On this day in 1984, President Ronald Reagan was preparing for his weekly radio broadcast when, during testing of the microphone, the President said of the Soviet Union, "My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
In Bloomington, MN, the Mall of America opened on this day in 1992. It was the largest shopping mall in the United States.
The Spanish Civil War began on this day in 1936 as Gen. Francisco Franco (below) led an uprising of army troops based in Spanish North Africa.
It was on this day in 1969.
Senator Ted Kennedy wearing a neck brace following the accident.
Senator Ted Kennedy ran his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. He swam free, leaving the scene, and did not report the accident to the police for ten hours.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013)
South African revolutionary and politician who radically changed the conditions of the Apartheid state of South Africa by addressing institutionalized racism and inequality. He served 27 years in prison and, upon his release in 1994, he became South Africa’s first black chief executive, an office he served for five years.
Seven year old Ricky Skaggs on television in 1961.
Country and bluegrass singer Rickie Lee Skaggs is 64 today.
Ricky Skaggs was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year. He has achieved 12 #1 hits, 8 CMA awards, and 8 ACM awards. In 1982, he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry, the youngest to ever be inducted at that time.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (left) and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sign the Good Friday Agreement (above). They reached a peace accord on governing British ruled Northern Ireland on this day in 1998. Britain’s direct rule was ended.
On this day in 1912, the Titanic set sail from Southampton, England on it’s doomed voyage.
F. Scott Fitzgerald published "The Great Gatsby" for the first time on this day in 1925.
Francis Scott Key Fitzgeraldwas born in St. Paul, Minnesota. (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940)
Comedian Sam Kinison (above) was killed when a pickup truck ran head-on into his car on a desert road between Los Angeles and Las Vegas on this day in 1992.
An international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes on this day in 1946.
The Berlin Airlift came to an end on this day in 1949. The airlift had taken 2.3 million tons of food into the western sector despite the Soviet blockade.
African-American James Meredith James Meredith succeeded in registering at the University of Mississippi on this day in 1962. It was his fourth attempt to register.
James Meredith is escorted by U.S. Marshals.
James Howard Meredith turned 84 in June.
The Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflote) premiered in Vienna, Austria on this day in 1791.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791)
James Byron Dean(February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955)
Rocky Marciano (Rocco Francis Marchegiano) (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969)
On August 31, 1969, the evening before his 46th birthday, Marciano was a passenger in a fatal small private plane crash near an airfield outside Newton, Iowa.
The wreckage of the Cessna 172 lies under a large oak tree. Rocky Marciano along with the pilot and another passenger died in the crash.
Sir George Ivan Morrison is 72 years old today.
Known as "Van the Man", singer/songwriter Van Morrison 1950s, Much of his music is structured around soul music and R&B, such as the popular single "Brown Eyed Girl”.
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