On this day in 1968, two black athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were suspended by the U.S. Olympic Committee for giving a "black power" salute (above) during a ceremony in Mexico City.
The three scientists shared the Nobel Prize on this day in 1962 for DNA discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.”
On this day in 1859, Abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, VA (now located in West Virginia). He was hoping to instigate a wider slave rebellion.
"John Brown’s Fort" at Harpers Ferry.
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859)
On this day in 1987, Rescuers freed Jessica McClure from the abandoned well that she had fallen into in Midland, TX. She was trapped for 58 hours.
On this day in 1947, over Rogers Dry Lake in Southern California, pilot Chuck Yeager flew the Bell X-1 rocket plane and became the first person to break the sound barrier.
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager turned 95 in February.
The Battle of Hastings occurred in England on this day in 1066. The Norman forces of William the Conqueror defeated King Harold II of England.
Battle Abbey is a partially ruined Benedictine abbey in Battle, East Sussex, England. The abbey was built on the site of the Battle of Hastings and dedicated to St Martin of Tours.
On this day in 1977, singer Bing Crosby died of a heart attack.
singer and actor Bing Crosby was the first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1931 to 1954. Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O’Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary’s opposite Ingrid Bergman the following year.
1940
1942
1944
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr.(May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977)
President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, (above) a federal Circuit Judge in 1991, to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Senate confirmation hearings on Thomas were initially completed until a report of a private interview of Anita Hill by the FBI was leaked to the press. The hearings were then reopened, and Hill was called to publicly testify. She said in the televised hearings on this day in 1991, Thomas had sexually harassed her while he was her supervisor at the Department of Education and the EEOC.
Anita Faye Hill
Anita Hill turned 62 in July.
Clarence Thomas became 70 years old in June.
On this day in 1975, "Saturday Night Live" was broadcast for the first time. George Carlin (below) was the guest host.
Anthrax-laced letters were sent to Capitol Hill on this day in 2001.
On Oct. 7, 1985, the Italian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro was hijacked by four members of the Palestine Liberation Front off the coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean. The hijackers took the more than 400 passengers and crew members hostage and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
On this day in 1985, the hijackers surrendered on the condition that they and the hijacking mastermind Abu Abbas be given a plane to escape. However, on Oct. 10, the plane was intercepted by United States military aircraft and forced to land at a NATO base in Sicily, where Mr. Abbas and the hijackers were arrested.
The four Palestinian terrorists who hijacked the cruise ship.
Released hostages of the Achille Lauro liner hijacking are shown being taken ashore.
Palestinian militant Abu Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking was captured in Iraq April 2003. He died in US custody from a heart attack in 2004.
John Winston Ono Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980)
John Lennon became one of the most influential songwriters in the history of popular music after co-founding The Beatles with Paul McCartney and George Harrison. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked John Lennon the fifth- greatest singer of all time. In 1987, he was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and twice posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: first in 1988 as a member of the Beatles and again in 1994 as a solo artist.
One of the last photos of John Lennon before he was killed.
