MIKE GRACIA
Singer John J. (Cougar) Mellencamp is 71 years old today.
Mellencamp has sold over 30 million albums in the US and
over 60 million worldwide.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, followed by an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
in 2018.
A hijacker calling himself D.B. Cooper parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 into a raging thunderstorm over Washington
State. He had $200,000 in ransom money in his possession.
Cooper commandeered the aircraft shortly after takeoff, showing a
flight attendant something that looked like a bomb and informing
the crew that he wanted $200,000, four parachutes, and “no funny
stuff.” The plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport,
where authorities met Cooper’s demands and evacuated most of
the passengers. Cooper then demanded that the plane fly toward
Mexico at a low altitude and ordered the remaining crew into the
cockpit.
At 8:13 p.m., as the plane flew over the Lewis River in southwest Washington, the plane’s pressure gauge recorded Cooper’s jump
from the aircraft. Wearing only wraparound sunglasses, a thin suit,
and a raincoat, Cooper parachuted into a thunderstorm with winds
in excess of 100 mph and temperatures well below zero at the 10,000
foot altitude where he began his fall. Most authorities assumed he
was killed during his apparently suicidal jump. No trace of Cooper
was found during a massive search.
TIM MAGUIRE
After months of maintaining his innocence, Agnew pleaded no
contest to a single felony charge of tax evasion and resigned
from office. Nixon replaced him with House Republican leader
Gerald Ford. Agnew spent the remainder of his life quietly,
rarely making public appearances.
Gerald Ford (center) was sworn in as Vice President. Ford, the longtime
House Minority Leader, was selected as VP by Richard Nixon (far right)
after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. Ford would become president
eight months later when Nixon himself resigned.
CAMILLE BOHANNON
Young Donald Trump in military school.
Donald John Trump is 73 years old today.
SANDY KOZEL
On this day in 1968, North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation’s territorial waters on a
spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
The Pueblo’s mission began in early January, 1968, when the crew
set off from the U.S. Navy base on Yokosuka, Japan with orders to conduct surveillance on Soviet Navy and North Korean signal and electronic intelligence activity.
Pueblo, is still being held by North Korea today, officially remains
a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy. Since early 2013,
the ship has been moored along the Potong River in Pyongyang, and
used there as a museum ship at the Pyongyang Victorious War
Museum.
The captured crew (above) were beaten and nearly starved in the
incident that almost led to another war.
Pueblo on display in North Korea, 2012.
North Koreans raise their fists during a rally in 2010 in front of the
U.S. Navy spy ship Pueblo.
On this day in 1977, the TV mini-series "Roots," began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel. Roots received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It also won a
Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented
Nielsen ratings for the finale, which still holds a record as the third-highest-rated episode for any type of television series, and the
second-most watched overall series finale in U.S. television
history.
LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, a warrior of the Mandinka people
in Gambia who is captured by slavers and taken to Annapolis,
Md.
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005)
Television host, comedian, writer, and producer Johnny Carson was
best known as the host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
(1962–1992) on NBC. Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Television
Academy‘s 1980 Governor’s Award, and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was
inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987 awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center
Honor in 1993.
