DBKP's Today in Weird History: February 4, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, EXECUTIONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH, POLITICS, PROGRESS, EDUCATION, JEWS, BOOMS, RELIGION, ASSASSINATION, PATENTS, SPORTS, RIOTS, DEPORTED, BANKRUPT, RECORDS, CHIMPS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1789 Electors chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States. They also elected John Adams as Vice-President. (However, the results of the balloting were not counted in the U.S. Senate until two months later).

WAR!

1783 Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

1861 Confederate constitutional convention meets for 1st time, Montgomery AL. Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi & South Carolina elect Jefferson Davis President of Confederacy.

1945 President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta.

TERRORISM

1990 10 Israeli tourists murdered near Cairo.

1994 20 die in armed assault on mosque in Khartum Sudan.

DISASTERS

1783 Worst quake in 8 years kills some 50,000 (Calabria, Italy).

1797 Earthquake in Quito, Ecuador kills 40,000.

1966 All-Nippon Airways 727 crashes off Haneda Airport (Japan); kills 133.

1971 Government exhibit under construction collapses, kills 65 in Brazil.

1976 7.5 earthquake kills 22,778 in Guatemala & Honduras.

1977 Elevated train jumps track, crashes onto Chicago st (11 die, 200 hurt).

1997 73 Israelis die when army copters collide.

1998 More than 2,300 people were killed when an earthquake hit northeast Afghanistan with a magnitude of 5.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

RECORDS

1982 Indoor distance record for a paper airplane (47 meters) Tacoma WA.

1984 Frank Aquilera sets world frisbee distance record (168 meters) Las Vegas.

RIOTS

1971 National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC.

CHIMPS

1974 Chimpanzee Nim Chimsky signs his 1st word, at 2½ months.

BOOMS

1964 FAA begins 6 month test of reactions to sonic booms over Oklahoma City OK.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

2003 A rare television interview with Saddam Hussein aired in which the Iraqi leader charged that U.S. claims of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in his country were a pretext to seize Iraq's oil fields.

EDUCATION

1849 University of Wisconsin begins in 1 room with 20 students.

BANKRUPT

1971 British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt.

DEPORTED

1972 Senator Strom Thurmond suggests John Lennon be deported.

NAZIs

1938 Hitler seizes control of German army & puts Nazi in key posts.

RELIGION

1866 Mary Baker Eddy cures her injuries by opening a bible.

ASSASSINATION

1949 Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia.

JEWS

1855 Soldiers shoot Jewish families in Coro, Venezuela.

1959 Israel begins exporting copper ore.

1997 Secretary of State Madeline Albright announces she just discovered that her grandparents were Jewish.

SPORTS

1932 New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid.

1969 John Madden is named head coach of the NFL's Oakland Raiders.

PATENTS

1913 Louis Perlman patents demountable auto tire-carrying wheel rim.

PROGRESS

1824 J W Goodrich introduces rubber galoshes to the public.

1930 1st tieless, soundless, shockless streetcar tracks, New Orleans.

1957 1st electric portable typewriter placed on sale (Syracuse NY).

EXECUTIONS

1699 350 rebellious Streltsi executed in Moscow.

BORN

1902 Charles A Lindbergh Detroit MI, pilot (1st fly solo across Atlantic).

1904 MacKinlay Kantor Webster City IA, novelist (Andersonville).

1913 Woody Hayes [Wayne], college football coach (Ohio, 1968 coach of year).

BIRTHDAYS

Actor William Phipps is 86. Actor Conrad Bain is 85. Actor Gary Conway is 72. Movie director George A. Romero is 68. Rock musician John Steel (The Animals) is 67. Singer Florence LaRue (The Fifth Dimension) is 64. Former Vice President Dan Quayle is 61. Rock singer Alice Cooper is 60. Actor Michael Beck is 59. Actress Lisa Eichhorn is 56. Rock singer Tim Booth is 48. Rock musician Henry Bogdan is 47. Country singer Clint Black is 46. Country musician Dave Buchanan (Yankee Grey) is 42. Actress Gabrielle Anwar is 38. Singer David Garza is 37. Actor Michael Goorjian is 37. Rock musician Rick Burch (Jimmy Eat World) is 33. Singer Natalie Imbruglia is 33. Rapper Cam'ron is 32. Rock singer Gavin DeGraw is 31. Olympic gold medal gymnast-turned-singer Carly Patterson is 20.

DEATH

1957 Joseph Hardaway creator of Bugs Bunny, dies at 66.

1983 Karen Carpenter singer/drummer (Carpenters), dies of anorexia at 32.

1987 Pianist Liberace died at his Palm Springs, Calif., home at age 67.

1989 Kenneth "Jethro" Burns country singer (Homer & Jethro), dies at 69.

2003 Opera singer Jerome Hines died in New York at age 81.

2007 Singer-actress Barbara McNair died in Los Angeles at age 72.

February 4, the 35th day of 2008. There are 331 days left in the year.




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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: January 31, 2008

WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BIRDS, WITCHES, TAPE, HAH!, REVOLT, MONKEYS, FINANCE, MUSIC, EXECUTIONS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, SMOKING, JEWS, PROGRESS, NANNY STATE, INVENTIONS, DEPRESSION, SUICIDE, SCIENCE, POLITICS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


1958 the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.

WAR!

1861 State of Louisiana takes over US Mint at New Orleans.

1863 1st black Civil War regiment, SC Volunteers, mustered into US army

1865 Gen. Robert E. Lee was named General-in-Chief of all the Confederate armies.

1917 during World War I, Germany served notice it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1944 during World War II, U.S. forces began a successful invasion of Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

2003 President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met at the White House; Bush said he would welcome a second U.N. resolution on Iraq but only if it led to the prompt disarming of Saddam Hussein. Pushing for a new resolution, Blair called confronting Iraq "a test of the international community."

TERRORISM

2007 Nine blinking electronic devices planted around Boston threw a scare into the city in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon.

DISASTERS

1906 Strongest instrumentally recorded earthquake, Colombia, 8.6 Richter.

1953 "Princess Victoria" capsized off Stanraer Scotland; 133 die.

1953 Hurricane-like winds flood Netherlands drowning nearly 2,000.

1988 Barge sinks near Anacortes WA, spills 70,000 gallons of oil.

2000 an Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.

BIRDS

1871 Millions of birds fly over western San Francisco, darken the sky.

WITCHES

1675 Cornelia/Dina Olfaarts found not guilty of witchcraft.

TAPE

1928 Scotch tape 1st marketed by 3-M Company.

HAH!

1933 Hitler promises parliamentary democracy.

REVOLT

1696 Revolt of undertakers after funeral reforms (Amsterdam).

MONKEYS

1961 Ham is 1st primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury/Redstone 2.

FINANCE

1994 Dow Jones hits a record 3,978.36.

MUSIC

1955 RCA demonstrates 1st music synthesizer.

1976 "Love Rollercoaster" by Ohio Players hits #1.

EXECUTIONS

1606 Guy Fawkes, convicted of treason for his part in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I, was executed.

1945 Private Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1958 "Jackpot Bowling" premieres on NBC with Leo Durocher as host.

SMOKING

1964 US report "Smoking & Health" connects smoking to lung cancer.

JEWS

1961 David Ben-Gurion resigns as premier of Israel.

1978 Israel turns 3 military outposts in West Bank into civilian settlements.

PROGRESS

1905 1st auto to exceed 100 mph (161 kph), A G MacDonald, Daytona Beach.

1948 Magnetic tape recorder developed by Wireway.

NANNY STATE

1970 Grateful Dead members busted on LSD charges.

2007 President Bush, visiting Wall Street, delivered his "State of the Economy" speech in which he took aim at lavish salaries and bonuses for corporate executives.

INVENTIONS

1851 Gail Borden announces invention of evaporated milk.

DEPRESSION

1934 President Franklin Roosevelt devalued the dollar in relation to gold.

SUICIDE

1954 Edwin H Armstrong US radio inventor (FM), commits suicide at 63.

SCIENCE

1958 James van Allen discovers radiation belt.

1971 astronauts Alan Shepard Jr., Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

1998 Astronaut David Wolf returned to Earth aboard space shuttle Endeavour after four months on the Russian space station Mir.

POLITICS

2007 Delaware Sen. Joe Biden formally launched his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

BORN

1734 Robert Morris merchant (signed Declaration of Independence).

1797 composer Franz Schubert was born in Vienna, Austria.

1872 Zane Grey American West novelist (Riders of the Purple Sage, Spirit of the Border).

1903 Tallulah Bankhead Huntsville AL, actress (Lifeboat, Die Die Darling).

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Carol Channing is 87. Actress Jean Simmons is 79. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks is 77. Composer Philip Glass is 71. Actor Stuart Margolin is 68. Former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., is 67. Blues singer-musician Charlie Musselwhite is 64. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan is 61. Singer-musician KC (KC and the Sunshine Band) is 57. Rock singer Johnny Rotten is 52. Actress Kelly Lynch is 49. Actor Anthony LaPaglia is 49. Singer-musician Lloyd Cole is 47. Actor John Dye is 45. Rock musician Jeff Hanneman (Slayer) is 44. Rock musician Al Jaworski (Jesus Jones) is 42. Actress Minnie Driver is 38. Actress Portia de Rossi is 35. Actress Kerry Washington is 31. Singer Justin Timberlake is 27.

DEATH

1974 Samuel Goldwyn Polish/English/US film magnate (MGM), dies at 91.

2006 Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at age 78.

2007 Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins died in Austin, Texas, at age 62.

January 31, the 31st day of 2008. There are 335 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image:
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 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 Today in History: January 17, 2008

WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, CLINTONS, DIPLOMACY, ABDICATION, JEWS, SPORTS, SOLD, PATENTS, COMICS, CIVIL RIGHTS, MUSIC, PROGRESS, LINES, WITCHES, WHEW!, EXECUTIONS, DIVORCE, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, BUREAUCRACY, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

On Jan. 17, 1945, Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II. Shown above, US and Soviets meet at Elbe River.

WAR!

1943 Tin Can Drive Day

2003 On the 12th anniversary of the Gulf War, a defiant Saddam Hussein called on his people to rise up and defend the nation against a new U.S.-led attack.

TERRORISM

1979 Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran. Iran completely in hands of the forces of the Islamic Republic.

DISASTERS

1718 Avalanche destroys every building in Leukerbad, Switzerland; kills 53

1994, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California, killing at least 72 people.

1995, more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.

CLINTONS

1998 President Bill Clinton gave a deposition in Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against him; during the nearly six hours of sworn testimony, Clinton denied having had a sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

1998 President Clinton faces sexual harassment charges from Paula Jones.

DIPLOMACY

1946 United Nations Security Council holds its 1st meeting.

ABDICATION

1893, Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown as a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate. Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic.

SPORTS

1997 NBA suspends Dennis Rodman indefinitely/$25,000 for kicking cameraman

SOLD

1917, the United States paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

PATENTS

1861 Flush toilet (with separate water tank and a pull chain) patented by Mr Thomas Crapper.

1905 Punchboards patented by Charles Brewer & C G Scannell, Chicago IL

JEWS

1945 Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation

1945, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, arrested in Hungary and disappeared while in Soviet custody.

COMICS

1929 Popeye makes 1st appearance, in comic strip "Thimble Theatre".

CIVIL RIGHTS

1966 Martin Luther King Jr opens campaign in Chicago.



MUSIC

1969 Debut album of Led Zeppelin released in US.

PROGRESS

1955 Submarine USS Nautilus begins 1st nuclear-powered test voyage

LINES

1961, in his farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."

WITCHES

1775 9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests, Kalisk, Poland

WHEW!

1966, a U.S. Air Force B-52 carrying four unarmed hydrogen bombs crashed on the Spanish coast. (Three of the bombs were quickly recovered, but the fourth wasn't recovered until April.)

EXECUTIONS

1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade.

DIVORCE

1997, a court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1954 Jacques Cousteau's 1st network telecast airs on "Omnibus" (CBS)

BUREAUCRACY

2003 Tom Ridge sailed through Senate confirmation hearings on his way to becoming the nation's first Homeland Security Department chief.

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Betty White is 86. Singer-actress Eartha Kitt is 81. Actor James Earl Jones is 77. Talk show host Maury Povich is 69. Former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is 66. Rhythm-and-blues singer William Hart (The Delfonics) is 63. Rock musician Mick Taylor is 60. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sheila Hutchinson (The Emotions) is 55. Singer Steve Earle is 53. Singer Paul Young is 52. Actor-comedian Steve Harvey is 51. Singer Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles) is 49. Actor-comedian Jim Carrey is 46. Actor Joshua Malina is 42. Singer Shabba Ranks is 42. Actor Naveen Andrews is 39. Rapper Kid Rock is 37. Actor Freddy Rodriguez is 33. Actress Zooey Deschanel is 28. Singer Ray J is 27. Country singer Amanda Wilkinson is 26.

DEATH

1893 Rutherford B Hayes 19th US President (1877-81), dies in Fremont OH at 70.

1998 Emil Sitka actor (3 Stooges shorts), dies of stroke at 82.

2003 Actor Richard Crenna died in Los Angeles at age 76.

2003 Gertrude Janeway, the last known widow of a Union veteran from the Civil War, died in Blaine, Tenn., at age 93 (she had married John Janeway in 1927 when he was 81 and she was barely 18).

2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning satirist Art Buchwald died in Washington, D.C., at age 81.

January 17, the 17th day of 2008. There are 349 days left in the year.


compiled by Mondoreb
[images: mtmestas;mp3.com]
Source:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in History: January 15, 2008

WAR!, DISASTERS, QUEENS, ICE CREAM, FREEDOM, RECORDS, GEEZERS, EDUCATION, POLITICS, LANDMARKS, MURDERS, SPORTS, SERIAL KILLERS, SCANDAL, FINANCE, SUPREME COURT, EXECUTIONS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, POPES, KINGS, RIOTS, PRO WRESTLING, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH and MORE


1870 Donkey 1st used as symbol of Democratic Party, in Harper's Weekly

WAR!

1865 Fort Fisher, NC falls to Union troops

1940 German U-Boot torpedoes Dutch trade ship Arendskerk (Eagle's Church)
1942 FDR asks commissioner to continue baseball during WWII
1942 Cubs, drop plans to install lights at Wrigley due to WWII
1943 Japanese driven off Guadalcanal
1944 European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany
1944 General Eisenhower arrives in England
1944 Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die
1945 Red Army frees Crakow-Plaszow concentration camp
1949 Mao's Red army conquers Ten-tsin
1955 USSR ends state of war with German Federal Republic
1973, President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam, citing progress in peace negotiations.

DISASTER

1919 2 million gallons of molasses "Tidal wave" Boston MA, drowning 21

1934 8.4 earthquake in India/Nepal, 10,700 die

1951 "Cloud of Death" rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 3-5,000

1993 7.5 earthquake strikes northern Japan, 2 die

ICE CREAM

1935 300 Dutch ice cream salesmen protest against Italian competition

QUEENS

1559 England's Queen Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1994 Queen Elizabeth falls off her horse & breaks her left wrist

FREEDOM

1777 the people of New Connecticut declared their independence. (The tiny republic later became the state of Vermont.)

GEEZERS

1998 NASA announces John Glenn, 76, may fly in space again

EDUCATION

1844, the University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana.

POLITICS

1942, Jawaharlal Nehru was named to succeed Mohandas K. Gandhi as head of India's Congress Party.

RECORDS

1983 Thom Syles keeps a life saver intact in his mouth for over 7 hours

LANDMARKS

1943, work was completed on the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense.

MURDERS

1947 The mutilated remains of Elizabeth Short, the 22-year-old aspiring actress now known as the "Black Dahlia," were found in a vacant Los Angeles lot.

SPORTS

1934 Babe Ruth signs a 1934 contract for $35,000 ($17,000 cut)

1967 The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I.

SERIAL KILLERS

1978 Two students at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, were murdered in their sorority house. (Ted Bundy was later convicted of the crime, and executed.)

SCANDAL

1992 Cleaning woman finds intimate photos of Sarah Ferguson with US man

1998 Henry Cisneros' ex-mistress, Linda Medlar Jones, pleaded to misleading federal authorities investigating the former U.S. housing secretary's payment of alleged hush money to her. (Jones served nearly 18 months in prison; she was later pardoned by President Clinton.) Labor Secretary Alexis Herman denied allegations that she had sold her influence in the White House. (Herman was cleared in 2000 by Independent Counsel Ralph I. Lancaster.)

FINANCE

2003 White House budget director Mitchell Daniels predicted federal deficits would balloon to the $200- to $300 billion range over the next two years.

SUPREME COURT

1951 Supreme Court rule "clear & present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest

2003 Mickey Mouse and The Walt Disney Co. scored a big victory as the Supreme Court upheld longer copyright protections for cartoon characters, songs, books and other creations worth billions of dollars.

EXECUTIONS

2008 The Iraqi government hanged two of Saddam Hussein's henchmen, including a half-brother (Barzan Ibrahim) who was accidentally decapitated by the noose.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1973 Gene Shalit joins the Today Show panel

1974 "Happy Days" begins an 11 year run on ABC

1977 Coneheads debut on "Saturday Night Live"

1981 "Hill Street Blues" premieres on NBC-TV

1988 Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder makes remarks about black athletes

1993 Soap opera "Santa Barbara" final show on NBC TV

POPES

708 Sisinnius begins his reign as Catholic Pope (dies 20 days later)

KINGS

1535 Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church

RIOTS

1754 Riot at burial of doelist Daniel Raap in Amsterdam

FASHION

1797 1st top hat worn (John Etherington of London)

PROGRESS

1831 1st US-built locomotive to pull a passenger train makes 1st run; Mr & Mrs Pierson of Charleston SC make 1st US railroad honeymoon trip

1863 1st US newspaper printed on wood-pulp paper, Boston Morning Journal

1936 1st all-glass windowless structure in US completed, Toledo, Ohio

SCIENCE

1833 HMS Beagle anchors at Goeree Tierra del Fuego

PATENTS

1861 Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis

1907 3-element vacuum tube patented by Dr Lee de Forest

INVENTIONS

1907 Gold dental inlays 1st described by William Taggart, who invented them

JEWS

1943 1st transport of Jews from Amsterdam to concentration camp Vught

1973 Pope Paul VI has an audience with Golda Meir at Vatican

1988 Arab uprising in Israel begins

RATIONING

1945 Every Amsterdammer gets 3 kg sugar beets

CIVIL RIGHTS

1950 4,000 attend National Emergency Civil Rights Conference in Washington DC

MUSIC

1961 Supremes signed with Motown Records

1965 Rock group The Who releases 1st album "I Can't Explain"

LABOR

1964 Teamsters negotiate 1st national labor contract

WATERGATE

1973 4 Watergate burglars plead guilty in federal court

1974 Expert panel reports 18½-m gap in Watergate tape, 5 separate erasures

ASSASSINATION

1976 Sara Jane Moore sentenced to life for attempting to shoot President Ford

PRO WRESTLING

1989 Big John Studd wins WWF's 1st Royal Rumble

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Margaret O'Brien is 71. Singer Don Van Vliet (aka "Captain Beefheart") is 67. Actress Andrea Martin is 61. Actor-director Mario Van Peebles is 51. Actor James Nesbitt is 43. Singer Lisa Lisa (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam) is 41. Actor Chad Lowe is 40. Actress Regina King is 37. Actor Eddie Cahill is 30. Rapper/reggaeton artist Pitbull is 27.

DEATH

1998 Amos "Junior" Wells blues harpist, dies at 63

January 15, the 15th day of 2008. There are 351 days remaining in the year.


compiled by Mondoreb
[image: publicdomainclipart]
Sources:
*Today in History
* Today in History



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