DBKP's Today in Weird History: February 6, 2008

WAR, DISASTERS, CREEPY, WHISKERS, BOO, RECORDS, PAGE TWO, BANDITS, GAMES, HOBBIES, NANNY STATE, POLITICS, CIVIL RIGHTS, SMOKE NAZIS, PRO WRESTLING, GOLF, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, POPULATION, PIRATES, SPERM CONTROL, JEWS, GEEZERS, CLINTONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


1911 Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, was born in Tampico, Ill.

WAR!

1778 France recognizes US, signs treaty of aid in Paris; 1st US treaty. England declares war on France.

1862 Victory for General Ulysses S Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson; Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.

1899 A peace treaty between the United States and Spain was ratified by the U.S. Senate.

2003 Edging closer to war, President Bush declared "the game is over" for Saddam Hussein and urged skeptical allies to join in disarming Iraq.

DISASTERS

1911 Great fire destroys downtown Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey.

1951 "Broker Special" train crashes in Woodbridge NJ, killing 84

1958 7 soccer players of Manchester United die in an air crash at Munich.

1992 16 people were killed when a C-130 military transport plane crashed in Evansville, Ind.

1996 A Turkish-owned Boeing 757 jetliner crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from the Dominican Republic, killing 189 people, mostly German tourists.

CREEPY

2003 ABC's "20/20" aired a British documentary on Michael Jackson in which the singer revealed he sometimes let children sleep in his bed.

WHISKERS

1869 Harper's Weekly publishes 1st picture of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers.

BOO!

1956 French premier Guy Mollet pelted with tomatoes in Algiers.

PAGE TWO

1951 Radio commentator Paul Harvey arrested for trying to sneak into the Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago IL.

RECORDS

1990 Steve Briers of Wales recited the entire lyrics of Queen's album "A Night At The Opera" in 9 minutes & 58.44 seconds backwards!

BANDITS

1891 1st great train robbery by Dalton Gang (Southern Pacific #17).

GAMES

1935 Board game "Monopoly" goes on sale for the 1st time.

PRO WRESTLING

1977 Harley Race beats Terry Funk in Toronto, to become NWA wrestling champion.

HOBBIES

1948 1st radio-controlled airplane flown.

GOLF

1968 Former President Dwight Eisenhower shot a hole-in-one.

1971 1st time a golf ball is hit on the Moon (by Alan Shepard).

NANNY STATE

1953 US controls on wages & some consumer goods were lifted.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1956 University of Alabama refuses admission to Autherine Lucy (because he's black).

SMOKE NAZIS



1987 No-smoking rules take effect in federal buildings.

POLITICS

1778 The United States won official recognition from France with the signing of a Treaty of Alliance in Paris.

1788 Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1933 the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, the so-called "lame duck" amendment, was proclaimed in effect by Secretary of State Henry Stimson.

SPERM CONTROL

1997 Diane Blood, 32, in England, won right to use her dead husbands sperm.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1959 Fidel Castro is interviewed by Edward R Murrow.

POPULATION

1820 US population announced at 9,638,453 (1,771,656 blacks (18.4%)).

PIRATES!

1832 US ship destroys Sumatran village in retaliation for piracy.

JEWS

1902 Young Women's Hebrew Association organized in New York NY.

GEEZERS

1911 1st old-age home opened in Prescott AZ.

CLINTONS

1998 President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair redoubled their pledge to use military force against Iraq if necessary; during a joint news conference in which the subject of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky came up, Clinton said he would "never" resign. President Clinton signed a bill changing the name of Washington National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

BORN

1756 America's third vice president, Aaron Burr, was born in Newark, N.J.

1833 James Ewell Brown "JEB" Stuart Major General (Commander of Cavalry, Confederate Army).

1895 George Herman (Babe) Ruth Baltimore MD, baseball great (Yankees).

1912 Eva Braun mistress of Adolf Hitler.

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is 91. Actor Patrick Macnee is 86. Actor Rip Torn is 77. Actress Mamie Van Doren is 77. Actor Mike Farrell is 69. Former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw is 68. Singer Fabian is 65. Actress Gayle Hunnicutt is 65. Actor Michael Tucker is 64. Producer-director-writer Jim Sheridan is 59. Singer Natalie Cole is 58. Actor Jon Walmsley is 52. Actress Kathy Najimy is 51. Rock musician Simon Phillips (Toto) is 51. Actor-director Robert Townsend is 51. Actor Barry Miller is 50. Actress Megan Gallagher is 48. Rock singer Axl Rose (Guns N' Roses) is 46. Country singer Richie McDonald is 46. Singer Rick Astley is 42. Rock musician Tim Brown (Boo Radleys) is 39. Actor Brandon Hammond is 24.

DEATH

1804 Joseph Priestley England/US theologist/philosopher/chemist, dies at 70.

1952 Britain's King George VI died; he was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.

2007 Singer Frankie Laine died in San Diego at age 93.

February 6, the 37th day of 2008. There are 329 days left in the year. Today is Ash Wednesday.

compiled by Mondoreb
images: red state leader;RidesAPaleHorse
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: January 29, 2008

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



MOVIES

1964 Stanley Kubrick's"Dr Strangelove" premieres.

WAR!

1863 Battle at Bear River WA US Army vs Indians.

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

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

1944 285 German bombers attack London.

TERRORISM

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

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

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

DISASTERS

1966 Snow storm in north east US kills 165.

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

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

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

THE GIPPER

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

CREEPY

1845 Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.

OOPS

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

INSPIRATION

1979 Brenda Spencer kills 2, inspires Boomtown Rats "I Don't Like Mondays".

POLITICS

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

1861 Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.

EXECUTED

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

NANNY STATE

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

PATENTS

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

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

STARTS

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

SPORTS

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

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

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

EUTHANASIA

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

LABOR

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

1912 Martial law declared in textile strike in Lawrence MA.

MARRIAGE

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

DIVORCE

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

DIPLOMACY

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

SUICIDE

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

BUDGETS

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

KILLERS

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

BORN

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

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

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

1878 Barney Oldfield Ohio, daredevil.

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

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

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

BIRTHDAYS

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

DEATH

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

1888 Edward Lear poet/author, dies at 75.

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

1963 poet Robert Frost died in Boston at age 88.

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

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

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: January 23, 2008

WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BRA BURNING, MAGHREBS, BOOTLEGGERS, HOUSE ARREST, OOPS!, LOOK OUT, PRO WRESTLING, SOLD, SHORTHAND, COWS, CREEPY, OIL SPILLS, HEART ATTACK, SPIES, PURGES, CLINTONS, AMENDMENTS, POLITICS, CIVIL RIGHTS, JEWS, MUSEUMS, CALENDARS, CATHOLICS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, EXECUTIONS, SOCIETIES, ASSASSINATION, SPORTS, PROTESTS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



BRA BURNING

1970 Dolle Mina burns her bra in Amsterdam.

WAR!

1865 General Robert E Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies.

1943 British 8th army marches into Tripoli.

1943 Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured.

1973 President Nixon announces an accord has been reach to end the Vietnam War.

2007 In his State of the Union address, President Bush implored Congress to give his plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq a chance to work.

TERRORISM

1957 Willie Edwards US black, murdered by KKK at 25.

1998 A judge in Fairfax, Va., sentenced Aimal Khan Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people. (Kasi was executed in November 2002.)

2002 Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted in Karachi, Pakistan, by a group demanding the return of prisoners from the Afghan campaign; he was later slain.

2003 The government of Kuwait said a Kuwaiti had confessed to the shootings of two U.S. defense workers in Kuwait (one worker was killed; the other was wounded).

DISASTERS

1556 Most deadly earthquake kills 830,000 in Shansi Province, China.

1812 7.8 earthquake shakes New Madrid, Missouri.

1973 Jordan Air crash at Kano, Nigeria kills 176 Moslem pilgrims.

1982 World Airways DC-10 skids at Boston Logan Airport killing 2.

1993 Indian Airlines B737 crashes art Aurangabad, 61 die.

MAGHREBS

1962 Libya, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia plan to form United Arab Maghreb.

BOOTLEGGERS

1972 Bootlegger sells wood alcohol to wedding party-100 die-New Delhi.

HOUSE ARREST

1972 Entire population of Istanbul under 24 hour house arrest.

OOPS!

1997 Laura "Dinky" Patterson dies during bungee jump at Super Bowl rehearsal at 43.

LOOK OUT

1983 Russian radioactive satellite falls into Indian Ocean.




PRO WRESTLING

1984 Hulk Hogan defeats Iron Sheik to become WWF champ.

SOLD

1647 Scottish Presbyterians sell captured Charles I to English parliament.

SHORTHAND

1894 G W Bunbury of Dublin sets shorthand record of 250 wpm for 10 minutes.

COWS

1982 Urbe Blanca (cow) produces record 110 kg of milk, Cuba (approximate date).

CREEPY

1993 New York Newsday reports Oregon's Senator Bob Packwood sexually harassed 23 women.

OIL SPILLS

1991 World's largest oil spill, caused by embattled Iraqi forces in Kuwait.

HEART ATTACK

1943 Alexander Woollcott critic, dies of a heart attack on radio, at 56.

SPIES

1946 Rear Admiral Sidney W Souers, USNR, becomes 1st director of CIA.

1968 Spy ship USS Pueblo & 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by N Korea.

1962 British spy Kim Philby defects to USSR.

PURGES

1937 Karl Radek & 16 others go on trial in Stalin's great purge.

CLINTONS

1998 Fighting scandal allegations involving Monica Lewinsky, President Bill Clinton assured his Cabinet during a meeting that he was innocent and urged them to concentrate on their jobs.

AMENDMENTS

1933 20th amendment changes date of Presidential Inaugurations to 1/20.

1964 24th Amendment ratified, barring poll tax in federal elections.

POLITICS

1845 Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1907 Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes 1st Native American US senator.

JEWS

1492 "Pentateuch" (Jewish holy book) 1st printed

1936 Utah Senator William H. King urges the US to open its doors as a haven for Jews fleeing Germany.

1942: Hungarian Fascists at Sovi Sad in occupied Yugoslavia drive 550 Jews and 292 Serbs to the river and onto the ice. After firing on the ice to break it up, they shoot all those who manage to stay afloat. A total of 2,550 Serbs and 700 Jews are killed by the Hungarians at Novi Sad. (Atlas)

1950 Israeli Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

1989 Challenge to "who is a Jew" law filed in Israeli Supreme Court.

MUSEUMS

1981 1st Richard Nixon museum opens (San Clemente CA).

CALENDARS

638 Start of Islamic calendar.

CATHOLICS

1789 Georgetown, 1st US Catholic college, founded.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1965 "The King Family Show" (musical variety) premieres on ABC TV.

1975 "Barney Miller" premieres on ABC TV.

1977 Miniseries "Roots" premieres on ABC.

1983 "A-Team" with Mr T premieres on NBC.

1991 "Seinfeld" debuts on NBC-TV.

EXECUTIONS

1997 Randy Greenawalt convicted killer, executed by injection at 47.

SOCIETIES

1793 Humane Society of Philadelphia (first aid society) organized.

ASSASSINATION

1913 Nazim Pasha Turkey's PM assassinated.

SPORTS

1950 AP picks "Miracle Braves" of 1914 as greatest sports upset.

1953 NFL Dallas Texans become Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts).

SUPREME COURT

1961 Supreme Court rules cities & states have right to censor films.

PROTESTS

1932 El Salvador army kills 4,000 protesting farmers.

BORN

1891 Antonio Gramsci Italian philosopher/marxist theorist.

1898 Randolph Scott actor (Last of the Mohicans, Western Union).

1899 Humphrey Bogart actor (Casablanca, Caine Mutiny, African Queen).

1919 Ernie Kovacs Trenton NJ, comedian (Ernie Kovacs' Show).

1944 Rutger Hauer Dutch actor (Blade Runner, Ladyhawke, Osterman Weekend).

BIRTHDAYS

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., is 84. Actress Jeanne Moreau is 80. Actress Chita Rivera is 75. Actor-director Lou Antonio is 74. Actor Gil Gerard is 65. Actor Rutger Hauer is 64. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jerry Lawson (The Persuasions) is 64. Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., is 61. Singer Anita Pointer is 60. Actor Richard Dean Anderson is 58. Rock musician Bill Cunningham is 58. Rock musician Danny Federici (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band) is 58. Rock singer Robin Zander (Cheap Trick) is 55. Princess Caroline of Monaco is 51. Singer Anita Baker is 50. Reggae musician Earl Falconer (UB40) is 49. Actress Gail O'Grady is 45. Actress Mariska Hargitay is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singer Marc Nelson is 37. Actress Tiffani Thiessen is 34.

DEATH

1806 William Pitt the Younger, PM Great Britain (1783-1806), dies at 46.

1977 Bernard "Toots" Shor barkeeper, dies at 73.

1989 Salvador Dalí Spanish Surrealist painter, dies in Spain at 84.

2005 former "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson died in Malibu, Calif., at age 79.

2003 Actress Nell Carter died in Beverly Hills, Calif., at age 54.

2007 E. Howard Hunt, who helped organize the Watergate break-in, leading to the downfall of Richard Nixon's presidency, died in Miami at age 88.

January 23, the 23rd day of 2008. There are 343 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[image: daneevorhees;
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.