On this date in

1542 Explorer Cabrillio discovered Santa Catalina Island.

1765 The Stamp Act Congress convened to draw up grievances against England.

1868 Cornell University opened with an enrollment of 412 students, the highest at any American university.

1916 Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland 220-0 in a college football game.

1919 KLM was founded.

1952 "American Bandstand" made its debut on a local Philadelphia television station.

1958 The U.S. manned spacecraft program was named Project Mercury.

1963 President Kennedy signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty.

1968 The Motion Picture Association of America adopted its film rating system.

1982 "Cats" opened on Broadway.

1985 The Palestine Liberation Organization hijacked the Achille Lauro.

1993 The Great Flood of 1993 ended in St. Louis.

1996 The Fox News Channel was launched.

1998 Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, is found beaten and tied to a fence.

2001 Barry Bonds hit his 73rd home run of the season.

2003 California Gov. Gray Davis was recalled.

Born on this date
Granville Elliott (1713-1759)
Joe Hill (1879-1915)
Henry A. Wallace (1888-1965)
Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975)
Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945)
Andy Devine (1905-1977)
Vaughn Monroe (1911-1973)
Alfred Drake (1914-1992)
June Allyson (1917-2006)

Diana Lynn (1926-1971)

Cotton Fitzsimmons (1931-2004)

Died on this date:

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894)

Christy Mathewson (1880-1925)

Clarence Birdseye (1886-1956)

Mario Lanza (1921-1959)

Leo Durocher (1905-1991)

Cyril Cusack (1910-1993)

Herblock (1909-2001)