On this date in...

1953...Powerful Broadway producer and theater owner Lee Shubert dies in Manhattan at age 82, after a fifty-year career in which he and his brother Jacob ruled over a nationwide theatrical empire.

1989...New York Yankees manager Billy Martin is killed in a car crash on an icy road near Binghamton, New York at the age of 61. The controversial Martin served five separate stints as the Yankees' skipper, leading them to the World Series title in 1977.