Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

December 7

2000
USS Cole Bombing: U.S. officials announce there is evidence linking suspects in the October 12 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen with known operatives of Osama bin Laden's organization.

1995
Galileo: The spacecraft is scheduled to reach Jupiter on this date.

1993
Drug Legalization: Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders states that the legalization of drugs merits further study and might reduce the crime rate. Her 28-year-old son was arrested two weeks later for selling cocaine to undercover police the previous summer.

1992
Members of the Texas Southern University's marching band are caught stealing $22,000 worth of goods from Japanese merchants. They were in Japan to play during the half-time of a NCAA game the previous day.

1972
Last of the Apollo moon series: Apollo 17 is launched.

1941
"A date that will live in infamy": Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, killing 2,300.

1888
Pneumatic rubber tire: John Boyd Dunlop patents his invention, although it was later discovered that the principle of the pneumatic tire had been patented in 1846.

1842
New York Philharmonic Orchestra: The famous orchestra gives its first performance.

1787
First state in the Union: Delaware ratifies the Constitution.

1955
Priscilla Barnes, American actress. TV: Three's Company (replaced Suzanne Somers).

1947
Vincent Baggetta, American actor. TV: The Eddie Capra Mysteries (Eddie Capra) and The Colbys (Asst. D.A. John Moretti).

1947
Johnny Lee Bench, American baseball Hall of Famer, 1976 World Series MVP.

1946
Billy Leon (died 1979) and Benny Loyd McCrary (McGuire), American wrestlers and the world's heaviest twins at 743 and 723 pounds. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1942     d. 1981
Harry Chapin, American folk-rock singer. Taxi (1972) and Cat's In The Cradle (1974, #1).

1932
Ellen Burstyn (Edna Rae Gillooly), American actress. In 1975, she won an Oscar, a Tony, and a British Oscar.

1926
Victor Kermit Kiam II, president of Remington Products Inc., he liked their shaver so much, he bought the company.

1923     d. 1986
Ted Knight (Tadeus Wladyslaw Konopka), American actor. TV: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Ted Baxter) and Too Close for Comfort. Film: Caddyshack (1980)

1915
Eli Wallach, American Emmy-winning actor. Film: Baby Doll (1956), The Magnificent Seven (1960), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).

1905
Gerald Peter Kuiper, American astronomer, discovered (1948) Miranda one of Uranus' moons.

1863     d. 1914
Richard Warren Sears, American businessman, co-founded Sears, Roebuck and Co.

1993     b. 1912
Pierre Holmes, British-born French radio announcer. During World War II, he passed coded messages to the French Resistance during his nightly BBC radio show from London.

1990     b. 1910
Joan Bennett, American actress. TV: Dark Shadows (Elizabeth/Flora Collins).

1977     b. 1906
Peter Carl Goldmark, Hungarian-born American television engineer, invented the first commercial color television (1940) and the 33 1/3 LP record (1948).

1970     b. 1883
Rube Goldberg (Reuben Lucius Goldberg), American Pulitzer-winning cartoonist (1948), known for designing elaborate machines to perform simple tasks.

1951     b. 1887
Ed Leedskalnin, Latvian sculptor. He built Homestead, Florida's Coral Castle, using what he claimed was the lost secretes of the Egyptian pyramid builders.  Billy Idol filmed the video Sweet Sixteen in Coral Castle. The song was inspired by Ed's unrequited love for 16-year-old Agnes Scuffs, for whom Ed built the castle.

1913     b. 1844
Aaron Montgomery Ward, American businessman, creator of mail-order (1892).

1902     b. 1840
Thomas Nast, American cartoonist, created the donkey and elephant symbols used by the Democratic and Republican parties.

1902     b. 1839
Thomas Brackett Reed, American politician, Speaker of the House from Maine. His ability to spend taxpayer's money earned his Congress (1889-91) the name "The Billion Dollar Congress."

1817     b. 1754
William Bligh, English naval officer, his crew on the HMS Bounty mutinied (1789), setting him adrift for 4,000 miles.

1254     b. circa 1180
Innocent IV, Italian religious leader, 180th Pope (1243-54).

983     b. 955
Otto II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (973-83).

283     b. ????
Saint Eutychian, religious leader, 27th Pope (275-283).

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