Born On This Day:

• Etienne de Silhouette, 1535
• Mrs. Sarah Siddons, 1755
• Sir Stamford Raffles, 1781
• David Farragut, 1801
• Phineas T. Barnum, 1810
• Cecil Rhodes, 1853
• Jean Cocteau, 1889
• Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., 1902
• Milburn Stone, 1904
• Georges Pompidou, 1911
• Manolete, 1917
• Victor Navasky, 1932
• Robbie Robertson, 1944
• Julie Nixon Eisenhower, 1948
• Huey Lewis, 1951
• Edie Falco, 1963
• Dolly, the cloned sheep, 1996

Died On This Day:

• Emperor Ivan VI Russia, 1764
• Sir Stamford Raffles, 1826
• Bruce Barton, 1967
• Walter Gropius, 1969
• Leo McCarey, 1969
• Tom Mboya assassinated, 1969
• Harry James, 1983
• Georgia Brown, 1992
• Harrison Salisbury, 1993
• Ted Williams, 2002
• George Melly, 2007

Today's Events:

• 1791 - First British ambassador to the US appointed - George Hammond.
• 1809 - Napoleon defeats Austrians in Battle of Wagram.
• 1811 - Venezuela becomes independent from Spain.
• 1817 - Britain issues its first gold sovereign coin.
• 1841 - World's first train excursion organized by Thomas Cook and Son from Leicester to Loughborough.
• 1865 - Salvation Army founded in London by William Booth at the Christian Mission at Mile End.
• 1932 - Salazar becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.
• 1933 - German Catholic party dissolved.
• 1938 - San Francisco Chronicle introduces column by 22 year-old Herb Caen. (Ends on his death 1/25/97)
• 1945 - General Douglas MacArthur declares that the Philippine Islands are liberated. WWII
• 1946 - Skimpy bikini swimsuit first revealed at Paris fashion show by designer Louis Réard.
• 1947 - Birth of a legend: Mac Brazel finds remnants of strange object in Roswell, New Mexico - first UFO?
• 1948 - British National Health Service begins.
• 1950 - First U.S. Soldier dies in combat in Korea.
• 1965 - Maria Callas's last public performance in Tosca at Covent Garden.
• 1969 - Rolling Stones give free performance in Hyde Park for 350,000 two days after Brian Jones's death.
• 1971 - 26th Amendment comes into force-voting age lowered to 18.
• 1975 - Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano erupts with lava fountains up to 200 feet high; no injuries.
• 1975 - Arthur Ashe becomes first black tennis player to win Wimbledon's men's singles beating Connors.
• 1984 - Joseph Mallard William Turner's painting 'Seascape, Folkestone' sells for $10 million in London.
• 1996 - William McKinley catches the world's record 111 lb. blue catfish in Wheeler's Reservoir TN.
• 1997 - Tennis: Martina Hingis becomes youngest Wimbledon singles champ ever at age 16 years 9 months.
• 2007 - Record price for Renaissance painter Raphael smashed at Christie's London when bidding for his Lorenzo de' Medici sold for £18.5 million.

Feast Day of Saint:

• Athanasius the Athonite
• Philomena of San Severino
• Antony Zaccaria
• Modwenna

Holiday:

• Independence Day Algeria (1962), Venezuela (1811)

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