- 291BC: Poison gas was first used in war in China.
                - 325: The Council Of Nicaea ended with the adoption of the Nicene
                  Creed, establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
                - 1540: Explorer Hernando de Alarcon traveled up the Colorado River.
                - 1718: New Orleans was founded and named in honor of the Duke of
                  Orleans of France.
                - 1814: British forces destroyed the Library of Congress, which
                  contained 3,000 books.
                - 1825: Uruguay declared its independence from Spain.
                - 1829: President Jackson made an offer to buy Texas, but the Mexican
                  government refused.
                - 1875: Capt. Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across
                  the English Channel.
                - 1916: The National Park Service was formed.
                - 1921: The United States and Germany signed a peace treaty, ending
                  the state of war between them.
                - 1940: The British Air Force dropped their first bombs on Berlin
                  in an overnight raid; Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were
                  incorporated into the Soviet Union.
                - 1943: Lord Louis Mountbatten was appointed Supreme Allied Commander
                  in Southeast Asia in World War II.
                - 1944: Paris was liberated when the local German commander Gen.
                  Choltitz surrendered to the allies, never having carried out
                  Hitler's order to level the city.
                - 1952: Puerto Rico became a U.S. commonwealth.
                - 1989: After a 12-year, 4-billion-mile space journey, Voyager 2
                  flew over the cloudtops of Neptune and its moon Triton,
                  sending back photographs of swampy areas, frozen lakes and craters.

                *Happy Birthday*
                ----------------
                - Anne Archer, 51, actress, "Fatal Attraction," "Patriot Games"
                - Sean Connery, 68, actor
                - Elvis Costello, 44, singer/guitarist
                - Rollie Fingers, 52, former MLB pitcher, 1981 MVP/Cy Young winner
                - Frederick Forsyth, 60, author, "Day of the Jackal"
                - Althea Gibson, 71, tennis player
                - Monty Hall, 75, game show host, "Let's Make A Deal"
                - Van Johnson, 82, actor, "Rich Man, Poor Man"
                - Regis Philbin, 65, TV talk show host, "Regis & Kathie Lee"
                - Claudia Schiffer, 28, actress/model
                - Gene Simmons, 49, singer/guitarist, of KISS
                - Tom Skerritt, 65, actor, "Alien," "Top Gun," "Picket Fences"
                - Blair Underwood, 34, actor, "Downtown," "L.A. Law"
                - George C. Wallace, 79, former governor of Alabama, two-time
                  presidential candidate