Today in History

President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which establishes the United States’ first national standards regarding email and gives the Federal Trade Commission authority to enforce the act. 

The United States launches a missile attack on Iraq for failing to comply with United Nations weapons inspectors.

Cleveland becomes the first U.S. city to default since the depression.

President Jimmy Carter appoints Andrew Young as Ambassador to the United Nations.

Adam Riess, astrophysicist; shared 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for providing evidence the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Benjamin Bratt, actor best known for his role of Rey Curtis on the Law & Order TV series.

William Perry, pro football defensive lineman nicknamed The Refrigerator because of his size.

Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este.

President Harry Truman declares a state of National Emergency as Chinese communists invade deeper into South Korea.

Billy Gibbons, singer, songwriter, musician with ZZ Top and Moving Sidewalks bands.

Germany mounts a major offensive in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium. As the center of the Allied line falls back, it creates a bulge, leading to the name, the Battle of the Bulge.

Steven Bochco, TV producer and writer (Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law).

Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress and director; won Golden Globe for Best Actress–Motion Picture Drama for The Emigrants (1971).

Morris Dees, activist; co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Sir Quentin Saxby Blake, illustrator and children’s writer; received the Hans Christian Andersen Award (2002) and was Britain’s first Children’s Laureate (1999–2001).

Arthur C. Clarke, English science fiction writer (2001: A Space Odyssey)

Members of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU) testify at a congressional hearing to add an amendment for women’s right to vote.

Union forces under General George H. Thomas win the battle at Nashville, smashing an entire Confederate army.

Confederate General Joseph Johnston takes command of the Army of Tennessee.

A fire in New York City destroys property estimated to be worth $20,000,000. It lasts two days, ravages 17 blocks, and destroys 674 buildings including the Stock Exchange, Merchants’ Exchange, Post Office, and the South Dutch Church.

Jane Austen, novelist (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice).

To protest the tax on tea from England, a group of young Americans, disguised as Indians, throw chests of tea from British ships in Boston Harbor.

Ludwig Van Beethoven, German composer best known for his 9th Symphony.

Oliver Cromwell takes on dictatorial powers with the title of “Lord Protector.”

Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, who bore him six children; only one, Mary I, survived to adulthood.

Henry VI of England is crowned King of France.