Most Wanted - It Happened ToDay

It Happened ToDay

Most Wanted

March 14, 1950 - FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" List Debuts

After supplying information for a newspaper article in 1949 that listed the "toughest guys" being pursued by the FBI, the Bureau began considering criteria for making a list available to the public on a regular basis.

On this day in 1950, the Federal Bureau of Investigation established the "Ten Most Wanted" list. Hundreds of fugitives have since appeared on the list and 130 of them have been captured. The "Ten Most Wanted" list is arranged in no particular order of ranking. The FBI does not want to rank the fugitives to prevent any kind of competition amongst them to obtain the #1 slot. The fugitives are sometimes referred to by sequence numbers, which relate to their order of being placed on the list. The list is commonly posted in public places such as post offices, courthouses and other state and federal buildings.

In 1968, Ruth Eisemann-Schier became the first female fugitive to appear on the list.

Longest time listed: Donald Eugene Webb was listed longer than anyone. Webb was added in 1981 and spent 25 years, 10 months, and 27 days on the Ten Most Wanted list.

Shortest time on the list: Billie Austin Bryant was listed for only two hours in 1969 before being captured.

The most recently captured fugitive from the list is Columbian drug lord Diego León Montoya Sánchez, captured January 15, 2007.

The minimum reward for an FBI "Top Ten" fugitive is $50,000. The largest reward currently offered is $5,000,000 for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Osama Bin Laden. In the fall of 2001, the FBI unveiled the "Most Wanted Terrorist" list in response to the attacks of September 11th.

Quote for ToDay:
"Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success!" - William J. H. Boetcker

~ ToDay is the 74th day of 2008 - 292 days remaining ~

Selected other Odd Notable & Historic events that Happened ToDay:

• 1489 - Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, sold her kingdom to Venice. She was the last of the Lusignan dynasty.
• 1629 - A Royal charter was granted to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1794 - Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin.
• 1864 - Samuel Baker discovered another source of the Nile in East Africa. He named it Lake Albert Nyanza.
• 1891 - The submarine Monarch laid telephone cable along the bottom of the English Channel to prepare for the first telephone links across the Channel.
• 1901 - Utah Governor Heber M. Wells vetoed a bill that would have relaxed restrictions on polygamy.
• 1903 - The U.S. Senate ratified the Hay-Herran Treaty that guaranteed the U.S. the right to build a canal at Panama. The Columbian Senate rejected the treaty.
• 1914 - Henry Ford announced the new continuous motion method to assemble cars. The process decreased the time to make a car from 12½ hours to 93 minutes.
• 1923 - President Harding became the first U.S. President to file an income tax report.
• 1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office.
• 1947 - The U.S. signed a 99-year lease on naval bases in the Philippines.
• 1947 - Moscow announced that 890,532 German POWs were held in the U.S.S.R.
• 1951 - U.N. forces recaptured Seoul for the second time during the Korean War.
• 1954 - The Viet Minh launched an assault on Dien Bien Phu in Saigon.
• 1958 - The U.S. government suspended arms shipments to the Batista government of Cuba.
• 1964 - A Dallas jury found Jack Ruby guilty of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
• 1967 - John F. Kennedy's body was moved from a temporary grave to a permanent one.
• 1976 - Egypt formally abrogated the 1971 Treaty Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union.
• 1978 - An Israeli force of 22,000 invaded south Lebanon. The PLO bases were hit.
• 1979 - The Census Bureau reported that 95% of all Americans were married or would get married.
• 1983 - OPEC agreed to cut its oil prices by 15% for the first time in its 23-year history.
• 1989 - Imported assault guns were banned in the U.S. under President Bush.
• 1995 - American astronaut Norman Thagard became the first American to enter space aboard a Russian rocket.
• 1996 - U.S. President Bill Clinton committed $100 million for an anti-terrorism pact with Israel to track down and root out Islamic militants.
• 2002 - A Scottish appeals court upheld the conviction of a Libyan intelligence agent for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. A five-judge court ruled unanimously that Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi was guilty of bringing down the plane over Lockerbie, Scotland.
• 2003 - Robert Blake was released from jail on $1.5 million bail. Blake had been jailed for the murder of his wife Bonny Lee Bakley.

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