December 17, 2023
QUOTE
I found fame to be somewhat of a prison. The more famous you were, the smaller the cell that you had to live in.
--Dave Madden
BIRTHDAYS
1906 – Russell C. Newhouse, Pilot and engineer
1927 – Richard Long, Actor and director
1931 – Dave Madden, Canadian-American actor
1946 – Eugene Levy, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter
1953 – Bill Pullman, Actor
1976 – Takeo Spikes, Football player and sportscaster
IN MEMORY
1956 – Eddie Acuff, Actor
1962 – Thomas Mitchell, Actor
2003 – Otto Graham, Football player and coach
2009 – Jennifer Jones, Actress
IN ON THIS DAY
1777 – France formally recognizes the United States.
1790 – The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City.
1862 – General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
1903 – The Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
1933 – The first NFL Championship Game is played at Wrigley Field in Chicago between the New York Giants and Chicago Bears. The Bears won 23–21.
1938 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.
1950 – The F-86 Sabre’s first mission over Korea.
2014 – The United States and Cuba re-establish diplomatic relations after severing them in 1961.