MIKE  GRACIA

The 13-day siege of the Alamo by Santa Anna and his army ended 
on this day in 1836. The Mexican army of about four thousand men 
under President General Santa Anna defeated 189 Texas volunteers fighting for independence from Mexico.

Rob Reiner (Robert Norman Reiner) is 72 years-old today.

Actor and director Rob Reiner is known especially for his role as
Michael (“Meathead”) Stivic in the CBS television series All in the
Family (1971–79) and for his direction of such culturally resonant
films as This Is Spinal Tap (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), When
Harry Met Sally… (1989), and A Few Good Men (1992).

DAVID MELENDY
   

African American taxi driver Rodney King was severely beaten by
Los Angeles police officers on this day in 1991 during an arrest 
that followed a pursuit through the streets of Los Angeles. The
scene was captured on amateur video, one of the first police 
brutality videos of its kind. It forever changed the conversation
about police and race in America.

National Guardsmen patrol Los Angeles during the rioting after the acquittal of officers involved in the beating of Rodney King.

The first issue of Time magazine was published on this day in 1923
by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce. It was the first weekly news
magazine in the United States. The distinctive red border for which
the magazine has come to be known was lacking. On the cover
was the now-obscure Joseph G. Cannon, former House Speaker.
.

CARLATA BRADLEY

John Glenn made space history on this day in 1962 when he orbited
the Earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first
American to do so. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury
capsule (above).

Here’s what John Glenn saw while orbiting the Earth. 

Friendship 7 capsule after splashdown.

The successful mission concluded with a splashdown and recovery
in the Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.

Sir Sidney Poitier is 92-years-old today.

Actor, director, and diplomat Sidney Poitier became the first
African American to win an Oscar after performing in Lilies
of the Field (1963). The films Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
(1967) To Sir, with Love (1967) and In the Heat of the Night
(1967), additionally bolstered his fame. The American Film
Institute called him one of the 25 Greatest Male Stars of All
Time in 1999.

1961

TV movie, 2001

   
    
 
TIM MAGUIRE

It was on this day in 1968 when a South Carolina civil rights protest
turned deadly.

Businessman William Dickson Boyce (1858 – 1929)
incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on this day
in 1910. According to Scouting magazine, Boyce was
completely lost in a thick London fog in 1909 when a
boy came up to him and led him to where he wanted
to go.

Today is National Boy Scouts Day.

Frank Robinson (August 31, 1935 – February 7, 2019)

Frank Robinson played in Major League Baseball for five teams from 1956 to
1976, and became the only player to win the MLB Most Valuable Player Award
in both the National League and American League. He won the Triple Crown,
was a member of two teams that won the World Series (the 1966 and 1970
Baltimore Orioles), and amassed the fourth-most career home runs at the
time of his retirement (he is currently 10th). Robinson was elected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982.

Robinson was the first black manager in MLB history. He managed the
Cleveland Indians during the last two years of his playing career, with
a 186–189 record. He went on to manage the San Francisco Giants, the
Baltimore Orioles, and the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals. He
was the honorary President of the American League. Robinson died in
Los Angeles as a result of bone cancer.