September 16: This Day in History

Featured Fact, 1941:
CBS Radio debuted the program that would later be called "The Bob Burns Show." Burns played a strange musical instrument called the "bazooka" -- a name the U.S. Army adopted to identify its rocket launcher because of its resemblance to Burns' bazooka.

Also Today:
1620: The Mayflower embarks from Plymouth, England to bring 102 to the New World; they arrived a month later.
1940: Sam Rayburn, of Texas, becomes Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; he serves as Speaker for 17 years.
1960: Amos Alonzo Stagg, at age 98, retires from football coaching on this day.
1974: President Ford announces a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam deserters and draft-evaders.
1977: American-born Maria Callas, famed for her lyric soprano and fiery temperament, dies in Paris at age 53.

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