49 BC - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war.
1920 - League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
1927 - The film Metropolis by Fritz Lang premiers.
1887 - Robinson Jeffers, American poet (d. 1962)--ok this is a little eerie as this fellow was a west coast poet who was born on what was to become my birthday and then died the year that I was born.
1938 - Willie McCovey, American baseball player
1778 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)
some interesting things have happened on my day.