Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev speaking at the UN Assembly in 1960.
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen is 70 years old today.
Bruce Springsteen was born in New Jersey. After seeing Elvis Presley perform
on The Ed Sullivan Show, he saw himself growing up like him. His mother saw
his potential and bought him his first guitar for $18 in 1956; that started his
lifetime affair with the guitar. The nickname of ‘Boss’ stuck to him for his task
of collecting the band’s nightly pay and distributing it among the band.
President John F. Kennedy addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 20, 1963. Kennedy spoke for what
would be his last address to that body.
An optimistic and upbeat President John F. Kennedy suggests that the
Soviet Union and the United States cooperate on a mission to mount an
expedition to the moon. The proposal caught both the Soviets and many
Americans off guard.
In 1961, shortly after his election as president, John F. Kennedy announced
that he was determined to win the “space race” with the Soviets. Since 1957,
when the Soviet Union sent a small satellite–Sputnik–into orbit around the
earth, Russian and and American scientists had been competing to see who
could make the next breakthrough in space travel.
President Kennedy closed his speech by urging, “Let us do the big things together.”
On this day in 1947, a United States Army Air Forces balloon crashed at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Following wide initial interest in the crashed "flying disc", the US military stated that it was merely a conventional weather balloon. Interest subsequently waned until the late 1970s, when Ufologists began
promoting a variety of increasingly elaborate conspiracy theories, claiming
that one or more alien spacecraft had crash-landed and that the extraterrestrial occupants had been recovered by the military, which then engaged in a cover-
up.
In the 1990s, the US military published two reports disclosing the true nature
of the crashed object: a nuclear test surveillance balloon from Project Mogul.
Roswell Army Air Field Intelligence Officer Jesse Marcel, sr. holding
foil debris from Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash site.
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)
Mount Vernon Estate seen from the Potomac River.
Statue of George Washington, State
Capitol, Richmond, Virginia.
Roger Eugene Maris (September 10, 1934 – December 14, 1985)
Roger Maris was an professional baseball player who played four seasons
in the minor leagues and twelve seasons in the major leagues. He played
right field on four Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, from 1957 through
1968 and set the MLB record for home runs during the 1961 season with
61, breaking Babe Ruth‘s single-season record of 60 home runs in 1927.
Roger Maris was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1983 and
died at age 51 at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas.
Roger Maris plaque in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park.
October 2, 1961 cover of Sports Illustrated magazine
featuring Roger Maris hitting one of his late-season,
record home runs.
Maris organized the annual Roger Maris
Celebrity Golf Tournament to raise money
for cancer research and treatment.