ROSS SIMPSON

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill
(November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965)

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, the British leader who guided
Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, died in
London at the age of 90.

Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993)

Marshall served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991
and was the Court’s first African-American justice.

On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company rolled out the
first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs—now known to millions of
fans all over the world as Frisbees. 

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William
Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby
universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!”
as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren
Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer”
that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After
splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and
sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt
to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects
(UFOs).

Walter Fredrick "Fred" Morrison
(January 23, 1920 – February 9, 2010)

   
    
     
           SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws that had
been restricting abortions during the first six months of pregnancy. The case
(Roe vs. Wade) legalized abortion. The Court ruled, in a 7-2 decision, that
a woman’s right to choose an abortion was protected by the privacy rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

This is a 1972 photo of the United States Supreme court who decided on Roe
V. Wade. From left, front row : Associate Justice Potter Stewart; William O. Douglas;Chief Justice Warren Berger, Associate Justice William J. Brennan Jr.
and Byron A. White. Back row: Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.;Thurgood 
Marshall; Harry A. Blackmun; and William H. Rehnquist. (AP)

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973)

Lyndon Johnson, often referred to by the initials LBJ, was an American
politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from
1963 to 1969. Formerly the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963, he
assumed the presidency following the assassination of President John
F. Kennedy.

  
President Jimmy Carter, in his first day in office, fulfilled a campaign
promise by announcing the pardoning of draft dodgers.
 

On January 21, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter granted an unconditional
pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the
Vietnam War by fleeing the country or by failing to register. The executive
order left many people furious, while others saw it as a bold show of
compassion.

In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the late 1960s and
early 70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety percent went to Canada, where
after some initial controversy they were eventually welcomed as immigrants.

Still others hid inside the United States. In addition to those who avoided
the draft, a relatively small number–about 1,000–of deserters from the U.S.
armed forces also headed to Canada. While the Canadian government
technically reserved the right to prosecute deserters, in practice they left
them alone, even instructing border guards not to ask too many questions.

To honor the iconic candy brand’s 90th anniversary, the brains behind
Snickers decided, hey, what better way to celebrate that than with a
4,700-pound candy bar? Someone in the room then likely said, “There
is no better way!” and thus the “largest Snickers bar ever created” was
born.

The bar reportedly took more than 600 people to construct and used
caramel, peanuts, nougat and 3,500 pounds of chocolate to create the
“equivalent to more than 41,000 single-size Snickers bars.”

Construction of the large bar (above) that will be a tease to
the Snickers commercial that will be played during the
Super Bowl on Feb. 2.  

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