ED DANAHUE

On this day in 1954, the U.S. Senate voted to condemn Sen. Joseph
R. McCarthy for what it called "conduct that tends to bring the
Senate into dishonor and disrepute." The censure was related to McCarthy’s controversial investigation of suspected communists in
the U.S. government, military and civilian society.

A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated by Dr.
Enrico Fermi and his staff at the University of Chicago on this day
in 1942. The above illustration shows scientists watching the first 
sustained fission chain reaction.

Enrico Fermi (1901–1954)

JOHN BELMONT

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.

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1945, the United States detonated the first atomic
bomb in a test at Alamogordo, NM.

On this day in 1973, Alexander P. Butterfield informed the Senate committee investigating the Watergate affair of the existence of
President Nixon’s recorded White House tapes.

Alexander Porter Butterfield testifying before the Senate
committee.

It was on this day in 1999.

On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL,
and began the first manned mission to land on the moon.

The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission crew, from left to right, Neil 
A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module
pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot.

After a highly publicized six-week jury trial, Martha Stewart was found guilty in March 2004 of felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of
an agency proceeding, and making false statements to the federal
investigators, and was sentenced July 16, 2004 to serve a five-month term in a federal correctional facility and supervised release for a two-year period (to include five months of electronic monitoring)

Inmates sit in their bunks at a women’s prison in Alabama.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

During the American Civil War on this day in 1863, the first day’s
fighting at Gettysburg began. It was the bloodiest battle.

On this day in 1946, the United States exploded a 20-kiloton atomic
bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

During the Spanish-American War on this day in 1898, Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" waged a victorious assault on
San Juan Hill in Cuba.

Theodore Roosevelt (center) with his “Rough Riders”.

Diana, Princess of Wales (Diana Frances Spencer)  
(July1, 1961 – August 31, 1997)  

Diana married Charles, the Prince of Wales and the heir to
the throne of 16 Commonwealth realms. She became an
international icon for her beauty and her work with charities.

Her death, which was reportedly caused by her driver’s
drunkenness, sparked widespread media attention and
conspiracy theories.

The sovereignty over Hong Kong was transferred from Great Britain
to China on this day in 1997. Britain had controlled Hong Kong as a colony for 156 years.

Actor Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004)

Brando’s Academy Award-winning performances include Terry
Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) and Don Vito Corleone in 
The Godfather (1972). Brando was an activist for many causes,
notably the civil rights movement and various Native American
groups.

Marlon Brando was ranked by the American Film Institute as the
fourth-greatest movie star among male movie stars whose screen
debuts occurred in or before 1950. He was one of six professional
actors, along with Charlie Chaplin, Ronald Reagan, Lucille Ball,
Frank Sinatra, and Marilyn Monroe, named in 1999 by Time
magazine as one of its 100 Most Important People of the Century.
Brando died of respiratory failure on July 1, 2004, at age 80.

Marlon Brando in a still photo from The Godfather.

TIM MAGUIRE

John William King

Jasper County Assistant District Attorney Pat Hardy displays the
chain allegedly used to drag James Byrd.

The Communists completed their takeover of Czechoslovakia on
this day in 1948.

Czechoslovakian Communist Party leader Klement Gottwald,
addressing the crowds in Wenceslas Square, Prague, on 25
February 1948.

Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroyed Iraq’s only nuclear reactor on
this day in 1981.

On this  day in 1972, the musical “Grease” opened
on Broadway. It had been playing off-Broadway for
about 4 months.

Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016)

Prince released ten platinum-selling albums and won multiple Grammy
Awards for Purple Rain (1984), including Best Performance and Best
Soundtrack. He became known for releasing over thirty Top Forty single
hits.  He suffered from epilepsy as a child, and began writing music at
age seven. One of the first groups he worked with was 94 East.