Born On This Day:

• John Calvin, 1509
• Camille Pissarro, 1830
• Finley Peter Dunne, 1867
• Marcel Proust, 1871
• John Gilbert, 1897
• Don (Mr. Wizard) Herbert, 1917
• David Brinkley, 1920
• Jake LaMotta, 1921
• Jean Kerr, 1923
• Fred Gwynne, 1926
• David Dinkins, 1927
• Jerry Herman, 1933
• Arthur Ashe, 1943
• Virginia Wade, 1945
• Arlo Guthrie, 1947
• Jessica Simpson, 1980

Died On This Day:

• Roman Emperor Hadrian, AD 138
• King Canute IV Denmark, 1086
• Henry II France, 1559
• Theodore II Russia, 1605
• Thomas Wedgewood, 1805
• Louis Daguerre, 1851
• Paul Morphy, 1884
• Jelly Roll Morton, 1941
• Lucien Pissarro, 1944
• Sholem Asch, 1957
• John D. Rockefeller III killed, 1978
• Arthur Fiedler, 1979
• Mel Blanc, 1989

Today's Events:

• 48 BC - Julius Caesar loses 1,000 men to Pompey's army at the Battle of Dyrrachium and flees to Thessaly.
• 1220 - London Bridge collapses during fire in which 3,000 die.
• 1460 - Yorkist defeat Lancastrians at Northampton and capture King Henry VI.
• 1553 - Lady Jane Grey crowned Queen of England; to reign for only nine days.
• 1790 - House of Representatives approves move of nation's capital from New York to Philadelphia.
• 1866 - Edson P. Clark receives patent on indelible pencil.
• 1890 - Wyoming becomes 44th state admitted to Union.
• 1900 - Paris Metro opens.
• 1925 - Soviet news agency Tass established.
• 1925 - Scopes 'Monkey Trial' begins; teacher charged with violating state law against teaching evolution.
• 1928 - First color motion pictures exhibited by George Eastman at Rochester, N.Y.
• 1940 - The Battle of Britain begins when 70 German bombers attack docks in South Wales; Luftwaffe bombs continue for 114 days.
• 1941 - Poles (not Nazis!) wipe out 1,600 Jews in farm village of Jedwabne.
• 1958 - First purges of the Chinese cultural revolution.
• 1962 - Telstar communications satellite launched making live TV transmissions across Atlantic possible.
• 1985 - Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior sabotaged and sunk in Auckland, N.Z harbor by French govt. agents.
• 1985 - Coca-Cola company brings back old Coke as Coke Classic to please critics of new formula.
• 2002 - Rubens 'Massacre of the Innocents' sells for all time record of £49.5 million at Sotheby's London.

Feast Day of Saint:

• Antony of the Caves
• Alexander (and the six other sons of St. Felicity)
• Amalburga

Holiday:

• Independence Day Bahamas (1973)
• Mongolia (1921)

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