SANDY KOZEL

Berlin was once divided by a barbed wire fence to halt the flight of refugees. Two days later on this day in 1961, work on the Berlin Wall began.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (August 13, 1926 – November 25, 2016)

Infamous Cuban dictator and revolutionary Fidel Castro came to power in
1959 and served as his country’s Prime Minister until 1976 and President
from 1976 to 2008.

Present day Mexico City was captured by Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez from the Aztec Indians on this day in 1521.

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
(August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980)  

Iconic director Alfred Hitchcock is known as The
Master of Suspense for his classic films such as 
Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954), Dial M for
Murder (1954), and The Birds (1963). One of the
most influential filmmakers of all time, he directed
over 50 feature films, and his work continues to
circulate through film circles and classic movie
channels.
 

It was on this day in 1995.

Mickey Charles Mantle
(October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995)

Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball career with the New
York Yankees as a center fielder and first baseman, from 1951
through 1968. He was nicknamed The Commerce Comet and The
Mick.

Actor George Stevens Hamilton, born in Memphis, Tennessee.

Hamilton won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a BAFTA
Award. He has received one additional BAFTA nomination and two
additional Golden Globe nominations. George Hamilton began his film
career in 1952.

CARLATA BRADLEY

Last U.S. combat troops leave Vietnam on this day in 1972.

It was on this day in 1944 during World War 11.

Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. perished in one of the first American 
fatalities associated with a pilotless aircraft, which we usually know today
as a drone or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The older brother of future
president, John F. Kennedy, was taking part in an extraordinary secret war
being waged across the English Channel with new generations of exotic
weapons.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (July 25, 1915 – August 12, 1944)

New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey resigned on this day in 2004,
declaring he’s gay.

James Edward McGreevey turned 61 on August 6th.

The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank and its 118-man
crew died during naval exercises in the Barents Sea on this
day in 2000.

Following salvage operations, analysts concluded that 23 sailors in the
sixth through ninth compartments had survived the two explosions. They
took refuge in the small ninth compartment and survived more than six
hours. When the oxygen ran low, crew members attempted to replace a
volatile potassium superoxide chemical oxygen cartridge when it contacted
oily sea water that had seeped into the compartment. A resulting explosion
killed several crew members and triggered a flash fire that consumed the
remaining oxygen, suffocating the remaining survivors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the monument to the sailors who died in the Kursk disaster. 

(History) – On this day in 1973, “American Graffiti,” a nostalgic coming-of-
age tale set  in 1962 on the streets and steeped in the car-centric culture of suburban California, was released in theaters across the U.S. The movie 
went  on to become a sleeper hit.   

“American Graffiti” was the second full-length feature film directed by George Lucas (below) who would later become best known for the blockbuster hit
“Star Wars” (1977) and its sequels.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1974, President Richard Nixon announced that he
would resign the following day.

The Great Train Robbery is the name given to a $45 million train
robbery committed on this day in 1963 at Bridego Railway.

Arrests soon followed the robbery. Here three men are taken to a
police van at Linslade Court House, Buckinghamshire, after being remanded in custody in late August 1963.

Gang member Bruce Reynolds, pictured here circa 1963 on 
the left with his wife Frances, Barbara Daly and brother-in-
law John Daly. Daly was arrested but released due to lack
of evidence.

It was on this day in 1942.

Actor Dustin Lee Hoffman is 81 today. He was born in 
Los Angeles, California.

Dustin Hoffman won the Academy Award for Best Actor in
1980 for Kramer vs. Kramer, and in 1989 for Rain Man. He
also played leading roles in the films Midnight Cowboy
(1969) and Tootsie (1982). Hoffman had his breakthrough
role as Benjamin Braddock in the 1967 classic film The
Graduate.

1995

    1976