football Hall of Fame Coach LaVell Edwards in 1930 (age 84); country singer Dottie West in 1932; actor/singer Ron Leibman in 1937 (age 77); singer Daryl Hall in 1946 (age 68); sports columnist Thomas Boswell in 1947 (age 67); football Hall of Fame member Steve Young in 1961 (age 53); actors David Morse in 1953 (age 61), Joan Cusack in 1962 (age 52) and Luke Perry in 1966 (age 48); and golfer Michelle Wie in 1989 (age 25).
On this date in history:
In 1811, the first steam-powered ferry in the world started its run between New York City and Hoboken, N.J.
In 1868, Thomas Alva Edison filed papers for his first invention: an electrical vote recorder to rapidly tabulate floor votes in the U.S. Congress. (Members of Congress rejected it.)
In 1950, the Federal Communications Commission gave CBS the first license to broadcast color television.
In 1975, "Saturday Night Live" premiered with George Carlin as host and musicians Janis Ian and Billy Preston on the bill.
In 1984, Kathryn Sullivan, flying into orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger, became the first American woman to walk in space.
In 2002, Congress gave U.S. President George W. Bush its backing for using military force against Iraq.
In 2004, actor Christopher Reeve, who played Superman in the movies and strenuously pushed spinal cord research after he was paralyzed in an accident, died at the age of 52.
In 2006, Cory Lidle, a 34-year-old pitcher for the New York Yankees, and his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, were killed when Lidle's light plane crashed into a high-rise residential building in New York.
In 2008, the U.S. State Department removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. In return, North Korea agreed to give international inspectors access to its nuclear facilities and to continue disabling its plutonium processing project.
In 2012, the Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System informed convicted sex offender Jerry Sandusky his $59,000 annual state pension had been revoked. Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.
In 2013, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won the Nobel Peace Prize. The United Nations-backed OPCW, which has headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, was overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile at the time it won the prize.
A thought for the day: In her diary, Anne Frank wrote, "No one has ever become poor by giving."
