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Duke of Buckingham [TeaM]
Prince
Prince


Joined: 11 Jun 2011
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Location: Lisboa

PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dec 5, 1945:
Aircraft squadron lost in the Bermuda Triangle


At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m.

The disappearance of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of the Mariner led to one of the largest air and seas searches to that date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found.

Although naval officials maintained that the remains of the six aircraft and 27 men were not found because stormy weather destroyed the evidence, the story of the "Lost Squadron" helped cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.



Dec 5, 1978:
USSR and Afghanistan sign "friendship treaty"


In an effort to prop up an unpopular pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union signs a "friendship treaty" with the Afghan government agreeing to provide economic and military assistance. The treaty moved the Russians another step closer to their disastrous involvement in the Afghan civil war between the Soviet-supported communist government and the Muslim rebels, the Mujahideen, which officially began in 1979.

The Soviet Union always considered the bordering nation of Afghanistan of interest to its national security. Since the 1950s, the Soviet Union worked diligently to establish close relations with its neighbor by providing economic aid and military assistance. In the 1970s matters took a dramatic turn in Afghanistan, and in April 1978, members of the Afghan Communist Party overthrew and murdered President Sardar Mohammed Daoud. Nur Mohammed Taraki, head of the Communist Party, took over and immediately declared one-party rule in Afghanistan. The regime was extremely unpopular with many Afghans so the Soviets sought to bolster it with the December 1978 treaty. The treaty established a 20-year period of "friendship and cooperation" between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. In addition to increased economic assistance, the Soviet Union promised continued cooperation in the military field. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev declared that the treaty marked a "qualitatively new character" of relations between the two nations.

The treaty, however, did not help Afghanistan. Taraki was overthrown and killed by members of the Afghan Communist Party who were dissatisfied with his rule in September 1979. In December, Soviet troops moved into Afghanistan and established a regime more amenable to Russian desires. Thus began what many pundits referred to as "Russia's Vietnam," as the Soviets poured endless amounts of money, weapons, and manpower into a seemingly endless civil war. Mikhail Gorbachev finally began the withdrawal of Russian troops nearly 10 years later.



Dec 5, 1933:
Prohibition ends


The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, repealing the 18th Amendment and bringing an end to the era of national prohibition of alcohol in America. At 5:32 p.m. EST, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the requisite three-fourths majority of states' approval. Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day.

The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for national liquor abstinence. Several states outlawed the manufacture or sale of alcohol within their own borders. In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes," was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. On January 29, 1919, the 18th Amendment achieved the necessary three-fourths majority of state ratification. Prohibition essentially began in June of that year, but the amendment did not officially take effect until January 29, 1920.

In the meantime, Congress passed the Volstead Act on October 28, 1919, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of Prohibition, including the creation of a special Prohibition unit of the Treasury Department. In its first six months, the unit destroyed thousands of illicit stills run by bootleggers. However, federal agents and police did little more than slow the flow of booze, and organized crime flourished in America. Large-scale bootleggers like Al Capone of Chicago built criminal empires out of illegal distribution efforts, and federal and state governments lost billions in tax revenue. In most urban areas, the individual consumption of alcohol was largely tolerated and drinkers gathered at "speakeasies," the Prohibition-era term for saloons.

Prohibition, failing fully to enforce sobriety and costing billions, rapidly lost popular support in the early 1930s. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, ending national Prohibition. After the repeal of the 18th Amendment, some states continued Prohibition by maintaining statewide temperance laws. Mississippi, the last dry state in the Union, ended Prohibition in 1966.



Dec 5, 2000:
O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack released


Released on this day in 2000, several weeks ahead of the film itself, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack would catch on slowly, but it would eventually sell upwards of 7 million copies while winning a broad new audience for contemporary artists performing a style of American music--bluegrass--that had been absent from the pop charts for five decades or more. Of the hugely popular album widely credited with sparking a major resurgence of interest in her chosen musical genre, the bluegrass artist Rhonda Vincent said to the Los Angeles Times in 2002, "To me the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack is not bluegrass, but as long as people love the music, who cares what it's called?"

Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, O Brother, Where Art Thou? was a loose adaptation of Homer's Odyssey starring George Clooney as the fast-talking escaped convict Ulysses Everett McGill, who must survive encounters with sirens, a Cyclops and a posse of hooded Klansmen on an epic journey home to Ithaca (Mississippi) to prevent his wife, Penny, from marrying another man. Deciding early on to employ a soundtrack appropriate to the film's setting in the Depression-era South, the Coen brothers enlisted songwriter-producer T-Bone Burnett to find the right music, and he found it in Nashville, though not within the country-music establishment. As the soundtrack's liner notes put it, the sound that Burnett and the Coens were looking for was the sound of country music "before the infidels of [Nashville's] Music Row expropriated that term to describe watered-down pop/rock with greeting-card lyrics."

They found that sound alive and well and in the capable hands of musicians whose roots date back across decades—Ralph Stanley and The Fairfield Four, for instance—and others who had made their careers working in a country vernacular far older than themselves—Gillian Welch, Allison Kraus and Emmylou Harris, most prominent among them. Using these and other contemporary musicians, Burnett completed work on the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? before the first frame of the film was shot, and the Coens consciously built many memorable scenes around songs like Krauss's rendition of "Down To The River To Pray" and "Man Of Constant Sorrow," by the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys (featuring the real-life Dan Tyminski and Ron Block).

Within several months of its release, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack had topped the country album charts, but its crossover to the pop charts came much more slowly. By August 2001, the film had left theaters in the United States, but the album was still building momentum. It finally reached the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart of pop albums in March 2002—the longest climb to #1 for a pop album in the modern era.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsdCpqPs_UI
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Duke of Buckingham [TeaM]
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 4:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dec 6, 1884:
Washington Monument completed


On this day in 1884, in Washington, D.C., workers place a nine-inch aluminum pyramid atop a tower of white marble, completing the construction of an impressive monument to the city's namesake and the nation's first president, George Washington. As early as 1783, the infant U.S. Congress decided that a statue of George Washington, the great Revolutionary War general, should be placed near the site of the new Congressional building, wherever it might be. After then-President Washington asked him to lay out a new federal capital on the Potomac River in 1791, architect Pierre L'Enfant left a place for the statue at the western end of the sweeping National Mall (near the monument's present location).

It wasn't until 1832, however--33 years after Washington's death--that anyone really did anything about the monument. That year, a private Washington National Monument Society was formed. After holding a design competition and choosing an elaborate Greek temple-like design by architect Robert Mills, the society began a fundraising drive to raise money for the statue's construction. These efforts--including appeals to the nation's schoolchildren--raised some $230,000, far short of the $1 million needed. Construction began anyway, on July 4, 1848, as representatives of the society laid the cornerstone of the monument: a 24,500-pound block of pure white marble.

Six years later, with funds running low, construction was halted. Around the time the Civil War began in 1861, author Mark Twain described the unfinished monument as looking like a "hollow, oversized chimney." No further progress was made until 1876--the centennial of American independence--when President Ulysses S. Grant authorized construction to be completed.

Made of some 36,000 blocks of marble and granite stacked 555 feet in the air, the monument was the tallest structure in the world at the time of its completion in December 1884. In the six months following the dedication ceremony, over 10,000 people climbed the nearly 900 steps to the top of the Washington Monument. Today, an elevator makes the trip far easier, and more than 800,000 people visit the monument each year. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.--a fitting tribute to the man known as the "Father of His Country."



Dec 6, 1865:
The 13th Amendment is ratified


On this day in 1865, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, officially ending the institution of slavery, is ratified. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." With these words, the single greatest change wrought by the Civil War was officially noted in the Constitution.

The ratification came eight months after the end of the war, but it represented the culmination of the struggle against slavery. When the war began, some in the North were against fighting what they saw as a crusade to end slavery. Although many northern Democrats and conservative Republicans were opposed to slavery's expansion, they were ambivalent about outlawing the institution entirely. The war's escalation after the First Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, in July 1861 caused many to rethink the role that slavery played in creating the conflict. By 1862, Lincoln realized that it was folly to wage such a bloody war without plans to eliminate slavery. In September 1862, following the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves in territory still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, would be declared forever free. The move was largely symbolic, as it only freed slaves in areas outside of Union control, but it changed the conlfict from a war for the reunification of the states to a war whose objectives included the destruction of slavery.

Lincoln believed that a constitutional amendment was necessary to ensure the end of slavery. In 1864, Congress debated several proposals. Some insisted on including provisions to prevent discrimination against blacks, but the Senate Judiciary Committee provided the eventual language. It borrowed from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, when slavery was banned from the area north of the Ohio River. The Senate passed the amendment in April 1864.

A Republican victory in the 1864 presidential election would guarantee the success of the amendment. The Republican platform called for the "utter and complete destruction" of slavery, while the Democrats favored restoration of states' rights, which would include at least the possibility for the states to maintain slavery. Lincoln's overwhelming victory set in motion the events leading to ratification of the amendment. The House passed the measure in January 1865 and it was sent to the states for ratification. When Georgia ratified it on December 6, 1865, the institution of slavery officially ceased to exist in the United States.



Dec 6, 1987:
Protests against Soviet treatment of Jews take place in Washington and Moscow


On the eve of Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev's arrival in the United States for a summit meeting with President Ronald Reagan, more than 200,000 protesters in Washington, and a much smaller number in Moscow, protest Soviet policies concerning Russian Jews. The protests succeeded in focusing public attention on human rights abuses in Russia but had little impact on the summit.

The agenda for the Gorbachev-Reagan summit largely focused on weapons control issues, particularly the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. The Soviet presence in Afghanistan and support of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua were also topics for discussion. Over 200,000 protesters in Washington attempted to shift the focus to another issue-the Soviet government's treatment of Russian Jews. In particular, they called on the Soviets to allow Jewish emigration from Russia and for an end to Soviet oppression of Jewish dissidents and critics of the Soviet government. In a letter that was read to appease the protesters, President Reagan stated that he would "not be satisfied with less" than the "release of all refuseniks [jailed dissidents] and for complete freedom of religious and cultural expression." A demonstration set to coincide with the protests in Washington was roughly disrupted by Soviet plainclothes police in Moscow. The few dozen protesters had their signs and banners seized and destroyed and some were physically assaulted.

Despite the protests and Reagan's rhetoric, the issue of Soviet human rights abuses played almost no role at the summit. The Soviets insisted that the protesters be ignored and U.S. officials, anxious to get an arms control agreement out of the summit, essentially complied with the Russian requests. A major arms agreement was, in fact, signed during the meeting.



Dec 6, 1917:
Ships explode in Canadian harbor


On this day in 1917, a Belgian steamer and French freighter, both loaded with ammunition, explode in Canada's Halifax Harbor, leveling part of the town and killing nearly 1,600 people and injuring approximately 8,000. The 8 million tons of TNT carried by the ships was intended for use in World War I.

The ships were gathered in Halifax, the meeting point for convoys to begin the dangerous Atlantic crossing, during which they were threatened by the deadly and stealthy German U-boat submarines. The HMS High Flyer was assigned to lead the convoy. The freighter from France, the Mont Blanc, had picked up a full load of TNT in New York and came into the harbor on a foggy morning. Due to the poor conditions, it collided with the Imo, a Belgian steam boat, also carrying ammunition. A fire resulted and both ships were abandoned immediately.

A British ship, the Pictou, was at a pier in the harbor and was also filled with ammunition. The crew of the Pictou immediately fled and set the ship free upon witnessing the collision. The High Flyer was the only ship that took any action to try to stop the disaster--it sent 23 men toward the collision to attempt to sink the vessels. They were too late: A massive explosion occurred just as they reached the ships.

The explosion sent burning debris throughout Halifax. It also caused a large wave to form that pushed the ships at pier right up out of the harbor. A Canadian army officer stationed at Halifax described the result, "All that could be seen for a great circumference were burning buildings, great mounds of iron and brick in the streets and dead bodies." A 2.5- mile radius was completely demolished and the explosion could be felt 125 miles away. The wave of water hit a Navy ammunition plant located near the shores, possibly saving it from the fire.

Most other places nearby were not so lucky: The railway station collapsed from the blast and crushed scores of people inside. About 100 more were killed in a sugar plant located near the water. Of the 500 students located in schools nearby, less than 10 survived. In all, the death toll was somewhere between 1,200 and 4,000, but no one knows for sure because so much of the city was completely obliterated. Many more might have died except for a snowstorm later that day that helped put out the flames. Still, 25,000 people were left homeless in the wake of the disaster.



Dec 6, 1921:
Irish Free State declared


The Irish Free State, comprising four-fifths of Ireland, is declared, ending a five-year Irish struggle for independence from Britain. Like other autonomous nations of the former British Empire, Ireland was to remain part of the British Commonwealth, symbolically subject to the king. The Irish Free State later severed ties with Britain and was renamed Eire, and is now called the Republic of Ireland.

English rule over the island of Ireland dates back to the 12th century, and Queen Elizabeth I of England encouraged the large-scale immigration of Scottish Protestants in the 16th century. During ensuing centuries, a series of rebellions by Irish Catholics were put down as the Anglo-Irish minority extended their domination over the Catholic majority. Under absentee landlords, the Irish population was reduced to a subsistence diet based on potatoes, and when a potato blight struck the country in the 1840s, one million people starved to death while nearly two million more fled to the United States.

A movement for Irish home rule gained momentum in the late 19th century, and in 1916 Irish nationalists launched the Easter Rising against British rule in Dublin. The rebellion was crushed, but widespread agitation for independence continued. In 1919, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched a widespread and effective guerrilla campaign against British forces. In 1921, a cease-fire was declared, and in January 1922 a faction of Irish nationalists signed a peace treaty with Britain, calling for the partition of Ireland, with the south becoming autonomous and the six northern counties of the island remaining in the United Kingdom.

Civil war broke out even before the declaration of the Irish Free State on December 6, 1922, and ended with the victory of the Irish Free State over the Irish Republican forces in 1923. A constitution adopted by the Irish people in 1937 declared Ireland to be "a sovereign, independent, democratic state," and the Irish Free State was renamed Eire. Eire remained neutral during World War II, and in 1949 the Republic of Ireland Act severed the last remaining link with the Commonwealth.

Conflicts persisted over Northern Ireland, however, and the IRA, outlawed in the south, went underground to try to regain the northern counties still ruled by Britain. Violence between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland escalated in the early 1970s, and to date the fighting has claimed more than 3,000 lives.

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 5:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dec 7, 1941:
Pearl Harbor bombed


At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II.

With diplomatic negotiations with Japan breaking down, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but nothing had been done to increase security at the important naval base at Pearl Harbor. It was Sunday morning, and many military personnel had been given passes to attend religious services off base. At 7:02 a.m., two radar operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight toward the island from the north, but, with a flight of B-17s expected from the United States at the time, they were told to sound no alarm. Thus, the Japanese air assault came as a devastating surprise to the naval base.

Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack. Japan's losses were some 30 planes, five midget submarines, and fewer than 100 men. Fortunately for the United States, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan six months later at the Battle of Midway, reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese navy in a spectacular victory.

The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941--a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." After a brief and forceful speech, he asked Congress to approve a resolution recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan. The Senate voted for war against Japan by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The sole dissenter was Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a devout pacifist who had also cast a dissenting vote against the U.S. entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States, and the U.S. government responded in kind.

The American contribution to the successful Allied war effort spanned four long years and cost more than 400,000 American lives.



Dec 7, 1964:
NYC officials revive Lower Manhattan Expressway


On this day in 1964, the New York City Board of Estimate votes to revive a controversial plan to build a 10-lane, $100 million elevated expressway across Lower Manhattan from the Holland Tunnel on the west to the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges on the east.

In December 1962, the same board had refused to approve plans to build the road: its members had unanimously agreed that it was not really needed to alleviate cross-town traffic congestion and that, in any case, it would destroy the crowded and historic residential neighborhoods in its path. However, fervent lobbying by highway advocates like the powerful urban planner Robert Moses, along with the heavy-construction companies who stood to profit from the road-building itself, persuaded city officials to reconsider. This time, the board gave the expressway the go-ahead, and in 1965, Mayor Wagner promised that he would break ground on the project "as quickly as possible."

At the same time, the anti-highway protest was gathering momentum. The proposed road would cut straight across the city along Canal and Broome Streets, destroying the neighborhoods we now known as TriBeCa and SoHo and displacing 1,972 families and 804 businesses. Since the Board of Estimate had vetoed the road the first time, the pro-highway forces had worked to address some of the criticisms they'd faced: Moses offered to build a $9 million apartment complex that would house 450 displaced families, and city officials declared that there was plenty of room for the rest in high-rise housing projects. Still, the people whose homes and jobs were threatened joined forces with preservationists and other anti-road activists, dug in their heels and fought back. The well-known urbanist Jane Jacobs, who served as chairwoman of the Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway Committee, called the highway a "monstrous and useless folly": besides turning people out of their neighborhood, she argued, the road would actually make traffic congestion worse. (As another anti-highway activist put it, the proposed expressway "would only serve as an elevated parking lot for added traffic waiting to funnel into the bottleneck.")

Thanks to the efforts of Jacobs and her allies, the tide of public opinion began to turn against the building of urban highways across the country, and a 1968 study that predicted elevated carbon-monoxide levels in the air around the Lower Manhattan Expressway sealed the road's fate. The Board of Estimate officially abandoned plans for the highway in 1969.



Dec 7, 1987:
Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in United States for summit with Ronald Reagan


Despite protests in Washington concerning Soviet human rights abuses, most Americans get swept up in "Gorbymania" as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives for his summit with President Ronald Reagan. Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, charmed the American public and media by praising the United States and calling for closer relations between the Soviet Union and America.

Aside from the excitement surrounding Gorbachev (whose face was soon plastered on T-shirts, cups, and posters), the summit with Reagan resulted in one of the most significant arms control agreements of the Cold War. Reagan and Gorbachev signed off on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty, which called for the elimination of all ground cruise and ballistic missiles and launchers in Europe with ranges of 320 to 3,400 miles. By June 1991, the United States had eliminated over 800 missiles and the Soviets had eliminated 1,800 such weapons.

The INF Treaty was the first arms control agreement that eliminated, rather than simply limited, nuclear weapons. The treaty also required on-site inspections to ensure compliance, part of Reagan's famous "trust but verify" credo. Some critics in the United States denounced the treaty, claiming that it would "de-nuke" Europe and leave America's allies at the mercy of the Soviets' massive conventional forces. Most Americans, however, considered it a monumental step toward the reduction of the risk of nuclear war. The treaty was ratified by the Senate and went into effect in June 1988.



Dec 7, 1993:
Commute of terror


Colin Ferguson opens fire on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train from New York City, killing 6 and injuring 19. Other train passengers stopped the perpetrator by tackling and holding him down. Ferguson later attributed the shooting spree to his deep-seated hatred of white people.

Colin Ferguson was a mentally unbalanced man from Jamaica who spent years on the West Coast before coming to New York in 1993. On December 7, he boarded a 5:33 p.m. train out of Penn Station carrying an automatic pistol, and as the train pulled into Garden City, Ferguson began running down the aisle and shooting passengers at random.

Famous defense attorney William Kunstler initially represented Ferguson, but his strategy of arguing that Ferguson was not responsible due to "black rage" infuriated even Ferguson himself. After firing Kunstler, Ferguson decided to act as his own lawyer.

In the resulting trial, which took place in January and February 1996, Ferguson opened by claiming that he was not the shooter. He argued that a white man had stolen his gun and shot the commuters, then pinned the crime on Ferguson. But he later changed his story, stating that a man who shared Ferguson's name and facial features was the real killer.

When Ferguson asked nearly all of the surviving victims, in turn, to identify the killer under oath, they each pinned the blame squarely on him. After the judge denied Ferguson's request that President Clinton and Governor Cuomo testify, Ferguson decided to forego his own right to testify. On February 17, 1996, the jury convicted Ferguson of 6 counts of murder and 22 counts of attempted murder. He received six life terms and will not be eligible for parole.



Dec 7, 1787:
The First State


In Dover, Delaware, the U.S. Constitution is unanimously ratified by all 30 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention, making Delaware the first state of the modern United States.

Less than four months before, the Constitution was signed by 37 of the original 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia. The Constitution was sent to the states for ratification, and, by the terms of the document, the Constitution would become binding once nine of the former 13 colonies had ratified the document. Delaware led the process, and on June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, making federal democracy the law of the land. Government under the U.S. Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789.



Dec 7, 1975:
Indonesia invades East Timor


Early in the morning, Indonesian forces launch a massive invasion of the former Portuguese half of the island of Timor, which lies near Australia in the Timor Sea.

The Portuguese departed East Timor in August 1975, and Indonesian troops soon began infiltrating the border from Indonesian West Timor. On November 28, the democratically elected government of East Timor, fearing an imminent Indonesian invasion, proclaimed the Democratic Republic of East Timor.

On the morning of December 7, Indonesia responded by initiating a naval bombardment of the city of Dili, followed by landings of paratroopers from the air and of marines on the beaches. On December 10, a second invasion force captured the second largest city, Baucau. Elsewhere, East Timorese resistance continued, but by 1978 the annexation of East Timor by Indonesia was essentially complete.

During the initial years of the Indonesian invasion and occupation, more than 100,000 East Timorese died as a direct result of the conflict. Most of the dead were civilians killed by the military or starved to death in internment camps or while hiding in the hills from the Indonesian military. Small groups of East Timorese guerrillas continued their resistance for decades. In 1996, Jose Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to win independence for East Timor.

Indonesian dictator Suharto, who had ordered the 1975 invasion, was ousted from power in 1998, and East Timorese renewed their calls for independence. In 1999, the people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum, leading to bloody attacks by Indonesian militia forces. An Australian-led U.N. peacekeeping force was deployed to stop the violence, and in August 2001 East Timor held its first democratic elections to establish an autonomous government.



Dec 7, 1963:
The Singing Nun reaches #1 on the U.S. pop charts with "Dominique"


From the perspective of the American pop charts, December 1963 was, as the Four Seasons would later sing, a very special time indeed. The previous month, pop radio stations around the country had briefly gone dark out of respect for the late President John F. Kennedy following his assassination in Dallas on November 22. The following month, those same stations would begin broadcasting, nearly nonstop, the first sounds of a coming revolution, as the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand" hit American shores on January 13. Perhaps only during the unique moment in pop-music history that fell between those historic landmarks could an actual Belgian nun have ascended to the American pop charts with a jaunty tune about a Catholic saint—sung in French, no less. That's exactly what happened on this day in 1963, when Soeu Sourire—billed in English as "The Singing Nun"—scored a #1 hit with the song "Dominique."

"Domnique" was recorded in early 1963 in Brussels, Belgium, by Sister Luc-Gabrielle (nee Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers) and four companions from the Dominican convent in nearby Fichermont. Originally a vanity pressing intended only for distribution as gifts among their fellow nuns, the album of light, religious-themed tunes recorded by the Fichermont nuns was impressive enough to Phillips Records executives that it was released commercially in Europe shortly thereafter. Already a huge hit on the continent, the album and its lead artist were re-christened as "The Singing Nun" prior to crossing the Atlantic in the fall of 1963. "Dominique"—a song honoring St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order—proved popular enough not only to hit #1 on this day in 1963, but to stay there for four weeks and block "Louie, Louie" from ever reaching the top of the pop charts.

Though the 1966 Debby Reynolds movie of the same name would do little to indicate it, the Singing Nun went on to live a deep, complex and ultimately tragic life. After achieving pop immortality, Deckers walked away from stardom and from her church and adopted a new stage name: Luc Dominique. An unsuccessful album honoring the birth control pill was the highlight of Deckers' post-Singing Nun career, however. She also attempted a comeback in 1982 with a disco version of "Dominique" that failed to catch on as the original had back in 1963. Deckers' career and life ended tragically in 1985, when she and her longtime female companion committed suicide in the face of a massive tax bill from the Belgian government relating to unpaid taxes on royalties that Deckers had donated in full to the Roman Catholic Church.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHhyyRByuJ0
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 08, 2012 6:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dec 8, 1980:
John Lennon shot


John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock group that transformed popular music in the 1960s, is shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City. The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment building when Mark David Chapman shot him four times at close range with a .38-caliber revolver. Lennon, bleeding profusely, was rushed to the hospital but died en route. Chapman had received an autograph from Lennon earlier in the day and voluntarily remained at the scene of the shooting until he was arrested by police. For a week, hundreds of bereaved fans kept a vigil outside the Dakota--Lennon's apartment building--and demonstrations of mourning were held around the world.

John Lennon was one half of the singing-songwriting team that made the Beatles the most popular musical group of the 20th century. The other band leader was Paul McCartney, but the rest of the quartet--George Harrison and Ringo Starr--sometimes penned and sang their own songs as well. Hailing from Liverpool, England, and influenced by early American rock and roll, the Beatles took Britain by storm in 1963 with the single "Please Please Me." "Beatlemania" spread to the United States in 1964 with the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand," followed by a sensational U.S. tour. With youth poised to break away from the culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the "Fab Four," with their exuberant music and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift.

The Beatles sold millions of records and starred in hit movies such as A Hard Day's Night (1964). Their live performances were near riots, with teenage girls screaming and fainting as their boyfriends nodded along to the catchy pop songs. In 1966, the Beatles gave up touring to concentrate on their innovative studio recordings, such as 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, a psychedelic concept album that is regarded as a masterpiece of popular music. The Beatles' music remained relevant to youth throughout the great cultural shifts of the 1960s, and critics of all ages acknowledged the songwriting genius of the Lennon-McCartney team.

Lennon was considered the intellectual Beatle and certainly was the most outspoken of the four. He caused a major controversy in 1966 when he declared that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus," prompting mass burnings of Beatles' records in the American Bible Belt. He later became an anti-war activist and flirted with communism in the lyrics of solo hits like "Imagine," recorded after the Beatles disbanded in 1970. In 1975, Lennon dropped out of the music business to spend more time with his Japanese-born wife, Yoko Ono, and their son, Sean. In 1980, he made a comeback with Double-Fantasy, a critically acclaimed album that celebrated his love for Yoko and featured songs written by her.

On December 8, 1980, their peaceful domestic life on New York's Upper West Side was shattered by 25-year-old Mark David Chapman. Psychiatrists deemed Chapman a borderline psychotic. He was instructed to plead insanity, but instead he pleaded guilty to murder. He was sentenced to 20 years to life. In 2000, New York State prison officials denied Chapman a parole hearing, telling him that his "vicious and violent act was apparently fueled by your need to be acknowledged." He remains behind bars at Attica Prison in New York State.

John Lennon is memorialized in "Strawberry Fields," a section of Central Park across the street from the Dakota that Yoko Ono landscaped in honor of her husband.



Dec 8, 1775:
Americans begin siege of Quebec


Beginning on this day in 1775, Colonel Benedict Arnold and General Richard Montgomery lead an American force in the siege of Quebec. The Americans hoped to capture the British-occupied city and with it win support for the American cause in Canada.

In June, Congress decided to send two columns of 1,000 men each towards Canada. General Richard Montgomery proceeded up Lake Champlain and successfully captured Montreal in November before reaching Quebec City. Colonel Benedict Arnold led his men through the woods of Maine, approaching the city directly. On November 14, Arnold arrived on the Plains of Abraham outside the city of Quebec; his men sustained themselves upon dog meat and leather in the cold winter. The 100 men defending the city refused to either surrender to Arnold or leave their defenses to fight them on open plains, so Arnold waited for Montgomery to join him with his troops and supplies at the beginning of December.

The royal governor general of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, had managed to escape Montgomery's early successful attacks. He snuck into Quebec, organized 1,800 men for the city's defense, and prepared to wait out the Patriots' siege. But Arnold and Montgomery faced a deadline as their troops' enlistments expired at the end of the year. On December 7, Montgomery fired arrows over the city walls bearing letters demanding Carleton's surrender. When Carleton did not acquiesce, the Americans began a bombardment of the city with Montgomery's cannon on December 8. They then attempted a disastrous failed assault on December 31, in which Montgomery was killed and Arnold seriously wounded.



Dec 8, 1949:
Chinese Nationalists move capital to Taiwan


As they steadily lose ground to the communist forces of Mao Zedong, Chinese Nationalist leaders depart for the island of Taiwan, where they establish their new capital. Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek left for the island the following day. This action marked the beginning of the "two Chinas" scenario that left mainland China under communist control and vexed U.S. diplomacy for the next 30 years. It also signaled the effective end of the long struggle between Chinese Nationalist forces and those of the communist leader Mao Zedong, though scattered Chinese Nationalists continued sporadic combat with the communist armies.

At the time, many observers hoped that the end of the fighting and the Chinese Nationalist decision to establish a separate government on Taiwan might make it easier for foreign governments to recognize the new communist People's Republic of China. For the United States, however, the action merely posed a troubling diplomatic problem. Many in America, including members of the so-called "China Lobby" (individuals and groups from both public and private life who tenaciously supported the Chinese Nationalist cause), called upon the administration of President Harry S. Truman to continue its support of Chiang's government by withholding recognition of the communist government on the mainland. In fact, the Truman administration's recognition of the Nationalist government on Taiwan infuriated Mao, ending any possibility for diplomatic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. In the years after 1949, the United States continued its support of Taiwan, and Mao's government continued to rail against the Nationalist regime off its coast. By the 1970s, however, U.S. policymakers, desirous of opening economic relations with China and hoping to use China as a balance against Soviet power, moved toward a closer relationship with communist China. In 1979, the United States officially recognized the People's Republic of China.



Dec 8, 1987:
Superpowers agree to reduce nuclear arsenals


At a summit meeting in Washington, D.C., President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev sign the first treaty between the two superpowers to reduce their massive nuclear arsenals. Previous agreements had merely been attempts by the two Cold War adversaries to limit the growth of their nuclear arsenals. The historic agreement banned ground-launched short- and medium-range missiles, of which the two nations collectively possessed 2,611, most located in Europe and Southeast Asia.

The pact was seen as an important step toward agreement on the reduction of long-range U.S. and Soviet missiles, first achieved in 1991 when President George H. Bush and Gorbachev agreed to destroy more than a quarter of their nuclear warheads. The following year, Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed to drastically reduce their number of long-range missiles to around 3,000 launching systems each by the year 2003. In 2001, after a decade of arms control stalemate, President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin made a preliminary agreement to further reduce their nuclear arsenals to around 2,000 long-range missiles each.



Dec 8, 1542:
Mary Queen of Scots born


In Linlithgow Palace in Scotland, a daughter is born to James V, the dying king of Scotland. Named Mary, she was the only surviving child of her father and ascended to the Scottish throne when the king died just six days after her birth.

Mary's French-born mother, Mary of Guise, sent her to be raised in the French court, and in 1558 she married the French dauphin, who became King Francis II of France in 1559 and died in 1560. After Francis' death, Mary returned to Scotland to assume her designated role as the country's monarch. Mary's great-uncle was Henry VIII, the Tudor king of England, and in 1565 she married her English cousin Lord Darnley, another Tudor, which reinforced her claim to the English throne. This greatly angered the current English monarch, Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1567, Darnley was mysteriously killed in an explosion at Kirk o' Field, and Mary's lover, James Hepburn, the earl of Bothwell, was the key suspect. Although Bothwell was acquitted of the charge, his marriage to Mary in the same year enraged the nobility, and Mary was forced to abdicate in favor of her son by Darnley, James. Mary was imprisoned on the tiny island of Loch Leven.

In 1568, she escaped from captivity and raised a substantial army but was defeated by her Scottish foes and fled to England. Queen Elizabeth I initially welcomed Mary but was soon forced to put her cousin under house arrest after Mary became the focus of various English Catholic and Spanish plots to overthrow her. In 1586, a major Catholic plot to murder Elizabeth was uncovered, and Mary was brought to trial, convicted for complicity, and sentenced to death.

On February 8, 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason at Fotheringhay Castle in England. Her son, King James VI of Scotland, calmly accepted his mother's execution, and upon Queen Elizabeth's death in 1603, he became James I, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 3:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dec 9, 1992:
U.S Marines storm Mogadishu, Somalia


On this day in 1992, 1,800 United States Marines arrive in Mogadishu, Somalia, to spearhead a multinational force aimed at restoring order in the conflict-ridden country.

Following centuries of colonial rule by countries including Portugal, Britain and Italy, Mogadishu became the capital of an independent Somalia in 1960. Less than 10 years later, a military group led by Major General Muhammad Siad Barre seized power and declared Somalia a socialist state. A drought in the mid-1970s combined with an unsuccessful rebellion by ethnic Somalis in a neighboring province of Ethiopia to deprive many of food and shelter. By 1981, close to 2 million of the country's inhabitants were homeless. Though a peace accord was signed with Ethiopia in 1988, fighting increased between rival clans within Somalia, and in January 1991 Barre was forced to flee the capital. Over the next 23 months, Somalia's civil war killed some 50,000 people; another 300,000 died of starvation as United Nations peacekeeping forces struggled in vain to restore order and provide relief amid the chaos of war.

In early December 1992, outgoing U.S. President George H.W. Bush sent the contingent of Marines to Mogadishu as part of a mission dubbed Operation Restore Hope. Backed by the U.S. troops, international aid workers were soon able to restore food distribution and other humanitarian aid operations. Sporadic violence continued, including the murder of 24 U.N. soldiers from Pakistan in 1993. As a result, the U.N. authorized the arrest of General Mohammed Farah Aidid, leader of one of the rebel clans. On October 3, 1993, during an attempt to make the arrest, rebels shot down two of the U.S. Army's Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers.

As horrified TV viewers watched images of the bloodshed—-including footage of Aidid's supporters dragging the body of one dead soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, cheering—-President Bill Clinton immediately gave the order for all American soldiers to withdraw from Somalia by March 31, 1994. Other Western nations followed suit. When the last U.N. peacekeepers left in 1995, ending a mission that had cost more than $2 billion, Mogadishu still lacked a functioning government. A ceasefire accord signed in Kenya in 2002 failed to put a stop to the violence, and though a new parliament was convened in 2004, rival factions in various regions of Somalia continue to struggle for control of the troubled nation.



Dec 9, 1921:
GM engineers discover that leaded gas reduces "knock" in auto engines


On this day, a young engineer at General Motors named Thomas Midgeley Jr. discovers that when he adds a compound called tetraethyl lead (TEL) to gasoline, he eliminates the unpleasant noises (known as "knock" or "pinging") that internal-combustion engines make when they run. Midgeley could scarcely have imagined the consequences of his discovery: For more than five decades, oil companies would saturate the gasoline they sold with lead--a deadly poison.

In 1911, a scientist named Charles Kettering, Midgeley's boss at GM, invented an electric ignition system for internal-combustion cars that made their old-fashioned hand-cranked starters obsolete. Now, driving a gas-fueled auto was no trouble at all. Unfortunately, as more and more people bought GM cars, more and more people noticed a problem: When they heated up, their engines made an alarming racket, banging and clattering as though their metal parts were loose under the hood.

The problem, Kettering and Midgeley eventually figured out, was that ordinary gasoline was much too explosive for spark-ignited car engines: that is, what we now call its octane (a measure of its resistance to detonation) was too low. To raise the fuel's octane level and make it less prone to detonation and knocking, Midgeley wrote later, he mixed it with almost anything he could think of, from "melted butter and camphor to ethyl acetate and aluminum chloride...[but] most of these had no more effect than spitting in the Great Lakes."

He found a couple of additives that did work, however, and lead was just one of them. Iodine worked, but producing it was much too complicated. Ethyl alcohol also worked, and it was cheap--however, anyone with an ordinary still could make it, which meant that GM could not patent it or profit from it. Thus, from a corporate point of view, lead was the best anti-knock additive there was.

In February 1923, a Dayton filling station sold the first tankful of leaded gasoline. A few GM engineers witnessed this big moment, but Midgeley did not, because he was in bed with severe lead poisoning. He recovered; however, in April 1924, lead poisoning killed two of his unluckier colleagues, and in October, five workers at a Standard Oil lead plant died too, after what one reporter called "wrenching fits of violent insanity." (Almost 40 of the plant's workers suffered severe neurological symptoms like hallucinations and seizures.)

Still, for decades auto and oil companies denied that lead posed any health risks. Finally, in the 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency required that carmakers phase out lead-compatible engines in the cars they sold in the United States. Today, leaded gasoline is still in use in some parts of Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East.

General Motors chemists Thomas Midgely Jr. and Charles F. Kettering.


Dec 9, 1950:
Harry Gold sent to prison for his role in atomic espionage


Harry Gold--who had confessed to serving as a courier between Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist who stole top-secret information on the atomic bomb, and Soviet agents--is sentenced to 30 years in jail for his crime. Gold's arrest and confession led to the arrest of David Greenglass, who then implicated his brother-in-law and sister, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Gold's arrest was part of a massive FBI investigation into Soviet espionage, particularly the theft of atomic secrets. Gold, a 39-year-old research chemist, made the acquaintance of British atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs during the latter's trips to the United States during World War II. Fuchs worked at the Los Alamos laboratory on the Manhattan Project, the top secret U.S. program to develop an atomic weapon. David Greenglass was also employed at Los Alamos. In February 1950, Fuchs was arrested in Great Britain and charged with passing atomic secrets on to the Soviets. He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in a British prison. Fuchs then accused Gold of having been the go-between with Soviet agents. Gold was picked up a short time later and eventually confessed to his part. He explained that, at the time, he did not believe that he was helping an enemy, but was instead assisting a wartime ally of the United States. Further questioning of Gold led him to implicate David Greenglass. Greenglass then informed on Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, claiming that both of them actively spied for the Soviet Union during World War II and after. The Rosenbergs were later convicted and executed for espionage.
[IMG]http://jfkplusfifty.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/inte_gold.jpg?w=155[/IMG]


Dec 9, 1981:
Policeman Daniel Faulkner found dead


Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner is found dead on the street with Mumia Abu-Jamal, a well-known activist and freelance journalist, lying severely wounded nearby. In 1982, Abu-Jamal was tried for and convicted of Faulkner's murder, but because of the murky circumstances surrounding the incident and a trial that many believe was unfair, activists have since protested Abu-Jamal's imprisonment.

Reportedly, Abu-Jamal, a journalist who had been fired by National Public Radio for his outspokenness, was driving a cab at around 4 a.m., when he saw his brother engaged in an altercation with Faulkner on the street. Evidence used in the trial suggested that Abu-Jamal intervened with a gun and then exchanged shots with Faulkner.

From the beginning, many felt Abu-Jamal's trial was unfair. Despite the fact that he was critically wounded, the trial began just six months after the shooting, on June 17, 1982. It lasted until July 3, but Abu-Jamal was so weak that he couldn't attend much of it. The prosecution used its peremptory challenges to limit the jury to two blacks, with 10 white members, and some observers felt that Judge Albert Sabo was biased against the defendant. Abu-Jamal asked to represent himself and was nominally allowed to do so, though he was forced to retain a court-appointed attorney as "back-up counsel" and was excluded from the voir dire because the court claimed his questions to the jurors were intimidating.

When the trial ended, Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for first-degree murder. Many believed that although there was a possibility that Abu-Jamal was involved in Faulkner's death, the sentence was overly harsh. While in prison, Abu-Jamal has written several books and made many radio appearances advocating an end to racism. He has also lobbied for a new trial.

Pressure to release Abu-Jamal from his impending execution has become stronger over time, despite the fact that some people firmly maintain he is guilty. The New Jersey governor, several police organizations and Faulkner's widow protested a January 1999 "Free Mumia" benefit concert featuring Rage Against the Machine in New Jersey.



Dec 9, 2003:
Cold spell leads to tragedy in Iran


Unseasonably low temperatures in Tehran, Iran, lead to the deaths of at least 40 people on this day in 2003. Rarely do such large groups die at the same time.

In general, death from freezing occurs when the body's core temperature reaches 77 degrees Fahrenheit, a fact discovered by Nazi doctors during experiments on prisoners at the notorious Dachau concentration camp during World War II. In 1994, however, a two-year-old child in Canada survived a body temperature of just 57 degrees suffered when she wandered away from her Saskatchewan home.

When core body temperature goes down to 97 degrees, neck and shoulder muscles tighten and extremities begin to ache. When it gets to 95 degrees, mild hypothermia sets in and involuntary trembling and shivering occurs as the body tries to generate its own heat. Two degrees lower and amnesia and short-term memory loss is common. When body temperature reaches 88, shivering is no longer possible and people experience general numbness.

In some cases, a phenomenon known as "paradoxical undressing" occurs, in which a person about to freeze to death actually rips off their clothes. The effects of hypothermia can also be delayed--in one instance, Danish fishermen stuck in the North Sea for 90 minutes were able to walk on the deck of a rescue ship before falling down and dying.

One notorious incident of hypothermia occurred at the Four Inns Walk in England in 1964. The race involved 240 racers (all in excellent condition) hiking 43 miles over the English moors. Although the temperature never fell below freezing, the wind and rain caused three people to freeze to death and put another four in critical condition. Researchers later determined that a key factor in the deaths was that the victims had failed to take in enough calories during the hike.

The 2003 freeze in Tehran was unusual in that so many people died in a single night. The previous year in Moscow, between 5 and 10 people froze to death every day during the winter for a total of more than 300 in the city alone.


Dec 9, 1992:
Separation of Charles and Diana announced


British Prime Minister John Major announces the formal separation of Charles, Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, and his wife, Princess Diana. Major explained that the royal couple were separating "amicably." The report came after several years of speculation by the tabloid press that the marriage was in peril, citing evidence that Diana and Charles spent vacations apart and official visits in separate rooms.

On July 29, 1981, nearly one billion television viewers in 74 countries tuned in to witness the marriage of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, to Lady Diana Spencer, a young English schoolteacher. Married in a grand ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral in the presence of 2,650 guests, the couple's romance was, for the moment, the envy of the world. Their first child, Prince William, was born in 1982, and their second, Prince Henry, in 1984.

Before long, however, the fairy tale couple grew apart, an experience that was particularly painful under the watchful eyes of the world's tabloid media. Diana and Charles separated in 1992, though they continued to carry out their royal duties. In August 1996, two months after Queen Elizabeth II urged the couple to divorce, the prince and princess reached a final agreement. In exchange for a generous settlement, and the right to retain her apartments at Kensington Palace and her title of "Princess of Wales," Diana agreed to relinquish the title of "Her Royal Highness" and any future claims to the British throne.

In the year following the divorce, the popular princess seemed well on her way to achieving her dream of becoming "a queen in people's hearts," but on August 31, 1997, she was killed with her companion Dodi Fayed in a car accident in Paris. An investigation conducted by the French police concluded that the driver, who also died in the crash, was heavily intoxicated and caused the accident while trying to escape the paparazzi photographers who consistently tailed Diana during any public outing.

Prince Charles married the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles, on April 9, 2005.



Dec 9, 1972:
"I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy tops the U.S. pop charts


Nothing in her professional credentials suggested the Australian pop singer Helen Reddy as a feminist icon prior to 1972. She'd made her way to the United States from her native Australia on her own to pursue stardom, and she'd paid her dues working on the periphery of the music business for a number of years before making a breakthrough. Yet when that breakthrough came, it was in the form of a 1971 cover version of "I Don't Know How To Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar—hardly a song about women's liberation. But a feminist icon is exactly what Helen Reddy would become the very next year, when the anthem-to-be "I Am Woman" charged up the pop charts, reaching the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 on this day in 1972.

With lyrics that could have been lifted straight from the pages of the recently launched Ms. magazine, "I Am Woman" took the message of personal empowerment being espoused by the second-wave feminists of the early 1970s and put it out where it could do some real consciousness-raising—on the same AM airwaves that had been sending out very different messages about gender relations for many years. For a generation of American women raised on songs like "Johnny Angel," "It's My Party" and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," "I Am Woman" represented something almost entirely new in mainstream pop: A song about female identity that made virtually no reference to men.

Helen Reddy wrote the lyrics to "I Am Woman" out of frustration. "I was looking for songs that reflected the positive sense of self that I felt I'd gained from the women's movement," she told Billboard magazine, "[but] I couldn't find any." True to the message of the hit song she would eventually write, "I realized that the song I was looking for didn't exist, and I was going to have to write it myself."

Released as a single in the spring of 1972, "I Am Woman" initially sputtered in its attempt to gain a foothold on the pop charts. It had fallen completely off the charts by late that summer, in fact, before re-entering the Hot 100 in September and beginning a steady climb upward thanks to Reddy's frequent appearances on television that fall and to the volume of call-in radio requests those appearances generated—mainly from women.

Helen Reddy would have two further #1 hits in the 1970s with "Delta Dawn" and "Angie Baby," but "I Am Woman"—the only hit song that Reddy penned herself—remains her signature achievement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu4xpDuf84A
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

These are fixed by removing the end of the line...

[IMG]http://jfkplusfifty.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/inte_gold.jpg?w=155[/IMG]

Remove " ?w=xxxx "



Smile

AND... Thanks for maintaining these!!
Takes time for these 'chores', so don't think we DON'T know that!
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Duke of Buckingham [TeaM]
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 10:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

PhastPhred wrote:
These are fixed by removing the end of the line...

[IMG]http://jfkplusfifty.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/inte_gold.jpg?w=155[/IMG]

Remove " ?w=xxxx "



Smile

AND... Thanks for maintaining these!!
Takes time for these 'chores', so don't think we DON'T know that!


I know PhastPhred unfortunately for me I have been ill this last days and couldn't verify the post. Now for last but not least I had a strong pain in my neck and can not move it, any task is a big sacrifice now but I would like some of you edit that small mistakes for me.


Dec 10, 1901:
First Nobel Prizes awarded


The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be "annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." Although Nobel offered no public reason for his creation of the prizes, it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm in 1833, and four years later his family moved to Russia. His father ran a successful St. Petersburg factory that built explosive mines and other military equipment. Educated in Russia, Paris, and the United States, Alfred Nobel proved a brilliant chemist. When his father's business faltered after the end of the Crimean War, Nobel returned to Sweden and set up a laboratory to experiment with explosives. In 1863, he invented a way to control the detonation of nitroglycerin, a highly volatile liquid that had been recently discovered but was previously regarded as too dangerous for use. Two years later, Nobel invented the blasting cap, an improved detonator that inaugurated the modern use of high explosives. Previously, the most dependable explosive was black powder, a form of gunpowder.

Nitroglycerin remained dangerous, however, and in 1864 Nobel's nitroglycerin factory blew up, killing his younger brother and several other people. Searching for a safer explosive, Nobel discovered in 1867 that the combination of nitroglycerin and a porous substance called kieselguhr produced a highly explosive mixture that was much safer to handle and use. Nobel christened his invention "dynamite," for the Greek word dynamis, meaning "power." Securing patents on dynamite, Nobel acquired a fortune as humanity put his invention to use in construction and warfare.

In 1875, Nobel created a more powerful form of dynamite, blasting gelatin, and in 1887 introduced ballistite, a smokeless nitroglycerin powder. Around that time, one of Nobel's brothers died in France, and French newspapers printed obituaries in which they mistook him for Alfred. One headline read, "The merchant of death is dead." Alfred Nobel in fact had pacifist tendencies and in his later years apparently developed strong misgivings about the impact of his inventions on the world. After he died in San Remo, Italy, on December 10, 1896, the majority of his estate went toward the creation of prizes to be given annually in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The portion of his will establishing the Nobel Peace Prize read, "[one award shall be given] to the person who has done the most or best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Exactly five years after his death, the first Nobel awards were presented.

Today, the Nobel Prizes are regarded as the most prestigious awards in the world in their various fields. Notable winners have included Marie Curie, Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela. Multiple leaders and organizations sometimes receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and multiple researchers often share the scientific awards for their joint discoveries. In 1968, a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was established by the Swedish national bank, Sveriges Riksbank, and first awarded in 1969.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides the prizes in physics, chemistry, and economic science; the Swedish Royal Caroline Medico-Surgical Institute determines the physiology or medicine award; the Swedish Academy chooses literature; and a committee elected by the Norwegian parliament awards the peace prize. The Nobel Prizes are still presented annually on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. In 2006, each Nobel Prize carried a cash prize of nearly $1,400,000 and recipients also received a gold medal, as is the tradition.

The first page of Alfred Nobel's will which established the legal basis for the five Nobel Prizes


Dec 10, 1915:
Ford builds its 1 millionth car


On December 10, 1915, the 1 millionth Ford car rolls off the assembly line at the River Rouge plant in Detroit.

At first, Henry Ford had built his cars like every other automaker did: one at a time. But his factories' efficiency and output steadily increased, and after he introduced the moving assembly line in 1913 the company's productivity soared. Ford was determined to build what he called "a motor car for the great multitude," and that's just what he did: By mass-producing just one kind of car--from 1908 on, that car was the Model T--Ford could take advantage of economies of scale that were unavailable to smaller carmakers and pass the savings on to his customers. Between 1908 and 1927, Ford sold more than 15 million Model Ts in all; they cost $850 at first (about $20,000 in today's dollars) but by the end of their run, Ford had managed to reduce the price to just $300 (about $3700 today).

No one paid much attention to the 1 million milestone. ("With twenty-five assembly plants...and with a big factory in Detroit assembling so many Ford cars a day," said The Ford Times, "we passed the million mark without knowing it.") The 10 millionth Ford, on the other hand, traveled back and forth from New York to San Francisco and from Los Angeles to Chicago in the summer of 1924, inspiring raucous celebrations everywhere it went. The company even made a movie of this goodwill tour, called "Fording the Lincoln Highway." Along with the 15 millionth Ford in 1927 came another milestone: the company's announcement that it was discontinuing its classic but no-longer–beloved Model T. Compared to that news, the release of the 20 millionth Ford was fairly dull: emblazoned with the words "TWENTY MILLIONTH" and the Ford logo on both sides and the top, that car went on a national barnstorming tour in 1931, then directly to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Revolutionary as it was at the time, Ford's early production rate was nothing compared to its modern-day output. In 2008, even in the midst of a global financial crisis, Ford produced nearly 6 million cars.



Dec 10, 1864:
Sherman arrives in front of Savannah


On this day in 1864, Union General William T. Sherman completes his March to the Sea when he arrives in front of Savannah, Georgia.

Since mid-November of that year, Sherman's army had been sweeping from Atlanta across the state to the south and east towards Savannah, one of the last Confederate seaports still unoccupied by Union forces. Along the way, Sherman destroyed farms and railroads, burned storehouses, and fed his army off the land. In his own words, Sherman intended to "make Georgia howl," a plan that was approved by President Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of the Union armies.

The city of Savannah was fortified and defended by some 10,000 Confederates under the command of General William Hardee. The Rebels flooded the rice fields around Savannah, so only a few narrow causeways provided access to the city. Sherman's army was running low on supplies and he had not made contact with supply ships off the coast. His army had been completely cut off from the North, and only the reports of destruction provided any evidence of its whereabouts. Sherman directed General Oliver O. Howard to the coast to locate friendly ships. Howard dispatched Captain William Duncan and two comrades to contact the Union fleet, but nothing was heard of the trio for several days. Duncan located a Union gunboat that carried him to Hilton Head, South Carolina. Supply ships were sent to Savannah, and Duncan continued on to Washington, D.C., to deliver news of the successful March to the Sea to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

For ten days, Hardee held out as Sherman prepared for an attack. Realizing the futility of the situation, Hardee fled the city on December 20 and slipped northward to fight another day.



Dec 10, 1977:
Soviets arrest dissidents on United Nations Human Rights Day


In Moscow, Soviet officials arrest four dissidents and prevent at least 20 others from attending a peaceful protest against communist political oppression on United Nations Human Rights Day. According to some of the protesters, Soviet officials threatened them with violence should the protest be held. The incident was more evidence of an increasingly hard line being taken by the Soviet government against any political protest.

Approximately 25 protesters met at the statue of the Russian poet Pushkin in Moscow to assert their right to freedom of assembly, which had been guaranteed by the new Soviet constitution approved in October. Twenty other dissidents had been dissuaded from attending when they saw Soviet plainclothes police stationed outside their apartments. In addition, Soviet officials detained four other known dissidents to keep them from the protest. Andrei Sakharov, perhaps the most famous Soviet political dissident, refrained from attending because he feared that violence would break out. The protest, however, was peaceful and uneventful. Nevertheless, the Soviet actions were a chilling reminder that political freedom in Russia was still far from being a reality. Human rights abuses in the Soviet Union continued to be a sore point in U.S.-Soviet relations into the Gorbachev years of the 1980s.



Dec 10, 1898:
Treaty of Paris ends Spanish-American War


In France, the Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire.

The Spanish-American War had its origins in the rebellion against Spanish rule that began in Cuba in 1895. The repressive measures that Spain took to suppress the guerrilla war, such as herding Cuba's rural population into disease-ridden garrison towns, were graphically portrayed in U.S. newspapers and enflamed public opinion. In January 1898, violence in Havana led U.S. authorities to order the battleship USS Maine to the city's port to protect American citizens. On February 15, a massive explosion of unknown origin sank the Maine in Havana harbor, killing 260 of the 400 American crewmembers aboard. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March, without much evidence, that the ship was blown up by a mine, but it did not directly place the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible, however, and called for a declaration of war.

In April, the U.S. Congress prepared for war, adopting joint congressional resolutions demanding a Spanish withdrawal from Cuba and authorizing President William McKinley to use force. On April 23, President McKinley asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain. The next day, Spain issued a declaration of war. The United States declared war on April 25. On May 1, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet at Manila Bay in the first battle of the Spanish-American War. Dewey's decisive victory cleared the way for the U.S. occupation of Manila in August and the eventual transfer of the Philippines from Spanish to American control.

On the other side of the world, a Spanish fleet docked in Cuba's Santiago harbor in May after racing across the Atlantic from Spain. A superior U.S. naval force arrived soon after and blockaded the harbor entrance. In June, the U.S. Army Fifth Corps landed in Cuba with the aim of marching to Santiago and launching a coordinated land and sea assault on the Spanish stronghold. Included among the U.S. ground troops were the Theodore Roosevelt-led "Rough Riders," a collection of western cowboys and eastern blue bloods officially known as the First U.S. Voluntary Cavalry. On July 1, the Americans won the Battle of San Juan Hill, and the next day they began a siege of Santiago. On July 3, the Spanish fleet was destroyed off Santiago by U.S. warships under Admiral William Sampson, and on July 17 the Spanish surrendered the city--and thus Cuba--to the Americans. In Puerto Rico, Spanish forces likewise crumbled in the face of superior U.S. forces, and on August 12 an armistice was signed between Spain and the United States, ending the brief and one-sided conflict.

On December 10, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Spanish-American War. The once-proud Spanish empire was virtually dissolved as the United States took over much of Spain's overseas holdings. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States, the Philippines were bought for $20 million, and Cuba became a U.S. protectorate. Philippine insurgents who fought against Spanish rule during the war immediately turned their guns against the new occupiers, and 10 times more U.S. troops died suppressing the Philippines than in defeating Spain.



Dec 10, 1967:
Soul legend Otis Redding dies in a plane crash near Madison, Wisconsin


When he left his final recording session in Memphis, Otis Redding intended to return soon to the song he'd been working on—he still had to replace a whistled verse thrown in as a placeholder with additional lyrics that he'd yet to write. In the meantime, however, there was a television appearance to make in Cleveland, followed by a concert in Madison, Wisconsin. On its final approach to Madison on this day in 1967, however, the private plane carrying soul-music legend Otis Redding would crash into the frigid waters of a small lake three miles short of the runway, killing seven of the eight men aboard, including Redding. "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" would be released in its "unfinished" form several weeks later, with Redding's whistled verse a seemingly indispensable part of the now-classic record. It would soon become history's first posthumous #1 hit and the biggest pop hit of Redding's career.

In the six months leading up to his death, Otis Redding had gone from one great success to another. In June, Aretha Franklin had taken a cover version of his song "Respect" all the way to #1 on the pop charts. Later that same month, the adulation of the young audience of rock fans at the Monterey International Pop Festival had transformed him into an icon of the blossoming counterculture thanks to his blistering, now-legendary live performance there. But if Otis Redding was only beginning to gain momentum within the largely white mainstream in 1967, he was already a giant in the world of soul music.

During a period in the mid-1960s when the Beatles and Motown ruled the pop charts, Otis Redding established himself as arguably the most exciting singer on the roster of Memphis-based Stax/Volt Records—itself arguably the most exciting soul and R&B label of the era. Singles like "I've Been Loving You Too Long" and "I Can't Turn You Loose" (both 1965) were among Redding's numerous top-20 hits on the R&B charts in that era, as were his soulful renditions of "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" (1966) and "Try A Little Tenderness" (1967). It was the latter song, rendered in the impassioned style that was by then familiar to soul audiences, that brought down the house at Monterey just a few months before his death at the age of 26 on this day in 1967.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vun_q_pQf1c[/i]
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 7:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dec 11, 1936:
Edward VIII abdicates


After ruling for less than one year, Edward VIII becomes the first English monarch to voluntarily abdicate the throne. He chose to abdicate after the British government, public, and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson. On the evening of December 11, he gave a radio address in which he explained, "I have found it impossible to carry on the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge the duties of king, as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love." On December 12, his younger brother, the duke of York, was proclaimed King George VI.

Edward, born in 1894, was the eldest son of King George V, who became the British sovereign in 1910. Still unmarried as he approached his 40th birthday, he socialized with the fashionable London society of the day. By 1934, he had fallen deeply in love with American socialite Wallis Warfield Simpson, who was married to Ernest Simpson, an English-American businessman who lived with Mrs. Simpson near London. Wallis, who was born in Pennsylvania, had previously married and divorced a U.S. Navy pilot. The royal family disapproved of Edward's married mistress, but by 1936 the prince was intent on marrying Mrs. Simpson. Before he could discuss this intention with his father, George V died, in January 1936, and Edward was proclaimed king.

The new king proved popular with his subjects, and his coronation was scheduled for May 1937. His affair with Mrs. Simpson was reported in American and continental European newspapers, but due to a gentlemen's agreement between the British press and the government, the affair was kept out of British newspapers. On October 27, 1936, Mrs. Simpson obtained a preliminary decree of divorce, presumably with the intent of marrying the king, which precipitated a major scandal. To the Church of England and most British politicians, an American woman twice divorced was unacceptable as a prospective British queen. Winston Churchill, then a Conservative backbencher, was the only notable politician to support Edward.

Despite the seemingly united front against him, Edward could not be dissuaded. He proposed a morganatic marriage, in which Wallis would be granted no rights of rank or property, but on December 2, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin rejected the suggestion as impractical. The next day, the scandal broke on the front pages of British newspapers and was discussed openly in Parliament. With no resolution possible, the king renounced the throne on December 10. The next day, Parliament approved the abdication instrument, and Edward VIII's reign came to an end. The new king, George VI, made his older brother the duke of Windsor. On June 3, 1937, the duke of Windsor and Wallis Warfield married at the Château de Cande in France's Loire Valley.

For the next two years, the duke and duchess lived primarily in France but visited other European countries, including Germany, where the duke was honored by Nazi officials in October 1937 and met with Adolf Hitler. After the outbreak of World War II, the duke accepted a position as liaison officer with the French. In June 1940, France fell to the Nazis, and Edward and Wallis went to Spain. During this period, the Nazis concocted a scheme to kidnap Edward with the intention of returning him to the British throne as a puppet king. George VI, like his prime minister, Winston Churchill, was adamantly opposed to any peace with Nazi Germany. Unaware of the Nazi kidnapping plot but conscious of Edward's pre-war Nazi sympathies, Churchill hastily offered Edward the governorship of the Bahamas in the West Indies. The duke and duchess set sail from Lisbon on August 1, 1940, narrowly escaping a Nazi SS team sent to seize them.

In 1945, the duke resigned his post, and the couple moved back to France. They lived mainly in Paris, and Edward made a few visits to England, such as to attend the funerals of King George VI in 1952 and his mother, Queen Mary, in 1953. It was not until 1967 that the duke and duchess were invited by the royal family to attend an official public ceremony, the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to Queen Mary. Edward died in Paris in 1972 but was buried at Frogmore, on the grounds of Windsor Castle. In 1986, Wallis died and was buried at his side.



Dec 11, 1777:
British delay Washington's march to Valley Forge


On this day in 1777, General George Washington begins marching 12,000 soldiers of his Continental Army from Whitemarsh to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, for the winter. As Washington's men began crossing the Schuylkill River, they were surprised by a regiment of several thousand British troops led by General Charles Cornwallis. Cornwallis came across the continental forces by chance as he followed General William Howe's orders to forage for supplies in the hills outside Philadelphia.

Upon spotting General Cornwallis and the British troops, General Washington ordered his soldiers to retreat across the Schuylkill River, where they destroyed the bridge to prevent the British from pursuing them. After engaging the British for a short time from the opposite side of the river, Washington and the Continental Army retreated back to Whitemarsh, delaying their march to Valley Forge for several days.

The Continental Army finally arrived safely at Valley Forge on December 19, where they would face a winter of starvation, disease and death. While they suffered, the Prussian military advisor Frederich Wilhelm Augustus Steuben, also known as Baron von Steuben, drilled the miserable men in proper military discipline. Von Steuben joined the French-born Marquis de Lafayette and Baron Johann de Kalb as well as Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Count Casimir Pulaski from Poland in the effort to turn the rag-tag rebels into a well-trained regiment. Come spring, Washington would have a professional army with which to fight the British.

General Howe chose to enjoy the comparative luxury and civility of winter in Philadelphia instead of engaging Washington's forces at Valley Forge, despite their weakened and ill-defended state. His decision to cease fire during the winter months combined with the shocking news of America's new alliance with France led to his recall. General Henry Clinton took over command of the British army with orders to leave Philadelphia immediately for New York and the British reworked their strategy to confront a transatlantic war with France.



Dec 11, 1862:
The Federals occupy Fredericksburg


On this day in 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac occupies Fredericksburg, Virginia, as General Ambrose Burnside continues to execute his plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. However, the occupation did not happen until three weeks after Burnside's army had arrived at Falmouth, Virginia, just across the river from Fredericksburg. Due to a logistical error, pontoon bridges had not been available so the army could not cross; the delay allowed Confederate General Robert E. Lee ample time to post his Army of Northern Virginia along Marye's Heights above Fredericksburg.

Burnside replaced General George McClellan as head of the Army of the Potomac in early November 1862. He devised a plan to move his army quickly down the Rappahannock River, cross the river, and race Lee's army south to Richmond. Everything went according to plan as the Yankees sped south from Warrenton, Virginia. Burnside surprised Lee with his swiftness--the leading Union corps covered 40 miles in two days. The entire army was at Falmouth by November 19. Although ready to cross the Rappahannock, the army did not begin receiving the pontoon bridges until the end of the month due to mistakes made by the engineering corps. The delay allowed Lee to move his troops into position on the opposite side of the river. President Abraham Lincoln visited his army at the end of November, and, realizing that the element of surprise was lost, characterized Burnside's plan as "somewhat risky."

On December 11, Burnside's engineers finally began to assemble the bridges. Confederate snipers in Fredericksburg picked away at the builders, so Yankee artillery began a barrage that reduced to rubble many of the buildings along the river. Three regiments ran the sharpshooters out of the town, and the bridge was completed soon after. By evening on the 11th, the Union army was crossing the Rappahannock. By the next day, the entire army was on the other side and Burnside planned the actual attack.

The Battle of Fredericksburg, which took place on December 13, was an enormous defeat for the Army of the Potomac. Lee lost less than 5,000 men while Burnside lost some 12,600.



Dec 11, 1969:
Soviets declare nudity a sign of "western decadence"


On this day, the secretary of the Moscow writer's union declares that nudity as displayed in the popular play "Oh! Calcutta!" is a sign of decadence in Western culture. More disturbing, he claimed, was the fact that this "bourgeois" thinking was infecting Russian youth.

Sergei Mikhailkov, best known for writing books for children in Russia, lashed out at the Broadway show (where performers were seen in their "birthday suits"), and pornography in general. Such exhibitions were "a general striptease-that is one of the slogans of modern bourgeois art." It was unfortunate, he lamented, that even Russian youth were becoming enamored of such decadence. Mikhailkov bemoaned the fact that young people in the Soviet Union were more familiar with "the theater of the absurd and the novel without a hero and all kinds of modern bourgeois reactionary tendencies in the literature and art of the West" than with "the past and present of the literature of their fatherland." Speaking at the end of a conference of Russian intellectuals, he also heaped scorn on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose scathing writings about the Soviet police state earned him the enmity of the Russian government. Although admitting that Solzhenitsyn was a "talented writer," he found it sad that the novelist "did not want to understand his role of 'special correspondent' of so many foreign institutions and organizations."

Beyond the unintentional humor of many of Mikhailkov's statements, his comments revealed the impact that U.S. culture-theater, literature, music, and film-was having on the Soviet Union. In the war for hearts and minds, Western "decadence" seemed to be winning the battle.



Dec 11, 2008:
Billionaire conman Bernard Madoff arrested


On this day in 2008, financier Bernard Madoff is arrested at his New York City apartment and charged with masterminding a long-running Ponzi scheme later estimated to involve around $65 billion, making it one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history.

Madoff, who was born in Queens, New York, in 1938, founded a small trading firm bearing his name in 1960. The business was established, in part, with money he earned working as a lifeguard. Two decades later, Madoff’s firm, which helped revolutionize the way stocks are traded, had grown into one of the largest independent trading operations in the securities industry, and he and his family lived a life of luxury, owning multiple homes, boats and expensive artwork and jewelry.

Based on the success of his legitimate operations, Madoff launched an investment-advisory business as part of his firm, and it was this business that by the 1990s had become a Ponzi scheme, in which he paid his earlier investors with funds received from more recent investors. For years, clients of this business were sent account statements showing consistently high—and fraudulent—returns. Potential new customers clamored for Madoff to invest their money. However, in 2008, with the U.S. economy in crisis, Madoff’s financial swindle began to fall apart as his clients took money out faster than he could bring in fresh cash.

On December 10, 2008, Madoff revealed to his brother and two sons, who worked for the legitimate arm of his firm, that his investment-advisory business was a fraud and nearly bankrupt. Madoff’s sons turned in their father to federal authorities, who arrested him the next day. Madoff was freed on $10 million bail, and placed under 24-hour house arrest at his penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The fallout from Madoff’s scam was widespread: The victims included everyone from his wealthy country-club acquaintances, Hollywood celebrities, banks and hedge funds to universities, charities and ordinary individual investors, some of whom lost their life savings. The charitable foundation of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel lost more than $15 million, and Wiesel also lost his personal savings. Public outrage was further stoked when it was revealed that since the late 1990s a private financial fraud investigator, Harry Markopolos, had repeatedly warned the Securities and Exchange Commission about his suspicion that Madoff was operating a massive investment scam.

On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to the 11 felony counts against him, including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury. On June 29 of that year, a federal district court judge in Manhattan sentenced Madoff to 150 years behind bars, calling his actions “extraordinary evil.”

On December 11, 2010, the second anniversary of Madoff’s arrest, his 46-year-old son Mark was found dead in his Manhattan apartment after committing suicide. Bernard Madoff, who is serving his sentence at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, has maintained that his family members knew nothing about his crimes and although they have faced intense scrutiny, none have been charged with any wrongdoing. Several of Madoff’s former employees, including his accountant and chief financial officer, have pleaded guilty in connection with the long-running fraud.



Dec 11, 1946:
UNICEF founded


In the aftermath of World War II, the General Assembly of the United Nations votes to establish the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), an organization to help provide relief and support to children living in countries devastated by the war.

After the food and medical crisis of the late 1940s passed, UNICEF continued its role as a relief organization for the children of troubled nations and during the 1970s grew into a vocal advocate of children's rights. During the 1980s, UNICEF assisted the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in the drafting of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. After its introduction to the U.N. General Assembly in 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child became the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, and UNICEF played a key role in ensuring its enforcement.

Of the 184 member states of the United Nations, only two countries have failed to ratify the treaty--Somalia and the United States. Somalia does not currently have an internationally recognized government, so ratification is impossible, and the United States, which was one of the original signatories of the convention, has failed to ratify the treaty because of concerns about its potential impact on national sovereignty and the parent-child relationship.



Dec 11, 1964:
Sam Cooke dies under suspicious circumstances in LA


On December 11, 1964, in response to a reported shooting, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department were dispatched to the Hacienda Motel, where they found Sam Cooke dead on the office floor, shot three times in the chest by the motel's manager, Bertha Franklin. The authorities ruled Cooke's death a case of justifiable homicide, based on the testimony of Ms. Franklin, who claimed that Cooke had threatened her life after attempting to rape a young woman with whom he had earlier checked in.

Even as the lurid details of the case were becoming common knowledge, some 200,000 fans turned out in the streets of Los Angeles and Chicago to mourn the passing of Sam Cooke, a man whose legacy seemed able to transcend the scandal surrounding his death. That legacy was built during a brief but spectacular run as a singer, songwriter, producer and music publisher in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Born in 1931 to a Baptist minister and his wife, Cooke's early musical development took place in the church. Like other early figures in what would eventually be called "soul" music, Cooke began his professional career singing gospel. A member of the legendary Soul Stirrers since the age of 19, Cooke was given permission by his record label to begin recording secular music in 1956.

"You Send Me" (1957) was Sam Cooke's first pop smash, and it was followed by such classics as "Chain Gang" (1960), "Cupid" (1961), "Twistin' the Night Away" (1962) and the Dylan-inspired posthumous release that became an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement: "A Change Is Gonna Come" (1964). His voice has been called the most important in the history of soul music, but just as important to Sam Cooke's historical standing is the fact that he also wrote all of the aforementioned hits—a remarkable fact for any popular singer of his time.

In the years since his death, the circumstances surrounding Cooke's shooting have been called into question by his family and others. Though the truth of what happened on this day in 1964 might remain uncertain, Sam Cooke's place in the history of popular music is anything but.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNO72aCnVr0
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 12:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

January 4: Independence Day in Burma (1948)

1885 – Sino-French War: French troops under General François Oscar de
Négrier defeated a numerically superior Qing Chinese force at Nui Bop in
northern Vietnam.
1903 – Topsy, a domesticated elephant with the Forepaugh Circus at Luna
Park, Coney Island, was executed by electrocution after it was deemed a
threat to people, an event captured on film by inventor Thomas Edison.
1973 – Last of the Summer Wine, the longest running sitcom in the world,
premiered as an episode of the BBC's Comedy Playhouse.
1976 – The Troubles: Volunteers from the Ulster Volunteer Force shot
dead five Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
2006 – Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon (pictured) suffered a severe
hemorrhagic stroke, leaving Ehud Olmert as Acting Prime Minister.
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Duke of Buckingham [TeaM]
Prince
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jan 1, 1959:
Batista forced out by Castro-led revolution



On this day in 1959, facing a popular revolution spearheaded by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista flees the island nation. Amid celebration and chaos in the Cuban capitol of Havana, the U.S. debated how best to deal with the radical Castro and the ominous rumblings of anti-Americanism in Cuba.

The U.S. government had supported Batista, a former soldier and Cuban dictator from 1933 to 1944, who seized power for a second time in a 1952 coup. After Castro and a group of followers, including the South American revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-1967), landed in Cuba to unseat the dictator in December 1956, the U.S. continued to back Batista. Suspicious of what they believed to be Castro's leftist ideology and worried that his ultimate goals might include attacks on the U.S.'s significant investments and property in Cuba, American officials were nearly unanimous in opposing his revolutionary movement.

Cuban support for Castro's revolution, however, grew in the late 1950s, partially due to his charisma and nationalistic rhetoric, but also because of increasingly rampant corruption, greed, brutality and inefficiency within the Batista government. This reality forced the U.S. to slowly withdraw its support from Batista and begin a search in Cuba for an alternative to both the dictator and Castro; these efforts failed.

On January 1, 1959, Batista and a number of his supporters fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic. Tens of thousands of Cubans (and thousands of Cuban Americans in the U.S.) celebrated the end of the dictator's regime. Castro's supporters moved quickly to establish their power. Judge Manuel Urrutia was named as provisional president. Castro and his band of guerrilla fighters triumphantly entered Havana on January 7.

The U.S. attitude toward the new revolutionary government soon changed from cautiously suspicious to downright hostile. After Castro nationalized American-owned property, allied himself with the Communist Party and grew friendlier with the Soviet Union, America's Cold War enemy, the U.S severed diplomatic and economic ties with Cuba and enacted a trade and travel embargo that remains in effect today. In April 1961, the U.S. launched the Bay of Pigs invasion, an unsuccessful attempt to remove Castro from power. Subsequent covert operations to overthrow Castro, born August 13, 1926, failed and he went on to become one of the world's longest-ruling heads of state. Fulgencio Batista died in Spain at age 72 on August 6, 1973. In late July 2006, an unwell Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his younger brother Raul. Fidel Castro officially stepped down in February 2008.



American Revolution
Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line, 1781

Automotive
Edsel Ford succeeds father as president of Ford, 1919

Civil War
The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect, 1863

Cold War
Cuban dictator Batista falls from power, 1959

Crime
The real-life murder behind Looking For Mr. Goodbar, 1973

Disaster
Air India jet crashes just after takeoff, 1978

General Interest
New Year's Day, 45 B.C.
Haitian independence proclaimed, 1803
Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect, 1863
First modern Mummers' Parade, 1876

Hollywood
Sneak preview of The Birth of a Nation, 1915

Literary
E.M. Forster is born, 1879

Music
Inmate Merle Haggard hears Johnny Cash play San Quentin State Prison, 1958

Old West
A Nebraska farmer files the first homestead claim, 1863

Presidential
Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation, 1863

Vietnam War
1st Marine Division advance elements arrive, 1966
Operation Sam Houston begins, 1967

World War I
British ship Formidable is torpedoed, 1915

World War II
United Nations created, 1942
Hidden Japanese surrender after Pacific War has ended, 1946


Jan 2, 1980:
U.S.-Russia detente ends



On this day in 1980, in a strong reaction to the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter asks the Senate to postpone action on the SALT II nuclear weapons treaty and recalls the U.S. ambassador to Moscow. These actions sent a message that the age of detente and the friendlier diplomatic and economic relations that were established between the United States and Soviet Union during President Richard Nixon's administration (1969-74) had ended.

Carter feared that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in which an estimated 30,000 combat troops entered that nation and established a puppet government, would threaten the stability of strategic neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan and could lead to the USSR gaining control over much of the world's oil supplies. The Soviet actions were labeled "a serious threat to peace" by the White House. Carter asked the Senate to shelve ratification talks on SALT II, the nuclear arms treaty that he and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev had already signed, and the president called U.S. ambassador to Moscow Thomas J. Watson back to Washington for "consultation," in an effort to let the Kremlin know that military intervention in Afghanistan was unacceptable.

When the Soviets refused to withdraw from Afghanistan, America halted certain key exports to the USSR, including grain and high technology, and boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics, which were held in Moscow. The United States also began to covertly subsidize anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan. During Ronald Reagan's presidency in the 1980s, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars to Afghanistan to arm and train the mujahedeen rebel forces that were battling the Soviets. This tactic was successful in helping to drive out the Soviets, but it also gave rise to the oppressive Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist organization.

In 1980, Jimmy Carter lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan, who favored a more aggressive anti-Communist foreign policy. Reagan dubbed the USSR the "evil empire" and believed it was America's responsibility to save the world from Soviet repression. He dramatically increased U.S. defense spending and ramped up the nuclear arms race with the Soviets, whose faltering economy ultimately prevented them from keeping pace. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.



American Revolution
Congress publishes the Tory Act, 1776

Automotive
Rare Bugatti found in British garage, 2009

Civil War
Yankees are victorious at the Battle of Stones River, 1863

Cold War
Carter reacts to Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, 1980

Crime
The Yorkshire Ripper is apprehended, 1981

Disaster
Football fans crushed in stadium stampede, 1971

General Interest
Reconquest of Spain, 1492
Georgia enters the Union, 1788
First censuring of a U.S. senator, 1811
Russian fleet surrenders at Port Arthur, 1905
Callas walks out of performance, 1958

Hollywood
Sherry Lansing named first female studio production head, 1980

Literary
Stephen Crane's boat sinks, 1897

Music
Folk group The Weavers are banned by NBC after refusing to sign a loyalty oath, 1962

Old West
Secretary Fall resigns in Teapot Dome scandal, 1923

Presidential
Harrison welcomes Alice Sanger as first female staffer, 1890
Nixon signs national speed limit into law, 1974

Sports
Sooners win 30th game in a row, 1956

Vietnam War
Viet Cong are successful at Ap Bac, 1963
U.S. planes down seven enemy planes, 1967

World War I
Japanese capture Russian naval base at Port Arthur, 1905

World War II
Navy opens a blimp base in New Jersey, 1942


Jan 3, 1990:
Noriega surrenders to U.S.



On this day in 1990, Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega, after holing up for 10 days at the Vatican embassy in Panama City, surrenders to U.S. military troops to face charges of drug trafficking. Noriega was flown to Miami the following day and crowds of citizens on the streets of Panama City rejoiced. On July 10, 1992, the former dictator was convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Noriega, who was born in Panama in 1938, was a loyal soldier to General Omar Torrijos, who seized power in a 1968 coup. Under Torrijos, Noriega headed up the notorious G-2 intelligence service, which harassed and terrorized people who criticized the Torrijos regime. Noriega also became a C.I.A. operative, while at the same time getting rich smuggling drugs.

In 1981, Omar Torrijos died in a plane crash and after a two-year power struggle, Noriega emerged as general of Panama's military forces. He became the country's de facto leader, fixing presidential elections so he could install his own puppet officials. Noriega's rule was marked by corruption and violence. He also became a double agent, selling American intelligence secrets to Cuba and Eastern European governments. In 1987, when Panamanians organized protests against Noriega and demanded his ouster, he declared a national emergency, shut down radio stations and newspapers and forced his political enemies into exile.

That year the United States cut off aid to Panama and tried to get Noriega to resign; in 1988, the U.S. began considering the use of military action to put an end to his drug trafficking. Noriega voided the May 1989 presidential election, which included a U.S.-backed candidate, and in December of that year he declared his country to be in a state of war with the United States. Shortly afterward, an American marine was killed by Panamanian soldiers. President George H.W. Bush authorized "Operation Just Cause," and on December 20, 1989, 13,000 U.S. troops were sent to occupy Panama City, along with the 12,000 already there, and seize Noriega. During the invasion, 23 U.S. troops were killed in action and over 300 were wounded. Approximately 450 Panamanian troops were killed; estimates for the number of civilians who died range from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands injured.

Today, Noriega, derogatorily nicknamed "Pineapple Face" in reference to his pockmarked skin, is serving his sentence at a federal prison in Miami.




American Revolution
The Battle of Princeton, 1777

Automotive
All-time Formula One champ born, 1969

Civil War
Delaware rejects secession, 1861

Cold War
United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba, 1961

Crime
The husband did it: The controversial Stuart case, 1990

Disaster
Great Lakes region digs out from record blizzard, 1999

General Interest
Martin Luther excommunicated, 1521
Meiji Restoration in Japan, 1868
King Tut's sarcophagus uncovered, 1924
Alaska admitted into Union, 1959
Jack Ruby dies before second trial, 1967

Hollywood
Dragnet TV show debuts, 1952

Literary
Herman Melville sails for the South Seas, 1841

Music
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts first woman, 1987

Old West
Stephen Austin imprisoned by Mexicans, 1834

Presidential
Franklin Roosevelt founds March of Dimes, 1938

Sports
Buffalo Bills pull off greatest comeback in NFL history, 1993

Vietnam War
Antigovernment demonstrators clash with police, 1965
McCarthy announces his presidential candidacy, 1968

World War I
British nurse Marion Rice writes from a hospital on the Western Front, 1917

World War II
MacArthur and Nimitz given new commands, 1945


Jan 4, 1999:
The euro debuts



On this day in 1999, for the first time since Charlemagne's reign in the ninth century, Europe is united with a common currency when the "euro" debuts as a financial unit in corporate and investment markets. Eleven European Union (EU) nations (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain), representing some 290 million people, launched the currency in the hopes of increasing European integration and economic growth. Closing at a robust 1.17 U.S. dollars on its first day, the euro promised to give the dollar a run for its money in the new global economy. Euro cash, decorated with architectural images, symbols of European unity and member-state motifs, went into circulation on January 1, 2002, replacing the Austrian schilling, Belgian franc, Finnish markka, French franc, German mark, Italian lira, Irish punt, Luxembourg franc, Netherlands guilder, Portugal escudo and Spanish peseta. A number of territories and non-EU nations including Monaco and Vatican City also adopted the euro.

Conversion to the euro wasn't without controversy. Despite the practical benefits of a common currency that would make it easier to do business and travel throughout Europe, there were concerns that the changeover process would be costly and chaotic, encourage counterfeiting, lead to inflation and cause individual nations to loose control over their economic policies. Great Britain, Sweden and Demark opted not to use the euro. Greece, after initially being excluded for failing to meet all the required conditions, adopted the euro in January 2001, becoming the 12th member of the so-called eurozone.

The euro was established by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European Union, which spelled out specific economic requirements, including high degree of price stability and low inflation, which countries must meet before they can begin using the new money. The euro consists of 8 coins and 7 paper bills. The Frankfurt-based European Central Bank (ECB) manages the euro and sets interest rates and other monetary policies. In 2004, 10 more countries joined the EU—-Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Several of these countries plan to start using the euro in 2007, with the rest to follow in coming years.



American Revolution
Congress accepts Colors of the French Republic, 1796

Automotive
GM announces its electric car, 1996

Civil War
Confederate General Roger Hanson dies, 1863

Cold War
The God That Failed published, 1950

Crime
Boston Strangler strikes again, 1964

Disaster
Trains collide in Pakistan, 1990

General Interest
Utah enters the Union, 1896
President Nixon refuses to hand over tapes, 1974
Segovia begins final U.S. tour, 1987
104th Congress under Republican control, 1995

Hollywood
National Society of Film Critics honors The Pianist, 2003

Literary
Jacob Grimm is born, 1785
Poet T.S. Eliot dies in London, 1965

Music
Bobby Vinton tops the pop charts with the last #1 single of the pre-Beatles era, 1964

Old West
Colt sells his first revolvers to the U.S. government, 1847

Presidential
L.B.J. envisions a Great Society in his State of the Union address, 1965

Sports
Vince Young leads Texas over USC in the Rose Bowl, 2006

Vietnam War
Johnson reaffirms commitment to South Vietnam, 1965
Thieu announces war has resumed, 1974

World War I
Alfred von Schlieffen dies, 1913

World War II
United States begins supplying guerrilla forces, 1944


Jan 5, 1933:
Golden Gate Bridge is born



On January 5, 1933, construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.

Following the Gold Rush boom that began in 1849, speculators realized the land north of San Francisco Bay would increase in value in direct proportion to its accessibility to the city. Soon, a plan was hatched to build a bridge that would span the Golden Gate, a narrow, 400-foot deep strait that serves as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, connecting the San Francisco Peninsula with the southern end of Marin County.

Although the idea went back as far as 1869, the proposal took root in 1916. A former engineering student, James Wilkins, working as a journalist with the San Francisco Bulletin, called for a suspension bridge with a center span of 3,000 feet, nearly twice the length of any in existence. Wilkins’ idea was estimated to cost an astounding $100 million. So, San Francisco's city engineer, Michael M. O'Shaughnessy (he’s also credited with coming up with the name Golden Gate Bridge), began asking bridge engineers whether they could do it for less.

Engineer and poet Joseph Strauss, a 5-foot tall Cincinnati-born Chicagoan, said he could.

Eventually, O'Shaughnessy and Strauss concluded they could build a pure suspension bridge within a practical range of $25-30 million with a main span at least 4,000 feet. The construction plan still faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources. By the time most of the obstacles were cleared, the Great Depression of 1929 had begun, limiting financing options, so officials convinced voters to support $35 million in bonded indebtedness, citing the jobs that would be created for the project. However, the bonds couldn’t be sold until 1932, when San-Francisco based Bank of America agreed to buy the entire project in order to help the local economy.

The Golden Gate Bridge officially opened on May 27, 1937, the longest bridge span in the world at the time. The first public crossing had taken place the day before, when 200,000 people walked, ran and even roller skated over the new bridge.

With its tall towers and famous red paint job, the bridge quickly became a famous American landmark, and a symbol of San Francisco.



American Revolution
Benedict Arnold captures and destroys Richmond, 1781

Automotive
Construction begins on Golden Gate Bridge, 1933

Civil War
Star of the West leaves for Fort Sumter, 1861

Cold War
Eisenhower proposes new Middle East policy, 1957

Crime
The United Mine Workers Killings, 1970

Disaster
Landslides kill 33 in California, 1982

General Interest
First divorce in the colonies, 1643
Dreyfus Affair in France, 1895
Kamikaze pilots get first order, 1945
Prague Spring begins in Czechoslovakia, 1968
Pol Pot renames Cambodia, 1976
Former Speaker Thomas P. Tip O'Neill dies, 1994

Hollywood
Sonny Bono killed in skiing accident, 1998

Literary
Alexandre Dumas pere fights a duel, 1825

Music
The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" becomes hip-hop's first Top 40 hit, 1980

Old West
House resolves to stop sharing Oregon, 1846

Presidential
Truman delivers his Fair Deal speech, 1949
Nixon launches the space shuttle program, 1972

Sports
New York Yankees announce purchase of Babe Ruth, 1920

Vietnam War
Amphibious operations conducted in the Mekong Delta, 1967
Lodge succeeds Harriman as chief negotiator, 1969

World War I
First conscription bill is introduced in British parliament, 1916

World War II
Soviets recognize pro-Soviet Polish Provisional Government, 1945


Jan 6, 1838:
Morse demonstrates telegraph



On this day in 1838, Samuel Morse's telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, would eventually revolutionize long-distance communication, reaching the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He attended Yale University, where he was interested in art, as well as electricity, still in its infancy at the time. After college, Morse became a painter. In 1832, while sailing home from Europe, he heard about the newly discovered electromagnet and came up with an idea for an electric telegraph. He had no idea that other inventors were already at work on the concept.

Morse spent the next several years developing a prototype and took on two partners, Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail, to help him. In 1838, he demonstrated his invention using Morse code, in which dots and dashes represented letters and numbers. In 1843, Morse finally convinced a skeptical Congress to fund the construction of the first telegraph line in the United States, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. In May 1844, Morse sent the first official telegram over the line, with the message: "What hath God wrought!"

Over the next few years, private companies, using Morse's patent, set up telegraph lines around the Northeast. In 1851, the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was founded; it would later change its name to Western Union. In 1861, Western Union finished the first transcontinental line across the United States. Five years later, the first successful permanent line across the Atlantic Ocean was constructed and by the end of the century telegraph systems were in place in Africa, Asia and Australia.

Because telegraph companies typically charged by the word, telegrams became known for their succinct prose--whether they contained happy or sad news. The word "stop," which was free, was used in place of a period, for which there was a charge. In 1933, Western Union introduced singing telegrams. During World War II, Americans came to dread the sight of Western Union couriers because the military used telegrams to inform families about soldiers' deaths.

Over the course of the 20th century, telegraph messages were largely replaced by cheap long-distance phone service, faxes and email. Western Union delivered its final telegram in January 2006.

Samuel Morse died wealthy and famous in New York City on April 2, 1872, at age 80.



American Revolution
Washington sets up winter quarters in Morristown, 1777

Automotive
Auto industry maverick John DeLorean born, 1925

Civil War
Confederate General John Calvin Brown born, 1827

Cold War
Soviet Union announces troop reduction, 1958

Crime
Skater Nancy Kerrigan attacked, 1994

Disaster
Blizzard of 1996 begins, 1996

General Interest
Harold II crowned king of England, 1066
New Mexico joins the Union, 1912
Nurmi breaks two world records, 1925
Congress certifies Bush winner of 2000 elections, 2001

Hollywood
Disney-MGM Studios becomes Disney’s Hollywood Studios, 2008

Literary
John Gardner wins National Book Critics Circle Award, 1977

Music
Two thousand Led Zeppelin fans trash the Boston Garden, 1975

Old West
Mountain man Jedediah Smith is born, 1798

Presidential
Two future presidents marry respective sweethearts, 1759
Franklin D. Roosevelt speaks of Four Freedoms, 1941

Sports
Nancy Kerrigan attacked, 1994

Vietnam War
Army drops charges of My Lai cover-up, 1971
Phuoc Binh falls to the North Vietnamese, 1975

World War I
Theodore Roosevelt dies, 1919

World War II
Roosevelt commits to biggest arms buildup in U.S. history, 1942


Jan 7, 1789:
First U.S. presidential election



On this day in 1789, America's first presidential election is held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who owned property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office on April 30, 1789.

As it did in 1789, the United States still uses the Electoral College system, established by the U.S. Constitution, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote for electors, who in turn vote for the president. The president and vice president are the only elected federal officials chosen by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote.

Today political parties usually nominate their slate of electors at their state conventions or by a vote of the party's central state committee, with party loyalists often being picked for the job. Members of the U.S. Congress, though, can’t be electors. Each state is allowed to choose as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress. The District of Columbia has 3 electors. During a presidential election year, on Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), the electors from the party that gets the most popular votes are elected in a winner-take-all-system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electors proportionally. In order to win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority of 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538.

On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a presidential election year, each state's electors meet, usually in their state capitol, and simultaneously cast their ballots nationwide. This is largely ceremonial: Because electors nearly always vote with their party, presidential elections are essentially decided on Election Day. Although electors aren't constitutionally mandated to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, it is demanded by tradition and required by law in 26 states and the District of Columbia (in some states, violating this rule is punishable by $1,000 fine). Historically, over 99 percent of all electors have cast their ballots in line with the voters. On January 6, as a formality, the electoral votes are counted before Congress and on January 20, the commander in chief is sworn into office.

Critics of the Electoral College argue that the winner-take-all system makes it possible for a candidate to be elected president even if he gets fewer popular votes than his opponent. This happened in the elections of 1876, 1888 and 2000. However, supporters contend that if the Electoral College were done away with, heavily populated states such as California and Texas might decide every election and issues important to voters in smaller states would be ignored.



American Revolution
Samuel Adams writes that the confederation is not dead, but sleepeth, 1776

Automotive
Chrysler is Time magazine's Man of the Year, 1929

Civil War
Former Lincoln cabinet member Caleb Smith dies, 1864

Cold War
Truman announces U.S. has developed hydrogen bomb, 1953
United States recognizes new Cuban government, 1959

Crime
A case of split personality in puzzling Chicago murders, 1946

Disaster
Mine explodes in Oklahoma, 1892

General Interest
Across the English Channel in a balloon, 1785
Pol Pot overthrown, 1979
Emperor Hirohito dies, 1989
Clinton impeachment trial begins, 1999

Hollywood
America’s sweetheart Mary Pickford marries Owen Moore, 1911

Literary
Zora Neale Hurston is born, 1891

Music
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts, 1947

Old West
Cannibal Alfred Packer is paroled, 1901

Presidential
Clinton's Senate impeachment trial begins, 1999

Sports
Harlem Globetrotters play their first game, 1927

Vietnam War
Civilian government is restored in Saigon, 1965
Laird visits Saigon, 1971

World War I
Bolshevik envoy approaches German ambassador in Turkey, 1915

World War II
Monty holds a press conference, 1945


Jan 8, 1877:
Crazy Horse fights last battle



On this day in 1877, Crazy Horse and his warriors--outnumbered, low on ammunition and forced to use outdated weapons to defend themselves--fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.

Six months earlier, in the Battle of Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse and his ally, Chief Sitting Bull, led their combined forces of Sioux and Cheyenne to a stunning victory over Lieutenant Colonel George Custer (1839-76) and his men. The Indians were resisting the U.S. government's efforts to force them back to their reservations. After Custer and over 200 of his soldiers were killed in the conflict, later dubbed "Custer's Last Stand," the American public wanted revenge. As a result, the U.S. Army launched a winter campaign in 1876-77, led by General Nelson Miles (1839-1925), against the remaining hostile Indians on the Northern Plains.

Combining military force with diplomatic overtures, Nelson convinced many Indians to surrender and return to their reservations. Much to Nelson's frustration, though, Sitting Bull refused to give in and fled across the border to Canada, where he and his people remained for four years before finally returning to the U.S. to surrender in 1881. Sitting Bull died in 1890. Meanwhile, Crazy Horse and his band also refused to surrender, even though they were suffering from illness and starvation.

On January 8, 1877, General Miles found Crazy Horse's camp along Montana's Tongue River. U.S. soldiers opened fire with their big wagon-mounted guns, driving the Indians from their warm tents out into a raging blizzard. Crazy Horse and his warriors managed to regroup on a ridge and return fire, but most of their ammunition was gone, and they were reduced to fighting with bows and arrows. They managed to hold off the soldiers long enough for the women and children to escape under cover of the blinding blizzard before they turned to follow them.

Though he had escaped decisive defeat, Crazy Horse realized that Miles and his well-equipped cavalry troops would eventually hunt down and destroy his cold, hungry followers. On May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse led approximately 1,100 Indians to the Red Cloud reservation near Nebraska's Fort Robinson and surrendered. Five months later, a guard fatally stabbed him after he allegedly resisted imprisonment by Indian policemen.

In 1948, American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began work on the Crazy Horse Memorial, a massive monument carved into a mountain in South Dakota. Still a work in progress, the monument will stand 641 feet high and 563 feet long when completed.



American Revolution
President George Washington delivers first State of the Union, 1790

Automotive
Bugatti brother commits suicide, 1916

Civil War
Confederate General James Longstreet born, 1821

Cold War
Chinese leader Zhou Enlai dies, 1976

Crime
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords injured in shooting rampage, 2011

Disaster
Cargo plane crashes into crowded market, 1996

General Interest
Astronomer Galileo dies in Italy, 1642
The Battle of New Orleans, 1815
Congress expands suffrage in nation's capital, 1867
Allies retreat from Gallipoli, 1916
Wilson announces his 14 Points, 1918
Mona Lisa exhibited in Washington, 1962

Hollywood
William Randolph Hearst stops Citizen Kane ads, 1941

Literary
Ragtime wins the National Book Critics Circle Award, 1976

Music
Elvis Presley receives his first guitar, 1946

Old West
Crazy Horse fights his final battle, 1877

Presidential
Jackson leads troops to victory at New Orleans, 1815
Wilson delivers Fourteen Points speech, 1918

Sports
Music City Miracle, 2000

Vietnam War
Operation Cedar Falls is launched, 1967
Peace talks resume in Paris, 1973

World War I
Wilson outlines the Fourteen Points, 1917

World War II
Mussolini questions Hitler's plans, 1940


Jan 9, 1493:
Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids



On this day in 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing near the Dominican Republic, sees three "mermaids"--in reality manatees--and describes them as "not half as beautiful as they are painted." Six months earlier, Columbus (1451-1506) set off from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, hoping to find a western trade route to Asia. Instead, his voyage, the first of four he would make, led him to the Americas, or "New World."

Mermaids, mythical half-female, half-fish creatures, have existed in seafaring cultures at least since the time of the ancient Greeks. Typically depicted as having a woman's head and torso, a fishtail instead of legs and holding a mirror and comb, mermaids live in the ocean and, according to some legends, can take on a human shape and marry mortal men. Mermaids are closely linked to sirens, another folkloric figure, part-woman, part-bird, who live on islands and sing seductive songs to lure sailors to their deaths.

Mermaid sightings by sailors, when they weren't made up, were most likely manatees, dugongs or Steller's sea cows (which became extinct by the 1760s due to over-hunting). Manatees are slow-moving aquatic mammals with human-like eyes, bulbous faces and paddle-like tails. It is likely that manatees evolved from an ancestor they share with the elephant. The three species of manatee (West Indian, West African and Amazonian) and one species of dugong belong to the Sirenia order. As adults, they're typically 10 to 12 feet long and weigh 800 to 1,200 pounds. They're plant-eaters, have a slow metabolism and can only survive in warm water.

Manatees live an average of 50 to 60 years in the wild and have no natural predators. However, they are an endangered species. In the U.S., the majority of manatees are found in Florida, where scores of them die or are injured each year due to collisions with boats.



American Revolution
Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense, 1776

Automotive
Bond movie features Aston Martin, 1965

Civil War
Star of the West is fired upon, 1861

Cold War
Truman warns of Cold War dangers, 1952

Crime
The Hillside Stranglers, 1984

Disaster
Fire breaks out on Queen Elizabeth, 1972

General Interest
First modern circus is staged, 1768
Nelson buried at St. Paul's Cathedral, 1806
Queen Elizabeth destroyed by fire, 1972
Steve Jobs debuts the iPhone, 2007

Hollywood
Stallone starts filming Rocky, 1976

Literary
Virginia Woolf buys a house in Bloomsbury, 1924

Music
Pop luminaries gather at the U.N. for the Music for UNICEF concert, 1979

Old West
Record cold and snow decimates cattle herds, 1887

Presidential
Richard M. Nixon is born, 1913

Sports
Laker winning streak comes to an end, 1972

Vietnam War
Support is pledged to civilian government, 1965
U.S. officials try to counter claims of Saigon corruption, 1967

World War I
Battle of Khadairi Bend begins, 1917

World War II
United States invades Luzon in Philippines, 1945
[/QUOTE]

Jan 10, 1901:
Gusher signals start of U.S. oil industry



On this day in 1901, a drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas, produces an enormous gusher of crude oil, coating the landscape for hundreds of feet and signaling the advent of the American oil industry. The geyser was discovered at a depth of over 1,000 feet, flowed at an initial rate of approximately 100,000 barrels a day and took nine days to cap. Following the discovery, petroleum, which until that time had been used in the U.S. primarily as a lubricant and in kerosene for lamps, would become the main fuel source for new inventions such as cars and airplanes; coal-powered forms of transportation including ships and trains would also convert to the liquid fuel.

Crude oil, which became the world's first trillion-dollar industry, is a natural mix of hundreds of different hydrocarbon compounds trapped in underground rock. The hydrocarbons were formed millions of years ago when tiny aquatic plants and animals died and settled on the bottoms of ancient waterways, creating a thick layer of organic material. Sediment later covered this material, putting heat and pressure on it and transforming it into the petroleum that comes out of the ground today.

In the early 1890s, Texas businessman and amateur geologist Patillo Higgins became convinced there was a large pool of oil under a salt-dome formation south of Beaumont. He and several partners established the Gladys City Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Company and made several unsuccessful drilling attempts before Higgins left the company. In 1899, Higgins leased a tract of land at Spindletop to mining engineer Anthony Lucas. The Lucas gusher blew on January 10, 1901, and ushered in the liquid fuel age. Unfortunately for Higgins, he'd lost his ownership stake by that point.

Beaumont became a "black gold" boomtown, its population tripling in three months. The town filled up with oil workers, investors, merchants and con men (leading some people to dub it "Swindletop"). Within a year, there were more than 285 actives wells at Spindletop and an estimated 500 oil and land companies operating in the area, including some that are major players today: Humble (now Exxon), the Texas Company (Texaco) and Magnolia Petroleum Company (Mobil).

Spindletop experienced a second boom starting in the mid-1920s when more oil was discovered at deeper depths. In the 1950s, Spindletop was mined for sulphur. Today, only a few oil wells still operate in the area.



American Revolution
North Carolina governor calls on Loyalists to combat rebels, 1776

Automotive
World's cheapest car debuts in India, 2008

Civil War
William Seward is named secretary of state, 1861

Cold War
Cuban troops begin withdrawal from Angola, 1989

Crime
Green Beret indicted for murder, 1994

Disaster
Avalanche kills thousands in Peru, 1962

General Interest
League of Nations instituted, 1920
Griffith elected president of Irish Free State, 1922
U.S. troops depart Germany, 1923
First meeting of the United Nations, 1946

Hollywood
AOL-Time Warner formed, 2000

Literary
Dashiell Hammett dies, 1961

Music
"Convoy," by C.W. McCall, is the #1 song on the U.S. pop charts, 1976

Old West
Outlaw Frank James born in Missouri, 1843

Presidential
FDR introduces the lend-lease program, 1941
Johnson asks for more funding for Vietnam War, 1967

Sports
Dwight Clark makes The Catch, 1982

Vietnam War
Johnson asks for surcharge to pay for the war, 1967
Hubert Humphrey criticizes President Nixon, 1972

World War I
Harding orders U.S. troops home from Germany, 1923

World War II
Lend-Lease introduced into Congress, 1941

_________________
Friends are like diamonds and diamonds are forever.

Together we stand - Divided we fall.


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PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 9:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jan 11, 1908:
Theodore Roosevelt makes Grand Canyon a national monument



On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument.

Though Native Americans lived in the area as early as the 13th century, the first European sighting of the canyon wasn't until 1540, by members of an expedition headed by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Because of its remote and inaccessible location, several centuries passed before North American settlers really explored the canyon. In 1869, geologist John Wesley Powell led a group of 10 men in the first difficult journey down the rapids of the Colorado River and along the length of the 277-mile gorge in four rowboats.

By the end of the 19th century, the Grand Canyon was attracting thousands of tourists each year. One famous visitor was President Theodore Roosevelt, a New Yorker with a particular affection for the American West. After becoming president in 1901 after the assassination of President William McKinley, Roosevelt made environmental conservation a major part of his presidency. After establishing the National Wildlife Refuge to protect the country's animals, fish and birds, Roosevelt turned his attention to federal regulation of public lands. Though a region could be given national park status--indicating that all private development on that land was illegal--only by an act of Congress, Roosevelt cut down on red tape by beginning a new presidential practice of granting a similar "national monument" designation to some of the West's greatest treasures.

In January 1908, Roosevelt exercised this right to make more than 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon area into a national monument. "Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is," he declared. "You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is keep it for your children, your children’s children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see."

Congress did not officially outlaw private development in the Grand Canyon until 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Grand Canyon National Park Act. Today, more than 5 million people visit the canyon each year. The canyon floor is accessible by foot, mule or boat, and whitewater rafting, hiking and running in the area are especially popular. Many choose to conserve their energies and simply take in the breathtaking view from the canyon's South Rim--some 7,000 feet above sea level--and marvel at a vista virtually unchanged for over 400 years.



American Revolution
Jewish Patriot joins Provincial Congress of South Carolina, 1775

Automotive
Violence erupts at GM plant strike, 1937

Civil War
Yankees capture Rebel stronghold in Arkansas, 1863

Cold War
Reagan gives his farewell address, 1989

Crime
Van der Sloot admits to Peru murder, 2012

Disaster
Flash flood in Rio, 1966

General Interest
Stalin banishes Trotsky, 1928
Earhart flies from Hawaii to California, 1935
Cornerstone laid at Washington's Islamic Center, 1949

Hollywood
Charlie Chaplin’s assets frozen, 1927

Literary
Song of Solomon wins National Book Critics Circle Award, 1978

Music
Paul Simon returns to Johannesburg, South Africa, with the blessing of the U.N., 1992

Old West
Grand Canyon National Monument is created, 1908

Presidential
Roosevelt dedicates the Grand Canyon as a national monument, 1908

Sports
American League adopts designated hitter rule, 1973

Vietnam War
Diem issues Ordinance No. 6, 1956
Demonstrations erupt in Saigon and Hue, 1965

World War I
French forces occupy Corfu, 1916

World War II
Truce signed in Greek Civil War, 1945
Miep Gies, who hid Anne Frank, dies at 100, 2010


Jan 12, 1926:
Original Amos n Andy debuts on Chicago radio



On this day in 1926, the two-man comedy series "Sam 'n' Henry" debuts on Chicago's WGN radio station. Two years later, after changing its name to "Amos 'n' Andy," the show became one of the most popular radio programs in American history.

Though the creators and the stars of the new radio program, Freeman Gosden and Charles Carrell, were both white, the characters they played were two black men from the Deep South who moved to Chicago to seek their fortunes. By that time, white actors performing in dark stage makeup--or "blackface"--had been a significant tradition in American theater for over 100 years. Gosden and Carrell, both vaudeville performers, were doing a Chicago comedy act in blackface when an employee at the Chicago Tribune suggested they create a radio show.

When "Sam 'n' Henry" debuted in January 1926, it became an immediate hit. In 1928, Gosden and Carrell took their act to a rival station, the Chicago Daily News' WMAQ. When they discovered WGN owned the rights to their characters' names, they simply changed them. As their new contract gave Gosden and Carrell the right to syndicate the program, the popularity of "Amos 'n' Andy" soon exploded. Over the next 22 years, the show would become the highest-rated comedy in radio history, attracting more than 40 million listeners.

By 1951, when "Amos 'n' Andy" came to television, changing attitudes about race and concerns about racism had virtually wiped out the practice of blackface. With Alvin Childress and Spencer Williams taking over for Gosden and Carrell, the show was the first TV series to feature an all-black cast and the only one of its kind for the next 20 years. This did not stop African-American advocacy groups and eventually the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from criticizing both the radio and TV versions of "Amos 'n' Andy" for promoting racial stereotypes. These protests led to the TV show's cancellation in 1953.

The final radio broadcast of "Amos 'n' Andy" aired on November 25, 1960. The following year, Gosden and Carrell created a short-lived TV sequel called "Calvin and the Colonel." This time, they avoided controversy by replacing the human characters with an animated fox and bear. The show was canceled after one season.



American Revolution
Hugh Mercer dies from wounds received in Battle of Princeton, 1777

Automotive
Henry Ford sets speed record, 1904

Civil War
Union General Kilpatrick is promoted, 1865

Cold War
Dulles announces policy of "massive retaliation", 1954

Crime
Malcolm X's Daughter Arrested, 1995

Disaster
Blizzard brings tragedy to Northwest Plains, 1888
Massive earthquake strikes Haiti, 2010

General Interest
British-Zulu War begins, 1879
First elected female senator, 1932
Pyramid mystery unearthed, 1984

Hollywood
Dynasty premieres on ABC, 1981

Literary
Jack London is born, 1876

Music
Pianist Vladimir Horowitz makes his American debut at Carnegie Hall, 1928

Old West
Joseph Smith abandons Ohio, 1838

Presidential
Roosevelt (re)creates the National War Labor Board, 1942
Johnson says U.S. should stay in Vietnam, 1966

Sports
Broadway Joe delivers, 1969

Vietnam War
Operation Ranch Hand initiated, 1962
"Harrisburg Six" charged with conspiracy, 1971

World War I
Leaders of the Big Four nations meet for the first time in Paris, 1919

World War II
Soviet forces penetrate the siege of Leningrad, 1943


Jan 13, 1128:
Pope recognizes Knights Templar



On this day in 1128, Pope Honorius II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God.

Led by the Frenchman Hughes de Payens, the Knights Templar organization was founded in 1118. Its self-imposed mission was to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land during the Crusades, the series of military expeditions aimed at defeating Muslims in Palestine. The Templars took their name from the location of their headquarters, at Jerusalem's Temple Mount. For a while, the Templars had only nine members, mostly due to their rigid rules. In addition to having noble birth, the knights were required to take strict vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. In 1127, new promotional efforts convinced many more noblemen to join the order, gradually increasing its size and influence.

While the individual knights were not allowed to own property, there was no such restriction on the organization as a whole, and over the years many rich Christians gave gifts of land and other valuables to support the Knights Templar. By the time the Crusades ended unsuccessfully in the early 14th century, the order had grown extremely wealthy, provoking the jealousy of both religious and secular powers. In 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V combined to take down the Knights Templar, arresting the grand master, Jacques de Molay, on charges of heresy, sacrilege and Satanism. Under torture, Molay and other leading Templars confessed and were eventually burned at the stake. Clement dissolved the Templars in 1312, assigning their property and monetary assets to a rival order, the Knights Hospitalers. In fact, though, Philip and his English counterpart, King Edward II, claimed most of the wealth after banning the organization from their respective countries.

The modern-day Catholic Church has admitted that the persecution of the Knights Templar was unjustified and claimed that Pope Clement was pressured by secular rulers to dissolve the order. Over the centuries, myths and legends about the Templars have grown, including the belief that they may have discovered holy relics at Temple Mount, including the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant or parts of the cross from Christ's crucifixion. The imagined secrets of the Templars have inspired various books and movies, including the blockbuster novel and film The Da Vinci Code.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cIukq6FLaE8/Tw2UJonMmvI/AAAAAAAAFks/UX_NiQIRlzw/s1600/templar.bmp


American Revolution
British raid Prudence Island in Narragansett Bay, 1776

Automotive
Comedian killed in Corvair crash, 1962

Civil War
Union General Napoleon Bonaparte Buford is born, 1807

Cold War
Soviets boycott United Nations Security Council, 1950

Crime
Doc Barker is killed by prison guards as he attempts to escape, 1939
The Manuel Massacres, 1958

Disaster
Plane crashes into Potomac, 1982

General Interest
Sole British soldier escapes Kabul, 1842
Stephen Foster dies, 1864
James Joyce dies, 1941

Hollywood
Golden Globes curtailed due to writers’ strike, 2008

Literary
Zola's "J'accuse" letter is printed, 1898

Music
Georgia Governor Zell Miller proposes writing "The Mozart effect" into law, 1998

Old West
Wyatt Earp dies in Los Angeles, 1929

Presidential
Johnson appoints first African-American cabinet member, 1966

Sports
Michael Jordan retires for a second time, 1999

Vietnam War
First Operation Farm Gate missions flown, 1962
Nixon announces additional troop withdrawals, 1972

World War I
Battle of Wadi, 1916

World War II
Allies promise prosecution of war criminals, 1942


Jan 14, 1875:
Albert Schweitzer born



The theologian, musician, philosopher and Nobel Prize-winning physician Albert Schweitzer is born on this day in 1875 in Upper-Alsace, Germany (now Haut-Rhin, France).

The son and grandson of ministers, Schweitzer studied theology and philosophy at the universities of Strasbourg, Paris and Berlin. After working as a pastor, he entered medical school in 1905 with the dream of becoming a missionary in Africa. Schweitzer was also an acclaimed concert organist who played professional engagements to earn money for his education. By the time he received his M.D. in 1913, the overachieving Schweitzer had published several books, including the influential The Quest for the Historical Jesus and a book on the composer Johann Sebastian Bach.

Medical degree in hand, Schweitzer and his wife, Helene Bresslau, moved to French Equatorial Africa where he founded a hospital at Lambarene (modern-day Gabon). When World War I broke out, the German-born Schweitzers were sent to a French internment camp as prisoners of war. Released in 1918, they returned to Lambarene in 1924. Over the next three decades, Schweitzer made frequent visits to Europe to lecture on culture and ethics. His philosophy revolved around the concept of what he called "reverence for life"--the idea that all life must be respected and loved, and that humans should enter into a personal, spiritual relationship with the universe and all its creations. This reverence for life, according to Schweitzer, would naturally lead humans to live a life of service to others.

Schweitzer won widespread praise for putting his uplifting theory into practice at his hospital in Africa, where he treated many patients with leprosy and the dreaded African sleeping sickness. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1952, Schweitzer used his $33,000 award to start a leprosarium at Lambarene. From the early 1950s until his death in 1965, Schweitzer spoke and wrote tirelessly about his opposition to nuclear tests and nuclear weapons, adding his voice to those of fellow Nobelists Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell.



American Revolution
Continental Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris, 1784

Automotive
Dodge co-founder dies, 1920

Civil War
House Committee proposes amendment to protect slavery, 1860

Cold War
United Nations vote "deplores" Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, 1980

Crime
Benedict Arnold, American traitor, born, 1741

Disaster
Explosion rocks USS Enterprise, 1969

General Interest
The first colonial constitution, 1639
George Wallace inaugurated as Alabama governor, 1963
Gold prices soar, 1980

Hollywood
Marilyn Monroe marries Joe DiMaggio, 1954

Literary
Joseph Conrad returns to London, 1894

Music
Diana Ross and the Supremes perform their final concert, 1970
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLO7TpOCjl0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixEOMB6jyEE

Old West
General Miles reports on Sioux, 1891

Presidential
Adams, Jefferson and Madison help to ratify the Treaty of Paris, 1784
Roosevelt ushers in Japanese-American internment, 1942
FDR becomes first president to travel by airplane on U.S. official business, 1943

Sports
Undefeated Dolphins beat Redskins in Super Bowl VII, 1973

Vietnam War
Westmoreland appointed as Harkins' deputy, 1964
Operation Niagara launched, 1968

World War I
South African troops occupy Swakopmund in German Southwest Africa, 1915

World War II
Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff established, 1942
Roosevelt and Churchill begin Casablanca Conference, 1943

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jan 15, 1951:
The "Witch of Buchenwald" is sentenced to prison



On this day, Ilse Koch, wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany. Ilse Koch was nicknamed the "Witch of Buchenwald" for her extraordinary sadism.

Born in Dresden, Germany, Ilse, a librarian, married SS. Col. Karl Koch in 1936. Colonel Koch, a man with his own reputation for sadism, was the commandant of the Sashsenhausen concentration camp, two miles north of Berlin. He was transferred after three years to Buchenwald concentration camp, 4.5 miles northwest of Weimar; the Buchenwald concentration camp held a total of 20,000 slave laborers during the war.

Ilse, a large woman with red hair, was given free reign in the camp, whipping prisoners with her riding crop as she rode by on her horse, forcing prisoners to have sex with her, and, most horrifying, collecting lampshades, book covers, and gloves made from the skin of tattooed camp prisoners. A German inmate gave the following testimony during the Nuremberg war trials: "All prisoners with tattooing on them were to report to the dispensary... After the prisoners had been examined, the ones with the best and most artistic specimens were killed by injections. The corpses were then turned over to the pathological department, where the desired pieces of tattooed skin were detached from the bodies and treated further."

Karl Koch was arrested, ironically enough, by his SS superiors for "having gone too far." It seems he had a penchant for stealing even the belongings of wealthy, well-placed Germans. He was tried and hanged in 1944. Ilse Koch was tried for crimes against humanity at Nuremberg and sentenced to life in prison, but the American military governor of the occupied zone subsequently reduced her sentence to four years. His reason, "lack of evidence," caused a Senate investigation back home. She was released but arrested again, tried by a West German court, and sentenced to life. She committed suicide in 1967 by hanging herself with a bedsheet.



Lead Story
Packers face Chiefs in first Super Bowl, 1967

American Revolution
New Connecticut (Vermont) declares independence, 1777

Automotive
Ford Foundation is born, 1936

Civil War
Fort Fisher falls to Union forces, 1865

Cold War
Dulles calls for "liberation of captive peoples", 1953

Crime
Hill Street Blues begins run, 1981

Disaster
Molasses floods Boston streets, 1919

General Interest
Elizabeth crowned queen of England, 1559
First appearance of the Democratic donkey, 1870
Martin Luther King Jr. born, 1929
Biafra surrenders to Nigeria, 1970
Qaddafi becomes premier of Libya, 1970
Sully Sullenberger performs Miracle on the Hudson, 2009

Hollywood
Last episode of soap opera Santa Barbara airs, 1993

Literary
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is finished, 1831

Music
"American Pie" hits #1 on the pop charts, 1972

Old West
The utopian Amana colony embraces capitalism, 1933

Presidential
Nixon suspends military action in North Vietnam, 1973

Sports
Packers beat Chiefs in first Super Bowl, 1967

Vietnam War
Kennedy says U.S. troops are not fighting, 1962
Nixon halts military action against North Vietnam, 1973

World War I
Rebel leaders are murdered in failed coup in Berlin, 1919



Jan 15, 1967:
Packers face Chiefs in first Super Bowl



On this day in 1967, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the first-ever world championship game of American football.

In the mid-1960s, the intense competition for players and fans between the National Football League (NFL) and the upstart American Football League (AFL) led to talks of a possible merger. It was decided that the winners of each league's championship would meet each year in a single game to determine the "world champion of football."

In that historic first game--played before a non-sell-out crowd of 61,946 people--Green Bay scored three touchdowns in the second half to defeat Kansas City 35-10. Led by MVP quarterback Bart Starr, the Packers benefited from Max McGee's stellar receiving and a key interception by safety Willie Wood. For their win, each member of the Packers collected $15,000: the largest single-game share in the history of team sports.

Postseason college games were known as "bowl" games, and AFL founder Lamar Hunt suggested that the new pro championship be called the "Super Bowl." The term was officially introduced in 1969, along with roman numerals to designate the individual games. In 1970, the NFL and AFL merged into one league with two conferences, each with 13 teams. Since then, the Super Bowl has been a face-off between the winners of the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC) for the NFL championship and the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy, named for the legendary Packers coach who guided his team to victory in the first two Super Bowls.

Super Bowl Sunday has become an unofficial American holiday, complete with parties, betting pools and excessive consumption of food and drink. On average, 80 to 90 million people are tuned into the game on TV at any given moment, while some 130-140 million watch at least some part of the game. The commercials shown during the game have become an attraction in themselves, with TV networks charging as much as $2.5 million for a 30-second spot and companies making more expensive, high-concept ads each year. The game itself has more than once been upstaged by its elaborate pre-game or halftime entertainment, most recently in 2004 when Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" resulted in a $225,000 fine for the TV network airing the game, CBS, and tighter controls on televised indecency.

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PostPosted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 10:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jan 16, 1919:
Prohibition takes effect



The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes," is ratified on this day in 1919 and becomes the law of the land.

The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for total national abstinence. In December 1917, the 18th Amendment, also known as the Prohibition Amendment, was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.

Prohibition took effect in January 1919. Nine months later, Congress passed the Volstead Act, or National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of prohibition, including the creation of a special unit of the Treasury Department. Despite a vigorous effort by law-enforcement agencies, the Volstead Act failed to prevent the large-scale distribution of alcoholic beverages, and organized crime flourished in America. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing prohibition.



American Revolution
British demonstrate naval supremacy in The Moonlight Battle, 1780

Automotive
Entertainer Bill Cosby's son murdered along CA interstate, 1997

Civil War
Crittenden Compromise is killed in Senate, 1861

Cold War
Soviets send troops into Azerbaijan, 1990

Crime
The Moon Maniac, 1936

Disaster
Avalanches bury buses in Kashmir, 1995

General Interest
Shah flees Iran, 1979
The Persian Gulf War begins, 1991

Hollywood
Carole Lombard killed in plane crash, 1942

Literary
Susan Sontag is born, 1933

Music
Benny Goodman brings jazz to Carnegie Hall, 1938

Old West
Fremont appointed Governor of California, 1847

Presidential
Bush waits for deadline in Iraq, 1991

Sports
Curt Flood files historic lawsuit against Major League Baseball, 1970

Vietnam War
Johnson approves Oplan 34A, 1964
Agreement to open peace talks reached, 1969

World War I
Montenegro capitulates to Austro-Hungarian forces, 1916

World War II
Hitler descends into his bunker, 1945



Jan 17, 1950:
Boston thieves pull off historic robbery



On this day in 1950, 11 men steal more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the perfect crime--almost--as the culprits weren't caught until January 1956, just days before the statute of limitations for the theft expired.

The robbery's mastermind was Anthony "Fats" Pino, a career criminal who recruited a group of 10 other men to stake out the depot for 18 months to figure out when it held the most money. Pino's men then managed to steal plans for the depot's alarm system, returning them before anyone noticed they were gone.

Wearing navy blue coats and chauffeur's caps--similar to the Brinks employee uniforms--with rubber Halloween masks, the thieves entered the depot with copied keys, surprising and tying up several employees inside the company's counting room. Filling 14 canvas bags with cash, coins, checks and money orders--for a total weight of more than half a ton--the men were out and in their getaway car in about 30 minutes. Their haul? More than $2.7 million--the largest robbery in U.S. history up until that time.

No one was hurt in the robbery, and the thieves left virtually no clues, aside from the rope used to tie the employees and one of the chauffeur's caps. The gang promised to stay out of trouble and not touch the money for six years in order for the statute of limitations to run out. They might have made it, but for the fact that one man, Joseph "Specs" O'Keefe, left his share with another member in order to serve a prison sentence for another burglary. While in jail, O'Keefe wrote bitterly to his cohorts demanding money and hinting he might talk. The group sent a hit man to kill O'Keefe, but he was caught before completing his task. The wounded O'Keefe made a deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to testify against his fellow robbers.

Eight of the Brinks robbers were caught, convicted and given life sentences. Two more died before they could go to trial. Only a small part of the money was ever recovered; the rest is fabled to be hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. In 1978, the famous robbery was immortalized on film in The Brinks Job, starring Peter Falk.



American Revolution
Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina, 1781

Automotive
Corvette unveiled at GM Motorama, 1953

Civil War
Sherman's army is delayed by rain, 1865

Cold War
Eisenhower warns of the "military-industrial complex", 1961

Crime
The Great Brinks Robbery, 1950

Disaster
Earthquake rocks Los Angeles, 1994

General Interest
Americans overthrow Hawaiian monarchy, 1893
Eisenhower bids farewell, 1961
H-bomb lost in Spain, 1966
The execution of Gary Gilmore, 1977

Hollywood
U.S. Supreme Court decides Universal v. Sony, as VCR usage takes off, 1984

Literary
Anne Bronte is born, 1820

Music
NBC Television greenlights The Monkees, 1966

Old West
John Jacob Astor is born, 1763

Presidential
Eisenhower warns of military-industrial complex, 1961
Paula Jones accuses Bill Clinton of sexual harassment, 1994

Sports
PGA is formed, 1916

Vietnam War
South Vietnamese forces raid POW camp, 1971
Nixon threatens President Thieu, 1972

World War I
Winston Churchill hears speech on the tragedy of war, 1916

World War II
Allies make their move on Cassino, Italy, 1944
Soviets capture Warsaw, 1945

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

On Jan 19, 1809, poet, author and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts.

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.

Edgar Allan Poe





Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts; he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him. He attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. After enlisting in the Army and later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point, Poe parted ways with the Allans. His publishing career began humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian".

Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845 Poe published his poem, "The Raven", to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.

Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.

Edgar Allan Poe one side of my soul.

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PostPosted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 9:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mar 11, 1997:
Paul McCartney knighted


On this day in 1997, Paul McCartney, a former member of the most successful rock band in history, The Beatles, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his "services to music." The 54-year-old lad from Liverpool became Sir Paul in a centuries-old ceremony of pomp and solemnity at Buckingham Palace in central London. Fans waited outside in a scene reminiscent of Beatlemania of the 1960s. Crowds screamed as McCartney swept through the gates in his chauffeur-driven limousine and he answered with a thumbs-up.

McCartney's wife, Linda, who was fighting breast cancer, did not accompany him, but three of their four children were at the palace. "I would have loved the whole family to be here, but when we heard there were only three tickets, we had to draw straws," McCartney said. Linda McCartney would succumb to cancer 13 months later on April 17, 1998.

As for the surviving Beatles, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, Sir Paul said that since they learned that he would be knighted, "They call me 'Your Holiness.'" McCartney dedicated his knighthood to fellow Beatles George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon and the people of the northwestern port of Liverpool. In October 1965, McCartney, along with fellow band members John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, collected MBE (Member of the British Empire) medals, much to the shock of the British establishment. Lennon, who returned his MBE in 1969 as a war protest, was assassinated in New York in 1980. Harrison would also succumb to cancer, passing away on November 29, 2001.

McCartney admitted he was very nervous before the ceremony but said it had been a great experience. "Proud to be British, wonderful day and it's a long way from a little terrace (street) in Liverpool," he told reporters. Aides said he won't be calling himself "Sir Paul," the title conferred when the queen tapped him on each shoulder with a naked sword as he knelt on the investiture stool. McCartney's knighthood was considered long overdue even by the conservative standards used in Britain, which sees most such honors going to judges, scientists and politicians.

McCartney formed the group Wings after the Beatles split up in 1970, and made records with stars like Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder before trying his hand at composing classical music. "The first time I really ever felt a tingle up my spine was when I saw Bill Haley and The Comets on the telly," McCartney once said. "Then I went to see them live. The ticket was 24 shillings, and I was the only one of my mates who could go as no one else had been able to save up that amount. But I was single-minded about it. I knew there was something going on here."




Also on This Day

Lead Story
Paul McCartney knighted, 1997

American Revolution
Congress establishes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1779

Automotive
Toyota sells 1 millionth hybrid in U.S., 2009

Civil War
President Lincoln shuffles the Union command, 1862

Cold War
Mikhail Gorbachev picked to succeed Chernenko, 1985

Crime
COPS makes TV debut, 1989

Disaster
Great Blizzard of '88 hits East Coast, 1888

General Interest
Confederate constitution adopted, 1861
FDR signs Lend-Lease, 1941
MacArthur leaves Corregidor, 1942
Lithuania proclaims its independence, 1990
Terrorists bomb trains in Madrid, 2004

Hollywood
COPS debuts on Fox, 1989

Literary
Frankenstein published, 1818

Music
Lawrence Welk is born, 1903

Old West
Gunslinger Ben Thompson dies, 1884

Presidential
Truman thanks Herbert Hoover for aiding post-WWII reconstruction, 1947

Sports
Newspaper reports signing of so-called Chief Tokohama, 1901

Vietnam War
Heavy battle rages during Operation Junction City, 1967

World War I
First cases reported in deadly influenza epidemic, 1918

World War II
MacArthur leaves the Philippines, 1942



Mar 11, 1903:
Lawrence Welk is born


For the generation that grew up on the big bands of the 30s and 40s, The Lawrence Welk Show was a blessed island of calm in a world gone mad for rock and roll, and it aired like clockwork every Saturday night from 1955 to 1982. But for the children and grandchildren watching along with them, it seemed more like the "television show that time forgot." The man at this generational flash point was an accordion-playing, Alsatian-accented bandleader who kicked off each number with "A vun and a two" and ended with a cheery "Wunnerful, wunnerful." Although he delighted the older crowd, youngsters were usually not so enamored. As polarizing in his own folksy way as Elvis Presley was in his, the inimitable Lawrence Welk—creator and King of "Champagne Music"—was born in rural North Dakota on March 11, 1903.

Welk's parents were immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine who spoke only German to the nine children they raised on their farm outside Strasburg, North Dakota. In fact, Lawrence Welk did not learn English until his early 20s, which explains the accent that became his trademark. A dutiful son, Welk dropped out of school in the fourth grade to work full time on the family farm, but he decided early on that he wished to pursue a career in music. He learned to play the accordion from his father, who carried his own antique instrument with him when he immigrated to America. Lawrence wore out the inexpensive, mail-order accordion bought for him as a boy, so he made a deal with his parents: In exchange for a $400 loan to purchase a professional accordion, he would stay and work on the family farm through the age of 21. Playing small professional gigs in the surrounding area, Welk honed his musical skills and earned enough money to pay his parents back when he left home for good in 1924.

By the early 1930s, Lawrence Welk had earned a degree in music and made a name for himself as the leader of a traveling orchestra. He had also failed in a restaurant venture selling "squeezeburgers" cooked on an accordion-shaped grill, but he had succeeded in developing a unique brand as the proponent of a pleasing pop style dubbed "Champagne Music" for its light and bubbly quality. After two decades of success in the Midwest, Welk made his way to Los Angeles in 1951, taking up residence with his orchestra at the Aragon Ballroom in Pacific Ocean Park. He made his first appearance on local television the following year, and his show was picked up by ABC in 1955. When ABC dropped The Lawrence Welk Show in 1971, Welk independently arranged a syndication deal that kept him on the air for another 11 years and made him one of the richest entertainers in America. Born on this day in 1903, Lawrence Welk died at the age of 89 on May 17, 1992.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMvqPffzDMQ


More on: This Day in History from History Channel


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mar 14, 1879:
Albert Einstein born


On March 14, 1879, Albert Einstein is born, the son of a Jewish electrical engineer in Ulm, Germany. Einstein's theories of special and general relativity drastically altered man's view of the universe, and his work in particle and energy theory helped make possible quantum mechanics and, ultimately, the atomic bomb.

After a childhood in Germany and Italy, Einstein studied physics and mathematics at the Federal Polytechnic Academy in Zurich, Switzerland. He became a Swiss citizen and in 1905 was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich while working at the Swiss patent office in Bern. That year, which historians of Einstein's career call the annus mirabilis--the "miracle year"--he published five theoretical papers that were to have a profound effect on the development of modern physics.

In the first of these, titled "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light," Einstein theorized that light is made up of individual quanta (photons) that demonstrate particle-like properties while collectively behaving like a wave. The hypothesis, an important step in the development of quantum theory, was arrived at through Einstein's examination of the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon in which some solids emit electrically charged particles when struck by light. This work would later earn him the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.

In the second paper, he devised a new method of counting and determining the size of the atoms and molecules in a given space, and in the third he offered a mathematical explanation for the constant erratic movement of particles suspended in a fluid, known as Brownian motion. These two papers provided indisputable evidence of the existence of atoms, which at the time was still disputed by a few scientists.

Einstein's fourth groundbreaking scientific work of 1905 addressed what he termed his special theory of relativity. In special relativity, time and space are not absolute, but relative to the motion of the observer. Thus, two observers traveling at great speeds in regard to each other would not necessarily observe simultaneous events in time at the same moment, nor necessarily agree in their measurements of space. In Einstein's theory, the speed of light, which is the limiting speed of any body having mass, is constant in all frames of reference. In the fifth paper that year, an exploration of the mathematics of special relativity, Einstein announced that mass and energy were equivalent and could be calculated with an equation, E=mc2.

Although the public was not quick to embrace his revolutionary science, Einstein was welcomed into the circle of Europe's most eminent physicists and given professorships in Zýrich, Prague, and Berlin. In 1916, he published "The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity," which proposed that gravity, as well as motion, can affect the intervals of time and of space. According to Einstein, gravitation is not a force, as Isaac Newton had argued, but a curved field in the space-time continuum, created by the presence of mass. An object of very large gravitational mass, such as the sun, would therefore appear to warp space and time around it, which could be demonstrated by observing starlight as it skirted the sun on its way to earth. In 1919, astronomers studying a solar eclipse verified predictions Einstein made in the general theory of relativity, and he became an overnight celebrity. Later, other predictions of general relativity, such as a shift in the orbit of the planet Mercury and the probable existence of black holes, were confirmed by scientists.

During the next decade, Einstein made continued contributions to quantum theory and began work on a unified field theory, which he hoped would encompass quantum mechanics and his own relativity theory as a grand explanation of the workings of the universe. As a world-renowned public figure, he became increasingly political, taking up the cause of Zionism and speaking out against militarism and rearmament. In his native Germany, this made him an unpopular figure, and after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933 Einstein renounced his German citizenship and left the country.

He later settled in the United States, where he accepted a post at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He would remain there for the rest of his life, working on his unified field theory and relaxing by sailing on a local lake or playing his violin. He became an American citizen in 1940.

In 1939, despite his lifelong pacifist beliefs, he agreed to write to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of a group of scientists who were concerned with American inaction in the field of atomic-weapons research. Like the other scientists, he feared sole German possession of such a weapon. He played no role, however, in the subsequent Manhattan Project and later deplored the use of atomic bombs against Japan. After the war, he called for the establishment of a world government that would control nuclear technology and prevent future armed conflict.

In 1950, he published his unified field theory, which was quietly criticized as a failure. A unified explanation of gravitation, subatomic phenomena, and electromagnetism remains elusive today. Albert Einstein, one of the most creative minds in human history, died in Princeton in 1955.




Also on This Day

Lead Story
Albert Einstein born, 1879

American Revolution
Alexander Hamilton is named captain of artillery company, 1776

Automotive
Mack Truck founder killed in car crash, 1922

Civil War
Yankees capture New Bern, North Carolina, 1862

Cold War
Gorbachev elected president of the Soviet Union, 1990

Crime
The FBI debuts 10 Most Wanted, 1950

Disaster
Boxing team among casualties in Polish Air crash, 1980

General Interest
Jack Ruby sentenced to death, 1964
Birmingham Six released, 1991

Hollywood
Billy Crystal is born, 1948

Literary
Sylvia Beach, bookstore owner and publisher of Ulysses, is born, 1887

Music
The Recording Industry Association of America awards first Gold Record to Perry Como for "Catch A Falling Star", 1958

Old West
Max Brand publishes his first novel, 1919

Presidential
JFK's body moved to permanent gravesite, 1967

Sports
President Clinton expresses desire to return to golf course, 1997

Vietnam War
Allies launch second wave of Rolling Thunder, 1965
Nixon discusses the possibility of U.S. troop withdrawals, 1969

World War I
German cruiser Dresden sinks, 1915

World War II
Germans recapture Kharkov, 1943



Mar 14, 1958:
The Recording Industry Association of America awards first Gold Record to Perry Como for "Catch A Falling Star"


For as long as most people have been buying popular music on records, tapes and compact disks, the records, tapes and disks they've bought have carried labels like "Certified Gold!" and "Double Platinum!!" Those labels have been in use since the early days of the rock-and-roll era, when a young trade organization called the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) created and trademarked its precious-metals-based scale for measuring music sales. On March 14, 1958, the RIAA awarded its first official Gold Record to Perry Como for his smash-hit single "Catch A Falling Star."

Those who've been conditioned to believe that rock and roll wiped out everything in its path on its way toward dominating late-20th-century pop music may be surprised to hear that Perry Como was such a viable commercial artist fully two years after the arrival of Elvis Presley. Como, a 50-something holdover in a cozy cardigan sweater, stood for everything that youthful rock and roll did not, after all. Where rock and roll promised sex, excitement and social change, Como's act evoked much more staid pursuits. Yet "Catch A Falling Star" was not the only hit record for Perry Como in the early years of the rock-and-roll "revolution." Songs like "Hot Diggity" and "Round And Round" more than held their own against more rebellious fare, and while they might not have been "cool," they didn't need to be in order to find an audience in late 1950s America.

It is certainly worth noting, however, that the RIAA waited until Elvis Presley's string of pre-Army hits was over before codifying what was formerly a loose, PR-driven process and creating an objective standard (500,000 sales) for the Gold Record. After the first Gold Record was awarded to Perry Como for "Catch A Falling Star," the RIAA's next honoree was Laurie London for "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands." And while Elvis Presley was the third artist to receive such an honor (for "Hard Headed Woman" in August 1958), his single Gold Record through the end of 1961 had him tied on the RIAA's list with Lawrence Welk (whose "Calcutta" was certified Gold in February 1961).



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U08iKG4tfFE


More on: This Day in History from History Channel


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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On This Day

Lead Story
U.S. space shuttle docks with Russian space station, 1995
American Revolution
South Carolina's Edward Rutledge opposes independence, 1776
Automotive
Actress Jayne Mansfield dies in car crash, 1967
Civil War
Rebels inflict attack Yankees at the Battle of Savage's Station, 1862
Cold War
Congress votes new sanctions against China, 1989
Crime
Boston doctor found guilty of killing wife, 2001
Disaster
Seoul department store collapses, 1995
General Interest
Germans advance in USSR, 1941
Vietnam air war escalates, 1966
Supreme Court strikes down death penalty, 1972
Isabela Peron takes office as Argentine president, 1974
Hollywood
Katharine Hepburn dies at age 96, 2003
Literary
The Globe Theater burns down, 1613
Music
The Stones fight the law, and the law wins, 1967
Old West
Texan William Travis prepares for war with Mexico, 1835
Presidential
FDR writes to Manhattan Project physicist Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, 1943
Sports
Pele helps Brazil to World Cup title, 1958
Vietnam War
First New Zealand troops arrive, 1964
U.S. ground troops return from Cambodia, 1970
World War I
Austria-Hungary protests shipment of U.S. munitions to Britain, 1915
World War II
Germans capture Lvov-and slaughter ensues, 1941

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 01, 2013 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Automotive
Actress Jayne Mansfield dies in car crash, 1967

Kinda remember that, not sure if it qualifies as automotive history.

Quote:
Civil War
Rebels inflict attack Yankees at the Battle of Savage's Station, 1862

Don't remember that.
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