Retired singer Kenneth Ray Rogers is 81 today.
Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, sometimes billed as The First Edition, was an eclectic rock band whose styles ranged from rock
and roll to R&B, folk, and country.
Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers
SANDY KOZEL
On this day in 1968, North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation’s territorial waters on a
spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.
The Pueblo’s mission began in early January, 1968, when the crew
set off from the U.S. Navy base on Yokosuka, Japan with orders to conduct surveillance on Soviet Navy and North Korean signal and electronic intelligence activity.
Pueblo, is still being held by North Korea today, officially remains
a commissioned vessel of the United States Navy. Since early 2013,
the ship has been moored along the Potong River in Pyongyang, and
used there as a museum ship at the Pyongyang Victorious War
Museum.
The captured crew (above) were beaten and nearly starved in the
incident that almost led to another war.
Pueblo on display in North Korea, 2012.
North Koreans raise their fists during a rally in 2010 in front of the
U.S. Navy spy ship Pueblo.
On this day in 1977, the TV mini-series "Roots," began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel. Roots received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It also won a
Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented
Nielsen ratings for the finale, which still holds a record as the third-highest-rated episode for any type of television series, and the
second-most watched overall series finale in U.S. television
history.
LeVar Burton as Kunta Kinte, a warrior of the Mandinka people
in Gambia who is captured by slavers and taken to Annapolis,
Md.
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005)
Television host, comedian, writer, and producer Johnny Carson was
best known as the host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
(1962–1992) on NBC. Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Television
Academy‘s 1980 Governor’s Award, and a 1985 Peabody Award. He was
inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987 awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992 and received a Kennedy Center
Honor in 1993.
MIKE GRACIA
On this day in 1863, Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation
Proclamation. Attempting to stitch together a nation mired in
a bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln made a last-ditch, but
carefully calculated, decision regarding the institution of
slavery in America. The Proclamation ordered the freedom
of all slaves in ten states.
An African American man reading a newspaper with headline "Presidential Proclamation/Slavery".
TIM MAGUIRE
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.
Jessica McClure Morales turned 32 on March 26.
