Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terrorism. Show all posts

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Obama, McCain: Worldviews Apart on America and Her Enemies



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Obama's Anti-American Roots:
When Many of Obama's Associates and Advisers Are Anti-American and Anti-Israel, What Will Obama's Policy Be?







Great Britains's Melanie Phillips can't quite believe "Is America really going to do this?". She begins by comparing John McCain and Barack Obama.

"...the only way to assess their position is to look at each man in the round, at what his general attitude is towards war and self-defence, aggression and appeasement, the values of the west and those of its enemies and – perhaps most crucially of all – the nature of the advisers and associates to whom he is listening. As I have said before, I do not trust McCain; I think his judgment is erratic and impetuous, and sometimes wrong. But on the big picture, he gets it. He will defend America and the free world whereas Obama will undermine them and aid their enemies."

Here’s why. McCain believes in protecting and defending America as it is. Obama tells the world he is ashamed of America and wants to change it into something else. McCain stands for American exceptionalism, the belief that American values are superior to tyrannies. Obama stands for the expiation of America’s original sin in oppressing black people, the third world and the poor.




Obama thinks world conflicts are basically the west’s fault, and so it must right the injustices it has inflicted. That’s why he believes in ‘soft power’ — diplomacy, aid, rectifying ‘grievances’ (thus legitimising them, encouraging terror and promoting injustice) and resolving conflict by talking. As a result, he will take an axe to America’s defences at the very time when they need to be built up. He has said he will ‘cut investments in unproven missile defense systems’; he will ‘not weaponize space’; he will ‘slow our development of future combat systems’; and he will also ‘not develop nuclear weapons,’ pledging to seek ‘deep cuts’ in America’s arsenal, thus unilaterally disabling its nuclear deterrent as Russia and China engage in massive military buildups.

McCain understands that an Islamic war of conquest is being waged on a number of diverse fronts which all have to be seen in relation to each other. For Obama, however, the real source of evil in the world is America. The evil represented by Iran and the Islamic jihadists is apparently all America’s fault. ‘A lot of evil’s been perpetuated based on the claim that we were fighting evil,’ he said. Last May, he dismissed Iran as a tiny place which posed no threat to the US -- before reversing himself the very next day when he said Iran was a great threat which had to be defeated. He has also said that Hezbollah and Hamas have ‘legitimate grievances’. Really? And what might they be? Their grievances are a) the existence of Israel b) its support by America c) the absence of salafist Islam in the world. Does Obama think these ‘grievances’ are legitimate?



Phillips, with an outsider's eye, correctly sees the stark differences between John McCain, whom the press and Obama campaign have portrayed as "erratic", and Barack Obama, a candidate whose main qualification, according to the media, is his ability to "appear presidential".




If Obama is elected, then America will get to see if Joe Biden's "guarantee" of an international crisis is correct. None of this matters to many Obama supporters.

But the fact of the matter is: much of the world depends upon the United States for its security. The world, and especially many parts of Europe, will be able to see what the vision of an eviscerated US military looks like.

And Obama has promised just such an evisceration.

From Video: Barack Obama's Three-point Surrender Plan [March 23, 2008]:

Barack Obama's 3-point USA Surrender Plan:

1-Will end the war in Iraq immediately
2-Will end missile defense systems
3-Will not develop new nuclear weapons and achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals





Phillips' main concern is terrorism--which will not disappear if Obama is elected, despite the hopes of his supporters.

There are, alas, many in the west for whom all this is music to their ears. Whether through wickedness, ideology, stupidity or derangement, they firmly believe that the ultimate source of conflict in the world derives at root from America and Israel, whose societies, culture and values they want to see emasculated or destroyed altogether. They are drooling at the prospect that an Obama presidency will bring that about. The rest of us can’t sleep at night.


Some will sleep just fine. That would be those whose world view is one where no rogue nations exist; where 9-11 was somehow caused by America; and, where any international crisis can be forgotten by switching the channel to something more entertaining or pleasant.

by Mondo Frazier
images: dbkp file



Friday, October 17, 2008

St. Louis Bomb Blast: Economic Terrorism?



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Bomb Blast in St. Louis Parking Garage
Injures Prominent Takeover Attorney









As they hunt for the person(s) responsible for a Thursday morning bomb blast that injured John Gillis, investigators are likely considering the possibility the incident might somehow be linked to the current economic crisis. And for good reason.

Gillis, is senior counsel at Armstrong Teasdale, a large law firm based in downtown St. Louis, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report published today. A bio page on the prominent law firm's web site attributes a number of "significant accomplishments" to the 69-year-old St. Louis attorney, including:

* Counsel to seller in $210 million sale of Nasdaq listed company in negotiated tender offer followed by a back-end merger;

* Counsel to seller in $500 million sale of Nasdaq listed bank holding company;

* Issuer's counsel in $50 million dutch auction self tender offer for common shares; and

* Counsel to boards of directors or special board committees in a number of negotiated and hostile takeover transactions.

Just after 11 a.m. yesterday, according to witness accounts, Gillis attempted to move a package from near his vehicle parked on the sixth parking level of a 16-story office building adjacent Gillis' condo-building home in Clayton, an affluent St. Louis suburb. As reported in this post yesterday, the bomb blast shook the downtown area and prompted evacuations of area buildings.

Considering the type of work Gillis has performed, the enormous amounts of money at stake and the heady personalities often involved in such high-stakes transactions, it will be interesting to find out whether or not this crime indeed has its roots in the economic crisis or if some other motivating factor — personal, professional, terrorism or other — was in play.




ALSO at Bob McCarty Writes: Bomb Explodes in St. Louis Parking Garage! (Updated)

by Bob McCarty
image: Bob McCarty Writes
Source: Does St. Louis Blast Have Ties to Economic Crisis?



Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Possible Terror Plot Update: Five Missing Afghan Students Names



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UPDATE
More Details Surface on Missing Afghan Students








Earlier today, I published a post about five Afghan students reported missing for more than a week from the campus of the University of Washington. After contacting a variety of individuals and government agency representatives, I am now able to shed more light on the matter.

At 2:52 p.m. CDT, I received some answers to a set of questions I had sent to Dr. Maria Beebe, chief of party for Afghan eQuality Alliances at Washington State University. She confirmed that the University of Washington is an alliance partner, despite the fact that the name of the school was not listed on the program's website.

She also provided the names of the missing students. They are as follows:

  • Mohammed Ratib Abeer — Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan;
  • Masood Ghory — English Instructor for the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission;
  • Rahmatullah Hamidi — Scientific Member for Curriculum Development, Ministry of Education;
  • Numan Tarin — Senior National Coach for the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission; and
  • Sayed Hashmatullah — National Consultant for the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission.

Dr. Beebe said the students were reported "missing" to local police by Ken Peavler after they did not show up in class and their roommates verified that they had not shown up in their rooms. As program manager at the Evans School of Public Affairs, Peavler's duties include keeping track of the study-abroad students.

ALSO at DBKP: Five Afghan Students Missing From University of Washington, School Bus Stolen in Delaware

Of the 38 students selected for the program, only 32 remain after one returned home to Afghanistan to deal with a family matter.

Since the Afghan eQuality Alliances program is attracting a number of applicants (250 for the next batch for 36 slots), Dr. Beebe said, program officials can be more selective and add a criteria related to their current job titles.

"So, for example, we can say only directors and assistant director levels would be considered," she explained. "At that level, we will also get the older (more mature) students who have children and will have more compelling reasons to go back to Afghanistan."

Apparently, at least five of the students were not old enough or not motivated enough to want to return.

I have yet to receive additional information from U.S. Agency for International Development or the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Developing…

Check back for more updates as they occur.



WANT MORE of Bob McCarty, "The Ultimate Blogging Machine"? Try these recent posts:

* Supreme Court Chief Justice Pens ‘Mystery Novel’
* Democrat’s Message Flagged as ‘Junk Mail’


by Bob McCarty
image: dbkp file
Source: More Details Surface on Missing Afghan Students



Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Hezbollah, Childhood: The Joys of the Hezbollah Children's Museum



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A Trip to the Hezbollah Children Museum



If culture is destiny, then happiness is not in the cards for today's children in Southern Lebanon.

Our Man in the Bay State, Boston Herald writer, Darren Garnick, has a revealing piece out, "The Hezbollah Children’s Museum — A Cross-Cultural Study". Revealing because it takes a look at one of the joys of childhood--and childhood lost.

As the parent of a boy equally enthralled by escalators and stegasauruses, I’ve never met a Children’s Museum that I didn’t like. I find these places to be especially friendly to candid photo-ops.


Garnick then lists--and includes some great pix of--his favorite child museums: THE MULTI-LEVEL GERBIL CAGE — BOSTON, MASS. (the picture at the top of this piece); THE GEAR WALL — DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE; and, THE HUMAN BODY MAZE — BANGOR, MAINE.

Which would all make for a great feature--but then he goes further.

"This might shock you: The fun-spirited, light-hearted tone of these exhibits is sorely lacking at the new Hezbollah Children’s Museum in South Lebanon."

Unless readers frequent blogs which specialize in the arcane world of Hezbollah-bilia, they'd be generally unaware that terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah, even dabble in Children's Museums. Who has the time--what with delis to blow up, journalists to behead and rockets to launch?

Darren quotes the International Herald Tribune’s Robert F. Worth.

"...Worth offers a vivid glimpse of “Hezbollah’s most ambitious multimedia exhibit to date,” a tourist attraction devoted to their all-time terrorist superstar, Imad Mughniyeh. "

Mughniyeh was believed to be responsible for:

* The 1983 suicide attacks on the U.S. Embassy and Marines barracks (241 dead) in Beirut,
* A 1985 hijacking of a TWA jet, which ended with the dumping of Navy diver Robert Stethem’s body on the tarmac,
* The kidnapping, torture and murder of a CIA bureau chief,
* The kidnapping and imprisonment of the Associated Press chief Mideast correspondent for six years,
* The bombings of the Israeli Embassy and the Jewish community center in Argentina,
* The 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, and many other heinous killings.


Mughniyeh met a suspicious end--he was blown up at a time and date not of his own choosing, taking only a car along with him (perhaps by the Israelis, who've denied it).

Darren then cuts to a "Rocky-Hezbollah" analogy before coming back to the carefree joys of Hezbollah childhood.


AUTHENTIC TERRORIST MEMORABILIA: “The children crowd forward around the glass case, eager for a glimpse of the martyr’s bloodstained clothes. His belt is here, and the shoes he died in, scarred with shrapnel. The battered desk where he planned military operations still has his box of pencils on it, his in-box, his cellphone.”

MILITARY LASER SHOWS: Presumably a bit more somber than the Pink Floyd “The Wall” show that used to sell out at the Boston Museum of Science, this light extravaganza illuminates Hezbollah weaponry waiting to be used on the hapless Zionists. The IHT cites “overflow crowds” that have been keeping the exhibit open past 1 a.m.

THE MARTYR’S HEAVEN EXPERIENCE: “In the darkened room, a figure representing a dead Hezbollah fighter lies on his back on a large sloping bank of white flowers. A sound of exploding bombs gives way to patriotic anthems as a screen shows a brilliant sunset and a coffin being carried through a dark forest. Later, a laser show illuminates the darkness. Other videos braid together images from the 2006 war, including some showing Mugniyah, along with scenes of Hezbollah soldiers training in the green hills of southern Lebanon.”

Who’s showing up to Martyr’s Heaven? “On a recent afternoon, busloads of schoolchildren were arriving to see the exhibit, with a group of Boy Scouts.”

MOCKING THE WEAK ISRAELI MILITARY: “A fake skeleton stands upright in a torn uniform and helmet beneath the legend, “The invincible Israeli soldier.” There are captured Israeli tanks jutting up from the ground at odd angles, their hatches burned and broken. As visitors crowd from one display to another, a soundtrack blares overhead, mixing the sounds of bombs and machine-gun fire with mournful operatic voices and warlike speeches.”



The piece finishes with a flourish: three Garnick thoughts, of which the third is below:

3. The line between self-confident and just plain stupid is a razor thin one. Historians say that Israeli cockiness after their 1967 rout led to a gross underestimation of the Arabs’ true fighting power. Not fearing the Egyptians and Syrians enough in 1973 led to lax Israeli leadership and half-assed preparedness (not enough historians use the term ‘half-assed’). Egypt’s 6 October victory bridge might seem like a joke, but for a while it looked like Israel was finished.


There's two updates, including a link to the LA Times blogs, which does a room-by-room breakdown of what exactly is in the Hezbollah Children's Museum.

German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, published "Childhood" in 1902. It contained a collection of poems examining the "feelings of wonder and bafflement" and the child's efforts to "grapple with the puzzle of human existence."

Rilke's childhood--thankfully--did not include any trips to the Hezbollah Children's Museum.


by Mondoreb
images: Darren Garnick's Media Lab
Source: The Hezbollah Children’s Museum — A Cross-Cultural Study

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

War on Terror: Watch List Grows to One Million Names



Big Brother is watching--all one million of you.

The watch list of terrorism suspects recently passed 1 million names--which translates into about 400,000 people, according to NewsMax.

Are there really nearly a half-million terrorists among us?

The number of times we've agreed with the American Civil Liberties Union can be counted on one hand, but this appears to be one of those rare occasions: the list is too big to be effective.

The list is one of the "most effective tools" implemented after 9-11. The Bush administration disagreed. The Department of Homeland Security is like any other government bureaucracy: more interested in job security than effectiveness.

Prior to September 11, the no-fly list had just 16 people on it.

Either the DHS is so effective and have discovered 1 million (minus 16) new terrorist names in the last 7 years. Or, more likely, the list has a lot of people on it "just to be on the safe side".

Which is fine--unless your name is on the list by mistake. Which happens more frequently than is publicized.

Otherwise, how to go about checking out the 1 million? Are terrorists sprouting like weeds? Is the DHS lazy about checking out these thousands of potential terrorists? Does anyone care?

"America's new million-record watch list is a perfect symbol for what's wrong with this administration's approach to security: it's unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources (and) treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought," ACLU technology director Barry Steinhardt said in a release.

President George W. Bush ordered in the current list in September 2003 as a way to wrap several growing terrorism watchlists into a single government database compiled and overseen by the FBI, through a Terrorist Screening Center.

Suspected terrorists or people believed to have links to terrorism are included on the list, which can be used by a wide range of government agencies in security screening. About 50,000 individuals are included on the Transportation Security Administration "no-fly" or "selectee" lists that subject them to travel bans, arrest or additional screening.


Ted Kennedy, civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis and Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) have all had their troubles with their names being on watch lists. One can understand Senator Kennedy having problems if the watch list contained names of members of Congress spouting nonsense--but Senator Kennedy a terrorist?

He's not that ambitious.

[Terrorism Screening Center spokeman, Chad Kolton], cited a report last year by the Government Accountability Office that said there was general agreement within the federal government that the watch list had helped to combat terrorism.

"The list is very effective. In fact it's one of the most effective counterterrorism tools that our country has," he said.

About 400,000 individuals are included on the list, about 95 percent of whom are not U.S. citizens or residents, Kolton said. The watch list also includes separate entries with aliases, fake passports and fake birth dates, bringing the total number of records to more than 1 million, he said.


TSA spokeman Christopher White said Kennedy and Lewis were never on the list, and that problems they reported were due to their misidentification with names properly on it.

One of the least effective ways of identifying ineffective government programs would be to survey government bureaucrats; yet, "general agreement within the federal government" that the list is effective seems to indicate the use of that benchmark.

When new government agencies or programs or regulations or laws are proposed, critics rightly point out the bad things that can happen with nearly all things government. Proponents pooh-pooh the critics' claims, many times calling them preposterous.

It's not that poorly-constructed government programs, agencies, regulations or laws start out as being malicious--it's that they become that way due to the very inefficiencies of large government.

The watch list is a perfect example of this.

The watch list is "very effective"--unless your name mistakenly winds up on it.

1 million names on the watch list and the refusal to profile targeted groups of air travelers--while there are thousands of unknown persons passing through a still-unsecured southern border--makes no sense.

Except to those running government bureaucracies.

by Mondoreb
image: propaganda posters
Source:
* Terror Watch List: Over 1 Million Names and Growing
* U.S. Terrorism Watch List Tops 1 Million

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Obama: Appeasing Islamists Like "Gasoline on a Fire"



Once potential voters get beyond the Barack Obama's fuzzy rhetorical mantra of "Change!", the picture of what an Obama "change" might look like begins to materialize.

Red Planet Cartoons latest is one such picture. It deals with Obama's plan--or rather, non-plan--for dealing with al Qaida, terrorists and Iraq.

RPC has an excerpt from the Washington Time's Donald Lambro's Exposing a Blind Spot:

Sen. John McCain had one goal in mind when his turn came to question Gen. David Petraeus about the Iraq war: to show Sen. Barack Obama didn’t understand the dire threat al Qaeda posed to that country’s survival…

Though he never mentioned the Democratic presidential front-runner by name, Mr. McCain wanted to dismantle one of Mr. Obama’s chief contentions regarding the war: that there is no serious al Qaeda threat in Iraq in terms of a military infrastructure with command centers, bases, etc., and it is time to begin a full withdrawal of all combat forces there.

Mr. Obama has from the beginning maintained that al Qaeda was not in Iraq before the U.S. invasion and only entered the country after Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled. The Illinois senator’s argument essentially maintains that the U.S. presence in Iraq is the sole cause of the presence of al Qaeda in the country.

RPC reliably dishes up lots of info-rich links to supporting articles.

There are those abroad who would only be too happy to pass Barack Obama a can of gasoline for putting out the fires of terrorism.

by Mondoreb
image: Red Planet Cartoons
Sources:
* Gasoline on a Fire
* Exposing a Blind Spot
* Obama: Putting out the fires of Jihad with Gasoline

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Thursday, April 17, 2008

Jimmy Carter



Jimmy Carter's presidency was many things to many people.

To Democrats, he was a winner. Out of the White House for eight years, the Democrats took advantage of the anti-Washington mood stirred up by Watergate and nominated the obscure Georgia governor.

He squeaked out a win over Gerald Ford, winning 23 states.
Election day was November 2, and it took most of that night and the following morning to determine the winner. Carter defeated Ford by two percentage points in the popular vote. The electoral vote was the closest since 1916; Carter took 23 states with 297 electoral votes, while Ford won 27 states and 240 electoral votes (one elector from Washington state, pledged to Ford, voted for Reagan). Carter's victory came primarily from his near-sweep of the South (he lost only Virginia), and his close victories in large Northern states such as New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Ford did well in the West, carrying every state except Hawaii.




Jimmy Carter campaigned in 1976 as a "Washington Outsider", someone different from the Washington power brokers. He also was not shy about broadcasting that he was a "born again Christian".

Close observers would notice the beginning of the Mainstream Media's disdain for Christianity during the Carter campaign and ensuing presidency.



Jimmy Carter has become the quintessential simple-minded, John Lennon Democrat: all he is saying is "give peace a chance". Carter has never let love of his country stand in the way of an almost desperate avoidance of the tag of "worst U.S. president. Whether it's his country, his countrymen or his country's interests, Carter is ready to throw any and all of them under his merry prankster peace parade.

Except Carter's never brought peace--with the lone exception of the bringing together of Begin and Sadat in a marriage of reality and convenience at Camp David.

Jimmy is remembered by many for the string of American sell-outs and giveaways he was responsible for during his term. Others remember the 21% interest and raging inflation rising so fast that soup cans sometimes had 5 different price stickers on them, the prices went up so fast.

During Carter's term, the "Misery Index" became well-known: that's the percentage of inflation plus the unemployment rate. When Carter left office in 1980, the Misery Index was at an all-time high of 21.98%.

When people grumbled about the Misery Index, Carter told them that the American people suffered from "malaise". This is a "sense of depression or discomfort". It wasn't long before a lot of people attributed their "malaise" or depression to Jimmy.



Jimmy coulda been a contender. Carter's first inclination in any test of wills is to grin and holler "Uncle!". The Iran Hostage Crisis was no different, just the most famous example of Carter's diplomacy at it's finest.




No hot spot in the world is immune to the "Jimmy Carter Touch".

No interest is so vital to the U.S. that it can't be high-jacked by Down-home Jimmy.

No enemy of America is off-limits to the Peanut Prostitute and his "paid by the Saudis" checkbook approach to solving the world's problems--if the problems of the world or the United States were defined as "whatever is in the interests of the people paying Jimmy's bills".



Foreign policy during the Jimmy Carter years usually consisted of three reliable Carter methods for dealing with International problems. If the first two didn't work--which happened the majority of the time during Jimmy's forgettable one term--then the former Georgia governor could always be counted on to turn to the one thing he knew would break any impasse.



This Carter "world withdrawal" strategy is the one gift he left the Democrat Party. It may very well be the legacy he has struggled so mightily to bequeath to history.

Carter was swamped in the 1980 election. He had a record to run on and Americans voters judged Carter with their votes.

By any measure, the election was a crushing rebuke of Carter and his policies.





The election was held on November 4, 1980. Ronald Reagan with running mate George Bush beat Carter by almost ten percentage points in the popular vote. Republicans also gained control of the Senate for the first time in twenty-five years on Reagan's coattails. The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 votes for Carter (representing 6 states and the District of Columbia).





Carter has spent the 28 years since his electoral rejection by the American people in a variety of ways. Writing books, building houses, refereeing elections and trying to craft a legacy other than the one he left with the end of his presidency.

He has insisted on butting into American foreign policy, whether he was invited or not. Mostly he has a string of photo credits with various dictators to show for his trouble.

As well as a failed agreement with North Korea's dictator Kim, over nuclear materials and production.



His books mostly reflect Carter's viewpoint, as told by the largest benefactors of his Carter Center: mostly Sunni Arabs from the Middle East.

Jimmy Carter has taken a decided anti-Israel tone since the Carter Center funding as relied heavily on Middle Eastern sources.



His pronouncement of President George W. Bush as "the worst president" was amusing. Some thought that Jimmy was the victim of his wishful thinking's growing steroid habit.



Jimmy's anti-Israel stance increased this past week with his meeting with terrorist group, Hamas.

But regardless of his many fruitless efforts, Jimmy Carter is likely to be remembered in only one way.



At least by the people who had to live through the four long years of the Carter presidency.

by Mondoreb
images:
* Cox and Forkum
* Worth 1000
* Mrs. Satan
* UofTexas
* Time
* matthewwyglesia
* Angry Conservative
* flapsblog
* flickr
Sources:
* United States Presidential Election 1976
* United States Presidential Election 1980

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Monday, April 7, 2008

DBKP Today in Weird History: April 7 2008

War, Terrorism, Disaster, TV, Trolleys, Ooops, Wimps, I GOT YOU, Rockets, Unhappy Birthday, Smells Like Suicide, Jews, Inventions, Big Oil, Ouch, Nanny State, Wow, Pro Wrestling, Born, Birthdays, Death


SMELLS LIKE SUICIDE

1994 Kurt Cobain grunge rocker (Nirvana), commits suicide by gun at 27.

WAR!

1862 Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.

1945 During World War II, American planes intercepted and effectively destroyed a Japanese fleet that was headed to Okinawa on a suicide mission.

2003 U.S. troops in more than 100 U.S. armored vehicles rumbled through downtown Baghdad, seizing one of Saddam Hussein's opulent palaces and toppling a 40-foot statue of the Iraqi ruler.

TERRORISM

1980 Jimmy Carter breaks relations with Iran during hostage crisis.

DISASTER

1926 Forest fire burns 900 acres & kills 2 (San Luis Obispo CA).

1990 Fire kills 110 on a ferry in Norway, in an unrelated event, 30 die in a ferry flip over in Burma.

OUCH!

1926 Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose.

OOOPS!

1966 The U.S. Navy recovered a hydrogen bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.

UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY

1972 "Crazy" Joe Gallo mobster, killed at his 43rd birthday party.

WOW!

1981 Willem Klein mentally extracts 13th root of a 100-digit # in 29 seconds.

PRO WRESTLING

1986 Wrestlemania II at 3 locations, Hulk Hogan beats King Kong Bundy.

1991 Wrestlemania VII scheduled in Los Angeles CA, actually performed 03/24.

NANNY STATE

1933 Prohibition ends, Utah becomes 38th state to ratify 21st Amendment.

1959 Oklahoma ends prohibition, after 51 years.

1969 Supreme Court strikes down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.

WIMPS

1978 President Carter announced he was deferring development of the neutron bomb, a high-radiation weapon.

INVENTIONS

1827 English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches.

BIG OIL

1902 Texas Oil Company (Texaco) forms.

ROCKETS

2007 A Russian rocket carrying American billionaire Charles Simonyi roared into the night skies over Kazakhstan, sending its three occupants on a trip to the international space station.

JEWS

1645 Michael Cardozo becomes 1st Jewish lawyer in Brazil.

1933 1st 2 Nazi anti-Jewish laws, bar Jews from legal & public service.

1994 Vatican acknowledges Holocaust (Nazi's killing Jews) for 1st time.

TV

1927 An audience in New York watched as the image as well as voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover were transmitted live from Washington in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television.

TROLLEYS

1957 Shortly after midnight, the last of New York's electric trolleys completed its final run from Queens to Manhattan.

I GOT YOU

1998 Mary Bono, the widow of entertainer-turned-politician Sonny Bono, won a special election to serve out the remainder of her husband's congressional term.

BORN

1860 W K Kellogg - the original corn flake.

BIRTHDAYS

Actor R.G. Armstrong is 91. Sitar player Ravi Shankar is 88. Actor James Garner is 80. Country singer Cal Smith is 76. Actor Wayne Rogers is 75. Media commentator Hodding Carter III is 73. Country singer Bobby Bare is 73. Rhythm-and-blues singer Charlie Thomas (The Drifters) is 71. Jazz musician Freddie Hubbard is 70. California Attorney General Jerry Brown is 70. Movie director Francis Ford Coppola is 69. TV personality David Frost is 69. Singer Patricia Bennett (The Chiffons) is 61. Singer John Oates is 59. Singer Janis Ian is 57. Country musician John Dittrich is 57. Actor Jackie Chan is 54. Football Hall-of-Famer Tony Dorsett is 54. Actor Russell Crowe is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singer Mark Kibble (Take 6) is 44. Actor Bill Bellamy is 43. Rock musician Dave "Yorkie" Palmer (Space) is 43. Former football player-turned-analyst Tiki Barber is 33. Actress Heather Burns is 33. Actor Conner Rayburn is 9.

DEATH

30 Jesus crucified by Roman troops in Jerusalem (scholars' estimate, according to astronomer Schaefer).

1891 P[hineas] T Barnum US circus promoter (Barnum & Bailey), dies at 80.

2007 "B.C." comic strip creator Johnny Hart died in Nineveh, N.Y., at age 76.

2007 Actor Barry Nelson died in Bucks County, Pa., at age 89.

April 7, the 98th day of 2008. There are 268 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: Guitars canada
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
* DBKP Today in Weird History: April 7 2008
* Today in Weird History: April 7 2008

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Friday, April 4, 2008

DBKP Today in Weird History: April 4 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, ASSASSINATION, FLAGS, WILE E. PELOSI, IMPEACHED, PC VICTIM, PATENTS, JEWS, REVENGE, 1984, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


ASSASSINATION

1968 The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was shot to death as he stood on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.; the killing sparked a wave of riots across the U.S. (James Earl Ray later pleaded guilty to assassinating King, then spent the rest of his life claiming his innocence and attempting to withdraw his guilty plea; he died in prison in 1998.)

WAR!

1945 During World War II, U.S. troops on Okinawa encountered the first significant resistance from Japanese forces at the Machinato Line.

2003 U.S. forces seized Saddam International Airport outside Baghdad.

TERRORISM

2007 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the surprise release of 15 captive British sailors and marines.

DISASTER

1905 Earthquake in Kangra India, kills 370,000.

1933 US Dirigible Akron crashes off coast of New Jersey, 73 die.

1971 Marine clay under houses liquifies, 31 die (St-Jean-Vianney Québec).

1975 More than 130 people, most of them children, were killed when a U.S. Air Force transport plane evacuating Vietnamese orphans crash-landed shortly after takeoff from Saigon.

1994 KLM Saab 340B crashes at Schiphol, 3 killed.

1998 Sixty-three people were killed in an explosion inside a Ukrainian coal mine.

PATENTS

1828 Casparus van Wooden patents chocolate milk powder (Amsterdam).

REVENGE

1975 Steve Miller is arrested for burning his girlfriend's clothes.

1984

1984 Winston Smith in Orwell's "1984" begins his secret diary.

JEWS

1920 Arabs attack Jews in Jerusalem.

1949 Israel & Jordan sign armistice agreement.

WILE E. PELOSI

2007 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad despite White House objections.

FLAGS

1818 Congress decided the United States flag would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state.

PC VICTIM

2007 Radio host Don Imus made offensive on-air remarks about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. (Despite a subsequent apology, Imus was fired by CBS Radio and cable network MSNBC; he was hired elsewhere by year's end.)

IMPEACHED!

1988 The Arizona Senate convicted Gov. Evan Mecham of two charges of official misconduct, and removed him from office. (Mecham was the first governor to be impeached and removed from office in nearly six decades.)

BORN

1821 Linus Yale US, portrait painter/inventor (Yale cylinder lock).

1908 Ernestine Gilbreth Carey author (Cheaper by the Dozen).

1915 Muddy Waters [McKinley Morganfield], guitarist (Hoochie Coochie Man).

BIRTHDAYS

Author-poet Maya Angelou is 80. Sen. Richard Lugar, R.-Ind., is 76. Recording executive Clive Davis is 76. Bandleader Hugh Masekela is 69. Author Kitty Kelley is 66. Actor Craig T. Nelson is 64. Actor Walter Charles is 63. Actress Caroline McWilliams is 63. Actress Christine Lahti is 58. Country singer Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers) is 57. Writer-producer David E. Kelley is 52. Actor Phil Morris is 49. Actress Lorraine Toussaint is 48. Actor Hugo Weaving is 48. Rock musician Craig Adams (The Cult) is 46. Actor David Cross is 44. Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 43. Actress Nancy McKeon is 42. Actor Barry Pepper is 38. Country singer Clay Davidson is 37. Rock singer Josh Todd (Buckcherry) is 37. Singer Jill Scott is 36. Rock musician Magnus Sveningsson (The Cardigans) is 36. Magician David Blaine is 35. Singer Kelly Price is 35. Rhythm-and-blues singer Andre Dalyrimple (Soul For Real) is 34. Actor James Roday is 32. Actress Natasha Lyonne is 29. Actress Jamie Lynn Spears is 17.

DEATH

1841 President William Henry Harrison succumbed to pneumonia one month after his inaugural, becoming the first U.S. chief executive to die in office.

1979 Edgar Buchanan actor (Uncle Joe-Petticoat Junction), dies at 77.

1979 Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto former Pakistani President, hanged in Pakistan at 51.

April 4, the 95th day of 2008. There are 271 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
* DBKP Today in Weird History: April 4 2008
* Today in Weird History: April 4 2008

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Monday, March 31, 2008

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 31, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, LIT UP, WELCOME, SURPRISE, LEVIATHAN, PLAYING GOD, JEWS, CLINTONS, POPULATION, ZIP, DANCE, VRROOOM, OFFERS, FIRE, AWARDS, PRO WRESTLING, TRANSVESTITES, STALKING, LANDMARKS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



LANDMARKS

1889 French engineer Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower, officially marking its completion.

WAR!

1943 US errantly bombs Rotterdam, kills 326.

2003 American forces battled Iraqi defenders in fierce street fighting 50 miles south of Baghdad, pointing toward a drive on the capital. Seven Iraqi women and children were killed at an Army checkpoint when their van refused orders to stop.

TERRORISM

2007 President Bush called for the release of 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran, calling their capture by Tehran "inexcusable behavior." (The crew members were released on April 4.)

DISASTER

1932 150 wild swans die in Niagara waterfall.

1983 Earthquake in Colombia kills some 5,000 people.

1986 167 die when Mexicana Airlines Boeing 727 crashes.

VRROOOM!

1932 Ford publicly unveils its V-8 engine.

ZIP!

1896 Whitcomb Judson, Chicago IL, patents a hookless fastening (zipper).

TRANSVESTITES

1991 Danny Bonaduce attacks a transvestite prostitute in Phoenix AZ

FIRE!

1967 Jimi Hendrix begins his tradition of burning his guitar.

DANCE!

1923 1st dance marathon-NYC-Alma Cummings sets record of 27 hours.

AWARDS

1981 1st Golden Raspberry Awards: Can't Stop the Music wins.

POPULATION

1850 US population hits 23,191,876 (Black population: 3,638,808 (15.7%)).

PRO WRESTLING

1985 Wrestlemania I at Madison Square Garden New York, Hogan & Mr T beat Piper & Orndorf.

1996 Wrestlemania XII: Shawn Michaels beats Brett Hart for WWF title.

SURPRISE!

1968 At the conclusion of a nationally broadcast address on efforts to bring a peaceful end to the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson shocked listeners by announcing he would not seek another term of office.

JEWS

1492 Queen Isabella of Castilia & Ferdinand of Aragon expels Jews.

1808 French-created Kingdom of Westphalia orders Jews to adopt family names.

1944 Hungary orders all Jews to wear yellow stars.

LIT UP

1880 Wabash, Ind., became the first town in the world to be illuminated by electrical lighting.

LEVIATHAN

1933 Congress approved, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed, the Emergency Conservation Work Act, which created the Civilian Conservation Corps.

OFFERS

1954 USSR offers to join NATO.

WELCOME!

1949 Newfoundland (now called Newfoundland and Labrador) entered confederation as Canada's 10th province.

PLAYING GOD

1976 the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Karen Ann Quinlan, who was in a persistent vegetative state, could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan, who remained unconscious, died in 1985.)

2005 Terri Schiavo, 41, died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute.

STALKING

1994 James Farentino pleads no contest to stalking Tina Sinatra.

CLINTONS

1998 In an unprecedented move, the Clinton administration released a detailed financial statement for the federal government showing its assets and liabilities.

BORN

1811 Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen Germany, chemist (Bunsen Burner).

1878 Jack Johnson 1st black heavyweight boxing champion (1908-1915).

1929 Liz Claiborne Brussels Belgium, fashion designer.

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Peggy Rea is 87. Actor William Daniels is 81. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Gordie Howe is 80. Actor Richard Chamberlain is 74. Actress Shirley Jones is 74. Country singer-songwriter John D. Loudermilk is 74. Musician Herb Alpert is 73. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is 68. Actor Christopher Walken is 65. Comedian Gabe Kaplan is 63. Former Vice President Al Gore is 60. David Eisenhower is 60. Actress Rhea Perlman is 60. Actor Ed Marinaro is 58. Rock musician Angus Young (AC/DC) is 53. Actor Marc McClure is 51. Actor William McNamara is 43. Actor Ewan McGregor is 37. Rapper Tony Yayo is 30. Jazz musician Christian Scott is 25.

DEATH

1931 Knute Rockne football player/coach, dies in a plane crash at 43.

1998 Former New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug died at age 77.


March 31, the 91st day of 2008. There are 275 days left in the year.

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

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Today in Weird History: March 28, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, NUKES, HOSTAGES, IMMIGRATION, SWAP, PATENTS, SUICIDE, TRIAL LAWYERS, JEWS, BAGGED, ZULUS, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



BAGGED

1939 Dutch hunter shoots English bombers down.

WAR!

1738 English parliament declares war on Spain (War of Jenkin's Ear).

2003 American-led forces in Iraq dropped thousand-pound bombs on Republican Guard units guarding the gates to Baghdad and battled for control of the strategic city of Nasiriyah. President Bush warned of "further sacrifice" ahead in the face of unexpectedly fierce fighting.

TERRORISM

1986 Extremist Sikhs kill 13 hindus in Ludhiana India.

2007 Iran aired a video of 15 captured British sailors and marines; the lone female captive, shown in a white tunic and a black head scarf, said the British boats had "trespassed." (The crew members were released April 4, 2007.)

DISASTER

1960 Scotch factory explodes burying 20 firefighters (Glasgow Scotland).

1970 1,086 die when 7.3 earthquake destroys 254 villages (Gediz Turkey).

TRIAL LAWYERS

1866 1st ambulance goes into service.

PATENTS

1797 Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patents a washing machine.

NUKES

1979 America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit 2 reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pa.

HOSTAGES

2007 In the Philippines, dozens of children were taken hostage on a bus by a day-care center owner armed with grenades and guns; the crisis ended peacefully 10 hours later with the hostage-taker's surrender.

SUICIDE

1941 Filling her pockets with stones, novelist and critic Virginia Woolf walked into a river near her home and died in Lewes, England.

IMMIGRATION

1898 The Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen.

SWAP

1930 The names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara.

JEWS

1917 Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv & Jaffa by Turkish authorities.

ZULUS

1994 Armed Zulus demonstrate in Johannesburg, over 53 killed.

BIRTHDAYS

Former White House national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski is 80. Country musician Charlie McCoy is 67. Movie director Mike Newell is 66. Actress Conchata Ferrell is 65. Actor Ken Howard is 64. Actress Dianne Wiest is 60. Country singer Reba McEntire is 53. Olympic gold-medal gymnast Bart Conner is 50. Actress Tracey Needham is 41. Actor Max Perlich is 40. Movie director Brett Ratner is 39. Country singer Rodney Atkins is 39. Actor Vince Vaughn is 38. Rapper Mr. Cheeks (Lost Boyz) is 37. Actor Ken L. is 35. Rock musician Dave Keuning is 32. Actress Julia Stiles is 27.

DEATH

1953 Athlete Jim Thorpe died in Lomita, Calif.

1958 W.C. Handy, the "Father of the Blues," died in New York at age 84.

1969 Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, died in Washington at age 78.

March 28, the 88th day of 2008. There are 278 days left in the year.

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

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

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

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Arab Billionaire's Son "Person of Interest" In UK Murder


Murdered Norwegian Socialite Martine Vik Magnussen

A young Norwegian woman's unsolved murder in London has authorities looking to question the son of one of the most wealthy men in Yemen and also once again raises the issue of extradition between the two countries.

The last time Martine's friends saw the 23-year-old Norwegian she was leaving the ultra-hip club, Maddox, "with a man of Arabic appearance aged in his twenties" around 3 a.m. last Friday. Police are now interested in talking to Farooq Abdulhak, 26, son of Yemen billionaire, Shaher Abdulhak. Magnussen's body was found Sunday under a pile of rubble "in the basement of the Seaford Court apartment block in Fitzrovia, Central London".




Ms. Magnussen suffered "significant injuries" to her neck, further tests will determine the exact cause of death. Police are searching a flat on the Seaford Court that rented for 600 Pounds a week.

Times Online reported anonymous sources reported to NTB, a Norwegian News Agency, that Magnussen and her friends "went out with rich Arab men in London". Magnussen had moved to London last February from Norway. The Times also reported that Magnussen was "friends" with Norway's richest individual, John Fredrikson. Magnussen had joined the London party scene and when she disappeared a close friend issued an appeal on Facebook after she failed to return home Friday night:

What struggles between Yeman, the United States and the United Kingdom have ensued?

Read the rest of "Arab Billionaire's Son "Person of Interest" In UK Murder".

Yemen Times
By LBG

Source - BBC
Source - Yemen Times
Image - Times Online
Source - BBC
Image - Daily Mail
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Sunday, March 16, 2008

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

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