Douglas Adams, galactic hitchhiker, born
Future Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy writer/creator Douglas Adams is born in England. Demonstrating an early ability to write short stories with a hint of the absurd, Adams would find himself a member of the renowned Cambridge Footlights theatrical comedy group in the early 1970s, leading to his “discovery” by Monty Python’s Graham Chapman. (Adams would become one of only two people outside of the core six-man Python troupe to contribute any scripted material to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and made a few appearances as a guest cast member.) He would go on to contribute radio comedy sketches to various BBC Radio shows through the 1970s, until the premiere of his own project, the science fiction comedy The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, put him on the map.
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The 23rd episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. Howard Duff and Eileen Ryan star in an episode written by Richard Matheson.
Actress Alex Kingston, a familiar face in both British and American television, is born in England. With a variety of roles on UK TV throughout the 1980s and ’90s, she will make the leap to American television in 1997 with a regular role on the hospital drama ER through 2004. In 2008 she will make her first appearance as Professor River Song, occasional companion and gadfly to the Doctor in 
Television writer Gene Roddenberry, who has already written scripts for shows such as Have Gun, Will Travel, writes his first-draft series proposal for a new hour-long science fiction drama, which he calls Star Trek. The series involves the starship S.S. Yorktown, commanded by Captain Robert April. Roddenberry will spend several months refining his concept before it is bought by Desilu Studios and shopped around to the American television networks. At the time he’s writing the pitch, Roddenberry is still overseeing his first TV creation, a military series called The Lieutenant, which has enjoyed decent ratings but is leaving its network, NBC, nervous with its tendency to deal directly with issues related to the widening conflict in Vietnam.
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The 27th episode of the spy-fi series Adam Adamant Lives! airs on BBC1, starring Gerald Harper and Juliet Harmer. Directed by Ridley Scott (Alien), this episode is missing from the BBC’s archives.
British broadcaster ABC airs the 113th episode of the spy-fi series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. Michael Gough guest stars.
Actor/singer John Barrowman is born in Scotland. At a young age, he moves to the midwestern United States with his family, where he remains until graduating college in the late 1980s. Moving back to the UK, he begins a career on the musical stage, though he retains dual citizenship allowing him to work on either side of the Atlantic. Early US TV roles in such series as Titans and Central Park West pay the bills, but most genre fans know him best as Captain Jack Harkness, a character Barrowman has played on both 
BBC2 airs the 35th episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of The Unknown. Written by Michael Ashe, the story stars Richard Pearson and Freda Bamford. This episode no longer exists in the BBC’s archives.
The eighth episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins. Mike Farrell (M*A*S*H) and Chloris Leachman guest star.
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The 19th episode of the science fiction series The Powers Of Matthew Star airs on NBC, starring Peter Barton and Louis Gossett Jr. Scott Marlowe (Valley Of The Dolls) guest stars.
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The 60th episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs in syndication. Janet Leigh (Psycho) stars in an episode written by J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, Jeremiah, Sense8).
The 18th episode of the syndicated Alexander and Ilya Salkind-produced Superboy series, starring John Haymes Newton and Stacy Haiduk, airs. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa guest stars.
The 44th and final episode of the horror anthology series Freddy’s Nightmares is broadcast in syndication in North America, hosted by Robert Englund in character as Freddy Krueger. Penny Johnson Jerald (The Orville) guest stars.
The week-long national syndication window opens for 
The second episode of George Lucas’ historical adventure series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles airs on ABC, starring Sean Patrick Flannery. Margaret Tyzack, Elizabeth Hurley, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jane Wyatt guest star.
NBC airs the 69th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Alan Oppenheimer (He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe) and Jerry Hardin (The X-Files) guest star.
Fox airs the 21st episode of the sci-fi western, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., starring Bruce Campbell, Julius Carry, and Christian Clemenson. Casey Siemaszko (Back To The Future) and Matt McColm (Nightman) guest star.
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Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 122nd shuttle flight, a 16 day mission to deliver two new key components of the International Space Station. The unpressurized portion of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory is delivered and attached, while the two-armed Dextre robotic arm system built in Canada is also installed. Aboard Endeavour for her 21st flight are Commander Dominic Gorie, Pilot Greg Johnson, and mission specialists Garrett Reisman, Robert Behnken, Mike Foreman, Takao Doi and Rick Linnehan. Reisman remains on the ISS, while station astronaut Leopold Eyharts hitches a ride back to Earth aboard the shuttle.