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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 15, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, WOMEN, CITIES, ASSASSINATION, SCANDAL, EXECUTED, COMMIES, CONDIMENTS, RESCUE, SLAVERY, TREASON, TREES, TOYS, MEAT, CLIMATE, VAMPIRES, COMMIES, BEETLES, CARTOONS, FAKES, BEATLES, SPORTS, BOOTLEG, DREAMS, SERIAL KILLERS, CHESS, JEWS, POPULATION, FINANCE, CLINTONS, GLOBAL WARMING, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



WAR!

1898 USS Maine blew up in Havana harbor, touching off the Spanish-American War.

1989 More than 100,000 Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan almost 10 years after the USSR invaded the country.

1918 1st WWI US army troop ship torpedoed & sunk by Germany, off Ireland.

1942 Singapore surrenders to the Japanese.

1984 500,000 Iranian soldiers move into Iraq.

TERRORISM

1993 Bombings by Mafia drug lords kill 14 in Bogotá Colombia.

DISASTER

1864 Fire in Rotterdam Netherlands damages Museum Boymans.

1898 USS Maine blows up in Havana harbor, cause unknown-258 sailors die.

1961 73 people, including an 18-member U.S. figure skating team en route to Czechoslovakia, were killed in the crash of a Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium.

1970 Dominican DC-9 crashes into sea at Santo Domingo, kills 102.

1982 Ocean Ranger oil-drilling platform lost off Newfoundland, 84 die.

1991 Freighter with dynamite explodes in Phang Nga Thailand, 120 die.

DREAMS

1967 Longest dream (REM sleep) on record, Bill Carskadon, Chicago (2:23).

VAMPIRES

1931 1st Dracula movie released.

SERIAL KILLERS

1978 Escaped mass murderer Ted Bundy recaptured, Pensacola FL.

1992 Jeffrey Dahmer found sane & guilty of killing 15 boys.

CLINTONS

1998 Monica Lewinsky's attorney, William Ginsburg, continued his harsh criticism of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr for alleged leaks of information to the news media, charging on CNN that his client's constitutional rights were being trampled.

TOYS

1903 1st Teddy Bear introduced in America, made by Morris & Rose Michtom.

FINANCE

1995 Dow-Jones closes at record 3986.17

CONDIMENTS

1768 1st mustard manufactured in America advertised, Philadelphia.

BEETLES

1936 Hitler announces building of Volkswagens (starting slug-bug game).

BEATLES

1965 John Lennon passes his driving test.

BOOTLEG

1967 1st anti-bootleg recording laws enacted.

FAKES

1955 1st pilot plant to produce man-made diamonds announced.

GLOBAL WARMING

2007 National Guardsmen in Humvees ferried food, fuel and baby supplies to hundreds of motorists stranded for nearly a day on a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 78 in eastern Pennsylvania because of a monster storm.

CARTOONS

1950 Walt Disney's "Cinderella" released.

COMMIES

1933 Karl Radek praises invincible force of German communist party.

POPULATION

1995 Population of People's Republic of China hits 1.2 billion.

MEAT

1882 1st cargo of frozen meat leaves New Zealand for Britain, on SS Dunedin.

SPORTS

1956 Pirates & Kansas City A's cancel an exhibition game in Birmingham AL, because of local ordinance barring black from playing against white.

SLAVERY

1804 New Jersey becomes last northern state to abolish slavery.

JEWS

1989 Israel attacks border strip Taba near Egypt.

CLIMATE

1895 23 cm (9") of snow falls on New Orleans.

CHESS

1985 World chess championship match abandoned-Karpov 25, Kasparov 23.

SCANDAL

2002 Olympics officials resolved the judging scandal by awarding Canadian pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier a gold medal while allowing the Russians, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, to keep their medal.

TREASON

1869 Charges of Treason against Jefferson Davis are dropped.

RESCUE

1851 Black abolitionists invade Boston courtroom rescuing a fugitive slave.

TREES

1876 Historic Elm at Boston blown down.

WOMEN

1879 President Rutherford Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

ASSASSINATION

1933 Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak was killed in an assassination attempt on president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami.

EXECUTED

1979 Mehdi Rahimi Iran General/military Governor of Tehran, executed.

1994 Andrei Tsjikatilo [Rostov Ripper], Russian mass murdered, executed.


CITIES

1764 St. Louis, Mo., was founded as a French fur-trading post.

COMMIES

1984 Leamon Hunt US director-General in Sinai, killed by communists.

BORN

1564 Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa.

1803 John Augustus Sutter Swiss/US colonist of California gold rush fame (New Helvetia CA, Sutter Mill).

1820 Susan Brownell Anthony Adams MA, women's suffragette.

1882 John Barrymore [Blythe], Philadelphia PA, actor (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, The Tempest, Beloved Rogue).

1907 Cesar Romero New York NY, actor (Joker-Batman, Ocean's 11, The Thin Man).

BIRTHDAYS

Actor Kevin McCarthy is 94. Actor Allan Arbus is 90. Country singer Hank Locklin is 90. Former Illinois Rep. John Anderson is 86. Comedian Harvey Korman is 81. Actress Claire Bloom is 77. Author Susan Brownmiller is 73. Songwriter Brian Holland is 67. Rock musician Mick Avory (The Kinks) is 64. Jazz musician Henry Threadgill is 64. Actress Jane Seymour is 57. Singer Melissa Manchester is 57. Actress Lynn Whitfield is 55. "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening is 54. Model Janice Dickinson is 53. Actor Christopher McDonald is 53. Reggae singer Ali Campbell is 49. Actor Joseph R. Gannascoli is 49. Musician Mikey Craig (Culture Club) is 48. Country singer Michael Reynolds (Pinmonkey) is 44. Actor Michael Easton is 41. Actress Renee O'Connor is 37. Actress Sarah Wynter is 35. Rock singer Brandon Boyd (Incubus) is 32. Rock musician Ronnie Vannucci (The Killers) is 32. Actress Ashley Lyn Cafagna is 25.

DEATH

1943 Thomas "Fats" Waller US jazz pianist (Hot Chocolate), dies at 38.

1973 Wally Cox actor (Mr Peepers, Hollywood Squares), dies at 48.

1984 Ethel Merman singer/actress (Kid Million), dies in her sleep at 76.

February 15, the 46th day of 2008. There are 320 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 14, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, GANGSTERS, POLITICS, FATWAS, EDUCATION, FRACAS, CARTOONS, JEWS, PATENTS, FRUIT, BUSINESS, COMMIES, DRUGS, WATERGATE, MARRIAGE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


GANGSTERS

1929 Members of Al Capone's gang killed rival gang members in the St. Valentine's Day massacre.

WAR!

1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden.

2003 In a dramatic showdown, major powers rebuffed the United States in the U.N. Security Council and insisted on more time for weapons inspections in Iraq. Earlier, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Council his teams had not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

TERRORISM

1975 Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station.

1979 Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.

1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut.

1998 Authorities officially declared Eric Rudolph a suspect in the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic and offered a $100,000 reward.

2007 Challenged on the accuracy of U.S. intelligence, President Bush told a news conference there was no doubt the Iranian government was providing armor-piercing weapons to kill American soldiers in Iraq, and he said he would fight any attempt by the Democratic-controlled Congress to cut off money for the war.

DISASTER

1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million damages for Bhopol disaster.

FATWAS

1989 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, calling for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

WATERGATE

1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House.

FRUIT

1889 1st trainload of fruit (oranges) leaves Los Angeles for the east.

COMMIES

1956 Khrushchev denounces Stalin at USSR Communist Party Conference.

PATENTS

1803 Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington PA.

FRACAS

1779 James Cook British explorer, murdered by natives in fracas with Hawaiians.

JEWS

1349 2,000 Jews burned at the stake in Strasbourg France.

DRUGS

1959 $3.6 million heroin seizure in New York NY.

BUSINESS

1924 IBM Corporation founded by Thomas Watson.

EDUCATION

2001 The Kansas Board of Education reversed its 1999 ruling and restored evolution to the state's science curriculum.

MARRIAGE

1952 Comedian Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller.

1995 Roseanne weds bodyguard Ben Thomas.

MURDER

1943 Frieda Reiss French 11 month old baby, murdered in Auschwitz.

CARTOONS

1921 Skeezix of "Gasoline Alley" discovered on Wallets' doorstep.

POLITICS

1859 Oregon became the 33rd state in the United States.

1912 Arizona became the 48th state in the United States.

BORN

1894 comedian Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in Waukegan, Ill.

1913 Jimmy Hoffa Teamsters leader who disappeared in 1975.

BIRTHDAYS

TV personality Hugh Downs is 87. Actress-singer Florence Henderson is 74. Country singer Razzy Bailey is 69. Jazz musician Maceo Parker is 65. Movie director Alan Parker is 64. Journalist Carl Bernstein is 64. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) is 61. TV personality Pat O'Brien is 60. Magician Teller (Penn and Teller) is 60. Cajun singer-musician Michael Doucet is 57. Actor Ken Wahl is 51. Opera singer Renee Fleming is 49. Actress Meg Tilly is 48. Singer-producer Dwayne Wiggins is 47. Actor Enrico Colantoni is 45. Actor Zach Galligan is 44. Actor Valente Rodriguez is 44. Rock musician Ricky Wolking (The Nixons) is 42. Tennis player Manuela Maleeva is 41. Rock musician Kevin Baldes (Lit) is 36. Rock singer Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty) is 36. Actor Freddie Highmore is 16.

DEATH

1969 Vito Genovese US mafia chief, dies at 71.

1994 Gary "BB" Coleman blues vocal/guitarist/producer, dies at 47.

2003 Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was euthanized because of incurable lung cancer.

February 14, the 45th day of 2008. There are 321 days left in the year. Today is Valentine's Day.

image: unbsj
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 12, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, FREE, BEHEADED, WOMEN, RACE, CIVIL RIGHTS, ABDICATE, MEMORIALS, CLINTONS, COMICS, GUNMAN, STARTS, FIREBALL, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, VIETNAM, CLASH, BUSTED, RECORDS, THIEF, TABLOID, OJ, BORN, BIRTHDAY, DEATH



THIEF!

1994 Edvard Munch's painting "The Cry" stolen (in Oslo).

WAR!

1861 State troops seize US munitions in Napoleon AK.

1973 Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place.

TERRORISM

2003 The U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation of international treaties, sending the dispute to the Security Council.

2007 Car bombs shattered Baghdad's oldest and largest market, killing at least 78 people.

DISASTERS

1998 250-car Italy pile-up due to fog, 4 die & 50 hurt.

FIREBALL

1947 Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia.

CLINTONS

1998 A federal judge threw out President Clinton's new line-item veto authority.

1999 The Senate acquitted President Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice.

STARTS

1876 Al Spalding opens his sporting good shop.

BUSTED

1967 Keith Richards, Mick Jagger & Marianne Faithful busted for drugs.

OJ

1997 Fred Goldman says he will settle for a signed murder confession from O J Simpson in lieu of his $20.5 million judgment.

VIETNAM

1955 President Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to South Vietnam.

PATENTS

1878 Frederick Thayer patents the catcher's mask (pat # 200,358).

RECORDS

1981 Pete Squires sets record for 1575 steps of Empire State Building, 10m.

TABLOID

1994 Model Anna Nicole Smith hospitalized for drug overdose.

CLASH

1960 Chinese army kills 12 Indian soldiers.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1924 President Calvin Coolidge makes 1st presidential radio speech.

JEWS

1941 Jewish Council for Amsterdam forms, under Ascher/Cohen; Occupation Police arrest "Jewish Foursome".

BEHEADED

1554 Lady Jane Grey, who'd claimed the throne of England for nine days, and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were beheaded after being condemned for high treason.

FREE

1818 Chile officially proclaimed its independence, more than seven years after initially renouncing Spanish rule.

MURDER

1976 Sal Mineo actor (Exodus, Rebel Without a Cause), stabbed at 37.

WOMEN

1870 women in the Utah Territory gained the right to vote. (However, that right was taken away in 1887).

RACE

1908 the first round-the-world automobile race began in New York. (It ended in Paris the following July with the drivers of the American car, a Thomas Flyer, declared the winners over teams from Germany and Italy.)

CIVIL RIGHTS

1909 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.

ABDICATE

1912 Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.

MEMORIALS

1915 the cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C., a year to the day after groundbreaking.

COMICS

1940 The radio play "The Adventures of Superman" debuted with Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel.

GUNMAN

2007 Teen gunman Sulejman Talovic shot nine people, killing five, at a Salt Lake City mall before he was shot and killed by police.

BORN

1809 Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in present-day Larue County, Ky.

1880 John Llewellyn Lewis union leader (United Mine Workers, 1920-60).

1904 Ted Mack Denver CO, TV host (Original Amateur Hour).

BIRTHDAYS

Movie director Franco Zeffirelli is 85. Actor Louis Zorich is 84. Baseball Hall-of-Fame sportscaster Joe Garagiola is 82. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) is 78. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell is 74. Actor Joe Don Baker is 72. Author Judy Blume is 70. Rock musician Ray Manzarek (The Doors) is 69. Country singer Moe Bandy is 64. Actress Maud Adams is 63. Actor Cliff DeYoung is 63. Actor Michael Ironside is 58. Rock musician Steve Hackett is 58. Rock singer Michael McDonald is 56. Actress Joanna Kerns is 55. Actor-former talk show host Arsenio Hall is 53. Actress Christine Elise is 43. Actor Josh Brolin is 40. Singer Chynna Phillips is 40. Rock musician Jim Creeggan (Barenaked Ladies) is 38. Rhythm-and-blues musician Keri Lewis is 37. Actor Jesse Spencer ("House, M.D.") is 29. Actress Sarah Lancaster is 28. Actress Christina Ricci is 28.

DEATH

1983 Eubie Blake ragtime-composer/pianist (Memories of You), dies at 100.

2003 Holiday Inn chain founder Kemmons Wilson died in Memphis, Tenn., at age 90.

February 12, the 43rd day of 2008. There are 323 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 11, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, PHILOSOPHERS, MOTORISTS, MURDER, SUICIDE, OOPS, BEHEADED, OCEANS, ENERGY, REBELS, WOMEN, POLITICS, ALMOST, CLIMATE, PROGRESS, COMICS, SPIES, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, JEWS, NAZIS, PRO WRESTLING, LOBSTERS, VISIONS, COMMIES, CLINTONS, FREE, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



1812 Massachusetts Governor Gerry signs a redistricting bill favoring his party-the 1st "gerrymander.

WAR!

1943 General Eisenhower selected to command the allied armies in Europe.

2003 Addressing a historic rift within NATO, Secretary of State Colin Powell told a congressional hearing the future of the military alliance was at risk if it failed to confront the crisis with Iraq.

2007 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, marking the 28th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, vowed his country would not give up uranium enrichment.

TERRORISM

1979 Iran's premier Bakhtiar resigns, Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power.

1985 Jordan king Hussein & PLO leader Arafat sign accord.

2003 The al-Jazeera Arab satellite station broadcast what was believed to be a new audio statement from Osama bin Laden urging Iraqis to carry out suicide attacks on Americans.

DISASTERS

1907 Passenger ship Larchmont sinks by Block Island, 322 die.

WOMEN

1852 1st British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street London).

MOTORISTS

1899 George Morgan 1st English motorist to die in an motor accident, dies.

ALMOST

1905 James Blackstone, Seattle, bowls 299½-last pin breaks but stands.

LOBSTERS

1977 20.2-kg lobster caught off Nova Scotia (heaviest known crustacean).

COMMIES

1978 China lifts a ban on Aristotle, Shakespeare, & Dickens.

CLINTONS

1998 KVBC-FM (Las Vegas) offers Monica Lewinsky $5M for interview.

VISIONS

1858 A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have experienced the first of 18 visions of a lady dressed in white in a grotto near Lourdes. (The Catholic Church later accepted that the visions were of the Virgin Mary; Bernadette, who died in 1879 at age 35, was canonized in 1933.)

POLITICS

1861 US House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.

1975 Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for Conservative leadership.

1998 Attorney General Janet Reno asked for an independent prosecutor to investigate whether Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had misled Congress in connection with an Indian casino controversy. (The counsel, Carol Elder Bruce, found no wrongdoing on Babbitt's part.)

PRO WRESTLING

1938 Steve Casey beats Lou Thesz in Boston, to become wrestling champion.

1969 Dorey Funk Jr beats Gene Kiniski in Tampa, to become NWA champion.

CLIMATE

1932 73ºF highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in February. No media mention of "man-made climate change".

1983 4th largest snowfall in NYC history (18"(46 cm)).

FREE!

1929 The Lateran Treaty was signed, with Italy recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.

1990 South African resistance leader, Nelson Mandela, was released from prison after more than 27 years.

OCEANS

1573 1st European, Francis Drake sees the Pacific (from Panamá).

PROGRESS

1935 1st US airplane flight with auto slung beneath the fuselage, New York.

PHILOSOPHERS

1650 René Descartes philosopher "I think therefore I am", stops thinking.

COMICS

1942 "Archie" comic book debuts.

REBELS

1766 Stamp Act declared unconstitutional in Virginia.

JEWS

1953 Russia breaks diplomatic relations with Israel.

1968 Israeli-Jordan border fight.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1960 Jack Paar walks off his TV show.

1979 43 million watch "Elvis!" on ABC.

NAZIS

1961 Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.

SPIES

1953 President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Rosenberg couple.

MURDER

1961 Patrice Lumumba 1st premier Congo, murdered at 34.

ENERGY

1808 Anthracite coal 1st burned as fuel, experimentally, Wilkes-Barre PA.

SUICIDE

1963 Sylvia Plath poet/novelist (Ariel), kills herself in London at 30.

OOPS!

1994 Antonio Martin Spanish cyclist, dies in cycling accident at 23.

BEHEADED

1554 Lady Jane Grey deposed Queen of England, beheaded after 9 day rule at 17.

BORN

1847 Thomas Alva Edison Milan OH, lit up your life (held 1200 patents).

1920 Farouk I Cairo, last King of Egypt (1936-52).

BIRTHDAYS

Actor Leslie Nielsen is 82. Actor Conrad Janis is 80. Actress Tina Louise is 74. Actor Burt Reynolds is 72. Songwriter Gerry Goffin is 69. Bandleader Sergio Mendes is 67. Rhythm-and-blues singer Otis Clay is 66. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is 57. Actor Philip Anglim is 56. Actress Catherine Hickland is 52. Rock musician David Uosikkinen (The Hooters) is 52. Actress Carey Lowell is 47. Singer Sheryl Crow is 46. Actress Jennifer Aniston is 39. Actor Damian Lewis is 37. Actress Marisa Petroro is 36. Singer D'Angelo is 34. Actor Brice Beckham is 32. Rock MC/vocalist Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) is 31. Singer-actress Brandy is 29. Actor Matthew Lawrence is 28. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kelly Rowland is 27. Actress Q'orianka Kilcher is 18. Actor Taylor Lautner is 16.

DEATH

1976 Lee J Cobb actor (12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront), dies at 64.

February 11, the 42nd day of 2008. There are 324 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: etc
Sources:
* Today in History
* 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 Weird History: February 9, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, TIME, POLITICS, COMMIES, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, SCIENCE, WEATHER, BURNED, RESISTANCE, EXECUTED, SERIAL KILLERS, SIMIANS, PATENTS, VEGETABLES, SPORTS, NANNY STATE, NAZIS, ESCAPES, PROGRESS, SUICIDE, RESTROOMS, RECORDS, OPIUM KINGS, SIMPSONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



COMMIES

1950 in a speech in Wheeling, W.Va., Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged the State Department was riddled with Communists.

WAR!

1674 English re-conquer New York from Netherlands.

1775 English Parliament declares Massachusetts colony is in rebellion.

1943 the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.

1998 The Pentagon said it was sending up to 3,000 U.S. ground troops to the Persian Gulf region to discourage what one official called "any creative thinking" by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

2003 President Bush told congressional Republicans at a policy conference that Iraq had fooled the world for more than a decade about its banned weapons and the United Nations was now facing "a moment of truth" in disarming Saddam Hussein. The leaders of Germany and Russia renewed their calls for a peaceful resolution in Iraq, restating their opposition to any U.S.-led war to disarm and oust Saddam Hussein.

TERRORISM

2007 Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Munich, Germany, that serial numbers and other markings on bombs suggested that Iranians were linked to deadly explosives used by Iraqi militants.

DISASTER

1913 10 Day Tragedy of Mexico-City; 3,000 die.

1971 Quake in San Fernando Valley kills 65 & causes over $½ billion damage.

2001 A U.S. Navy submarine collided with a Japanese fishing boat off the Hawaiian coast, killing nine men and boys aboard the boat.

RECORDS

1992 Fastest yodeler-22 tones/15 falsetto in 1 second by Thomas School of Germany.

VEGETABLES

1891 1st shipment of asparagus arrives in San Francisco from Sacramento.

OPIUM KINGS

1993 Army of opium king Khun Sa kills 60 in NE Burma.

RESTROOMS

1987 New York Stock Exchange installs ladies restroom in the Exchange Luncheon Club.

SIMPSONS

1997 Fox cartoon series "Simpsons" airs 167th episode the longest-running animated series in cartoon history.

PATENTS

1863 Fire extinguisher patented by Alanson Crane.

NAMES

1942 Philadelphia "Phillies" change nickname (temporarily) to "Phils", thereby saving three letters (l.i.e.) for the war effort.

ESCAPES

1947 Bank robber Willie Sutton escapes jail in Philadelphia PA.

PROGRESS

1969 World's largest airplane, Boeing 747, makes 1st commercial flight.

SUICIDE

1987 Former national security adviser Robert McFarlane attempts suicide.

LABOR

1943 FDR orders minimal 48 hour work week in war industry.

1955 US federations of trade unions merge into AFL/CIO.

NAZIS

1941 Nazi collaborators destroy pro-Jewish café Alcazar Amsterdam (Alcazar refused to hang "No Entry for Jews" signs in front of cafe).

1943 Nazis arrest Dutch sons of rich parents.

NANNY STATE

1909 1st federal legislation prohibiting narcotics (opium).

SPORTS

1895 1st intercollegiate basketball game (Minnesota Agricultural beats Hamline, 9-3).

1895 Volleyball invented by W G Morgan in Massachusetts.

TIME

1942 daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward.

BURNED

1583 Jeseph Sanalbo Jewish convert in Rome, burned at stake.

THEORIES

1926 Teaching theory of evolution forbidden in Atlanta GA schools.

EXECUTED

1943 ... Reydons wife of General Reydons, shot to death by resistance.

RESISTANCE

1945 George J L Maduro resistance fighter (Madurodam), dies in Dachau.

SERIAL KILLERS

1978 Kimberly Leach killed by Ted Bundy in Lake City FL at age 12.

SIMIANS

1977 Gaus, an orangutan who lived to be 59 dies.

POLITICS

1825 The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

1861 Tennessee votes against secession.

1861 Jefferson Davis was elected the provisional president of the Confederate States of America.

1867 Nebraska becomes 37th US state.

WEATHER

1870 The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.

1922 Snow on Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1953 "The Adventures of Superman" TV series premieres in syndication.

1964 The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS.

1971 Probably 1st gay theme TV episode - All in the Family.

SCIENCE

1971 The crew of Apollo 14 returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon.

BORN

1773 The ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, was born in Charles City County, Va.

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Kathryn Grayson is 86. Television journalist Roger Mudd is 80. Actress Janet Suzman is 69. Actress-politician Sheila James Kuehl ("The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis") is 67. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 66. Actor Joe Pesci is 65. Singer Barbara Lewis is 65. Author Alice Walker is 64. Actress Mia Farrow is 63. Singer Joe Ely is 61. Actress Judith Light is 59. Rhythm-and-blues musician Dennis "DT" Thomas (Kool & the Gang) is 57. Actor Charles Shaughnessy is 53. Country singer Travis Tritt is 45. Actress Julie Warner is 43. Country singer Danni Leigh is 38. Actor Jason George is 36. Actor-producer Charlie Day is 32. Actress Ziyi Zhang is 29. Actor David Gallagher is 23. Actress Marina Malota is 20. Actress Camille Winbush ("The Bernie Mac Show") is 18.

DEATH

1984 Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov died at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was succeeded by Konstantin U. Chernenko.

2002 Princess Margaret sister of Queen Elizabeth II of England, dies from a stroke at 71.

2007 British actor Ian Richardson, who portrayed immoral politician Francis Urquhart in the satirical TV drama "House of Cards," died in London at age 72.

February 9, the 40th day of 2008. There are 326 days left in the year.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: gov.archives
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 8, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BEHEADING, EDUCATION, POLITICS, GROUPS, MOVIES, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, EXECUTION, STRONGMAN, ASSASSINATION, SUICIDE, PROGRESS, CLOSE CALLS, PATENTS, PAPERS, NANNY STATE, METEORS, WATERGATE, KIDNAPPED, WEDDINGS, SPORTS, MUSIC, HOAX, ANGER MANAGEMENT, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH



1968 Three college students were killed in a confrontation with highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, S.C., during a civil rights protest against a whites-only bowling alley.

WAR!

1862 Battle of Roanoke Island NC, Federals gain control of Pamlico Sound.

1904 the Russo-Japanese War, a conflict over control of Manchuria and Korea, began as Japanese forces attacked Port Arthur.

1916 French cruiser "Admiral Charner" torpedoed off Syrian coast, kills 374.

2003 The chief U.N. arms inspectors arrived in Baghdad for a new round of crucial talks with Iraqi officials. In a jab at major U.S. allies, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a security conference in Munich that countries such as France and Germany that favored giving Iraq another chance to disarm were undermining what slim chance existed to avoid war.

TERRORISM

2007 Rival Palestinian leaders signed an agreement on a power-sharing government at Saudi-brokered talks in Mecca.

DISASTER

1905 Cyclone hit Tahiti & adjacent islands, killing some 10,000 people.

1923 Coal mine explosion at Dawson NM kills 120.

1931 Gas explosion; Fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000.

1965 Eastern DC-7B crashes into Atlantic off Jones Beach NJ, kills 84.

1989 144 people were killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fog-covered mountain in the Azores.

1995 6.4 earthquake at Trujillo, Colombia (46+ killed).

HOAX!

1993 GM sues NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" program had rigged 2 car-truck crashes to show that 1973-87 GM pickups were prone to fires.

ANGER MANAGEMENT

1994 Jack Nicholson uses a golf club to attack a car.

PROGRESS

1883 Louis Waterman begins experiments to invent the fountain pen.

1933 1st flight of all-metal Boeing 247.

KIDNAPPED

1983 Champion thoroughbred Shergar kidnapped in Ireland; never found Lloyds of London pays $10.6 million insurance.

CLOSE CALL

1743 Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth.

METEORS

1969 Meteorite weighing over 1 ton falls in Chihuahua, México.

PATENTS

1802 Simon Willard patents banjo clock.

1898 John Ames Sherman patents 1st envelope folding & gumming machine (Massachusetts).

MUSIC

1992 "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred peaks at #1.

NANNY STATE

1960 Congress opens hearings looking into payola.

PRO WRESTLING

1971 Pedro Morales beats Ivan Koloff in New York, to become WWF wrestling champion.

WEDDINGS

1975 1800 Unification church couples' wed in Korea in mass ceremony.

SPORTS

1986 5' 7" Spud Webb of Atlanta Hawks wins NBA Slam Dunk Competition.

BEHEADING

1587 Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

WATERGATE

1973 Senate names 7 members to investigate Watergate scandal.

ADVICE

1942 Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort.

CLIMATE

1989 5 cm of snow falls in outskirts of Los Angeles.

PAPERS

1918 "Stars & Stripes", weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published.

EDUCATION

1693 A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

POLITICS

1837 The Senate selected the vice president of the United States, choosing Richard Mentor Johnson after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

GROUPS

1910 The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.

ASSASSINATION

1963 Abdul Karim Kassem PM of Iraq (58-63), assassinated in Baghdad at 48.

MOVIES

1915 D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking as well as controversial silent movie epic about the Civil War, "The Birth of a Nation," premiered in Los Angeles.

SUICIDE

1990 Del Shannon Coopersville MI, rock vocalist (Runaway), shoots self at 55.

EXECUTION

1924 The first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, was put to death.

1932 Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll mobster, killed by Dutch Schultz gang.

2007 A federal judge in Fargo, N.D., sentenced Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death for the slaying of college student Dru Sjodin.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1978 The deliberations of the Senate were broadcast on radio for the first time as members opened debate on the Panama Canal treaties.

1990 "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney suspended by CBS for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine.

STRONGMAN

2003 Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched in support of 9,000 oil workers fired for leading a two-month strike against President Hugo Chavez.

BORN

1820 William Tecumseh Sherman Major General (Union Army), dies in 1891 (War is hell).

1918 John Intoxication resistance fighter.

1920 Lana Turner Wallace ID, actress (Survivors, Falcon Crest).

1931 James Dean Marion IN, stage/film actor (Giant, Rebel Without a Cause).

BIRTHDAYS

Composer-conductor John Williams is 76. Actor Jack Larson is 75. Former ABC News anchor Ted Koppel is 68. Actor Nick Nolte is 67. Comedian Robert Klein is 66. Actor-rock musician Creed Bratton is 65. Country singer Dan Seals is 60. Singer Ron Tyson is 60. Actress Brooke Adams is 59. Actress Mary Steenburgen is 55. Author John Grisham is 53. Rock singer Vince Neil (Motley Crue) is 47. Rock singer-musician Sammy LLanas (The BoDeans) is 47. Actor Gary Coleman is 40. Actress Mary McCormack is 39. Actor Seth Green is 34. Actor Josh Morrow is 34. Rock musician Phoenix (Linkin Park) is 31. Actor Ryan Pinkston is 20. Actress Karle Warren ("Judging Amy") is 16.

DEATH

1725 Peter the Great Tsar of Russia dies at 52.

2007 Model, actress and tabloid sensation Anna Nicole Smith died in Florida at age 39 of an accidental drug overdose.

February 8, the 39th day of 2008. There are 327 days left in the year.

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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 7, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, TRIAL, RATIONING, IKE, WOMEN, SCIENCE, EXECUTION, QUACKS, POLITICS, BARE KNUCKLES, CLIMATE, CARTOONS, PREDICTIONS, MOVIES, WEDDINGS, JEWS, FLAVORS, MUSLIMS, SURGERY, NANNY STATE, UNREST, BUBBLE BOY, SHOCK JOCKS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


1964 The Beatles began their first American tour as they arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

WAR!

1861 The general council of the Choctaw Indian nation adopted a resolution declaring allegiance with the South "in the event a permanent dissolution of the American Union takes place."

1862 Federal fleet attack on Roanoke Island NC.

1864 Federal troops occupy Jacksonville FL.

2003 President Bush courted the leaders of France and China in an uphill struggle to win U.N. backing for war with Iraq.

2007 U.S. officials confirmed a new security operation was under way in Baghdad; U.S. armor rushed through streets, and Iraqi armored personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections. A Marine CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter was shot down by insurgents in Anbar, killing all seven people on board.

TERRORISM

1969 Al-Fatah-leader Yasser Arafat becomes president of PLO.

2003 The government raised its terror threat level to "high risk" orange, warning of a growing possibility that the al-Qaida network would launch an attack against the United States to coincide with Muslim holy days.

2003 Colombian guerillas bombed the exclusive El Nogal social club in Bogota, killing 36 people and injuring 160 others.

DISASTER

1812 8.2 earthquake shakes New Madrid MO; this is the last of Midwest quakes (see 12/16).

1904 A fire began in Baltimore that raged for about 30 hours and destroyed more than 1,500 buildings in 80 blocks.

1962 Gas explosion in Luisanthal coal mine Voelklingen Germany kills 298.

FLAVORS

1964 Baskin-Robbins introduces Beatle Nut ice cream.

RATIONING

1943 the government announced the start of shoe rationing, limiting consumers to buying three pairs per person for the remainder of the year.

QUACKS

1979 Josef Mengele concentration camp doctor, drowns.

WEDDINGS

1993 Pebbles Flintstone & Bamm Bamm Rubble wed.

SURGERY

1965 George Harrison of the Beatles, has his tonsils removed.

BUBBLE BOY

1984 David (born without immunity system) at 12, touches mom for 1st time.

SPORTS

1985 Marshall University's Bruce Morris scores a basket from 92'5¼".

UNREST

1990 Karachi police kill 22 anti-nationalistic demonstrators.

EXECUTIONS

1920 Alexander Koltsjak Admiral/leader Russian counter-revolutionary, executed.

SHOCK JOCKS

1994 Howard Stern stops a would-be jumper on the George Washington Bridge.

POLITICS

1839 Henry Clay declares in Senate "I had rather be right than president".

1905 Oklahoma admitted to statehood.

BARE KNUCKLES

1882 Last bare knuckle champion John L Sullivan KOs Paddy Ryan in Mississippi.

PREDICTIONS

1945 General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

NANNY STATE

1976 FCC raids & shuts down pirate radio station WCPR (Brooklyn NY).

JEWS

1947 Arabs & Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine.

MUSLIMS

1964 Cassius Clay becomes a Muslim & adopts the name Muhammad Ali.

TRIAL

1857 A French court acquitted author Gustave Flaubert of obscenity for his serialized novel "Madame Bovary."

CLIMATE

1891 Great Blizzard of 1891 begins.

COMMIES

1950 Senator Joe McCarthy finds communists in US Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

IKE

1948 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff; he was succeeded by General Omar Bradley.

WOMEN

1983 Elizabeth H. Dole was sworn in as the first female secretary of transportation by the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

SCIENCE

1984 Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk.

CARTOONS

1936 Felix the Cat, Cartoon Character, by Van Beuren from Otto Messmer.

MOVIES

1940 Walt Disney's 2nd feature-length movie, "Pinocchio", premieres (New York NY).

1974 Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" opens in movie theaters.

BORN

1478 Sir Thomas More lawyer/lord chancellor of England/saint (Utopia).

1804 John Deere pioneer manufacturer of agricultural implements.

1812 Author Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.

1817 Frederick Douglass Maryland, 1st high ranking black in US government.

1885 Sinclair Lewis novelist/social critic (Main Street, Nobel 1930).

1908 Clarence Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe Oakland CA, swimmer (Olympics-gold-1932)/actor (Tarzan the Fearless, Flash Gordon).

BIRTHDAYS

Country singer Wilma Lee Cooper is 87. Author Gay Talese is 76. Actor Miguel Ferrer is 53. Reggae musician Brian Travers (UB40) is 49. Actor James Spader is 48. Country singer Garth Brooks is 46. Rock musician David Bryan (Bon Jovi) is 46. Actor-comedian Eddie Izzard is 46. Actor-comedian Chris Rock is 43. Actor Jason Gedrick is 41. Actor Ashton Kutcher is 30. Actress Tina Majorino is 23.

DEATH

1993 Arthur Ashe tennis star (Wimbledon 1975), dies of AIDS at 49.

1998 It was announced that Carl Wilson, a founding member of The Beach Boys, had died in Los Angeles from complications of lung cancer; he was 51.

2003 Tom Christerson, the longest-living recipient of a fully self-contained artificial heart, died at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., after 512 days on the AbioCor; he was 71.

February 7, the 38th day of 2008. There are 328 days left in the year. This is the Lunar New Year of the Rat.

compiled by Mondoreb
image: rhythms-riffs
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP's Today in Weird History: February 6, 2008

WAR, DISASTERS, CREEPY, WHISKERS, BOO, RECORDS, PAGE TWO, BANDITS, GAMES, HOBBIES, NANNY STATE, POLITICS, CIVIL RIGHTS, SMOKE NAZIS, PRO WRESTLING, GOLF, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, POPULATION, PIRATES, SPERM CONTROL, JEWS, GEEZERS, CLINTONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


1911 Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, was born in Tampico, Ill.

WAR!

1778 France recognizes US, signs treaty of aid in Paris; 1st US treaty. England declares war on France.

1862 Victory for General Ulysses S Grant in Tennessee, capturing Fort Henry, and ten days later Fort Donelson; Grant earns the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.

1899 A peace treaty between the United States and Spain was ratified by the U.S. Senate.

2003 Edging closer to war, President Bush declared "the game is over" for Saddam Hussein and urged skeptical allies to join in disarming Iraq.

DISASTERS

1911 Great fire destroys downtown Constantinople/Istanbul Turkey.

1951 "Broker Special" train crashes in Woodbridge NJ, killing 84

1958 7 soccer players of Manchester United die in an air crash at Munich.

1992 16 people were killed when a C-130 military transport plane crashed in Evansville, Ind.

1996 A Turkish-owned Boeing 757 jetliner crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from the Dominican Republic, killing 189 people, mostly German tourists.

CREEPY

2003 ABC's "20/20" aired a British documentary on Michael Jackson in which the singer revealed he sometimes let children sleep in his bed.

WHISKERS

1869 Harper's Weekly publishes 1st picture of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers.

BOO!

1956 French premier Guy Mollet pelted with tomatoes in Algiers.

PAGE TWO

1951 Radio commentator Paul Harvey arrested for trying to sneak into the Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago IL.

RECORDS

1990 Steve Briers of Wales recited the entire lyrics of Queen's album "A Night At The Opera" in 9 minutes & 58.44 seconds backwards!

BANDITS

1891 1st great train robbery by Dalton Gang (Southern Pacific #17).

GAMES

1935 Board game "Monopoly" goes on sale for the 1st time.

PRO WRESTLING

1977 Harley Race beats Terry Funk in Toronto, to become NWA wrestling champion.

HOBBIES

1948 1st radio-controlled airplane flown.

GOLF

1968 Former President Dwight Eisenhower shot a hole-in-one.

1971 1st time a golf ball is hit on the Moon (by Alan Shepard).

NANNY STATE

1953 US controls on wages & some consumer goods were lifted.

CIVIL RIGHTS

1956 University of Alabama refuses admission to Autherine Lucy (because he's black).

SMOKE NAZIS



1987 No-smoking rules take effect in federal buildings.

POLITICS

1788 Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1933 the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, the so-called "lame duck" amendment, was proclaimed in effect by Secretary of State Henry Stimson.

SPERM CONTROL

1997 Diane Blood, 32, in England, won right to use her dead husbands sperm.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1959 Fidel Castro is interviewed by Edward R Murrow.

POPULATION

1820 US population announced at 9,638,453 (1,771,656 blacks (18.4%)).

PIRATES!

1832 US ship destroys Sumatran village in retaliation for piracy.

JEWS

1902 Young Women's Hebrew Association organized in New York NY.

GEEZERS

1911 1st old-age home opened in Prescott AZ.

CLINTONS

1998 President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair redoubled their pledge to use military force against Iraq if necessary; during a joint news conference in which the subject of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky came up, Clinton said he would "never" resign. President Clinton signed a bill changing the name of Washington National Airport to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

BORN

1756 America's third vice president, Aaron Burr, was born in Newark, N.J.

1833 James Ewell Brown "JEB" Stuart Major General (Commander of Cavalry, Confederate Army).

1895 George Herman (Babe) Ruth Baltimore MD, baseball great (Yankees).

1912 Eva Braun mistress of Adolf Hitler.

BIRTHDAYS

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is 91. Actor Patrick Macnee is 86. Actor Rip Torn is 77. Actress Mamie Van Doren is 77. Actor Mike Farrell is 69. Former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw is 68. Singer Fabian is 65. Actress Gayle Hunnicutt is 65. Actor Michael Tucker is 64. Producer-director-writer Jim Sheridan is 59. Singer Natalie Cole is 58. Actor Jon Walmsley is 52. Actress Kathy Najimy is 51. Rock musician Simon Phillips (Toto) is 51. Actor-director Robert Townsend is 51. Actor Barry Miller is 50. Actress Megan Gallagher is 48. Rock singer Axl Rose (Guns N' Roses) is 46. Country singer Richie McDonald is 46. Singer Rick Astley is 42. Rock musician Tim Brown (Boo Radleys) is 39. Actor Brandon Hammond is 24.

DEATH

1804 Joseph Priestley England/US theologist/philosopher/chemist, dies at 70.

1952 Britain's King George VI died; he was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.

2007 Singer Frankie Laine died in San Diego at age 93.

February 6, the 37th day of 2008. There are 329 days left in the year. Today is Ash Wednesday.

compiled by Mondoreb
images: redstateleader; RidesAPaleHorse
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP Today in Weird History: February 4, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, EXECUTIONS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH, POLITICS, PROGRESS, EDUCATION, JEWS, BOOMS, RELIGION, ASSASSINATION, PATENTS, SPORTS, RIOTS, DEPORTED, BANKRUPT, RECORDS, CHIMPS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA



1789 Electors chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States. They also elected John Adams as Vice-President. (However, the results of the balloting were not counted in the U.S. Senate until two months later).

WAR!

1783 Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

1861 Confederate constitutional convention meets for 1st time, Montgomery AL. Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi & South Carolina elect Jefferson Davis President of Confederacy.

1945 President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a wartime conference at Yalta.

TERRORISM

1990 10 Israeli tourists murdered near Cairo.

1994 20 die in armed assault on mosque in Khartum Sudan.

DISASTERS

1783 Worst quake in 8 years kills some 50,000 (Calabria, Italy).

1797 Earthquake in Quito, Ecuador kills 40,000.

1966 All-Nippon Airways 727 crashes off Haneda Airport (Japan); kills 133.

1971 Government exhibit under construction collapses, kills 65 in Brazil.

1976 7.5 earthquake kills 22,778 in Guatemala & Honduras.

1977 Elevated train jumps track, crashes onto Chicago st (11 die, 200 hurt).

1997 73 Israelis die when army copters collide.

1998 More than 2,300 people were killed when an earthquake hit northeast Afghanistan with a magnitude of 5.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

RECORDS

1982 Indoor distance record for a paper airplane (47 meters) Tacoma WA.

1984 Frank Aquilera sets world frisbee distance record (168 meters) Las Vegas.

RIOTS

1971 National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC.

CHIMPS

1974 Chimpanzee Nim Chimsky signs his 1st word, at 2½ months.

BOOMS

1964 FAA begins 6 month test of reactions to sonic booms over Oklahoma City OK.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

2003 A rare television interview with Saddam Hussein aired in which the Iraqi leader charged that U.S. claims of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in his country were a pretext to seize Iraq's oil fields.

EDUCATION

1849 University of Wisconsin begins in 1 room with 20 students.

BANKRUPT

1971 British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt.

DEPORTED

1972 Senator Strom Thurmond suggests John Lennon be deported.

NAZIs

1938 Hitler seizes control of German army & puts Nazi in key posts.

RELIGION

1866 Mary Baker Eddy cures her injuries by opening a bible.

ASSASSINATION

1949 Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia.

JEWS

1855 Soldiers shoot Jewish families in Coro, Venezuela.

1959 Israel begins exporting copper ore.

1997 Secretary of State Madeline Albright announces she just discovered that her grandparents were Jewish.

SPORTS

1932 New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid.

1969 John Madden is named head coach of the NFL's Oakland Raiders.

PATENTS

1913 Louis Perlman patents demountable auto tire-carrying wheel rim.

PROGRESS

1824 J W Goodrich introduces rubber galoshes to the public.

1930 1st tieless, soundless, shockless streetcar tracks, New Orleans.

1957 1st electric portable typewriter placed on sale (Syracuse NY).

EXECUTIONS

1699 350 rebellious Streltsi executed in Moscow.

BORN

1902 Charles A Lindbergh Detroit MI, pilot (1st fly solo across Atlantic).

1904 MacKinlay Kantor Webster City IA, novelist (Andersonville).

1913 Woody Hayes [Wayne], college football coach (Ohio, 1968 coach of year).

BIRTHDAYS

Actor William Phipps is 86. Actor Conrad Bain is 85. Actor Gary Conway is 72. Movie director George A. Romero is 68. Rock musician John Steel (The Animals) is 67. Singer Florence LaRue (The Fifth Dimension) is 64. Former Vice President Dan Quayle is 61. Rock singer Alice Cooper is 60. Actor Michael Beck is 59. Actress Lisa Eichhorn is 56. Rock singer Tim Booth is 48. Rock musician Henry Bogdan is 47. Country singer Clint Black is 46. Country musician Dave Buchanan (Yankee Grey) is 42. Actress Gabrielle Anwar is 38. Singer David Garza is 37. Actor Michael Goorjian is 37. Rock musician Rick Burch (Jimmy Eat World) is 33. Singer Natalie Imbruglia is 33. Rapper Cam'ron is 32. Rock singer Gavin DeGraw is 31. Olympic gold medal gymnast-turned-singer Carly Patterson is 20.

DEATH

1957 Joseph Hardaway creator of Bugs Bunny, dies at 66.

1983 Karen Carpenter singer/drummer (Carpenters), dies of anorexia at 32.

1987 Pianist Liberace died at his Palm Springs, Calif., home at age 67.

1989 Kenneth "Jethro" Burns country singer (Homer & Jethro), dies at 69.

2003 Opera singer Jerome Hines died in New York at age 81.

2007 Singer-actress Barbara McNair died in Los Angeles at age 72.

February 4, the 35th day of 2008. There are 331 days left in the year.

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compiled by Mondoreb
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* Today in History



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.

DBKP's Today in Weird History: February 3, 2008

WAR, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, DISCO, PESTHOUSE, FORBIDDEN, CHEESE, ELEPHANTS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, MURDER, EXECUTIONS, NANNY STATE, CHEATING, CLIMATE, LEVIATHAN, SPORTS, POLITICS, SPIES, LABOR, MUSIC, SHOCK JOCK, SUPREME COURT, CAUGHT, SCIENCE, PEDOPHILES, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH


1894 Norman Rockwell US, artist/illustrator (Sat Evening Post covers).

WAR!

1864 Sherman's march through Georgia.

1943 During World War II, the U.S. transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being hit by a German torpedo. (Four Army chaplains gave their life belts to four other men, and went down with the ship.)

TERRORISM

1969 The Palestine National Congress appointed Yasser Arafat head of PLO.

2007 A suicide truck bomber struck a Baghdad market in a predominantly Shiite area, killing more than 130 people. President Bush designated four central Florida counties disaster areas in the wake of tornadoes that ripped through the region, leaving 21 dead.

DISASTERS

1959 a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claimed the lives of rock-'n'-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

1959 An American Airlines Lockheed Electra crashed into New York's East River while approaching LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.

1998 A U.S. Marine plane sliced through the cable of a ski gondola in Italy, sending the car plunging hundreds of feet, killing all 20 people inside.

DISCO

1982 John Sharples of England finishes disco dancing 371 hours.

PESTHOUSE

1743 Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants.

FORBIDDEN

1752 Dutch States-General forbid export of windmills.

CHEESE

1815 World's 1st commercial cheese factory established, in Switzerland.

ELEPHANTS

1882 Circus owner PT Barnum buys his world famous elephant Jumbo.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

1953 J Fred Muggs, a chimp, becomes a regular on NBC's Today Show.

MURDER

1889 Belle Starr US female gangster, murdered at 40.

1969 Eduardo C Mondlane President of Mozambique, murdered.

1982 Porn star John Holmes ordered to stand trial for murder.

NANNY STATE

1973 President Nixon signs Endangered Species Act into law.

CHEATING

1965 105 USAF cadets resigned for cheating on exams.

CLIMATE

1961 6th largest snowfall in NYC history (17.4" (44.2cm)).

LEVIATHAN

1690 1st paper money in America issued (colony of Massachusetts).

1913 The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, was ratified.

1941 Supreme Court upheld Federal Wage & Hour law, sets minimum wages & maximum hours.

2003 President Bush sent lawmakers a $2.23 trillion budget for 2004.

SPORTS

1876 Albert Spalding with $800 starts sporting goods company, manufacturing 1st official baseball, tennis ball, basketball, golf ball, & football.

EXECUTION

1377 Mass execution of population of Cesena Italy.

1998 The state of Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker for the pickax killings of two people in 1983; she was the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

POLITICS

1809 Congress passed an act establishing the Illinois Territory.

SPIES

1950 Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs arrested on spy charges.

LABOR

1908 The U.S. Supreme Court, in Loewe v. Lawlor, ruled the United Hatters Union had violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by organizing a nationwide boycott of Danbury Hatters of Connecticut.

2003 Abandoning a two-month-long general strike that failed to oust President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's workers returned to work in all sectors but the vital oil industry.

MUSIC

1967 "Purple Haze" recorded by Jimi Hendrix.

1979 "YMCA" by Village People peaks at #2 on pop singles chart.

SHOCK JOCK

1997 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Detroit MI on WKRK 97.1 FM.

FIRE

1916 Canada's original Parliament Buildings, in Ottawa, burned down.

SUPREME COURT

1930 the chief justice of the United States, William Howard Taft, resigned for health reasons. (He died just over a month later.)

CAUGHT

2003 Record producer Phil Spector was arrested in the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion in Alhambra, Calif. (Spector's murder trial ended in a jury deadlock in September 2007.)

SCIENCE

1966 The Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first manmade object to make a soft landing on the moon.

1984 1st baby conceived by embryo transplant born in Long Beach CA.

1994 The space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft.

1995 Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time in NASA history.

PEDOPHILES

1998 Mary Kay LeTourneau, 36, former teacher, violates probation with 14 year-old father of her baby

BORN

1811 Horace Greeley editor ("Go west, young man").

1879 Charles Follis 1st black US football player (Shelby OH).

1935 Johnny "Guitar" Watson rock guitarist.

1947 Melanie [Safka], Astoria, singer/songwriter (Candles in the Rain).

BIRTHDAY

Comedian Shelley Berman is 82. Football Hall-of-Famer Fran Tarkenton is 68. Actress Bridget Hanley is 67. Actress Blythe Danner is 65. Singer Dennis Edwards is 65. Football Hall-of-Famer Bob Griese is 63. Singer-guitarist Dave Davies (The Kinks) is 61. Singer Melanie is 61. Actress Morgan Fairchild is 58. Actor Nathan Lane is 52. Rock musician Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) is 52. Actor Thomas Calabro is 49. Actor-director Keith Gordon is 47. Actress Michele Greene is 46. Country singer Matraca Berg is 44. Actress Maura Tierney is 43. Actor Warwick Davis is 38. Reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee is 32. Musician Grant Barry is 31. Singer-songwriter Jessica Harp (The Wreckers) is 26. Rapper Sean Kingston is 18.

DEATH

1924 The 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, died in Washington, D.C., at age 67.

Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2008. There are 332 days left in the year.


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



Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.