Three musicians from the iconic American rock band Lynyrd
Skynyrd, plus three others, were killed in a terrifying plane
crash on the Louisiana-Mississippi border on this day in
history, Oct. 20, 1977.

Lead singer and founder Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve
Gaines, and his sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines, were
all killed on impact.

The crash of the small Convair CV-240 passenger plane also
claimed the lives of assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick,
pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray. 

TIM MAGUIRE

I Love Lucy is a television sitcom that originally aired on
CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total
of 180 half-hour episodes spanning six seasons.

The series starred Lucille Ball (1911-1989) and her husband
Desi Arnaz (1917-1986) (above) along with Vivian Vance and William Frawley.

Photographer and filmmaker Jimmy Chin.

The sock, with Irvine’s name, was found along with a boot
and a foot, emerging from the ice of the Central Rongbuk 
Glacier.

Oxford student Andrew “Sandy” Irvine.

In the last photo taken of the mountaineers, George Mallory
(left) and Sandy Irvine prepare to leave the North Col of
Everest in June 1924.

TIM MAGUIRE

Reeve’s wife, Dana, was by his side until his death.

Reeve’s widow, Dana Reeve, headed the Christopher Reeve Foundation after his death. Although a non-smoker, she
was diagnosed with lung cancer on August 9, 2005. She
died at age 44 on March 6, 2006, and the foundation was subsequently renamed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. All Reeve’s children serve on the board of
directors of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving
1,200 Jews from the Holocaust, died of liver failure on 9
October 1974 at the age of 66. 

A member of the Nazi Party, he ran an enamel-works factory
in Krakow during the German occupation of Poland, employing
workers from the nearby Jewish ghetto.

In 1944, all Jews at Plaszow were sent to Auschwitz, but
Schindler, at great risk to himself, bribed officials into
allowing him to keep his workers and set up a factory in
a safer location in occupied Czechoslovakia. By the war’s
end, he was penniless, but he had saved many Jewish lives.

Schindler’s factory in Kraków, 2011.

Schindler’s grave in Jerusalem. The Hebrew inscription
reads: "Righteous Among the Nations"; the German
inscription reads: "The Unforgettable Lifesaver of 1200 Persecuted Jews."

Schindler’s memorial in Svitavy, Czech Republic, his
birthplace.