Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

October 20

1991
Oakland fire: Thousands of homes in Oakland Hills, California are destroyed by fire.

1982
World's worst soccer tragedy: 340 fans are crushed to death in a staircase at a game in Moscow.

1976
Part of Jill's right breast and nipple are shown on the Angels in Chains episode of Charlie's Angels.

1973
Watergate: Attorney General Elliot Richardson resigns and Pres. Nixon fires Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox and Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus. The public and government outcry called for Nixon's impeachment.

1967
Bigfoot: The legendary creature is filmed by hunters Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin.

1964
Ku Klux Klan: Seven members are convicted for the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi.

1962
Monster Mash: The graveyard smash, by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, reaches #1.

1960
First automated U.S. Post Office: Project Turnkey opens in Providence, Rhode Island. It was designed to handle 2,000,000 pieces of mail a day.

1954
Peter Pan musical opens, starring Mary Martin.

1947
The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigating Communist activity in the entertainment industry.

1944
World War II: General MacArthur fulfills his promise by returning to the Philippines.

1928
A chicken in every pot: The slogan is first used by the Republican Party.

1922
First life saved by a parachute: Lt. Harold Harris.

1910
Baseball: First use of a cork-centered baseball in a World Series game.

1953
Tom Petty, American singer, Refugee (1980) and You Got Lucky (1982).

1935
Jerry Orbach, American Tony-winning actor. Film: Beauty and the Beast (1991, voice of Lumiere the candelabra). TV: Law & Order (Det. Lenny Briscoe).

1934     d. 1973
Michael Dunn, American dwarf (3 ft. 10 in.) actor. Film: Ship of Fools (1964). TV: The Wild Wild West (the evil Dr. Loveless).

1931
Mickey Mantle, American Baseball Hall-of-Famer. With 536 career home runs, he led the American League four times, and is a three-time MVP (1956-57, 1962).

1928
Dr. Joyce Brothers, American psychologist, radio and TV host. In 1955 she became the first woman to win the top prize on the TV show The $64,000 Question.

1925
Art Buchwald, American newspaper columnist.

1922     d. 1992
John Anderson, American actor. TV: Wyatt Earp (Virgil Earp).

1922
Edward J. Daly, president of World Airways.

1913
Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall Jones), American Country Music Hall of Famer (1978). TV: Hee Haw.

1911
Will Rogers Jr., American actor, son of the famous humorist.

1908
Arlene Francis (Arlene Francis Kazanjian), American radio talk-show host, actress. TV: What's My Line (panelist 1950-67).

1891     d. 1974
Sir James Chadwick, English Nobel-winning physicist. He discovered the neutron (1932), for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

1859     d. 1952
John Dewey, American philosopher, education reformer. He promoted the idea of learning by doing.

1856     d. 1922
James Robert Mann, American politician. He authored the Mann Act (1910), also known as the White Slave Act. It prohibited the transportation of women across state lines for immoral purposes.

1812     d. 1886
Austin Flint, American physician, pioneer in heart research. He co-founded Buffalo Medical College.

1632     d. 1723
Sir Christopher Wren, English architect, designed and built St. Paul's Cathedral in London (1675-1710) and designed the towers of Westminster Abbey (1713).

1994     b. 1913
Burt Lancaster, American Oscar-winning actor. Film: From Here to Eternity (1953), Elmer Gantry (1960, Oscar) and The Leopard (1963). He started his career as a circus performer.

1990     b. 1905
Joel McCrea, American western actor.

1981     b. 1907
Mary Coyle Chase, American Pulitzer-winning playwright. Plays: Harvey (1944, about an oversized imaginary rabbit).

1975     b. ????
Hugo Zacchini, Italian-born circus performer, the Human Cannonball for the Ringling Brothers Circus. He was shot 75 feet into the air travelling a distance of 200 feet.

1973     b. 1899
Norman Chandler, American newspaper publisher. As publisher of the Los Angeles Times (1945-60), he built it into the nation's second largest daily newspaper.

1972     b. 1885
Harlow Shapley, American astronomer. He made the first accurate estimate of the size of the Milky Way galaxy (1918).

1966     b. 1887
Harry Flood Byrd Sr., American politician, Virginian senator.  He received 15 electoral votes in the 1960 U.S. presidential election even though he wasn't a candidate.

1964     b. 1874
Herbert Clark Hoover, 31st U.S. President (1929-33). He was the first Quaker to be president and the first president born west of the Mississippi.

1936     b. 1866
Anne Sullivan, American educator, "The Miracle Worker."  In 1887, she became Helen Keller's teacher and companion.  Anne was partially blind as a child, becoming completely blind in 1935.

1926     b. 1855
Eugene Victor Debs, American labor organizer, first president of the American Railway Union (1893) and founder of the Social Democrat Party of America (1897).

1900     b. 1829
Charles Dudley Warner, American newspaperman, made the famous quote "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

1890     b. 1821
Sir Richard Francis Burton, English explorer. He discovered Lake Tanganyika and translated The Arabian Nights into English.

1880     b. 1802
Lydia Maria Francis Child, American abolitionist, published the National Anti-Slavery Standard (1840-44).

1187     b. ????
Urban III, Italian-born religious leader, 172nd Pope (1185-87).

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