Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

December 19

1989
U.S. invades Panama in an effort to capture Manuel Noriega and bring him to trial on drug trafficking charges.

1974
The Man with the Golden Gun premiers, 9th in the James Bond series, it starred Roger Moore as 007.

1958
First radio voice-broadcast from space: A prerecorded Christmas greeting by Pres. Eisenhower from the U.S. Earth satellite Atlas.

1944
First atomic reactor patent: Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard of the U.S. make their application. It was granted the following year.

1918
Ripley's Believe It or Not! comic strip debuts.

1914
First animation technique is patented, by Earl Hurd.

1892
The University of Oklahoma is established.

1732
Poor Richard's Almanack: The first issue of Benjamin Franklin's famous almanac is published. It was published yearly till 1757.

1972
Alyssa Milano, American actress. TV: Who's the Boss? (Sam Micelli).

1963
Jennifer Beals, American actress. Film: Flashdance (1983).

1946     d. 2002
Robert Urich, American Emmy-winning actor. TV: Vega$ (Dan Tanna) and Spencer: For Hire (title role).

1944
Tim Reid, American actor. TV: WKRP in Cincinnati (Venus Flytrap).

1944
Richard E. Leakey, anthropologist, conservationist.

1941
Maurice White, American singer, with Earth, Wind & Fire. Music: Shining Star (1975, #1, Grammy), Best of My Love (1977, #1), and After the Love has Gone (1979, #2, Grammy).

1933
Cicely Tyson, American Emmy-winning actress. TV:n an Emmy for her portrayal of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974, title role, Emmy) and Roots (1976, Kunta Kinte's mother Binta).

1920     d. 1987
David Susskind, American Emmy-winning TV producer and talk show host, known for his controversial guests.

1906     d. 1982
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, Soviet statesman, head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1964-82).

1868     d. 1920
Eleanor Hodgman Porter, American author. Writings: Pollyanna (1913, with the name of the title character becoming synonymous with persistent optimism).

1852     d. 1931
Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born American Nobel-winning physicist. He was the first to measure the diameter of a star (other than the Sun). Working from the Wilson Observatory, California, he measured Betelgeuse (the bright red star in the right shoulder of Orion) to be 260 million miles in diameter.

1790     d. 1855
Sir William Edward Parry, British explorer, explored the Arctic and unsuccessfully searched for a Northwest Passage.

1999     b. 1914
Desmond Llewellyn, Welsh actor. Film: Q in the James Bond movies.

1986     b. 1936
V.C. Andrews (Virginia Cleo Andrews), American author. She had three #1 books before her death and numerous bestsellers after her death (ghostwritten from her notes).

1977     b. 1876
Nellie Tayloe Ross, American politician, first woman state governor (Wyoming, 1925-27), and the first woman director of the U.S. Mint (1933).

1959     b. 1842
Walter Williams, American soldier, the last surviving Civil War veteran. He served in the Confederate Army (1864).

1848     b. 1818
Emily Brontë, English novelist. Writings: Wuthering Heights (1847).

1370     b. ????
Urban V, French-born religious leader, 200th Pope (1362-70).

401     b. ????
Saint Anastasius I, Italian religious leader, 39th Pope (399-401).

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