On This Day:

537:	The Goths lay siege to Rome
1302:	According to Shakespeare, this is Romeo and Juliet's wedding day
1702:	The first London daily newspaper, “The Daily Courant,” is launched near Fleet Street in London
1779:	The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is established (for the 1st time)
1791:	Samuel Mulliken of Philadelphia becomes the first person to obtain more than one U.S. patent (four patents are issued for his machines to thresh corn and grain, to breaking and swingling hemp, to cut polished marble and to raise the nap on cloths)
1810:	Emperor Napoleon is married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise (to obtain an heir and to cement an alliance with the Austrian dynasty)
1823:	Samuel Read Hall founds the first normal school in U.S. opens - Concord Academy in Concord vermont (a training school for teachers where he experiments with using blackboards to teach)
1824:	The U.S. War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs
1845:	In New Zealand, further Maori uprisings break out against British rule
1850:	Woman's Medical College of Pennsylania, the first female medical school, is established by Quaker businessmen, clergy and physicians and headed by philanthropist William J. Mullen (later becomes the Medical College of Pennsylvania)
1851:	The opera “Rigoletto” is produced (Venice)
1861:	At a meeting in Montgomery Alabama, the Confederate States of America adopt their Constitution which abolishes the African Slave Trade (it does allow for continued slavery though)
1865:	General Sherman's Union forces occupies Fayetteville North Carolina
1867:	The “Great Eruption” of Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii
1867:	The opera “Don Carlos” is produced (Paris)
1882:	The Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association is organized in Princeton NJ
1888:	The “Great Eastern Blizzard of '88” begins in the northeastern U.S. (it continues for 4 days killing 400 people)
1892:	The first public game of basketball is played between students and teachers at the YMCA Training School (later Springfield College) in Springfield Massahusetts (the students won 5-1 - Amos Alonzo Stagg, who started the football program at Springfield and later invented five-man basketball, scores the only goal for the teachers)
1904:	The Ottawa Silver 7 sweep Brandon (Manitoba) Wheat Kings in 2 for the Stanley Cup
1905:	The Ottawa Silver 7 beat Rat Portage (Kenora) Thisles for the Stanley Cup
1912:	Quebec beats Moncton 9-3 (on the way to sweep the Stanley Cup) in the first Cup game played in three 20-min periods (formerly played in 30-min halfs)
1917:	50,000 British and Indian troops, led by General Maude, march into Baghdad and capture 9,000 Turkish prisoners
1918:	The Save the Redwoods League is founded
1927:	The first U.S. commercial armored car robbery is commited by the Flatheads Gang near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania ($104,250 is reportedly stolen)
1927:	The first golden gloves tournament is held
1927:	The first rear projection motion picture theater begins operating when Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre in New York City, which cost $10,000,000 to build and holds an audience of 6,200 (the theater, part of the “golden age of the movie palace” that replaces theaters where the projector was in front of the audience, has an 18' by 22' screen where the first feature shown is “The Loves of Sunya” starring Gloria Swanson and John Boles)
1930:	Babe Ruth signs a two-year, $80,000 contract with the New York Yankees
1930:	President & Chief Justice William Taft is buried in Arlington Virginia
1935:	The Bank of Canada opens
1938:	Germany invades Austria
1941:	The Lend-Lease Act is passed by Congress, giving Britian and USSR $7 billion each in military credit
1942:	As Japanese forces continue to advance in the Pacific during World War II, General Douglas MacArthur leaves the Philippines for Australia, vowing “I shall return” (he does but it takes nearly three years)
1948:	A fire in an Asheville North Carolina mental hospital kills Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of novelist and screenwriter F. Scott Fitzgerald, and eight other female patients (she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent most of her later years in asylums)
1948:	Reginald Weir becomes the first African American to play in the U.S. Tennis Open
1953:	An American B-47 accidentally drops a nuclear bomb on South Carolina, the bomb doesn't go off due to six safety catches
1953:	The first female army doctor is commissioned (F M Adams)
1954:	The U.S. Army charges that Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and his subcommittee's chief counsel, Roy Cohn, exerted pressure to obtain favored treatment for Private G. David Schine, a former consultant to the McCarthy's Subcommittee on Unamerican Activities
1960:	NASA Launches Pioneer V into solar orbit between the Earth & Venus
1965:	Reverand James J. Reeb, a white minister from Boston, died from a beating by angry whites during civil rights disturbances in Selma Alabama
1966:	A military coup is led by Indonesian General Suharto
1967:	Pink Floyd releases their first song “Arnold Layne”
1974:	Rhino Store gives people 5¢ to take home Danny Bonaduce's record album
1977:	More than 130 hostages held in Washington DC by Hanafi Muslims are released after ambassadors from three Islamic nations join the negotiations
1977:	34 Israeli citizens are killed by Palestinians on the Tel Aviv-Haifa highway
1982:	Seantor Harrison A. Williams Jr (D-NJ) resigns rather than face expulsion (having been implicated and convicted in the Abscam bribery scandal)
1985:	Mikhail S Gobachev is elected General Secretary of the Soviet Central Committee replacing Konstantin Chernenko
1985:	The Al-Fayed brothers of Egypt win control of the House of Fraser in London, thereby gaining control of the Harrods department store
1986:	One million days have passed since the traditional date for the founding of Rome in 4/21/753 BC
1986:	A record 187.27 million shares are traded on the NY Stock Exchange
1986:	Japanese spaceprobe Sakigake flies by Halley's Comet at 6.8 million km
1986:	Popsicle announces plans to stop producing the traditional twin-stick frozen treat for a one-stick model instead
1986:	The National Football League adopts the instant replay rule
1990:	Lithuania becomes the first Soviet republic to break away from Communist control when its parliament votes to secede from the Soviet Union and restore its independence
1993:	Janet Reno is unanimously confirmed by the Senate to be the nation's first female Attorney General
1993:	North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in a harsh rebuff of Western demands to open suspected nuclear weapons development sites for inspection
1997:	Rock musician Paul McCartney is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
1998:	French authorities exhume the remains of singer/actor Yves Montand for DNA tests to settle the paternity suit of Aurore Drossard, age 22, who claims she is his daughter and wants part of his estate (Montand died in 1991 at age 70, just three days before he was to testify in the lawsuit, having refused to submit to the DNA testing)

   Born On This Day:

1544:	Torquato Tasso, Italy, Renaissance poet (Aminta, Apologia) (466 years ago)
1726:	Mme. Louise-Florence d'apinay, French writer (Woman, Man & 2 Kingdoms) (284 years ago)
1731:	Robert Treat Paine, judge, signer of Declaration of Independence (279 years ago)
1793:	Jan F Willems, Flemish writer (217 years ago)
1811:	Marsena Rudolph Patrick, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers) (199 years ago)
1811:	Urbain Jean Joseph le Verrier, French astronomer/director of the Paris Observatory (co-discovered Neptune) (199 years ago)
1812:	James Speed, Atty Gen (Union), died in 1887 (198 years ago)
1818:	John Wilkins Whitfield, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1879 (192 years ago)
1822:	Allison Nelson, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1862 (188 years ago)
1822:	Marius Petipa, French ballet dancers/choreographer (Don Quiotte) (188 years ago)
1832:	Brigadier General William R Cox, 2nd NC Infantry, ANV (178 years ago)
1832:	Franz Melde, German physicist (Melde proof) (178 years ago)
1832:	William Ruffin Cox, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1919 (178 years ago)
1840:	Edmund Kirby Jr, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1863 (170 years ago)
1860:	Thomas Hastings, NYC, architect (NY Public Library) (150 years ago)
1863:	Wobbe de Vries, linguist (147 years ago)
1876:	Carl Ruggles, Marion Massachusetts, composer (Evocations) (134 years ago)
1876:	David WØnkoop, revolutionary socialist (134 years ago)
1884:	Jan Lemaire, writer/actor (Beautiful Juliet) (126 years ago)
1885:	Malcolm Campbell, first auto racer to travel 5 miles/min (8 km/min) (125 years ago)
1890:	Vannevar Bush, developed first electronic analog computer (120 years ago)
1892:	Raoul Walsh, U.S. director (Thief of Baghdad, Battle Cry) (118 years ago)
1897:	Henry Dixon Cowell, Menlo Park California, composer (New Musical Resources) (113 years ago)
1898:	Dorothy Gish, stage/silent film actress (Orphans of the Storm) (112 years ago)
1899:	Frederick IX, king of Denmark (1947-72) (111 years ago)
1903:	Dorothy Schiff, publisher (NY Post) (107 years ago)
1903:	Lawrence Welk, Strasburg ND, orchestra leader (Lawrence Welk Show) (107 years ago)
1904:	Maurits Wertheim, writer (Isaac De Fuentes) (106 years ago)
1907:	Helmuth J von Moltke, German politician (July 20th plot) (103 years ago)
1907:	Margaret Herbison, British minister (Lab) (103 years ago)
1908:	Lawrence Welk, Strasburg ND, orchestra leader (Lawrence Welk Show) (102 years ago)
1910:	Robert H G Havemann, German chemist (100 years ago)
1911:	Fitzroy Maclean, British diplomat (99 years ago)
1912:	Xavier Montsalvatge, Spanish composer (El gato con botas) (98 years ago)
1913:	John Weinzweig, Toronto Canada, composer (Enchanted Hill) (97 years ago)
1913:	Thomas Gray, professor/anaesthetist (97 years ago)
1914:	Ralph Ellison, writer (Invisible Man, Shadow & Act) (96 years ago)
1916:	Sir (James) Harold Wilson, (L) British PM (1964-70, 1974-76) (94 years ago)
1918:	Al Eben, Philadelphia, actor (Doc Bergman-Hawaii 5-0) (92 years ago)
1919:	Mercer Ellington, son of Duke Ellington/bandleader (91 years ago)
1920:	D.J. Enright, England, poet/novelist (Some Men are Brothers) (90 years ago)
1920:	Henry Marking, CEO (British Airways) (90 years ago)
1920:	Kenneth Dover, chancellor (St Andrews University) (90 years ago)
1921:	Astor Piazzolla, Argentina composer (Tango Nuevo) (89 years ago)
1921:	F(rancis) M(arion) Busby Jr, U.S., sci-fi author (Star Rebel) (89 years ago)
1922:	Thom Kelling, singer/guitarist (Programa de Manha) (88 years ago)
1923:	A Louise Brough, Oklahoma, tennis player (4 time Wimbeldon champ) (87 years ago)
1923:	Ad (Adrianus C) de Besten, literary (River Basin) (87 years ago)
1923:	Terry Alexander, London, actor (Tony-Behind the Scenes) (87 years ago)
1925:	James Miskin, QC/recorder of London (85 years ago)
1926:	Patricia Tindaole, England, architect (84 years ago)
1926:	Ralph Abernathy, civil rights leader (84 years ago)
1927:	Alan Betts, emeritus professor (Royal Veterinary College) (83 years ago)
1927:	Raymond Jackson, (Jaki), British cartoonist (83 years ago)
1927:	Robert Mosbacher, U.S. politician(?) (83 years ago)
1927:	Ron Todd, British trade unionist (83 years ago)
1928:	Albert Salmi, Brooklyn NY, actor (Daniel Boone, 79 Park Avenue) (82 years ago)
1928:	Peter Roger Hunt, London England, director (Dr No) (82 years ago)
1930:	David Gentleman, designer/painter (80 years ago)
1931:	Peter Walters, CEO (Midland Bank) (79 years ago)
1931:	Rupert Murdoch, Australia, publisher (NY Post), owns FOX-TV Network (79 years ago)
1932:	Nigel Lawson, British government official (The Power Game) (78 years ago)
1934:	George Stamatoyannopoulos, Greece, medical genetics researcher (76 years ago)
1934:	Keith Speed, British MP (76 years ago)
1934:	Sam Donaldson, El Paso TX, ABC White House correspondent (Prime Time) (76 years ago)
1934:	Tina Louise, NYC, marooned with Gilligan & Mary Ann (or 02110) (76 years ago)
1936:	Antonin Scalia, Trenton NJ, 105th Supreme Court Justice (1986- ) (74 years ago)
1938:	Malcolm Keith Speed, British high court judge (72 years ago)
1942:	Peter Eyre, actor (Hedda) (68 years ago)
1944:	Ric Rothwell, drummer (Mindbenders-Games of Love) (66 years ago)
1945:	Mark Stein, vocalist/organist (Vanilla Fudge-You Keep Me Hanging On) (65 years ago)
1945:	Timothy Mason, consultant (British Arts Council) (65 years ago)
1945:	Tricia O'Neal, Louisiana, actress (Piranha Part II) (65 years ago)
1947:	Dominique Sanda, Paris, actress (Inheritance, Beyond Good & Evil) (63 years ago)
1947:	Geoffrey Hunt, Australia, world-champion squash player (63 years ago)
1947:	Mark Stein, rocker (Vanilla Fudge) (63 years ago)
1948:	George Kooymans, guitarist/singer (Golden Earring) (62 years ago)
1949:	Richard de Bois, drummer/producer (61 years ago)
1950:	Bobby McFerrin, singer (Don't Worry Be Happy-1989 Grammy) (60 years ago)
1952:	Douglas Adams, England, author (Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy) (58 years ago)
1952:	Susan Richardson, Coatesville PA, actress (Susan-8 is Enough) (58 years ago)
1955:	(Kater)Nina Hagen, East Berlin German DR, actress (Blue Angel) (55 years ago)
1955:	Nina Hagen, German singer (Unbeschreiblich Weiblich) (55 years ago)
1956:	Curtis L Brown Jr, Elizabethtown NC, Major USAF/astronaut (STS 47) (54 years ago)
1961:	Bruce Watson, rocker (Big Country-Wonderland) (49 years ago)
1961:	Mike Percy, rocker (Dead or Alive-Spin Me Round) (49 years ago)
1963:	Alex Kingston, actress (ER) (47 years ago)
1965:	Wallace Langham, actor (Veronica's Closet) (45 years ago)
1982:	Thora Birch, actress (American Beauty) (28 years ago)
1986:	John Lewis Roland (Robin's First Born) (24 years ago)

   And Don't Forget, Today Is:

	(Mauritius) Maha Shivaratree
	(U.S.) Johnny Appleseed Day (anniversary of his death-1845)