The United States entered World War II on this day in 1941 when it declared war against Japan. The act came one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Britain and Canada also declared war on Japan.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Declaration of War against Japan.
In New York City on this day in 1980, Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon to death. Lennon had autographed an album for Chapman earlier in the day .
John Lennon (left) signs Mark Chapman’s copy of ‘Double Fantasy’ outside the Dakota Building.
Prohibition came to an end on this day in 1933, when Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the U.S.Constitution.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791)
Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966)
Animator- producer Walt Disney founded The Walt Disney Company and created the iconic character Mickey Mouse and others. He produced such classic films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Pinocchio (1940) and Cinderella (1950).
Walt Disney’s business envelope featured a self-portrait around 1921.
Little Richard Preaching in 1958.
Little Richard during his last show in Las Vegas.
Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman)is 85 years old today.
Rock ‘n’ roll icon Little Richard who sang "Good Golly Miss Molly” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He first performed onstage when he was fourteen. His first single "Tutti Fritti” was released in 1955.
On April 28, 2016, Little Richard’s friend, Bootsy Collins stated on his Facebook page that, "he (Richard) is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up” and on May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone reported that Little Richard and his lawyer provided a health information update in which Richard stated, “I’m still singing. I don’t perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I’m healthy.”
Little Richard is now a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and is seen here in a recent interview with no wig or make up.
On this day in 1967. in Cape Town, South Africa, a team of surgeons headed by Dr. Christian Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky. He only lived 18 days.
In Bhopal, India on this day in 1984, more than 2,000 people were killed after a cloud of poisonous gas escaped from a pesticide plant. The plant was operated by a Union Carbide subsidiary.
It was on this day in 1964.
“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams that received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
Marlon Brando
Ozzy in 1974.
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is 69 years old today.
Rock ‘n’ roll performer Ozzy Osbourne gained fame as the lead singer of Black Sabbath and became known as the Prince of Darkness and the Godfather of Heavy Metal.
On this day in 1950, China entered the Korean conflict forcing UN forces to retreat.
The Nazis forced 500,000 Jews of Warsaw, Poland to live within a walled ghetto on this day in 1940.
On this day in 1973, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she was responsible for the 18-1/2 minute gap in a key Watergate tape. Woods was President Nixon‘s personal secretary.
The motion picture "Casablanca" had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York City on this day in 1942.
Tina Turner (Anna Mae Bullock) is 78 today.
Considered the Queen of Rock and Roll, Tina Turner released the single "Proud Mary" in 1971 and has received eleven Grammy Awards, collaborating with many other popular artists.
Tina picked cotton with her parents as sharecroppers, and soon moved in with her great-aunt after her parents divorced in 1978 and later worked as a nurse’s aide, dreaming of becoming a nurse someday.
UN War Crimes panel tries Slobodan Melosevic for genocide in Bosnia.
Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych declares win in disputed vote on this date in 2004. He was poisoned during the election campaign when it was confirmed that he ingested hazardous amounts of TCDD, the most potent dioxin and a contaminant in Agent Orange.
He suffered disfigurement as a result of the poisoning, but he has since made made a full physical recovery (below).
The first edition of "Life" magazine was hit the newsstands on this day in 1936. The cover depicted the Fort Peck Dam in Montana.
Henry Robinson Luce (April 3, 1898 – February 28, 1967)
Luce was a magazine magnate who was called “the most influential private citizen in America of his day".
On this day in 1903, Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso made his U.S. debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in "Rigoletto."He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and America, appearing in a wide variety of roles from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic.