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Post by pegasus on Jul 12, 2012 11:05:42 GMT -7
THE COS DAY
The span of events that took Bill Cosby from the first African-American to star in a television dramatic series to the contributor of $20 million to Spelman College, are the same events that have endeared him to audiences of all races. Born William Henry Cosby, Jr. on July 12th in 1937, he grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After a four-year stint in the U.S. Navy, Bill entered Temple University in Philadelphia where he was active in football and track. But it was comedy that came naturally to the young Cosby, and he was soon on the road, doing stand-up comedy at nightclubs, concert halls and theaters.
Having made a name for himself in this area, Bill Cosby auditioned for the co-starring (with Robert Culp) role of Alexander Scott in I Spy in 1965, the same year he married Camille Hanks. I Spy was the world’s first dramatic TV series starring an African-American, and Cosby’s first attempt at drama. He won three Best-Actor Emmys for his effort. A sitcom, The Bill Cosby Show was next, featuring Cosby as high school basketball coach, Chet Kincaid.
A doctorate in education was in the stars for the TV star. While earning the degree from the University of Massachusetts, Cosby continued to entertain us with TV comedy and variety shows, The New Bill Cosby Show, and Cos. His love for children shined in the 1972-1984 animated Saturday morning show, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. Cosby’s real life role of husband and parent (four daughters, Erika, Erinn, Ensa, Evin and one son, Ennis, who was tragically killed in 1997 at the age of 27) was played out on his hit TV show, The Cosby Show; #1 for three years of its eight-year run (1984-1992). It was in this show that Cosby truly endeared himself to audiences of all ages and races.
Bill Cosby has touched our lives not only on television, but as an actor, producer, director and screenwriter of films; as an author of the bestsellers, Fatherhood, Time Flies and Congratulations! Now What? : A Book for Graduates, to name a few titles; as a recording artist (five Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album), as a spokesperson (Kodak, JELL-O, Coca-Cola, et al.); as a board member of several organizations, including president of the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, and as a philanthropist.
The Cos continues his dedication to education as a trustee of Temple University, and with a TV series based on his book series, Little Bill encouraging reading among children. He also continues to entertain us with his comedic talents in Cosby, his latest TV show. An accomplished musician, Cosby has been producing jazz recordings including a dedication to his son, Hello Friend: To Ennis With Love.
The Cos says, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” The laughter and applause from his audiences, the pride for his family, and his estimated wealth of $325 million (1995) would spell success to most.
Happy Birthday, Cos.
July 12th in History 100 B.C.--Julis Caesar, Roman general and statesman, was born in Rome; assassinated 44 B.C. at age 55. 1389--Richard II, Ing of England, appointed Geoffrey Chaucer to the position of chief clerk of the king's works in Westminster. 1543--England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, 1690--forces led by William of Orange defeated the army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. 1780--the Battle of Huck's Defeat: Philadelphia lawyer Capt. Christian Huck and 130 Loyalist cavalry, belonging to British Lt Col. Banastre Tarleton's legion, suffered defeat at the hands of 500 Patriot militiamen at Williamson's Plantation in South Carolina. 1817-- Henry David Thoreau, essayist, poet and philosopher, was born; died 1862 at age 44. 1861--Special commissioner Albert Pike completed treaties with the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, giving the new Confederate States of America several allies in Indian Territory. 1861--Wild Bill Hickok had his first gunfight, coolly shooting three men during a shootout in Nebraska. 1862--Pres. Lincoln signed a bill passed by Congress authorizing the Medal of Honor. 1865--George Washington Carver, the African-American scientist whose discoveries helped to improve agriculture in the South, was born; died 1943 at age 77. 1904--Pablo Neruda, Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet (1971) and politician, was born; died 1973 at age 69. 1909--the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, allowing for a federal income tax. 1943--the Russians halted a German advance in the decisive battle at Kursk. 1957--Pres. Eisenhower took the first presidential ride in a helicopter. 1963--16-year-old Pauline Reade was abducted while on her way to a dance near her home in Gorton, England, by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the so-called "Moors Murderers," launching a crime spree that will last for over two years. 1972--George McGovern won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Miami Beach. 1979--Disco was dealth a death blow by Chicago White Sox fans on Disco Demolition night at the stadium that led to 39 arrexts, forfeit of the game. 1984--Walter Mondale, the Democratic presidential candidate, announced that he had chosen Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate, the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.. 1990--Boris Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party. 1991--a Japanese professor (Hitoshi Igarashi) who had translated Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses was found stabbed to death, nine days after the novel's Italian translator was attacked in Milan. 1995-- a heat advisory was issued in Chicago, Ill., warning of an impending record-breaking heat wave. By the time the heat broke a week later, nearly 1,000 people were dead in Illinois and Wisconsin. 1998--France beat Brazil to win FIFA World Cup. 2005--Prince Albert II of Monaco acceded to the throne. 2010--Roman Polanski was declared a free man, no longer confined to house arrest in his Alpine villa, after Swiss authorities rejected a U.S. request for the Oscar-winning director's extradition because of a 32-year-old sex conviction. 2011--Ahmed Wali Karzai, the powerful half brother of Pres. Hamid Karzai, was gunned down in his heavily fortified home by a close associate..
Thought for Today: "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." —Milton Berle, (1908-2002) comedian
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Post by pegasus on Aug 21, 2012 13:40:11 GMT -7
August 21st in History 1770--Capt. James Cook formally claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales. 1808--Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, and his British troops defeated French at the Battle of Vimiero in the Iberian Peninsular War. 1810--Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, one of Napoleon's generals, was elected Crown Prince of Sweden using the name Charles John. 1816--in Canada, Quebec suffered an early season snowfall. 1831--a slave revolt led by Nat Turner erupted in Virginia. 1841--venetian blinds were patented by John Hampton of New Orleans, La. 1852--Tlingit Indians destroyed the Hudsan Bay Co.'s Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory, after the company tried to break the Tlingit monopoly on trade with interior tribes. 1858--the first of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas took place in Ottawa, Ill. 1863--in a vicious guerilla war, 150 men in the abolitionist town of Lawrence were murdered in a raid by Southern partisans. 1878--the American Bar Association was founded in Saratoga, N.Y 1883--the trial of Frank James began in Gallatin, Missouri, in the city opera house in order to accommodate the crowds of spectators. 1888--the adding machine was patented by William Burroughs of St. Louis, Mo. 1897--Ransom Eli Olds of Lansing, Mich., founded Olds Motors Works--which later become Oldsmobile. 1911--Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris by Italian waiter Vicenzo Perruggia (recovered two yeas later). 1914--the 2nd and 3rd of what will be four "Battles of the Frontiers" fought between German and Allied forces began near Ardennes and Charleroi in northern France. 1942--the Battle of Stalingrad began. 1944--the US, Great Britain, Russia and China met at Dumbarton Oaks near Washington to plan for the formation of the United Nations. 1950--the United Nations moved to its permanent location in New York City , on land donated by the Rockefeller family. 1959--Pres. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the Union as the 50th state. 1956--20th Century-Fox's film, Bus Stop, starring Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray, premiered in New York. 1963--Xa Loi Pagoda raids: South Vietnamese Special Forces loyal to Pres. Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, attacked Buddhists pagodas, damaging many and arresting 1,400 Buddhists. 1965--US pilots were given the green light to go after anti-aircraft missiles in the North. 1965--the US spacecraft Gemini 5 was launched from Cape Kennedy, with Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad on board. 1971--antiwar protestors associated with the Catholic Left raided draft offices in Buffalo, NY, and Camden, NJ, to confiscate and destroy draft records. 1972--the first hot air balloon flight over the Alps. 1976--RCA Victor Records announced that sales of Elvis Presley records passed the 400 million mark. 1983--Philippine opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., ending a self-imposed exile in the US, was shot dead moments after stepping off a plane at Manila airport. 1986--an eruption of lethal gas from Lake Nyos in Cameroon killed nearly 2,000 people and wiped out four villages. 1987--Sgt. Clayton Lonetree, the first Marine ever court-martialed for spying, was convicted in Quantico, Va., of passing secrets to the KGB. 1989--51 people drown in the River Thames, London when a dredger rams the pleasure cruiser Marchioness. 1990--British conservationist George Adamson, whose work featured in the film Born Free, was murdered by bandits in Kenya. 1991--after three days, the Soviet hardliner coup against Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed due to a popular uprising led by Russian federation President Boris Yeltsin. 2001--NATO decided to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. 2004--In Athens, Michael Phelps won his 8th Olympic medal for the men's 4x100m relay. 2006--British prosecutors announced that 11 people had been charged in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners bound for the US. 2009--leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gays and lesbians from serving as ministers.
Thought for Today: "Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly." --St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) French Roman Catholic bishop of Geneva, Switzerland and anti-Calvinist.
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Post by pegasus on Aug 26, 2012 15:52:58 GMT -7
August 26th in History 55 BC--Julius Caesar and his Roman legions invaded Britain. 1346--one of the great battles in history, the attle of Crecy of the Hundred Years War between England's King Edward III and France's King Philip VI, occurred in Normandy - the first battle at which the English used only infantry and longbowmen. 1498--Michelangelo, master artist, was commissioned to sculpt the "Pieta". 1541--Suleiman I of Turkey captured Buda and annexed Hungary after his dispute with Archduke Ferdinand over claims to the kingdom. 1676--Robert Walpole. British prime minister (1721-42), was born; died 1745 at age 68. 1768--HMS Bark Endeavor sets sail under Capt. James Cook from Plymouth to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus. 1776--Gen. George Washington urged the Hessian mercenaries to desert the British cause. 1789--the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the Constinuent Assembly at the Palace ofwaVersailles in France. 1794--Pres. Washington wrote to Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, Virginia's governor, regarding the Whiskey Rebellion, an insurrection that was the first great test of Washington's authority as president, and why he had to oppose it. 1819--Albertm German-born prince consort of Queen Victoria of Great Britain, was born; died 1861 at age 42. 1858--the Treaty of Edo was signed which provided for the opening up of Japan to British trade and set up British residency. 1862--the 2nd Bull Run campaign of the US Civil War began. 1873--the St. Louis, Missouri school board established the first public school kindergarten in the United States. 1883--Krakotoa began its cataclysmic eruption that destroyed 2/3 of the island of Krakatoa killing over 35,000 people and caused oceanic and atmospheric changes over a period of many years. . 1906--Albert Sabin, the Polish-American doctor who developed the pra; polio vaccine, was born.; died 1993 at age 86. 1914--the battle of Tannenberg: the Germany army attacked the advancing Russian 2nd Army in East Prussia early in Wolrd War I. 1920--the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution giving women the right to vote was adlpted. 1934-- Hitler demanded that France turn over the Saar region to Germany. 1939--the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, NY beame the first televised Major League baseball game on WNBC-TV. 1948--the temperature hit 108F in New York City during a week-long heat wave that killed at least 33 people. 1957--out rolled the first Edsel automobile by the Ford Motor Company. 1961--the NHL Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto, Canada. 1957--Soviet Russia tester an intercontinental ballistic missile. 1968--the Democratic National Convention was besieged by Vietnam War protestors (the Chicago Seven). 1978--Cardinal Albino Luciani was elected the 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and took the name John Paul I. 1986--the so-called "Preppy Murder" of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin by 19-year-old Robert Chambers stunned New York City. 1996--a court in South Korea sentenced former President Chun Doo-hwan to death for the coup that put him in power. His successor, Roh Tae-woo, was sentenced to prison for taking bribes. 2003--investigators concluded that NASA's overconfident management and inattention to safety doomed the space shuttle Columbia as much as damage to the craft did. 2004--a leader in the US Army panel investigating prisoner abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison said the team had discovered serious misconduct and a loss of moral values. 2004 --a mortar attack on a mosque in Koufa in central Iraq killed 40 people and injured another 70. 2005--Hurricane Katrina struck Florida's Atlantic coast, causing flooding that claimed 11 lives. 2007--wildfires, all believed to be the act of arsonists, raged in Greece, fanned by gale force winds, killing at least 59 people. 2008--floods in India leaft 1000s homeless with a death toll exceeding 800.
Thought for Today: "There may be Peace without Joy, and Joy without Peace, but the two combined make Happiness." --John Buchan (1875-1940) Scottish statesman and adventure story writer.
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Post by pegasus on Sept 9, 2012 16:01:37 GMT -7
September 9th in History:
490 BC--the Battle of Marathon took place between the invading Persian army and the Athenian Army. The marathon race was derived from the events that occurred surrounding this battle. 1087--William the Conqueror, King of England, Duke of Normandy, died at the Convent of Saint Gervais in Rouen. France. 1513--Battle of Flodden Fields; English of Henry VIII defeated the forces of James IV of Scotland, who was killed, ending Scotland's involvement in the War of the League of Cambrai. 1543--Mary Stuart, at age nine months, was officially crowned Queen of Scots. 1739--Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in the American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupted near Charleston, SC. 1776--Congress renamed the nation "United States of America," replacing the term "United Colonies." 1835--the so-called "September Laws" were introduced in France, suppressing the radical movement and censoring the press. 1836--Abraham Lincoln received a license to practice law. 1841--the Great Lakes steamer Erie sunk off Silver Creek NY, killing 300. 1850--California became the 31st state in record time, while New Mexico and Utah became US territories. As part of the North-South Compromise of 1850, California was admitted as a free state. 1850--the Compromise of 1850 stripped Texas of a third of its claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) in return for the federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt. 1863--federal trops captured Chattanooga, Tenn. 1867--the Grand Ducky of Luxembourg gained its independence. 1893--Esther Cleveland, the daughter of Pres. Grover Cleveland, was the first child born in the White House (and still is). 1901--Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter, printmaker, draftsman and illustratior, died at age 36 due to heavy drinking and other ailments that led to mental illness and death. 1904--mounted police were first used in New York City, 1911--Italy declared war on the Ottoman Turks and annexed Libya, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica in North Africa. 1919--6he infamous Boston Police Strike began and criminals took the opportuinty to loot the city. 1926--NBC (National Broadcasting Co.) was established as a Radio Corp.of American (RCA) broadcasting service. 1939--audiences were treated to surprise preview of the blockbuster movie Gone with the Wind. 1942--a Japanese floatplane dropped incendiary bombs on an Oregon state forest in the first and only air attack on the US mainland in the war. 1943--the Allies landed at Salerno and Taranto, Sicily. 1947--1st documented "computer bug" case occurred involving a moth getting trapped between relays in the Harvard University Mark II Computer. 1948--after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed with Pyongyang as its capital. 1954--a powrful earthquake shook Algeria. 1956--54,000,000 viewers, 82.6%t of the US' television audience, watched Elvis Presley's appearance for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show. 1957--the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since the Reconstruction was signed into law by Pres. Eisenhower. 1965--Hurricane Betsy (one of the most intense, deadly and costly storms to hit the US) slammed into New Orleans, La. 1965--French Pres. Charles de Gaulle announced that France was withdrawing from NATO to protest US domination. 1966--Pres. Johnson signed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. 1971--the notorious Attica (NY) prison riot began with more than 1,000 inmates taking 35 people hostage.. 1976--Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Repubic of China, died in Beijing at age 82. 1978--U2 opened for the Stranglers in Dublin at the Top Hat Ballroom. 1979--at just 16-years old, Tracy Austin became the youngest player to win the US Open women’s tennis title. 1982--Princess Grace of Monaco died from injuries sustained when her car plummeted off a mountain road. 1986--Ted Turner presented the first of his colorized films on WTBS in Atlanta, Ga. 1990--the Ellis Island Museum of Immigration, closed to public tours in 1984, was reopened, following a $160 million restoration. 1990--Liberian Pres. Samuel Doe was captured and killed by rebels after visiting West African peacekeeping forces in Monrovia. 1991--Tajikistan declared independence from the Soviet Union. 1993--the PLO recognized the right of the state of Israel to exist in peace and security and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared the PLO the representative of the Palestinian people. 1996--Hutu rebels murdered the Roman Catholic archbishop of Burundi, Joachim Ruhuna, in an ambush. 1997--Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, formally renounced violence as it took its place in talks on Northern Ireland's future. 1999--more than 90 people died in the bombing of a Moscow apartment building by Chechnyan terrorists. 2003--the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Boston reached an agreement with sexual abuse victims that could run as high as $85 million. 2004--the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia was bombed killing 9 and wounding over 150 others. 2005--Michael Brown, the embattled director of FEMA, was replaced by U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen. 2008--Pres. Bush said some 8,000 U.S. troops would be returning home from Iraq without replacement, but additional trops would be deployed to Afghanistan.
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Post by pegasus on Sept 10, 2012 19:37:55 GMT -7
September 10th in History:
1419--John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy was assassinated by adherents of the Dauphin, the future Charles VII of France. 1608--John Smith, English adventurer, writer and cartogropher w. as elected council president of Jamestown, Va. 1721--the Treaty of Nystad was signed in Finland between Sweden and Russia, ending the Great Northern War (1700-21) with Sweden waceding Livonia, and Estonia to Russia. 1776--Nathan Hale volunteers to spy behind British lines. 1797--Mary Wollstonecraft. English writer, philosopher , feminist and mother of Mary Shelley),died during the birth of her second daughter. 1813--U.S. Captain Oliver Hazard Perry leads a fleet of nine American ships to victory over a squadron of six British warships at the Battle of Lake Erie. 1823--Simon Bolivar, who led the wars for independence from Spain, was named president of Peru with dictatorial powers. 1833--Pres. Andrew Jackson shut down the 2nd Bank of the U.S. 1846--Elias Howe of Spencer, Mass., received a patent for the sewing machine. 1861--the North and South fight indecisive battle at Carnifex Ferry in the Kanawha Valley in western Virginia, 1897--a 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming his cab into a building. 1898--Empress Elisabeth of Bavaria was stabbed in the heart with a sharpened file by anarchist Luigi Lucheni. 1919--New York City welcomed home Gen. John J. Pershing and 25,000 soldiers who had served in the United States 1st Division during World War I. 1921--the Ayus Autobahn, noted for its speeding traffic, opened near Berlin., Germany 1924--a judge in Chicago sentenced Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb to life in prison for the murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks - a "thrill killing" that had shocked the nation. 1929--Arnold Palmer, Hall of Fame professional golfer, was born and turns 83 . 1935--Sen. Huey P. Long, the "Kingfish" of Louisiana politics, died two days after being shot in Baton Rouge. 1939--Canada declared war on Germany. 1945--Vidkun Quisling was sentenced to death in Norway for collaborating with the Nazis... 1955--the most popular Western in TV history, Gunsmoke, premiered on CBS. 1955--Bert Parks began his 25-year long career hosting the Miss America Pageant on NBC. 1962--the US Supreme Court ruled that James Meredith, whose application to the University of Mississippi had been rejected because he was African American, should be admitted to the university. 1962--Australian tennis champion Rod Laver wins the Grand Slam. 1963--20 black students entered public schools in Birmingham, Tuskegee and Mobile, Ala., following a standoff between federal authorities and Gov. George C. Wallace. 1967--the people of Gibraltar voted by almost 100 percent to retain British sovereignty, rejecting Spanish rule. 1976--a British Airways Trident jet and a Yugoslav DC-9 collided over northern Yugoslavia, killing 176 people. 1977--at Baumetes Prison, Marseille, France, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder, becomes the last person executed by guillotine. 1981--Spanish artist Pablo Picasso's monumental anti-war mural "Guernica " was returned to Spain after four decades of refugee existence. on loan to New York's Museum of Mdern Art, as decreed by Pablo Picasso. 1986--sprinter Evelyn Ashford had her first defeat in eight years, when she lost to Valerie Brisco-Hooks in the 200-meter run in Rome, Italy. 1988--Steffi Graf of West Germany achieved the tennis' Grand Slam by taking the US Open women's singles title . 1989--in a break with the eastern European communist bloc, Hungary gives permission for 1000s of East German refugees to leave for West Germany. 1996--the UN approved the new nuclear test ban treaty, 158-3. 1998--Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams had face-to-face talks with David Trimble, leader of Northern Ireland's Protestant Unionists, for the first time. 2000--Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats closed after 7,485 performances over nearly 18 years abecoming the longest-running show in Broadway history. 2000--NBC's The West Wing"won a record nine Emmy awards, including best drama series. 2000--the US government agreed to drop virtually all charges against Chinese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee, accused of stealing nuclear secrets. 2002--Switzerland and Timor-Leste became the 190th and 101st member sof the UN. 2003--Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, 46, was stabbed in a Stockholm department store by Mijailo Mijailovic and died the next day. 2007--Jane Wyman, Oscar-winning actress (Johnny Belinda) and Ronald Regan's 1st wife. died . 2007--a rebel leader claimed the Sudanese government had bombed Darfur, killing at least 28 people.
2008--the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, described as the biggest scientific experiment in the history of mankind, was powered up in Geneva, Switzerland, but closed down 9 days later.
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Post by pegasus on Sept 22, 2012 12:33:12 GMT -7
Today in History
September 22nd
66--the Roman Emperor Nero createe the Legion I Italica. 1499--the Swabian War between the Swiss League and Maximilian I ended with the signing of the Peace of Basle by which the Swiss gained their independence. 1554--Spanish explorer, Francisco Coronado died, without finding the fabled cities of gold he was looking for. 1598--English playwright, Beh Jonson, was arrested for manslaughter and placed in Newgate for killing actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel. 1735--Sir Robert Walpole became the first British prime minister to occupy 10 Downing Street in London. 1761--Britain's King George III and his wife, Charlotte, were crowned in Westminster Abbey. 1776--Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, was executed by the British for spying. 1789--the US Congress authorized the office of Postmaster-General. 1792--the first French Republic was proclaimed. 1828--Shaka, Zulu chieftain and founder of the Zulu empire, was killed by his two half-brothers after he became insane. 1862--Pres. Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863 and recasting the Civil War as a fight against slavery. 1862--Otto von Bismarck became premier of Prussia. 1880--Dame Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragist, was born; died 1958 at age 77. 1910--the Duke of York's Picture House (an art house cinema in Brighton England) is opened by the Mayor of Brighton. 1914--in the North Sea, the German U-9 submarine sank three British cruisers in just over one hour, killing 1,400 British sailors. 1927--Tommy Lasorda, Hall of Fame baseball manager, turns 85 1927--Gene Tunney successfully defended his heavyweight boxing title against Jack Dempsey in the notorious "long count" fight in Chicago, Ill. 1934--in the Gresford Disaster, Wales, one of Britain's worst coal mining accidents occurred ehrn 266 men died in a gas explosion. 1940--France agreed to Japanese demands that it be allowed to station aircraft in Tongking, thus giving the Japanese strategic entry into French Indochina. 1942--NBA commissioner David Stern was born and turns 70. 1945--Gen. George S. Patton said that he didn't see the need for "this denazification thing" and compared the controversy over Nazism to a "Democratic and Republican election fight." 1949--the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. 1961--Pres. Kennedy signed legislation establishing the Peace Corps. 1964--the musical Fiddler on the Roof opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 3,242 performances. The hour-long spy adventure series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., starring Robert Vaughn as the suave Napoleon Solo, debuted on NBC. 1968--GOP presidential candidate, Sen. Barry Goldwater attacked Pres. Johnson's Vietnam policy. 1969--Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants hit his 600th career home run during a game in San Diego. 1975--Pres. Ford survived a second assassination attempt when self-proclaimed revolutionary Sarah Jane Moore aimed a gun at him in front of a San Francisco, Calif. hotel. 1980--the so-called Midtown Stabber killed a man outside a supermarket in Buffalo, NY in the first of a series of four attacks in upstate New York and New York City. Then six blacks or Hispanic men were stabbed (4 died) in New York City and another two again in Buffalo. 1980--Iran-Iraq War: long-standing border disputes and political turmoil in Iran prompt Iraqi Pres. Hussein to launch an invasion of Iran's oil-producing province of Khuzestan. 1985--the first "Farm Aid" concert was held in Champaign, Ill. by 50 rock and country stars, headed by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellancamp. 1985--French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius admitted that French agents acting under orders sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand. 1989--Hurricane Hugo slashed through Charleston and coastal South Carolina with 135-mph winds, claiming at least 28 lives. 1989--called by some critics "Body Watch", the California-beach-based lifeguard show Baywatch debuted on NBC. 1989--an Irish Republican Army bomb attack killed 10 at the Royal Marines School of Music in Deal, England. 1989--Irving Berlin, Russian-born composer ("There's No Business Like Show Business," "White Christmas", "Easter Parade"), one of America's most prolific and famous writers of music, died in his sleep at age 101. 1991--Dead Sea Scrolls are made available to the public for the first time by the Huntington Library. 1992--the UN General Assembly expelled Yugoslavia. 1993--an Amtrak train headed to Miami derailed in a swamp near Mobile, Ala., killing 47 people. 1994--the television sitcom Friends, about six young adults living in New York City, debuted on NBC. 1995--Time Warner struck a $7.5 billion deal to buy Turner Broadcasting System Inc. 1999--the US Justice Department sued five major tobacco companies and two defunct lobbying groups, charging they colluded to defraud the public about the addictive nature of tobacco products. 2003--a bomb exploded outside the UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing the bomber and a guard and wounding 19. 2004--Lost premiered on ABC. 2005--John Roberts' nomination as chief justice cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 13-5 vote. 2007--Alberto Fujimori, the former president of Peru, returned from his Chilean exile to face charges of corruption and human rights abuse. 2008--the US Mint unveiled the first changes to the penny in 50 years, with Abraham Lincoln's portrait still on the front, but new designs replacing the Lincoln Memorial on the back.
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Post by pegasus on Sept 25, 2012 15:50:13 GMT -7
Today in History
September 25th 1066--Battle of Stamford Bridge between the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in England marked the end of the Anglo-Saxon era 1513--Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama to be the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. 1555--the Peace of Augsburg was promulgated, resolving bitter disputes between Protestants and Catholics in German states. 1690--the first American newspaper, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic, published its first, and last, edition in Boston. 1775--Ethan Allen was captured in Montreal by the British and identified as an officer of the Continental Amy and sent to England to be executed. 1789--the Bill of Rights was passed by the US Congress and sent to the states for ratificataion. 1864--Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis visited Gen. Hood in Georgia. 1890--Mormon president Wilford Woodruff issued a manifesto formally renouncing the practice of polygamy. 1894--Pres. Grover Cleveland issued a presidential proclamation pardoning Mormons who had previously engaged in polygamous marriages or habitation arrangements considered unlawful. 1906--Dmitry Shostakovich, Russian composer, was born; died 1975 at age 68. 1919--Pres. Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, Colo., during a tour in support of the Treaty of Versailles. 1929--Barbara Walters, TV personality/host ("The View") turns 83 1956--the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable went into service. 1957--Under escort from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, nine black students enter all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. 1959--Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev capped his trip to the US with two days of meetings with Pres. Eisenhower. 1960--Emily Post , author who promoted "proper etiquette", died. 1965--the Kansas City Athletics started ageless wonder Satchel Paige at age 59 in a game against the Boston Red Sox. 1970--The Partridge Family made its debut on ABC TV. 1978--a Pacific Southwest Airlines jet collided in mid-air with a small Cessna over San Diego, killing 153 and did extensive damage on the ground. 1979--Evita, the 3rd musical from the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber collaboration opened on Broadway to high reviews. 1981--Sandra Day O'Connor took her seat as the first woman justice on the US Supreme Court. 1983--the Maze Prison escape in Northern Ireland occurred when 38 IRA prisoners armed with 6 handguns carry out the largest prison escape in British History, 1984--Jordan restored relations with Egypt, something no Arab country had done since 17 Arab nations broke relations with Cairo over the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1979. 1992--a judge in Orlando, Fla., granted a 12-year-old boy's precedent-setting petition to divorce his mother. 2000--Yugoslav voters rejected incumbent Pres. Milosevic in his bid for re-election but he refused to accept the results. 2001--Saudi Arabia cut its relations with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban. 2002--The Vitim Event is believed to be an impact by a comet nucleus in the Vitim River Basin in Russia. 2003--the US House of Representatives gave the Federal Trade Commission explicit authority to create a national do not call directory to protect against telemarketers and other unwanted telephone calls. 2004--the Formula One racetrack in Shanghai prepared for its grand opening. 2005--the Irish Republican Army (IRA) officially disarmed. 2006--Pope Benedict XVI met with Muslim leaders at his summer home outside Rome and called for inter-religious dialogue. 2008--federal regulators seized Washington Mutual in what officials said was the biggest bank failure in US history. 2011--two American hikers held for more than two years in an Iranian prison, returned to the US.
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Post by pegasus on Oct 6, 2012 18:25:25 GMT -7
Today in History -
October 6th Physician Assistant Day
1289--Wenceslas III, King of Hungary (1301-4), was born; died 1306 at age 16. 1536--English religious reformer and bible translator William Tyndale was burned at the stake as a heretic at Vilvarde, near Brussels, Belgium, on the orders of King Henry VIII. 1600--Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, premiered in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque Period in music. 1683--the First Mennonites arrived in Pennsylvania, led by Daniel Pastorius and Johann Kelpius, to become among the first Germans to settle in the American colonies. 1777--sailing up the Hudson River to help Gen. Cornwallis at Saratoga, the British captured Forts Montgomery and Clinton in what is now Orange county. 1789--French Revolution: Louis XVI returned to Paris from Versailles. 1846--George Westinghouse, American industrial engineer and businessman, was born; died 1914 at age 67. 1847--Jane Eyre by Currer Bell (i.e. Charlotte Bronte) was published by Smith, Elder and Co. 1853--Antioch College opened in Yellow Springs, Ohio, as the first non-sectarian school to offer equal opportunity for both men and women. 1854--the Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead began, ending with 53 deaths and hundreds injured. 1863--Confederate guerillas attack Baxter Springs, Kan. 1866--the Reno gang carried out the first robbery of a moving train in the U.S., making off with over $10,000 from an Ohio & Mississippi train in Jackson County, Ind. 1884--the US Naval War College was established in Newport, R.I. 1889--the Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in Paris. 1892--Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate of the UK, died 1908--the Austria-Hungary Empire annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina. 1921--sports writer Grantland Rice was at the microphone as the World Series was broadcast on radio for the first time. 1926--Yankee slugger Babe Ruth hit a record three homers against the St. Louis Cardinals in the 4th game of the World Series. 1927--the era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson. 1928--upon the introduction of a new constitution, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek became president of the Republic of China. 1967--US Navy pilots fly 34 missions against targets in North Vietnam. 1970--South Vietnamese forces withdrew from Cambodia. 1972--a train carrying religious pilgrims derailed near Saltillo, Mexico, killing more than 200 people and injuring hundreds. 1973--the Yom Kippur War between Egypt& Syria vs. Israel brought US and USSR to brink of conflict, seriously damaging relations and all but destroying Pres. Nixon's policy of detente. 1976--Cubana Flight 455 (Barbados to Jamaica) was brought down by a terrorist attack with all 73 people on board killed. 1976--the massacre of students demonstrating against the return to Thailand of Field Marshall Thanom Kitticachorn. 1978--the Ayatolloh Khomeini, Iranian religious leader opposed to the Shah, was granted asylum in France after being expelled from Iran. 1979--Pope John Paul II became the first pontiff to visit the White House, where he was received by Pres. Carter. 1981--Egyptian President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Anwar Sadat was shot to death by extremists while reviewing a military parade. 1985--England's worst post-war race rioting spread to the Tottenham section of London with one officer died and 125 people injured. 1987--the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-5 against the nomination of Robert H. Bork to the US Supreme Court. 1993--the Natchez Trace Parkway's Double Arch Bridge was completed over Route 96 near Franklin, Tenn., as the first precast segmental concrete arch bridge to be built in the US. 1995--a bomb attack badly injured General Anatoly Romanov, commander of Russia's forces in Chechnya. 1997--Pres. Clinton used his new line-item veto power to eliminate 38 military spending projects. 2004--the top US arms inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, reported finding no evidence Saddam Hussein's regime had produced weapons of mass destruction after 1991. 2005--Canadian health officials said an additional six older people died in Toronto from a mysterious respiratory virus (SARS) but the toll of 16 dead wasn't considered a threat to the city. 2008--stock markets around the world lost ground on the first day of trading after the U.S. bailout bill was signed by Pres. Bush into law. 2008--suicide bombers killed 27 people in central Sri Lanka and 20 in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province. 2010--Roy Halladay pitched the second no-hitter in postseason history, leading the Philadelphia Phillies over the Cincinnati Reds 4-0 in Game 1 of the Natonal League's division series..
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Post by pegasus on Oct 15, 2012 1:07:54 GMT -7
Childrens' Day
October.14th in History
1066--King Harold II of England was defeated by the Norman forces of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. 1322--Robert the Bruce of Scotland heavily defeated King Edward II of England at Byland, north of York, asserting Scottish independence. 1586--Mary I, Queen of Scots was put on trial for treason after being implicated in a plot to assassinate her cousin Elizabeth I of England. 1633--James II, King of England (1685-88), was born at St. James Palace in London; died 1701 in exile in France at age 67. 1644--William Penn, English Quaker, advocate for religious liberty and founder pf Pennsylvania. was born; died 11718 at age 73. 1705--the English navy captured Barcelona in the War of the Spanish Succession. 1780--Patriots engage Loyalists at the Shallow Ford crossing of the Yadkin River in North Carolina. 1806--Napoleon defeated the Prussians and Saxons at the battles of Jena and Auerstadt in Saxony. 1863--outnumbered Union troops repelled Rebels at the Battle of Bristoe Station in Virginia. 1867--the 15th & last Tokugawa Shogun resigned in Japan. 1882--Eamon de Valera, Irish patriot and prime minister (1932-48; 1951-54; 1957-59) and president (1959-73), was born; died 1975 at age 92. 1884--George Eastman patented paper-strip photographic film. 1890--Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th US president and commander-in-chief of Allied forces in Europe, was born in Denison, Tex.; died 1969 at age 78. 1912--before a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wis., Theodore Roosevelt, the presidential candidate for the Progressive Party, was shot at close range by saloonkeeper John Schrank 1913--439 workers die in a massive coal-mine explosion in Wales, one of Britain's worst-ever mining disasters. 1926--Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne was published. 1933--Nazi Germany announced it was withdrawing from the League of Nations. 1939--the British Navy battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in Scapa Flow Bay, North Scotland, with the loss of over 800 lives. 1944--German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler. 1944--British and Greek troops liberated Athens, held by Germany since 1941. 1947--U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, when he flew the experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane over Edwards Air Force Base in California. 1957--"Wake Up Little Susie" became the Everly Brothers' first #1 hit. 1960--Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy suggested formation of a Peace Corps during a talk at the University of Michigan. 1961--How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying opened on Broadway. 1962--the Cuban Missile Crisis began. 1964--civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. 1964--Nikita Khrushchev was ousted as both premier of the Soviet Union and chief of the Communist Party after 10 years in power by his former protégé Leonid Brezhnev. 1968--the first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7. 1975--Ronald DeFeo Jr. goes on trial for the killings of his parents and four siblings in their Amityville, NY home. 1986--Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. 1987--a 58-hour drama began in Midland, Tex., as 18-month-old Jessica McClure slid 22 feet down an abandoned well at a private day care center. 1990--composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein died at age 72 of pneumonia just 5 days after retiring. 1991--tens of thousands of jubilant Bulgarians crammed the center of Sofia to celebrate the end of the Communist Party's four-decade grasp on power. 1991--Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. 1994--Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat shared the Nobel Peace Prize. 1998--the FBI charged Eric Robert Rudolph with 6 bombings including the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta. 2006--the UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose punishing sanctions on North Korea for carrying out a nuclear test. 2012--Monarch Butterfly Day - when monarch butterflies are scheduled to return to California and Mexico every year
Thought for Today:
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Post by pegasus on Oct 16, 2012 17:34:29 GMT -7
World Food Day
October 16th in History
1555--during the reign of Queen Mary I, Oxford martyrs and English Protestant Reformers Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake after being found guilty of heresy. 1701--the Collegiate School was founded in Killingworth, Conn. and to New Haven in 1745, chinging its name to Yale College. 1758--Noah Webster, American lexicographer, was born; died 1843 at age 84. 1773--Philadelphia Resolutions was the first public statement against the British Parliament's Tea Act and was printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette. 1793--Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France and wife of King Louis XVI, was beheaded during the French Revolution. 1846--in Boston's General Hospital, the painkiller, ether, was used for the first time. 1854--Congressional candidate, Abraham Lincoln spoke out against slavery in a speech in Illinois. 1854--Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, was born; died 1900 at age 46. 1858--Henry Wadsworth Longellow published The Courtship of Miles Standish, a narrative poem about romance among the Pilgrims. 1859--abolitionist John Brown led a raid on a federal armory at Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia. 1886--David Ben-Gurion, Israeli statesman; first prime minister and secretary of defense (1948-53, 1955-63), was born; died 1973 at age 87. 1888--Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, regarded as the foremost American playwright of his time and Nobel laureate, was born; died 1953 at age 65. 1916--the first birth control clinic was opened in Brooklyn, NY by Margaret Sanger and two other women. 1923--the Walt Disney Co. was initially founded by Walt and Roy Disney as equal partners under its original name Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. 1925--Angela Lansbury, actress (Murder, She Wrote) turns 87. 1927--Gunter Grass, Nobel Prize-winning author, turns 85. 1934--The Long March - the Chinese Communists begin their epic flight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. 1945--the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the UN was established, to raise levels of nutrition and improve standards of living. 1946--10 high-ranking Nazi officials were executed by hanging for their crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and war crimes. Alfred Rosenberg, the primary fabricator and disseminator of Nazi ideology, iwa one of them. 1964--the People's Republic of China joined atomic-bomb club. 1967--singer Joan Baez and 123 other anti-draft demonstrators were arrested for blocking the entrance to the Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, Calif. 1967--Tom Stoppard's Tony-winning play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opened in New York. 1969--the New York Mets, a previously hapless expansion team, won the World Series 4-1 over American League powerhouse the Baltimore Orioles. 1970--Pierre E. Trudeau, Canada's Prime Minister, invoked the War Measures Act in response to the October Crisis. 1972--a light plane carrying House Democratic leader Hale Boggs of Louisiana and three other men was reported missing in Alaska and was never found . 1973--Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the Paris peace accords. Le Duc Tho declined. 1978--Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected pope by the Roman Catholic Church's College of Cardinals, taking the name John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in 456 years.. 1984--Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. 1987--rescuers freed Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old girl who had been trapped in an abandoned well for 58 hours in Midland, Texas. 1987--19 people were killed as winds gusting up to 110 mph -- the worst since records began --lashed southern Britain, demolishing buildings, blacking out London and paralyzing the transport system. 1991--George Jo Hennard drove his truck through a window in Luby’s Cafeteria in Kileen, Tex., then opened fire on a lunch crowd of over 100 people, killing 23 and injuring 20 more. 1995--a vast throng of black men gathered in Washington for the "Million Man March" led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. 1996--a stampede before a World Cup qualifying match in Guatemala City killed 84 people and seriously injured more than 100. 1998--David Trimble and John Hume were named recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the Northern Ireland peace accord. 2002--Pres. Bush signed a congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq. 2003--the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution endorsing a US-led multinational force in Iraq. 2004--the World Health Organization said smoke from home stoves and fires in developing countries had become a major cause of death and disease. 2006--US intelligence officials confirmed an underground explosion in North Korea a week before was the test of a nuclear device of less than 1 kiloton of conventional explosives. 2007--Iraqi officials said their investigation of the killing of Iraqi citizens by Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the U.S. State Department indicates the shootings were unprovoked. 2011--the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was formally dedicated in Washington, D.C. 2012--Navaratri (nine nights Oct 16-23) symbolises the triumph of good over evil and marks the start of autumn
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Post by pegasus on Oct 21, 2012 15:41:07 GMT -7
Sunday School Teacher Appreciation Day
October 21st in History
1422--Charles VII of France became co-ruler of France along with his cousin Henry VI of England after the death of Charles VI. 1512--Martin Luther joined the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. 1520--Ferdinand Magellan entered the strait which bears his name. 1600--Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, marking the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate that ruled Japan until the mid-nineteenth century. 1772--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet, was born; died 1834 at age 61. 1779--former congressmanHenry Laurens named minister to Holland in order to negotiate an alliance. 1797--the USS Constitution, a 44-gun U.S. Navy frigate built to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli, was launched in Boston Harbor. 1805--the Battle of Trafalgar: a British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet in one of the most decisive naval battles in history. 1805--Napoleonic Wars: Austrian General Mack surrendered his army to the Grand Army of Napoleon at Ulm, considered to be one of Napoleon's finest battles. 1824--Portland cement, the modern building material, was first patented by Joseph Aspdin of Wakefield in Yorkshire. 1833--Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite, was born; died 1896 at age 63. 1854--Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War. 1858--the Can Can was officially born with the premiere of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld and its famous "Galop". 1861--Union troops suffered a devastating defeat in the Battle of Ball's Bluff in Virginia. 1867--more than 7,000 Plains Indians gathered at the signing of key provisions of the Medicine Lodge Treaty in Kansas, one of the most important treaties in the history of U.S.-Indian relations. 1879--Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. 1910--a massive explosion, blamed on the unions, destroyed the Los Angeles Times building, killing 21 and injuring many more. 1917--American soldiers first saw action in World War I on the front lines in France. 1918--Germany ceased unrestricted submarine warfare. 1921--Pres. Harding publicly condemned lynching in a speech given in Alabama. 1921--The Sheik, a silent movie directed by George Melford starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres and Adolphe Menjou, premiered in Los Angeles with mixed reviews. 1941--German soldiers went on a rampage, killing thousands of Yugoslavian civilians, including whole classes of schoolboys. 1949--Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turns 63. 1950--Chinese troops occupied Tibet. 1959--the Guggenheim Museum opened on 5th Avenue in New York City. 1959--rocket designer Wernher von Braun and his team were transferred from the U.S. Army to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 1965--Comet Ikeya-Seki made its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) when it broke into three parts 1966-[/img]-an avalanche of mud and rocks buried a school in Aberfan, Wales, killing 148 people, mostly young students. 1967--in Washington, DC nearly 100,000 people gathered to protest the American war effort in Vietnam. 1978- -the Valentich Disappearance occurred when pilot Frederick Valentich reported a UFO was trailing him, then all voice contact was lost 1987--the US Senate rejected Pres. Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the US Supreme Court by the biggest margin in history, 58-42. 1988--former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were indicted in New York on charges of fraud and racketeering. 1994--in Seoul, Korea, 32 people were killed when the Seongsu Bridge collapsed. 2002--a car packed with explosives blew up next to a bus in northern Israel during rush hour killing 14 in addition to two suicide attackers. 2003--Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ordered a feeding tube reinserted into Terry Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman at the center of a bitter right-to-die battle. 2004--the most senior soldier accused in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Ivan Chip Frederick, was sentenced to eight years in prison. 2005--in the Afghanistan parliamentary elections, Islamic conservatives and former jihad fighters made up at least half of the lower house. 2008--Pres. Bush rdecided not to close the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Thought for Today: "The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards." --[/i]Arthur Koestler (1905-1983), Hungarian-born writer.
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Post by pegasus on Oct 28, 2012 16:42:24 GMT -7
Mother-in-Law Day
October 28th in History
969--Antioch fell to Byzantine forces after a long siege, ending 300 years of Arab rule in the Syrian city. 1017--Henry III, Holy Romam Emperor and King of Germany (1046-56), was born; died 1056 at age 38. 1348--the 3rd wave of the Great plague hit the Europe. 1466--Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch Renaissance scholar, was born; died 1536 at age 69. 1492--Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba and claimed it in the name of Spain. 1628--after being besieged for months, the Huguenots at La Rochelle capitulated to troops of the French crown under Cardinal Richelieu. 1636--Harvard College, now Harvard University, was founded in Massachusetts. 1664--the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, was established. 1726--Gulliver's Travels was published. 1746 --the Peruvian cities of Lima and Callao were demolished by an earthquake, killing at least 18,000. 1775--a British proclamation forbid residents from leaving Boston. 1793--Eli Whitney applied for a patent for the cotton gin. 1818--Abigail Adams , wife of John Adams and teh 2nd First Lady of the US, died from typhoid fever at age 73. 1846--the pioneering Donner Party of 90 people set out from Springfield, Ill., for California. 1864--the 2nd Battle of Fair Oaks, Va. ended when the Union troops withdrew. 1886--the Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France, was dedicated by Pres. Grover Cleveland. 1891--an earthquake struck the Niphon Islands in Japan, killing 10,000 people and leaving at least 300,000 homeless. 1893--Pyotr Ilych Tschaikowski's 6th Symphony Pathetique premiered only nine days before his death. 1904--Fingerprinting was first used by the St. Louis, Mo. Police Department. 1914--Dr. Jonas Edward Salk, the American medical researcher who developed the first vaccine against polio, was born; died 1995 at age 80, 1918--sailors in the German High Seas Fleet began to mutiny, refusing to obey an order to go to sea to launch one final attack on the mighty British navy. 1918--the Czechoslovakian Republic under Pres. Masaryk was proclaimed upon the dissolution of the Autr0-Hungarian Empire. 1919--the YA Congress enacted the Volstead Act, which provided for enforcement of Prohibition, over Pres. Wilson's veto. 1922--Fascism came to Italy as Benito Mussolini took control of the government. 1929--Black Monday - Wall Street Crash of 1929 became the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the US. 1940--Fascist Italy, already occupying Albania, invaded Greece in a disastrous military campaign for the Duce's forces. 1942--the Alaskan Highway was completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska. 1943--the Court of Appeal in London ruled that money a housewife saves from the housekeeping belongs to her husband. 1954--the Netherlands was constituted as a Federal Monarchy. 1954--Carmen Jones, the modern version of the Bizet opera. starring Harry Belefonte, Dorothy Dandridge and Pearl Bailey, opened on Broadway. 1955--Bill Gates. ret. CEO of Microsoft and one of the top five richest people in the world, wass born in Seattle, Wash. and turns 57 today. 1956--the primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski, imprisoned since September 1953, was released following the election of the new politburo under M. Gomulka. 1958--the Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, was elected pope, taking the name John XXIII. 1961--At the former New York World's Fair site, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for Municipal Stadium which was later renamed Shea Stadium, after New York Commissioner, William A. Shea. 1962--the Cuban Missile Crisis came to an end when Khrushchev ordered the dismantling of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. 1965--the Gateway Arch, a spectacular 630-foot-high parabola of stainless steel marking the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the waterfront of St. Louis, Mo. was finished. 1965--Pope Paul VI issued a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 1971--by a vote of 356-244, the British House of Commons voted in favor of joining the European Economic Community. 1980--Republican nominee Ronald Reagan asked voters during a debate with Pres. Carter in Cleveland "are you better off than you were four years ago?" 1985--John Walker, the leader of the so-called Walker family spy ring, pleaded guilty to giving US Navy secrets to the Soviet Union. 1989--The Oakland A's wrapped up an earthquake-delayed sweep of the World Series over the San Francisco Giants. 1992--the 1,480-ft Leif Erickson Tunneli in Duluth, Minn. was opened to complete the 1,593-mile Interstate-35. 1992--scientists using sonar to map Scotland's Loch Ness made contact with a mysterious object but declined to speculate what that implied about whether legendary monster Nessie exists. 1995--289 people died and 270 were injured when a crowded underground railway train caught fire in Azerbaijan's capital Baku. 1998--Pres. Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act into law that has helped establish a legal minefield surrounding the use of digital music in the age of the Internet. 2001--US-led forces resumed airstrikes against targets in Afghanistan, bombing the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar. 2002--US diplomat John Foley was slain in Amman, Jordan. 2005--Vice Pres. Cheney's top adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, resigned after he was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation. 2007--Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was elected Argentina's first woman president, succeeding her husband, Hector Kirchner. 2009--Angela Merkel was sworn in for a second term as German chancellor.
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Post by pegasus on Nov 13, 2012 19:09:57 GMT -7
Actors Day
November 13th in History
354--Saint Augustine, Roman bishop and theologian, was born; died 430 at age 75. 1002--St. Brice's Day Massacre occurred when King Ethelred the Unready ordered the slaughter of all Danes (including women and children) in England3 1093--Malcolm III of Scotland, son of King Duncan, died during his fifth attempt to invade England at Alnwick, Northumberland . 1312--Edward III , King of England (1327-77), was born; died 1377 at age 64. 1460--Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal died at age 66. 1642--at the Battle of Turnham Green of the English Civil War the Royalist forces withdrew in face of the Parliamentarian army. 1775--Continental Army Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery took Montreal, Canada, without opposition. 1789--Pres. Washington returned to Washington from New England at the end of his first presidential tour. 1843--Mt Rainier in Washington State erupted. 1850--Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish author best known for his novel Treasure Island, was born; died 1894 at age 43. 1861--Pres. Lincoln paid a late night visit to Gen. George McClellan, who retired to his chambers before speaking with the president. 1887--Socialist demonstrators rioted at London's Trafalgar Square in what was the first "Bloody Sunday." 1921--the silent film classic, The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, was released to theaters. 1927--the Holland Tunnel linking New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River was opened to the public by Pres. Coolidge. 1933--the first recorded "sit-down" strike in the US was staged by workers at the Hormel Packing Company in Austin, Minn. 1940--Walt Disney's new film Fantasia was released to the public. 1941--the US Congress amended the Neutrality Act to allow US merchant ships access to war zones, putting them in the line of fire. 1941--the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal was hit by a torpedo off Gibraltar and sank early the following day. 1945--Gen. Charles De Gaulle was elected president of the French provisional government with the vote of all 555 deputies. 1955--FBI agents search the home of John Graham, a chief suspect in the United Airlines plane explosion that killed all 44 people. (He was executed in the gas chamber in 1957.) 1956--the US Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses. 1963--Indiana Textbook Commission member charge2 that Robin Hood was communistic and should be eliminated from textbooks. 1965--the SS Yarmouth Castle departed Miami for Nassau when a mattress stored too close to a lighting circuit caught fire taking 90 lives. 1967--Carl Stokes became the first black US mayor when he was elected in Cleveland, Ohio. 1969--Vietnam protesters staged a "March Against Death" Twith over 45,000 participants, each with a placard bearing the name of a soldier who had died in Vietnam. 1970--An immense tidal wave and storm surge killed over 200,000 people in East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh. 1970--Hafez al-Assad seized power in Syria in a bloodless military coup. 1974--28-year-old Karen Silkwood was killed in a car accident after complaining to the Atomic Energy Commission about unsafe conditions at the plant where she worked in Oklahoma. 1974--Yasser Arafat told the UN General Assembly that the goal of the Palestine Liberation Organization was to establish an independent state of Palestine. 1982--Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated in Wasington, DC. 1985--Nevado del Ruiz, the highest active volcano in the Andes Mountains of Colombia, erupted, melting a glacier that caused mudflows killing over 23,000 people. 1995--Israel began pulling troops out of the West Bank city of Jenin to end 28 years of occupation. 1997--the Disney musical The Lion King opened on Broadway. 1998--Pres. Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit. 2001--Pres. Bush and Russian leader Putin agreed to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons by about two-thirds. 2002--Saddam Hussein's government agreed to the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq. 2002--the Prestige (a single-hulled oil tanker) had one of its 12 tanks burst during a storm off coast of Spain, but was refused landing rights. 2003--Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was thrown off the bench by a judicial ethics panel after refusing to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse. 2006--nearly two dozen people were killed and thousands more displaced in massive flooding in northern Kenya. 2009--Attorney General Eric Holder announced plans to try professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others in civilian court in New York City.
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Post by pegasus on Dec 1, 2012 12:26:09 GMT -7
World AIDS Day Good evening from Tuxy and me This is the 335th day of 2012 with 30 days left in the year.
December 1st in History 800--Charlemagne sat in judgment of the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican. 1167--the Lombard League was formed in northern Italy. 1420--the triumphant Henry V, King of England, entered Paris. 1640--Portugal gained its independence from Spain. Two weeks later, the Duke of Braganca was crowned as John IV. 1641--Massachusetts Bay Colony became first colony to give statutory recognition to slavery. 1779--Gen. Washington established winter quarters for the second year at Morristown, N.J. 1821--Santo Domingo (Dominican Rep) proclaimed its independence from Spain. 1822--Dom Pedro, founder of the Brazilian Empire, was crowned as first emperor of Brazil and ruled as Pedro I. 1824--the House of Representatives convened to decide the presidential election because no candidate had received a majority in the Electoral College. (John Quincy Adams was eventually chosen the winner over Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay.) 1835--Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales. 1862--Pres. Lincoln gave his State of the Union address and discussed the Northern war effort. He closed with "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...fellow citizens, we cannot escape history...The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union...In giving freedom to the slave, we ensure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth." 1879--H.M.S. Pinafore, the Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta, opened. 1884--Elfego Baca, legendary defender of southwestern Hispanos, held off a gang of 80 cowboys determined to kill him. 1887--Sherlock Holmes first appears in print in "A Study in Scarlet." 1891--basketball was invented when James Naismith, a phys ed teacher in Springfield, Mass., put peach baskets at the opposite ends of the gym and gave students soccer balls to toss into them. 1903--the world's first drive-in gasoline station opened for business in Pittsburgh. 1909--the Pennsylvania Trust Co. of Carlisle, Pennsylvania became the first US bank to offer a Christmas Club account. 1913--Ford's first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile started rolling. 1917--The Rev. Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town near Omaha for wayward boys. (Since 1979, for girls also.) 1918--the Danish parliament passed an act to grant Iceland independence as a sovereign state. 1918--Romania Unification Day commemorating the assembly of the delegates who declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania. 1919--on the same day that Allied troops crossed into Germany for the first time, a new state was proclaimed in Belgrade, Serbia. 1919--Lady Nancy Astor was sworn in as the first female member of the British Parliament. 1924--in New York City, the George Gershwin musical, Lady Be Good, opened, starring dancers Fred and Adele Astaire. 1934 Sergei M. Kirov, the head of the Communist Party in Leningrad, was assassinated as Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a massive purge that would claim tens of millions of lives. 1935--Woody Allen, writer, director, comic, turns 77. 1941--the US Civil Air Patrol was officially created. 1953--the first Playboy magazine was published by Hugh Hefner with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. 1955--Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give her seat to a white man ignited a bus boycot organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. 1958--in Chicago, a fire broke out at the foot of a stairway at Our Lady of Angels School killing a total of 92 pupils and 3 nuns. 90 students died in a fire at a Chicago Catholic grade school. 1959--twelve countries signed the Antarctica Treaty, including the US and USSR that made it a military-free continent and scientific preserve. 1963 The Beatles' first single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," was released in the US. 1964--the Johnson Administration made plans to bomb North Vietnam. 1968--Promises, Promises opened on Broadway for the first of its 1,281 performances, 1969--the US held its first draft lottery since World War II. 1971--the situation in Cambodia worsened as the ommunists forced the government's retreat from an area northeast of the capital of Phnom Penn. 1984 --eight days after his miracle pass led Boston College to beat Miami, Doug Flutie was named the Heisman Trophy winner. 1988-- became the first woman elected to govern a Muslim nation when acting President Ghulam Ishaq Khan nominated her to be prime minister of Pakistan. 1989--Soviet Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II met in the Vatican City and announced an agreement to establish diplomatic ties. 1990--132 feet below the English Channel, workers drill an opening the size of a car through a wall of rock, connecting the two ends of an underwater tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in more than 8,000 years. 1991--Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence from the Soviet Union. 1992--"Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher was sentenced to prison for shooting and seriously wounding Mary Jo Buttafuoco, the wife of her lover, Joey Buttafuoco. (Fisher served seven years.) 1994--the UN commission on Rwanda concluded that genocide in the country cost 500,000 lives and that murdered Pres. Juvenal Habyarimana and his entourage were behind the slaughter. 2000--with the presidential election still undecided, Democrats and Republicans wound up with a 50-50 split in the Senate. 2000--Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 71 years of ruling-party domination. 2001-- three suicide bombers struck Israelis the first two days of December, killing 29 people. 2004--Tom Brokaw signed off for the last time as anchor of the "NBC Nightly News." 2004--12 people were reported dead in a prison riot and shootout in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during a visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell. 2005--same-sex marriage became legal in South Africa when the country's Constitutional Court ruled that laws banning it were unconstitutional. 2006--Pres. Bush proclaimed Dec. 1 World AIDS Day and urged all Americans to join in the fight against the disease. 2006--the British government decided on a near total indoor public smoking ban in England with only private homes and hotel rooms exempt. 2007--a methane gas explosion injured 52 miners at the underground Ukraine coal mine where 101 miners died in a blast two weeks earlier. 2009--Pres. Obama ordered 30,000 more US troops into the war in Afghanistan but promised to begin withdrawal in 18 months.
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Post by pegasus on Dec 7, 2012 14:25:11 GMT -7
71st ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR
December 7th in History
43 B.C--Marcus Tullius died. Known as Cicero, a Roman writer, statesman and Rome's greatest orator. 1732-[http://www.kathrynrblake.com/images/153_Royal_Opera_House_I_in_London_opens_1732_12-07.jpg/img]-the Royal Opera House had its opening in Covent Garden. 1787--Delaware became the first state to ratify the US Constitution. 1796--electors chose Vice Pres. John Adams to be the 2nd president of the US. 1815 - Michel Ney, the most famous of Napoleon's marshals, was executed by firing squad for treason. 1836--Martin Van Buren was elected the 8th president of the United States. 1842--the New York Philharmonic Orchestra gave its first concert, performing Beethoven work. 1863--R.W. Sears, American merchant and founder of Sears, Roebuck retail company, was born; died 1914 at age 50. 1873--Willa Cather, the American novelist famous for her descriptions of life on the American frontier, was born; died 1947 at age 73. 1889--Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Gondoliers premiered in London. 1909--Leo Baekeland patented the process for making Bakelite, giving birth to the modern plastics industry. 1916--Herbert Asquith resigned as British Prime Minister and was replaced by David Lloyd George, the war secretary, with a commitment to wage all-out war on Germany. 1925--Five-time Olympic gold medalist and future movie Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in 150-yard free-style swimming. 1931--Pres. Hoover refused to see a group of "hunger marchers" at the White House. 1941--Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, an act that led to America’s entry into World War II. 1953--David Ben Gurion, who had been prime minister of Israel since its foundation, resigned. 1963--videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast during the Army-Navy football game on CBS. 1965--Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of the Greek Church formally annulled the excommunication pronounced on the Church of Rome in 1054. 1971--Libya announced the nationalization of British Petroleum's assets. 1972--the last US moon mission was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral. 1982--Charlie Brooks Jr., a US prisoner on death row, was executed by injection for the first time, in Huntsville, Tex. 1986--The speaker of Iran's parliament said his country would help free more U.S. hostages in Lebanon in exchange for more U.S. arms. 1987--Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Washington, the first Soviet leader to officially visit the United States since 1973. 1988--an earthquake in northern Armenia claimed an estimated 25,000 lives. 1992--the destruction of a 16th-century mosque by militant Hindus touched off five days of violence across India that left more than 1,100 people dead. 1993--astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavor fixed the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. 1993--a gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six people and wounding 17. (Colin Ferguson was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.) 1995--a 746-pound probe from the Galileo spacecraft hurtled into Jupiter's atmosphere, sending back data to the mothership before it was destroyed. 1995--a two-week strike by hundreds of thousands of French public-sector workers protesting planned cuts in welfare spending spread to cities throughout France. 2001--the Labor Department announced the loss of nearly 1 million jobs over the previous three months. 2001--Taliban forces abandoned their last bastion in Afghanistan, fleeing the southern city of Kandahar. 2002--Iraq denied it had weapons of mass destruction in a declaration to the UN. 2004--Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president. 2005--US air marshals killed a man who said he had a bomb aboard an American Airlines plane at Miami International Airport. No bomb was found and authorities said the man's wife told them he was mentally ill and hadn't taken his medication. 2007--the Bush administration and mortgage lenders agreed to freeze rates for up to five years for people up to date on subprime loans due for sharp increases. 2007--the South Korean coast guard struggled to contain the largest ever oil spill in Korea following a collision between a barge and an oil tanker that spilled 10,000 tons of oil into coastal waters. 2011--ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption.
Thought for Today: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." --Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) 16th US president
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