ROSS SIMPSON

Charles Robert Darwin ( February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1832)

On this day in 1831, English naturlist Charles Darwin set out on a
voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. His discoveries
during the voyage helped him form the basis of his theories on
evolution.

HMS Beagle, a 10-gun, Cherokee-class brig sloop of the Royal
Navy’s survey service, sets sail from Plymouth, England on its
second voyage as a survey vessel. On board, at the invitation
of Beagle captain Robert FitzRoy, is a young biologist called
Charles Darwin.

Hailed by many critics as Eugene O’Neill’s finest work, The Iceman Cometh 
opened at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway. The play, about desperate
tavern bums clinging to illusion as a remedy for despair, was the last O’Neill
play to be produced on Broadway before the author’s death in 1953. Like
many of his other works, the play drew on O’Neill’s firsthand experiences
with all-night dive bars and desperate characters.

ED DONAHUE

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the
first successful call with the telephone. He spoke the
words "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”

  
Thomas Augustus Watson
(January 18, 1854 – December 13, 1934)

Watson was an assistant to Alexander Graham
Bell. He is best known because, as the recipient
of the first telephone call from Bell.

CARLATA BRADLEY

On this day in 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured U.S.
U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (left) for the Soviet spy Rudolph
Ivanovich Abel (right) being held by the United States.
       

The Glienicke bridge just after the Powers swap.