"This must be one stupid broad," Frank Sinatra said in the summer of 1990, headlining the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J. the night after an appearance by a young, shaved-headed Irishwoman named Sinéad O'Connor. O'Connor, having spent a month atop the charts earlier in the year with her version of Prince's 'Nothing Compares 2 U,' had threatened to boycott unless the theater agreed not to play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' before the show, as was its custom.

Two years before she ripped up a photo of a certain religious figure on a certain high-impact comedy-and-music show, the outspoken young singer was already making international news with her fearless principles. In May 1990, she refused to honor her first invitation on 'Saturday Night Live' when she learned about the misogynistic comedy of host Andrew "Dice" Clay. In August, riding the runaway sales of her album 'I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got,' O'Connor succeeded in getting the Arts Center to forgo the national anthem. She was, she explained, no fan of warmongering anthems in general.

On This Date in 1992: Sinéad O'Connor sparks a controversy when she rips up a portrait of Pope John Paul II after singing Bob Marley's 'War' on an episode of 'Saturday Night Live.'

The Almanac Advises for October 3: "An iconoclast has historically been a person who destroys the religious icons within his or her culture. The current definition of an iconoclast is a person who attacks orthodox beliefs and institutions."

Sinead O'Connor, who infamously ripped up a picture of the pope live on 'SNL,' is clearly no stranger to controversy. And being a devotee of Rastafarianism, she explains that her beliefs render her anti-political. And besides, she has little use for politicians, regardless of her beliefs. "I wouldn't even vote, 'cause I just think they're all wankers, every one of them," O'Connor tells Spinner. "None of them give a s*** about anyone or anything." She then concedes, "OK, I'm sure there are one or two who do, but they don't get elected anyway."