Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr. (April 29, 1951 – February 18, 2001)
NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the final lap of the Daytona 500 race on this day in 2001. Earnhardt was inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the NASCAR Hall ofFame inaugural class in 2010.
Dale Earnhardt in car # 3 hits the wall hard in the 2001 Daytona 500.
John Joseph Travolta is 65 years old today.
Actor John Travolta starred in the 1970s hit films Saturday Night Fever and Grease. He went on to play Vincent Vega in the critically acclaimed 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Travolta also starred in the action thriller Face/Off (1997) with Nicolas Cage.
LONDON (AP) — British actor Albert Finney, the Academy Award-nominated star of films from "Tom Jones" to "Skyfall," has died.
Finney’s family said Friday that he "passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side."
Finney was a rare star who managed to avoid the Hollywood limelight for more than five decades after bursting to international fame in 1963 in the title role of "Tom Jones."
The film gained him the first of five Oscar nominations. Others followed for "Murder on the Orient Express," ”The Dresser," ”Under the Volcano" and "Erin Brockovich."
In later years he brought authority to action movies, including the James Bond thriller "Skyfall" and two of the Bourne films.
On this day in 1968, North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation’s territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
The Pueblo’s mission began in early January, 1968, when the crew set off from the U.S. Navy base on Yokosuka, Japan with orders to conduct surveillance on Soviet Navy and North Korean signal and electronic intelligence activity.
The captured crew (above) were beaten and nearly starved in the incident that almost led to another war.
Pueblo on display in North Korea, 2012.
North Koreans raise their fists during a rally in 2010 in front of the U.S. Navy spy ship Pueblo.
On this day in 1977, the TV mini-series "Roots," began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel. Roots received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings for the finale, which still holds a record as the third-highest-rated episode for any type of television series, and the second-most watched overall series finale in U.S. television history.
LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, a warrior of the Mandinka people in Gambia who is captured by slavers and taken to Annapolis, Md.
John William Carson(October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005)
Sir Roderick (Rod) David Stewart is 73 years old today.
Rod Stewart released over 60 hit singles and, in 2008, was named the 17th most successful artist on the The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists.
In 2006, he won a Grammy Award for the best Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Stardust…The Great American Songbook Volume III. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which was received in 2007.
