On this day in 1982, Vic Morrow and two child actors, (below) Renee Shinn
Chen and Myca Dinh Le, are killed in an accident involving a helicopter
during filming on the California set of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Morrow,
age 53, and the children, ages six and seven, were shooting a Vietnam War
battle scene in which they were supposed to be running from a pursuing
helicopter. Special-effects explosions on the set caused the pilot of the low-
flying craft to lose control and crash into the three victims. The accident
took place on the film’s last scheduled day of shooting.

Twilight Zone co-director John Landis (Blues Brothers, Trading Places,
National Lampoon’s Animal House) and four other men working on the
film, including the special-effects coordinator and the helicopter pilot,
were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Following an emotional
10-month trial, a jury acquitted all five defendants in 1987.

.

Twilight Zone: The Movie, released in the summer of 1983,
received mixed reviews.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Titanic survivor’s walking stick, (above) with an
electric light she used to signal for help from a lifeboat, sold for $62,500 at
an auction of maritime items.

Guernsey’s held the auction at the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island, on Friday and Saturday. The top bid on Ella White’s
cane was $50,000, plus the surcharge added by the auction house.

Guernsey’s President Alan Ettinger had expected it to sell for far more, with
a pre-auction estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. He described it as one of the
most extraordinary items to have survived the sinking.

The walking stick was consigned to Guernsey’s by the Williams family in
Milford, Connecticut.

Guernsey President Alan Ettinger.

The RMS Titanic sank in the early morning of 15 April 1912 after
striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. The ship was 
four days into the her maiden voyage from Southampton to
New York City. The largest ocean liner in service at the time,
Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board. 

Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. (February 28, 1924 – July 22, 2019)

(AP) – Behind America’s late leap into orbit and triumphant small step on the
moon was the agile mind and guts-of-steel of Chris Kraft, making split-second decisions that propelled the nation to once unimaginable heights.

Kraft, the creator and longtime leader of NASA’s Mission Control, died  today
in Houston, just two days after the 50th anniversary of what was his and
NASA’s crowning achievement: Apollo 11’s moon landing. He was 95.

Neil Armstrong, the first man-on-the-moon, told The Associated Press in 2011, “Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. never flew in space, but "held the success
or failure of American human spaceflight in his hands."

Then-President Ronald Reagan (center) being briefed by Chris Kraft (right) in Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control Center in Houston,
in November 1981. (NASA via AP, File)

SANDY KOZEL

Aviator Wiley Post ended his around-the-world flight on this day in
1933. He had traveled 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours,  and 49
minutes. He was the first aviator to accomplish the feat. He began
the journey on July 15, flying nonstop to Berlin.

Wiley Hardeman Post (November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935)

The “Winnie Mae” is on display at a branch of the Smithsonian’s
National Air and Space Museum.

Wild Bill Hickok threatens the friends of Davis Tutt after defeating
Tutt in a duel.

In what may be the first true western showdown on this day in 1865, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in the market square of Springfield, Missouri.

Hollywood movies and dime novels notwithstanding, the classic western showdown–also called a walkdown–happened only rarely in the American
West. Rather than coolly confronting each other on a dusty street in a deadly
game of quick draw, most men began shooting at each other in drunken
brawls or spontaneous arguments. Ambushes and cowardly attacks were
far more common than noble showdowns.

The first story of the shootout was detailed in an article in Harper’s Magazine
in 1867, making Hickok a household name and folk hero.

James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok (1837-1876)

Davis “Dave” Tutt was born during
1836 in Yellville, Arkansas.