Today in History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
461 - St. Hilarius becomes Pope
1493 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to go ashore on an island he only saw for the first time the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico)
1794 - The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign Jay’s Treaty, which attempts to clear up some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War
1816 - Warsaw University established
1863 - American Civil War: Union President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
1924 - In Los Angeles, California, famous silent film director Thomas Ince (“The Father of the Western”) dies of a heart attack in his bed (rumors soon surface that he was shot dead by publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst)
1944 - World War II: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort
1954 - Sammy Davis junior loses his left eye in an automobile accident in San Bernadino
1959 - Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel
1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”) and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon
1985 - Cold War: In Geneva, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time
1997 - In Carlisle, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies were born alive
1998 - Vincent van Gogh’s “Portrait of the Artist Without Beard” sells at auction for US$71.5 million
2004 - Wikipedia, which could be the largest website in the world, reaches 400,000 articles

Births
1831 - James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States (d. 1881)
1905 - Tommy Dorsey, bandleader (d. 1956)
1926 - Jeane Kirkpatrick, former United States ambassador to the United Nations
1961 - Meg Ryan, American actress
1962 - Jodie Foster, American actress
1963 - Terry Farrell, American actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
1966 - Gail Devers, American athlete

Deaths
498 - Pope Anastasius II
1703 - The Man in the iron mask
1798 - Wolfe Tone, Irish patriot
1828 - Franz Schubert, Austrian composer

Holidays & observances
France - Beaujolais Nouveau
Mali - Liberation Day
Monaco - Monegasque National Day
Puerto Rico - Discovery of Puerto Rico (1493)
United States - National Children's Book Week Begins