In Flemington, New Jersey on this day in 1935, a jury found Bruno Richard Hauptmann (center) guilty of the kidnapping and death of
the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann was
later executed for the crimes.

During World War II, Allied aircraft began bombing the German city
of Dresden on this day in 1945.

Dresden WW2 bombing raids killed 25,000 people.

On this day in 1984, Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be
general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central
Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.

English singer-songwriter, and record producer Peter Brian Gabriel
is 68 years old today.

Gabriel rose to fame as the original lead singer and flautist of the progressive
rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched a successful 
solo career with "Solsbury Hill" as his first single.

Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002)

From left: Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Buddy Holly.

Waylon Jennings played bass guitar for his friend Buddy Holly during the
Winter Tour in 1959. The above picture was taken the night before Buddy
died along with Richie Valens and J.P. ( Big Bopper) Richardson when their
plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. Tommy Allsup died January 11, 2017
after complications from hernia surgery at age 85. He was the last surviving
member of Buddy Holly’s ‘’touring’’ Crickets on the Winter Dance Party.

Waylon Jennings (left) with Buddy Holly in a
Grand Central Station Photo booth, January
1959.

TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1964, The Beatles made the first of three record-
breaking appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." 73 million
people watched the show. It was their American TV debut.

It was on this day in 1950.

During World War II on this day in 1943, the battle of Guadalcanal
ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.

Pictured are Japanese prisoners. The Guadalcanal campaign had
ended with the loss of nearly 30,000 Japanese soldiers.

Yuri Andropov died on this day in 1984.

Yuri Andropov was General Secretary of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party and Chairman of the Presidium from
June 16, 1983 until his death in 1984.

Alice Malsenior Walker is 74 today. She was born in Putnam County, Georgia.

Alice Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist
who wrote the novel The Color Purple (1982) for which she won the National
Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. She also wrote the novels
Meridian (1976) and The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), among many
other works.

      TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1964, Pan Am flight 101 was greeted by over 5,000
Beatles fans as it arrived at New York’s JFK airport, bringing The
Beatles to the U.S. for the first time.

Ramzi Yousef, a Pakistani national who planned and carried out
the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six people
and injured 1,000 others, was arrested on this day in 1995.

Hussein bin Talal (November 14, 1935 – February 7, 1999)

Hussein was King of Jordan from the abdication of his father,
King Talal, on 11 August 1952, until his death from cancer in
1999.

Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870)

Charles Dickens was a prolific and highly influential 19th century British
author, who penned such acclaimed works as ‘Oliver Twist,’ ‘A Christmas
Carol,’ ‘David Copperfield’ and ‘Great Expectations.’

singer/songwriter Troyal Garth Brooks is 56 years old today.

According to the RIAA, Garth Brooks is the best-selling solo albums artist
in the U.S. with 148 million domestic units sold, ahead of Elvis Presley, and
is second only to the Beatles in total album sales overall. He is also one of 
the world’s best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 170 million records. Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame October
21, 2012. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011. 

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed the
enlargement of the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan failed.

On February 8, 1937, the Senate Judiciary Committee met to
consider President Roosevelt’s request.

On this day in 1994, white separatist Byron De La
Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, MS, of the
1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers
(pictured below).

Medgar Wiley Evers
(July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963)

William Seward Burroughs II
(February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997)

Burroughs was a writer and artist, a primary figure of the
Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author whose
influence is considered to have affected a range of popular
culture as well as literature. He wrote eighteen novels and
novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections
of essays.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a comedy and variety 
show television series hosted by the Smothers Brothers (below)
and initially airing on CBS from on this day in 1967 to 1969.

Richard Remick Smothers and Thomas Bolyn Smothers lll.

Henry Louis Aaron is 84 years old today.

Hank Aaron, nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin’ Hank", is a retired
American Major League Baseball right fielder who is currently the senior
vice president of the Atlanta Braves. He played 21 seasons for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) and two seasons
for the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League, from 1954 through
1976. Aaron held the MLB record for career home runs for 33 years, and
he still holds several MLB offensive records. He hit 24 or more home runs
every year from 1955 through 1973, and is one of only two players to hit
30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. In 1999, The
Sporting News ranked Aaron fifth on its "100 Greatest Baseball Players"
list.

Edward Lodewijk Van Halen

Eddie Van Halen is the main songwriter, and founder — with brother Alex
Van Halen, singer David Lee Roth, and bassist Michael Anthony — of the 
hard rock band Van Halen. He is considered one of the best and most
influential guitarists in the history of rock music. In 2011, Rolling Stone
ranked Van Halen number eight in the list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists
and in 2012, he was voted number one in a Guitar World magazine
reader’s poll for "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".