December 26, 2023
QUOTE
My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there’s hardly a difference.
--Harry S. Truman
BIRTHDAYS
1837 – George Dewey, American admiral
1893 – Mao Zedong, Chinese politician, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party
1914 – Richard Widmark, American actor
1921 – Steve Allen, American actor, singer, talk show host, and screenwriter
1945 – John Walsh, American television host, producer, and activist, created America’s Most Wanted
IN MEMORY
1963 – Gorgeous George, American wrestler
1972 – Harry S. Truman, American colonel and politician, 33rd President of the United States
1974 – Jack Benny, American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, and violinist
2001 – Nigel Hawthorne, English actor
2006 – Gerald Ford, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 38th President of the United States
IN ON THIS DAY
1862 – The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, where 38 Native Americans died.
1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee, allegedly establishing the Curse of the Bambino superstition.
1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
1944 – World War II: George S. Patton’s Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.
1963 – The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.
1978 – The inaugural Paris-Dakar Rally begins.