On this day in 2003, NASA’s space shuttle Columbia exploded while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.
Helmet found in a field after the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
Memorial at the Columbia Debris Site.
During the Vietnam War on this day in 1968, South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. The scene was captured in a news photograph shown above.
Vietcong officer Nguyen Van Lem minutes prior to his execution.
A drawing of the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
The room in the Ipatiev House, Yekaterinburg, where the Russian royal family was brutally murdered.
Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA. on this day in 1955.
Disneyland theme park is now divided into 8 extravagantly themed lands: Main Street, U.S.A., Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Mickey’s Toontown, Frontierland, Critter Country, New Orleans Square and Adventureland.
Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966)
Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza resigned and fled to Miami, Florida in exile on this day in 1979.
Somoza talks to the press after fleeing to safety in Miami.
An Apollo spaceship (left) docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit on this day in 1975. It was the first link up between the U.S. and Soviet Union.
It was on this day in 1961.
Coltrane’s first recordings were made when he was a sailor.
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967)
John Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer, also known as "Trane". Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career,Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was later at the forefront of free jazz. He died of liver cancer at a Hospital in New York on July 17, 1967, at the age of 40.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (center) was welcomed in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile on this day in 1979.
William Clark Gable(February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960)
Often referred to as "The King of Hollywood", Clark Gable began his career as a stage actor and appeared as an extra in silent films between 1924 and1926, and progressed to supporting roles with a few films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1931. The following year, he landed his first leading his first leading Hollywood role andover the next three decades he became a leading man in more than 60 motion pictures.
