William A Bickston (born 1920)

In 1920, in the year that William A Bickston was born, Italian born factory worker Nicola Sacco and fish peddler Bartolomeo Vanzetti were picked up by police on May 5th in connection with the April 15th murder and robbery of a guard and a paymaster at the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in South Braintree, Mass. Although in later years they were thought to be innocent, they were anarchists and were convicted of the crime and put to death.

In 1936, on November 2nd, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) debuted the world's first regular high-definition television service. The channel had a short schedule - Monday through Saturday, 3:00p to 4:00p and 9:00p to 10:00p. The first broadcast was "Opening of the BBC Television Service".

In 1945, on March 12th, a riot erupted at a Japanese internment camp in Santa Fe New Mexico. Two days earlier, white shirts with the Rising Sun on the back had been confiscated and the prisoners objected. Three leaders of the protest were removed and sent to another camp. Guards at the Santa Fe camp were armed with submachine guns, shotguns, and gun masks. On the morning of the 12th, prisoners began throwing rocks at the guards. When the "rioters" wouldn't disperse, the guards were ordered to use tear gas and batons. Four men were badly injured as a result.

In 1981, on January 20th, Ronald Reagan became the 40th President of the United States. He ran against the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, and won 50.7% of the popular vote to Carter's 41.0%.

In 1993, on February 26th, a truck bomb exploded in the garage under the North Tower of the World Trade Center. While the bomb didn't do what was planned (collapse the North Tower into the South Tower), it did kill six people and injured thousands of people.