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.

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

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

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

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.