On September 9, 2002, astronaut Buzz Aldrin—the second human to set foot on the moon—is walking outside a Beverly Hills hotel when a conspiracy theorist starts harassing him and accusing Aldrin of lying about the Apollo 11 moon landing. Incensed, Aldrin punches his heckler in the face.

“You’re the one who said you walked on the moon when you didn’t,” Bart Sibrel told Aldrin as he walked by his filming crew outside the Luxe Hotel. “Calling a kettle black …”

“Will you get away from me?” an irate Aldrin warned the man in the incident caught on video.

Sibrel responded, “You’re a coward and a liar and a … ”

Aldrin, then 72, socked Sibrel in the jaw, right when he finished the sentence with “thief.”

During the widely reported incident, Sibrel—who has badgered Apollo astronauts more than once—even shoved a Bible in Aldrin’s face and asked him to swear on it that the moon landing was real and that Aldrin actually walked on the lunar landscape. Aldrin was lured to the hotel on the pretext of an interview for a children’s television show, and then Sibrel accosted him.

Sibrel tried to press assault charges against Aldrin, but the court threw out the case and called Sibrel the instigator.

Source: history.com

1812 – Napoleon defeated the Russian army of Alexander I at the battle of Borodino.

1813 – The nickname “Uncle Sam” was first used as a symbolic reference to the United States. The reference appeared in an editorial in the New York’s Troy Post.

1822 – Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.

1880 – George Ligowsky was granted a patent for his device that threw clay pigeons for trapshooters.

1888 – Edith Eleanor McLean became the first baby to be placed in an incubator.

1896 – A.H. Whiting won the first automobile race held on a racetrack. The race was held in Cranston, RI.

1901 – China and the Eight-Nation Alliance signed the Boxer Protocol ending the Boxer Rebellion (Boxer Uprising, Yihequan Movement).

1915 – Johnny Gruelle received a patent for his Raggedy Ann doll. (U.S. Patent D47789)

1927 – Philo T. Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using an image dissector.

1930 – The cartoon “Blondie” made its first appearance in the comic strips.

1940 – London received its initial rain of bombs from Nazi Germany during World War II.

1942 – During World War II, the Russian army counter attacked the German troops outside the city of Stalingrad.

1966 – The final episode of the original “The Dick Van Dyke Show” was aired on CBS-TV.

1971 – “The Beverly Hillbillies” was seen for the final time on CBS-TV.

1977 – The Panama Canal treaties were signed by U.S. President Carter and General Omar Torrijos Herrera. The treaties called for the U.S. to turn over control of the canal’s waterway to Panama in the year 2000.

1979 – ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, made its debut on cable TV.

1983 – In Ireland, voters approved a constitutional ammendment that banned abortion.

1984 – American Express Co. issued the first of its Platinum charge cards.

1986 – Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins threw his 100th career touchdown pass, in only his 44th NFL game, which set a NFL record.

1986 – President Augusto Pinochet survived an assassination attempt made by guerrillas.

1986 – Desmond Tutu was the first black to be installed to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

1987 – Erich Honecker became the first East German head of state to visit West Germany.

1989 – Legislation was approved by the U.S. Senate that prohibited discrimination against the handicapped in employment, public accommodations, transportation and communications. 

1995 – U.S. Senator Bob Packwood announced that he would resign after 27 years in the Senate.

2001 – Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) became the only the fifth player in major league baseball history to hit 60 home runs in a season. (California)

1620 – The Pilgrims left on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England to settle in the New World.

1819 – Thomas Blanchard patented a machine called the lathe.

1837 – The Oberlin Collegiate Institute of Ohio went co-educational.

1876 – The Southern Pacific rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco was completed. 

1899 – Carnation processed its first can of evaporated milk.

1901 – U.S. President William McKinley was shot and mortally wounded (he died eight days later) by Leon Czolgosz. Czolgosz, an American anarchist, was executed the following October.

1909 – Robert Peary, American explorer, sent word that he had reached the North Pole. He had reached his goal five months earlier.

1939 – South Africa declared war on Germany.

1941 – Jews in German-occupied areas were ordered to wear the Star of David with the word “Jew” inscribed. The order only applied to Jews over the age of 6. 

1943 – The youngest player to appear in an American League baseball game was pitcher Carl Scheib of the Philadelphia Athletics. Scheib was 16 years, eight months and five days old.

1944 – During World War II, the British government relaxed blackout restrictions and suspended compulsory training for the Home Guard.

1952 – In Montreal, Canadian television began broadcasting.

1972 – Rick DeMont lost the gold medal he received in a 400-meter swimming event because a banned drug was found in his system during routine drug testing.

1975 – Martina Navratilova requested political asylum while in New York for the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament.

1978 – James Wickwire and Louis Reichardt reached the top of the world’s second largest mountain, Pakistan’s K-2. They were the first Americans to reach the summit.

1990 – Iraq warned that anyone trying to flee the country without permission would be put in prison for life.

1991 – The State Council of the Soviet Union recognized the independence of the Baltic states.

1991 – The name St. Petersburg was restored to Russia’s second largest city. The city was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great. The name has been changed to Petrograd (1914) and to Leningrad (1924).

1992 – A 35-year old man died ten weeks after receiving a transplanted baboon liver.

1993 – Renault of France and Volvo of Sweden announced they were merging. Volvo eventually canceled the deal the following December.

1995 – U.S. Senator Bob Packwood was expelled by the Senate Ethics Committee.

1995 – Cal Ripken played his 2,131st consecutive game setting a new record. Lou Gehrig previously held the record.

1996 – Eddie Murray (Baltimore Orioles) hit his 500th career home run during a game against the Detroit Tigers. He was only the third person to have at least 3,000 hits and 500 home runs.

2000 – The U.N. Millennium Summit began in New York. It was the largest gathering of world leaders in history with more than 150 present.

2001 – The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was seeking a lesser antitrust penalty and would not attempt to break up Microsoft.

2002 – In New York, the U.S. Congress convened at Federal Hall for a rare special session. The session was held in New York to express the nation’s mourning for the loss on September 11, 2001 and unity in the war against terrorism.

2002 – At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the exhibition “George Catlin and His Indian Gallery” went on view. The exhibit contained over 400 objects.

In response to the British Parliament’s enactment of the Coercive Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress convenes at Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from all the colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and grievances and elected Virginian Peyton Randolph as the first president of Congress. Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Adams and John Jay were among the delegates.

The first major American opposition to British policy came in 1765 after Parliament passed the Stamp Act, a taxation measure designed to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. Under the argument of “no taxation without representation,” colonists convened the Stamp Act Congress in October 1765 to vocalize their opposition to the tax. With its enactment in November, most colonists called for a boycott of British goods, and some organized attacks on the customhouses and homes of tax collectors. After months of protest in the colonies, Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act in March 1766.

For the complete article: history.com