CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Stephen Glenn Martin is 74  years old today.

Actor, comedian, writer, filmmaker, and musician. Steve Martin came to
public notice in the 1960s as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy
Hour, and later as a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s,
Martin performed his offbeat, comedy routines before packed houses on
national tours. Since the 1980s, having branched away from comedy,
Martin has become a successful actor, as well as an author, playwright,
pianist, and banjo player, eventually earning him Emmy, Grammy, and
American Comedy awards, among other honors.

In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100
greatest stand-up comics. He was awarded an Honorary Academy Award
at the Academy’s 5th Annual Governors Awards in 2013.

The Jerk (1979)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

The swearing in of President Gerald Ford (left) by Supreme Court
Chief Justice Warren Burger. First Lady Betty Ford looks on.

In accordance with his statement of resignation the previous evening, Richard
M. Nixon officially ended his term as the 37th president of the United States at
noon on this day in 1974. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from
the White House lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in
a victory or peace salute (below). The helicopter door was then closed, and the 
Nixon family began their journey home to San Clemente, California. Nixon was 
the first U.S. president to resign from office. Vice President Gerald R. Ford 
was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States in the East Room of 
the White House. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the
nation in a television address, declaring, “My fellow Americans, our long 
national nightmare is over.”

Pres. Gerald R. Ford addresses an audience in the East Room of
the White House after being sworn in as the 38th president of the
United States.

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr.(Leslie Lynch King Jr.)
(July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006)

In an evening televised address, President Richard M. Nixon announces
his intention to become the first president in American history to resign.

With impeachment proceedings underway against him for his involvement
in the Watergate affair, Nixon was finally bowing to pressure from the public
and Congress to leave the White House. 

“By taking this action,” he said in a solemn address from the Oval Office,
“I hope that I will have hastened the start of the process of healing which
is so desperately needed in America.”

Just before noon the next day, Nixon officially ended his term as the 37th
president of the United States.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1945, the American B-29 bomber, known as the Enola
Gay,(above) dropped the first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named "Little  Boy" was dropped over the center of Hiroshima,
Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed that morning.

LTJG Kennedy (standing at far right) with his crew on PT-109 in 1943.

On this day in 1943, future President John F. Kennedy was serving as the
commander of a torpedo boat in the Solomon Islands when his ship was
fired upon by the Japanese navy.   
 

As a young man, Kennedy had desperately wanted to go into the Navy but
was originally rejected because of chronic health problems, particularly a
back injury he had sustained playing football while attending Harvard
University. In 1941, though, his politically connected father used his
influence to get Jack, as he  was called, into the Navy. In 1942,
Kennedy volunteered for PT (motorized torpedo) boat duty in the
Pacific.