Quiz: What are Van Allen Belts?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: What is schadenfreude?
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History for 7/13/2017
Birthdays: French Admiral Bailly de Suffren, Cheech Marin, Father Flannagan, Cameron Crowe, Woye Solenka, Dave Garroway, Chef Paul Prudhomme, Michael Spinks, Film special effects artist Jim Danforth, Dr. Erno Rubik inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, Patrick Stewart is 76, Harrison Ford is 74, Tom Kenny the voice of Spongebob Squarepants is 55

1174- The Battle of Alnwick, in which Scottish King William I "the Lion" was
captured during a raid in Northumberland. He was held hostage by King Henry II until he recognized England's authority over Scotland.

1568 - Dean of St Paul's Cathedral perfects a way to bottle beer. What ever the process was it had to wait three hundred more years to be put to use.

1704- BLENHEIM-the great battle in Bavaria where the Duke of Marlborough destroyed the French army of Louis XIV. In the three centuries since Agincourt the reputation of English arms had faded in Continental Europe, preoccupied as they were by their internal Wars of the Roses and English Civil Wars. While the British Navy's reputation was growing, on land King William III trusted his Dutch generals more than his British. Blenheim changed all that. In one day Britain became the dominant powerbroker in Europe. John Churchill the first Duke of Marlborough was the great ancestor of Winston Churchill.

1787-THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE PASSED- This unprecedented plan masterminded by Tom Jefferson stipulated that as new territory passed into the United States, their populations could organize their own government and enter the union as a state, an equal partner of the original older states. So Utah would have as much political power as Pennsylvania. Nothing like this had ever been imagined much less implemented.
Before The Northwest Ordinance the states of Virginia and Pennsylvania were claiming all the land west of them to the Mississippi as their territory. Virginia even claimed the jurisdiction of Bermuda and Nassau in the Caribbean!

1798- Poet William Wordsworth visited Tinturn Abbey and was inspired to write his famous elegy on the ruins.

1832- Geologist Henry Schoolcraft discovered the source of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca, Minnesota.

1865- P.T. Barnum’s American Museum in New York City burned down in a spectacular fire. Barnum rebuilt but after that one burned as well, he got the idea of getting into the circus business. In his American Museum , more a sitting menagerie and sideshow than a museum as we know it, Barnum invented the idea of advanced hype and created kiddie matinees.

1868 - Oscar J Dunn, a former slave, was installed as the first African American governor of a state. Louisiana’s post Civil War elections were supervised by the occupying Union army and it ordered that no citizens who took up arms against the United States could vote. Since that was most of the white male population, the newly freed black population dominated the voting. But in ten years whites had reversed that situation and implemented Jim Crow laws to cheat black people out of political power until the Civil Rights movements of the twentieth Century.

1898-Giusseppi Marconi patents wireless transmissions, the Radio. Marconi believed that sound never dies, it just grows fainter. In his old age he was trying to invent a machine that could pick up the traces of the voice of Jesus.

1923- Paleontologist George Olsen while digging in the Gobi Desert discovered the first fossilized dinosaur eggs.

1925- Walt Disney and Lillian Bounds marry. Lillian was one of the first female animation ink & paint artists.

1930- Six thousand people in formal evening wear crowded into London’s Albert Hall to hear a special message from Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. It was extra special, because everyone knew Conan-Doyle had died just five days ago. Arthur Conan-Doyle was an advocate of spiritualism. He declared if anyone could get a message through from beyond the grave, he would. An empty chair was placed on stage in hopes of his apparition would take a seat. Hymns were sung and after long embarrassing silences, a clairvoyant medium cried out that she could see Sir Arthur.
Most saw nothing and thought it was all a big humbug.

1930 – David Sarnoff the head of the NBC radio network said in the NY Times that " The new invention of Television would be a theater in every home". Sounded crazy back then. Critics said it would require one room of the house be darkened, and they doubted people would just sit still that long.

1939- Frank Sinatra recorded his first album, this one with the Harry James Orchestra.

Pete Pantos was an Italian immigrant and fearless crusader for longshoremen’s rights. He spoke openly against the Mob stranglehold on New York waterfront unions led by Murder Inc. hitman Al Anastasia and his brother Tough Tony. On this day Pantos went to a secret meeting and never returned. A mob informer identified his body in a lime pit one year later. Graffiti covered the docks for weeks- WHERE’S PETE PANTOS? The mobs’ power on the docks was mostly broken up by in the 1960’s.

1949- Hollywood Studio exec David O. Selznick left his first wife Esther, the daughter of Louis B. Mayer, to marry actress Jennifer Jones.

1950- General Walton “ Bulldog” Walker was sent by MacArthur to assume overall command of all US and South Korean forces fleeing the North Korean invasion in the Pusan Perimeter. He stiffened the defense so MacArthur could launch his counterattack at Inchon. Bulldog Walker was one of George Patton’s top tank men and adopted Patton’s style of leadership. He once flew dangerously low over the battlefield in a small spotter plane waving his generals three star ensign at his retreating troops and bellowing at them:” Turn around and fight, ya yellow sons of bitches!!” Ironically like Patton he was killed not in battle, but in a car accident.

1960- Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts nominated for President by the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. The day continued with rounds of fierce backroom deals to decide the running mate. Although the Kennedys wanted Sen. Stuart Symington of Missouri it finally was decided to go with Lyndon Johnson. He was the powerful Senate leader from Texas.
Johnson had asked his Texas mentor John Nance Garner if he should accept the job. Cactus Jack was Franklin Roosevelt’s Veep for his first two terms. The 90 year old Garner said:” Lyndon, the Vice Presidency ain’t worth a bucket a warm spit!” Bobby Kennedy considered offering Lyndon the Vice Presidency a token gesture to mollify his anger at losing the nomination. But he was surprised when Johnson accepted. Before going to Ciro’s with Frank Sinatra to celebrate the nomination, Presidential aide Kenny O’Donnell recalled JFK making the best of it:” The Vice Presidency doesn’t mean anything. I’m forty three and I don’t plan to die in office….”

1964- At the Republican Convention the delegates cheered far rightwing candidate Barry Goldwater, then booed Nelson Rockefeller for denouncing right wing extremism in the party.

1966- In Chicago, psycho killer Richard Speck broke into a woman’s dormitory hotel where he raped and murdered 8 nurses as they came home from work. He spent the rest of his life in prison. Richard Speck became a posterboy for the death penalty. On a smuggled video recorder he bragged about how much fun he was having in prison at public expense, getting all the sex and drugs he wanted. Just before his death in 1999 he was asked if he had any remorse about the horrible things he did to those nurses. All he would say was “I guess it wasn’t their night.”

1977- The Great New York City Blackout of '77. For the second time in 20 years the w power grid breaks down. Unlike the 1964 or 2003 Blackouts, it was much longer, much hotter, and there was no full moon to illuminate the city. There was some urban looting, and serial killer Son of Sam was on the loose. No wonder they called New York “ Fun City”.

1984- The film The Last Starfighter with Robert Preston opened. The first movie where all the spaceships and effects were done with cgi instead of miniature models.

1985- Boomtown Rats vocalist Bob Geldorf organized a massive live concert called LIVE AID. Televised and seen by 1.5 billion people, it raised money for African famine relief. Madonna, Santanna, Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys and reunions of Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Who and Led Zeppelin.

1985- A cancerous growth was removed from President Ronald Reagan’s colon. Comic Paul Rodriguez said:” Reagan is amazing: He got cancer in his nose, he got cancer in his butt, he got shot full of bullets- he’s like the Terminator President.”

2016- In the wake of the Brexit Debacle, Theresa May becomes the second female Prime Minister of Great Britain.
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Yesterday’s Question: What is schadenfreude?

Answer: It’s a German term meaning to get pleasure from the misfortune of others.

Question: What is schadenfreude?

Yesterday’s question answered below: What does it mean to be stuck in the Doldrums?
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History for 7/12/2017
Birthdays: Gaius Julius Caesar, Henry David Thoreau, Impressionist painter Eugene Boudin, Oscar Hammerstein, Kirsten Flagstad, Andrew Wyeth, Pablo Neruda, George Eastman, Milton Berle, Cheryl Ladd, Van Cliburn, Buckminster Fuller, George Washington Carver, Josiah Wedgewood- of Wedgewood china and pottery, Michelle Rodriguez, Richard Simmons, Krysty Yamaguchi, Bill Cosby is 81, Ben Burt- George Lucas’ sound effects guru who created the sounds of Darth Vader and R2D2, is 69.

783AD – Queen Bertha "with the big feet" died, the wife of Frankish King Pippin III.

1174- King Henry II of England does public penance on his knees and allowed himself to be whipped for the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, St. Thomas Beckett.

1290 –All Jews were expelled from England by order of King Edward I Longshanks. A few lived on secretly in British society- Queen Elizabeth’s doctor Rodrigo Lopez was Jewish. Jews would not officially be allowed back into England for four hundred years, when Oliver Cromwell lifted the ban in the 1650’s.

1389- King Richard II appointed writer Geoffrey Chaucer to the choice job of Chief Clerk of the Kings Works at Westminster.

1543- Henry VIII marries his sixth and last wife Catharine Parr.

1562- Spanish monks burn hundreds of priceless books and scrolls of the ancient Mayan Civilization as works of the Devil.

1679 - Britain's King Charles II ratified the Habeas Corpus Act.

1691- The Battle of Aughrim- The largest battle ever on Irish soil was fought in Galway as a leftover action of the Williamite Wars, when William of Orange deposed King James II of England. Ireland’s lords had backed the Catholic James. Even after James had been defeated and driven off in the Battle of the Boyne the previous year, William’s forces had to subdue the remaining resistance. The battle was bloody, and only decided when a lucky cannonball struck off the head of the Jacobite general, the Marquis de Ruth.

1742- Battle of Bloody Marsh- As part of a larger European war, James Oglethorpe’s English colony in Georgia was attacked by a large Spanish force under Florida’s colonial governor Don Manuel de Montiano.

1776- During the American Revolution, the British 44 gun warships HMS Phoenix and HMS Rose showed how little they thought of George Washington’s puny rebel defenses, by boldly sailing right up to New York City, and firing on the town.

1759- British General Wolfe began to bombard the French held city of Quebec.

1789- At the Palais Royale in Paris, radical lawyer Camille DesMoulins climbed up on a table in front of the Café du Foy to address a crowd. The people of Paris had been seething since the king had brought Swiss and German mercenary troops into the city to restore order. DesMoulin alleged that the true object of the King's foreign troops were to kill all Frenchmen who wanted freedom. For the first time the Parisian streets rang with the cry: "Aux Armes, Citoyens!" -to arms, citizens! A mob marched to the Place Vendomme where they showered the troops with rocks and bottles, until a volley from their guns dispersed them. The French Revolution would begin in two more days.

1794- At the siege of Calvi in Corsica, young Captain Horatio Nelson lost his right eye.

1808- With the encouragement of Governor Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis & Clark fame, the first newspaper west of the Mississippi is founded, The Missouri Gazette and Louisiana Advertiser.

1817- For the first time in many years America wasn’t at war with anyone and political feuding had died down. James Monroe was elected President in what was considered a decidedly boring election. A Boston newspaper named the Columbian Sentinel described the climate of the times as “The Era of Good Feeling”. The name stuck.

1843- Mormon prophet Joseph Smith said God told him in a revelation that it’s okay to marry more than one wife.

1861- The McCandles Massacre, the most famous Western shootout until the OK Corral. James Hickok earns his nickname Wild Bill by killing ten desperadoes in a free for all with sixguns and bowie knives. Interviewed by Harpers Weekly, Mr. Hickok explained :”I was wild and I struck savage blows.”

1863-The NEW YORK CITY DRAFT RIOTS- Arguably the largest civil disturbance in American History. Poor immigrant laborers, sick of the Civil War and being forced into the army while rich men bought their way out, ran wild in the streets in three days of looting.
The riot was sparked by the opening of a new draft office on 46th St & 3rd Ave. They began calling names while by coincidence the first lists of the dead from the Battle of Gettysburg were being published. A mob of 15,000 attacked and burned the Draft Board offices and overwhelmed the police. Writer Herman Melville watching the flames from a rooftop said: “The Rats have taken over the City.” Newspaperman Horace Greely defended his New York World office with a small cannon packed with nails in his lobby. The New York Times posted Gatling Guns on its roof and Wall St. banks boiled oil to drop from the rooftops, like something out of the Middle Ages.
Labor history mentions that most of these laborers worked a 12-14 hour day, seven days a week. So fighting slavery seemed a moot point to them. The mob attacked well dressed men “There goes a three hundred-dollar man!” Modern apologists for the rich rather to focus on the racism of the mob. Indeed the Irish poor, targets of racism themselves, singled out black people as the cause of all their misfortunes and hanged many from lampposts. They even torched a black little girl’s orphanage. The terrified children had to be escorted by bayonet wielding troops to a barge in the East River for their safety.
N.Y. Governor Horatio Seymour, who’s own public contempt for Lincoln's policies help encourage the riots, had to borrow Union Army regiments from the battlefields to restore order in New York City.

1863- After the defeat at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee's retreating army was pinned for awhile against the rain flooded Potomac River. As the surrounding Union army massed to attack, a local minister went up to Yankee General Meade and protested fighting a battle on a Sunday. When Meade tried to reason with him, the minister replied:" As God's emissary I denounce the defiling of His day! Look ye to the heavens!" Almost as if on command a rainstorm burst out over their heads. Meade cancelled the attack.

1864- Jubal Early's Confederates tried to attack Washington D.C. Early didn’t think he could hold Washington but he was determined to loot and burn it and maybe in so doing draw Grant away from Richmond. Rebel skirmishers got as close as Georgetown, they could see the gleaming white dome of the US Capitol. Despite Union forces in the area being pathetically unprepared, Quartermaster General Meigs had to arm his accountants, and they bussed out hospital invalids with guns, they still managed to turn Early away.

President Lincoln went out to Fort Stevens near present day Walter Reade Medical Center to watch the fight. During the shooting Col. Oliver Wendell Holmes called out to the man in the $8 dollar stovepipe hat peering over the parapet:" Get down ya damn fool! You’re drawing fire. You wanna get us all killed?!" The only time a sitting U.S. President was under direct enemy fire.

1870- Celluloid film patented. The inventor had been trying to find a substitute for ivory billiard balls. Inventor George Eastman later perfected the sprocket and hole system of roll film for cameras, replacing the large glass plates.

1870- THE DISPATCH OF EMMS- The spark that ignited the Franco Prussian War, which caused the World Wars of the Twentieth Century. The Spanish had deposed their nymphomaniac Queen Isabella IX and the French and Germans each had a new candidate for the throne. When the Prussian (German) King Wilhelm removed his candidate to diffuse international tension the French Empress Eugenie pushed it by demanding an apology as well.

King Wilhelm was at the Baths at Emms when he got the demand for an apology. He wrote a short note refusing to meet the French ambassador. Wilhelm's chancellor Bismarck, who wanted a war with France to unite the separate states of Germany against their old enemy, intercepted the kings letter before it went out and rewrote it to be a real slap in the face. The furious French Empire declared war two days later, just as Bismarck had hoped.

1876- Gunfighter Wild Bill Hickok arrived in Deadwood South Dakota to prospect for gold, see some old friends like Calamity Jane, and play a little poker.

1901 – Baseball pitcher Cy Young wins his 300th game.

1906 – French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus was cleared of all charges of treason and espionage.

1914 – Young reform school graduate Babe Ruth makes his baseball debut, as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

1928 - 1st televised tennis match.

1937- The US Government passed the Marijuana Licensing Act, the first of many laws to try and regulate and eventually eliminate marijuana growing. The act was ruled unconstitutional in 1969, but by then marijuana was top on the list of illegal substances.

1948 - 1st jets fly across the Atlantic -6 RAF de Havilland Vampire bombers.

1960: The first Etch-a-Sketch goes on sale. Frenchman Arthur Granjean, invented it. (he called it L’Ecran Magique, or “The Magic Screen”). After failing to get some of the bigger toy companies to bite, he sold his invention to the Ohio Art Company.

1962 – The Rolling Stones 1st performance at the Marquee Club, London. One band member named Elmo Lewis, changed his name to Brian Jones.

1979- Carmine "The Cigar" Galante, boss of the Gambino Mafia family, was blown away over coffee and spumoni at a small Brooklyn restaurant called Joe & Marys. He was finished off with a 45 cal. slug through the eye, his cigar still in his lips. The hit was ordered by Paul Castellano. Rupert Murdoch's New York Post set a new journalistic low when a reporter shimmied up a drainpipe and got a photo of the Don's bullet riddled body before the cops could throw a sheet over it. The Post put it in color on the front page.

1979- Disco Demolition Night. Chicago fans could get into Comisky Park for 98 cents if they each brought a Disco record to burn. Instead of the usual crowd of 5,000, they got 50,000 who rushed the field. Thousands of records were thrown at the players like Frisbees while they were trying to play, and the field torn up when they donated a crate of records on the pitchers mound. So the Chicago White Socks were forced to forfeit the game to the Tigers.

1984- Geraldine Ferrarro named the Vice Presidential running mate of Walter Mondale. They lose in a landslide to Reagan-Bush.

1990- TV series Northern Exposure premiered.
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Yesterday’s question: What does it mean to be stuck in the Doldrums?

Answer: In both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans near the Equator, there are areas of low pressure called The Intertropical Convergence Zones, where there is no wind or weather and, back in the days of travel by sail, becalmed ships could make no progress. Today, being in the doldrums means to be listless, in a rut, depressed, inactive.

Quiz: What does it mean to be stuck in the Doldrums?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: When Michael Eisner started up Walt Disney’s TV animation division in 1984, what was the first show they did?
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History for 7/11/2017
Birthdays: Robert the Bruce, John Quincy Adams, Sir Thomas Bowdler, E.B. White, Yul Brynner- born Tadjhe Khan, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leon Spinks, Tab Hunter, Giorgio Armani, Sela Ward, Kimberly “Little Kim’ Jones, Stephen Lang is 65

480 AD- Today is the Feast of SAINT BENEDICT, the monk who established the first rules for monks, convents and abbeys. Before this people who wished to express Christian zeal renounced the world and ran off into the hills to become hermits. Benedict said “Idleness is the Enemy of the Soul” and encouraged his followers to serve the community- make jam, milk goats, whatever, just do something useful. He ordered that monks wear the same uniform cowl and do not eat animal flesh. In the same year the last Pagan schools of philosophy were being closed down, he established the first great monastery of Monte Cassino on the site of an old temple to Apollo.

1302-"Battle of the Golden Spurs" Battle of Courtai. In an unusual turn for the Middle Ages, French peasants defeat an army of noble knights and hang their golden spurs up in church.

1533- Pope Clement VII denounced King Henry VIII’s divorce, excommunicated him and pronounced his new marriage to Anne Boylen null, and any offspring illegitimate.

1573- While plundering the Gulf Coast of Panama, Sir Francis Drake was taken by a friendly Cimmaroon ( African / Indian ) to a large tree from whose top he could simultaneously view the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Drake is inspired to take an oath to one day navigate the Pacific, the first Englishman to dare violate the Spaniards' Private Sea.

1573- After a long siege, the Dutch city of Haarlem fell to Spanish armies.

1708 The Battle of Oudenarde- Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy destroy the French army under Marshall Villeroi. The battle climaxed with one of the largest cavalry melees ever seen- 40,000 horsemen swirling, shooting, and chopping at each other. The French were so fixated on Marlborough the bogeyman that they made up a song about him "Marlbroucke se va' ton Guerre" -So 'Marlborough wants to fight?'. The tune was an old Crusader melody Richard the Lionheart was familiar with, and has come down to us as 'For he's a Jolly good fellow' .It was a very popular tune in France. Napoleon was known to whistle it in the midst of battle.

1798- The birthday of the U.S. Marine Band. Called the 'President's Own" it achieved world fame in 1881 under it's director John Philip Sousa.

1804 THE HAMILTON-BURR DUEL- Vice President Aaron Burr shot and killed the former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Aaron Burr was a lieutenant under Hamilton during the Revolution. Later in politics they became bitter foes. No one was sure what one word or incident sparked this duel, but they spent years ruining each others political schemes: Hamilton withheld support from Burr in the presidential election of 1800 even though they were in the same party. Burr arranged Hamilton would lose the race for governor of New York.

Finally they couldn't stand each other any more. They rowed across the Hudson to have the duel in Weehawken New Jersey, this way the winner would only be wanted for murder in one state. The site was the same field that Hamilton's son had died in a duel three years earlier. Friends of Hamilton insist he deliberately shot wide as a gesture while Burr shot to kill. Burr said baloney, he was just nervous. He shot Hamilton near the groin. Hamilton died the next day in great pain.

Amazingly, Burr was allowed to finish his term as Vice President, because there weren't any laws on what to do with a Vice President who kills somebody. He continued to preside over Congress and even had dinner with President Jefferson – Old Tom didn't like Hamilton either. Aaron Burr never went to trial, but his political career was effectively finished.

1812- U.S. armies invade Canada- again.

1848 - London's Waterloo Station opened.

1855- An earthquake knocks down Los Angeles -again.

1906- Nordisk Films in Copenhagen founded.

1910- As the ship Montrose docked in Canada authorities arrested Mr H.H. Crippen for the murder of his wife back in Britain. Also arrested was his mistress Ethel disguised as a boy. It was the first time a wireless transatlantic message was used to catch a criminal.

1921- British Prime Minster David Lloyd George and Irish Republic leader Eamon De Valera announced a truce in the guerrilla war ravaging Ireland and the beginnings of peace talks.

1922- The first regular concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The natural amphitheater in Bolton Canyon called Daisy Dell, had been used for Easter morning services and some concerts before, but now on a regular basis. Dr Alred Hertz conducted several symphonies, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Rudolph Valentino were in the audience. It was then a wooden stage at the bottom of a grassy knoll. Frank Lloyd Wright’s bandshell was built in 1927.

1936- The Triboro Bridge project opens in New York City. A massive WPA project to link the various boroughs of New York by highways, it was begun in 1933 but delayed for years by corruption, and the fact that Franklin Roosevelt personally despised it's chief architect, Robert Moses. Moses had referred to the handicapped Roosevelt as a "gimp" and "half-man". FDR denied any federal money for the project until Moses was fired. Mayor Fiorello Laguardia used all of his personal charisma and friendship with FDR to keep the project moving. Robert Moses was not only retained but created other engineering marvels like Jones Beach and the World's Fairs of 1939 and 1964. The first Disney animatronic Mr. Lincoln, for a demonstration was programmed to say "How do you do, Mr. Moses."

1937- George Gershwin died of a malignant brain tumor at age 38.

1938- The radio show The Mercury Theater of the Air with Orson Welles and John Houseman premiered.

1942- First phase or the Battle of El-Alamein ends with Rommel’s Afrika Korps stopped just outside Cairo and the Suez Canal.

1943- "DEATH RIDE OF THE FOUTH PANZER ARMY" Climax of the Battle of Kursk. Tens of thousands of heavy tanks swirling around blowing each other up on the Ukranian steppeland. The Russians regard the Battle of Kursk as the real turning point of World War II, because it was when the Red army took the full brunt of a Nazi "blitzkrieg" offensive and stopped it. The Germans understood thereafter that they could no longer hope to win.

1943- OPERATION HUSKY-One of the biggest boondoggles of WWII. During the invasion of Sicily, American strategists decided to drop parachute troops behind German lines to trap them before they could evacuate to Italy. The first drop was successful, the second less so and today's was a complete disaster. For some reason ships of the U.S. Navy mistook the flying transports for the enemy, and began shooting them down. Planes full of paratroops of the 82nd Airborne crashed and burned, and prematurely cut gliders that smashed into the ocean. Afterward, there was a news blackout. From then on parachute planes wing's were painted with three broad white 'invasion stripes' to prevent similar accidents. The secret was so well kept, it’s still not mentioned in many popular histories of World War II.

One C-47 transport that peeled off and ran for base, avoiding the carnage, contained Sergeant George Sito, who survived the war to sire me, your author.

1944- General Teddy Roosevelt Jr, the son of the old president, was the only general to go ashore with the first wave on D-Day. This day he died of a heart attack while on campaign in France.

1944- Despite being ill and frail, Franklin Roosevelt announced he would be a candidate for an unprecedented 4th term in office as President. After his death Congress passed the 22nd amendment forbidding any other President to have more than two terms.

1945- Napalm first used on Japanese positions in Luzon in the Philippines.

1952- The Republican Convention nominated Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to be their candidate for President. No body was sure until then what Eisenhower’s political affiliation was. Harry Truman wanted Ike to run as his Democrat VP in 1948. The nomination came as a great shock to the ambitions of the other republican World War II hero, General Douglas MacArthur. He called Ike: “ He was the best damn orderly I ever had!”

1952- LA’s Randy’s Donuts, with its iconic huge donut sign on its roof, opened.

1962-The Tellstar I satellite transmitted the first television images from France to USA.

1969 - Rolling Stones release "Honky Tonk Woman".

1970- “Mama Told Me Not to Come” by Three Dog Night hits #1 in the pop charts. The song was written by young composer Randy Newman.

1975- Chinese archaeologists excavating at the ancient site of XIAN discover an entire army of 6,000 terra cotta statues buried in formation with their chariots and cavalry. Each statue was an individual portrait. They were buried in 221 BC to protect the tomb of China's first emperor Chi Yuan Zsi, whos name is where the name China came from.

1979- The world holds it’s breath and covers it’s head as the first U.S. space station SKYLAB falls from orbit. 77 tons of space debris in 500 pieces falling around Australia and the Indian Ocean. Luckily it didn’t hit anyone, although chunks were stuck in an office building in Perth.

1990- THE OKA INDIAN UPRISING- Mohawk Indians living in Quebec fight with police when Quebec authorities try to extend a golf course from 9 to 18 holes over their ancestral burial grounds. AK-47s, overturned cars, helicopter gunships and tear gas abound. One Quebec constable, a corporal Lemay was killed.

1991- Disney announced it would enter into a deal with a Bay area digital offshoot of Lucasfilm named PIXAR. Hit films including Toy Story, Monsters Inc. Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars were the result.

1997- A lunatic named Jonathan Norman was arrested for trying to break into Steven Spielberg’s home. He believed Spielberg “wanted to be raped”, and had on him chloroform, duct tape and S&M paraphernalia.

2016- Nintendo released the Pokemon Go app for smart phones and it causes a sensation.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: When Michael Eisner started up Walt Disney’s TV animation division in 1984, what was the first show they did?

Answer: The Gummi Bears and Wuzzles.

Quiz: When Michael Eisner started up Walt Disney’s TV animation division in 1984, what was the first show they did?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Which classic animated TV series was NOT done by Hanna & Barbera? A) Quickdraw McGraw, B) Peter Potamus, C) Linus the Lionhearted, D) Top Cat.
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History for 7/10/2017
Birthdays: John Calvin, Marcel Proust, James McNeill Whistler, Nicholas Tesla, Carl Orff, Camille Pissarro, Adolphus Busch the founder of Budweiser, George DiChirico, Jacky "Legs" Diamond, Arlo Guthrie, Jake LaMotta, Joe Shuster- one of the creators of Superman, Fred Gywnne, David Brinkley, Arthur Ashe, Camilla Parker Bowles, Jessica Simpson is 37, Sofia Vegara is 45.

138AD- Death of the Roman Emperor Hadrian at age 62. Antoninus Pius became emperor after promising to adopt as his heir young Marcus Aurelius. Hadrian, although suffering a lingering illness, had arranged that Antoninus would have no rivals by ordering the deaths of anyone even thinking of wanting to be emperor. He even ordered the execution of his brother-in-law Servianus. Servianus was ninety years old.

1040 - Lady Godiva goes for a ride on horseback in the nude to embarrass her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes on the poor.

1099- The magical-mystical knight of Spain Rodrigo de Bivar, called El Cid, died at the castle of Valencia. Rodrigo had taken a loosely written promise from King Alfonso of Castile that he could keep any territory he took from the Moors, and used it to build a private army. He captured the city of Valencia and ruled it like an independent prince. Nine years after his death, his wife Jimena surrendered Valencia to the Almohavid Moors. But the legend of El Cid Campeador, lived on.

1460 - Wars of Roses: Richard of York defeats King Henry VI at Northampton.

1554- The day after King Henry VIII’s sickly son Edward died at 15, Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed as England’s’ Queen. This was a desperate gamble of powerful Protestant factions to keep Henry’s eldest daughter Mary from ascending the throne. Mary was a bigoted Catholic and made no secret her desire to punish all those who turned from the Roman Church. So they dug up Lady Jane, a niece with a thin claim on the throne. It didn’t work, Mary became queen, Lady Jane lost her head.

1588- French philosopher Michel de la Montaigne spent one night in the Bastille prison. The Bordeaux native had arrived in Paris in the midst of the nasty political fight between Huguenots and Catholics and was arrested as a traitor. Queen Mother Catherine de Medici ordered his prompt release.

1649- ZBARAZH- Ukrainian Cossack rebel Bogdhan Khmeilnitski besieged Polish warlord Prince Jeremy Wisnoviecki with the aid of the Crimean Tatars under Tugai Bey. After a epic battle The Polish King Jan Casimir bribed the Crimean Khan into changing sides which forced Bogdan to make peace. But the peace confirmed Bogdan Khmeilnitski as the Hetman of an autonomous Cossack Ukraine. In 1654 Bogdan pledged allegiance to the Russian Czar in Moscow and the Ukraine would not be free of Russian rule until 1989. Cossacks sang: “Hey, Hey Tugai Bey! Tugai Bey is mad To-Day!”

1815- After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the allied armies occupying Paris start to squabble with one another. The Prussians (Germans) were disappointed they didn’t get to shoot Napoleon, burn Paris or do any other fun stuff. At least they wanted to blow up a Seine River bridge Nappy named for their humiliating defeat, the Pont du Jena. When the Duke of Wellington denounced this action as barbaric, General Von Gneisenau sneered: “you would do the same if there was a Pont du Yorktown here!” the big British defeat in the American Revolution. Wellington wouldn’t speak to von Gneisenau afterwards.
The Prussians got to set off gunpowder charges but the bridge was built too solid and wouldn’t collapse.

1832- President Andrew Jackson vetoed the charter of the Bank of the United States. Jackson felt a strong centralized bank would concentrate too much power away from the states and invite abuse, while proponents felt it was necessary to regulate banking like the Bank of England did. It was the most hotly debated issue of his presidency. He was roundly criticized as 'King Andrew Ist ' for defying Congress and public will. After several more decades of frequent financial panics and recessions, The Federal Reserve act of 1913 finally duplicated the same benefits as a national bank.

1873 - French poet Paul Verlaine wounded Arthur Rimbaud in a pistol duel.

1881 -Jesse James robbed his last bank, The Davis and Sexton Bank of Iowa. Then he changed his name to Mr. Howard and tried to live quietly with his wife Zerelda Mimms in Missouri. He called her “Z”.

1890- Wyoming became a state.

1892 - 1st concrete-paved street built in Bellefountaine, Ohio.

1925- THE SCOPES MONKEY TRIAL-Tennessee school teacher John Thomas Scopes went on trial for violating a state law forbidding the teaching of evolution to children. Scopes was defended by famed lawyer Clarence Darrow sent by the ACLU, the prosecutor was William Jennings Bryan.
The trial evolved (forgive the pun) from a small claims misdemeanor to a debate on Charles Darwin’s theory itself. This day the media descended upon the little town of Dayton Tennessee, which had hoped to attract attention for its slumping economy. It was the first trial broadcast live on Chicago radio WGN nationwide.
Hundreds of spectators attended from hillbillies with squirrel rifles, a chimpanzee in a suit called Mr. Joe Mendy to columnist H.L. Mencken, packing 4 bottles of bootleg scotch and a typewriter. Darrow humiliated Bryan in the debate by pointing out the contradictions in the Bible, but Scopes was found guilty anyway. The ban on teaching evolution remained in Tennessee until 1967.

1932- In a baseball game against the Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indian pitcher Eddie Rommel perfects the knuckleball pitch.

1940- THEIR FINEST HOUR- First German bombing raids over London known as the "Battle of Britain". The Luftwaffe's mission, in preparation for a Nazi amphibious invasion of England- Operation Sea Lion, was to destroy the RAF and British industrial and supply areas, mostly around southeast London. This is why today the areas east of the Tower of London have so many modern buildings. Despite being outnumbered by three to one, the RAF prevailed, prompting Churchill's famous: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much, owed by so many, to so few."

1941- Jazz great Jelly Roll Morton died at 50 in Los Angeles from complications of asthma. He liked to call himself the inventor of jazz. As debatable as that claim was, he was one of the first musicians to develop a personal solo style distinct from the rest of his band. His mother practiced voodoo in New Orleans and she told him the reason for his fame and fortune was because she had pledged his soul to the Devil. He spent his last hours in a panic with his wife anointing his head with Holy oil.

1943- Allied Armies hit the beaches in Sicily.

1950 - "Your Hit Parade" premieres on NBC (later CBS) TV.

1953- NIKITA KHRUSCHEV takes power in Moscow. After the death of Josef Stalin there was the inevitable shuffle of party bureaucrats jockeying for top job. Commissars Bulganin, Malenkov and Molotov tried to hold power, but the little bald Ukrainian with the big smile had the last laugh. At a secret meeting of the Presidium Khrushchev arrested Laventi Beria, Stalin's dreaded chief executioner. Beria broke down and wept for his life before he was shot. Khrushchev was more merciful with his other rivals: Bulganin was made manager of a Siberian power station, Molotov was made ambassador to Outer Mongolia. The colorful Comrade Khrushchev held power until 1964.

1976- the last wooden slide rule produced. The K&E company gave it to the Smithsonian.

1985 - Coca-Cola Co admits New Coke was a big mistake and announced it would resume selling old formula Coke.

1987- The environmental group Greenpeace first called attention to themselves by a large ship called the Rainbow Warrior used to enter atomic tests sites to protest. This day in Auckland Harbor, The Rainbow Warrior was sunk by a bomb placed on her hull by French commandos. The blast killed a photographer. Rainbow Warrior had been in the Pacific to protest France’s nuclear testing there. The Government of New Zealand determined the French were responsible. In the ensuing scandal the French Defense minister resigned and the commandos went to jail.

1987- The Brave Little Toaster premiered in theatres.

1979 - Chuck Berry sentenced to 4 months for $200,000 in tax evasion. The old rocker said:” It never fails, every ten years I wind up in jail for something.”

1985- “ We Don’t Need Another Evil. “ Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome opened in theaters.

1991-Boris Yeltsin took the oath of office as first popularly elected President of Russia.

1992-A U.S. federal judge sentenced Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega to 40 years in prison for being a drug pusher, dictator and never returning the CIA washroom keys.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Which classic animated TV series was NOT done by Hanna & Barbera? A) Quickdraw McGraw, B) Peter Potamus, C) Linus the Lionhearted, D) Top Cat.

Answer: C) Linus the Lionhearted.

Quiz: Which classic animated TV series was NOT done by Hanna & Barbera? A) Quickdraw McGraw, B) Peter Potamus, C) Linus the Lionhearted, D) Top Cat.



Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Has a sitting U.S. President ever been under direct enemy fire?

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History for 7/9/2017

Birthdays: Schopenhauer, Elias Howe, Ottorino Respighi, David Hockney, Samuel Elliot Morrison, Sir Edward Heath, Kelly McGillis, Barbera Cartland, J. Paul Getty II, H.V. Kaltenborn, Daniel Guggenheim, John Tesch, Fred Savage, Chris Cooper, O.J. Simpson, Courtenay Love is 57, Debbie Sludge is 63, Brian Dennehy is 79, Tom Hanks is 61



586 BCE. -Jerusalem falls to Nebuchanessar II. He removed the Israelites to Babylon and the 'Babylonian Captivity' begins.



271B.C. – Greek philosopher Epicurus died at age 72. A strict vegetarian, he suffered from kidney stones and dysentery.



1540-Henry VIII had his marriage annulled to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. Because the match was made for political reasons, in contrast to Henry's other queens, she was not beheaded but had a nice quiet life afterward.



1595 - Johannes Kepler theorized a geometric construction of the universe.



1686- The Treaty of the League of Augsburg. French king Louis XIV’s ambition to build his kingdom without a thought to who he offended managed to unite most of Europe- against him. Germany, Sweden, Spain, Holland, Austria and England all signed a secret alliance against France. Years ago these same nations were bitter enemies over religion, and kept apart by the diplomacy of Cardinal Richelieu. But Richelieu was long dead and even though Louis was a great catholic champion, even the Pope hated him. This treaty set the stage for the next century of European conflict.



1772- THE GASPEE’ INCIDENT- Another provocation leading to the American Revolution. Britain’s insistence her colonies trade through Britain exclusively made Americans a race of smugglers. Most New England businessmen had money tied up in ships doing illegal business. So when the captain of the Royal Navy ship HMS Gaspee’ was overly diligent in catching coastal smugglers, people were indignant. This day the Gaspee ran aground in the shoals off Rhode Island. That night a group of patriots seized the captain and crew and burned the ship. The next day the crew were released and everyone in the vicinity caught amnesia.



1776- The Declaration of Independence read out to Washington's army defending New York City. The people of New York celebrate by pulling down a large statue of King George III at Bowling Green. They melted the lead statue into 42,000 bullets. This was all done while knowing a huge British invasion fleet was just outside their harbor about to attack. The happy mobs also went after suspected loyalists including Mayor David Matthews, Royal Governor Tryon, and one of General Washington’s own bodyguard.



1815 -1st natural gas well in US is discovered.



1816- Happy Argentine Independence Day!



1864- Battle of the Monocacy. Jubal Early's Confederates threatened Washington D.C., to try and pull Grant away from his deathgrip on Richmond. This day they fought a large skirmish with Union forces in the area and resume their march towards the US Capitol.



1842 - Notary Stamp Law passes.



1910 - Walter Brookings becomes 1st to pilot an airplane up to an altitude of one mile!



1918- Depressed after his sweetheart Estelle married another man, writer William Faulkner left his Oxford Mississippi home to go to Canada and enlist in the RAF. He never saw combat, because World War I ended before his training was completed.



1940- VICHY- After the terrible defeat by the Germans, the remains of the French government sets up a Nazis puppet state with elderly Great War hero Marshal Phillipe Petain as it's president. Because Paris was occupied by the Nazis, they met in the mineral water resort town of Vichy. The Vichy Republic was born. To this day the debate rages in France whether Petain was a traitor or whether he sacrificed his honor to salvage what he could of France from the wreckage of the defeat. Remember the scene at the end of the film "Casablanca" when Claude Rains pours himself some mineral water, but when he sees the label says Vichy Water, he tosses it into the trash.



1942- Anne Frank and her family go into hiding from the Nazis in the warehouse attic above her fathers office.



1943- Secret agent Jan Kauszka had been smuggled out of occupied Europe so he could go to Washington. Today he told President Franklin Roosevelt that the Polish Underground Resistance (AK) had undeniable proof that Hitler’s secret plan was to murder all the Jews of Europe.



1945- Shortly before he boarded the battleship Augusta to travel to Potsdam to confer with Churchill and Stalin, US President Harry Truman fired his Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau. Henry had been FDR’s treasury head for 12 years, the longest serving cabinet officer since founding father Albert Gallatin. Henry Morgenthau masterminded FDR’s battle with the Depression, The New Deal, and financed the World War II victory. But Truman chaffed at being lectured by old Roosevelt stalwarts. He now called Morganthau a "blockhead", idiot," and "he don’t know sh*t from apple-butter!"



1955 - "Rock Around Clock", arguably the first Rock & Roll song, hits #1 on Top 100 chart



1956 - Dick Clark's 1st appearance as host of American Bandstand.



1972- David Bowie first appeared as his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust.



1981 - Walt Disney's the "Fox & The Hound," released. The first animated feature Walt Disney had no input on. Although the film has brief screen credits, it marks the torch being passed from the Nine Old Men golden age generation to the modern generation of animators. A complete personnel roster would include Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Woolie Reitherman, Tim Burton, John Lasseter, Bill Kroyer, Don Bluth, Lorna Cook, Henry Selick, Brad, Bird, Steve Hulett, John Musker, Jerry Rees, Rebecca Rees, Glen Keane and many more.



1983- The Police’s single "Every Breath You Take" goes to #1.



1993- Industrial Light & Magic completes its transition to digital technology by shutting down its Anderson Optical Printer. The Optical Printer system of mattes had been the way Motion Picture visual effects had been done since Melies in 1909, but the Digital Revolution had changed everything.

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Yesterday’s Quiz: Has a sitting U.S. President ever been under direct enemy fire?



Answer: When the British burned Washington D.C. President Madison was galloping around the forests of Arlington. But the one we definitely know about was in July 1864 when the Confederates tried to raid Washington, Abe Lincoln rode out to observe. During the shooting, Col. Oliver Wendell Holmes called out to the man in the $8 dollar stovepipe hat peering over the parapet:" Get down ya damn fool! You’re drawing fire. You wanna get us all killed?!"