On The Way To Today... July 20th

1801 - At Elisha Brown, Jr's farm, a 1,235 pound cheese ball was pressed. The huge ball of cheese would be loaded onto a horse-drawn wagon and presented to then President Thomas Jefferson at the White House.

1859 - The first baseball game to charge an admission fee was between Brooklyn and New York at Fashion Park Race Course on Long Island, New York. Those attending were charged $.50 to get in, but the players would not get a salary until 1863.

1868 - The legislation ordering United States tax stamps on all cigarette packs was passed.

1923 - Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader Pancho Villa was murdered in his ranch in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico. During the Mexican Revolution he fought the regimes of both Porfirio Diaz and Victoriano Huerta, and became one of the most wanted men by the United States army.

1935 - "G-men" debuted on NBC radio. The show was eventually renamed "Gangbusters" and would stay on the air until 1957.

1940 - The first list of best-selling singles was published in "Billboard" magazine. Only 10 songs were listed and "I'll Never Smile Again," recorded by Tommy Dorsey, was the first Number 1 single.

1942 - The first WAACS, the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, began thier training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. Years later, the name would be change to WACS.

1947 - It was ruled in the National Football League that no professional team could sign a player who was still eligible on the college level.

1958 - Pitcher Jim Bunning tossed a no-hitter, leading the Detroit Tigers to a win over the Boston Red Sox. It would be 26 years before a Tiger would pitch another no-hitter, when pitcher Jack Morris came along. This set a major league record for the most amount of time between no-hitters.

1961 - In London, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off." In 1962, the show would move to Broadway, New York.

1963 - Ray Conniff was awarded two gold-record for the albums "Concert in Rhythm" and "Memories Are Made of This," both recorded on Columbia Records. Conniff recorded dozens of easy listening albums for the label. Previously he had been a trombonist and an arranger with Bunny Berigan, Bob Crosby, Harry James, Vaughn Monroe and Artie Shaw.

1967 - The Beatles' hit single All You Need Is Love/Baby You're a Rich Man was released in the United States by Capitol.

1968 - Iron Butterfly's album, In-a-Gadda-da-Vida, debuted on the United States pop charts. It featured its now-famous 17-minute title track, which in turn contained one of the longest drum solos in the history of rock music.

1969 - American astronaut Neil Armstrong, nearly 240,000 miles from earth, spoke these words to millions listening at home: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." A moment later, he stepped of the lunar module Eagle, becoming the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. That first step was taken with Armstrong's left foot.

1973 - Actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee died on this date at the age of 32 in Hong Kong. Lee was just coming into his own in films when his previous Enter the Dragon grossed over $100 million, and catapulted him into international fame, with a strong fanatical following. According to the coroner, Lee had suffered a cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain, caused by an allergic reaction either to a prescription painkiller he was taking or to a drug he was taking for a back injury. Lee was half-finished with his fifth film, Game of Death when he died. The producers salvaged Game of Death by using a double to finish it. His funeral in Hong Kong drew an estimated crowd of 30,000.

1983 - "ABC News" anchor Frank Reynolds passed away at the age of 59. He would be replaced by ABC News correspondent Peter Jennings. During his many years at ABC, Reynolds was known for being temperamental. From time to time, his true personality came through on the air, most notably during the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan; when Reynolds chastized staff members while on camera. Reynolds was embarrassed because he had to retract a statement previously broadcast saying that Reagan’s Press Secretary, James Brady, had been killed in the attack.

1984 - Ty Cobb's record was broken by baseball great Hank Aaron when Aaron appeared in game number 3,034 of his career. At age 40, Aaron, was already playing in his 20th major-league baseball season.

1985 - Treasure hunters began removing $400 million in coins and silver ingots from the ocean floor in the biggest underwater treasure hunt in history. The money came from the Spanish galleon, "Nuestra Senora de Atocha," which sunk in 1622, 40 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida.




Born On This Day... July 20th

1885
Theda Bara [Goodman]
actress d: 1955

1890
Verna Felton
actress d: 1966

1919
Sir Edmund Hillary
explorer

1920
Tommy Prothro [Jr.]
football, coach

1921
Ted Schroeder
tennis champion

1925
Lola Albright
actress

1929
Mike Ilitch
sports executive, entrepreneur

1930
Chuck Daly
sportscaster, basketball coach

1933
Nelson Doubleday
baseball executive

1934
Sally Ann Howes
actress

1936
Butch [Fred] Baird
golf

1936
Barbara Ann Mikulski
U.S. Senator

1938
Jo Ann Campbell
singer

1938
Diana Rigg
Tony Award-winning actress

1938
Natalie Wood [Natasha nikolaevna Zacharenko Gurdin]
actress d: 1981

1939
Judy Chicago [Cohen]
artist, feminist

1940
Tony [Pedro Lopez] Oliva
baseball

1942
Pete Hamilton
auto racer

1942
Mickey [Mitchell Jack] Stanley
baseball

1943
Chris Amon
auto racer

1943
John Lodge
musician, guitarist

1944
T.G. Sheppard [William Bowder]
singer

1945
Larry E. Craig
U.S. Senator

1945
Betty Burfeindt
golf champion

1945
Kim Carnes
Grammy Award-winning singer

1946
John Almond
musician, keyboardist, reeds instrumentalist, vibraphonist

1947
Carlos Santana
musician, guitarist, singer

1956
Paul Cook
drummer

1957
Donna Dixon
actress

1958
Mick McNeil
musician, keyboardist

1963
Dino Esposito
singer

1964
Chris Cornell
Grammy Award-winning musician

1973
Peter Forsberg
hockey

1973
Omar Epps
actor

1986
Sim Soon Heng, Jackywinson
Me lor... wahahahaz