Celestial bodies discovered in California This winners photo was made today in 1952 at a beauty pageant held at the Civic Auditorium of San Jose, California, and sponsored by Ray Van Cleef and his Gateway to Health gym. Van Cleef was a former competitive weightlifter who became a fitness guru by opening his gym, writing a column for Strength and Health magazine, and serving as a trainer for the 1948 U.S. Olympic Team. The above contest competitors were judged on “physical beauty, facial beauty, personality, and grace,” and the lucky winner, who earned the crown Miss Venus, was Beverly Jocher, a dancer from the Bruce Variety Show in Port Hueneme, north of Los Angeles. We assumed she was trying to break into movies, which is the case for most pageant participants, and indeed when we checked she possessed a single film credit—for the 1954 sci-fi flick Gog. Second place at the pageant went to Jill Gion, and third to the interestingly named Bandy Lee. No word on what any of the contestants actually won.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule's main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule's descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission. 1986—Otto Preminger Dies
Austro–Hungarian film director Otto Preminger, who directed such eternal classics as Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Carmen Jones, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Stalag 17, and for his efforts earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, dies in New York City, aged 80, from cancer and Alzheimer's disease. 1998—James Earl Ray Dies
The convicted assassin of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., petty criminal James Earl Ray, dies in prison of hepatitis aged 70, protesting his innocence as he had for decades. Members of the King family who supported Ray's fight to clear his name believed the U.S. Government had been involved in Dr. King's killing, but with Ray's death such questions became moot. 1912—Pravda Is Founded
The newspaper Pravda, or Truth, known as the voice of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, begins publication in Saint Petersburg. It is one of the country's leading newspapers until 1991, when it is closed down by decree of then-President Boris Yeltsin. A number of other Pravdas appear afterward, including an internet site and a tabloid. 1983—Hitler's Diaries Found
The German magazine Der Stern claims that Adolf Hitler's diaries had been found in wreckage in East Germany. The magazine had paid 10 million German marks for the sixty small books, plus a volume about Rudolf Hess's flight to the United Kingdom, covering the period from 1932 to 1945. But the diaries are subsequently revealed to be fakes written by Konrad Kujau, a notorious Stuttgart forger. Both he and Stern journalist Gerd Heidemann go to trial in 1985 and are each sentenced to 42 months in prison.
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