Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Background: The Russia-Georgia Conflict

Questions:
Why are they Fighting?
The Possible Consequences






On August 8th 2008 the Russian army moved into the area of South Ossetia in the Caucasus region. South Ossetia is a part of Georgia that wants to break away. The current round of fighting had been going on for at least a week between the S. Ossetians and Georgian forces before the Russian Army moved into South Ossetia in force. This is not a new conflict in a region of the world where conflict is common. However, this time it could be different and could trigger a full-scale regional war.

A look into the background of the region and the conflict would be the logical place to start.





Readers can see from the map above that there is no shortage of ethnic groups in the region. This is one of the reasons why the area is no stranger to conflict.

The South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions separated from the central Georgian government during a conflict in the early 1990's. There is no love lost between Moscow and Tbilisi because Georgia wants closer ties to the West (NATO membership being a part of that) and Russia gives political/military and economic support to the breakaway regions.

The Russians are claiming that they moved military forces in South Ossetia to protect their citizens from attack by Georgian forces. This is a smokescreen of BS, pure and simple. The Russians are trying to reclaim their great power status. They don't like a former region of the USSR not only going independent but also preferring NATO membership instead of closer ties with Moscow. The second reason is one of energy routes to the western world. Here is a map of pipeline routes in the region:




The map above highlight the importance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. This is a line that does not move through Russian territory. The Russians don't like the situation because they have no control over this pipeline; the Russians have already bombed this pipeline. If the original reason for Russian forces to be sent into South Ossetia was for the "Humanitarian reasons" they claimed, then why are they hitting a pipeline inside Georgia proper?

What are the true Russian motivations behind this action?

First, they want to remind all the now-independent countries who used to be part of the old USSR not to wander too far away or consider displeasing Moscow. NATO membership for these countries in not in the Russian interest, nor is something that is likely to be tolerated.

Second , Moscow has always had an inferiority complex. Beating up on a small independent country is a way to show the world that Moscow wants respect. This move by Russia had to be planned long ago. The best proof of this is the speed that the army units moved into the area. Ralph Peters provides background, plus a 'big picture' look at what these events in Raping Georgia, Russia Invades an American Ally

The military comparison between Georgia and Russia is truly a bully vs. underdog story. But it isn't totally bleak for the Georgians. They have been training to Western standards for a couple years now. [Georgia Security & Stability Operations (Georgia SSOP)]

In fact, since the middle of July there has been a multi-national exercise being conducted in Georgia that has included US forces: Immediate Response 08

[See also: Operation Immediate Response begins in Country of Georgia]

The Georgian military is fighting on home soil. They are fighting for their nation. They know the land and hopefully can use that knowledge to their benefit. The Russian military today is not the Red Army of World War 2, in fact it is not even the Red army of the Cold War. Today's Russian forces are badly-treated conscripts, not volunteers. This means they probably don't even want to be in the military, much less getting ordered into a invasion. Plus, there are some serious corruption issues in the Russian military.

Even though Russia is a oil-producer/exporter and has enjoyed good economic times from the rise in energy prices, surprisingly, not a whole lot of this money has been spent on the Russian military. A look at the TV footage of the conflict, one sees a lot of older Russian vehicles. But many in the Russian invasion force are badly-educated/trained and poorly-treated conscripts who have a hard time using more modern equipment.

This could devolve into a really bad situation in any number of ways. If any U.S. forces in-country for the above training exercise or the new forces arriving to provide humanitarian assistance get caught in the line of fire by the Russians, it could get ugly. The Ukrainians (another former Soviet republic that has no love for Russia) are talking about not allowing the Russian navy ships taking part in the Georgian conflict return to their harbors in Ukrainian territory.

Bottom line: if the USA and the West truly believe in democracy and the rule of law, they need to step up with one voice and tell Russia this won't be tolerated, period. If we don't, Russia will continue to regain control of their former regions using every tool at their disposal. This could result in a frosty relationship between Russia and the West.

One Cold War was enough, the world doesn't need Part 2.

by CDWT
images:
* www.globalsecurity.org
* www.colorado.edu
* ttp://europe.theoildrum.com


If you have any thoughts/comments/etc feel free to contact me at chicagodudewhotrades@gmail.com

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Russia, Georgia: The Real Oil War

Oil Pipelines, Oil Fields, Oil Companies



PRIMUS ~ The Devil Went Down to Georgia






CIA WORLD FACT BOOK: GEORGIA


Georgia’s oil and gas potential


With its unique geographical location, Georgia is at the heart of the energy transportation projects in the region. As BTC and SCP pipelines have begun their operation, Caspian oil and gas are being transported to the Western markets via Georgia creating a new strategic alliance between many countries. Besides Georgia is exploring potential of becoming oil&gas producing country - new offshore fields have been discovered.


Georgia is a strategic crossroad for hydrocarbon transit in the Caspian region. The country has experienced significant growth since the new democratic government came into force. The main directions of the energy policy are energy security, diversification of gas supplies, reconstruction of hydropower plants, construction of underground gas storage facilities, attracting foreign investments and privatization.


The South Caucasus gas pipeline and the BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) pipeline allow oil and gas to flow from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Europe. Over the last decade, $5 billion has been invested by BP and its partners into development of the major oil and gas pipelines that cross Georgia.

Reconstruction work on the Batumi Oil Terminal is now complete and reconstruction of the Poti port is currently underway. Construction of a new, Kulevi Oil Terminal, operated by SOCAR, will be completed this year.

There has been a great deal of interest in developing Georgia's own oil and gas fields. Oil exploration projects are being conducted in East and South-West Georgia. In 2007 several new license blocks were awarded to international oil companies.


Let's follow just ONE of those companies listed:

Frontera Resources is a Houston, Texas based international oil and gas company that was founded in 1996. The company was organized to pursue international exploration and production opportunities in emerging markets.

Specifically, Frontera's strategy is to seek opportunities in known hydrocarbon-bearing basins around the world where historical geopolitical and/or economic situations may have caused significant oil and gas plays to be overlooked or underdeveloped. Being among the first to enter these markets as they change and emerge from these historical situations is a primary objective in order to capture opportunity. Within this strategy, Frontera's current focus is targeted on exploiting a 'Greater Black Sea' initiative, with a primary focus on its core operations in the country of Georgia.


Tidelands Oil & Gas Corporation owns 20% of Frontera

Dig this:

Frontera Oil Fields, Caucasus

In 2001 the EBRD took possession of Frontera's stake in the project when the US company failed to repay a $ 60 mm loan from the bank. And year later the EBRD has decided to sell its 30 % stake to the Chinese National Petroleum Company.


WHICH TAKES US TO THIS:

JULY 2008 Chinese National Petroleum Company press release:

On July 26, CNPC President Jiang Jiemin had a talk with visiting Russian Deputy Prime Minister lgor Sechin on reinforcing cooperation between the two countries' energy sector.

Mr. Igor Sechin was visiting China at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Wang Qishan to launch an energy resources negotiation mechanism in Beijing.

WHICH LEADS US TO THIS:

2005: CNPC Announced Official Partner Of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

(Beijing, May 30, 2005) - The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) announces that China National Petroleum Corporation has been selected an official partner of the 2008 Beijing Games after the two parties sign an agreement today.

The agreement entitles China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's largest producer and supplier of crude oil and natural gas, to provide funding and services to the Beijing Olympic Games, the Beijing Paralympic Games, BOCOG, the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Chinese sports delegations to the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy and the 2008 Games in Beijing. CNC is the eighth company to join the elite club of the Beijing 2008 partners.

The partnership agreement was signed by Wang Wei, BOCOG's executive vice-president and secretary general, and Duan Wende, vice president of CNPC and vice president of the listed PetroChina, at a high-profile ceremony at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Liu Jingmin, vice mayor of Beijing and BOCOG's executive vice-president, and Chen Geng, president of CNPC and chairman of PetroChina, exchanged souvenirs after the document-signing session.

"We are glad to see CNPC participating in the Beijing Olympic Games as an official partner in the category of crude oil and natural gas," Wang Wei said at the signing ceremony, witnessed by senior officials from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the Chinese State Council, BOCOG, CNPC and representatives from the International Olympic Committee, China's General Administration of Sport and the Chinese Olympic Committee.

[SNIP]

CNPC is one of the world's top 10 oil companies, ranking 52nd on Fortune's Global 500 list in 2004. In China, it is one of the leading companies in the energy sector. For years, CNPC has been the most profitable company in China, and a top contributor to the government's tax revenue.

AUGUST 9th: President of Turkmenistan receives CNPC Chairman

Cordially thanking the Turkmen leader for finding the time to arrive in Beijing that hosted the Olympic Games and the opportunity of a personal meeting the CNPC Chairman focused on the significance attached by China to co-operation with Turkmenistan which was brought up to a higher level nowadays. Mr. Jiang Jiemin said that the Chinese leadership paid special attention to the project on construction of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline of exceptional importance for intensifying intergovernmental collaboration. In this regard the CNPC Chairman said that he was glad to have an opportunity to report the President of Turkmenistan on the progress of this grandiose project and the works to extract oil and establish the relevant infrastructure in the gas fields on the right bank of the Amu Darya River under the Production Sharing Agreement. The Chinese businessmen informed Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov that the works were carried out and the facilities would be put into service according to schedule. The construction of the section of the pipeline crossing the territory of China had been completed. Mr. Jiang Jiemin said that the gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to the People’s Republic of China would have been constructed by the end of 2009. The capacity of the gas pipeline would be 40 billion cubic metres.

Showing satisfaction at this information Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov focused on the importance of this project for diversifying the development of Turkmenistan’s fuel and energy sector and exporting energy resources to the world markets as well as with regard to the significance that Turkmenistan attached to enhancing partnership with China, maintaining and developing the traditions of Turkmen-Chinese friendship. The Turkmen leader reaffirmed Turkmenistan’s adherence to the commitments undertaken noting that the country’s profound energy potential guaranteed the success of the agreement on natural gas export to the People’s Republic of China. The results of the audit of hydrocarbon resources carried on by the British company would be another guarantee of Turkmenistan’s competence as a dependable fuel exporter. The President suggested that the Chinese partners would purchase up to 10 billion cubic metres in addition to 30 billion cubic metres as stipulated by the intergovernmental agreement. The Turkmen leader also called for expanding co-operation with CNPC by implementing new projects, particularly construction gas processing facilities.

The Chinese partners showed keen interests in the President’s proposals and expressed sincere gratitude to the Turkmen leader for the constructive approach to co-operation. Mr. Jiang Jiemin said that the Turkmen leader’s initiatives would be taken into consideration and specified during the talks with the fuel and energy departments of Turkmenistan.

Which leads to THIS:

Putin Lands a Deal for Turkmen Gas

President Vladimir Putin scored a victory for access to Turkmen gas on Saturday, winning approval for a direct pipeline around the Caspian in a major setback to U.S.-backed plans for an alternative route that would bypass Russia.

The new pipeline is due to run from western Turkmenistan along the Caspian shore, pumping billions of cubic meters of gas through Kazakhstan before entering Russia, from where it will likely be exported at great profit.

A triumphant Putin announced the deal after a meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi.

The deal serves a big blow to U.S. and European Union interests. Washington and Brussels have been lobbying hard for a pipeline that would send Turkmen gas to Europe under the Caspian Sea, cutting Moscow out of the picture.

The new pipeline will come as a relief for Gazprom, which relies on Turkmen gas to fulfill its supply contracts as production at home stagnates and energy demand across Europe grows.

Competition for Turkmen gas reserves, estimated by BP's Statistical Review to stand at 2.9 trillion cubic meters, has intensified since the death of President Saparmurat Niyazov in December.

An official agreement would be signed by July, and construction could begin within one year of its signing, Putin said in remarks posted on the Kremlin web site.

Under an agreement signed with Niyazov in 2003, Turkmenistan was committed to ship 50 billion cubic meters of gas to Russia next year, a number due to rise to 80 bcm by the time the agreement runs out in 2028.

Putin said the new pipeline would pump at least 20 bcm of gas annually by 2012, and Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said in Turkmenbashi that the number could eventually reach 30 bcm, Itar-Tass reported.

Officials failed to indicate how much it would cost to build the pipeline, but Itar-Tass cited 2003 estimates placing construction costs at $1 billion. The true cost of the pipeline would likely run much higher, as the prices of materials such as steel have risen drastically in recent years.

Russia, through state-run Gazprom, already imports about 42 bcm of gas per year from Turkmenistan at a price of $100 per 1,000 cubic meters.


It then exports the gas to Europe for an average price of $250 per 1,000 cubic meters, reaping tremendous profit while using domestic reserves to fulfill cheaper supply contracts at home.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, who was accompanying Putin on his trip, said the $100 price for Turkmen gas would last through 2009 and that a new price would be negotiated by July of that year.

The three presidents said they would also expand the capacity of an existing pipeline that currently pumps Turkmen gas to Russia through Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to 90 bcm. Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed off on the deal from Tashkent before the Turkmenbashi summit, Putin said.

Niyazov won key concessions from Putin on oil transit during talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, on Thursday, prompting some analysts to speculate on a possible trade-off for Kazakhstan's approval of the Caspian pipeline project.

Putin said he would drop longstanding objections to expansion of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which carries oil from Kazakhstan's Tengiz field to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. He also agreed to Kazakhstan's participation in the Russian-controlled pipeline from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to Alexandroupolis on the Greek Adriatic.

"We will transport [oil and gas] by whichever route is profitable," Nazarbayev said in Turkmenbashi, news agencies reported.

Putin said the Turkmen leadership had initiated plans for the new Russia-backed Caspian pipeline. "We are opening the Caspian route at the request of Turkmenistan," Putin said, The Associated Press reported.

No other countries would be invited to participate in the pipeline's construction, he added. "It's enough to have three countries," he said.

The deal will likely further put off discussion of a trans-Caspian pipeline that would ship Turkmen gas under the Caspian Sea to Baku. Azerbaijan and then on to Europe, Russian officials and analysts said.

"Existing technical, legal, environmental and other risks relating to the trans-Caspian project are so great that it would be impossible to find an investor," Khristenko said, remarks posted on the Kremlin web site showed.

"Unless this is a political project, and then it does not matter what would be inside the pipeline as long as it exists," he said.

Berdymukhammedov said consideration of the alternative route was still "on the table," Russian news agencies reported.

The Turkmen leadership has promised to build a gas pipeline to China, and Berdymukhammedov said the country was also considering routes to Afghanistan and India.

"Don't worry, there is enough [gas]," he said, Reuters reported.

Turkmenistan, largely closed to the outside world during Niyazov's rule, has refused to allow any independent assessment of its gas reserves and claims closer to 10 times the figure put forward by BP.

"If these claims are substantiated and if the Turkmens find investors to produce this gas, the possibility of the trans-Caspian pipeline remains on the table," said Valery Nesterov, an analyst at Troika Dialog.

Both the Odessa-Brody pipeline in Ukraine and the Nabucco pipeline, planned to carry gas from the Caspian to Austria, were approved despite Russian objections, he noted.

The EU, supported by the United States, has been pushing to reduce its reliance on Russian gas amid concerns over Moscow's ability to wield its energy power for political ends.

Nesterov said politics would win out. "If politicians really have a strong desire to get more gas that would bypass Russia, they could offer to incur some financial losses and risks," he said.

Putin moved to reassure critics on Saturday, saying: "We take our responsibility in the world energy supply very seriously."

Putin wrapped up his three-day visit to Turkmenistan on Sunday, flying to the Caspian port of Aktau, the center of Kazakhstan's booming oil industry. He was due to hold further talks with Nazarbayev before flying back to Moscow on Tuesday.

(The Moscow Times 14.v.07)
There's about 666 TA DA's in here somewhere mah Ferals..... also notice in the below how they are only bombing the pipeline that British Petroleum is the major owner of:

FROM POWERLINE:

War In Georgia: The Oil Angle

News reports indicate that Russia may have tried to bomb the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through Georgia. If so, the bombs missed, and flow of oil through the pipeline was not interrupted. The BTC pipeline runs from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey; note Russia to the north and Iran to the south:

The BTC pipeline runs through Georgia, well south of South Ossetia:


Read the rest: The Devil Went Down to Georgia ~ Part I: Oilympics


by Babba Zee
The Devil Went Down to Georgia ~ Part I: Oilympics
images: Outraged Spleen of Zion

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
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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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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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Friday, March 14, 2008

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 14 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, PATENTS, IMMIGRATION, LEVIATHAN, GUILTY, NOT GUILTY, SPIES, POLITICS, JEWS, TOP TEN, NICE GUYS, CLINTONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


TOP TEN

1950 FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" program begins.

WAR!

1951 During the Korean War, United Nations forces recaptured Seoul.

TERRORISM

1991 a British court overturned the convictions of the "Birmingham Six," who had spent 16 years in prison for an Irish Republican Army bombing, and ordered them released.

2007 The Pentagon released the transcript of a military hearing in which Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said he "was responsible for the 9/11 operation from A to Z."

DISASTER

1940 27 killed, 15 injured when truck full of migrant workers collides with a train outside McAllen TX.

1960 14 die in a train crash in Bakersfield CA.

1980 A Polish airliner crashed while making an emergency landing near Warsaw, killing all 87 people aboard, including 22 members of a U.S. amateur boxing team.

1997 Iranian military plane crashes, killing 80.

1998 An earthquake killed at least five people and left some 10,000 homeless in southeastern Iran.

NICE GUYS

1983 OPEC cut oil prices for 1st time in 23 years.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1968 CBS TV suspends Radio Free Europe free advertising because RFE doesn't make it clear it is sponsored by the CIA.

PATENTS

1794 Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America's cotton industry.

NOT GUILTY

2003 Actor Robert Blake was released from jail on $1.5 million bail, 11 months after he was arrested on charges of murdering his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. (Blake was later acquitted at trial.)

IMMIGRATION

1907 President Theodore Roosevelt signed an executive order designed to prevent Japanese laborers from immigrating to the United States as part of a "gentlemen's agreement" with Japan.

CLINTONS

1997 President Clinton trips & tears up his knee requiring surgery.

LEVIATHAN

1923 President Harding became the first chief executive to file an income tax return.

1971 The Rolling Stones leave England for France to escape taxes.

JEWS

1965 Israeli cabinet approves diplomatic relations with West Germany.

GUILTY

1964 A jury in Dallas found Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy.

POLITICS

1629 England granted a royal charter to Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1644 England grants patent for Providence Plantations (now Rhode Island).

SPIES

2003 Christopher Boyce, whose Cold War spying was immortalized on film in "The Falcon and the Snowman," was released from a halfway house in San Francisco after a quarter-century in prison.

BORN

1879 Albert Einstein Ulm Germany, (E=mc²/Theory of Relativity, Nobel 1921).

BIRTHDAYS

Former astronaut Frank Borman is 80. Singer Phil Phillips is 77. Actor Michael Caine is 75. Composer-conductor Quincy Jones is 75. Former astronaut Eugene Cernan is 74. Actor Raymond J. Barry is 69. Movie director Wolfgang Petersen is 67. Country singer Michael Martin Murphey is 63. Rock musician Walt Parazaider (Chicago) is 63. Actor Steve Kanaly is 62. Comedian Billy Crystal is 60. Country singer Jann Browne is 54. Actor Adrian Zmed is 54. Prince Albert II, the ruler of Monaco, is 50. Actress Tamara Tunie is 49. Actress Penny Johnson Jerald is 47. Producer-director-writer Kevin Williamson is 43. Actor Gary Anthony Williams is 42. Actress Megan Follows is 40. Rock musician Michael Bland is 39. Country singer Kristian Bush is 38. Rock musician Derrick (Jimmie's Chicken Shack) is 36. Actor Jake Fogelnest is 29. Actor Chris Klein is 29. Actress Kate Maberly is 26. Singer-musician Taylor Hanson (Hanson) is 25. Actor Jamie Bell is 22.

DEATH

1883 German political philosopher Karl Marx died in London.

1932 George Eastman US industrialist (Kodak-camera), suicide at 77.

1961 Akiba Rubinstein Polish chess player (opening theorist), dies at 78.

March 14, the 74th day of 2008. There are 292 days left in the year.


compiled by Mondoreb
image: morning-calm
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 13, 2008

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

Then...


ICONS

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

...and later


WAR!

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

DISASTER

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

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

1961 Landslide in USSR, kills 145.

1992 570 die in a Turkish earthquake.

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

ATTEMPTS

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

PATENTS

1887 Chester Greenwood of Maine patents earmuffs.

DEALS

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

CLIMATE

1888 Great Blizzard of 1888 rages.

1993 Blizzard of '93 hits north-east US.

INVENTIONS

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

ASSASSINATION

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

NAZIS

1933 Josef Göbbels becomes German minister of Information & Propaganda.

1938 Anschluß-Austria annexed by Nazi Germany.

TRIALS

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

SCIENCE

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

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

JEWS

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

1951 Israel demands DM 6.2 billion compensation from Germany.

MURDER

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

RESIGNING

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

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

POLITICALLY CORRECT

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

TRAGEDY

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

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

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

ABORTION

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

BORN

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

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

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

BIRTHDAYS

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

DEATH

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

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

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

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

Monday, March 10, 2008

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 10, 2008

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


PROGRESS

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

WAR!

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

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

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

TERRORISM

1982 President Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya.

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

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

DISASTER

1902 Earthquake destroys Turkish city of Tochangri.

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

1939 17 villages damaged by hailstones in Hyderabad India.

1946 Train derailment kills 185 near Aracaju Brazil.

CANCEL

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

PATENTS

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

1975 Dog spectacles patented in England.

WHAT IF?

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

NANNY STATE

1933 Nevada becomes 1st US state to regulate narcotics.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

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

FUNERALS

1994 1 million Greeks attend Melina Mercouri's funeral.

CHIX R DIX

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

BOWLING

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

FINANCE

1995 Dow-Jones hits record 4035.64.

DIPLOMACY

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

ARMY

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

TREASON

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

MURDER

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

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

JEWS

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

BORN

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

1918 Heywood Hale Broun journalist.

1920 Jethro Burns country singer (Homer & Jethro).

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

BIRTHDAYS

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

DEATH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, March 7, 2008

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 7, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, POLITICS, PATENTS, PROGRESS, COMING WAR, ASSASSINATION, PRONOUNCEMENTS, JAZZ, LABOR, PRO WRESTLING, SPORTS, JEWS, OH NO, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, HEALTH NAZIS, CIVIL RIGHTS,BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


GAMES

1933 Game of "Monopoly" invented.

WAR!

1945 during World War II, U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany, using the damaged but still usable Ludendorff Bridge.

1991 Iraq continues to explode oil fields in Kuwait.

TERRORISM

1981 anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman, whom they accused of being a CIA agent.

2007 A suicide attacker blew himself up in a cafe northeast of Baghdad, killing 30 people.

DISASTER

2007 Ten people were killed in the Bronx, N.Y., when fire tore through their home.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1965 A march by civil rights demonstrators was broken up in Selma, Ala., by state troopers and a sheriff's posse.

PRONOUNCEMENTS

1908 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before city council & announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles".

SPORTS

1955 Baseball commissioner Ford Frick says he favors legalization of the spitter.

PRO WRESTLING

1940 Ray Steele beats B Nagurski in St Louis, to become wrestling champion.

HEALTH NAZIS

1997 5 sue Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, because his smoking has violated the country's constitution guaranteeing a wholesome life.

OH NO

1981 1st homicide at Disneyland, 18 year old is stabbed to death.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1993 Diff'rent Stroke actor Todd Bridges arrested for stabbing a tenant.

JAZZ

1917 1st jazz record "Dixie Jazz Band One Step", recorded by Nick LaRocca Original Dixieland Jazz Band, released by RCA Victor in Camden NJ.

LABOR

1932 Riots at Ford-factory Dearborn MI, kills 4.

1967 Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa begins 8-year jail sentence at Lewisburg Federal Prison for defrauding the union & jury tampering (commuted Dec 23, 1971).

KILLERS

2007 Sex offender John Evander Couey was found guilty in Miami of kidnapping, raping and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was buried alive.

POLITICS

1850 In a 3-hour speech to the U.S. Senate, Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a means of preserving the Union.

1975 The Senate revised its filibuster rule, allowing 60 senators to limit debate in most cases, instead of the previously required two-thirds of senators present.

PATENTS

1854 Charles Miller patents 1st US sewing machine to stitch buttonholes

1876 Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for his telephone.

PROGRESS

1926 The first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversations took place, between New York and London.

JEWS

1977 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin meets President Carter.

COMING WAR

1774 British close port of Boston to all commerce.

1936 Adolf Hitler ordered his troops to march into the Rhineland, thereby breaking the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact.

1998 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking in Rome, said the U.S. wouldn't tolerate any more violence in Kosovo, which she blamed on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

ASSASSINATION

1951 Ali Razmara Shah of Iran (1950-51), assassinated.

BORN

1849 horticulturist Luther Burbank was born in Lancaster, Mass.

BIRTHDAYS

Comedian Alan Sues is 82. Photographer Lord Snowdon is 78. TV personality Willard Scott is 74. Auto racer Janet Guthrie is 70. Actor Daniel J. Travanti is 68. Former Walt Disney Co. chief executive officer Michael Eisner is 66. Rock musician Chris White (The Zombies) is 65. Actor John Heard is 62. Rock singer Peter Wolf is 62. Rock musician Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum) is 62. Football Hall of Famer Franco Harris is 58. Football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann is 56. Rhythm-and-blues singer-musician Ernie Isley (The Isley Brothers) is 56. Actor Bryan Cranston is 52. Actress Donna Murphy is 49. Actor Nick Searcy is 49. Tennis Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl is 48. Actor Bill Brochtrup is 45. Opera singer Denyce Graves is 44. Comedian Wanda Sykes is 44. Singer-actress Taylor Dayne is 43. Rock musician Randy Guss (Toad the Wet Sprocket) is 41. Actor Peter Sarsgaard is 37. Actress Rachel Weisz is 37. Classical singer Sebastien Izambard (Il Divo) is 35. Rock singer Hugo Ferreira (Tantric) is 34. Actress Jenna Fischer is 34. Actress Audrey Marie Anderson is 33. Actress Laura Prepon is 28.

DEATH

322 -BC- Aristotle dies.

1959 Hinsdale Smith developer of roll-down auto windows, dies at 88.

1985 Victor W Farris inventor of paper milk carton, etc, dies.

1988 Divine [Harris Glenn Milstead] transvestite actor (Hairspray, Polyester, Pink Flamingos), dies in Los Angeles at 42.

1999 movie director Stanley Kubrick died in Hertfordshire, England, at age 70.

March 7, the 67th day of 2008. There are 299 days left in the year.

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

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