1498 On this third voyage to the New World  Christopher Columbus discovers Trinidad. http://www.tradewinds-co.com/ttpp/history.html 

1790 the 1^st U.S. patent is granted to Samuel Hopkins for a potash process. http://www.clpgh.org/locations/scitech/ptdl/pgh/samhopkins.html

1925 Unemployment Insurance Act passed in England. From an original article  http://www.nationarchive.com/Summaries/v120i3126_27.htm

1948 President Truman dedicates Idlewild Field (Kennedy Airport) in NY. http://www.queenspress.com/anniversary2001-jfkairport.htm 

1953 Dept of Health, Education & Welfare created. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/United-States-Department-of-Health-and-Human-Services

1966 Charles Whitman wounds 46 & kills 5 at University of Texas http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/charles_whitman.html

1970 Chet Huntley retires from NBC. No more "Good night, David. Good night Chet.” http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/huntleychet/huntleychet.htm 

 1972 Democratic VP candidate Thomas Eagleton  withdraws from the ticket with George McGovern following disclosure of   psychiatric treatment for depression. . http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_76.html 

1977 David Letterman first appears as a supporting player in the CBS series “The Starland Vocal Band Show” http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-4618

1977 Son of Sam shoots to death 20 year old Stacy Moskowitz.. It was his final victim after a year long shooting spree. http://www.phs.princeton.k12.oh.us/Departments/SocialScience/bsherlock/lawart2-9805.html 

 1954 Sam Sheppard  is arrested for the murder of his wife Marilyn. This case was the inspiration for The Fugitive TV series. http://www.crimelibrary.com/sheppard/sheppard.htm 

1987 Rockwell International awarded contract to build a 5th shuttle http://www.forbes.com/2003/02/01/cx_ah_0201space.html

1993 after over 80 years the U.S. coast guard discontinues monitoring morse code messages at 500 KHZ. Here’s a fond look back to my Boy Scout days. http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571562/Telegraph.html 

Birthdays

1912  Milton Friedman economist who won the Nobel memorial  prize in 1976. What’s that you ask.  http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/schools/nobel.htm and what does Paul Krugman have to say about Milton Friedman?  http://econ161.berkeley.edu/movable_type/2003_archives/001633.html

1958  Mark Cuban, Internet entrepeneur and basketball  team owner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Cuban

That was then, This was Now

We have come full circle.  365 days of The Daily almanac has been completed.   What Have I discovered?  History repeats itself.  We don’t learn. I feel very angry and very sad.  No wonder people don’t vote.  Yes cynicism breeds apathy,  which  only continues the circles of destruction and decadence.

Read the front page of yesterday’s New York Times.  “Audit finds U.S. hid actual costs of Iraq Projects.”   Then there was “Partisan  Divide on Iraq exceeds split on Vietnam.”   Below  the Fold included  “Disowning  Conservative Politics Evangelical Pastor rattles flock.”  Condi Rice’s quest for a Mid-east truce was pushed back to page 12 as no one took her mission as  anything more then buying time.     

So it’s been a year of stating the inevitable.  Haliburton and Bechtel’s no bid  defense contracts and the ensuing cover up of progress in Iraq is seemingly out in the open.

We are in a quagmire once again just like with Vietnam.  Not exactly being treated as liberators as the sectarian strife dissolves toward a full blown Civil War.

World War 3 or 4 is here says Newt Gingrich and Bill O’Reilly. Armageddon is coming which is depicted daily with the current “Crisis” in the Mid-east  The end of days is near, although some ministers are speaking out about taking the bible literally.

For a year these have been topics incessantly written about in so called “liberal” blogs like this one, yet now they are seemingly commonplace.  The Country,  if not the world is going to hell but I don’t see it as beginning of a thousand years of peace as do the end of the world crazies. Who knows what the  President really believes?  If he had it to do it all over again would he invade Iraq? . We continue to hear about “the evil doers.” Versus us the good guys,  who believe in cheap oil and the best Democracy money can buy.  Is this Compassionate Conservatism?  I don’t think so. Perhaps  Compassionate Theocracy. We must allow Israel to destroy innocent Lebanese civilians in order to save them from the terrorists. Just as we de-stabilized Iraq in order to…find WMD’s. Bring Democracy to Iraq, or fight them there, rather then here. You choose.

Which only goes to say, this Almanac/blog (as we know it)  is about to end.  Why repeat the obvious. The likes of The Daily Show has a better take on what’s happening in the world then the chattering of the “serious” news shows. Better to laugh then to Cry.

But a parting shot from The Smirking Chimp via our Westchester correspondent.

Could George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and maybe Alberto 

Gonzales all end up sucking poison gas?

That, apparently, is a concern now being taken seriously by Attorney 

General Gonzales, who is quietly working with senior White House 

officials and friendly members of Congress to do what murderous 

dictators in Chile, Argentina and other bloodthirsty
                                             regimes have done 

as their future in office began to look uncertain:
                                             pass laws exempting 

them from prosecution for murder.

 At issue is a growing legal threat of the president and other top 

administration officials facing prosecution for violations of the U.S. 

War Crimes statutes, which since 1996 have made violation of Geneva 

Chances are their strategy will work, at least in the U.S. But at least 

it's entertaining to watch. 

1733 Society of Freemasons opens first American lodge in Boston http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/freemasonry/

1839 Slave rebels, take over slave ship Amistad http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/timeline/amistad.html

1857 Economist Thorstein Veblen is born. He’s best known for "The theory of the Leisure Class." How often have you used the term "conspicuous consumption?" Well, he’s kind of the McCluhen of an earlier age The medium is the message. http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/vebleis7.html

1863 Lincoln issues his "eye for an eye" proclamation where he announced that a rebel POW will be shot for every black POW shot. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99sep/9909lincoln2.htm

1889 electronics engineer Vladimir Zworykin, is born. Who? He’s the father of Television and the inventor of the iconoscope and kinescope http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/zworykin.htm

1909 US Army accepts delivery of first military airplane http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/preww1/cof9.htm

1916 German saboteurs (allegedly) blow up a munitions plant on Black Tom Island, NJ http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Black-Tom-Explosion

1928 George Eastman demonstrates first color movie. "The Viking"
http://www.moah.org/exhibits/archives/movies/technology_development.html

1948 Professional wrestling premiers (NWA – National Wrestling Alliance) on prime-time network TV (DuMont) http://ejmas.com/jalt/2005jalt/jcsart_archer_0105.html here’s more on what was on the tube that year http://www.answers.com/topic/1948-in-television

1956 US motto "In God We Trust" authorized as the cold war heats up.http://www.skepticfiles.org/socialis/mottous.htm

1965 LBJ signs The Social Security Act. Medicare and Medicaid goes into effect following year http://www.cms.hhs.gov/about/history/carpen.asp

1973 Bruce Lee died from a cerebral edema in He developed the TV series "Kung Fu" but the role was given to David Carradine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee

1975 Former Teamster head Jimmy Hoffa disappears in Suburban Detroit. http://www.coverups.com/hoffa.htm

1990 George Steinbrenner is forced by Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign
as prinicipal partner of the NY Yankees http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Steinbrenner_George.html .

1990 The first Saturn automobile rolls off the assembly line http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Saturn_automobile

2003 In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Beetle

2006 World's longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC two.. The show aired for 42 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops

1818 Emily Bronte, English novelist wrote Wuthering Heights) http://www.bartleby.com/65/br/Bronte.html

1889 Vladimir Zworykin electronics engineer/inventor, father of TV http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Zworykin

1890-1975 Casey Stengel began his career as a Brooklyn Dodger and ended it as Mets manager. "You got to go broke 3 times in order to figure out how to make a living." A stengelism. http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/zworykin.htm

1947 Arnold Schwarzenegger Austria, body builder actor (Terminator, Governator) http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/actors/arnold-schwarzenegger/

The California heat wave is moving towards the East with temperatures expected to reach 100.

-----------------------

In the meantime I woke up this Sunday Morning to another bombing of Civilians in Lebanon in which 54 civilians were killed, including 34 children. A new term is in use which seems to be "criminalizing civilians." As an excuse to continue the bombing.in light of stiff resistance.

-----------------------------

Day 19. And so Secretary of State Rice heads back to the U.S. as she was told not to bother coming to Lebanon by the Lebanese President. after the bombing of Qana. Here’s more from an Israeli blog magazine One Jerusalem.com kind of like Huffington Post . Is it a turning point?

1836 Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe

1848 During the Irish Potato Famine and unsuccessful Nationalist revolt against the British takes place in Tipperary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Potato_Famine During WWI the song "A long way to Tipperary" became a favorite British Army song. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipperary

1890 Vincent Van Gogh, Post Impressionistic painter died . Here’s the basics with links. http://www.van-gogh-art.co.uk/artist/vangogh-biography.htm

1907 Sir Robert Baden-Powell founds the Boy Scouts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baden-Powell

1914 The first transcontinental phone link was made between NYC and San Francisco. "Watson come here , I want you." Sounds a bit like text messaging doesn’t it. http://www.att.com/history/nethistory/transcontinental.html

1920 the 1st transcontinental airmail flight is made from NY to San Francisco. Took 33 hours and 20 minutes. http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Government_Role/1918-1924/POL3.htm

1928 Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" is released http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=89284

1936 RCA shows the first close circuit TV program 40 minutes (dancing, film on locomotives, Bonwit Teller fashion show & monologue from Tobacco Road & comedy) http://www.cctv.org/cmrtimeline.htm#1930

1954 The fellowship of the Ring, the first part of The Lord of the Ring is published in the UK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings

1957 Jack Paar makes his debut as the host of The Tonight Show. He started out in Television as a game show host. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/paarjack/paarjack.htm

That same year the International Atomic Energy Commission is established. http://www.osti.gov/opennet/nsi_desc.html You now know that the AEC became the Energy Department in 1975. Here’s a site containing articles about the current Administrations energy policies. http://foi.missouri.edu/useenergypolicies/

1960 Richard Simon cofounder of Simon & Shuster, dies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_&_Schuster

1965 "Help" premiers, Queen Elizabeth attends http://beatleshelp.50megs.com/

1974Cass Elliot dies, formerly of the Mamas and Papas. http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/e/Cass%20Elliot/cass_elliot.htm

1976 the "Son of Sam" kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks

2005 A tenth planet is discovered. Code name Xena http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_UB313

1805-1859 Alexis de Tocqueville France, statesman/writer (Democracy in America) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville

1871 [Gregory Efimovich] Rasputin the mad Russian monk http://www.historywiz.com/historymakers/rasputin.htm

(1833-1945) Il Duce, a.k.a. Benito Mussolini has a birthday. Did it require a Fascist leader to make the Italian trains run on time? http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.htm and here’s a bit more on Duce’s rapid rise to power, and his final days. Quiz time. Do you know who Clare Petacci was? Hint; in the end, they hung out together. http://hvhs.nbed.nb.ca/mwornell/totalitarianism/SRooney_Mussolini.htm

1892-1984 William Powell was best known for The Thin Man series http://www.cyranos.ch/sppowe-e.htm but he began in silent films.

1906-1965 Actress Clara Bow The "It" girl defined the liberated woman of the 1920’s. No happy endings here however. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/cbow.html

 That was then, This was Now.

Israel rejects call for a 72 hour cease fire as Secretary of State Rice is about to return to the area to negotiate a multinational peace force after 4 UN personnel were killed.

On semi-related note, (Passion of Mohammed and Christ) a Muslim gunmen opened fire on a Jewish Centre in Seattle and Mel Gibson is arrested for a DUI.

---------------------

Extreme weather – 12 consecutive days of weather in three digits leaves 126 dead in California.

---------------------------

As large as Western Europe, the first democratic vote in Congo in 40 years is scheduled for Sunday. 17 thousand UN troops are patrolling to hopefully secure a safe election after a month long campaign. From the Bloggers news network.

The fiercely fought campaign began on June 29th and involved no less than 9,707 parliamentary candidates and 33 presidential candidates. Canvassing ended yesterday with a mass rally in support of the current president Joseph Kabila

------------------------

New Peruvian President takes office 16 years after his first term.

--------------------------

1540 and Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII’s chief minister is executed and Henry marries for the 5^th time http://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/cromwell.html

1586 Sir Thomas Harriot introduces potatoes to Europe from the Americas.http://www.nps.gov/fora/test/indcooking.htm

1655 Cyrano de Bergerac French dramatist/novelist, dies in Paris http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/bergerac.htm

1868 The 14^th amendment grants citizenship to ex slaves There was much debate at the time about reparations (40 acres and a mule) for the Freedmen .http://www.aframnews.com/archives/2002-09-04/dallas4.htm

1886 The Metric system becomes a legal measurement (but not mandatory) http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/dates.htm

1900 the hamburger is created by lunch wagon owner Louis Lassing in Connecticut. Actually there is some controversy over who actually created the hamburger. No, it doesn’t include Ray Kroc. http://www.dailycelebrations.com/052800.htm

1914 The Foxtrot 1st danced at New Amsterdam Roof Garden (NYC, by Harry Fox) http://www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/foxtrot.htm

1931 Congress makes the Star Spangled Banner our 2^nd national anthem. Here’s a conservative site where you can listen to the Anthem while you read the history. http://www.instantknowledgenews.com/starspangled.htm

1932 President Hoover evicts the bonus marchers from their encampment in Washington D.C. Here’s a reprint from History magazine promulgating Herbert Hoover’s point of view that the March was organized by the Communists and the crowd was made up of criminals and non-veterans who forced the army to use violence in order to maintain order. Sound familiar? http://www.thehistorynet.com/ahi/blhoover/index1.html

1942 Joseph Stalin issues Order number 227 in response to alarming  German advances into Russia.  Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so will be immediately killed. http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1613096

1943 Operation Gomorrah takes place which was the British bombing of Hamburg causing a firestorm which kills 42,000 German Civilians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Hamburg_in_World_War_II

1943 FDR announces end of coffee rationing in US http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1674.html

1945 US Army bomber crashes into 79th floor of Empire State Bldg, 14 die http://www.elevator-world.com/magazine/archive01/9603-002.htm

1951 Walt Disney's "Alice In Wonderland" released
http://disney.go.com/vault/archives/movies/alice/alice.html

1965 LBJ increases troop strength in Vietnam from 75 to 125,000. Sec. Of Defense McNamara says the conflict would be over in two years. On this day in 1990 U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie meets with Saddam Hussein. Did she give him the impression that we wouldn’t oppose his invasion of Kuwait? A week later he did invade Kuwait and the rest is history. http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/a/ap/april_glaspie.html

1971 Diane Arbus photographer, commits suicide at 48. Both her work and life was filled with controversy.  http://elsa.photo.net/arbus2.htm

1977 first oil flows through the Alaska pipeline. Here’s a brief history of pipelines http://www.pipeline101.com/History/timeline.html

2005  The Provisional Irish Republican Army (The IRA call an end to their thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/northern_ireland/2001/provisional_ira/2005.stm

Birthdays

1907 Earl Tupper was born. Can you guess his claim to fame. http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/tupper.htm hint; remember Katherine Ross’s Father’s advice to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, about going into "plastics."

1933 crooner Rudy Vallee (1901-1986) delivered the first singing telegram to himself on his own birthday. http://www.deadmedia.org/notes/14/147.html Actually it is George P. Oslin of Western Union who is the father of the singing telegram.

1944 Jim Davis cartoonist (Garfield the cat). Here’s an article from Slate. http://slate.msn.com/id/2102299/

That was then, This was Now

John Bolton began his Senate confirmation hearings yesterday. Fred Kaplan in Slate explains

1586 Sir Walter Raleigh brings 1st tobacco to England from Virginia http://www.answers.com/topic/sir-walter-raleigh

1794 Robespierre (1758-1794) is overthrown in France. No pension or golden parachute http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/robespierre.html

1866 Atlantic telegraph cable successfully laid (1,686 miles long) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable

1940 Bugs Bunny makes his official debut in the cartoon A Wild Hare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugs_Bunny

1940 Billboard magazine starts publishing bestseller charts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Magazine

1946 Gertrude Stein dies She was a writer, poet, patron of the arts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein

1953 the Korean War armistice is signed at Panmunjom. The BBC has the info to then and now. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2774931.stm

1954 Armistice divides Vietnam into North and South. http://www.bartleby.com/65/vi/VietnamW.html

1955 Chuck Berry’s Maybelline hits the R & B charts. http://library.thinkquest.org/18249/timeline/berry.shtml

1955 Austria regains full independence after 4-power occupation http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/a/au/austrian_state_treaty.htm

1965 President Johnson signed a bill requiring that cigarette manufacturers display the surgeon general warning that "Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health." Here’s a chronology of the tobacco wars from days of yore thru today. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/settlement/timelines/fullgovt.html

1974 on this date a house committee recommended Nixon be impeached. Here’s Represenative Barbara Jordan’s statement.http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordanjudiciarystatement.htm

1976 In Philadelphia, Air Force veteran Ray Brennan becomes the first person to die of Legionnaires disease. http://www.q-net.net.au/~legion/Legionnaires_Disease_Worlds_First_Outbreak.htm .

1976 8.2 Tangshan earthquake kills estimated 240,000 Chinese http://www.scieds.com/spinet/historical/china.html

1980 The Shah of Iran dies in Exile in Egypt. But that’s only the beginning of the story.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/etc/cron.html

1991 TV Guide publishes it's 2000th edition. First edition was April 1953. http://www.tvhistory.tv/tv_forecast.htm

1996 The Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta during the Olympic games kills one and injures 111. Remember Richard Jewell as the "person of interest", before they got onto Eric Rudolph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Olympic_Park_bombing

2003 Bob Hope dies at 100 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1277593

1824-1895 Alexandre Dumas French playwright/novelist (Camille)http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/adumas2.htm

1922 Norman Lear. TV producer. Did you know that All In The Family was inspired by an English comedy "Till Death Us Do Part?" http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/L/htmlL/learnorman/learnorman.htm

1932 Jerry Van Dyke was dropped by the comedy stork. Aside from being Dick’s brother, Jerry starred in My Mother the Car. Named by TV Guide the second worst show of all time. http://local.aaca.org/junior/starcars/mother.htm want to know the first worst? http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/07/12/entertainment/main515057.shtml

Andrea Yates found not guilty by reason of insanity for drowning her 5 children.

It’s faith day in Atlanta. Bring your Bible to the Ballgame.

---------------------------------

Lebanon: The meeting in Rome failed to achieve cease fire. Promises of humanitarian aid was given by Saudi Arabia.

1775 Benjamin Franklin becomes 1st Postmaster General. Here’s some of the history and where to go to find a zip code.  http://www.zip-codes.com/united_states_zip_codes_timeline.asp  

1788 Australia is settled by British Colonists,  quickly becomes a penal colony, in which the convicts were used to  build up  the colony.    http://www.can.net.au/articles/convicts/   

1803 The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey_Iron_Railway

1847 Liberia declares independence from  American Colonization.  http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/liberia/2399876

1848 1st Woman's Rights Convention (Senecca Falls NY) http://www.npg.si.edu/col/seneca/senfalls1.htm  

1878  In California, the poet outlaw  "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a  Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem  inside. http://www.sptddog.com/sotp/bbpo8.html

1952  Eva Peron dies in Buenos Ares at the age of 33 http://www.travelsur.net/facts133.htm  

1947 Truman signs the National Security Act creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Security Council.      

1948 U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_9981  

1948 1st black host of a network show-CBS' Bob Howard Show http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1770/First_TV_show_hosted_by_a_Black_man

1953 The next year in 1953 Fidel Castro attacks the Moncado  Garrison  (he failed)  which begins the revolt against Batista. http://www.weisbord.org/WhatsGoingOn.html    

1971 Apollo 15 launched to the Moon http://history.nasa.gov/apollo/apo15.html

1991  Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) is arrested in Florida, for exposing
           himself at an adult movie theater  http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/actors/pee-wee-herman/  

1995 Northern Exposure  ends its  run after 110 episodes  http://www.retroweb.com/nexp.html   A lot of famous

 Birthdays

1856-1950 George Bernard Shaw) Fabian Socialist, vegetarian, who  won the Nobel prize in 1925  http://www.nobel.se/literature/laureates/1925/shaw-bio.html   

1875-1961 Carl Jung  broke with Freud and went on to create his own theories of human behavior . Recall  the “collective unconscious?   http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/cjung.htm

1894-1963 Aldous Huxley   author of Brave New World and Doors of Perception.   http://somaweb.org/   

1928-1999  Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick Here’s a site containing original reviews of his works  http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/kubrick-index.html  It’s the Times but no registration or archive cost required

1929 Jean Shepherd humorist (Playboy satire Award 1966, 1967, 1969) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Shepherd   

1943 Mick Jagger Rolling Stone, never gathers moss   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Jagger   

1946 Helen Mirren [Eleni Mironova], England, actress (Prime Suspect)  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000545/   

That was then, This was Now

Five UN workers were killed yesterday as the fighting dragged on. According to Editor and Publisher some Israeli’s are beginning to worry about the invasion of Lebanon

Meanwhile, Joe Lieberman is campaigning hard against opposition. His allies (including some strange bedfellows) blame the bloggers. Joe Conason responds

More on Joe, (tell me it ain’t so,)  from our Westchester correspondent, excerpts of  a letter to the editor from a soldier currently serving in Afghanistan, to the Town  Times of Middlefield Ct.

As some readers may have heard, in January my battalion was issued 

Substandard  equipment for our deployment
                                             to Afghanistan. Originally, we 

were issued M-16s rather than M-4 carbines, rifles with shorter barrels and

collapsible butt stocks. As a politically active member of the 

battalion,  I began to get in touch with Representative DeLauro and Representative

Simmons, who both responded quickly and enthusiastically. Senator Dodd 

also responded quickly and gaveme prompts on
                                             how to further validate my 

request for weapons.  

However, I did not receive a response from Senator Lieberman's office. I

continued
                                             to leave messages for both him and his military aide, now 

senior counselor, Fred Downey, who represented Sen. Lieberman
                                             at the 

Battalion's send off ceremony
                                             on Jan. 4. After several messages, I finally received 

a return phone call. However, I was not met with the same
                                             enthusiasms

expressed
                                             by other legislators; I was immediately confronted with an

inquisition that seemed to have the purpose of dispelling the belief 

that the battalion was ill equipped. Rather
                                             than listen to our specific 

concerns,the "benefits" of the M16 were highlighted and the advantages of the M4 

were downplayed……

Lieberman has never hesitated to voice his support for the war, and 

recently voted against pulling troops out of Iraq, so where was he when over 500 

of his own constituents were being sent overseas
                                             to fight on behalf of his

great country?
                                             It appears the senator was so concerned with climbing 

the political ladder, he forget what his job is really about:
                                             the people.

1832 the first railroad accident takes place in the U.S. The "Granite Railway" http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/caribbean/puerto_rico/history.htm

1846 the U.S. Canadian Border is established. According to one Netizen, (and the use of a GPS) the border (covering 5,525 miles) along the 49^th parallel is actually 800 feet north of where it should be. Oops http://hotwired.wired.com/netizen/96/53/special4a.html

1846 Francis Parkman arrives at Ft. Laramie. http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/20/hh20d.htm

1898 we invade Puerto Rico during the Spanish Civil War. 1952 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is created. Now celebrated as Constitution Day) http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/caribbean/puerto_rico/history.htm

1846 Francis Parkman arrives at Ft. Laramie. http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/20/hh20d.htm

1868 the territory of Wyoming is created. Here’s what the territory looked like http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/photos.html

1894 The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_War_(1894-1895)

1917 Mata Hari is sentanced to die for treason. Was she really a spy or did she just have a weak spot for men in Uniforms. Find out at The History Channel http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=general&month=10272959&day=10272990

1944 First jet fighter used in combat (Messerschmitt 262). Too little, too late.http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Aerospace/Messerschmitt/Aero56.htm

1946 The U.S.S. Saratoga is sunk in the first underwater test of the effects of an Atomic Bomb on Naval Vessels, designated "operation crossroads." http://www.fact-index.com/o/op/operation_crossroads.html

The Baruch plan for control of Atomic testing is brought to the United Nations that same year. He coined the term "cold war." http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/B/Bernard-Baruch.htm

1946 1st bikini is shown at a Paris fashion show http://hicards.com/platinum/bizarre/5-30.html

1946 US detonates the fifth underwater A-bomb at Bikini atoll in the Pacific. Here’s a history http://www.bikiniatoll.com/history.html

1947 US Air Force, Navy & War Dept form US Dept of Defense. http://www.answers.com/topic/united-states-department-of-war

1956 The Andrea Dorea sinks off Nantucket. http://www.andreadoria.org

1965 Folk-rock begins, Dylan uses electricity at Newport Folk Festival http://campus.queens.edu/depts/english/dylan_goes_electric_the_newport_.htm

1969: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_Doctrine

1972 US health officials concede blacks were used as guinea pigs in 40 year syphillis experiment http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/

1973 George Harrison ends up paying $1,000,000 in taxes on his Bangladesh concert & album. http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/music/georgeharrison.htm

1975 the musical Chorus Line opens at the Schubert Theater. It was to become the longest running show on Broadway. http://www.musicals101.com/chorus1.htm

1978 Louise Brown, the 1^st test tube baby is born in England. Weighed 2.61 kq or 5.12 lbs. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/26/newsid_2499000/2499411.stm

1985 Spokeswoman for Rock Hudson confirmed he had AIDS. Which brings us to the topic of Plagues, Politics and Ronald Reagan. http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Jan2004/bronski0104.html

1990 US Ambassador April Glaspie tells Iraq, the US won't take sides in the Iraq-Kuwait dispute http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/ARTICLE5/april.html

1993 Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability and the Lebanese call Seven-Day War. http://www.answers.com/topic/operation-accountability

1994 Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel-Jordan_Treaty_of_Peace

2003 John Schlesinger, British film director (Midnight Cowboy) dies. (b. 1926) http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/schlesinger.html

1902 – 1983 Eric Hoffer longshoreman/author of The True Believer a discourse on mass movements. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

1927 Midge Decter anti –feminist author and wife of Norman Podhoretz. http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Midge_Decter

1935 Adnan Khashoggi Saudi billionaire, Iran-Contra arms dealer. http://www.nndb.com/people/321/000024249/

Miss Universe from Israel and Lebanon continued their face off last night in prime time. Oh, those exploding bathing suites. The Huffington Post has a section on the most recent version of chaos in the Middle East which someone likened to Europe’s Hundred Years war.

Oh, the winner Of the Miss Universe contest was Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza, whose reign got off to a rocky start when she passed out shortly after winning the crown.

1701 the French land at the site of Detroit. Here’s a look at the early history of Motor City. http://www.geo.msu.edu/geo333/Detroit_history.html

1704 Great Britain takes Gibralter from Spain http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/spain/gib17041789.html

1847 After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into what would become Salt Lake City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Lake_City,_Utah

1866 Tennessee becomes first confederate state to be readmitted into the Union. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee

1877 1st time federal troops are used to put down (railroad )strikers. Here’s a Union timeline. http://www.providence.edu/polisci/students/labor/labor_timeline_1806-present.html

1911 Hiram Bingham III rediscovers Machu Picchu "the lost city" of the Incas http://www.tylwythteg.com/lostcity/lostcity.html 1935 The dust bowl heat wave reaches its peak with temperatures to 109°F In Chicago. http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Cunfer.DustBowl

1948 Soviets blockades Berlin from the west http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX49.html

1950 V-2/WAC Corporal rocket launch; The first launch from Cape Canaveral http://www.spaceline.org/capehistory.html

1952 Truman settles the 53 day steel strike. The war at home. http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/korea/pierpaoli.html

1956 At New York’s Copacabana Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show which began July 25, 1946 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copacabana_(nightclub)

1959 Remember "The Kitchen Debate" between Nixon and Kruschev http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2368397.stm

1963 16 year old Billy Clinton shook hands with JFK in the Rose garden, which figured prominently in his 1992 presidential campaign. Here’s a spin on the spin. http://zena.secureforum.com/Znet/zmag/articles/SolomonSept97.htm And here’s more on the Clinton Administration, or the people who hated him. http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/presidents/bill-clinton/

1965 Casey Stengel resigns as manager of the NY Mets http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/Stengel_Casey.html

1968 Robert F. Kennedy was buried. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy

1969 Muhammad Ali is convicted for refusing induction in US Army on appeal http://www.aavw.org/protest/homepage_ali.html

1984 a nine year old girl’s murder put an innocent man in jail. Here’s the history channel case study of justice gone wrong http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?month=10272959&day=10272989&cat=10272943 then check out the Innocence Project As of June 19th 2004, 144 men have been exonerated through DNA forensics. http://www.innocenceproject.org/

1987 IBM-PC DOS Version 3.3 (updated) released http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/M/MS/MS-DOS4.htm

1783-1830 Simon Bolivar freed 6 Latin American republics from Spanish rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Bolivar

1886 –1965 Junichiro Tanizaki Japanese novelist whose writings are characterized by eroticism & irony. Wrote The Tattooer; Some Prefer Nettles; The Makioka Sisters. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/tanizaki.htm

1900- 1948 Zelda Fitzgerald wife of the guy who wrote The Great Gatsby. http://www.poprocks.com/zelda.htm

1916-1986 John D. Macdonald American novelist, (Travis McGee) http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jdmacd.htm

1920 – 1998 Bella Abzug (Savitzky) was the first Jewish woman elected to congress . http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/babzug.html

That was then, This was now.

Monday, Monday. The weather has turned cooler which is a small consolation to the 4000 Queens residents who are still without power after 7 days.

--------------------------------

Condi Rice stopped in Beirut, Lebanon on her way to Rome in what was characterized as a surprise visit. Why? Saudi Arabia and other moderate leaders are feeling heat from the Arab Street, which puts pressure on Bush to do something about the demolition of Lebanon. Although she told reporters she was there to help set up a "humanitarian corridor" for relief supplies. Lebanese casualties are put at 380. A ten to 1 ratio to that of Israel.

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Comments from some young Isreali’s on the BBC. "This is like the 100 years war in Europe" William F. Buckley was interviewed by CBS this weekend. .

"If you had a European prime minister who experienced what we've experienced it would be expected that he would retire or resign," Buckley says. Asked if the Bush administration has been distracted by Iraq, Buckley says "I think it has been engulfed by Iraq, by which I mean no other subject interests anybody other than Iraq... The continued tumult in Iraq has overwhelmed what perspectives one might otherwise have entertained with respect to, well, other parts of the Middle East with respect to Iran in particular."

1880 1st commercial hydroelectric power planet begins, Grand Rapids, Michigan http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_lester_pelton.htm

1904 the ice cream cone was invented. Ever hear of a Zalabia ? Here’s how it happened. http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story025.htm

1920 Kenya becomes a British crown colony. Here’s a capsule history http://www.africanet.com/africanet/country/kenya/history.htm

1947 1st (US Navy) air squadron of jets, Quonset Point, RI http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/fh-1.htm

1948 Progressive Party convention nominates Henry Wallace for President. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_1948_%28United_States%29

1952 the Egyptian Monarchy is over thrown. Here’s how the monarchy came into existence. Hint - maintain British control of the region. http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast/1300/Spoils.asp And for those into Monarchies. http://www.angelfire.com/in3/theodore/monfacts/monguide.html

1958 1st 4 women named to peerage in House of Lords. From the BBC that day. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/30/newsid_3116000/3116144.stm and here’s more history http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/UKhtmls/RecordsUK.htm#peers

1967 Five days of rioting begins in Detroit. 7000 are arrested and 43 people die. Here’s their individual stories. http://www.geocities.com/michdetroit/riot1967.html This is the date of what’s come to be called "the smoking gun" transcript between Nixon and H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office between. 10:04 to 11:39 A.M. http://www.totse.com/en/politics/nixon/165569.html

1968 PLO's 1st hijacking of an El Al plane http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFLP

1968 Race riot in Cleveland, 11 including 3 cops killed. It was a long hot summer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_riots

1982 Vic Morrow is killed during the filming Twilight Zone, The Movie. http://www.aarrgghh.com/no_way/twZone.htm So were two child actors.

1982 The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling by 1985-86.

1984 Vanessa Williams, 1st black Miss America, resigns due to posing nude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Lynn_Williams

1888-1959 Raymond Chandler crime novelist (Philip Marlowe) creator of the hard boiled genre http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rchandle.htm

1892-1975 Haile Selassie emperor of Ethiopia (1930-74) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie

1893-1984 Karl Menninger psychiatrist (Menninger Clinic) http://www.menningerclinic.com/about/early-history.htm#KarlMenninger

1894-1975 Arthur Treacher England, announcer (Merv Griffin Show) and fish & Chips guy http://www.answers.com/topic/arthur-treacher-s

1919-1999 Pee Wee (Harold Henry) Reese Brooklyn Dodger Shortstop http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/reese_pee_wee.htm

1947 Don Imus one of the first "shock jock" radio hosts (IMUS in the Morning) http://www.answers.com/topic/don-imus

Thom Hartman on how to beat the conservatives at their own radio game. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0517-04.htm

1973 Monica Lewinsky was born. Not much left to say so here’s the jokes we endured from late night television. http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/zippergate/a/blmonicajokes.htm

A long hot summer and we still have over a month to go. St. Louis declares a state of emergency from severe storms. The Pacific Northwest is experiencing record heat and in Queens 100,000 New Yorkers are in the dark with no power, as humidity and temperatures rise. Extreme weather means heat waves, flooding, draught, and increasingly devastating hurricanes. In July 2003 (Before Al Gores’s An Inconvenient Truth, or Katrina) the World Meteorological Association released a report

For keeping current http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/extremes.html

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More bombs drop on Lebanon and Rockets reign on Israel as the last of the evacuees are about to leave Lebanon. Here’s the latest from the BBC

1587 Colony of Roanoke is re-established on an island off of North Carolina. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Roanoke

1686 City of Albany, NY is chartered http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/charter.html

1796 Cleveland, Ohio, founded by General Moses Cleveland Here’s an excerpt of his autobiography: http://www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/C/Clevelnd.html

George Mendel (1822-1884.) was a Monk who discovered the laws of heredity. His results were published in 1866, but overlooked until 1900. http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/mendel_1.htm

1826 Giuseppe Piazzi discoverer of 1st asteroid, dies http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/asteroids.html

1890 Rose Kennedy was born and lived to be 103.Here’s some of major events of the century in which she lived. http://www.decades.com/ByDecade/1890-1899/3.htm and here’s something about Rose herself written by a girls high school student in Australia. Sometimes foreigners see us more clearly then we see ourselves. http://members.ozemail.com.au/~mghslib/projects/stwh09.html

1908 Albert Fisher opens up the Fisher body company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_Body

1933 Wiley Post completed the first round the world solo flight in 7days, 18 hours and 45 minutes. Two years later he wouldn’t be so lucky. http://www.newsday.com/other/special/ny-ihny0730story.htmlstory

1934 John Dillinger is shot dead in a Chicago movie theater. A folk hero to some, as his gang destroyed mortgage records of most of the banks they it. http://www.crimelibrary.com/americana/dillinger/dillingermain.htm

1942 Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/he05n27.htm

1946 The Irgun bombs the King David Hotel the British headquarters in Jerusalem killing 90. Who says terrorism doesn’t work. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2277717,00.html It’s still controversial today.

1991 Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested after police find remains of 11 victims in his Milwaukee apartment. Here’s a site dedicated to mugshots. http://www.mugshots.com/Criminal/psychos/Jeffrey+Dahmer.htm

Also in 1991 Cordele, Georgia won (self proclaimed) Watermelon Capitol of the world. Every country is seemingly known as the capital of something or another. Can you guess the Bagel capitol? No it’s not New York. Click below to find out. http://home.schule.at/teacher/website/vbs_myEurope_spring_WorldCapital.htm#United_States

2005 The Brazilian Jean Charles DeMenezes is murdered by the police in search of the London bombers. Here’s more on the July 21^st 2005 London bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21_July_2005_London_bombings

Also the last Buick LaSabre rolls of the assembly line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick_Lesabre

1849-1887 Emma Lazarus poet ("The New Colossus"-base of Statue of Liberty) http://myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=e_lazarus

1882-1967 Edward Hopper US realist painter (House by the Railroad)http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/hopper_edward.html

1898 –1976 Alexander Calder sculptor (mobiles, stabileshttp://www.sfmoma.org/espace/calder/calder_intro.html

1908- 1974 Amy Vanderbilt authority on etiquette (Complete Book of Etiquette) An updated version recently came out. http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2002/05/29/etiquette/

1948 S.E. Hinton, American author http://www.answers.com/topic/s-e-hinton

Cursor has the latest news on the current Mideast black hole of violence.

1588 English defeat the Spanish armada in the largest battle of the Anglo-Spanish War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada  

1796 Scottish Poet Robert Burns dies. For his works online http://www.robertburns.org/works/ his biography http://www.robertburns.org/links.shtml#Anchor-Robert-47857

1865 In the market square of Springfield, Missouri Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first true western showdown. http://history.missouristate.edu/FTMiller/LocalHistory/Wild%20Bill/HolcombeShootout.htm

1873 today is the date of the first successful Post Civil War train robbery. Who is Jesse James? http://www.historynet.com/we/bjamesgang/  

1930 US Veterans Administration established http://www.answers.com/topic/united-states-department-of-veterans-affairs  

1931 CBS’s New York City station begins broadcasting the first regular seven days a week schedule in the U. S. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/columbiabroa/columbiabroa.htm However Radio was king http://www.old-time.com/halper/halper31.html

1949 Senate ratifies North Atlantic Treaty by a vote of 82-13 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO  

1954 France agrees to independence of North and South Vietnam. Remember the Geneva treaty and the 17^th parallel ? Take this history quiz and find out how much you really know about the origins of this country’s longest war. http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072417552/student_view0/chapter1/multiple_choice_quiz.html  

1954 The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North and South. Beginning of the first Vietnam war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conference_(1954)

1957 Bernard Spooner US inventor of bulletproof jacket, dies .I couldn’t find much on him but on flak jackets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletproof_vest  

1959 the 1^st nuclear powered merchant ship, the Savannah is launched. http://www.radiationworks.com/NSSavannah.htm  

1961 Gus Grissom piloting the Mercury Redstone 4 capsule becomes second American to go into suborbital space http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/history/mercury/mercury.htm

1963 Vee Jay records releases "Introducing the Beatles" an album virtually ignored by U.S. record buyers. http://www.rarebeatles.com/photospg/adback.htm  

1969 Neil Armstrong "allegedly" steps on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT) Here’s an interview conducted by Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley for an oral history in 2001. Pdf. Required. Some believe the Apollo mission (and the moon walk) was a hoax. http://www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.html

 1969 Russia's Luna 15 impacts moon after 52 lunar orbits. http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0196.shtml  

1972 In New York, 57 murders occur in 24 hours. Here’s more on the NYC crime rate between 1960 and 2000 http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm  

1972 In Ireland it’s Bloody Friday. The Provisional Irish Republican Army sets off 22 explosions around Northern Ireland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Friday

1976 First outbreak of "Legionnaire's Disease" kills 29 in Philadelphia http://www.ehs.wustl.edu/Topic/legionairres.htm  

1981 Israel attacks an Iraqi French-built reactor in Iraq. I suppose this can now be perceived as the first pre-emptive strike against WMD’s. http://www.ssc.upenn.edu/polisci/psci150/modules/pro/case_study1.htm  

1984 is the first documented case of a robot killing a human. Here’s an overview of Robot’s in fact and Science fiction. http://www.betterhumans.com/Resources/Encyclopedia/article.aspx?articleID=2002-09-08-1  

1989 Greg LeMond (US) wins Tour de France in fastest time. Won by 8 seconds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France  

1997 The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 200 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Ironsides

Birthdays

1816-1899 Paul, Julius Baron von Reuter is born. He founded Reuters News service. http://about.reuters.com/aboutus/history/innovation.asp  

1899-1961 Ernest Hemmingway Oak Park, for whom the bell tolled... (Nobel 1954) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Ironsides

1911-1980 Marshall McLuhan Coined the phrase "The medium is the message" as well as "The Global Village". Here’s one view of his work in relation to the world wide web. http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/lec/lecmedium.htm 1 

1947 Cat Stevens, now known as (Yusuf Islam). Remember Peace Train? Here’s his conversion, in his own words. http://www.iiie.net/Brochures/Brochure-17.html  

1952 Robin Williams has a birthday. Not an easy task, making the transition from TV space alien (Mork) to movie star. No relation to Vanessa http://www.ratz.com/robin/toc.html Okay here’s the famous one. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800013042/bio

Meanwhile in Iraq. Remember Iraq? Six thousand Iraqi’s have been killed in the last 2 months. The word Civil War (full blown) is creeping into more news stories.

1712 the riot act takes effect in Britain. (unlawful assembly for groups over 12) Was not officially repealed until 1973 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_Act

1859 the 1^st admission fee (fifty cents)  is charged at a baseball game. Here is a site for  baseball firsts. http://home.comcast.net/~cartwrightsrules1845/wsb/html/view.cgi-html2.html--SiteID-325579.html  

1877 Rioting in Baltimore MD by Railroad workers is put down by the State Miliitia resulting in nine deaths. http://www.explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=652

1932 In  Washington D.C., police fire tear gas on World War I veterans part of the Bunus Expeditionary Force  who attempt to march to the  White House http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Expeditionary_Force

1940 Billboard magazine published its first comprehensive singles record chart.  Click here to find out who was the first number one and how the numbers game works. Okay, it was Tommy Dorsey  http://home.planet.nl/~haan0654/hot100.htm  and his orchestra  playing “I’ll never smile again.” 

1944 German generals fail to kill Hitler in E. Prussia. Hitler lives another 9 months. In that time more Germans are killed then in the previous 59. Here’s an article in Slate that looks at the so called “Wolf’s Lair” bomb plot as well as other  failed attempts.  http://slate.msn.com/id/2982/ 

1948  Twelve leaders of the Communist Party USA are indicted under the Smith act (alien registration act) including William Z. Foster and Gus Hall.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA

1949 Israel's 19 month war of independence ends by signing a truce with Syria.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab-Israeli_War

1950 "Arthur Murray’s Dance Party" premiers on ABC TV (later DuMont, CBS, NBC)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arthur_Murray_Party

1951 Abdullah Ibn Hussein, Jordan’s king is assassinated   in Jerusalem.

 http://www.arab.de/arabinfo/jordanhis.htm  

1964 1st surfin' record to go #1-Jan & Dean's "Surf City"

 http://www.jananddeanstory.com/

1965 Bob Dylan’s, “Like a Rolling Stone” is released . It’s  Dylan’s first #1 hit.  http://bobdylan.com/songs/rolling.html

1968 Iron Butterfly’s Inna Gdda Da Vida” enters the pop chart. They’re still around.http://www.ironbutterfly.com/

1973 The United States Senate passes the War Powers Act. In order to give Congress some control over the executive Branch.   Didn’t work too well in Iraq 03. http://www.milnet.com/warpower.htm

1974 Turkey invades Cyprus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus

1976 US Viking 1 lands on Mars at Chryse Planitia, 1st Martian landing

 http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/viking.html

1983 The Israeli cabinet  votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to remain in southern Lebanon  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon

1984 Vanessa Williams, the first black Miss America  was asked to resign because of nude photo’s  in Penthouse. She  went on to prove she was more then a pretty smile in a bathing suit http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001853/  

1987 President Reagan   signs legislation, Public Law 100-75, designating August 3^rd "International Special Olympics Day" http://specialolympics.villanova.edu/about/soi/history.htm

1990 Justice William Brennan resigns from the Supreme Court after 36 years

http://www.answers.com/topic/william-j-brennan

1999 The Falun Gong  is officially banned and defined as an "evil cult”  (xiejiao) by Chinese government, and a large-scale persecution of its practitioners is launched. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong

Birthdays

1890-1955  Theda Bara  American actress was one of america’s first sex symbols http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theda_Bara

1938 Diane Rigg (Mrs. Peele from The Avengers)  Did you know who originated the role? Hint. She went on to play  Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. http://www.tvacres.com/spies.htm

1939 Judy Chicago [Cohen], Chicago, feminist artist (The Dinner Party)

for background click here http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/jchicago.html for visuals

http://209.196.169.71/

1947 Carlos Santana musician (evil ways)  http://www.gale.com/free_resources/chh/bio/santana_c.htm

1953 Thomas Friedman International affairs Journalist for the New York Times. Is the Earth Flat? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Friedman

That was then, This was Now

In 1949 Israel and Syria signed a truce. In n 1974 Turkey occupies Cyprus, Today,  Cyprus is  the country that the majority of  foreigners (164,000) are being evacuated  to as Lebanon is torn to shreds.  

So The United States is giving Israel a week to take down or diminish Hazballah before pressuring for a cease fire .  By then the Administration fears the bombing will be perceived  as collective punishment towards innocent Lebanonese and might bring down the government we’ve been praising. .  Ah, Real Politick. .  

Here’s a take on the Middle East Conflagration by Ron Kall of Oped News.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kall_2c_ro_060719_casting_blame__2c_find.htm

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President Bush will address the NAACP for the first time since becoming President. Why?  According to CNN

1848 and the first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca Falls NY. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Senecafalls.html

1870 France declares war on Prussia; the Franco-Prussian war begins http://209.10.134.179/65/fr/FrancoPr.html

1875 Emma Abbott, a floating hospital for sick kids, makes trial trip, NYC http://www.mcny.org/collections/painting/pttcat34.htm

1877 1st Wimbledon tennis championships held http://www.cliffrichardtennis.org/planet_tennis/history.htm#anchor_wimbledon

1880 The San Francisco Public Library allows patrons to borrow books. Here’s a look back at the inception of the public library system and the lending of books. http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/kann/personalities.html

1913 Billboard publishes earliest known "Last Week's 10 Best Sellers
among Popular Songs" Malinda's Wedding Day is #1 Here’s a media timeline http://www.mediahistory.umn.edu/time/1910s.html and more on music publishing http://www.musesmuse.com/columnistsgreylogs/archives/00001088.html

1941 1st US Army flying school for black cadets dedicted (Tuskegee Ala) http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airoverview.htm

1941 British PM Winston Churchill launched his "V for Victory" campaign But what about the V sign in history? http://www.answers.com/topic/v-sign

1958 Robert Earl Hughes dies at the age of 32. He weighed 473 kg. That’s, 1,041 lbs. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=48481

1961 the first in-flight movie is shown on TWA. Here’s more, including the name of the film http://www.waea.org/ife.htm

1965 Shooting begins on Star Trek 2nd pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_no_man_has_gone_before

1966 21 year old Mia Farrow marries 50 year old Frank Sinatra. Referred to as "the odd couple." http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1605403,00.html

1979 The Nicaraguan capital of Managua falls to Sandanista Guerrillas two days after Somoza flees the country. He was assassinated the next year. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1225283.stm

1982 David S Dodge becomes the 1st American hostage in Lebanon . Here’s the context http://www.ghazi.de/security.html

1984 Geraldine A Ferraro, (Rep-D-NY), won Democratic VP nomination http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraldine_Ferraro

1988 Saddam releases chemical attacks on Kurdish villages. This commentary from the Kurdistan Observer on how little was said or done at the time. http://home.cogeco.ca/~kurdistanobserver/2-7-02-88-gassing-still-killing.html

1990 Cincinnati Red Pete Rose is sentence to 5 months for tax evasion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Rose

(1814-1862) Samuel Colt inventor of the Colt Revolver and America’s first great munitions maker. At his funeral they even closed the armory so his workers could attend http://www.ctheritage.org/encyclopedia/topicalsurveys/colt.htm

1834 –1917 Edgar Degas France, impressionist painter (Bouquet) http://www.artchive.com/artchive/D/degas.html

1865 is the birthday of Charles Horace Mayo, surgeon and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic. Their website contains good patient information links. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayo_Clinic If this isn’t enough http://www.electricscotland.com/history/today/0719.htm

1898-1979 Herbert Marcuse Berlin, communist philosopher (One-Dimensional Man) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse

1938 Vikki Carr Tx, singer (Let it Please Be Him) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikki_Carr

So what’s taking so long to evacuate Americans stranded in Lebanon. And what’s this thing about Promissory notes. Pay to Play in Lebanon, State Department style.

News break - Those fees were waived shortly after the press got wind of the story.

---------------------

And what about the Neoconservative Ideologues who thinks its time to strike in Iran and Syria because we’re losing in Iraq. The talk about World War III is more then hysterics. The endless war on terrorism is great during election years. Unless the idea of the Rapture growing near is behind some of the talking points. Cursor is carrying the story and more from the region.

Bush personally blocked a review of NSA wiretapping according to AG Gonzales.

We’re about to have our first Veto by the President. It’s on Stem cell Bill.

64 Great Fire of Rome begins. Did Nero fiddle as Rome burned? http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_rome/clues.html

1610 Master painter of street life, Caravaggio, dies.http://gallery.euroweb.hu/bio/c/caravagg/biograph.html

1816 English novelist Jane Austen Dies http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jausten.htm

1872 Britain introduces secret ballot voting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_ballot

1889 Horatio Alger rags to riches author, dies in Natick Massachusetts at the age of 65. He had a varied interest in young boys. http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/horatioalgerjr.html Here’s a satire by Mark Twain. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4935/

1925 Adolph Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf

1936 Franco leads revolt against The Spanish Republic, beginning the Spanish Civil War. Here’s an account from the perspective of the Lincoln Brigade, 2800 U.S. volunteers who went to Spain to fight Fascism http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/Prelude07.html

1947 President Truman signs the Presidential Succession act into law. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Presidential_Succession_Act.htm

1955 First electric power generated from atomic energy sold commercially. Utah Power and Light lit up Arco, Idaho.http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/time_machine/1950ce-1960ce.html

1960 Baseball's NL votes to add Houston & NY franchises. Yes, the Mets and Colt 45’s. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/dugout0l.shtml

1964 Race riot in Harlem (NYC); riots spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bkln) http://www.rotten.com/library/history/racism/race-riots/ and here’s an interesting look back at those events from the perspective of black reporters.

http://www.maynardije.org/news/features/caldwell/Chapter9/

1968 Intel Incorporates. Here’s a history of the semi-conductor industry. http://www.sia-online.org/abt_history.cfm

1969 Remember Mary Jo Kopechne and the car going over the Chappaquiddick Bridge? Oh, those Kennedy’s. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKkopechne.htm

1969 Joe Namath agrees to sell interest in Bachelors 3, to stay in NFL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Namath

1974 The Nixon’s Justice department announces that it has ordered John Lennon out of the U.S. due to a 1968 pot conviction in Britain. http://www.instantkarma.com/fbideport.html

1984, the worst one day massacre in the United States takes place (up to then) when twenty people are shot in a McDonald’s in San Ysidro, CA by an out of work security guard. His mother blamed it on having eaten too many Chicken McNuggets. Remember the twinkies defense? http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_361.html

1986 the world gets the first look at the sunken remains of the Titanic. http://www.euronet.nl/users/keesree/discover.htm

1989 Rebecca Schaeffer actress (My Sister Sam) is shot by a fan at 21. Leads to the passage of the first anti-stalking law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Schaeffer If you’re being stalked http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs14-stk.htm

1811-1863 William Makepeace Thackeray, Victorian novelist (Vanity Fair) http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/wmthacke.htm

1894-1940 Isaac Babel Ukranian writer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Babel

1906- 1963 Clifford Odets US, dramatist (1961 Award of Merit-Golden Boy) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Odets

1939- 2005 Hunter S Thompson gonzo journalist (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson

1941 Martha Reeves Detroit Mich, singer (& the Vandellas-Dancing in St) http://www.history-of-rock.com/vandellas.htm

The bombings continue in Lebanon as the evacuation of foreigners speed up. Meanwhile, I stumbled across a fine article via the Daily Kos on media coverage of the blogosphere concerning Gloria Borger of US News and World report on Joe Lieberman being challenged for his senate seat in Connecticut.

1841 British humor magazine "Punch" 1st published http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jpunch.htm

1861 Congress authorizes paper money known as “demand notes”.

http://www.ronscurrency.com/rhist.htm

1862 US army authorized to accept blacks as laborers

1938 Douglas (wrong way) Corrigan leaves New York for Los Angles. Twenty eight hours  later he lands in Dublin, Ireland. Did he really run for the wrong goal line? It’s doubtful.  http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/corrigan/EX16.htm 

1941 Joe DiMaggio’s  hitting streak ends at 56 games, by Cleveland Indian pitchers, Al Smith & Jim Bagby http://www.espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/DiMaggio_Joe.html

1945 Truman , Stalin and Churchill meet at Potsdam.. What did Truman really tell Stalin about the A bomb and what part did it play in the cold war? . http://www.dannen.com/decision/potsdam.html 

1948 Proclamation of the constitution of the Republic of (South) Korea http://www.answers.com/topic/history-of-south-korea

1954 1st major league game where majority of team is black (Dodgers)

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/firsts/first8.shtml  and the entire team roster.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=1954&t=BRO

1954 Construction begins on Disneyland. In Orange County California.  Ah, the wide world of Disney. http://www.wordiq.com/definition/The_Walt_Disney_Company   It opens in  1955 and had 161,657 visitors the first week. Admission was $1.00 for adults .50 for children.

1955 Arco, Idaho becomes 1st US city lit by nuclear power (BORAX Facilities)

http://nuclear.inl.gov/contributions.shtml

1959 Billy Holiday dies in a  NYC hospital while under arrest for narcotics possession. http://www.billieholiaycircle.freeserve.co.uk/   She was  44.  Here’s a great Jazz timeline. http://www.absolisrael.net/jazzmama/jazz_history.html  

1959 Dr Leakey discovers oldest human skull (600,000 years old http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/lleakey.html

1962 Senate rejects Medicare for the aged warning of “socialized medicine.” The Great Society”  passed under Johnson on 7/30/65  http://www.duke.edu/web/pps114/project/03/Templates/LizTimeline.dwt

1967 Jimmy Hendrix opens a New York Concert for The Monkees.  http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/hendrix.htm   

1976 ABA merges into the NBA http://www.insidehoops.com/american-basketball-association.shtml

1979 Nicaraguan President Somoza resigns after 4 decades of family rule. http://countrystudies.us/nicaragua/11.htm

1990 Hussein's Revolutionary Day speech claims Kuwait stole oil from Iraq

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/country_profiles/2391051.stm

1995 The Nasdaq stock index closes above the 1,000 mark for the first time

1996  10 years ago today TWA Flight 800 from New York to Paris  goes down off Long Island. http://www.cnn.com/US/9707/twa.800/

Some still believe it was shot down and there was a government coverup http://www.flight800.org/

1997 The F. W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.W._Woolworth_Company

Birthdays

1763-1848 John Jacob Astor Germany, richest man in US, banker/fur trader

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jacob_Astor

1889 Erle Stanley Gardner is born. He created Perry Mason. Looking for a good mystery? http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/booksf/mystery/america.html  

1912  Classic TV era host Art Linkletter Here’s a memoir from one of the  Linkletter Kids.  http://www.vcnet.com/garym/linkletter/hparty.html .

1951,  Lucie Arnez, Lucille’s daughter was born. Welcome to the Lucy-Desi Museum in  NY. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NYJAMlucy.html

1952 David Hasselhoff Balt Md, (Baywatch, Knight Rider) http://www.esquilax.com/baywatch/

That was then, this was now

Day Six of the most recent Middle East crisis.  On the Sunday talk shows Iran Fever was the object of affection.  The Republicans seemed apoplectic in blaming Syria and Iran the actions of Hamas and Hezbollah.   The fact that Iraq has destabilized the region and put Iran into the ascendancy does not make the Bush Administration look very good but in an election year when polls are down the Karl Rove Strategy will be to find an external enemy to blame. So far it appears that Hezbollah is winning the media war.  This isn’t a regional war yet, but it is becoming a regional crisis in ideology,  according to NPR.

Commondreams  has numerous articles on events in the Mideast. Here’s on excerpt.

Speaking of Bombs,  the 340 pound internist who allegedly blew up his East Side townhouse rather then turn it over  to his ex wife died yesterday.   Guess we’ll never know for sure,  but it  should make for a niche made for TV movie on Spike, the network for men.  A man scorned movie special.  

1815 Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders to the British at Rochefort France. This is three years after he attacks Russia, Winter arrives and he decides losing 500,000 men is enough. Adolph made the same mistake 130 years later. For a year by year history of his rise and demise http://www.worldhistory.com/napoleon.htm

1869 Margarine is patented in Paris, for use by French Navy http://www.imace.org/margarine/history.htm

1870 the Northwest territories are created in Canada. Did you know there are 8 official languages recognized for the area? Or that they were a former territory of the U.S? http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Northwest_Territories

1893 Commodore Perry arrives in Japan http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/teach/ends/opening.htm

1929 1st airport hotel opens-Oakland Ca. Here’s more on hotel lodging. http://www.ahla.com/products_lodging_history.asp

1941 Greta Garbo makes an appearance in order to retire at the age of 36. http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0150210.html

1958 U.S. troops occupy Lebanon. They stay for 3 months. But they’ll be back. Here’s a list of all the times we have sent our armed forces abroad , beginning in 1798. It’s a long list. http://www.fas.org/man/crs/crs_931007.htm

1964 Barry M Goldwater (Sen-R-Az) nominated for president by Republicans http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/1998/goldwater_5-29.html

 1965 US scientists display close-up photos of Mars from Mariner IV http://www.answers.com/topic/mariner-4

1968 Soap opera "One Life To Live" premiers http://www.mtr.org/exhibit/wwe/wwe1.htm

1971 Nixon announces his trip to China. which marks the end of a 20 year embargo against The Peoples Republic. Here’s a list (yes it is the days formatic theme) of major events in Sino-American relations. http://usinfo.org/sino/chronology_e.htm

1975 Soyuz 19 and Apollo 18 are launched. They rendezvous in space two days later. http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Apollo-Soyuz

1979 Jimmy Carter speaks about a national "crisis in confidence" Remember the Iranian hostage crisis and rising gas prices and a call for a national energy plan? http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=presidential&month=10272959&day=10272980

1982 The first victim of the Green River Killer is discovered. Wendy Lee Coffield age 16 http://www.alternet.org/story/17171/ Gary Ridgeway admitted to 48 victims.

1998 Lockheed-Martins attempted merger with Northrop Grumman is challenged by the Pentagon and DOJ. http://www.gcn.com/print/17_9/33350-1.html

2002 John Walker Lindh (the American Taliban) accepts plea bargain http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/terrorists/john-walker-lindh/

1996 MSNBC hybrid of Cable News (NBC) and the Internet (Microsoft) begins broadcasting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSNBC The web-site is doing better then the cable news station.

Birthday

1606 The Dutch painter Rembrandt Van Rijn Click here to peruse his art. http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/charlotte/byartist/display00444.html

1796 Thomas Bulfinch mythologist (Bulfinch's Mythology) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bulfinch

1850 St. Francis Xavier Cabrini (Mother Cabrini) the first U.S. Saint. The Patroness of Immigrants http://www.mothercabrini.org/history and a different kind of sainthood.

That was then, This was now.

In Lebanon the Hezbollah leader vows "open war" as the planes bomb and the rockets fly.

Meanwhile a familiar sounding speech was given yesterday by the Israeli ambassador at the UN concerning "the axis of terror". The Bush doctrine learns what goes around, comes around as the price of gas goes up and the stock market goes down. Oh, and 25,000 American Citizens remain stranded (inadvertent hostages) in Lebanon as the Airport is bombed for a second time.

Meanwhile in Gaza

It now seems as if the plan to destroy Hezbollah was worked out five years ago. Could be that Gaza was a test run.

June 6^th 1982 was the date of the first Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It took place just as the G7 Summit was getting underway in Versailles. The question is whether 8 countries will do any better resolving the Mid-east mayhem, then 7.

1787 Congress establishes Northwest Territory (excludes slavery) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Ordinance

1793 Jean Paul Marat French revolutionary, murdered by Charlotte Corday http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Jean-Paul_Marat

1863 Anti-draft mobs lynch blacks in NYC; about 1,000 die.  From working for Change some events you didn’t read about in school. http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=17214%235#13

1865 Horace Greeley advises his readers to “Go West.” And he followed his own advice  http://historytogo.utah.gov/hgreeley.html  Actually, Greeley might not have been the first to use that phrase  but people listened.

1898 Guglielmo Marconi is awarded a patent for the radio. But did he deserve it? Remember Tesla http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_whoradio.html  For those more interested in the technical side of the history (rather then politics) of radio go here. http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/radio.html 

1930 Sarnoff reports in NY Times "TV would be a theater in every home"

http://www.answers.com/topic/david-sarnoff

1943 1st All Star night game (AL beats NL 5-4 at Shribe Pk, Phila) http://www.historicbaseball.com/records/allstar.html

1967 Race riots break out in Newark, 27 die http://www.thirteen.org/newark/history3.html

1977 at 9:34PM  NYC was blacked out.  3200 looters were arrested. So what changed between then and August 2003?  http://slate.msn.com/id/2087032/  And here’s what the 1977 blackout looked like from space. http://cellar.org/iotd.php?threadid=1945 

1978 Lee Iacocca fired as Ford Motor Pres by chairman Henry Ford II. Best thing that ever happened to him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Iacocca

1985 was the date of the Live Aid concert, raising millions for African relief, organized by Bob Geldof.. A drop  in the bucket but every little bit helps. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/13/newsid_2502000/2502735.stm 

And what about Ronald Reagan and his six years of silence during the rising AID’s crisis,  during  the same period. http://www.zmag.org/ZMagSite/Jan2004/bronski0104.html

Birthdays

1886  Father Edward Flanagan, American Catholic parish priest. Believing there was 'no such thing as a bad boy,' in 1922 he organized Boys Town near Omaha, Nebraska. http://www.historyireland.com/magazine/features/12.1AFeat.html

1894 1941 Isaak Babel Russian short-story writer/dramatist (Red Calvary)

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/babel.htm

1942 Harrison Ford aka Hans solo and that archeologist guy.  

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000148/

1944 Erno Rubik Budapest, inventor (Rubik's cube

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story063.htm

1946 Cheech Marin, formerly of Cheech and Chong http://www.cheechandchong.com/biography.html

That was then, This was Now.

I’m waiting for a new flusher to be installed in the camode while the outside World is in a swirl of news.  That includes a Tornado in southern Westchester.

Robert Novak finally revealed that one of his sources for outing Valerie Plame was Karl Rove.  In the meantime, the Bush Administration says it plans to crackdown on Intelligence leaks.

Dick Cheney’s old company Haliburton now has to bid for the next  Pentagon logistical contract as suddenly the Army seems  suddenly concerned about no-bid contracts.

In Iraq, (which has just been secretly visited by Donald Rumsfeld)   over 100 people have been killed in the past two days (including 16 outside the main gate of the Green Zone) as the violence continues to increase despite a military crackdown. A Shiite backlash against the Sunni insurgency.

Israel has under taken a military assault on Southern Lebanon. After 4 soldiers are killed and two more kidnapped by Hizbollah.  So Israel is  now making incursions on two fronts. And who was it who said that the invasion of Iraq would bring stability to the Mideast. The Administration blames Syria and Iran for the most recent developments.

And in India the death toll is now over 200 from the rush hour train bombings in Bombay.  Sounds like Kashmir rebels are working with,  or emulating    El  Queda tactics.

According to a Homeland Security “inventory” Petting Zoo’s are at risk from terrorism which was why the terrorism budget was cut from New York and Washington. According to the list Indiana has more possible targets then New York. Yes, the folks that brought you the Katrina fiasco.

Oh, yes the G8 summit in St. Petersburg  this weekend should be interesting especially after Putin’s remark about VP Cheney attack on “Democracy” in Russia being  akin to the VP’s shooting acumen.

Did I miss anything? Oh, yes Wildfires in Park City California. East Coast, West Coast all around the World….

1812  U.S. forces led by General Hull invade Canada. It doesn’t go well. By August 16^th, Hull surrenders Detroit.  http://www.multied.com/1812/  

1859 Paper bag manufacturing machine patented by William Goodale, Mass. Here’s more from this day in Science http://www.todayinsci.com/cgi-bin/indexpage.pl?http://www.todayinsci.com/7/7_12.htm

1882 1st ocean pier in US completed, Washington, DC

1906 Alfred Dreyfus found innocent in France http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair

1909 16th Amendment approved (power to tax incomes) http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment16/

1928 the 1^st televised tennis match takes place. Here’s a list of notable television firsts. http://www.signalalpha.com/television.htm 

1933 Congress  passes the first minimum wage. $.33 per hour. Here’s an article from The Working Stiff Journal http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/vol3no2/livingwage.htm

1949 Baseball owners agree to erect warning paths (10 feet of gravel)  before each fence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_parks

1951 Mob tries to keep black family from moving into all-white Cicero Illinois. Governor Adlai Stevenson has to send in National guard.

1957 Eisenhower becomes first president to  fly in a helicopter. http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/bell47j.htm In 1959 

1959 Allen Freed begins a 13 week rock and roll show on ABC-TV. He opened the doors to “race music” and his pockets to payola. http://www.history-of-rock.com/freed.htm 

1960 Echo I, 1st passive satellite launched http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_satellite

1960 USSR's Sputnik 5 launched with 2 dogs http://home.case.edu/~sjr16/advanced/20th_soviet_sputnik.html

1967 Five days of rioting begins in Newark N.J. 26 dead and 10 million in property damage. Here’s what The Kerner Report had to say about the 60’s riots and the racial divide.  http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6553/ 

1971 Juan Corona, indicted for 25 murders of migrant workers. Liked the machete.. http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/juan_corona/index.html

1974 John Ehrlichman  (1925-1999) former aide to Nixon and three others were convicted of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Daniel Ellsberg  http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761585440/Ehrlichman_John_D.html 

1982 FEMA promises survivors of a nuclear war will get their mail http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/etc/femahist.html

1984 Mondale  announces that Geraldine Ferraro will be  his running mate. Here’s the text of her  VP acceptance  speech. http://www.startribune.com/stories/1389/646660.html   

Birthdays. 

100 -BC- March 15, 044 Julius C‘sar Roman Emperor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar

1817-1862  Henry David Thoreau Concord Mass, naturalist/author/pacifist http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/thoreau.htm

1852-1932 George Eastman, creator of the Kodak Camera  http://www.boxcameras.com/no2brownie.html.

1895-1983 Futurist  Buckminster Fuller the creator of the geodesic dome. http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa111897.htm 

1908-2002  Uncle Miltie  was born.  http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/berlemilton/berlemilton.htm

1937  Bill Cosby (the cos) http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/cosbybill/cosbybill.htm

That was then, This was now

In the city formerly known as Bombay, India (now Mumbai) a series of rush hour explosions set on trains killed at least 160 people and wounded over 400. No group has taken credit yet but the number 11 keeps coming up.

1781 Thomas Hutchins designated Geographer of the US http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hutchins

1798 US Marine Corps created by an act of Congress http://www.acidus.com/marines.html

1804 Vice president Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel http://www.oldnewspublishing.com/burr.htm

1812 US invades Canada (Detroit frontier) but General Hull made a quick retreat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hull The US does have a contingency plan to invade Canada.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122901412_pf.html

1905 Black intellectuals & activists organize Niagara movement
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1005/The_Niagara_Movement_founded

1936 the Triborough Bridge opens http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/bandt/html/triboro.htm site includes tolls and access roads.

1937 George Gershwin composer (American in Paris), dies at 38 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/gershwin_g.html

1954 First White Citizens Council organizes in Indianola, Miss. Remember Ross Barnett? http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/cca/Thayer.htm

1955 congress authorizes currency to include "god we trust." Do you know what it replaced? http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/bandt/html/triboro.htm "E Pluribus Unum" Latin for (from many, to one)

1960 Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Upper Volta & Niger declare independence http://africanhistory.about.com/library/timelines/blIndependenceTime.htm

1964 the Supremes enter the pop charts for the first time with "Where did our love go." http://www.vocalhalloffame.com/Inductees/supremes.htm

1971 Jesus Christ Superstar, which started out as a pop album opens on stage in Pittsburgh. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/superstar/look.html And there is 174 days left in 2004

1986 Mary Beth Whitehead christens surrogate Baby M, Sara http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/whm/trials/babym.htm

1989 Sir Laurence Olivier acting great, dies at 82 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Olivier

1754-1825 Thomas Bowdler a famous prude is born. Founder of the Society Against Vice Most famous for expurgating Shakespeare. http://feastofhateandfear.com/articles/queen_victoria.html

1838-1922 John Wanamaker merchant (Wanamakers Dept Store) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker's here’s more on the evolution of the department store http://history.acusd.edu/gen/soc/shoppingcenter4.html

1899-1985 E.B. White He suffered from Alzheimers in his later years but not before leaving behind a legacy of fine writing. http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/litmap/white_elwyn_brooks_ny.htm

1920-1985 Yul Brynner best known for playing Kings and the hazards of smoking. http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/litmap/white_elwyn_brooks_ny.htm

1931 Tab Hunter. Click here to find out what happened to the 1950’s stud most recently known for Lust in the dust. http://www.meekermuseum.com/tab.html

An Appeals Judge ruled that the Attorney General’s raid on Congressman Jefferson’s office was legal. raids?

So will there be more future raids? Congress is worried it might carry over in the continuing Abramoff investigation.

--------------------

A lack of migrants ("illegal aliens" as some refer to them) effects Orange crop in Florida. Yes, ship them all out.

----------------

In Mauritania, young women are treated like foie gras. It appears some might be rethinking this cultural standard of beauty.

1892 1st concrete-paved street built (Bellefountaine, Ohio) here’s more road history http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3786

1910 Chicago White Sox Comiskey Park opens, visiting Browns win 2-0 http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/cws/history/ballparks.jsp

1918 Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic established http://www.answers.com/topic/union-of-soviet-socialist-republics

1923 All non-fascist parties dissolved in Italy. According to Mussolini this is Fascism http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html  here’s more backround http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist_Italy

1925 the Scopes monkey trial starts. Type  creationism,  Scopes and  Ashcroft into Google and you come up with  an article titled  Monkey  Business   It would have worked with Darwin as well.  http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/documents/02695920.htm 

1925 USSR's official news agency TASS established http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Telegraph_Agency_of_Russia

1929 US issues newer, smaller-sized paper currency. Here’s some (fun) money facts.  funny http://www.frbsf.org/federalreserve/money/funfacts.html

1933 1st police radio system operated, Eastchester Township, NY The system was designed by Lieutenant Vincent J. Doyle of the Bayonne Police and radio engineer Frank Gunther. Through the use of a combined transmitter and receiver in the patrol car, the two-way system allowed communication between patrol cars and with the police station.

1950 "Your Hit Parade" premiers on NBC (later CBS) TV  http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/Y/htmlY/yourhitpara/yourhitpara.htm

1962 Telstar, the 1^st geo-synchronous communications satellite is  launched changing how the world receives information http://www.aero.org/publications/aeropress/Martin/martin_5.html  

1965  Satisfaction, the Rolling Stones first single becomes number 1. http://www.warr.org/stones.html

1979 The Bell system redesigns it’s phone books by using color to make it’s directories more useful. The same day in 1985 Chuck Berry is sentenced to 4 months in jail for http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/singerUnid/D3318E84E1BDAB37482568700029FD4C  tax evasion. 

1985 Coke Classic is brought back from the dead. Here’s the story from the transgressor. http://www2.coca-cola.com/heritage/cokelore_newcoke.html  

1985  Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior is blown up in New Zealand. Don’t worry, they caught the perps and RW 2 was launched in 1987. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/10/newsid_2499000/2499283.stm 

1989 Mel Blanc voice of cartoon characters (Bugs Bunny), dies at 81 http://one_foggy.tripod.com/blancobit.html

1992 an appeals court overturns the conviction of the Exxon Valdez Captain for the Prince William Sound oil spill http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_443.html 

Birthdays

1509-1564  John Calvin http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/REFORM/CALVIN.HTM Did you know he was a lawyer prior to becoming a church reformer.

1834-1903 painter James Whistler, Mama’s Boy. http://www.lsj.com/things/events/040314_whistlerart_3d.html.

1856-1943 Physicist  Nicholas Tesla   developer of the alternating current. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1623

1871-1922 French Novelist Marcel Proust  http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/proust.htm

1946 Arlo Guthrie, folksinger, son of Woody and guest of Alice’s Restaurant.(18min. 20 sec) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlo_Guthrie  

That was then, This was now

Italy won the world cup for 2006 on the anniversary of Mussolini’s dissolving all non-fascistic parties in 1923.  Just as the Pope would like to make all gays disappear, or at least run back into the closet. 

-----------

White house kept intelligent programs secret from Congressional oversight.  This from a staunch republican who might be referring to surveillance programs we don’t know about yet.

1595 Johannes Kepler inscribes geometric solid construction of universe (planetary Motion) http://kepler.nasa.gov/johannes/

1878 An improved corncob pipe patented by Henry Tibbe of Missouri http://www.keepsmilin.com/meerschaum.html

1893 Daniel H. Williams performs "world's first successful heart operation". Maybe not. http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/heartsurgery.asp

1918 101 killed & 171 injured in worst US train wreck, Nashville, Tennessee http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/Great_train_wreck_of_1918

1918 US Army's Distinguished Service Cross authorized http://www.gruntsmilitary.com/dsc.shtml

1953 The first helicopter passenger service begins in NYC http://www.helis.com/50s/

1955 1st black executive on White House staff (E Frederic Morrow) http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/989/E_Frederick_Morrow_served_many_aspects_of_America

1955 Bill Haley & Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" tops billboards chart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100

1956 Dick Clark makes his first appearance as host of American Bandstand. http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/americanband/americanband.htm

1958 Casey stengel testifies at a congressional anti-trust committee. Here’s the stengelese Enjoy. . http://www.baseball-almanac.com/quotes/casey_stengel_senate_testimony.shtml

1979 Voyager 2 flies past Jupiter. http://www.solarviews.com/eng/voyager.htm

1980 comedian Richard Pryor suffers near fatal burns during a cocaine binge. http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/comic/richard-pryor/

1986 Attorney General Commission on Pornography links hard-core porn to sex crimes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meese_Commission

1992 Newsman Eric Severieid dies. The next year John Chancellor ends his 43 year career at NBC. Don Hewitt recently stepped down after 36 years at 60 minutes. Here’s an interview with Hewitt about recent changes in broadcast news. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june04/hewitt_extended.html

1802 Thomas Davenport was born http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/inventors/davenport.html He’s the blacksmith who invented the first commercial electric motor.

1819 Elias Howe the inventor of the sewing machine. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsewing_machine.htm

1852-1942 Anthropologist Franz Boas http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/boas_franz.html established a new theory of culture and race.

1937 David Hockney English pop artist http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hockney/

1947 Orenthal James Simpson. The moral of the tale is good lawyers count and don’t get jealous while on steroids. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Simpson/simpson.htm

That was then, This was now.

The Pope (Benedict XVI) arrived in Spain which he believes is a front on the war against liberal reforms including gay marriage. No stampeding crowds ….

In Mexico’s Presidential election it’s Florida 2000, except in this case the losing candidates supporters takes to the streets in mass protests.

On the media has two fine pieces. One is on the mass killings of women in Juarez Mexico over the last 13 years as well as a look at Larry King’s hour interview with El Presidente. Ours, not theirs. When will Larry learn to ask a follow up question when the first answer was no answer.

1647 Thomas Hooker puritan clergyman,  founder of Hartford, Connecticut,  dies http://www.britannia.com/bios/hooker.html

1754 Kings College in NYC opens (renamed Columbia College) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University       

1846 US annexes California  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_California

1865 Mary Suratt & three other Lincoln assassination conspirators are hung by the neck until dead.. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USACWsurratt.htm 

1898 Pres McKinley signs resolution of annexation of Hawaiian Islands http://www.alternative-hawaii.com/hacul/history1.htm

1928 Chrysler/Plymouth Debuts. Ever hear of Maxwell? http://www.allpar.com/history/index.html

1929 the first coast to coast passenger  airline service begins. http://www.alphabetilately.com/TandP.html The flight took two days. They flew during the day and slept on trains at night. The cost was $351.94. 

1946 Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini canonized as 1st American saint http://www.washington-heights.us/history/archives/saint_frances_xavier_cabrini_107.html

1948 Cleveland Indians sign Leroy "Satchel" Paige http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchel_Paige

1949 "Dragnet" premiers on NBC radio; also a TV series in 1951 & 1967 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragnet_(drama)

1958 Alaska becomes the 49^th state. The star wasn’t added to the flag until the next year when Hawaii also gained statehood. http://archive.greenpeace.org/climate/arctic99/reports/akover.html

1973 1st all-US women's Wimbledon, Billie Jean King beats Chris Evert http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016060.html

1976  Female cadets enrolled at West Point  for first time http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_Academy

1980  First Solar powered unmanned aircraft crosses English Channel. http://www.alphabetilately.com/TandP.html 

1981 Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Conner  to become  first woman to the supreme court. http://slate.msn.com/id/2101225/#ContinueArticle 

1987 Oliver North testifies before  the Iran Contra committee Is it true that he named Osama Bin Laden as the reason for using money from Iran/Contra for  personal home security. Find out here http://www.snopes.com/rumors/north.htm 

Birthdays.

1887-1985 Russian born Painter Marc Chagall known as the Jewish Picasso,  was not easy to classify  http://arthistory.about.com/cs/namescc/p/chagall.htm

1899-1983  George Cukor producer/director (Adam's Rib, Philadelphia Story) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002030/

1906-1985  Negro league pitcher Satchel Paige pitched three innings for the Oakland A”s  at the age of 59. Voted into the Hall of Fame in 1971. http://www.blackbaseball.com/players/index.htm

1907-1981 Robert A. Heinlein science fiction pioneer and  author of  Stranger in a Strange land  http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/rahfaq.html

1919-1995 William Kunstler defense attorney (Chicago 8) http://www.counterpunch.org/jackson05072003.html

1922 Pierre Cardin,  French  fashion designer who brought us the term Unisex. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Cardin

That was then, This was Now

It’s the first anniversary of the July 7^th 2005 bombings in London.  A video was released yesterday of one of the bombers.

After 5 days of recounts it appears that the new President of Mexico is probably ….

1785 Congress resolves US currency named "dollar" & adopts decimal coinage http://www.coinfacts.com/historical_notes/history_of_the_silver_dollar.htm

1798 First Alien and Sedition act passed by Congress against Jefferson & Republicans.http://www.answers.com/topic/alien-and-sedition-acts

1853 William Wells Brown publishes "Clotel," 1st novel by black American http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASbrownW.htm

1885 Louis Pasteur inoculates the first human for rabies. He also did important research into anthrax and silkworm disease. http://www.labexplorer.com/louis_pasteur.htm

1886 Horlick's of Wisconsin offers the first malted milk to the public http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/amadzine/2003/12/05

1894 Cleveland sends 2,000 troops to Chicago to suppress Pullman strikehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike

1919 British R-34 lands in NY, 1st airship to cross Atlantic (108 hr) http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/r34/index.html

1923 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed http://www.answers.com/topic/union-of-soviet-socialist-republics

1928 the first all talking picture is shown in NY. Do you know what it was? Lights of New York. http://www.filmsite.org/jazz.html

1933 was the first year of baseball’s all star game. The American league won 5-2. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/asgbox/yr1933as.shtml

1955 Smog control went into effect with the Federal Air Pollution control act. Here’s a down and dirty history of deadly smog http://www.pbs.org/now/science/smog.html

1957 Paul McCartney meets John Lennon. At The Quarry. More photo’s then text. Enjoy. http://www.maccafan.net/Bands/XoomBand_57_59/XoomBandIndex57_59.htm

1958 Alaska becomes the 49th state http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska

1964 the Beatles first film, A Hard Day’s Night opens in London http://www.answers.com/topic/a-hard-day-s-night-movie

1965 Rock group "Jefferson Airplane" forms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Airplane

1967 Biafran War erupts as Nigerian forces invade http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/596712.stm

1967 Civil war begins in Nigeria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafran_War

1976 the first woman was admitted into the U.S. Navel Academy. Here’s a report on sexual assaults at the air force academy http://www.staaamp.org/docs/lessons_learned.pdf

1983 Supreme Court rules retirement plans can't pay women less. Here’s pay equity background information. http://www.pay-equity.org/info-history.html

1987 1st of 3 massacres by Sikh extremists takes place in India http://www.dalitstan.org/journal/rights/103/260594.html

1747 –1792 John Paul Jones, founder of U.S. Navy. He uttered those famous words "I have not yet begun to fight." http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/traditions/html/jpjones.html

1921 Nancy Reagan was born in NYC http://www.presidentialufo.com/sydney_omarr%2C_reagan%2C_and_astrology.htm And her film credits. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004846/

1935 The Dalai Lame. here’s an interview with Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1997/11/thurman.html

1946 Sylvester Stallone. Aka Rocky, Rambo http://realitytv.about.com/od/thecontender/a/SlyStallone.htm Yes, there will be another Rocky Balboa and Rambo IV this year and next.

1946 George W. Bush Here’s a birthday greeting from last year. http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2005/07/its-george-w-bushs-birthday_06.html

Alan Wolfe from Alternet on Why Republicans can’t Govern

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The CIA’s Bin Laden Unit has been shut down, supposedly under the authority of Porter Gass.

According to Bloomberg News ATT was approached pre-9/11 for US cell records.

Anyone watch Nora O’Donnell’s Hardball interview with Cindy Sheehan yesterday while substituting for Chris Mathews? She still seems to think anyone who opposes the war in Iraq, is part of a fringe group. She also doesn’t care much for Hugo Chavez President of Venezuela, who she referred to several times as a dictator, although after a 1998 landslide election victory he has survived an assassination attempt, a recall election supported by the US and obviously the animosity of Nora O’Donnell.

The Casino’s closed down in Atlantic City Yesterday, along with other "non-essential"state services in the Garden State, as the Trenton Budget battle remained in a Stalemate. Interesting how the symbol of the budget crisis are the gambling Casinos.

1643 1st recorded tornado in US (Essex County, Massachusetts) http://www.weathernotebook.org/transcripts/2005/12/01.php

1811 Venezuela, 1st South American country to gain independence from Spain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Venezuela

1865 William Booth founds the salvation army in London, England. Find out why they were referred to as an army at http://www.streetlevel.ca/biographies/Booth.htm

1935 FDR signs Wagner Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Labor_Relations_Act

1946 The Bikini is exposed for the first time http://www.everythingbikini.com/bikini-history.html

1947 Larry Doby signs with Cleveland Indians-1st black player in AL http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/D/Doby_Larry.stm

1950 Bet you don’t know who Private William Shadrick is? he becomes the first U.S. fatality of the Korean war. Here’s the war coverage from Time magazine http://www.time.com/time/poy2001/archive/1950.html

1950 Law of Return passes in Knesset, guarantees all Jews right to live in Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_return

1966 NYC transit fare rises from 15_ to 20_

1966 Saturn I rocket launched at Cape Kennedy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_I_(rocket)

1971 26th amendment certified (reduces voting age to 18). If you can draft them you have to let them vote. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment26/

1983 Harry James swing-era bandleader/trumpet player, dies in Las Vegas http://www.nndb.com/people/376/000043247/

1984 Supreme Court weakens 70-year-old "exclusionary rule"-evidence seized
with defective court warrants can now be used in criminal trials. Here’s more on the 4^th amendment http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/06.html

1988 Ed Meese resigns as Reagan’s attorney general. prompted by financial irregularities with a Bechtel oil pipeline deal in Iraq. Here’s more deja vu http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/meese/meese.php Recently, Edwin Meese showed up on The Today Show arguing for passage of the Patriot Act, which harkened back to Reagan era library bashing for allowing pornographic materials in libraries. http://www.info-mmons.org/blog/archives/000224.html

1989 The Seinfeld Chronicles begins. Here’s a trivia site aptly dedicated to a television show about nothing. http://couchpotatotrivia.com/tv/seinfeld/getquestions.asp?eids=311&qtype=2

1990 Mitch Snyder homeless advocate, commits suicide at 46 by hanging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Snyder

Oh, and July 10^th through the 16^h is Nude recreation week for North America. I fool you not. Not even bikini’s allowed. Here’s kinda what to expect http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/08.21.97/slices-9734.html

1794 How about Sylvester Graham? http://www.sylvestersrestaurant.com/slygram.html He was born in 1794 and he invented the Graham cracker.

1870. David G Farragut, naval hero and first admiral of U.S. Navy http://www.nps.gov/vick/visctr/sitebltn/farragut.htm

1810-1891 Who is reputed to have said " A sucker is born every minute." Did you guess P.T. Barnum the circus promoter? Well, you may be wrong. It was actually a competitor http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html

The N. Korea missile test (7 of them) is the talk of the town if not the World

Kenneth Lay of Enron infamy is reportedly dead from a massive heart attack.

--------------------

1776 Declaration of Independence-US gains independence from Britain

http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/declaration.html

1802 US Military Academy officially opens at West Point, NY

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/United-States-Military-Academy

1817 Construction on Erie Canal begins. Took 8 years to complete.

http://www.canals.state.ny.us/cculture/history/

1826  Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die It was 50 years to the day after signing the Declaration of Independence and having it sent to the printer

http://www.claremont.org/writings/010703robinson.html

1831 James Monroe dies. Money is being raised for a park at his birthplace. http://www.jamesmonroe.net/

1832 "America" (my country tis of thee) is first sung publicly

http://www.miketodd.net/encyc/americasong.htm  and then there’s America, the beautiful

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful

1845 Henry David Thoreau moves into a shack on Walden Pond.  http://nanosft.com/walden/ . 

1862 Lewis Carroll creates Alice in Wonderland for Alice P Liddell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Liddell

1863 Boise,  Idaho was founded.  It is now the capital of Idaho. Did you know that the word “Boise” comes from the French word meaning “wooded”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boise,_Idaho

1866 Firecracker thrown in wood starts fire destroying much of Portland, Maine leaving 100,000 homeless. http://www.mainresource.com/History1.html

1881 Booker T Washington establishes Tuskegee Institute http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAtuskegee.htm

1882 Telegraph Hill Observatory opens in SF.

 http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hgfol.htm

1883 Buffalo Bill Cody presents first  wild west show, North Platte, Nebraska http://www.americanwest.com/pages/buffbill.htm

1884 Statue of Liberty presented to US in Paris http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/Sthist.html

1894 Elwood Haynes successfully tests one of the 1^st U.S. autos. Here’s the story of the rush to build the first horseless carriage before the turn of the 20^th Century and their first race.  http://www.theautochannel.com/content/mania/industry/history/chap12.html  

1950 Truman signs public law 600 approving Puerto Ricans constitution as a commonwealth of US. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=hr501&dbname=cp107&

From Foreign Affairs magazine, a case for statehood.

1959 Cayman Islands separated from Jamaica, made a crown colony http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cj.html

1965 today is the star date  for Martian adventures.   Mariner 4  sends first close up photo’s and in 1997 pathfinder captures the Martian landscape. http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/ceps/etp/mars/explore.html

1966 LBJ signs Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/foia/howtofoia.html

1969 "Give Peace a Chance" by Plastic Ono Band is released in the UK. A Wikipedia stub if you wish to add to it feel free http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Peace_a_Chance

1983 Reagan’s interior secretary James Watts bans the Beach Boys from giving a concert on  D.C. Capital Mall. Because he says they bring in “an undesirable element.” Wayne Newton  was chosen to take their place. For more serious  Interior Dept. antics check out this article from the Association of Park Rangers.  http://www.anpr.org/smith.htm 

1988 US navy shoots down Iranian civilian jetliner KAL 007 over Gulf, kills 290

http://www.fair.org/extra/best-of-extra/kal007-iranair655.html

1990 2 Live Crew release "Banned in the USA" the lyrics quote Star
Spangled Banner & Gettysburg Address. Here’s more taboo tunes http://www.tabootunes.com/gallery.html

1996 James Watt  was indicted on 41 felony charges of  influence peddling for HUD properties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Watt

Birthdays

1804-1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne. The  author of the Scarlet Letter and part of the Transcedental movement.   http://www.online-litirature.com/hawthorne/

1826 – 1864  Stephen Foster composer (Oh! Susanna, Swanee River)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/foster/

1878 – 1942 George M Cohan entertainer, “Give my regards to Broadway, Grand old flag “ http://www.sbgmusic.com/html/teacher/reference/composers/cohan.html

1885-1956  Louis B Mayer Russian, motion-picture executive (MGM)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_B._Mayer

1902 – 1983 Meyer Lansky mobster who created numbers racket.  http://www.carpenoctem.tv/mafia/lansky.html

1918 Abigail Van Buren twin sister of Ann Landers  advice columnist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Landers
 

1930 Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. entered the world. Here’s an article on why the Yankees are good for baseball as every sports needs a Darth Vader figure (King George Steinbrenner, not Bush) to bring in the fans. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2004-02-18-lopresti-yankees_x.htm  

1900-1971 Louis Armstrong  has a birthday and his house in NY is available for tours.   http://www.satchmo.net/ 

1927  Neil Simon .playwright  http://www.msu.edu/~pelowsk1/neilsimon/bio.html

That was then, And this is  Now

Paraphrasing King George III, Nothing much happened here today.  Alternate side of the street parking is suspended and such….

Elsewhere,  we’re told the Kidnapped Israeli Soldier is  still be alive (another deadline passes) as the tanks are poised for inflicting further  “collective punishment “on the South Bank population. 

The Iraqi deputy power minister and  19 bodyguards are kidnapped.   

As usual www.cursor.org  has a good summation of events. Including a little historical something by Howard Zinn concerning America’s attitude of  moral superiority

1608 City of Quebec founded by Samuel de Champlain http://www.answers.com/topic/samuel-de-champlain

1754 George Washington surrenders to French, Ft Necessity (7 Years' War) http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington/timeline/index.html

1775 Washington takes command of Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass. From the Library of Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html

1819 1st savings bank in US (Bank of Savings in NYC) opens its doors http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Business/BankSavings.Pt3.html

1839 First state normal school (open to everyone) in US opens, Lexington, Mass, with 3 students. http://www.horacemann.com/html/facts/cmann.html

1861 Pony Express arrives in SF with overland letters from NY. Up to 250 miles in a 24 hour day. About 10 miles per hour. http://www.ponyexpress.org/museum_history.htm

1886 1st NY Tribune printing using 1st commercial linotype machine. Known as "Blower". http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/L/Li/Linotype_machine.htm and from the instruction book http://www.linotype.org/OnLineDocs/LinoInstr/foreward.html

1915 The U.S. occupies Haiti where they remained until 1934. Good neighbor Policy or protect the Panama Canal from European powers at war. Here’s a short overview with links to a history course on Haiti. .http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/occupation/guerrant.htm

1930 Veterans Administration created http://www.answers.com/topic/united-states-department-of-veterans-affairs

1937 Amelia Earhart vanishes over the Pacific in a Lockheed Electra 10-E. http://www.pbs.org/odyssey/class/amelia.html

1939 Lou Gehrig day; Gehrig makes "luckiest man" speech. An estimated 5,000 are diagnosed with ALS each year. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/amyotrophiclateralsclerosis/detail_amyotrophiclateralsclerosis.htm#28214842

1962 Algerian Revolution against French ends (Algeria gains independence on 7/5)  http://www.tv.cbc.ca/newsinreview/mar98/algeria/themes.htm

1978 Supreme Court rules 5-4, FCC had a right to reprimand NY radio
station WBAI for broadcasting George Carlin's "Filthy Words"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Carlin here’s the actual case law argument FCC v Pacifica Foundation. http://www.lectlaw.com/files/case22.htm

1981 NYC transit fare rises from 60_ to 75_, new brass Y-cut-out token http://www.nycsubway.org/tech/tokens/

1988 Missiles from the Vincennes brings down an Iranian airliner killing 290 passangers.. Theories abound. as to whether the Lockerbie bombing was retaliation by Iran. Or was it Libya? Where’s the CIA when you need it. http://www.serendipity.li/more/lockerb.htm

1989 Supreme Court rules states do not have to provide funds for abortions. The 8 second news version. http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=343&sid=522712

1965 Roy Rogers Horse Trigger dies at the age of 33. He was stuffed and put on display at the Double R Bar ranch in Apple Valley California. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/pet/trigger.html

1971 Jim Morrison lead singer of The Doors dies. http://www.answers.com/topic/jim-morrison

1989 Jim Backus http://www.triviatribute.com/jimbackus.html

Did you know one of his teachers in grade school was Margaret Hamilton, later to be known as the wicked witch From The Wizard of OZ.

1993 Jurassic Park opens to record sales. Here’s a film data base if you follow gross ticket sales and films. http://www.boxofficeguru.com/film.htm

Franz Kafka (1863-1924). http://www.pitt.edu/~kafka/links.html

1913 Dorothy Kilgallen , columnist, socialite (What's My Line?). Died somewhat mysteriously in 1965. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Kilgallen

1927 Ken Russell English director (Crimes of Passion, Women in Love) http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/R/htmlR/russellken/russellken.htm

1937 Tom Stoppard playwright (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern-1968 Tony) http://www.complete-review.com/authors/stoppard.htm

1943 Geraldo Rivera aka Gerry Rivers, helped instigate the genre of "trash television." here’s an interesting timeline http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/television4.html

1945 Michael Cole, actor (Pete-Mod Squad) http://www.chezgrae.com/modsquad/

News is light so here’s an item with entertainment value. Almost worthy of a NY Post Headline.

"Homeless Nude model writes novel in apple store."

http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2006/06/model_writes_bo.html#001522

1566 The French astrologer (and prophet) Nostradamus, died in his salon. Dd he predict the attacks of 9/11? Doubtful, but people will look for meaning wherever they can find it. http://www.snopes.com/rumors/predict.htm

1776 Congress approved a resolution making July 4^th Independence Day. The Declaration of Independence was actually approved on July 2^nd but it wasn’t completed by the printers until July 4^th and that’s the date stamped on the document. http://www.bright.net/~jimsjems/july4.html

1839 Mutiny on the Amistad slave ship http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/alpha/amistad1839.htm

1858 Partial emancipation of Russian serfs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_serfdom

1867 first US elevated railroad begins service in NYC. The Private Enterprise Era. http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/New_York_Subway

1881 President James Garfield was shot in Washington. He died two months later.http://www.americanpresident.org/history/jamesgarfield/

1890 the Sherman Anti-trust act was passed prohibiting industrial monopolies. http://www.bartleby.com/65/sh/ShermanA.html.

1902 John J McGraw becomes manager of NY Giants (stays for 30 years) http://www.deadball.com/mcgraw1.htm

1926 US Army Air Corps created; Distinguish Flying Cross authorized http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Air_Corps and for heavy medal http://www.af.mil/history/spotlight.asp?storyID=123022493

1949 "Red Barber's Clubhouse" sports show premiers on CBS (later NBC) TV  http://www.answers.com/topic/red-barber

1955 The Lawrence Welk show premieres on ABC-TV. Here’s more from Planet Welk. No, It’s not a restaurant.

1956 Elvis records "Hound Dog" and "Don’t be cruel." Here’s a history of the early years. http://www.fiftiesweb.com/elvis.htm

1957 First submarine powered by liquid metal cooled reactor completed-The Seawolf http://www.submarine-history.com/NOVAfour.htm

1957 First submarine designed to fire guided missiles launched, Grayback http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-submarine-classes-of-the-united-states-navy

1961 Ernest Hemingway shoots himself to death in Ketchum, Idaho. Is depression a family curse or genetics? The latest victim is Gregory Hemingway. http://www.medserv.dk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=944

1964 Lyndon Johnson signs The Civil Rights act. prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race… Here’s a chronology up to today. http://www.civilrights.org/research_center/civilrights101/chronology.html

1976 Formal reunification of North & South Vietnam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Vietnam

1987 Michael Bennet Chorus Line director, dies of AIDS at 44 http://www.answers.com/topic/michael-bennett

1992 Larry Walters goes airborne in a lawnchair. He’s the winner of the 1997 Darwin Awards and he lived to tell about it. http://www.websitement-tm.com/Darwin/Content/darwin97.htm

1877 - 1962 Hermann Hesse Swiss novelist (Steppenwolf) Nobel prize winner in 1946 http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hhesse.htm

1894-1974 Walter Brennan actor Real McCoys and 3 time supporting actor Oscar winner http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1671

1908 – 1993 Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme court Justice. The FBI accumulated 1367 pages on this dangerous malcontent. http://foia.fbi.gov/marshall.htm Do you know the second Black Justice? Hint, he married Rush Limbaugh to his third a decade ago. Oh, Rush recently filed for divorce. http://www.badattitudes.com/Pubic.html

1925-Patrice Lumumba Zaire, revolutionary leader who was assassinated with the complicity of President Eisenhower in 1961. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/974745.stm

Best of the Blogs listed a story from Shakespeare’s sister on the ratings of right wing internet sites going down.

On the media looks at the week in review which includes a segment on the cult of the flag. Or could we call it a Fetish?

Another Bin Laden message. The internet audio message, the second on in a week, warns against attacking the new Islamic Somalian government and warned Iraqi Shia Muslims not to attack Sunni Muslims, saying they could face retaliation.

1535 Sir Thomas More, Author of Utopia, went on trial in England, charged with treason http://www.d-holliday.com/tmore/trial.htm

1823 United Provinces of Central America gain independence from Mexico. Modeled after the US. It suffered the usual problems: The Roman Catholic Church and rich landowners http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Central_America

1847 the U.S. issues the first postage stamp. http://www.stamp-one.com/gallery/hopkins/1847issue.htm

1862 Congress outlaws Polygamy. Here’s a look back at the politics of the period. http://www.lightplanet.com/mormons/daily/politics/Political_History_EOM.htm

1862 President Lincoln appoints Isaac Newton sec of agriculture. An Internal Revenue Law imposes first federal taxes on inheritance, (Yes, now known as the death tax)
tobacco & on incomes over $600 (progressive rate). Bring back the old Republican Party. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_1_35/ai_97173630

1867 Canada becomes a self governing dominion of Great Britain. Here’s the path to confederation http://collections.ic.gc.ca/stlauren/hist/hi_canada.htm

1870 James W Smith of SC becomes the first black to enter West Point. He did not graduate. Here’s more first for African Americans. http://www.africanamericans.com/Firsts.htm

1874 First US kidnapping for ransom, 4-year-old Charles Ross, $20,000 http://www.ushistory.org/germantown/upper/charley.htm Here’s more kidnapping context http://www.snarkout.org/archives/2003/12/23/

1898 Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riders charge up San Juan Hill. Want to know more about "the splendid little war", known as The Spanish American http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/splendid.html

1899 Gideon Society established to place bibles in hotels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Society

1919 first class postage actually drops from 3 to 2 cents.

1934 1st x-ray photo of entire body, Rochester, NY

1941 1st commercial l TV licenses granted-W2XBS-WNBT (NBC) & WCBW (CBS), NYC . Here’s a "cool" broadcast timeline http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0151956.html

1941 Bulova Watch Co. pays $9 for 1st ever network TV commercial http://www.answers.com/topic/television-commercial

1943 First time withholding taxes taken from paychecks http://www.taxsos.com/wearyofwithholding.htm

1944 Bretton Woods Conference starts, establishing IMF & World Bank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_Conference

1950 NYC bus fare rises to 10 cents to equal the subway fare. Here’s a token history http://www.nycsubway.org/tech/tokens/

1960 Ghana becomes a republic (remember Kwame Nkrumah) and Italian Somolia gains it’s independence. To understand current Africa (civil wars, starving refugees, AIDS) you have to look at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 which divided up Africa among the European Powers. http://geography.about.com/cs/politicalgeog/a/berlinconferenc.htm

1963 Post Office implements 5 digit zip codes. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmailus4.htm

1966 Medicare goes into effect. Does the current Administration want to reform or dismantle Medicare? Robert Kuttner has his opinions at TAP. ihttp://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=1046

1972 Ms. magazine begins publishing http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/periodicals/p/p_ms_magazine.htm

1979 the Sony Walkman was unveiled. http://www.philpatton.com/walkman.htm Remember the orange button?

1983 R Buckminster Fuller inventor/philosopher, dies in LA at 87 http://www.bfi.org/introduction_to_bmf.htm

1987 NYC radio station WFAN-AM becomes 1st 24 hour all sports radio. Actually
WHN-AM in New York City changed its call letters to WFAN (now WEVD)
replacing WHN's country music, WYNY-FM adopts country music format

1991 Michael Landon actor (Bonanza), dies at 54 from cancer http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001446/

1997 China regains sovereignty of Hong Kong http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

1804 George Sand ( Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant) French novelist (Valentine, Le Figaro) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sand

1892 – 1977 James M Cain novelist (Postman Always Rings Twice) http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jmcain.htm

1915 Willie Dixon Mississippi , blues bassist (Walkin' the Blues)http://www.alovesuprememusic.com/WillieDixon.html

1934 Sydney Pollack director (Tootsie, Presumed Innocent)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001628/

1945 Deborah Harry rocker (Blondie-Heart of Glass) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Harry

1967 Pamela Anderson actress, playmate (Feb, 1990) (Home Improvement, Baywatch and Tommy Lee sex Video) http://www.askmen.com/women/actress/2_pamela_anderson.html

Remember this story back on April 1^st (no fooling) 2003 regarding a certain Fox Reporter embedded with U.S. Troops during the invasion of Iraq.

And of course there was the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plane by Robert Novak from an Administration leak. Where was the outrage on part of the Republicans and Administration back then. In the end it’s another election year issue being used to ramp up the base. Hey there has to be an internal threat to go to during election years when the situation in Iraq is eroding the Republican parties majority in Congress.

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This just in from our Westchester Correspondent. The Project for The Old American Century has a web page which takes off on the above thought. On the 14 points of Fascism. Bert Gross’s Friendly Fascism (1980- remember the Reagan years) hits on many of the same points. But here’s the Bush years version.

In his original article, "Fascism Anyone?", Laurence Britt (interview) compared the regimes of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet and identified 14 characteristics common to those fascist regimes. This page is a collection of news articles dating from the start of the Bush presidency divided into topics relating to each of the 14 points of fascism. Further analysis of American Fascism done by the POAC can be read here.

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Tour de France begins today. It was rocked by guess what? A doping scandal.