Early in the morning of August 9, 1969, members of Charles
Manson’s cult killed five people in movie director Roman
Polanski’s Beverly Hills, California, home, including his
pregnant wife, actress Sharon Tate.

Charles Milles Manson
(Maddox; November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017)

 
CARLATA BRADLEY

Diana Ross was the lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes,
who became Motown‘s most successful act during the 1960s and
one of the world’s best-selling girl groups of all time.

They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total
of twelve number-one hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100..

Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross began
a successful solo music career. Diana is 80 years young today.

On November 18, 1978, Peoples Temple cult founder Jim
Jones (above) led hundreds of his followers in a mass
murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in a remote
part of the South American nation of Guyana. Many of
Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch
while others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The final
death toll at Jonestown that day was 909; a third of those
who perished were children.

ROSS SIMPSON

Kolchak: The Night Stalker is a television series that aired on ABC
during the 1974–1975 season. The series followed wire service
reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) who investigates
mysterious crimes with unlikely bizarre causes, particularly those
involving  the supernatural or science fiction, including fantastic
creatures.

The series was preceded by the two television movies, The Night
Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973). Although the series
lasted only a single season, it rapidly achieved cult status and has
remained very popular in syndication.

Chris Carter cited Kolchak as a “tremendous influence” in creating
his franchise The X-Files. Following that success in 2005, The X-
Files producer Frank Spotnitz resurrected the series with a new cast
and characters, as well as subsequent novels and comic books. The
new series was a ratings bomb and was quietly cancelled after only
six of the ten episodes produced were aired.

Darren McGavin ( William Lyle Richardson)
(May 7, 1922 – February 25, 2006)