December 28
It’s Card Playing Day
ON THIS DAY…
1065 Westminister Abbey is consecrated
1612 Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune
1846 Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state
1869 William Finley Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio, patents chewing gum
1895 The Lumière brothers have their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines
1897 Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac, premieres in Paris
1904 The first weather reports published
1912 The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco
1945 The U.S. Congress officially recognizes the Pledge of Allegiance
1949 20th Century Fox announces it would produce TV programs
1963 Last ever broadcast of That Was The Week That Was
1973 The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States
2000 Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years
BORN:
1635 Princess Elizabeth of England
1856 Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States/Nobel laureate
1888 F.W. Murnau, film director (Nosferatu, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans)
1908 Lew Ayres, actor (Dr. Kildare, Damien: Omen II)
1922 Stan Lee, comic book writer/editor and co-creator of Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four and many more iconic comic book characters
1927 Martin Milner, actor (Route 66, Adam 12)
1934 Dame Maggie Smith, actress (Harry Potter, Death on Nile, Clash of Titans)
1936 Nichelle Nichols, actress (Star Trek, Snow Dogs)
1953 James Foley, film director (At Close Range, Glengarry Glen Ross)
1954 Denzel Washington, two time Academy Award-winning actor (Devil in a Blue Dress, Virtuosity, Much Ado About Nothing)
1981 Elizabeth Jordan Carr, first American test tube baby
1981 Sienna Miller, actress (Layer Cake, Stardust)
DIED:
1694 Mary II, Queen of England, dies after 5 years of rule at 32
1734 Robert Roy MacGregor, Scottish folk hero, dies at 63
1934 Lowell Sherman, actor/director (She Done Him Wrong, What Price Hollywood?) dies at 49
1945 Theodore Dreiser, writer (Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy) dies at 74
1971 Max Steiner, three time Oscar-winning composer (Since You Went Away, Now, Voyager, Gone with the Wind) dies at 83
1977 Charlotte Greenwood, actress (Parlor, Bedroom and Bath, Down Argentine Way) dies at 87
1981 Allan Dwan, director (Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Sands of Iwo Jima) dies at 96
1983 William Demarest, actor (My Three Sons, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World), dies at 91
1983 Dennis Wilson, musician (The Beach Boys), drowns at 39
1984 Sam Peckinpah, director, (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs) dies at 59
1993 William L. Shirer, writer (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Sinking of the Bismarck ), dies at 89
1999 Clayton Moore, actor (The Lone Ranger, The Son of Monte Cristo), dies at 85
2001 William X. Kienzle, mystery writer, (Father Robert Koesler), dies at 73
2004 Jerry Orbach, actor (Law and Order, Dirty Dancing), dies at 69