The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traces its origins
to this day in 1908, when U.S. Attorney General Charles
Bonaparte created a small group of federal investigators
to report to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch of the
Department of Justice, marking the official beginning
of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) under President
Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. 

Prior to this, the Justice Department had no permanent
investigative force and relied on private detectives or
personnel borrowed from the Secret.

Charles Joseph Bonaparte (June 9, 1851 – June 28, 1921)

1988 – 2013

Actor Bruce Willis is best known for playing wisecracking
action heroes in movies like "Pulp Fiction" and the "Die
Hard" series. He’s 71 today.

1987

Award-winning actress Glenn Close is in memorable films
like "The Big Chill," "Fatal Attraction" and "Dangerous
Liaisons." Glenn is 79 years young today.

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929)

American West lawman Wyatt Erp led the 1881 gunfight at
the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.

On March 11, 1989, "Cops," a documentary-style television
series that follows police officers and sheriff’s deputies as
they go about their jobs, debuts on Fox.

"Cops" went on to become one of the longest-running
shows in television history. It went off the air in 2020.

The show, which was created by John Langley and Malcolm
Barbour, was a pioneer in reality television.

Crews with camcorders followed law enforcement officers
on patrol, tracking down suspects and making arrests.

John Russell Langley (June 1, 1943 – June 26, 2021)

Malcolm Barbour

Inner Circle the group behind the ‘Cops’ theme song
"Bad Boys,"

Nearly 50 years after the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral,
Wyatt Earp died quietly in Los Angeles at the age of 80.

The Earp brothers had long been competing with the Clanton-
McClaury ranching families for political and economic control
of Tombstone, Arizona, and the surrounding region.

On October 26, 1881, the simmering tensions finally boiled
over into violence, and Wyatt, his brothers Virgil and Morgan,
and his close friend, Doc Holliday, killed three men from the
Clanton and McLaury clans in a 30-second shoot-out on a
Tombstone street near the O.K. Corral (below).

On July 26, 1908, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
was born when U.S. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte
orders a group of newly hired federal investigators to report
to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch of the Department of
Justice.

Charles Joseph Bonaparte
(June 9, 1851 – June 28, 1921)

From left is President Roosevelt with his Cabinet. Attorney General Bonaparte is the third from the left.