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)

Dead bodies lie around the compound of the People’s Temple cult.          

On November 18, 1978, a charismatic Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones 
(inert) lead 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 the
compound that day was 909; a third of those who perished were children.

Bodies lie behind a tub of cyanide-laced punch in Jonestown,
Guyana.

Reverend Jim Jones and his wife, Marceline, taken from a photo
album left behind in the village in Jonestown, Guyana.

CARLATA BRADLEY

Diana Ross is 75 years young today.

Motown singer Diana Ross gained fame as a member of The
Supremes and who later won a Golden Globe for her role as
Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues in 1972. She starred in
the 1978 film The Wiz with Michael Jackson. 

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1993, U.S. Federal agents raided the compound of an armed religious cult in Waco, TX. The ATF had planned to arrest the 
leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh (below) on firearms 
charges. Four agents and six Davidians were killed and a 51-day 
standoff followed.  

David Koresh (Vernon Wayne Howel)  
(August 17, 1959 – April 19, 1993)

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1978, Cult leader Jim Jones and hundreds of his
followers died in a mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana
in South America. It was the largest mass suicide in modern
history and resulted in the largest single loss of American
civilian life in a non-natural disaster until September 11, 2001.

Shown are bodies of members of the Peoples Temple who died
after their leader Jim Jones ordered them to drink Flav-R-Aid
laced with cyanide. 

Congressman Leo Ryan (above) was among five killed by Temple members at the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip (below).

The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered
in New York on this day in 1928. It was Walt Disney’s "Steamboat
Willie," starring Mickey Mouse.

Walt Disney drawing “Steamboat Willie”.