OCTOBER 20th

On this date in:
1803	The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.
1931	Baseball Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle was born in Spavinaw, Okla.
1944	Gen. Douglas MacArthur stepped ashore at Leyte in the Philippines, 2 1/2 years after he'd said, "I shall return."
1947	The House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence in the motion picture industry.
1964	Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, died at age 90 in New York City.
1967	Seven of 18 defendants were convicted in Mississippi of violating the civil rights of three young men who were murdered while trying to help blacks register to vote in 1964.
1968	Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.
1977	Three members of the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Miss.
1992	In the first World Series game to be played outside the United States, the host Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves 3-2.
2000	Egyptian-born Ali Mohamed, a U.S. citizen who'd served in the Army, pleaded guilty in New York to helping plan the deadly U.S. embassy bombings in Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
2004	A U.S. Army staff sergeant, Ivan "Chip" Frederick, pleaded guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. (He was sentenced to eight years in prison.)

Article of the day

Congress investigates Reds in Hollywood

On October 20, 1947, the notorious Red Scare kicks into high gear in Washington, as a Congressional committee begins investigating Communist influence in one of the world's richest and most glamorous communities: Hollywood.

After World War II, the Cold War began to heat up between the world's two superpowers--the United States and the communist-controlled Soviet Union. In Washington, conservative watchdogs worked to out communists in government before setting their sights on alleged "Reds" in the famously liberal movie industry. In an investigation that began in October 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) grilled a number of prominent witnesses, asking bluntly "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" Whether out of patriotism or fear, some witnesses--including director Elia Kazan, actors Gary Cooper and Robert Taylor and studio honchos Walt Disney and Jack Warner--gave the committee names of colleagues they suspected of being communists.

A small group known as the "Hollywood Ten" resisted, complaining that the hearings were illegal and violated their First Amendment rights. They were all convicted of obstructing the investigation and served jail terms. Pressured by Congress, the Hollywood establishment started a blacklist policy, banning the work of about 325 screenwriters, actors and directors who had not been cleared by the committee. Those blacklisted included composer Aaron Copland, writers Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker, playwright Arthur Miller and actor and filmmaker Orson Welles.

Some of the blacklisted writers used pseudonyms to continue working, while others wrote scripts that were credited to other writer friends. Starting in the early 1960s, after the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the most public face of anti-communism, the ban began to lift slowly. In 1997, the Writers' Guild of America unanimously voted to change the writing credits of 23 films made during the blacklist period, reversing--but not erasing--some of the damage done during the Red Scare.

Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=51910

Today Birthdays

76	William Christopher Actor ("M*A*S*H")
71	Wanda Jackson Country singer
71	Juan Marichal Baseball Hall of Famer
62	Elfriede Jelinek Nobel Prize-winning author
56	Melanie Mayron Actress
53	Sheldon Whitehouse U.S. senator, D-R.I.
50	Tom Petty Rock singer, musician
44	David Ryan Rock musician
44	Jim Sonefeld Rock musician (Hootie & The Blowfish)
41	Doug Eldridge Rock musician (Oleander)
37	Snoop Dogg (Calvin Broadus) Rapper
37	Dannii Minogue Rock singer
32	Jeff Loberg Country musician
29	John Krasinski Actor ("The Office")
23	Jennifer Nicole Freeman Actress ("My Wife and Kids")