On August 12, 1990, fossil hunter Susan Hendrickson discovered
three huge bones jutting out of a cliff near Faith, South Dakota.

They turn out to be part of the largest-ever Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton
ever discovered, a 65 million-year-old specimen dubbed Sue, after its
discoverer.   

Amazingly, Sue’s skeleton was over 90 percent complete, and the
bones were extremely well-preserved. Hendrickson’s employer,
the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, paid $5,000 to
the land owner, Maurice Williams, for the right to excavate the
dinosaur skeleton, which was cleaned and transported to the
company headquarters in Hill City. The institute’s president,
Peter Larson, announced plans to build a non-profit museum
to display Sue along with other fossils of the Cretaceous period.

Susan Hendrickson

On August 11, 1973, the nostalgic teenage coming-of-age movie American Graffiti, directed and co-written by George Lucas,
opened  in theaters across the United States. Set in California
in the summer of 1962, American Graffiti was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture, and
helped launch the big-screen careers of Richard Dreyfuss and
Harrison Ford, as well as the former child actor and future Oscar-
winning filmmaker Ron Howard. The film’s success enabled
Lucas to get his next movie made, the mega-hit Star Wars (1977).

Robert Weston Smith, known as Wolfman Jack
(January 21, 1938 – July 1, 1995)

CAMILLE BOHANNON

In accordance with his statement of resignation the previous
evening, Richard M. Nixon officially ended his term as the 37th
president of the United States at noon on August 9, 1974. Before departing with his family in a helicopter from the White House
lawn, he smiled farewell and enigmatically raised his arms in a
victory or peace salute (above). The helicopter door was then
closed, and the Nixon family began their journey home to San
Clemente, California. Richard Nixon was the first U.S. president
to resign from office.

Minutes later, Vice President Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as the
38th president of the United States in the East Room of the White
House. After taking the oath of office, President Ford spoke to the
nation in a television address (below) declaring, “My fellow
Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was a manufacturing
company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. it was
originally named Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing
Company, and renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation
in 1945. The company acquired the CBS television network
in 1995, and was renamed into the first incarnation of CBS
Corporation before being acquired by Viacom in 1999, and
completed in April 26, 2000.