Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

September 18

1987
Fatal Attraction is released.

1975
Patty Hearst is captured by FBI agents and indicted for participating in a bank robbery with the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1973
Presidential UFO: Future U.S. President, Jimmy Carter files a report stating he sighted a UFO in 1969. According to Carter, "It was the darndest thing I've ever seen. It was big, it was very bright, it changed colors and it was about the size of the moon.. We watched it for ten minutes, but none of us could figure out what it was. ¼If I become President, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and the scientists." (Source: Above Top Secret)

1964
The Addams Family debuts on ABC.

1947
U.S. Department of Defense is established.

1915
First paved U.S. automobile racetrack: The asphalt-covered Narragansett Speedway, Cranston, Rhode Island opens. Two world records were then broken on it. (Source: Famous First Facts)

1891
First white woman Indian chief: Harriet Maxwell Converse becomes chief of the Six Nations Tribe. She had been adopted by the Seneca's in 1884.

1851
New York Daily Times is founded, by Henry J. Raymond and George Jones, becoming the New York Times in 1857.

1830
Horse versus machine: Tom Thumb, the first steam locomotive built in American, loses this celebrated race against a horse. Mechanical difficulties preventing it from finishing.

1810
Chile: Chile separates from Spain, achieving its full independence in 1818.

1793
U.S. Capitol: George Washington lays the conerstone for the Capitol building in Washington D.C.

1971
Lance Armstrong, American cyclist. After being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996 that had metastasized and spread to his lungs and brain, he came back to win the Tour de France a record seven straight times (1999-2005).

1940
Frankie Avalon (Francis Thomas Avallone), American singer, actor.

1933
Robert Blake (Michael Gubitosi), American Emmy-winning actor. Film: The Little Rascals (Mickey) and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1967, killer Perry Wilson). TV: Baretta (title role).

1930
Phyllis Kirk (Phyllis Kirkegaard), American actress. TV: The Thin Man (Nora Charles).

1920
Jack Warden, American actor. TV: Crazy Like a Fox (Harry Fox).

1916     d. 1994
Rossano Brazzi, Italian actor, specializing in Continental lover roles. Film: The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Summertime (1955), and South Pacific (1958). TV: The Survivors (Riakos).

1907
Edwin Mattison McMillan, American physicist. He co-discovered plutonium (1940), for which he shared a 1951 Nobel Prize.

1905     d. 1990
Greta Garbo (Greta Gustafsson), Swedish-born actress. Film: Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1937).

1905     d. 1977
Eddie Anderson, American actor. TV: The Jack Benny Program (Benny's valet Rochester).

1905     d. 1993
Agnes De Mille, American Tony-winning choreographer, Oklahoma! (1943), Brigadoon (1947, Tony), and Kwamina (1962, Tony).

1838     d. 1888
Anton Mauve, Dutch painter, for whom the color "mauve" is named.

1819     d. 1868
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault, French physicist, one of the first to measure the speed of light (1850), demonstrated the rotation of the Earth with a pendulum (1851), and invented the gyroscope (1852).

1733     d. 1798
George Read, American lawyer, politician, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

1709     d. 1784
Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, poet. He wrote the first major English language dictionary (1755).

53 A.D.     d. 117
Trajan, Spanish-born Roman Emperor (98-117). Emperor Nerva, whom he succeeded, adopted him as his son in 97 A.D.

1975     b. 1917
Pamela Brown, English Emmy-winning actress, Victoria Regina (1961, Emmy).

1970     b. 1942
Jimi Hendrix (James Marshall Hendrix), American singer, Purple Haze (1967). He was the highest paid act at Woodstock.

1967     b. 1897
Sir John Cockcroft, British nuclear physicist, in 1932 he and Ernest Walton became the first to use a particle accelerator to split an atom, for which they were awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize.

1961     b. 1905
Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish statesman, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1953-61). He was killed in a suspicious plane crash while en route to negotiate a cease-fire between U.N. and Congolese forces. He was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1951     b. 1866
Frank Gelett Burgess, American author, humorist, illustrator. He wrote the famous quatrain: "I never Saw a Purple Cow, I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I rather see than be one." He also coined the word "blurb," to describe to the material on book jacket that praises the book.

1949     b. 1890
Frank Morgan (Francis Wuppermann), American actor. Film: The Wizard of Oz (1939, the Wizard).

1939     b. 1862
Charles Michael Schwab, American industrialist. Starting out in the steel industry as a stake driver, he rose to president of Carnegie Steel (1897-1901), president of U.S. Steel (1901-03), and chairman of Bethlehem Steel (1903 et seq.).

1911     b. 1863
Peter Stolypin, Russian premier (1906-11). Known for his ruthless tactics to achieve reform and democratization, he was assassinated by a police double agent.

1864     b. 1827
John Hanning Speke, English explorer. He discovered the source of the Nile (1858).

1180     b. circa 1121
Louis VII, King of France (1137-80).

96 A.D.     b. 51 A.D.
Domitian, Roman Emperor (81-96 AD). Known for his cruelty, he was assassinated by a man hired by his wife and court officers after they discovered the emperor's plans to execute them.

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