On this Date
BIRTHDAYS
Country musician Joey, the
CowPolka King (Riders in the Sky) is 70. Singer Jett
Williams is 66. Actor-comedian Rowan
Atkinson is 64. World Golf Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez is 62. Actor Scott Bryce is
61. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kathy Sledge is 60. TV chef Nigella Lawson is 59. Movie
director John Singleton is 51. TV personality Julie Chen is 49. Actress Cristela
Alonzo is 40. Actress Rinko Kikuchi is 38. Actor Eddie
Redmayne is 37. Actress-comedian Kate
McKinnon is 35.
TODAY IN HISTORY
In 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail gave the first successful public demonstration of their telegraph in Morristown, New Jersey.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of “Four Freedoms”: Freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of people to worship God in their own way; freedom from want; freedom from fear.
In 1945, George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce at the First Presbyterian Church in Rye, New York.
In 1974, year-round daylight saving time began in the United States on a trial basis as a fuel-saving measure in response to the OPEC oil embargo.
In 1993, jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, 75, died in Englewood, New Jersey; ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev died in suburban Paris at age 54.
In 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack. (Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution, but denied any advance knowledge about the assault.)
In 2001, with Vice President Al Gore presiding in his capacity as president of the Senate, Congress formally certified George W. Bush the winner of the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election.
Five years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court stayed a decision by a federal judge striking down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage so that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver could decide the issue. (In June 2014, the Court of Appeals overturned the ban; in October, the U.S Supreme Court turned away appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans, including Utah.)