1002 - Leif Erikson lands in "Vinland", what is now North America on about this date

1776 - Spanish missionaries dedicated the first mission chapel on the northern California coast at Yerba Buena. In 1847, the city which grew up around the mission changed its name to San Francisco

1855 - Joshua Stoddard of Worcester, Mass patents 1st calliope

1877 - American Humane Association organized in Cleveland

1877 - Locomotive 'Countess of Dufferin' arrives in Winnipeg on a barge towed by the steamer Selkirk; brought in by contractor Joseph Whitehead to help build the Selkirk-Emerson line; first locomotive in Manitoba and on the Prairies

1915 - Woodrow Wilson becomes first president to attend a world series game - World Series #12

1946 - First electric blanket manufactured; sold for $39.50

1961 - Tanganyika becomes independent within the British Commonwealth

1961 - Jimmy Dean releases Big Bad John

1963 - Uganda becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth

1965 - Bob Dylan releases Positively 4th Street

1966 - John Lennon first meets Yoko Ono at a London art gallery exhibition

1967 - Che Guevara executed in Bolivia

1971 - Cat Stevens releases Peace Train

1974 - German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust, died at the age of 66. Nineteen years later, Steven Spielberg brought the fascinating story to the American public in the award-winning film "Schindler's List."

1974 - Washington Capitals first NHL game, losing 6-3 to NY Rangers at Madison Square Gardens

1974 - Hervé Filion wins his 5,000th harness race, the first North American driver, and first Canadian, to do so

1980 - Winnipeg Sun first published; morning tabloid to replace Winnipeg Tribune

1982 - Edmonton Oiler Wayne Gretzky scores his 200th NHL goal

1984 - Kathy Sullivan becomes first US woman to walk in space

1986 - Buffalo Sabre Gilbert Perreault the 12th NHLer to score 500 goals

1988 - Dennis Eckersley become the first pitcher to save all 4 games in a championship series

1988 - Felix Wankel, developer of the Wankel rotary engine, dies

1992 - Thousands of people in the Eastern United States witnessed an above-average-size meteorite enter the Earth's atmosphere with a sonic boom, and burst into flames as it streaked across the sky over several states. Photographed and videotaped by over a dozen people, the fireball flew over an open football stadium before crashing into Peekskill, New York, a small city fifty miles north of New York City. The thirty pound, football-size meteorite struck a 1980 Chevy Malibu parked in a driveway, penetrating the trunk of the car and missing the gas tank by inches. The owner of the totaled automobile reportedly expressed wonder at the fact that an object in orbit around the sun for millions of years ended up in the trunk of his Chevy, but worried if his insurance would cover the damage

1993 - Casino de Montréal opens in the former French Pavilion on the Expo 67 site

 

 

Birthdays

1547 - Miguel de Cervantes - author: Don Quixote
1859 - Alfred Dreyfus. Mulhouse, France - Jewish army officer - falsely charged with delivering defence secrets to the Germans. Proof of his innocence came when German military documents were uncovered in 1930
1890 - Aimee Semple McPherson [Kennedy] Ingersoll, Ontario - Pentecostal evangelist/radio preacher
1900 - Alastair Sims - actor: Christmas Carol, Stage Fright
1903 - Walter O'Malley - baseball owner: Dodgers
1925 - Robert Finch - actor: Academy Theater
1927 - Daniele Delorme, Paris - actress: Pardon My Affair Too
1927 - Robert Shaw - actor: From Russia with Love, Man for All Seasons
1940 - Joe Pepitone - baseball player: NY Yankees
1940 - John Lennon, Liverpool, England - singer: Beatles - Imagine
1944 - John Entwistle musician: The Who - Tommy
1944 - Peter Tosh, Jamaica - reggae musician - Mystic Man, Mama Africa
1945 - Jeannie C Riley, Texas  - singer: Harper Valley PTA, Hee Haw
1948 - Jackson Browne, Germany - singer: Lawyers in Love, Doctor My Eyes
1954 - Scott Bakula - actor: Quantum Leap, Gung Ho
1955 - Linwood Boomer, Vancouver - actor: Adam - Little House on the Prairie
1955 - Steve Ovett, England - runner: Olympics-800m, 1500m
1961 - Jean Sagal, LA California - actress: Kate - Double Trouble, Grease 2
1961 - Liz Sagal, LA California - actress: Allison - Double Trouble, Grease 2
1967 - Carling Bassett-Seguso, Toronto - tennis player/actress - Spring Fever
1975 - Sean Ono Lennon - John and Ono's son

 

 

Useless Inventions:

 

Non stick Cello tape

Solar Powered Flash Light

A black highlighter pen

Glow in the dark sunglasses

Inflatable Anchor

Smooth Sandpaper

Waterproof sponge

Waterproof Teabags

AC adapter for Solar powered calculators

Fireproof Matches

Fireproof Cigarettes

Battery powered Battery Charger

Seatbelts for Motorbikes

Hand powered Chainsaw

Inflatable Dartboard

Silent Alarm Clock

A Pedal powered wheelchair

Braille Drivers Manual

Double sided playing cards

Ejector seats for Helicopters