1807: Confederate General Robert E. Lee was born in Stratford, Virginia.
1809: Edgar Allan Poe; an American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor famous for his cultivation of mystery and the macabre; was born.
1825: Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett obtained a patent for a preservation process used to store food in tin cans.
1883: In the North Sea the German steamer Cimbria collided with the British steamer Sultan and sank, killing 340.
1955: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower held the first-ever televised presidential press conference.
2000: Austrian-born actress Hedy Lamarr, who was often typecast as a provocative femme fatale and later achieved recognition as a noted inventor of a radio communications device, died in Florida.
