On this day in 1954, 28-year-old Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jean Baker, married baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. Monroe had posed for pin-up shots and appeared in bit parts in movies in the 1940s, and her career blossomed in the 1950s. Monroe and DiMaggio divorced after only nine months. She married Arthur Miller in 1956 and divorced him in 1961. She died of an overdose of barbiturates in 1961, a possible suicide. DiMaggio continued to send flowers to her grave every day for the rest of his life, until his death in 1999.

(With thanks to History.com)