On this day in 1981, President Reagan fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who did not comply with an order to return to work. Two days earlier, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) had declared a strike after failed negotiations with the federal government over pay raises and shortened workweeks. Calling the strike illegal, President Reagan threatened to fire controllers who did not return to work within 48 hours, based on the union's violation of a federal law that bans strikes by government unions. Controllers are now represented by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which has no direct connection with PATCO.

1936 : an infamous kidnapper is sent to alcatrazAlvin Karpis, popularly known as "Old Creepy" because of his consistently sour face, is sent to Alcatraz prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping. At the time of his capture in New Orleans, Louisiana, in May 1936, Karpis was at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted List. His arrest effectively brought an end to the brief era of famous fugitives in the 1930s.

Despite the FBI's recent success in bringing down such well-known criminals as John Dillinger, the Barker gang (with whom Karpis sometimes worked), and Machine Gun Kelly, the agency's director J. Edgar Hoover was grilled by a Senate appropriations committee in early 1936 for never having personally made an arrest. Hoover decided that Karpis, an accomplished bank robber, safecracker, and master criminal of all trades, would be his first.

The FBI relentlessly tracked Karpis through all his known hideouts (chiefly whorehouses in Ohio and in Hot Springs, Arkansas) and called in every favor they could. Karpis was practiced in the art of escape, having twice eluded guards at Kansas prisons and surviving a raid in Atlantic City the year before. He had plastic surgery on his face in a vain attempt to change his appearance and even had his fingerprints obliterated with acid. But an informant told FBI agents that he was holed up in New Orleans, and he was found nonetheless.

Reportedly, Hoover stayed out of the line of fire until Karpis was safe in hand and then stepped forward to make the public arrest. When Hoover called Old Creepy a hoodlum, Karpis was indignant, replying, "I don't like to be called a hood. I'm a thief. A thief works for his living, like robbing a bank or breaking into a place and stealing stuff, or kidnapping somebody. A hoodlum is a pretty lousy sort of scum. He works for gangsters and bumps guys off."

Karpis was sentenced to life in prison. He was paroled in 1969 and deported to Canada, where he died 10 years later.