This Date In History
732
The Battle of Tours takes place, with the Franks holding off the Moors from completely dominating Western Europe.
John Ambercrombie, British philosopher, is born.
Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (Aida, La Traviata) is born.
The United States Naval Academy is formed, with 50 midshipmen joining its inaugural class.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and explorer Fridtjof Nansen is born.
Acclaimed stage actress Helen Hayes is born.
Construction on the Panama Canal is finally completed.
Famous bop jazz pianist Thelonious Monk is born.
Cartoon voiceover artist Jean van der Pyl (Wilma Flintstone, Rosie the Robot) is born.
Z-movie filmmaker Ed Wood, glorified in the 1996 Tim Burton film of the same name and (in)famous for his Plan 9 From Outer Space, is born. Award-winning author James Clavell (Shogun, To Sir, With Love) is born.
Playwright Harold Pintetr is born.
The Munich Agreement is signed, ceding the Sudetenland to Germany.
Actor Peter Coyote (Dances with Wolves) is born.
Tap dancer and Broadway legend Ben Vereen is born. ("Zoobilee Zoo", anyone?)
Post punk queen Midge Ure is born.
Charismatic Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth is born.
Tennis great and announcer Martina Navratilova is born.
Country sweetheart Tanya Tucker is born.
Singer and actress Jodi Benson, most known for her role as the voice of Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid, is born.
Ill-fated Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is born.
Vaudeville performer and early Hollywood Star Eddie Cantor dies.
Snoopy's famous alter ego "The Red Baron" makes his first appearance in the Peanuts comic strip.
Long time Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre is born.
Fiji gains its independence from Great Britain after 100 years of colonial rule. Members of the Quebec Liberation Front kidnap Pierre Laporte, Quebec Minister of Labor, in an attempt to force talks for a free Quebec. He was strangled eight days later.
"Saved By The Bell"'s Slater, Mario Lopez, is born. Spiro Agnew, racked with charges of fraud and tax evasion, resigns as vice president of the United States.
NASCAR crown prince Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is born.
The minting of the Susan B. Anthony dollar is made into law by President Jimmy Carter. A cherry bomb thrown on stage in Philadelphia injures Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry.
Modern R&B wunderkind Mya is born.
Legendary director Orson Welles, who riverrun once saw puking in an alley, dies. This date also marks the death of noted bald actor Yul Brynner, famous for his title role in The King and I. U.S. Navy jet fighters corral an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Achille Lauro and force it to land in Sicily, where they are arrested.
An earthquake in El Salvador kills 1,500 people.