This Day in American History

 

 

     1492 - Columbus leaves San Salvador; arrives in Santa Maria of Concepcion
    1644 - Birthday of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, born at London, England. Penn died July 30, 1718, at Buckinghamshire, England. President Proclamation 5284, of November 28, 1984, conferred honorary citizenship of the USA upon William Penn and his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn. They were the third and fourth persons to received honorary Citizenship, including Winston Churchill and Raoul Wallengber.  (lower half of: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct14.html )
    1656 - The first punitive legislation in Massachusetts against Quakers was enacted. (The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism made them regard the ritual-free Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive). The law provided for a fine of 100 pounds for any ship captain who delivered Quakers “or any other blasphemous heretics” the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Possessing Quaker books and coming to the defense of Quakers was also outlawed and punished with fines, whipping and jailing. Subsequent anti-Quaker laws included the penalties of having their ears cut off and the tongue bored through with a hot iron. 
    1734 - Birthday of Francis Lightfoot Lee, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Born at Westmoreland County, VA, he died January 11, 1797 at Richmond County, VA. 
http://www.francislightfootlee.com/
His plantation was called “Menokin.”
http://www.stratfordhall.org/menokin.htm
    1735 - Methodist pioneer John Wesley first set sail to America, to minister to the Indians under Georgia Gov. Oglethorpe. On this same date, Wesley began keeping his famous, 55-year-long journal, whose last entry was dated Oct 24, 1790.
    1773 - Several of Britain’s East India Tea Company’s ships are set ablaze at Annapolis.
      1774 – As a result of the sinking of the ship, ‘Peggy Stewart’, the Declaration of Rights was passed by the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, PA. It was known as the “Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress,” stating the colonists “are entitled to life, liberty and property; and they have never ceded to any foreign power whosoever a right to dispose of either without their consent.”
    1834 - African-American Henry Blair patents his corn-planting machine. Two years later, on August 31, 1936, he obtained a patent on a cotton seed planter.  It is widely believed that this is the first patent grant to an African-American in the US.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blblair.htm
    1834 - In Philadelphia, Whigs and Democrats stage a gun, stone and brick battle for control of a Moyamensing Township election, resulting in one death, several injuries, and the burning down of a block of buildings.
    1835 - John Templeton, John Moore, Stanley Cuthbart and Ellen Ritchie were charged in Wheeling, VA (now WV) with illegally teaching blacks to read
    1863 - Battle of Bristoe Station.  Confederate General Robert E. Lee attempts to drive the Union army out of Virginia but fails when an outnumbered Union force repels the attacking Rebels.  The aggressive Lee realized that he had a chance to cut the Union army up piecemeal during the withdrawal. Confederate General Ambrose P. Hill spotted Yankees from General George Sykes's Fifth Corps near Bristoe Station on the afternoon of October 14. Thinking this was the rear of the Union army, Hill attacked and began driving the Federals away in disarray. The Confederates were surprised by the sudden appearance of Union General Governor K. Warren's Second Corps. Warren's men were returning from a small battle at Auburn, Virginia, earlier that morning. Hill decided to attack this new force as well, but the Yankees were well protected by a railroad cut. In a very short engagement, the Confederates suffered 1,400 men killed, wounded, and captured, while the Union lost only 546. "Bury these poor men," Lee somberly told Hill, "and let us say no more about it." The Union army was driven back 40 miles from its original positions, and the Confederates destroyed a large section of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, a key Union supply line. Nonetheless, the gains were temporary. The next month, Meade drove Lee back behind the Rapidan River.
    1863 - Birthday of journalist Winifred Sweet Black. She wrote under the name of Annie Laurie and was able to infiltrate Mormon life and expose polygamy in an 1898 series of articles in the Hearst newspapers. But her greatest accomplishment was disguising herself as a boy and becoming the only woman reporter on Galveston Island after the terrible hurricane in 1900. She, unlike others, didn't only report. Using funds donated by Hearst's readers, she opened and administered a hospital on the island to aid the displaced and injured. Another time she faked a collapse to expose graft and mismanagement in San Francisco's receiving hospital. She got an exclusive interview with President Benjamin Harrison, and even got into a leper colony in Hawaii. She also reported on World War I and the Versailles treaty negotiations. She continued reporting on world events well into her 60s. She died in 1936.
http://www.school.eb.com/women/articles/Black_Winifred_Sweet.html
http://marian.creighton.edu/~leonardm/annie.jpg
    1865 - Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders sign "peace treaty" with the US government, then they were chased out Colorado.
    1884 – George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film
    1890 - Birthday of Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th president of the US, at Denison, Texas. Serving two terms as President, Jan 20, 1953-January 20, 1961, Eisenhower was the first president to be baptized after taking office.  (Sunday, February 1, 1953). Nicknamed “Ike,” he was a member of the Class of 1915 of West Point where he played football and was a teammate of future general Omar Bradley.  Among their opponents was the legendary Jim Thorpe, whom he tackled, resulting in the torn knee that ended his athletic career.  He held the rank of five-star General of the Army, the first such five-star rank bestowed to a US military officer.   He resigned that commission in 1952 after becoming President and it was restored by an act of Congress. He served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Western Europe during WWII and developed the logistics and attack plans for the Normandy invasion on D-Day that all but brought Germany to its knees.  One of Eisenhower's enduring achievements as President was the Interstate Highway System, believing it essential to American security during the Cold War. Thinking that large cities would be targets in a possible war, the highways would be designed to facilitate their evacuation and ease military maneuvers.  Eisenhower's goal to create improved highways was influenced by difficulties encountered during his involvement in the U.S. Army's 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy. He was assigned as an observer for the mission, which involved sending a convoy of U.S. Army vehicles coast to coast. The conditions of the roads were inferior, largely unpaved and subject to quagmire during heavy rains.  His subsequent experience with German autobahns during World War II convinced him of the benefits of such a network. Noticing the improved ability to move logistics throughout the country, he thought an Interstate Highway System in the U.S. would not only be beneficial for military operations, but provide a measure of continued economic growth. The legislation initially stalled in the Congress over the issuance of bonds to finance the project, but the legislative effort was renewed and the law was signed by Ike in June 1956.  In his Farewell Address (January 17, 1961), speaking about the “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry,” he warned: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential of disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” An American hero, Eisenhower died at Washington, DC, March 28, 1969.    
    1893 – Actress Lillian Gish was born in Springfield, OH.  Gish was called The First Lady of American Cinema.  She was a prominent film star of the 1910s and 1920s, associated with the films of director D.W. Griffith, including her leading role in one of the highest grossing films of the silent era, Griffith's seminal, “Birth of a Nation” (1915). Her sound-era film appearances were sporadic but included roles in “Duel in the Sun” (1946) and “Night of the Hunter” (1955). She did considerable television work from the early 1950s into the 1980s and closed her career playing, for the first time, opposite Bette Davis in the 1987 film “The Whales of August”.  Gish passed in 1993.
    1894 – Birthday of e e cummings (Edward Estlin Cummings) (poet, playwright: Him, Santa Claus; writer: The Enormous Room; died Sep 3, 1962)
  http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/cummings.htm
    1899 - Birthday of pianist/song writer Spencer Williams, New Orleans, LA
    1899 - Bandleader/jazz promoter William “Red” McKenzie Birthday
http://www.redhotjazz.com/mckenzie.html 
http://www.redhotjazz.com/mound.html
http://us.imdb.com/Name?McKenzie,+Red
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/encyclopaedia/m/M58.HTM
    1905 – The New York Giants’ Christy Mathewson fired his third consecutive shutout in this World Series, leading his team to a 4 games to 1 championship over the Philadelphia A’s.
    1906 - The White Sox, known as baseball's 'hitless wonders' complete their unbelievable World Series upset of their powerful crosstown rivals by beating the Cubs, 8-3 at South Side Park. The Cubs had won a record 116 regular season games.
    1910 –“The Wizard of Westwood” John Wooden was born in Hall, IN.  He attended Purdue University and he helped lead the Boilermakers to the 1932 Helms Athletic foundation National Championship, as determined by a panel vote rather than the NCAA tournament, which did not begin until 1939. John Wooden was named All-Big Ten and All-Midwestern (1930–32) while at Purdue, and he was the first player ever to be named a three-time consensus All-American.  Following a brief coaching stint at Indiana State, Larry Bird’s alma mater, Wooden was named head coach at UCLA in 1948.  In 1964, UCLA under Wooden, began college basketball’s, indeed all of sports, most dominating run of success that compares to the New York Yankees of the 1950s and the Montreal Canadiens in NHL hockey.  Through 1975, when he retired, UCLA won the NCAA National Championship ten times including seven consecutively from 1967-73.  Beginning in 1962, UCLA reached what is now called the Final Four 12 times.  The awards are too numerous to mention and he coached several All-Americans who went on to NBA Hall of Fame careers.  Wooden died at the age of 100 in 2010.
    1910 - English aviator Claude Grahame-White lands his Farman biplane on Executive Avenue (now Pennsylvania Avenue) near the White House.
    1912 – Teddy Roosevelt is shot while campaigning in Milwaukee.  The former President is shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carries out his scheduled public speech.
    1916 - Sophomore tackle and guard Paul Robeson, a future College Football Hall of Famer, actor, and political activist,  is excluded from the Rutgers football team when Washington and Lee University refused to play against a black person.
      1922 – The first automated telephones are introduced, in NYC.
    1922 – Thom McAn opens its first retail shoe store, in NYC.
    1926 – The Washington Senators’ great Hall of Fame pitcher, Walter Johnson, retires from active playing and signs a contract to manage the Newark Bears minor league team.
    1926 – “Winnie-the-Pooh” by A.A.Milne is first published.
    1927 – “Bond, James Bond’, (1973-85) Roger Moore was born in London.  Prior to his Bond career, Moore enjoyed success as cousin Beau Maverick in “Maverick” (1960-61), then played Simon Templar as “The Saint” (1962-69).
    1929 – Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s set a Major League record by scoring 10 runs in one inning in a World Series on the way to defeating the Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 1.
    1930 - Ethel Merman becomes a star overnight with her rendition of "I Got Rhythm," featured in the new Broadway hit, “Girl Crazy”.
    1933 – Germany, now firmly under Nazi rule, withdraws from the League of Nations.
    1938 - Bob Haggart-Ray Bauduc record “Big Noise from Winnetka (Decca 2208).
    1939 - Birthday of Ralph Lauren, the designer and purveyor of a line of popular clothes that sought to capture the "spirit of the West," born New York City. His claim to fame is the “Polo” brand.
http://about.polo.com/history/history.asp
    1938 – Watergate figure, counsel to President Nixon, John Dean was born in Akron, OH.
    1940 - Charlie Barnet Band records “Redskin Rumba” (Bluebird 10944). 
    1943 – During the darkest days of the war, the US Army 8th Air Force lost 60 B-17 bombers during the second mass daylight air assault on Schweinfurt, Germany ball bearing factories.
     1944 - Linked to a plot to assassinate Hitler, Field Marshal Rommel, one of the Reich’s few military experts, is forced to commit suicide.
    1945 – The Chicago Cardinals, now in Arizona, broke a 29-game losing streak in the NFL by beating the Chicago Bears.
    1946 - Top Hits 
To Each His Own - Eddy Howard 
Five Minutes More - Frank Sinatra 
South America, Take It Away - Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters 
Divorce Me C.O.D. - Merle Travis
    1947 - Flying a Bell X-I jet at Muroc Dry Lake Bed, California, Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, ushering in the era of supersonic flight. Yeager, born in Myra, West Virginia, in 1923, was a combat fighter during World War II and flew 64 missions over Europe. He shot down 13 German planes and was himself shot down over France, but he escaped capture with the assistance of the French Underground. After the war, he was among several volunteers chosen to test-fly the experimental X-1 rocket plane, built by the Bell Aircraft Company to explore the possibility of supersonic flight.
    1949 – Ezzard Charles TKOs Pat Valentino in the 8th round to win the heavyweight boxing title
    1949 - Eleven leaders of the American Communist Party are convicted, after a nine-month trial in a of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the US Government
     1950 - “The Adventures of Ellery Queen” premiered on television. The first of many series to portray fictional detective Ellery Queen, it began on the Dumont network, where my father, Lawrence Menkin, wrote many of the episodes, and later moved to ABC. Queen was played by Richard Hart. In the next four series, he would also be played by Lee Bowman, Hugh Marlowe, George Nada, Lee Phillips, Peter Lawford and Jim Hutton. In each series Queen talked to the home audience at the show's climax to see if they were able to identify the killer. Future series were titled, “Ellery Queen” and the “Further Adventures of Ellery Queen.” The last telecast aired on September 5, 1976.
    1952 - SCHOWALTER, EDWARD R., JR., Medal of Honor.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company A, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kumhwa, Korea, 14 October 1952. Entered service at: Metairie, La. Born: 24 December 1927, New Orleans, La. G.O. No.: 6, 28 January 1954. Citation: 1st Lt. Schowalter, commanding, Company A, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. Committed to attack and occupy a key-approach to the primary objective, the 1st Platoon of his company came under heavy vicious small-arms, grenade, and mortar fire within 50 yards of the enemy-held strongpoint, halting the advance and inflicting several casualties. The 2d Platoon moved up in support at this juncture, and although wounded, 1st Lt. Schowalter continued to spearhead the assault. Nearing the objective he was severely wounded by a grenade fragment but, refusing medical aid, he led his men into the trenches and began routing the enemy from the bunkers with grenades. Suddenly from a burst of fire from a hidden cove off the trench he was again wounded. Although suffering from his wounds, he refused to relinquish command and continued issuing orders and encouraging his men until the commanding ground was secured and then he was evacuated. 1st Lt. Schowalter's unflinching courage, extraordinary heroism, and inspirational leadership reflect the highest credit upon himself and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service. 
    1952 - “The Red Buttons Show” premiered on TV. The comedy-variety show starred the well-known burlesque comedian Red Buttons. Regulars included Dorothy Jolliffe, Joe Silver, Jeane Carson, Sara Seegar, Jimmy Little, Ralph Stanley, Sammy Birch, and the Elliot Lawrence orchestra. It later switched networks under a new format in 1953, as a sitcom with Phyllis Kirk and Paul Lynde.
    1952 – “Night Court” judge, Harry Anderson, was born in Newport, RI.
    1953 – President Eisenhower promises to fire as a Communist any federal worker taking 5th amendment during Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee hearings.
     1953 – Three females go into service as the first female police officers in The Netherlands.
     1954 - Top Hits 
“Hey There” - Rosemary Clooney 
“I Need You Now” - Eddie Fisher 
“Papa Loves Mambo” - Perry Como 
“I Don't Hurt Anymore” - Hank Snow
    1955 - Nineteen-year old Buddy Holly and his sidemen, Larry Welborn and Bob Montgomery, open a concert in Lubbock, Texas for Bill Haley and the Comets. Nashville talent agent Eddie Crandell is in the audience and in the next few weeks arranges for Holly to record his first demo.
    1957 - Although it was banned by some US radio stations for its suggestive lyrics, The Everly Brothers' "Wake up Little Susie" reached the top of the Billboard singles chart. 
    1957 - The Elvis Presley classic, "Jailhouse Rock" is released. It would become his ninth US number one single and stay on the Billboard chart for nineteen weeks. The film clip from the movie where he sang the song is considered by many historians to be the first Rock video. 
    1960 - At the improbable hour of 1am, then presidential candidate John F. Kennedy spoke impromptu to several thousand students from the steps of the University of Michigan Union building. He asked,” How many of you are going to be doctors are willing to spend your days in Ghana?  How many of you (technicians and engineers) are willing to work in the Foreign Service? The response was favorable, and 19 days later in San Francisco, Kennedy formally proposed the Peace Corps, which was created by Executive Order, March 1, 1962.
    1961 - The Broadway production "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying" opened on Broadway, the first of 1415 performances.
    1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis begins, bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles in Cuba, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, were now stationed in Cuba, 90 miles off the American coastline. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba had been steadily increasing since the failed April, 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban refugees, armed and trained by the United States, landed in Cuba and attempted to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Though the invasion did not succeed, Castro was convinced that the United States would try again, and set out to get more military assistance from the Soviet Union. During the next year, the number of Soviet advisors in Cuba rose to more than 20,000. Rumors began that Russia was also moving missiles and strategic bombers onto the island. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev may have decided to so dramatically up the stakes in the Cold War for several reasons. He may have believed that the United States was indeed going to invade Cuba and provided the weapons as a deterrent. Facing criticism at home from more hardline members of the Soviet communist hierarchy, he may have thought a tough stand might win him support. Khrushchev also had always resented that U.S. nuclear missiles were stationed near the Soviet Union (in Turkey, for example), and putting missiles in Cuba might have been his way of redressing the imbalance. Two days after the pictures were taken, after being developed and analyzed by intelligence officers, they were presented to President Kennedy. During the next two weeks, the United States and the Soviet Union would come as close to nuclear war as they ever had, and a fearful world awaited the outcome.  The United States established a naval blockade to prevent further missiles from entering Cuba, and indeed, a confrontation on the high seas almost materialized when Russian ships approached US Naval vessels. It announced that they would not permit offensive weapons to be delivered to Cuba and demanded that the weapons already in Cuba to be dismantled and returned to the USSR.  The Russian ships stopped in the water while awaiting directions from the Kremlin.
After a period of tense negotiations an agreement was reached between Kennedy and Khrushchev. Publicly, the Soviets would dismantle their offensive weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet Union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration and agreement never to invade Cuba without direct provocation. Secretly, the US also agreed that it would dismantle all US-built Jupiter MRBMs, which were deployed in Turkey and Italy against the Soviet Union but were not known to the public.
When all missiles and light bombers had been withdrawn from Cuba, the blockade was formally ended on November 20, 1962. The negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union pointed out the necessity of a quick, clear, and direct communication line between Washington and Moscow. As a result, the Moscow–Washington hotline was established.
    1962 - Top Hits 
“Sherry” - The 4 Seasons 
“Monster Mash” - Bobby “Boris” Picket 
“I Remember You” - Frank Ifield 
“Devil Woman” - Marty Robbins 
    1962 – In the fledgling American Football League, the Houston Oilers’ George Bland threw 6 TD passes as they romped over the New York Titans, who would be renamed the New York Jets, 56-17. 
    1963 - The term ""Beatlemania"" is coined by the British press to describe the scene at the previous night's performance by The Beatles on the TV show “Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium”.
    1964 - Martin Luther King, Jr. became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize when awarded the honor. Dr. King donated the entire $54,000 prize money to furthering the causes of the civil rights movement.
    1964 – The M&M boys, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, hit back-to-back HRs on consecutive pitches.
    1964 – Philips begins experimenting with color television.
    1964 - Charlie Watts, drummer for the Rolling Stones, marries his first and only wife, Shirley Ann Shepherd, in Bradford, England. They're still married.
    1965 - Dodger ace Sandy Koufax, working on just two days’ rest, pitched a three-hit shutout of the Minnesota Twins to capture the 1965 World Series. Koufax struck out ten Twins on his way to the 2-0 win. Later, Dodgers’ catcher, John Roseboro, confided that after about the 3d inning, Koufax threw nothing but fastballs because the curves hurt too much.  Said Twins’ slugger Bob Allison, “We knew what was coming and still couldn’t hit it.”  And the Dodgers were World Series champs for the second time in three years.  No relief pitchers were used by any of the winning teams in this Series.
    1966 - Former R&B cover band Pink Floyd debut an entire set of psychedelic originals at tonight's gig at All Saints Hall in London
    1966 - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Jefferson Airplane, Big Mama Mae Thornton, play the San Francisco Fillmore Auditorium.    Grace Slick makes her first stage appearance with the band Jefferson Airplane.
    1967 - Bobbie Gentry's LP Ode To Billie Joe hits #1
    1967 - The Who's "I Can See for Miles" is released.
    1967 - Folk singer Joan Baez arrested in blockade of military induction center, Oakland, California.
http://baez.woz.org/chronology.html
    1968 – J.R. Hines becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100 meter sprint in the Summer Olympics held in Mexico City with a time of 9.95 seconds.    
     1968 – In an expansion draft for the National League’s two new teams, the San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos select 30 players each.  The Expos became the first Major League team to reside outside the US. 
    1968 - The Beatles’ “White Album” is released.
    1968 – The first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft, Apollo 7, is beamed across the world.
    1968 - 27 soldiers are arrested at the Presidio of San Francisco for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.  On the same day, the Defense Department announces that the Army and Marines sent about 24,000 soldiers and Marines back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours of duty in the combat zone there.
    1970 - Top Hits 
“Cracklin' Rosie” - Neil Diamond 
“I'll Be There” - The Jackson 5 
“All Right Now” - Free 
“Sunday Morning Coming Down” - Johnny Cash
    1971 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono appear on ABC-TV's The Dick Cavett Show to promote John's new album Imagine, Yoko's new book, and their upcoming art exhibition.
    1972 - Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes enter the soul chart with "If You Don't Know Me by Now," which, in 16 weeks on the chart, will peak at Number One for two weeks. The song makes it to #3 on the pop chart.
    1972 - The Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" is released.
    1972 – The Oakland A’s’ Gene Tenace becomes the only player to homer in each of his first two World Series at bats.  The A’s would go on to win the first of three consecutive World Series, beating the Cincinnati Reds.
    1973 – Hall of Famer Willie Mays records the last hit of his great career as his New York Mets defeat the Oakland A’s in game 2 of the World Series.  His single put the Mets ahead, 7-6, representing Mays’ last RBI as well.  In the 9th, Mays lost a fly ball in the sun and fell down in deep CF.  Also, in this game, Oakland owner Charlie Finley attempted to ‘fire’ 2B Mike Andrews for his fielding errors, but Andrews was reinstated by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn.  The A’s recovered to become the first team to win back-to-back Series since the 1962 Yankees.
    1975 - Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Nite" is released.
    1975 – President Gerald Ford escapes injury as his limo is broadsided in traffic.
    1976 - The Yankees win their 30th pennant dramatically on Chris Chambliss' bottom of ninth-inning solo homer defeating the Royals, 7-6 in Game Five and deciding contest of the ALCS.
    1977 - At the request of the Dodgers, Linda Ronstadt sings the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium to open the third game of the World Series against the Yankees.    
    1978 - All four solo albums by the members of KISS break through Billboard's Top 100. Gene Simmons effort will prove to be the highest charting at #22, followed by Ace Frehley at #26, then Paul Stanley at #40 and Peter Criss at #43. 
    1978 – The first television movie derived from a series is aired: "Rescue from Gilligan's Island"
     1978 – Rocker Usher was born Usher Raymond IV in Dallas.
     1979 - The first Gay Rights March on Washington, D.C. demands "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people", and draws 200,000 people.
    1980 – Nominee Ronald Reagan promises to nominate a woman to be Supreme Court Justice.
    1981 - Four days of heavy rain across northern Texas and southern Oklahoma came to an end. The heaviest rains fell in a band from southwest of Abilene, TX to McAlester, OK, with up to 26 inches reported north of Gainesville, in north central Texas. The heavy rains were the result of decaying Hurricane Norma, which also spawned thirteen tornadoes across the region. Seven deaths were attributed to the flooding.
    1984 - Dense fog contributed to a 118 vehicle accident on I-94, just south of Milwaukee WI. It was the seventh day of an eight day stretch of dense fog. At the time of the accident the visibility was reportedly close to zero
    1987 - A media frenzy occurred when hundreds of rescuers came to the aid of little 18-month-old Jessica McClure. At 9:30 a.m. on this day, Jessica fell 22 feet into an abandoned well in her backyard in Midland, Texas. She was brought out of the well 58 hours later and was rushed to the hospital, where she underwent minor surgery. Gifts, especially stuffed animals, pouring into the hospital from well-wishers, most of whom had never met Jessica or her family.
    1988 - Forty cities in the eastern U.S. reported record low temperatures for the date. Elkins, WV was the cold spot in the nation with a record low of 18 degrees above zero. Thunderstorms in Arizona drenched Phoenix with nine inches of rain in nine hours, the fifth highest total for any given day in ninety-two years of records. Carefree, AZ was soaked with two inches of rain.
    1989 - Thunderstorms produced severe weather over Michigan during the morning, and over New York State and Connecticut during the afternoon and evening hours. Thunderstorms spawned two tornadoes, and there were ninety reports of large hail or damaging winds, including seventy reports of damaging winds in New York State. A tornado at McDonough, NY killed one person and injured three other people. Strong thunderstorm winds gusted to 105 mph at Somerset. Temperatures warmed into the 80s and lower 90s over much of the nation east of the Rockies, with eleven cities reporting record high temperatures for the date. Afternoon highs of 81 degrees at Beckley, WV and Bluefield, WV equaled October records. 
    1990 - San Francisco 49er Joe Montana passes for six 6 touchdowns vs. Atlanta (45-35).
http://www.thedebster.com/magic.html
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/49ers/pages/1997/montana.shtml
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805042784/
102-3335791-6093721?v=glance
    1992 - Canada gets its first pennant as the Blue Jays clinch the AL crown with a 9-2 victory over the A's in the Game 6 of the ALCS.  The Jays would go on to win the World Series and repeat in 1993.    
    1996 - Archer Daniels Midland Company, Decatur, IL, a maker of agricultural commodities received a fine from the Justice Department for $100 million. It was a penalty for conspiring with other companies to fix the prices of two food additives, lysine and citric acid. The company admitted the charges. It was by far the largest such fine up to that time.
    1997 - Max Steiner's acclaimed score to 1942's legendary film “Casablanca” is finally released, including selected dialogue and the vocal hit "As Time Goes By."
    2000 - The Beatles' official autobiography “Anthology” hits #1 on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list.
    2002 - Light hitting second baseman Adam Kennedy becomes the fifth player to hit three homers in a postseason game helping the Angels to secure their first World Series berth in the team's 42-year history. Using a ten-run seventh inning, Anaheim beats the Twins 13-5 to win the ALCS in five games.  In a memorable Series, the Angels would go on to defeat the San Francisco Giants for their only World Series championship to date.
    2003 - Holding a 3-0 lead and needing only five more outs to go the World Series for the first time since 1945, the Cubs give up eight runs, on five hits, three walks and an error, to the Marlins. The team appears to come apart after a Cubs fan, Steve Bartman, sitting along the left-field line at Wrigley Field, tries to catch a foul ball that was about to be caught by Cubs' left fielder, Moises Alou for the second out of the inning.
    2006 - Silas Simmons, the oldest former professional baseball player of all time, celebrates his 111th birthday. The 17th-oldest person in the country, born the same year as Babe Ruth, is joined by former players of the Negro Leagues and receives 1913 Homestead Grays jersey with No. 111 stitched beneath his name from Steve Henderson of the Devil Rays at his home in the Westminster Suncoast retirement community in St. Petersburg.
   2009 - Paul McCartney was named Songwriter of The Year at the 29th Annual ASCAP Awards in London, England. The awards presentation honored songwriters and publishers of the most performed works in the US during 2008. Other winners at the event included Phil Collins, who collected his 11th award for his hit "In the Air Tonight".
    2009 - U.S. Senate Committee passes a healthcare reform bill, hailed as a 'critical milestone' by President Obama
     2013 - Three American economists win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, and Robert Shiller
    2013 - Authorities at Los Angeles International Airport investigate the explosion of the second dry ice bomb in two days on the premises; no one was injured and no arrests were made

 

World Series Champions This Date
    1905 New York Giants
    1908 Chicago Cubs
    1929 Philadelphia Athletics
    1965 Los Angeles Dodgers
    1984-Detroit Tigers