TIM MAGUIRE

Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution took place on this day in 1917. The provisional government of Alexander Kerensky was overthrown by forces led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Hillary Rodham Clinton made history as the first president’s wife to
win public office on this day in 2000. The state of New York elected
her to the U.S. Senate (New York).       

A Florida election official tries to discern a voter’s intentions.

Hanging Chads: As the Florida Recount Implodes, the Supreme Court
Decides Bush v. Gore on this day in the 2000 Presidential election. 
election. Bush narrowly won the election having 271 electoral votes
compared to Al Gores’s 266 electoral votes.

This election was between the republican George W. Bush (left) and
the democratic-incumbent vice president Albert Arnold Gore.

The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington
state collapsed during a windstorm on this day in 1940.

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge as it looks today.

On this day in 1991, Magic Johnson (standing) announced that he
had tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, and that he was
retiring from playing basketball. He had been with the Los Angeles Lakers since 1979.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. turned 58 in August.

Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell is 74 today.

The Canadian singer-songwriter and painter Joni Mitchell is called by
Rolling Stone, "one of the greatest songwriters ever".

Since 2015, there have been conflicting reports about her current
health after she had suffered a brain aneurysm.

Mitchell made her first public appearance following the aneurysm
when she attended a Chick Corea concert in Los Angeles in August
2016.

 
William Franklin "Billy" Graham Jr. is 99 today.

Evangelical Christian evangelist Billy Graham has repeatedly been on Gallup’s
list of most admired men and women. He has appeared on the list 60 times since
1955, more than any other individual in the world.

From left: George Beverly Shea, Billy Graham, and Cliff Barrows,
the evangelistic trio in the late 1940s.

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1869, Abraham Lincoln won a four-way race as the sixteenth president of the United States.

John Philip Sousa (November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932)

John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor, known
primarily for military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of
march composition, he is known as "The March King"

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (May 25, 1840 – November 6, 1893)  

Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, was a Russian composer of the romantic
period, some of whose works are among the most popular music
in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer
whose music made a lasting impression internationally.

Monument to the Russian classical composer Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky outside the Conservatory in Moscow, Russia.

Mike Nichols with his mother.

Mike Nichols (Mikhail Igor Peschkowsky)
(November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014)

Film and theatre director, producer, actor and comedian Mike Nichols was
noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and an aptitude for
getting the best out of actors regardless of their acting experience. He
began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe,
The Compass Players.

SANDY KOZEL

President Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in
office on this day in 1940.  

Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, won the election over the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President
Hubert Humphrey on this  day in 1968.

Spiro Agnew and Richard Nixon — Aug. 16, 1968.

On this day in 1994, former President Ronald Reagan announced he
had Alzheimer’s disease.

On this day in 1994, George Foreman (left) became boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion when he knocked out Michael Moorer in
the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas, NV.

Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz
(September 18, 1903 – November 5, 1989)

Ukrainian-born American classical pianist and composer,
Vladimir Horowitz was acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, 
and the excitement produced by his playing made him one 
of the greatest pianists of all time.

CARLATA BRADLEY

On this day in 1986, The Ash-Shiraa, pro-Syrian Lebanese magazine, first
broke the story of U.S. arms sales to Iran to secure the release of seven
American hostages. The story turned into the Iran-Contra affair.

Lt. Col. Oliver North during the ‘Iran Contra Hearings’.

President Reagan (far right) meets with (left to right) Secretary of Defense
Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of State George Shultz, Attorney General
Ed Meese, and Chief of Staff Don Regan in the Oval Office.

Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens was elected
the 30th President of Chile on this day in 1970.

Carol Elizabeth Moseley Braun turned 70 in August.

Carol Moseley-Braun became the first African-American woman U.S. senator
on this day in 1992.

Minnesota elected Jesse "The Body" Ventura, a former pro wrestler, as its
governor on this day in 1998.

Jesse Ventura (James George Janos) turned 66 in July.

MIKE GRACIA

Harry S. Truman holding up a copy of the Chicago Tribune with the incorrect headline

Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the U.S. presidency on this
day in 1948. The Chicago Tribune published an early edition that had the
headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN (above)." The Truman victory had 
surprised many polls and newspapers.

President Truman (right) on his campaign train whistle-stop.

On this day in 1963, South Vietnamese President Ngo Dihn Diem was
assassinated in a military coup.

Howard Hughes flew his "Spruce Goose," a huge wooden airplane, for eight minutes in California on this day in 1947. It was the plane’s first and only
flight. The "Spruce Goose," nicknamed because of the white-gray color of
the spruce used to build it, never went into production.

The H-4 today is in McMinnville, Oregon, at the Evergreen Air and
Space Museum, about an hour outside of Portland.

On this day in 1959, Charles Van Doren, a game show contestant
on the NBC-TV program "Twenty-One" admitted that he had been
given questions and answers in advance.

Charles Lincoln Van Doren turned 91 in Feb.