DBKP Today in Weird History: March 20, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, ESCAPES, BEATLES, WOW, CLINTONS, HANGED, RESCUED, MUPPETS, PATENTS, JEWS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, CLUELESSLY IMPOTENT, GODLESS, DICTATORS, MURDER, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

WAR!

1942 General MacArthur vows, "I shall return".

2003 A subdued Saddam Hussein appeared on state-run television after the initial U.S. air strike on Baghdad, accusing the United States of a "shameful crime" and urging his people to "draw your sword" against the invaders. American combat units rumbled across the desert into Iraq from the south and U.S. and British forces bombed limited targets in Baghdad. The start of war in Iraq triggered one of the heaviest days of anti-government protesting in years, leading to thousands of arrests across the United States and prompting pro-war counter-demonstrations.

TERRORISM

1993 IRA-bomb kills 3 year old in Warrington England.

1995 In Tokyo, 12 people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin were leaked on five separate subway trains by Aum Shinrikyo cult members.

DISASTER

1760 Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings.

1972 19 mountain climbers killed on Japan's Mount Fuji during an avalanche.

1998 A tornado in rural northeast Georgia killed at least 13 people and injured 100.

WOW!

1988 8-year-old DeAndra Anrig found herself airborne when the string of her kite was snagged by an airplane flying over Shoreline Park in Mountain View, Calif. (DeAndra was lifted 10 feet off the ground and carried some 100 feet until she let go; she was not seriously hurt.)

MUPPETS

??? Big Bird muppet was born today on in an unknown year.(Sesame Street)

DICTATORS

1992 Manuel Noriega's (Panama) wife Felicidad arrested for stealing buttons from dresses.

PRO WRESTLING

1994 Wrestlemania X at Madison Square Garden New York, Bret "The Hitman" Hart pins Yokozuna to win WWF championship.

PATENTS

1885 John Matzeliger of Suriname patents shoe lacing machine.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1954 1st newspaper vending machine used (Columbia Pennsylvania).

MURDER

1996 Erik & Lyle Menendez found guilty of killing their parents.

ESCAPES

1815 Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.

CLINTONS

1998 President Clinton's lawyer, appearing before a federal court in Little Rock, Ark., declared that Paula Jones' evidence of sexual harassment was "garbage" unworthy of a trial.

CLUELESSLY IMPOTENT

1980 US appeals to International Court on hostages in Iran.

JEWS

1939 7,000 Jews flee German occupied Memel Lithuania.

BEATLES

1969 John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.

HANGED

2007 Saddam Hussein's former deputy, Taha Yassin Ramadan, was hanged in Baghdad, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites.

GODLESS

1984 Senate rejects amendment to permit spoken prayer in public schools.

RESCUED

2007 Rescuers found Michael Auberry, a 12-year-old Boy Scout, who was dehydrated and disoriented after four days in the wooded mountains of North Carolina.

BORN

1902 Edgar Buchanan Humansville MO, actor (Uncle Joe-Petticoat Junction).

1906 Ozzie Nelson Jersey City NJ, actor (Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet).

1908 American broadcasting pioneer Frank Stanton, the president of CBS for 26 years, was born in Muskegon, Mich.

BIRTHDAYS

Producer-director-comedian Carl Reiner is 86. Actor Hal Linden is 77. Singer Jerry Reed is 71. Former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney is 69. Country singer Don Edwards is 69. TV producer Paul Junger Witt is 65. Country singer-musician Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky) is 62. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Bobby Orr is 60. Blues singer-musician Marcia Ball is 59. Actor William Hurt is 58. Rock musician Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 58. Rock musician Jimmie Vaughan is 57. Country musician Jimmy Seales (Shenandoah) is 54. Movie director Spike Lee is 51. Actress Theresa Russell is 51. Actress Vanessa Bell Calloway is 51. Actress Holly Hunter is 50. Rock musician Slim Jim Phantom (The Stray Cats) is 47. Actress-model Kathy Ireland is 45. Actor David Thewlis is 45. Rock musician Adrian Oxaal (James) is 43. Actress Liza Snyder is 40. Actor Michael Rapaport is 38. Actor Alexander Chaplin is 37. Rock singer Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) is 32. Actor Michael Genadry is 30. Actress Bianca Lawson is 29.

DEATH

1727 Sir Issac Newton English physicist/astronomer, dies in London at 84.

1991 Conor Clapton Eric Clapton's son, falls out of 53rd floor window at 4.

March 20, the 80th day of 2008. There are 286 days left in the year. Spring's arrival: 1:48 a.m. Eastern time.

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


DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 16, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, ROCKETS, NAZIS, SCANDALS, ST. PANCAKE, SURE, BOBBIES, JEWS, ASSASSINATION, BYE, QUIET, NANNY STATE, WOMEN, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, DRAMA, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

ACADEMIES

1802 President Jefferson signed a measure authorizing the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

WAR!

1945 US defeats Japan at Iwo Jima.

1968 My Lai massacre occurs (Vietnam War); 450 die.

2003 Five years ago: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein warned that if Iraq were attacked, it would take the war anywhere in the world "wherever there is sky, land or water." President Bush gave the United Nations one more day to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff.

TERRORISM

1977 US President Carter pleads for Palestinian homeland.

1978 Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by left-wing urban guerrillas, who later murdered him.

1984 William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen; he died in captivity.

1985 Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in December 1991.

1988 North-Ireland Protestant fires on Catholic funeral, 3 killed.

DISASTER

1941 Blizzard hits North Dakota & Minnesota killing 60.

1969 Viasa DC-9 crashes at Maracaibo's Grano de Oro airport, killing 155.

1991 7 members of Reba McIntire's band killed in a plane crash.

DRAMA

1994 Tonya Harding pleads guilty to felony attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

QUIET

1830 New York Stock Exchange slowest day ever (31 shares traded).

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1966 "Man From Uncle" star David McCallum receives huge welcome in London.

WOMEN

1876 Nelly Saunders & Rose Harland fight 1st female boxing match (New York).

BOBBIES

1830 London's re-organised police force (Scotland Yard) forms.

ROCKETS

1926 rocket science pioneer Robert H. Goddard successfully tested the first liquid-fueled rocket, in Auburn, Mass.

BYE

1861 Arizona Territory votes to leave the Union.

NAZIS

1935 Adolf Hitler decided to break the military terms set by the Treaty of Versailles by ordering the rearming of Germany.

ST. PANCAKE

2003 Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American in Gaza to protest Israel operations, was killed when she was run over by a bulldozer while trying to block troops from demolishing a Palestinian home.

NANNY STATE

1871 1st fertilizer law enacted.

SCANDALS

1988 A federal grand jury indicted former National Security Adviser John Poindexter, fired White House aide Oliver North, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard Secord and Secord's business partner, Albert Hakim, on charges related to the Iran-Contra affair. (Poindexter and North were later convicted, but had their convictions overturned; Secord and Hakim received probation after each pleaded guilty to a single count.)

ASSASSINATION

1978 Aldo Moro 5 times Prime Minister of Italy, assassinated by terrorists.

JEWS

1190 Jews of York England commit mass sucide rather than submit to baptism.

1998 In a long-awaited document that Jewish leaders immediately criticized, the Vatican expressed remorse for the cowardice of some Christians during the Holocaust, but defended the actions of Pope Pius XII.

SURE

2007 Former CIA operative Valerie Plame told a House committee that White House and State Department officials had "carelessly and recklessly" blown her cover in a politically motivated smear of her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for publicly disputing President Bush's assertion that Saddam Hussein was on the brink of acquiring a nuclear bomb.

BORN

1751 James Madison, fourth president of the United States, was born in Port Conway, Va.

1849 James E Smith became father at 100 with woman 64 years younger.

BIRTHDAYS

Comedian-director Jerry Lewis is 82. Movie director Bernardo Bertolucci is 67. Game show host Chuck Woolery is 67. Singer-songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker is 66. Country singer Robin Williams is 61. Actor Erik Estrada is 59. Actor Victor Garber is 59. Actress Kate Nelligan is 57. Country singer Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel) is 57. Rock singer-musician Nancy Wilson (Heart) is 54. Golfer Hollis Stacy is 54. Actress Isabelle Huppert is 53. Actor Clifton Powell is 52. Rapper Flavor Flav (Public Enemy) is 49. Rock musician Jimmy DeGrasso is 45. Folk singer Patty Griffin is 44. Actress Lauren Graham is 41. Actor Alan Tudyk is 37. Actress Brooke Burns is 30. Rock musician Wolfgang Van Halen is 17.

DEATH

37 Roman emperor Tiberius died; he was succeeded by Caligula.

March 16, the 76th day of 2008. There are 290 days left in the year. Today is Palm Sunday.

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

DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Also posted at Death by 1000 Papercuts.

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 10, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, CHIX R DIX, MURDER, TREASON, ARMY, DIPLOMACY, JEWS, PATENTS, CANCEL, BOWLING, NANNY STATE, WHAT IF, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, FUNERALS, PROGRESS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

PROGRESS

1876 the first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell's telephone took place in Boston as his assistant heard Bell say, "Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you." (The words were recounted by Bell in his lab notebook.)

WAR!

1848 The Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the war with Mexico.

2003 Facing almost certain defeat, the United States and Britain delayed a vote in the U.N. Security Council to give Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to disarm.

2007 President Bush, in Uruguay as part of his Latin America tour, asked Congress for $3.2 billion to pay for 8,200 more U.S. troops needed in Afghanistan and Iraq on top of the 21,500-troop buildup he had announced in January 2007.

TERRORISM

1982 President Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya.

1995 Car bomb explodes in Karachi at shiite mosque, 17+ killed.

2007 In their first direct talks since the Iraq war began, U.S. and Iranian envoys traded harsh words and blamed each other for Iraq's crisis at a one-day international conference.

DISASTER

1902 Earthquake destroys Turkish city of Tochangri.

1906 Coal dust explosion kills 1,060 at Courrieres France.

1939 17 villages damaged by hailstones in Hyderabad India.

1946 Train derailment kills 185 near Aracaju Brazil.

CANCEL

1893 New Mexico State University cancels its 1st graduation ceremony, its only graduate Sam Steele was robbed & killed the night before

PATENTS

1849 Abraham Lincoln applies for a patent; only US President to do so.

1975 Dog spectacles patented in England.

WHAT IF?

1951 FBI director J Edgar Hoover declines post of baseball commissioner.

NANNY STATE

1933 Nevada becomes 1st US state to regulate narcotics.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1980 Willard Scott becomes the weather forecaster on the Today Show.

FUNERALS

1994 1 million Greeks attend Melina Mercouri's funeral.

CHIX R DIX

2003 Natalie Maines, lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, told a London audience: "Just so you know ... we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

BOWLING

1913 William Knox, becomes 1st in American Bowling Congress to bowl 300.

FINANCE

1995 Dow-Jones hits record 4035.64.

DIPLOMACY

1785 Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France, succeeding Benjamin Franklin.

ARMY

1880 the Salvation Army arrived in the United States from England.

TREASON

1949 Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington, D.C., of treason. (She served 12 years in prison.)

MURDER

1948 The body of the anti-communist foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, Jan Masaryk, was found in the garden of Czernin Palace in Prague. Authorities said that his death was a suicide, but others continue to claim that he was murdered.

1980 "Scarsdale Diet" author Dr. Herman Tarnower was shot to death in Purchase, N.Y. (Tarnower's former lover, Jean Harris, was convicted of murder; she served nearly 12 years in prison before being released in January 1993.)

JEWS

418 Jews are excluded from public office in the Roman Empire.

BORN

1888 Barry Fitzgerald Dublin Ireland, actor (Academy Award-Going My Way).

1918 Heywood Hale Broun journalist.

1920 Jethro Burns country singer (Homer & Jethro).

1923 Ara Parseghian football coach (Northwestern, Notre Dame).

BIRTHDAYS

Talk show host Ralph Emery is 75. Bluegrass/country singer-musician Norman Blake is 70. Actor Chuck Norris is 68. Playwright David Rabe is 68. Singer Dean Torrence (Jan and Dean) is 68. Actress Katharine Houghton is 63. Rock musician Tom Scholz (Boston) is 61. Producer-director-writer Paul Haggis is 55. Actress Shannon Tweed is 51. Actress Sharon Stone is 50. Rock musician Gail Greenwood is 48. Magician Lance Burton is 48. Actress Jasmine Guy is 46. Rock musician Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam) is 45. Music producer Rick Rubin is 45. Britain's Prince Edward is 44. Singer Edie Brickell is 42. Actor Stephen Mailer is 42. Actress Paget Brewster is 39. Country singer Daryle Singletary is 37. Rapper-producer Timbaland is 36. Actor Cristian de la Fuente is 34. Singer Robin Thicke is 31. Actress Bree Turner is 31. Olympic gold-medal gymnast Shannon Miller is 31. Country singer Carrie Underwood is 25. Actress Emily Osment is 16.

DEATH

1985 Konstantin U. Chernenko, who was the Soviet Union's leader for just 13 months, died at age 73.

1988 Pop singer Andy Gibb died in Oxford, England, at age 30 of heart inflammation.

1998 Actor Lloyd Bridges died in Westwood, Calif., at age 85.

2007 Standup comedian Richard Jeni, 49, died at a Los Angeles hospital of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

March 10, the 70th day of 2008. There are 296 days left in the year.

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

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Originally posted at DBKP at Blogger.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 23, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, LAST STANDS, POLITICS, MASS INOCULATION, FAKE SHEEP, WHO, RUMORS, IRONY, BUSY, SERIAL KILLERS, PERSECUTION, PATENTS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, CANDY, LEASES, PROGRESS, QUICKIE, FASCISTS, PRO WRESTLING, JEWS, KIDNAPPED, SUSPENDED, GOLD, SUPERNOVA, SHORT PEOPLE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

WAR!

1945 During World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised the American flag.

1847 The Battle of Buena Vista took place during the Mexican-American War. U.S. troops led by General Zachary Taylor fought Mexican General Santa Anna's forces, who ended up withdrawing.

1916 French artillery kills entire French 72nd division at Samogneux Verdun.

1942 Japanese sub fires on oil refinery in Ellwood CA.

1967 US troops begin largest offensive of Vietnam War.

TERRORISM

1969 Nayif Hawatimah forms Democratic People's Front for Liberation of Palestine.

1997 Ali Abu Kamal opens fire in Empire State Building & kills 1.

2007 Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport became the first in the United States to begin testing new X-ray screening technology that can see through people's clothes.

DISASTER

1887 French/Italian Riviera struck by Earthquake; 2,000 die.

1980 Oil tanker explosion off Pilos, Greece, causes 37-million-gallon spill.

1998 Forty-two people were killed, some 2,600 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, by tornadoes in central Florida.

2003 In West Warwick, R.I., relatives of the 100 victims of a deadly nightclub fire were allowed to walk up to the charred rubble to pray and say goodbye.

IRONY

1994 Stuart Berger doctor (Immune Power Diet), dies from obesity at 40.

LAST STANDS

1836 the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, entire garrison eventually killed.

BUSY

1922 Henri Landru executed for having 11 wives, in France.

SHORT PEOPLE

1993 Gary Coleman wins $1,280,000 lawsuit against parents for high fees.

PROGRESS

1910 1st radio contest held (Philadelphia).

1936 1st rocket air mail flight, Greenwood Lake NY.

QUICKIE

1915 Nevada enforces convenient divorce law.

GOLD

1973 Gold goes up $10 overnight to record $95 an ounce in London.

WHO?

2007 Democrat Tom Vilsack abandoned his bid for the presidency.

LEASES

1903 Cuban state of Guantanamo leased to USA.

SUSPENDED

1971 George Harrison is fined & his driving license is suspended for 1 year as a result of several speeding tickets and a dispute with the police.

SPORTS

1983 USFL New Jersey Generals sign Heisman winner Herschel Walker (3 years-$5 million).

1985 Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight throws a chair during a game.

POPULAR

1861 By popular referendum, Texas becomes 7th state to secede from US.

SUPERNOVA

1987 Supernova 1987A in LMC 1st seen; 1st naked-eye supernova since 1604

SERIAL KILLERS

1906 Johann Hoch US murderer, executed.

PRO WRESTLING

1939 Lou Thesz beats E Marshall in St Louis, to become wrestling champion.

PATENTS

1874 Major Walter Winfield patents game called "sphairistike" (lawn tennis)

RUMORS

1970 Rumors spread that females born on this day were better looking and more vivacious.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1886 London Times publishes world's 1st classified ad.

JEWS

1947 General Eisenhower opens drive to raise $170 million in aid for European Jews.

CANDY

1896 Tootsie Roll introduced by Leo Hirshfield.

KIDNAPPED

1958 5-time world driving champion Juan Fangio kidnapped by Cuban rebels.

BURNED

155 Polycarp disciple of Apostle John, arrested & burned at stake.

FASCISTS

1919 Benito Mussolini founds the Fascist party of Italy.

POLITICS

1861 President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office, following word of an assassination plot in Baltimore.

1870 Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.

PERSECUTION

303 Emperor Diocletian orders general persecution of Christians.

MASS INOCULATION

1954 The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.

COUP

1981 an attempted coup began in Spain as 200 members of the Civil Guard invaded the Parliament, taking lawmakers hostage. (However, the attempt collapsed 18 hours later.)

FAKE SHEEP

1997 Scientists in Scotland announced they had succeeded in cloning an adult mammal, producing a lamb named Dolly. (Dolly, however, was later put down after a short life marred by premature aging and disease.)

JURIES

2007 A Mississippi grand jury refused to bring any new charges in the 1955 slaying of Emmett Till, a black teenager who was beaten and shot after whistling at a white woman, declining to indict the woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, for manslaughter.

BORN

1633 English diarist Samuel Pepys (The Great Fire of London) was born in London.

1865 Barney Dreyfuss baseball owner (Pittsburgh Pirates).

BIRTHDAYS

Country songwriter Bob Willis is 74. Actor Peter Fonda is 68. Author John Sandford is 64. Singer-musician Johnny Winter is 64. Country-rock musician Rusty Young is 62. Actress Patricia Richardson is 57. Rock musician Brad Whitford (Aerosmith) is 56. Singer Howard Jones is 53. Rock musician Michael Wilton (Queensryche) is 46. Country singer Dusty Drake is 44. Actress Kristin Davis is 43. Tennis player Helena Sukova is 43. Actor Marc Price is 40. Actress Niecy Nash is 38. Rock musician Jeff Beres (Sister Hazel) is 37. Country singer Steve Holy is 36. Rock musician Lasse Johansson (The Cardigans) is 35. Actress Dakota Fanning is 14.

DEATH

1848 The 6th president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, died in Washington, D.C., at age 80.

1884 Tambo Tambo Australian aboriginal/US circus attraction, dies at 23.


February 23, the 54th day of 2008. There are 312 days left in the year.


compiled by Mondoreb
Source:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 22, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, POLITICS, CRICKET, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, MIRACLES, POPCORN, SUCIDE, ASSASSINATION, BEHEADED, JEWS, GOP, WAGERS, NANNY STATE, SPUNKY, FIVE and DIME, MISTAKES, FUR, FRIENDLY FIRE, SOCCER, NASCAR, NYC MAYORS, UNREST, ESPANOL, AHHHH, WOUNDED, MARRIAGE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH
Click on image to enlarge.
NASCAR

1959 1st Daytona 500 auto race-Lee Petty wins (135.521 MPH).

WAR!

1862 Jefferson Davis, already the provisional president of the Confederacy, was inaugurated for a six-year term as president following his election the previous November.

1915 Germany begins "unrestricted" submarine war.

1967 More than 25,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Junction City, aimed at smashing a Vietcong stronghold near the Cambodian border.

1991 Bush & US Gulf War allies give Iraq 24 hours to begin Kuwait withdrawal.

2007 Britain's Ministry of Defense announced that Prince Harry, a second lieutenant in the British army, would be deployed to Iraq. (Officials later reversed the decision because of insurgent threats.)

TERRORISM

1935 It became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House.

1948 Arabs bomb attack in Jerusalem, 50 die.

1989 US authors demonstrate against Iranian death treats against Salman Rushdee, author of "Satanic Rituals".

2007 The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Iran had ignored a Security Council ultimatum to freeze uranium enrichment, and instead had expanded its program by setting up hundreds of centrifuges.

AHHHHH!

1989 Finland ministry of Public health installs sex vacation to thwart stress.

WAGERS

1861 On a bet Edward Weston leaves Boston to walk to Lincoln's inauguration.

SPUNKY

1920 1st artificial rabbit used at a dog race track (Emeryville CA).

NANNY STATE

1872 1st national convention of the Prohibition Party (Columbus OH).

FIVE & DIME

1879 1st 5¢ & 10¢ store opened by Frank W Woolworth in Utica NY.

FUR

1923 1st successful chinchilla farm in US (Los Angeles CA).

WOUNDED

1932 Purple Heart award re-instituted.

ESPANOL

1989 1st Spanish commercial on network TV (Pepsi-Cola-CBS Grammy Award).

NYC MAYORS

1982 NYC Mayor Koch announces he will run for New York governor (unsuccessful).

MARRIAGE

1992 Ed McMahon, 69, weds Pamela Hurn, 37.

1992 Rockers Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) & Courtney Love (Hole), wed.

1991 Actor Bill Bixby (57) weds Laura Michael (32).

FRIENDLY FIRE

1940 German air force sinks 2 German destroyers, killing 578.

1944 US 8th Air Force bombs Enschede, Arnhem & Nijmegen by mistake/800+ die.

POPCORN

1630 Indians introduce pilgrims to popcorn.

UNREST

1983 Hindus kill 3000 Moslems in Assam, India.

1995 Algiers police kill at least 99 prison rioters.

SUICIDE

1998 Sandy Hume correspondent (Fox News), commits suicide at 28.

GOP

1854 1st meeting of the Republican Party, Michigan.

1856 1st national meeting of the Republican Party (Pittsburgh).

MISTAKES

2003 Jesica Santillan, the teenager who'd survived a botched heart-lung transplant long enough to get a second set of donated organs, died two days after the second transplant at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina.

POLITICS

1819 Spain agreed to cede Florida to the United States under the Adams-Onis Treaty.

1865 Tennessee adopted a new constitution that included the abolition of slavery.

1889 President Cleveland signed an omnibus bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1924 President Coolidge delivered the first radio broadcast from the White House as he addressed the country over 42 stations.

SOCCER

1956 1st British soccer match at Kunstlicht Portsmouth vs Newcastle United.

ASSASSINATION

1913 Francisco Indalecio Madero Mexican President at 39, and Suarez, Mexican vice President, assassinated in a military coup.

JEWS

1656 New Amsterdam granted a Jewish burial site.

1775 Jews expelled from outskirts of Warsaw Poland.

1941 I G Farben decides building Buna-Werke in Auschwitz Concentration Camp; Nazi SS begin rounding up Jews of Amsterdam.

MIRACLES

1980 the U.S. Olympic hockey team upset the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)

BEHEADED

1943 Hans Scholl German resistance fighter (White Rose), beheaded at 24. Sophie Scholl German resistance fighter (Die Weisse Rose), beheaded.

CRICKET

1993 Vinod Kambli scores 224 vs England at Bombay, 411 balls, 23 fours.

BORN

1732 The first president of the United States, George Washington, was born at his parents' plantation in the Virginia Colony.

1788 Arthur Schopenhauer Germany, philosopher (Great Pessimist).

1810 Frédéric F Chopin Polish/French pianist/composer.

1891 "Chico" Marx New York NY, actor/comedian (Marx Brothers, Animal Crackers).

BIRTHDAYS

Announcer Don Pardo is 90. Actor Paul Dooley is 80. Hollywood "ghost singer" Marni Nixon is 78. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., is 76. Movie director Jonathan Demme is 64. Actor John Ashton is 60. Actress Miou-Miou is 58. Actress Julie Walters is 58. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Julius Erving is 58. Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 49. Actress-comedian Rachel Dratch is 42. Actress Jeri Ryan is 40. Actor Thomas Jane is 39. Actress Tamara Mello is 38. Actress-singer Lea Salonga is 37. Actor Jose Solano is 37. Tennis player Michael Chang is 36. Actress Drew Barrymore is 33. Actress Liza Huber is 33. Singer James Blunt is 31. Actor Daniel E. Smith is 18.

DEATH

1998 Abraham A. Ribicoff, the former Connecticut governor and senator who served as President Kennedy's secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, died in Riverdale, N.Y., at age 87.

February 22, the 53rd day of 2008. There are 313 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: fireballroberts
Source:
* Today in History
* Today in history



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 17, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BURNED, POLITICS, PROGRESS, CHINA CARD, CHESS, HANGED, VEGETABLES, JIHAD, TOILETS, NANNY STATE, CARTOONS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, JEWS, MUSIC, FINANCE, ENVIRONMENTAL SCARE, KILLERS, HUSTLER, CLINTONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

click on image to read Newsweek's "The Cooling World"

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1933 1st issue of "Newsweek" magazine published.

WAR!

1864 The Confederate submarine Hunley, equipped with an explosive at the end of a protruding spar, rammed and sank the Union's ship Housatonic off the coast of Charleston, S.C.

1865 Columbia, S.C., burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in. (It's not clear which side set the blaze.)

1915 Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WWI, is mortally wounded.

1979 China invades Vietnam.

2003 European Union leaders declared their solidarity with the United States, warning Saddam Hussein that Iraq faced one "last chance" to disarm peacefully but calling war a last resort.

2007 Senate Republicans foiled a Democratic bid to repudiate President Bush's deployment of 21,500 additional combat troops to Iraq.

2007 Marine Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington was sentenced to eight years in military prison for his role in the kidnapping and killing of an Iraqi civilian.

TERRORISM

1986 Libyan bombers attack N'djamena Airport in Chad.

1988 US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists & later killed.

1993 Alfredo de Leon leader (Philippines Red Scorpio Gang), killed.

1998 Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax.

DISASTER

1926 Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham UT, 40 die.

1950 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center, New York.

1957 Fire in Warreton MO, kills 72.

1962 Storm in Hamburg, kills 265.

1974 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo, Egypt.

1993 Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die.

2003 Twenty-one people were killed in a stampede at the crowded E2 nightclub in Chicago.

HANGED

1688 Reverend James Renwick hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian.

VEGETABLES

1795 Thomas Seddal harvests 8.3-kg potato from his garden Chester, England.

TOILETS

1883 A Ashwell patents free-toilet in London.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCARE

1989 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole".

MUSIC

1962 Beach Boys introduced a new musical style with their hit "Surfin".

HUSTLER

1997 Weekly Standard shows evidence Larry Flint sex abused his daughter.

CARTOONS

1933 Blondie Boopadoop marries Dagwood Bumstead; Dagwood's father promptly disinherits him.

1958 Comic strip "BC" 1st appears.

JIHAD

1568 Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay annual tribute to Sultan for peace.

CLINTONS

1998 President Clinton, preparing Americans for possible air strikes against Iraq, said military force is never the first answer "but sometimes it's the only answer."

KILLERS

1970 Jeffrey McDonald slices up his wife & daughter.

1995 Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the Long Island Railroad in New York.

1998 Diane Zamora, 20, Naval Academy cadet convicted of capital murder.

FINANCE

1981 Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history.

NANNY STATE

1913 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon).

BURNED

1600 Italian philospher, alchemist, and Copernican theory advocate Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy by the Inquisition.

JEWS

1943 Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews.

1949 Chaim Weizman elected 1st President of Israel.

1969 Golda Meir sworn in as Israel's 1st female prime minister.

2007 Former French Cabinet minister Maurice Papon, convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in deporting Jews during World War II, died near Paris at age 96.

POLITICS

1801 The electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was broken by the House of Representatives who elected Jefferson president.

CHINA CARD

1972 President Richard Nixon left on his trip to China.

PROGRESS

1817 Baltimore became the first U.S. city lit by gas.

CHESS

1996 Chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM computer, Deep Blue, winning the six-game match.

BORN

1817 Frederick Douglass famous African-American.

1844 A. Montgomery Ward founded mail-order business (Montgomery Ward).

1854 Friedrich A Krupp German arms manufacturer.

1908 sportscaster Walter Lanier "Red" Barber was born in Columbus, Miss.

BIRTHDAYS

Bandleader Orrin Tucker is 97. Actor Hal Holbrook is 83. Mystery writer Ruth Rendell is 78. Singer Bobby Lewis is 75. Comedian Dame Edna (AKA Barry Humphries) is 74. Country singer-songwriter Johnny Bush is 73. Football Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown is 72. Actress Mary Ann Mobley is 69. Actress Brenda Fricker is 63. Actress Rene Russo is 54. Actor Richard Karn is 52. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 46. Basketball player Michael Jordan is 45. Actor-comedian Larry, the Cable Guy is 45. TV personality Rene Syler is 45. Movie director Michael Bay is 44. Singer Chante Moore is 41. Rock musician Timothy J. Mahoney (311) is 38. Actor Dominic Purcell is 38. Actress Denise Richards is 37. Rock singer-musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) is 36. Actor Jerry O'Connell is 34. Country singer Bryan White is 34. Actress Kelly Carlson is 32. Actor Jason Ritter is 28. TV personality Paris Hilton is 27. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is 27.

DEATH

1908 Geronimo Apache chief, dies at about 79.

1982 Theolonious S Monk US, jazz pianist/composer (Blue Monk), dies at 64.

1990 Keith Haring US graffiti-artist, dies at 31.

February 17, the 48th day of 2008. There are 318 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 10, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, WEDDINGS, POLITICS, MAN Vs. MACHINE, CLINTONS, COMMIES, REPEAL, GOLD, THEATRE, SWAP, DEMOCRATS, NUDITY, WONDER DOG, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, PROGRESS, JEWS, CARTOONS, SKI, CONTAMINATED, PRO WRESTLING, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



1933 Delivery of 1st singing telegram (Postal Telegram Company NYC).

WAR!

1763 Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years' War.

2003 France, Germany and Belgium jointly vetoed a U.S.-backed measure to authorize NATO to make plans to protect Turkey if Iraq attacked it. Iraq agreed to allow U-2 surveillance flights over its territory, meeting a key demand by U.N. inspectors searching for banned weapons; President Bush, however, brushed aside Iraqi concessions as too little, too late.

2007 Gen. David Petraeus took charge of U.S. forces in Iraq.

DISASTERS

1883 Fire at un-insured New Hall Hotel in Milwaukee WI, kills 71.

1942 The former French liner Normandie capsized in New York Harbor a day after it caught fire while being refitted for the U.S. Navy.

1959 Tornado in St Louis kills 19 & injures 265.

1964 Australian destroyer "Voyager" sinks in collision, killing 82.

1970 Dry powder avalanche moving at 120 mph smashes into youth hostel killing 40 Belgian, French, & German youths (Val d'Isere, France).

1973 83 meter wide gas tank on Staten Island NY explodes, crushing 40.

1981 8 killed & 198 injured by fire at Las Vegas Hilton.

WONDER DOG

1998 Buddy the Wonder Dog dog (Air Bud), dies of cancer at 9.

NUDITY

1535 12 nude Anabaptists run through Amsterdam streets.

CLINTONS

1998 Monica Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis, testified before the grand jury investigating her daughter's relationship with President Clinton.

SKI

1982 28 skiers perform backflips while holding hands, Bromont Québec.

PRO WRESTLING

1989 To gain deregulation WWF admits pro wrestling is an exhibition & not a sport, in a New Jersey court.

1990 6th Largest wrestling crowd (63,900-Tokyo Dome).

CONTAMINATED

1990 Perrier Water pulls product from shelf due to benzene in water.

COMMIES

2003 A Chinese court convicted U.S.-based dissident Wang Bingzhang on spying and terrorism charges and sentenced him to life in prison.

POLITICS

1841 Upper Canada and Lower Canada were proclaimed united under an Act of Union passed by the British Parliament.

1967 The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified as Minnesota and Nevada adopted it.

2007 2007 Barack Obama announced his bid for president, telling thousands at the campaign's kickoff in Springfield, Ill.: "Let us transform this nation."

REPEAL

1998 Voters in Maine become the first to repeal a state gay rights law.

CARTOONS

1940 Tom & Jerry created by Hanna & Barbera debut by MGM.

JEWS

1934 1st Jewish immigrant ship to break the English blockade in Palestine.

1977 Yehonathan Netanyou Lane in the Bronx named in honor of Bronx-born Israeli soldier who died freeing hostages in Entebbe Raid (1976).

1997 Lemrick Nelson found guilty in the fatal stabbing on Hasidic Jew Yankel Rosenbaum in Crown Heights Brooklyn in 1991.

EXECUTIONS

1495 Sir William Stanley English lord chamberlain, executed for conspiracy.

WEDDINGS

1840 Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

1863 PT Barnum stages wedding of Tom Thumb & Mercy Lavinia Warren (New York NY).

MAN Vs. MACHINE

1996 After three hours, world chess champion Gary Kasparov loses the first game of a six-game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer capable of evaluating 200 million moves per second. Man was ultimately victorious over machine, however, as Kasparov bested Deep Blue in the match with three wins and two ties and took home the $400,000 prize. An estimated 6 million people worldwide followed the action on the Internet.

Kasparov had previously defeated Deep Thought, the prototype for Deep Blue developed by IBM researchers in 1989, but he and other chess grandmasters had, on occasion, lost to computers in games that lasted an hour or less. The February 1996 contest was significant in that it represented the first time a human and a computer had duked it out in a regulation, six-game match, in which each player had two hours to make 40 moves, two hours to finish the next 20 moves and then another 60 minutes to wrap up the game.

MURDER

1567 Lord Darnley Stuart husband of English queen Mary, murdered.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1897 New York Times begins using slogan "All the News That's Fit to Print".

GOLD

1942 RCA Victor presented Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with a "gold record" for their recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo," which had sold more than 1 million copies.

THEATRE

1949 Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" opened at Broadway's Morosco Theater with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman.

SWAP

1962 The Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

DEMOCRATS

1989 Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first black to head a major U.S. political party.

BORN

1890 Boris L Pasternak Russia, novelist/poet (Dr Zhivago, Nobel 1958).

1893 Jimmy Durante New York NY, long-nosed comedian (and good-night Mrs Calabash).

1906 Lon Chaney Jr Oklahoma City OK, actor (Dracula vs. Frankenstein, The Phantom, Hawkeye, Pistols 'n' Petticoats).

BIRTHDAYS

Opera singer Leontyne Price is 81. Actor Robert Wagner is 78. Singer Roberta Flack is 71. Singer Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 68. Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 58. Country singer Lionel Cartwright is 48. Movie director Alexander Payne ("Sideways") is 47. ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos is 47. Actress Laura Dern is 41. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 36. Actress Elizabeth Banks is 34. Pop singer Rosanna Taverez (Eden's Crush) is 31. Country musician Jeremy Baxter (Carolina Rain) is 28. Rock singer Eric Dill (The Click Five) is 26. Rock musician Ben Romans (The Click Five) is 26. Actress Emma Roberts is 17. Actress Makenzie Vega is 14. Actress Chloe Moretz is 11.

DEATH

1957 Laura Ingalls Wilder US author (Little House on Prarie), dies at 90.

2003 President Nixon's press secretary, Ron Ziegler, died in Coronado, Calif., at the age of 63.

2003 Former Minnesota Congressman Clark MacGregor, who'd led the Nixon re-election campaign in 1972, died in Pompano Beach, Fla., at age 80.

2005 Playwright Arthur Miller died in Roxbury, Conn., at age 89 on the 56th anniversary of the Broadway opening of his "Death of a Salesman."

February 10, the 41st day of 2008. There are 325 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 9, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, TIME, POLITICS, COMMIES, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, SCIENCE, WEATHER, BURNED, RESISTANCE, EXECUTED, SERIAL KILLERS, SIMIANS, PATENTS, VEGETABLES, SPORTS, NANNY STATE, NAZIS, ESCAPES, PROGRESS, SUICIDE, RESTROOMS, RECORDS, OPIUM KINGS, SIMPSONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



COMMIES

1950 in a speech in Wheeling, W.Va., Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged the State Department was riddled with Communists.

WAR!

1674 English re-conquer New York from Netherlands.

1775 English Parliament declares Massachusetts colony is in rebellion.

1943 the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.

1998 The Pentagon said it was sending up to 3,000 U.S. ground troops to the Persian Gulf region to discourage what one official called "any creative thinking" by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

2003 President Bush told congressional Republicans at a policy conference that Iraq had fooled the world for more than a decade about its banned weapons and the United Nations was now facing "a moment of truth" in disarming Saddam Hussein. The leaders of Germany and Russia renewed their calls for a peaceful resolution in Iraq, restating their opposition to any U.S.-led war to disarm and oust Saddam Hussein.

TERRORISM

2007 Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Munich, Germany, that serial numbers and other markings on bombs suggested that Iranians were linked to deadly explosives used by Iraqi militants.

DISASTER

1913 10 Day Tragedy of Mexico-City; 3,000 die.

1971 Quake in San Fernando Valley kills 65 & causes over $½ billion damage.

2001 A U.S. Navy submarine collided with a Japanese fishing boat off the Hawaiian coast, killing nine men and boys aboard the boat.

RECORDS

1992 Fastest yodeler-22 tones/15 falsetto in 1 second by Thomas School of Germany.

VEGETABLES

1891 1st shipment of asparagus arrives in San Francisco from Sacramento.

OPIUM KINGS

1993 Army of opium king Khun Sa kills 60 in NE Burma.

RESTROOMS

1987 New York Stock Exchange installs ladies restroom in the Exchange Luncheon Club.

SIMPSONS

1997 Fox cartoon series "Simpsons" airs 167th episode the longest-running animated series in cartoon history.

PATENTS

1863 Fire extinguisher patented by Alanson Crane.

NAMES

1942 Philadelphia "Phillies" change nickname (temporarily) to "Phils", thereby saving three letters (l.i.e.) for the war effort.

ESCAPES

1947 Bank robber Willie Sutton escapes jail in Philadelphia PA.

PROGRESS

1969 World's largest airplane, Boeing 747, makes 1st commercial flight.

SUICIDE

1987 Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane attempts suicide.

LABOR

1943 FDR orders minimal 48 hour work week in war industry.

1955 US federations of trade unions merge into AFL/CIO.

NAZIS

1941 Nazi collaborators destroy pro-Jewish café Alcazar Amsterdam (Alcazar refused to hang "No Entry for Jews" signs in front of cafe).

1943 Nazis arrest Dutch sons of rich parents.

NANNY STATE

1909 1st federal legislation prohibiting narcotics (opium).

SPORTS

1895 1st intercollegiate basketball game (Minnesota Agricultural beats Hamline, 9-3).

1895 Volleyball invented by W G Morgan in Massachusetts.

TIME

1942 daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward.

BURNED

1583 Jeseph Sanalbo Jewish convert in Rome, burned at stake.

THEORIES

1926 Teaching theory of evolution forbidden in Atlanta GA schools.

EXECUTED

1943 ... Reydons wife of General Reydons, shot to death by resistance.

RESISTANCE

1945 George J L Maduro resistance fighter (Madurodam), dies in Dachau.

SERIAL KILLERS

1978 Kimberly Leach killed by Ted Bundy in Lake City FL at age 12.

SIMIANS

1977 Gaus, an orangutan who lived to be 59 dies.

POLITICS

1825 The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

1861 Tennessee votes against secession.

1861 Jefferson Davis was elected the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.

1867 Nebraska becomes 37th US state.

WEATHER

1870 The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.

1922 Snow on Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1953 "The Adventures of Superman" TV series premieres in syndication.

1964 The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS.

1971 Probably 1st gay theme TV episode - All in the Family.

SCIENCE

1971 The crew of Apollo 14 returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon.

BORN

1773 The ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, was born in Charles City County, Va.

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Kathryn Grayson is 86. Television journalist Roger Mudd is 80. Actress Janet Suzman is 69. Actress-politician Sheila James Kuehl ("The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis") is 67. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 66. Actor Joe Pesci is 65. Singer Barbara Lewis is 65. Author Alice Walker is 64. Actress Mia Farrow is 63. Singer Joe Ely is 61. Actress Judith Light is 59. Rhythm-and-blues musician Dennis "DT" Thomas (Kool & the Gang) is 57. Actor Charles Shaughnessy is 53. Country singer Travis Tritt is 45. Actress Julie Warner is 43. Country singer Danni Leigh is 38. Actor Jason George is 36. Actor-producer Charlie Day is 32. Actress Ziyi Zhang is 29. Actor David Gallagher is 23. Actress Marina Malota is 20. Actress Camille Winbush ("The Bernie Mac Show") is 18.

DEATH

1984 Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov died at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was succeeded by Konstantin U. Chernenko.

2002 Princess Margaret sister of Queen Elizabeth II of England, dies from a stroke at 71.

2007 British actor Ian Richardson, who portrayed immoral politician Francis Urquhart in the satirical TV drama "House of Cards," died in London at age 72.

February 9, the 40th day of 2008. There are 326 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: gov.archives
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 8, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BEHEADING, EDUCATION, POLITICS, GROUPS, MOVIES, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, EXECUTION, STRONGMAN, ASSASSINATION, SUICIDE, PROGRESS, CLOSE CALLS, PATENTS, PAPERS, NANNY STATE, METEORS, WATERGATE, KIDNAPPED, WEDDINGS, SPORTS, MUSIC, HOAX, ANGER MANAGEMENT, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



1968 Three college students were killed in a confrontation with highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, S.C., during a civil rights protest against a whites-only bowling alley.

WAR!

1862 Battle of Roanoke Island NC, Federals gain control of Pamlico Sound.

1904 the Russo-Japanese War, a conflict over control of Manchuria and Korea, began as Japanese forces attacked Port Arthur.

1916 French cruiser "Admiral Charner" torpedoed off Syrian coast, kills 374.

2003 The chief U.N. arms inspectors arrived in Baghdad for a new round of crucial talks with Iraqi officials. In a jab at major U.S. allies, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a security conference in Munich that countries such as France and Germany that favored giving Iraq another chance to disarm were undermining what slim chance existed to avoid war.

TERRORISM

2007 Rival Palestinian leaders signed an agreement on a power-sharing government at Saudi-brokered talks in Mecca.

DISASTER

1905 Cyclone hit Tahiti & adjacent islands, killing some 10,000 people.

1923 Coal mine explosion at Dawson NM kills 120.

1931 Gas explosion; Fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000.

1965 Eastern DC-7B crashes into Atlantic off Jones Beach NJ, kills 84.

1989 144 people were killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fog-covered mountain in the Azores.

1995 6.4 earthquake at Trujillo, Colombia (46+ killed).

HOAX!

1993 GM sues NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" program had rigged 2 car-truck crashes to show that 1973-87 GM pickups were prone to fires.

ANGER MANAGEMENT

1994 Jack Nicholson uses a golf club to attack a car.

PROGRESS

1883 Louis Waterman begins experiments to invent the fountain pen.

1933 1st flight of all-metal Boeing 247.

KIDNAPPED

1983 Champion thoroughbred Shergar kidnapped in Ireland; never found Lloyds of London pays $10.6 million insurance.

CLOSE CALL

1743 Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth.

METEORS

1969 Meteorite weighing over 1 ton falls in Chihuahua, México.

PATENTS

1802 Simon Willard patents banjo clock.

1898 John Ames Sherman patents 1st envelope folding & gumming machine (Massachusetts).

MUSIC

1992 "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred peaks at #1.

NANNY STATE

1960 Congress opens hearings looking into payola.

PRO WRESTLING

1971 Pedro Morales beats Ivan Koloff in New York, to become WWF wrestling champion.

WEDDINGS

1975 1800 Unification church couples' wed in Korea in mass ceremony.

SPORTS

1986 5' 7" Spud Webb of Atlanta Hawks wins NBA Slam Dunk Competition.

BEHEADING

1587 Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

WATERGATE

1973 Senate names 7 members to investigate Watergate scandal.

ADVICE

1942 Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort.

CLIMATE

1989 5 cm of snow falls in outskirts of Los Angeles.

PAPERS

1918 "Stars & Stripes", weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published.

EDUCATION

1693 A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

POLITICS

1837 The Senate selected the vice president of the United States, choosing Richard Mentor Johnson after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

GROUPS

1910 The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.

ASSASSINATION

1963 Abdul Karim Kassem PM of Iraq (58-63), assassinated in Baghdad at 48.

MOVIES

1915 D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking as well as controversial silent movie epic about the Civil War, "The Birth of a Nation," premiered in Los Angeles.

SUICIDE

1990 Del Shannon Coopersville MI, rock vocalist (Runaway), shoots self at 55.

EXECUTION

1924 The first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, was put to death.

1932 Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll mobster, killed by Dutch Schultz gang.

2007 A federal judge in Fargo, N.D., sentenced Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death for the slaying of college student Dru Sjodin.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1978 The deliberations of the Senate were broadcast on radio for the first time as members opened debate on the Panama Canal treaties.

1990 "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney suspended by CBS for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine.

STRONGMAN

2003 Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched in support of 9,000 oil workers fired for leading a two-month strike against President Hugo Chavez.

BORN

1820 William Tecumseh Sherman Major General (Union Army), dies in 1891 (War is hell).

1918 John Intoxication resistance fighter.

1920 Lana Turner Wallace ID, actress (Survivors, Falcon Crest).

1931 James Dean Marion IN, stage/film actor (Giant, Rebel Without a Cause).

BIRTHDAYS

Composer-conductor John Williams is 76. Actor Jack Larson is 75. Former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel is 68. Actor Nick Nolte is 67. Comedian Robert Klein is 66. Actor-rock musician Creed Bratton is 65. Country singer Dan Seals is 60. Singer Ron Tyson is 60. Actress Brooke Adams is 59. Actress Mary Steenburgen is 55. Author John Grisham is 53. Rock singer Vince Neil (Motley Crue) is 47. Rock singer-musician Sammy LLanas (The BoDeans) is 47. Actor Gary Coleman is 40. Actress Mary McCormack is 39. Actor Seth Green is 34. Actor Josh Morrow is 34. Rock musician Phoenix (Linkin Park) is 31. Actor Ryan Pinkston is 20. Actress Karle Warren ("Judging Amy") is 16.

DEATH

1725 Peter the Great Tsar of Russia dies at 52.

2007 Model, actress and tabloid sensation Anna Nicole Smith died in Florida at age 39 of an accidental drug overdose.

February 8, the 39th day of 2008. There are 327 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

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's Today in Weird History: February 3, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, DISCO, PESTHOUSE, FORBIDDEN, CHEESE, ELEPHANTS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, MURDER, EXECUTIONS, NANNY STATE, CHEATING, CLIMATE, LEVIATHAN, SPORTS, POLITICS, SPIES, LABOR, MUSIC, SHOCK JOCK, SUPREME COURT, CAUGHT, SCIENCE, PEDOPHILES, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


1894 Norman Rockwell US, artist/illustrator (Sat Evening Post covers).

WAR!

1864 Sherman's march through Georgia.

1943 During World War II, the U.S. transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being hit by a German torpedo. (Four Army chaplains gave their life belts to four other men, and went down with the ship.)

TERRORISM

1969 The Palestine National Congress appointed Yasser Arafat head of PLO.

2007 A suicide truck bomber struck a Baghdad market in a predominantly Shiite area, killing more than 130 people. President Bush designated four central Florida counties disaster areas in the wake of tornadoes that ripped through the region, leaving 21 dead.

DISASTERS

1959 a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claimed the lives of rock-'n'-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

1959 An American Airlines Lockheed Electra crashed into New York's East River while approaching LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.

1998 A U.S. Marine plane sliced through the cable of a ski gondola in Italy, sending the car plunging hundreds of feet, killing all 20 people inside.

DISCO

1982 John Sharples of England finishes disco dancing 371 hours.

PESTHOUSE

1743 Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants.

FORBIDDEN

1752 Dutch States-General forbid export of windmills.

CHEESE

1815 World's 1st commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland.

ELEPHANTS

1882 Circus owner PT Barnum buys his world famous elephant Jumbo.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1953 J Fred Muggs, a chimp, becomes a regular on NBC's Today Show.

MURDER

1889 Belle Starr US female gangster, murdered at 40.

1969 Eduardo C Mondlane President of Mozambique, murdered.

1982 Porn star John Holmes ordered to stand trial for murder.

NANNY STATE

1973 President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law.

CHEATING

1965 105 USAF cadets resigned for cheating on exams.

CLIMATE

1961 6th largest snowfall in NYC history (17.4" (44.2cm)).

LEVIATHAN

1690 1st paper money in America issued (colony of Massachusetts).

1913 The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, was ratified.

1941 Supreme Court upheld Federal Wage & Hour law, sets minimum wages & maximum hours.

2003 President Bush sent lawmakers a $2.23 trillion budget for 2004.

SPORTS

1876 Albert Spalding with $800 starts sporting goods company, manufacturing 1st official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, & football.

EXECUTION

1377 Mass execution of population of Cesena Italy.

1998 The state of Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker for the pickax killings of two people in 1983; she was the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

POLITICS

1809 Congress passed an act establishing the Illinois Territory.

SPIES

1950 Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs arrested on spy charges.

LABOR

1908 The U.S. Supreme Court, in Loewe v. Lawlor, ruled the United Hatters Union had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by organizing a nationwide boycott of Danbury Hatters of Connecticut.

2003 Abandoning a two-month-long general strike that failed to oust President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's workers returned to work in all sectors but the vital oil industry.

MUSIC

1967 "Purple Haze" recorded by Jimi Hendrix.

1979 "YMCA" by Village People peaks at #2 on pop singles chart.

SHOCK JOCK

1997 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Detroit MI on WKRK 97.1 FM.

FIRE

1916 Canada's original Parliament Buildings, in Ottawa, burned down.

SUPREME COURT

1930 the chief justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, resigned for health reasons. (He died just over a month later.)

CAUGHT

2003 Record producer Phil Spector was arrested in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion in Alhambra, Calif. (Spector's murder trial ended in a jury deadlock in September 2007.)

SCIENCE

1966 The Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.

1984 1st baby conceived by embryo transplant born in Long Beach CA.

1994 The space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft.

1995 Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.

PEDOPHILES

1998 Mary Kay LeTourneau, 36, former teacher, violates probation with 14 year-old father of her baby

BORN

1811 Horace Greeley editor ("Go west, young man").

1879 Charles Follis 1st black US football player (Shelby OH).

1935 Johnny "Guitar" Watson rock guitarist.

1947 Melanie [Safka], Astoria, singer/songwriter (Candles in the Rain).

BIRTHDAY

Comedian Shelley Berman is 82. Football Hall-of-Famer Fran Tarkenton is 68. Actress Bridget Hanley is 67. Actress Blythe Danner is 65. Singer Dennis Edwards is 65. Football Hall-of-Famer Bob Griese is 63. Singer-guitarist Dave Davies (The Kinks) is 61. Singer Melanie is 61. Actress Morgan Fairchild is 58. Actor Nathan Lane is 52. Rock musician Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) is 52. Actor Thomas Calabro is 49. Actor-director Keith Gordon is 47. Actress Michele Greene is 46. Country singer Matraca Berg is 44. Actress Maura Tierney is 43. Actor Warwick Davis is 38. Reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee is 32. Musician Grant Barry is 31. Singer-songwriter Jessica Harp (The Wreckers) is 26. Rapper Sean Kingston is 18.

DEATH

1924 The 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, died in Washington, D.C., at age 67.

Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2008. There are 332 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.