April 20 Illinois History Minute

It’s April 20th, the day that U-S Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was born in Chicago in 1920. Stevens was a conservative Republican when President Gerald Ford nominated him for the high court in 1975. But he was considered to be on the liberal side of the Supreme Court when he retired nearly 35 years later.

Character actor James Gammon was born in Newman on this day in 1940. Gammon was probably best remembered for his portrayal of rough-around-the-edges tough guys, including baseball manager Lou Brown in the Major League movies, and Nick Bridges, father of the title character played by Don Johnson in the TV show Nash Bridges. 
And NPR sent out its first network broadcast on this day in 1971 – live coverage of a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing on the Vietnam War.