On This Day, April 22nd

1. 1934 : Notorious gangster”Babyface” Nelson shoots FBI agent during raid

"Babyface" Nelson Mugshot Photo: Fbi.gov

“Babyface” Nelson Mugshot
Photo: Fbi.gov

Little Bohemia after the shootout PHOTO: jsonline

Little Bohemia after the shootout
PHOTO: jsonline

George “Babyface” Nelson was actually born with the name Lester Gillis but being a gangster with the name Lester didn’t sit well with him so he demanded to go by Big George Nelson. He was known for being quite the hardass with violent methods when he linked up with Al Capone’s gang in 1929, but he had the face of a teenage boy so behind his back he acquired the nickname ” Babyface.” But according to reports, you never wanted to call him that to his face; the only people that could were the ones closest to him and even still it wasn’t a good idea. On this day, Big George Nelson was hiding out with legendary bank robber John Dillinger at the Little Bohemia Resort in Wisconsin when the FBI surrounded the place. Nelson started shooting, killing Agent W. Carter Baum, on his way to steal a car in his escape. He was later killed in a gun battle with two more Federal Agents November 27th.

2. 1978: The Blues Brothers perform on Saturday Night Live for the first time

Photo: biography

Photo: biography

On this night back in 1978, the original Men in Black got up on the SNL stage with the black Ray-Bans and black fedora hats and full black suits; The Blues Brothers were born. What started as a comedy skit turned into a pop culture icon that had three top 40 hits, a hit album, and multiple full length Hollywood movies. Legendary actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi played Elwood and Jake Blues and actually did the singing for the hit songs. For the debut in 1978 Aykroyd and Belushi gathered up some of the best blues musicians in the business and it was determined that even if the skit wasn’t a hit they would have to make it a recurring thing just to keep the band together. But as history tells us it was a smash hit and will go down as one of the biggest acts to come out of Saturday Night Live, and that’s really saying something.

3. 2004: Pat Tillman gets gunned down

Photo : wiki

Photo : wiki

Pat Tillman was on top of the world; he had made his childhood dream of playing football in the NFL come true, he had a beautiful wife. What more could a guy ask for right? Well after the 9/11 attacks, Tillman felt the need to do something about it so he quit the NFL and went to become an Army Ranger and was deployed to Afghanistan not long after that. One night while out on a patrol in eastern Afghanistan, Tillman was struck by a gunshot killing him instantly. It was first reported that the gunshot had come from an enemy ambush and Tillman’s family was led to believe that he was a hero and received all kinds of awards. But upon further investigation it was determined that the shot actually came from a friendly gun by mistake and because of the high publicity the Tillman had it appeared as if the military and attempted to cover it up.