Edward Donald Slovik (above) was a private in the U.S Army during World War ll and the only American soldier to be court-martialled and executed for desertion since the Civil War.

Over 21,000 American soldiers were given varying sentences for desertion during World War II, including 49 death sentences,but Slovik’s was the only death sentence carried out.

Slovik’s execution was the basis for a 1954 book by William Bradford Huie.The book was adapted for a TV movie in 1974 starring Martin Sheen and also called The Execution of Private Slovik.

Garry Moore was a game show host and comedian best known for his
work in television.  Moore entered show business as a radio personality
in the 1940s and was a television host on several game and variety show  
programs during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s such as The Garry Moore
Show on CBS-TV from 1959 to 1967 and I’ve got a secret from 1952 to
1967 on CBS. Moore was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1976 and
retired from television. He died on November 28, 1993.

[From 1961]

!

The first of 2,956 radio episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan.The first actor to play the Long Ranger was George Seaton, seen in picture below. In 1941, the show’s announcer for several years, deep-voiced performer Brace Beemer took over the role and played the part until the end. The above photo shows Brace Beemer, center, with the rest of the radio shows cast in the studios of WXYZ.

                          Radio actor George Seaton

William McKinley, Jr.  was the25th President of the United States ( 1897 – 1901),
and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected to that office. He was
the last President of the 19th century and the first of 20th. His second term came 
to a tragic end. On September 5, 1901, President  McKinley who had just delivered
a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, was standing in a receiving line when a deranged anarchist shot him twice. He died eight days later. 

President McKinley delivering his last address at the Pan-American Exposition

 
An artists depiction of the shooting of President McKinley shows the assassin,
Leon Czolgosz, with a concealed revolver.

             Marker at the McKinley Memorial Mausoleum in Canton, Ohio

One of the first people to build a telephone exchange was Hungarian Tivadar Puskas (above) in 1877 while he was working for Thomas Edison. George W. Coy designed and built the first commercial telephone exchange which opened in New Haven, Connecticut. He’s been called the first full-time telephone operator. The switchboard was built from "carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids and bustle wire" and could handle two simultaneous conversations .

    
              The first telephone switchboard built by George W. Coy