Question: When they say “ he faced a phalanx of reporters.” What is a phalanx?

Yesterday’s Question answered below: Why are big armored vehicles named Tanks? Did they have water in them?
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History for 9/16/2008
Birthdays: J.C. Penny (James Cash Penny), B.B. King is 83 (originally Rydell King, when a DJ in Memphis his name was Beale St. Blues Boy or B.B.King, Anne Francis, Linda Darnel, Nadia Boulanger, Alan Funt, George Chakiris, Peter Falk is 81, Ed Begley Jr, Jennifer Tilly is 50, Molly Shannon is 44, Marvin Middlemark 1919-the inventor of the rabbit ears TV antenna. ), Mickey Rourke is 52, Lauren Bacall is 84

Lauren Bacall, born Betty Joan Perske, Happy Birthday!

218BC -Estimated date that Hannibal and his Carthaginian army completed their crossing of the Alps and descended into the Po River Valley of Italy. Of 32 elephants only 2 survived the journey.

1859- In Old San Francisco, State Senator David Broderick called California Supreme Court Justice David Terry a “pro-slavery crook, knave and poltroon”. The chief justice in a rage and challenged Broderick to a duel. They had to reschedule their meeting several times to elude the police but finally met on this date on site near present day Stinson Beach. Broderick's gun discharged prematurely near Terry's feet. Terry, instead of being satisfied and firing wide, took aim and drilled Broderick through the chest, killing him instantly.

1864- THE NILE DEBATE- On this day a debate was scheduled in the British city of Bath between famous African explorers Richard Burton and John Speeckes as to whether Speeckes had discovered the source of the Nile River at Lake Victoria Nyanza. They had started the expedition together as friends but came ot hate one another. The debate would be moderated by another famed explorer Dr. David Livingstone. However fate, or Speeckes, ensured the debate would never take place. On the day before the high strung Speeckes had gone hunting to break the tension and had accidentally shot himself in the chest. Whether he had intentionally or unintentionally committed suicide remains a mystery. A different explorer, Henry Stanley, proved Speeckes correct in 1873.

1908- General Motors Car Company formed. At a hearing in 1952 GM CEO Charlie Wilson declared "What's good for General Motors is good for the Nation." Cartoonist Al Kapp created a character in his Lil' Abner strip named General Bullmoose. His campaign slogan was " What's good for General Bullmoose, is good for the U.S.A.!"

1919- An Austrian ex-corporal named Hitler drifting through Munich today joined a new right wing political party called the German Workers Party, later the National Socialists or Nazis. He also attended meetings of the ultra-nationalist Thule Society. It was a group that espoused racial supremacy and hated of Jews.

1920- FOR THOSE WHO THINK TERRORISM IS A MODERN PROBLEM- On this day anarchists planted a time bomb in a wagonload of scrap iron and parked it in the middle of Wall Street on a busy business lunch hour. The blast killed 38 and injured hundreds, blowing out the ground floor of J.P. Morgan's bank. Bankers described nightmarish scenes like a woman's decapitated head with her stylish bonnet still on, embedded like a cannonball in a marble inlaid wall by the force of the blast. One of the victims was a sailor named Watson who had survived the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine. He survived this one as well but had to get a steel plate in his head. He eventually went mad. Another man knocked senseless and almost killed was young bank executive Joseph Kennedy Sr., father of the Kennedy Dynasty. The perpetrators were never caught. On 9/11/2001 the headquarters of Morgan/Stanley were in the World Trade Center.

1949-Chuck Jones "Fast and Furrious" the First Road Runner-Coyote cartoon.

1953- The St. Louis Browns Baseball team moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.

1963- The Beatles record “She Loves You- Yeah,Yeah,Yeah.”on the Swan Records label.

1964- The Peter Potamus Show debuted.

1965- The Dean Martin Show premiered on NBC. “Well, Ah think I’m gonna go to da couch now..”

1966- the last LOOK magazine published.

1966- The new Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center had its opening night. A performance of Samuel Barbers Anthony & Cleopatra sung by Leontyne Price and Justino Diaz. It was a near disastrous night because Ms Price got locked in a pyramid for awhile and couldn’t get out.

1969- President Nixon appears on the t.v. comedy "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and says:"Sock it to Me?"

1973- American Indian Activists Russell Means and Dennis Banks were acquitted of all charges in the Wounded Knee shootout and siege. That Banks and Means were shooting it out with the FBI was beyond question. The reason was the judge objected to the governments illegal bungling of evidence and witnesses.

1976- The U.S. Episcopal Church approved the ordination of women as priests and bishops.

1983- Arnold Schwarzenegger became a US citizen.

1984- “Miami Vice” TV show debuted.

1985-The Congressional Budget Office announced that the United States had gone from a Creditor Nation that had bankrolled most of the world in the Twentieth Century, to a Debtor Nation.

2003- Sheb Wooley, the composer of the 1951 hit “One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater” and the theme song of the TV show Hee Haw, died in Henderson Tennessee at age 82.
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Yesterday’s Question: Why are big armored vehicles named Tanks? Did they have water in them?

Answer: In 1917, when this invention was introduced on the World War One battlefields, the inventors called them Land Battleships or Landships. But as they were shipped across the Channel unassembled, to avoid spies and saboteurs, the crates were marked Water Tanks, which they resembled. So Tanks, they became known.