On this day in history...

[Sirius]

On This Day: August 28

Today is Thursday, August 28, 2008. This is the 241st day of the year, with 125 days remaining in 2008.

Fact of the Day: volcano

"A volcano is an opening in the earth from which molten rock and gas erupts. The molten rock (magma) forms a hill or mountain around the opening and the burning gas, ash, and hot lava may explode out or pour down the sides. The explosion of a volcano is called an eruption and can do much damage, as seen in Pompeii and Washington state's Mount St. Helens. There are about 800 places in the world where volcanoes are active, including 80 below the sea. There are belts were there are volcanoes, including one large one circling the Pacific Ocean and others running east-west in Indonesia and the Mediterranean Sea. The materials deep underground move around and push up to the mouth of the volcano. The theory of plate tectonics says that huge plates of material making up the Earth's crust shift and volcanoes erupt where the plates meet and push together. Some can be dormant for years and then suddenly erupt. Others become extinct. Mauna Loa in Hawaii is the world's largest volcano. The study of volcanoes is called volcanology. Krakatoa, the Indonesian volcanic island that exploded in 1883, was heard 3000 miles away, created tidal waves 120 feet high, and hurled five cubic miles of earth fragments into the air - some to the height of 50 miles."

Holidays

Feast Day of St. Augustine of Hippo, S.t Alexander of Constantinople, St. Edmund Arrowsmith, St. Julian of Brioude, and St. Moses of Abyssinia.

Scotland: Lammas Term.

Events

1609 - Henry Hudson discovered Delaware Bay.

1917 - Ten suffragists were arrested when they picketed the White House.

1922 - The first-ever radio commercial aired on station WEAF in New York City, for the Queensboro Realty Company.

1963 - A peaceful civil rights rally took place in Washington, D.C. where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech to more than 200,000 people.

1968 - Police and anti-war demonstrators clashed in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president. In the convention's aftermath, a federal commission investigating the convention described the confrontation as a "police riot" and blamed Chicago Mayor Richard Daley for inciting his police to violence.

1983 - Israel’s PM Begin announced his intention to resign as fighting continued in Lebanon with no apparent end in sight.

1996 - The troubled 15-year marriage of Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially ended with the issuing of a divorce decree.

1997 - Four Israeli soldiers were killed in a fire caused by strafing from Israeli helicopters in southern Lebanon in a battle where 4 Amal guerrillas were also killed.

2000 - The New York Stock Exchange began listing the prices of seven stocks in dollars and cents; previously all stock was listed in fractions.

2004 - In Lebanon pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud's bid to stay in office three more years was assured in a dramatic about-face when political rival Prime Minister Rafik Hariri bowed to Syrian pressure and proposed a constitutional amendment allowing the head of state to extend his term.

2005 - An evacuation is ordered by New Orleans, Louisiana mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco as Hurricane Katrina moves closer to Louisiana.

Births

1749 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German author.

1774 - Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, first American-born saint.

1828 - Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist.

1877 - Charles Stewart Rolls, English motorist, aviator, founder of Rolls-Royce Ltd.

1908 - Roger Tory Peterson, American ornithologist, conservationist.

1917 - Jack Kirby (Born Jacob Kurtzberg), American comic book artist.

1924 - Janet Frame, New Zealand author.

1925 - Donald O'Connor (born Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor), American singer, dancer, and actor.

1938 - Paul Martin, 21st Prime Minister of Canada.

1965 - Shania Twain (born Eilleen Regina Edwards), Canadian singer.

1969 - Jack Black (born Thomas Jack Black, Jr.), American actor.

1969 - Jason Priestley, Canadian actor.

Deaths

1955 - Emmett Till, American civil rights movement icon.

1987 - John Huston, American film director.

1989 - Joseph Alsop, an American journalist and syndicated newspaper columnist from the 1930s through the 1970s.

2006 - Melvin Schwartz, American physicist, and Nobel Prize laureate.

[Sirius]

On This Day: August 29

This is the 242nd day of the year.

Fact of the Day: radio commercial

In 1922, the first radio commercial was broadcast on WEAF in New York. Broadcasters realized that radio could earn profits from the sale of advertising time. The first "spot" was sponsored by the Queensboro Realty Corporation of Jackson Heights to promote Hawthorne Court, a group of apartment buildings in Queens. This first commercial cost $100 for 10 minutes.

Holidays

Feast Day of St. Sabina of Rome, St. Edwold of Cerne, and St. Medericus or Merry.

Slovakia: National Day.

Events

1533 - Atahuallpa, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas, died by strangulation at the hands of Francisco Pizarro's Spanish conquistadors. His death marked the end of 300 years of Inca civilization.

1831 - Michael Faraday successfully demonstrated the first electrical transformer.

1835 - The city of Melbourne, Australia, was founded.

1839 - Fifty-three Africans were seized near modern-day Sierra Leone, taken to Cuba and sold as slaves. On this day, the slaves, led by Cinque, seized control of the ship, asking to be taken back to Africa. The crew secretly changed course and took them back to Long Island, where they stood trial.

1896 - The Chinese-American dish chop suey was invented in New York City by the chef to visiting Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang.

1966 - At Candlestick Park, San Francisco, the Beatles played their last live concert.

1991 - The Supreme Soviet voted to suspend formally all activities of the Communist Party.

1997 - At least 98 villagers are killed by the GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.

2003 - Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.

2004 - In Sidon, Lebanon, fighting in a Palestinian camp left 3 dead.

2005 - Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $115 billion in damage.

Births

1632 - John Locke, English philosopher.

1809 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, American physician, author, poet.

1915 - Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress.

1920 - Charlie "Bird" Parker, American jazz saxophonist.

1923 - Richard Attenborough, English film director.

1938 - Elliott Gould (born Elliott Goldstein), American actor.

1941 - Robin Leach, English television host.

1958 - Michael Jackson, American pop singer.

Deaths

1769 - Edmund Hoyle, English writer best known for his works on the rules and play of card games.

1877 - Brigham Young, American religious leader and second president of the Mormon church.

1891 - Pierre Lallement, inventor of the bicycle.

1931 - David T. Abercrombie, founder of Abercrombie and Fitch.

1982 - Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress.

1987 - Lee Marvin, American tough guy actor.

1990 - Manly Palmer Hall, Canadian writer.

[Venom]

23 September 1988: GMA became the Prime Minister .

[Nadnoud]

October 9th 2002:

تسليم مفتاح بيروت لغازي كنعان من قبل الرئيس رفيق الحريري

[Venom]

10-10-1979

I was born

[Nadnoud]

On October 9th, 1967, Ernesto "Che" Guevara was put to death by Bolivian soldiers, trained, equipped and guided by U.S. Green Beret and CIA operatives. His execution remains a historic and controversial event.





41 years now, RIP Che!
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

[Danny Z]

on this day to day in 2008 Iceland is on the way to become a private island, somebody please call hariri and inform Rustom that he might get the key to Reykjavik.

Country for sale: ICELAND - 99p start price no reserve on eBay, also, Other Wholesale Job Lots, Wholesale Job Lots (end time 17-Oct-08 21:40:51 BST)

[Nadnoud]

October 13th 1990 (Black Saturday)
On October 13, 1990 the Syrian Army savagely invaded the last remaining free regions of Lebanon, killed and mutilated hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and innocent citizens in cold blooded murder, kidnapped tens of soldiers, officers, clergymen, politicians and citizens, and erected a subservient and puppet regime fully controlled by its security intelligence headquarters in Damascus. Since then, we commemorate the painful event each year on October 13.

[Nadnoud]

21 October 1990: Dany Chamoun's assassination
On 21 October 1990, Chamoun, along with his German-born second wife Ingrid, and his two sons, Tarek (7) and Julian (5), were assassinated. Tamara Chamoun was able to hide in a closet with the housemaid during the assassination.