This Day In History
- 1789 The U.S. War Department established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.
- 1829 London's reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.
- 1902 Impresario David Belasco opened his first Broadway theater.
- 1918 Allied forces scored a decisive breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line during World War I.
- 1943 General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson off Malta.
- 1953 Danny Thomas, who many now remember as Marlo’s dad and Phil Donahue’s father-in-law, is also remembered for many things that influenced television. At the suggestion of his friend, Desi Arnaz, Thomas negotiated a deal that would allow him to retain ownership rights to his programs, like "Make Room for Daddy", which debuted this day on ABC-TV. Later, in 1957, the show would move to CBS under the Desilu/Danny Thomas Productions banner. The rest is, literally, TV history. His success allowed him to give something back to the world, in the form of his philanthropic efforts to build St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis. “All I prayed for was a break,” he once told an interviewer, “and I said I would do anything, anything, to pay back the prayer if it could be answered. All I needed was a sign of what to do and I would do it.” And so it was.
- 1954 New York Giants centerfielder Willie Mays made a running catch with his back to home plate on a 450-foot blast by Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz in the opening game of the World Series. It is widely considered to be the greatest catch ever made.
- 1963 The second session of the Second Vatican Council opened in Rome.
- 1978 Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment a little more than one month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.
- 1979 Pope John Paul II began his first trip to the United States.
- 1982 Seven people in the Chicago area died after unwittingly taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide.
- 1986 Mary Lou Retton, who stunned audiences with perfect 10 scores in the Olympics of 1984, called it quits from the wide world of gymnastics.
- 1988 The space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking America's return to manned space flight following the Challenger disaster.
- 1989 Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was convicted of battery for slapping a Beverly Hills police officer who had pulled over her Rolls-Royce for expired license plates.
- 1995 The O.J. Simpson trial was sent to the jury.
- 1995 Three U.S. servicemen were indicted in the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa girl and handed over to Japanese authorities.
- 1996 The Nintendo 64 video game system, known as the first ‘true’ 64-bit system, hit North American shelves. That first day, Nintendo sold 500,000 systems, with the Mario64 game selling the same with it. Needless to say, Nintendo’s system was a big sucess.
- 1998 Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley died at age 80.
- 2000 Israeli riot police stormed a major Jerusalem shrine and opened fire on stone-throwing Muslim worshippers, killing four Palestinians and wounding 175.
- 2002 West Coast longshoremen were ordered off their jobs for a second time in a costly labor dispute with shipping lines.
- 1547 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (author: Don Quixote; died Apr 23, 1616)
- 1758 Horatio Nelson (military: British Navy: Battle of Trafalgar hero; killed during that battle Oct 23, 1805)
- 1904 Greer Garson (Academy Award-winning actress)
- 1907 (Orvon) Gene Autry (‘The Singing Cowboy’: actor: 100+ cowboy westerns; singer: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine, The Death of Mother Jones, You are My Sunshine, Mexicali Rose, Back in the Saddle Again; owner: California Angels, Golden West Broadcasting; CMA Hall of Famer; only person to have 5 Hollywood Walk of Fame stars [film, radio, TV, stage, records]; died Oct 2, 1998)
- 1931 Anita Ekberg (actress: La Dolce Vita, War and Peace)
- 1935 Jerry Lee Lewis (Rock and Roll Hall of Famer [1986]: singer: Whole Lot of Shakin’ Going On, Great Balls of Fire, Breathless; cousin of singer Mickey Gilley, and evangelist Jimmy Swaggart)
- 1948 Bryant Gumbel (TV host: Today [NBC], Real Sports [HBO], Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel [CBS], The Early Show [CBS]; brother of Greg)
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