On this day in 2003, Katharine Hepburn–a four-time Academy Award winner for Best Actress and one of the greatest screen legends of Hollywood’s golden era–dies of natural causes at the age of 96, at her home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Hepburn was born into a well-to-do New England family, the […]
Continue ReadingFormer U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond Dies
Strom Thurmond, who served in the United States Senate for a record 46 years, dies on this day in 2003. Thurmond’s long and controversial political career had ended with his retirement one year earlier. Thurmond was born on December 5, 1902, in Edgefield, South Carolina, where he also died. He […]
Continue ReadingQueen Elizabeth Makes Helen Mirren A Dame
On this day in 2003, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II publishes the list of those she has chosen to appoint as Officers of the Order of the British Empire as part of the traditional Queen’s Birthday Honours. Included on the list were (among others) the soccer star David Beckham, the musician […]
Continue ReadingGregory Peck Dies
On this day in 2003, the film actor Gregory Peck, best known to many for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of the courageous, dignified lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), dies at his home in Los Angeles, at the age of 87. Born on April 5, 1916, in […]
Continue ReadingBob Hope Celebrates 100th Birthday
Some 35 U.S. states declare it to be Bob Hope Day on this day in 2003, when the iconic comedic actor and entertainer turns 100 years old. In a public ceremony held in Hollywood, city officials renamed the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Avenue–famous for its historic buildings and […]
Continue ReadingSorenstam Makes History
On May 22, 2003, golfer Annika Sorenstam becomes the first woman to play in a PGA tour event since Babe Didrikson 58 years earlier, after receiving a sponsor’s exemption to compete in the Bank of America Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas. Annika Sorenstam was born October 9, 1970, in Bro, […]
Continue ReadingRecord-Breaking Tornado Wave Begins
A record-breaking wave of tornadoes begins across the southern and midwestern United States on this day in 2003. By the time the wave is over, more than 500 tornadoes are recorded for the month, shattering the previous record by more than 100. The amazing spate of twisters followed an unusually […]
Continue ReadingBush Addresses The Nation After Space Huttle Columbia Explodes
On this day in 2003, after ordering the nation’s flags to fly at half-staff, President George W. Bush solemnly addresses the public via live television in the wake of the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia. Hours earlier, television crews had captured Columbia‘s tragic disintegration upon reentering the earth’s atmosphere. […]
Continue ReadingColumbia Mission Ends In Disaster
On this day in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up while entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members on board. The Columbia‘s 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was originally scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was delayed numerous times for a variety of reasons […]
Continue ReadingItalian Auto Baron Gianni Agnelli Dies
On this day in 2003, Giovanni “Gianni” Agnelli, the glamorous, powerful Italian business tycoon who turned Fiat, his family’s car company, into an international conglomerate, dies at the age of 81. Agnelli was born on March 12, 1921, in Turin, Italy, and named for his grandfather, who founded Fabbrica Italiana […]
Continue ReadingNational Society Of Film Critics Honors The Pianist
The National Society of Film Critics, comprising 55 of America’s top critics, holds its 37th annual meeting at Sardi’s Restaurant in New York City on this day in 2003. The critics chose the director Roman Polanski’s wrenching Holocaust drama The Pianist as best picture of the previous year,. As a […]
Continue ReadingFighter Jet Crashes Into Crowd At Air Show
During an air show in Ukraine, a fighter jet crashes into a crowd of spectators on this day in 2002, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds more. This was the worst air-show accident to that date. Thousands of spectators, including many children, were enjoying themselves on a summer Saturday afternoon […]
Continue ReadingCalifornia Governor Signs New Auto Emissions Legislation
On July 22, 2002, over the strenuous opposition of the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the auto industry, Governor Gray Davis of California signs a stringent law regulating emissions from automobiles. The U.S. Congress passed the first national fuel economy standards, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, in […]
Continue ReadingBush Unveils Strategy For Homeland Security
On this day in 2002, President George W. Bush announces his plan for strengthening homeland security in the wake of the shocking September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., in which nearly 3,000 people had been killed. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, in an […]
Continue ReadingJohn Walker Lindh Accepts Plea Bargain
On this day in 2002, John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban,” accepts a plea-bargain deal in which he pleads guilty to one count of supplying services to the Taliban and carrying weapons. Under the terms of the deal, Walker Lindh agreed to serve 20 years in prison and cooperate with […]
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