The US House of Representatives passed the Missouri Compromise in 1819, prohibiting slavery in all US territory north of the 36°30' North parallel, except for the proposed new state of Missouri. The first ship passed through the Suez Canal in 1867. Madama Butterfly was performed for the first time at La Scala in 1904. Flooding from the North Sea left 318 dead and 60,000 homeless in Hamburg in 1962. The London Congestion Charge took effect in 2003.
Born today: Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), Lola Montez (1821-1851), Chaim Potok (1929-2002), Patricia Routledge (1929), Ruth Rendell (1930), Alan Bates (1934-2003), Barry Humphries (1934), Julia McKenzie (1941), Brenda Fricker (1945), Loreena McKennitt (1957), Michael Jordan (1963) and two that I may well be the only Utter who cares about:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (1981) and Bolton midfielder Joey O'Brien (1986).
It is Independence Day in Kosovo.
