BIRTHDAYS:
1265, Dante Alighieri, Italian poet

1672, Peter I (the Great) czar of Russia

1908, Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs, Elmer, Porky, and Daffy.

1909, Benny Goodman, swinger.

1916, Dr. Joseph W. Kennedy, scientist, discoverer of plutonium

1926, Johnny Gimble, country musician

1927, Clint Walker, Actor

1936, Ruta Lee, Actress

1939, Michael J. Pollard, Actor

1951, Stephen Tobolowsky, Actor

1953, Colm Meaney, Actor (Chief O'Brien)

1958, Ted McGinley, Actor

1961, Ralph Carter, Actor

1964, Country singer Wynonna.

1964, Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), musician

1971, Patrick Dahlheimer, musician

1972, Trey Parker, Actor

1974, Cee-Lo (Goodie Mob), rapper


EVENTS:
1431, Joan of Arc burned at the stake for being a heretic.

1539, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto landed in Florida.

1854, The territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.

1883, 12 people were trampled when rumors that the Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing.

1911, Indianapolis 500 car race run for first time. Winning driver Ray Harroun takes it with a blazing 75 mph.

1922, The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

1937, 10 people were killed when police fired on steelworkers demonstrating near the Republic Steel plant in South Chicago.

1943, American forces secured the Aleutian island of Attu from the Japanese during World War II.

1958, Unidentified soldiers killed in World War II and the Korean conflict were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

1971, The American space probe Mariner IX blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on a journey to Mars.

1980, Pope John Paul II arrived in France on the first visit by the head of the Roman Catholic Church since the early 19th century.

1981, Tommy Lee Jones marries Kimberlea Gayle Cloughley.

1981, The compact disk is introduced.

1982, Spain became NATO's 16th member.

1982, Kelsey Grammer marries Doreen Alderman.

1996, Britain's Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were granted an uncontested decree ending their 10-year marriage.

How had he dared to tell her that he loved her? His life had hitherto moved in separate ways. In one he had killed, in another he had been a friend, in yet another the lover of girls met by chance. A new life, indeed! For the first time, he realized that there is only one life. There is no 'old' and 'new' life. Nothing in life sinks into oblivion and no act can be undone.
- Jerzy Andrzejewski