TIM MAGUIRE

Comedy legend Mel Brooks (Melvyn Kaminsky) is 94 years old
today. He became one of the most successful film directors of 
the 1970s.

1974

On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announced he is ordering U.S.
air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the democratic nation in repulsing
an invasion by communist North Korea. The United States was undertaking
the major military operation, he explained, to enforce a United Nations
resolution calling for an end to hostilities, and to stem the spread of
communism in Asia. In addition to ordering U.S. forces to Korea, Truman
also deployed the U.S. 7th Fleet to Formosa (Taiwan) to guard against
invasion by communist China and ordered an acceleration of military aid
to French forces fighting communist guerrillas in Vietnam. 

Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972)

On June 26, 1948, U.S. and British pilots begin delivering food and
supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a Soviet
Union blockade.

When World War II ended in 1945, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though located within the Soviet zone of occupation, was also split into four sectors,
with the Allies taking the western part of the city and the Soviets the eastern.

In June 1948, Josef Stalin’s government attempted to consolidate control of
the city by cutting off all land and sea routes to West Berlin in order to
pressure the Allies to evacuate. As a result, beginning on June 24 the
western section of Berlin and its 2 million people were deprived of food,
heating fuel and other crucial supplies.

On June 24, 1997, U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing
long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico,
almost exactly 50 years earlier.

John Joseph Gotti Jr. (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002)

Mafia boss John Gotti (above), who was nicknamed the “Teflon Don”
after escaping unscathed from several trials during the 1980s, is
sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on 14 accounts
of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering. Moments after
his sentence was read in a federal courthouse in Brooklyn, hundreds 
of Gotti’s supporters stormed the building along with smashing
and overturned cars before being forced back by police officers.