MIKE GRACIA
Sir Elton Hercules John (Reginald Kenneth Dwight) is 72.
Rock and roll legend Elton John has sold over 250 million albums in a career
that’s spanned over 50 years. He is best known for such hit songs as "Rocket
Man," "Tiny Dancer," "Bennie and the Jets" and "Candle in the Wind."Elton
began playing the piano at age three and won a junior scholarship to the
Royal Academy of Music.
CARLATA BRADLEY
John Glenn made space history on this day in 1962 when he orbited
the Earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first
American to do so. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury
capsule (above).
Mercury 6 launches Friendship 7 from NASA’s Kennedy
Space Center.
Here’s what John Glenn saw while orbiting the Earth.
Friendship 7 capsule after splashdown.
The successful mission concluded with a splashdown and recovery
in the Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles southeast of Bermuda.
Sir Sidney Poitier is 92-years-old today.
Actor, director, and diplomat Sidney Poitier became the first
African American to win an Oscar after performing in Lilies
of the Field (1963). The films Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
(1967) To Sir, with Love (1967) and In the Heat of the Night
(1967), additionally bolstered his fame. The American Film
Institute called him one of the 25 Greatest Male Stars of All
Time in 1999.
1961
TV movie, 2001
ED DANAHUE
Approximately 600 people died when fire broke out at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, IL. on this day in 1903. The theater was billed
as being fire proof, much the same way the Titanic was said to be
unsinkable. The fire one of the most horrific events in Chicago’s
history.
Drawing depicts the scene inside the lobby when fire broke out in the
Iroquois Theater.
On this day in 1936, the United Auto Workers union staged its first
sit-down strike, at the Fisher Body Plant in Flint, MI. The Flint Sit–
Down Strike is known as the most important strike in American
history because it changed the United Automobile Workers (UAW)
The UAW was founded as part of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO) in the 1930s and grew rapidly
from 1936 to the 1950s.
ROSS SIMPSON
On this day in 1871, The Great Chicago Fire began in southwest
Chicago, possibly in a barn owned by Patrick and Katherine O’Leary,
was fanned by strong southwesterly winds, the flames rage for more
than 24 hours, eventually leveling three and a half square miles and
wiping out one-third of the city. Approximately 250 people were
killed in the fire; 98,500 people are left homeless; 17,450 buildings
were destroyed. Parts of the upper Midwest were also scorched.
Donald James Larsen (New York Yankees) pitched the first perfect
game in the history of the World Series on this day in 1956.
New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra leaping into the
arms of pitcher Don Larsen after the completion of his
perfect game.
Don James Larsen turned 89 August 7.
New York Yankees’ Don Larsen (above) sits in the dugout at the
Yankees Old Timers’ Day baseball game Sunday, June 17, 2018,
at Yankee Stadium in New York.
CAMILLE BOHANNON
On this day in 1945, Japan surrendered to the U.S. aboard the USS
Missouri, ending World War II. The war ended six years and one day
after it began.
Douglas MacArthur signs the Japanese surrender documents.
On this day in 1864, during the U.S. Civil War, Union forces led by
Gen. William T. Sherman (below) occupied Atlanta following the
retreat of the Confederates.
On this day in 1944, future President George Herbert Walker Bush
is serving as a torpedo bomber pilot in the Pacific theater of World
War II when his squadron is attacked by Japanese anti-aircraft guns
forcing Bush to bail out of the plane over the ocean. According to
the Navy’s records, Bush’s squadron was conducting a bombing
mission on a Japanese installation on the island of Chi Chi Jima in
the Pacific when they encountered heavy anti-aircraft fire. The engine
on Bush’s plane was set ablaze, yet Bush managed to release his
bombs and head back toward the aircraft carrier San Jacinto before
bailing out over the water.
George H.W. Bush turned 94 in June.
The Great Fire of London broke out on this day in 1666. It burned for three days destroying 10,000 buildings including St. Paul’s Cathedral
with only six fatalities.
It was announced on this day in 1985, the Titanic had been found on
by a U.S. and French expedition 560 miles off Newfoundland. The
luxury liner had been missing for 73 years.
A photograph of the Titanic believed to have been taken the day
before she left on her ill-fated voyage in 1912.
The last known photo of Titanic heading out for open sea off the
coast of Ireland.
