In 1619, the first representative assembly in America convened in Jamestown, Virginia.
In 1729, the city of Baltimore was founded.
In 1792, the French national anthem "La Marseillaise," by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris.
In 1863, American automaker Henry Ford was born in Dearborn Township, Michigan.
In 1864, during the Civil War, Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Va., by exploding a mine under Confederate defense lines that left a huge crater. The attack failed.
In 1889, Vladimir Zworykin, often called "the father of television" for inventing the iconoscope, was born in Russia.
In 1916, German saboteurs blew up a munitions plant on Black Tom Island near Jersey City, N.J.
In 1975, representatives of 35 nations convened in Helsinki, Finland, for a conference aimed at ensuring peace in Europe.
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Movie director Peter Bogdanovich (1939)
Singer Paul Anka (1941)
Actor-body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947)
Singer Kate Bush (1958)
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"Some men are like pyramids, which are very broad when they touch the ground, but grow narrow as they reach the sky."
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Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman (1813-1887)