On this date in history

1598: King Henry IV of France signed the Edict of Nantes, granting rights to the Protestant Huguenots.
1742: George Frideric Handel's ''Messiah'' was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland.
1743: The third president of the United States was born in present-day Albemarle County, Va.

1870: The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in New York City.
1943: President Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.
1964: Sidney Poitier became the first black to win an Academy Award for best actor, for his role in ''Lilies of the Field.''
1981: Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for her feature about an 8-year-old heroin addict named ''Jimmy.'' Cooke relinquished the prize two days later, admitting she had fabricated the story.
1986: Pope John Paul II visited a Rome synagogue in the first recorded papal visit of its kind.
1990: The Soviet Union accepted responsibility for the World War II murders of thousands of imprisoned Polish officers in the Katyn Forest, a massacre the Soviets had previously blamed on the Nazis.
1997: At age 21, Tiger Woods became the youngest person to win the Masters Tournament and the first person of at least partly African heritage to claim a major golf title.
1998: NationsBank and BankAmerica announced a $62.5 billion merger, creating the country's first coast-to-coast bank.
1999: Jack Kervorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Mich., to 10 to 25 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Thomas Youk, whose assisted suicide in 1998 was videotaped and shown on ''60 Minutes.''

Today's birthdays

• Actor Rick Schroder turns 31 years old today.
• Author Eudora Welty turns 92 today.
• Actor Howard Keel turns 82 today.
• Movie director Stanley Donen turns 77 today.
• Republican U.S. senator from Colorado Ben Nighthorse Campbell turns 68 today.
• Actor Lyle Waggoner turns 66 today.
• Actor Edward Fox turns 64 today.
• Playwright Lanford Wilson turns 64 today.
• Actor Paul Sorvino turns 62 today.
• Composer Bill Conti turns 59 today.
• Rock musician (Jefferson Airplane/Starship, Hot Tuna) Jack Casady turns 57 today.
• Actor-director Tony Dow turns 56 today.
• Singer Al Green turns 55 today.
• Actor Ron Perlman turns 51 today.
• Actor (''Roswell'') William Sadler turns 51 today.
• Singer Peabo Bryson turns 50 today.
• Rock musician Max Weinberg turns 50 today.
• Bluegrass musician Sam Bush turns 49 today.
• Rock musician (Blondie) Jimmy Destri turns 47 today.
• Actor-comedian Gary Kroeger turns 44 today.
• Actress Saundra Santiago turns 44 today.
• Rock musician (Sponge) Joey Mazzola turns 40 today.
• Chess champion Gary Kasparov turns 38 today.
• Actress Page Hannah turns 37 today.
• Rock musician (Toadies) Lisa Umbarger turns 36 today.
• Actor Jonathan Brandis turns 25 today.