JOHN BELMONT

On this day in 1963, President Johnson named a commission headed
by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F.
Kennedy.

Members of the Warren Commission present their report to President
Lyndon Johnson (fourth from right).

President John F. Kennedy(left) with his wife, Jacqueline, and Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, riding in the presidential limousine, minutes before the assassination.

The first airplane flight over the South Pole was made by U.S. Navy
Lt. Comdr. Richard E. Byrd (below) on this day in 1929.

Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd Jr.
(October 25, 1888 – March 11, 1957)

                            Medal of Honor

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1973, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court she was 
responsible for the 18-1/2 minute gap in a key Watergate tape. She demonstrates the stretch (above) that supposedly led to the deletion
on the tape. Woods was Nixon‘s personal secretary from his days in
Congress in 1951, through the end of his political career.

The motion picture "Casablanca" had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on this day in 1942.

A behind the scenes production still from “Casablanca”

The famous hangar 2 featured in the last scenes of "Casablanca,"
(below) as it looks today at Van Nuys Airport. It was built in 1928.

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1963, Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby (below) shot
and killed Lee Harvey Oswald live on national television.

The pistol that Jack Ruby used to kill Lee Harvey
Oswald.

It was on November 22, two days before the shooting of Oswald.

On this day in 1971, hijacker Dan Cooper, known as D.B. Cooper, parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state
with $200,000 in ransom money.

August 1972

MIKE GRACIA

On this day in 1948, Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for
the U.S. presidency. The Chicago Tribune published an early edition
that had the headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN." The Truman
victory surprised many polls and newspapers.

On this day in 1945, Howard Hughes flew his "Spruce Goose," a huge wooden airplane, for eight minutes in California. It was the plane’s
first and only flight and never went into production.

Take-off: Howard Hughes’ H-4, the "Spruce Goose." 

Hughes watches engineer Chal Bowen, October 31, 1947, two days before the flight as the radio operator looks on. Thirty-six people
were on board for the test flight.

Flight-deck seats, put in for military observers, seven guests from
the press corps and an additional seven industry representatives. 

On this day in 1959, Charles Van Doren, a game show contestant
on the NBC-TV program "Twenty-One" admitted that he had been
given questions and answers in advance.

Van Doren (at left) faces Herb Stempel (far right) on “Twenty-One,”
in 1956, under the eye of the show’s host, Jack Barry. Some fifty
million people watched the climax of their rivalry.

Charles Lincoln Van Doren turned 92 in February.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1517, Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the door
of the Wittenberg Palace Church. The event marked the start of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

Martin Luther statue in Wittenberg, Germany.

President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of
North Vietnam on this day in 1968. He also announced his intention
not to run for re-election.

Above — a B-52 bomber drops a load of conventional bombs on
North Vietnam.