On this Date in History

Some highlights:

Births:
1845 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Germany, discovered X-rays (Nobel 1901)
1851 Vincent d'Indy Paris France, composer (Symphonie Cévenole)
1863 Sir Henry Royce automobile founder (Rolls-Royce)
1868 Patty Smith Hill author/songwriter (Happy Birthday To You)
1927 Mstislav Leopold Rostropovich Baku USSR, cellist/conductor/teacher (Moscow Conservatory)
1950 Maria Ewing opera singer
1963 Quentin Tarantino director/screenwriter (Pulp Fiction)

Events:
1513 Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León sights Florida
1790 The shoelace invented
1855 Abraham Gesner patents kerosene
1879 Longest championship fight (136 rounds)
1914 1st successful blood transfusion (in Brussels)
1964 Earthquake strikes Anchorage AK, 9.2 on Richter scale, 131 die from earthquake and resulting tsunami; this is the most violent eathquake in US history
1979 Supreme Court rules, 8-1, cops can't randomly stop cars
1997 39 cult memebers in California commit mass suicide (Hale-Bopp)
2134 32nd recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet

There's much more at Any Day in History