Today in History - History - June 17th

2003Moneyball, a book about the 2003 Oakland Athletics baseball team and GM Billy Beane's sabermetric approach, inspired by Bill James, is published

1928Amelia Earhart leaves Nfld to become 1st woman (passenger) to fly Atlantic (as a passenger in a plane piloted by Wilmer Stultz)

1983Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren exorcise a "werewolf demon" from Bill Ramsey, although the lack of photo or video evidence has called this claim into question

1837Charles Goodyear obtains his 1st rubber patent

1960Ted Williams hit his 500th HR

1579Sir Francis Drake lands on coast of California at Drakes Bay, names it "New Albion"

1984John Turner succeeds Pierre Trudeau as premier of Canada

1944Hitler secretly meets with von Rundstedt in Marjival Soissons

1462vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.

1788After a lengthy stay in Europe, John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams return to Boston

1882Igor Stravinsky, Oranienbaum, Russia, composer (Rite of Spring) [OS 05/06]

1980Venus Williams, Lynwood California, tennis star

1943Barry Manilow, New York City, American singer/pianist (Mandy, I Write the Songs)

1945Tony Roche, Wagga Wagga Australia, tennis player and coach

1940George Akerlof, American economist, Nobel laureate

1881Tommy Burns, Hanover Ontario, Canadian boxer

1853Prime Minister of Canada Alexander Mackenzie (31) weds second wife Jane Sym

1835Soldier and politician Jefferson Davis (27) weds Sarah Knox Taylor (21) in Louisville, Kentucky

1924Golfer Bobby Jones (22) weds high school sweetheart Mary Rice Malone (22) in Atlanta, Georgia

1997Actress and philanthropist Grace Hightower (57) weds actor Robert De Niro (68) at their Marbletown home

1962Actor Jack Nicholson (25) weds Sandra Knight (22) in Los Angeles

1923Chemist Linus Pauling (22) weds Ava Helen Miller

2008Ice hockey player star Martin Brodeur (36) weds Genevieve Nault at the Bavaro Princess Resort in the Dominican Republic

1950US Attorney General robert kennedy (24) weds Ethel Kennedy (25) at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Greenwich, Connecticut

2006Producer Dick Wolf (59) weds fashion publicist Noelle Lippman

1977Senator Joseph biden of Delaware (34) weds Jill Jacobs (26) at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City

1947Maxwell Perkins, American editor and publisher for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, dies at 62

2012Rodney King, African American motorist beaten by LA cop, dies at 47