Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

October 5

1993
Another lost satellite: A $228 million Landsat 6 disappears shortly after launch. It is the fourth U.S. satellite lost in two months; the total losses are estimated at $2.3 billion.

1992
NFL is fined $60,000,000: $30,000,000 was awarded to 235 developmental squad players because of wage fixing during the 1989 season. Another $30,000,000 was awarded to players who were shorted a week's pay at the end of the 1987 player strike.

1992
Former Soviet Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev is fined 100 rubles (32¢) for refusing to testify at a Constitutional Court hearing which was set to determine the fate of the Communist Party.

1989
Jim Bakker: The televangelist and former leader of the PTL Club is convicted of fraud and conspiracy. He had defrauded followers out of $158 million.

1984
First U.S. woman to walk in space: The space shuttle Challenger is launched with Dr. Kathryn Sullivan aboard. She made her historical walk on the 11th.

1982
Tylenol murders: 264,000 bottles of the pain reliever are taken off the market after a California man is stricken from strychnine-laced capsules. Seven people in the Chicago area had been killed by cyanide-laced capsules during the previous week. The killer has never been caught.

1962
The Beatles release the single Love Me Do. The flip side contained P.S. I Love You.

1931
First nonstop transpacific flight: Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn arrive in Washington. The had left from Japan the previous day.

1930
First transcontinental flight by a woman: Laura Ingalls departs in a biplane from Roosevelt Field, New York. She reached Glendale, California four days later.

1914
First airplane shot down by another plane: A German plane shoots down a French pilot.

1892
End of the Dalton Gang: Two Dalton brothers along with two other gang members are killed by Coffeyville, Kansas citizens during an attempted bank robbery. A third brother was captured and sentenced to life in prison.

1813
War of 1812 - Battle of the Thames: Henry Harrison defeats British and Indians.

1951
Karen Allen, American actress. Film: National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

1951
Bob Geldof (Robert Frederick Xenon Geldof), Irish singer with the Boomtown Rats. He organized the recording of the record Do They Know It's Christmas? (1984) and the Live Aid concert (1985) to raise funds for famine relief. He also starred in the film Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982).

1943
Steve Miller, American guitarist. Music: The Joker (1973) and Fly Like an Eagle (1976).

1924
Bill Dana, American comedian. TV: The Bill Dana Show (Jose Jimenez) and St. Elsewhere (father of Wayne Fiscus).

1922
Bil Keane, American cartoonist, creator of The Family Circus (1960) and Channel Chuckles (1954).

1919     d. 1995
Donald Pleasence, British actor. Film: The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965, the Devil), You Only Live Twice (1967, Ernst Blofeld), and Halloween (1978).

1919     d. 1981
Allen Ludden, American game show host. TV: Password.

1905     d. 1991
John Hoyt, American actor. TV: Gimme a Break! (Grandpa Kaminsky).

1902     d. 1984
Ray Albert Kroc, American businessman, founder of McDonald's (1955).

1882     d. 1945
Robert Hutchings Goddard, American physicist, rocket pioneer, "father of the space age." He launched the first liquid fuel rocket (1926).

1829     d. 1886
Chester Alan Arthur, 21st U.S. President (1881-85) and 20th U.S. Vice-President (1881).

1824     d. 1908
Henry Chadwick, American sports writer, wrote the first baseball rule book (1858).

2003     b. 1957
Timothy Treadwell (Timothy Dexter), American environmentalist, "Grizzly Man." After spending 13 summers with the brown bears in Alaska, he and his girlfriend were killed and partially eaten by one. This was the first fatal bear attack in Katmai National Park history. The film Grizzly Man (2005) documents his work and death with the bears. Writings: Among Grizzlies: Living With Wild Bears in Alaska (1997).

1992     b. 1939
Eddie Kendricks, American singer, with the Temptations, the most successful male vocal group of the 1960s and '70s, My Girl (1965, #1).

1983     b. 1907
Earl Silas Tupper, American businessman, invented Tupperware (1942) and used the neighborhood party method to sell it.

1941     b. 1856
Louis Dembitz Brandeis, American jurist. He was the first Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1916-39).

1813     b. circa 1768
Tecumseh, Shawnee Indian chief. He was killed in the Battle of the Thames.

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