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.

JOHN BELMONT

Anthrax-laced  letters were sent to Capitol Hill on this day in 2001.

On Oct. 7, 1985, the Italian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro was hijacked
by four members of the Palestine Liberation Front off the coast of
Egypt in the Mediterranean. The hijackers took the more than 400 passengers and crew members hostage and demanded the release
of 50 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.

On this day in 1985, the hijackers surrendered on the condition
that they and the hijacking mastermind Abu Abbas be given a
plane to escape. However, on Oct. 10, the plane was intercepted by 
United States military aircraft and forced to land at a NATO base 
in Sicily, where Mr. Abbas and the hijackers were arrested.
 

    
    
    
   

The four Palestinian terrorists who hijacked the cruise ship.

Released hostages of the Achille Lauro liner hijacking are shown 
being taken ashore.

Palestinian militant Abu Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 Achille
Lauro cruise ship hijacking was captured in Iraq April 2003. He
died in US custody from a heart attack in 2004.

John Winston Ono Lennon  (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980)

John Lennon became one of the most influential songwriters in the history
of popular music after co-founding The Beatles with Paul McCartney and
George Harrison. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked John Lennon the fifth-
greatest singer of all time. In 1987, he was posthumously inducted into
the Songwriters Hall of Fame and twice posthumously inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: first in 1988 as a member of the Beatles and
again in 1994 as a solo artist.

One of the last photos of John Lennon before he was killed.

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in an attempt to
win back territory that had been lost in the third Arab-Israel war. The
Support for Israel led to a devastating oil embargo against many
nations including the U.S. and Great Britain on October 17, 1973. It
lasted 2 weeks.

On this day in 1927, "The Jazz Singer" opened in New York starring
Al Jolson. The film was based on the short story "The Day of
Atonement" by Sampson Raphaelson. As the first feature-length
motion picture with not only a synchronized recorded music score,
but also lip-synchronous singing and speech in several isolated sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of
sound films and ended the silent film era.

Juan Romero (1951-2018)

(Fox News) – Juan Romero, the hotel busboy who sprung to the aid of Robert
F. Kennedy the day he was gunned down in Los Angeles in 1968, has died of
a heart attack.

According to family members and the Los Angeles, Romero passed away in Modesto Monday morning.  

Romero was 17 years old on June 6, 1968, when Kennedy, then a presidential hopeful, gave a speech at the Ambassador Hotel. He was the last person to 
shake Kennedy‘s hand before he was assassinated.

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