Who was born on this date?

1004 - Henry II, the last Saxon ruler of Germany, was crowned king of Lombardy following the defeat of Arduin of Ivrea. The city of Pavia rioted at the news.

1567 - Mary, Queen of Scots married James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh just three months after the death of her former husband King Henry who was assassinated.

1602 - Cape Cod was discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold.

1718 - James Puckle, a London lawyer, patented the world's first machine gun.

1800 - King George III survived a second assassination attempt when James Hadfield fired a shot during a performance at the Drury Lane Theater, London.

1806 - Lt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike sighted a mountain peak that now bears his name - Pike’s Peak. The massive, towering (elevation 14,110 feet) mountain had been called “The Long One” by Ute Indians. Its name was changed to honor the young army lieutenant. Lt. Pike was leading a survey party into the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase when he spotted the snowcapped peak in the distance. “Pike’s Peak or Bust!” was the familiar slogan of many a wagon train settler traveling west in the 1800s.

1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi with 1,000 volunteers heavily defeated the superior Neapolitan army under General Landi at the Battle of Calatafimi.

1862 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture was created by an act of Congress.

1886 - Poet Emily Dickinson died on this date at the age of 56 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Of the more than 3,000 poems written by her, only seven were published during her lifetime.

1911 - The Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of Standard Oil Company, ruling it violated the Sherman Antitrust Act.

1916 - In Italy, Asiago fell when Austrian troops under von Hotzendorf attacked the Italian front along the Trentino.

1918 - Regular airmail service between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC began under the direction of the Post Office Department, a forerunner of the United States Postal Service.

1926 - The New York Rangers became the newest franchise to be awarded by the National Hockey League. Two years later, the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup.

1930 - Ellen Church became the first stewardess for an airline. Church served passengers flying between San Francisco, California and Cheyenne, Wyoming on United Airlines.

1933 - Irma Phillips, an NBC Blue network program-features writer, starred in the role of Mother Moran in the radio program, "Today’s Children".

1934 - Karlis Ulmanis seized dictatorial power in a coup d'etat in Latvia.

1936 - Amy Johnson arrived in Croydon, England, after a record-breaking return flight from South Africa taking just four days and 16 hours.

1938 - Guy Lombardo and his orchestra recorded "Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride", the group’s last side for Victor Records. Lombardo took disc number 25861 and moved the Royal Canadians over to Decca Records to make “the sweetest sound this side of heaven.”

1940 - Nylon stockings were sold in stores throughout the US for the first time. The stockings were such a success that 64 million pairs were sold the first year. This buying frenzy was curtailed when the Allied forces began to buy most of the available nylon to make parachutes and tents during World War II. After the war, nylon stockings became a favorite consumer item.

1940 - The Dutch army surrendered to Nazi Germany.

1941 - Britain's first jet-propelled aircraft, the Gloster-Whittle E.28/39, flew for the first time.

1941 - Joe DiMaggio began his historic major-league hitting streak (56 games). The New York Yankees got Joltin’ Joe off to a rather bad start, however, as they lost to the Chicago White Sox 13-1 at Yankee Stadium.

1948 - Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

1950 - The first all-local radio network was formed with five radio stations around the Arlington, Virginia area (just outside of Washington, DC). Airtime on all the stations at the same time cost sponsors $300 an hour.

1953 - In the 44th victory of his professional career, Rocky Marciano, the world's heavyweight boxing champion, knocked out former title-holder "Jersey Joe" Walcott, at the Chicago Stadium. The knock-out occurred after just 2 minutes and 25 seconds into the first round.

1955 - The Vienna Treaty, signed by Britain, France, the United States and the USSR, restored Austria's independence.

1957 - Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific.

1962 - After five years on "Wagon Train", Robert Horton let his performing contract expire and left the popular TV series. Robert Fuller replaced Horton as the trail scout who rode with wagon master Chris Hale, played by actor John McIntire.

1964 - The Smothers Brothers, Dick and Tom, gave their first concert in Carnegie Hall in New York City.

1970 - "Close to You", the Carpenter’s second album, and the one that launched them to meteoric fame, was released by A&M Records. The title song, "(They Long to Be) Close to You", became a pop music standard and the first of six million-sellers in a row for Karen and Richard. In all, The Carpenters would have 10 gold records for singles and a dozen top ten hits to their credit. The duo won Best New Artist honors at the Grammy Awards in 1970.

1972 - Presidential candidate George Wallace was shot in Laurel, Maryland. As a result of the attempted assassination, Wallace became paraplegic for the rest of his life. In the 1960s he was known as a fist-shaking segregationist who opposed the Civil Rights Movement. In the latter part of his life Wallace recanted his earlier conservative beliefs. The former Alabama governor died in 1998.

1972 - Glen Campbell earned a gold record for his "Greatest Hits" album.

1978 - Bianca Jagger filed divorce papers against her husband Mick Jagger, leader of the Rolling Stones. The couple had been married for seven years, and Bianca, who was formally Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, was the daughter of a Nicaraguan diplomat.

1981 - Len Barker, the 25-year-old pitching sensation of the Cleveland Indians, became the 11th major-league pitcher to toss a perfect game. Barker led the Indians past the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0.

1982 - Ebony and Ivory, by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, hit the Number 1 spot on Billboard's pop record charts on this date, and remained there for 7 weeks.

1985 - Prince Michael of Moldavia and Amanda Carrington tied the knot in wedded bliss on the nighttime soap opera, "Dynasty".

1988 - Moscow began the withdrawal of its estimated 115,000 troops in Afghanistan by pulling a unit out of Jalalabad.

1989 - Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived in Beijing for the first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years.

1990 - "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" by Vincent Van Gogh sold for $82.5 million at Christies in New York smashing the world record of $53.9 million.

1992 - Opposition Popular Front forces in Azerbaijan swept President Ayaz Mutalibov from power only a day after parliament reinstated him.

1993 - French police rescued six schoolgirls and a teacher after a 46-hour hostage drama at a Paris suburban school.

1995 - China conducted an underground nuclear test just days after it had agreed to an extension of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

1996 - Right-wing leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee became India's first Hindu nationalist prime minister after his Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the largest single party in a hung parliament.