NEW YORK (AP) — Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker
who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star,
playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the “Rocky”
movies, starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in
“Predator” and teaching golf in “Happy Gilmore,” has died.

Matt Luber, his manager, said Weathers died Thursday. His
family issued a statement saying he died “peacefully in his
sleep. No cause of death was mentioned.

Comfortable flexing his muscles on the big screen in “Action
Jackson” as he was joking around on the small screen in
such shows as “Arrested Development,” Weathers was
perhaps most closely associated with Creed, who made
his first appearance as the cocky, undisputed heavyweight
world champion in 1976’s “Rocky,” (below) starring Sylvester
Stallone.

William O’Connell, whose extensive TV and film acting credits in
the 1960s and ’70s included a memorably villainous role on Star
Trek and a string of adversaries in the films of his frequent
collaborator Clint Eastwood, died January 15 at his home in
Sherman Oaks, CA.

William O’Connell with William Shatner in Star
Trek Episode 39: Journey To Babel (11-17-1967)

William O’Connell
(May 12, 1929 – January 15, 2024)

Debris from the space shuttle Columbia streaks across the
sky over Tyler, Texas.

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia brook up while
entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew
members on board.

The Columbia‘s 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was
originally scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was
delayed numerous times for a variety of reasons over nearly
two years. Columbia finally launched on January 16, 2003, with
a crew of seven. Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the shuttle’s propellant tank and hit the
edge of the shuttle’s left wing.

The Space Shuttle Columbia crew, left to right. Front row:
Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool. Back row: David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. (AP file)

The crew of the space shuttle Columbia on the day of launch.

Accident investigators reconstructed space shuttle Columbia from recovered debris.

Private Eddie Slovik is the only American military serviceman
executed for desertion (during World War II) since the American
Civil War.

In August of 1944, as he and a companion were on the way to the
front lines, they became lost in the chaos of battle and stumbled
upon a Canadian unit that took them in.

When he returned to his unit in October, he signed a confession
of desertion, claiming he would run away again if forced to fight,
and submitted it to an officer of the 28th. The officer advised
Slovik to take the confession back, as the consequences were
serious. Slovik refused and was confined to the stockade.

Eisenhower upheld the death sentence and Slovik was shot and
killed by a 12-man firing squad in eastern France.

Wedding photo, 1942.

The Execution of Private Slovik is a made-
for-TV movie starring Martin Sheen, it
premiered March 13, 1974 on NBC.

The U.S. State Department angrily accused the Soviet Union of
shooting down an unarmed American jet that strayed into East
German airspace. Three U.S. officers aboard the plane were
killed in the incident. The Soviets responded with charges that
the flight was a “gross provocation,” and the incident was an
ugly reminder of  the heightened East-West tensions of the Cold
War-era.

The occupants of the aircraft were Lieutenant Colonel Gerald K. Hannaford, Captain Donald Grant Millard and Captain John F.
Lorraine.

According to the U.S. military, the jet was on a training flight over
West Germany and pilots became disoriented by a violent storm
that led the plane to veer nearly 100 miles off course.

Memorial at the crash site near Vogelsberg.

North American T-39A Sabre Liner USAF.

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19S "Farmer" at the National
Museum of the United States Air Force.