On this date in . . .
1961: Ricky Nelson recorded
"Travelin' Man." It became his second #1 song. "Poor Little Fool"
reached #1 in 1958.
1964: 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was
stabbed to death in Queens, New York. The murder occurred over several hours during which
the killer left and returned, yet not one of 37 witnesses called police.
1975: Singers George Jones and Tammy Wynette were
divorced after a stormy 6-year marriage.
1982: John Jaszowski of Milwaukee hit 12
consecutive strikes to become the youngest bowler ever to roll a perfect game. John was 11
years old.
1983: The Larry King Live show premiered on
CNN.
1987: Bryan Adams' "Heat of the Night"
became the first commercially released cassette single in the U.S.
1988:
Gallaudet University, a
liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired since 1864 in
Washington, D.C., chose I. King Jordan to become the school's
first deaf president.
1990: A blind man robbed a bank in Vallejo,
California, then asked the teller to guide him out of the building. She refused, and he
was still trying to find his way out when police arrived.
1991: Romanian peasant Calin Florea dug up his
prize German-made Lanz tractor, which he had buried in his garden 35 years earlier to
prevent a communist co-op from confiscating it. He cleaned the engine and it cranked right
up.
1996: The Nigerian news agency reported that a
woman waiting in line three hours for gasoline gave birth to a baby girl. Others in line
at the service station nicknamed the baby "Fuel Crisis."
1997: A lock of British naval hero Lord
Nelson's hair sold at auction for $8,096.
2002: President Bush declared Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein was a menace and had to be dealt with, and Osama bin Laden had
been reduced to a marginal figure in the war on terrorism.
2002: On Fox's "Celebrity
Boxing." Tonya Harding beat Paula Jones, Danny Banaduce whipped Barry Williams and
Todd Bridges defeated Vanilla Ice.
2006:
U.S. Customs agents in California found 250 bogus
billion
dollar bills while investigating a man charged with currency smuggling. The investigation led agents to a West Hollywood apartment where they found the
stash of yellowing and wrinkled one billion dollar bills with an issue date of 1934 and
bearing a picture of President Grover Cleveland.
Birthdays: