October 24, 2023
QUOTE
The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.
--Gene Roddenberry
BIRTHDAYS
1503 – Isabella of Portugal
1838 – Annie Edson Taylor, Stuntwoman and educator
1930 – The Big Bopper, Singer-songwriter and guitarist
1936 – Bill Wyman, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
1939 – F. Murray Abraham, Actor
IN MEMORY
1944 – Louis Renault, French engineer and businessman, co-founded the Renault Company
1972 – Jackie Robinson, Baseball player and sportscaster
1991 – Gene Roddenberry, Captain, screenwriter, and producer, created Star Trek
2005 – Rosa Parks, Civil rights activist
2015 – Maureen O’Hara, Irish-American actress and singer
IN ON THIS DAY
1596 – The second Spanish armada sets sail to strike against England, but is smashed by storms off Cape Finisterre forcing a retreat to port.[
1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
1929 – “Black Thursday” on the New York Stock Exchange.
1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.
1947 – Walt Disney testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.
1954 – President Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam.
2008 – “Bloody Friday” saw many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.