1886 - The first Tournament of Roses was held in Pasadena, California.
1892 - Ellis Island in upper New York Bay became the receiving station for immigrants.
1902 - The first Tournament of Roses Association football game was held at Pasadena, California.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 1:
Barry Goldwater - U.S. senator, Republican presidential candidate
J. Edgar Hoover - FBI head for forty-nine years
J.D. Salinger - Novelist
Xavier Cugat - Spanish-born Latin bandleader
Hank Greenberg - Baseball Hall of Famer
Dana Andrews - Actor
%January 2
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1788 - Georgia ratified the Constitution and became the 4th state of the Union.
1870 - Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began.
1960 - The age of the solar system was estimated to be 4,950,000,000 years by Dr. John H. Reynolds of the University of California at Berkeley.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 2:
Gino Marchetti - Football Hall of Famer
William J. Crowe - U.S. admiral, chairman joint chiefs-of-staff
Leon Leonidoff - Radio City Music Hall producer
Isaac Asimov - Scientist, writer
George Blanc - French chef, writer, business executive
Robert Smithson - Artist
%January 3
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1914 - A direct wireless connection was established between Germany and the U.S.
1959 - Alaska was proclaimed to be the 49th state by President Eisenhower.
1985 - Leontyne Price, the first black American to become a worldwide star of grand opera, gave her farewell performance at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, 24 years after she first sang there.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 3:
Mel Gibson - Actor
George Martin - British arranger, pianist, Beatles producer, A&R record executive
Cheryl Miller - Basketball player
Steven Stills - Singer, songwriter, guitarist
Bobby Hull - Hockey player
Victoria Principal - Actress
%January 4
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1896 - Utah became the 45th state admitted to the Union.
1982 - President Reagan's national security adviser, Richard Allen, resigned.
1995 - The 104th Congress convened, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 4:
Sir Isaac Newton - British mathematician, physicist
Louis Braille - French inventor of reading system for blind
Don Shula - Football coach
Jean Dixon - Psychic, newspaper columnist
Jane Wyman - Actress
William E. Colby - CIA director, lawyer
%January 5
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1972 - President Nixon issued an order to NASA to begin work on a reusable space shuttle.
1975 - In a report by the Educational Testing Service, it was revealed that women with advanced degrees experienced discrimination in employment in both pay and promotions.
1984 - "The Real Thing" by Tom Stoppard opened at the Plymouth Theater in New York City, starring Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 5:
Robert Duvall - Actor
Diane Keaton - Actress
Walter Mondale - U.S. vice president
Jimmy Page - Guitarist, songwriter
Alvin Ailey - Dancer, choreographer
Konrad Adenauer - West German chancellor
%January 6
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1912 - New Mexico was admitted to the Union.
1942 - The first world flight by a commercial airplane returned to New York City
1973 - Earl Clark bought Adolf Hitler's 1940 Mercedes 770K at an auction, paying $153,000.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 6:
Carl Sandburg - Pulitzer prize-winning poet
Nancy Lopez - Golfer
Loretta Young - Actress
Danny Thomas - TV comedian
John De Lorean - Corporation head, General Motors executive
Lou Harris - Public opinion expert, pollster, Harris Poll
%January 7
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1789 - The first U.S. presidential election was held.
1927 - Commercial transatlantic telephone service was opened between New York City and London.
1990 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa closed to the public for safety reasons.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 7:
Charles Addams - Cartoonist, Addams Family creator
Nicholas Cage - Actor
Millard Fillmore - U.S. president
Kenny Loggins - Guitarist, singer, songwriter
Henry "Red" Allen - Jazz trumpeter
William Peter Blatty - Novelist
%January 8
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1798 - The Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution was adopted.
1867 - Suffrage was given to blacks by a bill passed over by Andrew Johnson's veto.
1981 - Consumption of large amounts of cholesterol was linked to an increase in coronary deaths, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 8:
Elvis Presley - Rock & roll singer, film actor, icon
David Bowie - British singer, songwriter, film actor
Bill Graham - Rock impresario, entrepreneur
Yvette Mimieux - Actress
Frank Nelson Doubleday - Publisher
Soupy Sales - TV personality, comedian
%January 9
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1788 - Connecticut became the 5th state of the Union.
1793 - Francois Blanchard, a Frenchman, made the first balloon flight in the U.S.
1979 - W.S. Merwin was awarded the Bollingen Prize for poetry.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 9:
Richard Nixon - U.S. president
Crystal Gayle - Country-western singer
Joan Baez - Folk singer, songwriter, activist
Bart Starr - Football quarterback
Chic Young - Cartoonist "Blondie and Dagwood"
Judith Krantz - Novelist
%January 10
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1946 - Delegates from 51 nations met in London, England, for the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
1956 - Elvis Presley records "Heartbreak Hotel".
1960 - The Bollingen Prize for poetry was awarded to Delmore Schwartz for his 1959 collection "Summer Knowledge."
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 10:
George Foreman - World heavyweight boxing champion
Rod Stewart - British singer, songwriter
Pat Benetar - Rock singer
Ray Bolger - Dancer, singer, actor, Scarecrow in "Wizard of Oz"
Galina Ulanova - Russian ballerina
Allen Eager - Jazz tenor saxophonist
%January 11
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1970 - The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl IV, defeating the Minnesota Vikings.
1979 - In a report issued by the U.S. Surgeon General, cigarette smoking was labeled as the "single most important environmental factor contributing to early death."
1986 - Jack London stamp was issued - the first socialist on a U.S. stamp.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 11:
Grant Tinker - NBC head
Clarence Clemons - Saxophonist
Rod Taylor - Actor
Ezra Cornell - Businessman, philanthropist, founded Cornell University
Naomi Judd - Country-western singer
Tracy Caulkins - Olympic gold medalist swimmer
%January 12
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1969 - The New York Jets won Super Bowl III, defeating the Baltimore Colts.
1975 - The Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl IX, defeating the Minnesota Vikings.
1979 - The worst blizzard in the Midwest since 1967 killed approximately 100 people.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 12:
Jack London - Short-story writer, adventure novelist
Howard Stern - Radio personality
Tex Ritter - Cowboy actor
Kirstie Alley - Actress
Henny Youngman - Comedian
Liliana Cavani - Cinematographer
%January 13
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1969 - The Beatles release "Yellow Submarine" album.
1974 - The Miami Dolphins won Super Bowl VIII, defeating the Minnesota Vikings.
1982 - Seventy-eight people were killed when an Air Florida jet crashed into a bridge over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 13:
Sophie Tucker - Singer, entertainer, stage star
Robert Stack - Actor
Kevin Mitchell - Baseball player
Ralph Edwards - TV host
Michael Bond - Children's writer, Paddington Bear creator
Anna May Wong - Actress, stage performer
%January 14
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1784 - The Revolutionary War formally ends.
1914 - Henry Ford introduces the Assembly Line for his cars.
1968 - The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl II, defeating the Oakland Raiders.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 14:
Albert Schweitzer - German Nobel Peace Prize-winning physician, philosopher
Faye Dunaway - Actress
Andy Rooney - Satirist, TV journalist
Jack Jones - Singer
Yukio Mishima - Japanese playwright, short-story writer, novelist
Julian Bond - Civil rights leader
%January 15
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1870 - The first political cartoon to use the donkey as a symbol for the Democratic Party appeared in Harper's Weekly.
1964 - The Teamsters negotiate the first national labor contract.
1967 - The first annual football Super Bowl was won by the Green Bay Packers, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 15:
Martin Luther King, Jr. - American Nobel Peace Prize-winning civil rights leader, pastor
Joan of Arc - French visionary saint, military leader
Edward Teller - Hungarian nuclear physicist, A-bomb developer
Gene Krupa - Jazz drummer
Lloyd Bridges - Actor
Maria Schell - Actress
%January 16
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1868 - Fish dealer William Davis was granted a patent for a refrigerator car.
1964 - "Hello Dolly!" starring Carol Channing opens on Broadway.
1972 - The Dallas Cowboys won Super Bowl VI, defeating the Miami Dolphins.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 16:
Ethel Merman - Broadway singer, actress
Dizzie Dean - Baseball pitcher
A.J. Foyt - Auto racer
Marilyn Horne - Opera, concert singer
Edward A Brennan - Corporation executive, Sears-Roebuck chairman
Andre Michelin - French tire manufacturer
%January 17
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1916 - The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) was formed.
1971 - The Baltimore Colts won Super Bowl V, defeating the Dallas Cowboys in the last five seconds of the game.
1977 - A ten-year halt on capital punishment in the U.S. ended when convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by a Utah firing squad.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 17:
Benjamin Franklin - Statesman, scientist, inventor, writer, printer, founded U.S. mint, postal service
Muhammad Ali - World heavyweight boxing champion
James Earl Jones - Actor
Vidal Sassoon - Hairdresser, shampoo imperium
Betty White - Actress
Al Capone - Crime boss
%January 18
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1934 - United States Information Service was organized
1957 - The first non-stop jet around the world flight landed in Riverside, California
1976 - The Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl X, defeating the Dallas Cowboys.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 18:
A.A. Milne - British writer, "Winnie the Pooh"
Al Foster - Jazz drummer
Cary Grant - British-born film actor
Kevin Costner - Actor
Daniel Webster - 19th century politician, statesman
Bobby Goldsboro - Singer
%January 19
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1903 - The first non-experimental transatlantic radio broadcast from Cape Cod aired
1955 - Both TV and motion picture newsreel photographers covered the first filmed presidential press conference.
1978 - William Webster was appointed director of the FBI.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 19:
Edgar Allen Poe - Poet, critic, short story writer
Dolly Parton - Country-western singer, actress
Jean Stapleton - Actress
Robert MacNeil - TV anchor, MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour
Stefan Edberg - Swedish tennis champion
Phil Everly - Rock & roll singer
%January 20
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1977 - Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as the 39th president of the United States.
1980 - The Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XIV, defeating the Los Angeles Rams.
1986 - Martin Luther King Day was officially observed in the U.S. for the first time.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 20:
Federico Fellini - Italian master film director
George Burns - Stage, TV, film comedian
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin - U.S. astronaut, moon landing
David Lynch - Film and TV director
John Naber - Olympic gold medalist swimmer
Jimmy Cobb - Jazz drummer
%January 21
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1957 - The National Broadcasting Company carried the first nationally televised videotaped TV broadcast.
1978 - The St. Louis Art Museum was robbed of four sculptures valued at $100,000.
1979 - The Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XIII, defeating the Dallas Cowboys.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 21:
Jack Nicklaus - Golf champion
Placido Domingo - Spanish opera, concert tenor
Geena Davis - Actress
Richie Havens - Folk singer, songwriter, guitarist
Christian Dior - Fashion designer
Telly Savalis - Actor
%January 22
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1673 - The first postal service began between Boston and New York City
1970 - The Seattle Opera presented the world premiere of the opera "Of Mice and Men" by Carlisle Floyd.
1973 - George Foreman won the world heavyweight boxing championship, defeating Joe Frazier in a second-round knockout.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 22:
Sam Cooke - Singer, songwriter, producer
Ann Southern - Actress
George Balanchine - Choreographer
Andre Marie Ampere - French physicist, electrical unit namesake
Joseph Wambaugh - Writer, LA policeman
Mike Bossy - Hockey player
%January 23
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1845 - The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November was established by an act of Congress as a uniform election day for presidential elections.
1849 - The first woman physician, Elizabeth Blackwell, graduated.
1869 - The first state bureau of labor in the U.S. was organized.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 23:
Humphrey Bogart - Film actor, icon
John Hancock - Declaration of Independence signer
Anita Pointer - Singer, "Pointer Sisters"
Jeanne Moreau - French film actress
Chita Rivera - Stage actress, singer, dancer
Edouard Manet - French painter
%January 24
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1925 - A total solar eclipse was seen in New York City for the first time in three hundred years.
1972 - The Supreme Court ruled that a one-year residency requirement for welfare aid was unconstitutional.
1982 - The San Francisco 49ers won Super Bowl XVI, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 24:
John Belushi - TV comic, comic film actor
Ernest Borgnine - Actor
Mary Lou Retton - U.S. Olympic all-around gymnastics gold medalist
Warren Zevon - Rock singer, songwriter
Mark Goodson - TV producer, multimillionaire
Edith Wharton - Novelist
%January 25
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1915 - The first transcontinental phone demonstration, from New York City to San Francisco, was given.
1964 - Echo 2 was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, becoming the first U.S.-U.S.S.R. cooperative space program.
1981 - The Oakland Raiders won Super Bowl XV, defeating the Philadelphia Eagles.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 25:
W. Somerset Maugham - British short-story writer, playwright, novelist
Etta James - R&B singer
Edwin Newman - TV journalist
Virginia Woolf - Novelist
Antonio Carlos Jobim - Brazilian bossa nova king, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, arranger, singer
Maud Wood Park - First president of League of Women Voters
%January 26
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1837 - Michigan was admitted into the Union as the 26th state.
1838 - The first prohibition law in the U.S. was passed in Tennessee, making it a misdemeanor to sell alcoholic beverages in stores and taverns.
1962 - Ranger 3, a lunar probe designed to transmit close-up TV pictures of the moon before landing scientific instruments on its surface, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 26:
Paul Newman - Film actor, food products entrepreneur, auto racer
Wayne Gretzky - Hockey center
Anita Baker - Jazz singer
Eddie Van Halen - Guitarist
Gene Siskel - Newspaper columnist, TV film reviewer
Bob Uecker - Baseball player, commentator, TV personality
%January 27
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1948 - The first magnetic tape recorder was announced
1967 - A launch pad fire during Apollo tests at Cape Kennedy killed astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White, II, and Roger Chaffee.
1973 - Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announced an end to draft call-ups.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 27:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Austrian master instrumental, opera composer, violinist, pianist
Lewis Carroll - British mathematician, logician, writer
William Randolph Hearst, Jr. - Publisher
Donna Reed - Actress
Skitch Henderson - TV bandleader
John Ogdon - British prodigy pianist
%January 28
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1878 - The first commercial telephone exchange opened in New Haven, Connecticut.
1961 - Plans for establishing the Peace Corps were made public by the U.S. State Department.
1986 - The space shuttle "Challenger" exploded 74 seconds after liftoff at Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing all seven astronauts aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, the first private citizen chosen for a space shuttle flight.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 28:
Arthur Rubinstein - Polish-born pianist, Chopin interpreter
Mikhail Baryshnikov - Russian-born ballet dancer, choreographer, film, stage actor
Alan Alda - Film, TV actor, director
Bob Moses - Jazz drummer, composer
Colette - French actress, novelist
Richmond Barthe - Sculptor
%January 29
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1861 - Kansas was the 34th state admitted to the Union.
1896 - Emil H. Grube first performed X-ray treatment for breast cancer.
1900 - The American League of baseball was formed in Chicago, Illinois.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 29:
Oprah Winfrey -TV, radio talk show host, actress
Greg Louganis - U.S. Olympic four gold medal-winning diver
Katherine Ross - Actress
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. - Heir, philanthropist
Tom Selleck - Actor
Mary Lee Jobe Akeley - African explorer, photographer
%January 30
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1862 - The U.S. Naval Warship Monitor was launched.
1897 - The 17-story Astoria Hotel in New York City, designed by Henry Hardenbergh, was opened to the public.
1917 - The first jazz record in the U.S. was cut.
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 30:
Franklin D. Roosevelt - U.S. president, elected more times than any other president
James Watt - Scottish steam engine designer, engineer
Vanessa Redgrave - Actress
Roy Eldridge - Jazz trumpeter
Boris Spassky - Russian world chess champion
Dick Martin - TV comedian
%January 31
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1930 - The first piloted glider was released from a dirigible.
1949 - The first soap opera telecast began.
1958 - Explorer I, the first U.S. Earth satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 10:48 p.m..
OTHERS BORN ON JANUARY 31:
Franz Peter Schubert - Austrian master composer
Anna Pavlova - Russian ballet dancer
Phil Collins - Singer, songwriter, drummer
Jackie Robinson - First African-American major league baseball player
Nolan Ryan - Baseball pitcher
Carol Channing - Comedienne
%February 1
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1898 - The first car insurance policy was issued.
1975 - In an effort to help museums, galleries, and collectors identify stolen works, the first issue of "Stolen Paintings and Objects d'Art" was published.
1977 - The National Broadcasting Company secured the television rights to the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, agreeing to pay $35,000,000 for exclusive rights to the games plus an additional $50,000,000 for production and equipment costs.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 1:
Clark Gable - Actor
John Ford - Master film director
Herve Filion - Harness racing driver
Don Everly - Singer
Jessica Savitch - TV journalist, anchor
Langston Hughes - Poet, playwright, novelist
%February 2
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1876 - The National League of professional baseball was formed.
1923 - Ethyl gasoline was marketed
1969 - At the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, Ch. Glamoor Good News, a Skye terrier owned by Walter Goodman, took best-in-show.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 2:
Stan Getz - Jazz tenor saxophonist
Farrah Fawcett - Actress, model
Tom Smothers - TV comedian
Graham Nash - British singer, songwriter
James Dickey - Novelist, screenwriter
Huguette Bertrand - French painter
%February 3
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1690 - The first paper money was issued.
1790 - The first clerk of the Supreme Court was appointed.
1944 - Hockey player Syd Howe scored six goals in one game
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 3:
Norman Rockwell - Graphic artist, illustrator
James A. Michener - Novelist, writer
Art Arfons - Racing car designer
Lillian Armstrong - Jazz pianist, singer, composer, wife to Louis
Joey Bishop - Comedian
Morgan Fairchild - TV actress
%February 4
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1932 - The first Winter Olympic games were held in Lake Placid, NY
1970 - An ion propulsion engine was launched into orbit aboard the satellite SERT 2 (Space Electric Rocket Test).
1985 - Twenty countries signed a United Nation's document entitled "Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment."
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 4:
Charles Lindbergh - Aviator
Ida Lupino - Actress, director
Lawrence Taylor - Football linebacker
Dan Quayle -U.S. vice president
Agi Jambor - Hungarian pianist
Ludwig Erhard - German chancellor
%February 5
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1846 - The first Oregon Spectator newspaper was published.
1972 - Screening of passengers and their luggage became mandatory on all domestic and foreign flights by U.S. airlines in a move to prevent airplane hijacking.
1974 - Patricia Hearst, daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped from her Berkeley, California, apartment by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 5:
Hank Aaron - Baseball player
Sir Robert Peel - British 19th c. prime minister
Barbara Hershey - Actress
Roger Staubach - Football quarterback
John Carradine - Film actor, father of David and Keith
Robert Hofstadter - Nobel Prize-winning atomic physicist
%February 6
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1788 - Massachusetts became the 6th state of the Union.
1869 - The first caricature of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers appeared in Harper's Weekly magazine.
1912 - The cruise ship to first circumnavigate the world left New York City.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 6:
George Herman "Babe" Ruth - Baseball legend, home run king
Ronald Reagan - U.S. president, California governor, film actor
Bob Marley - Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter
Natalie Cole - Singer, daughter of Nat King Cole
Tom Brokaw - TV journalist, NBC anchor
Zsa Zsa Gabor - Hungarian-born film actress
%February 7
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1827 - Mme. Francisquy Hutin introduced ballet to the U.S.
1936 - The first Vice President flag was established.
1964 - The Beatles arrived at New York's Kennedy Airport to start their first U.S. musical tour.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 7:
Charles Dickens - Novelist
Eubie Blake - Ragtime, jazz pianist, composer
Merrill Womack - Gospel performer
Laura Ingalls Wilder - Novelist, children's writer
An Wang - Computer genius, Wang Corporation founder
Buster Crabbe - Body builder, fitness expert, film actor
%February 8
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1887 - The last Old West gunfight took place at Fort Worth, Texas.
1910 - Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.
1962 - The Military Assistance Command (MAC), created as a new U.S. military command in South Vietnam, was announced by the Defense Department.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 8:
Jules Verne - French novelist, fantasy and science-fiction originator
James Dean - '50s icon, film actor
Evangeline Adams - First great American astrologer
John Williams - Film composer, conductor
Lana Turner - Actress
Franz Marc - German painter
%February 9
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1825 - John Quincy Adams was elected President of the United States by the House of Representatives, after failure of any of the four candidates to win a majority in the electoral college.
1861 - Jefferson Davis was elected as President of the Confederate States.
1870 - Congress established the U.S. Weather Bureau.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 9:
Alice Walker - Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Mia Farrow - Actress
Joe Pesci - Actor
John Ziegler - National Hockey League president
Carole King - Singer, songwriter
Amy Lowell - Poet
%February 10
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1863 - The fire extinguisher was patented.
1896 - The New York Times established its slogan "All the news that's fit to print" appearing on the first page of the newspaper.
1981 - A pug owned by Robert Hauslohner, Ch. Dhandy's Favorite Woodchuck, took best-in-show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 10:
Roberta Flack - Singer, arranger, pianist
Laura Dern - Actress
Robert Wagner - Actor
Murray Weidenbaum - Economist
Charles Lamb - British essayist, critic
Leontyne Price - German poet, playwright
%February 11
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1752 - The first United States hospital opened in Philadelphia, PA.
1833 - The first rubber company was incorporated.
1972 - A snowmobile exceeded 125mph for the first time.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 11:
Thomas Edison - Inventor
Burt Reynolds - Actor
Tina Louise - Actress
Lloyd Bentsen - U.S. senator, vice-presidential candidate
Gene Vincent - Rock & roll singer
Eva Gabor - Hungarian-born film actress
%February 12
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1738 - The first puppet show commenced in New York City.
1924 - "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin was first performed at Aeolian Hall in New York City with Gershwin himself at the piano.
1964 - The Beatles gave their first concert in the U.S. at Carnegie Hall.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 12:
Abraham Lincoln - U.S. president
Cotton Mather - New England Puritan, theologian, founder Yale University
Bill Russell - Basketball center, first big-league African-American head coach
Franco Zeffirelli - Italian opera, film director
Arsenio Hall - TV host, comic film actor
Judy Blume - Writer
%February 13
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1875 - The first set of quintuplets were born in Watertown, Wisconsin
1914 - ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, was organized.
1984 - The first heart and liver transplant was performed.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 13:
Chuck Yeager - Astronaut, test pilot
Kim Novak - Actress
William Shockley - Nobel Prize-winning physicist, transistor inventor
Patti Berg - Golf champion
Peter Gabriel - British singer, composer
Bess Truman - First Lady
%February 14
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1859 - Oregon was the 33rd state to be admitted to the Union.
1962 - Jacqueline Kennedy hosted a televised tour of the White House that was broadcast simultaneously by CBS and NBC and was seen by an estimated 46,500,000 people.
1984 - It was announced that President Ronald Reagan's presidential library and museum would be located at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 14:
James Hoffa - Teamster's Union president
Jack Benny - Actor
Molly Ringwald - Actress
Hugh Downs - TV personality
Byron Nelson - Golfer
Jim Kelly - Football quarterback
%February 15
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1879 - An act of Congress gave women attorneys the right to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1919 - The American Legion was organized.
1978 - Leon Spinks won the world heavyweight boxing championship over Muhammad Ali in a 15-round decision.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 15:
Galileo Galilei - Italian astronomer, physicist, mathematician, telescope inventor
Susan B. Anthony - Social activist
Charles Tiffany - Jeweler, craftsman
Matt Groening - Cartoonist, creator, Simpsons
Cesar Romero - Actor
Melissa Manchester - Singer
%February 16
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1937 - Nylon was patented
1965 - Pegasus 1, a micrometeoroid detection station with 96-foot wings as sensors, was put into orbit.
1979 - The Grammy Award for best album of 1978 went to The Bee Gees for "Saturday Night Fever".
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 16:
John McEnroe - Tennis star
John Schlesinger - British film director
LeVar Burton - Actor
Edgar Bergen - Ventriloquist, Candice Bergen's father
Sonny Bono - Singer, politician
Max Baer - World heavyweight boxing champ, actor
%February 17
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1897 - The Parent Teacher Association was established.
1913 - The minimum wage law was enacted.
1965 - Ranger 8, a moon probe, was successfully launched, sending back 7137 photos of the moon's surface.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 17:
Jim Brown - Football fullback
Michael Jordan - Basketball guard
Hal Holbrook - Actor
Marian Anderson - Contralto concert singer, called greatest voice of her generation
Red Barber - Sportscaster
Margaret Truman - President's daughter
%February 18
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1735 - The first opera was performed in Charleston, South Carolina
1960 - The first artificial ice skating rink of Olympic size formally opened in Squaw Valley, California
1979 - Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 for the sixth time.
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 18:
Toni Morrison - Novelist
Charles M. Schwab - Investment firm founder
Yoko Ono - Japanese-born conceptual artist, singer, songwriter, married John Lennon
John Travolta - Actor
Cybill Shepherd - Actress
Helen Gurley Brown - Editor-in-chief of "Cosmopolitan" magazine, writer
%February 19
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1803 - Ohio became the 17th state of the Union.
1962 - Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home was established as a national monument in Lincoln City, Indiana.
1977 - The Grammy Award for best album of 1976 went to Stevie Wonder for "Songs in the Key of Life".
OTHERS BORN ON FEBRUARY 19:
Eddie Arcaro - Legendary jockey
Amy Tan - Novelist
Smokey Robinson - Singer, songwriter
John Frankenheimer - Director
Margaux Hemingway - Actress, model
Prince Andrew - British royal family
%February 20
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1872 - The first elevator patent for a vertical geared hydraulic electric elevator.
1872 - The first machinery was patented for the square bottom paper sack.
1962 - Lt. Col. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
Shannon Miller - U.S. Olympic five medal-winning gymnast
Fou T'song - Chinese pianist
%March 11
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1847 - John Chapman, "Johnny Appleseed", planter of orchids and friend of animals, died and was buried at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1960 - Pioneer V, the first satellite placed in solar orbit, launched.
1972 - The first electrocardiography by telephone was performed, with the heart patient being in California and his doctor in the Philippines.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 11:
Ralph D. Abernathy - NAACP head
Bobby McFerrin - Jazz singer
Harold Wilson - British prime minister
Sam Donaldson - TV journalist, host
Dorothy Schiff - New York Post owner-publisher, heiress
Rupert Murdoch - Newspaper magnate
%March 12
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1912 - Girl Scouts was founded
1923 - Sound on film motion picture was demonstrated for the press
1993 - Janet Reno became the first woman to serve as attorney general of the U.S.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 12:
Liza Minnelli - Singer, entertainer, actress, daughter of Judy Garland
James Taylor - Singer, songwriter
Al Jarreau - Jazz singer
Walter Schirra - Astronaut
Darryl Strawberry - Baseball outfielder
Giovanni Agnelli - Italian industrialist, Fiat chairman
%March 13
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1877 - The earmuff was patented.
1930 - Identification of the planet Pluto was made from a photograph taken at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
1981 - The world's largest diamond, the 170.45 carat Star of Peace, was sold for $20,000,000, which is the highest price ever paid for a gem.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 13:
Eugene A. Cernan - Second astronaut to walk in space
Neil Sedaka - Singer, songwriter
Dick Katz - Co-founder Milestone records, jazz pianist, arranger
Sammy Kay - Bandleader
William Bolger - U.S. postmaster general
Tessie O'Shea - British entertainer
%March 14
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1794 - The cotton gin was patented.
1964 - Jack Ruby was convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
1972 - The Grammy Award for best album of 1971 went to Carole King for "Tapestry".
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 14:
Albert Einstein - Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist, mathematician
Quincy Jones, - Jazz trumpeter, keyboardist, arranger, composer, bandleader, producer, record executive
Johann Strauss, Sr. - Austrian composer, conductor
Billy Crystal - Comedian, actor
Hank Ketchum - Cartoonist, Dennis the Menace
Kirby Puckett - Baseball outfielder
%March 15
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1820 - Maine was admitted into the Union as the 23rd state.
1869 - The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional baseball team.
1937 - The first blood bank was established.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 15:
Andrew Jackson - U.S. president
Sly Stone - Singer, songwriter, funk pioneer
Lawrence Tisch - CBS chairman
Louis Berman - Endocrinologist, writer
Judd Hirsch - Actor
Phil Lesh - Electric bass guitarist
%March 16
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1802 - The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, was established by Congress.
1910 - A new land speed record of 133 mph was set by Barney Oldfield in a Benz automobile.
1971 - The Grammy Award for best album of 1970 went to Simon and Garfunkel for "Bridge Over Troubled Water".
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 16:
James Madison - U.S. president
Jerry Lewis - Comedian, actor, producer, director, host and sponsor of Muscular Dystrophy telethon
Elvira Mabel Burns - Designer of U.S. social security card
Nancy Wilson - Guitarist, songwriter, singer, "Heart"
Jean Rosenthal - Broadway lighting designer
Sybil Bedford - British writer
%March 17
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1872 - The first professional baseball association (National Association of Professional Baseball Players) was organized.
1897 - The first motion picture of a prizefight was filmed (Fitzsimmons vs. Corbett)
1910 - The Camp Fire Girls was organized.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 17:
Nat King Cole - Singer, jazz pianist, actor
James Irwin - Astronaut
Sammy Baugh - Football quarterback
Bobby Jones - Golfer
Kate Greenaway - Victorian children's, adult book illustrator
Anne Wigmore - Lithuanian nutritionist, wheat grass discoverer
%March 18
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1834 - The first railroad tunnel was completed.
1970 - The first major postal workers' strike in U.S. history began.
1985 - The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) was bought by Capital Cities Communications for $3,500,000,000.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 18:
Grover Cleveland - U.S. President
Wilson Pickett - Soul singer
Neville Chamberlain - British prime minister
John Updike - Novelist
George Plimpton - Writer, TV personality, adventurer
Irene Cara - Broadway singer, film actress
%March 19
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1918 - Congress passed The Standard Time Act, which divided the U.S. into time zones and established Daylight Savings Time.
1954 - The first prizefight was televised in color.
1972 - The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) held its first women's collegiate basketball championship.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 19:
Wyatt Earp - U.S. marshal
Glenn Close - Actress
Bruce Willis - Actor
Moms Mabley - Comedian, singer
John Sirica - Watergate judge
Irving Wallace - Novelist
%March 20
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1948 - The first televised symphonic concerts were shown.
1948 - The first time a radio program (by the NBC Symphony) was transmitted at the same time over AM and FM stations and telecast.
1965 - The NCAA basketball championship was won by UCLA, defeating Michigan.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 20:
Henrik Ibsen - Norwegian playwright, modern drama pioneer
Pat Riley - Basketball coach
Bobby Orr - Hockey player
Fred Rogers - "Mr. Rogers" TV Children's Show icon
Michael Redgrave - Actor, father of Vanessa and Lynn
Carl Reiner - Comedian, TV writer
%March 21
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1859 - Philadelphia Zoological Garden was incorporated.
1946 - The first microfilm machine to project enlarged images on ceilings was installed.
1965 - Ranger 9, the last moon probe of the Ranger series, was launched and it transmitted 5814 photos of the moon's surface.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 21:
Johann Sebastian Bach - German master composer
Ingrid Kristiansen - Norwegian runner, two time Boston Marathon winner
Matthew Broderick - Actor
Walter Gilbert - Nobel Prize recipient for DNA sequencing to read genetic code
John D. Rockefeller III - Financier
Timothy Dalton - Actor
%March 22
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1880 - The first commercial hydroelectric power plant was organized.
1887 - The first commissioners for the Interstate Commerce Act were appointed.
1972 - The Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, the 27th, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, was passed by the Senate.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 22:
Marcel Marceau - French mime
George Benson - Jazz guitarist & singer
William Shatner - Actor
Agnes Martin - Painter
William Travilla - Designer
Ron Carey - Teamster Union head
%March 23
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1775 - Patrick Henry delivered his immortal speech against arbitrary British rule, closing with "Give me liberty or give me death."
1965 - Gemini III was launched.
1989 - According to NASA reports, a mountain-sized asteroid passed within 500,000 miles of Earth.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 23:
Joan Crawford - Actress
Werner von Braun - German-U.S. rocket scientist
William Smith - Father of British geology
Moses Malone - NBA Center
Hayes Jenkins - Olympic Gold Medalist in figure skating
Juan Gris - Spanish sculptor, stage and costume designer, book illustrator
%March 24
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1883 - The first telephone service between New York and Chicago began.
1920 - Coast Guard air station opened in Morehead City, North Carolina.
1989 - The largest oil spill in U.S. history occurred when the Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 24:
Thomas Dewey - Presidential candidate, NY governor
Pat Bradley - Professional golfer, two time LPGA Player of the Year
Lawrence Ferlinghetti - San Francisco beat poet, writer, painter
Bob Mackie - Fashion designer
Steve McQueen - Actor
Clyde Barrow - Clyde of "Bonnie & Clyde" bank robbers
%March 25
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1857 - The first photograph of a solar-eclipse was taken.
1902 - Sheet -glass drawing machine was patented.
1967 - The NCAA basketball championship was won for the third time in four years by undefeated UCLA.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 25:
Gloria Steinem - Feminine activist
Elton John - British singer, songwriter
Howard Cosell - Sportscaster
James Lovell - U.S. astronaut
Aretha Franklin - Singer
Paul Michael Glaser - Actor
%March 26
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1936 - The first telescope lens 200 inches in diameter shipped.
1951 - The first Air Force flag was approved.
1962 - Robert Frost celebrated his 88th birthday at the White House, with President Kennedy presenting him with a special medal voted by Congress.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 26:
Leonard Nimoy - Actor
Erica Jong - Writer
Diana Ross - Singer, actress
Tennessee Williams - Playwright
Sandra Day O'Connor - First woman Supreme Court Justice
Robert Frost - Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
%March 27
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1841 - The first steam fire engine was tested.
1969 - Mariner 7 was successfully launched towards Mars, eventually sending back 91 photographs.
1973 - "The Godfather" won the Academy Award for outstanding motion picture of 1972.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 27:
Romulus - Rome's founder
Cale Yarborough - Three time NASCAR champion, four time Daytona 500 winner
Cyrus Vance - Secretary of State, peace mediator
Gloria Swanson - Actress
Sir Henry Royce - Co-founder of the Rolls-Royce motor company
Arthur Mitchell - Dancer, choreographer
%March 28
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1797 - The washing machine was patented.
1977 - The NCAA basketball championship was won by Marquette University, defeating North Carolina.
1985 - Neil Simon's play "Biloxi Blues" opened at the Neil Simon Theater in New York City.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 28:
Raphael - Italian Renaissance master painter
Maxim Gorky - Russian short-story writer
Thad Jones - Jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer
Rick Barry - Basketball forward
Moses Pendleton - Self-taught choreographer
August Anheuser Busch - Beer company owner
%March 29
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1882 - The Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization that donates money and volunteers time to charitable causes, was first chartered by the state of Connecticut.
1927 - An automobile exceeded the speed of 200 miles per hour in Daytona Beach, Florida.
1987 - The NCAA women's basketball championship was won by Tennessee over Louisiana Tech.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 29:
John Tyler - U.S. president
Pearl Bailey - Singer
Eric Idle - British actor
Jennifer Capriati - Tennis player
Alene Bertha Duerk - First woman U.S. Navy rear admiral
John Major - British prime minister
%March 30
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1858 - The pencil with attached eraser was patented.
1974 - Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was married to Nancy Maginnes.
1981 - President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley outside a Washington, D.C., hotel; he survived the shooting.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 30:
Vincent van Gogh - Dutch painter
Warren Beatty - Actor
Eric Clapton - Blues-rock guitarist, singer, songwriter
Anna Sewell - British writer
Frankie Laine - Singer
Francisco de Goya - Spanish artist
%March 31
BIRTHDAY FACTS FUN
ON THIS DAY:
1876 - The title guaranty insurance company was organized.
1918 - Daylight Saving went into effect.
1967 - The first U.S.-U.S.S.R. consular treaty since the Russian Revolution was signed by President Johnson.
OTHERS BORN ON MARCH 31:
Rene Descartes - French philosopher - "I think, therefore I am."
