Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

December 29

1992
Todd Bridges: The actor who played Willis in TV's Diff'rent Strokes is arrested for possession of methamphetamine and a loaded gun. He was sentenced to year in a live-in drug treatment program and five years probation.

1992
Home Alone: An Illinois couple is arrested as they arrived home after a nine-day vacation in Acapulco. They had left their two daughters - ages 10 and 5 - alone during the trip.

1972
Life magazine: The 36-year-old pioneer in photojournalism suspends publication.

1967
First use of the term "Black Hole" to describe a collapsed star, by Prof. John Archibald Wheeler.

1965
Thunderball premiers in the U.S., 4th in the James Bond series, it starred Sean Connery as 007.

1890
Battle of Wounded Knee Creek: Last major battle between U.S. troops and Indians. More than 200 Sioux Indian men, women, and children are killed in South Dakota.

1851
First Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in the U.S. is established, by Thomas V. Sullivan in Boston, Massachusetts.

1845
Texas becomes the 28th state.

1947
Ted Danson, American Emmy-winning actor. Film: Three Men and a Baby (1987). TV: Cheers (Sam).

1946
Marianne Faithful, British singer, actor. Music: As Tears Go By (1964) and Summer Nights (1965).

1938
Jon Voight, American Oscar-winning actor. Film: Deliverance (1972) and Coming Home (1978, Oscar).

1936
Mary Tyler Moore, American actress. TV: The Dick Van Dyke Show (Laura Petrie) and Mary Tyler Moore Show (Mary Richards). Her first TV job was as the pixie in the Hotpoint commercials.

1934
Ed Flanders, American Emmy-winning actor. TV: St. Elsewhere (Dr. Westphall).

1932
Inga Swenson, American actress. TV: Bonanza (Hoss' mother Inga) and Benson (Gretchen Krauss).

1920
Viveca Lindfors, Swedish Emmy-winning actress. Film: Four in a Jeep (1951) and The Sure Thing (1985). TV: Life Goes On (1990, Won an Emmy for a guest appearance as a dance instructor.).

1879     d. 1936
William "Billy" Mitchell, American brigadier general. His persistent lobbying for a strong air force was ridiculed by military leaders and led to his being busted to private.

1808     d. 1875
Andrew Johnson, 17th U.S. President (1865-69) and the 16th U.S. Vice-President (1865). He was almost impeached (1868), with the Senate only one vote short of the required two-thirds majority.

1800     d. 1860
Charles Goodyear, American inventor. He patented the process of vulcanization (1844), which made the rubber industry possible.

1766     d. 1843
Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist, invented waterproof fabrics used for raincoats (1823).

1975     b. 1911
Euell Gibbons, American naturalist. Writings: Stalking the Wild Asparagus (1962). He was the spokesman for Post Grape-Nuts.

1170     b. circa 1118
Saint Thomas Becket, English ecclesiastic, murdered at the altar by four knights of King Henry II.

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