1992 Superman is killed by Doomsday in today's issue of the comic book.

1992 Spike Lee's Malcolm X is released. Did you skip school to go see it?

1978 Jonestown Massacre More than 900 followers of Rev. Jim Jones commit suicide, in Guyana, at the request of their leader. Just hours before, Jones had ordered the killing of Rep. Leo Ryan of California, three journalists, and a temple defector. Ryan was there to investigate reports of abuse within the cult.

1966 Last Friday, except during lent, that U.S. Roman Catholics were required to abstain from eating meat

1949 First black to win a major-league MVP award Jackie Robinson of the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers. Source: Famous First Facts

1928 Mickey Mouse Steamboat Willie, Disney's first cartoon with synchronized sound, is released.  Mickey's voice was provided by none other than Disney himself.  The Disney company celebrates Mickey's birthday on this day, however, the famed mouse appeared in Plane Crazy six months earlier.

1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty It allowed the U.S. to dig and maintain exclusive rights to the Panama Canal.

1894 First Sunday comics in a U.S. newspaper Cartoons by Richard Felton Outcault appear in The New York World.

1889 First U.S. battleship The USS Maine is launched.

1883 U.S. and Canada are divided into standard time zones This was replaced the following year by a World wide system having the prime meridian passing through British Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England.

1947 Jameson Parker American actor. TV: Somerset (Dale Robinson) One Life to Live (the first Brad Vernon), and Simon & Simon (A.J. Simon).

1944 Susan Sullivan American actress. TV: Falcon Crest (Maggie Gioberti).

1942 Linda Evans American actress. TV: The Big Valley (Audra Barkley) and Dynasty (Krystle Carrington).

1939 Brenda Vaccaro American Emmy-winning actress. Film: Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough (1975).

1926 Dorothy Collins d. 1994 (Marjorie Chandler), Canadian-born actress. TV: Your Hit Parade (the Lucky Strikes Lady) and Candid Camera (practical joker).

1923 Alan B. Shepard Jr d. 1998 American astronaut. He was one of the seven original Project Mercury astronauts and the first American in space.

1908 Imogene Coca d. 2001 (Imogene Fernandez de Coca), American actress, comedienne.

1901 George Horace Gallup d. 1984 American pollster, inventor of the Gallup Poll (1935), which legitimized the use of polls to predict elections.

1860 Ignacy Paderewski d. 1941 Polish pianist, composer, statesman. He was the first prime minister (1919-20) of the newly independent Poland, although he resigned after ten months to resume his concert career.

1789 Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre d. 1851 French photographer, inventor of the Daguerreotype photographic process (1839).

2002 James Coburn b. 1928 American actor. Film: The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Our Man Flint (1966).

1969 Ted Heath b. 1902 British band leader, one of the U.K.'s most famous bandleaders.

1965 Henry Agard Wallace b. 1888 33rd U.S. Vice-President (1941-45).

1962 Niels Bohr b. 1885 Danish Nobel-winning physicist, "The father of atomic energy," developed the quantum theory of atomic structure (1913).

1946 Jimmy Walker b. 1881 American politician, New York Mayor (1925-32), nicknamed Beau James. He hosted the first regularly scheduled TV program (1931). He resigned as mayor after corruption in his administration was exposed.

1886 Chester Alan Arthur b. 1829 21st U.S. President (1881-85) and 20th U.S. Vice-President (1881).

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