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Post by pegasus on Apr 25, 2012 8:44:17 GMT -7
WE'RE ON THE MAP DAY
When you are taking a trip and following a map, you take the word of the cartographer that the map names are accurate. Things were pretty much the same on April 25th in 1507. That’s when mapmaker and geographer Martin Waldseemuller of Germany explained why the world map he was making would show the new world as ‘Amerige’ (the land of Amerigo).
In his book, Cosmographiae Introductio, he wrote, “Inasmuch as both Europe and Asia received their names from women, I see no reason why any one should justly object to calling this part Amerige, i.e., the land of Amerigo, or America, after Amerigo, its discoverer, a man of great ability.”
And so, Waldseemuller printed one thousand maps with Amerige printed on the part of the world we now call South America. He was obviously talking about the explorations of Amerigo Vespucci; not learning of Columbus’ discovery until several years later (news traveled quite slowly in those days); and he, obviously, never had any discussions with the Incas. They might have had a few different suggestions as to what to call the land where they lived.
However, it wasn’t long before ‘America’ was applied to both the North and South American continents ... and, as you may have noted, America is still a part of our maps and our geography lessons. Because the name, America, stuck, some refer to Waldseemuller as the godfather of America.
That’s all there is to it. Make a map, proclaim your little corner of the world as Podunck Gulch or whatever, print ’em up, distribute them and you’ll leave your mark on history. Here we are over four hundred years later still trying to understand why America is called America by the entire world, and the only explanation is that it was on the map and still is.
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Post by pegasus on Apr 29, 2012 11:27:25 GMT -7
SIR DUKE DAY
The man who became one of the 20th century’s finest composers, Edward Kennedy Ellington, was born on April 29th in 1899 in Washington, D.C. Right from the git-go, the handsome, sharply dressed teenager (that’s where he got the nickname, Duke) was headed for success. At first it was art. He won a poster-design contest and an art scholarship, left school and started a sign-painting business.
But it was his natural piano-playing ability that attracted the young women, so Duke Ellington headed in that direction. He played with Elmer Snowden’s band and took over leadership in 1925. They played and stayed at New York’s Cotton Club from 1927 through 1931, broadcasting shows live on the radio. From then on it was tours, recordings, and history in the making. Ellington would be one of the founders of big band jazz.
With the players in his band as his instruments, the Duke would create big band pieces, film scores, operas, ballets, Broadway shows, even gospel music. He would work with each section of his orchestra as an entity unto its own and then bring them together to create the unique sounds such as, "Mood Indigo."
Over 1,000 musical pieces are credited to the great Duke Ellington. James Lincoln Collier studied the Duke and his Orchestra, comparing Duke Ellington to a “master chef who plans the menus, trains the assistants, supervises them, tastes everything, adjusts the spices ... and in the end we credit him with the result.”
Andre Previn said, “Duke merely lifts his finger, three horns make a sound, and I don’t know what it is.”
According to Duke Ellington, who died in 1974, “There are only two kinds of music: good and bad.”
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Post by pegasus on Apr 29, 2012 12:16:36 GMT -7
April 29th in History
1429--Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English. 1776--Nathanael Greene took command of continental forces on Long Island. 1854--by an act of the Pennsylvania legislature, Ashmun Institute, the first college founded solely for African-American students, was officially chartered. 1861--Maryland's House of Delegates voted against seceding from the Union. 1862--Union forces capturee New Orleans. 1901--Hirohito, Emperor of Japan during World War II and its longest-reigning monarch, was born; died 1989 at age 88. 1916--British forces surrendered at Kut, Mesopotamia in World War I. 1916--the Easter uprising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities. 1945--Adolf Hitler married his longtime mistress Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker. (The couple killed themselves the next day.) 1945--US soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp. 1946--the International Military Tribunal indicted Tojo Hideki, wartime premier of Japan for war crimes. 1968--the rock musical Hair opened on Broadway. 1970--U.S.-South Vietnamese forces launched the Cambodian "incursion". 1974--Pres. Nixon announced the release of the White House Waergate tapes. 1981--truck driver Peter Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the "Yorkshire Ripper," the killer of 13 women in northern England over five years. 1986--Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox struck out a record 20 batters in a single game. 1991--a cyclone killed 135,000 in Bangladesh. 1992--deadly rioting that claimed 54 lives and caused $1 billion in damage erupted in Los Angeles after a jury in Simi Valley acquitted four LAPD officers of almost all state charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. 1996--the musical Rent opened on Broadway. 1997--a worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons went into effect 2004--the National World War II Memorial opened in Washington, D.C., to 1000s of visitors, providing overdue recognition for the 16 million U.S. men and women who served in the war. 2004--the end of the road for Oldsmobile automobile. 2011--Britain's heir presumptive Prince William married commoner Kate Middleton.
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Post by pegasus on May 1, 2012 16:46:45 GMT -7
MAY DAY
Rally ’round the Maypole, as we gather this information for you to start this, the merry merry month of May! May Day has been a traditional holiday celebration since ancient times. On this day, spring festivals and Maypoles are common.
The Maypole is a tall pole that is covered with streamers, flowers and other decorations of spring. People grab hold of a streamer and dance around the pole to ward off ol’ man Winter for good. It is a way to shake the dreary winter blues once and for all.
Since the 1880s, May Day has been celebrated in some countries, particularly socialist nations, as a labor holiday.
In Hawaii, May Day is Lei Day. It’s a day when friends, lovers, bosses, relatives ... just about anyone and everyone ... gives the gift of a lei to another, putting it around the receiver’s neck and accompanying it with the traditional kiss. This custom of sharing the aloha spirit with a beautiful floral lei on Lei Day began in 1928. There are many celebrations throughout the Hawaiian islands; some complete with pageants, a Lei Queen and her court, Hawaiian music and hula dances.
Lei Day, May Day or any day, giving a lei is a beautiful way to say, “Aloha.”
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Post by pegasus on May 2, 2012 10:21:08 GMT -7
BA BA BA BOOO DAY
No, it’s not Halloween. It was on May 2nd in Tacoma, Washington, in 1904*, that Harry Lillis Crosby was born; better known to us as Bing. He went on to sing well over 4,000 songs during his impressive show biz career which spanned not only hit recordings, but movies, radio and TV, too. Crosby’s most successful tune? "White Christmas" (written by Irving Berlin).
Bandleader Paul Whiteman hired Crosby in 1926, along with singing partner, Al Rinker. With the addition of Harry Barris, the trio became The Rhythm Boys and gained quite a following. After leaving the Whiteman organization in 1930, Crosby sang for a brief while with Gus Arnheim’s band. In 1931, ‘Der Bingle’ recorded "I Surrender, Dear." The popularity of that song landed Crosby on CBS radio and an unsurpassed solo career was underway. Over the next 30 years, Crosby’s baritone and easy manner sold more than 300,000,000 records.
The consummate golfer, Crosby was host of the annual Crosby Open held at Pebble Beach, Spyglass and, Cypress Point in California. With Crosby’s passing in 1977 -- on a golf course near Madrid, Spain -- the tournament changed names to the AT&T/Pebble Beach Open.
Bing was featured in over 60 movies, winning an Academy Award for Going My Way in 1944. Crosby won the Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1962 and has been called the number one recording artist of all time.
Together, we can all croon in his honor: Ba Ba Ba Booo.
*During his lifetime, Bing claimed May 2, 1904 as his birthday. Bing had no birth certificate, and it was only after his death in 1977 that a Tacoma priest disclosed Roman Catholic Church baptismal records that revealed Bing’s actual birthdate as May 3, 1903.
May 2nd in History 1519--Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci died. 1670--the Hudson Bay Co. was chartered by England's King Charles II. 1808--Madrid revolted against Napoleonic French rule. 1863--Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was accidentally wounded by his own men at Chancellorsville, Va. and died eight days later. 1870--the Hudson's Bay Company was chartered. 1890--the Oklahoma Territory was organized. 1903--Benjamin Spock, the American pediatrician whose books on child rearing influenced generations of parents, was born; died 1998 at age 94. 1918--General Motors bought Chevrolet. 1918--Allies argue over U.S. troops joining battle on Western Front. 1933--although accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland's Loch Ness date back 1,500 years, the modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a sighting makes local news on this date. 1939--NY Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games came to an end when the ailing slugger removed himself from the lineup. 1941--General Mills began shipping a new cereal called "Cheerioats" to six test markets. (The cereal was later renamed "Cheerios.") 1945--the Soviet Union announced the fall of Berlin and the Allies announced the surrender of Nazi troops in Italy and parts of Austria. 1972--J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI for 48 years, died at age 77. 1982--The Weather Channel debuted on cable TV. 1994--Nelson Mandela claimed victory in South Africa's first democratic elections. 1997--a sandstorm in Egypt killed 12 and toppled buildings. 1997--Tony Blair became, at age 44, Britain's youngest prime minister in 185 years. 2010--European governments and the International Monetary Fund committed to pulling Greece back from the brink of default, agreeing on nearly $1 trillion in emergency loans. 2011--Osama bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals at his compound in Pakistan.
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Post by pegasus on May 3, 2012 18:44:11 GMT -7
NPR DAY
It was on May 3rd in 1971 that National Public Radio, the U.S. national, non-commercial radio network, was born. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting financed National Public Radio so we could, once again, have the thrill of live radio.
Listeners turned to NPR for cultural programs, news, information and quality entertainment programming. Award-winning programming such as All Things Considered, NPR’s premier newsmagazine, presented uninterrupted, informative reports on business, economics and the world, in general -- and still does.
NPR’s most popular shows also include: Talk of the Nation, fascinating and thought-provoking discussions on the day’s issues and what’s behind the headlines; NPR’s Performance Today, a daily portrait of what’s happening in the world of classical music; and Car Talk, starring America’s funniest auto mechanics, the M.I.T. educated grease monkeys, Tom and Ray Magliozzi. NPR also produces and distributes some of America’s finest jazz programming.
National Public Radio was formed to educate, entertain and inform in ways that were not available elsewhere. It was and is the audience’s alternative to commercial radio. Today, NPR’s satellite-based radio network of almost 600 member stations broadcasts NPR-produced or acquired programs to 13-million listeners in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
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Post by pegasus on May 4, 2012 8:56:24 GMT -7
FUNNY FACE DAY
Edda Kathleen Hepburn van Heemstra was born on May 4th in Brussels, Belgium in the year 1929. This is quite a large name for the gamine-faced, petite charmer we knew as Audrey Hepburn. At the young age of thirteen, she had already developed the need to provide relief to the human suffering surrounding her and enlisted in the Dutch underground in their fight against the Nazi occupation of Holland. Nine years later, performing on the Broadway stage, critics found her to be charming, honest and talented in the title role of Gigi. She achieved stardom a mere two years later with her Academy award-winning performance in Roman Holiday. Audrey married Mel Ferrer on September 25, 1954 and co-starred with him and Henry Fonda in War and Peace. A year later, Funny Face premiered with Fred Astaire as her co-star. (The title role stuck to her like glue.) Love in the Afternoon opened the same year with Gary Cooper sharing the spotlight.
The seemingly fragile actress -- she fainted at the premiere of Farewell to Arms when the scene showed a difficult childbirth; and fell off a horse, fracturing several vertebrae while filming The Unforgiven -- received four Oscar nominations for Best Actress and made no less than two dozen movies in her film career including Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Children’s Hour in 1961, Charade [1963], My Fair Lady [1964] (Marni Nixon dubbed her singing), Two for the Road in 1967 and Robin and Marian with Sean Connery [1976]. Both stars received France’s Commander of Arts and Letters Award in 1987.
In later years, the diminutive star turned her attentions once more to affairs of the world, serving as spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund.
The world lost a great benefactor and a beautiful funny face when Audrey Hepburn died January 20, 1993.
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Post by pegasus on May 6, 2012 11:07:47 GMT -7
VALENTINO DAY
Rodolpho Alfonso Rafaello Pietro Filiberto Guglielmi Di Valentina D’Antonguolla was born this day in 1895. How he got past the name selection process is anyone’s guess! Rudolph Valentino became a national phenomenon and a star of unprecedented sensual attraction to women, starring in these memorable movies: The Big Little Person (1918), The Delicious Little Devil (1919) for which he earned $100 per week, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Blood and Sand (1922), and his most famous, Sheik (1921), which he said he hated.
He also disliked Paramount Studios, saying he was dissatisfied with the photography, management and direction; that they did not live up to his artistic ambitions. However, by 1924, Valentino was in the top ten of box office stars. Monsieur Beaucaire, starring Valentino, was released that same year. A year later he was at the very top of the box office star list.
The leading man was just 31 years old when a perforated ulcer took his life. Tens of thousands came to view their screen idol and movie studios closed during the funeral. On the anniversary of his death, the ‘Lady in Black’ made her first of many annual appearances at his burial site. The mystery lady was never identified. Even in death, Rudolph Valentino was a superstar.
May 4th in History 1527--German troops sacked Rome, killing 4,000 people and looting works of art and literature as part of a series of wars between the Hapsburg Empire and the French monarchy. considered the end of the Renaissance. 1626--Dutch colonist Peteer Minuit bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for $24 in trinkets. 1642--Ville Marie (Montreal) was founded by the French. 1758--Maximilien Robespierre, French Jacobin leader and a principal figure in the French Reign of Terror, was bordn; was executed 1794 at age 36. 1794--Haiti, under Toussaint L'Ouverture, revolted against France. 1816--the American Bible Society was founded in New Yokr City. 1833--John Deere made the 1st steel plow. 1840--a tornado that touched down in eastern Louisiana and crossed the Mississippi River into Natchez, Miss., killed 317 people - most of them on boats in the river. 1840--Great Britain issued the first postage stamp - the penny black. 1856--Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, was born in the MOravian town of Pribor (now part of the Czech Republic); died 1839 at age 63, 1861--Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis approved an act recognizing that a state of war existed with the United States of America. Arkansas seceded from the Union. 1862--author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau died in Concord, Mass., at age 44. 1882--Pres. Chester Alan Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which called for barring Chinese immigrants from the U.S. for ten years. 1889--the Paris Exposition opened, featuring the just-completed Eiffel Tower. 1910--Britain's Edwardian era came to an end upon the death of King Edward VII, who was succeeded by George V. 1915--Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox hit the first of his 714 major league home runs in a 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds. 1931--Willie Mays, Hall of Fame centerfielder, turned 81 today. 1932--French Pres. Paul Doumer was assassinated in Paris by Paul Gorguloff, who was executed the following September. 1935--the Works Progress Administration was established to provide work for the unemployed during the Great Depression. 1937--the hydrogen-filled German airship Hindenburg burned and crashed in Lakehurst, N.J., killing 35 of the 97 people on board and a Navy crewman on the ground. 1940--John Steinbeck was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath. 1941--Josef Stalin became the official leader of the Soviet Union. 1942--some 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese. 1954--medical student Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile during a track meet in Oxford, England, in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. 1961--actor George Clooney turned 51 today. 1962--the submerged submarine USS Ethan Allen fired a Polaris missile armed with a nuclear warhead that detonated above the Pacific Ocean. 1994--the Channel Tunnel, a railway under the English Channel connecting Britain and France, was officially opened by Pres. Mitterand of France and Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. 1996--the body of former CIA director William E. Colby was found washed up on a southern Maryland riverbank, eight days after he'd disappeared. 2001--Pope John Paul II, during a trip to Syria, became the first pope to enter a mosque. 2002--Spider-Man became the first movie to make more than $100 million in its opening weekend. 2002--Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ahng sahn soo chee) was freed after 19 months of house arrest. 2003--US health officials reported 63 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, but no deaths. 2004--the final first-run episode of Friends aired on NBC. 2006--the largest rebel group in Sudan's Darfur region and the government of Sudan signed a peace agreement ending their armed conflict in a three-year civil war. 2007--Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won the French presidency by a comfortable margin over socialist opponent Segolene Royal. 2011--brimming with pride during a visit to Fort Campbell, Ky., Pres. Obama met with the US commandos he'd sent after Osama bin Laden.
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Post by pegasus on May 7, 2012 19:40:17 GMT -7
CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO DAY
Glenn Miller and his Orchestra recorded one of the great American music standards, "Chattanooga Choo Choo," on mAY 7th in 1941. The song was recorded at the famous Victor Recording Studios in Hollywood, California. The record not only became a big hit, it is said to have been the first gold record -- for selling over one million copies. The claim, incidentally, was a promotion idea of RCA Victor.
It was not until over a decade later that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was formed to designate and audit actual certification for gold, and later, platinum records, tapes, CDs, videos and even computer software.
"Song of the Volga Boatman," "Elmer’s Tune," "A String of Pearls," "Moonlight Cocktail," "That Old Black Magic" and "Kalamazoo" were also Glenn Miller #1 recordings alongside "Chattanooga Choo Choo." All aboard!
May 4th in History 558--the Hagia Sophia Dome in Constantinople collapsed. 1355--1,200 Jews of Toledo Spain killed by Count Henry of Trastamara. 1429--English siege of Orleans was broken by Joan of Arc. 1660--Isaack B Fubine of Savoy, in The Hague, patents macaroni. 1718--Mary of Modena, Queen consort to James II of England, died of breast cancer in the Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris at age 59. 1763--Ottawa Indian chief Pontiac led a major uprising against the British at Detroit. 1789--the first presidential inaugural ball, celebrating the inauguration of George Washington, was conducted in New York City. 1832--Greece became an independent republic. 1847--the American Medical Association was founded. 1864--the Battle of the Wilderness ended and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant leaves for Sportsylvania. 1888--George Eastman patented the "Kodak box camera." 1896--Dr. H. H. Holmes, one of America's first well-known serial killers, was hanged to death in Philadelphia, Pa. 1902--a volcanic eruption buries Martinique's city of Saint Pierre in the deadlies eruption of the 20th century. 1912--Columbia University approved plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in several categories 1915--a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, killing nearly 1,200 people, including 124 Americans. 1939--Germany and Italy announced a military and political alliance, the Rome-Berlin Axis . 1945--Gen. Dwight Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany from Gen. Alfred Jodl. 1954--the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam ended after 55 days with Vietnamese insurgents overrunning French forces. 1960--Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced that American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, had confessed he was on a spying mission for the CIA. 1963--, the US launched the Telstar 2 communications satellite. 1964--Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashed when a suicidal passenger killed both the piolt and co-pilot. 1977--Seattle Slew won the Kentucky Derby on his way to horse racing's Triple Crown. 1984--a $180 million out-of-court settlement was announced in the Agent Orange class-action suit brought by Vietnam veterans. 1987--Rep. Stewart McKinney [R-Conn.] died of AIDS at age 56, the first member of Congress identified as a victim of the disease. 1992--the space Shuttle Endeavor was launched on its maiden voyage. 1992--a 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified when Michigan became the 38th state to ratify it. 1994--Norway's most famous painting, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, was recovered almost three months after it was stolen from a museum in Oslo. 1995--Jacques Chirac, mayor of Paris and former French premier, was elected president of France on his third try. 1997--a Bosnian Serb, Dusan Tadic, was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal in the first case of its kind to go to trial since just after World War II. 1999--a US stealth bomber mistakenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three people. 2000--Vladimir Putin was sworn in as Russia's 2nd president in the first democratic transfer of executive power in the nation's 1,000-year history. 2002--authorities arrested 21-year-old college student Luke J. Helder in a series of rural mailbox bombings that left six people wounded in Illinois and Iowa. 2005--Giacomo, a 50-to-1 shot, won the Kentucky Derby over Closing Argument, which went off at 71-1. 2006--Iraqi police found 43 bodies of apparent assassination victims in Baghdad while car bombs killed 14 others. 2007--officials reported no survivors in the crash of a Kenyan Airlines plane that went down in a Cameroon mangrove swamp with 114 aboard. 2007--Herod the Great's tomb was discovered. 2008--Chaitan volcano erupted n southern Chile. 2008--Dmitri Medvedev was sworn in to succeed Vladimir Putin as president of Russia. Putin was named prime minister the next day.
Thought for Today: "There are those who believe something, and therefore will tolerate nothing; and on the other hand, those who tolerate everything, because they believe nothing." — Robert Browning (1812-1889), English poet.
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Post by pegasus on May 10, 2012 8:01:46 GMT -7
GOLDEN SPIKE DAY
The Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railways met on this day in 1869. There was a grand celebration at Promontory, Utah when, in honor of the linking of the two railways, a golden spike was driven into the railroad. The spike, valued at $400, was driven, along with bronze spikes into a laurelwood tie by the president of the Central Pacific, Leland Stanford. Some say Mr. Stanford missed on his first stroke.
Immediately after the celebration, the spikes and tie were removed and replaced with the standard pine tie and steel spikes.
Interestingly, the people involved in this historic moment were unaware of its significance in the great scheme of things; and no markings were left at the specific location of the meeting of the rails. It is possible that the point at Promontory is a little to the left or south or north or right of the true spot where the rails were joined. In other words, like Mr. Stanford, we may have missed the exact spot that marks the final link in the ocean-to-ocean railroad.
May 10th in History 1291--Edward I of England was recognized as the overlord of Scotland by the Scottish nobles. 1503--Christopher Columbus visited the Cayman Islands and named them Las Tortugas after the numerous sea turtles there 1774--Louis XVI of France becomes king at age 19 upon the death of his grandfather, Louis XV. 1775--Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold led a successful attack on Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York, while the 2nd Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia, Pa. 1818--Paul Revere, silversmith and patriot during the American Revolution, diee at his home on Charter Street in Boston at the age of 83. 1837--Panic of 1837 occurred when every bank in the US stopped payment in gold and silver coinage and was followed by a 5 year depression. 1862--Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died from a wound inflicted by his own troops. 1865--Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops and spent the next two years in prison. 1869--the golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, joining the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific lines to form America's first transcontinental railway. 1871--the Treaty of Frankfurt am Main ended Franco-Prussian War. 1872--Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for President of the United States. 1877--Pres. Rutherford B. Hayes had the first telephone installed in the White House. 1902--David O. Selznick, who produced Gone With the Wind and other films, was born; died 1965 at age 63. 1908--Mother's Day was first celebrated by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, W.Va. 1924--J. Edgar Hoover is named acting director of the Bureau of Investigation (later the FBI). 1933--Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Berlin, Germany. 1940--Nazi Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, swinging 89 army divisions around France's so-called impregnable Maginot Line. 1940--Winston Churchill was appointed Prime Minister of England for the 2nd time. 1941-- the British House of Commons was bombed during the Nazi Blitz on London. 1941--Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, parachuted into Scotland on what he claimed was a peace mission. 1960--the USS Triton submarine completed the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth. 1970--Bobby Orr scored the winning goal in sudden-death overtime to lift the Boston Bruins over the St. Louis Blues for the Stanley Cup title, the Bruins’ first championship in 29 years. 1973--a federal grand jury investigating the Watergate scandal indicted former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans on perjury charges. 1981--Francois Mitterrand took office as the first Socialist President of France 1981--the Kader Toy Factory fire in Thailand killed 188 workers, mostly young women. 1984--a federal judge in Utah found the US government negligent in above-ground Nevada nuclear tests from 1951 to 1962 that exposed downwind residents to radiation. 1980--the US government loaned Chrysler Corp. $1.5 billion. 1981--Socialist Francois Mitterrand defeated incumbent Valery Giscard d'Estaing in the 2nd round of France's presidential election. 1990--China released the Tiananmen Square prisoners. 1992--14 coal miners were killed in an underground explosion at a mine in Nova Scotia, Canada. 1993--the FDA approved the sale of the first female condom. 1994--the state of Illinois executed convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy for the murders of 33 young men and boys. 1994--Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first black president. 1994--the Michigan Court of Appeals struck down the state's ban on assisted suicide. 1995--Terry Nichols, was charged in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. 1995--the World Health Organization said a mysterious disease in Zaire was caused by the Ebola virus. By the time the outbreak was declared over in late August, 244 of the 315 known victims had died. 1996--Eight climbers died on Mount Everest during a storm in the worst loss of life ever on the mountain on a single day. 2000--Pentagon officials said an investigation had concluded that the U.S. Army's highest-ranking woman had been the victim of sexual harassment from another Army general. 2002--former FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who had spied for the Soviet Union and Russia for more than 20 years, was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. 2002--Cuban activists delivered more than 11,000 signatures to the National Assembly demanding a referendum on broad changes in the socialist system, an unprecedented challenge to Fidel Castro's 43-year rule. 2002--a 39-day standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem ended with 13 suspected militants flown into European exile and 26 released into the Gaza Strip. 2003--a record outburst of tornadoes in the Midwest and South claimed 48 lives, injured 100s and leveled 100s of buildings. The total of 400 twisters was twice the previous U.S. weekly record. 2004--US Army forces leveled the Baghdad headquarters of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and killed 35 of his people. 2005--the Secret Service said it was investigating reports a hand grenade was found about 100 feet from where Pres. Bush spoke in the former Soviet state of Georgia. It turned out to be a harmless training device. 2005--Jordanian authorities reportedly confiscated copies of the controversial bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, for allegedly slandering Christianity. 2006--Indonesian officials ordered the evacuation of about 17,000 residents of Java as Mount Merapi spewed lava and poisonous smoke and appeared about to erupt. 2007--a federal jury in Santa Ana, Calif., convicted Chinese-born engineer Chi Mak of conspiring to export U.S. defense technology to China. 2007--Afghan officials said the latest U.S. airstrikes may have killed as many as 50 civilians. 2008--the Iraqi government and the Shiite militia led by Moqtada Sadr agreed to end the fighting in the Sadr City area of Baghdad. 2011--the bulging Mississippi River rolled into the Mississippi Delta after cresting before daybreak at Memphis, Tenn., causing widespread damage.
Thought for Today: "Nothing recedes like success." —Walter Winchell, Acolumnist and broadcaster (1897-1972)
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Post by pegasus on May 23, 2012 10:07:11 GMT -7
MS. ATTORNEY DAY
Believe it or not, women weren’t always allowed to become attorneys in the United States. The gavel was pounded for the first time when Belle Aurelia Babb was born on mAY 23rd in 1846. It took some 23 years, but Belle, who later changed her name to Arabella Mansfield, became the first woman admitted to the legal profession in the U.S.
A teacher at Ohio Wesleyan College, Mansfield took the bar exam and passed. The legal beagles who tested her gave Arabella a passing grade saying, “...she gave the very best rebuke possible to the imputation that ladies cannot qualify for the practice of law.”
Ms. Mansfield took her law degree and put it away somewhere. You see, she never did practice law. Instead she became one of the first female college professors and administrators in the U.S. as the dean of the schools of art and music at DePauw University. She also helped found the Iowa Woman Suffrage Society.
Just knowing that she could become an attorney was enough for Ms. Mansfield. Women attorneys throughout the U.S. - all rise
May 23rd in History
1430--Joan of Arc was captured at the Battle of Compiegne by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English. 1498--Girolamo Savonarola, Italian Dominican priest and Florentine rebel, was burned at the stake on the orders of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). 1533--Catherine of Aragon's marriage to Henry VII of England was declared null and void by a special court convened at Dunstable Priory overseen by Archbishop Thomas Cramner. 1618--The 2nd Defenestration of Prague occurred at Prague Castle when Protestants threw the Governors of Bohemia out of the high windows of the Bohemian Chancellery. 1701--Capt. William Kidd (Scottish sailor) was hanged for murder and 5 counts of piracy at 'Execution Dock' in Wapping then gibbeted (hung in an iron cage) over the River Thames. 1707--Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist who created a system for defining genera and species, was born; died 1778 at age 70. 1734--Franz Mesmer, German physician, astrologist and founder of mesmerism, wais born in the village of Izang in Germany. 1777--the Meigs Expedition claimed the sole Patriot victory on Long Island. 1788--South Carolina became the 8th state to ratify the US Constitution 1814--Declaration of Bab was proclaimed when the Bab (founder of Babism) declared to Mulla Husayn that he was Siyyid Kazim's successor and the bearer of divine knowledge. 1864--fighting began on the North Anna River, Virginia. 1873--Canada's North West Mounted Police force was established. 1900--Sgt. William Harvey Carney,, an African-American, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery on July 18, 1863, while fighting for the Union cause as a member of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry - the first to receive the nation's highest military honor. 1911--the New York Public Library main branch (5th Avenue between 40th and 42nd streets) was officially opened in a ceremony presided over Pres. Taft. 1915--Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. 1923--Sabena Airlines, Belgium's national airline based at Brussels National Airport, was launched 1933--Seabiscuit, champion thoroughbred racehorse, was foaled at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky. 1934--notorious criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death by Texas and Louisiana state police while driving a stolen car near Sailes, La. 1945--Nazi official and SS chief Heinrich Himmler committed suicide while imprisoned in Luneburg, Germany. 1949--the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was established. 1960--a tsunami caused by an earthquake off the coast of Chile traveled across the Pacific Ocean and killed 61 people in Hilo, Hawaii. 1960--the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was captured in Argentina by Israeli agents and taken to Israel to stand trial . 1991--the US Supreme Court upheld federal regulations prohibiting federally funded women's clinics from discussing or advising abortion with patients. 1994--four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison. 1994--former US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was laid to rest next to her first husband, Pres. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery. 2002--Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee acknowledged paying $450,000 in church funds in response to a claim that he had sexually assaulted a graduate student, then 33. 2003--the US Congress sent Pres. Bush a $330 billion package of tax cuts - the third of his presidency. 2004--a double-decker ferry carrying more than 200 passengers sank off the Bangladesh coast during a storm with fewer than half of the people surviving. 2006--Amnesty International claimed in its annual report that U.S. anti-terror policies worldwide had undermined human rights in 2005. 2007 Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin criticized the US' plans for a European missile defense system. 2008 A dozen children taken in a massive raid at a Texas polygamist sect's compound were reunited with their parents but hundreds of others had to await state supreme court action. 2008--a tornado outbreak sequence occurs (May 22 thru May 31) spawning 235 confirmed tornados causing approximately 13 deaths. 2010--the final episode of the supernatural castaway drama Lost aired on ABC. 2011--the European Union imposed sanctions on Syrian Pres. Assad over the continuing crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Thought for Today: "Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals." --Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Catholic religious leader & TV host (1895-1979).
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Post by pegasus on May 28, 2012 9:12:46 GMT -7
CHRYSLER DAY
Walter P. Chrysler was a poor boy growing up in Kansas; but on mAY 28th in 1928 he worked out a deal that made automotive history and took him from rags to riches. He merged his Chrysler Corporation with Dodge Brothers, Inc. The Dodge Motor Car Company had been purchased several years earlier from the widows of John and Horace Dodge, the two founders, by Clarence Dillon’s banking firm for $148 million.
The merger of Chrysler and Dodge, the largest automobile industry merger in history at the time, placed the newly consolidated firm third in production and sales, just behind General Motors and Ford Motor Company.
Twenty years later to the day, Chrysler Corporation granted its employees a 13 cents an hour wage increase, ending a 17-day strike. The increase was two-cents higher than the raise given to General Motors’ employees three days earlier. GM workers’ base pay was increased to $1.61 per hour and was tied to a cost-of-living formula. Chrysler workers received a flat $1.63 per hour with no ties. $1.61 or $1.63 per hour with or without cost-of-living ties was a lot of money in 1948.
Walter Chrysler had died eight years earlier. We’re pretty sure he would have been amazed at what it cost to make a car then ... and what Chryslers and other cars are selling for today. We are.
May 28th in History
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Post by pegasus on Jun 11, 2012 10:14:45 GMT -7
TRIPLE CROWN DAY
Racing back to 1919 ... Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes in New York to become the first horse to capture the Triple Crown. It was on June 11th that the Belmont Stakes was first run as part of thoroughbred racing’s most prestigious trio of events. Sir Barton had already won the first two jewels of the Triple Crown -- the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky and the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland. The Triple Crown is for three-year-olds only and has only been achieved by ten horses other than Sir Barton: Gallant Fox in 1930; Omaha, five years later; War Admiral in 1937; Whirlaway in ’41; Count Fleet in ’43; Assault in 1946; Citation ridden by Eddie Arcaro in 1948; the famous Secretariat in 1973; Seattle Slew in ’77 and Affirmed, the following year.
Jim Fitzsimmons, the trainer of Gallant Fox and Omaha; and Ben Jones, who trained Whirlaway and Citation are the only trainers to have two winners in the Triple Crown circle. Eddy Arcaro is the jockey who holds the most wins at the Kentucky Derby [5], Preakness Stakes [6], and Belmont Stakes [6]. Although he shares these records with other jockeys, he is the only one to have won the Triple Crown twice -- with Whirlaway and Citation.
June 11th in History 1184 BC--the Greeks finally capture Troy. 1409--the Battle of Jargeau, which was Joan of Arc's first offensive battle, took place about ten miles east of Orleans with a decisive French victory. 1509--England's King Henry VIII married his first wife and brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon. 1727--George I of Great Britain (1st Hanoverian King) died at age 67 from a stroke he suffered 2 days earlier. 1770--Capt. James Cook, commander of the British ship Endeavour, discovered the Great Barrier Reef off Australia by running onto it. 1776--the Continental Congress formed a committee to draft a Declaration of Independence calling for freedom from Britain. 1776--John Constable, English landscape painter, was born; died 1837 at age 63. 1849--the Comstock silver lode was discovere near Virginia City, Nevada. 1864--Richard Strauss, German Romantic composer, was born; died 1949 at age 85. 1901--the Cook Islands were annexed and proclaimed part of New Zealand. 1903--Alexander I, King of Serbia, and his consort Queen Draga were assassinated in their palace, their bodies mutilated and thrown from a 2nd floor window. 1919--Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes, becoming horse racing's first Triple Crown winner. 1920--Sen. Warren G. Harding, R-Ohio, was chosen as the dark horse Republican candidate for president. 1922--the groundbreaking documentary feature Nanook of the North, produced by Robert J. Flaherty, premiered in New York 1937--eight members of the Soviet Red Army High Command accused of disloyalty were put on trial, convicted and immediately executed as part of Josef Stalin's Great Purge. 1942--the US and the Soviet Union signed a lend-lease agreement to aid the Soviet war effort in World War II. 1955--Le Mans disaster (France) occurred when a Le Mans racing car, involved in an accident, flew into the crowd, killing the driver and 80 spectators. 1962--three prisoners at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay staged an escape, leaving the island on a makeshift raft. Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin were never found or heard from again. 1963--Gov. George Wallace confronted federal troops at the University of Alabama in an effort to defy a federal court order to allow two black students to enroll at the school. 1963--a Buddhist monk (Thich Quang Duc) set himself afire on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese Pres. Ngo Dinh Diem. 1967--the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors ended with a UN-brokered cease-fire with the outnumbered Israel forces achieving a swift and decisive victory. 1971--the year-and-a-half-long occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay by American Indian activists ended as federal officers evicted the remaining protesters. 1977--Seattle Slew won the Belmont Stakes, capturing the Triple Crown. 1985--Karen Ann Quinlan died at age 31 in a New Jersey nursing home, nearly 10 years after she lapsed into an irreversible coma. (Her condition had sparked a nationwide controversy over her right to die.) 1986--a divided US Supreme Court struck down a Pennsylvania abortion law while reaffirming its 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion. 1987--Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in 160 years to win a third consecutive term. 1990--the US Supreme Court struck down a federal law prohibiting desecration of the American flag. 1990--former Reagan national security adviser John Poindexter was sentenced to six months in prison, becoming the first Iran-Contra defendant to receive prison time in the arms-for-hostages scandal. 1994--after 49 years, the Russian military occupation of what had been East Germany ended with the departure of the Red Army from Berlin. 2001--Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. 2002--the first episode of American Idol aired on Fox TV with hosts Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman and judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. (The winner of the first season was Kelly Clarkson.) 2005--the world's richest countries agreed to a debt relief deal for the poorest nations, writing off $40 billion in debt. 2007--Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in a restroom sex sting. (Craig, who denied soliciting an undercover police officer, later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and paid a fine.) 2008--a US air and ground attack aimed at Taliban militants on the Afghan border killed 11 Pakistan paramilitary forces. 2009--the World Health Organization declared the swine flu outbreak a pandemic. 2010--the FIFA World Cup opened in South Africa, the first time soccer's biggest tournament was held on that continent.. 2011--rejecting calls by Democratic leaders for him to resign in a sexting scandal, Rep. Anthony Weiner instead announced he was seeking professional treatment and asking for a leave of absence from Congress. (Weiner ended up leaving office.)
Thought for Today: "Forgetfulness is a form of freedom." —Khalil Gibran, poet and artist (1883-1931).
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Post by pegasus on Jun 20, 2012 16:38:37 GMT -7
FUNNY GIRL DAY
Fanny Brice, born Fannie Borach, debuted in the New York production of the Ziegfeld Follies on June 20th in 1910. It wasn’t long before Brice became known as America’s funny girl. Brice was originally noticed by composer Irving Berlin; but was truly discovered by Florenz Ziegfeld, appearing as a Ziegfeld show girl, and then as the star of the Follies over the next 26 years. The comedienne, who sang novelty and dialect songs, also wowed the audience with her torch numbers such as, "I’d Rather Be Blue," "When a Woman Loves a Man," "My Man" and "Second Hand Rose."
A regular on Rudee Vallee’s radio show, The Fleischmann Hour, in the 1920s, Fanny Brice joined The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air at age 45. The show on CBS radio was the introduction of her funny-voiced character, Baby Snooks. In 1937 she joined NBC radio and continued as the Snooks kid, a seven-year old spoiled brat. Brice’s most famous line was, “Whyyyyyy, daddy, whyyyyy?” From 1936 through 1951, Brice was one of radio’s biggest draws.
Fanny Brice died on May 29, 1951 at the age of 59 but she is still with us in the Broadway show [1964] and film [1968], Funny Girl, based on her life. Barbra Streisand gained recognition and acclaim for her role in both, as Fanny Brice, Funny Girl.
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Post by pegasus on Jul 4, 2012 15:01:25 GMT -7
INDEPENDENCE DAY
Americans celebrate their independence from the British on this day. July 4th commemorates the approval of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. No it wasn’t signed on this day - just approved. The actual signing didn’t take place until a month later. Most of the delegates signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776, the first signature being that of John Hancock. Several signatures were obtained later ... George Wythe (Virginia) on August 27; Richard Henry Lee (Virginia), Elbridge Gerry (Massachusetts), Oliver Wolcott (Connecticut) signed in September; Matthew Thornton (New Hampshire) in November. Thomas McKean, representing Delaware, was serving in the army and was unavailable to add his ‘John Hancock’ until 1781.
Thomas Jefferson was the major author of the Declaration of Independence, but he had help from John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman. Following the natural rights theory of John Locke, the document proclaimed the equality of ‘all men’ and their ‘unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. The authors wrote that governments were established to secure these rights; when they failed to do so, the people could abolish them. This one statement alone was considered as treason to the British crown.
And so, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock said, “Now we must all hang together.” Always the sharp wit, Benjamin Franklin smilingly stated, “Or most assuredly we will all hang separately.”
July 4th in History 1776--In Philadelphia, Pa., the Continental Congress adoptED the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimED the independence of the United States of America from Great Britain and its king. 1826--John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the 2nd and 3rd presidents of the United States, died on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. 1855--the 2st edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass was published. 1863--the Confederates surrendered Viclsbirg. 1911--a heat wave strikes the American northeast that would go on to kill 380 people as temperatures reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit. 1917--US troops made their first public display of World War I, marching through the streets of Paris to the grave of the Marquis de Lafayette, 1919-- challenger Jack Dempsey defeated heavyweight champion Jess Willard in searing heat in Toledo, Ohio, to win the heavyweight championship of the world. 1954--a sensationalized murder trial inspired The Fugitive. 1957--a rock concert in Moscow, jointly organized by American promoters and the Soviet government to serve as symbol of peace and understanding between the people of the US and the USSR, played to a crowd of approximately 25,000. 1997--after traveling 120 million miles in seven months, NASA's Mars Pathfinder becomes the first US spacecraft to land on Mars in more than two decades.
Thought for Today: "Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels -- men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, we may never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion." --Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), 34th US President,
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