On this date in . . .
1912: Les Brown was born in Reinerton,
Pennsylvania. His Band of Renown was a top draw in the 1940s and ‘50s. Their
biggest hit was "Sentimental Journey," featuring singer Doris Day.
1964: Billboard magazine
reported that Beatles recordings were claiming 60% of the singles sales in
the U.S.
1964: A jury in Dallas found Jack
Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of
President John Kennedy.
1972: California governor Ronald
Reagan pardoned convicted burglar Merle Haggard as "fully rehabilitated."
Haggard had served two-and-a-half years at San Quentin.
1986: Harold W. Arlin died at age 90.
In 1920 he was the first announcer at KDKA Pittsburgh, the first radio
station.
1989: History's longest living queen
died 56 days before her 97th birthday. The Empress Zita of Austria had been
Queen of Hungary from 1916-18.
1990: Church officials in Belgium
discovered that eight nuns had sold their convent in Bruges for $1.4
million, moved to France, and bought a castle.
1996: In Texas, thieves stole three
candy machines from just outside the office of Dallas Police Chief Ben
Click. A city councilman announced immediately that M&Ms were no longer safe
in downtown Dallas.
1997: Surgeons at Bethesda Naval
Medical Center repaired a torn tendon in President Clinton's right knee,
caused by a freak stumble at the Florida home of golfer Greg Norman.
1998: Singer Jo Dee Messina
made her debut on the Grand Ole Opry.
2002: Sentencing for a
defendant convicted of driving while intoxicated was postponed in Auburn,
New York, when the man showed up in court drunk. Cayuga County Court Judge
Peter Corning gave the 24-year-old defendant two weeks to sober up in jail.
2003: Actor Robert Blake was released from jail on $1.5
million bail, 11 months after he was arrested on charges of murdering his
wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. He was later acquitted at trial.
2005: Thieves broke into an
storage hall in Steinfurt, Germany, and stole 200 fully loaded gumball
machines.
2006:
President Bush's approval rating fell to
a record low of 33 percent in the newest Pew survey. It was 36 percent in
the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.
2010: Police in Vansbro,
Sweden, said they received a wallet from an anonymous
individual who admitted stealing it at a party 40 years
earlier. In a letter the thief also included $7 which he
said the wallet contained, plus $135 in additional funds.
The individual said he misplaced the wallet and had only
recently located it. "I have bitterly regretted what I did."
the anonymous thief said in the letter. Officers immediately
attempted to locate the former owner, but he was deceased
and police passed the wallet and the money to his relatives.
Birthdays:
