John Adams Jr. (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826)

On September 27, 1779, the Continental Congress appoints John Adams to
travel to France as minister plenipotentiary in charge of negotiating treaties
of peace and commerce with Great Britain during the Revolutionary War.

Adams had traveled to Paris in 1778 to negotiate an alliance with France,
but had been unceremoniously dismissed when Congress chose Benjamin
Franklin as sole commissioner. Soon after returning to Massachusetts in
mid-1779, Adams was elected as a delegate to the state convention to draw
up a new constitution; he was involved in these duties when he learned of
his new diplomatic commission.

CARLATA BRADLEY

Diana Ross is 75 years young today.

Motown singer Diana Ross gained fame as a member of The
Supremes and who later won a Golden Globe for her role as
Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues in 1972. She starred in
the 1978 film The Wiz with Michael Jackson. 

ROSS SIMPSON

NBC’s "Today" show premiered on this day in 1952.

NBC built a "Today" show studio inside the RCA Exhibition
Hall on West 49th Street and dubbed it "the nerve center of
the planet."

On this day in 1954, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married
in a civil ceremony at San Francisco City Hall, where they were
mobbed by reporters and fans. Monroe had apparently mentioned
the wedding plans to someone at her film studio and they leaked it
to the press. The couple spent their wedding night at the Clifton
Motel in Paso Robles, California and later honeymooned in Japan
and Korea. The marriage only lasted nine short months.

SANDY KOZEL

George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)

Mount Vernon Estate seen from the Potomac River.

Statue of George Washington, State
Capitol, Richmond, Virginia.

Roger Eugene Maris (September 10, 1934 – December 14, 1985)

Roger Maris was an professional baseball player who played four seasons
in the minor leagues and twelve seasons in the major leagues. He played
right field on four Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, from 1957 through
1968 and set the MLB record for home runs during the 1961 season with
61, breaking Babe Ruth‘s single-season record of 60 home runs in 1927.

Roger Maris was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 1983 and
died at age 51 at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Roger Maris plaque in Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park.

October 2, 1961 cover of Sports Illustrated magazine
featuring Roger Maris hitting one of his late-season,
record home runs.

Maris organized the annual Roger Maris
Celebrity Golf Tournament to raise money
for cancer research and treatment.  

CAMILLE BOHANNON

The first major battle of the U.S. Civil War began on this day in
1861. It was the Battle of Bull Run at Manassas Junction, VA. The Confederates won the battle.

The "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, TN. on this day in 1925. John
T. Scopes was convicted and fined $100 for violating the state law
on teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. The conviction was later
overturned on a legal technicality because the judge had set the
fine instead of the jury.

Photo taken of Clarence Darrow (left) and William Jennings Bryan
(right) during the Scopes Trial in 1925.

John Thomas Scopes.

The Geneva Conference partitioned Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam on this day in 1954.

The Geneva Conference of 1954.

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was a
Pulitzer and Nobel Prize American novelist/short story writer.

Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was
popular actor and comedian.

            
  1987                                                       1993

               
1990                                            1997

Mork & Mindy sitcom aired on ABC from September
14, 1978 to May 27, 1982.