Who was born on this date?

1189 - William II, the last Norman king of Sicily, died and was succeeded by Tancred the Bastard.

1477 - William Caxton produced the first printed book in the English language, "The Dictes and Sayengis of the Phylosophers."

1626 - In Rome, Urban VIII dedicated St. Peter’s Basilica.

1803 - Haiti's revolutionary army of freed slaves defeated French troops at Vertieres.

1820 - United States Navy Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer discovered the frozen continent of Antarctica.

1865 - Mark Twain's short tale, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," was first published on this date in The New York Saturday Press. The short story's publication launched his success as a writer.

1883 - The United States adopted standard time and divided the country into four time-zones.

1894 - The first regular comic section in a Sunday paper was published by "New York World".

1903 - Panama and the United States signed a treaty on the proposed Panama Canal.

1905 - Prince Charles of Denmark was elected first king of Norway after the restoration of its independence. He took the old Norse name of Haakon VII.

1916 - General Douglas Haig called off the first Battle of the Somme in Europe after five months of futile battle, which included the first use of tanks in battle. The Allied advance of just 125 square miles claimed 420,000 British and 195,000 French casualties. German losses were over 650,000.

1918 - The Latvian National Council proclaimed the independent Republic of Latvia, with Janis Cakste as president.

1918 - The Belgian army reoccupied Brussels after four years of German occupation.

1919 - In New York City, ticker tape was first used as part of a parade to welcome the Prince of Wales to the city.

1921 - The first international fencing championships held in the United States was host in Washington, DC. The Racquet Club sponsored the competition with light swords.

1928 - After much resistance from movie distributors, Walt Disney arranged for the premier viewing of his first Mickey Mouse cartoon with sound. Titled Steamboat Willie, it debuted at the Manhattan's Colony Theater. It was the first cartoon with a fully synchronized sound track. Mickey was not only a huge success, but the cartoon was a major breakthrough for the animation industry.

1932 - For the first time the Oscars had a tie for the Best Actor Academy Award. Wallace Beery and Fredric March were separated by only one vote so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ruled it a tie, giving both actors an Oscar. March thought funny the two were honored for "best male performance of the year" when they had each adopted a child that year.

1935 - Economic sanctions imposed on Italy by the League of Nations for its invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) took effect.

1936 - Germany under Adolf Hitler and Italy under Benito Mussolini both recognized General Francisco Franco's provisional government in Spain.

1941 - Britain opened its second Western Desert offensive in Libya when the Eighth Army advanced into Cyrenaica.

1942 - In New York City, Thornton Wilder’s play, "The Skin of Our Teeth", opened starring Tallulah Bankhead, Fredric March, Montgomery Clift and E.G. Marshall. One critic wrote, "As of last evening, the theatre was looking up."

1945 - The communist-led Fatherland Front won the Bulgarian general election after opposition parties abstained.

1948 - United States Vice President Alben W. Barkley married Elizabeth J. Rucker in St. Louis, Missouri, for what was the first time a U.S. Vice President married while in office.

1951 - Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly launched one of television's most highly praised productions in history, when "See It Now" debuted on CBS. Murrow showed a live camera shot of the Atlantic Ocean, followed by a live shot of the Pacific, saying, "We are impressed by a medium through which a man sitting in his living room has been able to look at two oceans at once." In April of 1952, "See It Now" left afternoons for an evening time slot.

1959 - The epic film, Ben-Hur, starring Charleton Heston, premiered in New York. The movie later set a new industry record with 11 Academy Awards from 12 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director.

1966 -United States Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.

1967 - Starting its 5th and final week at #1 on "Billboard's Hot 100" chart was Lulu’s "To Sir with Love", from the movie of the same name. Lulu was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie on November 3, 1948, but early in her career she changed her name to Lulu in Scotland.

1969 - Financier-diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at age 81.

1970 - Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling said large doses of Vitamin C could ward off colsd.

1970 - West Germany and Poland initialed a treaty recognizing the Oder-Neisse line as a common border and pledging each other to territorial integrity.

1974 - Frank Sinatra left retirement to do a television special with dancer Gene Kelly. The show was a hit, reviving Sinatra’s career.

1975 - John Denver earned a gold record for the song, "I’m Sorry".

1976 - United States Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.

1976 - Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

1978 - Jim Jones, a United States pastor, led 914 of his followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana, by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit drink. Cult members who refused to swallow the liquid were shot.

1986 - In New York City, the Roseland Ballroom reopened. The 67-year-old home for those wanting to dance featured Lester Lanin, the United States' dean of society music, who played for patrons wanting to cut a rug on the 112-by-55-foot floor..

1986 - For the first time since leaving his own late-night television show, Jack Parr was a guest on "The Tonight Show". One of television’s greatest lines came from this show, when after a long ramble by Parr, Carson quipped, "Why is it that I feel I’m guesting on your show?"

1986 - Roger Clemens, became the first American League starter in 15 years to be named the American League’s Most Valuable Player. The Boston Red Sox pitcher won the honor a week after winning the Cy Young Award.

1987 - The congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.

1987 - 31 people died in a fire at King's Cross, London's busiest subway station.

1988 - President Reagan signed legislation creating a Cabinet-level drug czar and providing the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill.

1989 - Star defensive end Dexter Manley of the Washington Redskins was barred on this date from the National Football League due to repeated drug test failures.

1991 - British peace envoy Terry Waite and United States academic Thomas Sutherland were released from five years of captivity in Lebanon by Islamic Jihad.

1992 - Police arrested Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto when she tried to lead a march on parliament to demand the government's removal.

1993 - Black and white leaders in South Africa approved the new democracy constitution, which gave blacks the right to vote and ended white minority rule.

1993 - Ukraine's parliament overwhelmingly ratified the START-1 disarmament treaty but placed stiff conditions on giving up nuclear weapons on its territory.

1995 - The Vatican said the Roman Catholic ban on the ordination of women as priests was a definitive, infallible and unquestionable part of the Church's doctrine.

1997 - The FBI officially pulled out of the probe into the TWA Flight 800 disaster, saying the explosion that destroyed the Boeing 747, killing all 230 people aboard, was not caused by a criminal act.

1997 - In the biggest banking deal in United States history, First Union Corp. announced its purchase of CoreStates Financial Corp. for $16.1 billion.