Wallace Triplett was born on April 18, 1926. Triplett was the first African American drafted in the National Football League. Triplett was one of the first African American players for Penn State while in college. He was drafted in the 19th round and 192 pick by the Detroit Lions in the 1949 NFL Draft. Triplett holds the Lions single game record in kick off return yardage in a single game at 294 yards. This record is also good enough to earn him the number two ranking overall in the NFL for return yardage in a single game.
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2012
American television personality and businessman Dick Clark, who was the longtime host of American Bandstand (1957–87), died in California.Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about pop culture
Ron Wolfson/Landov
1999
Canadian ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, considered one of the game's greatest players, skated in his last NHL game.Find out if Wayne Gretzky tops our list of the 10 greatest hockey players of all time
IrisKawling
1980
Zimbabwe achieved independence from the United Kingdom.Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Africa
1956
Abandoning her Hollywood career, American actress Grace Kelly wed Rainier III, prince de Monaco, in a civil ceremony; an opulent religious ceremony took place the following day.Test your knowledge of A-list actors
Abbie Rowe. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston (JFKWHP-AR6607-D)
1945
During the U.S. invasion of the Japanese island of Okinawa in World War II, American war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed on nearby Ie Island by Japanese gunfire.How much do you know about World War II?
U.S. Department of Defense
1906
San Francisco was rocked by an earthquake caused by slippage along the San Andreas Fault.See the damage caused by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
1857
American defense lawyer, public speaker, debater, and writer Clarence Darrow—among whose high-profile court appearances was the Scopes Trial, in which he defended a Tennessee high-school teacher who had broken a state law by presenting the Darwinian theory of evolution—was born.Read about 10 “trials of the century.”
Courtesy of Chicago History Museum
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