October 1, 1962 – May 22, 1992 on NBC

Ed McMahon (left) served as Carson’s sidekick and the
show’s announcer.

Comedian Bob Hope gave his last Christmas show to U.S.
servicemen in Saigon on this day in history, Dec. 24, 1972.

The iconic entertainer, who starred in more than 50 films,
kept up a tradition of visiting troops deployed overseas
since WWII.

Hope’s 1972 show marked his ninth consecutive Christmas
appearance in Vietnam, according to History.com.

On December 24, 1972, Bob Hope delivered a live Christmas show to American soldiers stationed in Vietnam. The show,
held at the Bien Hoa Air Base, was a festive event attended
by thousands of servicemen.

Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope
(May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003)

The Beatles came together for their final live performance on this
day in history, August 29, 1966.

The concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco was never
announced as the band’s last dance, but there was plenty of
speculation that the boys were looking to call it quits, according
to The Beatles Bible.

Although the Fab Four made a surprise appearance on the rooftop
of the Apple building in London on Jan. 30, 1969, Ringo Starr wrote
in an anthology that it was clear the Candlestick Park performance
would be the band’s official finale.

They were the most successful American pop group of the 1960s—
a group whose 12 #1 hits in the first full decade of the rock and roll
era places them behind only Elvis and the Beatles in terms of chart dominance. They helped define the very sound of the 60s, but like
fellow icons the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, they came apart
in the first year of the 70s. The curtain closed for good on Diana
Ross and the Supremes on January 14, 1970, at the Frontier Hotel
in Las Vegas, Nevada.

ED DONAHUE

On this day in 1939, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini signed a
military alliance between Germany and Italy known as the "Pact
of Steel."

Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

President Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit
Russia on this day in 1972. He met with Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev.

In Birmingham, AL. on this day in 2002, a jury convicted former Ku
Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry (above) of murder in the 1963
church bombing that killed four girls shown on the memorial below.

Johnny Carson hosted NBC’s "Tonight Show" for the last time on
this day in 1992. He had been host for 30 years.

Laurence Kerr Olivier (Baron Olivier)  (May 22, 1907 – July 11, 1989)

English actor and director Laurence Olivier who, along with his
contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, dominated
the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films
throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late
in his career, he had considerable success in television roles.

1940