Rescuers reach the Donner Party, Edison patents the phonograph, the Soviet Union launches the Mir space station, and Fidel Castro resigns as Cuban president, all on this day.
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MGM
1930: Film director John Frankenheimer, best known for movies such as "Birdman of Alcatraz," "The Manchurian Candidate," "Seven Days in May," "Black Sunday" and "Ronin," is born in Queens, N.Y.