Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

March 17

2003
Iraq War: Pres. George W. Bush gives Saddam Hussein and his two sons 48 hours to leave Iraq, or face war.

1989
Oldest known mummy is discovered. It was buried about 2600 B.C., Egypt.

1968
The Bee Gees: The British rock group makes their American TV debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, singing To Love Somebody and Words.

1950
Californium: The heaviest of the elements is discovered.

1942
"I shall return" is declared by General Douglas MacArthur after leaving the Philippines, during World War II.

1876
Alexander Graham Bell receives a patent for his telephone.

1871
First significant baseball league: The National Association of Base-Ball Players is formed in New York City.

1964
Rob Lowe, American actor. Film: St. Elmo's Fire and About Last Night. He also made headlines by starring in a home pornographic video.

1954
Lesley-Anne Down, English actress. TV: Dallas (Stephanie Rogers).

1951
Kurt Russell, American actor. Film: The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), The Barefoot Executive (1970), Escape From New York (1981), and Backdraft (1991).

1949
Patrick Duffy, American actor. TV: Man From Atlantis (title role) and Dallas (Bobby Ewing).

1948
George Stallings Jr., American ex-catholic priest. He formed the African American Catholic Congregation (c1989), and is one of the leading proponents of the theory that Jesus Christ was a black man.

1942     d. 1994
John Wayne Gacy, Jr., American serial killer, aka "Killer Clown." He was confessed to raping and killing 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978 - more than any other person in U.S. history at that time.  He buried 28 of his victims in his crawl space.  He was executed in 1994.

1938     d. 1993
Rudolf Nureyev, Russian ballet dancer. He defected to the West in 1961, and became the Paris Opera ballet director (1983-89). He died of AIDS.

1919     d. 1965
Nat King Cole (Nathaniel Adams Coles), American jazz singer. Music: Unforgettable (1951) and Stardust (1957).

1918
Mercedes McCambridge, American Oscar-winning actress. Film: All the King's Men (1949, Oscar), Giant (1956), and The Exorcist (1973, voice of the demon-child).

1908     d. 1996
Brigitte Helm (Gisele Eva Schittenhelm), German actress. Film: Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926, the female robot Robotrix).

1900     d. 1955
Shemp Howard (Samuel Howard), American comic actor, one of the original 3-Stooges.

1849     d. 1929
Charles Francis Brush, American electrician, inventor of the arc light.

1834     d. 1900
Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler, German inventor. He developed the first high speed internal combustion engine (1883) and invented the motorboat (1883) and the motorcycle (1885).

1473     d. 1513
James IV, King of Scotland (1488-1513), outlawed golf (1491), although he later became a golfer himself.

2006     b. 1913
Oleg Cassini, French-born fashion and costume designer. He was the official couturier to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

1993     b. 1900
Helen Hayes, American Oscar-Tony-Emmy-winning actress. Film: Victoria Regina (1935), Airport (1970, Oscar), and Herbie Rides Again (1974).

1992     b. 1903
Gracie Lantz (Grace Stafford), American actress, wife of Walter Lantz. She provided the voice for her husband's famous creation Woody Woodpecker.

1961     b. 1860
Susanna Madora Salter, first U.S. woman mayor (1887, Argonia, Kansas). Nominated as a prank, she didn't find out she was running until the morning of the election. She received two-thirds of the vote.

1956     b. 1894
Fred Allen (John Florence Sullivan), American radio and TV comedian.

1945     b. 1925
Bobby Hutchins (Robert E. Hutchins), American actor, Wheezer of The Little Rascals, he appeared in 58 Our Gang films.

1935     b. 1876
John James Rickard MacLeod, Scottish physiologist. He shared a Nobel Prize for the discovery of insulin (1921), although his primary role was only to provide the lab in the work was done.

1853     b. 1803
Christian Johann Doppler, Austrian physicist. He discovered the "Doppler effect" (1842, The frequency of a wave is relative to the motion between its source and observer).

1846     b. 1784
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, German astronomer. He was the first to measure the distance to a star other than the Sun (1838, 61 Cygni at 11.4 light years).

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