On this day in history...

Events 1732 - The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London. 1776 - Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general. 1787 - Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution. 1815 - Michel Ney, Marshal of France, is executed by firing squad, after having been convicted of treason for his support of Napoleon Bonaparte. 1917 - World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary. 1941 - World War II: Attack On Pearl Harbor - The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the U.S. Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Corps and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 1946 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people. 1949 - Chinese Civil War: The government of the Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei. 1962 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils. 1965 - Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054. 1966 - A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people. 1972 - Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew take the photograph known as "The Blue Marble" as they leave the Earth. 1975 - Indonesia invades East Timor. 1982 - In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States. 1983 - Two jetliners collide at Madrid Barajas International Airport, Madrid killing 93 people. 1987 - PSA Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself. 1988 - Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills nearly 25,000, injures 15,000 and leaves 400,000 homeless. 1988 - Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist. 1989 - In their third and final fight, Sugar Ray Leonard retains the WBC Super-Middleweight Championship of the World , defeating Roberto Duran. 1993 - In South Africa, the transitional executive council is established 1995 - The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34. 2003 - The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. 2004 - Hamid Karzai is inaugurated as President of Afghanistan. 2004 - John Kufuor is re-elected as President of Ghana. Births 521 - Saint Columba, Irish Christian missionary to Scotland (d. 597) 1545 - Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, consort of Mary I of Scotland (d. 1567) 1561 - Kikkawa Hiroie, Japanese politician (d. 1625) 1598 - Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian artist (d. 1680) 1637 - Bernardo Pasquini, Italian composer (d. 1710) 1670 - John Aislabie, English director of the South Sea Company (d. 1742) 1761 - Marie Tussaud, French-born museum proprietress and waxwork modeller (d. 1850) 1764 - Claude Victor-Perrin, duc de Belluno, French marshal (d. 1841) 1784 - Allan Cunningham, British poet (d. 1842) 1801 - Johann Nestroy, Austrian dramatist and actor (d. 1862) 1810 - Theodor Schwann, German physiologist (d. 1882) 1810 - Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist (d. 1894) 1823 - Leopold Kronecker, German mathematician (d. 1891) 1847 - George Grossmith, British actor and comic writer (d. 1912) 1860 - Sir Joseph Cook, sixth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1947) 1863 - Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer (d. 1945) 1863 - Richard Sears, American department store founder (d. 1914) 1873 - Willa Cather, American novelist (d. 1947) 1879 - Rudolf Friml, American composer (d. 1972) 1887 - Ernst Toch, Austrian composer (d. 1964) 1888 - Joyce Cary, Irish author (d. 1957) 1888 - Hamilton Fish, American politician (d. 1991) 1903 - Danilo Blanuša, Croatian mathematician (d. 1987) 1904 - Konstantin Sokolsky, Russian singer 1905 - Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-born American astronomer (d. 1973) 1910 - Louis Prima, American musician (d. 1978) 1912 - Daniel Jones, British composer (d. 1993) 1915 - Eli Wallach, American actor 1922 - Howard Zinn, American historian and activist 1924 - Mário Soares, President of Portugal 1927 - Helen Watts, British contralto 1928 - Noam Chomsky, American linguist and political writer 1932 - Ellen Burstyn, American actress 1942 - Harry Chapin, American singer and songwriter (d. 1981) 1942 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host 1943 - Bernard C. Parks, former Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. 1944 - Daniel Chorzempa, American organist 1945 - Marion Rung, Finnish singer 1947 - Johnny Bench, American baseball player 1948 - Gary Morris, American singer and actor 1948 - Mads Vinding, Danish bassist 1949 - Tom Waits, American singer, composer, and actor 1954 - Mark Hofmann, American forger and bomber 1956 - Larry Bird, American basketball player and Olympic gold medalist 1958 - Tim Butler, British bassist (Psychedelic Furs) 1966 - C. Thomas Howell, American actor 1967 - Tino Martinez, American baseball player 1971 - Vladimir Akopian, Soviet-born Armenian chess player 1971 - Chasey Lain, American adult film actress 1972 - Hermann Maier, Austrian skier, Alpine Skiing World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist 1972 - Tammy Lynn Sytch, American professional wrestler 1973 - Terrell Owens, American football player 1974 - Nicole Appleton, Canadian-born singer 1975 - Jamie Clapham, British footballer 1980 - John Terry, English international footballer 1987 - Aaron Carter, American singer 1988 - Emily Browning, Australian actress 2003 - Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands Deaths 43 BC - Cicero, Roman politician and author (b. 106 BC) 283 - Pope Eutychian 1254 - Pope Innocent IV 1279 - King Boleslaus V of Poland (b. 1226) 1295 - Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Hertford, English politician (b. 1243) 1498 - Alexander Hegius von Heek, German humanist 1562 - Adrian Willaert, Flemish composer 1632 - Emperor Sissinios of Ethiopia (b. 1607) 1649 - Charles Garnier, French Jesuit missionary (b. 1606) 1672 - Richard Bellingham, English-born Massachusetts colonial magistrate (b. 1592) 1683 - John Oldham, English poet (smallpox) (b. 1653) 1683 - Algernon Sydney, English politician (b. 1623) 1723 - Jan Santini Aichel, Bohemian architect (b. 1677) 1725 - Florent Carton Dancourt, French dramatist and actor (b. 1661) 1775 - Charles Saunders, Ontario-born British admiral 1793 - Joseph Bara, French revolutionary (b. 1780) 1815 - Michel Ney, French marshall (executed) (b. 1769) 1817 - William Bligh, British naval officer (b. 1745) 1874 - Constantin von Tischendorf, German biblical scholar (b. 1815) 1902 - Thomas Nast, German cartoonist (b. 1840) 1906 - Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1833) 1941 - Isaac C. Kidd, American rear admiral (b. 1884) 1943 - Per Imerslund, Norwegian "det ariske idol" (The aryan idol) (b. 1912) 1947 - Nicholas M. Butler, American president of Columbia University and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862) 1956 - Huntley Gordon, Canadian actor (b. 1887) 1970 - Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist (b. 1883) 1975 - Thornton Wilder, American playwright (b. 1897) 1978 - Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist (b. 1886) 1985 - Robert Graves, British author (b. 1895) 1985 - Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1915) 1990 - Joan Bennett, American actress (b. 1910) 1993 - Félix Houphouët-Boigny, President of Côte d'Ivoire (b. 1905) 1993 - Wolfgang Paul, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1913) 2003 - Carl F. H. Henry American theologian and publisher (b. 1913) 2003 - Azie Taylor Morton, Treasurer of the United States (b. 1936) 2003 - Raúl Vale, Venezuelan entertainer (b. 1944) 2004 - Frederick Fennell, American conductor (b. 1914) 2004 - Jerry Scoggins, American singer (b. 1913) 2005 - Devan Nair, 3rd President of Singapore (b. 1923)