On this date in history, two notable treaties were signed or ratified. The 1783 Treaty of Paris was ratified by the Continental Congress in 1984, officially ending the American Revolution. And in 1814 by the Treaty of Kiel, Denmark ceded the Kingdom of Norway to Sweden. Today all three are independent countries, along with Finland making up Scandinavia. Also, in Scandinavian news in 1972 Queen Margarette II became the first female monarch of Denmark since 1412.

On this date in history, there were many notable births -Mark Anthony (83 BC) “friend” 0f Julius Caesar (bury or praise), Benedict Arnold (1741)- a name synonymous with betrayal; Albert Schweitzer (1875) notable physician and philosopher; Martin Niemoller (1892), a German pastor who gave us the warning “they came for ….and I did not speak up because I was not…); Faye Dunaway (1941), who chillingly portrayed Bonnie Parker, of Bonnie and Clyde; and Carl Weathers (1948) , who brought us Apollo Creed to battle Rocky Balboa.

On this date in history, Charles Dodgson – author, poet, and mathematician also known as Lewis Carroll ceased his storytelling in 1898. Humphrey Bogart (1957) left the cafe of life. And Anthony Eden, former British prime minister passed on in 1977. Ricardo Montalban left Earth’s Fantasy Island in 2009, but Star Trek fans will always remember him as the genetically enhanced superman Khan.

Another standout actor left us in 2016. Alan Rickman, known to Harry Potter fans as the ultimately conflicted Severus Snape, made a career of portraying villains. He started out as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, followed by the terrorist Hans Gruber opposite Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and then added his standout performance to the legacy of actors who have portrayed the Sheriff of Nottingham, in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, opposite Kevin Costner as Robin Hood. He also did play a lighter, though flawed role in Love Actually, aside his Harry Potter co-star Emma Thompson.