On September 30, 1987 at the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Cinemax filmed the special "Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night."

Put together by musical director T-Bone Burnett, the band consisted of Elvis's backing band from 1969 to 1977: Glen D. Hardin on piano, James Burton on lead guitar, Jerry Scheff on bass, and Ronnie Tutt on drums.

Other performers included Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, and Steven Soles. The female background vocalists were k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes, and Bonnie Raitt.

The special aired on January 3, 1988. Roy Orbison died on December 6, 1988 at the age of 52.

view full location details...

Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was walking through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel when he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan. RFK had just won the California and South Dakota primary elections for the Democratic nomination.

Robert F. Kennedy remains one of only two sitting United States Senators to be assassinated (the other being Huey Long).

view full location details...

Plato wrote of the lost civilization of Atlantis being located somewhere beyond the Pillars of Hercules (now Rock of Gibraltar).

Considering ancient people saw the Pillars of Hercules as the edge of the known world ("Nec plus ultra" means "nothing further beyond" and was the local motto), this doesn't exactly serve as a GPS coordinate. But if it keeps late-night History Channel documentaries in business, why the hell not?

view full location details...

The Rock of Gibraltar is the name given to the promontory rock formation that overlooks the landscape on the strait of Gibraltar on the southwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.

Currently owned by the UK Crown as a British overseas territory (to the chagrin of most Spaniards), the Rock of Gibraltar is mostly known these days for the troop of macaques that explore the labyrinth of tunnels with the tourists.

In antiquity, the Rock of Gibraltar was one of the Pillars of Hercules. In the Greek myth of the twelve labors of Hercules, the tenth labor was to fetch the Cattle of Geryon of the far West and bring them to Eurystheus. The Rock of Gibraltar represents the westernmost point of that labor. Jebel Musa, across the Strait of Gibraltar, serves as the North African Pillar of Hercules.

view full location details...

Teamster union leader Jimmy Hoffa was last seen here in the parking lot of this upscale restaurant on the afternoon of July 30, 1975. The address is now one of the locations of the Metro Detroit Italian restaurant chain, Andiamo.

So, if a couple guys named Tony ever invite you to have lunch here, say "Thanks, but No Thanks!"

view full location details...