ED DONAHUE

On this day in 1519, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan left
Spain to find a route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Magellan
was killed during the trip, but one of his ships eventually made the journey.

Ferdinand Magellan (1480 – April 27,1521)

Magellan was killed in the Philippines during the
Battle of Mactan by soldiers of  leader Lapu-Lap.

The statue of Lapu-Lapu on Mactan Island.

James Joseph "Jim" Croce
(January 10, 1943 – September 20, 1973)

On this day in 1973, pop singer Jim Croce was killed along
with five others in a plane crash on his way to Sherman,
TX, for a concert. He was only 30 years old.

Croce released five studio albums and singles. His songs
"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" and "Time in a Bottle" reached
No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Croce’s chartered Beechcraft E18S crashed into a tree
during take-off from the Natchitoches Regional Airport
in Natchitoches, Louisiana.

It was on this day in 1958.

Dr. Emil A. Naclerio, member of the surgical team that operated
on the Rev. Martin Luther King, is shown at King’s bedside in
Harlem Hospital in New York on Sept. 21, 1958.
    
    

    
   
    Police officers arrest Izola Curry, King’s would-be assassin.

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in
the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young
girls.

With its large African-American congregation, the 16th Street Baptist Church
served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.,
who once called Birmingham a “symbol of hardcore resistance to integration.” Alabama’s governor, George Wallace, made preserving racial segregation one
of the central goals of his administration. Birmingham had one of the most
violent and lawless chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

    2001

On this day in 1950 During the Korean War, U.S. Marines land at Inchon on
the west coast of Korea, 100 miles south of the 38th parallel and just 25 miles
from Seoul. The location had been criticized as too risky, but U.N. Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur (below) insisted on carrying out the landing.

General Douglas MacArthur (center) observes the shelling of
lightly defended Incheon from the U.S. Navy amphibious force
command ship USS Mount McKinley.   

 ED DONAHUE

On this day in 2001.

President George W. Bush addresses the nation following the
9/11 attacks.

 
President George W. Bush with firefighter Bob Beckwith standing in
standing in front of the collapsed World Trade Center buildings.  
       

Johnny Cash and wife June Carter.

John R. Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003)

While hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Johnny Cash died of complications from diabetes at approximately 2:00 a.m. CT on September
12, 2003, aged 71, less than four months after his wife. It was suggested
that his health worsened due to a broken heart over June’s death.

TIM MAGUIRE

Victims bodies are carried from the wreckage of the 1900 hurricane in Galveston.

On this day in 1966, NBC-TV aired the first episode of "Star Trek"
entitled "The Man Trap". The series was canceled on September 2,
1969.

TIM MAGUIRE

Buddy Holly (Charles Hardin Holley)
(September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959)

Buddy Holly was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist who along
with his band The Crickets pioneered rock with "That’ll Be the
Day," which topped the Billboard Best Sellers list.

He won a talent contest when he was five years old for singing
"Have You Ever Gone Sailing (Down the River of Memories)."

Rolling Stone ranked him as the thirteenth "Greatest Artist of
All Time." He died in a plane crash less than two years after
his career took off.