On this day in history...

[Layyouss]

On This Day: August 17

Today is Sunday, August 17, 2008. This is the 230th day of the year, with 136 days remaining in 2008.

Fact of the Day: Davy Crockett

Davy (David) Crockett was an American frontiersman and politician who became a legendary figure. With no formal education whatsoever, Crockett helped backwoods farmers and made a name for himself. He was elected to the Tennessee legislature in 1821. Following a second term in the state legislature in 1823, Crockett ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. He lost in 1825, won in 1827 and 1829, lost in 1831, barely won in 1833, and suffered his final defeat in 1835, owing to the concentrated opposition of the party of Andrew Jackson. He then headed west to Texas, joined the American forces, and died with those who were slaughtered at the Alamo by a Mexican army under General Santa Anna on March 6, 1836. Crockett was famous for his stories and speechmaking.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Joan Delanoue, St. Mamas, St. Liberatus of Capua, St. Rock or Roch, St. Clare of Montefalco, St. Hyacinth, and St. Eusebius, pope.
Gabon Republic: National Day (independence from France, 1960).
Indonesia: Independence Day.
Argentina: Anniversary of San Martin's death.

Events:

1790 - The capital city of the U.S. moved to Philadelphia from New York City.

1807 - Robert Fulton's "North River Steam Boat" (known as the "Clermont") began heading up New York's Hudson River on its successful round-trip to Albany.

1815 - Napoleon began serving his exile when he arrived at the island of St. Helena.

1835 - Solyman Merrick patented the wrench.

1859 - A hot air balloon was used to carry mail for the first time. John Wise left Lafayette, IN for New York City with 100 letters. He had to land after only 27 miles.

1863 - Federal batteries and ships bombarded Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC, harbor during the Civil War.

1877 - F.P. Cahill became the first person to be killed by "Billy the Kid."

1894 - John Wadsworth of Louisville set a major league record when he gave up 28 base hits in a single game.

1896 - The Klondike gold rush was set off by George Carmack discovering gold on Rabbit Creek in Alaska.

1903 - Joseph Pulitzer donated a million dollars to Columbia University. This started the Pulitzer Prizes in his name.

1915 - Charles F. Kettering patented the electric, automobile self-starter.

1939 - The movie "Wizard of Oz" opened.

1943 - The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.

1945 - The nationalists of Indonesia declared their independence from the Netherlands.

1962 - 18-year-old Peter Fechter was killed by East German border guards when he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into the western sector

1969 - Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast killing 248 people.

1973 - Lee Trevino got the first hole in one of his career at the U.S.I. Golf Classic, in Sutton, MA.

1977 - Florists Transworld Delivery (FTD) reported that in one day the number of orders for flowers to be delivered to Graceland had surpassed the number for any other event in the company's history.

1978 - Maxie Anderson, Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman became the first to land after a successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight. The voyage began in Presque Isle, ME and ended in Miserey, France.

1985 - A year-long strike began when 1,400 Geo. A. Hormel and Co. meat packers walked off the job.

1987 - Rudolph Hess died after apparently committing suicide. Hess was the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle.

1987 - Charles Glass, American journalist, escaped his kidnappers and was rescued after being held for 62 days in Lebanon.

1988 - Pakistani President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel were killed in a plane crash.

1991 - At a shopping mall in Strathfield, Australia, a man killed seven people before killing himself. He had been armed with a rifle and a machete.

1992 - Woody Allen admitted to being romantically involved with Soon-Yi Previn. The girl was the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow, Allen's longtime companion.

1993 - Jack Kevorkian was charged in Wayne County, MI with assisting in the suicide of Thomas Hyde. Kevorkian was later acquitted.

1996 - A military cargo plane crashed in Wyoming killing eight crewmembers and a Secret Service employee. The plane was carrying gear for U.S. President Clinton.

1996 - Ross Perot was announced to be the Reform Party's presidential candidate. It was the party's first-ever candidate.

1998 - The FBI announced that it was questioning a suspect concerning the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya on August 7th, 1998.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton admitted to having an improper relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern.

1998 - NationsBank and BankAmerica merge to create the largest U.S. bank.

1998 - Russia devalued the ruble.

1999 - More than 15,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Turkey.

2002 - In Santa Rosa, CA, the Charles M. Schulz Museum opened to the public.

Lebanon related Events:

1999 - Aug 17, In southern Lebanon Hezbollah guerrillas killed 2 Israeli soldiers and wounded 4 others in a revenge clash that left 1 guerrilla dead.

2006 - Aug 17, Lebanese troops, tanks and armored vehicles deployed south of the Litani River, a key provision of the UN cease-fire plan that ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The deployment marks a first step toward extending government control in a region Lebanese troops have largely avoided for four decades. A Middle East Airlines passenger jet flew into Beirut airport from Jordan as officials partially lifted a 36-day Israeli air blockade.

2007- Aug 17, The UN announced that the Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.

Births

1601 - Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician, lawyer, government official.

1786 - Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, soldier.

1882 - Samuel Goldwyn (Goldfish), American movie pioneer.

1893 - Mae West, American playwright, actress.

1921 - Maureen O'Hara (Fitzsimmons), American actress.

Deaths

1983 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist.

[Layyouss]

August 17, 2008
Today in World War II History

1940 - Adolf Hitler declared a blockade of the British Isles.

1943 - The Allied conquest of Sicily was completed as U.S. and British forces entered Messina.

1961 - The Communist East German government completed the construction of the Berlin Wall.

1987 - Rudolph Hess died after apparently committing suicide. Hess was the last member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle.


Quote of the day:

Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.
- Truman Capote

Song Quote:

Live another day
Climb a little higher
Find another reason to stay
Ashes in your hands
Mercy in your eyes
If you're searching for a silent
sky...
- Dream Theater, Another Day

Quote about music:

I'm trying to have my own thing, and I don't know if it's even possible. I didn't realize so many people actually think I'm trying to be like my dad. I read comments like 'She's no Elvis.' I'm not trying to be. I never set out to be.
- Lisa Marie Presley

[Rors]

On This Day: August 18

This is the 231st day of the year.

Fact of the Day: mail order catalog

The first mail-order catalog was published by Montgomery Ward & Co. (of Chicago) in 1872. It was only a single sheet of paper! Ward started the company in 1872 with $2,400 capital and the aim of buying large quantities of merchandise wholesale and then selling it directly to farmers in rural areas without the help of retail intermediaries. Such an operation would provide goods to farmers at low prices but still yield Ward acceptable profits. To accomplish this, Ward began distributing the catalog and backed up his sales with a money-back guarantee. By 1904, the Montgomery Ward catalog weighed four pounds. In 1985, the company closed its 113-year-old catalog operation and in 2000 it announced the closing of its retail stores.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Helena, Saints Florus and Laurus, St. Agapitus, St. Alipius, and St. Beatrice or Brites da Silva.

Events

1853 - The milk condensation process was patented by Gail Borden.

1872 - The first mail-order catalog was published, by Montgomery Ward.

1894 - Congress established the Bureau of Immigration.

1920 - The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it law.

1963 - James Meredith became the first African-American to graduate from the University of Mississippi.

2004 - The internet search engine Google went public and the price of shares was $85.

Lebanon Related Events

1987 - American journalist Charles Glass escaped his kidnappers in Beirut after 62 days in captivity. Glass had been abducted June 17 with two Lebanese who were released after a week.
(AP, 8/18/97)

1997 - Militiamen under the South Lebanon Army, a key ally of Israel, shelled the port city of Sidon and killed at least 6 people while injuring over 3 dozen. In apparent retaliation northern Israel was hit by dozens of Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A8)

2006 - The Lebanese army reached the country's southern border with Israel for the first time in decades, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a battered stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. At least 845 Lebanese were killed in the 34-day war: 743 civilians, 34 soldiers and 68 Hezbollah. Israel says it killed about 530 guerrillas. On the Israeli side, 157 were killed, 118 soldiers and 39 civilians, many from the 3,970 Hezbollah rockets. The Lebanese government estimated infrastructure damages at $2.5 billion. The Lebanese death toll was later raised to 1200 and economic costs put to some $12 billion.
(AP, 8/18/06)(SFC, 8/19/06, p.C1)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.51)

2007 - In northern Lebanon gunbattles with Islamic extremists in a Palestinian refugee camp left one soldier dead. Another died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 8/19/07)


Births

1587 - Virginia Dare, the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
1750 - Antonio Salieri, Italian composer.
1774 - Meriwether Lewis, American explorer of Lewis & Clark.
1830 - Franz Josef I, Austro-Hungarian emperor.
1834 - Marshall Field, American department store mogul.
1904 - Max Factor, American cosmetic mogul.
1934 - Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rican-born American baseball great.
1937 - Robert Redford, American actor, director.

Deaths

1227 - Genghis Khan, Mongolian warrior and ruler.

[Rors]

On This Day: August 19

Today is Tuesday, August 19, 2008. This is the 232nd day of the year, with 134 days remaining in 2008.


Fact of the Day: black cow

The "black cow" or "root beer float" was created on August 19, 1893. Frank J. Wisner, owner of Cripple Creek Brewing in Colorado, served the first root beer float. Inspired by the moonlit view of snow-capped Cow Mountain, Mr. Wisner added a scoop of ice cream to his Myers Avenue Red root beer and began serving it as the "Black Cow Mountain." The name was later shortened to "black cow."


Holidays

Feast day of St. Mocha, Saints Agapius and Timothy, St. Sebald, St. Thecla, St. Andrew the Tribune, St. Sixtus III, St. Berulf of Bobbio, St. Louis of Anjou, St. John Eudes, and St. Credan of Evesham.

Afghanistan: Independence Day.

United States: National Aviation Day.


Events

1812 - During the War of 1812, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution defeated the British frigate GuerriÈre in a furious engagement off the coast of Nova Scotia and earned its nickname of "Old Ironsides".

1893 - The root beer float, or "Black Cow," was invented by Frank J. Wisner, owner of Cripple Creek Brewing in Colorado.

1929 - The comedy program "Amos and Andy," starring Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, made its network radio debut.

1934 - A plebiscite in Germany approved the vesting of sole executive power in Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer.

1950 - The American Broadcasting Company aired the first Saturday morning television shows for children.

1960 - In the USSR, captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his confessed espionage. Eighteen months later, the Soviets agreed to release him in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy.

Lebanon Related Events

2006 - Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon, sparking a fierce clash with militants that left one Israeli soldier dead. Lebanon called the raid a "flagrant violation" of the UN-brokered cease-fire, while Israel said it was aimed at disrupting arms smuggling from Iran and Syria. A Lebanese civilian was killed when unexploded Israeli munitions from the offensive detonated in the village of Ras al-Ein, outside Tyre.
(AP, 8/19/06)

2006 - French soldiers landed in Lebanon, the first reinforcements for an expanded UN peacekeeping force tasked with keeping the truce in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. About 50 French troops, military engineers, were to prepare for the arrival of 200 more soldiers expected next week.
(AP, 8/19/06)


Births

1631 - John Dryden, English poet.
1870 - Bernard Baruch, advisor to presidents Wilson through Kennedy.
1871 - Orville Wright, American aviator.
1883 - Coco (Gabrielle) Chanel, French fashion designer.
1902 - Ogden Nash, American humorist.
1915 - Ring Lardner, American writer, screenwriter.
1921 - Gene Roddenberry, American television writer, producer, creator of "Star Trek."
1931 - Willie Shoemaker, American jockey, author.
1946 - William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America (1993-2001).


Deaths

1977 - Groucho Marx (Julius Henry Marx), American entertainer and member of the Marx Brothers comedy team.
1994 - Linus Pauling, American Nobel Prize-winner chemist.

[Rors]

On This Day: August 20

This is the 233rd day of the year.


Fact of the Day: Little League

Little League started in 1939 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, by Carl E. Stotz and brothers Bert and George Bebble. The league originally included boys age 8 to 12, but girls have been admitted since 1974. The Little League now includes a senior division for players age 13 to 15 and a big-league division for ages 16 to 18.


Holidays

Feast day of St. Rognwald or Ronald, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Amator or Amadour, St. Philibert, and St. Oswin.

Hungary: St. Stephen's Day.

Morocco: Revolution of the King and the People.


Events

1641 - Scotland and Britain signed the Treaty of Pacification.

1741 - Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering discovered Alaska.

1862 - Horace Greeley's "The Prayer of Twenty Millions" was published.

1866 - The National Labor Union in the U.S. advocated an eight-hour workday.

1866 - It was formally declared by U.S. President Andrew Johnson that the American Civil War was over. The fighting had stopped months earlier.

1882 - Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuted in Moscow.

1885 - "The Mikado", by Gilbert and Sullivan, opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City.

1914 - German forces occupied Brussels, Belgium, during World War I.

1918 - The British opened its Western Front offensive during World War I.

1923 - The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah," was launched in Lakehurst, NJ.

1939 - Johnny Weissmuller married Beryl Scott.

1939 - The National Bowling Association was founded in Detroit, MI. It was the first bowling association in the U.S. for African-Americans.

1940 - France fell to the Germans during World War II.

1945 - Tommy Brown of the Brooklyn Dodgers became the youngest player to hit a home run in a major league ball game. Brown was 17 years, 8 months and 14 days old.

1949 - Cleveland’s Indians and Chicago’s White Sox played at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland before the largest crowd, 78,382 people, to see a nighttime major-league baseball game.

1953 - It was announced by the Soviet Union that they had detonated a hydrogen bomb.

1955 - In Morocco and Algeria hundreds of people were killed in anti-French rioting.

1955 - Col. Horace A. Hanes, a U.S. Air Force pilot, flew to an altitude of 40,000 feet. Hanes reached a speed of 822.135 miles per hour in a Super Sabrejet.

1955 - Bo Diddley made his first appearance at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

1964 - A $1 billion anti-poverty measure was signed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.

1967 - The New York Times reported about a noise reduction system for album and tape recording developed by technicians R. and D.W. Dolby. Elektra Record's subsidiary, Checkmate Records became the first label to use the new Dolby process in its recordings.

1968 - The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization.

1977 - Voyager 2 was launched by the United States. The spacecraft was carrying a 12 inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

1985 - The original Xerox 914 copier was presented to the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History. Chester Carlson was the man who invented the machine.

1986 - Patrick Henry Sherril, postal employee, killed 14 co-workers in a shooting spree at the post office in Edmon, OK.

1988 - Eight British soldiers were killed by a landmine while in a military bus in Northern Ireland. The mine belonged to the Irish Republican Army.

1989 - Jose and Kitty Menendez were shot to death by their sons Lyle and Erik. The first trials ended in hung juries.

1989 - British conservationist George Adamson was killed by bandits in Kenya. Adamson was 83.

1989 - In London, a pleasure boat sank in the Thames River killing 51 people.

1991 - A rally of more that 100,000 people occurred outside the Russian parliament building to protest the coup that removed Gorbachev from power.

1991 - Estonia declared independence.

1995 - 348 people were killed in a train incident in northern India.

1997 - NATO troops seized six police stations in Banja Luka that had been held by troops controlled by former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic.

1997 - Britain began voluntary evacuation of its Caribbean island of Montserrat due to the volcanic activity of the Soufriere Hills.

1998 - Canada's Supreme Court announced that Quebec could not secede without the federal government's consent.

1998 - U.S. military forces attacked a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan. Both targets were chosen for cruise missile strikes due to their connection with Osama bin Laden.

1998 - The U.N. Security Council extended trade sanctions against Iraq for blocking arms inspections.

Lebanon Related Events

1997 - Israeli jets struck deep in Lebanon and bombed a guerrilla base and a power plant supplying electricity to Sidon.
(WSJ, 8/21/97, p.A1)

2006 - Lebanese PM Fuad Saniora called the Israeli bombing campaign "a crime against humanity," and Lebanon's defense minister warned any group that breaks the Middle East cease-fire will be dealt with harshly.
(AP, 8/20/06)


Births

1833 - Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States of America (1889-1893).


Deaths

1940 - Leon Trotsky, Russian communist politician and rival of Joseph Stalin, assassinated.

[Rors]

August 20, 1911

Lead Story: First around-the-world telegram sent, 66 years before Voyager II launch

On this day in 1911, a dispatcher in the New York Times office sends the first telegram around the world via commercial service. Exactly 66 years later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sends a different kind of message--a phonograph record containing information about Earth for extraterrestrial beings--shooting into space aboard the unmanned spacecraft Voyager II.


The Times decided to send its 1911 telegram in order to determine how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world by telegraph cable. The message, reading simply "This message sent around the world," left the dispatch room on the 17th floor of the Times building in New York at 7 p.m. on August 20. After it traveled more than 28,000 miles, being relayed by 16 different operators, through San Francisco, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta, Lisbon and the Azores--among other locations--the reply was received by the same operator 16.5 minutes later. It was the fastest time achieved by a commercial cablegram since the opening of the Pacific cable in 1900 by the Commercial Cable Company.


On August 20, 1977, a NASA rocket launched Voyager II, an unmanned 1,820-pound spacecraft, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the first of two such crafts to be launched that year on a "Grand Tour" of the outer planets, organized to coincide with a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Aboard Voyager II was a 12-inch copper phonograph record called "Sounds of Earth." Intended as a kind of introductory time capsule, the record included greetings in 60 languages and scientific information about Earth and the human race, along with classical, jazz and rock 'n' roll music, nature sounds like thunder and surf, and recorded messages from President Jimmy Carter and other world leaders.


August 20, 1982

Lebanon Related: U.S. Marines deployed to Lebanon

During the Lebanese Civil War, a multinational force including 800 U.S. Marines lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. It was the beginning of a problem-plagued mission that would stretch into 17 months and leave 262 U.S. servicemen dead.

In 1975, a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist Muslim guerrillas battling militias of the Christian Phalange Party, the Maronite Christian community, and other groups. During the next few years, Syrian, Israeli, and United Nations interventions failed to resolve the factional fighting, and in August 1982 a multinational force arrived to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon.

The Marines left Lebanese territory on September 10 but returned on September 29 following the massacre of Palestinian refugees by a Christian militia. The next day, the first U.S. Marine to die during the mission was killed while defusing a bomb. On April 18, 1983, the U.S. embassy in Beirut was devastated by a car bomb, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans. Then, on October 23, Lebanese terrorists evaded security measures and drove a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. Fifty-eight French soldiers were killed almost simultaneously in a separate suicide terrorist attack. On February 7, 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the end of U.S. participation in the peacekeeping force.


Quote of the Day:
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.
- Thomas Edison

Song Quote
Dream if u can a courtyard
An ocean of violets in bloom
Animals strike curious poses
They feel the heat
The heat between me and u
- Prince, When Doves Cry

Quote about Music
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.
- John Keats

[Sirius]

On This Day: August 21

Today is Thursday, August 21, 2008. This is the 234th day of the year, with 132 days remaining in 2008.

Fact of the Day: Hawaii

Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. The islands have an area of 6,459 square miles (16,729 square kilometers). The name is thought to derive from Hawaiki, the former name of Raiatea, one of the Society Islands, from which Polynesians sailed in voyaging canoes to settle after AD 1000.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Pius X, pope, St. Abraham of Smolensk, St. Sidonius Apollinaris, Saints Bonosus and Maximian, and Saints Cisellus and Camerinus.

Events

1680 - The Pueblo Indians drove the Spanish out and took possession of Santa Fe, NM.

1831 - Nat Turner, a former slave, led a violent insurrection in Virginia. He was later executed.

1841 - A patent for venetian blinds was issued to John Hampton.

1878 - The American Bar Association was formed by a group of lawyers, judges and law professors in Saratoga, NY.

1888 - The adding machine was patented by William Burroughs.

1901 - The Cadillac Motor Company was formed in Detroit, Michigan, named after the French explorer, Antoine Cadillac.

1911 - Leonardo da Vinci's painting, the "Mona Lisa," was stolen from the Louvre in Paris; it was recovered two years later.

1912 - Arthur R. Eldred became the first American boy to become an Eagle Scout. It is the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America.

1923 - In Kalamazoo, Michigan, an ordinance was passed forbidding dancers from gazing into the eyes of their partner.

1929 - The Chicago Cardinals traveled out of town for training camp. They were the first professional football team to do this.

1940 - Exiled Communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky died in Mexico City from wounds that had inflicted by an assassin.

1943 - Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been the last North American foothold held by the Japanese.

1945 - U.S. President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program that had shipped about $50 billion in aid to America's Allies during World War II.

1959 - Hawaii became the 50th state. U.S. President Eisenhower also issued the order for the 50 star flag.

1963 - In South Vietnam, martial law was declared. Army troops and police began to crackdown on the Buddhist anti-government protesters.

1971 - Laura Baugh, at the age of 16, won the United States Women's Amateur Golf tournament. She was the youngest winner in the history of the tournament.

1982 - A group of Palestinian guerrillas left Lebanon by ship under an evacuation plan mediated by the United States.

1983 - Philippine politician Benigno Simeon Aquino was assassinated as he deplaned in Manila.

1984 - Victoria Roche, a reserve outfielder, became the first girl to ever compete in a Little League World Series game.

1984 - Clint Eastwood was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1986 - In Cameroon, a nation in West Africa, toxic gas erupted from a volcanic lake. The gas killed more than 1,700 people.

1987 - A U.S. Marine was convicted for spying for the first time. Sergeant Clayton Lonetree was giving secrets to the KGB while working as a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He served eight years in a military prison.

1988 - An earthquake on the Nepal-India border killed over 1,000 people.

1989 - Voyager 2, a U.S. space probe, got close to the Neptune moon called Tritan.

1989 - In Columbia, The estates of drug lords were raided in a crackdown that occurred after the killing of a presidential candidate.

1991 - The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev ended. The uprising that led to the collapse was led by Russian federation President Boris Yeltsin.

1991 - Latvia declared independence.

1992 - Randall Weaver, a neo-Nazi leader, opened fire on U.S. marshals from his home in Idaho. Weaver surrendered 11 days later ending the standoff. During the standoff a deputy marshal, Weaver's wife and his son were killed.

1992 - NBC News fired Authur Kent two weeks after he refused an assignment to war-torn Croatia.

1993 - NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft. The fate of the spacecraft was unknown. The mission cost $980 million.

1994 - Ernesto Zedillo won the Mexican presidential election.

1995 - In Jerusalem, Israel, a bus bombing by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) killed four and wounded more than 100.

1995 - Nine people died in a plane crash in Georgia.

1996 - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 was signed by U.S. President Clinton. The act made it easier to obtain and keep health insurance.

1997 - Hudson Foods Inc. closed a plant in Nebraska after it had recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef that was potentially contaminated with E. coli 01557:H7. It was the largest food recall in U.S. history.

1997 - Afghanistan suspended its embassy operations in the United States.

1997 - Cicely Tyson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Samuel Bowers, a 73-year-old former Ku Klux Klan leader, was convicted in Hattiesburg, MS, of ordering a firebombing that killed civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer in 1966.

1998 - Wesley Snipes received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2002 - In Pakistan, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf unilaterally amended the Pakistani constitution. He extended his term in office and granted himself powers that included the right to dissolve parliament.

2003 - In Ghana, businessman Gyude Bryant was selected to oversee the two-year power-sharing accord between Liberia's rebels and the government. The accord was planned to guide the country out of 14 years of civil war.

2006 - Police raided the official residence of Israeli President Moshe Katsav as part of a sexual harassment investigation, seizing computers and documents. Israeli troops shot two Hezbollah guerrillas during a clash in the southern Lebanese village of Chamaa.

Births

1904 - (William) Count Basie, American bandleader, composer.

1906 - Fritz Freleng, American movie animator.

1936 - Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball Hall-of-Famer.

Deaths

1983 - Benigno Aquino, Philippine politician, assassinated.

[Rors]

On This Day: August 22

Today is Friday, August 22, 2008. This is the 235th day of the year, with 131 days remaining in 2008.


Fact of the Day: punctuation

Punctuation is the use of spacing, conventional signs, and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of texts. The word is derived from the Latin punctus 'point.' From the 15th-18th centuries the subject was known in English as pointing; and the term punctuation, first recorded in the middle of the 16th century, was reserved for the insertion of vowel points (marks placed near consonants to indicate preceding or following vowels) in Hebrew texts. The two words exchanged meanings between 1650-1750.


Holidays

Feast day of St. Timothy, St. Andrew of Fiesole, St. Sigfrid of Wearmouth, and St. John Kemble.


Events

1642 - The English Civil War began, between the supporters of Charles I and of Parliament, when the king raised his standard at Nottingham.

1762 - Ann Franklin became the first female editor of an American newspaper, the "Newport Mercury" (in Rhode Island).

1846 - The United States annexed New Mexico.

1851 - U.S.-built schooner America beat a fleet of Britain's finest ships in a race around England's Isle of Wight, in the first America's Cup.

1864 - The International Red Cross was founded by Swiss humanitarian Jean-Henri Dunant.

1902 - President Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to ride in an automobile, in Hartford, Connecticut.

1906 - The Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey began to manufacture the Victrola (record player).

1932 - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began its first experimental TV broadcast in England.

1945 - The Vietnam Conflict began when a team of Free French parachuted into southern Indochina in response to a successful coup by Communist guerrilla Ho Chi Minh.

1966 - The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), later renamed the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), was formed.

1968 - Pope Paul VI arrived in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of the first papal visit to Latin America.

1972 - Due to its racial policies, Rhodesia was asked to withdraw from the 20th Olympic Summer Games.

1973 - Henry Kissinger was named Secretary of State by U.S. President Nixon. Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year.

1984 - The last Volkswagen Rabbit rolled off the assembly line in New Stanton, PA.

1985 - 55 people were killed in a fire aboard a British Airtours charter jet on a runway in England.

1986 - Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million to settle a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.

1989 - Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panthers, was shot to death in Oakland, CA. Tyrone Robinson was later convicted and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison for the killing.

1989 - Nolan Ryan became the first major league pitcher to strike out 5000 batters. (MLB)

1990 - U.S. President Bush signed an order for calling reservists to aid in the build up of troops in the Persian Gulf.

1990 - The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait would not be closed under President Saddam Hussein's demand.

1990 - Angry smokers blocked a street in Moscow to protest the summer-long cigarette shortage.

1991 - It was announced by Yugoslavia that a truce ordered on August 7th with Croatia had collapsed.

1991 - Mikhail S. Gorbachev returned to Moscow after the collapse of the hard-liners' coup. On the same day he purged the men that had tried to oust him.

1992 - In Rostock, Germany, neo-Nazi violence broke out against foreigners.

1995 - Congressman Mel Reynolds of Illinois was convicted in Chicago of criminal sexual assault, sexual abuse, child pornography and obstruction of justice for having sex with a former campaign worker who had been underage at the time.

1996 - U.S. President Clinton signed legislation that ended guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanded work from recipients.

1998 - "The Howard Stern Radio Show" premiered on CBS to about 70% of the U.S.

1998 - Mark David Chapman said that he did not want any of the money that would be made from the sale of the signed "Double Fantasy" album that John Lennon signed for him the same day he was killed. Chapman was currently serving sentence for the December 8, 1980 murder.

2000 - It was announced that all 118 crewmembers aboard the Kursk submarine were dead. The Russian vessel had sunk on August 4.

2004 - In Oslo, Norway, a version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" and his work "Madonna" were stolen from the Munch Museum. This version of "The Scream," one of four different versions, was a tempera painting on board.



Lebanon Related Events

2005 - In Lebanon a bombing wounded five people in Beirut.
(AP, 8/23/05)


Births

1834 - Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, aeronautics pioneer.
1862 - Claude Debussy, French composer.
1880 - George Herriman, American cartoonist.
1893 - Dorothy Parker (Rothschild), American author, columnist.
1904 - Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China (1970s-1997).
1920 - Ray Bradbury, American science fiction writer.



Deaths

1922 - Michael Collins, Irish nationalist hero of the struggle for independence.
1989 - Huey P. Newton, American political activist and co-founder of the Black Panther Party shot to death in Oakland, California.

[Rors]

August 22, 1901

Automotive: Cadillac is launched

The Cadillac Company, named after eighteenth century French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, founder of the city of Detroit, was established on this day. Henry Leland, a former mechanic and precision machinist, founded the company that would come to be known as the maker of America's luxury car. The Cadillac reached its height of popularity during the 1950s. The Cadillac Debutante, which debuted at the Waldorf-Astoria, was based on the play The Solid Gold Cadillac. Cadillac sales decreased during the 1970s as the American car market experienced an influx of smaller imports, but luxury car sales, Cadillac included, have rebounded in recent years.


August 22, 1992

Disaster: Hurricane Andrew pounds Bahamas

Hurricane Andrew hits the Bahamas on this day in 1992. There and in South Florida, where it arrived two days later, the storm was responsible for the deaths of 26 people and an estimated $35 billion in property damage. Hurricane Andrew was so concentrated that it resembled a tornado in its effects.
In all, 25,000 homes, 8,000 businesses and 15,000 boats were lost to Hurricane Andrew. Even zoo animals were killed or pushed out of their homes. There was extensive reef damage and approximately $1 billion worth of crop losses. It took only 4 hours for Andrew to clear Florida and reach the Gulf of Mexico. Once there, it continued on to Louisiana, but, by that time, had lost considerable strength. Still, it spawned several tornadoes and retained hurricane status until August 26, when it was downgraded to a tropical storm.


Quote of the Day:
Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery.
- William Shakespeare

Song Quote:
What's the matter with the crowd I'm seeing?
"Don't you know that they're out of touch?"
Should I try to be a straight 'A' student?
"If you are then you think too much.
Don't you know about the new fashion honey?
All you need are looks and a whole lotta money."
It's the next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways
It's still rock and roll to me
- Billy Joel, It's Still Rock and Roll To Me

Quote about Music:
Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosphy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.
- Ludwig van Beethoven

[Rors]

On This Day: August 23

Today is Saturday, August 23, 2008. This is the 236th day of the year, with 130 days remaining in 2008.


Fact of the Day: Yuri Gagarin

"Yuri (or Yury) Gagarin was a 20th-century Russian explorer who became the first person to journey into space and to orbit the earth. Gagarin earned this honor after joining the air force and becoming known as a daring and skillful fighter pilot. His spaceship, Vostok I, was launched from a European desert and made it around the Earth in 1 hour and 48 minutes. Just seven years later, Gagarin was killed when testing a new jet trainer. Gagarin was honored by having his ashes buried in the Kremlin wall in Moscow's Red Square."


Holidays

Feast day of St. Rose of Lima, Saints Asterius and Claudius, St. Tydfil, St. Philip Benizi, and St. Eugene or Eoghan of Ardstraw.

Romania: National Day.


Events

1541 - Jacques Cartier landed near Quebec on his third voyage to North America.

1775 - King George III of England refused the American colonies' offer of peace and declared them in open rebellion.

1821 - After 11 years of war, Spain granted Mexican independence as a constitutional monarchy.

1839 - Hong Kong was taken by the British in a war with China.

1902 - Fanny Farmer, among the first to emphasize the relationship of diet to health, opened her School of Cookery in Boston.

1914 - Japan declared war on Germany in World War I.

1927 - Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian-American anarchists, accused of robbery and murder on April 15, 1920 were sent to the electric chair.

1944 - Romanian prime minister Ion Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael, paving the way for Romania to abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies.

1950 - Up to 77,000 members of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps were called involuntarily to active duty to fight the Korean War.

1962 - The first live TV program was relayed between the U.S. and Europe through the U.S. Telstar satellite.

1979 - Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defected while the Bolshoi Ballet was on tour in New York.

1989 - Yusuf Hawkins, a 16-year-old black teenager, was shot to death after he and his friends were confronted by white youths in a Brooklyn neighborhood.

1990 - President Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi state television with a group of Western detainees that he referred to as "guests." He told the group that they were being held "to prevent the scourge of war."

1992 - Hurricane Andrew hit the Bahamas with 120 mile per hour winds.

1998 - Protestors in Sudan carried a sign that bore the resemblance of Monica Lewinsky and the words "No War for Monika." The anti-U.S. demonstration was in Khartoum, Sudan.

1998 - Michael Jones, a 16-year old boy, was shot when he refused to drop a water gun that appeared real to police officers. In New York City it was illegal to carry to possess a toy gun that looks real or is painted black.

1998 - Boris Yeltsin dismissed the Russian government again.

1999 - Rescuers in Turkey found a young boy that had been buried in rubble from an earthquake for about a week.

1999 - Robert Bogucki was rescued after getting lost in the Great Sandy Desert of Australia on July 11. During the 43 day ordeal Bogucki lost 44 pounds.

2000 - Richard Hatch was revealed as the winning castaway on CBS' "Survivor." Hatch won $1,000,000 for his stay on the island of Pulau Tida in the South China Sea.

2005 - TANS Peru Flight 204 crashes near Pucallpa, Peru, killing 41.

2005 - Israeli forces evicted militant holdouts from two Jewish settlements, completing a historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.


Lebanon Related Events

1982 - The parliament of Lebanon elected Bashir Bemayel president. He was assassinated three weeks later.

2006 - Syria opposed deployment of an international force along its border to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in Lebanon "explosive." In southern Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed while they dismantled an unexploded missile. An Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded in southern Lebanon when their tank drove over a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)

2007 - A cluster bomb left over from last year's Hezbollah-Israel war exploded in southern Lebanon, killing a Lebanese mine-clearing expert and wounding three others who were trying to dismantle it.
(AP, 8/23/07)


Births

1754 - King Louis XVI of France.
1785 - Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer.
1852 - Arnold Toynbee, English economist, social reformer.
1912 - Gene Kelly, American dancer, choreographer, actor.
1932 - Mark Russell, an American political satirist/comedian.
1943 - Nelson DeMille, American novelist.
1946 - Keith Moon, English singer and drummer for the rock band The Who.
1963 - Kenny Wallace, American race car driver.
1978 - Kobe Bryant, American basketball player.


Deaths

1305 - Sir William Wallace, a Scottish knight who led his countrymen in resistance to English domination in the region, during periods of the Wars of Scottish Independence.
1926 - Rudolph Valentino, Italian-born American film actor.
1960 - Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist and collaborator with composer Richard Rogers.
1990 - David Rose, British-born American composer and orchestra leader.
1997 - John Kendrew, British molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
2006 - Maynard Ferguson, Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader.