MIKE GRACIA

On this day in 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration
camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris on this day in 1973.

At Cape Kennedy, FL, on this day in 1967, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.

Mozart was born on this day in 1756.

Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945)

Jerome Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular
music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the
early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage
works, including such classics as "Ol’ Man River", "Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat
Man", and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790)

On this day in 1945, Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw
during World War II.

In his farewell address on this day in 1961, President Eisenhower
warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."

More than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a
magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan on this
day in 1995.

Alphonse Gabriel Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947)

Al Capone was the best known gangster in the 1920’s.

Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.) 
(January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016)

Ali became a boxing icon as well as a peace activist.  He was
known as "The Greatest," recording 56 career wins, 37 of them
by knockout, in his 61 professional bouts. In 1960, he won the
gold medal in the light heavyweight class at the Summer
Olympic Games in Rome. His boxing style was described as
fast, strong, and graceful, and he developed the famous slogan
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

President George W. Bush presents the Presidential
Medal of Freedom to boxer Muhammad Ali in 2005.

ROSS SIMPSON

The Great Chicago Fire was a large destructive fire that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871. It killed up to 300 people,
destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than
100,000 residents homeless. The fire started at about 9:00 p.m. on October 8,
in or around a small barn belonging to the O’Leary family. The shed next to
the barn was the first building to be consumed by the fire, but city officials
never determined the exact cause of the blaze. There has, however, been
much speculation over the years.

In Poland on this day in 1982, all labor organizations were banned
including Solidarity.  
        
       

On this day in 1970, Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn won the
Nobel Prize for literature.

The Novels of Alexander Solzhenitsyn:
4-book Set (Cancer Ward, August 1914,
the First Circle, One Day in the Life of
Ivan Denisovitch.

Donald James Larsen (New York Yankees) pitched the first
perfect game in the history of the World Series on this day
in 1956.

Donald James Larsen turned 88 on August 7.

TIM MAGUIRE

Several thousand people gather in the Daley Center Plaza in downtown Chicago on Sept. 14, 2001, for a memorial service to honor those killed
in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Cities across the country held similar
events after President George W. Bush declared Sept. 14 a day of
prayer.

President George W. Bush’s Remarks At Ground Zero September 14, 2001.

After President William McKinley died of gunshot wounds inflicted
by an assassin, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, at age 42,
succeeded him on this day in 1901.

On this day in 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star-Spangled
Banner," a poem originally known as "Defense of Fort McHenry,"
after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, MD,
during the War of 1812 (above). The song became the official U.S. national anthem on March 3, 1931.

On this day in 1982.

It was announced on this day in 1994, that the season was over for
the National Baseball League on the 34th day of the players strike
and the final days of the regular season were canceled.

Margaret Higgins Sanger (Margaret Louise Higgins)
(September 14, 1879 – September 6, 1966) 

Margaret Sanger was an American birth control activist, sex
educator, eugenicist, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized
the term "birth control", opened the first birth control clinic in
the United States, and established organizations that evolved
into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

Adolf Hitler purged the Nazi Party by destroying the SA and
bringing to power the SS in the "Night of the Long Knives”.

The original Pure Food and Drug Act (also known as the Wiley Act)
was passed by Congress on June 30, 1906 and signed by President
Theodore Roosevelt. It prohibited interstate commerce in misbranded
and adulterated foods, drinks and drugs under penalty of seizure of
the questionable products and/or prosecution of the responsible
parties.

The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 11 returned to Earth on this day in
1971. The three cosmonauts (below) were found dead inside.

Margaret Mitchell’s book, "Gone with the Wind," was published in
this day in 1936. It was one of the best-selling novels of all time 
and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie.

Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949)

From left: Tonya Harding and  Nancy Kerrigan.     

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010)

Twentieth-century African-American singer and actress Lena Horne
sang "Stormy Weather," won a Grammy Award for a 1981 album
entitled Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, and appeared in film
versions of The Wiz, Broadway Rhythm, and Ziegfeld Follies.

After dropping out of high school at the age of sixteen, she performed
in the chorus of Harlem’s famed Cotton Club.