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January 14th, 2009 weds
January 14th, 2009

Quiz: In the discussions of Hilary’s Secretary of State hearings, an analyst casually mentioned Clauswitz. He was a long dead German General from Napoleon’s time. What could possibly be relevant?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: With Obama and Gov. Rod Blagoyevich, we are witnessing the spectacle of a new reformist President going to Washington and trying to govern while leaving behind in his home state a petty scandal involving a crooked colleague. Has this ever happened to any earlier presidents?
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History for 1/14 /2009
Birthdays: Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Benedict Arnold, Faye Dunaway is 67, Hal Roach, Raymond Outcault, Cecil Beaton, John Dos Passos, Lawrence Kasdan, Andy Rooney, Julian Bond, Steven Soderbergh is 46, LL Cool J, T. Bone Burnet, Emily Watson

350 a.d.- The feast day of Saint Hilary of Poitiers- Saint Hilary may have been the father of church music. In exile in Phyrgia he noticed pagans sang hymns to their deities, so he composed the first Christian musical hymns. The Halleluiah Chorus, Ave Maria and “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goalposts of Heaven” would follow in due time.

1699- The Puritans of Salem hold a day of fasting and prayer to atone for any people they may have unjustly tortured and executed as witches. Well, at least they said they were sorry.

1900- Puccini's opera "Tosca" debuts in Rome.

1952-The NBC "Today" show debuts with Dave Garroway, Jim Fleming and J. Fred Muggs the chimp.

1954- actress Marilyn Monroe married baseball great Joe DiMaggio.

1957- Humphrey Bogart died of esophageal cancer at age 57. When he was buried at Forrest Lawn, wife Lauren Bacall put in with his ashes a solid gold whistle inscribed with the famous line from "To Have and To Have Not"- 'If you ever need me, just whistle.' The group of friends around Bogie and Bacall were nicknamed ‘The Rat Pack” . After Bogart’s death Frank Sinatra made the Rat Pack famous.

1964- Hanna & Barbera's ' The Magilla Gorilla' cartoon show.

1967- HIPPIES! The first “ Human Be-In” in Golden Gate Park. The Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead performed. Allan Ginsburg, Ram Dass and Timothy Leary spoke. LSD was laced into turkey sandwiches, and soon the crowd of 30,000 was stoned. The national media played up the event, and the rest of America first saw the power of the Hippy youth culture, and heard the word like “psychedelic” and Timothy Leary saying “ Tune in, Turn on, Drop out.” It was the prelude to the Summer of Love.

1972- Norman Lear’s hit comedy series Sanford & Son premiered. Starring Red Fox, it was based on the English show Steptoe & Son.

1990-Matt Groenings the Simpsons, which had been run as a series of blackout vignettes on the Tracey Ullman Show, now debuted as its own regular prime time series. Cowabunga!

2004- President George W. Bush declared his resolve to return America to the Moon and make a manned landing on Mars by 2030. To do this he gave NASA only one billion dollars more than their normal budget, while at the same time allocating $1.5 billion to fight Gay marriage initiatives.

2005- The Cassini-Huygens Probe landed on Saturn’s moon Titan.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: With Obama and Gov. Rod Blagoyevich, we are witnessing the spectacle of a new reformist President going to Washington and trying to govern while leaving behind in his home state a petty scandal involving a crooked colleague. Has this ever happened to any earlier presidents?

Answer: BLEEPIN yeah! Franklin Roosevelt was Governor of New York, and just as he was running for the presidency to unseat Hoover, the Mayor of New York City was Jimmy Walker, a loveable rogue that historians agree was” as crooked as a dog’s leg.” Walkers’ corruption finally led to his resignation, and FDR supported the Republican candidate- Fiorello LaGuardia.
The reason why it took awhile for anyone in Congress to take Harry Truman seriously, was he was seen as the protégé of a corrupt Kansas City political boss, Tom Pendergast.
Teddy Roosevelt had the whole corrupt NY Tammany Machine behind him when he became Vice President. When President McKinley was assassinated, Political boss Paul Crocker moaned” Oh no! Now that crazy cowboy is president!”


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