FRIDAY

1611, English explorer Henry Hudson, his son, and several others were set adrift in present-day Hudson Bay by mutineers. They were never heard from again.
1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was forced by the Catholic Church to recant his belief that the Earth orbited the Sun. On October 31st, 1992, 359 years later, the Vatican admitted its error.
1870, the U.S. Congress created the Department Of Justice, headed by an Attorney General.
1937, Joe Louis knocked out James “Jim” Braddock to win the world heavyweight title. He held onto the title through 25 bouts over for 11 years until his retirement.
1941, German troops invaded the Soviet Union.
1944, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the “G.I. Bill Of Rights,” giving a broad package of benefits to World War II veterans.
1945, the 81-day World War II Pacific battle for Okinawa officially ended.
1954 Actor-comedian Freddie Prinze (Chico & The Man) is born. He dies in 1977.
1969 Actress-singer Judy Garland (The Wizard Of Oz, Meet Me In St. Louis, A Star Is Born; mother ofLiza Minnelli) dies at age 47.
1970, President Richard Nixon signed a measure changing the voting age from 21 to 18. The 26th Amendment affirmed it, passing on July 1st, 1971.
1981, Mark David Chapman pled guilty to the murder of John Lennon outside the former Beatle‘s New York City apartment building.
1983, the National Hockey League instituted a five-minute sudden death overtime period.
1987 Actor-dancer-singer Fred Astaire (Top Hat, Holiday Inn, Easter Parade, The Towering Inferno) dies at age 88.
1995 CBS news anchor Dan Rather dons some shades and joins R.E.M. onstage at Madison Square Garden in New York City during a soundcheck, for a performance of “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” The performance was aired the following night on The Late Show With David Letterman. (Rather had been mugged in 1986, by a man asking him that question.)
2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray ended his investigation of the 1993 firings in the White House travel office, issuing no indictments but saying he’d found “substantial evidence” that First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton played a role in the dismissals.

SATURDAY

1776 The final draft of The Declaration Of Independence is submitted to Congress.
1846, Belgian musician Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone, an instrument with which he created a sound combining that of wood and brass instruments.
1860 The United States Secret Service is created by an act of Congress.
1868, Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called a “Type-Writer”. The bulky, table-sized machine printed only capital letters and the paper inside the machine could not be seen as it was being typed.
1938 The first aquarium opens in the U.S. at Marineland in St. Augustine, Florida.
1947, the Senate joined the House of Representatives in overriding President Harry Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act. The law put some new restrictions on labor unions.
1949 The first 12 women graduate from Harvard Medical School.
1972, President Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI’s Watergate investigation. Revelation of the tape recording of this conversation sparked Nixon’s resignation.
1980 David Letterman‘s short-lived daytime talk show premieres on NBC.
1987, Madonna became the first celebrity cover girl to appear on Cosmopolitan‘s cover since Elizabeth Taylor in 1969.
1989 Batman, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, opens in theatres.
1991 Tony Randall and Jack Klugman star in a one-night-only Broadway performance of The Odd Couple.
1992, New York Mafia boss John Gotti was sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of parole on murder and racketeering charges.
1993, Lorena Bobbitt made men across the country cringe when she amputated her husband John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis and threw it away. The appendage was recovered and reattached. Lorena was later acquitted of malicious wounding by reason of insanity and John was acquitted of marital sexual assault.
1995 Dr. Jonas Salk, who developed the first vaccine against polio, dies at age 80.
1997, Civil rights activist Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, died in New York of burns suffered in a fire set by her 12-year-old grandson; Malcolm Shabazz. She was 61. Malcolm Shabazz was sentenced to 18 months at a Massachusetts facility specializing in young arsonists.

SUNDAY

1509, Henry the Eighth was crowned King of England.
1948, communist forces cut off all routes between West Germany and West Berlin. The U.S. organized a massive airlift of supplies into the city’s western sector, called the Berlin Airlift, to counter the blockade. It lasted 321 days before the communists gave in.
1964, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it would require warning labels on cigarette packs beginning in 1965.
1983, the space shuttle Challenger, carrying America’s first woman in space, Sally Ride, landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1987 Actor Jackie Gleason (The Honeymooners, The Hustler, the Smokey And The Bandit movies) dies at age 71.
1993, eight Muslim fundamentalists were arrested in New York City, accused of plotting to bomb the U.N., a federal building, and the Holland and Lincoln tunnels all on the same day.
1993, Yale University computer expert David Gelernter was injured in his office by a bomb sent by “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski.
1997, In Freehold, New Jersey, 18-year-old Melissa Drexler, who gave birth during her prom, was charged with murder in the death of her baby.
1997, The Air Force released a report on the so-called “Roswell Incident,” suggesting the alien bodies witnesses reported seeing in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies.
1997 Actor Brian Keith (The Parent Trap, Family Affair, Hooper) dies at age 75.