BRIAN THOMAS

ROSS SIMPSON

BRIAN THOMAS

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974)

Charles Lindbergh was a aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and
activist. At age 25 in 1927, he went from obscurity as a U.S. Air Mail pilot
to instantaneous world fame by winning the Orteig Prize for making a
nonstop flight from New York to Paris.

   
    
    

SANDY KOZEL

 
It’s a Wonderful Life, a 1946 Christmas fantasy drama film produced and
directed by Frank Capra and starring James Stewart, premiered in New
York on this day. The film is one of the most beloved in American cinema,
and has become traditional viewing during the Christmas season. It is 
now considered one of the greatest films of all time. It was nominated
for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and had been\ rated
as one of the 100 best American films ever made by the American Film
Institute.

        Frank Russell Capra             James "Jimmy" Maitland Stewart
(May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997)      (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991)

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1978, Cult leader Jim Jones and hundreds of his
followers died in a mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana
in South America. It was the largest mass suicide in modern
history and resulted in the largest single loss of American
civilian life in a non-natural disaster until September 11, 2001.

Shown are bodies of members of the Peoples Temple who died
after their leader Jim Jones ordered them to drink Flav-R-Aid
laced with cyanide. 

Congressman Leo Ryan (above) was among five killed by Temple members at the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip (below).

The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered
in New York on this day in 1928. It was Walt Disney’s "Steamboat
Willie," starring Mickey Mouse.

Walt Disney drawing “Steamboat Willie”.