Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

October 23

1992
Woman detained for "unusually large buttocks": She was attempting to smuggle 1½ pounds of surgically implanted heroin through a Columbian airport.

1992
Publisher's Clearing House announces it had "accidently" discarded thousands of sweepstakes entries after claims it had thrown away entries which did not purchase magazines.

1992
First criminal prosecution for cheating on a college entrance exam. A Maryland man is sentenced to six months in jail for paying another man $200 to take the exam for him.

1992
First Japanese Emperor to visit China: Emperor Akihito.

1992
AIDS: The director of the French national blood transfusion center is convicted of knowingly distributing AIDS-infected blood, resulting in 256 deaths and hundreds of new cases of the disease.

1989
Charles Stewart kills his pregnant wife, shoots himself and then blames it on a fictional black robber who jumped into his car. He committed suicide when his story began to unravel.

1987
Robert Bork: Pres. Reagan's nomination of Bork to the Supreme Court is rejected by the Senate.

1983
Truck-bomb strikes the Marine headquarters at Beirut, killing 241 U.S. marines and sailors.

1947
Ronald Reagan, president of the Screen Actors Guild, testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1934
First successful stratospheric flight through clouds: Jean Felix Piccard and his wife in a balloon reaching an altitude of 11 miles.

1932
The Linit Bath Club Review debuts on radio. It was Fred Allen's first radio show.

1924
First U.S. national radio network broadcast received on the West Coast: A speech by Pres. Coolidge.

1850
First national Women's Rights Convention.

4004 B.C.
Day of Creation, as calculated by Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh, Ireland.

1959
Weird Al Yankovic (Alfred Matthew Yankovic), American satirist musician, Eat It (1983) and I Lost On Jeopardy (1984).

1942
Michael Crichton, American author, The Andromeda Strain (1969), Westworld, Coma, and Jurassic Park.

1932
Dimitra Arliss, actress, Maria Falconetti of TV's Rich Man, Poor Man-Book II.

1925     d. 2005
Johnny Carson, American Emmy-winning TV late-night host of the Tonight Show for nearly 30 years.

1917     d. 1983
Robert Bray, American actor. TV: Lassie (Corey Stuart).

1906
Gertrude Caroline Ederle, American swimmer, first woman to swim the English Channel (1926) and winner of three medals in the 1924 Olympics. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1895     d. 1954
Maury Maverick, American politician, U.S. congressman (Texas, 1935-39), mayor of San Antonio (1939-41). He coined the word "Gobbledygook" (1944).

1835     d. 1914
Adlai Ewing Stevenson, 23rd U.S. Vice-President (1893-97).

1762     d. 1843
Samuel Morey, American inventor.  He patented the first U.S. internal combustion engine.  It was later used to power the first automobile ride in the U.S. (The second in the world).

1752     d. 1841
Nicolas Appert, French scientist and chef, The Father of Canning, the first person to preserve food in jars (1804), opened the first canning factory, and invented the bouillon cube.

1994     b. 1929
Robert Lansing (Robert Brown), American actor. TV: Twelve O'Clock High (Gen. Savage) and The Equalizer (Control).

1983     b. 1947
Jessica Savitch, American news correspondent, NBC newswoman, and anchor of PBS news magazine Front Line.

1950     b. 1886
Al Jolson (Asa Yoelson), American jazz singer.

1939     b. 1875
Zane Grey, American western novelist.

1928     b. 1886
George Barr McCutcheon, American author. Novels: Brewster's Millions (1902, It has been the basis for at least six movies).

1921     b. 1840
John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish veterinarian, patented the pneumatic tire (1888).

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