U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford became
the first African American to travel into space when the space
shuttle Challenger lifted off on its third mission.

It was the first night launch of a space shuttle, and many people
stayed up late to watch the spacecraft roar up from Cape
Canaveral, Florida, at 2:32 a.m.

The Challenger spent six days in space, during which time
Bluford and his crew members launched a communications
satellite for the government of India, made contact with an
errant communications satellite, conducted various scientific experiments, and tested the shuttle’s robotic arm.

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. (82)

Charles Bronson (November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003)

On August 30, 2003, the actor Charles Bronson, best known
for his tough-guy roles in such films as The Dirty Dozen and
the Death Wish franchise, died at the age of 81 in Cedar-
Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease have been cited as his
cause of death.

Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky on November 3, 1921,
in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, to Lithuanian immigrants. The
11th of 15 children, he worked in the Pennsylvania coal mines
as a teenager and later served in the U.S. Army Air Forces
during World War II.        

       
After the war, he worked a series of odd jobs and took acting
lessons. He had an uncredited part in the 1951 film You’re in
Navy Now, starring Gary Cooper, and a small part (credited
as Charles Buchinsky) in 1952’s Pat and Mike, with Spencer
Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

1974