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: 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's Today in Weird History: January 22, 2008

JUDICIAL TYRANNY, WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, DICTATORS, NANNY STATE, KARMA, CHEESE, POPES, ROYALTY, OVERDOSE, OUT WITH A BANG, ZULUS, JEWS, SPIES, LE WIMPS, CLIMATE, LIP SYNCH, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, SOCIETIES, SPORTS, RIOTS, PROGRESS, SCIENCE, CARTOONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



JUDICIAL TYRANNY

1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, legalized abortions using a trimester approach.



2003 Opponents and supporters of abortion rights rallied on the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's "Roe versus Wade" ruling.

- - - / - - -

WAR!

1862 Confederate government raises premium for volunteers from $10 to $20.

1917, President Woodrow Wilson pleaded for an end to war in Europe, calling for "peace without victory." (By April, however, America also was at war.)

1944, during World War II, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy. Allies stopped on the beach.

1945 Burma highway reopens.

1945 Heavy US air raid on Okinawa.

1973 US, North & South Vietnam & Vietcong sign boundary accord.

TERRORISM

1957 Mad Bomber (George P Metesky) accused of 30 explosions, arrested.

1995 Palestinian bomb attack in Beit Lid Israel, 21-22 killed.

1998 Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, Calif., to being the Unabomber in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole.

2007 A car bombing of a predominantly Shiite commercial area in Baghdad killed 88 people.

2007 Iran announced it had barred 38 nuclear inspectors on a United Nations list from entering the country in apparent retaliation for U.N. sanctions imposed the previous month.

DISASTERS

1817 English freighter Diana sinks off Malaysia.

1837 Earthquake in southern Syria kills thousands.

1873 Britain's SS Northfleet sinks at Dungeness England, 300 die.

1956 30 die in a train crash in Los Angeles.

1960 Coal mine of Johnburg caves-in, 417 die.

1994 5.5 earthquake strikes Sumatra.

DICTATORS

1951 Fidel Castro ejected from a Winter League game after beaning batter.

NANNY STATE

In 1908, Katie Mulcahey became the first woman to run afoul of New York City's just-passed ban on females smoking in public. (Declaring, "No man shall dictate to me," Mulcahey served a night in jail after being unable to pay a $5 fine.)

KARMA

1979 Ali Hassan Salameh [Abu Hassan], killed by car bomb; believed to have helped mastermind massacre of 1972 Munich Olympics athletes.

CHEESE

1964 World's largest cheese (15,723 kg) manufactured, Wisconsin.

POPES

1922, Pope Benedict XV died; he was succeeded by Pius XI.

1998 On the first full day of his visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass, preaching the message, "Be not afraid."

ROYALTY

1992 Princess Sarah Ferguson wears paper bag over her head on airline ride.

OVERDOSED

1969 Judy Garland singer/actress (Wizard of Oz), dies at 48 of an overdose.

OUT WITH A BANG

1987 R Budd Dwyer Pennsylvania State Treasurer, facing prison for conspiracy & perjury, shot himself to death at a televised news conference.

ZULUS

1879 Zulus attack British Army camp in Isandhlwana South Africa.

JEWS

1510 Jews are expelled from Colmar Germany.

1941 1st mass killing of Jews in Romania.

1957 Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai Penisula.

LE WIMPS

2003 Countering blunt talk of war by the Bush administration, France and Germany defiantly stated they were committed to a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.

SPIES

1946 US President sets up CIA, Central Intelligence Agency.

CLIMATE

1982 75% of North America is covered by snow.

LIP SYNCH

1990 17th American Music Award Milli Vanilli.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1968, The fast-paced sketch comedy series "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" premiered on NBC-TV.

1972 "Emergency" with Robert Fuller premieres on NBC TV.

SOCIETIES

1814 1st Knights Templar grand encampment in US held, New York City NY.

1890 José Marti forms La Liga (Union of Cuban exiles) in New York City NY.

1895 National Association of Manufacturers organized in Cincinnati OH.

RIOTS

1905 (New Style calendar), thousands of demonstrating Russian workers were fired on by Imperial army troops in St. Petersburg on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

PROGRESS

1673 Postal service between New York & Boston inaugurated.

SCIENCE

1939 Uranium atom 1st split, Columbia University.

SPORTS

1968 NBA announces it will expand to Milwaukee & Phoenix.

CARTOONS

2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin, who had immortalized World War II soldiers with his characters Willie and Joe, died in Newport Beach, Calif., at age 81.

BORN

1561 Francis Bacon England, statesman/essayist (Novum Organum).
1788 Lord [George Gordon Noel] Byron England, romantic poet (Don Juan).
1875 D[avid] W Griffith movie producer/director (Birth of a Nation).
1909 Ann Sothern [Harriette Lake], North Dakota, actress (Lady in a Cage, My Mother the Car)
1934 Bill Bixby San Francisco CA, actor (Incredible Hulk, My Favorite Martian)
1934 Graham Kerr chef (Galloping Gourmet)

BIRTHDAYS

Former Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., is 80. Actress Piper Laurie is 76. Actor Seymour Cassel is 73. Author Joseph Wambaugh is 71. Actor John Hurt is 68. Singer Steve Perry is 59. Country singer-musician Teddy Gentry (Alabama) is 56. Movie director Jim Jarmusch is 55. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Mike Bossy is 51. Actress Linda Blair is 49. Actress Diane Lane is 43. Actor-rap DJ Jazzy Jeff is 43. Country singer Regina Nicks (Regina Regina) is 43. Rhythm-and-blues singer Marc Gay (Shai) is 39. Actor Gabriel Macht is 36. Actor Balthazar Getty is 33. Actor Christopher Kennedy Masterson is 28. Pop singer Willa Ford is 27. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kelton Kessee (IMX) is 27. Actress Beverley (cq) Mitchell is 27. Rock singer-musician Ben Moody is 27.

DEATH

1901, Britain's Queen Victoria died at age 81.
1973, former President Lyndon Johnson died at age 64.
1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 104.

January 22, the 22nd day of 2008. There are 344 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
[images:
* kir.com
*skullandcrossbones]
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in History: January 16, 2008

NANNY STATE, WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, SELF IMMOLATION, DICTATORS, JEWS, CIVIL RIGHTS, AMBUSH, SPIES, BROADWAY, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, DISMISSED, USELESS, RAINBOW, DRUGS, GEEZERS, MUGGING, SPORTS, COMICS, RUNAWAY PROSECUTORS, POLITICS, BIRTHDAYS


NANNY STATE

1920 Prohibition began in the United States as the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect, one year to the day after its ratification. (It was later repealed by the 21st Amendment.)

WAR!

1944 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in London.

1991 Operation Desert Storm begins - US & 27 allies attack Iraq for occupying Kuwait (air war begins January 17 at 2:38AM (local time) or January 16 at 6:38PM EST due to an 8 hour time difference, with an Apache helicopter attack)

TERRORISM

1981 Protestant gunmen shoot & wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey & husband

1986 Police arrested 3 IRA-terrorists in Amsterdam

2007 Two car bombs exploded outside Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, killing at least 70 people.

DISASTER

1219 Floods in Northern Netherlands after storm, 1,000s killed

1865 Drunken sailor attacks munitions at Fort Fisher NC, 40 die

1974 L A Landslide kills 9, Canyonville OR

1942 Actress Carole Lombard, 33, her mother and about 20 other people were killed when their plane crashed near Las Vegas while returning from a war-bond promotion tour.

SELF IMMOLATION

1969 Jan Palach protesting Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, self immolates at 20

DICTATORS

1547 Ivan IV of Russia (popularly known as "Ivan the Terrible") was crowned Czar.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1883 the U.S. Civil Service Commission was established.

1967 Lucius Amerson, becomes 1st southern (Alabama) black sheriff in 20th century

AMBUSH

1948 35 Haganah members are ambushed & killed in Gush Etzyon

JEWS

1950 Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands recognize Israel

1956 Egyptian President Nassar pledges to reconquer Palestine

2003 The space shuttle Columbia blasted off under extremely tight security; on board was Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon. (The mission ended in tragedy on Feb. 1, when the shuttle broke up during its return descent, killing all seven crew members.)

SPIES

1961 Russian espionage ring detected in Great Britain

BROADWAY

1964 the musical "Hello, Dolly!" opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1965 "Outer Limits" last airs on ABC-TV

1973 NBC presents 440th & final showing of "Bonanza"

1988 Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was fired as a CBS Sports commentator, one day after telling a Washington, D.C., TV station that, during the era of slavery, blacks had been bred to produce stronger offspring.

DISMISSED

1925 Leon Trotsky dismissed as CEO of Russian Revolution Military Council

USELESS

1967 Alan S. Boyd was sworn in as the first U.S. secretary of transportation.

RAINBOW

1978 NASA named 35 candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, who became America's first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., who became America's first black astronaut in space.

DRUGS

1980 Paul McCartney jailed in Tokyo for 10 days on marijuana possession

GEEZERS

1998 NASA officially announced that John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, would fly aboard the space shuttle later in the year.

NANNY STATE

1998 The tobacco industry reached a $15.3 billion settlement with the state of Texas.

MUGGINGS

1981 Boxer Leon Spinks is mugged, his assailants even take his gold teeth

COMICS

1939 Comic strip "Superman" debuts

SPORTS

1988 NFL St Louis Cardinals announce move to Phoenix

POLITICS

2007 Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) launched his bid for the White House.

RUNAWAY PROSECUTORS

2007 Jury selection began in the CIA leak trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

BIRTHDAYS

Author William Kennedy is 80. Author-editor Norman Podhoretz is 78. Opera singer Marilyn Horne is 74. Auto racer A.J. Foyt is 73. Singer Barbara Lynn is 66. Country singer Ronnie Milsap is 65. Country singer Jim Stafford is 64. Talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger is 61. Movie director John Carpenter is 60. Actress-dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen is 58. Singer Sade (shah-DAY') is 49. Rock musician Paul Webb (Talk Talk) is 46. Rhythm-and-blues singer Maxine Jones (En Vogue) is 42. Actor David Chokachi is 40. Actor Richard T. Jones is 36. Actress Josie Davis is 35. Model Kate Moss is 34. Rock musician Nick Valensi (The Strokes) is 27. Actress Yvonne Zima is 19.

Jan. 16, the 16th day of 2008. There are 350 days left in the year.





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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.