Those born on this day include:
- French essayist Michel de Montaigne in 1533
- American journalist and screenwriter Ben Hecht in 1894
- Chemist and physicist Linus Pauling, twice winner of the Nobel Prize, in 1901
- Movie director Vincente Minnelli in 1903
- Cartoonist Milton Caniff in 1907
- Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, in 1926 (age 84)
- Actress Billie Bird in 1908
- Actor Zero Mostel in 1915
- Actor Charles Durning in 1923 (age 87)
- Actor Gavin MacLeod in 1931 (age 79)
- Dancer Tommy Tune in 1939 (age 71)
- College basketball coach Dean Smith in 1931 (age 79)
- Former race car driver Mario Andretti in 1940 (age 70)
- Actress Bernadette Peters (age 62)
- Actress Mercedes Ruehl in 1948 (age 62)
- Actor John Turturro in 1957 (age 53)
- Actress Rae Dawn Chong in 1961 (age 49)
- Actor Robert Sean Leonard in 1969 (age 41)
- Hockey player Eric Lindros in 1973 (age 37)

In 1784, the Methodist Church was chartered by John Wesley.

In 1844, an explosion rocked the “war steamer” USS Princeton after it test-fired one of its guns. The blast killed or wounded a number of top U.S. government
officials who were aboard.

In 1849, the first shipload of gold seekers arrived in San Francisco after a five-month journey from New York.

In 1885, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company was incorporated in New York as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone.

In 1935, nylon was invented by DuPont researcher Wallace Carothers.

In 1942, Japanese forces landed in Java, the last Allied bastion in the Dutch East Indies.

In 1982, the J. Paul Getty Museum became the most richly endowed museum on Earth when it received a $1.2 billion bequest left by Getty.

In 1983, the concluding episode of the long-running television series “M*A*S*H” drew what was then the largest TV audience in U.S. history.

In 1986, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated on a street in Stockholm.

In 1990, the Soviet Parliament passed a law permitting the leasing of land to individuals for housing and farming. It was another radical change in the
Stalinist scheme of a state-run economy.

In 1992, a judge in Rochester Hills, Mich., said euthanasia advocate Jack “Dr. Death” Kevorkian must stand trial for murder for helping two chronically
ill women commit suicide.

Also in 1992, a bomb blamed on the IRA ripped through a London railway station, injuring at least 30 people and shutting down the British capital’s rail
and subway system.

In 1993, federal agents attempting to serve warrants on the Branch Davidian religious cult’s compound near Waco, Texas, were met with a hail of bullets
that left at least five dead and 15 wounded and marked the start of a month-and-a-half-long standoff.

Also in 1993, film actress Lillian Gish, a major star in the silents and whose career spanned more than 80 years, died at age 96; and actress/dancer Ruby
Keeler, star of ’30s musicals (“42nd Street”), died at age 82.

In 1994, NATO was involved in actual combat for the first time in its 45-year history when four U.S. fighter planes operating under NATO auspices shot
down four Serb planes that had violated the U.N. no-fly zone in central Bosnia.

In 1996, Britain’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana agreed to divorce after 15 years of marriage.

In 1997, the Democratic National Committee said it would return nearly $1.5 million in contributions that may have been illegal or improper.

Also in 1997, former FBI agent Earl Pitts pleaded guilty to spying and became only the second FBI agent convicted of espionage.

In 2000, bowing to international pressure, Jorg Haider resigned as leader of Austria’s anti-immigrant Freedom Party. Haider had come under scrutiny for
his reported admiration of Adolf Hitler.

In 2001, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked the U.S. Pacific Northwest, injuring 250 people and causing more than $1 billion in damage.

In 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a ban on all forms of human cloning, setting up a Senate debate on what would be appropriate research.

In 2005, at least 125 Iraqi police recruits and others were killed when a suicide bomber drove into a crowd outside a government office south of Baghdad.

In 2006, at least 25 people died in an explosion outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad and 33 more were killed in three other bombings.

In 2007, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Diego declared bankruptcy, halting trials on about 150 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children by priests.

In 2008, rivals in the bitterly disputed Kenyan presidential election signed a power-sharing agreement in an effort to end a violent two-month aftermath
in which an estimated 1,500 people died and as many as 600,000 were displaced.

Also in 2008, Prince Harry, third in line for the British throne, was pulled from the front lines in Afghanistan immediately after word got out that the
prince was on army duty. He had spent 10 weeks in the war zone. The British media knew of the deployment but kept quiet until the story broke on a U.S.
Web site.

In 2009, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius accepted U.S. President Barack Obama’s nomination as secretary of health and human services after former Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle withdrew over a tax problem.

Also in 2009, radio broadcasting icon Paul Harvey, who entertained generations of listeners with his news and comments, died. He was 90.

Those born on this day include:
- Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1807
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in 1886
- David Sarnoff, RCA board chairman and father of American television, in 1891
- Soprano Marian Anderson in 1897
- Novelist John Steinbeck in 1902
- Actress Joan Bennett in 1910
- Former Texas Gov. John Connally in 1917
- Actress Joanne Woodward in 1930 (age 80)
- Actress Elizabeth Taylor in 1932 (age 78)
- Actor Howard Hesseman in 1940 (age 70)
- Actress Mary Frann in 1943
- Consumer activist Ralph Nader in 1934 (age 76)
- Actor Adam Baldwin in 1962 (age 48)
- Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton in 1980 (age 30)
- Singer Josh Groban in 1981 (age 29)