Who was born on this date?

1540 - The first-recorded horse race in England was held at Roodeye Fields, Chester.

1674 - Charles II of England signed the Treaty of Westminster, ending the war with the Dutch.

1801 - France and Austria signed the Peace of Luneville, effectively ending the Holy Roman Empire.

1849 - Giuseppe Mazzini proclaimed Rome a republic.

1861 - Jefferson Davis was chosen as president of the Confederate States of America, and Alexander Stephens as vice-president.

1893 - "Falstaff," the last opera by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, was first performed in Milan.

1895 - The first ever college basketball game was played as the Minnesota State School of Agriculture beat the Porkers of Hamline College, 9-3.

1904 - At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian ships Variag and Korietz were sunk off Korea.

1909 - France and Germany reached agreement over Morocco, with Germany recognizing French special interests there in return for economic concessions.

1909 - At Kent, Ohio, the first forestry school was incorporated.

1923 - Dobrolet, the Soviet state airline, was formed. It was renamed Aeroflot in 1932.

1926 - Baseball's American League banned the use of resin by pitchers.

1929 - The Litvinov protocol, a pact for the renunciation of war, was signed in Moscow between Russia, Poland, Romania, Estonia and Latvia.

1932 - At the Winter Olympic Games held at Lake Placid, New York, the United States entered the 2-man bobsled competition for the first time.

1934 - The Balkan Pact to prevent encroachment by the great powers was signed by Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey.

1941 - In a speech directed at the United States, Winston Churchill said: "Put your confidence in us...give us the tools and we will finish the job."

1942 - The French passenger liner Normandie burned and sank at its pier in New York City.

1942 - The Philadelphia National League baseball team decided to it would change its nickname from the Phillies to simply the Phils. The name, the Phillies, had been used since the 1880s. Today, the team is known as the Phillies or the Phils.

1943 - United States troops reached Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, and discovered that the Japanese had evacuated.

1950 - United States Senator Joseph McCarthy said he had evidence there were individuals in the State Department who were card-carrying members of the Communist Party.

1950 - Screen actress Ingrid Bergman won a divorce from her husband, Dr. Petter Lindström, in Juarez, Mexico, clearing the way for her marriage to film director Roberto Rossellini. She had given birth to Rossellini's son five days earlier. Bergman was denounced by the Hollywood gossip circles and the American public for her affair and the illegitimate birth, and it would be many years before a film of hers would again be made in the United States.

1955 - Leonard Wibberley's novel, "The Mouse That Roared," was published on this date in Boston by Little, Brown.

1958 - "Frontier Gentleman", starring John Dehner as J.B. Kendall, gave radio the debut of its last big serial. The show only had a short run.

1960 - The American and National Football Leagues established a verbal agreement not to tamper with player contracts.

1963 - The first Boeing 727 took off, becoming the world’s most popular way to fly. Before production was stopped in 1984, 1,832 of the aircraft were built.

1964 - The Beatles, televised live from New York, first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. More than 73 million people across the country tuned in that night, and it was reported that during the hour in which the show was aired, the country experienced the lowest crime rate, among teenagers, of the decade. Conservative groups were outraged by the rock and roll quartet.

1966 - Liza Minnelli brought her night club act to the New York when she opened at the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel.

1969 - The Boeing 747 took its first flight, ushering flew in the age of the jumbo jet.

1969 - Roslyn Kind quietly made her television debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Ed said she was "...America’s teenager who wasn’t protesting or playing a guitar." Although she only appeared once, her sister appeared many times. Roslyn Kind is Barbra Streisand's sister.

1970 - Sly and The Family Stone were awarded a gold record for the single, "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)". At the time Sly (Sylvester) Stewart was a discjockey in Oakland, California.

1971 - An earthquake measuring 6.6 struck the San Fernando Valley in California, killing 58 people. Property damage reached $900 million.

1972 - Paul McCartney's new group, Wings, made its first public appearance. Nottingham University was Wings' first stop on its Britain Tour.

1972 - The British government declares a state of emergency over a miners' strike.

1974 - Seasons In The Sun, recorded by Canadian Terry Jacks and his wife Susan as The Poppy Family, entered the record pop charts on this date and remained on them for 15 weeks. The song was in the Number 1 spot for 3 weeks, and was later certified gold. Seasons In The Sun had originally been recorded by The Kingston Trio ten years earlier.

1977 - Spain established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

1978 - Canada announced it was expelling 13 Soviet diplomats who it said had tried to recruit a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.

1981 - At age 55, Bill Haley died in Harlingen, Texas. Haley, with his Comets, recorded what would be the anthem of rock and roll: "Rock Around the Clock", from the movie, "Blackboard Jungle". The song became a multimillion dollar hit, but was one of many hits Haley and the Comets would enjoy, including: "Dim Dim the Lights", "Razzle Dazzle", "Crazy Man Crazy", "Rock the Joint", "See You Later Alligator" and "Shake Rattle & Roll". In 1987, Bill Haley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1981 - General Wojciech Jaruzelski took over from Josef Pinkowski as Polish prime minister during the Solidarity crisis.

1983 - The racehorse Shergar, the 1981 English Derby winner, was stolen from his stable in Ireland.

1984 - Brandon Tartikoff, NBC's Entertainment president, gave an interviewer the "10 Commandments for TV Programmers. Number 1: Never schedule a show because you like it. Number 10: All hits are flukes and never forget it!"

1984 - Actress Raquel Welch accepted a large damage settlement and an apology from Club International, a British men's magazine which published bogus nude photos of her. The photos were of another woman's body with Welch's head superimposed on top. In exchange, Welch agreed to drop her libel action.

1987 - Just twenty years after the first woman was admitted to the New York Stock Exchange, the Exchange Luncheon Club decided to put in a women's rest room. Prior to this gracious offer, the women had to walk down a flight of stairs.

1991 - Lithuanians voted by a huge majority to restore the Soviet republic's pre-World War II independence.