Not So Great Britain: Mastering the Broom and Binge Drinkers

The Weekly United Kingdom Insanity Report
The Nanny State: Off The Tracks
pat



Time again for DBKP's weekly review of the Not So Great Britain, the poster child for the endgame of Political Correctness. The United Kingdom demonstrates with clarity what happens when wishful thinking becomes a cornerstone of government.

Tens of thousands of years of common sense--mixed in with 300 years of civil authority and enlightened humanitarian philosophy--disappear without a trace when the left pushes forward a political agenda concocted in the minds of silly, delusional academics and politicians who view society as the enemy.

First, the whimsical safety concerns of the Nanny State.

Ridiculous' health and safety rules tell carpenters to ban the broom

Yep. The broom is a bit too dangerous for the workplace. The proper use of the broom seems to be something the modern construction worker may not be able to master, at least in Britain.

According to The Telegraph:
Carpenters and woodworkers have been told not to use brooms to sweep up sawdust because they are considered dangerous under "ridiculous" new health and safety guidelines.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) claims that sweeping up wood chippings in dusty workplaces can provoke asthma attacks and long term exposure lead to nose cancer.

Instead they are advising carpentry firms to buy state-of-the-art vacuum cleaners and air purification systems which can cost thousands of pounds.

So, not even the ShopVac will do.

No sir. The government needs the workplace to have a vacuum cleaner with an air purification system. Of course, it is not the government's money, so who cares?

The carpenters, it seems.

The boss of a joinery firm in Tayside, Scotland - who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of more health and safety checks - said: "I've been using a broom since Jesus's old man was a carpenter.

"This advice it totally off the wall. Industrial vacuum cleaners are expensive and they aren't nearly as good as an apprentice armed with a stiff-bristled brush."

Anonymous is a famous commentator in Britain

Unlike here in the American press, Mr and Mrs Anonymous actually exist in Britain. They are a terrified couple, scared of many things, but foremost of all, their own government.

Taking up his side of things, we reviewed Mr Anonymous' argument. Let us start with the nose cancer scare. Fortunately, nose cancer is extraordinarily rare. And fortunately--and overwhelmingly--nose cancer is associated with smoking.

So, unless one needs to smoke while sweeping, the chance that sweeping will cause nose cancer is remote. Note to regulators: need workplace sign.

No Smoking While Sweeping Wood Shavings


There are rare and unspecified associations with some metals and chemicals--none of which are common--in wood, even treated wood. As for asthma, that is more problematic. Each individual has a unique asthmatic allergenic trigger. If wood dust, even if that of a particular species of tree, sets off the same, then carpentry is the wrong trade.

Sorry.

Get out now. Because the fancy vacuum cleaner ain't going to make a whit of difference.

It may kill you.

The latter because these vacuum cleaners require emptying and cleaning. And the HEPA [high-efficiency particulate air] filters, the secondary filters and the tank expose the operator to incredible amounts of allergens--far more than the wood shavings that so scare the British authorities.

Which is why many households with asthmatics leave the vacuuming to more allergen-tolerant household members.

It is a shame that this attention to safety and health was not in play in 2005. That is when the boneheads that run Britain basically deregulated drinking. This again is one of those academic exercises that has crashed into the wall of reality.

We here at DBKP are a libertarian crew, but commonsense has a place in life.

But not in the United Kingdom.

Dead at 24: The tragic story of how a young girl's life was wrecked by cheap alcohol

Lying in a hospital bed, 24-year-old Stacey Rhymes cuddles a childhood toy before putting out an arm to her mother.

'Hold my hand, Mum,' she whispers, then slips into a coma. A few hours later, on a spring afternoon earlier this year, the girl with a whole life ahead of her was dead.

The once radiantly pretty Stacey had drunk herself to death on cut-price bottles of wine bought from corner shops, supermarkets and local pubs. She had started drinking at 17 and seven years later her body simply gave up under the constant assault from alcohol.

Losing control: Stacey's alcohol-related illness takes its hold

Her mother, Louise, says: 'I now want the world to know exactly what happened to Stacey and why. It was a terrible way to go.

'Her stomach was like a balloon, as if she was nine months pregnant. Her long hair was falling out, her urine was coloured black and she could not eat. She was scared to look in the mirror because her eyes were canary yellow. The only way to stop the pain at the end was morphine.'

The story of Stacey Rhymes is a salutary one: she is one of the youngest people in modern Britain to die of alcohol abuse. And her mother, speaking for the first time, is determined that the loss of her daughter will not be in vain.

This is insanity.

Drinking is now allowed 24 hours-a-day throughout the country. The streets are crawling with drunks. The social stigma of being publicly drunk has been replaced with a alcoholic bravado. And the Brits are killing the youth of the nation--not to mention productivity and civility

Since the relaxation of licensing laws in November 2005 - which allowed round-the-clock sales of drink in pubs, clubs, shops and supermarkets - the cost to the nation both socially and financially has been huge. Coupled with low prices for alcohol, there is now an orgy of drunkenness that rivals the gin epidemic of early Victorian times..The facts are stark. The numbers dying from alcohol-related health problems is rising. In 1999, there were 4,000 deaths. Today, the figure has doubled, with the age of the victims going down, too. Hospitals admit for emergency treatment more than 9,000 drunken teenagers every year.....Cases of liver cirrhosis in 20 to 30-year-olds - who often started drinking as children - have doubled in less than a decade.

Many Europeans and Asians consider America's take on alcohol quaint. In most cities in the USA, bottle liquor sales must stop between 10:00PM and midnight. Bars must close by 2:00 AM. Dance clubs and private clubs by 4:00 AM.

Many states only allow the sale of alcohol through state-controlled stores. Some prohibit open bars and the sale of alcohol on certain days. Some towns are dry, requiring a drive to get booze. The drinking age is a uniform 21 and underage drinking is severely punished, usually with the inability of the malefactor to get a driver's license. Most States consider the provision of alcohol to one's own child a serious offense.

These quaint laws serve a purpose: they emphasize that drinking is a State concern, as is public drunkenness. They also provide a cooling-off period. Someone on a binge, will most certainly lose the ability to get more booze. These regulated hours provide a sleep period--a time out, if you will--both for the tippler and society: a time when many will sober up, when many will lose the gang mentality of drinking as they go to different addresses to sleep the booze off.

We remember when the pubs of Scotland closed at 10:00PM and those of England at 11:00PM. Something poor Stacey needed badly.

Yet this is not the only catastrophic side-effect [of open drinking hours]. The Cabinet Office admits the real cost of drinking is £20billion a year if you include suicides, alcohol-fuelled crime, anti-social behaviour, depressive illness, family breakdown and domestic violence. Only this month, the Local Government Association - representing councils - warned the 24-hour drinking plan to emulate a European style cafe-culture in Britain had failed miserably.

Stacey's mother is devastated. She has established an Internet site at Facebook as a warning to young drinkers. But it is Britain that needs the lesson: a lesson in what is important and what is just plain stupid.




by pat
images:
* meetup
* dot state
* daily mail
* daily mail
Sources:
* http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2307275/%27Ridiculous%27-health-and-safety-rules-tell-carpenters-to-ban-the-broom.html
* http://www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=13796
* http://www.emedicinehealth.com/asthma/page2_em.htm#Asthma%20Causes
* http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1036399/Dead-24-The-tragic-story-young-girls-life-wrecked-cheap-alcohol.html

Britain: Nanny State Descends into Police State

MORE British Insanity
Mother Needs Criminal Record Check Before Accompanying Epileptic Son to School




The Brits are entering the terminal stages of The Nanny State. While their streets are awash in criminals, the schools failing, the Health Care system on the respirator, and Islam on the verge of being the new royalty, the Brits have redoubled their efforts to make life more difficult for British families.

From the Daily Mail. (How do they find this stuff? Hotline?)

"Mother stopped from travelling with son in taxi to school - because she hasn't had a criminal record check"


Yep. In Britain a mother must have a criminal background check to accompany her child in a taxi to school.

And not just any child: an epileptic boy who could die without the assistance of his mother--and he would. British law prohibits the cab driver from assisting with the administration of medicine. From the story:

Accompanying her son to school is no routine family chore for Jayne Jones - it is a matter of life or death.

For 14-year-old Alex is severely epileptic and only his parents know how to operate the specialist equipment to help him if he suffers a life-threatening fit.But that has not stopped Mrs Jones being barred from travelling in the taxi provided by the council to take Alex the five miles to school. Her offence? Not to have had a Criminal Records Bureau check.

But only Mrs Jones and husband Malcolm, 42, who have another son Lucas, aged eight, are trained to use it. And as Mr Jones needs the family car to get to work - and Alex's taxi drivers cannot use the equipment should he need it - Mrs Jones needs to be able to travel with Alex to Greenfield special school in Merthyr Tydfil.

So the authorities were sympathetic, right?

Wrong.

They frankly did not give a damn. As in, they did not care. Simply, they could not grasp the fact that the women who cared for this child for 17 years could be trusted for a 15-minute taxi ride. In fact, in the infuriating, idiotic, Nazi-like responses we have come to expect from anyone in Britain who has even a scent of authority we get the following:

'For the protection of the council and all vulnerable persons in its care it's essential all those endowed with an authority, implicit or explicit, should meet the security requirements within the transport contract provisions.'

The Daily Mail was no more amused than DBKP. A consulted expert points out:

A recent study has warned that the rapid spread of child protection checks and health and safety rules has 'poisoned' relations between adults and children and left youngsters at greater risk.

It said CRB checks and the rise in other regulation have fuelled an atmosphere of suspicion and left adults afraid to intervene or take responsibility.

Yes. We see that. And we see that Britain is turning into a strange Police State where civil servants are neither civil nor servants.



by pat
images: telegraph; DBKP.com
Source:
* http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034024/Mother-stopped-travelling-son-taxi-school--criminal-record-check.html?ITO=1490

Nanny State: Squeezing the Zest for Life out of Britain

Nanny State Only Has a Zest for Bossing People Around

The primary goal of the Nanny State appears to be to make life so uncomfortable and colorless for the citizens, that they fail to understand how uncomfortable life has become. For example,

Living in Britain is now more dangerous than the Balkans

"You are more likely to be assaulted, robbed and burgled in Britain than in the region of southeast Europe once synonymous with war and gangsters, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime."

So the Police are applying themselves to the protection of society, right? 

Wrong!

5.7% of  rapists get convicted. Why?  Because the wonderful Police of Britains have decided that it is not a serious crime. Women are more casual about sex, you see. 

Or so the authorities opine.

"After Linda Davies reported to police that her 15-year-old daughter had been raped, it took three months -- plus two dozen phone calls and a threat of legal action -- before police questioned the suspect, a 28-year-old neighbor. " 

And note, we are not talking about consensual or statutory rape here. 

The Brits have reacted vigorously to the increasingly dangerous society they have created. They have disarmed their citizens so as to not provoke the criminals.The streets of Britain are now crowded with gangs of drunken yobs that are slowly turning UK cities into something out of Clockwork Orange. Travelers are warned not to look at anyone and not to leave your hotel after 11:00 PM. Stay out of Muslim neighborhoods.

So How Does Britain Respond?:

Brave grandma arrested after standing up to yobs

"After months of being taunted by a gang of yobs, grandmother Diane Bond finally stood up to them when she was abused while walking her pet dog. During a torrent of foul-mouthed abuse, the frail 64-year-old prodded the teenager ringleader gently in the stomach when he urged her to "Hit me, if you dare".

Moments later, the 5ft 1ins pensioner found herself flat on her back and nursing a broken arm after the 15-year-old boy, who was 7 inches taller, pushed her to the ground. But to add insult to injury, police officers arrested her for assaulting a child after his mother moaned he had been attacked."

But the vigilance of the UK police does not end there. Not by any means.

Motorist told  England's flag could be racist!

"Mr Smith, who works for G Plan Upholsterers on Hampton Park West, said: "He saw the flag and said it was racist towards immigrants and if I refused to take it down I would get a £30 fine.

"I laughed because I thought he was joking, but then I realised he was serious so I had to take it down straight away. I thought it was silly - it's my country and I want to show my support for my country."

Silly boy. 

This is not your country. It is a Nanny State, run by petty tyrant's with no concern for the outdated concept of individual rights. 

And to ensure the Police actually have something important to do, new laws are created everyday.

Coloured cigarette packets to be banned

Hence forth all cigarette packages will be same black and white print. No colored cigarette packages for the Brits.

You see, in Britain, individuality and color kills.

by pat

Sources:
* Living in Britain More Dangerous than the Balkans

* Motorist told Flag could be Racist
* Colored cigarette packs to be banned

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

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

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.

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 6, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, CITIES, LAST STAND, SUPREME COURT, FREE, COMMIES, SENSATIONAL CRIME, POLITICALLY CORRECT, LOTTO, BOOTED, JEWS, SPOOKY, NANNY STATE, LOSER, MUSIC, HEADACHES, LOUD, PREMATURE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

HEADACHES

1899 "Aspirin" patented by Felix Hoffmann of Bayer. It soon replaces the company's best-selling drug, heroin. From 1898 through to 1910 heroin was marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough medicine for children. Bayer marketed heroin as a cure for morphine addiction before it was discovered that heroin is converted to morphine when metabolized in the liver, and as such, "heroin" was basically only a quicker acting form of morphine.

WAR!

1861 Provisionary Confederate Congress establishes Confederate Army

1944 U.S. heavy bombers staged the first full-scale American raid on Berlin during World War II.

2003 A somber President Bush readied the nation for war against Saddam Hussein, hurling some of his harshest invectives yet at the Iraqi leader during a prime-time news conference.

TERRORISM

1978 Hustler publisher Larry Flynt shot & crippled by a sniper in Georgia.

1988 3 IRA suspects were shot dead in Gibraltar by SAS officers.

2007 Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Hillah, Iraq, killing at least 120 people in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims.

DISASTER

1987 6.8 earthquake hits Ecuador, kills 100. Belgium ferry boat "Herald of Free Enterprise" capsizes/sinks; 192 die.

2007 More than 70 people died in an earthquake on Sumatra island, Indonesia.

NANNY STATE

1921 Police in Sunbury PA issue an edict requiring Women to wear skirts at least 4 inches below the knee.

LOSER

1974 An Italian loses a record $1,920,000 at roulette in Monte Carlo.

BOOTED

1831 Edgar Allen Poe removed from West Point military academy.

SPOOKY

1918 US naval collier "Cyclops" disappears in Bermuda Triangle.

LOUD

1982 Susan Birmingham makes loudest recorded human shout (120 dB).

MUSIC

1966 Barry Sadlers' "Ballad of the Green Berets" becomes #1 (13 weeks).

SUPREME COURT

1857 The United States Supreme Court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sandford that Scott, a slave, was not a U.S. citizen and could not sue for his freedom in federal court.

PREMATURE

1991 Following Iraq's capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, President Bush told Congress that "aggression is defeated; The war is over".

CITIES

In 1834, the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.

LAST STAND

In 1836, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege.

LOTTO

1998 A Connecticut state lottery accountant shot to death three supervisors and the lottery chief before killing himself.

POLITICS

2003 Democrats blocked President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to a federal appeals court.

2007 Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

FREE

1957 the former British African colonies of the Gold Coast and Togoland became the independent state of Ghana.

COMMIES

1967 The daughter of Josef Stalin, Svetlana Alliluyeva, appeared at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, and declared her intention to defect to the West.

SENSATIONAL CRIME

1983 In a case that drew much notoriety, a young woman was gang-raped atop a pool table in a tavern in New Bedford, Mass., called Big Dan's; four men were later convicted of the attack.

POLITICALLY CORRECT

1988 the board of trustees at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., a liberal arts college for the deaf, selected Elisabeth Zinser, a hearing woman, to be school president. (Outraged students shut down the campus, forcing selection of a deaf president, I. King Jordan, instead.)

JEWS

1816 Jews are expelled from Free city of Lubeck Germany.

BORN

1475 Michelangelo Buonarroti painter/sculptor/architect (David, Pièta).

1619 Cyrano de Bergerac famous nose, dramatist (A Voyage to the Moon).

BIRTHDAYS

Orchestra conductor Julius Rudel is 87. TV personality Ed McMahon is 85. Former FBI and CIA director William Webster is 84. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 82. Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez is 81. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is 71. Country singer Doug Dillard is 71. Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., is 69. Actress-writer Joanna Miles is 68. Actor Ben Murphy is 66. Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is 64. Singer Mary Wilson (The Supremes) is 64. Rock musician Hugh Grundy (The Zombies) is 63. Rock singer-musician David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) is 62. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 61. Singer Kiki Dee is 61. Rock singer-musician Phil Alvin (The Blasters) is 55. Actor Tom Arnold is 49. Actor D.L. Hughley is 44. Country songwriter Skip Ewing is 44. Actress Yvette Wilson is 44. Actor Shuler Hensley is 41. Actress Connie Britton is 40. Actress Moira Kelly is 40. Actress Amy Pietz is 39. Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal is 36. Country singer Trent Willmon is 35. Country musician Shan Farmer (Ricochet) is 34. Rapper Beanie Sigel is 34. Rapper Bubba Sparxxx is 31. Actor Eli Marienthal is 22. Actor Jimmy Galeota is 22. Actor Dillon Freasier (Film: "There Will Be Blood") is 12. Actress Savannah Stehlin is 12.

DEATH

1935 Retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. died in Washington.

1941 John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum sculptor (Mount Rushmore), dies at 73.

1982 Ayn Rand author-philosopher (The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged), dies in New York at 77.

1998 Adem Jasari Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leader, killed.

2007 Ernest Gallo, who built one of the world's largest winemaking empires, died in Modesto, Calif., at age 97.

March 6, the 66th day of 2008. There are 300 days left in the year.

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


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

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 3, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, SPITTING, ANTHEMS, POLITICS, INSPIRING, CLINTONS, IMPEACHED, UNCLE SUGAR, VIDEO, NANNY STATE, TAVERNS, JEWS, CAMELS, SPORTS, JAZZ, JAILBREAK, READ MY LIPS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

VIDEO

1991 In a case that sparked a national outcry, motorist Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers in a scene captured on amateur video.

WAR!

1815 US declares war on Algiers for taking US prisoners & demanding tribute.

1863 1st US wartime military conscription bill enacted.

1878 Russia and the Ottomans signed the treaty of Stenafano. The treaty granted independence to Serbia.

1918 Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russian participation in World War I. (The treaty was rendered moot by the November 1918 armistice.)

1945 The Allies fully secured the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese forces during World War II.

TERRORISM

1968 Greece, Portugal & Spain's embassies bombed in the Hague.

2003 Israeli troops arrested Hamas co-founder Mohammed Taha in a deadly raid. (Israel released him 14 months later.)

DISASTER

1943 Bomb-fleeing crowd falls into London shelter; 173 die.

1953 Canadian Comet crashes at Karachi, 11 killed.

1966 Twister hits Jackson MS; 3 minutes after 1st sighting, 57 die.

1974 Nearly 350 people died when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed shortly after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris.

1991 25 people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while approaching the Colorado Springs airport.

1992 Gas explodes in coal mine at Zonguldak Turkey, 100s die.

2007 President Bush handed out hugs to residents who survived killer tornadoes that ripped through Alabama and Georgia and offered encouraging words at Enterprise High School, where students were grieving the loss of eight classmates.

SPITTING

1903 In St Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting.

TAVERNS

1634 1st tavern in Boston opens (Samuel Cole).

CAMELS

1855 Congress approves $30,000 to test camels for military use.

JAILBREAK

1934 John Dillinger breaks out of jail using a wooden pistol.

READ MY LIPS

1992 President Bush apologizes for raising taxes after pledging not to.

CLINTONS

1998 Presidential confidant Vernon Jordan testified before the grand jury investigating the Monica Lewinsky matter.

JAZZ

1931 Cab Calloway records "Minnie the Moocher" (Jazz's 1st million seller).

UNCLE SUGAR

1812 The US Congress passed the first foreign aid bill (aids Venezuela earthquake victims).

SPORTS

1875 1st recorded hockey game (Montréal).

NANNY STATE

1791 1st Internal Revenue Act (taxing distilled spirits & carriages).

2003 President Bush offered a rough blueprint for adding drug benefits to Medicare.

POLITICS

1817 Mississippi Territory is divided into Alabama Territory & Mississippi.

1845 Florida became the 27th state.

1845 The US Congress passed legislation overriding a US President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.

1849 The US Congress created the territory of Minnesota.

1851 The US Congress authorized the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest US silver coin.

1875 The US Congress authorized the 20-cent piece. It was only used for 3 years.

INSPIRING

1887 Anne Sullivan arrived at the Tuscumbia, Alabama, home of Captain and Mrs. Arthur H. Keller to become the teacher for their blind and deaf 6-year-old daughter, Helen.

IMPEACHED

1803 The first impeachment trial of a US Judge, John Pickering, began.

JEWS

1801 1st US Jewish Governor, David Emanuel, takes office in Georgia.

ANTHEMS

1931 President Hoover signed a measure making "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States.

BORN

1853 Vincent Van Gogh Dutch painter.

1909 Harry Hemsley billionaire New York landlord.

BIRTHDAYS

Socialite Lee Radziwill is 74. Actress Hattie Winston is 62. Singer Jennifer Warnes is 60. Actor-director Tim Kazurinsky is 57. Singer-musician Robyn Hitchcock is 54. Actress Miranda Richardson is 49. Actress Mary Page Keller is 46. Olympic track and field gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee is 45. Football player Herschel Walker is 45. Rapper-actor Tone-Loc is 41. Rock musician John Bigham is 38. Actress Julie Bowen is 37. Country singer Brett Warren (The Warren Brothers) is 36. Actor David Faustino is 33. Singer Ronan Keating (Boyzone) is 30. Rapper Lil' Flip is 26. Actress Jessica Biel is 25.

DEATH

1966 Alice Pearce comedienne (Gladys Kravitz-Bewitched), dies at 52.

1966 William Frawley actor (Fred Mertz-I Love Lucy), dies at 89.

1987 Danny Kaye comedian (Danny Kaye Show), dies at 74.

1998 Former CBS News president Fred W. Friendly died in New York at age 82.

2007 Malcolm Kilduff, the White House spokesman who announced to a shocked world the death of President Kennedy, died in Beattyville, Kentucky, at age 75.

March 3rd, the 63rd day of 2008. There are 303 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: March 2, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, EXPLORERS, ICONS, POLITICS, PARKS, MOVIES, SURE THEY DID, SCANDAL, TABLOIDS, ASSASSINATION, NANNY STATE, ZEAL, IMMIGRATION, PROGRESS, OUTLAWS, CRICKET, WOMEN, JEWS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, TYPICAL, BELOVED, SPORTS, DISNEY, EURO-WEENIES, POLICE STATE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

ICONS

1904 Dr Seuss [Theodor Geisel] children's book author (Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who!) was born in Springfield, Mass. He wrote and illustrated 44 children's books. However, they are still enjoyed by many adults.



WAR!

1776 Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston.

1943 The World War II Battle of the Bismarck Sea began; U.S. and Australian warplanes were able to inflict heavy damage on a Japanese convoy.

1966 215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam.

TERRORISM

1973 "Black September" terrorists occupy Saudi Embassy in Khartoum.

1981 Aircraft hijacked by 3 Pakistani terrorists.

1982 Terror group "The Illuminated Path" frees 260 prisoners in Peru.

1998 The U.N. Security Council unanimously endorsed Secretary-General Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.

2003 Iraq crushed another six Al Samoud II missiles, as ordered by U.N. weapons inspectors.

2007 The bodies of 14 kidnapped policemen were found northeast of Baghdad.

DISASTER

1910 2 trains crash in snow storm in Wellington WA, 118 die.

1933 Most powerful earthquake in 180 years hit Japan.

1938 Landslides & floods cause over 200 deaths (Los Angeles CA).

1944 Fumes from locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocates 521 in Italy.

1989 Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spills 117,000 gallons of oil.

1995 Ferry boat sinks off Sumbe Angola, 42+ killed.

2007 A charter bus carrying a college baseball team from Bluffton University in Ohio plunged off an Atlanta highway ramp and slammed into the pavement below, killing seven people.

TYPICAL

1939 Massachusetts Legislature votes to ratify the Bill of Rights; 147 years late.


BELOVED

1950 Silly Putty invented.

SURE THEY DID

1977 The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a strict code of ethics.

TABLOIDS

2007 Anna Nicole Smith was buried in the Bahamas following a lavish memorial service.

NANNY STATE

1789 Pennsylvania ends prohibition of theatrical performances.

JEWS

1915 Vladmir Jabotinsky forms a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine.

ZEAL

1817 1st Evangelical church building dedicated, New Berlin PA.

POLITICS

1807 Congress bans slave trade effective January 1, 1808.

1836 The Republic of Texas formally declared its independence from Mexico.

1853 Territory of Washington organized after separating from Oregon Territory.

1861 US Congress creates Dakota & Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah territories.

1877 Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, even though Tilden had won the popular vote. Shades of Al Gore and the 2000 election.

1917 Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship as President Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act.

POLICE STATE

1994 Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh promises to surrender if taped statement is broadcast; it is, but he doesn't.

PROGRESS

1866 1st US company to make sewing needles by machine incorporated, Connecticut.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1923 Time magazine debuts.

1977 Future Tonight Show host Jay Leno debuts with host Johnny Carson.

1978 1st broadcast of "Dallas" on CBS TV.

1983 Final episode of MASH; 125,000,000 viewers; most-viewed TV show ever.

DISNEY

1976 Walt Disney World logged its 50 millionth guest.

SPORTS

1962 Wilt Chamberlain scores incredible 100 points in an NBA game.

1991 Del Ballard Jr throws most famous gutter ball in PBA Tour history.

PARKS

1899 Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state was established.

IMMIGRATION

1819 US passed its 1st immigration law.

WOMEN

1903 Martha Washington Hotel, catering to women only, opens in New York NY.

MOVIES

1933 The motion picture "King Kong" had its world premiere in New York.

1965 The movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical "The Sound of Music" had its world premiere at New York's Rivoli Theater.

OUTLAWS

1867 Jesse James-gang robs bank in Savannah MO, 1 dead.

EURO-WEENIES

1989 12 European nations agree to ban chlorofluorocarbon production by 2000.

ASSASSINATION

1973 Cleo Noel US ambassador to Sudan is assassinated.

1979 Sir Richard Sykes British ambassador is assassinated in Holland.

CRICKET

1898 Australia complete a 4-1 series annihilation of England.

SCANDAL

2007 Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey resigned following a scandal over substandard conditions for wounded Iraq soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

EXPORERS

1958 A multinational expedition led by British geologist and explorer Vivian Fuchs completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica by way of the South Pole in 99 days.

BORN

1793 The first president of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, was born near Lexington, Va.

1917 Desi Arnaz Santiago Cuba, singer/actor (Ricky Ricardo-I Love Lucy).

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Jennifer Jones is 89. Bluegrass singer-musician Doc Watson is 85. Actor John Cullum is 78. Author Tom Wolfe is 78. Former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is 77. Actress Barbara Luna is 69. Actor Jon Finch is 67. Author John Irving is 66. Singer Lou Reed is 66. Actress Cassie Yates is 57. Actress Laraine Newman is 56. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., is 55. Singer Jay Osmond is 53. Pop musician John Cowsill (The Cowsills) is 52. Tennis player Kevin Curren is 50. Country singer Larry Stewart (Restless Heart) is 49. Rock singer Jon Bon Jovi is 46. Blues singer-musician Alvin Youngblood Hart is 45. Actor Daniel Craig is 40. Rock musician Casey (Jimmie's Chicken Shack) is 32. Rock singer Chris Martin (Coldplay) is 31. Actress Heather McComb is 31. Actress Bryce Dallas Howard is 27. Actor Robert Iler ("The Sopranos") is 23.

DEATH

1991 James "Cool Papa" Bell Negro baseball league great, dies at 87.

March 2, the 62nd day of 2008. There are 304 days left in the year.


images:
* pcart
* Red Planet
* modernmechanix
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



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

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 22, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, POLITICS, CRICKET, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, MIRACLES, POPCORN, SUCIDE, ASSASSINATION, BEHEADED, JEWS, GOP, WAGERS, NANNY STATE, SPUNKY, FIVE and DIME, MISTAKES, FUR, FRIENDLY FIRE, SOCCER, NASCAR, NYC MAYORS, UNREST, ESPANOL, AHHHH, WOUNDED, MARRIAGE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH
Click on image to enlarge.
NASCAR

1959 1st Daytona 500 auto race-Lee Petty wins (135.521 MPH).

WAR!

1862 Jefferson Davis, already the provisional president of the Confederacy, was inaugurated for a six-year term as president following his election the previous November.

1915 Germany begins "unrestricted" submarine war.

1967 More than 25,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Junction City, aimed at smashing a Vietcong stronghold near the Cambodian border.

1991 Bush & US Gulf War allies give Iraq 24 hours to begin Kuwait withdrawal.

2007 Britain's Ministry of Defense announced that Prince Harry, a second lieutenant in the British army, would be deployed to Iraq. (Officials later reversed the decision because of insurgent threats.)

TERRORISM

1935 It became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House.

1948 Arabs bomb attack in Jerusalem, 50 die.

1989 US authors demonstrate against Iranian death treats against Salman Rushdee, author of "Satanic Rituals".

2007 The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Iran had ignored a Security Council ultimatum to freeze uranium enrichment, and instead had expanded its program by setting up hundreds of centrifuges.

AHHHHH!

1989 Finland ministry of Public health installs sex vacation to thwart stress.

WAGERS

1861 On a bet Edward Weston leaves Boston to walk to Lincoln's inauguration.

SPUNKY

1920 1st artificial rabbit used at a dog race track (Emeryville CA).

NANNY STATE

1872 1st national convention of the Prohibition Party (Columbus OH).

FIVE & DIME

1879 1st 5¢ & 10¢ store opened by Frank W Woolworth in Utica NY.

FUR

1923 1st successful chinchilla farm in US (Los Angeles CA).

WOUNDED

1932 Purple Heart award re-instituted.

ESPANOL

1989 1st Spanish commercial on network TV (Pepsi-Cola-CBS Grammy Award).

NYC MAYORS

1982 NYC Mayor Koch announces he will run for New York governor (unsuccessful).

MARRIAGE

1992 Ed McMahon, 69, weds Pamela Hurn, 37.

1992 Rockers Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) & Courtney Love (Hole), wed.

1991 Actor Bill Bixby (57) weds Laura Michael (32).

FRIENDLY FIRE

1940 German air force sinks 2 German destroyers, killing 578.

1944 US 8th Air Force bombs Enschede, Arnhem & Nijmegen by mistake/800+ die.

POPCORN

1630 Indians introduce pilgrims to popcorn.

UNREST

1983 Hindus kill 3000 Moslems in Assam, India.

1995 Algiers police kill at least 99 prison rioters.

SUICIDE

1998 Sandy Hume correspondent (Fox News), commits suicide at 28.

GOP

1854 1st meeting of the Republican Party, Michigan.

1856 1st national meeting of the Republican Party (Pittsburgh).

MISTAKES

2003 Jesica Santillan, the teenager who'd survived a botched heart-lung transplant long enough to get a second set of donated organs, died two days after the second transplant at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina.

POLITICS

1819 Spain agreed to cede Florida to the United States under the Adams-Onis Treaty.

1865 Tennessee adopted a new constitution that included the abolition of slavery.

1889 President Cleveland signed an omnibus bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1924 President Coolidge delivered the first radio broadcast from the White House as he addressed the country over 42 stations.

SOCCER

1956 1st British soccer match at Kunstlicht Portsmouth vs Newcastle United.

ASSASSINATION

1913 Francisco Indalecio Madero Mexican President at 39, and Suarez, Mexican vice President, assassinated in a military coup.

JEWS

1656 New Amsterdam granted a Jewish burial site.

1775 Jews expelled from outskirts of Warsaw Poland.

1941 I G Farben decides building Buna-Werke in Auschwitz Concentration Camp; Nazi SS begin rounding up Jews of Amsterdam.

MIRACLES

1980 the U.S. Olympic hockey team upset the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)

BEHEADED

1943 Hans Scholl German resistance fighter (White Rose), beheaded at 24. Sophie Scholl German resistance fighter (Die Weisse Rose), beheaded.

CRICKET

1993 Vinod Kambli scores 224 vs England at Bombay, 411 balls, 23 fours.

BORN

1732 The first president of the United States, George Washington, was born at his parents' plantation in the Virginia Colony.

1788 Arthur Schopenhauer Germany, philosopher (Great Pessimist).

1810 Frédéric F Chopin Polish/French pianist/composer.

1891 "Chico" Marx New York NY, actor/comedian (Marx Brothers, Animal Crackers).

BIRTHDAYS

Announcer Don Pardo is 90. Actor Paul Dooley is 80. Hollywood "ghost singer" Marni Nixon is 78. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., is 76. Movie director Jonathan Demme is 64. Actor John Ashton is 60. Actress Miou-Miou is 58. Actress Julie Walters is 58. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Julius Erving is 58. Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 49. Actress-comedian Rachel Dratch is 42. Actress Jeri Ryan is 40. Actor Thomas Jane is 39. Actress Tamara Mello is 38. Actress-singer Lea Salonga is 37. Actor Jose Solano is 37. Tennis player Michael Chang is 36. Actress Drew Barrymore is 33. Actress Liza Huber is 33. Singer James Blunt is 31. Actor Daniel E. Smith is 18.

DEATH

1998 Abraham A. Ribicoff, the former Connecticut governor and senator who served as President Kennedy's secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, died in Riverdale, N.Y., at age 87.

February 22, the 53rd day of 2008. There are 313 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: fireballroberts
Source:
* Today in History
* Today in history



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 19, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTER, TREASON, POLITICS, PATENTS, NANNY STATE, MASSACRE, BURNED, DIPLOMACY, LABOR, PROGRESS, INSANE, CEREAL, PRIZE, MARRIAGE, JEWS, PRO WRESTLING, CROCS, FAST, CARTOONS, HELP, PLAGIARISM, COKE, MICKEY, HEALTH NAZIS, PORN, TRASHED, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


WAR!

1945 during World War II, some 30,000 U.S. Marines began landing on Iwo Jima, where they commenced a successful monthlong battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces.

1634 Battle at Smolensk Polish king Wladyslaw IV beats Russians.

1942 President Roosevelt signed an executive order that gave the military the authority to relocate and intern U.S. residents, including citizens, of Japanese ancestry.

1942 Japanese warplanes, attacking in two waves, raided the Australian city of Darwin; at least 243 people were killed.

TERRORISM

1986 Jordanian King Hussein severs ties with PLO.

DISASTER

1884 Tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky & Indiana kill 800 people. No claims of climate change made.

1985 150 killed when a Spanish jetliner crashed approaching Bilbao, Spain.

2003 An Iranian military plane carrying 275 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in southeastern Iran, killing all on board.

PRIZE!

1913 1st prize inserted into a Cracker Jack box.

INSANE

1859 Dan Sickles is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity 1st time this defense is successfully used.

HEALTH NAZIS

1987 Anti-smoking ad airs for 1st time on TV, featuring Yul Brynner.

CEREAL

1906 W K Kellogg & Charles D Bolin incorporate Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, Battle Creek MI.

CROCS

1945 900 Japanese soldiers reportedly killed by crocodiles in 2 days.

HELP!

1964 UK flies ½ ton of Beatle wigs to US.

TRASHED

1998 US hockey team destroys their rooms at Olympics village in Japan.

PORN

1992 Porn producer Jim Mitchell found guilty of killing his brother Artie.

COKE

1985 Canned & bottled Cherry Coke introduced by Coca-Cola.

PRO WRESTLING

1942 Bill Longson beats Managoff & Sandor Szabo, to become wrestling champion.

PLAGIARISM

1981 George Harrison is ordered to pay ABKCO Music $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" "My Sweet Lord" with "He's So Fine"

LABOR

1537 Weavers of Leiden Netherlands strike.

FAST!

1959 USAF rocket-powered rail sled attains Mach 4.1 (4970 kph), New Mexico.

TREASON

In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr, accused of treason, was arrested in the Mississippi Territory, in present-day Alabama. (Burr was acquitted at trial.)

MARRIAGE

1934 Bob & Dolores Hope marry.

MICKEY

1985 Mickey Mouse welcomed in China.

BURNED

1401 William Sawtree 1st English religious martyr, burned in London.

1545 Pierre Brully [Peter Brulius], calvinist minister, burned to death.

JEWS

1941 Nazis raid Koco Amsterdam & round up 429 young Jews for deportation.

PROGRESS

1831 1st practical US coal-burning locomotive makes 1st trial run, Pennsylvania.

CARTOONS

1960 Bil Keane's "Family Circus" cartoon strip debuts.

POLITICS

1846 the Texas state government was formally installed in Austin, with J. Pinckney Henderson taking the oath of office as governor.

2003 Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt announced his second candidacy for president with a pledge to repeal most of President Bush's tax cuts.

PATENTS

1878 Thomas Edison received a U.S. patent for "an improvement in phonograph or speaking machines."

NANNY STATE

1881 Kansas prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

DIPLOMACY

1998 U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan set out for Iraq on a last-chance peace mission, saying he was "reasonably optimistic" about ending the standoff over weapons inspections without the use of force.

2007 Three-way talks between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli and Palestinian leaders, initially billed as a new U.S. push to restart peace efforts, ended with little progress other than a commitment to meet again.

MASSACRE

1983 13 people were found shot to death at a gambling club in Seattle's Chinatown in what became known as the "Wah Mee Massacre." (Two Chinese immigrants were convicted of the killings and sentenced to life in prison.)

BORN

1473 Nicolaus Copernicus Torún, Poland, astronomer (heliocentrism).

1916 Eddie Arcaro jockey (1958 Racing Hall of Fame, 2 triple crowns).

1943 "Mama" Cass Elliot actress (Mamas & Papas-Monday Monday).

BIRTHDAYS

Singer Smokey Robinson is 68. Singer Bobby Rogers (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles) is 68. Actress Carlin Glynn is 68. Singer Lou Christie is 65. Actor Michael Nader is 63. Rock musician Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell) is 60. Author Amy Tan is 56. Actor Jeff Daniels is 53. Rock singer-musician Dave Wakeling is 52. Talk show host Lorianne Crook is 51. Actor Ray Winstone is 51. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is 49. Britain's Prince Andrew is 48. Tennis Hall-of-Famer Hana Mandlikova is 46. Singer Seal is 45. Country musician Ralph McCauley (Wild Horses) is 44. Actress Justine Bateman is 42. Actor Benicio Del Toro is 41. Rock musician Daniel Adair is 33. Pop singer-actress Haylie Duff is 23.

DEATH

1980 Bon Scott Australian rock vocalist (AC/DC-Whole Lotta Rosie), dies at 33.

1997 Deng Xiaoping, the last of China's major Communist revolutionaries, died at age 92.

1998 Grandpa Jones country comic/banjo wizard (Hee Haw), dies at 84.

2007 Actress Janet Blair died in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 85.


February 19, the 50th day of 2008. There are 316 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: teachpol
Source:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 17, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BURNED, POLITICS, PROGRESS, CHINA CARD, CHESS, HANGED, VEGETABLES, JIHAD, TOILETS, NANNY STATE, CARTOONS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, JEWS, MUSIC, FINANCE, ENVIRONMENTAL SCARE, KILLERS, HUSTLER, CLINTONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH

click on image to read Newsweek's "The Cooling World"

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1933 1st issue of "Newsweek" magazine published.

WAR!

1864 The Confederate submarine Hunley, equipped with an explosive at the end of a protruding spar, rammed and sank the Union's ship Housatonic off the coast of Charleston, S.C.

1865 Columbia, S.C., burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in. (It's not clear which side set the blaze.)

1915 Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WWI, is mortally wounded.

1979 China invades Vietnam.

2003 European Union leaders declared their solidarity with the United States, warning Saddam Hussein that Iraq faced one "last chance" to disarm peacefully but calling war a last resort.

2007 Senate Republicans foiled a Democratic bid to repudiate President Bush's deployment of 21,500 additional combat troops to Iraq.

2007 Marine Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington was sentenced to eight years in military prison for his role in the kidnapping and killing of an Iraqi civilian.

TERRORISM

1986 Libyan bombers attack N'djamena Airport in Chad.

1988 US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists & later killed.

1993 Alfredo de Leon leader (Philippines Red Scorpio Gang), killed.

1998 Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax.

DISASTER

1926 Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham UT, 40 die.

1950 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center, New York.

1957 Fire in Warreton MO, kills 72.

1962 Storm in Hamburg, kills 265.

1974 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo, Egypt.

1993 Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die.

2003 Twenty-one people were killed in a stampede at the crowded E2 nightclub in Chicago.

HANGED

1688 Reverend James Renwick hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian.

VEGETABLES

1795 Thomas Seddal harvests 8.3-kg potato from his garden Chester, England.

TOILETS

1883 A Ashwell patents free-toilet in London.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCARE

1989 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole".

MUSIC

1962 Beach Boys introduced a new musical style with their hit "Surfin".

HUSTLER

1997 Weekly Standard shows evidence Larry Flint sex abused his daughter.

CARTOONS

1933 Blondie Boopadoop marries Dagwood Bumstead; Dagwood's father promptly disinherits him.

1958 Comic strip "BC" 1st appears.

JIHAD

1568 Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay annual tribute to Sultan for peace.

CLINTONS

1998 President Clinton, preparing Americans for possible air strikes against Iraq, said military force is never the first answer "but sometimes it's the only answer."

KILLERS

1970 Jeffrey McDonald slices up his wife & daughter.

1995 Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the Long Island Railroad in New York.

1998 Diane Zamora, 20, Naval Academy cadet convicted of capital murder.

FINANCE

1981 Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history.

NANNY STATE

1913 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon).

BURNED

1600 Italian philospher, alchemist, and Copernican theory advocate Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy by the Inquisition.

JEWS

1943 Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews.

1949 Chaim Weizman elected 1st President of Israel.

1969 Golda Meir sworn in as Israel's 1st female prime minister.

2007 Former French Cabinet minister Maurice Papon, convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity for his role in deporting Jews during World War II, died near Paris at age 96.

POLITICS

1801 The electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was broken by the House of Representatives who elected Jefferson president.

CHINA CARD

1972 President Richard Nixon left on his trip to China.

PROGRESS

1817 Baltimore became the first U.S. city lit by gas.

CHESS

1996 Chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM computer, Deep Blue, winning the six-game match.

BORN

1817 Frederick Douglass famous African-American.

1844 A. Montgomery Ward founded mail-order business (Montgomery Ward).

1854 Friedrich A Krupp German arms manufacturer.

1908 sportscaster Walter Lanier "Red" Barber was born in Columbus, Miss.

BIRTHDAYS

Bandleader Orrin Tucker is 97. Actor Hal Holbrook is 83. Mystery writer Ruth Rendell is 78. Singer Bobby Lewis is 75. Comedian Dame Edna (AKA Barry Humphries) is 74. Country singer-songwriter Johnny Bush is 73. Football Hall-of-Famer Jim Brown is 72. Actress Mary Ann Mobley is 69. Actress Brenda Fricker is 63. Actress Rene Russo is 54. Actor Richard Karn is 52. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 46. Basketball player Michael Jordan is 45. Actor-comedian Larry, the Cable Guy is 45. TV personality Rene Syler is 45. Movie director Michael Bay is 44. Singer Chante Moore is 41. Rock musician Timothy J. Mahoney (311) is 38. Actor Dominic Purcell is 38. Actress Denise Richards is 37. Rock singer-musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) is 36. Actor Jerry O'Connell is 34. Country singer Bryan White is 34. Actress Kelly Carlson is 32. Actor Jason Ritter is 28. TV personality Paris Hilton is 27. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is 27.

DEATH

1908 Geronimo Apache chief, dies at about 79.

1982 Theolonious S Monk US, jazz pianist/composer (Blue Monk), dies at 64.

1990 Keith Haring US graffiti-artist, dies at 31.

February 17, the 48th day of 2008. There are 318 days left in the year.

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



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