Dead bodies lie around the compound of the People’s Temple cult.          

On November 18, 1978, a charismatic Peoples Temple founder Jim Jones 
(inert) lead hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their
agricultural commune in a remote part of the South American nation of
Guyana. Many of Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch
while others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The final death toll at the
compound that day was 909; a third of those who perished were children.

Bodies lie behind a tub of cyanide-laced punch in Jonestown,
Guyana.

Reverend Jim Jones and his wife, Marceline, taken from a photo
album left behind in the village in Jonestown, Guyana.

Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jeane Mortenson)
(June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962

TIM MAGUIRE

John Wayne (Marion Robert Morrison) (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979)

ROSS SIMPSON

Country singer Willie Hugh Nelson is 86 today.

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1978, Cult leader Jim Jones and hundreds of his
followers died in a mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana
in South America. It was the largest mass suicide in modern
history and resulted in the largest single loss of American
civilian life in a non-natural disaster until September 11, 2001.

Shown are bodies of members of the Peoples Temple who died
after their leader Jim Jones ordered them to drink Flav-R-Aid
laced with cyanide. 

Congressman Leo Ryan (above) was among five killed by Temple members at the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip (below).

The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon premiered
in New York on this day in 1928. It was Walt Disney’s "Steamboat
Willie," starring Mickey Mouse.

Walt Disney drawing “Steamboat Willie”.