John Matthew Heard Jr.(March 7, 1945 – July 22, 2017)
Heard, who played Peter McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has died. According to the Santa Clara Medical Examiner’s office he was found dead today in a Palo Alto, California hotel where he was reportedly recovering after undergoing recent back surgery.
In 1999, Heard won an Emmy Award for his guest starring appearance as Detective Vin Makazian in The Sopranos.
John Heard and Catherine O’Hara from Home Alone (1990).
Wiley Post ended his around-the-world flight on this day in 1933. He had traveled 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
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Wiley Hardeman Post(November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935)
It was on this day in 1934 when the Depression-era gangster was
killed by federal agents.
John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934)
In northern Iraq on this day in 2003, Saddam Hussein’s sons
Odai and Qusai died after a gunfight with U.S. forces.
The September 11 commission’s final report was released on this day
in 2004. The 575-page report concluded that hijackers exploited “deep institutional failings within our government.” The report was released
to White House officials the day before.
The idea for this toy was born on this day in 1957.
Walter Frederick “Fred” Morrison
(January 16, 1920 – February 9, 2010)
(FoxNews) – A bag of moon dust from NASA’s Apollo 11 mission – which a woman bought for $995 in 2015 — sold for $1.8 million at a Sotheby’s auction this week following an intense court battle.
The bag, filled with moon dust by astronaut Neil Armstrong during the first manned mission to the moon in July 1969, had previously been misidentified and mistakenly sold at an online government auction.
NASA’s attempt to retrieve the bag failed after a federal judge in December ruled it legally belonged to a Chicago-area woman who bought it two years ago.
The buyer in Tuesday’s auction declined to be identified. The pre-sale estimate was $2 million to $4 million.
Pictured, astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in July of 1969.
The battle began on this day in 1861 at Manassas Junction, VA. and the Confederates won the battle.
The "Monkey Trial" ended on this day in 1925 in Dayton, TN. John T. Scopes was convicted and fined $100 for violating the state prohibition on teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. The conviction was later overturned on a legal technicality because the judge had set the fine instead of the jury.
John T. Scopes
That first war ended on this day in 1954.
Ernest Miller Hemingway(July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961)
Ernest Hemingway was an American modernist author whose most famous works include The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. A Nobel Prize-winning author associated with the "Lost Generation," Hemingway became known for both his adventurous lifestyle and his eloquently sparse literary aesthetic.
America’s Viking I robot spacecraft made a successful landing on Mars on this day in 1976.
First image taken by Viking 1 form the surface of Mars.
An attempt by a group of German officials to assassinate Adolf Hitler failed on this day in 1944. The bomb exploded at Hitler’s Rastenburg headquarters. He was only wounded.
The conference room soon after the explosion that wounded Hitler.
Sir Edmund Percival "Ed" Hillary (July 20, 1919 – January 11, 2008)
Adventurer and philanthropist Sir Edmund Hillary became one of the first people to reach the top of Everest with the help of his guide, Tensing Norgay. He became a beekeeper during the summer so as to keep himself available to climb in the winter.
His adventures led to him being named one of the most influential people by Time Magazine of the 20th century.
Sir Edmund Hillary (left) and Tenzing Norgay.
Carlos Santana is 70 years old today.
Guitarist Carlos Santana blended rock with Latin American music and fronted Santana. He won the Best Rock Album Award and the Album of the Year Award for Supernatural in 2000. He began playing the guitar when he was eight and turned down an opportunity to attend Humbolt State University to pursue a career in music.
