Broadcast journalist Barbara Jill
Walters has been working in the
field of journalism since 1952.

Scottish actor Sean Connery is 90 years old today. He starred as secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1962 to 1983, including Dr. No, From Russia
With Love and Goldfinger. He earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor for his role in the 1987 gangster film The Untouchables.

Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello ,who is 66 today, contributed to the proto-
new wave and punk movements with such songs as “Pump it Up” and
“Allison.”

Born Chaim Weitz, Gene Simmons is a hard rock singer who gained fame
after founding the commercially successful hard rock band Kiss, which
has sold over 100 million albums. He became 71 today.

Scottish actor Sean Connery is 90 years old today. He starred as secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1962 to 1983, including Dr. No, From Russia
With Love and Goldfinger. He earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor for his role in the 1987 gangster film The Untouchables.

Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello ,who is 66 today, contributed to the proto-
new wave and punk movements with such songs as “Pump it Up” and
“Allison.”

Born Chaim Weitz, Gene Simmons is a hard rock singer who gained fame after
founding the commercially successful hard rock band Kiss, which
has sold over 100 million albums. He became 71 today.

Shortly after midnight on this day in 1961, East German soldiers begin laying
down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between Soviet-controlled East
Berlin and the democratic western section of the city.

After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American,
British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though technically
part of the Soviet zone, was also split, with the Soviets taking the eastern part
of the city. After a massive Allied airlift in June 1948 foiled a Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin, the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into
the Soviet fold. Over the next 12 years, cut off from its western counterpart
and basically reduced to a Soviet satellite, East Germany saw between 2.5
million and 3 million of its citizens head to West Germany in search of better opportunities. By 1961, some 1,000 East Germans—including many skilled
laborers, professionals and intellectuals—were leaving every day.