- 1492: Christopher Columbus noted in his journal the use of tobacco
                  among Indians - the first recorded reference to tobacco.
                - 1763: Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon began surveying the
                  Mason-Dixon Line.
                - 1777: The Continental Congress approved the Articles of
                  Confederation, a precursor to the Constitution.
                - 1864: Union troop under Maj. Gen. Sherman set fires that destroyed
                  much of Atlanta.
                - 1869: Free postal delivery was formally inaugurated.
                - 1891: Gen. Erwin Rommel, German commander of the Afrika Korps, was
                  born.
                - 1904: Razor with disposable blades was patented by King Camp
                  Gillette.
                - 1920: The League of Nations Assembly held its first meeting in
                  Geneva, Switzerland.
                - 1926: The National Broadcasting Company made its on-air debut with
                  a radio network of 24 stations.
                - 1937: Congress enjoyed air conditioning in both the House and
                  Senate chambers for the first time as the second session of the
                  75th U.S. Congress convened.
                - 1938: An NBC mobile-TV van, on assignment at a New York swimming
                  pool, gets TV's first unscheduled, on-location news footage when a
                  fire breaks out nearby.
                - 1939: Social Security Administration approved the first
                  unemployment check.
                - 1939: President Franklin D. Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the
                  Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.
                - 1950: Arthur Dorrington became the first black man in organized
                  hockey to suit up, a member of the Atlantic City Seagulls of the
                  Eastern Amateur Hockey League.
                - 1960: The USS George Washington, the first sub with nuclear
                  ballistic missiles, went to sea.
                - 1969: Wendy's Hamburgers opened.
                - 1979: ABC-TV announced it would broadcast nightly specials on the
                  Iran hostage crisis. In March, "Nightline" is born out of the
                  nightly Iran updates.
                - 1984: Baby Fae, the recipient of a baboon heart transplant, died
                  after her kidneys failed. She had lived for three weeks.
                - 1993: Joe Buttafuoco was sentenced to 6 months for statutory rape
                  of Amy Fisher.
                - 1997: China's best known dissident, Wei Jingsheng, was
                  released on health grounds from a 14-year jail term and left for
                  the United States the next day.

                *Happy Birthday*
                ----------------
                - Ed Asner, 69, actor, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Lou Grant"
                - Petula Clark, 66, country singer
                - Beverly D'Angelo, 44, actress, Ellen Griswold in "Vacation" films
                - Kevin Eubanks, 41, "Tonight Show" bandleader
                - Yaphet Kotto, 51, actor, "Homicide: Life on the Street"
                - Joseph A. Wapner, 79, judge, former star of "The People's Court"
                - Sam Waterston, 58, actor, "Law & Order"
                - Mac Maurice Wilkins, 48, discus thrower,