Bob Ross, the beloved painter and TV personality, had a remarkable journey to artistic fame. Before his television career, Ross spent 20 years in the military, including time as a drill sergeant. His military service took him to Alaska, where he was captivated by the stunning mountain scenery, a stark contrast to his Florida upbringing. These experiences influenced his calm demeanor and later inspired his iconic landscapes.
Ross's tranquil approach to painting and his ability to embrace "happy accidents" became hallmarks of his television show, "The Joy of Painting," which continues to inspire artists worldwide.
In 1942, Audie Murphy joined the Army by falsifying his birth certificate to show that he was one year older than his actual age of 17. Despite his small stature of 5 feet 5.5 inches and 112 pounds, he went on to become the most decorated U.S. combat soldier of World War II, earning all 33 medals available to him.
During a battle, Murphy and his best friend encountered a German machine gun crew who pretended to surrender, only to kill his friend. In response, Murphy single-handedly took out the entire enemy crew and used their weapons to neutralize two more machine gun nests and a group of snipers within a 100-yard radius.
In another battle he jumped into a burning M-1o tank destroyer and used it to annihilate every enemy in sight, then leaped clear before it exploded. All while he had Malaria. The film "To Hell and Back" depicted his remarkable exploits and he portrayed himself as the main character. Some of his heroic acts were removed from the movie because they were too hard to be believed.
Murphy remains the most highly decorated soldier in U.S. history.
It's been 24 years today that John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, took off on a humid, windy, and hazy night in a single-engine Piper 32 Saratoga aircraft from Caldwell, N.J., en route to the Martha's Vineyard Airport, but never arrived.
John's single-engine, six-seat Piper Saratoga I took off from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, N.J., at 8:38 p.m. Friday for the hour-long flight to Martha's Vineyard. At Martha's Vineyard, John was to drop off Lauren. From there, John and Carolyn were to fly on to the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod's Hyannis Port for the marriage of Rory Kennedy.
John's plane came close enough to an American Airlines plane that a radar controller alerted the crew on the jetliner. The last signal from the plane was transmitted at 9:39 pm, and at 9:41 p.m, the plane spiraled through the darkening sky, slamming into the Atlantic Ocean.
More than 24 hours after the plane vanished, there still was no sign of survivors, and fear grew that the star-crossed political dynasty had suffered another tragedy. As family members gathered to pray, instead of celebrating a wedding, debris indicating the plane had broken apart began washing up on the southern beaches of Martha's Vineyard.
Witnesses reported finding a headrest, portions of landing gear, carpeting, and a prescription bottle bearing Carolyn Kennedy's name.
By nightfall, the boy who broke the world's heart on his third birthday in 1963 when he solemnly saluted his slain father's coffin was presumed dead.
The Kennedy plane was found in about 100 feet of water 7.5 miles southwest of Martha's Vineyard on July 21, 1999. The first sign of wreckage was recovered 100 yards off Philbin Beach in Aquinnah. Navy divers recovered the bodies of John, Carolyn, and Lauren. They were all strapped in their seatbelts in the aircraft wreckage, with Kennedy still in the cockpit.
Americans mourned the loss of the "crown prince" of one of the country's most admired families, a sadness that was especially poignant given the relentless string of tragedies.