December 18 - Vroom!

Vroooom!

This Day In History

1642

Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.

1787

New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1888

Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.

1892

Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

1932

The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game is moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.

1958

Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.

1987

Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.

1999

NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

Famous Birthdays

1707

Charles Wesley, English Methodist hymnist (d. 1788)

1863

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (d. 1914)

1870

Saki, English writer (d. 1916)

1879

Paul Klee, Swiss-born painter (d. 1940)

1886

Ty Cobb, American baseball player (d. 1961)

1890

Edwin Armstrong, American inventor (d. 1954)

1913

Alfred Bester, American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books (d. 1987)

1916

Betty Grable, American actress (d. 1973)

1938

Roger E. Mosley, American actor

1939

Michael Moorcock, English science fiction and fantasy author

1946

Steven Spielberg, American film director

1963

Brad Pitt, American actor
1964
Robson Green, English actor and singer
1978
Katie Holmes, American actress