Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

January 13

2002
President Bush: The leader of the free world passes out after choking on a pretzel.

1992
Woody Allen: Mia Farrow discovers nude pictures of their adopted daughter in Allen's apartment.

1981
World's longest sneezing attack: Donna Griffiths, of Great Britain, starts sneezing and doesn't stop for 978 days.

1968
First National Hockey League player mortally wounded during a game: Bill Masterson is injured; he died two days later.

1942
First emergency use of an airplane ejection seat: By a German pilot as his plane was about to crash.

1930
Mickey Mouse: After the success of the animated classic Steamboat Willie, the newspaper comic strip debuts.

1920
Space Flight Impossible:A New York Times editorial mocks Robert Goddard, stating that rockets will never fly in space and saying that "he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." They issued an apology in 1969 after the Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. (One might say they had to "Apollo-gize")

1610
Jupiter: Galileo discovers another of Jupiter's moons; he had discovered three others six days earlier.

1966
Tabatha Stephens, fictional character on Bewitched.

1958
Euzhan Palcy, French born. She was the first black woman to direct a mainstream Hollywood full-length feature film, A Dry White Season (1989).

1955
Fred White, American drummer, with Earth, Wind & Fire. Music: Best of My Love (1977, #1), and After the Love has Gone (1979, #2, Grammy).

1949
Brandon Tartikoff, American broadcast executive, head of programming at NBC.

1943
Richard Moll, American actor. TV: Night Court (Bull Shannon).

1934
Rip Torn, American comic, confetti-throwing TV personality.

1931
Charles Nelson Reilly, American comedian, game-show celebrity.

1919     d. 2003
Robert Stack (Charles Langford Modini Stack), American actor. Film: Bwana Devil (1952, the first 3-D movie). TV: The Untouchables (1959-63, Eliot Ness) and Unsolved Mysteries (host). He placed 2nd in the National Skeet Shooting Championship (1935).

1885     d. 1973
Carl Alfred Fuller, Canadian-born American businessman. He founded the Fuller Brush Co. (1906) utilizing door-to-door salesman.

1884     d. 1966
Sophie Tucker (Sophie Kalish-Abuza), Polish-born American cabaret singer. Music: I'm The Last Of The Red Hot Mamas (1929, It became her billing for the rest of her life).

1834     d. 1899
Horatio Alger Jr., American boy's author. His characters overcame adversity.

1808     d. 1873
Salmon Portland Chase, American jurist, secretary of the treasury (1861-64) and 6th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1864-73). His portrait appears on the U.S. $10,000 bill.

1978     b. 1911
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, 38th U.S. Vice-President (1965-69).

1962     b. 1919
Ernie Kovacs, American comedian. TV: The Tonight Show (1956-57, host).

1941     b. 1882
James Joyce, Irish novelist. Although his novel Ulysses (1922) was banned in the U.S. in 1933, it is considered one of the greatest works of 20th-century fiction.

1919     b. 1849
Horace Fletcher, American dietician. He founded "Fletcherism," the belief that each bite of food must be chewed 32 times.

1885     b. 1823
Schuyler Colfax, 17th U.S. Vice-President (1869-73).

1864     b. 1826
Stephen Collins Foster, American songwriter. Music: Oh! Susanna (1848) and My Old Kentucky Home (1853).

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