MIKE GRACIA

On this day in 1948, Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for
the U.S. presidency. The Chicago Tribune published an early edition
that had the headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN." The Truman
victory surprised many polls and newspapers.

On this day in 1945, Howard Hughes flew his "Spruce Goose," a huge wooden airplane, for eight minutes in California. It was the plane’s
first and only flight and never went into production.

Take-off: Howard Hughes’ H-4, the "Spruce Goose." 

Hughes watches engineer Chal Bowen, October 31, 1947, two days before the flight as the radio operator looks on. Thirty-six people
were on board for the test flight.

Flight-deck seats, put in for military observers, seven guests from
the press corps and an additional seven industry representatives. 

On this day in 1959, Charles Van Doren, a game show contestant
on the NBC-TV program "Twenty-One" admitted that he had been
given questions and answers in advance.

Van Doren (at left) faces Herb Stempel (far right) on “Twenty-One,”
in 1956, under the eye of the show’s host, Jack Barry. Some fifty
million people watched the climax of their rivalry.

Charles Lincoln Van Doren turned 92 in February.

Singer Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth as the lead singer
of rock band Van Halen. In 2017, he began touring with The Circle. 

On March 12, 2007, Hagar was inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen.

Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Busch Series Championship in 1998 and 1999
and the Daytona 500 in 2004 and 2014. He went on to become an analyst
for NASCAR on NBC-TV. He went into his first race with a car he co-owned
with his half brother Kerry. Junior, as he is often called, won his 12th
consecutive Sprint Cup Series Most Popular Driver Award in 2014.
 

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the broadcast booth.

Susan Alexandra "Sigourney" Weaver

Sigourney Weaver played the resourceful action hero Ellen Ripley (above) in the Alien film franchise beginning in 1979. She also
played Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II
(1989) and Dr. Grace Augustine in Avatar (2009). 

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1871, The Great Chicago Fire began in southwest
Chicago, possibly in a barn owned by Patrick and Katherine O’Leary,
was fanned by strong southwesterly winds, the flames rage for more
than 24 hours, eventually leveling three and a half square miles and 
wiping out one-third of the city. Approximately 250 people were
killed in the fire; 98,500 people are left homeless; 17,450 buildings
were destroyed. Parts of the upper Midwest were also scorched.

Donald James Larsen (New York Yankees) pitched the first perfect
game in the history of the World Series on this day in 1956.

New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra leaping into the
arms of pitcher Don Larsen after the completion of his
perfect game.

Don James Larsen turned 89 August 7.

New York Yankees’ Don Larsen (above) sits in the dugout at the
Yankees Old Timers’ Day baseball game Sunday, June 17, 2018,
at Yankee Stadium in New York.