This day in history

Some notable historical events that happened today include:

1752 -  the Whitechapel Foundry delivered The Liberty Bell to the State House in Philadelphia, PA. The bell remained in storage until 9 months later when a single stroke of the clapper created a crack in the bell

1804 -  Karl Ludwig Harding discovered the asteroid Juno

1859 -  George Pullman's first sleeper car was added to the Chicago and Alton Railroad routes. It was available between Bloomington and Chicago, IL

1878 -  Emma Nutt became the first telephone operator working for the Edwin Holmes Telephone Dispatch Co in Boston. Alexander Bell suggested replacing the boys operating the phone lines with a calm, soothing female voice

1897 -  Boston opened Tremont Street Subway, the first underground rapid transit in North America 

1914 -  the world's last known passenger pigeon died at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Named Martha, she came to the zoo as part of a preservation effort that came too late

1932 -  Forrest E. Mars introduced the Mars Bar. The original was made of nougat and caramel coated in chocolate. It had a different formula when it debut in the US

1934 -  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released its first animated cartoon The Discontented Canary. It's the story of a caged canary who flees to freedom only to face multiple obstacles including weather and a cat. No relation to Tweety Bird (a Looney Tunes free bird)

1939 -  British journalist Clare Hollingsworth was first to report the outbreak of WWII, she reported the scores of troops building up on the German Poland border

1952 -  Ernest Hemingway published The Old Man and the Sea, his last work published during his lifetime 

1954 -  Paramount released Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring James (Jimmy) Stewart and Grace Kelly

1963 -  Twice-Told Stories was released to theaters  it stars Vincent Price in multiple roles and re-tells the stories written by Nathaniel Hawthorn

1972 -  American Bobby Fischer defeated Russian Boris Spassky at the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was the first American to win the tournament 

1979 -  NASA's Pioneer 1 completed it's first flyby of Saturn, the first spacecraft to study the planet up close

1997 -  The Cartoon Network, owned and operated by Turner Japan, began airing in Japan

Some interesting birthdays include:

Engelbert Zaschka (1895) - German inventor who pioneered some of the first helicopters and invented a human-powered airplane and motorcycle 

Liz Carpenter (1920) - served as Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's administrative assistant and co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus

Rocky Marciano (1923) - the only professional boxer to finish his heavyweight career undefeated

Boxcar Willie (1931) - born Lecil Travis Martin, musical performer who gained recognition in the 1960s and 1970s

Lily Tomlin (1939)

Phil McGraw (1950)

Gloria Estefan (1957)