Samuel S Reynolds (born 1888)

In 1888, in the year that Samuel S Reynolds was born, on August 7th, the body of a prostitute was found in the Whitechapel section of London. Martha Tabram had been stabbed 39 times - a possible but not confirmed victim of Jack the Ripper. On August 31st, the body of Mary Ann Nichols was found - stabbed and mutilated. On September 8th, the body of Annie Chapman was found - throat slit and disemboweled. On September 30th, Elizabeth Stride, also a prostitute in Whitechapel, was found dead from a slit throat. Within an hour, another body was discovered - Catherine Eddowes'. She was far more savagely murdered and it is thought that the Ripper had more time with her. Then, on November 9th, the body of prostitute Mary Jane Kelly was found in a boarding room in Whitechapel. Considered to be the probable fifth, and last, of Jack the Ripper's victims, Kelly's was the most savage of his murders.

In 1924, J. Edgar Hoover, at the age of 29, was appointed the sixth director of the Bureau of Investigation by Calvin Coolidge (which later became the Federal Bureau of Investigation). The Bureau had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents. A former employee of the Justice Department, Hoover accepted his new position on the proviso that the bureau was to be completely divorced from politics and that the director report only to the attorney general.

In 1940, on July 27th, the cartoon character Bugs Bunny debuted in his first film A Wild Hare - voiced by Mel Blanc. He has since appeared in more short films, feature films, compilations, TV series, music records, comic books, video games, award shows, amusement park rides, and commercials than any other cartoon character. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. "What's up, Doc?"

In 1960, on May 1st, an American CIA U-2 spy plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over the Soviet Union. Powers ejected and survived but was captured. The U.S. claimed that the U-2 was a "weather plane" but Powers was convicted in the Soviet Union of espionage. He was released in 1962 after 1 year, 9 months and 10 days in prison.

In 1977, on January 20th, Jimmy Carter became the 39th President of the United States. Running against incumbent Gerald Ford, he won 50.1% of the popular vote to Ford's 48.0%. He was elected to only one term.