CARLATA BRADLEY

John Glenn made space history on this day in 1962 when he orbited
the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He became the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7
Mercury capsule. Glenn witnessed the Devil’s Cigarette Lighter
while in flight.

In West Warwick, RI on this day in 2003, 100 people were killed
and more than 230 were injured when fire destroyed the nightclub,
The Station. The fire started with sparks from a pyrotechnic display
being used by Jack Russel’s Great White. Ty Longley, guitarist for 
the band, was one of the victims in the fire.

American Tara Lipinski, at age 15, became the youngest gold
medalist in winter Olympics history when she won the ladies’
figure skating title at Nagano, Japan on this day in 1998.
 

Tara Kristen Lipinski will be 36 on June 10.

Actor Sidney Poitier is 91 years old today.

1963

1967

JOHN BELMONT

Mark Twain’s "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was
published in the United States for the first time on
this day in 1885.

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

In Montgomery, AL, on this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis was
inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States.

Jefferson Davis was sworn in as Provisional President
of the Confederate States of America on the steps of
the Alabama State Capitol (above/below).

On this day in 1970, The Chicago Seven defendants were found
innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic
national convention.

Police arrest protesters outside of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

John Joseph Travolta is 64 years old today. Born in Englewood, NJ.

John Travolta starred in the 1970s hit films Saturday Night Fever and 
Grease. He later went on to play Vincent Vega in the critically acclaimed
1994 film Pulp Fiction.

On this day in 2001, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was
killed in a crash during the final lap of the Daytona 500 race. He
died instantly from blunt force trauma to the skull.

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.