FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

John Herbert Dillinger (June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster of the Great Depression. He led a group known as the “Dillinger Gang“, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations. Dillinger was imprisoned several times but escaped twice. He was charged, but not convicted, of the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana, police officer who shot Dillinger in his bullet-proof vest during a shootout; it was the only time Dillinger was charged with homicide.

Dillinger courted publicity. The media ran exaggerated accounts of his bravado and colorful personality and cast him as a Robin Hood. In response, J. Edgar Hoover, then director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), used Dillinger and his gang as his campaign platform to evolve the BOI into the Federal Bureau of Investigation, developing more sophisticated investigative techniques as weapons against organized crime.

After evading police in four states for almost a year, Dillinger was wounded and went to his father’s home to mend. He returned to Chicago in July 1934 and sought refuge in a brothel owned by Ana Cumpănaș. She informed authorities of his whereabouts. On July 22, 1934, local and federal law enforcement closed in on the Biograph Theater. As BOI agents moved to arrest Dillinger as he exited the theater, he drew a gun while attempting to flee, but was killed; this was later ruled as justifiable homicide.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

1790s

• 1793: ALEXANDER MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC OCEAN BECOMING THE FIRST EURO-AMERICAN TO COMPLETE A TRANSCONTINENTAL CROSSING NORTH OF MEXICO

1820s

• BORN 1822: GREGOR MENDEL (GENETICIST)

1830s

• DIED 1832: NAPOLEON II OF FRANCE

1840s

• BORN 1844: WILLIAM ARCHIBALD SPOONER (KNOWN FOR VERBAL INVERSIONS CALLED “SPOONERISMS”)
• BORN 1849: EMMA LAZARUS (POET)

1870s

• 1876: MARIA SPELTERINI WALKED ACROSS NIAGARA FALLS ON A TIGHTROPE. SHE CROSSED WITH HER ANKLES AND WRISTS MANACLED TO INJECT SOME DRAMA

1890s

• BORN 1890: ROSE FITZGERALD KENNEDY (MATRIARCH OF THE KENNEDY FAMILY)

1900s

• BORN 1908: AMY VANDERBILT (JOURNALIST)

1910s

• DIED 1916: JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY (POET)

1920s

• BORN 1923: BOB DOLE (POLITICIAN)
• BORN 1926: DORCUS REILLY (HOME ECONOMIST)

1930s

• BORN 1932: OSCAR DE LA RENTA (FASHION DESINGER)
• 1933: FLYING IN HIS PLANE, THE WINNIE MAE, WILEY POST COMPLETED THE FIRST SOLO AROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHT
• 1934: JOHN DILLINGER, “PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1,” WAS SHOT AND FATALLY WOUNDED BY A GROUP OF FBI AGENTS

1940s

• BORN 1940: ALEX TREBEK (GAME SHOW HOST)
• BORN 1947: ALBERT BROOKS (ACTOR)
• BORN 1947: DON HENLEY (SINGER)
• BORN 1947: DANNY GLOVER (ACTOR)
• BORN 1948: S.E. HINTON (AUTHOR)

1950s

• DIED 1950: WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE KING (CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER)
• 1952: FRANK ZYBACH’S “SELF-PROPELLED SPRINKLING IRRIGATING APPARATUS” PATENTED
• BORN 1955: WILLEM DAFOE (ACTOR)

1960s

• BORN 1968: RHYS IFANS (ACTOR)

1970s

• BORN 1971: KRISTINE LILLY (SOCCER PLAYER)
• 1976: ROMANIAN GYMNAST, NADIA COMANECI, BECOMES THE FIRST OLYMPIC ATHLETE TO SCORE A PERFECT 10

1990s

• BORN 1992: SELENA GOMEZ (SINGER AND ACTRESS)
• DIED 1998: CORBETT MONICA (ACTOR)

2000s

• DIED 2008: ESTELLE GETTY (ACTRESS)

2010s

• DIED 2013: DENNIS FARINA (ACTOR)
• BORN 2013: GEORGE ALEXANDER LOUIS OF CAMBRIDGE (BRITISH PRINCE)

COURTESY www.almanac.com