FLASHBACKS: THIS WEEK IN VEGAS HISTORY

October 28, 1968: Reviewers demand a relief pitcher after 31-game winner Denny McLain opens a 10-day stint at the Riviera just a few weeks after his Detroit Tigers win the World Series. Undaunted, the organ-playing McLain and his combo record an album, Denny McLain in Las Vegas.

October 29, 1987: The three main Rat Packers – Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. – appear together on stage for the last time when Dean and Sammy surprise Frank during his show at Bally’s.

October 30, 1991: Los Angeles attorney William Kane commits suicide in a penthouse suite at The Mirage, setting off a furious court battle over the frozen sperm he willed to his girlfriend. Kane’s ex-wife and children object to the posthumous paternity, but the girlfriend wins custody after a six-year legal fight.

October 31, 2011: Supermodel Heidi Klum was a shocking sight at Tao nightclub’s Halloween party. She had white-coated surgeons wheel her in on a gurney as a skinned dead body. She has since earned the nickname The Queen of Halloween for her elaborate looks over nearly 20 years, including a butterfly and Jessica Rabbit.

November 1, 1987: Tall movie stars Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, who fell in love while making The Fly, are driving through Las Vegas and decide on a whim to get married at 3 a.m. It lasts three years.

November 2, 1948: Jimmy the Greek, a Vegas wiseguy long before he became a TV sports commentator, makes $170,000 on a $10,000 bet that Harry Truman would upset Thomas Dewey in the presidential election. He based his bet on the hunch that women wouldn’t vote for a man with a mustache.

November 3, 2009: The Pinball Hall of Fame moves to bigger quarters on Tropicana Boulevard, doubling the original space that opened in 2006. The collection houses 400 pinball machines dating as far back as 1947, many of them still playable, with profits going to the Salvation Army.

--Researched and written by Mike Precker