Monday, August 29

This Day In History

• 1533   The last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, was murdered on orders from Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.
  
• 1632   English philosopher John Locke was born in Somerset.
  
• 1828   Robert Turner of Ward, MA received a patent for his self-regulating wagon brake.
  
• 1833   Legislation to settle child labor laws was passed in England. The legislation was called the Factory Act.
  
• 1877   Brigham Young, the second president of the Mormon Church, died in Salt Lake City, Utah, at age 76.
  
• 1885   The first prize fight under the Marquis of Queensberry Rules was held -- in Cincinnati, OH. John L. Sullivan defeated Dominick McCaffery in six rounds.
  
• 1886   Li Hung-Chang’s chef devised a tasty dish in New York City. It satisfied both American and Oriental tastes. The delicacy was called chop suey. Who was Li Hung-Chang, you ask? He was China’s Ambassador to the United States.
  
• 1896   Chop suey was invented in New York City by the chef to visiting Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang.
  
• 1944   American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.
  
• 1957   Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., ended a filibuster against a civil rights bill after talking for more than 24 hours.
  
• 1965   Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles (''Pete'') Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space.
  
• 1966   The Beatles performed their last on-stage concert, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
  
• 1991   The Supreme Soviet, the parliament of the U.S.S.R., suspended all activities of the Communist Party, bringing an end to the party’s 75-year controlling regime in the Soviet Union.
  
• 1996   President Bill Clinton's chief political strategist, Dick Morris, resigned amid a scandal over his relationship with a prostitute.
  
• 2000   Pope John Paul II endorsed organ donation and adult stem cell study but condemned human cloning and embryo experiments.
  
• 2002   A judge in Norwalk, Conn., sentenced Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel to 20 years to life in prison for bludgeoning his teenage neighbor with a golf club in 1975.
  

Happy Birthday To

• 1809   Oliver Wendell Holmes (physician, author: The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Elsie Venner; poet: Old Ironsides; died Oct 7, 1894)
  
• 1915   Ingrid Bergman (Academy Award-winning actress)
  
• 1923   Sir Richard Attenborough (actor: Jurassic Park, Miracle on 34th Street, Dr. Dolittle, The Great Escape; director: Chaplin, Ghandi, A Bridge Too Far)
  
• 1938   Elliott Gould (Goldstein) (actor: M*A*S*H)
  
• 1940   James Brady (Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary to Ronald Reagan; seriously wounded when John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Reagan; Brady gun law [requires waiting period and background check on handguns purchased through licensed dealers] named for him)
  
• 1941   Robin Leach (TV host: Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous)
  
• 1958   Michael (Joe) Jackson (‘King of Pop’: singer)