Today In History

From wikipedia.org:

Events
3761 BC - The epoch of the modern Hebrew calendar
1776 - Crown Prince Paul of Russia marries Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg
1912 - The Helsinki Stock Exchange saw its first transaction
1913 - Henry Ford introduces the assembly line
1957 - Dick Clark's American Bandstand debuts

Births
1931 - Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and anti-apartheid activist
1939 - John Hopcroft, American theoretical computer scientist
1951 - John Cougar Mellencamp, singer
1955 - Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
1957 - Jayne Torvill, figure skater

Deaths
1792 - George Mason, U.S. patriot, "Father of the United States Bill of Rights"
1849 - Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (b. 1809)
1894 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet
1959 - Mario Lanza, singer
1992 - Tevfik Esenc, last speaker of the Ubykh language

Holidays & Observances
Feast day of Saint Osyth