In 1854, the "king" of American march music, John Philip Sousa, was born in Washington, D.C.
In 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates for the presidency of the United States.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederacy.
In 1869, the first official intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers beat Princeton, six goals to four.
In 1888, Republican Sen. Benjamin Harrison of Indiana won the presidential election, defeating incumbent Democrat Grover Cleveland, 233 electoral votes to 168, even though Cleveland received slightly more votes.
In 1900, President William McKinley was re-elected, beating Democratic challenger William Jennings Bryan.
In 1906, Republican Charles Evans Hughes was elected goernor of New York, defeating newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst.
In 1913, Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested as he led a march of indian miners in South Africa.
In 1977, 39 people were killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a 30-foot wall of water through the campus of Toccoa Falls Bible College in Georgia.
In 1984, President Reagan overwhelmed his Democratic challenger Walter F. Mondale, winning re-election by a landslide.
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Movie and stage director Mike Nichols (1931)
Actress Sally Field (1946)
Rock singer Glenn Frey (1948)
"Sunday Today" co-host Maria Shriver (1955)
Actor Lance Kerwin (1960)
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"If people fought sin as hard as they do middle age, earth would be a moral paradise."