This Day In History:

1804
Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France by the French Senate.

1896
The Supreme Court affirmed racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson as "separate but equal."

1920
Pope John Paul II was born near Krakow, Poland.

1953
Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound.

1974
India became the 6th country to become a nuclear power.

1980
Mount St. Helens, in Washington state, erupted after being dormant for 123 years. Joy Division singer Ian Curtis hung himself.

2000
A bill was finally passed that removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse.

I share my birthday with:

Pope John Paul II
Reggie Jackson
Bertrand Russell
Margot Fonteyn