Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

June 20

1980
Airline Mishaps:A Delta Airlines flight lands at MacDill Air Force base in Florida; the pilot thought he was in Tampa.

1967
Muhammad Ali: The boxing legend is fined $10,000 and sentenced to 5 years in prison for draft evasion.

1963
Red Phone: The famous "hotline" between the U.S. and the Soviet Union is ordered in response to the Cuban missile crisis. It originally a pair of teletypewriters, being replaced with an actual phone in the mid 70s.

1960
First boxer to regain the world heavyweight title: Floyd Patterson knocks out Ingemar Johansson.

1960
First black to win an Emmy: Harry Belafonte wins for his variety special Tonight with Belafonte.

1948
The Ed Sullivan Show debuts on CBS. It was originally called Toast of the Town.

1943
Detroit race riot: Two days of violence begins in which 34 people will be killed and 700 injured.

1939
First Rocket-Powered Airplane: The first airplane powered solely by a liquid-fueled rocket makes its first flight. It was created by German scientist Ernst Heinkel.

1893
Lizzie Borden is acquitted for the murder of her parents, who were axed to death the previous year.

1863
West Virginia becomes the 35th state.

1840
Telegraph: Samuel F.B. Morse receives a patent for his telegraph.

1837
Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne. She would reign until her death in 1901.

1819
First steamboat to cross the Atlantic: The Savannah arrives in Liverpool, England. It had left Georgia 25 days earlier.

1782
Great Seal: The U.S. adopts the seal bearing a spread eagle with the motto "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of many, one).

1756
Black Hole of Calcutta: 145 British men and a woman are forced to spend the night in this prison cell, during the war between Britain and France. It was 18 x 14 feet wide with only two small windows. Only 22 men and the woman survived the night.

1632
Maryland: A Charter for Maryland Colony is granted to Cecilius Calvert (second Lord Baltimore).

1967
Nicole Kidman, Australian Oscar-winning actress. Film: Batman Forever (1995, Dr. Chase Meridian).

1960
John Taylor, English singer, with Duran Duran. Music: Hungry Like the Wolf (1982), Rio (1982), Union of the Snake (1983), and A View to a Kill (1985).

1954
Michael Anthony (Michael Anthony Sobolewski), American guitarist, with Van Halen. Music: Runnin' With the Devil (1976) and Jump (1984, #1).

1953
Cyndi Lauper, American singer. Music: Time After Time (1983) and Girls Just Want To Have Fun (1983).

1952
John Goodman, American actor. TV: Roseanne (Dan).

1949
Lionel Richie, American singer. Music: Three Times a Lady (1978, #1) and Say You, Say Me (1985, #1).

1945
Anne Murray, Canadian Grammy-winning singer. Music: You Needed Me (1979, #1, Grammy). She was the first female Canadian to vocalist to earn a U.S. gold record (1970, Snowbird).

1942
Brian Wilson, American musician, with The Beach Boys. Music: Surfin' USA (1963), I Get Around (1964, #1), Help Me Rhonda, (1965, #1), and Good Vibrations (1966, #1).

1933
Danny Aiello, American actor. Film: Do the Right Thing (1989, the pizzeria owner).

1931
Olympia Dukakis, American Oscar-winning actress. Film: Moonstruck (1987, Oscar) and Steel Magnolias (1989).

1931
Martin Landau, American actor. TV: Mission: Impossible (Make-up artist Rollin Hand).

1924
Chet Atkins, American guitarist, Country Music Hall of Famer. He has sold over 30 million records and is credited with creating the "Nashville sound."

1924     d. 1971
Audie Murphy, American war hero, actor. He was the most decorated American hero of World War II; he received the Congressional Medal of Honor along with 27 other decorations.

1909     d. 1959
Errol Flynn, American swashbuckling actor, known for both his on and off-screen performances.

1972     b. 1897
Howard Johnson, American businessman. He founded the restaurant, ice-cream, and hotel chains.

1966     b. 1894
Father Georges-Henri Lemaître, Belgian astronomer, Roman Catholic Priest. He first proposed what later became known as the Big Bang to explain the origin of the Universe (1931). Einstein initially derided his theories, but later stated that not accepting them was the greatest error of his life. He was the very first recipient of the Eddington Medal award of the Royal Astronomical Society.

1965     b. 1870
Bernard Mannes Baruch, American stock broker. He was an advisor to every president from Wilson to Kennedy.

1933     b. 1857
Clara Zetkin, German communist leader, women's rights activist. She created the International Women's Day, which has been celebrated March 8th since 1910.

1925     b. 1842
Josef Breuer, Austrian physician whose work formed the foundation of modern psychoanalysis.

1920     b. 1864
Dmitry Iosifovich Ivanovsky, Russian biologist, discover of viruses. He was studying a tobacco crop disease when he found that an invisible parasite, much smaller than any known bacterium, was the cause. This newly-discovered life form was the virus.

1876     b. 1795
Santa Anna, Mexican president (1833-35, 1841-45, 1846-47, 1853-55) and general. He led the Mexican army against the Alamo (1836).

1837     b. 1765
William IV, King of England (1830-37).

1778     b. circa 1724
Pierre Laclède, French-born American fur trader, founder of St. Louis (1764).

1773     b. 1722
Georg Christian Füchsel, German geolgist. He originated the concept of statra, rock layers that each represent a certain epoch of time.

1597     b. ????
Willem Barents, Dutch navigator, discoverer of Spitzbergen (1596) and for whom the Barents Sea is named.

840     b. 778
Louis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (814-840).

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