Some notable historical events that happened today include:
1752 - the Whitechapel Foundry delivered The Liberty Bell to the State House in Philadelphia, PA. The bell remained in storage until 9 months later when a single stroke of the clapper created a crack in the bell
1804 - Karl Ludwig Harding discovered the asteroid Juno
1859 - George Pullman's first sleeper car was added to the Chicago and Alton Railroad routes. It was available between Bloomington and Chicago, IL
1878 - Emma Nutt became the first telephone operator working for the Edwin Holmes Telephone Dispatch Co in Boston. Alexander Bell suggested replacing the boys operating the phone lines with a calm, soothing female voice
1897 - Boston opened Tremont Street Subway, the first underground rapid transit in North America
1914 - the world's last known passenger pigeon died at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Named Martha, she came to the zoo as part of a preservation effort that came too late
1932 - Forrest E. Mars introduced the Mars Bar. The original was made of nougat and caramel coated in chocolate. It had a different formula when it debut in the US
1934 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released its first animated cartoon The Discontented Canary. It's the story of a caged canary who flees to freedom only to face multiple obstacles including weather and a cat. No relation to Tweety Bird (a Looney Tunes free bird)
1939 - British journalist Clare Hollingsworth was first to report the outbreak of WWII, she reported the scores of troops building up on the German Poland border
1952 - Ernest Hemingway published The Old Man and the Sea, his last work published during his lifetime
1954 - Paramount released Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James (Jimmy) Stewart and Grace Kelly
1963 - Twice-Told Stories was released to theaters it stars Vincent Price in multiple roles and re-tells the stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorn
1972 - American Bobby Fischer defeated Russian Boris Spassky at the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was the first American to win the tournament
1979 - NASA's Pioneer 1 completed it's first flyby of Saturn, the first spacecraft to study the planet up close
1997 - The Cartoon Network, owned and operated by Turner Japan, began airing in Japan
Some interesting birthdays include:
Engelbert Zaschka (1895) - German inventor who pioneered some of the first helicopters and invented a human-powered airplane and motorcycle
Liz Carpenter (1920) - served as Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's administrative assistant and co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus
Rocky Marciano (1923) - the only professional boxer to finish his heavyweight career undefeated
Boxcar Willie (1931) - born Lecil Travis Martin, musical performer who gained recognition in the 1960s and 1970s
Lily Tomlin (1939)
Phil McGraw (1950)
Gloria Estefan (1957)