CAMILLE
BOHANNON
On this day in 1777, the Battle of Princeton in New Jersey took place
during the War of Independence. George Washington defeated the
British forces, led by Cornwallis. The Battle is the climax of a period known as the “10 Crucial Days.”
A 1784 portrait of Washington by Charles Willson
Peale depicting him at the Battle of Princeton.
ROSS SIMPSON
Romania’s hard-line Communist ruler, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown in a popular uprising on this day in 1989.
Foreign protesters campaign against the Ceaucescu regime.
Ceausescu and his wife Elena attempted to flee Romania but were
caught and executed in Targoviste on Christmas Day.
The above photo shows the wall where the two were shot. The site
became part of a museum in 2013.
Richard Colvin Reid, also known as the Shoe Bomber, is a British terrorist who attempted to detonate an explosive device packed
into his shoes while on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to
Miami on this day in 2001.
One of Richard Reid’s explosive shoes.
SANDY KOZEL
On this day in 1803, the United States Senate ratified a treaty that included the Louisiana Territories from France for $15 million. The transfer was completed with formal ceremonies in New Orleans.
Hoisting of American Colors over Louisiana. Painting depicting first raising of the USA flag with the Louisiana Purchase, in main plaza
(now Jackson Square), New Orleans.
The Frank Capra film "It’s A Wonderful Life" premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York on this day in 1946.
Time said, "It’s a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has
only one formidable rival (Goldwyn’s The Best Years of Our Lives)
as Hollywood’s best picture of the year. Director Frank Capra’s inventiveness, humor, and affection for human beings keep it
glowing with life and excitement."
Frank Russell Capra (Francesco Rosario Capra)
(May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991)
MIKE GRACIA
The first successful gasoline-powered manned airplane flight took
place near Kitty Hawk, NC. on this day in 1903. Orville and Wilbur
Wright made the flight.
While Wright Brothers were building the Flyer they continued to make
practice flights with their 1902 glider (above). They made about 2000
total glides.
Television history was made on this day in 1969 when singer Tiny
Tim and Miss Vicki Budinger were married on "The Tonight Show"
with Johnny Carson on NBC.
Tiny Tim (Herbert Buckingham Khaury)
(April 12, 1932 – November 30, 1996)
Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack just as he began singing at a ukulele festival at the Montague Grange Hall in Montague, Massachusetts.
TIM MAGUIRE
President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield
in Pennsylvania on this day in 1863.
On this day in 1959, Ford Motor Co. announced it was ending the production of the unpopular Edsel. Ford began selling the ill-
fated line of cars in 1957.
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is 56 years young today.
Foster first gained fame for her role as a teenage prostitute in the 1976
Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver. She won Academy Awards for Best
Actress for her performances in The Accused (1988) and Silence of the
Lambs (1991) and also had starring roles in Contact (1985), Anna and
the King (1999), and Panic Room (2002).
Jodie Foster in Jonathan Demme’s 1991 masterpiece The Silence
of the Lambs.
