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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 25, 2011 23:36:35 GMT -5
1907—Korea became a protectorate of Japan. 1909—French aviator Louis Bleriot became the first person to fly an airplane across the English Channel, traveling from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes. 1914—Russia declared that it would act to protect Serbian sovereignty. 1924—Greece announced the deportation of 30,000 Americans. 1934—Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was shot and killed by Nazis. 1939—W2XBS TV in New York City presented the first musical comedy seen on TV. The show was Topsy and Eva. 1941—Pres. Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the US in retaliation for Japan's occupation of southern Indochina. 1944—Allied forces began the breakthrough of German lines in Normandy. 1946—the US detonated an atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the first underwater test of the device. 1952—Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth of the US. 1956—the Italian liner Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish passenger ship Stockholm off the New England coast late at night and began sinking; at least 51 people were killed. 1960—a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, N.C., that had been the scene of a sit-in protest against its whites-only lunch counter dropped its segregation policy. 1961—in a televised address on the Berlin Crisis, Pres. Kennedy announced a series of steps aimed at bolstering the military in the face of Soviet demands that Western powers withdraw from the German city's western sector. 1963—the US, the USSR and Britain initialed a treaty in Moscow prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, in space or underwater. 1965—Bob Dylan shocked his fans at the Newport Folk Festival by playing electric guitar. 1975—the 1976 Pulitzer Prize-winning Marvin Hamlisch/Edward Kleban musical A Chorus Line opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theater for 6,137 performances. It also won 7 Tony Awards, including Best Musical (Joseph Papp producer), Best Original Score, Best Actress (Donna McKechnie), Best Direction/Choreography (Michael Bennett) 1978—Louise Joy Brown, the first baby conceived by in-vitro fertilization, was born in Oldham, England. 1978—Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Red's broke the National League record for consecutive base hits as he got a hit in 38 straight games. 1984—Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space as she carried out more than three hours of experiments outside the orbiting space station Salyut 7. 1986—Vincente Minnelli, movie (Cabin in the Sky, Meet Me in St Louis, Madame Bovary, Father of the Bride, An American in Paris, Brigadoon, Lust for Life, Tea and Sympathy, Gigi) & stage (At Home Abroad, Hooray for What!) director, died at age 83 of emphysema & pneumonia in Los Angeles. He was a husband (1945-51) of Judy Garland and the father of Lisa Minnelli. 1987—the Salt Lake City Trappers set a professional baseball record as the team won its 29th game in a row. 1990—Rosanne Barr tried to sing the National Anthem in San Diego before a Padres baseball game. She was booed for her outrageous performance. 1994—Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein signed a declaration at the White House ending their countries' 46-year state of war. 1997—K.R. Narayanan became India's president, the first member of the Dalits caste to do so. 1998—the USS Harry S. Truman was commissioned and put into service by the US Navy. 1999—Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France, only the 2nd American to win the race. He won the race again in 2000.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 25, 2011 23:37:54 GMT -5
2000—Pres. Clinton announced that the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians had been unable to reach an agreement "at this time." The two groups had been talking at Camp David, MD, for two weeks. 2000—Texas Gov. Bush selected Dick Cheney to be his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket. 2000—a New York-bound Air France Concorde crashed outside Paris shortly after takeoff, killing all 109 people on board and four people on the ground; it was the first-ever crash of the supersonic jet. 2001—three masked men gunned down Phoolan Devi, India's onetime "Bandit Queen," killing the outlaw-turned-legislator who was idolized by the poor as a champion of the lower castes. 2003—Pres. Bush ordered US troops into position off the coast of Liberia. The move was to support the arrival of a West African peacekeeping force. 2006—Israeli troops sealed off a Hezbollah stronghold and widened their control of southern Lebanon — an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N. border outpost, killing four observers. 2006—Pres. Bush was visited at the White House by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki , who said he and Bush agreed that training and better arming Iraqi forces as quickly as possible was central to efforts to stabilizing his country. 2008—California became the first state to ban trans fats from restaurant food. 2010—the online whistleblower Wikileaks posted some 90,000 leaked U.S. military records that amounted to a blow-by-blow account of the Afghanistan war from 2004-10, including unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings as well as covert operations against Taliban figures. 2010—Alberto Contador won the Tour de France for the third time in four years. 2010—Erich Steidtmann, a former Nazi SS officer suspected of involvement in World War II massacres but never convicted, died in Hannover, Germany, at age 95
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 26, 2011 7:37:46 GMT -5
POST OFFICE DAY On this day in 1775, a postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress of the United States. The first Postmaster General was the same gentleman who graces the U.S. $100 bill and who flew a kite with a key attached in a thunderstorm -- Benjamin Franklin. Mr. Franklin was paid $1,000 a year for his job as Postmaster General. Just fifty-four years later, the U.S. Post Office had grown to 7,600 offices and in some places, especially big cities, lines of people were kept waiting as postal clerks determined correct postal charges. Citizens were angered over the long lines and by the U.S. Government’s enforcement of postal rates. Here we are, over 200 years later, still complaining about postal rates while we wait in long lines at the post office. Some things never change. < But according to today's news, they are about to chance.>
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 26, 2011 20:24:51 GMT -5
26 JuL Good evening to my fellow history buffs from Tuxy and me. Today is 207th day of 2011 with 158 days left in the year Today in History: 363—death of Julian the Apostate 657—Mu’awiyan defeated Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia. 811—Nicephorus I, Byzantine emperor, killed in battle with the Bulgars. 1237—Edward I, King of England, did homage to Philip II, King of France, for his French holdings. 1267—Pope Gregory X established the Inquisition. 1526—Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon with several hundred colonists left Santo Domingo for Florida. 1529—Francisco Pizarro received a royal warrant to "discover and conquer" Peru. 1581—the Estates-General of the Hague declared Philip II deposed. 1603—James VI of Scotland was crowned King James I of England. He then 'authorized’ an English translation of the Scriptures, first published in 1611 and known since as the’ King James Version' of the Bible. 1645—Matthew Hopkins, "Witch-finder General," helped to condemn 26 persons as witches in Norfolk, England. 1758—British forces captured France's Fortress of Louisburg after a seven-week siege. 1759—the French relinquished Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the British under Gen. Jeffrey Amherst. 1775—a postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress of the UN and Benjamin Franklin became America's first Postmaster-General. 1788—New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. 1790—an attempt at a counter-revolution in France was put down by the National Guard at Lyons. 1794—the French defeated an Austrian army at the battle of Fleurus, France. 1830—King Charles X of France issued five ordinances limiting the political and civil rights of citizens. 1847—the western African country of Liberia, founded by freed American slaves, declared its independence. 1848—the French army suppressed the Paris uprising. 1859—the first intercollegiate regatta began in Worcester, MA. Harvard University defeated both Yale and Brown on Lake Quinsigamond. 1861—George McClellan assumed command of the Army of the Potomac. 1863—in Ohio, Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his men surrendered at the end of his fourth raid into Union-held territory. 1863—Sam Houston, 1st & 3rd Pres. of the Republic of Texas (1836-38, 1841-44), US Senator (1846-59), 7th Gov. of Texas (1859-61) & soldier who opposed the state’s secession from the Union, died 1863 at age 70 of pneumonia at home at Steamboat House in Huntsville, Tex. 1881—Thomas Edison and Patrick Kenny executed a patent application for a facsimile telegraph (U.S. Pat. 479,184). 1882—the Richard Wagner opera Parsifal premiered in Bayreuth, Germany. 1886—William Gladstone was replaced by Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister of England. 1888—Rimsky-Korsakov finished composing Scheherazade, a four movement tone poem that could be called a symphony, and it's almost a violin concerto since the concertmaster has a great deal to do by himself, but most people just think of it as a very lovely work. 1893—commercial production of the Addressograph started in Chicago, Ill
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 26, 2011 20:28:15 GMT -5
1907—the Chester was launched. It was the first turbine-propelled ship. 1908—US Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte ordered creation of a force of special agents that was a forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 1918—Britain’s top war ace, Edward Mannock, was shot down by ground fire on the Western Front. 1920—the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote. 1926—the sanctuary of Our Lady of Victory, in Lackawanna, NY, became the first Roman Catholic church in the U.S. to be consecrated a basilica. 1941—Pres. Roosevelt seized all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China. 1945—Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labor Party, and was succeeded by Clement Attlee. 1947—Pres. Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the National Military Establishment (later renamed the Department of Defense), the National Security Council, the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 1948—Pres. Truman signed executive orders prohibiting discrimination in the US armed forces and federal employment. 1948—Babe Ruth was seen by the public for the last time, when he attended the New York City premiere of the motion picture, The Babe Ruth Story. 1952—Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 1952—Eva Perón [aka Maria Eva Duarte de Perón], 2nd wife of Juan Perón, Argentina’s first lady (1946-52), Head of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (1946-52), Head of the Ministry of Health (1946-52), died at age 33 of metastatic cancer in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1952—King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. 1953—Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. Castro eventually ousted Batista six years later. 1956—Egyptian Pres. Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. 1964—Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and six others were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the handling of a union pension fund. 1968—John Lennon and Paul McCartney completed their song “Hey Jude”. 1971—Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy on America's fourth manned mission to the moon. 1971—Diane Arbus, b/w photographer of “deviant and marginal people,” committed suicide at age 48 by overdosing on barbiturates and slashing her wrists with a razor at Westbeth Artists Community in New York City. 1975— Van McCoy and The Soul City Symphony reached the top spot on the Billboard record chart for the first, and only time. The disco hit "The Hustle" became the top record in the U.S. 1984—Prince’s movie Purple Rain premiered in Hollywood, Calif. 1985—the UN Security Council approved a resolution condemning South Africa's declaration of a state of emergency and calling for limited, voluntary sanctions against the Pretoria government. 1986—kidnappers in Lebanon released the Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco, an American hostage held for nearly 19 months. 1986—[William] W. Averell Harriman, 45th Gov. of New York (D, 1955-58), Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1943-46), 11th Secretary of Commerce (1946-48), businessman (Vice Pres. Union Pacific Railroad, senior partner Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.) & son of railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman, died at age 94 in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. 1988—UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar met twice with Iran's foreign minister in the first formal round of talks aimed at achieving a cease-fire in the eight-year-old war between Iran and Iraq. 1989—Mark Wellman, a 29-year-old paraplegic, reached the summit of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park after hauling himself up the granite cliff six inches at a time over nine days. 1990—Pres. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. 1990—the US House of Representatives reprimanded Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., for ethics violations. 1990—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a young woman – later identified as Kimberly Bergalis of Florida – had been infected with the AIDS virus, apparently by her dentist. 1991—Secretary of State James Baker became the first Western diplomat to address the Mongolian parliament. 1992—Miguel Indurain of Spain won cycling's Tour de France for the second year a row. 1993—Matthew B. Ridgway, US Army general who replaced MacArthur in Korea, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Army Chief of Staff, died at age 98 of cardiac arrest at his suburban Pittsburgh home in Fox Chapel, Pa. 1994—a car bomb heavily damaged the Israeli embassy in London, injuring 14; hours later, a second bomb exploded outside a building housing Jewish organizations in north London. 1996—Amy Van Dyken became the first American woman to win four gold medals at a single Olympics as she captured the 50-meter freestyle in Atlanta, Ga. 1998—AT&T and British Telecommunications PLC announced they were forming a joint venture to combine international operations and develop a new Internet system. 1999—1,500 pieces of Marilyn Monroe's personal items went on display at Christie's in New York, NY. (The items went on sale later in 1999.) 1999—Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, announced a second Washington-Moscow hot line would be installed to help avoid misunderstandings like those that had developed over Kosovo.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 26, 2011 20:32:46 GMT -5
2000—US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel in San Francisco approved a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and more than a half million plaintiffs who alleged the banks had hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims. 2000—a US federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against Napster, Inc. The injunction had been requested by the Recording Industry of Association of America (RIAA). The website was ordered to cease trade in music covered by RIAA member copyrights by midnight July 28, 2000. 2000—Oasis stormed off stage after being hit with bottles, can and coins at a Swiss music festival. 2001—China granted parole to two US-based scholars convicted of spying for Taiwan. 2006—in a dramatic turnaround from her first murder trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Houston jury in the bathtub drowning of her five children; she was committed to a state mental hospital. 2006—a thinner but combative Saddam Hussein returned to his trial for the first time since his hunger strike and hospitalization. 2007—NASA announced that a worker had tried to sabotage the International Space Station. 2008—two nuclear leaks in two weeks triggered security and safety reviews in France. 2009—Alberto Contador won his 2nd Tour de France and Mark Cavendish won six sprint stages. 2010—Matt Garza pitched the first no-hitter in Tampa Bay Rays history, beating the Detroit Tigers 5-0. 2010—a UN-backed tribunal sentenced the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer to 35 years for overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people in Cambodia. (The court shaved off 16 of the 35 years for time already served.) 2010—a Spanish man who'd undergone the world's first full face transplant appeared before TV cameras; the 31-year-old, identified only as "Oscar," thanked his doctors and the family of the donor.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 27, 2011 8:04:20 GMT -5
FLIGHT ENDURANCE DAYt0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS50TKwU2gzkGtVtrN4bb1IrsL2vmKJFyeCuLLFlUDcguE4r2FQ6w [/img]On this day in 1909, Orville Wright (one of the famous Wright Brothers, along with Wilbur) set a record for the longest airplane flight. Not that there were many records available ... after all, it was the Wright Brothers who worked so hard at making plane flight practical in the first place! Orville was testing the Army’s first airplane and kept it aloft for 1 hour, 12 minutes and 40 seconds over Fort Myer, Virginia. He was so tired from the experience that the plane crash-landed. He and his passenger (Lt. Frank Lahm) were OK.
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Post by susala on Jul 27, 2011 9:30:31 GMT -5
Rock on, Orville! ;D
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 27, 2011 14:35:08 GMT -5
27 Julus.social.s-msn.com/s/images/emoticons/beer_mug.gif [/img]Good afternoon to my fellow history buffs from Tuxy and me. Today is 208th day of 2011 with 157 days left in the year us.social.s-msn.com/s/images/emoticons/49_49.gif [/img] Today in History: 1054—Seward of Northumbria & Malcolm defeated Macbeth of Scotland at Dunsinane. 1214—at the Battle of Bouvines in France, Philip Augustus of France defeated John of England. 1245—Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, was excommunicated and deposed by the first Council of Lyon (They also proclaimed the Seventh Crusade.) 1276—James I “the Conqueror”, King of Aragon (1213-1276), died 1276 at age 62 at Valencia 1563—the French regained Le Havre and the returning English soldiers brought home the plague. 1586—Sir Walter Raleigh returned to England from Virginia, bringing tobacco with him. 1656—the Jewish elders of Amsterdam excommunicated Spinoza. 1663—the British Parliament passed a second Navigation Act, which required all goods bound for the colonies be sent in British ships from British ports. 1689—government forces defeated the Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of Killiecrankie. 1694—the Bank of England received a royal charter as a commercial institution. 1775—Benjamin Rush began his service as the first Surgeon General of the Continental Army. 1777—the Marquis of Lafayette arrived in New England to help the rebellious American colonists fight the British. 1778—the British and French fleets fought to a standoff in the first Battle of Ushant. 1784— Courier De L’Amerique became the first French newspaper to be published in the US, printed in Philadelphia, Pa. for all the many Philadelphians who spoke French. 1789—Pres. Washington signed a measure establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs, forerunner of the Department of State. 1793—Robespierre became a member of the Committee of Public Safety. 1794—French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest; she was executed the following day. 1804—the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. With the amendment Electors were directed to vote for a President and for a Vice-President rather than for two choices for President. 1861—Union Maj. Gen. McClellan took command of the Army of the Potomac from Gen. Irwin McDowell at Pres. Lincoln’s orders. (McClellan later became general-in-chief of the Union Army as well, but ended up being relieved of his commands by Pres. Lincoln, who was dissatisfied with his performance.) 1866—after two failures, Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe (a previous cable in 1858 burned out after only a few weeks' use). 1909—during the first official test of the US Army's first airplane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Va., for one hour and 12 minutes. 1914—British troops invaded the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and began to disarm Irish rebels. 1918—the Socony 200 was launched, the first concrete barge and was used to carry oil. 1921—Canadian researcher Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, succeeded in isolating the hormone insulin at the University of Toronto. 1940—Bugs Bunny made his "official" debut in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon A Wild Hare. 1942—Peggy Lee recorded her first hit record, “Why Don’t You Do Right” with the Benny Goodman band for Columbia Records. 1944—US troops completed the liberation of Guam. 1950—during a match in Chicago, Ill, professional wrestler Gorgeous George completely missed a flying tackle on Lou Thesem. George took off like a rocket, flew right out of the ring and landed on top of a newspaper reporter’s typewriter. 1953—the Korean War armistice was signed by representatives of the UN, North and South Korea (represented by the US) and China at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting. 1960—Vice Pres. Nixon was nominated for president on the first ballot at the Republican national convention in Chicago. 1964—Pres. Johnson sent an additional 5,000 advisers to South Vietnam. 1965—in the US, the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act was signed into law. The law required health warnings on all cigarette packages. 1967—in the wake of urban rioting, Pres. Johnson appointed the Kerner Commission to assess the causes of urban rioting, the same day black militant H. Rap Brown said in Washington that violence was "as American as cherry pie.” 1973—Secretariat broke two records while practicing at Saratoga Springs, NY. The legendary horse covered a mile in a speedy 1 minute, 34 seconds and ran a 1-1/8 mile distance in 1 minute, 47-4/5 seconds. 1974—the US House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against Pres. Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case. 1974—NBC-TV removed Dinah’s Place from its daytime programming roster. The move brought Dinah Shore’s 23-year association with the Peacock Network to a close. 1976—John Lennon finally had his request for permanent residency in the US approved. Lennon’s immigration card number was A-17-597-321. The decision to allow Lennon to stay in the country ended a long struggle between the former Beatle and the U.S. Government. 1979—Alice Cooper's Indian art store in Scottsdale, Arizona was hit by a firebomb. 1980—the deposed Shah of Iran, Muhammad Riza Pahlavi, died at age 60 of cancer in a hospital in Cairo, Egypt. 1981—6-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted from a department store in Hollywood, Fla., and was later murdered. (His father, John Walsh, became a well-known crime victims' advocate.) 1981—William Wyler, 3-time Oscar movie director ( Mrs. Miniver [1943], The Best Years of Our Lives [1947], Ben-Hur [1960], Dodsworth, Jezebel, Wuthering Heights, The Heiress, Roman Holiday, The Big Country, How to Steal a Million, Funny Girl), 3-time Oscar-winning producer & screenwriter, died at age 79 of a heart attack in Los Angeles 1984—Pete Rose passed Ty Cobb’s record for most singles in a career when he got his 3,503rd base hit. The baseball great was playing for the Montreal Expos at the time and led them to a win over one of his former teams, the Philadelphia Phillies. 1987—Freeway shooting incidents were the talk of Los Angeles with nine incidents since June 18th. Two motorists were actually shot to death and four others were injured. Police psychologists blamed “self-centered attitudes, violence in films and even the breakdown of family...” for the ‘road rage’. Authorities recommended that drivers avoid confrontation. In other words, don’t honk your horn, flash your headlights or wave your middle finger at that S.O.B.! It could be fatal. 1992—Reggie Lewis, Boston Celtics star, died at age 27 after collapsing on a Brandeis University basketball court during practice. 1993—Israeli and aircraft pound southern Lebanon in reprisal for rocket attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas. 1995—the Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C. by Pres. Clinton and South Korean Pres. Kim Young-sam. A plaque at the flagstaff reads, “Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered a call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met.” 1996—a pipe bomb exploded at the public Centennial Olympic Park during the games in Atlanta, Ga., killing one person and injuring more than 100. Eric Robert Rudolph, who eluded police until his capture 31 May 2003, pleaded guilty to the bombing on 13 April 2005. 1999—the US space shuttle Discovery completed a five-day mission commanded by Air Force Col. Eileen Collins, the first shuttle mission to be commanded by a woman. 2001—a judge in West Palm Beach, Fla., sentenced 14-year-old Nathaniel Brazill to 28 years in prison for second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of teacher Barry Grunow at Lake Worth Middle School. 2001—the ribbon cutting ceremony was held for American Airlines Center in Dallas, Tex. The event set two new world records, one for the 3 mile long ribbon and one for the 2,000 people that cut it. 2003—Lance Armstrong won a record-tying 5th straight Tour de France. 2003—Bob Hope, English-born stand-up comedian & actor ( Road series, Paleface),died at age 100 at home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles. He was famous for his work with the USO entering American military personnel, especially overseas, in 199 known shows. 2003—it was reported by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) that there was no monster in Loch Ness. The investigation used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to trawl the loch. Reports of sightings of the "Loch Ness Monster" began in the 6th century. 2004—Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia rescinded his resignation after a 10-day political standoff with Yasser Arafat. Qureia had resigned earlier in the month after Arafat refused to let him restructure the security forces and deal with the growing unrest in the Palestinian areas. 2005—Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian who'd plotted to bomb the Los Angeles airport on the eve of the millennium, was sentenced to 22 years in prison 2006—Floyd Landis' stunning Tour de France victory just four days earlier was thrown into doubt when he tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race. (Landis was stripped of his title for doping.) 2007—UN aid convoys faced increasing attacks in Darfur. 2008—the European Union kept its ban on Indonesian airlines amid accusations of political motivation. 2009—heavy rainfall created huge traffic jams across Delhi, India. 2010—BP announced that its much-criticized chief executive, Tony Hayward, would be replaced by Robert Dudley as the company reported a record quarterly loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover the costs of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. 2010—twin car bomb killed 20 in Iraq. 2010—Seychelles sentenced Somali pirates to ten years in prison.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 27, 2011 22:38:09 GMT -5
Today’s Birthdays: 1922—Norman Lear, Emmy-winning TV producer ( All in the Family [1970-1971, 1971-1972, 1972-1973], Maude, Good Times, Sanford & Son, Powers that Be, The Nancy Walker Show, The Jeffersons, Hot L Baltimore, Fernwood 2-Night) 1931—Jerry Van Dyke, comic actor ( The Headmaster, Accidental Family; TVs: Coach, My Mother the Car, The Judy Garland Show) & younger brother of Dick Van Dyke 1938—Michael Longley, Northern Irish poet ( Gorse Fires, The Weather in Japan) & educator 1939—Irvin Acie “Irv” Cross, sportscaster (CBS Sports, Fox), NCAA athletic director (Idaho State, Macalester College) & former NFL cornerback 1939—James Victor, actor ( Stand and Deliver, Fuzz, Zorro, Viva Valdez, Condo) 1940—Bharati Mukherjee, Indian-born author ( The Tiger’s Daughter, The Holder of the World, The Tree Bride, The Middleman and Other Stories, w/ Clark Blaise Days and Nights in Calcutta, & The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy) & professor of English at UC Berkeley. 1942—Barbara Gilliam Ferris, English actress ( Catch Us If You Can, A Pair of Briefs, A Nice Girl like Me, A Chorus of Disapproval, Children of the Damned, TV: The Strauss Family, stage: Saved, There’s a Girl in My Soup, Season’s Greetings) 1942—John Pleshette, actor ( Doctors’ Hospital, Eye of the Stranger, Lies of the Twins, Burning Rage; TV: Knots Landing, The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald) & brother of actress Suzanne Pleshette 1944—Bobbie Gentry [aka Roberta Lee Streeter], 1967 Grammy-winning country singer (“Ode to Billy Joe”, “All I Have to Do is Dream” [w/Glen Campbell], “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”) 1948—Betty Thomas, 2-time Emmy-winning director ( For Peter’s Sake [1992-1993], Dream On [1992-1993]) & Emmy-winning actress ( The Seventh Sign, When Your Lover Leaves, Troop Beverly Hills; TV: Hill Street Blues [1984-1985]) 1948—Peggy Fleming, International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame 1968 Olympic gold medal figure skater, Ice Follies, Holiday on Ice & sports commentator for ABC sports 1949—Maureen Therese McGovern, singer (“Different Worlds”, “The Morning After”) & actress ( The Pirates of Penzance, Little Women; Off: Brownstone) 1950—Michael Vaughn, English guitarist (Paper Lace) 1952—Roxanne Hart, actress ( Highlander, The Verdict, Once Around, The Good Girl, TV: Chicago Hope, Medium; stage: Passion) 1956—Duncan Cameron, country guitarist (Sawyer Brown) 1956—Carol Leifer, stand-up comedian, actress (TV: Celebrity Apprentice), scriptwriter ( The Larry Sanders Show, SNL, Seinfeld), producer (TV: Rules of Engagement) 1957—[William Ray] Bill Engvall, comedian ( Blue Collar Comedy group) & actor 1962—Karrin Allyson [Schoonover], jazz singer (LP: Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane, Footprints, Imagina: Songs of Brasil) 1963—Donnie Yen, martial artist actor ( Once Upon a Time in China II, The Iron Monkey, Iron Monkey 2, Asian Cops - High Voltage, City of Darkness, Highlander: Endgame, Fist of Fury: The Sequel) 1964—Rex (Robert) Brown, heavy metal bassist (Pantera [1982-2003], Down [2002-11]. Kill Devil Hill [2011]) 1967—Stacy Dean Campbell, country singer-songwriter (“Rosalee”, “Baby Don’t You Know”, “Poor Man’s Rose”, “Honey I Do”), author ( Cottonwood), record producer (Gravel Road Productions) & TV host 1967—Juliana Hatfield, rock singer, songwriter & guitarist (Blake Babies, Some Girls) 1968—Julian McMahon, Australian actor ( Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer; TV: Nip/Tuck, Charmed) & former fashion model 1972—Maya Khabira Rudolph, comedian (TV: SNL) & actress ( City of Angels, Away We Go, Bridesmaids) & daughter of R&B/soul singer Minnie Riperton 1973—Abe Cunningham, alternative metal rock drummer (Deftones) 1974—[Peter Joseph] Pete Yorn, singer-songwriter & guitarist (LP: Musicforthemorningafter) 1975—Alex Rodriguez, MLB All-Star 3rd baseman/shortstop (Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, NY Yankees) 1976—Seamus Patrick Dever, actor ( Outside the Law, Monkey Love, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix, Deep Cover, Drop Dead Diva) & lifetime member of The Actor’s Studio 1977—Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Irish actor ( Velvet Goldmine, Match Point; TV: The Tudors [Henry VIII], Elvis) & model 1990—Cheyenne Nichole Kimball, country singer (“Hanging On”), songwriter & guitarist (Gloriana [2008-11])
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 28, 2011 8:51:25 GMT -5
SH-BOOM DAY On this day in 1954, The Crew Cuts reached the top spot of the Billboard pop singles chart with "Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)". It became the fastest-moving record to hit the music charts, making it to the top ten in only three weeks. The tune stayed atop the pop music listing for seven weeks. Many people consider this song (a cover version of a r&b recording by The Chords) to be the first rock ’n’ roll record. It wasn’t the first. Rock and roll had made it to the music scene long before this. In fact, The Boswell Sisters recorded a song titled, Rock and Roll in 1934. However, "Sh-Boom" was the first rock ’n’ roll record to make it to the top of the pop charts. (The Chords’ version became the first rock-related hit in Great Britain.) Purists consider "Rock Around the Clock" to be the first, true #1 rock ’n’ roll hit. However, it didn’t hit the top of the charts until one year after The Crew Cuts’ "Sh-Boom". Our lines are open. Call in your votes now.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 28, 2011 22:28:26 GMT -5
28 Jul Good evening to my fellow history buffs from Tuxy and me. Today is 209th day of 2011 with 156 days left in the year Today in History: 450—Theodosius II [aka Flavius Theodosius Augustus], Emperor of the East (408-50), died at age 49 as a result of a riding accident. 1148—the Crusaders outside of the city of Damascus retreated, ending the 2nd Crusade. 1540—Henry VIII’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed, the same day Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard. 1565—Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, ordered her heralds to publish that her husband, Lord Darnley, was to be ‘named and styled King”. 1576—Frobisher’s expedition reached Labrador. 1586—Sir Thomas Harriot introduced potatoes to Europe 1588—English fireships burned the Spanish Armada. 1609—the English ship Sea Venture, commanded by Adm. Sir George Somers, ran ashore on Bermuda, where the passengers and crew founded a colony. 1615—French explorer Samuel de Champlain discovered Lake Huron on his 7th voyage to the New World. 1637—a riot in St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland occurred in protest against the use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. 1750—Johann Sebastian Bach, German Baroque composer ( Brandenburg Concertos, Goldberg Variations, the Partitas, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Mass in B minor, St Matthew Passion, St John Passion, The Art of Fugue, the English and French Suites, Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, Cello Suites, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, Organ Mass), organist, harpsichordist, violist & violinist, died at age 65 possibly of a stroke complicated by pneumonia after an unsuccessful eye operation in Leipzig, Germany 1794—Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine. 1808—Sultan Mustapha of the Ottoman Empire was deposed and his cousin Mahmud II gained the throne. 1821—Peru declared its independence from Spain. 1835—Louis Philippe, King of France (1830-48), survived an assassination attempt. 1863—Confederate John Mosby began a series of attacks against Gen. Meade's Army of the Potomac. 1864—Battle of Ezra Church: Confederates under Gen. John Bell Hood made a third attempt to break Gen. Sherman's hold on Atlanta. The attack failed and destroyed the Confederate Army of Tennessee's offensive capabilities. 1865—the American Dental Association proposed its first code of ethics. 1866—the metric system was legalized by the US Congress for the standardization of weights and measures throughout the United States and we still don’t have it figured out. How many yards in a meter or quarts in a liter? 1868—the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing due process and the equal protection of the laws to former slaves, was declared in effect. 1896—the city of Miami, Fla., was incorporated. The city had a population of 260 but today, the Miami area boasts a population of more than 2,000,000. 1898—Spain, through the offices of the French embassy in Washington, D.C., requested peace terms in its war with the US. 1900—the hamburger was created by Louis Lassing in Connecticut. 1914—World War I began as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia with declarations of war by other European nations following. 1920—Pancho Villa surrendered to the Mexican government. 1932—federal troops forcibly dispersed the so-called "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington to demand money they weren't scheduled to receive until 1945. 1933—the very first singing telegram was sent to Rudy Vallee on his 32nd birthday. 1939—Judy Garland recorded “Over the Rainbow” with the Victor Young Orchestra for Decca Records. 1941—plans for the Pentagon were approved by the US House of Representatives. 1941— Japanese army landed on the coast of Cochin, China (modern day Vietnam). 1942—L.A. Thatcher received a patent for a coin-operated mailbox. The device stamped envelopes when money was inserted. 1943—Pres. Roosevelt announced the end of coffee rationing, which had limited people to one pound of coffee every five weeks since it began in Nov. 1942. 1943—Great Britain bombed Hamburg, killing 42,000 German citizens. In just 43 minutes, 2,326 tons of bombs were dropped. 1945—a US Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York's Empire State Building, killing 14 people. 1945—the US Senate ratified the UN Charter by a vote of 89-2. 1946—a US Army bomber crashed into the 79th floor of New York City's Empire State Building, killing 14 people. 1951—the Walt Disney film Alice in Wonderland was released by RKO Pictures. 1965—Pres. Johnson announced he was increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000 “almost immediately.” 1976—an earthquake devastated northern China, killing at least 242,000 people, according to an official estimate. 1977—Roy Wilkins turned over leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to Benjamin L. Hooks. 1981—Pres. Reagan met with the survivors of the World War II escort carrier USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73). 1982—San Francisco, Calif., became the first city in the US to ban handguns. 1984—the 23rd Summer Olympic Games opened at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Southern California. Peter V. Uberroth, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, welcomed 7,800 athletes from 140 nations during the 3-1/2 hour opening ceremonies. 1985—Hoyt Wilhelm was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, the first relief pitcher to be voted into the Hall of Fame. 1986—NASA released a transcript of a recording from the doomed space shuttle Challenger in which pilot Michael J. Smith could be heard saying, ''Uh-oh!'' as the spacecraft disintegrated. 1987—the Beatles sued Nike and Capitol Records over the use of their song "Revolution" in shoe commercials. 1988—both houses of Congress overwhelmingly approved some $6 billion in aid for drought-stricken farmers. 1989—Israeli commandos abducted a pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim cleric, Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid from his home in south Lebanon. 1990—the collision of a freighter and two barges spilled 500,000 gallons of oil in the Houston Ship Channel near Galveston, Tex. 1990—political newcomer and upset winner Alberto Fujimori was sworn in as president of Peru. 1991—Dennis Martinez (Montreal Expos) pitched the 15th perfect game in major league baseball history, beating the LA Dodgers 2-0. 1993—Pres. Clinton declared himself ready to provide air power quickly to protect peacekeepers in Bosnia once he received a request from the UN. 1994—Congressional negotiators agreed on a crime-fighting package that included hiring 100,000 new police officers, banning assault-style weapons, vastly expanding the death penalty and putting third-time felons behind bars for life. 1994—Kenny Rogers (Texas Rangers) pitched the 14th perfect game in major league baseball history, beating the California Angelts 4-0. Ten years earlier (9-30-84), the same two teams were playing when the 11th perfect game was hurled. The pitcher was Mike Witt and the winning team was reversed. 1995—Jimi Hendrix' father James Al Hendrix won back the rights to his son's name, likeness, image and music after a number of companies had profited from them over the years. 1998—Bell Atlantic and GTE announced a $52.88 billion stock-swap deal that created Verizon, the 2nd largest phone company behind AT&T. The meg- corporation would begin with 63 million local telephone lines in 38 states and revenue of $53 billion. 1998—Serbian military forces seized the Kosovo town of Malisvo. 2000—Kathie Lee Gifford made her final appearance as co-host of the ABC talk show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. 2000—Peru’s Pres. Alberto Fujimori was sworn in for an unprecedented third term of office, infuriating demonstrators who set government buildings ablaze. 2001—Alejandro Toledo, Peru's first freely elected president of Indian descent, was sworn into office. 2002—nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset, Pa., were rescued after 77 hours underground. 2003—a tape reported to be former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was heard, calling his sons, Odai and Qusai, martyrs. 2003—Israel’s parliament passed a measure that would force Palestinians who marry Israelis to live separate lives or move out of Israel. The government said that the law was necessary to prevent terror attacks. The law was to only be in effect for one year. 2003—the UN Security Council extended the peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon for six months. The council also expressed concern about the violations of the UN-drawn division (the so called "Blue Line.") between Israel and Lebanon. 2004—the Democratic National Convention in Boston nominated Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for president. 2004—in Baqouba, Iraq, a car bomb exploded outside a police recruiting center killing at least 68 people. 2005—the Irish Republican Army renounced the use of violence against British rule in Northern Ireland and said it would disarm. 2006—actor-director Mel Gibson went into an anti-Semitic tirade as he was being arrested on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., for suspicion of driving while drunk; Gibson later apologized and was sentenced to probation and alcohol treatment. 2006—a gunman who witnesses said identified himself as a Muslim American walked into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and opened fire, killing one woman and wounding five others before he was arrested. (Naveed Haq was later convicted of aggravated first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of release.) 2006—researchers announced that two ancient reptiles had been found off Australia. The Umoonasaurus and Opallionectes were the first of their kind to be found in the period soon after the Jurassic era. 2006—former Peruvian Pres. Alan Garcia was inaugurated for a second term, 16 years after leaving office. 2009—the US Senate Judiciary Committee approved Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court 2010—a federal judge put most of Arizona's toughest-in-the-nation immigration law on hold just hours before it was to take effect. 2010—a Pakistani Airbus crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad, killing all 152 people aboard.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 29, 2011 12:15:36 GMT -5
JACK PAAR DAY The Tonight Show began simply as Tonight hosted by Steve Allen in 1954. Then it changed titles to Tonight! America after Dark. On this night in 1957, Jack Paar began a successful five-year run as host of the Tonight show on NBC-TV, changing its name to The Jack Paar Tonight Show. Jack Paar came to NBC from the competition over at CBS where he had been a game and talk-show host. Paar’s forte was interviewing. He would get so involved with his guests and their stories that he would not only laugh with them, but would sometimes, even cry. Paar’s emotional outbursts, whether they involved an interviewee, a personal crusade or a feud with the likes of Ed Sullivan or Dorothy Kilgallen, became the major attraction of the show. Jose Melis and his orchestra stayed with Paar through the years as did his sidekick and announcer, Hugh Downs. Those of us who stayed up night after night got used to being entertained by regulars such as Dody Goodman, Cliff Arquette, Pat Harrington, Hans Conried, Joey Bishop and Florence Henderson. The very first show had as guests Alexander King, singer Robert Merrill, and funnyman Buddy Hackett. King and Hackett became regulars over the years just as Jack Paar became a regular in our bedrooms every weekday night until March 30, 1962.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 30, 2011 0:56:58 GMT -5
29 Julus.social.s-msn.com/s/images/emoticons/martini.gif [/img]Good evening to my fellow history buffs from Tuxy and me. Today is 210th day of 2011 with 155 days left in the year Today in History: 1014—Byzantine Emperor Basil II captures and blinded a Bulgarian army in the Pass of Kleidion. 1030—Olsok Eve in Norway commemorating Viking king St. Olav Haraldsson, patron saint of Norway, who fell in battle at Stiklestad near Trondheim, Norway on this date. His wholehearted (and often harsh) support for Christianity in that country was decisive in establishing the religion there. 1567—Mary, Queen of Scots’ one-year-old son was crowned James VI , King of Scots. 1588—the English attacked the Spanish Armada in the English Channel in the Battle of Gravelines, resulting in an English victory. 1602—the Duke of Biron was executed in Paris for conspiring with Spain and Savoy against King Henry IV of France. 1603—Bartholomew Gilbert was killed in Virginia by Indians, during a search for the missing Roanoke colonists. 1645—Matthew Hopkins, "Witch-finder General," charged 29 persons for witchcraft; all were condemned. 1693—the Army of the Grand Alliance was destroyed by the French at the Battle of Neerwinden. 1754—the first international boxing match was held and the 25-minute match was won when Jack Slack of Britain knocked out Jean Petit from France. 1773—the first schoolhouse to be located west of the Allegheny Mountains was built in Schoenbrunn, Ohio. 1786— The Pittsburgh Gazette became the first newspaper west of the Alleghenies to be published, later changed to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 1830—Liberals led by the Marquis of Lafayette seized Paris in opposition to the king's restrictions on citizens' rights. 1833—English abolitionist William Wilberforce died a mere three days after England abolished slavery. 1835—the first sugar plantation was established in Hawaii. 1848—a rebellion against British rule was put down in Tipperary, Ireland. 1858—Japan signed a treaty of commerce and friendship with the United States. 1862—Confederates were routed by Union guerrillas at Moore's Mill, Missouri. 1862—Confederate spy Marie Isabella "Belle" Boyd was arrested by Union troops and taken to Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC. She was arrested two more times before the war ended. 1874—Maj. Walter Copton Winfield of England received US patent for the lawn-tennis court. 1874—Rain Day, Waynesburg, Pa: it has rained 113 out of 136 years (as of 2011) on this date. An unknown farmer made a casual remark to William Allison, Waynesburg pharmacist, that it always seemed to rain on July 29th, leading Allison to begin to keep an annual record of the rainfall on this date. In 2011 they will celebrate the 136th observance of Rain Day, including rain today. 1875—peasants in Bosnia and Herzegovina rebel against the Ottoman army. 1890—Vincent van Gogh, Dutch artist, died at age 37 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. 1914—transcontinental telephone service in the US began with the first test phone conversation between New York and San Francisco. 1915—US Marines landed at Port-au-Prince to protect American interests in Haiti. 1920—the transcontinental airmail flight from New York to San Francisco was completed. 1921—Adolf Hitler became president (the "fuehrer") of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis). 1931—Helen Wills Moody, champion tennis player, mentioned that she favored short skirts and no stockings when she played tennis. However, she said that shorts would never be popular with top women tennis players and, by gosh, she was right. 1945—the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine near Leyte Gulf. The ship had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian. Of the 1,196 onboard, 883 men were killed in the attack. 1948—Britain’s King George VI opened the Olympic Games in London. 1950—Walt Disney’s adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island was released by RKO pictures.. 1957—Jack Paar made his debut as host of NBC's Tonight Show. 1957—the International Atomic Energy Agency was established. 1958—Pres. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating NASA. 1965—the 101st Airborne Division paratroopers landed at Cam Ranh Bay in South Vietnam. 1965—The Queen of the UK attended the première of The Beatles film Help! in a command performance at the London Pavilion. It later earned 1st prize at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival. 1967—an accidental rocket launch aboard the supercarrier USS F orrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin resulted in a fire and explosions that killed 134 servicemen. 1968—Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's stance against artificial methods of birth control. 1974—Jim Hartz was named to join Barbara Walters as co-host of the Today show on NBC. Others who have hosted the show which has aired since 1952 include Dave Garroway, John Chancellor, Hugh Downs, Frank McGee, Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. 1975—Pres. Ford became the first US president to visit the site of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland, paying tribute to the victims. 1975—OAS (Organization of American States) members voted to lift collective sanctions against Cuba. The US government welcomed the action and announced its intention to open serious discussions with Cuba on normalization. 1980—David Bowie opened on stage in the title role of Elephant Man. 1980—a state funeral was held in Cairo, Egypt, for the deposed Shah of Iran, who had died two days earlier at age 80. 1981—Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul's Cathedral in London before 2,500 guests, while millions watched the pomp and splendor of the royal wedding around the world. (The couple divorced in 1996.) 1983—Steve Garvey of the San Diego Padres was injured in the first game of a doubleheader with the Atlanta Braves. Because he was unable to play in the second game, his National League consecutive game record ended at 1,207. 1983—David Niven, Oscar-winning English actor ( Separate Tables [1958], The Bishop’s Wife, The Moon is Blue, Around the World in 80 Days, The Pink Panther, Death on the Nile; TV: Four Star Playhouse) & novelist ( Go Slowly, Come Back Quickly), died at age 73 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at has chalet at Chateau d’Oex, Switzerland.. 1983—Raymond Hart Massey, Canadian-born actor ( The Speckled Band, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Arsenic and Old Lace, Possessed, The Fountainhead; TV: Dr. Kildare, The Day Lincoln Was Shot; stage: solo reading Stephen Vincent Benet’s John Brown’s Body) & director (stage: The Silver Tassie), died at age 86 of pneumonia in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was the younger brother of the first Canadian-born Governor Gen. of Canada, Vincent Massey 1983—Luis Buñuel [Portolés], Spanish-born Mexican filmmaker ( L'Âge d'Or, Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan, El Gran Calavera, Los Olvidados, Nazarin, The Exterminating , Simon of the Desert, Diary of a Chambermaid, That Obscure Object of Desire) & writer (autobiography: My Last Sigh), died at age 83 in Mexico City, Mexico 1985—General Motors announced that Spring Hill, Tenn., would be the home of the Saturn automobile assembly plant. 1985—the space shuttle Challenger began an 8-day mission that got off to a shaky start — the spacecraft achieved a safe orbit even though one of its main engines shut down prematurely after lift-off. 1986—a federal jury in New York found that the NFL had committed an antitrust violation against the rival United States Football League. But in a hollow victory for the USFL, the jury ordered the NFL to pay $3. 1990—Bruno Kreisky, Austria's longest-serving chancellor (1970-83), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1959-66) and an architect of its policy of neutrality, died at age 79 of heart disease at Lainz Hospital in Vienna, Austria.. 1991—the Federal Reserve sought a $200 million penalty against BCCI for violating U.S. banking laws. It was the largest fine in the Federal Reserve's history. 1991—Pres. Bush arrived in Moscow for a superpower summit with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev that included the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. 1992—former East German leader Erich Honecker was arrested on his return to his homeland and charged with manslaughter. He was later permitted to leave after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. 1993—the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. 1993—the Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible" and threw out his death sentence. 1994—anti-abortion fanatic Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Bayard Britton and Britton's bodyguard, James H. Barrett, outside the Ladies Center clinic in Pensacola, Fla. (Hill was later convicted and sentenced to death.) 1994—Pres. Clinton ordered U.S. troops to Rwanda's capital to provide airport security for relief flights. 1994—US Supreme Court nominee Stephen G. Breyer won US Senate approval. 1995—Pres. Clinton and Republicans marked the 30th anniversary of Medicare by accusing one another of putting the program's future at risk. 1996—Carl Lewis won his 9th Olympic gold medal by winning the long jump competition, tying swimmer Mark Spitz for most gold medals by an American athlete, only the second athlete (the other was discus thrower Al Oerter) to win the same track event in four straight Olympics. 1996—China detonated a nuclear test explosion that it promised would be its last, just hours before international negotiators in Geneva began discussing a global ban on such testing. 1997—members of Congress from both parties embraced compromise legislation designed to balance the budget while cutting taxes. 1997—Minamata Bay in Japan, once a worldwide symbol of industrial pollution, was declared free of mercury 40 years after contaminated food fish were blamed for deaths and birth defects. 1998—the United Auto Workers union ended a 54-day strike against General Motors. The strike cost $2.8 billion in lost revenues. 1998—Jerome Robbins [ala Jerome Rabinowitz], 5-time Tony-winning theater producer, director & choreographer ( High Button Shoes [1947 choreography], West Side Story [1957 choreography], Fiddler on the Roof [1964 director & choreographer], revue Jerome Robbins' Broadway [1989 director]. On the Town, The King and I, The Pajama Game, Bells Are Ringing, Gypsy), ballet master of the New York City Ballet (Leonard Bernstein’s Fancy Free, Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun, Georges Auri’s 3 x 3, Robert Prince’s New York Export: Opus Jazz) & 2-time Oscar-winning director ( West Side Story [1961]), died at age 79 of a massive stroke at his Manhattan apartment in New York City 1999—Mark O. Barton, a day trader, apparently upset over stock losses, opened fire in two Atlanta brokerage offices, killing nine people and wounding 13 before shooting himself to death. He had earlier bludgeoned his wife and two children to death. 2000—Yasser Arafat set off on a multi-country tour to drum up support for the Palestinians in the Middle East peace process. 2001—in a nonbinding referendum, residents of Vieques voted overwhelmingly for the US Navy to immediately stop bombing on the Puerto Rican island. 2001—Lance Armstrong won his third straight Tour de France, becoming the first American to do so. 2005—astronomers announced that they had discovered a new planet larger than Pluto in orbit around the sun. 2006—actor-director Mel Gibson issued a lengthy statement apologizing for his drunken-driving arrest and for what he called his "despicable" statements toward the deputies who'd arrested him in Malibu, Calif. 2006—the US command announced it was sending 3,700 troops to Baghdad to try to quell sectarian violence sweeping the Iraqi capital. 2008—US Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), was indicted on seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts he had received from a powerful oil contractor. (A judge later dismissed the case, saying prosecutors had withheld evidence.) 2008—US Army scientist Bruce Ivins committed suicide as prosecutors prepared to indict him in the 2001 anthrax attacks.) 2008—the International Olympic Committee lifted that ban on Iraqi athletes participating in the Beijing Olympics. 2008—Google’s search index hit one trillion page mark. 2009—Colombia’s relations with Venezuela deteriorated over the presence of Swedish rockets. 2010—Army Spc. Bradley Manning was flown from a detention facility in Kuwait to the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., to await trial on charges of giving military secrets to WikiLeaks. 2010—the US House rejected a bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center; Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., angrily denounced Republicans who'd voted against the measure, calling it "a shame, a shame." 2010—a House panel charged New York Democrat Charles Rangel with 13 counts of ethical misdeeds (He was later censured by the full House.) 2010—a study was released that claimed loneliness was as unhealthy as smoking and alcoholism. 2010—Tennessee Lt Governor suggested that Islam was a “cult.”
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 30, 2011 6:34:51 GMT -5
MEDICARE DAY
Flanked by his wife, Lady Bird Johnson; former President Harry Truman; former First-Lady Bess Truman; and Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law on this day in 1965. Truman and his wife were on hand as they were selected by President Johnson to be the first and second persons, respectively, to be enrolled in Medicare and the first recipients of the new Medicare cards. President Johnson (LBJ) said that Truman had “planted the seeds of compassion and duty” that led to the enactment of Medicare.
House Representative Cecil B. King (D-California) and Senator Clinton P. Anderson (D-New Mexico) were the two legislators who introduced the bill to Congress. The first bills of 1965, H.R. 1 and S. 1, were what eventually resulted in the Medicare program some six months later.
The program that provides health insurance to retired workers (65 and older) is funded by employers and employees paying into a national social security fund.
An outpatient prescription drug benefit was added with the Medicare Modernization Act, signed in 2003 by President George W. Bush, which left a donut hole that seniors could fall into if their prescription expenses went over a limit. President Barack Obama’s national health insurance plan started closing up this hole in 2010.
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 30, 2011 19:25:44 GMT -5
30 Jul Good evening to my fellow history buffs from Tuxy and me. Today is 211th day of 2011 with 154 days left in the year Today in History: 1419—Defenestration of Prague: Anti-Catholic Hussites, followers of executed reformer Jan Hus, stormed the town hall in Prague and threw Catholic councilors out of the windows, beginning the Hussite Wars. 1502—Christopher Columbus landed at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage. 1538—Newfoundland was discovered by Sir Humphrey Gilbert 1619—the first representative assembly in America (House of Burgesses) convened in Jamestown in the Virginia Colony. 1656—Charles X of Sweden defeated the Poles at the Battle of Warsaw, two days after invading the country. 1718—William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania as a colony for Quakers to experience religious liberty, died at age 73 of a stroke in Berkshire, England 1729—Baltimore was found in the Maryland colony. 1733—the first Society of Freemasons lodge opened in Boston, Mass. 1775—the US Army established its chaplaincy, making it the Army’s oldest division after the infantry. 1787—the French parliament refused to approve a more equitable land tax. 1792—the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first sung in Paris. 1799—the French garrison at Mantua, Italy, surrendered to the Austrians. 1864—Union forces tried to take Petersburg, Va., by exploding a gunpowder-filled mine under Confederate defense lines; the attack failed. 1898— Scientific American carried the first magazine automobile ad for the Winton Motor Car Company of Cleveland, Ohio. 1918—Joyce Kilmer, poet (“Trees”) & a sergeant in the 165th US Infantry Regiment, was killed during the 2nd Battle of the Marne. 1919—federal troops were called out to put down Chicago race riots. 1930—host Uruguay won soccer's first World Cup with a 4-2 victory over Argentina in the final in Montevideo. 1932—Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees premiered to become the first Oscar winning cartoon and first cartoon short to use Technicolor — the Olympic Games opened in Los Angeles at the Coliseum. 1935—the first Penguin book was published, starting the paperback revolution. The idea came from Sir Allen Lane who wanted to provide a "whole book for the price of 10 cigarettes." 1937—the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) was organized as a part of the American Federation of Labor, for all radio performers except musicians. It later became the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). 1938—George Eastman demonstrated his color motion picture process. 1940—a bombing lull ends the first phase of the Battle of Britain. 1942—Pres. Roosevelt signed a bill creating a women's auxiliary agency in the Navy known as "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service" — WAVES for short. 1945—the Portland class heavy cruiser USS I ndianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, only 316 out of some 1,200 men survived. 1956—Pres. Eisenhower signed a measure making "In God We Trust" the national motto, replacing "E Pluribus Unum" ("Out of many, one.) 1959—Willie “Stretch” McCovey began his Hall of Fame baseball career by going 4-for-4 (2 singles & 2 triples, 2 RBIs) against Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts of the Philadelphia Phillies. 1960—over 60,000 Buddhists marched in protest against the Diem government in South Vietnam. 1965—Pres. Johnson signed into law the Medicare & Medicaid bill, which went into effect the following year. 1967—Gen. William Westmoreland claimed that he was winning the war in Vietnam, but needed more men. 1971— Apollo 15 astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin landed on the moon. 1973—the 11-year battle for the victims of the drug Thalidomide ended with compensation payments. 1974—the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Pres. Nixon for blocking the Watergate investigation and for abuse of power. 1974—eleven women became the first ordained females in the Episcopal Church. 1975—former Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa disappeared, last seen coming out of a restaurant in Bloomingfield Hills in suburban Detroit; although presumed dead, his remains have never been found. 1975—representatives of 35 countries convened in Helsinki, Finland, for a conference on security and human rights that resulted in the "Helsinki Accords." 1980—Israel’s Knesset passed a law reaffirming all of Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state. 1983—Lynn Fontanne, one of Broadway’s premier English actresses and the widow of actor Alfred Lunt died at age 95 in Genesee Depot, Wis. 1985—Indiana’s Western Schools Corporation Superintendent James O. Smith said AIDS sufferer Ryan White was officially barred from school because the health risk for other children was too great. 1987—Indian troops arrived in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, to disarm the Tamil Tigers and enforce a peace pact. 1988—Jordan’s King Hussein dissolved his country's lower house of Parliament, half of whose 60 members were from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 1989—in Lebanon, the pro-Iranian group Organization for the Oppressed on Earth threatened to kill an American hostage, Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, unless Israel released Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid, a cleric seized by Israeli commandos. 1990—the first Saturn automobile rolled off the assembly line in Tennessee. 1990—British Conservative Party lawmaker Ian Gow was killed in a bombing claimed by the Irish Republican Army. 1990—George Steinbrenner, under investigation by Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent for making a $40,000 payment to a known gambler, agreed to be permanently barred from operation of the New York Yankees. 1991—a special UN commission to Iraq announced it had found 46,000 chemical shells and warheads and 3,000 tons of raw materials for weapons. 1992—a TWA Lockheed L-1011 caught fire during takeoff from New York's Kennedy International Airport; all 292 people aboard survived. 1993—Bosnia’s outgunned Muslim-led government abandoned its efforts to hold the region together, agreeing to a preliminary accord to divide the former Yugoslav republic into three ethnic states. 1995—Russian and Chechen rebels signed an agreement calling for a gradual withdrawal of Russian troops and the disarmament of rebel fighters. 1996—a federal law enforcement source said that security guard Richard Jewell had become the focus of the investigation into the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park. (Jewell was later cleared as a suspect.) 1996—Claudette Colbert, Oscar-winning French-born actress ( It Happened One Night [1934], Private Worlds, Since You Went Away, Cleopatra, Imitation of Live; TV: The Two Mrs. Grenvilles), died at age 92 of a series of strokes at home in Speightstown, Barbados. She received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1984. 1997—14 Israelis were killed in a double suicide bombing in a Jerusalem marketplace. The Islamist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the bombings. 1997—18 people, including two Americans, were killed in a landslide that swept one ski lodge onto another at the Thredbo Alpine Village in southeast Australia. 1998—a group of Ohio machine-shop workers (who call themselves the Lucky 13) won the $295.7 million Powerball jackpot, the largest-ever American lottery. They chose the cash option and received a lump sum payment of $161.5 million. 2000—Pres. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela won a fresh six-year term in a landslide re-election. 2001—Robert Mueller, Pres. Bush’s choice to head the FBI, promised the Senate Judiciary Committee that if confirmed, he would move forcefully to fix problems at the agency. 2001—Typhoon Toraji churned through Taiwan, killing some 200 people. 2001—Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's ruling party won a special parliamentary election. 2002—expelled from Congress a week earlier, James A. Traficant Jr. was sentenced to eight years behind bars for corruption. 2003—in Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolled off an assembly line. 2006—Congo held its first multiparty election in four decades (incumbent Pres. Joseph Kabila later won a runoff.) 2006—Israel agreed to a 48-hour suspension of aerial activity over southern Lebanon after its bombing of a Lebanese village that killed 29 people. 2007—Ingmar Bergman, famed 3-time Oscar-winning Swedish director ( The Virgin Spring [1950], Through a Glass Darkly [1961], Fanny and Alexander [1983]), screenwriter ( Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers) & producer, died at age 89 in his sleep in Faro, Sweden 2008—ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was extradited to The Hague to face genocide charges after nearly 13 years on the run. 2008—the King of Tonga to hand power to Prime Minister, ending an era of absolute monarchy. 2010—Pres. Obama toured Chrysler and General Motors assembly plants, where he offered an upbeat assessment of the US auto industry a year after the big government bailouts. 2010—a Florida girl was seriously injured when she plunged about 100 feet to the ground from an amusement park free-fall ride in Lake Delton, Wis. (Nets and air bags that were supposed to catch Teagan Marti but did deploy.)
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 30, 2011 21:35:00 GMT -5
Today’s Birthdays: 1925—Jacques Seruas, Lithuanian-born French actor ( Helen of Troy, The Centurion, 55 Days at Peking, La Dolce Vita, Superfly T.N.T.) 1927—Richard Johnson, English actor ( The Pumpkin Eater, The Haunting, Operation Crossbow, Deadlier than the Male), writer ( Hennessy) & producer (CEO of United British Artists) 1929—Christine McGuire, singer (The McGuire Sisters: “Sincerely”, “Sugartime”) 1930—Thomas Sowell, economist, social theorist, libertarian political philosopher & author ( The Einstein Syndrome: Bright Children Who Talk Late, A Conflict of Visions, Intelligence and Ethnicity, Intellectuals and Society, Black Rednecks and White Liberals) 1933—Edd "Kookie" Byrnes [Breitenberger], actor (TV: 77 Sunset Strip, Darby’s Rangers) & singer (“Kookie, Kookie Lend Me Your Comb”) 1934—[Allan Huber] Bud Selig, 9th MLB Commissioner (1992-pesent) 1936—[George] Buddy Guy, 2005 Rock Hall of Fame & 6-time Grammy-winning pioneer Chicago blues guitarist & singer (“Stone Crazy”, “Chicago Blues”) 1939—Peter Bogdanovich, movie director ( Mask, What’s Up Doc?, Paper Moon, Nickelodeon), writer-director ( The Last Picture Show, Texasville), film historian ( Who the Devil Made It: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors, Who the Hell’s in It: Conversations with Hollywood’s Legendary Actors) & critic 1939—Eleanor Smeal, feminist activist, political analyst, lobbyist, grassroots organizer & 2-time president of NOW (1977-82, 1985-87) 1940—Patricia Schroeder, former US Congresswoman (D-Colo., 1973-97) & the first woman elected to Congress from Colorado 1941—Paul Anka, Canadian-born singer-songwriter (“Diana”, “My Way”, “She’s a Lady”, “You Are My Destiny”, “Lonely Boy”, “You’re Having My Baby”) 1945—David Sanborn, Grammy-winning jazz saxophonist (LP: Voyeur [1981]) & composer (TV movie score: Finnegan Begin Again) 1947—Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born former California Governor (2003-11), 5-time Mr. Universe & actor ( The Terminator series, Predator, Twins, Conan the Barbarian, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, True Lies, Last Action Hero), separated from his wife Maria Shriver of the Kennedy family 1947—William Atherton, actor ( Saints and Sinners, The Pelican Brief, Die Hard series, Ghostbusters, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, The Day of the Locust, Class of ’44, Centennial) 1948—Jean Reno, French actor ( Le Grand bleu, Les Visiteurs, Léon, The Pink Panther, Mission: Impossible, Godzilla, Just Visiting, The Da Vinci Code, The Tiger and the Snow) 1948—Otis Taylor, blues singer-musician (guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica) & singer (“Nasty Letter”, “Ten Million Slaves”) 1950—Frank Stallone, actor ( Rocky series, Staying Alive, Ten Little Indians, Hudson Hawk, Tombstone, Doublecross On Costa’s Island) & brother of Sylvester Stallone 1954—[Kenneth Edward] Ken Olin, actor (TVs: Hill Street Blues, Falcon Crest, Thirtysomething) & executive producer-director-actor (TV: ) Brothers & Sisters1956—Delta Burke, actress ( Filthy Rich, Chisholm; TV: Designing Women, Delta) & Miss Florida of 1974 1956—Anita Hill, law professor who testified against the Clarence Thomas nomination to the Supreme Court 1957—“Rat” Scabies [aka Chris Miller], rock drummer (The Damned) 1958—Kate Bush, English singer-songwriter (“Running Up That Hil”l, “The Man with the Child in His Eyes”, “Wow”) 1958—Neal McCoy, country singer (“No Doubt About It”, “Wink”) 1958—Richard William Burgi, actor (TV: The Sentinel, Desperate Housewives) 1960—Richard Stuart Linklater, movie director ( Slacker, School of Rock, Fast Food Nation) & screenwriter ( Before Sunset) 1961—Laurence John Fishburne III, Tony-winning stage: ( Two Trains Running[1992], Riff Raff, The Lion in Winter, Thurgood) & screen ( Matrix trilogy, Apocalypse Now, The Color Purple, Bad Company, Mystic River, Boyz N the Hood, What’s Love Got to Do With It; Emmy-winning TVs: TriBeCa [1993]], CSI) actor, playwright, director & producer ( Akeelah and the Bee) 1963—Monique Gabrielle, B-movie actress ( Night Shift, Bachelor Party, Young Lady Chatterley II, Electric Blue series, Bad Girls IV, Emmanuelle 5, Amazon Women on the Moon, Hard To Die, Eyes) 1963—Lisa Kudrow-Stern, actress ( The Opposite of Sex, Analyze This, Analyze That, Bandslam, P.S.I Love You, Easy A, Dr. Dolittle 2; TVs: Friends, Mad About You) 1963—Danny Roberts, bluegrass guitarist & mandolin player (The Grascals). 1964—Dwayne O'Brien, country rhythm guitarist & backup vocalist (Little Texas) 1964—Vivica A. (Anjanetta) Fox, actress ( Independence Day, Set It Off, Soul Food, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Kill Bill Vol. 1; TVs: Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless) & Tv producer 1968—[Terence Alan] Terry Crews, actor ( The 6th Day, Friday After Next, White Chicks, The Expendables; TVs: Everybody Hates Chris, Are We There Yet?) & former NFL player (1991-96) 1969—Simon Baker, Australian actor ( Ride with the Devil, Sunset Strip, Red Planet, The Devil Wears Prada; TVs: The Mentalist, The Guardian) 1970—Christopher Nolan, English-born movie director ( The Dark Night, Batman Begins, Inception, Insomnia), director-screenwriter ( Memento, The Prestige, Inception) & producer (Syncopy Films) 1971—[Michael Thomas] Tom Green, Canadian actor ( Road Trip, Stealing Harvard, Charlie’s Angels), stand-up comedian, rapper, writer, talk show host (MTV: The New Tom Green Show) & media personality 1971—Christine Taylor, actress ( The Brady Bunch movies, The Wedding Singer, License to Wed, Zoolander, Dodgeball, Tragic Thunder), married to actor scriptwriter & director Ben Stiller 1971—[Bradley William] Brad Hargreaves, rock drummer (Third Eye Blind, Year Long Disaster) 1973—Dean Edwards, actor ( Goyband, Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding; TV: The Sopranos), voice artist ( Celebrity Deathmatch, Robotomy, Donkey in Scared Shrekless), singer, writer & stand-up comedian (TV: SNL) 1974—Hilary Ann Swank, 2-time Oscar-winning actress ( Boys Don’t Cry [1999], Million Dollar Baby [2005], Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Next Karate Kid; TVs: Growing Pains, Evening Shade) 1977—Misty May-Treanor, Olympic gold medal beach volleyball player. 1977—Jaime Pressly, actress ( Joe Dirt, DOA; Dead or Alive, I Love You, Man; TV: My Name is Earl) 1982—Yvonne Strahovski, Australian actress (TV: Chuck)
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 31, 2011 9:49:37 GMT -5
JACK ARMSTRONG DAYt2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS9I_BeRU2ef8Go3BOQNFu6qdnn_FbfNX9df4SLp7Kkf_rgvdlx [/img]On this day in 1933, listeners turned up the radio to hear the announcer introduce “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy!” The show was one of the longest-running adventure programs on radio, continuing until 1951. Armstrong was Hudson High School’s football hero and the hero who saved the day from dastardly villains. Somehow, these adventures would take Jack and his cousins, Betty and Bill Fairfield, to exotic locales where they would make use of industrialist Uncle Jim’s yacht and a hydroplane they referred to as the Silver Albatross. The first actor to play Armstrong was Jim Ameche, the brother of actor Don Ameche. The series, created by Robert Hardy Andrews, portrayed Jack Armstrong as loyal, brave, honest, and yes, all-American; obvious in this excerpt from one of the scripts. Jack Armstrong: “When I think of this country of ours, with millions of homes stretching sea to sea, and with everybody working and pulling together to have a nation where people can be free, and do big things ... why, it makes me realize what a terribly important job we’ve got ahead!” <Isn't it sad that such a statement today sounds so puerile. We've come a long way from those days and I'm not sure for the better.>
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 31, 2011 22:32:17 GMT -5
31 Jul Good evening to my fellow history buffs from Tuxy and me. Today is 212th day of 2011 with 153 days left in the year Today in History: 904—Arabs captured Thessalonica. 1498—Christopher Columbus, on his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, arrived at the island of Trinidad. 1556—St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (order of Catholic priests and brothers), died in Rome. 1703—English novelist Daniel Defoe was made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire The Shortest Way With Dissenters. 1760—Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, drove the French army back to the Rhine River. 1777—the Marquis de Lafayette, a 19-year-old French nobleman, was made a major-general in the American Continental Army. 1790—the first US patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins for his process for making potash and pearl ashes., used in fertilizer. 1792—the cornerstone of the US Mint in Philadelphia, Pa., was laid, the first building used only as a US government building. 1845—the French Army introduced the saxophone to its military band. The musical instrument was the invention of Adolphe Sax of Belgium. 1861—Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to brigadier general. 1875—Andrew Johnson, the 17th Pres. of the US & US Senator (R-Tenn., 1875), died at age 66 of a stroke near Elizabethton in Darter County, Tenn. He is the only former president to serve in the Senate. 1882—Belle and Sam Starr were charged with horse stealing in the Indian territory. 1891—Great Britain declared territories in Southern Africa up to the Congo to be within their sphere of influence. 1904—the Trans-Siberian railroad connecting the Ural mountains with Russia's Pacific coast, was completed. 1914-the New York Stock Exchange closed due to the outbreak of World War I. (Trading didn't resume until December.) 1917—the third Battle of Ypres began as the British attack the German lines. 1919—Germany’s Weimer Constitution was adopted by the republic's National Assembly. 1928—MGM’s Leo the lion roared for the first time as he introduced MGM’s first talking picture, White Shadows on the South Seas. Leo’s dialogue was more extensive than the film’s, whose only spoken word was, “Hello.” 1932—Adolf Hitler's Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis) doubled its strength in legislative elections. 1932—Enzo Ferrari retired from racing. In 1950 he launched a series of cars under his name. 1941—Japan apologized to the US a day after its bombers damaged the gunboat USS Tutuila at Chongqing, China. 1944—the Soviet Army took Kovno, the capital of Lithuania. 1945—Pierre Laval, Vichy Premiere of France surrendered to Americans in Austria. 1948—Pres. Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport at Idlewild Field (later John F. Kennedy International Airport). 1959—the Basque terrorist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) was founded as an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. 1961—for the first time in baseball history, an All-Star Game ended in a draw, 1-1, as rain stopped the contest at Fenway Park. (It was the second of two All-Star Games played that season.) 1961—IBM introduced its first Selectric typewriter with its distinctive "typeball”. 1964—the US space probe Ranger 7 reached the moon, transmitting pictures back to Earth before crashing onto the lunar surface. 1964—[James Travis] Jim Reeves, Country Music Hall of Fame singer (“Four Walls”, “Adios Amigo”, “Welcome to My World”, “Am I Losing You?”, “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”) & songwriter of the Nashville sound, died at age 40 when his single-engine Beechcraft crashed near Nashville, Tenn. 1969—a Moscow police chief reported that thousands of Moscow telephone booths had been made inoperable by thieves who had stolen phone parts in order to convert their acoustic guitars to electric. 1971— Apollo 15 crew members David Scott and James Irwin became the first astronauts to use a lunar rover on the surface of the moon. 1971—a security guard was stabbed to death at New York's Forest Hills Stadium on the second night of the Who's US tour. 1972—Democratic vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the ticket with George McGovern following disclosures that he had once undergone psychiatric treatment. 1974—John Ehrlichman was sentenced to prison for his role in the break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. Ehrlichman created the White House unit that was called the ‘plumbers’ because it was intended to plug leaks. 1977—the "Son of Sam" killer claimed his last victims when he shot and killed Stacy Moskowitz, 20, and seriously wounded her date as they sat in a parked car in Brooklyn, N.Y. (David Berkowitz was arrested less than two weeks later. He is serving six sentences of 25 years to life.) 1981—a seven-week-old Major League Baseball strike ended when the players and owners agreed on the issue of free agent compensation. 1982—Yugoslavia imposed a six-month freeze on prices. 1984—the US men's gymnastics team won the team gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in a major upset over the Chinese that included perfect performances by Mitch Gaylord, Bart Conner and Tim Daggett. 1985—the US House and Senate negotiators reached agreement on legislation to impose economic sanctions against South Africa, in the wake of that country's growing unrest and state of emergency. 1987—a F-4 tornado touched down in Edmonton, Canada, killing 27. 1987—Iranian pilgrims and riot police clashed in the Muslim holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, resulting in some 400 deaths, according to the Saudi government, which blamed the Iranians for the violence 1988—Willie Stargell became 200th man inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame. His inspirational leadership contributed greatly to Pittsburgh Pirate world championships in 1971 and 1979, when he shared NL MVP honors. His #8 was retired by the Pirates in 1982. 1989—a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon released a grisly videotape showing the body of American hostage William R. Higgins, a Marine lieutenant-colonel, hanged from a rope. 1990—Nolan Ryan became the 20th major league pitcher to win 300 games as his Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 11-3. 1991—Pres. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow. 1991—seven people were killed when an Amtrak passenger train derailed near Camden, S.C. — seven were killed when a bus carrying Girl Scouts crashed in Palm Springs, Calif. 1991—the US overturned a 43-year-old law and voted to allow women to fly military warplanes in combat. 1993—Baudouin I, King of Belgium, died at age 62 and was succeeded by his brother, Prince Albert. 1993—a US-brokered truce halted Israel's weeklong military offensive in southern Lebanon, which was launched in retaliation for guerrilla attacks that killed seven Israeli troops. 1995—in the 2nd largest takeover in US corporate history, Walt Disney Co. agreed to acquire Capital Cities-ABC Inc. in a $19 billion deal. 1996—after Pres. Clinton's announcement that he would sign it, 98 Democrats joined the House's Republican majority to pass a historic welfare overhaul bill. 1997—in New York City, police seized five bombs believed to be bound for terrorist attacks on city subways. 1998—more than 50 people died in Kashmir due to crossfire between India and Pakistan. 1999—the spacecraft Lunar Prospect crashed into the moon on a mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface. The craft had been launched on January 6, 1998. 2000—Israel’s parliament voted Moshe Katsav into the nation's presidency over Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Ezer Weizman had been forced to resign due to allegations of fraud. 2000—North and South Korea agreed to reopen border liaison offices and reconnect a railway linking their capitals. 2001—the US House of Representatives voted, 265-162, to ban all cloning of human embryos, casting Congress' first votes on the divisive ethical issue. 2001—Israeli helicopters fired missiles into offices of the militant Hamas movement, killing eight Palestinians, including a senior Hamas leader and two young boys walking on the street outside. 2006—Cuban Pres. Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul, after gastrointestinal surgery. 2007—the UN Security Council unanimously approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Sudan's Darfur region. 2008—scientists reported the Phoenix spacecraft had confirmed the presence of frozen water in Martian soil. 2009—three American tourists were arrested by Iran on suspicion of espionage during what their families have said was a simple hiking trip along the Iraq-Iran border. (One was released on bail, the others remain in Iranian custody.) 2010—Chelsea Clinton married investment banker Marc Mezvinsky in the upstate New York village of Rhinebeck. 2010—[Mitchell William] Mitch Miller, orchestra-choral leader ( Sing Along with Mitch) & record A&R executive, died at age 99 after a short illness in New York. 2010—[Thomas Frank] Tom Mankiewicz, screenwriter (James Bond films Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, the first two Superman movies; TV: Hart to Hart), died at age 68 from pancreatic cancer at home in Los Angeles
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Post by Flying Horse on Jul 31, 2011 22:39:52 GMT -5
Today’s Birthdays: 1919—Robert Morris Morgenthau, former Manhattan District Attorney (1975-2009) 1929—Don Murray, actor ( Bus Stop, The Outcasts, Baby the Rain Must Fall, Peggy Sue Got Married, Advice and Consent; TV: Knots Landing) 1931—Kenny Burrell, jazz composer-guitarist (Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, own combos) 1939—John West, keyboardist (Gary Lewis and the Playboys: “This Diamond Ring”) 1939—France Nuyen, actress ( The Joy Luck Club, South Pacific, Diamond Head; TV: St. Elsewhere) 1939—Susan Flannery, 3-time Daytime Emmy-winning actress (TV: Days of Our Lives [1975], The Bold and the Beautiful [2000, 2002], Dallas) 1944—Geraldine Leigh Chaplin, English-born actress ( Cria cuervos, The Hawaiians, The Three Musketeers, Nashville, A Wedding, Welcome to L.A., Life is a Bed of Roses, Chaplin, The Age of Innocence, Jane Eyre, There Be Dragons, The Monk) & the daughter of Charlie Chaplin 1944—Sherry Lansing, former movie studio executive 1945—William Floyd Weld, 68th Gov. of Massachusetts (1991-97) & lawyer 1945—Gary Lewis [aka Gary Harold Lee Levitch], singer (Gary Lewis and the Playboys) & son of comedian-actor Jerry Lewis 1946—Bob Welch, singer & guitarist (Fleetwood Mac) 1947—Karl Green, guitarist & harmonica player (Herman's Hermits) 1951—Evonne Goolagong Cawley, International Tennis Hall of Fame Australian Aborigine champion & former World’s #1 woman’s palyer (winner of 6 Grand Slam singles: Australian Open [1974-77], French Open [1971], Wimbledon [1971, 1980], six women’s doubles & one mixed doubles Grand Slam titles) 1951—Barry Van Dyke, actor ( Foxfire Light, It Happened at Lakewood Manor, Casino; TV: Diagnosis Murder, The Dick Van Dyke Show) & son of actor Dick Van Dyke 1952—Alan Autry, actor ( In the Heat of the Night, Proud Men, Blue De Ville, At Close Range) & mayor of Fresno, Calif. 1956—Michael Biehn, actor ( The Rock, Breach of Trust, Blood of the Hunter, Tombstone, A Taste for Killing, Timebomb, Aliens, The Terminator, The Fan, The Runaways; TV: Coach) 1956—Deval Laudine Patrick, 71st Gov. of Massachusetts (D, 2007-present), Ass’t US Attorney General (1994-97) 1957—Daniel Ash, rock singer-guitarist (Bauhaus, Tones On Tail, Love and Rockets) 1958—Mark Cuban, Internet entrepreneur & owner of the NBA Phoenix Suns 1958—Bill Berry, ret. Alt rock drummer (R.E.M.) who played other instruments (guitar, bass guitar, piano) & songwriter who has taken up farming, appearing on sporadic R.E.M. reunions 1962—Wesley Trent Snipes, martial artist, producer, actor ( Blade films, Wildcats, Streets of Gold, Major League, Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, New Jack City, The Fan, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, One Night Stand, The Shooter), he is currently in prison for tax evasion. 1963—Norman (Quentin) Cook, vocalist (The Housemartins, Beats International, Freakpower, Dub Katz, Puzzaman, Norman Cook Presents Wildski, Fried Funk Food, Fatboy Slim) 1963—Fatboy Slim [aka Norman Quentin Cook], English DJ, big beat rapper ()The Housemartins, Beats International, Freak power, Brighton Port Authortiy & record producer. 1965—[Joanne] J.K. Rowling, English author ( Harry Potter series) & philanthropist (Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain) 1966—Dean Cain, actor (TV: Lois and Clark, The New Adventures of Superman)
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