▓ Today In History....(¿What does Paris Hilton, Larry the Cable Guy, Rene Russo and Richard Karn have in common?) ▓

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2009 with 317 to follow.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn. The evening stars are Venus and Uranus.

1370 Battle at Rudau Germany beats Lithuania.

1454 At a grand feast, Philip the Good of Burgundy takes the "vow of the pheasant," by which he swears to fight the Turks.

1568 Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay annual tribute to Sultan for peace.

1598 Boris Godunov, the boyar of Tarar origin, is elected czar in succession to his brother-in-law Fydor.

1621 Miles Standish was appointed first commander of the Plymouth colony.

1634 William Prynne tried in Star Chamber for publishing "Histriomastix".

1670 France & Bavaria sign military assistance treaty.

1676 Kings Charles II & Louis XIV sign secret treaty.

1691 Thomas Neale granted British patent for American postal service.

1714 Parliament of Paris accepts Pope Clemens XI's "Unigenitus" degree.

1720 Spain signs the Treaty of the Hague with the Quadruple Alliance ending a war that was begun in 1718.

1741 English revivalist George Whitefield advised in a letter: 'Be content with no degree of sanctification. Be always crying out, "Lord, let me know more of myself and of thee."'

1772 1st partition of Poland-Russia & Prussia, joined later by Austria.

1776 1st volume of Gibbon's "Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire" published.

1791 Messier catalogs M83 (spiral galaxy in Hydra).

1795 Thomas Seddal harvests 8.3-kg potato from his garden Chester, England.

1801 the U.S. House of Representatives chose Thomas Jefferson as the third president of the United States after he and Aaron Burr tied in the Electoral College. It took 35 House ballots before Jefferson won and Burr became vice president.

1809 the Ohio legislature voted to establish Miami University in present-day Oxford. (The school opened in 1824.)

1815 In deciding the legal case "Terrett v. Taylor," the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an act of the Virginia Legislature which denied property rights to Protestant Episcopal churches in the state. The Court ruled that religious corporations, like other corporations, have rights to their property.

1816 Birth of Edward Hopper, American Presbyterian clergyman. He is remembered today as author of the hymn, "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me."

1817 Baltimore became the first U.S. city with gas-burning street lights.

1818 Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents "draisine" (early bicycle).

1836 HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin leaves Tasmania.

1841 Dutch ex-king Willem I marries Henriette d'Oultremont de Wégimont.

1848 Toscane gets liberal Constitution.

1854 British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa).

1859 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un Ballo in maschera" premieres at the Apollo Theatre in Rome.

1864 The Confederate submarine Hunley sinks the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

1865 The South Carolina capital city, Columbia, is destroyed by fire as Major General William Tecumseh Sherman marches through.

1867 1st ship passes through Suez Canal.

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Gyula Andressy becomes premier of Hungary.

1870 Mississippi becomes 9th state re-admitted to US after Civil War.

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Esther Morris appointed 1st female judge.

1876 Sardines 1st canned (Julius Wolff-Eastport ME).

1878 1st telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones.

1880 Tsar Alexander II of Russia survives an assassination attempt.

1882 1st Test Cricket match played at Sydney Cricket Ground.

1883 A Ashwell patents free-toilet in London.

1885 Bismarck gives Carl Peters' firm management of East-Africa.

1889 Billy Sunday, 27, baseball player-turned-preacher, made his first appearance as an evangelist in Chicago. A strong fundamentalist, Sunday preached temperance and opposed scientific evolution. Over 100 million are estimated to have heard Sunday preach before his death in 1935.

1896 London Country Councils' Muzzling Order becomes effective.

1897 the forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convened its first meeting, in Washington.

1904 the original two-act version of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly" was poorly received at its premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy.

1905 Frances Willard becomes 1st woman honored in National Statuary Hall.

1906 Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice marries in the White House.

1909 Apache leader Geronimo (also known as Goyathlay, "One Who Yawns") died while under military confinement at Fort Sill, Okla. at age 79.

1911 1st amphibian flight to & from a ship, by Glenn Curtiss, San Diego.

1913 New York Armory Show introduces Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp to US public.

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1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon).

1915 Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WWI, is mortally wounded.

1916 Romberg/Hanley/Atteridge/Smith' musical premieres in New York NY.

1919 Germany signs an armistice giving up territory in Poland.

1921 Arthur Honegger's "Pastorale D'été" premieres.

1923 Ottawa Senator Cy Denneny becomes NHL's all time scorer (143 goals).

1924 Johnny Weissmuller sets 100-yard freestyle record (52.4 seconds).

1925 The first issue of Harold Ross’ magazine, The New Yorker, hits the stands, selling for 15 cents a copy.

1926 Tennis star Suzanne Lenglen beats Helen Wills in their only match.

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Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham UT, 40 die.

1930 French government of Tardieu, falls.

1931 1st telecast of a sporting event in Japan (baseball).

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Hockey's Hershey Bears (now with AHL) 1st game.

1932 Irving Berlin's musical "Face the Music" premieres in New York NY.

1933 Blondie Boopadoop marries Dagwood Bumstead; Dagwood's father promptly disinherits him.

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1st issue of "Newsweek" magazine published.

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Marinus van der Lubbe arrives in Glindow, at Potsdam.

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US Senate accept Blaine Act ending prohibition.

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The League of Nations censures Japan in a worldwide broadcast.

1934 1st high school auto driving course offered (State College PA).

1935 Thirty-one prisoners escape an Oklahoma prison after murdering a guard.

1936 "The Phantom" cartoon strip by Lee Falk debuts.

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-58º F (-50º C), McIntosh SD (state record).

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S[amuel] N[athaniel] Behrman's "End of Summer" premieres in New York NY.

1938 The first color television is demonstrated at the Dominion Theatre in London.

1939 Katwijk soccer team forms.

1940 Bradman scores 135 in a non-Shield match for South Africa vs West Australia.

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British destroyers board German Altmark off Norway.

1941 Joe Louis KOs Gus Dorazio in 2 for heavyweight boxing title.

1943 Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews.

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General-Major Bradley flies to Washington DC.

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Hitler visits field marshal von Mansteins headquarters in Zaporozje.

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New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio, enlists into the US army.

1944 U.S forces land on Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific.

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US begins night bombing of Truk.

1945 Gen. MacArthur’s troops land on Corregidor in the Philippines.

1946 Humanistic Covenant forms in Amsterdam.

1947 the Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.

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Dutch Roman Catholic bishops publish manifest against "godless communism".

1949 Chaim Weizman elected 1st President of Israel.

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Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Andrea Kékessy/Ede Király of Hungary.

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Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Alena Vrzanova of Czechoslovakia.

1949 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Richard Button USA.

1950 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center, New York.

1951 Packard introduces its "250" Chassis Convertible.

1953 Baseball star/pilot Ted Williams uninjured as plane shot down in Korea.

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DSB soccer team forms in Eindhoven.

1955 Britain announces its ability to make hydrogen bombs.

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Mike Souchak sets PGA 72-hole record of 257.

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Ice Dance Championship at Vienna Austria won by J Westwood/Demmy Great Britain.

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Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Frances Dafoe & Bowden of CAN.

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KTVF TV channel 11 in Fairbanks AK (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting.

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Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Vienna won by Tenley Albright US.

1957 Suez Canal reopens.

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Fire in Warreton MO, kills 72.

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Mary Lena Faulk wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open.

1958 Comic strip "BC" 1st appears.

1959 The United States launches its first weather station in space, Vanguard II.

1960 Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested in the Alabama bus boycott.

1962 Wilt Chamberlain of NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores 67 points vs St Louis.

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the Beach Boys introduced a new musical style with their hit "Surfin".

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a storm in Hamburg, kills 265.

1963 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visits the Berlin Wall.

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Toru Terasawa runs world record marathon (2 15 15.8).

1964 the Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population.

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101st member elected to baseball's hall of fame (Luke Appling).

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US House of Reps accept Law on the civil rights.

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WMEM TV channel 10 in Presque Isle ME (PBS) begins broadcasting.

1965 US Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures.

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US-Japan baseball relations suspended over Masanori Murakami dispute.

1966 French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth orbit.

1967 Beatles release "Penny Lane" & "Strawberry Fields".

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Kosmos 140 (Soyuz test) launches into Earth orbit.

1968 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield MA, opens.

1969 Russian-born, Milwaukee-raised Golda Meir (Mabovitch Myerson), 70, was sworn in as Israel's first female prime minister. (She would hold the office for five embattled years.).

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Russia and Peru sign their first trade accord.

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Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash record an album (never released).

1970 Jeffrey McDonald slices up his wife & daughter.

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Joni Mitchell's final concert (Royal Albert Hall).

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Robert Marasco's "Child's Play" premieres in New York NY.

1971 England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win.

1972 President Richard M. Nixon departed on his historic trip to China.

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British Parliament votes to join European Common Market.

1973 President Richard Nixon names Patrick Gray director of the FBI.

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Rodney Redmond scores 107 on debut vs Pakistan, his only Test Cricket.

1974 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo, Egypt.

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Carol Mann wins LPGA Naples Lely Golf Classic.

1975 Art by Cezanne, Gauguin, Renoir, and van Gough, valued at $5 million, is stolen from the Municipal Museum in Milan.

1976 Organic statute makes Macao autonomous.

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"Rockabye Hamlet" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 7 performances.

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Macau adopts constitution (Organic Law of Macau).

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New Zealand scores their 1st innings win in Test Cricket, vs India.

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Richard Hadlee takes 7-23 vs India, his 1st match-winning spell.

1979 "A Prairie Home Companion," hosted by Garrison Keillor, made its debut on National Public Radio.

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China invades Vietnam---China crossed the border into Vietnam with a force of more than 90,000 troops, supported by tanks. This invasion, launched in response to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, began the Sino-Vietnamese war.

1980 Buddy Baker wins Daytona 500 (177.6 MPH/285.8 kph).

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Dot Germain wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic.

1981 Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history.

1982 Commencement of Sri Lanka's 1st Test Cricket match, vs England.

1983 Netherlands adopts constitution.

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the US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.

1985 Murray Haydon becomes the third person to receive an artificial heart.

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1st class postage rises from 20¢ to 22¢.

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1st day/night game at the MCG, Australia vs England.

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Hein Vergeer becomes world champion skater.

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Laffit Pincay Jr is third to ride 6,000th winners at Santa Anita.

1986 Johnson and Johnson halted production of all non-prescription drugs in capsules following the death of a Peekskill, N.Y., woman from cyanide-laced Extra-Strength Tylenol.

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1st Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles.

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Johnson & Johnson announces it no longer sells capsule drugs.

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Howard Stern radio show returns to NYC morning radio (WXRK 92.3 FM).

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Libyan bombers attack N'djamena Airport in Chad.

1987 Don Mattingly wins highest salary arbitration ($1,975,000 per year).

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Michelle Renee Royer, 21, (Texas), crowned 36th Miss USA.

1988 US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists & later killed.

1989 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole".

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Former baseball player/manager Leo Durocher injured in a car crash.

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Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Libya form common market.

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Orel Hershiser, Dodger pitcher signs record $7.9M-3 year contract.

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Whitesnake's rocker David Coverdale weds actress Tawny Kitaen.

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USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR.

1991 US male Figure Skating championship won by Todd Eldredge.

1993 in an address to a joint session of Congress, U.S. President Bill Clinton called on Americans to "summon the courage to seize the day" and implored the nation to adopt deep government cuts and tax hikes to renew the troubled economy.

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Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die.

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Mark Foster swims world record 50 meter free style (21.60 seconds).

1994 former U.S. Treasurer Catalina Vasquez Villalpando, pleaded guilty to obstructing the investigation of influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the 1980s.

1995 11th Soap Opera Digest Awards.

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Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the Long Island Railroad in New York.

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Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming US tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked.

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Tiger manager Sparky Anderson takes unpaid leave due to baseball strike.

1996 1st full ODI for the Netherlands vs New Zealand, cricket World Cup Nolan Clarke makes ODI debut for Netherlands at age 47.

1997 Carl Sagan Public Memorial at Pasadena CA.

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Weekly Standard shows evidence Larry Flint sex abused his daughter.

1998 Diane Zamora, 20, Naval Academy cadet convicted of capital murder.

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Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax.

1999 In a satellite-linked address to college campuses across the country, President Bill Clinton made his case for shoring up Social Security and Medicare.

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Israeli security guards shot and killed three Kurds who had forced their way into the Israeli consulate in Berlin; the protesters were enraged by reports that Israel had aided in the arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

2002 a series of raids by communist rebels left 137 dead in Nepal.

2003 when security guards used pepper spray to break up a fight at a packed Chicago social club the ensuing panic by patrons resulted in 21 deaths as the crowd stampeded for the exits.

2004 gay marriages continued in San Francisco in defiance of state law after two judges declined to rule on efforts to halt the practice.

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John Kerry won the Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary, with John Edwards placing second and Howard Dean coming in a distant third.

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Cingular Wireless agreed to pay nearly $41 billion in cash to buy AT&T Wireless Services.

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Former Mexican president Jose Lopez Portillo died in Mexico City at age 83.

2005 U.S. President George Bush nominated John Negroponte to be the first director of national intelligence.

2006 more than 1,000 people were believed killed in a mudslide that covered a village on Leyte in the central Philippines.

2007 a bomb exploded in a judge's chamber in southwestern Pakistan, killing the judge and 13 others.

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22-year-old Prince Harry of England was ordered to the front lines in Iraq along with his British army unit. He didn't go, however, since his presence was deemed a potential danger to his unit.

2008 the province of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia as thousands of ethnic Albanians celebrated in the streets but some others resorted to violent protest. The United States and several other nations, including Britain, Germany, and France, recognized Kosovo as a sovereign and independent state.

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a suicide bomber attacked a crowded dogfight near Kandahar in Afghanistan, killing about 80 people, including a local police chief, and injuring nearly 100.

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President George W. Bush rejected proposed Democratic changes to his prized international AIDS relief program, issuing a challenge to Congress from Tanzania to "stop the squabbling" and renew it as is.

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Kosovo declared itself a nation in defiance of Serbia and Russia.

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Ryan Newman snapped an 81-race winless streak, giving car owner Roger Penske his first Daytona 500 victory.

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The East beat the Western Conference 134-128 in the NBA All-Star Game.

Those who were born on February 17th :

- Raphaelle Peale, U.S. painter in 1774.

- Mail order retailer Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1843.

- Engraver Frederick Ives in 1856.

- A(ndrew) B(arton) "Banjo" Paterson, Australian poet and journalist in 1864.

- Thomas J. Watson Sr., U.S. industrialist in 1874.

- Texas oil millionaire H.L. Hunt in 1889.

- Marian Anderson, American singer in 1902.

- Sportscaster Red Barber baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees in 1908.

- Author Margaret Truman Daniel, daughter of U.S. President Harry Truman, in 1924.

- Chaim Potok, novelist (The Chosen, The Promise) in 1929.

- Bandleader Orrin Tucker (is 98) in 1911
- Actors Hal Holbrook in 1925 (age 84) and Alan Bates in 1934
- Pro football star-turned-actor Jim Brown in 1936 (age 73)
- Actors Brenda Fricker in 1945 (age 64), Rene Russo in 1954 (age 55), Richard Karn ( Home Improvement ) in 1956 (age 53) and Lou Diamond Phillips in 1962 (age 47)
- Basketball superstar Michael Jordan in 1963 (age 46)
- And actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt ( 3rd Rock from the Sun ) in 1981 (age 28).

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More of today's birthday celebrities.....

Mystery writer Ruth Rendell is 79.

Singer Bobby Lewis is 76.

Comedian Dame Edna (AKA Barry Humphries) is 75.

Country singer-songwriter Johnny Bush is 74.

Football Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown is 73.

Actress Mary Ann Mobley is 70.

Actor-comedian Larry the Cable Guy is 46.

TV personality Rene Syler is 46.

Movie director Michael Bay is 44.

Singer Chante Moore is 42.

Rock musician Timothy J. Mahoney (311) is 39.

Actor Dominic Purcell is 39.

Actress Denise Richards is 38.

Rock singer-musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) is 37.

Actor Jerry O'Connell is 35.

Country singer Bryan White is 35.

Actress Kelly Carlson is 33.

Actor Jason Ritter is 29.

TV personality Paris Hilton is 28.

Actress Meaghan Jette Martin is 17.

whew...............................

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