Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

September 8

1990
America's Funniest People debuts on ABC.

1988
Dan Quayle: "Republicans understand the importance of bondage between parent and child."

1974
Watergate: Pres. Gerald Ford gives a full pardon to former President Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while President.

1974
Evel Knievel: The American daredevil jumps Twin Falls, Idaho's Snake River Canyon on his rocket motorcycle.

1972
Olympic massacre: Israeli jets bomb Lebanon and Syria in retaliation for the killing of 11 Israeli Olympic team members by Palestinian terrorists three days earlier.

1968
First U.S. Open women's singles division: The tennis championship is won by Virginia Wade of England.

1966
Tarzan debuts on NBC, starring Ron Ely. It was filmed in Brazil and Mexico.

1966
Star Trek debuts on NBC, with the episode The Man Trap.

1954
Southeast Asian Treaty Organization: SATO is established with the signing of a treaty between the U.S. and seven other countries.

1951
Japanese Peace Treaty: Japan, the U.S., and 47 other countries sign the treaty.

1944
World War II: Germany launches its first V-2 guided rockets, striking London and Antwerp. Travelling at the speed of sound, they were virtually impossible to stop.

1943
World War II: Italy makes an unconditional surrender to the Allies, although German troops there continue to fight.

1935
U.S. Senator Huey P. Long is shot at the Louisiana state capitol by Dr. Carl Austin Weiss, Jr. He died two days later.

1916
U.S. International Trade Commission is established.

1892
Pledge of Allegiance: It is published for the first time, by the Youth's Companion. Authorship is attributed to Francis Bellamy.

1565
Oldest European settlement still in existence in America: Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndes de Avilés founds St. Augustine, Florida.

1565
First Catholic parish in what is now the U.S.: Fr. Don Martin Francisco Lopez de Mendozo Grajales founds a parish in St. Augustine Fla.

1971
Henry Thomas, American actor. Film: E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1984).

1957
Heather Thomas, American actress. TV: The Fall Guy (Jody).

1952
Mitch Robbins, character played by Billy Crystal in the movie City Slickers (1991).

1932     d. 1963
Patsy Cline (Virginia Peterson Hensley), American country singer. Music: I Fall to Pieces (1961, #1) and Crazy (1961). She was the first female solo performer elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1973). She died in a plane crash.

1929
Darwood Kaye (Darwood Kenneth Smith), American actor, the scholarly Waldo of The Little Rascals, he appeared in 21 Our Gang films.

1925     d. 1980
Peter Sellers, British actor. Film: The Pink Panther (1964, Inspector Clouseau) and Being There (1979, the gardner).

1922
Sid Caesar, American actor, comedian. TV: Your Show of Shows (co-host).

1914
Hillary Brooke (Beatrice Peterson), American actress. TV: My Little Margie (Roberta).

1911     d. 1975
Euell Gibbons, American naturalist. Writings: Stalking the Wild Asparagus (1962). He was the spokesman for Post Grape-Nuts.

1908     d. 1973
Austin Briggs, American cartoonist, drew Secret Agent X-9 (1938-40) and Flash Gordon dailies (1940-44) and Sundays (1944-48).

1685     d. 1758
Thomas Fleet, American printer, he published (1719) a book of nursery rhymes that his mother-in-law sang to his son. Since her name was Goose, they became Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes.

1157     d. 1199
Richard I, King of England (1189-99), known as Richard the Lion-Hearted.

1991     b. 1949
Brad Davis, American actor. Film: Midnight Express. He died of AIDS.

1980     b. 1908
Willard Frank Libby, American Nobel-winning chemist, inventor of radiocarbon dating (1949).

1977     b. 1915
Zero Mostel, American actor, singer. Stage: Fiddler on the Roof (1964, as Tevye singing If I Were a Rich Man).

1970     b. 1894
Percy Spencer, American scientist, invented the microwave oven (1946). While working for the Raytheon company, he stopped for a minute in front of a magnetron, a vacuum tube that generates high-frequency radio waves, and noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket was melting. An orphan at age eight who never graduated from grammar school, he became Senior Vice President at Raytheon and received 150 patents.

1949     b. 1864
Richard Strauss, German composer, Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896), the theme of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

1882     b. 1809
Joseph Liouville, French mathematician. He discovered the first proof of transcendental numbers (1844).

1784     b. 1736
Ann Lee, English mystic, religious leader, founded Shakerism in America (1774).

701     b. ????
Saint Sergius I, religious leader, 84th Pope (687-701).

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