TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer,
sighted Watling Island in the Bahamas. He believed that he had
found Asia while attempting to find a Western ocean route to
India. The same day he claimed the land for Isabella and
Ferdinand of Spain.

Explorer Christopher Columbus. 

The USS Cole bombing was an attack against the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole on 12 October 2000, while it was being refueled in Yemen’s Aden harbor. 17 American sailors were
killed and 39 injured in the deadliest attack against a United States
naval vessel since 1987.

Casualties of the USS Cole being Returned To The United States.

On this day in 1960, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was reported
to have pounded a shoe on his desk during a dispute at a U.N.
General Assembly.

ED DONAHUE

On this day in 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan left
Spain to find a route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Magellan
was killed during the trip, but one of his ships eventually made the journey.

Ferdinand Magellan (1480 – April 27,1521)

Magellan was killed in the Philippines during the
Battle of Mactan by soldiers of  leader Lapu-Lap.

The statue of Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island.

James Joseph "Jim" Croce
(January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973)

On this day in 1973, pop singer Jim Croce was killed along
with five others in a plane crash on his way to Sherman,
TX, for a concert. He was only 30 years old.

Croce released five studio albums and singles. His songs
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and "Time in a Bottle" reached
No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Croce’s chartered Beechcraft E18S crashed into a tree
during take-off from the Natchitoches Regional Airport
in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

It was on this day in 1958.

Dr. Emil A. Naclerio, member of the surgical team that operated
on the Rev. Martin Luther King, is shown at King’s bedside in
Harlem Hospital in New York on Sept. 21, 1958.
    
    

    
   
    Police officers arrest Izola Curry, King’s would-be assassin.

SANDY KOZEL

The Fugitive Slave Act was declared by the U.S. Congress on this
day in 1850. The act allowed slave owners to claim slaves that had escaped into other states.

September 18, 1975, after crisscrossing the country with her captors–
or conspirators–for more than a year, Patty Hearst, or “Tania,” as
she called herself, was captured in a San Francisco apartment and
arrested for armed robbery. Despite her later claim that she had
been brainwashed by the SLA, she was convicted on March 20, 1976,
and sentenced to seven years in prison. Her prison sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter and she was released in
February 1979. She later married her bodyguard. In 2001, she
received a full pardon from President Bill Clinton.

Patty Hearst poses with a Symbionese Liberation Army poster.

On this day in 2001, Letters postmarked in Trenton, N.J., and later
tested positive for anthrax, were sent to the New York Post and
NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw.

The 9/11 memorial and ground zero today.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

World War II began when Germany invaded Poland on this day in 1939.

Hitler salutes as he oversees troops during the Nazi occupation of Poland.

It was on this day in 2004.

Russian President Vladimir Putin seen during his
televised address to the nation.

.

It was on this day in 1983.

President Ronald Reagan condemning the Soviet attack on a Korean airliner.

On this day in 1972, America’s Bobby Fischer (right) beats Russia’s
Boris Spassky (left) to become world chess champion. The chess
match took place in Reykjavik, Iceland.

This undated photo provided by Heritage Auctions shows the chess board used by American Bobby Fischer and Soviet champ Boris
Spassky during their historic 1972 “Match of the Century.”

Gloria Estefan (Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo) is 61 years young
today.

Latin pop singer Gloria Estefan has sold more than one hundred million
records over the course of her career. She has released many #1 hits,
including "Don’t Wanna Lose You." Gloria once worked with the Miami
International Airport Customs Department while in college and was
approached by the CIA because of her prowess with language. She
has won seven Grammy Awards, including one for Best Tropical Latin
Album in 1993 for Mi Tierra.