1947 Variety announces that John Garfield will star in the premiere production of a new Tennessee Williams play, titled A Streetcar Named Desire. As history will have it, however, contractual demands rule him out, only to be replaced by a little-known newcomer, Marlon Brando.

1999 Chicago City Limits, a Chicago-born but New York-based improv troupe, present their Y2K, You're OK at the Chicago City Limits Theatre in Manhattan. The group celebrates its 20th year in New York City with the comedy, which recaps the past millennium from the Crusades to the trouble in the Middle East.

2001 The two-person memoir show, If You Ever Leave Me...I'm Going With You! starring Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna, opens on Broadway at the Cort Theatre.

2002 Lyricist Sheldon Harnick, long absent from the stage since his 1960s glory days of Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Rothschilds, returns to the stage with a new musical adaptation of Norton Juster's classic children's book, The Phantom Toolbooth, with music by Arnold Black and a book adapted by Juster himself. The world premiere is hosted by Harwich Junior Theatre in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

2015 Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's acclaimed musical that fuses the contemporary and classic worlds to tell the story of America's Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, opens on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. It goes on to win 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

More of Today's Birthdays: Guthrie McClintic (1893–1961). Lucille Ball (1911–1989). Lois Nettleton (1929–2008). Terry Finn (b. 1955). Rusty Magee (1955–2003). Faith Prince (b. 1957). Conor McPherson (b. 1971). Leslie Odom, Jr. (b. 1981).

Watch highlights from Hamilton on Broadway: