On this day in 1950, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
instituted the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list  in an
effort to publicize particularly dangerous fugitives. The
creation of the program arose out of a wire service news
story in 1949 about the “toughest guys” the FBI wanted
to capture. The story drew so much public attention that
the “Ten Most Wanted” list was given the okay by J. Edgar
Hoover the following year. 

John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972)

On March 13, 1942, the Quartermaster Corps (QMC) of the United
States Army began training dogs for the newly established War
Dog Program, or “K-9 Corps.”

Well over a million dogs served on both sides during World War
I, carrying messages along the complex network of trenches and
providing some measure of psychological comfort to the soldiers.

Though today there is almost nothing as ubiquitous as a bottle
of Coca-Cola, this was not always the case. For the first several
years of its existence, Coke was only available as a fountain
drink, and its producer saw no reason for that to change. It was
not until March 12, 1894 that Coke was first sold in bottles.

Originally developed as a non-addictive substitute for morphine,
then marketed as a non-alcoholic "temperance drink," Coca-Cola
was invented by John Pemberton, a druggist in Columbus,
Georgia, in 1886.

On March 11, 1989, Cops, a documentary-style television series
that follows police officers and sheriff’s deputies as they go
about their jobs, debuted on Fox. Cops went on to become one
of the longest-running shows in television history. It went off
the air in 2020.

The show, which was created by John Langley and Malcolm
Barbour, was a pioneer in reality television. Crews with
camcorders followed law enforcement officers on patrol,
tracking down suspects and making arrests. The show was
unscripted, which worked in Langley and Barbour’s favor
when they pitched the original concept to Fox: At the time,
there was a writers’ strike in Hollywood, and the network
needed new programming that wouldn’t require writers.

In 1989, the debut episode of Cops featured the men and
women of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department in
Florida. The show

aired over 1,000 episodes and filmed in 140 U.S. cities, as
well as international locations including London and Hong
Kong. With its widely recognized theme song, “Bad Boys”
by the reggae group Inner Circle, Cops had spawned
numerous imitators in addition to parody shows.

Malcolm Barbour

John Russell Langley
(June 1, 1943 – June 26, 2021

SANDY KOZEL

Walter Matthau, left,  and Art Carney on Broadway in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.

Neil Simon Broadway play The Odd Couple debuted in 1965
and starred Walter Matthau (who would go to play the same
role in the film) and Art Carney as Felix Ungar. Matthau won
a Tony award for his portrayal, one of a slew of accolades
the play received.