2 742 Charlemagne; 1875 Walter Chrysler; 1891 Max Ernst; 1908 Buddy Ebsen; 1914 Sir Alec Guinness; 1920 Jack Webb; 1939 Marvin Gaye; 1941 Leon Russell; 1945 Linda Hunt, Don Sutton; 1947 Emmylou Harris; 1965 Rodney King.
• 1513: Ponce de Leon lands in Florida. He ignores the local hurricane forecast and wakes up in a tree in North Carolina.

3 1367 Henry IV; 1783 Washington Irving; 1823 Boss Tweed; 1893 Leslie Howard; 1894 Dooley Wilson; 1898 George Jessel, Henry Luce; 1904 Iron Eyes Cody, Sally Rand; 1916 Herb Caen; 1924 Doris Day, Marlon Brando; 1942 Marsha Mason; 1942 Wayne Newton; 1944 Tony Orlando; 1958 Alec Baldwin; 1959 David Hyde Pierce; 1961 Melissa Etheridge, Eddie Murphy; 1971 Picabo Street.
• 1860: First Pony Express run from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California; their motto: "When it absolutely, positively has to be there eventually."
• 1868: A Hawaiian surfer rides 50-foot tidal wave, the highest ever recorded; he was last seen passing Madagascar.
• 1933: First airplane flight over Mount Everest. Asked why he did it, the pilot responds... oh, you know the rest.

4 1884 Isoroku Yamamoto; 1895 Arthur Murray; 1906 John Cameron Swayze; 1915 Muddy Waters; 1926 Cloris Leachman; 1928 Maya Angelou; 1932 Anthony Perkins; 1942 Kitty Kelley; 1946 Craig T. Nelson; 1948 Berry Oakley; 1950 Christine Lahti; 1965 Robert Downey Jr.; 1976 Alicia Silverstone.
• 1850: City of Los Angeles is incorporated.
• 1983: Sally Ride is the first American woman in space with her own theme song.

5 1725 Casanova; 1820 Nadar; 1856 Booker T. Washington; 1900 Spencer Tracy; 1901 Melvyn Douglas; 1908 Bette Davis; 1916 Gregory Peck; 1926 Roger Corman; 1937 Colin Powell; 1941 Eric Burdon.
• 2348 BC: Noah's ark makes landfall on Mount Ararat. After watching the unicorns step off the ramp first and disappear into the muck, Noah and the other animals decide to stay on board for a couple of days to let the ground dry out a little more.
• 1614: Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe; his subsequent pamphlet Meet the Pocahontases: Being an Accounte of My Big, Fat Powhatan Wedding, is a best-seller in England and the Benelux countries.
• 1621: After verifying that the de-boarded the pilgrims have returned their seat backs and tray tables to the upright and locked position, the Mayflower heads back to England.
• 1722: Jacob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island. While foraging for food, his crew kills and eats the indigenous bird that layed the colorful eggs for which the island is named.
• 1965: U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. Same day, same year is the first celebration of "Lava Lamp Day." We're sure it's just a coincidence.

6 National Tartan Day (U.S.). Finally, an excuse to eat haggis and wear kilts!
1866 Butch Cassidy; 1884 Walter Huston; 1892 Lowell Thomas; 1914 George Reeves; 1922 Barry Levinson; 1937 Merle Haggard, Billy Dee Williams; 1942 Phil Austin; 1944 Michelle Phillips; 1945 Bob Marley; 1952 Marilu Henner.
• 1909: North Pole reached by Americans Robert Peary & Matthew Henson; upon their return they refuse to say whether they found Santa Claus but historians note that each of them got a shiny new bicycle every Christmas for the rest of their lives.
• 1912: Electric starter first appears in automobiles; proves reliable except in movies when the driver is in imminent danger and needs to make a quick getaway.
• 1925: British Air shows first film on airplane; pilot misinterprets passengers' shouts of "Down in front" with tragic results.
• 1954: TV Dinner is first put on sale by Swanson & Sons. They are only available in black and white until 1966.

7 1770 William Wordsworth; 1860 W. K. Kellogg; 1897 Walter Winchell; 1908 Percy Faith; 1920 Ravi Shankar; 1928 James Garner, Alan J. Pakula; 1931 Daniel Ellsberg; 1933 Wayne Rogers; 1939 Francis Ford Coppola, David Frost; 1954 Jackie Chan; 1964 Russell Crowe.
• 1926: Mussolini's wife breaks his nose.
• 1994: Percy Sledge pleads guilty to tax evasion.

8 1460 Ponce de León; 1614 El Greco; 1893 Mary Pickford; 1925 Shecky Greene; 1930 Kofi Annan; 1937 Seymour Hersh; 1940 John Havlicek; 1942 Douglas Trumbull; 1946 Jim "Catfish" Hunter; 1947 Gerald McRaney; 1968 Patricia Arquette.
• 1832: Charles Darwin arrives in Rio de Janeiro. Although weeks late for Carnival, he strides into town still dressed for the occasion. Locals nickname him Individuo blanco pastoso cuya barba no es suficientemente larga (Pasty white guy whose beard isn't nearly long enough).
• 1869: American Museum of Natural History opens in New York.
• 1879: Milk is sold in glass bottles for first time.

9 1830 Eadweard Muybridge; 1898 Paul Robeson; 1903 Ward Bond; 1928 Tom Lehrer; 1932 Paul Krassner, Carl Perkins; 1933 Jean-Paul Belmondo; 1965 Paulina Porizkova; 1966 Cynthia Nixon.
• 1682: Robert La Salle claims lower Mississippi (now Louisiana) for France.
• 1912: Playing against Harvard, the Boston Red Sox win their first exhibition game at Fenway Park. Harvard does not blame the Yankees.
• 1970: Paul McCartney announces official split of the Beatles.
• 1971: Ringo Starr releases It Don't Come Easy; public begs for Beatles to reunite.

10 1847 Joseph Pulitzer; 1903 Clare Boothe Luce; 1915 Harry Morgan; 1921 Chuck Connors; 1934 David Halberstam; 1936 John Madden; 1941 Paul Theroux; 1954 Peter MacNicol; 1964 Felicia Collins; 1988 Haley Joel Osment.
• 1849: After years of experimentation, the safety pin is patented by Walter Hunt; his heavily bandaged fingers make filling out the forms difficult.
• 1877: First human cannonball act performed in London.
• 1953: House of Wax, first 3-D movie is released. As if Vincent Price wasn't scary enough already.

11 1913 Oleg Cassini; 1928 Ethel Kennedy; 1932 Joel Grey; 1938 Michael Deaver; 1939 Louise Lasser; 1944 John Milius; 1950 Bill Irwin.
• 1814: Unable to come up with an anagram preventing it, Napoleon is exiled to Elba.
• 1906: Einstein introduces his Theory of Relativity.
• 1951: President Harry Truman fires General Douglas MacArthur. But not out of a cannon like he wants to.

12 1923 Ann Miller; 1932 Tiny Tim; 1946 Ed O'Neill; 1950 David Cassidy; 1956 Andy Garcia; 1979 Claire Danes.
• 1954: Bill Haley & the Comets record Rock Around the Clock.
• 1954: Joe Turner releases Shake, Rattle & Roll.
• 1992: Euro Disney opens near Paris. The French shrug indifferently and continue smoking.

13 1743 Thomas Jefferson; 1906 Samuel Beckett; 1907 Harold Stassen; 1909 Eudora Welty; 1919 Howard Keel; 1933 Ben Nighthorse Campbell; 1937 Edward Fox, Lanford Wilson; 1939 Paul Sorvino; 1942 Bill Conti; 1945 Tony Dow, Lowell George; 1949 Philippe Petit; 1950 Ron Perlman; 1951 Max Weinberg.
• 1963: Pete Rose triples for his first major league hit; loses $50 because he’d bet he’d only get a double.
• 1796: First elephant arrives in US from Bengal, India. Ironlcally, he registers as a Democrat.

14 1920 John Paul Stevens; 1925 Rod Steiger; 1930 Bradford Dillman; 1935 Loretta Lynn; 1940 George Takei; 1941 Julie Christie, Ryan O'Neal, Pete Rose; 1945 Steve Martin; 1968 Anthony Michael Hall; 1977 Sarah Michelle Gellar.
• 1191: 85-year old Giacinto Bobo becomes Pope Coelestinus III; but really, wouldn’t "Pope Bobo" have been a way better name?
• 1860: First Pony Express rider reaches Sacramento, finds no one home to sign for package, leaves “Attempted Delivery” note and returns to Missouri.
• 1894: The first kinetoscope parlor opens in New York; admission is 5¢, but the popcorn is $12.
• 1912: The RMS Titanic hits an iceberg and sinks.

15 Tax Day. Forgot, eh? You are so screwed.
• 1452 Leonardo da Vinci; 1889 Thomas Hart Benton; 1894 Bessie Smith; 1912 Kim II Sung; 1917 Hans Conried; 1922 Michael Ansara, Harold Washington; 1933 Elizabeth Montgomery; 1933 Roy Clark; 1940 Phil Lesh; 1942 Kim Il Jong; 1944 Dave Edmunds; 1952 Sam McMurray; 1959 Emma Thompson; 1972 Peter Billingsley.
• 1910: William Howard Taft is first President to throw out first ball at a baseball game. It's high and outside.

16 1867 Wilbur Wright; 1889 Charlie Chaplin; 1918 Spike Milligan; 1919 Merce Cunningham; 1921 Peter Ustinov; 1922 Kingsley Amis; 1924 Henry Mancini; 1927 Joseph Ratzinger; 1934 Robert Stigwood; 1935 Bobby Vinton; 1939 Dusty Springfield; 1947 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; 1955 Ellen Barkin; 1965 Martin Lawrence.
• 1854: Steamer "Long Beach" sinks off Long Beach, New York.
• 1962: Walter Cronkite begins anchoring CBS Evening News; and that’s the way it is until 1980.
• 1972: China sends President Nixon two giant pandas as a gift; the ploy works and an hour later he wants another pair.

17 1837 John Pierpont Morgan; 1894 Nikita Khrushchev; 1896 Señor Wences; 1923 Harry Reasoner; 1937 Daffy Duck; 1949 John Oates.
• 1964: Ford Mustang introduced ($2,368 for the base model); My dad buys a station wagon anyway. Not even a woody. Sheesh.

18 1480 Lucretia Borgia; 1864 Richard Harding Davis; 1881 Max Weber; 1882 Leopold Stokowski; 1946 Hayley Mills; 1947 James Woods; 1953 Rick Moranis; 1956 Eric Roberts; 1961 Jane Leeves; 1963 Conan O'Brien; 1976 Melissa Joan Hart.
• 1775: Paul Revere's "midnight ride."
• 1906: San Francisco Earthquake.
• 1994: Roseanne Barr Arnold divorces Tom Arnold; Hollywood's plus-size bachelors run for cover.

19 1903 Eliot Ness; 1925 Hugh O'Brian; 1933 Dick Sargent; 1933 Jayne Mansfield; 1935 Dudley Moore; 1946 Tim Curry; 1949 Paloma Picasso.
• 1897: First Boston Marathon.
• 1932: President Herbert Hoover proposes the five day work week; congress responds, "Oh, no you don't! We're not working another two whole days!"
• 1997: Nickelodeon premieres The Angry Beavers. Write your own joke.

20 1893 Joan Miró; 1909 Lionel Hampton; 1923 Tito Puente; 1943 Edie Sedgwick; 1951 Luther Vandross.
• 1976: George Harrison sings the Lumberjack Song with Monty Python, a good first step to prove that every time he opens his mouth he isn’t going to prattle on about karma.
• 1980: Mariel boatlift begins; thousands of Cubans arrive in U.S. Luckily, they bring mojitos and pressed sandwiches.

21 1838 John Muir; 1932 Elaine May; 1935 Charles Grodin; 1947 Iggy Pop; 1949 Patti LuPone; 1951 Tony Danza; 1958 Andie MacDowell.
• 1878: New York installs first firehouse pole. Accompanying memo dictates "No squealing 'Wheeee!' on the way down."
• 1904: Ty Cobb's professional baseball debut; he goes 2 for 3 and shoots a guy in the dugout.
• 1964: New York World's Fair opens.

22 1777 Henry Clay; 1908 Eddie Albert; 1922 Richard Diebenkorn; 1923 Betty Page, Aaron Spelling; 1936 Glen Campbell; 1937 Jack Nicholson; 1950 Peter Frampton; 1959 Ryan Stiles.
• 1509: Henry VIII ascends to English throne; say what you will about him but he really did seem to enjoy being king.
• 1900: First known occurrence of word "hillbillie," in the New York Journal.

23 1551 Boris Godunov; 1813 Stephen Arnold Douglas; 1899 Vladimir Nabokov; 1928 Shirley Temple Black; 1936 Roy Orbison; 1939 Lee Majors; 1943 Herve Villechaize; 1955 Judy Davis; 1957 Jan Hooks; 1960 Valerie Bertinelli.
• 1616: William Shakespeare dies in Stratford-on-Avon; many scholars now believe that someone else did the dying for him and a few even question whether he or Stratford-on-Avon existed at all.
• 1954: Hank Aaron hit his first major league home run.
• 1985: New Coke debuts; it’s not quite the real thing.

24 1766 Robert Bailey Thomas; 1934 Shirley MacLaine; 1936 Jill Ireland; 1942 Barbra Streisand; 1953 Eric Bogosian.
• 1897: William Price, of the Washington Star, is the first reporter assigned to cover White House. After weeks of being pestered by him, president McKinley has a junior staffer follow him around making helicopter noises over which he "can't hear" Price's shouted questions.
• 1923: Colonel Jacob Schick patents Schick shavers; gets paperwork in just ahead of Gillette and sighs, “Wow, that was close.”
• 1992: Reports David Bowie has married “a man” are restated to clarify that he married the model "Iman."

25 1908 Edward R. Murrow; 1918 Ella Fitzgerald; 1925 Flannery O'Connor; 1930 Paul Mazursky; 1940 Al Pacino.
• 1886: Nestled between a cigar store and a donut shop, Sigmund Freud opens his first psychiatric practice in Vienna, Austria.
• 1978: Phillie Phanatic makes First appearance.

26 1564 William Shakespeare (baptized); 1785 John James Audubon; 1822 Frederick Law Olmsted; 1886 Ma Rainey; 1889 Ludwig Wittgenstein; 1906 Gracie Allen; 1933 Carol Burnett; 1961 Joan Chen.
• 1928: Madame Tussaud's waxworks exhibition opens in London; and you thought the Royal Family was scary looking in person.
• 1937: German Luftwaffe destroys Basque town of Guernica, in Spain.
• 1977: Studio 54 opens.
• 1986: Arnold Schwarzenegger weds Maria Shriver.
• 1986: Chernobyl springs a leak.

27 1822 Ulysses S. Grant; 1896 Rogers Hornsby; 1932 Casey Kasem; 1951 Ace Frehley.
• 4977 BC: Johannes Kepler's date for creation of universe. You'd think we'd have the day off, or something.

28 1937 Saddam Hussein; 1941 Ann-Margret; 1950 Jay Leno; 1952 Mary McDonnell. 
• 1942: "WW II" titled so as result of a Gallup Poll. Really? They held a contest to name the war. Who knew? I'd like to know what the top 5 finishers were.

29 1863 William Randolph Hearst; 1899 Duke Ellington; 1907 Fred Zinnemann; 1909 Tom Ewell; 1951 Dale Earnhardt; 1952 Nora Dunn; 1954 Jerry Seinfeld; 1955 Kate Mulgrew; 1958 Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer; 1970 Andre Agassi.
• 1715: John Flamsteed observes Uranus for 6th time. Admit it, after the third time, you were letting him.
• 1910: Teddy Roosevelt visits Amsterdam; declares the local hashish "Like, Bully, Dude..."
• 1988 Burt Reynolds & Loni Anderson marry.

30 1912 Eve Arden; 1923 Al Lewis; 1926 Cloris Leachman; 1940 Burt Young; 1944 Jill Clayburgh.
• 1803: The Louisiana Purchase; once they find out that it includes New Orleans, congress stops griping about the $15 million price tag.
• 1976: Wings release Silly Love Songs. Public responds, 'So, nu?'