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So your AI agents. They make the team that uses them more productive, right? But if they aren't connected to other agents, or your data, or your existing workflows, How productive can they really make your teams? Any business can add AI agents. IBM connects your agents across your company to change how you do business.
Let's create Smarter Business. IBM. T-Mobile's Friday Night 5G Lights is back for another season of hometown pride and big wins. T-Mobile kicked this off last year to bring communities together and give high schools across America the chance to turn their Friday nights into something unforgettable. 25 finalists are battling for the $1 million grand prize package, a game-changing homefield upgrade, a Gronk Fitness Weight Room Makeover, an epic tailgate party, and a trip to the SEC Championship.
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There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new Daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives. Where do you see the business actually heading?
Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton. The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Daily Variety, and listen now. And we continue with our American stories. Our next story comes to us from a man who's simply known as the History Guy.
His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people. all ages on YouTube. The history guy is also heard here. at OurAmerican Stories. In July of nineteen forty five, a U.
S. B twenty five Mitchell got lost in heavy fog over Manhattan. Here's the history guy remembering the B-25 Empire State Building crap. The summer of nineteen forty five represented hope. for a war-weary nation.
Germany had surrendered in May. In the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur announced that the Philippines had been liberated. And in New Mexico, the United States tested the bomb that would finally put an end. to the war. There was plenty of reason in July 1945 for New Yorkers to look forward to a period of peace.
But their peace was shattered with a spectacular accident involving a United States Army Air Force plane. and the tallest building, in the world. The morning of Saturday, July 18th, 1945, a United States Army Air Force B-25 Mitchell was flying from Bedford Army Airfield in Massachusetts. to New Jersey's Newark airport. At the controls of the plane was Lieutenant Colonel William F.
Smith, Jr. The 27-year-old Smith was an experienced pilot, a veteran of more than 30 missions and 1,000 combat hours flying B-17 bombers over Europe during the war. The B-25 was a twin-engine bomber, smaller than the B-17s that Smith had flown over Europe. This plane, using call sign 0577 and nicknamed Old John Feather Merchant, They've been converted to five VIPs. Smith had piloted the plane from Sioux Falls Army Air Base in South Dakota and was scheduled to pick up his commanding officer in Newark before continuing back to Sioux Falls.
He was accompanied by 30-year-old Army Air Force Staff Sergeant Christopher Dmitrovich. and 19-year-old Navy machinist mate Albert Pernat. who is hitching a ride from Massachusetts to see his family. in Brooklyn. As the plane approached New York City, it ran into heavy fog.
Smith requested permission to land at New York's municipal airport, LaGuardia Field, but was advised that the visibility was too low and told to go on to Newark. LaGuardia Air Traffic Control signed off with a warning about visibility in the fog. At the present time, the controller said, I cannot see the top of the Empire State Building. The words turned out to be hauntingly cryptic. Smith responded.
Thank you very much. It's not exactly clear what happened next, but it seems likely that Smith mistook the East River. Yeah. That was a fatal mistake. Had he turned left as he came by the Chrysler building, he would have been safe, but disoriented, You turn right.
taking his plane straight. over the island of Manhattan. Air traffic control had advised that he stay above 1,500 feet over the city, but apparently disoriented and thinking himself clear of the city. He had dropped to 500 feet, perhaps thinking that he was on approach to Newark, or perhaps trying to get a view of the ground to orient himself. Suddenly, the fog cleared just enough for Smith to realize that he was flying.
in the middle of skyscrapers. Stan Lomax, a radio sports announcer, was driving to work when he heard the plane's engines. As he looked up, he recalled he yelled, climb, you fool, climb, from his car window. At 200 miles per hour, the plane was on a collision course for the 850-foot RCA building at 30 Rockefeller Center. Smith veered at the last moment, averting disaster, but the turn took him on a collision course.
with the tallest building on Earth. New York's iconic 102 storage. Empire State Building. Mort Cooper, a big league pitch who had helped the St. Louis Cardinals win two World Series, witnessed the crash from the 16th floor of the Hotel Commodore.
He said I heard the roar of a plane and picked it up as it roared between me and the RCA building. Suddenly it flashed across my mind that it was flying very low. and then it would hit. The Empire State Building. The streets of downtown Manhattan were relatively empty on a foggy Saturday, but there were some witnesses along Fifth Avenue and 34th Street who heard the roar of the engines.
They describe the plane climbing steeply. William Otley, vice president of a public relations firm in the Mercantile Building at 10 East 40th Street, was quoted in the Scranton, Pennsylvania Times-Tribune. The plane went past my window at eye level or just above it. This office is on the 38th floor. The engine was apparently going and it looked like the pilot.
is trying to gain altitude. Smith was apparently trying to climb out of the city, but it was too late. At 9:40 a.m., old John Feather Merchant, traveling some 200 miles an hour. struck the 34th Street façade of the Empire State Building. at an altitude of 913 feet.
between the 78th and 79th floors. Albert Fuller at the B. Altman department store across the street. told the New York Times that the floor moved. I looked at the clerk and I said, isn't that strange?
And I thought. It couldn't be an earthquake. Harry Weisskopf on the 63rd floor of the Empire State Building said: There were two terrific explosions, the whole building shook. and, looking out the windows facing down, I could see flaming debris falling down. Daniel Norden on the eighteenth floor was thrown out of his chair amid the glass from four windows that were blown out in his office.
24-year-old bookkeeper Alfiette Ledbridge, who was on the 72nd floor. She said, Everything shook. We ran to the window and looked down. We saw flames below us. We looked up and saw flames above us.
Lethbridge walked down seventy flights of stairs in the dark. The plane ripped a hole 18 feet by 20 feet in the limestone and granite facade of the building. The Knoxville Journal of Knoxville, Tennessee reported that so tremendous was the explosion that it ripped away the fog which had hidden the topmost stories of the skyscraper. and for two minutes the pinnacle of the Chromium Girt Empire State stood out sharp and clear in the drizzle. while orange-red flames looked around.
Many New Yorkers feared it was an enemy attack. Ms. Weiskopf said that the staff in the office feared it might have been a buzz bomb, the name for the German V-1 rocket that had terrified England during the Blitz. Others thought it may have been a Japanese bomb balloon, like the one that had killed a Sunday school teacher and five children in Oregon in the previous May. The plane struck so hard that the wings were torn off.
One engine shot through the building, landing on the roof of a building on Thirty Third Street and starting a fire that destroyed a Penthouse art studio. The second engine and parts of the landing gear went down an elevator shaft were found in the basement. The body of Albert Pirna, the young Navy corpsman, was also thrown down the shaft, and wasn't found until two days after the accident. He had been headed to Brooklyn to consult his family over the death of his brother. who had been killed in combat.
The plane's fuel tanks ruptured and exploded, sending a sheet of flame into the building. It was lucky it was a Saturday, otherwise the building would have been much more crowded. On a normal day, as many as 5,500 people worked in the building, but that Saturday, only about 1,500 were thought to be in the building. The offices where the plane struck were occupied by the War Relief Services and the National Catholic Welfare Council. both Catholic organizations dedicated to helping European refugees of the ongoing war.
Some 20 people were working in the offices that Saturday, coordinating aid for war refugees throughout the world. Several of those were killed instantly by the flames, others crowded in a room hoping to escape the flames and smoke. One of those was Teresa Willig, who told the New York Times, I don't think any of us had any idea what happened. Who'd have thought a plane? Crowded in the room with other Catholic War Relief employees, She thought she was not going to make it.
She took off her rings, a high school graduation ring and a friendship ring from her boyfriend. and threw them out the window. She said I thought I won't be around to have them.
Someone else might as well have use out of them. One of the workers, a man named Paul Deering, jumped to escape the fire and was killed. 20-year-old Betty Lou Oliver was the elevator operator of elevator number six. She was on the eightieth floor when the plane struck. The crash caused her to be thrown across the building and is while suffering from severe burns.
Two office workers rendered first aid and placed her on an elevator to be taken to the ground floor where an ambulance was waiting. But parts of the plane had flown through the elevator shaft and had sheared off cables. When Betty was placed inside the elevator on a stretcher, the cable snapped with a sound like a shot. Betty plummeted. 75 stories.
17-year-old Donald Maloney was a Coast Guard hospital apprentice, second class. He was on 34th Street when he saw the plane crash. He rushed into a nearby pharmacy, telling them he needed first aid supplies to go help. The pharmacy gave him bandages, burn ointment, sterile water, and a dozen syringes with morphine. As he ran in, someone shouted they needed help in the building's sub-basement.
Maloney was small, so it could fit easier into the ruined elevator shaft, where a girl was screaming. It was Betty Lou Oliver, Miraculously, after falling more than seventy stories, She was still alive. The elevator's landing was softened by the huge coils of cable that had piled up beneath it like a spring.
Some experts speculate that the rapid descent might have caused air pressure to build up under the shaft, under the elevator. The rest of the elevator was ruined, full of steel shards and broken concrete. Oh, but the corner that held Oliver. Maloney gave her some morphine for the pain and put burn ointment on her face and stowed bandages on her burns. Her fall some one thousand feet.
Still, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, holds a record for the longest survived elevator fall. To her own surprise, Teresa Fortier-Willig survived. When firemen rescued she and her friends from the room, she said she was just happy to be alive. She didn't suspect she'd ever see her rings again, but they were discovered by rescue workers and returned to her. she ended up marrying the man who had given her the friendship ring.
Betty Lou Oliver, before her 75-story plummet, had only been scheduled to work in the Empire State Building another three days. It took her eight months to recover from her injuries, but she moved to Arkansas with her husband. She had three kids. Seven grandkids. Passed away in 1999, at the age of 74.
And a special thanks to Greg Hengler on the production and storytelling, and a special thanks to. the history guy. And if you want more stories of forgotten history, Subscribe to his YouTube channel, The History Guy. History deserves to be remembered. And my goodness, this story deserves to be remembered.
Many feared an enemy attack. when this happened. and soon found out that it was an accident. The story of the Empire State Building B-25 crash. Here on Our American Stories.
Life's messy. We're talking spills, stains, pets. and kids. But with Anibay, you never have to stress about messes again. At washable sofas.com, discover Anna Sofas, the only fully machine washable sofas inside and out.
starting at just $699. made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics. That means fewer stains and more peace of mind. Designed for real life, our sofas feature changeable fabric covers, allowing you to refresh your style anytime. Need flexibility?
Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa effortlessly. Perfect for cozy apartments or spacious homes. Plus they're earth-friendly and built to last. That's why over 200,000 happy customers have made the switch. Upgrade your space today.
Visit washable sofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washable sofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra-durable LGX Boom Portable Speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG XBoom.
And for a limited time, save 25% at lg.com with code FALL25. Bring the boom. X-Boom. There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all?
Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new Daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives. Where do you see the business actually heading? Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton. The only constant in Hollywood is change.
Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Daily Variety, and listen now. Ford was built on the belief that the world doesn't get to decide what you're capable of. You do.
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