Quickly

Happy birthday to actress Nikki Cox, who was just let go from NBC’s Las Vegas, and who started her career as a dancer, starring in the video for Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalker” and also Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl.” The hottie redhead (who should’ve been Mary Jane in the Spider-Man films) turns 29 today. By the way, she was also on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (“Pen Pals”). Too bad she’s married to Jay Mohr.

Also, comedian Dana Carvey is 52 (!) and actor Jerry “The Beaver” Mathers is 59. Composer Marvin Hamlisch (A Chorus Line) is 63, and actor Stacey Keatch (Prison Break) is 66.

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History trivia is plentiful today:

In 1851, Maine became the first state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol.

In 1883, the first baseball game under lights was played in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

1886 was the year Grover Cleveland became the first U.S. President to get married while in office.

The U.S. granted citizenship to all Native Americans in 1924 through the Indian Citizenship Act.

Chiang Kai-Shek and his Nationalist captured Beijing, Chine in 1928.

This day in 1935, baseball lost its first superstar when George Herman “Babe” Ruth announced his retirement. Just six years later on the same date, baseball lost one of its greats forever when Lou Gehrig passed away of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Queen Elizabeth II was crowned fifty-four years ago today in 1953.

U.S. space probe Surveyor 1 landed on the moon and started sending photographs back to Earth in 1966. It was the first soft landing on the moon.

In 1997, Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of bombing a federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people.

For you educators, 1998 marked the year that Californians passed Proposition 227, ending a 30-year old bilingual-education program by mandating that all children be taught in English.

This year, today, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Detroit Pistons in Game 6 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals, advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time in their history.