TIM MAGUIRE
On this day in 1996, a single homemade pipe bomb left in a knapsack exploded amid a crowd of spectators in Centennial Olympic Park,
near the main sites of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. The blast
caused by the crude device killed one person and injured 112
others.
Eric Robert Rudolph, the Olympic Park Bomber.
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.
CAMILLE
BOHANNON
On this day in 1984 ~
Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale (right) named U.S. Rep.
Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York (left) to be his running mate. Ferraro was
the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale turned 91 in January.
Geraldine Anne "Gerry" Ferraro (August 26, 1935 – March 26, 2011)
CAMILLE
BOHANNON
On this day in 1947, a United States Army Air Forces balloon crashed at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico. Following wide initial interest in the crashed "flying disc", the US military stated that it was merely a conventional weather balloon. Interest subsequently waned until the late 1970s, when Ufologists began
promoting a variety of increasingly elaborate conspiracy theories, claiming
that one or more alien spacecraft had crash-landed and that the extraterrestrial occupants had been recovered by the military, which then engaged in a cover-
up.
In the 1990s, the US military published two reports disclosing the true nature
of the crashed object: a nuclear test surveillance balloon from Project Mogul.
Roswell Army Air Field Intelligence Officer Jesse Marcel, sr. holding
foil debris from Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash site.
CAMILLE BOHANNON
The D-Day invasion of Europe took place on the beaches of
Normandy, France on this day in 1944. A total of 400,000 Allied
American, British and Canadian troops were involved.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower gives orders to paratroopers on D-Day.
U.S. paratroopers attached to the static line just prior to jumping
during the invasion of Normandy.
