Question: What US politician was called The Great Commoner, and the Son of the Plains?

Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Who originated the slogan “ They Shall Not Pass” ( No Pasaran!) hint –“ On ne passe pas!”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
history for 10/17/2011
Birthdays: Arthur Miller, Rita Hayworth, Jean Arthur, Montgomery Clift, Jimmy Breslin, Tom Poston, Gary Puckett, Margot Kidder, Evil Knievel, Jerry Seigel (Superman co-creator), Virgil 'Vip' Partch, Charles Kraft the sliced cheese king, Beverly Garland- star of Attack of the Alligator People, George Wendt, Mike Judge, Eminem

641 A.D.- ALEXANDRIA, the "Paris of the Ancient World" fell to the advancing armies of Islam. The Byzantine Greek emperors had been persecuting the native Coptic Christians as a heresy, so the Egyptians bloodlessly opened their gates to the Arab invaders. Caliph Omar ordered the remains of the Great Library of Alexandria destroyed: "If these books contain the same knowledge as the Koran they are unnecessary, If they have knowledge contrary to the Koran they are unwanted".

In all fairness to old Omar the library had been burned by Julius Caesar and ravaged by Christian fanatics and barbarians for centuries anyway, but whatever was left was stuffed into the bakery ovens of the Arab army. This was also the last time anyone recalled seeing the remains of Alexander the Great, embalmed in a solid block of honey since 312BC. That’s like us being able to look upon the undecayed face of Shakespeare.

1777- SARATOGA- 'Gentleman Johnny' Burgoyne, and his British Army are surrounded in upper New York State and forced to surrender. This is seen as the turning point of the American Revolution, because the victory gave the rebels credibility in the eyes of England's traditional enemies- France, Holland and Spain. That evening General Burgoyne was invited to dinner by the American General Gates and his staff. When invited to give the first toast Burgoyne raised his glass and said:” To His Excellency George Washington!” When Burgoyne left England that spring he had wagered politician Charles Fox 50 guineas he would conquer America singlehanded and return by Christmas. Well, he did get home by Christmas...

1787- The US Constitution accepted and signed into law, U.S. Constitutional Convention adjourns.

1805- THE BATTLE OF ULM- Napoleon maneuvers his regiments around an entire Austrian army and captured it while it sat around waiting for their Russian allies. Nobody in the Austrian command realized that the Russian's calendar date for their link up was two weeks different then the Western Calendar. The last they heard Napoleon's army was at the English Channel trying to figure out how to get across.

Napoleon sent his army in five columns racing across Europe to suddenly appear in Austria. When the Austrian defeat seemed certain the honorary commander of the army the Emperor’s brother Archduke Ferdinand ran for the hills and left the actual commander General Mack to take the consequences. When Mack was brought before Napoleon to surrender he exclaimed: "Behold the Unfortunate Mack !" Before the war Mack taught strategy and tactics. Not only did the Austrian Emperor order Mack court-martialed and sacked but a lot of students must have dropped his class.

1814- In London a large beer vat burst and drowned nine people.

1815- Napoleon is landed on his final island of exile, St.Helena, off the coast of sub equatorial Africa. The humid climate was considered by the British so unhealthy that they rotated the garrison every year. Napoleon spent the voyage learning English and became such good friends with his assigned physician Dr. O'Meara (who was Irish) that the doctor was reprimanded. Napoleon loved to poke fun at doctors, he first addressed O'Meara- "So you are a doctor ? Well I am a general. How many men have You killed? I wager more than me ! "

1904- In San Francisco Amadeo and Giovanni Giannini opened the New Bank of Italy, which in 1930 became the Bank of America. Among the 40 or so independent banks in California Gianini’s bank grew because he encouraged immigrants to put their money in, instead of in their mattresses. After the great San Francisco earthquake Gianini they buried the records and total assets of their bank in a strongbox in their garden until their building could be rebuilt. The Bank of America grew from that garden to become the largest bank in the U.S. and a major Hollywood financier.

1928- Duke Ellington recorded The Mouche.

1943- The Burma Railway was completed by Japanese forces using prisoners of war as laborers, the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai. Contrary to the David Lean movie, the bridge was never blown up, and is still in use today.

1967- The Hippy musical “Hair” opened at the Anspacher Theatre on Broadway.

1973- THE OIL WEAPON- Arab nations of OPEC declare a crude oil embargo on any nation supporting Israel. Oil went from $12 a barrel to $79. Gas rationing and long lines appeared at gas stations in the US and England.

1989- In the late afternoon the BAY AREA EARTHQUAKE- called the Loma Prieta Quake, shook San Francisco and vicinity. For the first time since 1906 fires were seen in the Mission District. The epicenter was a little town called Watsonville. 67 people were killed. California was planning to relieve traffic pressure by building upper levels onto existing freeways systems. When one of these new doubledeckers, the Cypress Freeway, collapsed in this quake crushing motorists in a grisly concrete sandwich, all such plans were abandoned.

There was a World Series baseball game under way in Candlestick Park, but miraculously no one was hurt. National TV audiences amazed that local fans laughed at the danger. They chanted to the TV cameras: "Welcome to California!".

1990- IMDB.com, the Internet Movie Data Base started up.

2005- The Colbert Report with Steven Colbert premiered on Comedy Central. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yesterday’s Questions: Who originated the slogan “ They Shall Not Pass” ( No Pasaran!) hint –“ On ne passe pas!”

Answer: During World War I , French General Robert Nivelle coined the slogan “ They Shall Not Pass!” to inspire his troops to stop the German advance during the terrible Battle of Verdun. The slogan was widely used on posters of the day, In Spain in 1936 the slogan was the theme of a famous poem No Pasaran, written to inspire the anti-Fascist forces. It became a rallying cry for people to resist oppression.