BRIAN THOMAS

During World War II on this  day in 1945, about 30,000 United States
Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima 
from the Imperial Japanese Army.  

William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. is 79-years-old today.

Singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive
Smokey Robinson was the founder and front man of the Motown
vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter
and producer. Robinson led the group from its 1955 origins as
"The Five Chimes" until 1972 when he announced a retirement
from the group to focus on his role as Motown’s vice president,
but Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the
following year. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 1987.

George Anthony Mendonsa (February 19, 1923 – February 17, 2019)

(Fox News) – The 18-year-old sailor shown kissing a woman in New York’s
Time Square in an iconic photo that captured the ecstatic celebrations at
the end of World War II died Sunday in Rhode Island. 

According to family members, George Mendonsa was two days short of his
96th birthday when he died at an assisted living facility in Middletown.

Mendonsa’s daughter, Sharon Molleur, told the Providence Journal her father
had fallen and had a seizure before he was pronounced dead. He lived at the
facility with his wife of 70 years.

Mendonsa was shown kissing a woman he never met, Greta Zimmer Friedman,
a dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform, on Aug. 14, 1945. Known as V-J Day,
it was the day Japan surrendered to the United States. People spilled into the
New York City streets to celebrate the news.

Presidents’ Day, officially Washington’s Birthday, in the United States,
holiday (third Monday in February) popularly recognized as honoring
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The day is sometimes
understood as a celebration of the birthdays and lives of all U.S.
presidents.

The origin of Presidents’ Day lies in the 1880s, when the birthday
of Washington—commander of the Continental Army during the
American Revolution and the first president of the United States
was first celebrated as a federal holiday.

In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which  
moved a number of federal holidays to Mondays. The change was
designed to  schedule certain holidays so that workers had a number
of long weekends throughout the year, but it has been opposed by
those who believe that those holidays should be celebrated on the
dates they actually commemorate.  (Encyclopedia Britannica)
 

JOHN BELMONT

Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr. (April 29, 1951 – February 18, 2001)

NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the final lap
of the Daytona 500 race on this day in 2001. Earnhardt was inducted into
numerous halls of fame, including the NASCAR Hall of Fame inaugural
class in 2010.

John Joseph Travolta is 65 years old today.

Actor John Travolta starred in the 1970s hit films Saturday Night Fever 
and Grease. He went on to play Vincent Vega in the critically acclaimed
1994 film Pulp Fiction. Travolta  also starred in the action thriller Face/Off
(1997) with Nicolas Cage.  

1998

 
1996

BRIAN THOMAS

In Milwaukee on this day in 1992, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison. He was later sentenced to a 16th term
of life imprisonment for an additional homicide committed in Ohio
in 1978. On November 28 of 1994, he was beaten to death in prison
by Christopher Scarver (below), a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is 56 years old today.

Former high-flying Chicago Bulls shooting guard is considered by many to
be the greatest basketball player of all-time. He was a 6-time NBA champion,
6-time NBA Finals MVP, and 5-time NBA MVP. He didn’t make the varsity
squad as a sophomore at Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina because he was only 5’11".  MJ is currently the principal owner and chairman of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.

Here’s “Air Jordan” in Portland, Oregon.