DBKP Today in Weird History: February 4, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, EXECUTIONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH, POLITICS, PROGRESS, EDUCATION, JEWS, BOOMS, RELIGION, ASSASSINATION, PATENTS, SPORTS, RIOTS, DEPORTED, BANKRUPT, RECORDS, CHIMPS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1789 Electors chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States. They also elected John Adams as Vice-President. (However, the results of the balloting were not counted in the U.S. Senate until two months later).

WAR!

1783 Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

1861 Confederate constitutional convention meets for 1st time, Montgomery AL. Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi & South Carolina elect Jefferson Davis President of Confederacy.

1945 President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta.

TERRORISM

1990 10 Israeli tourists murdered near Cairo.

1994 20 die in armed assault on mosque in Khartum Sudan.

DISASTERS

1783 Worst quake in 8 years kills some 50,000 (Calabria, Italy).

1797 Earthquake in Quito, Ecuador kills 40,000.

1966 All-Nippon Airways 727 crashes off Haneda Airport (Japan); kills 133.

1971 Government exhibit under construction collapses, kills 65 in Brazil.

1976 7.5 earthquake kills 22,778 in Guatemala & Honduras.

1977 Elevated train jumps track, crashes onto Chicago st (11 die, 200 hurt).

1997 73 Israelis die when army copters collide.

1998 More than 2,300 people were killed when an earthquake hit northeast Afghanistan with a magnitude of 5.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

RECORDS

1982 Indoor distance record for a paper airplane (47 meters) Tacoma WA.

1984 Frank Aquilera sets world frisbee distance record (168 meters) Las Vegas.

RIOTS

1971 National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC.

CHIMPS

1974 Chimpanzee Nim Chimsky signs his 1st word, at 2½ months.

BOOMS

1964 FAA begins 6 month test of reactions to sonic booms over Oklahoma City OK.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

2003 A rare television interview with Saddam Hussein aired in which the Iraqi leader charged that U.S. claims of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in his country were a pretext to seize Iraq’s oil fields.

EDUCATION

1849 University of Wisconsin begins in 1 room with 20 students.

BANKRUPT

1971 British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt.

DEPORTED

1972 Senator Strom Thurmond suggests John Lennon be deported.

NAZIs

1938 Hitler seizes control of German army & puts Nazi in key posts.

RELIGION

1866 Mary Baker Eddy cures her injuries by opening a bible.

ASSASSINATION

1949 Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia.

JEWS

1855 Soldiers shoot Jewish families in Coro, Venezuela.

1959 Israel begins exporting copper ore.

1997 Secretary of State Madeline Albright announces she just discovered that her grandparents were Jewish.

SPORTS

1932 New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid.

1969 John Madden is named head coach of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.

PATENTS

1913 Louis Perlman patents demountable auto tire-carrying wheel rim.

PROGRESS

1824 J W Goodrich introduces rubber galoshes to the public.

1930 1st tieless, soundless, shockless streetcar tracks, New Orleans.

1957 1st electric portable typewriter placed on sale (Syracuse NY).

EXECUTIONS

1699 350 rebellious Streltsi executed in Moscow.

BORN

1902 Charles A Lindbergh Detroit MI, pilot (1st fly solo across Atlantic).

1904 MacKinlay Kantor Webster City IA, novelist (Andersonville).

1913 Woody Hayes [Wayne], college football coach (Ohio, 1968 coach of year).

BIRTHDAYS

Actor William Phipps is 86. Actor Conrad Bain is 85. Actor Gary Conway is 72. Movie director George A. Romero is 68. Rock musician John Steel (The Animals) is 67. Singer Florence LaRue (The Fifth Dimension) is 64. Former Vice President Dan Quayle is 61. Rock singer Alice Cooper is 60. Actor Michael Beck is 59. Actress Lisa Eichhorn is 56. Rock singer Tim Booth is 48. Rock musician Henry Bogdan is 47. Country singer Clint Black is 46. Country musician Dave Buchanan (Yankee Grey) is 42. Actress Gabrielle Anwar is 38. Singer David Garza is 37. Actor Michael Goorjian is 37. Rock musician Rick Burch (Jimmy Eat World) is 33. Singer Natalie Imbruglia is 33. Rapper Cam’ron is 32. Rock singer Gavin DeGraw is 31. Olympic gold medal gymnast-turned-singer Carly Patterson is 20.

DEATH

1957 Joseph Hardaway creator of Bugs Bunny, dies at 66.

1983 Karen Carpenter singer/drummer (Carpenters), dies of anorexia at 32.

1987 Pianist Liberace died at his Palm Springs, Calif., home at age 67.

1989 Kenneth “Jethro” Burns country singer (Homer & Jethro), dies at 69.

2003 Opera singer Jerome Hines died in New York at age 81.

2007 Singer-actress Barbara McNair died in Los Angeles at age 72.

February 4, the 35th day of 2008. There are 331 days left in the year.

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Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: January 31, 2008

WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BIRDS, WITCHES, TAPE, HAH!, REVOLT, MONKEYS, FINANCE, MUSIC, EXECUTIONS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, SMOKING, JEWS, PROGRESS, NANNY STATE, INVENTIONS, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE, SCIENCE, POLITICS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

1958 the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.

WAR!

1861 State of Louisiana takes over US Mint at New Orleans.

1863 1st black Civil War regiment, SC Volunteers, mustered into US army

1865 Gen. Robert E. Lee was named General-in-Chief of all the Confederate armies.

1917 during World War I, Germany served notice it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1944 during World War II, U.S. forces began a successful invasion of Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

2003 President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met at the White House; Bush said he would welcome a second U.N. resolution on Iraq but only if it led to the prompt disarming of Saddam Hussein. Pushing for a new resolution, Blair called confronting Iraq “a test of the international community.”

TERRORISM

2007 Nine blinking electronic devices planted around Boston threw a scare into the city in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon.

DISASTERS

1906 Strongest instrumentally recorded earthquake, Colombia, 8.6 Richter.

1953 “Princess Victoria” capsized off Stanraer Scotland; 133 die.

1953 Hurricane-like winds flood Netherlands drowning nearly 2,000.

1988 Barge sinks near Anacortes WA, spills 70,000 gallons of oil.

2000 an Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.

BIRDS

1871 Millions of birds fly over western San Francisco, darken the sky.

WITCHES

1675 Cornelia/Dina Olfaarts found not guilty of witchcraft.

TAPE

1928 Scotch tape 1st marketed by 3-M Company.

HAH!

1933 Hitler promises parliamentary democracy.

REVOLT

1696 Revolt of undertakers after funeral reforms (Amsterdam).

MONKEYS

1961 Ham is 1st primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury/Redstone 2.

FINANCE

1994 Dow Jones hits a record 3,978.36.

MUSIC

1955 RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer.

1976 “Love Rollercoaster” by Ohio Players hits #1.

EXECUTIONS

1606 Guy Fawkes, convicted of treason for his part in the “Gunpowder Plot” against the English Parliament and King James I, was executed.

1945 Private Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1958 “Jackpot Bowling” premieres on NBC with Leo Durocher as host.

SMOKING

1964 US report “Smoking & Health” connects smoking to lung cancer.

JEWS

1961 David Ben-Gurion resigns as premier of Israel.

1978 Israel turns 3 military outposts in West Bank into civilian settlements.

PROGRESS

1905 1st auto to exceed 100 mph (161 kph), A G MacDonald, Daytona Beach.

1948 Magnetic tape recorder developed by Wireway.

NANNY STATE

1970 Grateful Dead members busted on LSD charges.

2007 President Bush, visiting Wall Street, delivered his “State of the Economy” speech in which he took aim at lavish salaries and bonuses for corporate executives.

INVENTIONS

1851 Gail Borden announces invention of evaporated milk.

DEPRESSION

1934 President Franklin Roosevelt devalued the dollar in relation to gold.

SUICIDE

1954 Edwin H Armstrong US radio inventor (FM), commits suicide at 63.

SCIENCE

1958 James van Allen discovers radiation belt.

1971 astronauts Alan Shepard Jr., Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

1998 Astronaut David Wolf returned to Earth aboard space shuttle Endeavour after four months on the Russian space station Mir.

POLITICS

2007 Delaware Sen. Joe Biden formally launched his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

BORN

1734 Robert Morris merchant (signed Declaration of Independence).

1797 composer Franz Schubert was born in Vienna, Austria.

1872 Zane Grey American West novelist (Riders of the Purple Sage, Spirit of the Border).

1903 Tallulah Bankhead Huntsville AL, actress (Lifeboat, Die Die Darling).

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Carol Channing is 87. Actress Jean Simmons is 79. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks is 77. Composer Philip Glass is 71. Actor Stuart Margolin is 68. Former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., is 67. Blues singer-musician Charlie Musselwhite is 64. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan is 61. Singer-musician KC (KC and the Sunshine Band) is 57. Rock singer Johnny Rotten is 52. Actress Kelly Lynch is 49. Actor Anthony LaPaglia is 49. Singer-musician Lloyd Cole is 47. Actor John Dye is 45. Rock musician Jeff Hanneman (Slayer) is 44. Rock musician Al Jaworski (Jesus Jones) is 42. Actress Minnie Driver is 38. Actress Portia de Rossi is 35. Actress Kerry Washington is 31. Singer Justin Timberlake is 27.

DEATH

1974 Samuel Goldwyn Polish/English/US film magnate (MGM), dies at 91.

2006 Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at age 78.

2007 Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins died in Austin, Texas, at age 62.

January 31, the 31st day of 2008. There are 335 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image:
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: January 29, 2008

MOVIES, WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, THE GIPPER, CREEPY, OOPS, INSPIRATION, POLITICS, EXECUTIONS, NANNY STATE, PATENTS, STARTS, SPORTS, EUTHANASIA, LABOR, MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, DIPLOMACY, SUICIDE, BUDGET, KILLERS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

MOVIES

1964 Stanley Kubrick’s”Dr Strangelove” premieres.

WAR!

1863 Battle at Bear River WA US Army vs Indians.

1864 Battle of Moorefield WV (Rosser’s Raid).

1900 Boers under Joubert beat English at Spionkop Natal, 2,000 killed.

1944 285 German bombers attack London.

TERRORISM

1998 A bomb rocked an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., killing Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer working as a security guard, and critically injuring Emily Lyons, a nurse. (The bomber, Eric Rudolph, was captured in May 2003 and is serving a life sentence.)

2007 A Palestinian suicide bomber killed three Israelis at a bakery in Eilat in the first such attack inside Israel in nine months.

2007 Deeply distrustful of Iran, President Bush said “we will respond firmly” if Tehran escalated its military actions in Iraq and threatened American forces or Iraqi citizens.

DISASTERS

1966 Snow storm in north east US kills 165.

1996 Fire destroyed Venice, Italy’s La Fenice opera house.

1998 Thick Fog causes highway carnage in Belgium & Netherlands, 6 die.

2003 A dust explosion at the West Pharmaceutical Services plant in Kinston, N.C., killed six people and injured dozens more.

THE GIPPER

1984 President Reagan formally announces he will seek a 2nd term.

CREEPY

1845 Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.

OOPS

1994 Ulrike Maier Olympic skier, breaks neck during world cup skiing at 26.

INSPIRATION

1979 Brenda Spencer kills 2, inspires Boomtown Rats “I Don’t Like Mondays”.

POLITICS

1850 Henry Clay introduced in the Senate compromise proposals on slavery.

1861 Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.

EXECUTED

1997 Eric Schneider murderer of 2 teachers, executed in MO at 35.

NANNY STATE

1919 Secretary of state proclaims the 18th amendment (prohibition).

PATENTS

1886 1st successful gasoline-driven car patented, Karl Benz, Karlsruhe.

1924 Ice cream cone rolling machine patented by Carl Taylor, Cleveland.

STARTS

1920 Walt Disney starts 1st job as an artist; $40 week with Kansas City Slide Co.

SPORTS

1936 The first members of baseball’s Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, N.Y.

1963 The first members of pro football’s Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.

1989 Cleveland’s Chris Dudley misses 5 free throws during 1 foul attempt.

EUTHANASIA

2007 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized because of medical complications eight months after his gruesome breakdown at the Preakness.

LABOR

1834 President Jackson orders 1st use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute.

1912 Martial law declared in textile strike in Lawrence MA.

MARRIAGE

1958 50 years ago, actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married in Las Vegas.

DIVORCE

1951 Liz Taylor’s 1st divorce (Conrad Hilton Jr).

DIPLOMACY

1979 President Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.

SUICIDE

1977 Freddie Prinze comedian/actor (Chico & the Man), shoots himself at 22.

BUDGETS

2003 The Congressional Budget Office predicted the current year’s federal deficit would soar to $199 billion even without President Bush’s new tax cut plan or war against Iraq.

KILLERS

1958 Murderer, Charles Starkweather, captured by police in Wyoming.

BORN

1737 Thomas Paine political essayist (Common Sense, Age of Reason).

1843 The 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, was born in Niles, Ohio.

1860 Anton Pavlovich Chekhov Tagarov Russia, playwright (Cherry Orchard).

1878 Barney Oldfield Ohio, daredevil.

1880 W C Fields [William Claude Dukenfield] Philadelphia PA, “on the whole, he’d rather be in Philadelphia”/actor (My Little Chickadee, Bank Dick).

1912 Professor Irwin Corey Brooklyn NY, comedian (Car Wash, Doc).

1913 Victor Mature Louisville KY, actor (One Million BC, The Robe, Samson & Delilah).

BIRTHDAYS

Actor John Forsythe is 90. Actor Noel Harrison is 74. Author Germaine Greer is 69. Actress Katharine Ross is 68. Actor Tom Selleck is 63. Rhythm-and-blues singer Bettye LaVette is 62. Actor Marc Singer is 60. Actress Ann Jillian is 58. Rock musician Tommy Ramone (Ramones) is 56. Rock musician Louie Perez (Los Lobos) is 55. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is 54. Country singer Irlene Mandrell is 52. Actress Diane Delano is 51. Actress Judy Norton Taylor (“The Waltons”) is 50. Rock musician Johnny Spampinato (NRBQ) is 49. Olympic gold-medal diver Greg Louganis is 48. Rock musician David Baynton-Power (James) is 47. Rock musician Eddie Jackson (Queensryche) is 47. Actor Nicholas Turturro is 46. Rock singer-musician Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera) is 44. Actor-director Edward Burns is 40. Actress Heather Graham is 38. Actor Sharif Atkins is 33. Actress Sara Gilbert is 33. Actor Andrew Keegan is 29. Actor Jason James Richter is 28. Blues musician Jonny Lang is 27.

DEATH

1820 Britain’s King George III died at Windsor Castle, ending a reign that had seen both the American and French revolutions.

1888 Edward Lear poet/author, dies at 75.

1956 H[enry] L[ouis] Mencken US essayist/critic/satirist (Smart Set), dies in Baltimore MD at 75.

1963 poet Robert Frost died in Boston at age 88.

1980 Jimmy Durante New York City NY, singer/comedian (Ink-a-dink-a-doo, Palooka, The Jimmy Durante Show), dies at 86.

January 29, the 29th day of 2008. There are 337 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: kilby
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: January 28, 2008

SPACE, WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, CLINTON, OUCH, AUTOGRAPHS, TRY TRY AGAIN, DOMINOES, PRO WRESTLING, EXECUTIONS, TRIALS, IMMIGRANTS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, REBELS, ABORTION, SPORTS, COLLEGE, POLITICS, 90210, PROGRESS, CREATED, JEWS, ROYALS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

SPACE

1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center, killing all seven of its crew members: flight commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee; pilot Michael Smith; Ronald McNair; Ellison Onizuka; Judith Resnik; Gregory Jarvis; and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

WAR!

1915 1st US ship lost in WWI, William P Frye (carrying wheat to UK).

1944 683 British bombers attack Berlin.

1945 During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.

1973 A cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War.

2003 President Bush, girding the nation for war, said in his State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein had shown “utter contempt” for the world community and had to be held to account.

2007 U.S.-backed Iraqi troops attacked insurgents allegedly plotting to kill pilgrims at a major Shiite Muslim religious festival; Iraqi officials estimated some 300 militants died in the daylong battle near Najaf. (A U.S. helicopter crashed during the fight, killing two American soldiers.)

TERRORISM

1982 US General Dozier freed from Red Brigade of Padua Italy.

DISASTERS

1393 Fire during Royal Ball at Paris, 4 die (Ball of the Ardents).

1978 Fire swept through the historic downtown Coates House hotel in Kansas City, Mo., killing 20 people.

1981 Olympic Glory tanker at Galveston Bay, Texas, spills 1 million gallons of oil in a ship collision.

1994 Helicopter crashes into office building in San Jose CA, 1 dead.

CLINTONS

1998 The day after denying he “had sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky”, President Bill Clinton barnstormed in the nation’s heartland, where he was warmly received; accompanying him was Vice President Al Gore, who urged Americans to “join me in supporting him and standing by his side.” The day before, Clinton delivered both his denial of the Lewinsky affair and his State of the Union address.

OUCH!

1962 Johanne Relleke gets stung by bees 2,443 times in Rhodesia & survives.

AUTOGRAPHS

1978 Ted Nugent autographs a fan’s arm with his knife.

TRY TRY AGAIN

1984 Mr Glynn Wolfe marries for non-bigamous record 26th time, Las Vegas NV.

DOMINOES

1984 Record 295,000 dominoes toppled, Fuerth, West Germany.

PRO WRESTLING

1987 Wrestler Jim Neidhart indicted for assaulting a flight attendant.

EXECUTIONS

1829 William Burke murderer/body snatcher, executed in Edinburgh.

TRIALS

1950 Preston Tucker, auto maker, found not guilty of mail fraud.

IMMIGRANTS

1915 US President Wilson refuses to prohibit immigration of illiterates.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1973 “Barnaby Jones” premieres on CBS TV.

1978 “Fantasy Island” starring Ricardo Montalban premieres on ABC TV.

REBELS

1810 Andrew Hofer Tyrolian rebel against French & Bavarians, shot dead.

ABORTION

1935 Iceland becomes 1st country to legalize abortion.

1988 Canada’s Supreme court declares anti-abortion law unconstitutional.

SPORTS

1960 NFL announces Dallas Cowboys (1960) & Minnesota Vikings (1961) franchises.

COLLEGE

1878 The first daily college newspaper, Yale News (now Yale Daily News), began publication in New Haven, Conn.

POLITICS

1909 The United States ended direct control over Cuba.

90210

1914 Beverly Hills, California, is incorporated.

PROGRESS

1878 1st telephone exchange (New Haven CT).

1878 George W Coy hired as 1st full-time telephone operator.

CREATED

1915 The United States Coast Guard was created as President Woodrow Wilson signed into law a bill merging the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service.

JEWS

1916 Louis D. Brandeis was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court; Brandeis became the court’s first Jewish member.

2003 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud party and other hawkish parties won a resounding victory in Israel’s parliamentary elections.

ROYALS

2007 Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, met with New York schoolchildren as they visited Harlem during their whirlwind American weekend.

BORN

1722 Johann Ernst Bach composer.

1825 George Edward Pickett Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1875.

1853 Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti was born in Havana.

1910 John Banner Vienna Austria, actor (Sergeant Hans Schultz-Hogan’s Heroes).

1912 Jackson Pollock Cody WY, abstract artist (Lavender Mist).

BIRTHDAYS

Musician-composer Acker Bilk is 79. Actor Nicholas Pryor is 73. Actor Alan Alda is 72. Actress Susan Howard is 66. Actress Marthe Keller is 63. Actress-singer Barbi Benton is 58. Actress Harley Jane Kozak is 51. Movie director Frank Darabont is 49. Rock musician Dave Sharp is 49. Rock singer Sam Phillips is 46. Rock musician Dan Spitz (Anthrax) is 45. Country musician Greg Cook (Ricochet) is 43. Singer Sarah McLachlan is 40. Rapper Rakim is 40. DJ Muggs (Cypress Hill) is 40. Actress Kathryn Morris (“Cold Case”) is 39. Rhythm-and-blues singer Anthony Hamilton is 37. Rock musician Brandon Bush (Train) is 35. Singer Joey Fatone Jr. (‘N Sync) is 31. Actress Rosamund Pike is 29. Singer Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) is 28. Actor Elijah Wood is 27.

DEATH

814 Charlemagne German emperor/Roman Emperor (800-814), dies at 71.

1547 England’s King Henry the VIII died; he was succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward the VI.

1980 Jimmy Durante New York City NY, comedian (Jimmy Durante Show), dies at 86.

2003 John Philip Thompson, who expanded his family’s business into the nationwide 7-Eleven chain, died at age 77.

2007 The Rev. Robert Drinan, a priest who’d represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House during the 1970s, died in Washington, D.C., at age 86.

January 28, the 28th day of 2008. There are 338 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image:
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP’s Today in History: January 19, 2008

SUICIDES, WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, PREDICTIONS, CHICKENS, BICYCLES, EXECUTIONS, CREEPY, PATENTS, COURTS, PROGRESS, DISCOVERY, COMMIES, NAZIS, PROGRESS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, WOMEN, LABOR, CROWDS, WOMEN, JEWS, SUPREME COURT, WATERGATE, MASONS, REPUBLICANS, PARDONS, SOCIETIES, BEAURACRACY, GAMES, DIPLOMACY, PRO WRESTLING, WILLS, SPORTS, SCANDAL, BIRTHDAYS, BORN, and DEATH

SUICIDES

1981 Muhammad Ali talks a despondent 21 year old out of committing suicide.

WAR!

1861 Georgia becomes 5th state to secede.

1861 MS troops take Fort Massachusetts an Ship Island.

1862 Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky (Fishing Creek, Logan’s Crossroads).

1915 1st German Zeppelin attack over Great Britain, 4 die.

1941 British offensive in Eritrea.

1941 British troops occupy Kassalaf Sudan.

1942 Japanese forces invade Burma

TERRORISM

1975 4 mail truck assault on El Al B-747 in Paris, escape to Iraq.

DISASTERS

1917 Silvertown Essex’s ammunition factory explodes; 300 die.

1947 SS Himera runs aground at Athens, kills 392.

1982 Heater explodes at Star Elementary School-Oklahoma, kills 6 kids & teacher.

1985 4 die in a car & train crash in Buda IL.

PREDICTIONS

1922 Geological survey says US oil supply would be depleted in 20 years.

CHICKENS

1939 Ernest Hausen of Wisconsin sets chicken-plucking record-4.4 seconds.

BICYCLES

1903 New bicycle race “Tour de France” announced.

1984 Francesco Moser bicycles world record time 50,808 km (he is the first man to break the 50 km/h barrier).

EXECUTIONS

1793 French King Louis XVI sentenced to death.

CREEPY

1809 Edgar Allan Poe – Boston, author (Pit & the Pendulum) born.

1971 Beatles’ Helter Skelter is played at the Charles Manson trial.

PATENTS

1825 Ezra Daggett & nephew Thomas Kensett patent food storage in tin cans.

1915 Neon Tube sign patented by George Claude.

COURTS

1984 California Supreme Court refuses to allow quadriplegic Elizabeth Bouvia to starve herself to death in a public hospital, she appeals and is later granted the right to die.

PROGRESS

1903 1st regular transatlantic radio broadcast between US & England.

1937 Millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

DISCOVERY

1840 Antarctica discovered, Charles Wilkes expedition (US claim).

COMMIES

1970 UCLA fires Angela Davis for being a communist.

NAZIS

1983 Klaus Barbie, SS chief of Lyon in Nazi-France, arrested in Bolivia.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1955 “The Millionaire” TV program premieres on CBS.

1955 1st Presidential news conference filmed for TV (Eisenhower).

1961 1st episode for “The Dick Van Dyke Show” is filmed.

1988 “48 Hours” premieres on CBS-TV.

WOMEN

1966 Indira Gandhi elected India’s 3rd prime minister.

WATERGATE

1979 John N Mitchell (former AG) released on parole from federal prison.

LABOR

1944 The federal government relinquished control of the nation’s railroads following settlement of a wage dispute.

CROWDS

1977 World’s largest crowd-12.7 million-for Indian religious festival.

JEWS

1986 Israeli premier Simon Peres visits Netherlands.

1986 Spain recognizes Israel.

1993 Israel recognizes PLO as no longer criminal.

SUPREME COURT,

1970, President Richard Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court; however, the nomination was defeated because of controversy over Carswell’s past racial views.

MASONS,

1871 1st Negro lodge of US Masons approved, New Jersey.

REPUBLICANS

1987 Guy Hunt becomes Alabama’s 1st Republican governor since 1874.

PARDONS

1977 In one of his last acts of office, President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D’Aquino, an American who had made wartime broadcasts for Japan.(Tokyo Rose)

SOCIETIES

1886 Aurora Ski Club, 1st in US, founded in Minnesota.

BUREAUCRACY

1998 During a ceremony in Atlanta commemorating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Vice President Gore announced that the Clinton administration would propose increasing spending on civil rights by $86 million.

GAMES

1955 “Scrabble” debuts on board game market.

PRO WRESTLING

1991 Sergeant Slaughter defeats Ultimate Warrior for WWF championship belt.

1992 Nature Boy Ric Flair becomes WWF champ at Royal Rumble.

1992 Rowdy Roddy Piper beats Mountie to become WWF Intercontinental Champ.

DIPLOMACY

1920 US Senate votes against membership in League of Nations.

WILLS

1967 Herr Karl Tausch writes shortest will “Vse Zene” (All to wife).

DICTATORS

2003 President Fidel Castro and millions of other Cubans voted in parliamentary elections where all 609 candidates ran uncontested.

SPORTS

1952 PGA approves allowing black participants.

SCANDAL

2007 Former Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for his role in a lobbying scandal.

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Jean Stapleton is 85. Actor Fritz Weaver is 82. Actress Tippi Hedren is 78. Former PBS newsman Robert MacNeil is 77. Movie director Richard Lester is 76. Singer Phil Everly is 69. Actor-singer Michael Crawford is 66. Actress Shelley Fabares is 64. Country singer Dolly Parton is 62. ABC newswoman Ann Compton is 61. TV chef Paula Deen is 61. Rock singer Martha Davis is 57. Singer Dewey Bunnell (America) is 56. Actor Desi Arnaz Jr. is 55. Comedian Paul Rodriguez is 53. Actress Katey Sagal is 51. Reggae musician Mickey Virtue (UB40) is 51. Actor Paul McCrane is 47. Actor William Ragsdale is 47. Tennis player Stefan Edberg is 42. Rock singer Whitfield Crane (Ugly Kid Joe) is 40. Singer Trey Lorenz is 39. Actor Shawn Wayans is 37. Rock singer-musician John Wozniak (Marcy Playground) is 37. Actress Drea de Matteo is 36. Comedian-impressionist Frank Caliendo is 34. Actress Marsha Thomason is 32. Actress Jodie Sweetin is 26. Actor Logan Lerman is 16.

BORN

570 Mohammed Islamic prophet (Koran)

1736 James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, was born in Scotland.

1807 Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Va.

DEATH

1990 Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Indian guru, dies at 58

1998 “Rockabilly” pioneer Carl Perkins died in Jackson, Tenn., at age 65.

2007 Denny Doherty, a member of the 1960s folk-rock group the Mamas and the Papas, died near Toronto at age 66.

January 19, the 19th day of 2008. There are 347 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[images: bigrock]
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Today in History: January 17, 2008

WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, CLINTONS, DIPLOMACY, ABDICATION, JEWS, SPORTS, SOLD, PATENTS, COMICS, CIVIL RIGHTS, MUSIC, PROGRESS, LINES, WITCHES, WHEW!, EXECUTIONS, DIVORCE, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, BUREAUCRACY, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

On Jan. 17, 1945, Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II. Shown above, US and Soviets meet at Elbe River.

WAR!

1943 Tin Can Drive Day

2003 On the 12th anniversary of the Gulf War, a defiant Saddam Hussein called on his people to rise up and defend the nation against a new U.S.-led attack.

TERRORISM

1979 Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran. Iran completely in hands of the forces of the Islamic Republic.

DISASTERS

1718 Avalanche destroys every building in Leukerbad, Switzerland; kills 53

1994, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California, killing at least 72 people.

1995, more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.

CLINTONS

1998 President Bill Clinton gave a deposition in Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against him; during the nearly six hours of sworn testimony, Clinton denied having had a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

1998 President Clinton faces sexual harassment charges from Paula Jones.

DIPLOMACY

1946 United Nations Security Council holds its 1st meeting.

ABDICATION

1893, Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown as a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate. Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic.

SPORTS

1997 NBA suspends Dennis Rodman indefinitely/$25,000 for kicking cameraman

SOLD

1917, the United States paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

PATENTS

1861 Flush toilet (with separate water tank and a pull chain) patented by Mr Thomas Crapper.

1905 Punchboards patented by Charles Brewer & C G Scannell, Chicago IL

JEWS

1945 Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation

1945, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, arrested in Hungary and disappeared while in Soviet custody.

COMICS

1929 Popeye makes 1st appearance, in comic strip “Thimble Theatre”.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1966 Martin Luther King Jr opens campaign in Chicago.

MUSIC

1969 Debut album of Led Zeppelin released in US.

PROGRESS

1955 Submarine USS Nautilus begins 1st nuclear-powered test voyage

LINES

1961, in his farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the rise of “the military-industrial complex.”

WITCHES

1775 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests, Kalisk, Poland

WHEW!

1966, a U.S. Air Force B-52 carrying four unarmed hydrogen bombs crashed on the Spanish coast. (Three of the bombs were quickly recovered, but the fourth wasn’t recovered until April.)

EXECUTIONS

1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade.

DIVORCE

1997, a court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country’s history.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1954 Jacques Cousteau’s 1st network telecast airs on “Omnibus” (CBS)

BUREAUCRACY

2003 Tom Ridge sailed through Senate confirmation hearings on his way to becoming the nation’s first Homeland Security Department chief.

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Betty White is 86. Singer-actress Eartha Kitt is 81. Actor James Earl Jones is 77. Talk show host Maury Povich is 69. Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is 66. Rhythm-and-blues singer William Hart (The Delfonics) is 63. Rock musician Mick Taylor is 60. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sheila Hutchinson (The Emotions) is 55. Singer Steve Earle is 53. Singer Paul Young is 52. Actor-comedian Steve Harvey is 51. Singer Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles) is 49. Actor-comedian Jim Carrey is 46. Actor Joshua Malina is 42. Singer Shabba Ranks is 42. Actor Naveen Andrews is 39. Rapper Kid Rock is 37. Actor Freddy Rodriguez is 33. Actress Zooey Deschanel is 28. Singer Ray J is 27. Country singer Amanda Wilkinson is 26.

DEATH

1893 Rutherford B Hayes 19th US President (1877-81), dies in Fremont OH at 70.

1998 Emil Sitka actor (3 Stooges shorts), dies of stroke at 82.

2003 Actor Richard Crenna died in Los Angeles at age 76.

2003 Gertrude Janeway, the last known widow of a Union veteran from the Civil War, died in Blaine, Tenn., at age 93 (she had married John Janeway in 1927 when he was 81 and she was barely 18).

2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning satirist Art Buchwald died in Washington, D.C., at age 81.

January 17, the 17th day of 2008. There are 349 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[images: mtmestas;mp3.com]
Source:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Today in History: January 15, 2008

WAR!, DISASTERS, QUEENS, ICE CREAM, FREEDOM, RECORDS, GEEZERS, EDUCATION, POLITICS, LANDMARKS, MURDERS, SPORTS, SERIAL KILLERS, SCANDAL, FINANCE, SUPREME COURT, EXECUTIONS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, POPES, KINGS, RIOTS, PRO WRESTLING, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH and MORE

1870 Donkey 1st used as symbol of Democratic Party, in Harper’s Weekly

WAR!

1865 Fort Fisher, NC falls to Union troops

1940 German U-Boot torpedoes Dutch trade ship Arendskerk (Eagle’s Church)
1942 FDR asks commissioner to continue baseball during WWII
1942 Cubs, drop plans to install lights at Wrigley due to WWII
1943 Japanese driven off Guadalcanal
1944 European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany
1944 General Eisenhower arrives in England
1944 Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die
1945 Red Army frees Crakow-Plaszow concentration camp
1949 Mao’s Red army conquers Ten-tsin
1955 USSR ends state of war with German Federal Republic
1973, President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam, citing progress in peace negotiations.

DISASTER

1919 2 million gallons of molasses “Tidal wave” Boston MA, drowning 21

1934 8.4 earthquake in India/Nepal, 10,700 die

1951 “Cloud of Death” rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 3-5,000

1993 7.5 earthquake strikes northern Japan, 2 die

ICE CREAM

1935 300 Dutch ice cream salesmen protest against Italian competition

QUEENS

1559 England’s Queen Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1994 Queen Elizabeth falls off her horse & breaks her left wrist

FREEDOM

1777 the people of New Connecticut declared their independence. (The tiny republic later became the state of Vermont.)

GEEZERS

1998 NASA announces John Glenn, 76, may fly in space again

EDUCATION

1844, the University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana.

POLITICS

1942, Jawaharlal Nehru was named to succeed Mohandas K. Gandhi as head of India’s Congress Party.

RECORDS

1983 Thom Syles keeps a life saver intact in his mouth for over 7 hours

LANDMARKS

1943, work was completed on the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense.

MURDERS

1947 The mutilated remains of Elizabeth Short, the 22-year-old aspiring actress now known as the “Black Dahlia,” were found in a vacant Los Angeles lot.

SPORTS

1934 Babe Ruth signs a 1934 contract for $35,000 ($17,000 cut)

1967 The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I.

SERIAL KILLERS

1978 Two students at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, were murdered in their sorority house. (Ted Bundy was later convicted of the crime, and executed.)

SCANDAL

1992 Cleaning woman finds intimate photos of Sarah Ferguson with US man

1998 Henry Cisneros’ ex-mistress, Linda Medlar Jones, pleaded to misleading federal authorities investigating the former U.S. housing secretary’s payment of alleged hush money to her. (Jones served nearly 18 months in prison; she was later pardoned by President Clinton.) Labor Secretary Alexis Herman denied allegations that she had sold her influence in the White House. (Herman was cleared in 2000 by Independent Counsel Ralph I. Lancaster.)

FINANCE

2003 White House budget director Mitchell Daniels predicted federal deficits would balloon to the $200- to $300 billion range over the next two years.

SUPREME COURT

1951 Supreme Court rule “clear & present danger” of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest

2003 Mickey Mouse and The Walt Disney Co. scored a big victory as the Supreme Court upheld longer copyright protections for cartoon characters, songs, books and other creations worth billions of dollars.

EXECUTIONS

2008 The Iraqi government hanged two of Saddam Hussein’s henchmen, including a half-brother (Barzan Ibrahim) who was accidentally decapitated by the noose.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1973 Gene Shalit joins the Today Show panel

1974 “Happy Days” begins an 11 year run on ABC

1977 Coneheads debut on “Saturday Night Live”

1981 “Hill Street Blues” premieres on NBC-TV

1988 Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder makes remarks about black athletes

1993 Soap opera “Santa Barbara” final show on NBC TV

POPES

708 Sisinnius begins his reign as Catholic Pope (dies 20 days later)

KINGS

1535 Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church

RIOTS

1754 Riot at burial of doelist Daniel Raap in Amsterdam

FASHION

1797 1st top hat worn (John Etherington of London)

PROGRESS

1831 1st US-built locomotive to pull a passenger train makes 1st run; Mr & Mrs Pierson of Charleston SC make 1st US railroad honeymoon trip

1863 1st US newspaper printed on wood-pulp paper, Boston Morning Journal

1936 1st all-glass windowless structure in US completed, Toledo, Ohio

SCIENCE

1833 HMS Beagle anchors at Goeree Tierra del Fuego

PATENTS

1861 Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis

1907 3-element vacuum tube patented by Dr Lee de Forest

INVENTIONS

1907 Gold dental inlays 1st described by William Taggart, who invented them

JEWS

1943 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught

1973 Pope Paul VI has an audience with Golda Meir at Vatican

1988 Arab uprising in Israel begins

RATIONING

1945 Every Amsterdammer gets 3 kg sugar beets

CIVIL RIGHTS

1950 4,000 attend National Emergency Civil Rights Conference in Washington DC

MUSIC

1961 Supremes signed with Motown Records

1965 Rock group The Who releases 1st album “I Can’t Explain”

LABOR

1964 Teamsters negotiate 1st national labor contract

WATERGATE

1973 4 Watergate burglars plead guilty in federal court

1974 Expert panel reports 18½-m gap in Watergate tape, 5 separate erasures

ASSASSINATION

1976 Sara Jane Moore sentenced to life for attempting to shoot President Ford

PRO WRESTLING

1989 Big John Studd wins WWF’s 1st Royal Rumble

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Margaret O’Brien is 71. Singer Don Van Vliet (aka “Captain Beefheart”) is 67. Actress Andrea Martin is 61. Actor-director Mario Van Peebles is 51. Actor James Nesbitt is 43. Singer Lisa Lisa (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam) is 41. Actor Chad Lowe is 40. Actress Regina King is 37. Actor Eddie Cahill is 30. Rapper/reggaeton artist Pitbull is 27.

DEATH

1998 Amos “Junior” Wells blues harpist, dies at 63

January 15, the 15th day of 2008. There are 351 days remaining in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[image: publicdomainclipart]
Sources:
*Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Today in History: December 27, 2007

WAR!, TERRORISM, EXECUTION, SCIENCE, CULTURE, FRAUD, THEORIES, DEATH, INDEPENDENCE, POLITICS, BIRTHDAYS

On Dec. 27, 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City.

WAR!

In 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.

TERRORISM

In 1985, Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of 20 people were killed, including four of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel.

In 1997, Billy Wright, Northern Ireland’s most notorious Protestant militant, was shot to death by three members of the Irish National Liberation Army at the Maze Prison outside Belfast.

In 2002, a defiant North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. But the U.N. nuclear watchdog said its inspectors were “staying put” for the time being.

In 2002, a suicide truck-bomb attack destroyed the headquarters of Chechnya’s Moscow-backed government, killing 72 people.

EXECUTION

In 2006, Saddam Hussein urged Iraqis to embrace “brotherly coexistence” and not to hate U.S.-led foreign troops in a goodbye letter posted on a Web site a day after Iraq’s highest court upheld his death sentence.

SCIENCE

In 1822, scientist Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France.

In 1968, Apollo 8 and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific.

INDEPENDENCE

In 1949, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed an act granting sovereignty to Indonesia after more than three centuries of Dutch rule.

POLITICS

In 2006, former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards jumped into the presidential race a day earlier than he had planned after his campaign accidentally went live with his election Web site a day before his scheduled announcement.

FRAUD

In 2002, Clonaid, a company founded by a religious sect that believes in space aliens, announced it had produced the world’s first cloned baby, a claim subsequently dismissed by scientists for lack of proof.

CULTURE

In 1904, James Barrie’s play “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” opened at the Duke of York’s Theater in London.

In 1927, the musical play “Show Boat,” with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opened at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York.

In 1947, the children’s TV program “The Howdy Doody Show” made its debut on NBC under the title “Puppet Playhouse.”

THEORIES

In 1831, naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a round-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

DEATH

In 2002, Oscar-winning director George Roy Hill died in New York at age 81.

BIRTHDAYS

Former U.S. Sen. James A. McClure, R-Idaho, is 83. Rockabilly musician Scotty Moore is 76. Actor John Amos is 68. ABC News correspondent Cokie Roberts is 64. Rock musician Mick Jones (Foreigner) is 63. Singer Tracy Nelson is 63. Actor Gerard Depardieu is 59. Jazz singer-musician T.S. Monk is 58. Singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff is 56. Actress Tovah Feldshuh is 55. Rock musician David Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 55. Actress Maryam D’Abo is 47. Country musician Jeff Bryant is 45. Actress Theresa Randle is 43. Actress Eva LaRue is 41. Rock musician Guthrie Govan (Asia) is 36. Musician Matt Slocum is 35. Actor Wilson Cruz is 34. Singer Olu is 34. Actor Masi Oka is 33. Actress Emilie de Ravin is 26. Christian rock musician James Mead (Kutless) is 25.

Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2007. There are four days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[image:nytx]
Source: Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Today in History: December 25, 2007

WAR!,CULTURE,EXECUTIONS,RESIGNATIONS,
ESPIONAGE,POPES,DISASTER,DEATH,BIRTHDAYS

In 1776, Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J.

WAR!

In 1941, during World War II, Japan announced the surrender of the British-Canadian garrison at Hong Kong.

CULTURE

In A.D. 336, the first recorded celebration of Christmas on Dec. 25 took place in Rome.

In 1818, “Silent Night,” written by Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr, was performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

In 1997, comedian Jerry Seinfeld announced plans to fold his highly successful NBC sitcom “Seinfeld” at the end of that season.

EXECUTION

In 1989, ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising.

DISASTER

In 2002, a major storm made for a white Christmas in parts of the United States; the severe weather ultimately was blamed for some two dozen deaths.

RESIGNATION

In 1991, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.

ESPIONAGE

In 1997, Richard Bliss, a field technician for Qualcomm Inc. accused of spying in Russia, arrived in San Diego after Russian authorities were persuaded to let him return home.

POPES

In 2002, Pope John Paul II delivered a Christmas message in which he said war had to be and could be avoided even in a world made fearful by terrorism.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI used his Christmas Day address to call for a peaceful resolution of conflicts worldwide and appealed for greater caring of the poor, the exploited and all who suffer.

DEATH

In 1946, comedian W.C. Fields died in Pasadena, Calif., at age 66.

In 1977, comedian Sir Charles Chaplin died in Switzerland at age 88.

In 2006, James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” died of heart failure in Atlanta at age 73.

BIRTHDAYS

Singer Tony Martin is 94. Actor Dick Miller is 79. Actress Hanna Schygulla is 64. Rhythm-and-blues singer John Edwards (The Spinners) is 63. Actor Gary Sandy is 62. Singer Jimmy Buffett is 61. Football Hall-of-Famer Larry Csonka is 61. Country singer Barbara Mandrell is 59. Actress Sissy Spacek is 58. Actress CCH Pounder is 55. Singer Annie Lennox is 53. Reggae singer-musician Robin Campbell (UB40) is 53. Country singer Steve Wariner is 53. Singer Shane MacGowan is 50. Actress Klea Scott is 39. Rock musician Noel Hogan (The Cranberries) is 36. Singer Dido is 36. Rock singer Mac Powell (Third Day) is 35. Country singer Alecia Elliott is 25.

Dec. 25, the 359th day of 2007. There are six days left in the year. This is Christmas Day.

compiled by Mondoreb
[image:britishbattles]
Source: Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Today in History: December 23, 2007

WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, EXECUTIONS,
POLITICS, SCIENCE, RELIGION, BIRTHDAYS

On Dec. 23, 1823, the poem “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” was published anonymously in the Troy (New York) Sentinel; the verse, more popularly known as “`Twas the Night Before Christmas,” was later widely attributed to Clement C. Moore.

WAR!

In 1783, George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Va.

In 1941, during World War II, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese.

TERRORISM

In 1968, 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, 11 months after they had been captured.

In 1987, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. (She was recaptured two days later.)

In 1997, : a jury in Denver convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, declining to find him guilty of murder.

In 2006, The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran immediately rejected the resolution.

DISASTERS

In 2002, a passenger plane crashed in central Iran during a flight from Turkey, killing 45 people, mostly from Ukraine.

POLITICS

In 2002, Senate Republicans unanimously elected Bill Frist to succeed Trent Lott as their leader in the next Congress.

EXECUTIONS

In 1948, former Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.

RELIGION

In 1805, Joseph Smith Jr., principal founder of the Mormon religious movement, was born in Sharon, Vt.

In 1967, President Johnson, on his way home from a visit to Southeast Asia, held an unprecedented meeting with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.

SCIENCE

In 1947, scientists at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey demonstrated their just-invented point-contact transistor, which paved the way to a new era of miniaturized electronics.

BIRTHDAYS

Actor Gerald S. O’Loughlin is 86. Actor Ronnie Schell is 76. Emperor Akihito of Japan is 74. Actor Frederic Forrest is 71. Actor James Stacy is 71. Rock musician Jorma Kaukonen is 67. Rock musician Ron Bushy is 66. Actor-comedian Harry Shearer is 64. Actress Susan Lucci is 61. Singer-musician Adrian Belew is 58. Rock musician Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) is 51. Actress Joan Severance is 49. Singer Terry Weeks is 44. Rock singer Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) is 43. Actor Corey Haim is 36. Rock musician Jamie Murphy is 32. Actress Estella Warren is 29.

Dec. 23, the 357th day of 2007. There are eight days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[image:xmission.com]
Source: Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.