DBKP Today in Weird History: February 28, 2008

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

POLICE STATE

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

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

WAR!

1847 US defeats México in battle of Sacramento.

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

TERRORISM

1982 FALN (PR Nationalist Group) bombs Wall Street.

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

DISASTER

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

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

1888 Ferry in San Pablo Bay explodes.

1956 13 die in a train crash in Swampscott MA.

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

1997 Earthquake in Pakistan, kills 45.

SLEEPING

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

EXODUS

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

SEALS

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

SMOOTH

1935 Nylon discovered by Dr Wallace H Carothers.

POGROMS

1988 Anti-Armenian pogrom in Azerbaijan, 30 killed.

KILLER WHALES

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

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

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

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

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

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

POPULATION

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

SPIES

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

DRUG WAR

1990 Dutch police seize 3,000 kg of cocaine.

NAZIS

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

GOLD!

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

WITCHES

1692 Salem witch hunt begins.

PROGRESS

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

1970 Bicycles permitted to cross Golden Gate Bridge.

POLITICS

1854 Republican Party formally organized at Ripon WI.

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

1861 The Territories of Colorado and Nevada organized.

1961 JFK names Henry Kissinger special advisor.

MAFIA

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

PATENTS

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

1956 Forrester issued a patent for computer core memory.

SHOOT-OUTS

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

NANNY STATE

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

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

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

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

ATHEISTS

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

REVOLT

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

ECONOMY

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

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

SCIENCE

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

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

ASSASSINATION

1908 Failed assassination attempt on Shah Mohammed Ali in Teheran.

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

BORN

1824 Charles Blondin France, acrobat/aerialist.

1928 Smokey The Bear.

1943 Donny Iris, singer.

BIRTHDAYS

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

DEATH

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

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

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

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

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

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 10, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, WEDDINGS, POLITICS, MAN Vs. MACHINE, CLINTONS, COMMIES, REPEAL, GOLD, THEATRE, SWAP, DEMOCRATS, NUDITY, WONDER DOG, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, PROGRESS, JEWS, CARTOONS, SKI, CONTAMINATED, PRO WRESTLING, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



1933 Delivery of 1st singing telegram (Postal Telegram Company NYC).

WAR!

1763 Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years' War.

2003 France, Germany and Belgium jointly vetoed a U.S.-backed measure to authorize NATO to make plans to protect Turkey if Iraq attacked it. Iraq agreed to allow U-2 surveillance flights over its territory, meeting a key demand by U.N. inspectors searching for banned weapons; President Bush, however, brushed aside Iraqi concessions as too little, too late.

2007 Gen. David Petraeus took charge of U.S. forces in Iraq.

DISASTERS

1883 Fire at un-insured New Hall Hotel in Milwaukee WI, kills 71.

1942 The former French liner Normandie capsized in New York Harbor a day after it caught fire while being refitted for the U.S. Navy.

1959 Tornado in St Louis kills 19 & injures 265.

1964 Australian destroyer "Voyager" sinks in collision, killing 82.

1970 Dry powder avalanche moving at 120 mph smashes into youth hostel killing 40 Belgian, French, & German youths (Val d'Isere, France).

1973 83 meter wide gas tank on Staten Island NY explodes, crushing 40.

1981 8 killed & 198 injured by fire at Las Vegas Hilton.

WONDER DOG

1998 Buddy the Wonder Dog dog (Air Bud), dies of cancer at 9.

NUDITY

1535 12 nude Anabaptists run through Amsterdam streets.

CLINTONS

1998 Monica Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis, testified before the grand jury investigating her daughter's relationship with President Clinton.

SKI

1982 28 skiers perform backflips while holding hands, Bromont Québec.

PRO WRESTLING

1989 To gain deregulation WWF admits pro wrestling is an exhibition & not a sport, in a New Jersey court.

1990 6th Largest wrestling crowd (63,900-Tokyo Dome).

CONTAMINATED

1990 Perrier Water pulls product from shelf due to benzene in water.

COMMIES

2003 A Chinese court convicted U.S.-based dissident Wang Bingzhang on spying and terrorism charges and sentenced him to life in prison.

POLITICS

1841 Upper Canada and Lower Canada were proclaimed united under an Act of Union passed by the British Parliament.

1967 The 25th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified as Minnesota and Nevada adopted it.

2007 2007 Barack Obama announced his bid for president, telling thousands at the campaign's kickoff in Springfield, Ill.: "Let us transform this nation."

REPEAL

1998 Voters in Maine become the first to repeal a state gay rights law.

CARTOONS

1940 Tom & Jerry created by Hanna & Barbera debut by MGM.

JEWS

1934 1st Jewish immigrant ship to break the English blockade in Palestine.

1977 Yehonathan Netanyou Lane in the Bronx named in honor of Bronx-born Israeli soldier who died freeing hostages in Entebbe Raid (1976).

1997 Lemrick Nelson found guilty in the fatal stabbing on Hasidic Jew Yankel Rosenbaum in Crown Heights Brooklyn in 1991.

EXECUTIONS

1495 Sir William Stanley English lord chamberlain, executed for conspiracy.

WEDDINGS

1840 Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

1863 PT Barnum stages wedding of Tom Thumb & Mercy Lavinia Warren (New York NY).

MAN Vs. MACHINE

1996 After three hours, world chess champion Gary Kasparov loses the first game of a six-game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer capable of evaluating 200 million moves per second. Man was ultimately victorious over machine, however, as Kasparov bested Deep Blue in the match with three wins and two ties and took home the $400,000 prize. An estimated 6 million people worldwide followed the action on the Internet.

Kasparov had previously defeated Deep Thought, the prototype for Deep Blue developed by IBM researchers in 1989, but he and other chess grandmasters had, on occasion, lost to computers in games that lasted an hour or less. The February 1996 contest was significant in that it represented the first time a human and a computer had duked it out in a regulation, six-game match, in which each player had two hours to make 40 moves, two hours to finish the next 20 moves and then another 60 minutes to wrap up the game.

MURDER

1567 Lord Darnley Stuart husband of English queen Mary, murdered.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1897 New York Times begins using slogan "All the News That's Fit to Print".

GOLD

1942 RCA Victor presented Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with a "gold record" for their recording of "Chattanooga Choo Choo," which had sold more than 1 million copies.

THEATRE

1949 Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" opened at Broadway's Morosco Theater with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman.

SWAP

1962 The Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

DEMOCRATS

1989 Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first black to head a major U.S. political party.

BORN

1890 Boris L Pasternak Russia, novelist/poet (Dr Zhivago, Nobel 1958).

1893 Jimmy Durante New York NY, long-nosed comedian (and good-night Mrs Calabash).

1906 Lon Chaney Jr Oklahoma City OK, actor (Dracula vs. Frankenstein, The Phantom, Hawkeye, Pistols 'n' Petticoats).

BIRTHDAYS

Opera singer Leontyne Price is 81. Actor Robert Wagner is 78. Singer Roberta Flack is 71. Singer Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 68. Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 58. Country singer Lionel Cartwright is 48. Movie director Alexander Payne ("Sideways") is 47. ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos is 47. Actress Laura Dern is 41. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 36. Actress Elizabeth Banks is 34. Pop singer Rosanna Taverez (Eden's Crush) is 31. Country musician Jeremy Baxter (Carolina Rain) is 28. Rock singer Eric Dill (The Click Five) is 26. Rock musician Ben Romans (The Click Five) is 26. Actress Emma Roberts is 17. Actress Makenzie Vega is 14. Actress Chloe Moretz is 11.

DEATH

1957 Laura Ingalls Wilder US author (Little House on Prarie), dies at 90.

2003 President Nixon's press secretary, Ron Ziegler, died in Coronado, Calif., at the age of 63.

2003 Former Minnesota Congressman Clark MacGregor, who'd led the Nixon re-election campaign in 1972, died in Pompano Beach, Fla., at age 80.

2005 Playwright Arthur Miller died in Roxbury, Conn., at age 89 on the 56th anniversary of the Broadway opening of his "Death of a Salesman."

February 10, the 41st day of 2008. There are 325 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image:
Sources:
* Today in History
* This Day in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in History: January 24, 2008

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



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

WAR!

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

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

TERRORISM

1977 5 lawyers murdered by fascist in Madrid.

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

DISASTERS

1939 30,000 killed by earthquake in Concepcion Chile.

1993 Polish ferry boat John Heweliusz sinks, 52 killed.

QUITTERS

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

BEER

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

BUCKETS

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

PATENTS

1899 Rubber heel patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan.

SOCIETIES

1839 Charles Darwin elected member of Royal Society.

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

GOLD

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

SNACKS

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

NAMES

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

TELESCOPES

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

APPLE

1984 Apple Computer Inc unveils its Macintosh personal computer.

LOOK OUT

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

CHECK

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

PRO WRESTLING

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

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

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

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

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

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

POLITICIANS

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

JEWS

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

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

SCIENCE

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

MURDER

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

HEART ATTACK

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

STOCKS

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

BEATEN

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

ASSASSINATIONS

1639 George Jenatsch Grisons leader, assassinated.

EXECUTIONS

1547 Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, executed for treason.

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

POPES

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

BUREAUCRACY

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

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

SPORTS

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

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

BORN

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

BIRTHDAYS

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

DEATH

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

1965 Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.

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

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

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

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.