Then and now location from the 1978 film starring Donald
Sutherland. 

Private Eddie Slovik is the only American military serviceman
executed for desertion (during World War II) since the American
Civil War.

In August of 1944, as he and a companion were on the way to the
front lines, they became lost in the chaos of battle and stumbled
upon a Canadian unit that took them in.

When he returned to his unit in October, he signed a confession
of desertion, claiming he would run away again if forced to fight,
and submitted it to an officer of the 28th. The officer advised
Slovik to take the confession back, as the consequences were
serious. Slovik refused and was confined to the stockade.

Eisenhower upheld the death sentence and Slovik was shot and
killed by a 12-man firing squad in eastern France.

Wedding photo, 1942.

The Execution of Private Slovik is a made-
for-TV movie starring Martin Sheen, it
premiered March 13, 1974 on NBC.

(FOX NEWS) – The oldest toy store in San Francisco announced
this week that it is shutting down due to the rampant crime and
violence in the city’s streets, and because of inflation.

Jeffrey’s Toys, the downtown San Francisco toy store that
inspired Pixar’s classic "Toy Story," announced on Friday
that it will be closing permanently at the end of February.

1995

David Emge, who played Stephen "Flyboy" Andrews the helicopter
pilot turned zombie in George A. Romero‘s Dawn of the Dead, has 
has died.

Emge’s family shared the news of his death with the Evansville
Courier & Press, a newspaper in his Indiana hometown. He died
Saturday at the West River Health Campus. A cause of death was
not disclosed. He was 77. 

1978

On January 15, 2009, a potential disaster turned into a heroic
display of skill and composure when Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles safely land the
plane they were piloting on New York City’s Hudson River
after a bird strike caused its engines to fail. David Paterson,
governor of New York at the time, dubbed the incident the
“miracle on the Hudson.”  

Sullenberger, a former Air Force fighter pilot with decades of
flying experience, received a slew of honors for his actions,
including an invitation to Barack Obama’s presidential
inauguration and resolutions of praise from the U.S.
Congress.

Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles.

Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III will
turn 73 on January 23rd. 

The incident was adapted into the feature film
Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood. It starred Tom        
Hanks as Sullenberger and Aaron Eckhart as      
Skiles. It was released by Warner Bros. on
September 9, 2016.