DBKP Today in Weird History: March 13, 2008

WAR, DISASTER, SCIENCE, RESIGNING, MURDER, TRAGEDY, ABORTION, JEWS, DEALS, ICONS, PATENTS, ATTEMPTS, ASSASSINATION, NAZIS, CLIMATE, INVENTIONS, TRIALS, POLITICALLY CORRECT, ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH
Then...

ICONS

1852 Uncle Sam cartoon figure made its debut in the New York Lantern weekly.

...and later

WAR!

2003 U.S. officials said President Bush might delay a vote on his troubled United Nations resolution or even drop it - and fight Iraq without the international body's backing.

DISASTER

1895 Spanish cruiser Reina Regente sinks off Gibraltar, 402 die.

1928 Hundreds of people died when the San Francisquito Valley in California was inundated with water after the St. Francis Dam burst just before midnight the evening of March 12.

1961 Landslide in USSR, kills 145.

1992 570 die in a Turkish earthquake.

1994 Oil tank/airship crash at Bosporus (huge fire/15+ killed).

ATTEMPTS

1915 Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson tries to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane, but the pilot substituted a grapefruit.

PATENTS

1887 Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs.

DEALS

1677 Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000.

CLIMATE

1888 Great Blizzard of 1888 rages.

1993 Blizzard of '93 hits north-east US.

INVENTIONS

1894 J L Johnstone of England invents horse racing starting gate.

ASSASSINATION

1981 Attempt on Pope John Paul II by Mehemet Ali Agca.

NAZIS

1933 Josef Göbbels becomes German minister of Information & Propaganda.

1938 Anschluß-Austria annexed by Nazi Germany.

TRIALS

1998 Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, once the Army's top enlisted man, was acquitted at his court-martial of pressuring military women for sex, but was convicted of trying to persuade his chief accuser to lie.

SCIENCE

1781 The planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel. He thought it was a comet.

1925 A law went into effect in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution.

JEWS

1656 Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam.

1951 Israel demands DM 6.2 billion compensation from Germany.

MURDER

1964 Bar manager Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her New York home; the case generated controversy over charges that Genovese's neighbors had failed to respond to her cries for help.

RESIGNING

1980 Ford Motor Co. Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down, the same day a jury in Winamac, Ind., found the company innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women in a Ford Pinto.

2007 Attorney General Alberto Gonzales admitted mistakes in how the Justice Department handled the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors but said he wouldn't resign.

POLITICALLY CORRECT

1988 yielding to student protests, the board of trustees of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a liberal arts college for the hearing-impaired, chose I. King Jordan to become the school's first deaf president.

TRAGEDY

1996 a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

2007 President Bush sought to soothe strained ties with Mexico by promising to prod Congress to overhaul tough U.S. immigration policies, but Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized U.S. plans for a 700-mile border fence.

ABORTION

2003 The Senate voted 64-33 to ban partial birth abortion.

BORN

1733 Joseph Priestly England, clergyman/scientist (discovered oxygen).

1770 Daniel Lambert England, giant (weighed 739 lbs (334 kg) at death).

1908 American billionaire, publisher and diplomat Walter Annenberg (TV Guide) was born in Milwaukee.

BIRTHDAYS

Jazz musician Roy Haynes is 83. Country singer Jan Howard is 78. Songwriter Mike Stoller is 75. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 69. Actor William H. Macy is 58. Actress Deborah Raffin is 55. Comedian Robin Duke is 54. Actress Glenne Headly is 53. Actress Dana Delany is 52. Rock musician Adam Clayton (U2) is 48. Jazz musician Terence Blanchard is 46. Actor Christopher Collet is 40. Actress Annabeth Gish is 37. Actress Tracy Wells is 37. Rapper Common is 36. Rapper Khujo (Goodie Mob, The Lumberjacks) is 36. Singer Glenn Lewis is 33. Actor Danny Masterson is 32. Actor Emile Hirsch is 23. Singers Nicole and Natalie Albino (Nina Sky) are 22.

DEATH

1901 Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, died in Indianapolis.

1938 Clarence S Darrow Scopes Monkey Trial attorney, dies in Chicago at 80.

Today is March 13, the 73rd day of the year. There are 293 days left in 2008.

images:
* sonofthesouth
* allposters
Sources:
* today in history
* Today in History
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 29, 2008

WAR, DISASTER, REPORTS, QUICK-THINKING, MOVIES, VAVOOM, MUSIC, QUITTING, SCIENCE, RATINGS, POLITICS, KILLERS, UNUSUAL, BURNED, KINK, SPORTS, WHAT, RECORDS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

QUICK-THINKING

1504 Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica during his fourth voyage to the West, used a correctly predicted lunar eclipse to frighten hostile natives into providing food for his crew.

You might be interested in reading: Leap Day: Facts, Figures, Birthdays and Famous Events

WAR!

1856 Hostilities in Russo-Turkish War cease.

1944 US troops land on Los Negros, Admirality Islands.

DISASTER

1960 Earthquake kills 1/3 of Agadir Morocco population (12,000) in 15 seconds.

1996 A Peruvian commercial jetliner crashed in the Andes, killing all 123 people on board.

UNUSUAL

1904 Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenberdorft Sr near Hamburg, Germany; had a Christian name for every letter in the alphabet, shortened it to Mr Wolfe Plus 585 Sr.

VAVOOM!

1960, the first Playboy Club, featuring waitresses clad in "bunny" outfits, opened in Chicago.

KINK

1784 Marquis de Sade transferred from Vincennes fortress to the Bastille.

RECORDS

1964 Frank Rugani sets badminton shuttlecock distance record, 24.3 meters.

WHAT?

1988 NYC Mayor Koch calls Reagan a "WIMP" in the war on drugs.

POLITICS

1956 Islamic Republic established in Pakistan.

2000 George W. Bush won Republican presidential primaries in Virginia, Washington state and North Dakota, defeating John McCain; Vice President Al Gore crushed fellow Democrat Bill Bradley in Washington state.

SPORTS

1964 North Carolina high school basketball teams play to 56-54 score in 13 overtime.

KILLERS

1996 Daniel Green was convicted in Lumberton, North Carolina, of murdering James R. Jordan, the father of basketball star Michael Jordan, during a 1993 roadside holdup. (Green and an accomplice, Larry Martin Demery, were sentenced to life in prison.)

2000 Six-year-old Kayla Rolland was fatally shot by a fellow first-grader at Buell Elementary School in Mount Morris Township, Michigan.

REPORTS

1968 President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (also known as the Kerner Commission) warned that racism was causing America to move "toward two societies, one black, one white -- separate and unequal."

BURNED

1528 Patrick Hamilton Scottish protestant martyr, burned at stake.

MOVIES

1940 "Gone with the Wind" won eight Academy Awards, including best picture of 1939.

2000 "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won a record-tying 11 Academy Awards, including best picture; Sean Penn took the best-actor prize for "Mystic River" and Charlize Theron won best actress for "Monster."

SCIENCE

1968 the discovery of the first "pulsar," a star which emits regular radio waves, was announced by Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell in Cambridge, England.

MUSIC

1968 at the Grammy Awards, the 5th Dimension's "Up, Up and Away" won record of the year for 1967, while album of the year honors went to The Beatles for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

QUITTING

1984 Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced he was stepping down after more than 15 combined years in power.

2000 Facing rebellion, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned and left for exile in the Central African Republic.

RATINGS

1996 About 30 television and entertainment industry executives met with President Clinton at the White House, where they promised to devise a TV ratings system.

BORN

1908 The artist known as Balthus was born in Paris.

1936 Henri "Rocket" Richard NHL center (Montréal Canadiens).

1944 Dennis Farina Chicago IL, actor (Mike Torello-Crime Story).

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Michele Morgan is 88. Actor James Mitchell is 88. Actor Joss Ackland is 80. Actor Alex Rocco is 72. Former space shuttle astronaut Jack Lousma is 72. Actor Dennis Farina is 64. Actress Phyllis Frelich is 64. Actor Antonio Sabato Jr. is 36. Rapper Ja Rule is 32.

DEATH

1992 Johnny Mack British actor (Time Lord-Dr Who), dies at 70.

2000 Playwright Jerome Lawrence died in Malibu, California, at age 88.

February 29th, the 60th day of 2008. There are 306 days left in the year. This is Leap Day.

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

* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 28, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, GOLD, PROGRESS, POLITICS, MAFIA, SCIENCE, ASSASSINATION, POLICE STATE, ATHEISTS, ECONOMY, NANNY STATE, SHOOT OUTS, SLEEPING, WITCHES, EXODUS, PATENTS, SEALS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, NAZIS, SMOOTH, POPULATION, KILLER WHALES, POGRAMS, DRUG WAR, SPIES, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

POLICE STATE

1993 A gun battle erupted at a compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.

1994 Brady Law, imposing a wait-period to buy a hand-gun, went into effect.

WAR!

1847 US defeats México in battle of Sacramento.

1917 AP reports México & Japan will ally with Germany if US enters WWI.

TERRORISM

1982 FALN (PR Nationalist Group) bombs Wall Street.

2007 A federal judge in Miami ruled that suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla was competent to stand trial on terrorism support charges, rejecting arguments that he was severely damaged by 3 1/2 years of interrogation and isolation in a military brig.

DISASTER

1704 Indians attack Deerfield MA, kill 40, kidnap 100.

1844 A 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer and several others.

1888 Ferry in San Pablo Bay explodes.

1956 13 die in a train crash in Swampscott MA.

1975 More than 40 people were killed in London's Underground when a subway train smashed into the end of a tunnel.

1997 Earthquake in Pakistan, kills 45.

SLEEPING

1646 Roger Scott was tried in Massachusetts for sleeping in church.

EXODUS

1879 "Exodus of 1879" southern blacks flee political/economic exploitation.

SEALS

1913 6.8-m, 4000-kg elephant seal killed, South Georgia (South Atlantic).

SMOOTH

1935 Nylon discovered by Dr Wallace H Carothers.

POGROMS

1988 Anti-Armenian pogrom in Azerbaijan, 30 killed.

KILLER WHALES

1977 1st killer whale born in captivity (Marineland, Los Angeles CA).

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1940 1st televised basketball game (college game at NYC's Madison Square Garden-University of Pittsburgh beats Fordham U, 50-37).

1983 Final TV episode of "MASH" airs (CBS); record 125 million watch.

1984 26th Grammy Awards Beat It, Michael Jackson wins 8.

1989 Memo by Bryant Gumbel criticizing Today Show co-workers becomes public.

POPULATION

1940 US population at 131,669,275 (12,865,518 blacks (9.8%)).

SPIES

1997 FBI agent Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia.

DRUG WAR

1990 Dutch police seize 3,000 kg of cocaine.

NAZIS

1933 German President Von Hindenburg abolishes free expression of opinion. Hitler disallows German communist party (KPD).

GOLD!

1849 The California gold rush began in earnest as regular steamship service started bringing gold-seekers to San Francisco.

WITCHES

1692 Salem witch hunt begins.

PROGRESS

1827 The first U.S. railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co., was incorporated by the state of Maryland. It ran from Baltimore to Wheeling, WV (then part of Virginia).

1970 Bicycles permitted to cross Golden Gate Bridge.

POLITICS

1854 Republican Party formally organized at Ripon WI.

1859 Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery.

1861 The Territories of Colorado and Nevada organized.

1961 JFK names Henry Kissinger special advisor.

MAFIA

1951 The Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver, D-Tenn., issued an interim report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in the U.S.

PATENTS

1893 Edward Acheson, Pennsylvania, patents an abrasive he names "carborundum".

1956 Forrester issued a patent for computer core memory.

SHOOT-OUTS

1997 In North Hollywood, Calif., two heavily armed masked robbers bungled a bank heist and came out firing, unleashing their arsenal on police, bystanders, cars and TV choppers before they were killed.

NANNY STATE

1871 2nd Enforcement Act gives federal control of congressional elections.

1997 Smokers must prove they are over 18 to purchase cigarettes in US.

1998 In their weekly radio addresses, President Clinton and the Republicans sparred over education, with Clinton describing tests showing American high school students lagging behind those of other industrial nations as a "wake-up call" while the Republicans blamed the disappointing results on a "hungry bureaucracy in Washington" that gobbled up education funds.

2003 The Food and Drug Administration announced that every bottle of ephedra would soon bear stern warnings that the popular herb could cause heart attacks or strokes, even kill.

ATHEISTS

2003 The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stood by its ruling that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional because of the words "under God."

REVOLT

1708 Slave revolt, Newton, Long Island NY, 11 die.

ECONOMY

1982 AT&T looses record $7 BILLION for fiscal year ending on this day.

2007 Wall Street rebounded fitfully from the previous session's 416-point plunge in the Dow industrials as investors took comfort from comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that he still expected moderate economic growth.

SCIENCE

1953 Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes.

2003 NASA released video taken aboard Columbia that had miraculously survived the fiery destruction of the space shuttle with the loss of all seven astronauts; in the footage, four of the crew members can be seen doing routine chores and admiring the view outside the cockpit.

ASSASSINATION

1908 Failed assassination attempt on Shah Mohammed Ali in Teheran.

1986 Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm.

BORN

1824 Charles Blondin France, acrobat/aerialist.

1928 Smokey The Bear.

1943 Donny Iris, singer.

BIRTHDAYS

Actor Charles Durning is 85. Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Josef Stalin, is 82. Actor Gavin MacLeod is 77. Actor Don Francks is 76. Actor-director-dancer Tommy Tune is 69. Auto racer Mario Andretti is 68. Singer Joe South is 68. Actor Frank Bonner is 66. Actress Kelly Bishop is 64. Football player Bubba Smith is 63. Actress Stephanie Beacham is 61. Actress Mercedes Ruehl is 60. Actress Bernadette Peters is 60. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried is 53. Basketball player Adrian Dantley is 52. Actor John Turturro is 51. Rock singer Cindy Wilson is 51. Actress Rae Dawn Chong is 47. Actor Robert Sean Leonard is 39. Rock singer Pat Monahan is 39. Actress Maxine Bahns is 37. Country singer Jason Aldean is 31. Actor Bobb'e J. Thompson is 12.

DEATH

1966 Charles A Bassett II astronaut, dies in a crash of T-38 jet at 34.

1966 Elliot McKay See Jr astronaut, dies in T-38 jet crash at 38.

1977 Eddie "Rochester" Anderson comedian (Jack Benny Show), dies at 71.

2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. died in New York at age 89.

February 28, the 59th day of 2008. There are 307 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 18, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, REBELS, SCIENCE, TRIALS, CLINTONS, DEATH BY WINE, QUAKERS, BEHEADED, ENLIGHTENED, POLITICS, DRY, PATENTS, FLYING COWS, PROGRESS, CLASSIC, OCTOPUS, CLIMATE CHANGE, MARRIAGE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


CLASSIC

1885 Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" published.

WAR!

1865 Evacuation of Charleston SC; Sherman's troops burn the city.

2003 Declaring that America's security should not be dictated by protesters, President Bush said he would not be swayed from compelling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to disarm.

TERRORISM

1969 PLO-attack El-Al plane in Zurich Switzerland.

2003 An arson attack on two South Korean subway trains in the city of Daegu claimed 198 lives. (The arsonist was sentenced to life in prison.)

2007 A pair of bombs on a train headed from India to Pakistan killed 68 people.

2007 Twin car bombs blew up in a mostly Shiite area of Baghdad, killed at least 62 people.

DISASTER

1828 More than 100 vessels destroyed in a storm, Gibraltar.

1947 24 die in a train crash in Gallitzin PA.

1965 27 copper miners die in avalanche, Granduc Mountain British Columbia.

2007 A military helicopter crashed in southeastern Afghanistan, killing eight U.S. service members; 14 survived with injuries.

DEATH BY WINE

1478 Duke of Clarence forced drowning in a wine barrel.

FLYING COWS

1930 First cow milked in an airplane. Olly the Cow flown & milked, milk sealed in paper containers & parachuted over St. Louis MO.

PROGRESS

1953 Premiere of 1st 3-D feature film-"Bwana Devil" (New York NY).

OCTOPUS

1973 54-kg octopus measuring 7 meter across captured in Hood Canal, Washington.

CLIMATE CHANGE

1979 Snow falls in the Sahara Desert.

MARRIAGE

1995 Pamela Anderson (Baywatch) & Tommy Lee (Motley Crüe) wed.

ENLIGHTENED

1787 Austrian emperor Jozef II bans children under 8 from labor.

PATENTS

1901 H Cecil Booth patented a dust removing suction cleaner.

DRY

1896 Cave of Winds at Niagara Falls goes almost dry for 1st time in 50 years.

BEHEADED

1587 Mary Stuart Queen of Scots (1560-87), beheaded at 44.

CLINTONS

1998 President Clinton's foreign policy team encountered jeers during a town meeting at The Ohio State University while trying to defend the administration's threat to bomb Iraq into compliance with U.N. weapons edicts.

QUAKERS

1688 Quakers conduct 1st formal protest of slavery in Germantown PA.

POLITICS

1841 1st continuous filibuster in US Senate began, lasting until March 11.

TRIALS

1970 the "Chicago Seven" defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; five were convicted of violating the Anti-Riot Act of 1968. (Those convictions were later reversed).

SCIENCE

1930 photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a "dwarf planet") was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.

1977 the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight" above the Mojave Desert.

REBELS

1861 Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the provisional president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Ala.

BORN

1516 Mary I Tudor [Bloody Mary] Greenwich, (1553-58), 1st reigning queen of Great Britain.

1859 Sholem Aleichem [Solomon Rabinowitz], author (Fiddler on the Roof).

1890 Boris L Pasternak Russian poet/writer (Dr Zhivago).

1892 Wendell Wilkie Presidential candidate (R-1940)/author (One World).

1895 George "The Gipper" Gipp Notre Dame football star.

1920 Jack Palance [Walter Palanuik], Lattimer PA, actor (City Slickers).

BIRTHDAYS

Former Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown is 86. Actor George Kennedy is 83. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., is 81. Author Toni Morrison is 77. Movie director Milos Forman is 76. Singer Yoko Ono is 75. Singer/songwriter Bobby Hart is 69. Singer Irma Thomas is 67. Singer Herman Santiago (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 67. Singer Dennis DeYoung is 61. Actress Sinead Cusack is 60. Producer-director-writer John Hughes is 58. Actress Cybill Shepherd is 58. Singer Juice Newton is 56. Singer Randy Crawford is 56. Rock musician Robbie Bachman is 55. Rock musician Larry Rust (Iron Butterfly) is 55. Actor John Travolta is 54. Game show host Vanna White is 51. Actress Greta Scacchi is 48. Actor Matt Dillon is 44. Rapper Dr. Dre is 43. Actress Molly Ringwald is 40. Actress Sarah Brown is 33. Singer-musician Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek) is 31. Actor Tyrone Burton is 29. Actor Shane Lyons is 20.

DEATH

1546 Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died in Eisleben.

1564 artist Michelangelo died in Rome.

1967 American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer died in Princeton, N.J., at age 62.

1990 Hulk fictional character in "Death of Incredible Hulk" on NBC, dies.

1998 Sportscaster Harry Caray died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 83.

2001 NASCAR driver/"The Intimidator", dies in crash during Daytona 500 at 49.

2003 Country singer Johnny PayCheck died in Nashville, Tenn., at age 64.

February 18, the 49th day of 2008. There are 317 days left in the year. This is Presidents Day.

by Mondoreb
image: teachwithmovies
Sources:
* Today 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 7, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, TRIAL, RATIONING, IKE, WOMEN, SCIENCE, EXECUTION, QUACKS, POLITICS, BARE KNUCKLES, CLIMATE, CARTOONS, PREDICTIONS, MOVIES, JEWS, FLAVORS, MUSLIMS, SURGERY, NANNY STATE, UNREST, SHOCK JOCKS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



1964 The Beatles began their first American tour as they arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

WAR!

1861 The general council of the Choctaw Indian nation adopted a resolution declaring allegiance with the South "in the event a permanent dissolution of the American Union takes place."

1862 Federal fleet attack on Roanoke Island NC.

1864 Federal troops occupy Jacksonville FL.

2003 President Bush courted the leaders of France and China in an uphill struggle to win U.N. backing for war with Iraq.

2007 U.S. officials confirmed a new security operation was under way in Baghdad; U.S. armor rushed through streets, and Iraqi armored personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections. A Marine CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter was shot down by insurgents in Anbar, killing all seven people on board.

TERRORISM

1969 Al-Fatah-leader Yasser Arafat becomes president of PLO.

2003 The government raised its terror threat level to "high risk" orange, warning of a growing possibility that the al-Qaida network would launch an attack against the United States to coincide with Muslim holy days.

2003 Colombian guerillas bombed the exclusive El Nogal social club in Bogota, killing 36 people and injuring 160 others.


DISASTER

1812 8.2 earthquake shakes New Madrid MO; this is the last of Midwest quakes (see 12/16).

1904 A fire began in Baltimore that raged for about 30 hours and destroyed more than 1,500 buildings in 80 blocks.

1962 Gas explosion in Luisanthal coal mine Voelklingen Germany kills 298.

FLAVORS

1964 Baskin-Robbins introduces Beatle Nut ice cream.

RATIONING

1943 the government announced the start of shoe rationing, limiting consumers to buying three pairs per person for the remainder of the year.

QUACKS

1979 Josef Mengele concentration camp doctor, drowns.

WEDDINGS

1993 Pebbles Flintstone & Bamm Bamm Rubble wed.

SURGERY

1965 George Harrison of the Beatles, has his tonsils removed.

BUBBLE BOY

1984 David (born without immunity system) at 12, touches mom for 1st time.

SPORTS

1985 Marshall University's Bruce Morris scores a basket from 92'5¼".

UNREST

1990 Karachi police kill 22 anti-nationalistic demonstrators.

EXECUTIONS

1920 Alexander Koltsjak Admiral/leader Russian counter-revolutionary, executed.

SHOCK JOCKS

1994 Howard Stern stops a would-be jumper on the George Washington Bridge.

POLITICS

1839 Henry Clay declares in Senate "I had rather be right than president".

1905 Oklahoma admitted to statehood.

BARE KNUCKLES

1882 Last bare knuckle champion John L Sullivan KOs Paddy Ryan in Mississippi.

PREDICTIONS

1945 General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

NANNY STATE

1976 FCC raids & shuts down pirate radio station WCPR (Brooklyn NY).

JEWS

1947 Arabs & Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine.

MUSLIMS

1964 Cassius Clay becomes a Muslim & adopts the name Muhammad Ali.


TRIAL

1857 A French court acquitted author Gustave Flaubert of obscenity for his serialized novel "Madame Bovary."

CLIMATE

1891 Great Blizzard of 1891 begins.

COMMIES

1950 Senator Joe McCarthy finds communists in US Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

IKE

1948 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff; he was succeeded by General Omar Bradley.

WOMEN

1983 Elizabeth H. Dole was sworn in as the first female secretary of transportation by the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

SCIENCE

1984 Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk.

CARTOONS

1936 Felix the Cat, Cartoon Character, by Van Beuren from Otto Messmer.

MOVIES

1940 Walt Disney's 2nd feature-length movie, "Pinocchio", premieres (New York NY).

1974 Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" opens in movie theaters.

BORN

1478 Sir Thomas More lawyer/lord chancellor of England/saint (Utopia).

1804 John Deere pioneer manufacturer of agricultural implements.

1812 Author Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.

1817 Frederick Douglass Maryland, 1st high ranking black in US government.

1885 Sinclair Lewis novelist/social critic (Main Street, Nobel 1930).

1908 Clarence Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe Oakland CA, swimmer (Olympics-gold-1932)/actor (Tarzan the Fearless, Flash Gordon).

BIRTHDAYS

Country singer Wilma Lee Cooper is 87. Author Gay Talese is 76. Actor Miguel Ferrer is 53. Reggae musician Brian Travers (UB40) is 49. Actor James Spader is 48. Country singer Garth Brooks is 46. Rock musician David Bryan (Bon Jovi) is 46. Actor-comedian Eddie Izzard is 46. Actor-comedian Chris Rock is 43. Actor Jason Gedrick is 41. Actor Ashton Kutcher is 30. Actress Tina Majorino is 23.

DEATH

1993 Arthur Ashe tennis star (Wimbledon 1975), dies of AIDS at 49.

1998 It was announced that Carl Wilson, a founding member of The Beach Boys, had died in Los Angeles from complications of lung cancer; he was 51.

2003 Tom Christerson, the longest-living recipient of a fully self-contained artificial heart, died at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., after 512 days on the AbioCor; he was 71.

February 7, the 38th day of 2008. There are 328 days left in the year. This is the Lunar New Year of the Rat.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: rhythms-riffs
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP's Today in History: January 20, 2008

TERRORISM, WAR!, DISASTERS, LONGSHOTS, MUSIC, SURVIVORS, CHURCH, GIFTS, SUPREME COURT, DEALS, POLITICS, OOPS!, BOYCOTTS, SCIENCE, MEDIA, JEWS, FINANCE, SPORTS, CLINTONS, ASSASSINATIONS, HOLIDAYS, MURDER, TARZAN, TUNNELS, LAWSUITS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



TERRORISM

1981 Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

1987 Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite taken hostage in Beirut, Lebanon.

WAR!

1783 Hostilities cease in Revolutionary War.

1944 RAF drops 2300 ton bombs on Berlin.

1991 US Patriot missiles begins shooting down Iraqi missiles.

2003 Secretary of State Colin Powell, faced with stiff resistance and calls to go slow, bluntly told the Security Council that the U.N. "must not shrink" from its responsibility to disarm Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

2007 Twenty-five U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, including 12 in a helicopter crash in Baghdad and five in a sophisticated sneak attack in Karbala.

DISASTERS

1982 7 miners killed in an explosion in Craynor KY.

1985 Cold front strikes US, at least 40 die (-27ºF (-33ºC) in Chicago).

LONGSHOTS

2007 Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback began a long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination (he withdrew last October).

MUSIC

1964 "Meet The Beatles" album released in US

1965 The Byrds record "Mr Tambourine Man"

SURVIVORS

1989 Reagan becomes 1st President elected in a "0" year, since 1840, to leave office alive.

CHURCH

1788 Pioneer African Baptist church organizes in Savannah GA.

GIFTS

1949 J Edgar Hoover gives Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen.

SUPREME COURT

1801 Secretary of State John Marshall was nominated by President Adams to be chief justice of the United States (he was sworn in on Feb. 4, 1801).

DEALS

1841 the island of Hong Kong was ceded by China to Great Britain. (It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.)

1887 the U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.

POLITICS

1937 President Franklin Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.

1945 President Roosevelt was sworn into office for an unprecedented fourth term.

1969 Richard M Nixon inaugurated as President.

1981 Ronald Reagan inaugurated as President.

1989 Bush inaugurated as 41st President & Quayle becomes 44th Vice President.

OOPS!

1862 General Felix Zollicoffer killed after mistakenly riding into union lines.

BOYCOTTS

1980 President Jimmy Carter announces US boycott of Olympics in Moscow.

SCIENCE

1997 Comet Hale-Bopp crosses Mars' orbit.

MEDIA

1929 1st feature talking motion picture taken outdoors, "In Old Arizona".

1930 1st radio broadcast of "Lone Ranger" (WXYZ-Detroit).

1965 The Beatles appear on Shindig (ABC-TV).

JEWS

1939 Hitler proclaims to German parliament to exterminate all European Jews.

1942 Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Jews.

1965 Generalissimo Francisco Franco meets with Jewish representatives to discuss legitimizing Jewish communities in Spain.

FINANCE

1995 Russian ruble drops to 3,947 per dollar (record).

SPORTS

1892 1st basketball game played (Massachusetts).

1980 Super Bowl XIV Pittsburgh Steelers beat Los Angeles Rams, 31-19 in Pasadena; Super Bowl MVP Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, Quarterback.

CLINTONS

1993 Bill Clinton inaugurated as 42nd President.

2007 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., launched her campaign for the White House, saying in a videotaped messsage on her Web site: "I'm in, and I'm in to win."

ASSASSINATIONS

1948 Mahatma Gandhi India's pacifist, assassinated.

HOLIDAYS

1986, the United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

MURDER

1959 Carl Switzer actor (Alfalfa-Our Gang), shot to death at 31.

TUNNELS

1986 Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.

TARZAN

1984 Peter John [Johnny] Weissmuller actor (Tarzan, Jungle Jim), dies after a series of strokes in Acapulco at 79

LAWSUITS

1998 A jury was selected in Amarillo, Texas, to hear a multi-million-dollar lawsuit filed by Texas cattlemen against talk show host Oprah Winfrey over comments made on her program concerning beef safety. (Winfrey won the case.)

BORN

1889 Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter Mooringsport LA, blues 12 string guitarist (Rock Island Line).

1920 DeForest Kelley Atlanta GA, actor (Dr McCoy-Star Trek).

BIRTHDAYS

Country singer Slim Whitman is 84. Actress Patricia Neal is 82. Comedian Arte Johnson is 79. Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin is 78. Actress Dorothy Provine is 71. Singer Eric Stewart is 63. Movie director David Lynch is 62. Actor Daniel Benzali is 58. Rock musician Paul Stanley (KISS) is 56. Rock musician Ian Hill (Judas Priest) is 56. Comedian Bill Maher is 52. Actor Lorenzo Lamas is 50. Actor James Denton ("Desperate Housewives") is 45. Rock musician Greg K. (The Offspring) is 43. Country singer John Michael Montgomery is 43. Actor Rainn Wilson ("The Office) is 42. Actress Stacey Dash is 41. TV personality Melissa Rivers is 40. Singer Xavier is 40. Singer Edwin McCain is 38. Actor Skeet Ulrich is 38. Rap musician ?uestlove (The Roots) is 37. Rock musician Rob Bourdon (Linkin Park) is 29. Actor Evan Peters is 21.

DEATH

1936 Britain's King George V died; he was succeeded by Edward VIII.

2003 Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld died in New York at age 99.

2003 Pollster Burns W. "Bud" Roper died on Cape Cod, Mass., at age 77.

January 20, the 20th day of 2008. There are 346 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[images: wikipedia]
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History




Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.