When was john wayne gacy born

Gacy actually hired a thug to beat up the witness, which failed, and only increased the charges against him. He plead guilty to sodomy and was sentenced to 10 years. Gacy was a model prisoner and was paroled in after serving only 18 months. He then moved to Chicago where he began his life anew as a building constructor. Gacy became popular with his new neighbors and colleagues. He would throw theme parties and often dress up as 'Pogo the Clown' for children's parties and charity shows.

Gacy was also involved with the Democratic party and even had his picture taken with then First Lady Rosalynn Carter wife of former President Jimmy Carter. On February 12, he was once again charged with sexual misconduct towards a young man. The witness did not show up in court and the charges were dropped. He finished his parole on October 18, Gacy committed his first murder on January 3, His modus operandi would be to drive around town looking for young male runaways, ex-jailbirds or even male prostitutes.

Gacy's victims ranged in age from 9 to 20 years. He would flash them a 'badge' or a 'gun' pretending to be an officer of the law and 'arrest' them.

Gacy would then befriend them and take take them home where he showed them tricks with 'magic handcuffs'. Once he had subdued his victim he would torture, sodomize and garrote them. Then he would bury them in a crawl space beneath his house. When he ran out of space he began to dump bodies in neighboring rivers.

After he divorced his second wife in the killings escalated as he had the house to himself. On October 25, he committed a double homicide! In December he actually let one of his victims leave after he had 'done' with him. On December 12, he killed his 33rd and last victim; a year-old boy, named Robert Piest, who lived in his neighborhood.

This was Gacy's one big mistake. The victim had told someone he was going to see his "contractor" about a job and was never seen again. The "contractor" turned out to be Gacy. When the police dropped by his house they noticed the smell from the decomposing corpses underneath.

When they saw his police record, it wasn't hard for them to get a search warrant of his house. A total of 29 bodies were extracted from the crawlspace and five more from the nearby river, of which 9 remain unidentified. Gacy was judged sane by the court psychiatrists and in was charged with 21 counts of life for murders committed before June 21, when Illinois reinstated the death sentence.

For the 12 committed since then he got the death sentence. Sign In. On August 21, Cram moved into his house. The following day, Gacy conned the youth into donning handcuffs while the youth was inebriated. Gacy swung Cram around while holding the chain linking the cuffs, then informed the youth that he intended to rape him.

Cram, who had spent a year in the Army, kicked Gacy in the face, then freed himself from the handcuffs as Gacy lay prone. One month later, Gacy appeared at Cram's bedroom door with the intention to rape the youth and said: "Dave, you really don't know who I am. Maybe it would be good if you give me what I want. Two further unidentified youths are estimated to have been killed between August and October One of these youths was buried directly above the body of William Carroll, who had been murdered on June 13, yet higher than the body of a year-old Bensenville youth named Rick Johnston, who was last seen on August 6.

This particular unidentified youth is estimated to have been aged between 21 and 27 years old and sequential burial patterns of victims within the crawl space, plus the circumstancial fact that Cram had not lived with Gacy between the dates of August 6 and August 20, leave a possible date of between August 6 and August 20, as the time this particular youth was murdered.

The second unidentified youth likely to have been murdered between August and October is a youth with dark brown hair aged between 19 and 21 years old, who is known to have suffered from an abscessed tooth at the time of his murder. This youth was buried in the northeast corner of the crawl space. Subsequent recollections by an employee of PDM Contractors of a trench Gacy had ordered him to dig on or before October 5, , being the location where this particular victim was buried suggest a date between August and October 5, , as being when this youth was murdered.

On October 24, , Gacy abducted and killed two teenage friends named Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino: the two youths were last seen outside a restaurant on Clark Street. Both youths were strangled and buried in the same grave in the crawl space. Two days later, a year-old employee of PDM Contractors named William Bundy disappeared after informing his family he was to attend a party.

Bundy was also strangled and buried in the crawl space, buried directly beneath Gacy's master bedroom. In December , another PDM employee, year-old Gregory Godzik, disappeared: he was last seen by his girlfriend outside her house having driven her home following a date. Godzik had worked for PDM for only three weeks before he disappeared. In the time he had worked for Gacy, he had informed his family Gacy had had him "dig trenches for some kind of drain tiles" in his crawl space. Godzik's car was later found abandoned in Niles.

His parents and older sister, Eugenia, contacted Gacy about Greg's disappearance. Gacy claimed to the family that Greg had run away from home, having indicated to Gacy before his disappearance that he wished to do so.

Gacy also claimed to have received a recorded answering machine message from Godzik shortly after the youth had disappeared. When asked if he could play back the message to Godzik's parents, Gacy stated that he had erased it. Szyc was lured to Gacy's house on the pretext of selling his Plymouth Satellite to Gacy.

He was buried in Gacy's crawl space directly above the body of Godzik. A ring worn by Szyc, which bore his initials, was retained in a dresser in Gacy's master bedroom. Gacy also kept Szyc's portable Motorola TV in his bedroom and later sold the youth's car to another of his employees, year-old Michael Rossi.

Between December and March , Gacy is known to have killed an unidentified young man estimated to be around 25 years old. His body was buried in the crawl space beneath the body of a year-old named Jon Prestidge, a Michigan youth visiting friends in Chicago whom Gacy killed on March After the murder of Prestidge, Gacy is believed to have murdered one further unidentified youth exhumed from his crawl space, although the timing of this particular youth's murder is inconclusive.

The youth was buried parallel to the wall of Gacy's crawl space directly beneath the entrance to his home. The two victims murdered on the same day in May were buried alongside this youth, yet sequential burial patterns of three victims murdered in leave an equal possibility this particular victim may have been murdered in the spring or summer of All that is known about this youth is that he was aged between 17 and 21 years old and that he had suffered a fractured left collarbone before his disappearance.

In March , Gacy was hired as a construction supervisor for PE Systems, a firm which specialized in the nationwide remodeling of drugstores.

As a result of this contract, Gacy regularly traveled to other states to supervise construction projects and he later stated that, through both businesses PDM Contractors and PE Systems , almost 80 buildings were successfully remodeled in alone. He was buried in the crawl space with the tourniquet used to strangle him still knotted around his neck.

In August , a clue emerged to the disappearance of John Szyc. Michael Rossi, who had bought Szyc's car from Gacy, was arrested for stealing gasoline from a service station while driving the car.

The attendant noted the license plate number and police traced the car to Gacy's house. When questioned, Gacy told officers that Szyc had sold the car to him in February with the explanation that he needed money to leave town.

The police did not pursue the matter further, although they did inform Szyc's mother that her son had sold his car to Gacy. Throughout the autumn and winter of , Gacy began dating Carole Hoff in the hope of a reconciliation. Carole became engaged to another man the following year. By the end of , Gacy is also known to have murdered a further six young men between the ages of 16 and The first of these six victims, year-old Robert Gilroy, was last seen alive on September Gilroy—the son of a Chicago police sergeant—was suffocated and buried in the crawl space.

On September 12, Gacy had flown to Pittsburgh to supervise a remodeling project and did not return to Chicago until September As Gacy is known to have been in another state at the time the youth was last seen, it is possible that Gacy's subsequent claims that he had not acted alone in some murders may have held credence.

Ten days after Gilroy was last seen, a year-old U. Marine named John Mowery disappeared after leaving his mother's house to walk to his own apartment. Mowery was strangled to death and buried in the northwest corner of the crawl space perpendicular to the body of William Bundy. On October 17, a year-old Minnesota youth named Russell Nelson disappeared: he was last seen outside a Chicago bar.

Nelson died of suffocation and was also buried in the crawl space. Less than four weeks later, a year-old Kalamazoo youth named Robert Winch was murdered and buried in the crawl space, and on November 18, a year-old father-of-one named Tommy Boling disappeared after leaving a Chicago bar. Both Winch and Boling were strangled to death and both youths were buried in the crawl space directly beneath the hallway. Three weeks after the murder of Tommy Boling, on December 9, a year-old U.

Marine named David Talsma disappeared after informing his mother he was to attend a rock concert in Hammond. Talsma was strangled with a ligature and buried in the crawl space. On December 30, , Gacy abducted a year-old student named Robert Donnelly from a Chicago bus stop at gunpoint.

Gacy drove Donnelly home with him, raped him, tortured him with various devices, and repeatedly dunked his head into a bathtub filled with water until he passed out, then revived him. Donnelly later testified at Gacy's trial that he was in such pain that he asked Gacy to kill him to "get it over with," to which Gacy replied: "I'm getting round to it. Donnelly reported the assault and Gacy was questioned about it on January 6, Gacy admitted to having had "slave-sex" with Donnelly, but insisted everything was consensual.

The police believed him and no charges were filed. Kindred was the final victim to be buried in Gacy's crawl space, and Gacy began disposing of his victims in the Des Plaines River. In March , Gacy lured a year-old named Jeffrey Rignall into his car. Upon entering the car, the young man was chloroformed and driven to the house on Summerdale, where he was raped, tortured with various instruments including lit candles, and repeatedly chloroformed into unconsciousness.

Rignall was then driven to Lincoln Park, where he was dumped, unconscious but alive. Eventually he managed to stagger to his girlfriend's apartment. Rignall was later informed the chloroform had permanently damaged his liver.

Police were again informed of the assault, but did not investigate Gacy. Rignall remembered, through the chloroform haze of that night, Gacy's black Oldsmobile, the Kennedy Expressway and particular side streets. He staked out the exit on the Expressway where he knew he had been driven until—in April—he saw Gacy's distinctive black Oldsmobile, which Rignall and his friends followed to West Summerdale.

Police issued an arrest warrant, and Gacy was arrested on July He was facing an impending trial for a battery charge for the Rignall incident when he was arrested in December for the murders. Gacy later confessed to police that he had thrown five bodies off the I bridge into the Des Plaines River in , one of which he believed had landed upon a passing barge, although only four of these five bodies were ever found. Four months later, on November 4, Gacy killed a year-old named Frank Landingin.

His body was found in the Des Plaines River on November Three weeks after the murder of Landingin, on November 24, a year-old Elmwood Park youth named James Mazzara disappeared after sharing Thanksgiving dinner with his family; his body was found on December The cause of death in the case of Landingin was certified as suffocation due to the youth's own underwear being lodged down his throat. Mazzara had been strangled with a ligature. On December 11, , John Gacy visited a Des Plaines pharmacy to discuss a potential remodeling deal with Phil Torf, the owner of the store.

While discussing the potential deal with Torf, Gacy was heard mentioning that his firm hired teenage boys while he was within earshot of a year-old employee named Robert Jerome Piest. After Gacy left the store, Piest told his mother that "some contractor wants to talk to me about a job. When Piest failed to return, his family filed a missing person report on their son with the Des Plaines Police. The owner of the pharmacy named Gacy as the contractor Piest had most likely left the store to talk with.

Gacy denied talking to Piest when Des Plaines police visited his home the following evening, indicating he had seen two youths working at the pharmacy and that he had asked one of them—whom he believed to be Piest—whether any remodeling materials were present in the rear of the store.

He was adamant, however, that he had not offered Piest a job and promised to come to the station later that evening to make a statement confirming this, indicating he was unable to do so at that moment as his uncle had just died.

At a. Upon returning to the police station later that day, Gacy flatly denied any involvement in the disappearance of Robert Piest and repeated that he had not offered the youth a job. When asked why he had returned to the pharmacy at 8 p. Detectives had already spoken with Torf, who had stated he had placed no such call to Gacy. At the request of detectives, Gacy prepared a written statement detailing his movements on December Des Plaines police were convinced Gacy was behind Piest's disappearance and checked Gacy's record, discovering that he had an outstanding battery charge against him in Chicago and had served a prison sentence in Iowa for sodomy.

A search of Gacy's house on December 13, ordered by a judge at the request of detectives, turned up several suspicious items: a high school class ring engraved with the initials J. Police decided to confiscate Gacy's Oldsmobile, along with other PDM vehicles and assign two two-man surveillance teams to follow Gacy, while they continued their investigation of Gacy regarding Piest's disappearance.

The following day, investigators received a phone call from Michael Rossi, who informed the investigators both of Gregory Godzik's disappearance and the fact another PDM employee, Charles Hattula, had been found drowned in an Illinois river the previous year. On December 15, Des Plaines investigators obtained further details upon Gacy's battery charge, learning the complainant, Jeffrey Rignall, had reported that Gacy had lured him into his car, chloroformed him, raped him and dumped him, while he was suffering severe chest and facial burns and rectal bleeding, in Lincoln Park the following morning.

In an interview with Gacy's former wife the same day, they learned of the disappearance of John Butkovich. In an interview with Szyc's mother the same day, she informed officers of the January disappearance of her son and that several items from his apartment were also missing, including a Motorola TV set. She added that investigators had informed her the month following his disappearance that her son had apparently sold his Plymouth Satellite to a John Gacy.

By December 16, Gacy was becoming affable with the surveillance detectives, regularly inviting them to join him for meals in various restaurants and occasionally for drinks in bars or his home. He repeatedly denied that he had anything to do with Piest's disappearance and accused the officers of harassing him because of his political connections or because of his use of recreational drugs.

Knowing these officers were unlikely to arrest him on anything trivial, he openly taunted them by flouting traffic laws and succeeded in losing his pursuers on more than one occasion. On December 17, investigators conducted a formal interview of Michael Rossi, who informed them Gacy had sold Szyc's vehicle to him with the explanation that he had bought the car from Szyc because the youth needed money to move to California.

A further examination of Gacy's Oldsmobile was conducted on this date. In the course of examining the trunk of the car, the investigators discovered a small cluster of fibers which may have been human hair.

These fibers were sent for further analysis. That evening, officers conducted a test using three trained German shepherd search dogs to determine whether Piest had been present in any of Gacy's vehicles. The dogs were allowed to examine each of Gacy's vehicles, whereupon one dog approached Gacy's Oldsmobile and lay upon the passenger seat in what the dog's handler informed investigators was a "death reaction," indicating the body of Robert Piest had been present in this vehicle.

That evening, Gacy invited two of the surveillance detectives to a restaurant for a meal. In the early hours of December 18, he invited the same officers into another restaurant where, over breakfast, he talked of his business, his marriages and his activities as a registered clown. At one point during this conversation, Gacy remarked to one of the two surveillance detectives: "You know… clowns can get away with murder.

By December 18, Gacy was beginning to show visible signs of strain as a result of the constant surveillance: he was unshaven, looked tired, appeared anxious and was drinking heavily. The same day, the serial number of the Nisson Pharmacy photo receipt found in Gacy's kitchen was traced to a Kim Byers, a colleague of Piest at Nisson Pharmacy, who admitted when contacted in person the following day that she had worn the jacket and had placed the receipt in his parka pocket just before she gave the parka to Piest as he left the store to talk with a contractor.

This revelation contradicted Gacy's previous statements that he had had no contact with Robert Piest on the evening of December the presence of the receipt indicated that Gacy must have been in contact with Robert Piest after the youth had left the Nisson Pharmacy on December The same evening, Michael Rossi was interviewed a second time: on this occasion, Rossi was more cooperative, informing detectives that in the summer of , Gacy had had him spread ten bags of lime in the crawl space of the house.

On December 19, investigators began compiling evidence for a second search warrant of Gacy's house. The same day, Gacy's lawyers filed the civil suit against the Des Plaines police. The hearing of the suit was scheduled for December That afternoon, Gacy invited two of the surveillance detectives inside his house. On this occasion, as one officer distracted Gacy with conversation, another officer walked into Gacy's bedroom in an unsuccessful attempt to write down the serial number of the Motorola TV set they suspected belonged to John Szyc.

While flushing Gacy's toilet, this officer noticed a smell he suspected could be that of rotting corpses emanating from a heating duct; the officers who previously searched Gacy's house failed to notice this as on that occasion the house had been cold.

Rossi had agreed to be interviewed in relation to his possible links with John Szyc whose vehicle investigators had established he drove as well as the disappearance of Robert Piest.

When questioned by Detective Joseph Kozenczak as to where he believed Gacy had placed Piest's body, Rossi replied: "In the crawl space; he could have put him in the crawl space. Cram himself informed investigators of Gacy's attempts to rape him in and stated that after he and Gacy had returned to his home after the December 13 search of his property, Gacy had turned pale upon noting a clot of mud on his carpet which he suspected had come from his crawl space.

Cram then stated Gacy had grabbed a flashlight and immediately entered the crawl space to look for evidence of digging. When asked whether he had been to the crawl space, Cram replied he had been asked by Gacy to spread lime down there and also dug trenches upon Gacy's behest with the explanation they were for plumbing. Cram stated these trenches were two feet wide, six feet long and two feet deep—the size of graves. On the evening of December 20, Gacy drove to his lawyers' office in Park Ridge to attend a pre-scheduled meeting he had arranged with them, ostensibly to discuss the progress of his civil suit.

Upon his arrival, Gacy appeared disheveled and immediately asked for an alcoholic drink, whereupon Sam Amirante fetched a bottle of whiskey from his car. Upon his return, Amirante asked Gacy what he had to discuss with them. Gacy picked up a copy of the Daily Herald from Amirante's desk; he pointed to a front page article covering the disappearance of Robert Piest and informed his lawyers "This boy is dead.

He's in a river. Over the following hours, Gacy gave a rambling confession which ran into the early hours of the following morning. He began by informing Amirante and Stevens he had "been the judge Some victims he referred to by name; most he dismissed as "male prostitutes", "hustlers" and "liars" whom he would give "the rope trick".

On other occasions, he stated he would wake up to find "dead, strangled kids" on his floor. In reference to Robert Piest, Gacy harked that as he placed the tourniquet around his neck, that Piest was "crying, scared.

Upon awakening several hours later, Gacy simply shook his head when informed by Amirante he had earlier confessed to killing approximately 30 people, stating: "Well, I can't think about this right now. I've got things to do. Gacy later recollected his memories of his final day of freedom as being "hazy," adding that he knew his arrest was inevitable and that, in his final hours of freedom, he intended to visit his friends and say his final farewells.

Upon leaving his lawyers' office, Gacy drove to a Shell gas station where, in the course of filling his rental car, he handed a small bag of marijuana to the attendant, a youth named Lance Jacobson.

Jacobson immediately handed the bag to the surveillance officers, adding that Gacy had told him "The end is coming for me. These guys are going to kill me. Inside Rhode's living room, Gacy hugged Rhode before bursting into tears and saying: "I killed thirty people, give or take a few. As he drove along the expressway, the surveillance officers noted he was holding a rosary to his chin as he prayed while driving. As he spoke with his lawyer, Cram informed the officers that Gacy had earlier divulged to both himself and Rossi that the previous evening, he had confessed to his lawyers his guilt in over thirty murders.

Upon concluding his meeting with his lawyer, Gacy had Cram drive him to Maryhill Cemetery, where his father was buried. As Gacy drove to various locations that morning, police outlined their formal draft of their second search warrant. The purpose of the warrant was specifically to search for the body of Robert Piest in the crawl space. Upon hearing radioed reports from the surveillance detectives that, in light of his erratic behavior, Gacy might be about to commit suicide, police decided to arrest him upon a charge of possession and distribution of marijuana in order to hold him in custody as the formal request for a second search warrant was presented.

At on the afternoon of December 21, the eve of the hearing of Gacy's civil suit, the request for a second search warrant was granted by Judge Marvin J. Armed with the signed search warrant, police and evidence technicians quickly drove to Gacy's home. Upon their arrival, officers found that Gacy had unplugged his sump pump and that the crawl space was flooded with water; to clear the water they simply replaced the plug and waited for the water to drain.

After it had done so, an evidence technician named Daniel Genty entered the crawl space and crawled to the southwest area of the crawl space and began digging.

Within minutes, he had uncovered putrefied flesh and a human arm bone. Genty immediately shouted to the investigators that they could charge Gacy with murder. After being informed that police had found human remains in his crawl space and that he would now face murder charges, Gacy told officers he wanted to "clear the air," adding that he knew his arrest was inevitable since he had spent the previous evening on the couch in his lawyers' office.

In the early hours of December 22, , Gacy confessed to police that since , he had committed approximately 25 to 30 murders, all of whom he falsely claimed were teenage male runaways or male prostitutes, whom he would typically abduct from Chicago's Greyhound Bus station, from Bughouse Square or simply off the streets. The victims would often be grabbed by force or conned into believing Gacy—often carrying a sheriff's badge and placing spotlights on his black Oldsmobile—was a policeman and would be lured to his house with either the promise of a job with his construction company or with an offer of money for sex.

Once back at Gacy's house, the victims would be handcuffed or otherwise bound, then choked with a rope or a board as they were sexually assaulted. Gacy would often stick clothing in the victims' mouths to muffle their screams. Many of his victims had been strangled with a tourniquet, which Gacy referred to as his "rope trick. When asked where he drew the inspiration for the two-by-four found at his house in which he had manacled many of his victims, Gacy stated he had been inspired to construct the device from reading about the Houston Mass Murders.

The victims were usually lured alone to his house, although on approximately three occasions, Gacy had what he called "doubles"—occasions wherein he killed two victims on the same evening.

After death, the victims' bodies would typically be stored beneath his bed for up to 24 hours before burial in the crawl space. When asked why several bodies were found with plastic bags over their heads or upper torsos, Gacy stated he would cover the victim's head or upper torso with a plastic bag if he noted bleeding from the nose or mouth. Most victims were buried in Gacy's crawl space where, periodically, he would pour quicklime to hasten the decomposition of the bodies.

Gacy stated he had lost count of the number of victims buried in his crawl space and had initially considered stowing bodies in his attic before opting to dispose of his victims off the I bridge into the Des Plaines River. Thus the final five victims—all killed in —were disposed of in this manner because his crawl space was full. When asked about Robert Piest, Gacy confessed to strangling the youth at his house that evening, adding that he had been interrupted by a phone call from a business colleague while doing so; he also admitted to having disposed of Piest's body in the Des Plaines river and stated that the reason he had arrived at the Des Plaines police station in a disheveled manner in the early hours of December 13 was that he had been in a minor traffic accident after disposing of Piest's body en route to his appointment with Des Plaines officers.

He also confessed to police he had buried the body of John Butkovitch in his garage. To assist officers in their search for the victims buried in his house, Gacy drew a diagram of his basement to show where the bodies were buried.

Accompanied by police, Gacy returned to his house on December 22 and showed police the location in his garage where he had buried Butkovitch's body, then police drove to the spot on the I bridge from which he had thrown the body of Piest and four other victims although only four of the five victims Gacy claimed to have disposed of in this way were ever recovered from the Des Plaines River. Between December 22 and December 29, , 27 bodies were recovered from Gacy's property, 26 of which were found buried in his crawl space, with one additional victim, John Butkovitch, being found buried beneath the concrete floor of his garage precisely where Gacy had marked the youth's grave with a can of spray paint.

Following a temporary postponement of the excavations imposed in January due to a severe winter snowfall in Chicago, excavations of the property resumed in March—despite Gacy's insistence to investigators that all the victims' bodies buried upon his property had been found.

On March 9, the body of a 28th victim was found buried in a pit close to a barbecue grill in the backyard of the property: the victim was found wrapped within several plastic bags and wore a ring on the ring finger of his left hand, indicating the possibility he had been married. One week later, on March 16, the skeletal remains of another victim were found buried beneath the joists of the dining room floor, bringing the total number of bodies exhumed at West Summerdale Avenue to In April , Gacy's vacant house was demolished.

Three additional bodies, which had been found in the nearby Des Plaines River between June and December , were also confirmed to have been victims of Gacy. Several of the bodies were found with the ligature used to strangle them still knotted around their necks. In other instances, cloth gags were found lodged deep down the victims' throats, leading the investigators to conclude that 13 of Gacy's victims died not of strangulation, but of asphyxiation. In some cases, bodies were found with foreign objects such as prescription bottles lodged into their pelvic region, the position of which indicated the items had been thrust into the victims' anus.

Some victims were identified due to their known connection to Gacy through PDM Contractors; others were identified due to their personal artifacts being found at Summerdale: one victim, year-old Michael Bonnin, who had disappeared June 3, , while traveling from Chicago to Waukegan, was identified because his fishing license was found at Gacy's home; another youth, Timothy O'Rourke, was last heard mentioning that a contractor had offered him a job.

Seven of the victims have never been identified. On April 9, , a body was discovered entangled in exposed roots on the edge of the Des Plaines River in Grundy County. The body was identified via dental records as being that of Robert Piest. They noticed a strong stench coming from a crawl space but at first thought it was from a damaged sewage pipe.

After his conviction, Gacy spent 14 years on Death Row, during which time he made paintings of clowns and other figures that sold for thousands of dollars. On May 10, , having exhausted all his appeals, the year-old Gacy, who the media dubbed the Killer Clown, was put to death by lethal injection at the Stateville Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! If the initial reviews failed to recognize it as one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, one needs to understand the adverse conditions under which the work was first heard.

The concert venue was freezing cold; it was more than two hours into a mammoth four-hour program French officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason by a military court-martial and sentenced to life in prison for his alleged crime of passing military secrets to the Germans. The Jewish artillery captain, convicted on flimsy evidence in a highly irregular trial, began his After wounding three of the unarmed men, Goetz pointed his gun at year-old Darrell Cabey, who was not wounded but cowering terrified in The Romanian army defects to the cause of anti-communist demonstrators, and the government of Nicolae Ceausescu is overthrown.

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Weighing in at approximately 4 pounds, Colo, a western lowland gorilla whose name was a combination of Columbus and Ohio, was the A week after the armistice was signed between Russia and Germany and nearly three weeks after a ceasefire was declared on the Eastern Front, representatives of the two countries begin peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk, near the Polish border in what is now the city of Brest, in Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox.

The Soviet Union accuses China of backing U. China, which had previously taken a hard line toward negotiations between Hanoi and Washington, softened its position by