TIME Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.

Current subscribers for full access. Not a TIME subscriber? .

Milestones: Sep. 12, 1969

Died. Rocky Marciano, 45, the "Brockton Blockbuster," former world heavyweight champion and one of the prize ring's alltime greats; in the crash of a light plane; near Des Moines. The son of a Brockton, Mass., factory worker, Marciano wanted to be a professional baseball player but lacked the whiplash arm for that game. His chunky muscles were perfect for boxing, though, and what he lacked in finesse he more than made up in battering-ram power. After turning pro in 1947, he piled up 42 straight victories, most of them by knockouts, before earning a...

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.