Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith retired with an NFL record 18,355 rushing yards. He was selected to eight Pro Bowls, led the NFL in rushing four seasons, and won three Super Bowl Championships. After retirement, he won the third season of Dancing with the Stars with Cheryl Burke. He rushed for over 100 yards in 45 of the 49 games that he started in for his high school football team. Emmitt Smith spent his last two NFL seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
On this day in 1804 the “Corps of Discovery”–featuring approximately 45 men (although only an approximate 33 men would make the full journey)–left St. Louis for the American interior.
Skylab, America’s first space station, was successfully launched into an orbit around the earth on this day in 1973. Eleven days later, U.S. astronauts Charles Conrad, Joseph Kerwin, and Paul Weitz made a rendezvous with Skylab, repairing a jammed solar panel and also conducting scientific experiments during their 28-day stay aboard the space station.
George Walton Lucas Jr. is 74 years old today.
George Lucas began his collegiate career studying anthropology at Modesto Junior College, then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He attempted to join the U.S. Air Force after graduation but they wouldn’t accept him because of the number of speeding tickets on his record, so instead he re-enrolled at USC as a graduate student in film production.
Francis Albert Sinatra(December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998)
Frank Sinatra was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide.
Stevie Wonder (Stevland Hardaway Judkins) is 67 years old today.
Stevie Wonder signed with Motown Records when he was eleven years old and released the hit song "Fingertips (Pt. 2)" when he was thirteen. His album, “Songs in the Key of Life”, was ranked 56 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the top 500 albums of all time.
