Talk about a game changer. It was today in 2001 that Apple introduced the i-Pod. It was probably the death knell for many things: record stores, albums, independent radio and on and on. Nobody misses cds or buying an entire album for one song you loved, but everyone misses hanging out in record stores. At least a little, right?

Today in 1970 a man named Gary Gabelich drove a car called, The Blue Flame, 622 miles per hour, setting a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. The car ran on natural gas, was rocket powered and always looked very bad ass near the front of, “The Guinness Book of World Records.”

In terms of going fast, not a lot did it better than Dale Earnhardt, who tied Richard Petty’s mark of 7 Nascar season titles today in 1994. It would be the last title for, “The Intimidator,” but he would finally win his Daytona 500 in 1998.

“Dumbo” hit screens today in 1941. Disney made the movie to make up for huge losses from “Fantasia,” and it worked, Dumbo was a huge hit and along with “Snow White,” was the only pre-1943 Disney film to turn a profit. “Dumbo ” was slated to be on the cover of TIME in early December, but was knocked off when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

Speaking of Dumbo, it was today in 2004 when Ashlee Simpson walked off the stage at Saturday Night Live when the wrong voice track started playing behind her.

1992 saw two very different movies come out today. George Strait starred in his one and only movie as Dusty Chandler in, “Pure Country,” which is one of those movies that people who love it, LOVE it. If nothing else it was the big  screen debut of Kyle Chandler.

“Let me tell you what ‘Like a Virgin’ is about. It’s all about a girl who digs a guy with a big dick. The entire song. It’s a metaphor for big dicks.”

Right from that opening line on, it was clear that “Reservoir Dogs” was going to be something completely different. Few writer/directors have shot to stardom as fast as Quentin Tarantino did with the release of this slick, fast talking heist flick that’s been borrowed from a million times since its release.

About as far away as you can get from “Reservoir Dogs” was a movie that came out today in 1998. “Life Is Beautiful” has been beaten up by some cold-hearted folks over the years, but like “Reservoir Dogs,” it stands as an all-time classic. Roberto Benigni won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of a young Italian man who falls in love, gets married and has a son and then does his best to shield his wife and child from terrors of Nazi Germany.

Joe Carter become just the second player to end the World Series with a home run today in 1993.

— Bill Hubbell