A Medal of Honor awarded to a Civil War general was
found inside a book at a church fundraising sale.

On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into
law a measure calling for the awarding of a U.S. Army Medal
of Honor, in the name of Congress, “to such noncommissioned
officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by
their gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities during
the present insurrection.”

Abraham Lincoln
(February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

TIM MAGUIRE

Oliver Stone in Vietnam.

William Oliver Stone is a film director, producer, and screenwriter. He won an Academy Award for Best
Adapted Screenplay as writer of Midnight Express
(1978), and wrote the gangster film remake Scarface
(1983). Stone achieved prominence as writer and          
director  of the war drama Platoon (1986), which
won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best
Picture. Platoon was the first in a trilogy of films  
based on the Vietnam War, in which Stone served
as an infantry soldier. He continued the series with
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)—for which Stone
won his second Best Director Oscar. Stone is 76
years old today. 

On August 30, 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. He would
remain on the Supreme Court for 24 years before retiring for health reasons, leaving a legacy of upholding the rights of the individual
as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

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

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act on
August 14, 1935. Press photographers snapped pictures as FDR (above)
flanked by ranking members of Congress, signed into law the historic act,
which guaranteed an income for the unemployed and retirees. FDR
commended Congress for what he considered to be a “patriotic” act.

Roosevelt had taken the helm of the country in 1932 in the midst of the
Great Depression, the nation’s worst economic crisis. The Social Security
Act (SSA) was in keeping with his other “New Deal” programs, including
the establishment of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, which attempted to hoist America out of the Great
Depression by putting Americans back to work.

Raymond William Stacy Burr
(May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993)

Perry Mason is a legal drama series that originally aired on CBS – TV
from September 21, 1957, to May 22, 1966. It starred Raymond Burr as
Perry Mason, Barbara Hale as secretary Della Street, William Hopper
as private dective Paul Drake, William Talman as district attorney
Hamilton Burger, and Ray Collins as police Lt. Tragg.

Filming of the last episode (#271) of Perry Mason, "The Case of the
Final Fade-Out" (May, 22, 1966).

Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner made his sole appearance
as an actor, playing the judge presiding at the second trial. It was
Gail Patrick Jackson’s idea to give Gardner and other behind-the-
scenes members of the production crew a chance to appear in
uncredited cameos.  

Erle Stanley Gardner
(July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970)