U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Guion S. Bluford became
the first African American to travel into space when the
space shuttle Challenger lifted off on its third mission. It
was the first night launch of a space shuttle, and many
people stayed up late to watch the spacecraft roar up
from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2:32 a.m.

The Challenger spent six days in space, during which time
Bluford and his four fellow crew members launched a
communications satellite for the government of India,
made contact with an errant communications satellite,
conducted scientific experiments, and tested the shuttle’s
robotic arm.

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. will be 82 years old on
November 22.

During the 1890s, publications were inserted into Joseph
Pulitzer‘s New York World and William Randolph Hearst‘s
New York Journal.

In November 1896, Morrill Goddard, editor of the New
York Journal from 1896 to 1937, launched Hearst’s
Sunday magazine, later commenting, "Nothing is so
stale as yesterday’s newspaper, but The American
Weekly may be around the house for days or weeks
and lose none of its interest."

William Randolph Hearst Sr. 
(April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951)

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana.

Jackson began performing with his four brothers in the pop
group the Jackson 5 when he was a child. The group scored
its first No. 1 single in 1969, with “I Want You Back.” By age
11, Jackson was appearing on TV, and by age 14 he had
released his first solo album.

A Jackson 5 TV cartoon series appeared in the early ’70s, and
in 1976 the Jackson family, including sister Janet Jackson,
launched a TV variety show called The Jacksons that ran for
one season. Throughout the 70s, media attention focused on
Michael, who piped vocals in his high voice for “ABC,” “I’ll Be
There,” and many other Top 20 hits.

As the presidential election of 1952 began to heat up, so did
accusations and counteraccusations concerning communism
in America. The “Red Scare”—the widespread belief that
international communism was operating in the United States
—came to dominate much of the debate between Democrats
and Republicans in 1952.

Senator Joe McCarthy delivered a radio address on 
October 27, 1952 where he made accusations of
Communist infiltration into the State Department,
the administration of President Harry S. Truman,
the Voice of America, and the U.S. Army.