October 20

Scott Winters October 20, 2020 0 Comments

A quick look at Today in History, check out some Celebrity Birthdays, and find out what Days of the Year to celebrate.

TODAY IN HISTORY:

1803 – The U.S. Senate approved the Louisiana Purchase.

1818 – The boundary between the United States and Canada was defined as the 49th parallel.

1873 – A Hippodrome was opened in New York, NY by showman Phineus T. (P.T.) Barnum.

1879 – Thomas A. Edison invented a workable electric light in his laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ.

1910 – For the first time in a World Series game, a baseball with a cork center was used.

1913 – Camel cigarettes were introduced for the first time.

1917 – American troops saw action in World War I for the first time.

1947 – Hollywood came under scrutiny as the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence within the motion picture industry.

1948 – Facsimile high-seed radio transmissions were demonstrated.

1967 – In Northern California, two men filmed 59 seconds of what they claimed to be Bigfoot.

1968 – Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

1973 – The television show “The Six Million Dollar Man” premiered on ABC.

1973 – The Sydney Opera House in Australia was opened after 14 years of construction.

1977 – Three members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed when their chartered plane crashed near McComb, MS. Lead vocalist/founding member Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve’s older sister), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray all died as a result of the crash while 20 others survived.

1979 – The John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, MA was dedicated.

1993 – Attorney General Janet Reno warned the TV industry to limit the violence in their programs.

1994 – The website WhiteHouse.gov was launched.

1997 – President Bill Clinton’s administration endorsed a revised Republican bill to restructure the Internal Revenue Services and shifted the burden of proof from the taxpayer to the government in contested court cases.

1998 – A Florida judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Bobby Brown after the singer violated his probation by showing up drunk and high to begin serving a five-day sentence for drunk driving.

2001 – Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, The Who, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Bon Jovi, Goo Goo Dolls, Elton John, Five for Fighting, John Mellencamp and others performed at the six-hour Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden. More than five-thousand police officers and firemen attended the benefit for the families of police and firemen killed on September 11th.

2003 – A 40-year-old man went over Niagara Falls without safety devices and survived. He was charged with illegally performing a stunt.

2003 – The D.C. sniper trial opened in Virginia. John A. Muhammad served as his own defense.

BIRTHDAYS:

Wanda Jackson – 83 years old (1937) – Singer

Dolores Hart – 82 years old (1938) – Actress, Nun (Co-starred with Elvis Presley in “Loving You and King Creole”, “Where the Boys Are))

Al Greenwood – 69 years old (1951) – Keyboardist (Foreigner)

Melanie Mayron – 68 years old (1952) – Actress (Played Melissa on TV’s “thirtysomething”)

Danny Boyle – 64 years old (1956) – Director (“Slumdog Millionaire”, “Steve Jobs”, “127 Hours”, “28 Days Later”, “Sunshine”, “Trainspotting”, “Trance”)

Viggo Mortensen – 62 years old (1958) – Actor (“Eastern Promises”, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Appaloosa”, “A History of Violence”, “A Perfect Murder”, “GI Jane”)

Eric Scott – 62 years old (1958) – Actor (Played Ben Walton on TV’s “The Waltons”)

James G. Sonefeld – 56 years old (1964) – Drummer, backing vocals (Hootie & the Blowfish)

Fred Coury – 53 years old (1967) – Drummer (Cinderella)

Snoop Dogg – 49 years old (1971) – Rapper, actor (“Starsky and Hutch”)

John Krasinski – 41 years old (1979) – Actor (TV’s “The Office”, movies “It’s Complicated”, “Something Borrowed”, “License to Wed”)