A web site, Thefacebook.com, was launched on this date in 2004 on the campus of Harvard University by Mark Zuckerberg and others. It was a successor site to one called “Facemash” that had been created just months before. Within hours of its launch, thousands of Harvard students had registered, and within its first week, the first lawsuits were filed.

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Rumours, an album by Fleetwood Mac that was produced by the band with Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut, was released 40 years ago today. “The Chain”:

 
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Karen Carpenter died on this date in 1983. Liberace died 30 years ago today. From 1955’s Sincerely Yours:

 
Patricia Highsmith died on this date in 1996. Betty Friedan died on this date in 2006, which was also her 85th birthday.

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Raymond Dart was born on this date in 1893. He was a South African anatomy professor who discovered the first Australopithecus africanus fossil, in 1924. The scientific establishment thought he was wrong in postulating it as a human ancestor; after all, it was found in Africa and the scientific establishment was certain homo sapiens came from Europe or Asia. He had simply found an interesting ape skull fossil, said the establishment. But it was a skull that was obviously of a creature that walked upright. It took two decades for the establishment to realize that Dart had found an ancient human ancestor and to start looking for the intermediary fossils between the members of genus Australopithecus and modern man. The “Lucy” skeleton was found a half-century later, in 1974.

Charles Lindbergh was born on this date in 1902. Rosa Parks was born in 1913 on this date. Sir Norman Wisdom was born on this date in 1915. Gavin Ewart was born in 1916 on this date. Russell Hoban was born on this date in 1925. David Brenner was born on this date in 1936.

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Robert Coover is 85 today. John Schuck is 77 today. George A. Romero is 77 today. Vice President Dan Quayle is 70. Alice Cooper is 69 today. Lawrence Taylor is 58 today. Clint Black is 55. Rob Corddry is 46 today. Oscar De La Hoya is 44.

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