Born On This Day:

• King Frederick II Denmark, 1534
• Gottfried Leibnitz, 1646
• Georg Lichtenberg, 1742
• George Sand, 1804
• Louis Bleriot, 1872
• James M. Cain, 1892
• Charles Laughton, 1899
• William Wyler, 1902
• Estée Lauder, 1908
• Olivia De Havilland, 1916
• Farley Granger, 1925
• Leslie Caron, 1931
• Jean Marsh, 1934
• Sydney Pollack, 1934
• Jamie Farr, 1934
• Twyla Tharp, 1941
• Karen Black, 1942
• Genevieve Bujold, 1942
• Debbie Harry, 1945
• Dan Ackroyd, 1951
• Diana, Princess of Wales, 1961
• Carl Lewis, 1961
• Pamela Anderson Lee, 1967
• Liv Tyler, 1977

Died On This Day:

• Charles Goodyear, 1860
• Allan Pinkerton, 1884
• Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1896
• Eric Satie, 1925
• Ben Turpin, 1940
• Pierre Monteux, 1964
• Juan Peron, 1974
• C. P. Snow, 1980
• Buckminster Fuller, 1983
• Michael Landon, 1991
• Wolfman Jack, 1995
• Margaux Hemingway suicide, 1996
• Robert Mitchum, 1997
• Edward Dmytryk, 1999
• Sylvia Sidney, 1999
• Walter Matthau, 2000
• Herbie Mann, 2003
• Marlon Brando, 2004
• Karl Malden, 2009

Today's Events:

• 1690 - Battle of the Boyne (Ireland); King William III Prince of Orange defeats James II at Boyne River.
• 1731 - Benjamin Franklin establishes America's first public library.
• 1770 - Lexell's Comet traveling at 23.9 miles per second comes within 1.5 million miles of Earth.
• 1847 - First official U.S. adhesive postage stamps issued 5¢ and 10¢. (See Feb 15, 1842- NY private mail)
• 1852 - First postage stamp issued in India.
• 1858 - Darwin's natural selection and evolution theories first revealed in meeting at Linnean Society, London.
• 1859 - First intercollegiate baseball game played in Pittsfield, Mass. Amherst over Williams 66-32
• 1862 - Confederates defeat Union army at Battle of Malvern Hill.
• 1863 - Slavery ends in Dutch West Indies.
• 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg begins. Northern Gen. George Meade victorious; Confederacy crumbles in 2 days.
• 1863 - 1867-British North America act - Dominion of Canada set including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec; now called Canada Day.
• 1868 - First New York elevated train, the 9th Avenue El, makes first trial run bet. Cortland St. & Battery Pl.
• 1873 - Prince Edward Island joins Dominion of Canada.
• 1874 - First American kidnapping for ransom. Child held for $20,000.
• 1874 - America's first zoo opens-The Philadelphia Zoological Garden, with bear pit and lion house.
• 1898 - Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders make famous charge at Battle of San Juan Hill, Cuba.
• 1910 - Black and Decker Tool Company founded by Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker in Baltimore.
• 1911 - Charles Kettering announces his invention of the self-starter for automobiles; crank no longer.
• 1916 - First day of the Battle of the Somme finds 57,470 British soldiers dead or wounded in France. WWI
• 1920 - British begin administration of Palestine.
• 1941 - A TV commercial for Bulova Watches at 10:10 p.m. becomes world's first TV spot on WNBT N.Y.
• 1946 - U.S. begins peacetime nuclear testing; Atom Bomb drops on Bikini Atoll in Marshall Islands in Pacific.
• 1966 - Last of at least 31 attempts to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle; bomb in Paris car.
• 1969 - Prince Charles invested Prince of Wales.
• 1979 - U.S. Treasury issues disastrous Susan B. Anthony dollar coin.
• 1997 - At 12:01 A.M. this morning Hong Kong reverts from Britain to the People's Republic of China.

Feast Day of Saint:

• Simeon Salus
• Saints Cosma and Damiano in Greece

Holiday:

• National holidays in Ghana and Guatemala
• Canada Day, which used to be known as Dominion Day (1867)
• Independence Day Burundi (1962)
• Conception of Gantama Buddha

Non-Specific Holiday:

• JAGANNATH, RATHA YATRA, Hindu Festival of Car Procession of Vishnu
• CHI HSI, Festival of the Milky Way in China (seventh day of the seventh moon)
• CHUNG YÜAN, Festival of the Dead in China (fifteenth day of the seventh moon)
• NAGA PANCHAMI, Hindu Festival of the Serpent God
• RAKHI, Hindu Festival to Pledge Protection
• CHUNG-CH'IU, Mid-autumn festival, Harvest or Moon Festival (fifteenth day of the eighth moon)
• TISH'AH B'AB (Jewish) Anniversary of fall of Jerusalem and destruction of first & 2nd temples Ab 9
• NEBUTA, Japanese Festival at peak of summer to drive off lethargy
• SOMA NOMAOI, Japanese Festival of samurai equestrian displays