Kobe Bean Bryant (August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020)

CALABASAS, Calif. – Former NBA superstar Kobe Bryant has died in a
helicopter crash in California.

Nine people were on board when the helicopter went down near Calabasas
this morning. Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among the
passengers. Bryant’s wife Vanessa was reportedly not on the helicopter.

Kobe Bryant played his entire 20-year NBA career with the Los Angeles
Lakers and finished his career as one of the best to ever play the game.     

MIKE GRACIA

On this day in 1998, President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern, saying "I did not have sexual relations
with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." Denial of the affair lead to Clinton being only the second president to be impeached in US history. 
.

On January 25, 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-
carat diamond was discovered during a routine inspection by the mine’s superintendent. Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the “Cullinan,” it
was the largest rough diamond ever found.

Frederick Wells was 18 feet below the earth’s surface when he spotted a
flash of starlight embedded in the wall just above him. His discovery was
presented that same afternoon to Sir Thomas Cullinan, who owned the
mine. Cullinan then sold the diamond to the Transvaal provincial
government, which presented the stone to Britain’s King Edward VII as
a birthday gift. Worried that the diamond might be stolen in transit from
Africa to London, Edward arranged to send a phony diamond aboard a
steamer ship loaded with detectives as a diversionary tactic. While the
decoy slowly made its way from Africa on the ship, the Cullinan was
sent to England in a plain box.

A photograph of the Cullinan Diamond being held by Frederick
Wells, who discovered it.

            ROSS SIMPSON

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill
(November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965)

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, the British leader who guided
Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, died in
London at the age of 90.

Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993)

Marshall served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991
and was the Court’s first African-American justice.

On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company rolled out the
first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs—now known to millions of
fans all over the world as Frisbees. 

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William
Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby
universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!”
as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren
Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer”
that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After
splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and
sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt
to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects
(UFOs).

Walter Fredrick "Fred" Morrison
(January 23, 1920 – February 9, 2010)