This day in history...

On this day in 1945, 24 high ranking Nazis go on trial in Nuremberg, Germany, for atrocities committed during World War II. The trials last 10 months and end with 12 being sentenced to death, 7 sentenced to prison for terms ranging from 10 years to life, 3 being acquitted, and one deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. One also committed suicide in prison during the trials. One of those sentenced to death, Nazi Party leader Martin Borman, was tried in absentia, though it is now believed he died before the war ended.


On this day in 1820, the American whaling vessel Essex is rammed and sunk by a sperm whale in the South Pacific. Her crew of 20 escaped on open boats, but only 5 survive the 83-day voyage to South America. The survivors later tell their rescuers they resorted to cannibalism during the ordeal, at one point the remaining men drawing straws to determine who would be shot in order to feed the others. The Essex tale provides the inspiration for Herman Melville's Moby Dick 30 years later.

On this day in 1982, the University of California football team draws inspiration from another sport to stun its arch rival Stanford. Stanford kicked a field goal to take a 20-19 lead with just 8 seconds remaining. Stanford kicked off, and Cal began lateraling the ball from player to player, as is done in rugby, to avoid being tackled. The player who received the kickoff, Kevin Moen, would actually get the ball back at around the Stanford 25 yard line, and race through the Stanford band, which had begun to take the field in celebration, to score the winning touchdown. "The Play" is often imitated in similar game ending situations, but rarely duplicated.

 

My uncle fought in the Pacific, and he told a story - I can never remember if it was at Tarawa or Saipan - of how he was sleeping in a foxhole one night and woke up to find a Jap soldier with his gun pointed between his eyes. The soldier must not have been able to see that my uncle woke up, because he was able to grab the gun by the bayonet and knock him off balance, and another Marine shot him.

 

On this day in 1783, French physician Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent, the marquis d’ Arlandes, make the first untethered hot-air balloon flight, flying 5.5 miles over Paris in about 25 minutes. Their cloth balloon was crafted by French papermaking brothers Jacques-Étienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, who were honored by the French Acadámie des Sciences for their achievement.

On this day in 1877, Thomas Edison unveils his phonograph, a new device for recording and playing back sound. Public displays of the invention soon made the New Jersey inventor world famous, but he would quickly put the device aside to begin concentrating on his conception of the incandescent light bulb. Edison turned back to development of the phonograph in 1887. Others had developed methods of recording sound on wax cylinders by then, but none offered the quality of Edison's disc recordings.

On this day (night) in 1980, an estimated 83 million Americans turned on the TV show "Dallas" to find out who shot J.R. Ewing. Played by Larry Hagman, J.R., head of Ewing Oil,had become the man people loved to hate over the show's first 2 seasons, a greedy, womanizing scoundrel. He was shot in the final episode of the previous season, giving TV perhaps its finest "cliffhanger" situation ever, as the J.R. character had many enemies and fans spent a delirious summer inquiring "Who shot J.R.?" The suspense was stretched further when a Screen Actors Guild strike delayed the start of the fall season. Finally, the new season began on November 21, with the revelation that J.R. had been shot by his wife's sister and his former mistress, Kristen Shepard. J.R., of course, survived the assault, and the show went on another 9 seasons.

 

On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy is shot and killed while riding in an open convertible through the streets of Dallas. Texas Governor John Connally, sitting in the front seat directly in front of JFK, is also wounded. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, riding 3 cars behind Kennedy in the 10-car Presidential motorcade, is unharmed. Less than an hour later, a Dallas police officer is shot and killed while questioning Lee Harvey Oswald. 30 minutes later, Oswald is seen entering a local theatre. He is arrested and charged with the murder of Kennedy and the officer. About an hour before the arrest, Johnson is sworn in as President.

On this day in 1988, the Northrup Corporation unveils the B-2 bomber at its California plant. Incorporating the rarely used "flying wing" design and incorporating stealth technology. the B-2 has a wingspan of more than half a football field, but the radar signature of a bird. It can also evade infrared and sound acquisition technology. 132 of the new bombers were originally order, but with the Soviet Union in decline and near break-up, the order is reduced to 21.

On this day in 1900, the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft Company delivers a special order sports car to German entrepeneur/playboy Emil Jellinek. Its the 3rd car Jellinek has bought from D-M-G in 4 years, but neither of the 1st 2 were fast enough for his tastes. He wants speed, and promises to buy 36 of the new car if he's satisfied. D-M-G puts a number of new innovations into the special order, and Jellinek is more than satisfied. He especially loves the name of the new car; in honor of his dedicated patronage, D-M-G names the car after Jellinek's 11-year old daughter......Mercedes. Two years later, D-M-G legally licenses the Mercedes brand name.

 

On this day in 1936, the first issue of Life magazine hits the newsstands. It is a more picture-driven, human interest compliment to publisher Henry Luce's already-successful Time. At its peak, Life had a subscriber base of more than 8 million people, but the advent of television began to erode its circulation, and Life ceased weekly operations in 1972, though the Time-Life Corporation still publishes special subject editions.

 

On this day in 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, arrested and charged with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 2 days earlier, is shot and killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Oswald was being escorted through the basement of the Dallas Police HQ when Ruby stepped from a crowd and shot him one time. Ruby is convicted of "murder with malice" and sentenced to death, saw his sentence reversed on a technicality, and died of lung cancer while awaiting retrial in 1967.


On this day in 1859, British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection, in which he postulates that species with genetic variations that suit their environment will reproduce more efficiently than species lacking the variation. His theory is 15 years in development and research, but Darwin is at first reluctant to publish, knowing his theory would fly in the face of the concept of biblical creation, and indeed, orthodox Christians condemn it as heresy. But the scientific community embraces the theory, and despite numerous modifications brought about by the study of genetics and molecular biology, Darwin's book remains central to the concept of evolution today.

On this day in 1991, the music died. Freddie Mercury succumbs to AIDS-related pneumonia. The death of Queen's front man comes just one day after he confirmed years of speculation by publicly confirming he had AIDS. Fans of the band know much of the back story of the band as presented in last year's Bohemian Rhapsody, and in particular, their performance at the Live Aid concert, was total BS, but Freddie's performance that day is considered one of the great moments of rock and roll history.


This day in 1971 offers one of America's great unsolved criminal mysteries. A man using the name Dan Cooper purchases a one-way ticket on a Northwest Orient Airlines flight from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA. Shortly after takeoff, "Cooper" reveals what appears to be a bomb to a stewardess, and demands $200,000, 4 parachutes and "no funny stuff." The plane lands at Seattle, where he allows the passengers to leave as authorities meet his demands. But he then demands that the plane take off again, and fly at low altitude to Mexico. The plane departs in a raging thunderstorm, as Cooper forces the remaining flight attendants into the cockpit. Two USAF and one Washington National Guard plane are trailing the Boeing 727, but none of the pilots report anything unusual 45 minutes after takeoff, when the airliner's interior pressure gauge indicates the opening of a hatch. Cooper had jumped from the airlines into 100 mph winds, wearing only sunglasses and a raincoat over a thin business suit in near zero temperature. The storm prevents an immediate ground search of the area, and once authorities can move in, no trace of the man, who is by now being referred to as "D.B. Cooper" in news releases, can be found. Nine years later, a boy finds nearly $6,000 in bundled bills buried in the bank of the Columbia River near Vancouver, and a trace of serial numbers reveals it to be part of the ransom. But the final disposition of D.B. Cooper remains an enigma to this day.

 

On this day in 1783, the last British soldiers in the newly-formed United States of America leave New York City, in accordance with the recently signed Treaty of Paris. The city had been in British hands since being captured in September 1776. General George Washington enters the city to a hero's welcome later in the day.

On this day in 1876, US Army troops under General Ranald McKenzie burn the village of Cheyenne in Wyoming. The attack is in retaliation for the Cheyenne's part in the Little Bighorn Massacre 5 months earlier, and in fact, the soldiers find souvenirs of General Custer's command in the village. Chief Dull Knife and many of the villagers escape, but without adequate clothing or supplies, few survive the following 11-day trek to Crazy Horse's village. Dull Knife would persuade the remaining Cheyenne to surrender to US authority a short time later.

On this day in 1952, "The Mousetrap", a murder-mystery written by Agatha Christie, opens at London's Ambassadors Theatre. Originally written as a 30-minute radio play in 1947, Christie expanded her original script for the stage. The show tells of a killer hiding among the guests of a snowed-in resort. At the conclusion of the play, during curtain calls, the "killer" traditionally steps forward to tell the audience that they are "partners in the crime" and should keep the solution a secret. Still performed nightly, though it moved to the St. Martin's Theatre in 1974, "The Mousetrap" is the longest continuously running play in history.

 

On this day in 1941, the Japanese First Air Fleet under Admiral Chuichi Nagumo departs Japan and sails east. His orders specify that if “negotiations with the United States reach a successful conclusion, the task force will immediately put about and return to the homeland.” However, if negotiations are unsuccessful, he is to launch an aerial attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on or about December 7...

On this day in 1922, British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first souls to enter Egyptian King Tutankhamen’s tomb in more than 3,000 years. Tutankhamen’s sealed burial chambers are miraculously intact, and inside is a collection of several thousand priceless objects, including a gold coffin containing the mummy of the teenage king.

On this day in 1942, the film Casablanca premiers in Hollywood. Few involved in its production are expecting big things from the film. They were wrong. Fun fact: Howard Koch, one of the film's principal screenwriters, wrote the script for Orson Welles' radio play The War of the Worlds 4 years earlier.