DBKP Today in Weird History: January 28, 2008

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



SPACE

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

WAR!

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

1944 683 British bombers attack Berlin.

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

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

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

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

TERRORISM

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

DISASTERS

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

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

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

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

CLINTONS

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

OUCH!

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

AUTOGRAPHS

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

TRY TRY AGAIN

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

DOMINOES

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

PRO WRESTLING

1987 Wrestler Jim Neidhart indicted for assaulting a flight attendant.

EXECUTIONS

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

TRIALS

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

IMMIGRANTS

1915 US President Wilson refuses to prohibit immigration of illiterates.




MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1973 "Barnaby Jones" premieres on CBS TV.

1978 "Fantasy Island" starring Ricardo Montalban premieres on ABC TV.

REBELS

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

ABORTION

1935 Iceland becomes 1st country to legalize abortion.

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

SPORTS

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

COLLEGE

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

POLITICS

1909 The United States ended direct control over Cuba.

90210

1914 Beverly Hills, California, is incorporated.

PROGRESS

1878 1st telephone exchange (New Haven CT).

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

CREATED

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

JEWS

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

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

ROYALS

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

BORN

1722 Johann Ernst Bach composer.

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

1853 Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti was born in Havana.

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

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

BIRTHDAYS

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

DEATH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP's Today in Weird History: January 21, 2008

KILLERS, WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BEHEADING, SEWERS, NANNY STATE, INSANE, NUDITY, PATENTS, CENSUS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, SUBWAYS, SOCIETIES, CLINTON, CIVIL RIGHTS, GOLD, SILVER, FINANCE, DEPORTED, CLIMATE, PARDONS, SPIES, JEWS, STRONGMEN, SUBS, VACCINES, POPES, PROGRESS, SPORTS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



KILLERS

On Jan. 21, 1958, Charles Starkweather, 19, killed the mother, stepfather and half-sister of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, at her family's home in Lincoln, Neb. (Starkweather, who had also killed a gas station attendant the previous November, and Fugate went on a road trip which resulted in seven more slayings. Starkweather was executed in 1959; Fugate, who maintained she had been Starkweather's hostage, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life; she was paroled in 1976.)

WAR!

1941 Australia & Britain attack Tobruk Libya.

1942 Japanese air raid on Rabaul New Britain.

1942 Tito's partisans occupy Foca.

1943 Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad.

1943 Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk.

1944 447 German bombers attack London.

1944 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg.

1945 British troops land on Ramree, near coast of Burma.

1968, the Battle of Khe Sahn began during the Vietnam War as North Vietnamese forces attacked a U.S. Marine base; the Americans were able to hold their position until the siege was lifted 2 1/2 months later.

DISASTERS

1821 Paramaribo Suriname catches fire, 4 die.

1960 Rock falls traps 437 at Coalbrook South Africa, 417 die of methane poisoning.

2003 A powerful earthquake shook west-central Mexico, killing 28 people and leaving 10,000 homeless.

1968, an American B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed in Greenland, killing one crew member and scattering radioactive material.

TERRORISM

1985 Bomb attack on Borobudur temple in Java.

2003 A gunman ambushed two U.S. defense workers in Kuwait, killing one and wounding another.

2003 Colombian rebels kidnapped an American photographer and a British reporter, the first time foreign journalists were abducted in Colombia's four-decade-long civil war. (Scott Dalton and Ruth Morris were freed after 11 days in captivity.)

BEHEADED

1793 Louis XVI French king (1774-93), condemned for treason, beheaded by revolutionaries at 38.

SEWERS

1880 1st US sewage disposal system separate from storm drains, Memphis TN

NANNY STATE

1908, New York City's Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance prohibiting women from smoking in public. (However, the measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. two weeks later).

NUDITY

1986 100 participate in Nude Olympics race in 38ºF (3ºC), Indiana.



INSANE

1994 Lorena Bobbitt found temporarily insane for chopping off spouse's penis.

PATENTS

1853 Envelope-folding machine patented by Russell Hawes, Worcester MA

CENSUS

2003 The Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as America's largest minority group.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1949 1st inaugural parade televised (Harry Truman).

1971 "Alias Smith & Jones" premieres on ABC TV.

1973 Leslie Nielsen appears on M*A*S*H in "Ringbanger".

SUBWAY

1981 Bernhard Goetz is assaulted for 1st time on a New York subway train.

SOCIETIES

1915, the first Kiwanis Club was founded, in Detroit.

1935 The Wilderness Society is founded.

CLINTONS

1998 President Bill Clinton angrily denied reports he had had an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and then tried to get her to lie about it.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1827 Freedom Journal, 1st Black paper, begins publishing.

GOLD

1974 Gold hits record $161.31 an ounce in London.

1979 Price of gold increases to record $875 troy ounce.

1980 Gold hits record $850 an ounce.

SILVER

1974 Silver hits record $3.97 an ounce in London.

DEPORTED

1830 Portsmouth (Ohio) blacks forcibly deported.

CLIMATE

1962 Snow falls in San Francisco.

PARDONS

1977 President Jimmy Carter pardons almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.

SPIES

1950, former State Department official Alger Hiss, accused of being part of a Communist spy ring, was found guilty in New York of lying to a grand jury. (Hiss, who always proclaimed his innocence, served less than four years in prison.)

JEWS

1941 1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria.

STRONGMEN

2007 Venzuelan President Hugo Chavez told U.S. officials to "Go to hell, gringos!" and called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "missy" on his weekly radio and TV show, lashing out at Washington for what he called unacceptable meddling in his country's affairs.

FINANCE

1994 Dow Jones passes 3900 (record 3,914.20).

SUBS

1954, the first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Conn. (However, the Nautilus did not make its first nuclear-powered run until nearly a year later).

VACCINES

1799 Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination is introduced.

POPES

1998 Pope John Paul II began a historic pilgrimage to Cuba.

PROGRESS

1976, the supersonic Concorde jet was put into service by Britain and France.

SPORTS

1979 Super Bowl XIII Pittsburgh Steelers beat Dallas Cowboys, 35-31 in Miami; Super Bowl MVP Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, Quarterback.

1990 John McEnroe becomes the 1st ever expelled from the Australian Open for throwing a tantrum & swearing at an official.

2007 Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to make it to the Super Bowl when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship, beating the New Orleans Saints 39-14; Tony Dungy became the second when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title over the New England Patriots, 38-34.

BORN

1924 Benny Hill Southampton England, comedian (Benny Hill Show)

1933 William Wrigley III chewing gum mogul (Wrigleys)

1939 Wolfman Jack [Bob Smith], Brooklyn NY, DJ (Midnight Special)

BIRTHDAY

Actor Paul Scofield is 86. Actress Ann Wedgeworth is 73. Blues singer-musician Snooks Eaglin is 72. Golfer Jack Nicklaus is 68. Opera singer Placido Domingo is 67. Singer Richie Havens is 67. Singer Mac Davis is 66. Actress Jill Eikenberry is 61. Country musician Jim Ibbotson (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 61. Singer-songwriter Billy Ocean is 58. Actor Robby Benson is 52. Actress Geena Davis is 52. Basketball player Hakeem Olajuwon is 45. Actress Charlotte Ross is 40. Actor John Ducey is 39. Actress Karina Lombard is 39. Rapper Levirt (B-Rock and the Bizz) is 38. Rock musician Mark Trojanowski (Sister Hazel) is 38. Rock DJ Chris Kilmore (Incubus) is 35. Singer Emma Bunton (Spice Girls) is 32. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nokio (Dru Hill) is 29. Actress Izabella Miko is 27.

DEATH

1924, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died at age 53.

1950 George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] author (Animal Farm, 1984), dies from tuberculosis in London at 46.

1991 Howard "Red" Grange football's galloping ghost, dies at 87

1997 Colonel Tom Parker manager (Elvis Presley), dies at 87

1998 Actor Jack Lord of "Hawaii Five-O" fame died in Honolulu at age 77.

January 21, the 21st day of 2008. There are 345 days left in the year. This is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

< style="font-weight: bold;">compiled by Mondoreb
[image: biographychannel; pacpubserver]
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.