On August 11, 1973, the nostalgic teenage coming-of-age movie American Graffiti, directed and co-written by George Lucas,
opened  in theaters across the United States. Set in California
in the summer of 1962, American Graffiti was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture, and
helped launch the big-screen careers of Richard Dreyfuss and
Harrison Ford, as well as the former child actor and future Oscar-
winning filmmaker Ron Howard. The film’s success enabled
Lucas to get his next movie made, the mega-hit Star Wars (1977).

Robert Weston Smith, known as Wolfman Jack
(January 21, 1938 – July 1, 1995)

On July 6, 1994, the movie Forrest Gump opened in U.S. theaters. A
huge box-office success, the film starred Tom Hanks in the title role
of Forrest, a good-hearted man with a low I.Q. who winds up at the
center of key cultural and historical events of the second half of the
20th century.

Forrest Gump was based on a 1986 novel of the same name by
Winston Groom, who (like his main character) grew up in Alabama
and served in the Army during Vietnam.

Robin Wright and Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks won his second Oscar for Forrest Gump.

On April 7, 1970, the legendary actor John Wayne (above) won his first—and only—acting Academy Award, for his star turn in the
director Henry Hathaway’s Western True Grit.

                                         (1907–1979)

CAMILLE BOHANNON

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1970, an oxygen tank exploded on Apollo 13,
preventing a planned moon landing.