Johnny Carson (right) interviewing guest Bob Hope on the Tonight set.

Scottish actor Sean Connery is 90 years old today. He starred as secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1962 to 1983, including Dr. No, From Russia
With Love and Goldfinger. He earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor for his role in the 1987 gangster film The Untouchables.

Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello ,who is 66 today, contributed to the proto-
new wave and punk movements with such songs as “Pump it Up” and
“Allison.”

Born Chaim Weitz, Gene Simmons is a hard rock singer who gained fame
after founding the commercially successful hard rock band Kiss, which
has sold over 100 million albums. He became 71 today.

Scottish actor Sean Connery is 90 years old today. He starred as secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1962 to 1983, including Dr. No, From Russia
With Love and Goldfinger. He earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor for his role in the 1987 gangster film The Untouchables.

Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello ,who is 66 today, contributed to the proto-
new wave and punk movements with such songs as “Pump it Up” and
“Allison.”

Born Chaim Weitz, Gene Simmons is a hard rock singer who gained fame after
founding the commercially successful hard rock band Kiss, which
has sold over 100 million albums. He became 71 today.

On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812 between the United States and
England, British troops entered Washington, D.C. and burned the White
House in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario,
Canada, in June 1813.

When the British arrived at the White House, they found that President
James Madison and his first lady Dolley had already fled to safety in
Maryland. Soldiers reportedly sat down to eat a meal made of leftover
food from the White House scullery using White House dishes and silver
before ransacking the presidential mansion and setting it ablaze.

President James Madison and wife Dolly.

The West Nile virus quickly spread across the United States after the
first reported cases in Queens, New York on this day in 1999. The
virus was believed to have entered in an infected bird or mosquito,
although there was no clear evidence. The disease spread quickly
through infected birds. Mosquitoes spread the disease to mammals.

The first human cases usually followed within three months of the
first appearance of infected birds in the area except where cold
weather interrupted the mosquito vectors.