Historical Events
1942 – Henry Ford patents a method of constructing plastic auto bodies
1976 – American inventor Ray Kurzweil and the National Federation of the Blind unveil the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first omni-font optical character recognition system
1989 – Jerry Parks, Oklahoma defensive back, charged with shooting a teammate
1989 – Computers across Britain hit by “Friday the 13th”/Jerusalem virus
1998 – CBS pays $4 billion to televise AFC games for 8-years
2018 – Early-morning ballistic missile alert sent across Hawaii in error, revoked after 38 minutes
Famous Birthdays
1804 – John Pringle Nichol, Scottish Astronomer and educator
1906 – Zhou Youguang [Zhou Yaoping], Chinese language scholar (father of pinyin), born in Changzhou (d. 2017)
1955 – Trevor Rabin, South African rock guitarist and film score composer (Yes), born in Johannesburg, South Africa
1972 – Vitaly Scherbo, Belarusian gymnast (6 Olympic gold medals Barcelona 1992), born in Minsk, Belarus
1972 – Richard Woodley, NFL cornerback (Detroit Lions)
1979 – Jill Wagner, American Actor
Famous Deaths
1860 – William Mason, American politician, dies at 73
1979 – Donny Hathaway, American rocker (Ghetto), commits suicide at 33
1985 – Carol Wayne, Johnny Carson’s teatime movie hostess, dies at 42
1996 – Willian Myuon Bany Guerrilla leader, dies
2009 – Patrick McGoohan, American-born Irish actor, writer, and director (The Prisoner, Secret Agent/ Danger Man), dies at 80
2017 – Dick Gautier, American stage and screen actor (Get Smart, Bye Bye Birdie), dies at 85