On this day in 1963, installation of the "hotline" is completed, giving the US President and the Soviet premier a direct line of communication. The two sides agreed it was necessary after slow communications hampered the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis a year earlier. The system would not actually be used until 1967, when LBJ used it to inform Kosygin that he was considering deploying Air Force assets to Europe during the Six Day War. On this day in 1967, Thurgood Marshall becomes America's first African American US Supreme Court justice. On this day in 1970, England outdoes Woodstock. Its the last day of the Isle of Wight Fest, attended by an estimated 600,000. Its also one of Jimi Hendrix last performances before his death a month later.
Speaking of Jimi Hendrix he was once in a band called Joey D and the Starlighters. He joined the band after Joe Pesci left.
On this day in 1997, Princess Diana was killed in an automobile crash in Paris. On this day in 1972, Russian gymnast Olga Korbut won the first of her four gold medals - 3 individual and 1 team medal - at the summer Olympics in Munich. She was later the inaugural inductee into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. On this day in 1888, Mary Ann Nicholls, a London prostitute, is discovered murdered in a seedy district of the city. Her death would be the first of 5 over the next few months attributed to a serial killer authorities would dub Jack the Ripper.
On this day in 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, commencing World War II. The USSR would attack from the east 17 days later, and Poland would surrender to the two on October 6. On this day in 1802 The Richmond Recorder printed an expose' accusing President Thomas Jefferson of keeping one of his own slaves, Sally Hemmings, as a concubine. A 1998 DNA test of one of Hemmings' direct male descendents would determine it is "highly probable" that he is also a descendent of Jefferson. On this day in 1902, Paris moviegoers see "From The Earth To The Moon", a motion picture inspired by the writings of Jules Verne. Its considered the first science fiction movie, and is seen for the first time in the US a month later.
One more....on this day in 1972, American chess grandmaster Bobby Fisher defeated Russian Boris Spassky to win the World Chess Championship. Fisher is the first American to win the title since it was established in 1866, and is the first non-Russian to win it in 24 years.
