DBKP Today in Weird History: February 16, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, PIRATES, SOCIETIES, TOMBS, DICTATORS, 911, RAMPAGE, DEMONSTRATIONS, DEMOCRATS, SPORTS, ELECTROCUTED, EXECUTED, SNEEZE, JEWS, CHECKS, WOMEN, CLUBS, DOORS, PATENTS, LEVIATHAN, NAZIS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, DEATH PENALTY, SWIM, BEATLES, TRAFFIC, RADICALS, BLIMPS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


WAR!

1862 during the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn. (Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's victory earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant.")

1942 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery.

1945 American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.

TERRORISM

1992 Abbas Musawi leader of Hezbollah, assassinated.

2007 An Italian judge indicted 25 suspected CIA agents and a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian terror suspect. (The proceedings have been suspended pending a ruling on the Italian government's request to throw out the indictments.)

DISASTER

1994 6.5 earthquake strikes SE Sumatra, kills 200.

1996 11 people were killed in a fiery collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a Maryland commuter train in Silver Spring, Md.

1998 A China Airlines Airbus A300-600R trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board and six people on the ground.

SNEEZE

600 Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying "God bless You" is the correct response to a sneeze.

WOMEN

1838 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions.

TRAFFIC

1980 Continuous traffic jam extends 176 km north of Lyons, France.

BLIMPS

1992 Former silver Goodyear blimps are now painted yellow & blue.

CLUBS

1905 1st US Esperanto club organizes in Boston.

NAZIS

1943 Sign on Munich facade "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22.

PATENTS

1932 1st patent issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree.

1937 DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers.

PIRATES!

1804 Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates.

DOORS

1909 1st subway car with side doors goes into service (New York NY).

BEATLES

1968 Beatles George Harrison & John Lennon & wives fly to India for transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

JEWS

1349 Jews are expelled from Burgsdorf Switzerland.

1917 1st synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid.

SWIM

1963 1st round-trip swim of Strait of Messina, Italy (Mary Revell of US)

CHECKS

1659 1st known check (£400) (on display at Westminster Abbey).

LEVIATHAN

1938 US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized.

DEATH PENALTY

1956 Britain abolishes the death penalty.

RADICALS

1989 Jane Fonda & Tom Hayden separate after 16 years of marriage.

DEMONSTRATION

2003 More than 100,000 people demonstrated in the streets of San Francisco to protest a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1948 1st newsreel telecast, "20th Century Fox-Movietone News" shown on NBC.

1950 Longest-running prime-time game show, "What's My Line" begins on CBS.

EXECUTED

1979 Nematullah Nassiri Iran General/head of Savak, executed.

DEMOCRATS

2007 The Democratic-controlled House issued a symbolic rejection of President Bush's decision to deploy more troops to Iraq, approving the nonbinding resolution by a vote of 246-182.

SOCIETIES

1868 The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.

TOMBS

1923 The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.

DICTATORS

1959 Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

ELECTROCUTED

1936 Tommy Ward South African cricket wicket keeper (23 Tests), electrocuted.

911

1968 the nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala.

RAMPAGE

1988, Seven people were shot to death during an office rampage in Sunnyvale, Calif., by a man who was obsessed with a co-worker. (The gunman, Richard Farley, is under sentence of death.)

SPORTS

2003 Michael Waltrip raced past leader Jimmie Johnson to win the rain-shortened Daytona 500 for the second time in three years.

BORN

1903 Edgar Bergen Chicago IL, ventriloquist (Charlie McCarthy).

1906 Vera Menchik Moscow, 1st official women's world chess champion (1927).

BIRTHDAYS

Singer Patty Andrews is 90. Kim Jong Il, the president of North Korea, is 66. Actor Jeremy Bulloch is 62. Actor Pete Postlethwaite is 62. Actor William Katt is 57. Actor LeVar Burton is 51. Actor-rapper Ice-T is 50. Actress Lisa Loring is 50. Tennis Hall of Fame player John McEnroe is 49. Rock musician Andy Taylor is 47. Rock musician Dave Lombardo (Slayer) is 43. Rock musician Taylor Hawkins (Foofighters) is 36. Singer Sam Salter is 30. Rapper Lupe Fiasco is 26. Actor Mike Weinberg is 15.

DEATH

1977 Janani Luwum, the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, and two other men were killed in what Ugandan authorities said was an automobile accident.

2003 Eleanor "Sis" Daley, the matriarch of Chicago's Daley political clan, died at age 95.

February 16, the 47th day of 2008. There are 319 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: January 24, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, QUITTERS, BEER, BUCKETS, PATENTS, SOCIETIES, GOLD, SNACKS, NAMES, TELESCOPES, APPLE, LOOK OUT, CHECK, PRO WRESTLING, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, POLITICIANS, JEWS, SCIENCE, MURDER, HEART ATTACK, STOCKS, BEATEN, ASSASSINATIONS, EXECUTIONS, POPES, BUREAUCRACY, SPORTS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



1908 is considered the starting date of the Boy Scouts movement in England, under the aegis of Robert Baden-Powell.

WAR!

1943 President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1943 Hitler orders nazi troops at Stalingrad to fight to death.

TERRORISM

1977 5 lawyers murdered by fascist in Madrid.

1987 gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner and Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. (All were eventually released).

DISASTERS

1939 30,000 killed by earthquake in Concepcion Chile.

1993 Polish ferry boat John Heweliusz sinks, 52 killed.

QUITTERS

1913 Franz Kafka stops working on "Amerika"; it will never be finished.

BEER

1935 1st canned beer, "Krueger Cream Ale", is sold by Kruger Brewing Co in Richmond VA.

BUCKETS

1956 96.5 cm precipitation at Kilauea Plantation, Hawaii (state record).

PATENTS

1899 Rubber heel patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan.

SOCIETIES

1839 Charles Darwin elected member of Royal Society.

1900 Newcastle Badminton Club, world's oldest, formed in England.

GOLD

1848 James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of '49.

SNACKS

1922 Christian K. Nelson of Onawa, Iowa, patented the Eskimo Pie.

NAMES

1924 the Russian city of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg) was renamed Leningrad in honor of the late revolutionary leader. (However, it has since been renamed St. Petersburg).

TELESCOPES

1764 Governor Winthrop Telescope, is destroyed in a Harvard fire.

APPLE

1984 Apple Computer Inc unveils its Macintosh personal computer.

LOOK OUT

1978 a nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.

CHECK

1961 Lazard Brithers Ltd draw a check for $334,867,807.68.

PRO WRESTLING

1963 Buddy Rogers & Lou Thesz wrestle in Toronto, Rogers becomes WWF wrestling champ & Thesz becomes NWA champ.

1983 Hulk Hogan pins the Iron Sheik for World Wrestling Federation title.

1988 1st WWF Royal Rumble - Hacksaw Jim Duggan wins.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1964 CBS purchases 1964 & 1965 NFL TV rights for $28.2 million.

1975 "Hot l Baltimore" situation comedy premieres on ABC TV.

POLITICIANS

2007 The Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President Bush's plans for a troop buildup in Iraq as "not in the national interest" of the United States.

JEWS

1656 1st Jewish doctor in US, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland.

1943 Jewish patients/nurses/doctors incinerated at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

SCIENCE

1958 After warming to 100,000,000º, 2 light atoms are bashed together to create a heavier atom, resulting in 1st man-made nuclear fusion.

MURDER

1994 Michalis Vranopoulos head of Greek state bank, murdered at 48.

HEART ATTACK

1991 George Gobel comedian, dies of a heart attack at 71,

STOCKS

1994 Dow Jones closes above 3,900 for 1st time (3,914.48).

BEATEN

1970 James "Shep" Shepherd rocker (Shep & Limelites), beaten to death.

ASSASSINATIONS

1639 George Jenatsch Grisons leader, assassinated.

EXECUTIONS

1547 Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, executed for treason.

1989 confessed serial killer Theodore Bundy was put to death in Florida's electric chair.

POPES

1998 Pope John Paul II, delivering blunt political messages during his visit to Cuba, called for the release of "prisoners of conscience" and respect for freedom of expression, initiative and association.

BUREAUCRACY

2003 The new Department of Homeland Security officially opened as its head, Tom Ridge, was sworn in.

2003 Connecticut became the first state to take part in the U.S. government's plan to inoculate a half-million health care workers against smallpox. (Only four doctors agreed to be vaccinated that first day.)

SPORTS

1947 NFL adds 5th official (back judge) & allows sudden death in playoffs.

1952 1st NFL team in Texas, Dallas Texans formerly New York Yankees.

BORN

1862 Edith Wharton[-Jones] US, novelist (Ethan Frome, Age of Innocence, House of Mirth)

BIRTHDAYS

Actor Ernest Borgnine is 91. Evangelist Oral Roberts is 90. Actor Jerry Maren ("The Wizard of Oz") is 89. Actor Marvin Kaplan ("Top Cat") is 81. Cajun musician Doug Kershaw is 72. Singer-songwriter Ray Stevens is 69. Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond is 67. Singer Aaron Neville is 67. Actor Michael Ontkean is 62. Actor Daniel Auteuil is 58. Country singer-songwriter Becky Hobbs is 58. Comedian Yakov Smirnoff is 57. Bandleader-musician Jools Holland is 50. Actress Nastassja Kinski is 49. Rhythm-and-blues singer Theo Peoples is 47. Country musician Keech Rainwater (Lonestar) is 45. Comedian Phil LaMarr is 41. Olympic gold-medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton is 40. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sleepy Brown (Society of Soul) is 38. Actor Matthew Lillard is 38. Actress Merrilee McCommas is 37. Actor Ed Helms is 34. Actress Tatyana Ali is 29. Actress Mischa Barton is 22.

DEATH

41 Caligula [G C Germanicus], Roman emperor (37-41), assassinated at 28

1965 Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.

1986 L[aFayette] Ron[ald] Hubbard author/founder of Scientology (Dianetics,Death Quest), dies at 74

1993 retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died in Bethesda, Md., at age 84.

January 24, the 24th day of 2008. There are 342 days left in the year.

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

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

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



KILLERS

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

WAR!

1941 Australia & Britain attack Tobruk Libya.

1942 Japanese air raid on Rabaul New Britain.

1942 Tito's partisans occupy Foca.

1943 Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad.

1943 Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk.

1944 447 German bombers attack London.

1944 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg.

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

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

DISASTERS

1821 Paramaribo Suriname catches fire, 4 die.

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

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

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

TERRORISM

1985 Bomb attack on Borobudur temple in Java.

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

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

BEHEADED

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

SEWERS

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

NANNY STATE

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

NUDITY

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



INSANE

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

PATENTS

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

CENSUS

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

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1949 1st inaugural parade televised (Harry Truman).

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

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

SUBWAY

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

SOCIETIES

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

1935 The Wilderness Society is founded.

CLINTONS

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

CIVIL RIGHTS

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

GOLD

1974 Gold hits record $161.31 an ounce in London.

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

1980 Gold hits record $850 an ounce.

SILVER

1974 Silver hits record $3.97 an ounce in London.

DEPORTED

1830 Portsmouth (Ohio) blacks forcibly deported.

CLIMATE

1962 Snow falls in San Francisco.

PARDONS

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

SPIES

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

JEWS

1941 1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria.

STRONGMEN

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

FINANCE

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

SUBS

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

VACCINES

1799 Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination is introduced.

POPES

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

PROGRESS

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

SPORTS

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

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

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

BORN

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

1933 William Wrigley III chewing gum mogul (Wrigleys)

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

BIRTHDAY

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

DEATH

1924, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died at age 53.

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

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

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

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

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

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.