Wednesday, February 13, 2008

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 14, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, GANGSTERS, POLITICS, FATWAS, EDUCATION, FRACAS, CARTOONS, JEWS, PATENTS, FRUIT, BUSINESS, COMMIES, DRUGS, WATERGATE, MARRIAGE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



GANGSTERS

1929 Members of Al Capone's gang killed rival gang members in the St. Valentine's Day massacre.

WAR!

1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden.

2003 In a dramatic showdown, major powers rebuffed the United States in the U.N. Security Council and insisted on more time for weapons inspections in Iraq. Earlier, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Council his teams had not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

TERRORISM

1975 Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station.

1979 Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.

1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut.

1998 Authorities officially declared Eric Rudolph a suspect in the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic and offered a $100,000 reward.

2007 Challenged on the accuracy of U.S. intelligence, President Bush told a news conference there was no doubt the Iranian government was providing armor-piercing weapons to kill American soldiers in Iraq, and he said he would fight any attempt by the Democratic-controlled Congress to cut off money for the war.

DISASTER

1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million damages for Bhopol disaster.

FATWAS

1989 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, calling for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

WATERGATE

1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House.

FRUIT

1889 1st trainload of fruit (oranges) leaves Los Angeles for the east.

COMMIES

1956 Khrushchev denounces Stalin at USSR Communist Party Conference.

PATENTS

1803 Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington PA.

FRACAS

1779 James Cook British explorer, murdered by natives in fracas with Hawaiians.

JEWS

1349 2,000 Jews burned at the stake in Strasbourg France.

DRUGS

1959 $3.6 million heroin seizure in New York NY.

BUSINESS

1924 IBM Corporation founded by Thomas Watson.

EDUCATION

2001 The Kansas Board of Education reversed its 1999 ruling and restored evolution to the state's science curriculum.

MARRIAGE

1952 Comedian Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller.

1995 Roseanne weds bodyguard Ben Thomas.

MURDER

1943 Frieda Reiss French 11 month old baby, murdered in Auschwitz.

CARTOONS

1921 Skeezix of "Gasoline Alley" discovered on Wallets' doorstep.

POLITICS

1859 Oregon became the 33rd state in the United States.

1912 Arizona became the 48th state in the United States.

BORN

1894 comedian Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in Waukegan, Ill.

1913 Jimmy Hoffa Teamsters leader who disappeared in 1975.

BIRTHDAYS

TV personality Hugh Downs is 87. Actress-singer Florence Henderson is 74. Country singer Razzy Bailey is 69. Jazz musician Maceo Parker is 65. Movie director Alan Parker is 64. Journalist Carl Bernstein is 64. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) is 61. TV personality Pat O'Brien is 60. Magician Teller (Penn and Teller) is 60. Cajun singer-musician Michael Doucet is 57. Actor Ken Wahl is 51. Opera singer Renee Fleming is 49. Actress Meg Tilly is 48. Singer-producer Dwayne Wiggins is 47. Actor Enrico Colantoni is 45. Actor Zach Galligan is 44. Actor Valente Rodriguez is 44. Rock musician Ricky Wolking (The Nixons) is 42. Tennis player Manuela Maleeva is 41. Rock musician Kevin Baldes (Lit) is 36. Rock singer Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty) is 36. Actor Freddie Highmore is 16.

DEATH

1969 Vito Genovese US mafia chief, dies at 71.

1994 Gary "BB" Coleman blues vocal/guitarist/producer, dies at 47.

2003 Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was euthanized because of incurable lung cancer.

February 14, the 45th day of 2008. There are 321 days left in the year. Today is Valentine's Day.

image: unbsj
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History

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