Who was born on this date?

1620 - The Mayflower ship departed from England, bound for America with 102 passengers and a small crew. The ship weathered dangerous Atlantic storms and reached Provincetown, Massachusetts on November 21. The Pilgrims disembarked at Plymouth on December 26.

1673 - Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I declares war against France.

1744 - Prussia's King Frederick II takes Prague but, deserted by the French, he is driven back into Saxony.

1810 - Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla summoned the largely Indian and mestizo congregation of his Dolores church (Guanajuato, Mexico) and urged them to fight for Mexico's independence against Spain. His Cry of Dolores ("Grito de Dolores") also included a call for the equality of all ethnicities and the redistribution of land.

1859 - Lake Nyasa, which forms Malawi's boundary with Tanzania and Mozambique, was discovered by British explorer David Livingstone.

1908 - General Motors was founded. The man responsible for the beginning of auto-manufacturing company which makes: Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Chevrolet vehicles was William Crapo "Billy" Durant.

1920 - In Camden, New Jersey, Enrico Caruso made his last recording for Victor Records.

1924 - St. Louis Cardinal, Jim Bottomley, set a major-league baseball record by hitting 12 runs in a single game.

1929 - Peace is signed between Bolivia and Paraguay.

1930 - The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Strange Interlude by Eugene O'Neill, was banned in Boston by its mayor. The Theatre Guild immediately moved the play to Quincy, Massachusetts, a nearby suburb, in order to open in 2 weeks. The mayor of Quincy organized a panel of 25 citizens to serve as judges by going to the play and determining its fitness for public viewing. However, the opening of the play was a sell-out, and the mayor's panel couldn't get tickets to attend to scrutinize it (1929.

1931 - Libyan nationalist leader Omar Mukhtar was captured and executed by Italian forces.

1938 - For Victor Records, Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra recorded the swing classic, "Boogie Woogie".

1940 - Texan Sam Rayburn became Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He would continue to serve as Speaker for 17 years.

1940 - President Roosevelt signed the Selective Service Bill which made all Americans between 21 and 35 liable to be called for military service.

1941 - "The Arkansas Traveler" debuted on CBS radio. The program was eventually renamed "The Bob Burns Show". Burns played an odd musical instrument called the "bazooka". Later, the United States Army chose the name to identify its rocket launcher, because it looked like Burns’ bazooka.

1941 - Iran's Reza Shah abdicates in favor of his 23-year-old son, Mohammad Reza.

1945 - Japan surrenders Hong Kong at the end of World War II.

1953 - The American League's St. Louis Browns were given the go ahead to move to Baltimore, Maryland, where they became the Baltimore Orioles.

1955 - Argentine President Juan Peron is ousted by military coup during second term in office, begins 18-year exile.

1960 - At age 98, Amos Alonzo Stagg announced his retirement from coaching football.

1963 - The Beatles recorded "She Loves You" on the Swan label. It was the first record the Beatles recorded, but the group's second single to hit #1. The first hit was "I Want to Hold Your Hand", which was a million seller on Capitol. It beat "She Loves You" to the top spot by a few weeks. Other Beatles hits were also recorded on the Capitol, who had rejected "She Loves You", and Swan labels; but the Beatles preferred variety and recorded with these labels as well: Vee-Jay, MGM, Tollie, United Artists, Atco, E.M.I., Parlaphone and Apple.

1963 - The Outer Limits, the hour-long science fiction television classic, debuted on ABC on this date.

1963 - The Federation of Malaysia was formed out of a marriage of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah. These territories were formerly under British rule.

1964 - On ABC-TV, "Shindig" premiered. The program featured go-go girls and the biggest rock bands of the day in a dance party. Regulars were Jimmie O’Neill and the Shindig Dancers. The first show hosted Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, The Righteous Brothers, The Wellingtons, Bobby Sherman and comic Alan Sues.

1965 - San Francisco, California’s Grace Cathedral became the site of Duke Ellington's first concert of sacred music.

1965 - On NBC-TV, "The Dean Martin Show" debuted as a weekly variety show. It lasted on the network for nine years. Over the years regular guests were The Goldiggers, Ken Lane, The Ding-a-Ling Sisters, Tom Bosley, Dom DeLuise, Nipsey Russell, Rodney Dangerfield and Les Brown and His Band. The theme song was "Everybody Loves Somebody".

1966 - The new Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center in New York opened with Samuel Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra."

1968 - "The Andy Griffith Show" aired for the last time on CBS-TV. Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith), Opie (Ron Howard), Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), Barney Fife (Don Knotts), Goober Pyle (George Lindsey), Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear) and the rest of the citizens of Mayberry, North Carolina, can still be seen on television reruns.

1972 - The highly-acclaimed, off-beat comedy series, The Bob Newhart Show, aired for the first time. The sitcom ran for six seasons on CBS.

1974 - United States President Gerald Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for draft evaders and deserters during the Vietnam War.

1975 - Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific becomes an independent nation.

1976 - United States Episcopal Church approves ordination of women.

1978 - 25,000 people were killed in Iran by an earthquake which measured between 7.5 and 7.9 on the Richter scale. It leveled the town of Tabas and many other villages.

1979 - Afghanistan's President Nur Mohammed Taraki is overthrown in coup headed by hard-line Communist Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin.

1981 - In Las Vegas, Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Thomas Hearns in the welterweight title bout.

1982 - The "Phalangists" (Christian militiamen) entered Sabra and Shatila, two Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut (Lebanon), and killed over 2,700 civilians over two days. The Phalangists justified their action in retaliation for the assassination of Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel. Survivors claimed the rampage occurred with the consent of Israeli troops.

1985 - The Communist Party in China announced leadership changes designed to bring younger officials into power.

1987 - The "Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer" was signed. The Montreal Protocol, amended in 1990 and 1992, stipulates that the production and consumption of most compounds that deplete ozone in the stratosphere, such as chlorofluorocarbons, are to be phased out by 2000.

1988 - Tom Browning went into Major League Baseball's history books when he pitched a perfect game. It was the 12th perfect game in history, and was a National League match between Cincinnati and Los Angeles with a score of 1-0.

1990 - The mayor of Nice, Jacques Medecin, announced his resignation and brought to an end a right-wing dynasty which started in 1928. He had been accused of embezzlement and racism.

1991 - A federal judge in Washington dismissed Iran-Contra charges against Oliver North.

1991 - Liberals scored a resounding victory in first direct elections to Hong Kong's legislature, saying their triumph sent a clear message to China that the people wanted more democracy.

1992 - Britain announced it was withdrawing from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

1993 - NBC debuted the urbane and witty Frasier on this date. A spin-off of its acclaimed show Cheers, which had ended its long run the previous season, the new show starred Kelsey Grammer as a psychologist who returns to Seattle to host a phone-help radio program. The outstanding ensemble cast included David Hyde Pierce, John Mahoney, Peri Gilpin, and Jane Leeves. Frasier consistently placed in the top 20 of the Nielsen ratings. It won many awards, including Emmys for Best Comedy Series and Best Director of a Comedy Series, and several acting Emmys for Grammer and Pierce.

1994 - British Prime Minister John Major lifted media restrictions on Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA.

1996 - The Paris lawyer of Princess Stephanie of Monaco announced that the princess would be divorcing Daniel Ducruet, her blue-collar husband of 14 months, who was caught on film with the reigning Miss Nude Belgium and stripper, Fili Houteman, 26, at a secluded villa the previous month. Forty pages of explicit photos of the two cavorting were published in Italian magazines on August 28. Ducruet, age 32, was a former bodyguard of Stephanie, 31; he was never truly accepted by Stephanie's father, Prince Rainier III, who gave his blessing for the marriage of his youngest daughter reluctantly. The couple had two children.

1996 - David Letterman unknowingly used a photograph of a terrorist victim memorial in a comedy bit during Late Night with David Letterman. He had said the sculpture of mourning women, created by the mother of a victim of 1988's Pan Am Flight 103 bombing, looked like New York Giant fans after a typical game. Letterman apologized a few nights later on his show. He said that he would never have used the photo if he had known what the sculpture memorialized.

1996 - Romania and Hungary signed a treaty to end a centuries-old rift between the two neighbors and help them join NATO and the European Union.